REWRITTEN

Here's chapter two!

DISCLAIMER - I don't own Naruto.

Note before we start, I completely forgot about the super Naruto hacks where he uses his Kage Bunshin to get him powerful in very little time. I think I'm going to have Naruto not use this, and make him not know about until later... muuuuch later.

"Speaking"

Thinking

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke all walked out of the tower, it was probably a few hours until noon, and that could only mean one thing…

"We're late for class!" Sakura shouted. She grabbed Naruto's hand and Sasuke by the back of the shirt and ran as fast as she could. When Naruto slipped, she simply dragged him along the dirt road.

Halfway there, Sakura's energy was used up, and she sat down on a nearby bench gasping for breath. "Damn," She muttered, "I forgot, we're not in our old bodies anymore. We have to train ourselves hard so we can make the Hokage's expectations…" She accepted Naruto's hand and was lifted up off the bench.

She had stopped in the middle of town at a rather large water fountain. Various high quality shops were around it, and benches surrounded the fountain along with various different plants. The trio sat on one of the benches around the fountain, yet again ignoring all the glares that Naruto was making them receive.

"Ok, we're obviously not going to make it in time." Naruto sighed dejectedly. "Man, I didn't know how much time passed in there."

Sasuke nodded, "We'll get there eventually… It's not like we need to learn anything in there anyway, just a quick week in there, then we'll begin our real training."

The sun had risen above the buildings now, and the heat was quite relaxing on their small bodies as they simply sat there thinking. People walked pass them ignoring or glaring at Naruto, until he snapped out of his chain of thought.

"We should get there now." He said as he slid off the bench. "Come on."

Sasuke grunted, meaning he agreed with the blonde, even though he didn't like it. He slid off following Sakura whose legs were still a little wobbly from running so far and fast so early. Naruto kneeled down in front of her as an invitation to get on his back.

"No," She said, "I couldn't."

Naruto snickered and said, "Why not? I don't mind at all." At that Sakura smiled and got on top of her boyfriend. In this kind of situation, being larger than the one who is carrying you can be a bad thing. Sakura's head surpassed Naruto's own.

"This is weird." She admitted. "It's kind of funny though, I remember you carrying me recently when you were taller than me."

Naruto thought back to the memory too. "You mean the time when we killed that Akatsuki jerk, which one was it, Kisame?" Naruto snorted, "Ah, he injured your leg so I had to carry you all the way home." He looked in thought for a moment and said, "You were kind of heavy, what did you eat that day?"

SMACK! She slapped him in the head and muttered idiot under her breath while an embarrassed blush was present on her face. "It was because you were weak! Not because I was fat!"

"Who said you were fat?" Naruto asked, mock confusion on his face, "Even if you were fat, your beauty makes up for it."

SMACK! She hit him on the head again, "We're in public! Don't talk like that! It's embarrassing!"

"It's only true!" Naruto smiled back at her.

Sasuke began to walk ahead of the couple, "God, those two act like they're already married." He looked back over his shoulder and could see Naruto carrying Sakura pass right by him.

"Hey Sasuke! I bet I can beat you in a race to the academy!" He shouted over his shoulder when he was several feet ahead of the Uchiha boy.

Sasuke smirked and ran towards the two, "Heh, you know Naruto, even back then; I was always faster than you!" He easily caught up to them and lowered his speed to a jog. "We'll settle this when you don't have extra weight." He motioned at Sakura.

Before they could continue they ran into a small group of people all surrounded around one person. When the crowd parted for the three of them as they passed, they could hear various things like:

"There she is. she's with the fox brat."

"What's the Uchiha doing around that brat?"

Naruto looked down and tried his best to ignore the people talking, but Sasuke and Sakura both glared at them as they passed by. Once they made it to the middle of the crowd, Sakura paled considerably. "Mom?"

The tall pink haired woman turned her attention to the voice she just heard. She had bright green eyes, similar to Sakura's, and a red dress on. She rushed over to her daughter but stopped halfway when she saw who was carrying her.

"What did I tell you about that boy Sakura?" She shouted immediately. Naruto looked frightened, and Sasuke looked curiously at the mother and daughter.

Sakura looked at her mother's eyes, knowing she was talking about Naruto. "What was it about Naruto you wanted me to remember? I kind of forgot."

The woman was becoming angrier now, "Sakura! Is he why you never came home last night? I was worried sick! Look at you! Whose clothes are you wearing? They aren't," She pointed at Naruto, "His clothes are they!"

Sakura sighed, "No Mother, These are Sasuke's over there." Sasuke gave a little wave, "Naruto is not the reason I didn't come home last night." She didn't know what to say, "I, uh, got lost in the woods, and Naruto was there and led me out, Sasuke found both of us later that night and allowed us to stay at his house considering how late it was."

"Sakura… Is there a reason you're letting him carry you?" Her mother's tone was low, but all knew she was about to explode.

"Oh?" She looked down at Naruto's head and smiled, Naruto shook his head, he didn't want her to get into trouble because of him, but Sakura ignored his protest. "Well, I would let Sasuke do it, but I wouldn't want my boyfriend to get jealous of us."

All was silent.

"WHAT!" A huge scream echoed across the streets and town. Every individual in the village had to stop for a moment the; scream was so loud. Once her mother stopped screaming, she stomped towards Sakura, "You skipped classes because of him, and he must have corrupted you or something! I have given you a lecture every night about him, and you disobey me NOW!"

The three children notice all the adults agreeing with the angry mother. "This isn't good." Naruto whispered to Sakura. She only nodded; maybe blowing her mother's fuse wasn't such a great idea.

Sasuke sighed, "Hang on!"

All the adults stopped, even Sakura's mother. Everyone in the village knew that the last Uchiha was vital for the future, and they needed to respect his wishes. "What is it Uchiha?" A random villager asked.

"Now that I have your attention," He coughed and said, "You people wouldn't really want to hurt my friends here, would you?"

Sakura's mother spoke up, "I'd never hurt my daughter, it's the brat there that should be hurt. Why don't you go away with Sakura and we adults will handle the br- I mean, Naruto." She gave a fake smile.

Sasuke sighed, "Listen woman, first off I don't like your daughter that way, secondly, if you hurt him I will have to fight you all." He lowered himself into the stance Orochimaru taught to him. Though he despised the snake freak, his taijutsu style was quite useful.

Many of the adults sighed about stupid children and walked away. However, a few of them stayed, not really caring much for the so-called, 'last Uchiha'.

"Listen kid." Said a man to his left, "If you interfere with us we're going to have to-." He never finished his sentence, for Sasuke simple punch him straight in the face. The man stumbled back and fell. Sasuke was still a child, but even he knew how to make a strong punch.

Several more adults came running at him, intent on taking him down. A child could not possibly pose any threat to a fully-grown man, right? Sasuke jumped out of the way of the charging adults and kicked one of them in the side. The man fell down, but was not unconscious.

Sasuke smirked, but it was taken off his face as he heard yelling coming from behind him. Right when the man was about to get Sasuke in his grasp and could inflict serious damage on his small frame, Naruto came up and kicked him right in the side. The two boys stood back-to-back facing the seven that still stood to fight them.

"So the fox brat wants to fight now…" One of them said.

"Hah, I wouldn't fight you normally, but if you even dare harm my friend." He closed his eyes and reopened them, "I will hurt you!" His eyes were blood red with a slit down the middle. This made over half the group turn around and run away, only three remained to fight.

Damn it, I thought for sure those eyes would get them running… Naruto thought. He had learned in his previous timeline how to do that ability, it was to strike fear into your opponents so they ran away. It did require chakra, but only to activate it, after that it drained little to no chakra depending on the circumstance. Naruto quickly turned it off when he knew the few remaining men would not run.

After a few minutes of stalling one of the men jumped towards the two kids, allowing Sasuke to easily jump to the side dodging the man completely. Naruto too got out of the way and while the man was on the ground recovering from his jump he kicked him in the head, knocking him out cold.

Before the two remaining men could charge or leave, Sakura got behind the two, jumped up to their necks and pressed a pressure point, knocking them out cold. Sakura smiled and put up a peace sign for both of her friends.

"You both okay?" She shouted out to them.

Sasuke looked at his hand from when he punched the man in the face, it was red and a bruise was appearing on his fist. "Could you heal this?" He asked uncertainly.

She looked over the small wound and brought her hands up, a small green light emitted from them. She quickly covered his hands with hers and began to heal them. Within ten seconds she stopped, and fell on her butt. "That's All I can do…" She gasped for breath, "Without losing consciousness."

"You had very little chakra to control at this age." Naruto concluded. He quickly braced himself for a punch, but then remembered the girl was exhausted on the ground.

Sasuke examined his hand, "I can manage with this." It was still a little red, and there was barely any blue in the middle of the hand. "Thank you Sakura."

Sakura looked over to her mother and said, "Sorry, but this is how I like it."

"Just go dear," Her mother said as she looked over all the people on the ground, "We'll talk some other time…" She did not want to argue with her daughter about the matter while she was with her two violent friends, so she allowed herself to leave the site.

Before the three of them left, a group of five ANBU landed down on the road where all the people were. "What happened here?" Asked one behind a dog mask. He looked around until he saw Naruto, his features turned hard and said, "Was it you?" He sounded as though he already made up his mind.

Before he could advance towards Naruto, Sasuke got between them and said, "No, when my friends were passing here, some adults were making it hard for us, so I attacked out of rage." He bowed his head, "I am sorry, it will not happen again. Naruto and Sakura had nothing to do with this."

"Oh really?" The man said, obviously not believing his story. "Well then, you three be safe. We'll clean this up." The three children looked skeptical at the man, but left without any trouble. He turned to his men and said, "Follow them for the day, and make sure they do nothing out of the ordinary."

His four men all nodded and jumped within the trees, and followed the children through the town.

From the Hokage tower, Sarutobi watched the whole thing from his crystal ball. I hope those children will be all right… He was about to call off the ANBU following them, but figured it would be a test of sorts. Let's see how well they can avoid them… or if they even notice them…

He brought out a pipe and a quill and began to work with the crystal ball to keep tabs on the trio from the future.

(Ninja Academy)

The three entered through the gates into the academy, and marveled at how similar was to how they remembered it. The large building was right in front of them, and the swing Naruto always loved was over to their right how it always was. The building was a dark red color, and all was silent.

"You think they noticed we were all gone?" Sakura asked as she opened the front door to the place. Sasuke and Naruto both followed close behind.

"Nah, they're probably too busy with some lesson right now!" Naruto said with a grin. Sasuke gave him a look and he sighed, slumped and said, "Or they may have noticed a little."

They walked through the halls and finally reached the door to their class. They all could hear their old teacher, Iruka, lecturing the class on some sort of thing. "Well," Sasuke sighed, "Let's get this over with." He opened the door into the class.

When the door creaked open everyone stopped sleeping or paying attention and looked over. Naruto walked forward and cleared his throat, "Hello everyone! How are all of you?" When he receive silence he said, "Awesome! Eh, sorry we're kind of late Iruka, you see Sasuke, Sakura-chan and I were all sort of caught up in something-"

"Naruto…" Iruka growled, "You're almost two hours late for class! What did it do to involve both Sakura and Sasuke?"

Naruto tried to think of something quickly, "Well you see… Sasuke was being an asshole again, so I challenged him to a fight! Sakura-chan over there was um, around… and cheered for Sasuke to beat me," He said that with a bitter tone, "But um, some people came by and…"

"And tried to interfere with our fight." Sasuke came in for the rescue, "That didn't sit well with me, so I simply had to kick their asses." He thought harder, That all couldn't equal two hours… "Then some ANBU came while I was fight…"

Sakura came in, "Then They took Naruto and Sasuke to the Hokage," Ok, that covered them, now what about me… "And I followed to make sure they both were all right." She finished.

"The Hokage released us late, and told us to hurry here and now here we are! Let's continue on with class shall we!" Naruto shouted and took his usual seat in the back of the class. Sakura looked over at him, seeing no free seats she sat next to her long-time rival, Ino. Sasuke walked down the row, trying to act like how he did then, with his hands in his pockets and no emotion on his face. He went to the front of the class and sat, paying all his attention on Iruka.

"Ok then…" Iruka said, not sure what to make of the tale.

After several moments of silence, he continued on with the lecture.

The classroom was a rectangular shape. There were five rows of places for the students to sit. Each row lifted up a foot from the front one so students didn't have to move their heads around to see the front of the class. There were stairs cut straight through all the desks so there were two sides to the whole class. In front was Iruka behind a stand with many papers on it, and behind him was a huge chalkboard that went over the whole wall behind the intellectual man.

Sasuke was in the front row to the left, Sakura sat in the fourth row to the right, and Naruto in the fifth to the left of the stairs. All of them tried their best not to look at each other to raise suspicion.

Naruto in the back could only pay attention for a few minutes before his head hit his desk; he began to daydream of what he could do to make this timeline work. Meanwhile, Sakura listened to every word that left Iruka's mouth. Even though she has heard all this before, she couldn't help but get angry over it, what? He's just explaining what could happen on the field! They need a demonstration so they won't die the first time they fight an enemy ninja!

Sasuke felt the need to do what Naruto just did, but couldn't do it; he didn't want to lose his reputation he built up too quickly. When the class knew he hung out with Naruto, he knew that he would become much less popular than he was. All in due time… He thought, with a smile on his face, which disturbed the hell out of Iruka.

When has Sasuke ever smiled? He shook his head out of his daze. "Ok class, its lunch time, have fun and don't hurt yourselves!" All the children quickly poured out of the academy to head outside, the sun was now overhead, and it was very bright outside.

When the students exited the academy, Naruto went for his favorite spot. It was almost automatic for him. His feet simply led the way to his favorite seat and he simply sat himself down. He sighed and looked at all the children playing around him.

When Sasuke came out he saw Naruto by himself and looked around. He never sat with anyone else, so he figured he could go be with his best friend. "Hey Naruto." He said as he came within speaking distance. "How're you doing?"

"I'm wondering if eating dirt would harm me," He said honestly as drool escaped his mouth, "I wish we had Ramen around here."

Over on the other sit, Ino and Sakura sat together. Ino offered Sakura some of her lunch, but Sakura simply shook her hands in front of her, "No thanks, I have already eaten this morning."

Ino accepted the answer and sat down against a tree. Sakura sat down to her left. "So who won?" She asked out of the blue.

"What?" Sakura asked confused.

"The fight, who won it?" Ino asked again, more specific this time.

Sakura nodded, "Ah, well you see, the ANBU came before it finished, and-"

"Who would have won?"

"Well," Sakura thought for a moment, she liked Naruto, but Sasuke was also her friend… "It would have been a tie, both are really good."

Ino nodded, "Well, I bet Sasuke-kun would have won if I was there, you're way too uninspiring." Ino said, stars appearing in her eyes.

"What?" Sakura got an evil look in her eye, "It's obvious that Naruto would have won if it weren't for the ANBU!"

Ino looked over at the girl in shock, "What? You're saying Naruto, the dead last is better than Sasuke-kun? What is wrong with you? Do you have a fever?"

Sakura snorted, "As if! Sasuke can't beat Naruto even if Naruto had his hands tied behind his back!" The challenge was offered, and neither child would back down.

Ino and Sakura both walked over to the two boys who were simply chatting and each grabbed one of them, Ino dragged Sasuke one way, and Sakura dragged Naruto the other.

Once they were far enough distance apart Sakura turned to Naruto and said, "Ok, Naruto! Tie your hands behind your back with this." She grabbed the blue ribbon in her hair and handed it to Naruto, "And I want you to kick Sasuke's ass."

"Wha- What?" Naruto asked confusion evident in his voice. "You want me to hurt Sasuke? What for?"

Sakura gave him a kiss on the lips and said, "Do it for me, okay?"

Naruto, too lost in thought, simply nodded, a goofy grin pasted on his face.

Over to Sasuke and Ino, "Sasuke-kun! I want you to show everyone here that you can kick Naruto's ass!"

"What? Why?" He sighed, "Ino just let me go over and-" He glanced over at Naruto and saw Sakura tying his hands behind his back, "Um, what's going on?" He asked, slightly confused.

"Sakura is saying that Naruto could beat you with his hands behind his back, I know it's not true, so I want you to go out there and kick his ass for me!" Ino explained.

Sasuke sighed again; we have MUCH more important things to do than this… He thought as a frown came to his face, like trying to stop Orochimaru and Akatsuki, this is NOT on top of the important thing to do list. He agreed to the terms however, when Naruto with a grin on his face walked hazily over to him.

Naruto and Sasuke walked out to the middle of the academy fields, looking each other in the eye. Naruto got rid of his goofy grin and looked on with seriousness in his eyes. Sasuke was the first one to speak. "Naruto, why the hell did you agree to this?"

"Heh, I have my reasons," He replied and he turned serious, "Sasuke, since I am so nice, I'll allow you to make the first move."

Sasuke nodded and went through some hand seals, which Naruto recognized immediately. Sasuke brought his hands to his mouth and blew out a huge fireball at Naruto. Both were trained to not speak the moves they were to do so their opponent would be surprised instead of finding a quickly counter for the element it was they were going against. Naruto quickly rolled over to the side and avoided the huge fireball.

Goukakyuu no Jutsu… Naruto thought as he watched Sasuke remove his hand from his mouth, signaling the end of the attack. He quickly ran towards Sasuke and tried to kick up in the head, but Sasuke quickly grabbed his foot and threw him quite a distance away.

By now the fight had drawn the attention of all the students they all circled around the two fighting, and Sakura and Ino watched with confidence.

Suddenly, a younger Kiba yelled from the crowd, "Go Naruto! Kick that guy's ass! He deserves to be knocked down a peg."

Sasuke glared at the guy and Naruto smiled, Hm, I am not as popular as I thought I was… Sasuke sighed. He looked towards Naruto again. He focused chakra into his eyes; I need to get Sharingan so I can end this quickly… He quickly retracted all the chakra from his eyes when a burning sensation came up. "Damn!" He said out loud.

"What's wrong Sasuke-chan?" Naruto joked as he advanced forward to keep up attacking. Sasuke simply side stepped his kick and said, "At this rate I won't even need Sharingan!" As he said that hands emerged from the ground and grabbed Sasuke's feet. "What the hell!" He shouted as he tried to get away from the grip, but it was too strong.

Naruto grinned, "The rules were I had my hands tied behind my back, it never stated that I couldn't use any jutsu's!" The clone quickly pulled Sasuke down, to his head. "Got you!" Naruto got face to face with him and suddenly Sasuke exploded into a ton of smoke.

"Up here!" Sasuke shouted. Naruto looked up in the air to see Sasuke coming down with his fist held back. Naruto quickly fell to the ground and rolled around Sasuke's blow and attempted to kick him in the face, but Sasuke switched positions and grabbed his foot. Both then jump away from each other.

"What going on here!" Iruka shouted as he made his way through all his students. What he was hearing was making him worried:

"You can do it Sasuke-kun!"

"When did Naruto get so good?"

"Are those clones solid?"

"Naruto! Don't lose to him!"

Of course, since he was taller than all of the children, he saw what was going on almost instantly. Naruto! Sasuke! He was about to call it off until Sakura ran in front of where the most students were, and proceeded to speak.

Sakura had seen Iruka right away when he came out, so she quickly did the first thing that came to her head. She ran to where a majority of the people were standing and began to lecture them, "Ok students! This is what fights will be like! Of course, you won't have your hands tied to your back."

"Notice how they both attack each other with the intent to kill? That is what a real fight is all about. The opponent will not go easy on you. He or She will try to exploit your weaknesses and use them against you. They won't allow you to get up once you fall, or pick up weapons you drop. They'll usually try to use their stronger techniques to finish you off quickly, or if they're smart they'll avoid all your techniques and wait until you're low on chakra and begin to attack you."

She stopped and gathered her breath. "Notice here, how…" She observed the fight a little. Several clones of Naruto now pinned down Sasuke, as Naruto gathered sloppily chakra at his feet and tried to kick Sasuke hard in the gut. Luckily Sasuke managed to kick the head of one of Naruto's clones and got out of the way of his attack.

"Um, Ok, see how Naruto sloppily gathered his chakra for that attack? That is why you want to perfect your chakra control as soon as you possibly can."

Naruto looked hurtfully at Sakura. "Hey! I'm not that bad!"

"Hey Naruto! Pay Attention!" Sasuke shouted as he charged up another fire attack, this time it sent multiple little fireballs at Naruto who quickly made a shield of clones to block it all.

"That's cheap Sasuke!" He shouted angrily.

"Hey Sakura!" Sasuke shouted, "Be sure to tell them not to be distracted in a fight ever too, like the idiot here." Sasuke pointed at Naruto.

Sakura sighed, "That too…"

After a couple of minutes, both boys were gasping for breath, Damn it! Naruto thought, if I could grasp control of all this damn chakra in me I could beat him, or use my hands for that matter… Sasuke thought something similar to Naruto.

Both looked each other in the eye and ran towards one another. Sasuke's fist landed right in between Naruto's eyes, as Naruto's landed in the same spot on Sasuke's face. Both stood in that position for a moment, with each other's fist in each other's face. Finally both fell backwards.

Everyone looked on in Silence.

Nothing made any noise.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Kiba shouted throwing his fist into the air. Many other children did the same to show their agreement to the matter. Ino looked devastated. Sasuke was tied with Naruto, the so called, 'Dead last'.

Iruka ran over to the children and checked their heartbeat, when it was at normal speed he sighed out some relief. "They're not that badly hurt." He said as Sakura came walking over.

"That's good." She sighed, she then looked over at the cheering class and yelled "Listen up!" When no one heeded her words she brought her fist in the air and slammed it against the ground. A crater appeared below that was several feet wide. Needless to say, it had the desired effect.

"Now, both of them knocked each other out. That usually means the match is over and an honorable individual would normally leave his opponent to fight another day. Unfortunately, there are those out there that would use this to their advantage if they recover first, and will probably kill you."

Sakura turned to both of them and asked to the class, "Now, do you all know what a job of a medic-nin is?" Most of the students nodded. "Good. If there is one nearby, their immediate job is to help heal their teammate back to health, no matter what." She raised her hands above Naruto's head, and a green glow came up, "Doing this requires a lot of control…" She quickly rubbed Naruto's forehead, knowing she was going to run out of chakra quickly. She then switched to Sasuke and did the same, "That is what they do…" She said. Using these abilities at her young age was definitely taking its toll.

Both Naruto and Sasuke stirred awake and looked at each other. "Who won?" They asked each other. They then glared at each other.

"You mean it was a draw?" Naruto asked, continuing to glare at his long time rival.

"I guess it was," Sasuke sighed, "Damn, all that training actually DID improve you." He let up the glare and smiled.

Naruto snorted, "That's what it's for, and you can never become strong if you just rely on your family name." He got up and gave Sasuke his hand, who accepted it and got up himself.

Naruto noticed Sakura on the ground and asked, "Eh, Sakura you alright?" He offered her his hand up, and she grabbed hold on it and got up, once she was standing she leaned on Naruto, who was leaning on Sasuke. Sasuke had to hold both of them up now…

"And," Sakura began, "That's all you need to learn today!"

Iruka called in the class, and watched as the three leaning one another came in with each other. Sakura gave Naruto a quick kiss again. Since when have they been friends? Iruka thought to himself, Sakura has always hated Naruto, and Sasuke has always been the silent type. I wonder if this is worth reporting to the Hokage… Hell, Naruto even knew Kage Bunshin technique, and Sakura medical jutsu!

Up in the trees surrounding the academy, the ANBU who were spying on the children were surprised by their abilities and powers. "These aren't normal children."

After saying that the four following them jumped away to report to their team leader.

Inside the Academy, The three friends all sat by each other. All the students sat in their normal seats, Though Sakura and Sasuke to sit by their friend kicked Shikamaru and Choji off the top row.

Iruka tried to start a lecture, but couldn't get his mind off the students in the top row, the three of them specifically. So finally he just decided, "Ok class, class is over early, Sakura had a good enough lesson outside." All the students quickly cleared their way out of the school and left.

Only a few were left. Hinata in the front row, slowly walking to the top, Shikamaru and Choji near the bottom, and finally the three friends hanging out at the top.

"You're not that bad of a teacher Sakura." Naruto said as he got up and stretched. Sasuke and Sakura followed suit.

"Yeah, while you were gone for that two and half year training trip I had to teach a few classes." She stated, "The brats were annoying as hell." She muttered the more she thought of it.

Sasuke walked out the door saying, "I'll be outside waiting for you two." Sakura and Naruto both nodded and were about to follow him, but a shaky voice stopped them in their tracks.

"N- Naruto-kun…" She said. Instantly Sakura glared at her and held onto Naruto's shoulder firmly, and Naruto turned to greet her.

"Hello Hinata." Naruto greeted. He took notice of her blush and shaky figure. Her fingers pressed together. Hm… why is she like that, "Do you have a fever?" He asked, concern filling his voice.

She shook her head, "No Na- Naruto-kun." She answered.

It was silent for a moment before Sakura broke it asking, "Do you need something?"

Hinata seem to snap out of her silence and said, "Ah! Naruto-kun, I thought y- you, fought uh… rea- really well."

"Um, thanks Hinata." Naruto said scratching the back of his head.

Sakura sighed, Naruto, even after so many years he was as dense as before, "Hinata, thank you for complimenting Naruto, but we have to leave now, Sasuke is waiting for us." She wrapped both her arms around Naruto and leaned her head against his shoulder and walked out, praying Hinata got the silent message she sent about Naruto.

Needless to say, she did when she looked away and tears almost came out of his eyes. "Hinata…" She looked up and saw Shikamaru standing there with Choji behind him, "Are you okay?"

She tried to say no, but all she could do was shake her head and began to cry, "No…" She whispered quietly.

"Geez!" Shikamaru exclaim in an unexcited way. "Don't cry." This is why women are so troublesome, some are evil and some are too nice. There's never one right in the middle… "It will be alright?" He said uncertainly.

Hinata flew into his chest and cried some more and all Shikamaru could do was pat her back, telling her it was all right. This was how he always saw his dad do it when his mother was really upset anyway.

(Outside the Academy)

The three walked out of the academy from the exhausting first day. They walked down a dirt path with Naruto the leader for the time being. "Hey guys, lets head to my house, I want to get a few things that I think I still have there."

They walked on in silence for a little bit before Naruto broke it once again, "Being this young sucks, we don't have any control, and we're as weak as hell!" Naruto exclaimed, "That fight would have been much more interesting if we weren't holding back our more powerful attacks!"

"Naruto," Sasuke said, "We can't even do our more powerful attacks, hell, I couldn't even activate Sharingan, I got this damn stinging sensation in my eyes."

Sakura nodded, "It makes sense, at this age we barely had enough chakra…" She stopped and looked at Naruto, "Most of us barely had enough chakra to do on B-ranked technique. I'm surprised your fight went on for so long."

That made them silent for a long time until Naruto broke the silence once more, "Will it really take us only a year to regain all that we lost? I mean, the Old man wants us to be ANBU, that's huge!" nervousness was dripping off his voice.

What the hell? Naruto is nervous about something? He can be nervous? Guess you learn something new every day, Sasuke thought, he then spoke, "If not, we'll just take another year. Orochimaru is not planning to attack for a little more than three years, and Akatsuki is not going to be collecting the demons for another five years or so."

"Yeah." Sakura agreed, "We definitely have enough time to do this."

They stopped talking when they saw a group of people walking towards them. All of them were laughing and snickering until they saw the three coming towards them. They proceeded down the road until they got in ear shot of Naruto and said, "Hey brat, I hope you like what we did with your home, it fits you much better now!" He laughed, and the group quickly ran ahead of the children, knowing what they could possibly do to them.

Naruto offered them one word of satisfaction, "Aw crap."

He quickly ran ahead, leaving his two friends behind. After a few seconds letting the words register in their minds they quickly ran too, trying to catch up to the blonde.

When they got to the apartment complex where Naruto lived they looked around. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Though, saying the apartment building was wondrous was similar to calling an adorable puppy horribly ugly. It was a very rectangular building, made out of bricks. There were stairs leading to the uppers levels where they knew Naruto lived.

They slowly walked up the stairs, every step felt like they'd fall through to the bottom. Once they reached the second floor the both of them walked until they reached Naruto's door, which was on the floor.

"Naruto?" Sakura called in. Getting no answer she walked pass the door and entered.

Sasuke noticed both the windows next to Naruto's door were broken and walked in to find what broke through them. He found two bricks; one that hit each window, each had a message for the 'demon' child. Sasuke read them both and grew angered. He gathered chakra into his hand and managed to crush the two bricks with ease.

Sakura wandered into the kitchen where all of Naruto's cooking utensils were spread all about in a very messy way. On the walls of the house were graffiti that people wrote about Naruto. Sakura didn't read it, knowing it would make her cry and feel angry, which she already felt enough of. Sasuke and Sakura met again in the small living room that was there when you first enter the house.

They walked down the only hall in the house. On the left was the bathroom, and on the right was Naruto's bedroom, or rather, what was remaining of it.

"Did they have to destroy everything?" Naruto questioned when the two entered the room.

Sakura was the first to speak, "Naruto, I'm so sorry…"

"It's okay Sakura-chan," He grinned over at her, though it was obviously fake, "I can fix most of it, and wipe the writing off the walls.\-"

"Hell no." Sasuke spoke up, "This place is trashed, and there is no way you're going to keep on living here."

Sakura agreed, "Yeah Naruto! You have to report this to the Hokage! I mean they completely destroyed your home!"

Naruto sighed; the fake grin came off easily, "No, I can't do that. That would mean a victory for the people who did this. Besides, half the ninja population of this village isn't very fond of me right now either."

"Well, you can come live with me now." Sasuke said, "It gets lonely at my place a lot anyway from what I remember."

"And I'll stay too, I don't really want to be with my mom right now," Sakura added, "Come on Naruto." She held her hand out to him, "It's not just you this time around, we're all in this together."

Naruto looked up, tears evident in his eyes, "Yeah," He accepted her hand and got up, quickly he gave her a tight hug and said, "Yes… us three, we'll make everything much better this time around."

The three walked out of the place, none ever intending to go back.

-END-

Has anyone ever thought of Shikamaru/Hinata? I have never, when I wrote that scene I decided to add that and went, hmm...

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it. See you next chapter.

Edit: 03/24/10 – And the case of there being far too many ellipses continues! If you're all wondering, right now I am just going through and editing it, adding a few lines where I felt there needed to be a little more explanation, getting rid of all the times Sakura says Naruto with kun at the end, and getting rid of the villagers calling Naruto a demon, and instead have them calling him a brat, or a fox brat. To be honest, big changes in my revision and editing process will not occur until chapter 5 or 6.

Until them, have a good day!