Title: Habenaria Radiata

Rating: M

Pairing: Pre-Sasuke/Naruto

Warnings: None for this chapter

Summary: AU. Since the day he was born, Naruto was cursed. Cursed to be the son of the Fourth Hokage, cursed to the title through blood. But he's out to prove himself, to better himself and prove he's more than just his blood, more than just his father's son.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters.

Author's Note: Hello, everyone, welcome to my first Naruto fan fiction in a very long time. I've read many 'what if..' fics with Minato alive or Kushina alive but none like this, so I hope you all will enjoy my take on Naruto's life if his parents had survived the events that pre-date the series. Please enjoy.

Habenaria Radiata

A rogue wind blew through the valley, circling around the source of it's energy, the water rippling beneath shaking feet. I didn't want it to be this way. Red energy seeped through, spilling anger and betrayal into the air, forcing the wind into a far more volatile spiral. Why does it have to be this way? Narrowed red eyes raised to the shadow across the way, tears streaming down whiskered cheeks, mixing with blood. A pale hand outstretched, the red energy pooling to his palm, circling faster and faster creating a ball of swirling power. Across the way he heard the faint sounds of chirping and knew this was how it's meant to be.

We'll die here. We'll die together.

-4 years earlier-

The alarm blared for the fourth time that morning, the boy in bed groaning, hand reaching out to silence the thing. His fingers fumbled, knocking the clock to the floor increasing the sound of the wailing. Giving a cry of annoyance, he picked it up, fully intending to throw it when his eyes caught sight of the time.

"Eh?! 7:55?! I'm late, -ttebayo," he cried, jumping up from his bed only to land face first against hard mats. He groaned in pain, turning over to untangle his foot from the troublesome sheet that had caught him. With that aside he scrounged up a t-shirt, giving it a quick sniff before pulling it on. He had slept in his pants and he wasn't entirely sure on their state of cleanliness but they'd have to do. Grabbing his shoe he hopped across the room pulling it on, stumbling around as he looked for the other. "Where is it? Where is it?" he muttered, turning over everything to find the other. Sighing he grabbed his coat, pulling it on and zipping it up before redoubling his efforts for his shoe. After two tense minutes he found it wedge between his dresser and bed, how it ended up there he knew not, but he made a note to clean his room later; way later.

With his other shoe in hand he made a run for the door, half hopping trying to pull his other shoe on as he headed for the door. He heard a voice calling out to him but he had no time to stop. Once the stubborn shoe was on he took off at full speed, jumping atop roofs, taking every short cut he knew to get to the academy. He knew it would take a full ten minutes to get there and by the time he landed in the play yard next to the lone swing he knew he was way late. The yard was empty, the school silent, which meant everyone had already started the exam, which meant he'd get points stomach gave a painful jerk, scolding him for missing breakfast but he couldn't pay it mind now. This was his chance, his day to become a genin; breakfast was not a necessity today. Slapping his cheeks twice in preparation he hurried into the school, finding his classroom, sliding the door open in his usual dramatic fashion. Everyone looked up at him, their pencils stopping their movements on the written portion. "You're late," their scarred sensei scolded. The boy gave a sheepish grin, scratching the back of his head. The brunette shook his head, pointing to the empty seat with the upside down test. "You have no extra time, so you better work fast or you'll fail again."He grinned, folding his arms casually behind his head, walking to his seat. The other students returned to their tests, shaking their heads at his casual down in his seat he flipped over his test, his eyes scanning the page before they went to the top. These tests were pre-dated and pre-named. He should have expected it. No, he knew it was coming, but that didn't stop the weight that fell directly on his head, down into his stared at the paper for a good minute then two, then three, completely unmoving. His sensei tilted his head, looking at the boy. "Is there something wrong? You know, you're not expected to know the answer to every question, just answer to the best of your ability."

The boy looked up, blue eyes narrowed for a moment before closing in a smile, fingers scratching a mess of blonde spikes. "I don't know any of these answers, guess I won't be a genin this year." With that the boy stood up, picked up the test and made a show of ripping it straight down the center before leaving the room much to the shock of his classmates and he wanted was to be a genin, and as he walked around his home village, kicking rocks he wondered if he made a stupid decision just now. But then the name at the top of the page glared at him, telling him what he already knew would happen. His sensei would grade the test just as fairly as any other, but his sensei wouldn't be the one grading it, his higher ups would be. He was already 12 years old and those people would only glance at his name and that would be that, he would be a genin based on blood. He wouldn't take the physical part of the test, he wouldn't even have to answer correctly on the written portion. All he had to do was hand it in with that name at the top and his future was set. It was a curse, a stupid came to at stop as he caught sight of a poster announcing a celebration festival for the 10th anniversary of the Yondaime Hokage's reign. Without a thought he grabbed the paper, tearing it down, ripping it to shreds. A few villagers stopped, muttering about what a ruffian he was or how disrespectful he was. The shop owner came out, brandishing a broom intending to run him off, only to stop short. "Most honorable son, I didn't recognize you. How are you today?"

He shook his head, jumping up to a roof top, dashing off aimlessly. Most honorable son. That phrase range in his head like a curse, like a second weight in his stomach.

Coming to a stop he crouched down, sitting on a random roof, digging in his pocket. He pulled out his academy ID, looking at his painted face and rogue pose. Any other child would have gotten in trouble for such a thing, but not him. No. They laughed and simply said 'Most honorable son, your humour is quite like your mother's.' He begged them for three hours straight to put his name as 'Uzumaki' but they did not listen, instead he ended up with 'Namikaze' on his ID, the name that haunted him. When his mother had seen it she smiled and said they could make their own; a true Uzumaki style ID.

He sighed. He didn't hate his father by any means. To the contrary, he loved his father more than anything. But when your father is the Hokage, such a Hokage that saved the village, people treated you differently. They didn't see his talent or skills, they saw his father's or mother's and assumed he was the same way. He spent his entire school years acting like an idiot just to get attention. Albeit, he was rather dense and he liked pulling pranks and he knew this, he got it from his mother, but he had studied hard to make his parents proud. It was hard for him, but he tried, and he had to hide the effort because if he studied hard in class they would end up saying 'What proper behavior the most honorable son presents.'Why couldn't he just be Naruto?"Oi, usuratonkachi!"

He jumped in surprise at the voice, his eyes shifting downward only to find onyx staring back at him. A small smile spread on his face at that condescending tone, a slight rush of relief pouring over him like an ice cold bath. "Oi, teme!""Mind getting down from the roof? People are complaining."

It was then Naruto looked around, recognizing the familiar lay out of the Uchiha family complex. He had been here a dozen and a half times growing up, having stayed the night at least a hand full of those times. It must have be instinct that led him a sigh, he shoved his ID into his pocket, hopping down from the onyx eyed boy looked at him in amusement, motioning with his head towards the direction of the tea room. He turned to walk off, Naruto's eyes landing on the red and white paper fan adorning the back of the boy's blue shirt. That fan reminded him why the boy in front of him was his greatest rival but also his best friend. Nobody in this village understood him except for this boy, even if he wanted to deny it to the point that it was almost insulting."Iruka-sensei is going to let you retake the test."

Naruto sighed, looking down at a stray leaf wondering if he could be carried in the wind like that too. "Of course he is."

"What was that? You're muttering."

"Ah! I said of course he is! He can't let the future Hokage fail like that, dattebayo," he beamed, folding his arms behind his head. His best friend was not fooled, not even by a long shot. Those black eyes looked him over before the boy pushed him hard enough to knock him back. "Oi, teme! What was that for?!" he shouted, jumping up and rubbing his behind.

"Stop sulking, dobe. What does it matter if the test says Namikaze Naruto or Uzumaki Naruto? You're still the same dobe. You're still going to fail."

"Hey, are you trying to cheer me up, teme?"

"Ch'," the boy looked away, shaking his head. "Not even a little bit."

"Yeah, I know it doesn't make sense but I guess that's one thing you'll never understand about me, Sasuke. You have your whole family here. Your grandparents, your cousins, your aunts and uncles, but for me, I only have my mom and dad. My dad's parents passed away before I was born and the Uzumaki clan, well, they were wiped out from what mom told me and after the nine tails incident I'm her only son. So you see? I like the Uzumaki name better but they keep calling me Namikaze so they can pass me and show me off like some kind of prize. 'oh, we have the most honorable son amongst us…'…"

"Are you trying to justify your reasoning for stomping out?""OI! WERE YOU NOT LISTENING AT ALL, -TTEBAYO?!"The boy smirked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his white shorts. "I tend to have selective hearing where you're concerned.""OI!"

"Come on, the tea will be ready soon," that being said the onyx led the blonde off, the blonde chasing him, cursing his name to the heavens.

Naruto looked at the test in his hands, his eyes shining as he stared at the large red '67%' next to a messily written 'Uzumaki Naruto'. "Naruto, if you wish to retake the test at a later date-"

"What are you talking about Iruka-sensei?" he cut off, jumping on top of the desk. "I passed! This means I'm genin, right? And they graded me just like everyone else?"

"Well, yes, but 67% is the lower score in the class, you understand? And it might not reflect-" Iruka gave a grunt of surprise when the full force of the boy's weight came crashing into him, taking him into a death grip of a hug."I passed! All on my own! I passed!"

Iruka smiled down at the boy, patting his head. "First class is Monday, try not to be late, alright?"

Naruto beamed, pearly whites practically gleaming in the lights of the class room before the boy was gone in a flash, leaving a trail of smoke behind ANBU had the physical capability of being startled they surely would have been when the flash of the boy came crashing through the hall of Hokage tower. He practically ripped the door off the Hokage's office before anyone could grab a hold of him, the man inside looking up with a smile. "DAD! I PASSED!"

The blonde Hokage smiled, waving off the ANBU who no doubt had looks of confusion on under their masks. Son or not, they couldn't have someone tearing into the tower like that. "Did you, now?" Carefully, he pried the test from his son's hands, looking it over. "67%, Naruto? I know you could do better than this."

"Well, I kind of improvised on some questions, to see if they were paying attention," he admitted, scratching his head as he climbed into a chair."Write the correct signs for executing a substitution jutsu?" the man chuckled, shaking his head. "Don't let your mother see this, she'll be questioning me on why you answered 'take off your clothes and dance under a full moon covered in pie'."

"It was night time, and I really wanted mom's apple pie that she made yesterday."

"Of course," smiled the Hokage, peering at his son who now sat in a crouching position, almost like a fox waiting to pounce. "Naruto, what are the correct signs for a substitution jutsu."

His son gave a pout, his blue eyes rolling towards the ceiling. "Ram, boar, ox, dog and snake, in that order. But advanced ninja at Jounin and ANBU level can execute the jutsu with chakra control alone making the hand signs superfluous."

Yondaime smiled, his eyes closing in pride with a wide grin. "Glad to know you pay attention to your mother. Now hurry home, Kushina is making gyudon for supper, tell her I'll be along in a bit."

Naruto hopped down from the chair, taking his test back from his father shoving it into his coat pocket. He turned to leave, stopping when his father called out his name. "I'm proud of you, Naruto." Naruto raised his coat sleeve, covering his eyes. Ninja didn't next morning Naruto was the first to arrive to his classroom, sitting at his desk, putting his feet up on the table. His hands adjusted his hitai-ate repeatedly, fingers running over the swirling symbol that officially marked him a ninja of the Leaf Village.

Admittedly, he was a good hour early but today would be the day he got his team and met his sensei. This was a big day for genin, he knew that. His own father had trained an impressive team of genin when Naruto was little, he wondered faintly whatever happened to them. "Hmm…"

Giving a yawn, he folded his arms behind his head closing his eyes to rest for a couple of a minutes. Those couple of minutes were rudely ruined by someone kicking him unceremoniously to the floor. His eyes found the wall clock showing it had, in actuality, been nearly a full hour. Regardless, he jumped up in anger, glaring at the perpetrator of the action. "Find somewhere else to sleep, dobe."

"Sasuke-teme!" he hissed, jumping up onto the desk in front of Sasuke, glaring the boy down as the boy took his seat, leaning back slightly to stare Naruto in the eyes.

"What is he even doing here? This class is for genin only," he heard a girl say in the back. His glare turned towards the light haired blonde who immediately averted her eyes, whispering to her friend. Naturally, she would say things behind his back but once he issued a dare to say it to his face she would back down. He tsked to himself ready to give the girl a piece of his mind when suddenly he felt a push from behind him. Before he could stop it the forward momentum sent him forward, tumbling into the boy in front of him landing firmly in his lap before the chair gave out sending them both into a heap on the scraped as newly appointed genin hurried to see what happened, peering over their tables to see. Oynx bore down into blue in a glare, blue narrowing to return the glare. "Uh, sorry about that, I didn't notice you," said the pusher.

Naruto waved him off, focusing on the boy hovering over him and the fact that he wasn't moving. "Would you get off me, teme?"

"Your leg is pinning mine, dobe."

Naruto peered down to their legs which were in fact a tangled mess, pinning each other, the chair effectively blocking all easy escape roots. He shifted a little, trying to get his leg free from the bars of the chair. Unfortunately this caused the chair to shift making both boys groan in pain as the metal dug into both their calves. "Usuratonkachi," he hissed.

"Don't move, -ttebayo. If I can slide my leg to the left we'll be free, -ttebayo."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, using his hands to keep his weight off of Naruto. Naruto shifted, pushing against his leg against the chair, knocking the chair free effectively freeing them in return. Unfortunately, yet again, the fates had other plans for today as a turn for the worse made things even worse when the chair teetered back bumping Sasuke, sending the boy forward. Shrieks filled the room, girls yelling at Naruto to stop kissing Sasuke immediately and with more emphasis then they ever used in a jutsu.

To be honest, he wasn't kissing him, he was awkwardly laying there with Sasuke's lips on his, blue eyes widened in surprise. In books this was the ideal situation for starting a romance as portrayed in his godfather's writing; but to the girls he was apparently stealing Sasuke's first kiss.

Both boys were to stunned to move, their lips almost stuck together; both afraid to move in case the situation worsened itself. How it could neither one was sure, though fate probably had a few tricks in her sleeves.

"What's going on?" Iruka-sensei called, having just entered the classroom to a bout of commotion. Both boys took the opportunity to jump apart, trying to get as far away from each other as the room would allow.

"You taste like ramen, don't you brush your teeth, dobe?" the onyx glared, wiping his mouth, the girls hurrying to his side to console him.

Naruto returned the glare spitting rather dramatically. "Yeah, well you taste like..like..YOU TASTE LIKE AN UCHIHA!"

"What does that even mean?"

"It doesn't mean anything! It means-""Okay, okay, enough," Iruka called, trying to usher his class back to their seats to hand out their assignments.

It took a full ten minutes to get everyone back to their seats, Naruto still continually muttering under his breath about bad tasting Uchihas and how that was a legitimate argument. Iruka shook his head, hurriedly reading out the assignments before another fight broke out. "Team 7 will be Uchiha Sasuke, Namikaze-"

"ITS UZUMAKI!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Uzumaki Naruto, and Haruno Sakura.""Wait?! WHY AM I WITH HIM?!" Naruto shouted, pointing to Sasuke. Yes, they were friends, but they were rivals first and he couldn't have his rival spying on him, that completely defeated the purpose of all future bouts.

"It was decided by the test scores, Naruto. Sasuke got the highest score, you got the lowest, so you two were paired together."

"EH?!" He hadn't known that detail. If he had known that he wouldn't have scored so low, now he was stuck with Sasuke who would be able to see all his best moves and figure out how to beat bell rang over head, Iruka sighing in relief. "You'll reconvene in thirty minutes to meet your sensei. Please enjoy your lunch."

The girls rushed to pull out their bentos, all of them practically tripping over themselves to get to Sasuke first. Sasuke looked at them for a brief moment before setting off on his own, Naruto smiling at them saying he'd happily take their lunches. The girls scoffed, walking off in a huff to eat on their own or with their girlfriends. Naruto shrugged, grabbing his lunch and heading up to the roof where he knew Sasuke had gone.

"Man, those lunches sure smelled good. Not as good as my mom's but still-" he commented, stepping out on to the stabled part of the roof. Sasuke always sat up here for lunch, like his own private hiding spot. Nobody seemed to know this except Naruto.

"Not interested," Sasuke muttered, focusing on his homemade omelet rice. Naruto sat next to him, opening his box, smiling at the leftovers from last night; his mother made the best gyudon ever. Snapping his chopsticks he set into his meal, chewing rather loudly with his mouth open. "Can't you eat like a human?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Naruto smiled through a mouth full of rice. He swallowed, taking a big gulp of juice. "Like, most of the time I have to sit up and cut into small bits and eat properly for my dad's dinners, I deserve to eat like a cow sometimes.""Only you would see the logic in that."

"Yep," he beamed, looking around the play yard. "Ne, Sasuke-teme, what do you know about Haruno Sakura?" he questioned, pulling the draw of his bento, pulling out a couple of cookies, handing one to the boy next to glanced at him in question, taking the cookie, wondering what he was going on about.

"Well, she's our other teammate, right? I mean, she's that girl with the pink hair, the really pretty one but that's all I know, -ttebayo. When I think about it I can't think of anything special about her in class, -ttebayo. Like is she good at genjutsu or taijutsu? Does she have a kekkei genkai?"

"Hmph, I don't know. I don't pay attention to our classmates."

"Not even me?"

"I'm sorry, were you saying something, dobe?"

Naruto glared at his friend, pushing the boy's shoulder. "Man, why do we have to be teammates? I was hoping to learn some really cool jutsu in secret so I could take you down. How can I be Hokage if I can't down 'Prodigy Uchiha Sasuke'?""You shouldn't have failed."

"I DIDN'T KNOW THEY'D PAIR US LIKE THIS!"

"Don't shout, dobe. Besides, if I was a prodigy I'd already be chunin," he sighed, poking around his rice. "No, I'd already be ANBU, wouldn't I? Itachi was. He was ANBU captain by my age, and I'm barely graduating as a genin. Some prodigy.""Oi, teme, don't talk like that, geez! Your brother is kind of a freak, dattebayo. I mean, come on, my dad didn't graduate the academy till he was 10 and he's an awesome ninja, right, -ttebayo? Who graduates at 7?! Other than your brother?"

"You suck at cheering people up, usuratonkachi."

Naruto raised his chopsticks, glaring at his friend. "Don't make me stab you with these. It will hurt, dattebayo."Sasuke shook his head, giving the tiniest hint of a smile. "What an idiot."After lunch they reconvened in the classroom as instructed. The other teams seemed to have already met their senseis and had set off on what Naruto declared to be 'top secret, super secret, mega secret, ninja training.' Sakura sat at a desk, staring dreamily at Sasuke, said boy resting his chin on his hands. "Maa, I'm bored," Naruto complained, hoping up and grabbing an eraser from the white board."What are you doing, dobe?""Playing a prank," he whistled, pulling a chair over to the door to set the eraser on the door.

Sakura raised an eyebrow, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "If that actually worked on a Jounin they wouldn't be Jounin, would they?"

"Hey, I learned this one from my mom and if sensei is late then it's his fault." With the eraser precariously balanced Naruto hopped down from the chair, pushing the chair back into it's place behind the desk. Hurriedly, he took a seat next to Sasuke, whistling innocently. Sakura shook her head, turning to look as the door slowly began to open. The eraser quivered in its uneasy balance, their sensei opening the door just a crack, sticking his head through just enough for the eraser to fall on his silver head, powdering with chalk dust. Their sensei leaned down, picking up the eraser, turning it over in his hands. "Up to the same old tricks, Naruto?"

"Eh? Nii-san!" Naruto jumped up from his seat, running over and hugging the older man, practically tackling him. "You're my sensei?!"

The silver haired ninja looked down at the mass of yellow and orange, before his one uncovered eye found his other two students. "Yo," he said, raising one hand in a wave. "I'm Kakashi Hatake, and I'll be your sensei."

-chapter 1 end-