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Chapter Text

“...And that concludes the lesson on kenjutsu for today. Any questions?” Iruka Umino turned around to look at his class and suppressed the urge to sigh. Most of them clearly weren’t engaged with the lesson. A couple were writing notes that would likely only be revisited for exams while others didn’t even care enough to do that. A few (Shikamaru) were actually asleep or at least pretending to be.

Then Iruka noticed three things. One, Uchiha Sasuke was focused very hard on the board behind Iruka, dark eyes drilling holes into words written on in chalk. Two, Haruno Sakura was furiously taking notes, eyes flickering from her notebook to the whiteboard, tongue sticking out as she was clearly focused. Third, Uzumaki Naruto was actually looking at him, blue eyes staring at him intently. That meant that he was actually paying attention and that surprised Iruka more than the other two reactions.

He was grateful that at least three of his students were interested in the topic. He felt bad that this would be the only lesson on it. The academy mostly focused on the three core Jutsu and teaching kids the basics. Hopefully, their jonin sensei would teach them if they were still interested in the subject in two years' time.

“Alright. Class dismissed. Have a good weekend.” Iruka waved his hand and the mostly quiet and still class burst into sound and movement. Most were clearly excited to get out of the classroom which made Iruka sigh harder. Sometimes, he wondered why they were even in a shinobi academy if they weren’t interested in becoming shinobi. However, it was not his place to say anything on the matter.

He blinked in surprise when he realized three students hadn’t moved. Naruto was still staring at him, eyes flickering to the board behind Iruka in clear confusion. Sakura was muttering to herself now as she continued her furious writing. Sasuke’s eyes had turned down to the textbook in front of him, the page open on famous people in history who used kenjutsu.

“Can I help you three with anything?” Iruka asked, not unkindly. If they were interested in this, he wanted to spark that interest. Both Sakura and Naruto showed minimal interest in topics relating to Shinobi's work and Sasuke’s eyes were never alight with curiosity as they were now.

“N-No sensei.” Sakura blushed, hurriedly cramming her books into her bag and leaving. Sasuke just grunted before following suit, leaving Naruto alone with Iruka.

“Naruto? You want to ask me something?” Iruka asked with a tilt of his head. Naruto blinked in surprise at being asked, but he slowly shook his head. He looked contemplative though as if he wanted to ask a question but wouldn’t for whatever reason. That’s how all three of them looked. Odd. Pushing the thought away for later, Iruka gave the boy a small smile. “In that case, want to get some ramen?”

That made the boy immediately shot up from his seat and whoop in excitement, making Iruka laugh.

‘Never change Naruto, never change.’

-

Sakura stared at her homework, which remained blank despite the fact that she usually finished her homework as soon as she got home from school. Her mind simply couldn’t focus on it. Instead, it lingered on the lesson from two days ago. It relayed in her mind, her fingers hovering over the words written in led. It had taken up three pages of her notebook, and the rest of the class barely had one page. She didn’t know why she couldn’t stop thinking about it-

Well no, she did.

She couldn’t stop thinking about it because it was the most interesting thing Sakura had heard in a while. The different blades, how they worked, the movements of the blades, the different kenjutsu styles that Iruka-sensei briefly covered. All of it was so interesting and Sakura couldn’t take her mind off it.

So, she had gone to the library and picked up a book on it after telling the librarian helping her multiple times that no this wasn’t for any of the men in her house and no, she wouldn’t like to be redirected to anything more ‘feminine’.

The book rested on her bed, already done with being read. Sakura had torn through it the first day she had it, pouring over everything and taking notes on things she would like to research further.

Upon realizing that her homework wouldn’t be completed by simply staring at it, Sakura stood up with a huff and glanced over at her clock. Already nine pm, which meant that Sakura had stared at the paper below her for two hours.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to get it done before school tomorrow.” Sakura bit the inside on her cheek before heading to sit down on her bed. The moment she did, she stood back up again. She was buzzing with unused energy and she would need to do something with it if she ever wanted to think of sleep.

Sakura huffed, blowing a stray bang out of her face.

She couldn’t help but wonder if her parents still had that old broken broom that had been snapped in half. It was about the length of a sword, wasn’t it? She crept out into the hallway, looking over to her parents' door to check that it was dark underneath. It wasn’t like she enjoyed hiding her interests from her parents. It’s just… they’ve never been the most supportive of her dream of becoming a shinobi. They only enrolled her into a ninja academy in the first place in hopes of her finding a suitable husband, preferably a clan heir so that Sakura and her family could live a comfortable life.

Sakura froze as she entered the broom closet. She couldn’t help but consider ‘did I ever even want to become a ninja in the first place?’ At one point, she had. The week after the Uchiha massacre, her parents had tried to pull her out. Sakura had gotten on her knees and begged her parents not to. She told them that she was enjoying her time at the academy and didn’t want to leave.

Why though? Was it just because of Sasuke? Sure, he had a pretty face, but Sakura wondered if he was really worth becoming a shinobi for. Shinobis die all the time right? Sakura remembered their next-door neighbor, Hajime, had been one. One day, he left for a mission. Then he never came back and soon his house was being sold off. When she’d asked her dad about it, he just smiled at her sadly.

Was dying worth a boy? Why had Sakura begged her parents to stay in the academy? Why did she want to be a shinobi?

All these questions ran through her head as she picked up the broken broom. It had snapped when she hit it too hard in order to get a spider web down. Sakura smiled at the memory. She used to pretend that she was fighting monsters, big and scary. She used to pretend that her parents were in danger of being eaten by giant spiders and she was the only person in the world who could protect them.

She’d stopped those games after she’d broken the broom. After she had to explain to her mother that she’d gotten too carried away with the game. After her mother had scolded her for it.

“Being a protector is the boys' job, Sakura! Once you find a big, strong man, you won’t even need to worry! So I wouldn’t waste your time with such games.”

Was that all to Sakura’s life? Would she eventually find a suitable shinobi husband, settle down, become a housewife, and pop out babies?

Sakura’s face screwed up into a frown before shaking her head at the displeasure that the thought brought her.

It was something to think about tomorrow.

Today, she needed to figure out to hold this thing like it was an actual sword.

-

Sasuke spent his weekend trying not to cry as he searched for scrolls on the Uchiha kenjutsu techniques. It was like being slapped in the face repeatedly, then being set on fire before being extinguished with an ice bucket. He felt terrible as he ventured through the clan compound. It was too empty, too quiet, too dusty. It was completely unlived in which wasn’t right.

The Uchiha had always been a fairly large clan, with multiple houses in their compound. He had countless cousins, aunts, and uncles. The halls of the Uchiha compound was always quiet but it was never silent. It was so, so wrong.

Sasuke nearly burst out sobbing when he found a book, open, a bookmark exactly where the reader had stopped. It chilled him to know that the original reader would never get the chance to continue and that the book would never be finished.

Finally, after what had to be one of the worst weekends of his life, Sasuke found what he was looking for. They were in his grandaunt's house, tucked away neatly beneath her bed. A lock was the only thing that stopped him, but Sasuke quickly took care of it. Now, he sat in his apartment, the box full of kenjutsu scroll sitting on the couch next to him with one currently open on his lap.

His eyes watered as he stared at it, and for a second he thinks it was dust.

It takes Sasuke longer than he cared to admit to realize that he was crying.

He furiously wiped at the tears, but no matter how hard he tried, they kept falling.

Eventually, Sasuke just gave up, curling up into a ball and crying his heart out. He wished he had his dad here to explain the scrolls to him, he wished Shisui was here to cheer him on and encourage him like he always used to do, he wished his mom was here to pat his head, he wished Itachi-

Sasuke froze and furiously shook his head. ‘Don’t refer to that man by his name’ he told himself.

After a few hours, Sasuke was feeling slightly better. Turned out crying was a great destresser- not that he’d ever do it again. He’d have to get stronger. He had to close himself off from all emotions if he were to achieve his dream.

Right?

-

Swords were so cool.

Kenjutsu was even cooler.

Naruto thought about the lesson excitedly. For the first few minutes, Naruto’s mind wandered, only picking up on the background noise of Iruka’s lecture. Then that background noise had come to the forefront and Naruto found himself unable to stop paying attention. It was weird. Normally his mind would buzz and drift off to other things no matter how hard he tried to focus on what his teachers were talking about.

Normally Iruka-sensei’s words came out as nothing more than static to him, not at all helped by the fact that the words on the board were borderline gibberish to him. This time, however, his mind held onto every word that came out of Iruka’s mouth. He could focus and his head was clear. It wasn’t foggy, it wasn’t drifting- he could listen and he could understand.

It was such a nice feeling that Naruto rarely ever felt. So he clung onto it.

The lecture replayed in his mind over and over again and questions kept bubbling up in Naruto. He wondered if anyone could do kenjutsu. He had piss-poor chakra control as his entire class felt the need to remind him constantly. He couldn’t even stick a leaf to his forehead for crying out loud! However, if kenjutsu was just swords then Naruto wouldn’t need chakra, would he?

He told Jiji about the interesting lecture when the Hokage came by to drop off his weekly allowance. The old man had laughed and told Naruto that he was right, you didn’t need chakra control to do kenjutsu. Jiji had even told him how he was fairly advanced in kenjutsu and how the first Hokage was a master of it.

Kenjutsu somehow became even cooler.

However, when Naruto told the old man that he wanted to learn kenjutsu, he’d just sighed and shook his head. “Kenjutsu is is very technical and takes a lot of time and effort to master, Naruto. I don’t think that it’s quite your style.”

Was…was the old man saying that he didn’t think Naruto had the patients or the skill to do kenjutsu?!

That hurt even more than when people dismissed his dream of becoming Hokage.

It made Naruto angry. It made him frustrated. It made him determined because he would prove Jiji wrong! He’d become a master of kenjutsu, no matter what anyone said!

Now all he had to do was… figure out how to actually learn kenjutsu.

Oh no.

Chapter Text

Sakura stared.

Naruto stared.

Sasuke stared.

All three stared, both at each other and the matching grips they had on the handle of a practice store. None of them moved, staying stock still as though daring the other two to drop their hand. Whoever outwaited the others would be the winners of the unspoken contest.

Except there was a small problem.

All three of them were stubborn children who had all finally found something that struck a spark of passion in them, and like hell were any of them going to admit defeat.

It was ridiculous, all three could realize that. It wasn’t even the only practice sword the shop had.

Yet the three kids just kept staring, unmoving and silent.

“Sasuke-kun.” Sakura broke the silence. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you think?” Sasuke answered briskly, giving her an annoyed glare. However, he was pleasantly surprised that she wasn’t blushing or stammering in his presence.

“Oh yeah…” Sakura laughed awkwardly. Still, her hand did not drop from the handle of the blade.

“Oi, I’m here to ya’ know.” Naruto pointed out.

“We know Naruto, you’re kind of hard not to notice,” Sakura grumbled.

Naruto blinked before staring down at his feet in consideration. She had a point there. The orange of his jumpsuit was eye-bleeding bright. It practically commanded your attention. Which wasn’t good when you were a ninja. He didn’t want to part with his beloved jumpsuit, but thinking about it more…

He did not drop his hand from the hilt.

Sasuke was starting to get annoyed. They’d been standing like this for almost five minutes now and neither of the two idiots in front of him seemed like they were going to move. Well, he wasn’t going to move either. He had seen it first and therefore it was his. Never mind the fact that he hadn’t even noticed the other two until they put their hands on the hilt as well, which meant that he had no idea if he’d actually saw it first.

He scowled at both of them, but neither so much as flinched at his expression.

Sasuke did not drop his hand.

The store owner was starting to get annoyed. They had no customers, sure, but the three kids had been standing there for ten minutes now all just staring at each other and the sword in their hands. Plus one of them was the demon fox, which meant he was contaminating it by just touching it. He wanted all three of them out of here and at this point, he would all just give them the sword for free and let them have a fistfight outside for who would have it.

That would be some good entertainment.

None of them dropped their hand from the sword.

“What are you doing here anyway, Naruto. I didn’t know you had an interest in swords.” Sakura squinted at Naruto. “You better not be using this for one of your pranks.”

Naruto shook his head quickly. “No! No! I actually want to learn kenjutsu! Iruka-sensei’s lecture was super interesting ya know. Kenjutsu and swords in general are just so cool! Did you know the first Hokage was a master of kenjutsu?”

That surprised Sakura who shook her head. “No, I didn’t.”

“Well, he was! Also, it doesn’t require chakra control from what I’ve seen, meaning that even I can do it.” Naruto explained, using his free hand to rub the back of his neck.

“From what you’ve seen?” Sasuke questioned, surprising all of them. He didn’t know why he was interested in anything that either of these idiots said. It was probably just because he was standing literally right next to them, so he might as well engage them in conversation while he waited for them to get bored.

“Yeah! I don’t have anyone to teach me and the library doesn’t let me in, so I’ve started watching some of the shinobi in the training fields. They’re so awesome! Some of them even combine their kenjutsu skills with other forms of jutsu, like genjutsu or taijutsu, or ninjutsu. However, you can just do kenjutsu on its own.” Naruto leaned forward, blue eyes glittering as he recounted what he had seen.

“Genjutsu can be combined with it?” Sakura asked, curious as to all the possibilities.

“I don’t really know how, but I overheard a ninja talking about the other day. He’d just come back from a mission in Kiri and apparently, they used genjutsu with their kenjutsu!” Naruto said.

“What do you mean the library doesn’t let you in?” Sasuke asked. Sakura seemed to wonder the same thing, giving Naruto a quirked brow.

“You didn’t prank them or anything, did you?” She asked, sounding annoyed.

Naruto shook his head furiously. “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t! They literally don’t let me in as far as the front door. Keep telling me that ‘I’m not allowed in’ for whatever reason. Besides, not like I’d actually be able to read anything in there…”

That last part was whispered, but seeing as how they were in breathing distant from each other, the other two heard it. “What do you mean you couldn’t read anything in there?” Sakura asked. Naruto adverted his eyes, looking somewhere in between Sakura and Sasuke. “Read that sign over there.” Sakura pointed to a sign hanging over the door.

“Well… I… uh…” Naruto felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of his neck.

“You can’t read?!” Sakura almost yelled, making both boys wince.

“So what if I can’t read! It’s not like anyone’s bothered to try and teach me! When I tried to tell Mizuki-sensei he just said I was making stuff up!” Naruto defended himself, glaring at the girl.

“No, no, it’s no- I realize how that sounded-” Sakura stammered over her words, face going bright pink before she breathed in. It made so much sense now. No wonder Naruto never took notes or even bothered looking at the whiteboard! Sakura wanted to smack her head into a wall for not realizing sooner!

But then again, when had she ever paid enough attention to Naruto to notice such a thing? When had she ever paid attention to someone who wasn’t Sasuke to notice things about them? It hit Sakura that she didn’t really know anything about most of her classmates. She only knew most of their names because they’d gone to school together for years. Yet she couldn’t call any of them her friends.

The large majority of the girls were all fighting over Sasuke, meaning that they were Sakura’s enemies. All the boys were stupid, rude, and didn’t understand. There were those who fell into a gray category of course. She was pretty sure she had never talked to Hinata and Shino was completely blank. Because of those facts, that crossed them off her mental list of potential friends.

When had that happened? When had Sakura ended up with no friends? Didn’t she have Ino-

No. She didn’t because they’d ended their friendship over a boy. A boy that Sakura was currently standing next to and… and she could finally see the imperfections. How gaunt his cheeks were from not eating properly, the bags under his eyes from little to no sleep, the dirt that was gathering under his ear- because Sasuke was a human. A human with flaws. A human that had lost his entire family at the hands of his brother. He didn’t need a girlfriend, he needed therapy.

The realization hit Sakura so hard that she almost let go of the sword hilt. Almost.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was starting to shift from foot to foot. He didn’t care, he told himself. He didn’t care that Naruto couldn’t read. He didn’t care about why Sakura suddenly went pale. He didn’t care about why either of his classmates were here. He wasn’t at all curious if they both wanted to learn kenjutsu. He wasn’t impressed by their determination not to drop their hand.

He wasn’t.

The realization that Naruto couldn’t read wasn’t even a shock to him- because he knew nothing about the boy in the first place and he liked it like that. He didn’t care about either of the two in front of him. Neither were even worth looking down on.

They lived in a completely different world from Sasuke, he reminded himself.

“I um…” Sakura finally continued after a long pause of awkwardness. “So… you liked Iruka-sensei lecture?”

“Yes?” Naruto asked, feeling weird at how ashamed Sakura suddenly looked.

“I did too. It’s why I’m here actually.” She swallowed and breathed. “I picked up some books from the- never mind. Anyway, I thought that I should get a practice sword since practicing with my broken broom isn’t exactly the same as with an actual blade.”

“And you plan on using a chokutō?” Sasuke asked despite the fact that his brain was telling him to stop talking. He was getting too interested at this point.

“I don’t actually know which sword I want to use. I wanted to hold them all first before deciding.” Sakura explained, adjusting her grip on the hilt. Her hand was starting to get sweaty.

“Well, you can’t exactly do that if you keep holding on.” Sasuke shot back.

Sakura couldn’t help it. She glared at him. “If you think I’m about to drop this sword first, you’re going to end up very disappointed.”

Yes, she had a crush on the boy- kinda, but she was a competitive child at heart and would refuse to lose this honestly very stupid fight.

“Well, both of you are going to be disappointed!” Naruto proclaimed, gabbing a finger into his chest. “’Cause I’m not about to just give up either. I can go all night!”

“Well, then all three of you are going to be disappointed.” They all jumped at the sound of the shopkeeper’s voice. They turned to see him glaring at all three of them, vein popping out of his head. “Because I am about to kick all of you out if you don’t leave in the next ten seconds.”

Immediately, all three dropped the sword and bolted outside, leaving the shopkeeper to yell after them to ‘not come back!’. Naruto’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. It was one of the few weapons shops that didn’t immediately kick him out on sight, even if the employees clearly didn’t like him. He wiped his sweaty palm on his thigh. “Guess this is a tie then?”

Sakura snorted. “I would have won.”

“Hn.” Sasuke responded. “You’re both idiots.”

They were silent for a good five minutes, standing dejectedly in front of the store. Then Sakura groaned. “Would either of you happen to know a place where I can find some decent swords?”

Sasuke slowly nodded. “There’s another one a few streets over.”

‘Why are you helping them? You’re showing too much kindness! You should just focus on getting stronger-’

“Treat others with kindness, Sasuke. The connections you form make you stronger.”

Sasuke pushed his mother’s words out of his head, deciding that he was tired of second-guessing himself today. Instead, he led the other two wordlessly through the streets. Both of them looked out of place there. This part of the village was for the higher class civilians, meaning that most of the people milling about looked dressed to impress. Personally, Sasuke found it ridiculous. He didn’t understand the appeal of flaunting your wealth by wearing eye-catching clothes that followed the latest fashion trend.

He could tell that both Sakura and Naruto were feeling uncomfortable, seeing as how they both walked closer to him, standing on either side of him. He could feel both of their body heat and it was strangely nice? Sasuke didn’t know how else to explain it. He kind of wished he could hold their hand, but he quickly stomped that down.

He couldn’t kill his brother if he was a touched starved fool! So what if he hadn’t felt the warmth of another human being on his own pale skin since the massacre? So what if he didn’t wear gloves so he could feel the fleeting touches of others brushing against his hand on accident. He wasn’t so weak as to need someone to touch him, he didn’t need that warmth.

“Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?” Sakura tilted her head, her hair falling over her shoulder.

“Fine.” He answered tersely, crossing his arms in front of his chest in order not to feel any sudden urges to hold anyone’s hand.
-
The employee didn’t even look up as they entered. Sasuke guided them to a small corner of the store, where a rack of swords was displayed. “This place doesn’t have any practice swords, which is why I went to the last place, however, these blades, in general, are higher quality.”

Naruto picked up a sword and asked, “So what’s this one?”

“A wakizashi,” Sasuke answered automatically. “It’s usually a companion sword to a katana, but it’s also used by close-ranged fighters.”

“How about this one Sasuke-kun?” Sakura asked as she picked up a sword.

“Tachi. Before you ask, no, it’s not a katana. The shop’s signature is positioned to that it would be seen if the cutting edge was facing down, which is the biggest signifier if it's a Tachi and not a katana.” Sasuke explained.

“That’s the only way to tell them apart?” Naruto asked, “Then aren’t they the same?”

“Not really. Tachi are generally more curved and lighter than a katana. They also have a small point which is great for getting through armor.” Sasuke prattled on, taking the sword gingerly from Sakura’s hands. He then picked up a katana and handed them both to Naruto. He watched as the other boy weighed them both in his hands, satisfied when Naruto nodded in understanding. “However, they are very similar. Honestly, it’s just up to which one you like the feel of more.”

Both of them hung onto his every word, seemingly enraptured as he went through each sword and explained it to them. Sasuke found that he actually quite liked telling them about it. He didn’t tell them that he’d only known all of this for about a week because he had found a small handbook in the box of scrolls. The handbook was painstakingly detailed on the different types of swords. Sasuke had poured over it because he was interested and some of his clan techniques only applied to a specific sword.

Eventually, after much deliberation, they finally had decided on their chosen blades.

Sakura was immediately smitten when Naruto showed her a ōdachi, despite the fact that it was taller than her. Her weak arms couldn’t carry it, but Sasuke heard her mutter to herself that she’d get stronger no matter what. Sasuke couldn’t help but be impressed by the determination and fire in her eyes.

Naruto had ended up picking a Tachi and wakizashi. He planned on using them both at the same time, which was why he eventually chose the Tachi over the katana because the blade was lighter. He looked embarrassed when asked why eventually explaining that he wanted to be unpredictable. He wanted to train in both of them, on their own and together so that no enemy could be quite sure what to expect when they encountered him. Sasuke begrudgingly admitted that he liked the idea.

Sasuke himself had gotten four tantō. Two pairs of each. He liked the idea of being fast and these blades were perfect for that. Light, small, perfect for flashing in, taking a few opponents down, and flashing out. He’d gotten two because he found that they felt scarily light in his hands. So he got an extra pair in case the first pair was ever knocked from his hands.

There was a problem though. When they went to pay, Sakura and Naruto remembered that they were in the rich part of the village and squawked when they saw the price tag. Sasuke, who at this point just wanted to go home and sleep, sighed.

“I’ll pay.” It wasn’t like he didn’t have money. Since every other Uchiha was dead or a wanted criminal, every Uchiha member's savings had been placed into one account.

One, very large account.

Naruto and Sakura both quickly voiced their disagreement with the idea, but Sasuke disregarded it quickly. He just wanted to get out of there.

So, the day ended with the three of them parting their separate ways to go back to their own homes.
-
Sakura stopped dead in front of her front door, staring down at the massive sword she had to lug around.

“How the hell am I supposed to hide this from mom and dad?”

Chapter Text

It had become a ritual of sorts for Naruto to climb the big tree that hung over training ground seven and watch the shinobi there train. It’s so cool to watch shinobi be shinobi and almost all of them move with like the wind. Quiet and light. Some move so fast that Naruto can’t even keep his eyes on them for more then a second.

He tries to follow a lot of their movements even though it almost always ends up looking more like he’s doing an awkward dance rather than training. Both his swords keep falling out of his hands, he’s accidentally tripped by the weight of them more times than he can count and his attempts at training always lead to nothing.

And he’s starting to realize why.

Naruto stares at the pair of shinobi currently on the field. A guy with a bowl cut and the oddest outfit Naruto has ever seen is trying to rapidly punch a white-haired man whose left eye is covered by his hitai-ate. The white guy dodges with seemingly no effort at all, his footwork not even kicking up any dust off the ground. Meanwhile, the green guy is grinning like a mad man, his punches strong enough to crack the wind yet they’re all carefully aimed.

They’re easily the strongest Naruto has seen so far and he can’t help but watch them almost in a dazed state, absolutely ruin the ground with their training.

Every shinobi he’s seen on this field always has a training partner. All of them are strong shinobi.

Therefore, Naruto needs a training partner.

There’s, however, a very big issue with that.

Where the heck is he going to get one of those?!
-
He spends the next day in class scoping out potential partners.

Well okay, it’s more like he’s just staring at them for a long period of time trying to remember their names and how well they treat him, but it’s basically the same thing.

His first thought is to ask Kiba, Shikamaru, or Choji to help him, but he quickly discards that idea. Kiba would make fun of him, Shikamaru would be too lazy to be a good partner and Choji is too nice to even dream of hitting him. Plus, none of the three have shown any interest in kenjutsu so he figures they wouldn’t be much help anyway.

Although if he actually wanted a training partner who was interested in kenjutsu, then he only really had two options.

And both of those options didn’t like him all that much.

Well, he didn’t really care whether or not they liked him! If he wanted to get better, he’d need a partner and those two were the only ones that would be able to help him. So he’d have to talk to them about it!

Besides, both of them are pretty smart, right? They’ll realize that they also need a partner if they wanna get stronger and Naruto will be right there, ready to welcome them with open arms (and several swords) into his training sessions.

Naruto gives himself a pat on the back for that awesome plan.
-
Okay, so Naruto is starting to realize that there are a few minor flaws in his plan.

Sasuke is literally impossible to talk to because the moment the bell rings, he’s gone like a shadow in the night. It would be really cool if it had been anyone else and if it wasn’t inconveniencing the heck out of Naruto.

Sakura seems off in her own world, muttering and rambling quietly to herself, never really paying attention to anyone around her. Including Naruto. Seriously, he tried to start a conversation with her and she literally walked right past him. Now that wasn’t unusual, Sakura tended to enjoy ignoring him but now it felt like she just straight up couldn’t see him.

But Naruto was nothing if not persistent. He will not let his potential-future-training-partners go without a fight!
-
Sasuke would like to make one thing clear:

He did not scream when Naruto Uzumaki suddenly dropped down from the sky and landed two feet in front of him.

If he did scream then he would defend himself by pointing out that anyone would be a little startled if a mass of orange just dropped down right in front of you and shouted, “Sasuke I want to talk to you!”

It’s doubly surprising considering Naruto hadn’t been in class that day (much to Iruka’s ire).

“What the hell?” He almost yelped.

Naruto completely ignored his question and instead barreled on, “I was watching all the shinobi train and I realized that all of them had a training partner so I realized that I needed a training partner if I wanted to be strong so I was wondering if you wanted to be my training partner since we’re both interested in kenjutsu and all that.”

All of that was said in one long breath and Sasuke would have been impressed at the Uzumaki’s lung capacity if not for the fact that it was being used to talk to him. Well, less talk, more word vomit but you get the picture.

“...what the hell are you on about?” Sasuke asked, trying to decipher what the hell just came out of his classmate’s mouth. When he finally does, he sneers. “Why the hell would I want to train with you?”

Naruto’s grin only falters for a second. “Because you want to get strong and I want to get strong and we need a partner to get strong so… we should train together!”

Sasuke scoffed and tried to walk past the blond, only to be blocked when his arm darted out and grabbed his. Sasuke glared at the other boy. “I’m not training with you. I don’t need anyone to get stronger.”

“Do it alone, do it alone, do it alone, do it alone-”

“But if jonin need training partners, then so do we!” Naruto huffed.

Sasuke paused mid step. He… did have a point there, didn’t he? And Sasuke wasn’t so in denial to not recognize that the training dummies he had been working with weren’t the best.

“So?” Naruto asked, reminding Sasuke that he needed to answer the other boy.

“Maybe.” Sasuke answered.

He took a step back the moment Naruto heard that, because the orange boy was now vibrating with excitement, grin large enough to blind Sasuke.

“Great! Let’s start Friday.”

“Dobe, I said maybe.”

“That’s basically the same as yes!”

“Wh- no it’s not!”
-
“Sakura, Sakura!”

Should she train for two hours a day or three?

“Sakura!”

Should she ask her parents to start getting more food? She read that she’d need to eat more in order to have more energy and be more healthy. Or should she just go out and buy it for herself as to not raise suspicion?

“Sakura!”

Sakura startled, looking up to see Sasuke and Naruto standing in front of her desk. “H-Hi guys.”

“Hey Sakura, we wanted to know if you wanted to train with us.” Naruto rested his arms against the back of his head.

“Train with you… both of you?” Sakura looked between the two of them, blinking in surprise. She didn’t think either of them were anything close to friends, let alone willing to train with each other.

“Yup, I’ve been watching a bunch of shinobi train with each other and they all trained with partners so I decided we should do it all together since we’re all interested in it.” Naruto briefed the girl.

“And Sasuke agreed to this- you agreed to this?” Sakura blinked at the dark-haired boy.

“I said maybe-”

“He agreed to do it,” Naruto assured.

Sakura slowly stood up and nodded. “Well, I do need someone to train with also, I have some advice to ask you guys.”

“We’re meeting on Friday so you can ask then,” Naruto said.

“Alright then.” Sakura agreed and outstretched a hand. “It’s a deal.”

Naruto grabbed it and shook it enthusiastically.

Chapter Text

There’s an inch in the back of Shikamaru’s brain.

As the days pass, it grows more and more bothersome.

It never quite leaves him, not even when he’s sleeping.

He asks his father about it and the man sits him down and explains.

The itch is curiosity, the need to solve, the want to investigate.

Ever since he’d been trying to scratch that itch. Yet it was proving to be harder than originally thought.

“What are you glowering about?” Ino barked, breaking the silence the two had been sharing ever since Ino decided to join him under the tree.

It was a nice day. A calm day. Iruka hadn’t slept at all last night and that made all of the class a bit too scared to make any noise. The fear of their teacher’s wrath had been great for Shikamaru though. He’d been able to nap through the entire morning. The sun is high in the sky, clouds crawling past to cast shadows onto the ground below making the field the preferred area for everyone to spend their break in.

And yet, Shikamaru’s energy seemed to have reached normal people's levels for the first time in his entire life.

“Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto.” Shikamaru’s eyes flickered between the three other students. Sasuke was off alone in a corner of the field, reading up on the latest lesson notes. Meanwhile, Sakura was sitting next to Naruto, the two of them talking excitedly about something.

Over the past month, Shikamaru has paid close attention to their shift in dynamics. Before, Sakura fawned over Sasuke and verbally dismissed Naruto at every opportunity. Sasuke just ignored the both of them and Naruto treated them the same as everyone else, basically just begging for their attention.

Now, while Sasuke still outwardly ignored them, he did clearly acknowledge them more than anyone else in the class. He would nod to them in the halls, and wait for them at the end of class. Sakura had more or less stopped her fawning, much to Ino’s apparent distress, and had instead started sitting next to Naruto and quietly explaining the lesson that was going on. Naruto just seemed happier in general, which Shikamaru thought was impossible.

“Ugh, why do you care so much about billboard brow and Naruto?” Ino scrunched her nose.

“They’ve been acting weird lately. Haven’t you noticed the three of them leaving class together? At first, it started with just Friday, and then it slowly started to ramp up more and more often. They also seem to choose each other for team activities as well.” Shikamaru explained.

“Wait- so billboard brow is hanging out with Sasuke?!” Ino shrilled, because of course that’s what she would focus on.

“Why do you care so much about what Sakura does with Sasuke? Several other girls have tried to get his attention, yet you don’t really care about them making a move.” Shikamaru pointed out. Did he genuinely care? No. Did he really want her to stop talking so he could go back to napping? Yes.

“Because Sakura is the only really worth attention! She’s almost as cute as me, she’s at least kinda smart and she’s the top-rated kunoichi in the class. She’s the only one who’s any real competition to me thus I must make sure she never gains any ground on me.” She exclaimed.

“Any ground she makes will overtake you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

Shikamaru ignored her continued ranting, instead leaning back and staring up at the sky. That cloud looked like a strawberry, that one looks kinda like a cow and that one looks vaguely like a rock-

“Shikamaru, you aren’t listening to me!” Ino screeched.

Shikamaru groaned. “Why do you want to talk to me? Don’t you have friends or something-”

“I want to help you figure out what those three are up to,” Ino announced. She placed her fists on her hips, staring down at Shikamaru with a bright gleam in her eye. Oh, she’s scheming something.

“You do?” Shikamaru raised a brow. Admittedly, he wouldn’t mind having another pair of eyes and ears focused on those three. It would be more efficient.

“I want to know what forehead is trying to do.” Ino flipped her hair. “Plus, figuring out how Naruto and her got so close to Sasuke… would be rather helpful to me.”

Shikamaru shrugged and decided that the energy to care just… was not there today. “Whatever. As long as you help out I guess I don’t really care for your motives. I just want to solve this mystery. If you see or hear anything, tell me and I’ll tell you.”

“Looks like we have a deal then.” Ino sneered.

“I suppose we do.” Shikamaru relented.

“Hey, Shika- Ino? What are you doing here?” Choji questioned as he walked up to the duo, three lunch boxes in hand.

“She came to annoy me.”

Ino glowered at him but just as she opened her mouth-

“Oh okay then. My mom made a few extra boxes for me, so do you want some?” Choji asked.

Ino paused, shutting her mouth with an audible click. She huffed and then she nodded. “Give me a box.”

And thus, the future team ten sat down beneath a tree and had lunch together.

-

“I think I’m going to die.” Naruto wheezed.

In response, both his training partners groaned.

He felt like his limbs were going to fall off. His hands were pulsing and god did he feel hot. Panting rapidly, Naruto couldn’t help but grin. He felt stronger and the swords laying beside him had started to feel like an extension of himself.

“Want to go again?” He asked excitedly.

“Naruto, I will stab you,” Sakura responded.

“Hn.”

The sun was setting, casting a warm glow over the sky and Naruto happily stared up at it. “I think we’re getting better.”

That actually did get a rise out of Sasuke. He snorted, from his place crumpled on the ground. “We have. I expected you two to be worse.”

“Oi, don’t act like you’re better than us! We’ve both beat you at least four times at this point.” Naruto pointed out, forcing his head off the ground to glower at the other boy.

Sakura groaned, loudly and with much passion. “I’m going to beat you both if you two don’t shut up.” They’d been going for four hours straight, she deserved to be a bit snippy. One of Sasuke’s Tanto lay next to her since she needed something to train with until she was strong enough to handle her sword.

Speaking of which…

“Hey Sakura, what did you do with your sword?” Naruto asked. “I haven’t seen it since you first bought it.”

The flush on Sakura’s face was no longer just from working out. She laughed slightly. “Four hours.”

“W-What?”

“I spent four hours just trying to climb the side of my house with a big sword on my back. I had to climb to the roof because I left my window closed, meaning I had to bend over backward just to get the thing open! My parents nearly reported me missing!” Sakura covered her face with her hands. “It was so embarrassing!”

Naruto blinked. “That’s… actually kind of cool.”

“What?”

“I mean your determination. It’s kinda cool.” Naruto blushed. What a lame thing to say.

“He’s right I suppose.” Sasuke agreed, causing both of them to snap up and look at him. “You’ll need to get better at climbing if you’re going to be a shinobi. Even if most shinobi learn to walk with their feet fairly early on in their careers, it’s better to stick closer to the wall. Less of a target that way.”

“O-Oh… thank you.” Sakura smiled.

“I said something to,” Naruto grumbled, more to himself than to either of his partners.

“Yeah, you did. Thank you, both of you.” Sakura amended.

“Though, I do wonder why you didn’t just go through the door.” Sasuke glanced over at her.

“My parents, well, they aren’t exactly supportive. I don’t think they’ll support my interest in kenjutsu.” Sakura admitted.

“Huh? Why?” Naruto asked.

“I don’t think I can really explain it. They both put me in the academy in hopes of me finding a boy from a strong clan who can take care of me and they came very close to just pulling me out of the academy when the whole-” Sakura shot Sasuke a conflicted look and immediately both boys understood.

“We lost most of our class from that.” Naruto nodded.

“We did?” Sasuke asked, audibly searching for the memory. “I don’t remember that.”

“I think you were busy with other stuff at that time.” Naruto pointed out.

“I had to beg for them to keep me in.” Sakura continued, a strange expression passing over her face so fast that Naruto wasn’t even sure if it had happened.

“I didn’t think you were passionate enough about being a shinobi to do that.” Sasuke flipped over on his side so he could look at her without moving his head up.

“I didn’t think I was either.” Sakura agreed.

“Then why did you do it?” Naruto questioned.

“I don’t know… why did you two want to become shinobi?”

“I want to be Hokage,” Naruto announced, for perhaps the thousandth time in his life.

“Why?” She turned to look at him.

Naruto blinked. When… when had anyone ever asked that question in response to his proclamation? For a long moment, he floundered to find his words before settling on. “I kinda just want people to acknowledge me, ya know?”

Sasuke hummed, giving Naruto a weird expression before just nodding. “Makes sense.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Naruto’s heckle rose, glaring at the other boy.

Sasuke didn’t answer him, instead answering Sakura’s question. “I started out just wanting to do it because the rest of my family did it.”

“And now?” Sakura probed.

“I am going to hunt down that man and I need to be strong enough to do it.” Sasuke stared at his own hands, as covered in blisters as the other two were.

“Oh.” Was the resounding response to that, because really? How else are you supposed to respond to your classmate saying his only reason for becoming a shinobi is to kill his brother who killed the rest of his family?

After a few moments, Naruto sat up. “I’m hungry. Let’s get ramen.”

“As subtle as ever Naruto.” Sakura snorted.

“You both smell far too disgusting for us to go out anywhere.” Sasuke wrinkled his nose.

“The place won’t care! They’re used to me coming in covered in dirt and stuff. Come on, we’ll need some energy if any of us are going to get home tonight!” Naruto jumped up, immediately regretting it as his muscles screeched in horror at the sudden movement.

“Well, I am pretty hungry.” Sakura conceded, wiping her hands on her pants before slowly standing up.

“Hn.” If it had been anyone else, Naruto would have thought it was a whine, but this was Sasuke and Sasuke would never let himself whine in front of other people. Right? “Can… I have a hand up?”

Sakura and Naruto shared a look of amusement and both grabbed a hand each, pushing him up to his feet.

And thus, the future team seven slowly made their way to the ramen shop, groggy and sweaty, but happy nonetheless.

Chapter Text

“Have either of you heard about tree climbing?” Sasuke asked at the start of the training session.

“Tree climbing? Of course we have.” Naruto scrunched his nose up. Next to him, Sakura nodded in agreement.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, letting his bag hit the ground with a thud. “I know you know about tree climbing. What I was meaning to say is: do you know how to climb without the use of your hands?”

“What the heck are you talking about.” Naruto leveled with an unimpressed stare, quickly coming to the conclusion that Sasuke was just messing with them.

Sasuke ignored him as he took a scroll of his bag, unravelling it to show other two what it had written on it. The scroll depicted a scene of a ninja walking up a tree… with his feet. Huh, Naruto blinked, you don’t see that every day.

“Is that possible?” Sakura asked as she finished tying her hair into a tight bun. Sasuke had pointed out a while back that her hair could be a weakness in battle if an oponent grabbed onto it. Ever since, she had taken to tying it up in buns or braids which both were harder to grab and were better for training since it kept the hair out of her face.

“I’ve seen- saw a few members of my family do it in the past.” Sasuke answered. “The way this scroll explains it, all you have to do is redirect your chakra to your feet so it can grip onto the tree.”

“Sounds simple enough.” Sakura said as she made her way over the most sutiable tree in the training area.

“However gets to the top first without using their hands gets to chose where we go for dinner.” Sasuke proposed, knowing that both his fellow frie- training partners would be fuelded by the small competition as much as he was.

“Oh it is on!” Naruto grinned as he pumped his fist into the air.

“How about we each take turns climbing this tree and time how long it took each of us? That way we aren’t all fighting to get up at the same time.” Sakura suggested.

Sasuke went first, taking in a deep breath before slowly letting it out. He took a running start, his foot catching on the bark of the tree and for a few seconds, he thought he has succeded. Then he fell, falling on his butt with a sharp hiss of pain.

Silence fell between the trio and Sasuke whipped his head around and glared at both of them, which immediately erased any humour either of them could find from this situation. “Again.” He mummured to himself as he took another running start. He got slightly higher this time, reaching the first branch of the tree before slipping off again.

A growl escaped Sasuke’s throat as he found himself back on the ground. He picked himself up and tried again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

“Sasuke, are you going to give either of us a chance to try?” Sakura asked, her voice cutting through Sasuke’s attempts at climbing. She and Naruto had both sat back down again, watching his every movement in order to analyis what he was doing right and wrong.

“I can do this.” Sasuke huffed.

“I’m not saying you can’t, but maybe let the two of us try.” She said, half because she really wanted to give it a try and half because she was really bored just sitting her.

“Fine.” Sasuke spat out as he took Sakura’s place on the grass.

Sakura stood before the tree, glancing down at the scroll on the ground. She thought about the leaf exercise, how she had to move her chakra around her body, and pull it towards her forehead. Iruka-sensei had said that she had a small pool of chakra but that made it far easier to control. Sakura would use that to her advantage.

She imagined her body as a box with different compartments. All she had to do was collect the chakra from all the other compartments and place it in her feet.

Sakura smiled to herself and then placed one foot on the tree and then another, and another.

It wasn’t long before she reached the top of the tree, taking a seat on one of its highest branches. “I did it!” She shouted down to the boys, grinning from ear to ear.

“That’s so cool Sakura! Great job!” Naruto grinned up at her, giving her two big thumbs up that made her snort.

Sasuke however-

He got up and he stormed away, the air around him seemingly crackling with lightning.

“Sasuke-” Sakura called out, but Naruto just shook his head.

“Give him some time. He’s probably just frustrated. He’ll cool off. Hopefully.”

-

It had been half a year since Sasuke had been back to the Uchiha compound. He hated it there. Hated everything about it to be honest. The silence, the thin layer of dust, the spaciousness, the lifelessness, the atmposhere- even the air seemed to choke Sasuke whenever he stepped foot across the threshold. However, it was the only place where Sasuke could remember his clan.

The rest of Konoha seemed to be avoiding the topic of the Uchiha all together. One big mistake to be swept under the rug and ignored. It was easy since he was the last remaining reminder of one of the founding clans. The village elders always told him at clan gatherings how glad they were that he was going to continue the legacy of the Uchiha, but Sasuke could only grit their teeth at the blatant lies that dripped from poisoned tongues.

That man, Danzo, he was the worst of them all. Those dead eyes peered into his at every opporunity and Sasuke saw nothing ut greed and want in them. He didn’t care if the Uchiha clan was dead or not. If he had his way, he’d probably have Sasuke dead too.

Sasuke slammed a fist into the wall next to him. It didn’t even crack.

How was the last remnates of the Uchiha clan this week? How the hell did he end up the last one standing. His father, his cousins, his aunts, his uncles- all of them were powerful shinobis. They would have carried the clan name with honor, put a face to it that everyone would respect.

Sasuke couldn’t.

He wasn’t even good enough to climb a tree with his feet when a civilian girl like Sakura was.

He needs to be better, needs to be stronger.

Not just to kill him.

But to live and to server as the last remaining Uchiha and make sure that they weren’t permanatly erased from history.

He knelt beneath a small shrine. It had originally been built for Shusui, however, it had transformed into a shrine for every member of the clan. Sasuke had built it himself with tear stained hands.

“I’m sorry.” He breathed out. “I’m so, so, sorry.”

He wonders where his parents are now. If they’re watching him. If they’re disappointed in him. He could almost hear his father’s soft sigh. ‘Not good enough. Not yet.’

Right.

Yet.

Sasuke wasn’t good enough yet.

But he would be.

Train. He had to train. The clan jutsus, his chakra, his physical abilities-

He had to train.

He had to be the strongest.

It is his weight to bare as the last Uchiha.

What Sasuke wants means nothing.

-

Sakura sighed as Sasuke once again walked right past them in the halls, not even daining either of them with a nod. He’d been like this for all of the past week. It was like their friend had been replaced with a mobile doll. He looked so tired, so sad, so angry.

And Sakura didn’t know what to do about it.

All she could do was be ready for when he wanted to start talking to them again.

Besides her, Naruto frowned. “I’m going to punch him.”

“What?!” Sakura snapped her head around to look at him. “You will do no such thing!”

Naruto stuck his tongue at her. “We’ve given him time to chill out. Now all I want to do is punch him. Besides, he’s clearly stuck in his own head.”

“Yeah…” Sakura’s shoulders slump. This isn’t the first time that had happened. When in the midst of training, Sasuke tended to gain a single minded focus on winning. It could be scary, just how hard he’d push himself, to the point of physical injury just to win. Sakura had had to throw water on him to get him out of it, “What should we do?”

“If he isn’t back to business as usual by the end of the week, then I get to punch him-”

“No!”

“Fine. You get to punch him.”

“NO!”

Naruto sighs. “Do you have any better ideas?”

“Yes.” Sakura nods, a plan already forming in her mind.

-

You never realize how much you like something until it’s suddenly gone.

As much as Sasuke would like to pretend it isn’t the case, he’s human just like everyone else.

And humans aren’t built for isolation. They are inherently companionable creatures, even if they need a break from people for a period of time. They seek out some forms of human connection.

And Sasuke had finally gotten that form of human connection with Naruto and Sakura.

It had been nice to wake up every morning and find both of them waiting at his front door, bickering and teasing all the while. It had filled Sasuke with a forgine warmth that he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

(Iruka had even noted quietly to himself that Sasuke had seemed more like an actual child then he had in the time since the fall of the Uchiha.)

However, all of that warmth was pushed to the side in favour of training. Sasuke needed to focus on the task ahead and at the end of the day, those two were distractions.

Even if training with them was helpful for his kenjutsu.

The past week, he had felt cold. Despite his rigours training with fire.

He hated himself for it, but in his heart of hearts he knew the truth.

Sasuke missed Sakura and Naruto.

Kami, he missed them a lot. Even before the massacre, he hadn’t had many friends, but he’s pretty sure that Sakura and Naruto qualify as friends.

And being around them was… nice. Something that Sasuke would only ever admit on his death bed but true none the less.

Walking with them to and from school, spending break with them playing in the field, getting lunch and dinner with them, studying, training- everything was just nice. Fun even.

Their friendship felt like a drug and now Sasuke was feeling the sever withdrawals.

Even throwing himself hard into training hasn’t been enough to ignore the loneliness that now haunts him. Ghosts that he had managed to ward away in the past few months now creeping back in full force.

Which is probably why he isn’t more resistant then he really should be when the two idiots kidnap him.

Sasuke sits at the dinning table with a frown as he awkwardly pulls against the ropes tying him down. They’re in Naruto’s apartment, and the other two are making dinner not a few feet away from him.

Well, less ‘making’ and more ‘burning’ since Sasuke can very clearly smell the smoke that’s rising from the pot between them.

“What are you two doing?” Sasuke asked.

“Making soup!” Sakura said in a sing-songy voice.

Naruto nod vigorously. “Tomato soup.”

Sasuke feels his brow twitch. “And why am I here?” Tied to a chair was left unsaid.

“Because we wanted to hang out and you’ve been avoiding us.” Naruto pouts as he points and accusing ladle at Sasuke.

“We needed to talk to you.” Sakura adds.

“Okay and why did you think kidnapping me was the best way to do that?!” Sasuke gritted out.

Sakura and Naruto exchanged looks.

“It was Sakura’s idea.”

“What?! it was not-”

“You were the one who said we should take him out to dinner!”

“Yeah, I said we should ask and then you said that he’d never accept-”

“Yeah but you’re the one that decided that the ropes and stuff were a good idea-”

“What do you have any better ideas?!”

Sasuke sighs so hard he thinks his ribs might crack. He stamps out the overwhelming feeling of fondness that threatens to drown out the anger. “The soup is burning.”

“Wh- OH NO!”

“HOW CAN SOUP BURN?! IT’S A LIQUID!”

“SHUT UP AND HELP ME PUT THE FIRE OUT!”

Twenty minutes later, and they are sitting at the dinning table with tomato soup they got from Sakura’s parents’ store. None of them acknowledge Naruto’s now very burnt kitchen.

“We’ve missed you.” Sakura starts halfway through the meal.

Sasuke ignores her as he continues to eat. They’ve untied one of his hands now, since neither of them wanted to spoon feed him.

“You’ve been completely ignoring us for the past week and a half!” Naruto says, holding up his fingers in order to remind Sasuke of just how many days they’ve gone without training.

“I had to focus on training.” Is all he can answer with.

“We were focused on training.” Naruto pointed out, crossing his arms and huffing indignantly.

“I decided I could focus better without you two.” He says. In truth, he’s felt less fulfilled these past few days then he had before.

Sakura sighs. “Sasuke, do you know how to tree climb now?”

Silence.

“I helped Naruto figure it out.”

More silence.

“If just takes some time to figure it out. We had to ask Iruka exactly how it works in order to get Naruto up.”

Even more silence.

“And he only figured it out two days ago-”

“He isn’t the heir to a founding clan.” Sasuke snaps. “It doesn’t matter how long or fast it takes him to figure out stuff. He doesn’t have the weight of a family name on him. He doesn’t have the sole responsibility of keeping a clan alive. He doesn’t have a man he needs to kill. I do.”

Angry tears gather at the corner of his eyes.

“I have to be the best. I can’t afford to be anything less.”

Sakura looks stunned.

Naruto just raises a brow. “Says who?”

Sasuke glares at him. “What?”

“I said, ‘says who?’. If there’s someone telling you all of this then you can tell us- I’ll beat them up for you.” Naruto says and there’s sincerity there. If Sasuke gave him a name, then he knew for a fact that Naruto would march over and try his hardest to beat the living crap out whoever it was.

Sasuke blinks. Once. Then twice. “No one told me that-”

“So you just came up with it all on your own?” Naruto leaned forward in his seat. “Well that’s stupid.”

If Sasuke were untied, then he would throttle him. “How is it stupid that I have to keep my clan alive?”

“That’s not what’s stupid. What stupid is that you think you have to do this alone, that you have the be the best or something dumb like that.” Naruto crossed his arm.

Sakura seems to get what he’s trying to get at. “You don’t have to be the best to keep your clan alive. You just have to live.”

Sasuke ran his free hand through his hair. “You two don’t get it! The other clans-”

“Fuck the other clans.” Sakura slaps a hand down on the table, surprising both of them. “They’re just a bunch of old people who think they’re better then everyone because of their blood! They look down on everyone, even other clan leaders. Trying to ‘be the best’ under their gaze is an impossible task! Why do you give a care about what those people think about you?”

“Yeah, why do you?” Naruto asked.

Sasuke let out a shaky breath.

“I’m the last reminder of the Uchiha. If I just sit there, then they’ll find every excuse in the books to erase the Uchiha from history. Do you know how much history the Uchiha has been apart of? Do you know how many rewrites have been done to it, in order to eliminate their presence from this village’s history?!” Sasuke asks. “We were a founding clan and because of the second hokage, that’s hardly known! We got relegated to being police and we aren’t even able to become hokages without several barriers in place.”

Another bout of silence falls over them as Sasuke pants heavily.

“If I stop caring, then the Uchiha’s will be fully erased from history. I can’t- I can’t let that happen.” The tears are now freely falling.

“Oh.” Sakura breaths out.

Naruto grimaces as he runs a hand through his hair.

The rest of the meal is spent in uncomfortable silence as they all have far to much on their minds to continue talking.

-

The next week, Sakura strides up to him with a giant pile of books and scrolls.

“I have an idea on how we can make sure the Uchiha aren’t erased.”

Chapter Text

It’s two am in the morning.

Sakura knows full well that she should be asleep. Her parents had gone to be hours ago and the streets outside were silent. Energy built up beneath her skin, making the hairs on her arm stand up on end. Running a hand through her hair, Sakura turned to look back at the clock.

Two ‘o one. It had only been a minute.

A groan left her. Okay, it was finally time to give up on the idea of sleeping. Sakura got down on her knees to peer underneath her bed. The odachi rested there, a thin layer of dust covering it. She still wasn’t strong enough to wield it. Naruto’s sword that she borrowed was there as well and she grabbed it.

The dark street greeted her when Sakura climbed out of her window. The road beneath her feet crunched as she jumped down, making her wince. You never realize just how much sound you make up until it’s the sole thing you have to focus on.

She made here way down the street. The shadows embraced her as she walked through them, sticking close to the walls as she made her way to the training grounds. There was actually noise there. Shinobi practicing in the dead of night. Sakura took the chance to climb up the sturdy walls that concealed them, using the tree walking skills that had started off all of this in the first place. A weird sense of guilt hit her as she reached the top.

It wasn’t Sakura’s fault that Sasuke couldn’t do it. She knew that. She also knew that helping Sasuke was far beyond what a ten year old approaching eleven could do.  She couldn’t exactly go back in time and stop the Uchiha clan massacre. Nor could she just grab the historians in the village and force them to write down the entire history, the correct one this time.

The only person who could really do that was someone in an extremely high position of power. Like the Hokage. Except the current Hokage wasn’t exactly the prime candidate for helping them. He had been in power long enough to tell the story of the Uchiha. Yet he hadn’t. On top of that Sakura didn’t trust him. She had seen Naruto’s house. Had seen his lack of ability to read. Even a child like her could clearly see that Naruto needed help and support. So why did he always seem to blind to his troubles?

Sakura still didn’t know why the Hokage ‘looked after’ Naruto, but at this point it didn’t matter because he wasn’t doing a good job at it and Sakura doubted that he’d be much of a help in anything. So what else could they do? Wait until the next Hokage came into power and pray that they would be sympathetic to Sasuke’s plight?

The sounds of blade clanging together drew Sakura’s attention towards the field she was perched over. A man with stark white hair danced through the darkness, blade sparking against another man’s. The other man parried, a cigarette sticking out of his mouth sending smoke trailing up into the sky. Sakura found her self entranced as she watched the two of them go back and fourth. Despite their time on the training fields, Sakura had never gotten the chance to see a fight between real shinobi.

The man with the cigarette did some sort of jutsu, a thick wind trashing through the air and pushing the white haired man back. The man didn’t seem bothered by it in the slightest as he just sent a small fire ball back. It was magic to someone who had lived as normal of a life as Sakura. It was like a play, actors going through heavily choreographed actions in order to make it seem as real as possible. There was a barrier there. Much like the one between the audience and the actors. It was a world that Sakura couldn’t reach into. That was the unspoken truth.

Even though she found herself wanting to.

“I wish I could be that strong.” The wind carried her words further and further away through the darkness of the night.

-

“Hey Sakura, have you been feeling weird lately?” Was a weird question to be asked when coming right out of her front door. It wasn’t strange to see Naruto waiting at her front door. It was weird for him to look so high alert. His eyes darted all over the place as though searching for something.

“Um, no? Why, should I be weirder out?” Sakura asked, trying to follow his gaze to see what he was looking for.

“I don’t know. I just feel like there have been eyes on me constantly.”  Naruto scratched his neck. “Ah, nevermind. I’m probably just making stuff up.”

Sakura stared at him. “Well that’s… weird. Ah no, know I feel like there’s someone watching me!”

“He, sorry?” Naruto said, smiling awkwardly.

“Ah just forget it. We should just head to school.” Sakura ignored the own prickling on the back of her neck, determined to convince herself that Naruto’s senses were just off.

The moment the two were gone, three small figures stepped out of the bushes behind them.

“I can’t believe that idiot was the first to sense us!” Ino said, disbelief colouring her tone.

“I can’t believe that it took them two months to feel that anyone was watching them.” Choji said. “Chips anyone?”

“Naruto has known for a while. This is just the first time he’s said anything about it.” Shikamaru shoved his hands as he walked down the street in the same direction as Naruto and Sakura. The perpetual frown of his had grown into a glower. “Why?”

He was really starting to hate this trio. Naruto was just a puzzle that was missing all but it’s edge pieces, Sakura seemed to have two sides to her and Sasuke was- well, Sasuke. All of them were a box that needed to be opened, yet they kept resisting any opportunity to open up. At this rate, Shikamaru was worried that they would need to take a more hands on approach.

“Can someone tell me why we’re stalking them?” Choji asked.

“Because they’re being mysterious and stuff and training together and getting stronger.” Ino pulled as the end of her ponytail.

“Okay? And that’s our business because?” He raised a brow at her.

Leave it to Choji to be trying to bring the trio back down to the ground. He glanced over at Shikamaru to get some support and hopefully to have him realize that maybe he was being a touch to obsessive. He was instead met by his best friend staring at the ground like it had personally offended him.

“It’s my business because my brain won’t stop thinking about it.” Like a ghost, the trio and their odd behaviour continued to haunt Shikamaru. Why the sudden interest in swords? Why would they partner together? Why did Sasuke suddenly stop spending time with them. “Besides, if you don’t want to be apart of this then you can leave. I don’t’ remember inviting either of you in the first place.”

“Like hell I’m going to give up a chance on figuring out what Sakura is doing!” Ino sneered.

“I thought it was a good team bonding experience.” Choji said. “We’re gonna be genin in less than two years, right? But we’ve never really worked together before. Honestly watching those three work together has kinda inspired me. Do you two want to start training together?”

Shikamaru and Ino both turned to stare at him like he had come from the moon.

“It was just a suggestion.” Choji put his hands up.

“If it was up to me I wouldn’t stuck with you guys at all.” Ino said.

“Hmm.” Shikamaru grunted instead of answering, now truly setting off towards the school building.

“It was just a suggestion.” Choji repeated to himself as  he followed his future teammates down the path.

-

Naruto hadn’t liked Sasuke.

He hadn’t liked him one bit.

He was the heir of a famous clan (or well a once famous clan), he was rich, he was smart, he was talent and everyone loved him. They looked at him like he personally hung the sun in the sky.  Except for the adults. They looked at him with pity.

Naruto hadn’t been given any of that. To Naruto’s, Sasuke’s life seemed like a dream.

Then he’d actually hung out with Sasuke.

The guy was a stick in the mud. Never allowing any slack off during training and only ever opening up when it was to discuss swords. He seemed to never have  a source of joy in his life.

That’s when Naruto started to feel bad. He couldn’t imagine himself in a situation where he didn’t have the freedom to have fun.

Sasuke was tied to his family name.

Meanwhile all Naruto had ever had was freedom.

Naruto made himself a promise a couple of weeks into training with Sasuke. He would make sure that Sasuke would have some fun in his life.

Except now he was being met with a wall and Naruto wasn’t sure if he could climb it.

“How would I climb a wall?” Iruka turned to look at him with confusion. They were huddled beneath the ramen shop, a couple of bowls between them, yet Naruto somehow didn’t have an apatite.

“Yeah, like if you found a wall in the middle of the road and had to get past it. How would you do it?” Naruto asked again, tapping his chopsticks against the bowl.

Iruka hummed as he considered his answer to the question, supping gently at the steaming mug of tea he had ordered. “Well, is there a way to get around the wall?”

“Tried that already.”

“Then is the wall to tall to simply climb over?”

“We kinda tried that too.”

“Then how about simply destroying it.”

Naruto huffed. “If that was an option, I would have done it already.”

Iruka leaned back in his stool. “Then have you asked for help?”

“Help?” Naruto repeated the word like it was foreign to him.

“Ask for someone to help lift you over the wall, or maybe have someone get you a ladder. There are still a myriad of options even if you can’t take the simplest ones.” Iruka said.

“Ask for help…” Naruto considered it in his head. His go to person for help would be either Iruka or Sakura. One probably wouldn’t be able to do anything and the either had already tried her best. Which left Naruto with no one to turn to.

Except. There was one, pretty smart, if not lazy person that he could turn to.

Naruto hopepd up. “Iruka, that’s a great idea! I have to go-”

“Not before you eat your ramen you brat. I paid for it already.” Iruka grabbed him by the collar and dragged Naruto back down to his stool.

“Oh right! Sorry.” Naruto laughed as he begun to dug in, his stomach finally working again. He scarfed it down in under twenty seconds before slamming the bowl down on the table and standing up again. “I have to go, thank you Iruka for the food!”

“Hey wait-”

Naruto rushed off before Iruka had the chance to say anything, going in what he assumed was the direction of the Nara clan.

Turned out he didn’t have to go all that far though, because he crashed straight into Shikamaru.

The two went tumbling to the ground in a heap of limbs. Naruto didn’t even realize who he bulldozed into until he heard a grumbling, “What a pain. Naruto get off of me.”

“Shika!” Naruto said way to loudly directly next to Shikamaru’s ear. The other boy winced at the ground, glaring in hopes to convey his message across. Unfortunately, it was Naruto he was dealing with. “You’re just the person I wanted to see. Man, am I lucky or what?”

Shikamaru pushed his face away, finally giving him some room to dust himself off as he muttered, “Yeah, lucky. What the hell do you even what me for anyway?”

“Well- uh- how do I explain this?” Naruto hummed before a light bulb turned on in his head. “Hypothetically-”

“You know what that word means?”

“-if there was a piece of history that got erased but you didn’t want it to be erased, how would you go about that?”

Shikamaru groaned and finally fully pushed Naruto off of him. “Don’t ask dumb questions.” He ordered before standing up.

Then his brain caught up with him and he paused. Staring off into the bright lights of the village street before him, his mind went over all the possibilities in his head. Like a puzzle box slowly clicking open, he found the solution rather easily. “Just become someone that’s powerful enough to control history.”

“Like who?”

Staring up at the sky like the gods would take him out of his hopeless situation, Shikamaru sighed, “The hokage? A clan leader that’s well respected? A sainin?”

“Sainin?”

“Forget it, I don’t even know why I bothered thinking about it.” Shikamaru ran a hand through his hair as he started towards his home. “You’re to much of an idiot to understand anything I’m saying anyways.”

Naruto squawked at the insult before calling after him. “Well, thanks for the help Shika!”

“Whatever.” Shikamaru grumbled, glad that his back was turned so Naruto couldn’t see the pink tinting his cheeks.

Needless to say, Naruto couldn’t wait to tell Sakura about this piece of advice.

Literally.

Which was why he was sat outside of Sakura’s window that same night. The two stared at each other through the glass, Sakura looking like she was pretty sure that Naruto was just a hallucination caused by stress. She’d read once that shinobi dealt with that a lot.

The moment there was a tap at the window though, she shot up and threw open the window, almost pushing the boy off in the process. “Naruto!”

“Sakura!”

“What are you doing here!”

“I have a solution!”

“We aren’t kidnapping Sasuke again.”

“You were the one who suggested that- argh! I have something cool to share with you, will you let me into your room?”

Sakura scowled. “No way I’m letting some strange boy into my room. What will my parents say?”

“But I don’t want to talk to you like this.” Naruto whined, resting his head against the window.

Sometimes, Sakura wonders why she puts up with this. “This better be good.” She steps aside and lets Naruto into the room. He scans the area, surprised by just how nice it is. Compared to his own room where the glass in the windows are only being held together by hopes and dreams, and the mold in the corner of his room could have it’s own national flag, this is a paradise. The bed looks comfy and warm, the desk is made of sturdy wood and there’s plenty of space for everything Sakura needs like clothes and toys and books.

“Whoa, this place is cool!” Naruto gapes.

Sakura flushes. “What, you don’t think it’s to girly?”

“Well yeah, but the pink fits ya! Besides, even if it was pink, I’d love to have a room like this.” He admitted.

Sakura’s mouth closes with a click and see looks around the room. It’s just an average girl’s bedroom, nothing special about it. She never really paid much attention to the area outside of stringing up basic decorations and making sure it was clean. However, after spending quite a bit of time in Naruto’s apartment, she could see now just how much a privilege this room really was.

“Maybe we could have a sleepover someday?” Sakura suggested, even though her parents would flip out if she found out that she invited the village demon into their house.

“Really?” The stars in Naruto’s eyes made her blinded to the consequences of her actions. “I’ve never had one before!”

Sakura frowned. “You really should! They’re a lot of fun! I used to have them with Ino.”

“Ino? Oh yeah, I forgot you two were friends. What did you guys do during them?”

“Oh, painting each other’s nails, braiding our hair, talking about boys and that sort of stuff.” Sakura tapped her chin, racking her brain for anything that would sound fun to a ten year old boy.

“Could you braid my hair?” Naruto asked. The strands of blond had gotten longer and longer as the months wore on, with Sasuke repeatedly telling him to get a hair cut. In Naruto’s defense, getting a haircut cost precious money and the nearest hairdresser hated him for whatever reason. The woman had been so angry the day he had come for his last haircut that she had accidentally cut Naruto with the pair of scissors she used to cut hair.

There was still a thin scar there from where they had cut and needless to say, Naruto wasn’t to keen about going back there. Maybe braiding it would be a good way to keep it out of his face.

Sakura considered it for a few seconds before her eyes lit up as well. “That would be so much fun! You’re hair is really soft so it’ll be fun to braid! I can even teach you how to braid so you can do your own.”

“If you do that then could I braid your hair?”

“Of course! Then when we get Sasuke back we can both teach him how to braid our hair and we could do a braid train sleepover together.” The idea left them both basking in joy, excited for their future.

Then they both snapped out of it.

“Speaking of Sasuke…” Sakura started.

“I know what to do!” Naruto pumped his fist. “One of us just has to become a big name in the village, like the hokage or the sainin-”

“What’s a sainin?” Sakura cut in.

Naruto huffed. “Well I asked Shikamaru about it but he just called me an idiot! Can you believe that guy?”

“Was he also the one who gave you this idea?” Sakura raised a brow.

“How did you know?”

“I know you, Naruto.” Was the only answer. One that did not get anything in terms of elaboration.

“Well, anyway, he said we need to become like those types. He also said becoming a clan leader but-”

“You don’t have a family, I’m from a civilian family and Sasuke’s family is at the centre of this whole mess to begin with.” Sakura frowned.

“Yeah, all of that, plus it sounds boring. Becoming the hokage is a much better idea!”

“But there’s no guaranteed that any of us will become hokage. Hokage’s have to be especially chosen by either the hokage or whoever the hokage chooses to choose the next hokage. Most don’t get the title until they hit forty and by that point it might already be to late for the Uchiha.” Sakura paced the length of her bedroom. “Which leaves the sainin.”

“The ones we don’t know?” Naruto groaned. “Don’t tell me we’re going to have to read about them!”

“It will be great practice for you.” Sakura smirked.

“No, no, I’m sure you can handle it! I mean, I already came up with the idea so I’ve already given my half to this project.” Naruto backed away towards the window.

“Come on Naruto~ I’ve already been letting you off this past week because of Sasuke. You need to make up for the missed hours!” Sakura took a step towards him, a feral grin taking free reign of her expression.

Naruto jumped out of the window, praying to whatever deity was out there that he could outrun Sakura for the next two days.

Chapter Text

There is silence in Naruto's apartment, only occasionally broken by the flipping of a page and the mutter of something from one of the three kids inside. All of them are pouring through texts that are even older then they are. All looking for the same title, the same word that it felt like would lead them to a brilliant breakthrough. Sasuke in particular was looking at the words on the page intently, as if wanting each and everyone of them to explain their selves to him. His intense gaze forced the othe two to sit still and focus lest they seem like they weren't doing enough to prove themselves to him.

It was fun, Sakura had to admit. Going through all the history she didn't know, learning about all the different figures that helped build up the very village that she lived. She had no idea how wide spanning the history of the hidden leaf really was. It was so vast, covering so many different wars, battles and people. This one village she had lived in her entire life had changed the course of shinobi history in such a meaningful way. Suddenly, Sakura felt a lot smaller then she had before. The weight of history bearing down on her like a wave and threatening to pull her under.

Naruto nudged against her side gently. His skin almost glowed in it's warmth and the feeling helped pull her head above water again in a firm reminder of why they were here in the first place. She wasn't alone in this after all. The two of them would help Sasuke over come this. Three sets of hands would build a raft and swim them to the shores of the history books. Of course, they had to actually convince Sasuke first.

Sakura's hopes were high on that one though. They had been going at this for three hours now and Sasuke had yet to show any intention of leaving. He seemed as invested in this as they were, already having gone through three of the books in the large pile.

He suddenly paused. "Naruto. What is your last name?" He glanced over at the other boy who was squinting hard at the pages in order to try and understand them. He was doing a fairly good job at it, Sakura noticed with a surge of pride.

"Eh? It's Uzumaki, you better not forget it!" Naruto scowled at him, but it lacked any real heat.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I didn't forget it I just wanted to confirm. Come and look at this."

The two of them crowded around Sasuke, who was holding up a book for them both to read. It took a while for Sakura's brain to add context to the words on the page but eventually everything clicked into place. "Uzumaki Miko? The first hokage's wife?"

"Uzumaki?!" Naruto's eyes went bug eyed.

"It appears here that she was apart of an influential family." Sasuke explained. "She was quite well respected and feared."

"Well she was the hokage's wife." Sakura said.

"Not just that. It was even before that. Her family were apparently experts on funijutsu." Sasuke's eyes rapidly tracked the page as he repeated the information to them. Naruto leaned further over his shoulders, his eyes wider then a saucer.

"Do you think she was related to me?!" Naruto asked.

"She has the same eyes as you." He pointed at the picture of the woman. Brilliant blue that you can get lost in, swirling with pure determination and resolve. It reminded Sakura of whirlpools. They were exactly the same as Naruto's, even down to the stubborn look that she was giving the camera. There was a fierce aura around her, one that you could clearly tell was not  one of a follower's but instead of a leader's. The woman before them was stronger then anyone Sakura had ever met.

"She has your last name." Sakura added.

The three paused. "Does this mean... I was apart of a clan? Do... do you guys think that I have a family?" Eyes teary, Naruto turned to them with that question.

They both turned away. Sakura bit her lip, already knowing the answer to that particular question. If the Uzumaki clan was still around, they surely would have heard about them at this point. The same once in close ties with the hokage would not just disappear off the face of the earth like a ghost, leaving only remnants behind in textbooks and the like. They might have suffered the same fate as the Uchiha are eventually destined to. Wiped from Konoha's records.

But why?

-

A week later, Sasuke snapped his book shut and stood up. "These three. They can't possibly be humans."

Naruto glanced up. "Huh, what do you mean? Of course they're human. They gotta be. What else would they be?"

"These's people can stand against gods and live." Sasuke rounded on Naruto with a wild look in his eyes. "They can't be human, normal humans would fold under this sort of pressure."

"That's because you're thinking to low Sasuke! You just gotta think higher! Become a god, Sasuke. C'mon, aim for the stars!" Naruto pumped his fist into the air.

"Hrngh." Sasuke grunted.

A book was thrown right between them. "Would you two shut up, I'm in the middle of how lord Jiraya bench pressed seven trees." Sakura called out from her place on the sofa.

"You just got to that part too! Did you read about how lady Tsunade once had a drinking competition with a sun spirit?" Naruto giddly jumped up like he was a five year old.

"Where she drank them under the table? Yeah, talk about amazing!" Sakura nodded vigorously.

"I personally think the story of Orochimaru drinking the poison was the most interesting." Sasuke added the conversation.

"Orochimaru kinda freaks me out." Naruto frowned. "Like, he's a snake."

"Naruto, that's rude."

"You called him a weirdo yesterday!"

"Yeah, but I said it in a nice way." Sakura countered.

"How is there a nice way to call someone a werido?"

-

Finally, they ran out of material. Two months later. The three were in Naruto's apartment again, groans rising out of all of them. They were surrounded by papers and books, as if a library had gone to war and these were the fallen soldiers left behind after the fight had finished. Their minds were overloaded, more knowledge then any ten (now going on eleven year old) could ever even hope to possess. Yet they had done it. The entire history of the sannin, the leaf village (well the heavily redacted version) and far to many different shinobi were all swirling around in their heads.

"We're going to be like that someday." Naruto said, voice full of wonder as much as it was full of exhaustion. He had to say: he was proud of himself. Reading wasn't something that came easily to him, yet he pushed forward and now he can safely say he has the basics down. Sakura had even made him some mochi as celebration!

"We are!" Sakura hugged a book to her chest. She felt amazing. It was like the fog had cleared and the path was pointing straight forward. She knew what she was doing, what she had to do. Work out, train, study, practice. Become a genin, become a chunin, become a jounin, become a sannin. Dedicate her life to it. The stories in the books around her were out of this world and after reading them and imagining herself in their places she couldn't possibly imagine living a normal life behind a till in a grocery store.

"Hrngh." Sasuke was buried under a pile of paper, only his head uncovered. He stared at his two training partners (a traitors part of his mind corrected it to 'friends') with a look of amusement. There was a burning fire inside the two of them, flames untamed and running wild. It had reminded him of that man when he was younger, before he had ever even dawned a headband. Potential as deep as the ocean just begging to be shaped properly. It was the same look he saw whenever he peered into the mirror.

Hope. A flicker that had been nursed into a wildfire over the past few months. Maybe, just maybe, they could burn the world down. Write new history. Resurrect the old history. That determination coursed through his blood, right to his heart making it beat out of rhythm. There was a chance.

He stood up. Papers fluttered about him in a downpour causing the two others to look up at him with confusion. He swallowed, pressing every emotion he felt back down and out of his head. "Sakura, prove that you can swing your Odachi without fail. Naruto, show that you know how to dual wield. Those are my requests. You have a week."

He then walked out of the apartment without another word.

"Have we convinced him?" Naruto asked.

"I think so! We just have to do that now and I think we're in." Sakura grinned.

"And we only had to kidnap him once!"

-

It's the end of the week. The cold Sunday air whirls around them like ribbons, pushing their hair out of their face. Sasuke pushed his back, letting himself get the full view of the two people in front of him. They had bragged him out here with their swords in hand, and an unspoken promise on their lips.

Sakura went first. The odachi glistened in the sunlight, freshly washed off all dust. She carried it easily, only the slightest strain in her muscles reminding her of just how big the blade in her hands really was. Both hands had to grip it tightly, muscles flexing as she twirled it around. A huff left her lips. The past week had done a toll on her body, but surprisingly not as much as she had suspected.

Turns out all the time she had spent training had not been for nought. She'd gotten stronger, her muscles more defined. Her mother had frowned when she had seen her recent figure but Sakura couldn't bring herself to care. Instead she tied up her hair into a tight braid and dawned the ribbon that Ino had once given her. Today she had a point to prove. A friend to fight for.

With a mighty roar, Sakura slammed her sword into the tree bark of the very tree that had started this all. Splinters flew out like a shower of rain, trailing through the air before eventually settling on the ground. A giant gash was left, a crater in the tree that anyone with sight could notice. Then She removed it from the tree, the odachi moving out like knife through butter. She pulled back and swung again. And then again. And again.

Halfway through her energy started to flag but that didn't deture her.

("Excuse me sir." Sakura had walked up to Iruka one day after class, twittling her hands together nervously.

"Ah, Sakura, what is it?" He glanced up from his papers.

"If I wanted to be good at fighting, what do I do? Even though I have all the moves mastered, I feel like I'm still not doing my best." Sakura scrapped her feet against the floor, frustration painting her face. She was falling behind the other two in terms of improvements. It made her want to quit if she was being honest, the stagnation making her feel dead in the water. A leaf floating through the air with no real way to land of even move forward.

Iruka paused as he considered it, leaning back in his chair and trying to remember what his own sensei had said to him when he was a small genin. "...Have you tried putting your emotions behind your attacks? Like anger or sadness?"

"What do you mean?" She asked with a frown.

"Well, we work better when we are doing something we love and we tend to work more efficiently when we work on something we hate. If you put your emotions into something, that will make you stronger, it will remind you of why you're here and keep you going. Even when you stumble. So why do you fight?)

Why did she fight? Why was she even here? She knew she wanted to get stronger but why?

It frustrated her to not know why she was doing this.

It made her sad that Sasuke couldn't even count on his family being remembered in a few years.

It made her angry that Naruto was treated the way he was.

It made her happy to realize she wasn't alone.

It made her determined to get better, to get stronger.

All of those pooled together to keep moving forward.

With a final huff, a sturdy breath to keep her grounded, Sakura hoisted her shoulders and shouted again.

The tree fell. with a massive crash.

Both boys stared at her, Sasuke's mouth open slightly, with his eyes wide as he tried to comprehend the scene in front of him. "Sakura..."

"That's was so awesome!" Naruto jumped up and rushed forward, pulling Sakura into a hug and swing her around like she was the lightest thing in the world. He didn't even care that she was covered in sweat and woodchips. All he cared about was that his friend was just so cool. It made her smile giddily and she in turn hugged him tightly.

Sasuke walked over to them silently, giving her an approving nod. Unfortunately for him, he was friends with Naruto. Naruto did not care for the cold front that he put up. He pulled him into the hug as well, earning a grunt from Sasuke and a giggle from Sakura.

They stayed like that for several minutes. The warmth washed over the three of them, and only did it then occurred to all of them how long it had been since they had last been hugged.

Sasuke before his family had died.

Sakura when Ino had still been her friend.

Naruto had never been hugged.

He almost teared up when he realized that.

-

Everything was not over just yet though.

Naruto went next. He stood with both swords, about ten feet away from the other two. Sakura had a few pieces of rotten fruit that she had gotten from her parents grocery store, things that they could no longer sell to the public. She held them up for Sasuke to see, nodding to the other boy before chucking them all the way over to Naruto.

Sasuke almost winced, fully prepared to see Naruto get struck in the head by the mould orange.

But that never happened. Instead, in a blur of orange, two blades met Sakura's orange and the sound of falling metal was heard. The orange fell to the ground, in three separate pieces, Naruto's swords having sliced clean through it. The blood of the orange dripped down Naruto's sword, staining the grass below.

Before Sasuke even had a chance to breath, Sakura through another one. Then another, and twice and once, three at once- It was insane just how fast it was.

No wait.

It wasn't the speed. Not exactly.

It was that the two swords worked so well together it almost felt like one sword. Watching it made Sasuke feel like Naruto just had swords for hands. Just an extension of his own limbs, another facet of himself. He moved with such elegance you almost couldn't believe it was Naruto doing it. Yet every movement was done with precision. When one blade was to slow, the other blade would come up to help it out. They were like two friends, supporting each other.

(The discovery of the Uzumaki name had shaken Naruto more then he thought it would. He had thought that he was all alone in the world. He thought he had no family. No one to go to, no one to find comfort in. He would never have anyone. That's what everyone had told him anyway. The kids at school would mock him for having no one, the teachers would whisper behind his back and look at him with pity and fear and the people on the streets looked at him with hate.

He never had anyone to turn to. He was always going to be alone. love was not something he was ever going to have.

Then he found out he potentially had a family.

Him and Sakura looked into it on their own time, both of them looking over everything they possibly could get their hands on. The Uzumaki name was nowhere to be found outside of two people. Mito Uzumaki and Kushina Uzumaki. One was the wife of a hokage, the second was widely known as one of the most terrifying shinobi in all of konoha during the third great ninja war.

They had his eyes, Sakura had told him.

But they were both dead.

Dead and gone and despite asking Sasuke if he knew anyone by that name he just shook his head with a sad frown.

If he had a clan, they were all already dead.

He had cried next to Iruka that night. The man had told him it would be okay. Sometimes, Naruto daydreamed that he was Iruka's kid and that the man would walk him home after class and make sure he had food and treat him with as much unending care as he already did.

Then Sakura had swung by the next day with Sasuke in toe and while him and Sakura went back to reading, Sasuke started up cooking lunch. He always made sure they were well fed to the point of bursting, scowling to himself when he first lay eyes on Naruto's fridge. It was his own special way of showing that he cared, Naruto had to guess.

Sakura had stayed by him on those long days. Even when they bickered, she wouldn't call him stupid or dumb or treat him like a feral animal. Instead there was a patience there that hadn't existed before. She taught him how to take care of his hair, even gifting some shampoo and conditioner, how to properly shower and how to make himself look presentable.

He realized that the three of them cared. They all cared in their own special ways that Naruto could barely comprehend. He realized that he wasn't as alone as he thought he was anymore.

He would do anything to keep them by his side.)

Naruto stopped when he realized Sakura had run out of things to throw, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead and dropping to the grass below, mixing in with the paste left behind by all the dismembered fruit. "Did I do it?" He asked Sasuke, looking up at the boy with large hopeful eyes that almost reminded Sasuke of a puppy.

He was silent for a very long time.

"You are both going to get hurt if you follow me." Sasuke finally said.

They stared at him blankly.

"Sasuke... we're training to be shinobi. Of course we are going to get hurt." Sakura gently informed, in that tone of voice that made him feel slightly stupid.

Sasuke shook his head. "You could die."

"Yeah, and?" Naruto crossed his arms behind his head. "Occupational hazard."

"You'd give up your life to help me?" His voice was tinged by doubt and worry.

"You're our friend." Sakura stepped forward, taking his hand. "We care about you."

Naruto took his other hand. "Plus being as cool as Tsunade, Orochimaru and Jiriya sounds amazing! That's even better then becoming the hokage. Not that I'm giving up on that dream of course!"

Something in Sasuke snapped. "Stop."

"Stop what."

"Stop... this. I don't want you guys to do this!"

"Why Sasuke? I thought we proved ourselves to you."

"I can't lose you like I lost everyone else!"Sasuke shouted, traitorous tears falling from his eyes. He couldn't contain himself. It was like a dam, being carefully chipped at by two very annoying sledgehammers. Sakura and Naruto had forced their way into his heart and they had refused to leave him alone, no matter how much he wished they would.

Then what was even worse, was that he found himself hoping that they would stay.

(The Uchiha family were not known to be friendly or to have many friends outside the clan itself. There were rumours, of course, that Madara Uchiha had been friends with the first hokage, but outside of the clan itself, no one believed that. So, Sasuke knew full well ever since he was a child that he would spend his years alone.

And he had been fine with that.

He had cousins, aunts, uncles, his parents.

His brother.

He hadn't been alone. He had never felt unloved. It didn't matter if he didn't get along with the kids at school or bring people over to play, because he could come home and be picked up into a big hug by his brother, who would dote on him and treat him like the most precious thing on earth.

Sasuke spent so many nights awake wondering how much of that had been a lie. Had Itachi ever really loved him? Had he ever really loved anyone, if he had taken away their lives like they were nothing more then gnats?

He had never doubted Itachi's love for him.

Then he had.

Then he had doubted everyone's feelings and intentions to him.

Then he had met Sakura and Naruto.

Both wore their hearts on their sleeves, and their intentions strung into their words.

He never doubted that they cared for him. The kidnapping attempt had shown that very clearly.

He trusted them with his life.

He cared about them in a way that almost scared him.

He didn't want them to leave him. He didn't want to lose them. He wanted them to stay by his side so that he never had to doubt himself ever again.)

"I don't want you guys to die." Sasuke sobbed uselessly, feeling himself lose complete control over everything within him.

A hand ran through his hair and another one rubbed circles into his back.

"We aren't gonna die idiot." Naruto snorted.

"H-How can you be so sure?!"

"Because," Sakura stated, "We have each other. As long as the three of us are together, we'll make sure to protect each other, no matter what."

-

It was hours later now and Sasuke had cried himself out. They were sitting at Naruto's favourite ramen stand, steaming bowls of noodles sitting in front of them and looking delightful to eat. Yet Sasuke couldn't do anything but rest his head against the cold wood of the stand. "How did you guys even manage to get that strong in one week? You weren't like that when I left you."

"You haven't been watching us train for a while now." Sakura reminded.

"Plus we got ourselves a sensei!" Naruto grinned.

Sasuke looked up at him. "A what."

"A sensei! A jounin at that."

"Naruto, we never actually told him about that." Sakura reminded.

"Told me about what? Your new sensei?" Sasuke said. "How long have you had him."

"One week. He taught us all of it in one week." Sakura shivered.

Sasuke knit his brow in confusion. "What?"

"Sasuke, I think it's time we introduce you to Gai-sensei."