"Naruto!"

"Jus' five more minutes," Naruto murmured, pressing the snooze button on his alarm. "Please. 'm tired."

Something roughly jabbed his side. "You're in class, idiot."

Naruto slowly opened his eyes and blinked. "Hey, bastard, what're you doing in my room?"

"Again, you're in class, not your room," Sasuke said drily, jabbing his side again. "Iruka just asked you a question."

"Huh?" Naruto lifted his head from his arms and looked around. Sure enough, the bastard was right. He quickly sat up in his chair, unsuccessfully trying to rub the tiredness out of his eyes as he met his teacher's gaze. "Sorry, whadya ask, Iruka-Sensei?"

Laughter filled the room, but Iruka just looked annoyed. "Naruto, you've been doing a lot better and I'm glad you're putting in the effort, but that doesn't mean you can doze off all class," he chided. "I will not tolerate a second Shikamaru." More laughter.

Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, sensei, I didn't get much sleep last night," he admitted. "I was, uh, cleaning?"

Iruka didn't look convinced, but it was true! Naruto just couldn't explain that he was cleaning up a forest he'd created to beat Sasuke in a spar. Thankfully, Iruka didn't press it. "Well, make sure you don't make poor sleep a habit," Iruka said. "You're young, you'll need a full night's sleep to grow strong."

"Yeah, and you really need it," Sasuke added under his breath with a smirk. "If you ever want to catch up to me in height, that is."

Naruto sent him a short glare, but kept his focus on Iruka. "Yeah, yeah. But what'd you ask me, sensei?"

Iruka sighed. "I asked you about what made the Shodai Hokage so famous," he explained. "But since you've been sleeping throughout the lesson-"

"Oh!" Naruto brightened up, exhaustion temporarily forgotten. "No, I know this one, sensei!"

Iruka paused. "You do?"

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed. He felt Sasuke kick him in the shin but ignored it. "The Shodai is my favorite Hokage!"

Iruka raised an eyebrow. "Well, then, what made him so famous?"

Naruto grinned. "It's because he was the strongest shinobi ever!" He'd done a lot of research on the Shodai, both to try and find Mokuton ninjutsu and because he felt like their Mokuton meant they were connected. "The Shodai Hokage, Hashirama Senju, had a very awesome kekkei genkai called Mokuton that let him create wood and plants!" Another kick to the shin, and he ignored it again. "He trained super hard to master his Mokuton and became known as the God of Shinobi because he was so strong! They say he even created all the forests around the village when he founded it!"

Iruka blinked. "Uh, yeah." Naruto could feel all the focus in the room on him, but he didn't stop grinning. "Good job," Iruka said after a moment, nodding. "The Shodai was known for his power and the power of his Mokuton, a kekkei genkai no one else is known to have ever possessed."

The lesson continued on after that, Iruka talking about the Shodai in more and more depth. Naruto usually would've tried to listen harder, but he was so tired and he already knew everything Iruka was saying anyways. Would Iruka get mad if he went back to sleep? Probably.

But trying to turn the forest he'd created back into a clearing had taken him so long, and he'd already been tired from creating it in the first place! He hadn't wanted to just destroy it, and wasn't even sure how he would've done that in the first place, so he kind of just… moved the trees. It was a good thing that having Mokuton meant having Doton, otherwise it probably would've been impossible to move the trees. It'd been good practice for his ability to control them, though, so he couldn't completely complain.

Though the next time he made a forest during a fight, he'd probably just ask for Sasuke's help destroying them. That'd probably be good practice for their more destructive jutsu… but he'd still have to clear out the area afterwards and fix any damage. Ugh. Was he really gonna have to spend hours fixing it every time he used that move? There had to be an easier way to get rid of the trees, right?

He'd ask Sasuke for ideas, but he knew the bastard would just get smug about it.

Speaking of the bastard… He put his head in his arms, looking over at Sasuke who definitely wasn't paying any more attention than him. "How's your arm?" he asked quietly.

Sasuke lifted up his left arm to show it covered in bandages. "Had a few hairline fractures, but they used healing jutsu on me," he whispered back. "Bandages are just for today."

Naruto's eyes widened. "They used healing?" Sasuke nodded. "Did you… y'know?"

Sasuke's face fell. "Damn. I didn't even think of that."

"You could save a lot of time if you h-"

"Naruto, Sasuke!" Iruka shouted. Both boys looked up to see the teacher glaring at them. "Just because you whisper doesn't mean I don't notice you talking!"

Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, sensei."

"Sorry," Sasuke said tonelessly.

Iruka stared at them for a few seconds before nodding. "Alright, just don't do it again. Even if you both already know this, you're disrupting the class."

Naruto nodded. If Iruka knew he already knew this and just didn't want him to disrupt the class, did that mean he could sleep? He tentatively put his head back down and closed his eyes, waiting for a minute to see if Iruka would say anything. When he didn't, Naruto dozed off.

Sasuke roughly jabbed Naruto's side.

Naruto jolted, shooting up and looking around wildly with wide blue eyes. Everyone was filing out of the room, save for Naruto, Sasuke, and, of course, Shikamaru, who was just as asleep as Naruto had been. Eventually, tired eyes landed on Sasuke with a glare. "What the hell was that for, bastard? And where's everyone going?"

"The lecture is over," Sasuke explained simply, getting up from his seat. "We're going outside to spar."

A grin broke out on Naruto's face and he shot up to his feet, his exhaustion once again forgotten. "Awesome!" he exclaimed, bolting out into the isle and eliciting a muttered troublesome from the now-awake Shikamaru. "Let's go!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto's excitement on instinct, but sparring was one of his favorite class activities too. Plus, now that he had his Sharingan, he'd even be able to memorize his classmates' moves and use them if he ever needed to. Even if he was already the best at taijutsu in the class, the Uchiha Clan had long relied on incorporating moves they copied through the Sharingan into their styles. It was part of what made them so feared as enemies.

Though, he'd have to be sneaky about it so that no one saw his eyes turn red. Naruto had made him promise to keep his kekkei genkai a secret once he got it, else Naruto keeping his own a secret would be 'unfair.' It wasn't really the same, since people expected Sasuke to develop Sharingan, but it'd be a good thing to keep up his sleeve anyways.

And, a dark part of his mind added, the longer he kept it hidden from the world, the longer he'd have to develop his skills before that man found out.

With the exception of Shikamaru, who had promptly fallen back asleep, Naruto and Sasuke were the last two in the class to make it out to the courtyard. Sasuke was determined to avoid interacting with his classmate, if he didn't absolutely have to and stood towards the back of the gathering of students.

Naruto, the one person he admittedly didn't mind hanging around, stayed by his side at the back of the class. "Who do ya think we're gonna get to fight today?" he asked quietly.

"Hopefully one of the clan kids," Sasuke said, just as quietly. Even if being part of the fight meant he wouldn't be able to sneakily activate his Sharingan, he didn't want to be bored. "Fighting clan taijutsu is a lot more interesting than the standard academy stuff. And they're all a lot better than the other kids, even if they can't beat us still."

"Sakura isn't that bad," Naruto argued. "She's beat Ino a few times." Even more quietly, he added, "And she has way better chakra control than either of us."

Sasuke's eye twitched. "She also has far less chakra than us."

"Everyone in the class does," Naruto pointed out. "I mean, I know you always call me a chakra freak, but compared to everyone else in our class, so are you."

Out of curiosity, Sasuke squinted his eyes so they wouldn't be too visible and activated his Sharingan. Naruto always told him he had higher chakra reserves than the rest of the class, but with his Sharingan he could actually see for himself; the Sharingan couldn't see chakra systems as clearly as the Byakugan, but it could still see chakra.

Most of the class really wasn't that special. A lot of them just had chakra about the size of a regular adult civilian, which was alright for still-improving students but would require a lot of work to even reach genin level. Ino and Sakura both had about the same amount of chakra, which was a little surprising; Sasuke expected Ino to have more than Sakura, being from a well-known shinobi clan. He admittedly wasn't sure if Sakura had more than expected or if Ino had less.

The other clan kids, Kiba, Hinata, Choji, and Shino, all had decent reserves, though Sasuke didn't have much to actually compare them against. Hinata's chakra seemed a little more… something than the others, but he wasn't entirely sure what. Potent, maybe? The Hyuga were probably the greatest Konoha clan after the Senju and Uchiha, so that wasn't too much of a surprise. With Shikamaru still sleeping inside the classroom, Sasuke would have to see how he compared later.

And Naruto… Sasuke knew from experience how much chakra the idiot had, but he was still a little surprised when he looked over. Naruto's chakra reserves were monstrous. That was the only way Sasuke could think to describe them. He had to have more chakra than the rest of the class combined, and Sasuke had a feeling even that was underselling it. Was that just what the Senju clan was like? If so, it was no wonder they were the only ones to truly challenge the Uchiha.

When Sasuke looked down at himself, he had to blink back his surprise. He didn't have Naruto's levels, he wasn't sure anyone had Naruto's levels, but he still had more chakra than the rest of the class. Naruto wasn't kidding when he said Sasuke was comparatively a chakra freak too.

Deactivating his Sharingan, Sasuke looked back over at Naruto. "I guess you're right," he conceded. "But she's still annoying."

"You find everyone annoying," Naruto said bluntly.

Sasuke smirked. "No one more than you, though."

"Bast-"

"Boys!" For the second time that day, Naruto and Sasuke looked up to see Iruka glaring at them. "I already warned you once about talking!"

Naruto laughed nervously. "Sorry, sensei."

"Sorry."

Iruka pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is your last warning. If you do it again, I'll be forced to give you detention. Understood?" They nodded. "Good. Now, Naruto, it's your turn to spar for today. Your opponent is Kiba."

Naruto's entire face brightened. "Woohoo!" he cheered, elbowing Sasuke. "I get to go first, bastard!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Just try not to shatter his bones," he muttered.

"Yeah, whatever." Naruto waved him off and made his way out in front of all the other students. Where a year ago there would have been joking and teasing about the idiot, now people actually looked excited. The only times he really lost now were when he fought Sasuke or decided to try some stupid new trick.

Kiba was already standing out in front of the class, an almost feral but still wary grin on his face. He wasn't the smartest in the class, and had a personality annoyingly similar to Naruto, but Sasuke knew he was one of the better taijutsu fighters; the Inuzuka Clan relied heavily on it. Their Human Beast Taijutsu was unorthodox, but good.

"Ready to lose, dog breath?" Naruto teased, his usual cocky grin on his face.

"I was gonna say the same to you, whiskers," Kiba retorted. "Don't go thinking you're the best just 'cause you did well on our last test."

"Boys," Iruka said tiredly. "This is a friendly competition. The trash talking is unnecessary." Neither of them responded to that and Iruka sighed. "Okay, raise the Seal of Confrontation and wait for my sign to start."

Both Naruto and Kiba raised the seal, eerily familiar grins never leaving their faces. As soon as Iruka said, "Begin!" the boys charged forward, meeting each other in the middle.

Sasuke had no doubt who the victor of the spar would be, but he still discreetly activated his Sharingan to watch. Kiba threw the first attack with an elbow aimed at Naruto's chest, an impressive amount of force packed into it. Unluckily for him, Naruto was more than used to dishing out that and more; he was able to block it with little difficulty, retaliating with a kick to Kiba's side that sent him flying.

Kiba twisted to land on all fours, barely coming to a stop before he charged forward and attacked Naruto like a rabid beast. Naruto was usually the more aggressive one in any fight he took part of, but Sasuke could tell he was fighting more defensively for once.

Naruto fluidly weaved around most of Kiba's attacks, only attacking in retaliation. It was a sharp contrast to how he usually fought Sasuke. He would dodge a swipe from Kiba's hand and then block the following kick, and only then would he respond with a strike at Kiba.

After about thirty seconds of that, Kiba jumped back and landed back on two feet. "Wow, you really have improved a ton," he commented, rubbing his side. "A year ago you wouldn't have lasted-"

Naruto dashed forward and Kiba barely had time to block a punch with his left arm. Sasuke winced in sympathy when he did. "If you're gonna talk in the middle of a fight," Naruto started, twisting his body to aim a kick at Kiba's head, "you gotta do it without pausing!"

Kiba barely managed to avoid the kick to the head that likely would have ended the fight then and there, jumping away again and shaking out his arm in the process. "Ow!" he shouted, again landing on all fours but clearly favoring his right arm. "That seriously hurt!"

Naruto just grinned as Kiba dashed forward again, falling back into the pattern of weaving and blocking. It was interesting to watch him fight so much more defensively; not many fighters were aggressive enough that he had to.

But Sasuke could tell the fight wasn't going to last for much longer. Kiba couldn't move as fast with his left arm injured and Naruto was striking back increasingly often, wearing his opponent down. Naruto and Kiba were relatively similar fighters, relying on strength and stamina, both of which Naruto had the upper hand in. Kiba just couldn't hurt Naruto as much as Naruto could hurt him, and he wasn't fast or skilled enough to make up the difference like Sasuke could.

Another thirty seconds passed, Naruto scoring more and more hits against Kiba until Kiba seemed to get fed up with none of his attacks working. He kicked away from Naruto, making Naruto stumble, and then tried to lunge forward and capitalize on Naruto's moment of unbalance.

Unfortunately, Naruto recovered his balance too quickly and stepped to the side. When Kiba flew past him, Naruto knocked him down to the ground with a strong elbow blow. Kiba landed roughly, the wind obviously knocked out of him, and Naruto placed his foot where he'd just struck to hold Kiba down.

"Owww," Kiba groaned. "That really sucked."

"Sorry, dog breath," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head. "You just gave me a really good opening, y'know?"

Kiba just groaned again. "I forfeit or whatever. Can you get your stupid foot off my back?"

"Whoops!" Naruto quickly stepped back, leaning forward and offering Kiba a hand when he did. "Good match! I had fun."

Kiba took the offered hand without hesitation and got pulled up to his feet, though he winced and started rubbing his back when he did. "Dude, that really hurt." He sighed. "But I guess I can't complain since I was trying to do the same."

Naruto laughed. "Well, I don't really know how to pull my punches, y'know. When I'm fighting Sasuke I spend so much time trying to just land a hit that I can't really focus on trying to hit softer."

Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan and glanced down at his bandaged arm. Naruto really needed to learn how to pull his punches, but Sasuke wasn't willing to be the one to act as a test subject for the idiot to figure that out.

"That's something you should work on, Naruto," Iruka suggested, walking up to the two students. "Other than that, though, nice job both of you. Now form the Seal of Reconciliation and we can move into the next match. Kiba, I suggest you go get checked out by the nurse."

"Yes, sensei," Naruto and Kiba chorused, forming the seal and briefly wrapping their first two fingers around each other.

When they were done, Kiba walked over to Shino to pick up Akamaru before heading back into the building. Naruto walked back to Sasuke at the back of the class, a proud grin on his face and his fist held out. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but gave him a fist bump. "Good job, you aren't terrible," Sasuke said drily.

"You're just jealous you didn't get to go first," Naruto retorted.

Iruka called the next two people to fight, two civilian kids Sasuke didn't particularly care to watch. They both just used the standard academy-taught taijutsu, and even then they weren't very good at it; he wouldn't begrudge them too harshly if it looked like they actually put effort into learning, but even without his Sharingan he could predict where most of their movements were going.

"Did you have your Sharingan on during the fight?" Naruto whispered.

Sasuke nodded. "Not that it'll be much use, considering I already know how you fight and I don't think the way Kiba fights will be very useful to me."

"Oh. That sucks."

"Hn."

The fight between the two civilian kids was over a lot quicker than the fight between Naruto and Kiba, one of them getting a lucky hit on the other that sent them down pretty fast. It was kind of… pathetic. It probably wasn't even going to leave a mark, and if it did it it wouldn't be much worse than a small bruise. These kids seriously wanted to be shinobi? Naruto hadn't been much better a year ago, but at least he'd always gotten up until he physically couldn't.

The next few fights weren't any more notable. Shino soundly defeated a civilian kid, fast enough that Sasuke turning on his Sharingan hadn't even been worth it. Shikamaru got called on to fight Hinata, but then Iruka realized he was still inside and sent Choji to get him. Another civilian kid ended up fighting Hinata and got easily defeated; as timid as she was, she was still from the main branch of the Hyuga Clan and knew her clan's techniques.

Shikamaru and Choji were told to fight when they got back, but Shikamaru just forfeited. Even if it wasn't surprising, Sasuke was still disappointed that he wouldn't get to see them fight with his Sharingan. Especially Shikamaru; Sasuke really wanted to see the lazy genius actually fight seriously for once.

"Sasuke," Iruka called, drawing him out of his thoughts. "Since Shikamaru forfeited, would you like to fight Choji instead?"

Sasuke considered it for a second before nodding. "Sure." He walked up to the front of the class, ignoring everyone's gazes; he didn't care about the attention, he'd rather just fight in the forest clearing where it was just him and his opponent. Without saying anything, he stopped a few meters in front of Choji and held up the Seal of Confrontation.

Choji looked nervous and glanced at Iruka, but still held out the Seal of Confrontation back. "Begin," Iruka said.

Sasuke dashed in, closing the distance between them fast enough that Choji barely had time to raise his arms to block a punch. Sasuke didn't give him a chance to try and retaliate, immediately twisting his body to kick Choji's side in a move Naruto had used against him often enough he hadn't even needed his Sharingan to memorize it. Unlike when Naruto had used it against Kiba, Choji didn't go flying, but he still had the wind knocked out of him.

Choji attempted to retaliate with a punch but Sasuke dodged it, unwilling to test if Choji lived up to his clan's reputation for physical strength. Capitalizing on his opponent's larger size, Sasuke weaved around Choji and aimed a kick at the back of his knees. Choji stumbled, but he didn't fall like most would have. Before he could try to recover, Sasuke shoved him forward to finish knocking him down.

Once Choji was down, Sasuke knelt down to restrict his hands behind his back and looked up at Iruka. "I win."

Sasuke let Choji get up and quickly formed the Seal of Reconciliation before walking back over to Naruto, the class' attention never leaving him no matter how much he wished it would. Naruto held out his fist for another fist bump, and Sasuke complied before slipping his hands into his pockets.

"You always end fights so fast," Naruto commented as the next two students were called up. "Don't you get bored?"

"Hn." It did get a little boring, but he wasn't about to drag out a spar unnecessarily. He needed to be efficient; anything else would get him killed when he finally sought his revenge. "Keeping my skills sharp is more important than having fun."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "You're so dramatic, always trying to act cool."

"Better than acting like an idiot all the time."

Naruto looked like he was about to insult Sasuke back, but then his eyes were drawn to the front when Sakura was called up to fight another non-clan kid. For reasons Sasuke didn't even try to understand, the idiot had always liked Sakura a lot; he partially suspected that Naruto was just drawn to her vibrant hair, but that was the extent of thought Sasuke was willing to put into the matter.

Sakura was an… adequate student. She was the top kunoichi in the class, which wasn't an easy feat with a Hyuga to compete with, but Sasuke doubted she did anything beyond what was required for class. Her academy taijutsu form was perfect, if a bit stiff, and she was able to defeat her opponent, but even then Sasuke could tell she didn't really spar outside of class. She could be a decent kunoichi if she tried, especially with the chakra control Naruto mentioned, but she'd need to start putting in more effort.

But Sasuke wasn't going to be the one to push her into doing so, not unless she ended up as the third member of his and Naruto's team.

"Nice job, Sakura!"

Sakura searched the crowd of her classmates until her eyes landed on the bright blond hair in the back. Like usual, Naruto had a beaming grin on his face. She felt an odd sense of pride at getting praised by him and couldn't help but smile, even though a year ago she would've scoffed it off; as surprising as it was, he'd quickly grown to be one of the strongest in the class.

Also like usual, Naruto was standing next to Sasuke. They'd been practically inseparable in class since around the time Naruto started getting stronger; it annoyed Ino and some of the other girls to no end. Sakura had been annoyed by it at first too, until she noticed how differently Sasuke acted with Naruto compared to everyone else. The two boys actually bantered back and forth, and Sasuke talked far more with Naruto than he did anyone else in the class. Just overhearing them talk let her learn more about Sasuke's personality than she ever had before.

It was… nice to see, honestly. Sakura had always just thought Sasuke's broody and quiet attitude was cool, but compared to how he acted with Naruto it just seemed sad. Sakura could vaguely recall what Sasuke was like before, and being around Naruto seemed to bring that out of him.

Seeing how he acted around Naruto also really put into perspective how annoyed he was by how everyone else acted around him, too. Sakura knew she was just as guilty of that as a lot of the other kids in the class were, but she was trying to stop bothering him as much. She'd even started taking the seat to Naruto's right most classes so that someone else wouldn't take it and try to bother both of them all class.

She'd be lying if she said she didn't still have a crush on him, though. He was cool! She just finally realized that he already had a lot to deal with after what happened to his clan, and how they all acted before was probably insanely insensitive.

It really was no wonder that Sasuke only got along with Naruto. She didn't know what happened to Naruto's parents, but she knew he was an orphan; he probably understood what Sasuke felt more than Sakura ever could. She couldn't imagine her life without her parents.

Walking back over to Ino, Sakura found herself feeling a bit guilty about how she'd treated the two boys before. Granted, Naruto had been really annoying to her before, but that'd faded a bunch now that he had a friend. He wasn't so bad, now that he wasn't constantly pestering her for dates.

Author's Note:

Full disclosure, I just forgot to post last week and it was like Monday by the time I realized that and I decided to just wait till today. But I've also realized promised weekly updates isn't the greatest idea, so if I slow down don't worry. If for some insane reason I ever need to drop this story, I'll say something. If I ever go a while without updating I'm probably just busy with something else. I really love this story so it'd only be a matter of time until I start writing for it a ton again

if anyone's wondering, the next chapter is when they finally get to graduation. this chapter is sorta just a short interlude?

i know not much happened here save for the bit of Sakura internal dialogue at the end, but i wanted to be fair to Sakura and let her get some earlier character development like Naruto and Sasuke both got. she still has a crush on Sasuke and there's still more character development to be had, but she's more understanding and sympathetic of Naruto & Sasuke and there won't be a mess when they're all forced to be around each other (aka, no Naruto pretending to be Sasuke to try and get a kiss, no Sakura telling Sasuke that Naruto's bad because he doesn't have parents, and less Sasuke condescension)

i will admit upfront that Naruto and Sasuke are my two favorite characters in the series and will probably always get the most focus, whether intentionally or unintentionally, but i don't plan on just ignoring other characters

thank you all for reading, following/favoriting, and reviewing!