June 27th - Graduation Day - Night Time

It was the middle of the night and most of Konohagakure was still fast asleep. The only people on the streets were Chunin patrolling the village, looking for potential intruders. But till now it was quiet, maybe too quiet.

In the shadows of the night, two figures moved, carefully avoiding the patrolling ninja's with perfect precision. They got used to it by now. With all the stuff they did during their time in Konoha, their stealth was top tier. After all, they could avoid the elite force of Konoha. But if your teacher was one of the best stealth masters in the world, it would be expected from them.

Today was the day Naruto and his classmates were waiting for. After today they would officially become ninjas of the village. Today was their last day of childhood and Naruto would play one last prank on the village, his greatest one. It was something Naruto picked up during his lessons with Iruka. Since he was bored to death, he started planning pranks to make his life more entertaining.

At first he played them on Iruka and Mizuki, but it soon included the entire village. And till now, no one could catch him performing his pranks. The village found it rather funny. Naruto developed a reputation as the golden boy of the village. He was after all the heir of their founder and son of their greatest hero. Add an incredibly kind attitude and you become the village darling.

While the civilian side of the village was rather entertained by his pranks and the shinobi side rather impressed by his skills, the Anbu wasn't. After all they were in charge of stopping his antics. What was even worse was the fact that everyone knew Naruto was the prankster, he admits it after all. Despite that, the Hokage didn't punish him. On the contrary, he was encouraging him. "It's a decent training," was all the Hokage said to the pranks.

We now find Naruto and Kimimaro on top of the Hokage monument, multiple cans of paint and brushes ready. This was the big one. Something he planned for a long time. He was going to show the village his artistic side. He was glad that Kimimaro agreed to lend him a hand. He mostly performed his pranks alone but whenever he needed someone to be the look out or play the distraction, the calm Kimimaro never let him down. He was a true friend.

"Are you ready?" asked Naruto his friend, to which the Kaguya just nodded. So they began their art piece. "I can't wait to see the reaction of everyone."

"Sasuke will just tell you to stop wasting your time."

"Hey! He likes my pranks," came Naruto's reply before thinking back to their first day in the academy…

Flashback - Naruto's first day at the academy

Defeat. Sasuke couldn't believe it. He was never defeated in taijutsu. Not since before that day. Yet the blond bested him. To make it worse he seemed to didn't even try. Naruto completely defeated him with ease, countering everything he threw at the blond.

Lost in his thoughts, the avenger didn't realise that his opponent went over to him. "Here," Naruto said and offered his hand with a kind smile on his face. "Was a good match. I don't want to sound rude," he continued, "but maybe you shouldn't rely on the Interceptor Fist without a sharingan."

Seeing the shocked face on Sasuke's face, the blond quickly explained "Uncle Tobirama developed a whole taijutsu style to counter that stance and it isn't even useful without a sharingan. You know if you want some help, I could," the blond tried to offer his help, just to be interrupted by the Uchiha.

"I don't need your help Senju," came his reply as he turned down the offered hand. The avenger stood up and went off the pitch, trying to ignore everything around him. His pride was severely damaged. If he couldn't beat Naruto, how was he supposed to beat his brother? It also did bother him how every girl praised Naruto on how strong and cool he was. That used to be him, he didn't even get pity from his fangirls. Not that he liked them or anything, but it was nice to know someone cared for him.

He felt himself to become jealous of Naruto. Not only did he apparently have people that loved and raised him but also teached him the way of the shinobi. Everything he lost when Itachi killed off the rest of their clan. It also didn't hurt to be taught by a legendary ninja like Jiraiya. 'It's not fair,' he thought while slightly glaring at the blonde who still stood on the pitch, sadly looking after him. 'Looks like we won't be friends like I hoped,' were his sad thoughts.

Back to the present

"He hates you," Kimimaro's quiet voice pulled him back to the present.

"He doesn't hate me. We just had a rough start. I mean we train together sometimes. We are friends," Naruto replied. Ignoring the look his friend shot him, he reassured himself. "We're friends," he repeated while thinking back to that day…

March 22nd - Konohagakure

Naruto was glad he escaped. Jiraiya-sensei was right. There was nothing scarier than fangirls. Ever since his arrival in Konoha, the girls from his academy formed a fanclub for him and competed to be his one true love. What he didn't understand was why a clan heir like Ino could be his biggest one or why he also attracted some of the younger kunoichi of the village. He was just an academy student after all. Damn his grandma for raising him to be polite to everyone and damn his father for gifting him with incredibly good looks.

He was currently walking home right next to the small river, till he noticed a lone figure sitting on a small bridge, feets in the water. 'Sasuke,' Naruto recognised his classmate. He didn't know why the Uchiha disliked him so much. Just because he defeated him on his first day? He was always friendly to him and tried to make friends, but Sasuke didn't even bother. At least the Uchiha spoke a bit with him. That was more interaction he had with any other classmate.

Making his mind up, he moved to the black haired boy. "Hey Sasuke," he began as the Uchiha turned his gaze to him, "do you mind?" Seeing no reaction other than the scowl that was nearly always on the face of Sasuke, he took that as a yes. He sat next to the other boy, dipping his feets in the water.

"Man fangirls are really something. I think I spent at least half an hour getting away from them. But who do I talk to? You know how difficult it is to get away," he tried to start a conversation, but Sasuke just ignored him, preferring to brood like he always does. Seeing this, Naruto decided to "cheer" the boy up a bit. He threw him in the river.

"What is your problem you Idiot?" Now Sasuke talked to him, completely ignoring the angry tone and glare the Uchiha sent him.

"You looked like you would need to cool off a bit. Always brooding isn't good for you. Life is short and you should enjoy it to the fullest," Naruto answered. "You should just start to take it easy and have fun sometimes."

"I can't have fun you Idiot. Not till he is dead. Not till my clan's honor is restored," came the heated reply from Sasuke.

"It's hard isn't it?" Naruto began as his eyes softened, "To be the last hope of a nearly extinct clan. The pressure to restore it's honor. The expectation you have to live up," he continued to a shocked Sasuke. "I might not know how it is to lose his family, but I'm also an orphan you know. We both have our demons. You wanting to kill your brother and me having to live with the giant expectations as the son of the Yondaime. We aren't that different Sasuke. We should be friends."

This surprised Sasuke. "Friends?" Who is that? The Naruto he knew from the academy was a loudmouthed and carefree prankster. Why did he sound so smart?

"Yeah friends. We should be able to understand each other, you know. They're the reason why I'm so strong," he continued while thinking about his family and friends. "I train to be able to protect my precious people. If you don't have people worth fighting for, you will never truly be strong."

'Precious people?' Sasuke thought about that. About his stern father, his loving mother and his cool brother figure Shisui. All gone because of him. Precious people were a weakness. Love was something for fools. Only hate made you strong. Strong like Itachi. But Naruto didn't hate. In fact the blond seemed incapable to hate. Maybe friendship made you strong like Naruto said.

What happened next did surprise the energetic blond. Sasuke, still in the river, pulled the blond in it.

"Hey you bastard! What was that for?" now it was Naruto's time to be a little bit angry. Sure he did the same thing earlier, but he was allowed to do that.

"You looked like you needed to cool off a bit," the Uchiha replied in his cocky voice. This made Naruto blink, hearing the same words he said to him earlier.

After the initial shock Naruto started to laugh while Sasuke smirked in amusement. After calming down Naruto asked the question "Friends?"

The only response he got was the classical Uchiha "Hn."

Back to the present

Since that day Naruto considered Uchiha a friend. Sure the only thing the two did outside of the academy was train together, but it was a beginning. Sasuke also opened up a little bit in class. He was still arrogant, quiet and brooding, but at least he didn't ignore anyone anymore.

"Still I wouldn't consider that friendship Naruto. All you do is train together," Kimimaro reminded his friend. "He never joins us when we hang out with our friends."

'That's true. Regardless of how often I invite him, he never joins us,' Naruto sadly thought about him and Kimimaro hanging out with Shikarmaru, Choji, Kiba and Shino.

September 13th - Konohagakure

Naruto, Kimimaro and Haku attended the academy now for around two weeks and to say that they were bored, would be an understatement. The only positive thing was that the three made new friends.

Currently Naruto and Kimimaro were hanging out with Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba and Shino in a park. Shikamaru and Choji did this regularly and Kiba did join them a couple of times in the past. The three invited Naruto and Kimimaro to hang out with them. They're friendship was sealed once Naruto and Kimimaro told some older teens, who bullied Choji for being a little big boned, to fuck off. Kimimaro even broke an arm of one of them.

After that day, the 5 were the best of friends. The three also formed a friendship with Haku, which wasn't that difficult. You could not like the kind girl, who decided to let guys have some boy's time. Naruto and Kimimaro kinda felt bad for their friend. She was the only one of them, who wasn't as opposed to attending the academy. She longed to have a few girlfriends around her age. Pity that the entire female part of their class, safe for one, were the very thing Haku despised. Fangirls.

Shino got invited by Kimimaro to join them. The two silent teens somehow bonded on the very first day. Wondering why Shino wasn't part of the group of Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba, Naruto asked the Aburame for the reason. "They didn't invite me and I didn't want to impose," was the reply he got. After Kiba admitted that the three kinda forgot to invite him, Shino entered a short depression.

'Gotta remind myself to never forget him,' Naruto thought from his place next to Kiba. The ningen of the Inuzuka, Akamaru, was currently performing a few tricks he learned in front of Kiba, Naruto and Choji. All the while Shino observed the game of Shogi Shikamaru had with the Kaguya.

'Troublesome. Not even Shino did give me that much trouble. To think that someone my age group can give me a challenge,' thought the Nara while finally beating his opponent.

"Looks like you win. You have to play against Naruto too. He is better than I am." Now this got the attention of both Shino and Shikamaru. Naruto was a loudmouth with no patience. How could he be better than the calm and quiet Kaguya.

"Are you finally finished?" came the loud voice of Naruto. "You never guess what Akamaru just did. I wished I had a ningen."

"Why is every blond so damn loud?" came the reply of Shikamaru as he, Shino and Kimimaro moved over.

"You shouldn't speak to your future boss like that. You know I might be resentful," came the joking reply from Naruto.

"What do you mean Naruto? How are you our future boss?" asked Choji while he ate away from his snacks.

"Well one day I'm going to be Hokage and you all will work for me."

"You want to be Hokage? Why?" Shino decided to ask the question.

"Because it's in my blood of course. Just watch me guys. I will become Hokage. The greatest of all time," he spoke with conviction. "And I want to show the world that I'm Naruto Senju and not Naruto the heir of the Shodaime, or Naruto the son of the Yellow Flash. I just want to make a name for myself," Naruto continued in a smaller voice.

"I think you will become a great Hokage, Naruto," replied Choji with a smile, trying to cheer up his newest friend.

"Yeah, but that's still a pretty large dream, you know," Kiba voiced his doubts. He didn't mean it in a bad way. He considered the blond a good friend already, but not everyone can become Hokage.

"Troublesome. I don't understand why you would want to become Hokage, but I'll support you. It's what friends do."

"Oi! I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's just…"

"I think Naruto knows how you meant it," Shino interrupted the Inuzuka, before turning to the blond, "I look forward to the day you achieve your dream." The Aburame, thanks to his bugs, had a certain grasp of how powerful Naruto already was. To think that an eleven year old boy would have the largest chakra reserve he ever felt. There was a big chance he would be strong enough to achieve his dream.

Hearing the support of Shino and Shikamaru, the encouraging smile of Choji and the nod of approval from Kimimaro, Kiba decided to put his faith into his friend too. If people smarter than him believed the blond could do it, who was he to disagree. "You better not disappoint us Naruto."

Feeling the support of his friends, Naruto just grinned before answering "Thanks guys. I won't let you down. Just believe in me."

Back to the present

That was just the first of many gatherings he and his friends had during the last year. 'Sasuke and I never just hang out with each other. It's always training. Are we really friends?'

"Yeah but maybe he just doesn't like large gatherings," Naruto tried to convince his friend. If he were honest, it was more to convince him.

Kimimaru just sighed. "Hinata also doesn't like large gathering's but she does more things with Haku then you do with Sasuke. Haku and Hinata are actually friends with each other," he reminded his stubborn blond friend.

Naruto couldn't disagree on this. 'Haku's and Hinata's relationship is more like a friendship than the one Sasuke and I have,' the blond thought before he remembered how Haku and Hinata became friends.

September 10th - Training grounds

We find Naruto and Haku walking toward Training Ground 29, where he was scheduled to meet with his newest sensei. His grandpa is the best for organising this. Haku was on her way to pick up some medical herbs from a pharmacy, so she decided to tag alone and spent some time alone with her crush. 'Thank you Konohamaru for making Kimimaro watch over you,' she silently thanked the cute grandson of the Hokage.

While they walked, they spoke about their new lives in Konoha and the academy. Especially about Naruto's fangirls and how disappointed Haku had to be to not find any female friends.

As they continued Naruto noticed a certain person hitting a fighting doll, training her taijutsu. "Hinata?"

This grabbed Haku's attention. She didn't have anything against the Hyuga, at least she wasn't a blatant fangirl like the rest of the class. Her shy demeanor made it hard for her to approach the Hyuga and engage in a conversation. That and her massive crush on her Naruto. 'Damn his sunny attitude and good looks,' she cursed a few traits that attracted her to him.

Haku was also sure that Hinata was the girl Naruto met all those years ago. That explained the infatuation Hinata had with the blond. She didn't consider the Hyuga as a fangirl, Hinata had far too much dignity to lower herself to that level. But the girl had a massive crush on Naruto, always stumbling and blushing when he just looked at her. If it wasn't about her Naruto, she would have found it cute.

'To think that Naruto doesn't recognise her, while she developed a huge crush on him. Maybe I should tell him?,' she thought before making up her mind, 'Nah. Wouldn't be fun that way.' She turned to Naruto and said, "Go ahead. You don't want to be late for your first lesson, do you?"

"I guess. If you don't mind," seeing her nod, he bid her farewell. He was curious if Haku was going to talk with Hinata, so decided to use some of the stealth techniques Jiraiya taught him to spy on the girls.

Haku carefully moved to the Hyuga, not wanting to alarm her of her presence. 'She must be training her Gentle Fist kata's. Truly an impressive taijutsu.' "Hey Hinata," she decided to make her presence known.

The winced in surprise before turning to her "Haku-san. What are you doing here?"

"I was going to pick up something from a pharmacy when I noticed you. Looks like you train hard. I was afraid I was the only kunoichi of our class, who took her training seriously," maybe Hinata was worth befriending.

"Please don't compare me with them, Haku-san," came her slightly angry reply. Haku would have never guessed that the Hyuga would be so offended. 'Of course not. According to Naruto, her father thinks of her as failure. So she trains extra hard to please him.'

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you," she tried to dissolve the slight tension, "It's just… Your hands!" Now she noticed the Hyuga's hands. They were bloody and scratched. 'How long does she train already?'

"It's nothing," Hinata tried to argue but Haku didn't let her. "Of course it's something. Let me help." Haku took her hands and performed the Mystical Palm Jutsu. Noticing the curious look of Hinata she smiled and answered, "I was trained to be a medic since I'm 7. If you're raised by Lady Tsunade, you're bound to learn something about medical ninjutsu."

"Thank you," came her reply, enjoying how the pain ceased to exist.

"It's nothing special. Naruto and Kimimaro had scratches all the time, so I got a lot of practice. See all healed up, but I don't think you should continue training. I would prefer to apply some ointment to properly heal your hands. They might have been infected."

"You don't need to Haku-san," Hinata tried to argue, but Haku didn't let her.

"Nonsense. As a medic, it's my duty to make sure you're healthy. Besides," the Yuki replied before gaining a mischievous grin, "I doubt Naruto would appreciate it, if you were hurt."

"Naruto-kun," stammered Hinata while blushing at the thought of her savior from all those years ago. The person that made never give up. 'I bet he forgot about me.'

"Yeah Naruto. The one who saved you all those years ago right?" Haku continued, "He can be so dense sometime. He doesn't recognise you," she giggled. "Come let's go to the pharmacy and get some bandages and ointment for your hands. After that we might be able to grab some sweets."

"Well I guess I should treat you to some cinnamon buns as a thank you," replied Hinata in her gentle voice. Haku was nice and it was the least she could do. Maybe they could become friends. Plus she would get some cinnamon buns and nothing, aside from maybe Naruto, compared to cinnamon buns.

"I love cinnamon buns. You too?" asked the energetic Haku. Seeing Hinata nod with a small smile she grabbed her hands. "I think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship."

"I would like that."

Back with Naruto, the blond smiled. 'Looks like Haku got her female friend.' He knew how much his friend longed for a girlfriend. Hinata seems to be a nice girl, despite her shyness. He also could have sworn he met her before, but couldn't tell where.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud "Haku-san!" from red-faced Hinata. He also could see Haku giggling at the blushing Hyuga. 'That girl loves her teasing way too much. Oh shit. I'm going to be late for my lessons. I hope Tenzo-sensei won't be too angry.' And with that the young blond ran towards Training Ground 29 to begin his new lessons.

Back to present

'Yeah. Haku and Hinata are true friends with each other. They nearly do everything together.' Ever since that day, Haku and Hinata became the closest of friends. Hinata also grew out of her shell and wasn't as shy as she used to. At least she could now talk with Naruto, without stammering every single word.

"That is friendship Naruto. What we have is friendship," Kimimaro still tried to convince his friend that he and Sasuke were rivals and nothing more. "You and Sasuke are rivals, not friends."

"But Kakashi and Gai are both rivals and friends," Naruto brought up. He met the spandex wearing jonin a week after his twelfth birthday. He and Kakashi were visiting his parents grave and on their way back to the village, they met the dynamic taijutsu master.

Gai and Kakashi talked about their eternal rivalry, or rather Gai did and Kakashi tried to ignore him. After noticing how he was ignored, the green-clad shinobi cursed the attitude of the scarecrow. He also noticed Naruto, talked some crap about how brightly his "Flames of Youth" burned and offered him a spandex similar to his. He was never as fascinated and scared at the same time and politely declined his offer.

Afer Gai bid his farewell, he asked his big brother, who the fuck that was. After Kakashi introduced him as Maito Gai, the greatest taijutsu user of Konoha and his best friend, he wondered how the two were best friends.

"I don't really know. All I know that there isn't someone I would consider a closer friend than him," was the answer he got from Kakashi.

"The relationship of Gai and Kakashi is different. I just worry for you Naruto," Kimimaro unusually kindly told the blond, "You know how they awake they're next form. I don't want you to form a bond, let your guard down and be killed by him. You know what your granduncle wrote in his journal."

"Never trust an Uchiha, I know. It's just I hoped we could become friends. Thanks for caring Kimi, you're a true friend," answered the blond before smiling at the Kaguya. He now put his mind to finish his art piece before the exam would start. The village wouldn't be ready for his art.

AN: And that's it for this chapter. This chapter was just to start a few bonds for Naruto and co. As well as his basic relationship with Sasuke. It will be complicated. For anyone who looked forward to Naruto vs Sasuke, I have to disappoint you. Naruto vs Sasuke is too big for an academy spar to write. I also kinda introduced Gai but his proper first appearance will come in a later chapter.

So thanks for reading and stay tuned.