Beep! Beep! Bee-

Sasuke switched off his alarm clock as he got down from his bed. He freshned up, had a bath, and then made himself a breakfast of rice and Miso, with sliced tomatoes on the side. After finishing up his breakfast, he gathered his gear, he went to the shinobi academy.

That was how most of his school days used to go.

At school, he generally got two types of treatment, those who felt pity for him, and secondly, the dreaded fangirls. Sasuke didn't like either, even though he specifically hated fangirls more.

Although there was one guy who was different. His name was Naruto Uzumaki, an orphan just like him. He was the deadlast of the class, and Sasuke called him, the dobe. That guy neither felt pity on him, nor did he swoon over him, he treated him normally, and had declared a rivalry of sorts between themselves.

Although Sasuke always scoffed at him, on the inside, he kinda liked his rivalry with Naruto, even if he was a pushover for Sasuke. Naruto saw him as an equal, rather than the 'last Uchiha' like everybody else.

But, since a while ago, Sasuke had seen a change in the boy's attitude. He had gotten better at the academy, had become more disclipined, and had even managed to perform a perfect henge. Sure, Naruto could've just trained , but no amount of training in such a short time should be able to yield such results. Today they would be doing taijutsu spars at the academy. He had hoped to have a spar with Naruto today to test him out himself, and see how better he had truly become.

"Ahhhhhhaaaaaahhhgh."

Naruto yawned as he reached the academy gates. It was about ten minutes left till the classes started. As he was entering the compunds, he saw Kiba and Akamaru running away from an angry Chunin teacher. He then saw a broken window. Putting two and two together, he realized that they had most probably broken it.

Naruto looked at the clock over the entrance, and saw it was now less than six minutes till the bell rang.

"I guess I got here early today, let's just wait for the bell to ring I guess."

Naruto then saw Sasuke entering the academy, and within seconds he was swarmed by a crowd of fangirls, led by Sakura and Ino themselves. As the group entered the building, Sasuke shot Naruto an indifferent look, in response to which Naruto gave his usual fox grin. The Uchiha simply looked away, as to no one could see his face, and a small smile appeared on his lips.

A few minutes later, the school bell rang, and Iruka ordered all of them to go inside.

The classes went as usual, they had a lesson on Shinobi History, folllowed by Ninja Arts Theory , Language class, after which they had a small lunchtime.

During, all of the students went outside into the school grounds. Naruto went to one of the more secluded areas of the school grounds, as it was surrounded by some bushes and trees.

As he sat down on the only benches, he opened his lunch box which consisted of rice, some teriyaki, and vegetables (which the Kyubi made him bring).

When he was just about to start his lunch, a voice called from the behind.

"Hey dobe."

Naruto looked behind to see that it was Sasuke in his usual self standing with a brown, tied up package in his hands.

"That's my seat."

"Oh Sasuke, sorry i wanted go eat in sone peace, so I came here, you can sit on the other end though."

Sasuke gave a 'hn' as he sat down beside Naruto. He opened the package to reveal it was his lunch of simple onigiri with tomato and dried fish filling.

"So Sasuke, you like onigiri do you?"

"Yeah"

An uncomfortable silence followed, which was broken by Sasuke.

"Since when have yo started to eat vegetables dobe?"

Naruto had forgotten how vocal he was about his dislike for vegetables, even Sasuke was asking him that.

"Oh not for that long, i realized that any green shinobi requires a good diet, so i started to eat veggies."

"Hn"

The two then ate their lunches, talking occasionally, but otherwise staying quiet.

After lunchtime, it was time for their weekly sparring sessions. All the students were gathered around the training ring, with Iruka and Mizuki sitting on two chairs, clipboards and pens in their hands.

Iruka then explained the rules.

"Okay kids, before we begin the spars, remember that if you are immobilized or get out of the fighting ring, you lose and your opponent wins. Only taijutsu is allowed, so don't use any ninjutsu."

Many students nodded, but several just shrugged as they knew these rules by heart now.

"Okay, first up are Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka. You two get inside the ring." Mizuki called out.

The two students then walked towards opposite sides of the ring.

"Good luck Shikamaru!"

Naruto called out to the young Nara who just mouthed 'troublesome' as always.

The two opponents then took positions opposite to each other on the field.

Iruka then said, "Okay, one, two, three, begin! "

Neither moved for a while waiting for the other to make a move. Shikamaru then said something, but not high enough for anyone to hear.

"What was that you lazy ass? " Ino shouted at him.

"I said it is too troublesome to fight a female."

"Wait, I will show you what troublesome is!" Ino shrieked as she ran towards the Nara, who kept his composure and lazy expression.

Just seconds before Ino could hit him, he moved aside causing Ino to nearly run out of the fighting ring. As she tried to reduce her speed, she fell face flat, outside the ring, causing Shika to officially win the spar.

Iruka sweatdropped as Mizuki kept his sweet smile.

"Okay, Shikamaru wins, you two both get back."

Shikamaru just yawned as he walked off towards a nearby bench to sleep, while Ino just brushed herself off the dirt and went back towards the group , not saying anything out of embarrassment.

Several more spars took place after that, until it finally happened.

"Next up are Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki, get here quick! "

The two students made way towards the ring, as fangirl squad kept up their momentum, (even ino by now).

"GO SASUKE KUN! "

"Best that idiot Sasuke kun !"

Sasuke scoffed but Naruto just sighed. He had forgotten how dedicated those fangirls actually were.

As the two hot to their positions, they took their stances.

Sasuke took on the classic Uchiha Interceptor stance, which although required te Sharingan to be up to it's true potential, was still a very efficient and flexibility. One of his feet was poised a bit forwards, while his hands were poised outwards.

Naruto took on a more different, style, more accurately, Lee's stance, although his back was bent a bit more forwards.

"It's different from his usual stance." The Uchiha thought.

"Okay, three, two, one, begin! "

As soon as Iruka said that, Naruto lunged towards Sasuke, who was taken aback by his speed. Sasuke blocked Naruto's left fist as he tried tried an head on assaulted, only for him to be struck in his left leg by a kick, knocking him off balance, though he got it back in time to block another of his kicks. Naruto then backed off a little, giving Sasuke a bit of a breathing room.

"He has gotten extremely fast, I wonder what training he has went through to come to this level."

Meanwhile, the fangirls were hurling insults at Naruto.

"How dare that idiot hurt Sasuke kun? '

" He is so dead afterwards!"

"Sasuke kun, defeat him ! "

While the other students were closing their ears to protect them from such abuse, Iruka was in awe at his favorite student's speed.

"Such speed, he is most probably the fastest kid in the class."

Back in the ring, Sasuke decided to go on the offensive as ge dashed towards Naruto, only to give him a kick on his left shoulder, which he blocked, only for the blonde to be hit by another foot o the side of his head, although, it did not do much damage.

Naruto then used his right leg to turn towards Sasuke, and give him another kick, this time on the lower jaw.

"Yikes, might've gone too far."

As Sasuke rotated in the air, as to land on his feet, his jaw was sore from Naruto's kick.

"Okay that's enough."

It was Mizuki, who was coming towards the duo, Iruka close behind.

"We got a good idea of your strengths, and it seems like the spar might get out of hand, so go back now."

Both of them nodded as they headed towards the others, Naruto under constant fire from the fangirl squad.

Iruka came to his rescue, SETTLE DOWN BRATS ! "

He used his Big head jutsu, which promptly caused the class to become quiet.

"You two should go to the infirmary though."

He said to Sasuke and Naruto who nodded and made their way towards the infirmary, both happy to not be in presence of the fangirls for a while, although counting Kurama it would be three.

As the two made their way through the hallways, they remained silent, Sasuke in deep thought.

He had just been stalemated, if not almost beaten by the deadlast. How. It ate him on the inside.

Before, whenever they competed, Naruto was behind him, but now, he was just beside him if not past him.

He thought it was luck, but no, it was his ego talking. To understand what the blonde had done as to improve so much, he decided to break the ice between them, for he would need every bit of strength to beat him.

"So Naruto, you have gotten fast eh? "

Naruto sheepishly replied, "Nothing much, just started to take my training seriously, that's it."

"Hn."

Silence took over for another minute before Sasuke broke it again.

"So what have you been practicing?"

"Nothing much,some jutsus and chakra control, alongside physical excercises."

Sasuke was now truly interested.

"Would you mind if we can train together? "

Naruto then looked at Sasuke.

"Not at all, on the contrary, I am glad to train with you anytime Sasuke."

Sasuke was taken aback, he had expected to be turned down given how shitty he had been to Naruto in academy, but softly smiled at the blonde nonetheless.

"Thanks Naruto, although I would like to finish our spar someday."

"Took words straight out of my mouth."

The two then reached the infirmary, where the doctor, Dorisu-sensei, patched up their few bleeding pointS and applied lotions on the snallery cuts and bruises.

The two students talked through it all, and even on their way back, even joking a bit.

Though none said it out loud, they had become friends just like that.

When they came in sight of others, however, they went back to their old selves and went opposite ways, but still bearing soft smiles on their faces.

"I guess I was wrong about the dobe." thought Sasuke.

" I can't believe it went so well kurama!"

"Me neither kid, the Uchiha is not as terrible as I thought."

As the Jinchuriki and his beast smiled, Hiruzen was looking at all this from his crystal ball, smiling, although as he turned his gaze sideways, his smile was replaced by a serious look as he read some reports.

"Found the initial evidence quite easily, heh Genno?"

He thought.

It was the first step for Danzo's judgement.

A long way was ahead, but it was a million times better than letting Danzo do as he pleases.

"Your time is coming to a close Shimoura."

AN - A bit late, sorry, had a test to prepare for. I set up an early friendship between Sasuke and Naruto, a bit cheesy I know. Now to the question I was asked in the start, what about pairings?

I originally decided to keep pairings same, just with more development, but i have changed my mind.

I will keep some pairs intact, for the sake of story, and my personal bias, but the rest will be decided what I think is the most interesting , and even take your opinions into account, so comment your thoughts! Share the story with any of your friends into this stuff, for I look forward to every new reader.

Once again, thanks for reading!