Chapter Text
There are three types of children at the ninja academy: clan brats, kids with shinobi in the family and civilian kids.
Sakurabata Haru has been aware of that divide since he joined the Academy almost four years ago. He can't not be, since he belongs to the last group, the group that doesn't belong – because the fact that his parents are an accountant and a carpenter has made him a second-class student from the first day.
When he was eight, eager to become a ninja, celebrating the fact that they got into the Academy with Tojo, he didn't immediately notice how harsh the divide really is. They were so happy to have been accepted, happy at the prospect of becoming defender of their village, their people, that they didn't see the nuances, the differences between one kid and the other.
Now, with twelve, Haru has been without his best friend at the Academy for one and a half years. He's had time enough to notice that no matter what the teachers say, they aren't equal.
Of the 30 remaining students only four come from civilian families. Eight are clan brats. 17 come from families with at least one ninja in them. The last is Uzumaki Naruto.
Haru isn't blind, nor deaf, nor stupid. Naruto is an orphan, he comes from none of the prominent clans of Konohagakure, his grades are the worst of all of them... the kids from the ninja families hate him, but the clan kids – who look through everyone who isn't one of them – treat him almost like one of their own.
He's watched the blond boy for a year now, but still hasn't figured out what makes him so special. Naruto is loud, obnoxious, and gives a shit about lessons, but his taijutsu is above average, he's clever if he wants to be and literally everyone knows him.
When he first noticed that something was off about Naruto – a few months after Tojo had to leave because his mother died – he asked his parents about anyone called Uzumaki, but neither had ever heard the name.
Haru doesn't really care for Naruto, but it irks him that the orphan boy that most of the class hates with a passion is treated more like a potential shinobi than him or Nanami, or Satoru, or Hideo.
They are just the civilian kids.
No matter how good Haru was, he always just got a curt nod, a star under his test, a barely-there smile.
He is one of the best students, but he knows that it isn't through any effort on their teacher's part. The only one that really tried to explain ordinary stuff – what ninja think is common knowledge – to them was Iruka-sensei. Haru likes him for it, but it also made him hate the other teachers a little more.
Nobody expected him to succeed, to really become a ninja. Even his parents let him join more because they didn't know what to do with him at home than because they believed that he would make it.
In retrospect that's the main reason Haru has come as far as he has.
At first it was him and Tojo, two boys who wanted to become famous protectors of their village, but when his best friend left Haru'd been alone at the Academy. The remaining civilian kids stuck together, but he had never liked any of the others that well.
He had been alone.
Haru had been stubborn even then, though, and the fact that everyone underestimated him had only made him study more and train harder.
Still – even with one of the best written scores in his class, great teamwork skills and average grades in taijutsu and combat – Sakurabata Haru never in a million years expected Iruka-sensei when pronouncing the genin teams to say, "Team Seven: Sakurabata Haru, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto."
For a second the classroom is dead silent.
Then Naruto erupts. Before Haru – who for some reason is sitting between the two other boys – can pull him back he has gotten up and starts making a scene.
Haru and Sasuke exchange a look behind his back.
They haven't had much to do with each other during their years at the Academy, but Sasuke helped him with his shuriken jutsu a few times, and sometimes they have sat beside each other during lessons. Haru worked with him on an essay once.
Normally he stuck to Hideo, Satoru and Nanami however, and Sasuke was on his own – everybody knows about the Uchiha Massacre and that it's best to leave the last Uchiha very well alone.
"Now take a break," Iruka interrupts his thoughts, and he is glad for the break they get before being introduced to their Jounin instructors.
The others are all on different teams with kids from ninja families, but when Haru makes their way over to say bye Nanami just walks off.
"She's mad that you go on the team with the Uchiha," Satoru grumbles and rolls his eyes. "Don't know what all the girls like about him."
Haru and Hideo don't know either. Most girls are silly like that though – even Yamanaka Ino, who went to school with Haru and Tojo and is a pretty nice girl actually, is always running after Sasuke and trying to chat with him. He thinks that the Uchiha hates her.
Hideo is in a team with two girls, Asumi and Tamiko, who can't stand each other, and Satoru with a girl none of them remembers the name of and Shiranui Token, who's a laid-back guy Haru wouldn't have minded having in his team at all.
Instead he goes back to the classroom after lunch to sit down beside Sasuke again, who mumbles something unintelligible in greeting. Naruto is late as always.
Their sensei however doesn't show up. The teachers of the other teams arrive within fifteen minutes to collect their students, but even an hour later theirs hasn't shown his face.
Iruka-sensei had to go as well and so it's only the three of them left inside the classroom – Haru really should have brought a book.
"Why is our sensei so damn late?" Naruto finally shouts.
Sasuke, predictably, doesn't answer.
"I don't know," Haru says. "Maybe he's still on a mission and they forgot to tell Iruka-sensei."
He doesn't really believe his own words, and Naruto just looks at him funny. He puts his hand on his chin, deep in thought, and looks at Haru like he has never seen him before.
Now that he thinks about it that might the be first full sentence he has exchanged with the other boy in four years of being in the Academy. Huh. Haru is himself a little surprised that you can be in the same class for years without ever talking to each other.
"You," Naruto finally declares, pointing at him, "I like you better than the idiot!"
That's... not what he expected. But while he is still thinking about what it means that Naruto seems to have accepted him so easily, the blond has grabbed the eraser from the chalkboard and placed it in the slit of the sliding door of the classroom.
"That's what you get for being late," he says when he jumps down from the door.
Haru shakes his head and laughs at the cheap trick while Sasuke snorts beside him.
"Like a jounin would fall for such a stupid trap!" he grumbles just a second before the door is pushed open.
They all hold their breaths.
And watch as the eraser hits their sensei right on the head.
"You fell for it, you fell for it!" Naruto immediately begins to chant, laughing. Sasuke and Haru meanwhile look on, both dumbfounded that it actually worked.
Their sensei smiles behind his creepy mask.
"How can I say this? My first impression of you guys is..." he chirps, pretending to think. "I don't like you."
"And our first impression of you is that you're an idiot," Haru thinks.
By the looks on their faces Naruto and Sasuke wholeheartedly agree with him on this one.