Naruto was in heaven.

He was running through a forest, the feeling of nature all around him. He loved it. All of the trees felt like they were his own, his chakra senses stretching out almost endlessly. It probably would have been overwhelming anywhere else, but here it just felt right. It felt like all of nature was under his control, like he could reshape and control the entire forest without even using a hand seal.

After running for what felt like it could be either an eternity or seconds, he came across a stream. But it wasn't filled with water like a normal stream, instead it was filled with-

"Ramen!" he shouted, running up and diving into the stream. "Mmm, ramen," he muttered, chopsticks materializing in his hands. "Mmm."

He dug in, shoving noodles into his mouth endlessly. If he was with Sasuke he knew the bastard would insult him for his lack of grace, but this was heaven and he didn't care. The sky was a beautiful orange, he could feel nature surrounding him even more than he did in the forests of the village, and there was a stream of ramen! Even the bastard's insults couldn't break him out of this heavenly-

Naruto shot up in his bed at the sound of his alarm, slamming his hand against the alarm clock to the right of his bed. He winced at the resulting sound of something breaking.

Warily looking over, he sighed when he was met with the sight of a broken alarm clock. "That's the third one," he muttered, pulling his hand back to inspect it. Luckily, there weren't any splinters embedded in his hand this time; he healed quickly, but those were a pain to get out. Still, he lamented the loss of another alarm clock. And the cruel exit from his heavenly dream of nature and ramen.

Or he did, until he suddenly remembered what day it was.

Shooting out of bed with a grin now on his face, Naruto ran to get changed into his favorite orange outfit. It was graduation day! He'd finally be officially starting his path to becoming Hokage and he couldn't be more excited.

When he was fully dressed in his usual outfit, he ran to the kitchen and made a cup of ramen. Sasuke claimed it wasn't healthy for someone to eat ramen every day, but Sasuke also couldn't heal from basically everything in under a day so his opinions on Naruto's health weren't valid. Naruto was getting by just fine with ramen!

He'd learned that it was good to have multiple clocks in his house after the first time he shattered one of his alarm clocks; the one in his kitchen-slash-dining room told him he still had an hour before he had to be at the academy. He usually wouldn't have woken up with that much time left, but he had to be sure he wouldn't be late. Sasuke would never let him live it down if he was.

After finishing the cup of ramen and throwing it away, Naruto ran to the bathroom to brush his teeth and make sure his hair looked good. He also made sure to push it up and imagine how he'd look with the headband he knew he'd be getting soon.

With thirty minutes left before the academy started, Naruto grabbed his bag and made his way across town at top speed. He just couldn't wait! He barely even registered the glares as he ran through the village, too excited to even think about it. Today was the day! Today, he would start to earn the respect and admiration of the village by becoming a shinobi!

He spotted a few of his classmates already there and waiting outside the doors when he made it to the academy. Seeing Sasuke wasn't there yet, Naruto stopped by the tree with the swing and touched two of his fingers against the ground. He had more experience sensing Sasuke's chakra than anyone else's, and could easily feel Sasuke running his way.

With a smug smile, he turned to the way Sasuke was coming from. "I beat you here, bastard!" he declared when Sasuke came to a stop in front of him.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, but Naruto knew him well enough to know he was a little upset at losing. "Did you obliterate another alarm clock?"

"Wh- How'd you know?"

Sasuke smirked. "You can't wake up more than half an hour before the academy starts without breaking something."

Naruto scowled. He hated when Sasuke was right. "Whatever, bastard," he grumbled, and Sasuke just smirked more. "You ready for the test?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "I should be asking you that. You actually studied, right? Because I'd like to be on a team with someone who can actually keep up, and it'd really suck to be deprived of that because you're an idiot."

Naruto really hated Sasuke sometimes. "Of course I studied, 'cause I'm not an idiot!" He glared. "Because of you I've been studying for years now! I wouldn't stop before the only test I actually care about!"

"Had to be sure," Sasuke said with a shrug. "Because it definitely didn't occur to you to study at any point before I suggested it."

Naruto shoved Sasuke in the shoulder. "Well, did you make sure to practice your ninjutsu? 'Cause we both know you could always lose a little help there."

Sasuke scoffed. "Yeah, right. I know more jutsu than you, idiot."

"But mine are way cooler."

"You just think that because you pack unnecessary amounts of chakra into all of them."

"Well, duh." Naruto grinned smugly. "You're the one who said I have freak Senju reserves. May as well make use of them, right?"

"If all of that clan acted like you, I can see why it took a millennia for them and the Uchiha to stop fighting and create the village," Sasuke said drily, walking past him. "Now c'mon, the doors just opened."

Excitement surged in Naruto's chest and he turned around, following Sasuke to the academy.

Surprisingly, the written test for graduation wasn't that difficult.

Like he'd told Sasuke, Naruto had actually studied a lot for the test. He was more than confident he'd be able to pass the ninjutsu and taijutsu portions, even if he was still hopeless at genjutsu, so most of his studying revolved around the written stuff. He could ace ninjutsu and taijutsu but if he bombed the written portion it'd be over for him; he'd have to somehow ace genjutsu too, and for whatever reason he couldn't use genjutsu to save his life. The most he could do was break out of it, and even that was only something he'd learned after Sasuke decided to start abusing the Sharingan's genjutsu during their spars.

But he was pretty sure he could have at least still passed the test even if he hadn't studied. Most of it seemed to revolve around practical things a shinobi would need to know, rather than boring history Naruto was only ever interested in when it involved the Senju Clan. He probably wouldn't have done as well as he was sure he did without studying, but he'd been more stressed over it than he needed to be.

The taijutsu portion hadn't been difficult either. Unlike other tests where they'd spar against the other students, for the graduation test they'd sparred against their senseis with a time limit of five minutes each. During those five minutes, they had to either last against the teacher for the entire time or take them down if they were skilled enough. Naruto managed the latter against Iruka, and Sasuke had against Mizuki.

Now they were just waiting to take the ninjutsu portion, which Naruto was sure would be the easiest yet. They only had to show skill in the academy three: the Clone Jutsu, Body Replacement Jutsu, and Transformation Jutsu. Naruto could do the last two without issue, and he'd already double checked that for the first one he technically only had to do a clone jutsu. He still couldn't mold little enough chakra for the standard clone jutsu, but creating water clones was practically second nature to him at this point.

The only thing that really sucked was:

"Why do we always have to go at the end?" he groaned, resting his forehead against the table. "It's not fair!"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted in agreement. "They should go by class standing instead of last name."

Naruto sighed and lifted his head up off the desk. "It could be worse, I guess," he muttered, glancing over at Ino. "At least we aren't last last."

"Hn."

Shikamaru walked out of the testing room, unsurprisingly with a forehead protector; as lazy as he was, he was probably the smartest person Naruto knew. There was no doubt he'd pass. Naruto found it a little weird that he chose to put it on his arm, though. It was called a forehead protector!

Thankfully, there were only a couple of kids with last names between N and U, which meant he and Sasuke would get to go soon. Even knowing Sasuke was going to be smug over getting to go before him, Naruto couldn't hold back his excitement.

"Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka called, stepping out of the room after another kid left with a forehead protector. "You're up."

Sasuke, very predictably, smirked at Naruto before standing up and heading into the room behind Iruka. Naruto had no doubt that Sasuke would pass, he was still the Rookie of the Year and wouldn't stop rubbing it in Naruto's face, but still decided to stretch out his senses to feel what was going on in the room.

The first thing Naruto felt was Sasuke using very small amounts of chakra to create two clones, probably making it look effortless despite the fact that Naruto could tell he hated the Clone Jutsu almost as much as Naruto did. After obviously dispelling the clones, his chakra briefly flared and its location abruptly changed to somewhere else in the room. Lastly, after walking over to where he'd been before, Sasuke's chakra flared again in what had to be a transformation by process of elimination.

Not long after that, Sasuke stepped out of the room with a smirk on his face and a forehead protector on his head. Naruto had gotten pretty good at reading him, and he could tell Sasuke was actually excited. Not that he'd ever make it obvious to anyone else.

Naruto was standing and walking over to the door before Iruka even stepped out and called his name, fist bumping Sasuke along the way. There were benefits to your best friend's last name coming just before yours-

Best friend?

They'd been hanging out practically daily for years now, but Naruto didn't think he'd ever thought about it in that way before. But it was right, wasn't it? Even if it'd started as just a way for them to both get stronger, at some point they'd started hanging out outside of training too. Naruto thought a few of his other classmates were his friends too, like Shikamaru and Choji, but he didn't spend nearly as much time with them as he did with Sasuke.

Was Sasuke Uchiha really his best friend?

Shaking that thought off, Naruto followed Iruka into the testing room and stood in front of the desk. Iruka sat down on the left side, and Mizuki sat on the right side with what looked like a nasty black eye that Naruto knew was Sasuke's work from the taijutsu test.

Iruka had a pleasant smile on his face, but Mizuki's smile looked really fake. There was something off about him, even if Naruto only really noticed as much after Sasuke corrected his aim. "Alright, Naruto," Iruka started, "please start by creating two clones."

Nodding, Naruto raised his hands in the tiger seal and started gathering suiton chakra in his stomach. "Suiton: Water Clone Jutsu!" he exclaimed, blowing out enough water to form two identical copies of himself. "Done!" they said in unison.

"Well done," Iruka praised, used to his water clones by now. "Now, please-"

"Hold on, Iruka," Mizuki interrupted. "It's impressive that Naruto is able to use the Water Clone Jutsu at his age," the look on his face suggested he didn't really think so, "but it isn't fair to allow him to get away with avoiding the Clone Jutsu when all the other students had to do it."

Naruto's heart dropped. "But Iruka-Sensei told me-"

"I already talked to the Hokage about it," Iruka said calmly, looking at Mizuki. "He knows about Naruto's large chakra reserves and how difficult it must be to create a standard clone for him. Lord Hokage made sure to specify prowess in any clone jutsu, not just the standard one."

Naruto sighed in relief. Mizuki looked irritated for a second, but his face quickly smoothed over. "Alright."

Iruka nodded, turning back to Naruto. "Now, please send your clones outside before dispelling them so that I don't have to clean up the water again."

"Yes, sensei!" Naruto saluted, his clones heading out the door in the testing room that led to the courtyard. As soon as the door shut behind them, Naruto cut off the chakra flow. "Done!"

"Thank you," Iruka said with a smile. "I'm still surprised you can make so much water so easily, but that doesn't make it any more fun to clean up." Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Anyways, now you need to show proficiency with the Body Replacement Jutsu. Please replace yourself with that chair."

The chair was at the edge of the room, and Naruto focused on it before running through five signs: tiger, boar, ox, dog, and snake. He and Sasuke had been trying to cut down the number of seals they needed for such a useful jutsu lately, but he wasn't about to risk failure just to be fancy. He easily replaced himself with the chair, looked over at Iruka and Mizuki to make sure they saw, before running through the hand signs to replace himself with it again and end up back where he started.

"Good," Iruka praised. Mizuki didn't comment. "Now for the transformation. Please just transform into me, Naruto."

Naruto sighed. "Taking all the fun out of it," he muttered, but did the dog, boar, and ram signs before transforming into a perfect copy of Iruka instead of the Sexy Jutsu like he'd wanted. "There, happy?"

"Ecstatic," Iruka agreed. "Because that means you've passed! Congratulations, Naruto." He lifted one of the forehead protectors up and held it out. "You've more than earned it. I'm very proud of you; you've even earned one of the top spots in the class!"

Dropping the transformation, Naruto beamed and ran forward to grab the forehead protector from Iruka. "Thanks, Iruka-Sensei!" he exclaimed, immediately wrapping it around his head. "This is my first step towards becoming Hokage, believe it!"

Iruka smiled proudly. "I'm sure it is. Now, I'm sure you want to go show that off to the class." He stood up from the chair and walked around the desk. "There are still a few students left who need to take their test."

Naruto nodded excitedly and ran back to the door to the classroom, meeting Sasuke's gaze as soon as he was through the door. With a grin, he tapped the metal of his forehead protector with his thumb. "I did it!" he declared. "I passed!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Of course you did, idiot." Despite his words, he still held out a fist for Naruto when Naruto walked up to their seats. "We're officially shinobi."

"And this is just the start," Naruto said, fist bumping Sasuke and sitting down. "Believe it!"

It didn't take long for the test to finish after that. After Ino, the last one to go, got her forehead protector, Iruka and Mizuki stepped out from the testing room to stand in front of the class. "Good job passing everyone!" Iruka said brightly. "I'm very proud of all of you! As much as it saddens me that this is nearly the end of our time together, I know you'll all go on to be great shinobi. And remember: if any of you ever need my help for any reason, feel free to come to me and I'll do whatever I can.

"Our final class together will be in two days. You are not expected to come to class tomorrow, but you are expected to show up to have your picture taken for your shinobi registration photo. When you show up in two days, you will be assigned to your teams and given a jounin sensei. Any questions?"

There were a few, but Naruto tuned them out. He was finally a shinobi! Just a genin, maybe, but it was the first step on his path to becoming Hokage! He'd proven everyone who'd ever doubted him was wrong, and soon he'd earn the respect of the entire village! He just hoped he was given a cool jounin sensei; Sasuke seemed convinced they'd be on the same team, and Naruto was just going to trust him on that.

"Hey, old man!" Naruto greeted brightly. "Whatcha need?"

Sasuke, as usual, rolled his eyes at Naruto's utter lack of formality and focused on the Hokage. "You summoned us?"

The Hokage nodded and made a simple hand gesture. The ANBU that had gathered them disappeared, leaving them alone with the Hokage. "I did," he agreed, taking a puff from his pipe. "First of all, I would like to congratulate the two of you on becoming genin."

Sasuke didn't react, but Naruto beamed. "Thanks, old man! I worked really hard!"

The Hokage smiled grandfatherly. "I hope your senseis didn't give you any trouble for your Water Clone Jutsu?" he asked. "I told Iruka it was fine, but-"

"Mizuki tried saying something but then Iruka-Sensei told him you said it was fine and he shut up!" Naruto explained cheerily. "All Iruka-Sensei did was ask me to send them outside before dispelling them so he wouldn't have to clean up the water."

"Good, good." Something flashed in the Hokage's eyes at Mizuki's name, but Sasuke couldn't read it before it was gone. "It really is quite impressive for one your age to have mastered that jutsu, but to my understanding the ability to create water clones only scratches the surface of what you can do, Naruto." His eyes shifted to look Sasuke directly in his. "You as well, Sasuke. Though I must admit, I was rather surprised when you chose to use the Uchiha archives to help Naruto."

Sasuke shoved his hands into his pockets and kept his face expressionless. "I couldn't have improved without an… equal to train against."

"I'm well aware of how having a rival allows you to push yourself further than you could have otherwise," the Hokage said knowingly. "And that rivals can accomplish truly great things when working together."

"Hey, is that your way of saying you'll put us on the same team, old man?" Naruto asked excitedly.

The Hokage chuckled. "I'm afraid that's something you'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out." Naruto practically deflated and the Hokage just chuckled again, before his face suddenly smoothed into something far more serious. "No, I've summoned you here to discuss something much more important."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, suspicions rising. "Do you mean-"

"Yes," the Hokage said bluntly. "The matter I wish to discuss is your respective kekkei genkai."

The idiot's eyes widened in surprise, but Sasuke kept his face neutral. "You know?" Sasuke asked.

"Of course." The Hokage took another long puff of his pipe. "I am the Hokage. I would not miss the rebirth of two of the most legendary kekkei genkai the world has ever known." He smiled wryly at Naruto. "Anyone who has spent time with the Shodai would recognize the touch of a Mokuton user in that forest clearing of yours."

"You knew the Shodai!" Naruto exclaimed. "Do you know any jutsu-"

"Why wouldn't you talk to us before now?" Sasuke interrupted. "I've had my Sharingan for over a year now, and Naruto's had Mokuton for even longer. Why only talk to us about it now that we're genin?"

"Because you two were doing a good job of training yourselves and keeping your abilities a secret," the Hokage explained. "There was no reason for me to step in, though I did help a little." At Sasuke's questioning look, he elaborated, "I made sure no one else would stumble upon you two training in the clearing, and made sure nothing would interfere with your access to the Uchiha archives."

As much as Sasuke hated to admit it, he'd never actually considered the possibility of someone stumbling across them while they were training. Nor the possibility of something interfering with his access to jutsu for him and Naruto to learn. Apparently he had the Hokage to thank for that.

"Now, as for why I'm only talking to the two of you now," the Hokage continued, saving Sasuke from having to express gratitude. "I wanted to ask how much longer you plan on keeping your kekkei genkai a secret?"

Wordlessly, Sasuke looked over at Naruto and met his gaze. They'd discussed it a bit; originally they were just going to start showing off once they became genin, but then Naruto decided he wanted a bigger spectacle. 'A giant prank on the entire village!' It hadn't taken long for Sasuke to think of a suitable time for that.

Turning back to the Hokage, Naruto said, "We wanted to show off during the Chunin Exams! Sasuke says the next ones are here, so it's perfect!"

"The Chunin Exams, huh?" The Hokage set his pipe down, looking between them intently. The Hokage had been an old man for as long as Sasuke could remember, but for once Sasuke could feel the power behind his gaze. "An ideal time to show off Konoha's power to the other villages… as long as you two are sure you can keep a lid on your abilities for that long."

"We can," Sasuke said confidently. "I train without my Sharingan as much as I do with, and Naruto trains with Suiton and Doton as much as he does Mokuton."

Naruto nodded his agreement. "We can, old man, believe it!"

After a few more seconds of studying them closely, the Hokage nodded. "Then I will continue to keep your kekkei genkai a secret from the village. I only have one request: Do not hide it from your teammates, including your jounin sensei."

Naruto cocked his head. "Well, duh. We wouldn't be able to train if we did!"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted. "As long as our jounin sensei," the Hokage's face remained irritatingly unreadable, "is strong, I see no reason to hide our true ability from them."

The Hokage smiled. "Of course. Both of you will have adequate jounin sensei, I wouldn't settle for anything else."

Sasuke felt his eye twitch. "You aren't going to tell us if we're on the same team or not, are you?" The Hokage just continued to give them a grandfatherly smile and Sasuke sighed. "Okay, fine. We won't-"

"Old man, fight me!" a voice even higher than Naruto's shouted.

A grimace suddenly appeared on the Hokage's face and Sasuke and Naruto turned to face the door in time for a small brown-haired boy wearing a metal cap with a hole for his hair to come barging into the room. A shout of, "Oh No! Not again!" followed him, and a man dressed in a blue jumpsuit appeared at the door.

At the same time, the little brown-haired boy tripped and fell head first onto the ground. "Oww!" he shouted, quickly pushing himself up with a hand to his head. "Damn it! Who set a trap?" he asked, glaring at Naruto and Sasuke.

"Who's this kid?" Naruto asked, making a stupid face.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. The kid looked vaguely familiar…

"Hey!" the kid exclaimed, pushing himself to his feet with his glare bouncing between Naruto and Sasuke. "What'd you two do? I know you did something!"

The kid marched up to Naruto and got pretty much effortlessly lifted up by the shirt. "You tripped on your own, you idiot!" Naruto shouted.

"Naruto calling someone an idiot," Sasuke muttered. "That's rich."

Naruto looked three seconds away from throwing the kid at Sasuke when the man in the blue jumpsuit shouted, "Hey, Naruto! Let go of him! That's Lord Hokage's grandson!"

The little brat looked smugly at Naruto. "Go ahead and throw me!" he shouted back. He looked like he truly believed Naruto would back down.

Sasuke braced himself and caught the kid that Naruto promptly threw his way; he considered just dodging, but it was probably best they didn't kill the Hokage's grandson. "You think I give a damn, moron?" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke dropped the kid to the ground before the kid could even register being caught, and the kid fell right down. Instead of starting to cry like most kids would've, he stared up at Naruto like he'd just hung the stars. "You actually threw me!"

"Yeah, and I'll do it again you little-"

"Ebisu," the Hokage interrupted tiredly. The man in the blue jumpsuit jumped to attention. "Please take Konohamaru out. I have one more thing I still need to speak with young Naruto about."

"Yes, Lord Hokage!" Ebisu shot Naruto a withering glare before grabbing the kid by the arm and practically dragging him out of the room, Konohamaru's wide eyes never leaving Naruto even as Ebisu scolded him.

When they were gone, Naruto and Sasuke turned back to the very exasperated-looking Hokage. "I apologize for my very… excitable grandson," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "He seems to believe that surprise attacking me and defeating me will make him Hokage."

"Well, if he wants to be Hokage, he's gonna have to get in line!" Naruto exclaimed, scowling back at the now-shut door. "He better not think he's gonna be Hokage just 'cause he's your grandson!"

The Hokage smiled fondly again. "Yes, Naruto. Konohamaru's relation to me won't give him any special privileges on the road to becoming Hokage. I'm glad you, of all people, can see that."

Naruto looked at the Hokage again and cocked his head. "Huh?"

Sasuke sighed. "He's saying that the same applies to you, idiot. Being a Senju won't make you magically become Hokage."

"Oh!" Naruto's eyes brightened in understanding and Sasuke suppressed the urge to roll his. "Yeah, of course! I wouldn't wanna be Hokage just 'cause of my family, I wanna be Hokage because I earn it!"

"Good," the Hokage said. "There are many who would think otherwise. Now, while we're on the topic of your family." He reached into his desk and pulled something out: a wrist wrap that looked like it had symbols etched onto it. He set it down on the desk and pushed it in Naruto's direction. "I'm sure you two have formed theories on how, exactly, Naruto manifested Mokuton?"

"Well, it's 'cause I'm a Senju, right?" Naruto asked, staring at the wrist wrap. "I'm related to the Shodai somehow, right? And what's that?"

"Yes, you are related to Hashirama Senju," the Hokage confirmed. "Just not as directly as you probably assume."

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean?"

Not directly related to the Shodai? That left- "He's related to the Nidaime, isn't he?" Sasuke asked. "Tobirama Senju, the Shodai's brother."

The Hokage nodded. "Yes, Sasuke. And that," he pointed at the wrapping Naruto still hadn't looked away from, "belonged to him. I want you to have it, Naruto."

"Uh, no offense old man, but it's… just a wrist wrap," Naruto said bluntly.

The Hokage chuckled. "Step back and channel a little chakra into the symbols." Naruto gave him a questioning look. "Just trust me, Naruto."

"Okay…" Naruto picked the wrap up and walked back a few steps, closing his eyes. The symbols on the wrap briefly glowed orange, then a large sheathed katana appeared in Naruto's hands. "Woah! What the hell?"

"That was Tobirama-Sensei's sword," the Hokage explained. "He kept it sealed inside his wrist for ease of access, and only someone from his family can access it."

Naruto's eyes went wide. "You're letting me have it?"

"Of course," the Hokage said. "You deserve to have something that belongs to your family. Plus, Tobirama-Sensei designed it to channel Suiton chakra; I believe you could make good use of it, with some kenjutsu training. Just channel chakra back into the seal to put it back inside."

Naruto's brow furrowed. The seal glowed orange again as he held the sword close and channeled chakra, and the sword disappeared back inside with a poof of smoke. "Cool!" he exclaimed, staring in awe at the wrist wrap. Quickly, he put it over his left wrist and ran back up to the desk. "Thanks, old man!"

"You're welcome, Naruto." The many lines on his face crinkled as the Hokage smiled again. "Just try not to hurt yourself before someone teaches you to wield it, okay?"

"Can't make any promises!" Naruto exclaimed, unashamed. "But I heal fast so it's fine!"

"You're such an idiot," Sasuke muttered.

"Hey, bastard, I can stab you now, so shut up!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You'd have to touch me with that sword to stab me, and I wouldn't bet on you being able to."

Naruto opened his mouth to retort, but then something must have occurred to him because he turned back to the Hokage with a suddenly serious expression. "Old man…" he trailed off. "If you know I'm descended from the Nidaime, does that mean you know who my parents are?"

Sasuke wondered about that too. He'd originally assumed Naruto was somehow related to Tsunade of the Sannin, the last known Senju, but clearly that was wrong if he was descended from the Nidaime and not the Shodai. But if there'd been another Senju, why did no one know about them? And why did Naruto go by Uzumaki?

Judging by the look on the Hokage's face, they weren't going to get the answers to their questions. "I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Naruto," the Hokage said softly. "Your parents… they made many dangerous enemies. I can't risk endangering you by revealing who they were, not when you're already in danger because of your kekkei genkai."

"Oh…" Naruto's face fell and he started to fidget with the wrap on his wrist. "Did they… Y'know, did they love me?" he asked, so soft Sasuke barely heard it.

The Hokage smiled sadly. "More than anything, Naruto. Know they would be here with you now if they had any choice, but they were taken from us far sooner than they should have been." He looked between the two boys, his eyes still unreadable. "They'd be happy you two became friends, though."

Friends… Sasuke was a little surprised that he wasn't surprised to hear that. When had he started thinking of Naruto as a friend? He'd started hanging around Naruto with the intent of training against a rival, but he'd also had more ramen since starting to train with Naruto than he had at any point before. Naruto was probably the only person he'd consider a friend.

You must kill your closest friend.

Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut as if that would rid him of the voice. How hadn't he realized it before? He played right into Itachi's hands by befriending Naruto. He hadn't meant to-

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked, saving him from his thoughts. "You ready to go?"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, digging his nails into his palms in his pockets. He couldn't think about it now, not with the Hokage's eyes on him. "Let's."

With a simple goodbye, ignoring the Hokage's almost omniscient eyes, he and Naruto made their way out of the office. Usually they would have made their way to the forest clearing for training, but not today; with team assignments being tomorrow, Sasuke figured it was best they were well rested. Naruto may be able to recover in the time it takes to sleep, but Sasuke didn't have that benefit.

"You wanna go to Ichiraku's?" Naruto asked when they made it outside.

Sasuke shook his head. "Not today, Naruto. I need to… think."

"If this is about the old man calling us-"

"We are friends," Sasuke interrupted. Naruto blinked in surprise. "And rivals. I just need to think."

"Uh, okay," Naruto said slowly. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Hn." Sasuke forced a smirk. "When we're put on the same team."

Naruto grinned. "Yeah, when." He held out his fist. "Cya tomorrow, bastard."

Sasuke fist bumped him. "See you tomorrow, idiot."

Author's Note:

Been a few weeks since I last posted! I've been both pretty distracted by another fandom & busy with uni (miraculously passed a test I did NOT think i would pass) but I still have a few more chapters ready, so I'm probably just gonna keep spreading out my posting so I don't lose momentum entirely.

is this chapter the first time I specifically mentioned how Naruto's related to the Senju? i can't really remember if it is or not, but if it is: woohoo! Tobirama (through Minato, but Naruto and Sasuke don't know about that part yet). Tobirama & Minato have pretty similar skillsets, and their sensory ability is practically the exact same, so that's the explanation i decided to go with. i have a whole family tree i worked out somewhere, and went through a lot of thinking to make sure it made sense age-wise for everyone, but i'm not gonna delve into that here.

Next up: team assignments, and more importantly, KAKASHI!

as always, thank you all for the follows/favorites and reviews!