Naruto:

The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto

Summary- What if Team 7 became friends earlier in their childhood?

It was just another one of those mundane days in the Hidden Leaf Village. People filled the streets, busy as usual, either cleaning up their houses, out running errands, or simply having time to chat with each other. It was a peaceful life...well...almost.

At the Ninja Academy, located at the base of the Hokage Mountain, the children had all gathered outside on the campus, clamoring amongst themselves.

"I've already got my substitutions down pat!" exclaimed a young boy with spiky brown hair. "I can't wait to show my big brother and my Dad back at home! I'll be a Hidden Leaf shinobi before too long!"

"Just wait until you see the jutsu I've been working on!" said a young girl with dark red hair. "Hey, you think I'll get to be on a team with Kurenai-sensei? She's so awesome! I wanna be just like her when I grow up!"

"I heard she's already picked out some kids to be her students," said another boy.

However, as the kids speaked with each other...one sat apart from the crowd, sitting on a little wooden swing that was hanging from the lone tree in the yard.

The blond-haired boy stared at his fellow classmates with these blank, lonely blue orbs. He had this expression of longing as he watched them play and talk. It gave him a bitter, empty feeling, knowing that these kids were all in the same class as him, and yet, not one of them seemed to want to reach out to him.

It seemed that little Naruto Uzumaki was going to be alone, again, today...just like always.

He didn't understand it. Out of all the children in the village...he was always the one to get mistreated in some way. Sure, Ichiraku and his daughter, Ayame, treated him kindly whenever he came to their shop for a nice hot bowl of his favorite barbecue miso ramen with extra naruto fish cake...but other than that, no one even gave the poor boy the time of day. He would just go up and say hi, but all he got was the same result.

"Go away!", "Leave me alone, you freak!", or even "Why do you even exist?!".

And it was not just them...the kids did it, too. Whenever he tried to make friends, they'd either run away from him or tell him to go away, or that their parents had told them not to talk to him.

Every day, it was the same thing...and it seemed today would be no different.

"Well, well, well..."

Naruto glared out of the corner of his eye to see a trio of boys that were at least 9 years old, 2 years older than he was. One of them had sunglasses over his forehead and slicked back auburn hair, wearing a black shirt with the kanji for "fool" on the front, and a pair of blue shorts, the second had his red hair in a bobbed cut that went to his shoulders, wearing a zipped up vest with the sleeves cut off, and a pair of dark green pants with a pair of boots, and the third was a kid with his head shaved and bucked teeth, a white T-shirt, and a pair of red pants.

"If it isn't Naruto Uzumaki, the local loser!" the ring leader said while his two henchmen snickered, which prompted Naruto to sigh as he looked away.

"I'm not in the mood for your crap, today, you guys," the boy of at least 7 muttered. "Just leave me alone."

"What was that?!" asked the ring leader as he grabbed Naruto by the front of his shirt, forcing him to look him in the eye. "You better not be mouthing off to me, you freak!"

"Let go of me!" Naruto shouted. "I said I'm not in the mood!"

"I don't care what kind of mood you're in!" the bully said as he pushed Naruto to the ground, causing him to wince in pain. "Now get up so you can take your lumps! I still haven't finished beating you up from yesterday!"

"Yeah, you tell him, Harusuke!" added the buck-toothed boy.

"Teach that freak a lesson!" exclaimed the boy with the bob-cut.

Soon, Harusuke began to stomp on Naruto, who yelped in pain as he forced himself to cover his head with his arms, but the beatings persisted. It wasn't too long before Harusuke's lackeys soon joined in the pummeling, punching and kicking the blond boy. Naruto grunted as he tried to get up and fight back, but every time he made the move to do so, the bullies would just beat him right back down again. As if to add insult to injury, he could hear the other kids chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!", over and over, and some of them were even shouting for the bullies to beat Naruto to the point where his bones broke.

"HEY!"

Suddenly, all the shouting and the beatings stopped, and Naruto raised his head slightly to see a young boy at least his age, if not a bit older-looking than he was, with jet black hair and these fierce, dark eyes that looked like they could kill you if he stared at you long enough, wearing nothing but a dark blue jumpsuit with a mark that looked like a red paper fan, and behind him was a girl with cherry blossom pink hair and a red ribbon tied around it in the back, as well as a red dress.

"That's enough," said Sasuke Uchiha. "Leave him alone."

"Yeah! Stop beating up poor Naruto!" Sakura Haruna added.

The kids, shocked at what they had just heard, only stared at the two children...but Naruto seemed to be more surprised out of all of them.

However, Harusuke only scoffed as he crossed his arms.

"Why do you care, all of a sudden, Uchiha?" he asked. "I'm doing the whole village a favor!"

"And just how are you doing the village a favor?" Sasuke asked in a warning tone.

"He's completely and utterly useless, for one thing!" Harusuke answered as he pointed at Naruto. "I mean look at him! He can't even do a single jutsu! Even his clones can't come out right! The Hidden Leaf doesn't need a shinobi who can't even get the basic stuff down!"

"And besides," said Harusuke's right hand, the one with the bob-cut, "don't you know the rumors behind this kid?"

"As a matter of fact, we don't!" Sakura shouted. "And for your information, we don't care about some silly rumors! Naruto's just as much a member of our class as the rest of us!"

"So what if he can't use jutsu properly?" asked Sasuke. "Why do you think he's here? To learn that stuff, just like all of us."

"Why don't you stay out of our business, Uchiha?!" questioned the buck-toothed kid, only for Sasuke to shoot his glare at him, causing him to freeze.

"Now look here," the child prodigy said. "I'm sick and tired of seeing you guys gang up on someone, just because you think he's inferior to you guys." He then turned and glared at the other children. "And that goes for all of you, as well!"

"Yeah! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!" Sakura added. "Who do you think you are?! Naruto is a member of this village, just like all of us! You shouldn't judge him, based on some stupid rumors or how well he performs in class!"

"If any of you want to try and fight, go ahead," Sasuke began as he intensified his glare, "because I'm more than happy to give one to each and every one of you."

A pause...but then the children, unnerved by the Uchiha boy, all turned and walked away, especially Harusuke and his two lackeys. However, as the bullies stopped to look at Sakura, she only growled and stomped her foot, causing them to yelp as they scrambled away. Then, the pink-haired girl walked up to Naruto and helped him to his feet, gently brushing off his clothes and wiping off the lens of his goggles.

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Naruto replied. "Thanks, Sakura."

"Mm-hmm," Sakura nodded with a kind smile.

"Hey, Sasuke?" asked Naruto. "You're usually so quiet and moody...how come you decided to come and stick up for me? I mean...I'm not saying I don't appreciate it, it's just...you've never done that before since we started class together."

"...I just got tired of seeing you get beat up for no reason," said Sasuke. "I mean, if you had picked a fight with those guys, I wouldn't get involved...but those guys pick on you almost every day, and you didn't even do anything to them. That's something I can't stand most of all."

"It's just not fair that they think they can treat that way," Sakura said in concern. "It's bad enough that the grownups won't even talk to you. I mean...I know my Mom told me I'm not supposed to talk to you, but I don't see why I can't! I think you're very nice, especially after I heard about how you tried to stand up for Hinata when she first enrolled here!"

"They just called her for a freak, just because of her eyes," Naruto said. "I don't see anything wrong with them! I think they're pretty! They look kinda like the moon!" He then sniffled as he wiped his finger under his nose and stuck his chest out a bit. "But it doesn't matter, though. Someday, everyone's gonna look up to me! When I become Hokage, everyone will see just how awesome I am and everyone will respect me! I'll be the greatest Hokage there ever was!"

Sakura's eyes went wide while Sasuke blinked in surprise...before he snickered, which caused Naruto to glare at him.

"What's so funny?!" he asked.

"You becoming Hokage, huh?" Sasuke inquired. "It's pretty funny...but..." He looked at Naruto with a soft smile. "I think...it's not a bad idea."

Naruto gasped silently.

"Yeah!" Sakura agreed, causing him to look at her. "Hokage sounds pretty cool to me! I bet you'll be a great one when you grow up, someday!"

A pause...but then Naruto gave a broad, toothy grin as he giggled.

"Yeah! Just wait and see!" he exclaimed. "I'll be the best Hokage ever!"

"Then I look forward to it, Naruto," Sasuke said.

"Me, too!" Sakura exclaimed as she held Naruto's hand. "But first, we better get you to the nurse. You can't become the Hokage, looking like that, you know."

"Oh, yeah," Naruto said as Sasuke put his arm his shoulders and walked alongside him.

"Come on," he said. "We'll take you."

As the trio headed inside...Iruka Umino stood at the window. He saw the fighting going on and was about to intervene until he saw Sasuke speak up. As he watched the three, he couldn't help smiling at them, proudly.

"Now those three just might be going places," he said.

THE BEGINNING...

Yep...my first Naruto fic. This has been in my head for quite some time. I've actually loved Naruto way back when it first aired on Cartoon Network. It was one of the best shows of my childhood.

What does this mean? I'm not sure.

For now, review please!