Falling Feathers

People who have read this already, don't panic and read the Author's note at the bottom!

Prologue

I would always remember the day I met him. Sasuke Uchiha. We were seven, and it was the first day of school. He wasn't particularly friendly to me, or anyone else; he was shy, and was probably afraid of the fangirls, who were crazy for him even then. But even though I never really talked to him, I could tell he was happy then. His eyes had a brightness that they lacked now, and he smiled occasionally. That smile would disappear the next year.

*Six years earlier

Light shined gently through the windows of the academy. Children ages six and seven animatedly chattered to one another, eager to make new friends. It was the first day of school, and Akemi Hato was excited. There were so many new people that she had never seen before. Of course, she recognized a few; Ino Yamanaka, whose family ran a flower shop that her aunt liked to visit, and Naruto Uzumaki, a boy that her aunt and uncle usually fought about. Akemi's aunt liked him, but her uncle didn't. She didn't know why they argued about him, and she didn't ask.

The noise of talking diminished as the teacher came into the room. He was a tan man with kind eyes, and a large scar on his nose. He smiled slightly as he introduced himself.

"Hello everyone, my name is Iruka Umino, and I will be your sensei for the next few years. Take your seats and as I call roll, tell us a thing or two about yourself."

The students sat in random spots, friends choosing to sit next to one another while the children who didn't know very many people filled in the gaps. A minute later young Akemi found herself sitting in between a dark haired boy and Naruto. As the other children introduced themselves, she felt a burning in the back of her head, and turned around to see a pink haired girl glaring at her. The girl stuck her tongue out at her and Akemi turned back around, confused.

"Hato, Akemi." Surprised, Akemi stood up clumsily.

"Oh, uh, here. I'm seven, I like drawing and training, and my aunt and uncle." She said, sitting back down on her seat. The introductions continued and class began. As Iruka-sensei began to talk, the grey haired child turned to the boy to her left, who she had learned was Sasuke Uchiha.

"Hi, I'm Akemi." The boy seemed to mentally debate on replying, before speaking.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha."

*Present

And though we never became friends or talked, he didn't hate me. And looking back on it, that was an achievement in itself.

One- I meet the Number One, Hyperactive, Knucklehead Ninja

It was chaos as my family and I attempted to get ready for the day. Keyword, attempted. My uncle, a jonin, had to go on a mission to Grass Country, and it was my cousin's first day of school. Now, one may ask why it was so difficult. I will tell you why. My uncle, Noboru Hato, despite being a jonin, had always been extremely disorganized. So was my cousin. It seemed to run in the family.

So, my uncle, being- well, my uncle, woke up 40 minutes after his alarm went off. He was supposed to meet the client and his team at 7:30. It was 7:20, and he had woken up ten minutes ago. I got up at 6:45, and though I should've woken him up, I figured he'd never learn if his bad habits didn't bite him in the ass. I was making good time this morning, mainly because I had to get my cousin Suzu ready for her first day of school. She was five, and she was a bundle of energy. Loud energy.

As I was pulling my dove grey hair into a bun, I heard the familiar shout of Suzu from downstairs.

"Akemi-neechan!" She started, and I could tell by her tone that she had lost something or broken something or worse. I sighed; just when I thought things were going smoothly.

"I can't find my shoes!" I paused, thinking about where her sandals might've been hiding.

"Did you check under the couch?" I yelled back and there was a pause.

"...Of course!"

"Check under the couch, Suzu."

"Found them!" I smiled; my family was tiring, but I loved them.

I walked downstairs, hairbrush in hand.

"Suzu, come over here. I need to fix your hair." The five year old froze, looking at me with wide eyes.

"No!" She shouted, putting her hands on her head and running away from me on her tiny legs. I grinned. So she was going to play this game. I wanted to chase after her, but I knew what would be more effective.

"Oh well then. I guess you'll just have to go to school with your hair in a bird's nest. I don't have time to fight with you. Let's go." I said, turning around and heading for the door that my uncle had walked out of several minutes ago in a rush.

"Wait!" I smirked.

"Come over here." I said, as I sat down on the couch.

I pulled the hairbrush through her grey strands, gently dismantling the tangles in her wavy hair. When I was done, I grabbed a light pink headband and stuck it in her hair.

"There. Now isn't that better. I'll make you some ce-" I stopped as I glanced at the clock. 7:40.

"Shit! Nevermind, let's go!" I said, grabbing her backpack, my bag, and an apple for her as I dragged her through the door, ignoring her yell of "You said a bad word!"

Even though we had twenty minutes until her school started, I couldn't go as fast as I wanted with her, and it was nearly on the other side of Konoha. Our old compound was on the southwest side of the village, and the normal school was around the center of the village, more on the east side than the west. And I wanted to be early so I could walk her in.

A little over fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the building for grades 1-5 with a few minutes to spare. We walked inside, discarding the apple core in the nearest trashbin and quickly found her classroom. Before entering the room, I squatted down to Suzu's height, smoothing her hair and fixing her headband.

"Okay, do you remember what Uncle and I said last night?" I asked her, handing her her backpack.

"Yeah. Make friends, have fun, and try not to piss off the teacher." She said cheerily, and I playfully tapped her on the head.

"Right. And don't say piss." I laughed.

"Now get in there, have fun! Mrs. Takashi will pick you up when school's over, since your dad's on a mission and I get out later. Love you!" I said as I turned and left the school.

With thirty minutes to spare, I walked through the streets of Konoha, making sure to stay within range of the academy. Fortunately, Ichiraku Ramen was nearby. I checked my pocket for money and found a few 5 ryo bills. I grinned; it looked like I was having ramen for breakfast. Pork ramen, here I come.

()()()()

I sat next to Hinata as Iruka-sensei listed the teams. As he spoke, I couldn't help but wonder how Naruto managed to become a genin overnight. The loud blonde looked up as his name was called as Iruka-sensei listed Naruto's team.

"..Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha," He continued, causing a happy shout from the pink haired girl.

" and, due to uneven amounts of academy students this year, we are adding Akemi Hato to genin Team 7."

My eyes grew wide at this; four genins in a squad? That was unusual. I looked down a few rows to where my new teammates were all sitting. Hinata looked at me with a sort of sad look on her face.

"Don't worry, Hinata-chan. You'll still see Naruto around. " I said, patting her on the arm. Everyone knew about Hinata's humongous crush on the blonde, except Naruto himself.

"Next, Team 8; Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Hinata Hyuga."

"Team 9; Haruhi Tenzai, Mika Kureno, and Daisuke Karasu."

"Team 10; Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chouji Akimichi." I could've laughed at the expression on the Yamanaka girl's face. Chouji continued to munch as if nothing had happened.

"That's it for groups." All of the sudden, Naruto stood up, angrily pointing to Sasuke.

"Iruka-sensei! Why is a top student like me on the same team with this guy?!" Naruto yelled.

"Sasuke graduated at the top of the class. You were at the bottom." Said Iruka-sensei, and everyone laughed. I couldn't hold back a chuckle at the display.

"This happens because we need to balance abilities between the groups." Iruka-sensei continued.

"Don't pull my leg, Dobe." Sasuke said in a serious tone.

"What did you say?!" Naruto yelled in reply. He was yelling more than usual today.

"Do you want to fight, Dobe?"

"Dobe?! Why you-"

"Stop it, Naruto!" Sakura yelled, and the blonde immediately stopped.

"Sorry…"

"I'll introduce the jonin senseis this afternoon. Until then, meeting adjourned!" Iruka-sensei announced, and the new genins left the class.

As I stepped outside, I saw Sakura looking around in confusion.

"Where did Sasuke-kun go? I was hoping that since we're on the same team now, we could have lunch together." Sakura said, looking for Sasuke. Naruto excitedly ran past me and up to Sakura.
"Hey Sakura-chan! I was thinking that since we're teammates now we could go and eat lunch together!"

"Why do I have to eat with you?" Sakura asked (rather rudely If you ask me).

"Well, we're on the same team so…"

"You're annoying."

I winced; ouch. The pinkette then continued to search for her precious 'Sasuke-kun'.

"*cough* bitch *cough*" I said quietly, and Sakura glared at me, before making a *hmph* sound and continuing on her search.

"Ne, Naruto, want to get some ramen?" Naruto immediately perked up at the word 'ramen'.

"Really?"

"Yup, c'mon. I figure I need to get along with at least one of my teammates. Let's go."

()()()()

I happily slurped at the Miso Ramen and looked over to Naruto, who was already on his fourth bowl.

"Dang, you can really pack it away. Do you have a hollow leg or something?" I joked, and the blonde looked at me with a grin.

"I just really love ramen, dattebayo!" He said with a bright grin and I laughed at the bit of egg that was stuck in his teeth.

I set my chopsticks down.

"So, Naruto, what do you think of the people on our team?" He seemed to consider this for a moment, before replying.

"Well, I like Sakura-chan, even though she can be rude sometimes… But I'm sure she'll come around! You seem nice; I like your choice in ramen." He paused, then continued.

"And I hate Sasuke-teme. He thinks he's better than everyone just because he's top of the class." Naruto then proceeded to mock the Uchiha with grumbles of "Do you want to fight, Dobe?"

I chuckled, then checked the clock on Ichiraku's wall.

"We should probably head back."

"Aww, but I didn't even get to the fifth bowl!" Naruto whined, and it was so childish that I laughed out loud.

"C'mon, let's go meet up with Pinky and His Majesty."

()()()()

Turns out, Sasuke wasn't there yet, so we were left with Pinky. We were headed down the street when we saw Sakura sitting alone on the bench. Naruto asked me to stay since 'it was his chance'. I could see her trying to smile (and failing) as the blonde came up to her. Naruto raised his hand in greeting with a big smile.

"Hey, Sakura-chan d-" He suddenly stopped, grasping his stomach and turning green as he abruptly ran in the other direction, yelling something about milk.

I laughed.

Okay, so you guys that have already read this, don't panic. Yes, I have started working on this again. Will updates be slow? Probably. Can I guarantee I will stick with this consistently? No. I am re-updating these chapters because I made a few changes. Don't worry, you don't need to reread everything if you don't want to. All I did was change 'Ayano Hatoko' to 'Akemi Hato', so it's no longer the Hatoko clan, it's the Hato clan. Also, her uncle is now named Noboru instead of Nobu. Besides that, there's really just minor, insignificant changes. Also, I will post the rest of the chapters tomorrow. It's late at night and I had two concerts and a huge semester test today, so I am tired as hell.

Disclaimer: I'm a 14 year old American girl. Do I seriously look like I own Naruto?

Okay, and since some of the readers will undoubtedly be watching in dub, I have included translations for your convenience. I rememebr back in the day when I watched in dub *shivers at the thought* and I didn't even know what a hitai-ate was or Konohagakure was. So here you guys go. Please keep in mind I am in no way proficient or even passable in Japanese and I just started watching anime again, so these translations may have mistakes. They're pretty much meanings that I've gathered from fanfic, manga, anime, and narutopedia. Also occasionally wikipedia.

Translations

-neechan/neesan/nee: A suffix used to call someone big sister i.e. 'Ayame-neechan, can we have the tonkotsu ramen today?'

ne: hey, so, huh i.e. 'Ne, Daisuke-kun, can we go on a picnic today?' or 'You have a big appetite, ne, Chouji?'

dattebayo: The Japanese *cough* actual *cough* version of Naruto's signature saying, 'Believe it!' i.e. 'I'm gonna beat my record of 21 bowls of ramen, dattebayo!'

Konoha: The leaf (the village) Konohagakure is 'The Village Hidden in the Leaves'

dobe: dead last. Sasuke commonly uses this term to describe our dear knuckleheaded ninja