Chapter 1

Walking down the road toward the Konoha College, a blonde teenager by the name Uzumaki Naruto made his way to his first day of school. He was very exited, yes overjoyed, over the fact that he had been accepted to his first choice when he applied for college: the animation studies.

The Konoha College was one of the cities few colleges, but still the most prestigious one at that. He had never thought he'd actually be accepted, but the insanely (as he would put it) hard work and massive effort he put in his senior year of high school had actually paid off. Working that hard at subjects he couldn't care less about was highly out of character as his friends had pointed out for him, but that was just how much he had wanted to enter Konoha College. Most of his friends were attending that school too, and he really wanted go to the same school as they did. There was of course also the fact that he loved videogames, and the animation course was his dream, making him capable of creating the very things he loved.
Imagining to himself how famous he would some day become for making games, he paid no heed to what was going on around him.

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Sasuke was in a horrible mood. The constant squeals from the girls he passed and the endless lines after lines to get registered as a student, and then finding the damn place they were supposed to go for the orientation meeting, was all slowly tearing his patience thin, making him scowl at everything around him, wishing for this unnecessary day to end. The girls' non-stop giggling was especially annoying. Giggling. He shuddered. He couldn't stand the sound, making his stomach knot in disgust and annoyance. He supposed he should be used to it by now, seeing as he had been surrounded by swooning girls like these since he was a young boy, but it just got on his nerves more every single day that passed, making him wonder if he'd go insane.

This just was not a good day, and he just wanted to get home, so he could relax, and needless to say, he was in no mood to be bothered any further.
Of course, fate wouldn't let him get away that easily.

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Naruto, still in his own little dream world, arrived at school, fixed his registration sheet, and went to look for where the orientation meeting was to be held, his mind still in his little fantasies, and therefore not noticing the wide five-step stairs leading down to the reception area of the main hall on his right. Before he realised what was happening, Naruto started loosing his balance, and he grabbed a hold of the closest thing to him, and then went tumbling down the stairs.
It just so happened that the closest thing was the now most pissed off thing in the world.

"What the HELL do you think your doing!" the raven-haired boy yelled furiously at the blonde on top of him.

"Aaaah, I'm so sorry!" Naruto apologized, "I didn't mean to grab you, I just fell, and it was kinda like a reflex or somethin'! Are you OK?"
The blonde got to his feet and reached his hand down to help the boy he had unintentionally pulled with him. He smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. Sasuke glared viciously at him and slapped his hand away, getting to his feet on his own.

This was too much, that goddamn twerp had just nudged him over the edge, and he felt like strangling the blonde little moron.

"You god damned idiot! Don't pull people down with you just because you're too stupid to manage walking in a straight line!" he seethed, giving the blonde a furious look.

The blonde had lost his smile by now, and frowned. "Hey, I said I was sorry! Don't yell at me, it was just an accident, you jerk!"

Sasuke breathed heavily, feeling his blood boil. "Just get out of my way, idiot, I haven't got much more patience,"

Naruto was starting to get fairly pissed himself and glared at the boy in front of him, "God, why do you have to be so mean? People make mistakes you know, why not just lighten up?"

Sasuke just shot him a cold glare and turned around, walking away from the now almost equally fuming boy. He had no interest in arguing with this stupid kid, and just wanted to get this day over with. Shaking his head in frustration he started looking for the main auditorium where the welcome speech and orientation would be held and found a seat.

Naruto was absolutely furious; he couldn't believe the nerve of that guy, being such a bastard about an accident. He scowled after the boy until he was out of sight in the mass of people wandering around, and sighed heavily, trying to calm himself down, before he went to find the cafeteria. Having the sweet tooth he did, a little chocolate would be nice right about now.
As usual, he paid no attention to where he was going (now fuming over the rude guy he'd just met), and before he realised it, he had bumped into a short girl, with black hair reaching her shoulders.

"Oh, Na-Naruto-kun!" she said, with her soft voice, looking at the now ruffled up Naruto.

"Oh hey Hinata! Sorry, didn't mean to bump into ya," he said smiling.

"It's okay; I wasn't looking either…" she smiled back, blushing slightly. "So, where are you on your way to?"

"Just need something sweet, so I was looking for the cafeteria," Naruto said with a sigh.

Immediately understanding what that meant, being familiar with the blondes habits, Hinata asked "Is something wrong?" She knew that the blonde had a sweet tooth, and he would always want candy of some sort if something bad had happened. Along with the sigh, he was like an open book to read for the caring Hyuuga.

"Nothing big, just some jerky guy with an attitude problem," he said while letting his eyes roam in search of the cafeteria.

"Well, I don't think we have time to go to the cafeteria right now, the orientation meeting is starting is a couple of minutes, so we should probably go get some seats," Hinata said quietly.

"Oh crap, I don't know where the main auditorium is, we'll be late!" the blonde said looking at his watch with slight panic.

"I know where it is, Naruto-kun," the Hyuuga said, blushing slightly more as Naruto looked at her, smiling.

"Great!" he exclaimed, grinning widely at her, "Lead the way, Hinata!"

Turning a nice tomato colour, Hinata smiled, quickly looking away before walking side by side along the blonde.

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It had been an endless day in Sasukes opinion, as he finally walked to his car outside the school to drive home. He'd been ogled at by dozens of girls, and several more tried to ask him out or get his number. Not at all interested, Sasuke plainly ignored them, but they still got on his nerves. One even tried to kiss him, making him shove her off with such force she fell over on her butt, him, of course, not caring one bit about her bruised ego. What had bothered him the most however was the blonde moron from earlier that morning. He got irritated just thinking of it, that big grin, loud voice and stubborn attitude. He had never met anyone as annoying as him, with the exception of the fangirls of course, but that was somehow completely different…
Sasuke shook his head, prying all frustrating thoughts about the boy out of his mind, and drove home.

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Naruto came home to his apartment and plumped down on the bed. He was exhausted. Work had been so tiresome; he just had no energy left. His boss had been ordering him around so much he almost collapsed. It'd been a busy day at the bakery, many of the senior citizens among the customers had ordered cake and pastry and bread of all sorts to be delivered at their door, probably to have to celebrate their grandkids first day of school, he figured. He had spoken to a few while dropping everything off and they had all been expecting family. He could hear the pride in their voices as they would boastfully tell him of their talented grandchildren being accepted into their first choice in course and school.
Naruto felt his stomach knot a little bit out of jealousy. Shaking his head he thought to himself, 'Well, with todays work, at least I have enough money for the books I need,'

Groaning, he sat up, and took a pamphlet he had gotten from school out of his backpack. He wanted to find something to do on his free time; he knew the school had clubs and such. He figured not only would it look good in future situations, like when looking for a job and stuff like that, but it would probably be fun too, and maybe he'd get to know some new people.

His eyes searched the pages as he quickly read the headlines of every page, trying to find something interesting. He stopped after a while, reading one of the pages with interest.

"Hey…" he said to himself, "that doesn't sound so bad…"

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"What are you doing here?" the blonde asked, the day after.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing…" the raven-haired boy said, looking at the blonde in disbelief.

"You're signing up for the school newspaper crew too?"

"I would think that was fairly obvious, seeing as I'm signing the list this very moment,"

Half pouting, the yellow haired boy sighed.

"Crap, I hope I don't end up teamed with you," he said, signing his own name onto the list as the other boy 'gave' it to him (more like shoved it in his face), and looked at the blonde with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Feelings mutual, idiot," he said as he walked away, leaving Naruto with a mood slightly worse than the one a few minutes ago.

'Oh well,' he thought glumly to himself, 'At least he didn't yell this time'

As he turned around to walk away from the school-papers stand in the entry hall, he was abruptly stopped by something pink blocking his view and was suddenly being shaken by it like a rag doll.

"Sa-Sakura! What's wr-wrong!" he stuttered as his head threatened to fall off from the violent movement.

"Naruto! Who was that guy you were just talking to!" she exclaimed, while Naruto tore free from her deathgrip.

"What, that jerky black-haired guy?" he replied while straightening himself, feeling the world spin a tad.

Sakura looked with rage in her eyes at a now nervous Naruto, "Don't call him a jerk, Naruto!" She spun around to look after him, as he walked in a door a good distance away. "No one that hot can be a jerk," she said, dreamily.

Naruto felt a light pain in his chest. Of course she would like him. Typical. 'Damn it, now I want to kick his ass… Stealing Sakuras affection… Well, it's not like I ever had it in the first place' he thought glumly to himself.

"Soooo, Naruto," Sakura said in a sweet voice, looking at the slightly taller blonde, "Did he tell you his name, or something about himself?"

Naruto just looked at her for a moment, and then said "No, we didn't talk much. The bastard's a total ice-princess, just yelling and acting all 'holier than thou',"

This somewhat broke Sakuras pretty smile, turning it slightly bitter and annoyed.

"Shut up, Naruto!" she snapped, and ran over to where the signatures for the school-paper were and read the name above Narutos. Smiling to herself at her cleverness, she turned to him, exclaiming, "The man of my dreams is named Uchiha Sasuke! I have to go tell Ino! Bye Naruto, see ya later!"

She ran off, looking all giddy, leaving a very depressed and slightly angry blonde staring after her, with a saddened expression on his face.

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Having just left the bathroom, Sasuke walked back down the hall, only to hear a girl in front of him, not fifteen meters away, squeal that the man of her dream was named Uchiha Sasuke; the raven-haired boy found himself looking at the blonde next to her. The boy was just standing there as she ran off, and looked miserable.
Right after, he was jumped from behind by a guy with red stripes beneath his eyes looking absolutely wild and two other boys came too, one tall with a ponytail and one chubby.

To Sasukes surprise the blonde completely changed the instant he saw them, being cheerful and annoying as usual.

'Hmpf,' he thought to himself, 'What an idiot, as shallow as a puddle. Can't be much brainpower in that head if that's all it takes to make him forget.' With a smirk he started walking past them.
As he passed by, he could hear a fraction of speech.

"Hey, what happened to you? You don't seem as perky as usual," the wild looking boy said.

"Uh.. I don't know what you're talkin' about Kiba, I'm fine! Let's just go to the cafeteria, I want some sweets!"

Sasuke glanced over at the blonde from the corner of his eye just as he passed by him a few meters away. The idiot was grinning like a madman, and Sasuke heard his friend reply "Sure, but quit being so down, it's freaking me out when you act like this!"

The blonde just replied with a small laugh and Sasuke wondered if maybe he had been wrong about the blonde. As he turned to sneak a last discreet look at him, he saw him jumping toward the cafeteria, squealing "Chocolates, chocolates!" with his friends behind him shaking their heads.

'But then again,' he thought, almost a little disappointedly, 'I might just have been right the first time,'

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A week and a half into the semester, both Naruto and Sasuke had business at the message boards.
What they found there left them both cursing the gods of fate.

'Damn it,' Naruto thought, 'why did I have to end up with him? And they made the research groups in pairs none the less, which means I'm teamed with him and only him,' He scowled over at the young Uchiha, who was looking at the boards with a tired expression on his face.
'Damn girl-thief,'

Sasuke just felt tired. He ended up with the yellow ball of energy? He had seen him at school the last week, and he always talked or moved around of fiddled with something. This was going to be very tiresome.
He looked over at the blonde who just stood there, hanging his head and looking like a sulking kid. He sighed, annoyed over his bad luck, and started walking to his next class.

"Hey!" the blonde yelled after him, "Wait, where do you think you're going?" He ran up to Sasuke, looking at him with a slightly annoyed expression in his bright blue eyes.

Sasuke stopped in his walk, and looked directly into the blondes eyes.

"Fine," he said, sounding annoyed, "What do you want?"

The blonde stared at him, intensely for a moment, sighed, and then, to the Uchihas surprise, reached out his right hand.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he said firmly.

Sasuke just stared at him for a second in slight shock, before reaching out his own hand.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he said and grabbed the blondes hand. They shook for a brief moment, and Naruto grinned at the slightly taller boy in front of him.

While keeping it concealed of course, Sasuke was very confused. Didn't the blonde hate his guts? He knew the boy must have had a crush on that pink-haired girl, and he had heard her saying she liked Sasuke, to Narutos face. Usually guys would loathe him in a situation like this.

Why was he being all nice and smiling?

"What?" the blonde suddenly asked, shaking Sasuke out of his thoughts. He looked up at him, with a curious look.

"Nothing," Sasuke replied quickly.

The smaller boy kept looking at him, as if trying to read his thoughts.

"I bet I know why you look so sceptical," he said, turning around, almost doing a slow pirouette. He was wearing that huge grin he always had on, and had a sly look in his eyes.

Sasuke was again rather surprised by his behaviour, which now almost seemed playful. 'He's acting like a kid,' he thought. He kept it well concealed however, and just smirked lightly at the blonde and replied a smooth and slightly arrogant "Oh, you do, do you?"

"Mhm," he said, "It's because you know about Sakura, right?"

This time Sasuke couldn't conceal his surprise at the blondes insight, but quickly pulled himself together.

"Yeah, I figured," Naruto said, looking down a moment before meeting the Uchihas eyes again.
"But even if it did bother me a little bit, it's she who likes you, and I can't blame you for that right?"

His eyes (which Sasuke unwillingly noticed were a rather nice pair of eyes) and face were completely serious, and Sasuke believed him. He actually wasn't angry at him. He couldn't remember that ever happening before. But there the twerp was, seeing the logic in the situation, as Sasuke himself had always seen. He had never wanted those girls to swoon over him, after all.

Naruto smiled again, the big grin popping up yet again. "So!" he started, "I guess it's okay to work with you, if you don't mind of course,"

Sasuke stared at him a while longer, just taking it all in. He had been totally wrong about the idiotic little blonde, hadn't he? There actually was something floating around in that brain of his. More than what he was usually met with, in fact.

"Sure," he said, "We were signed together after all,"

"Yup," Naruto replied, smiling. "You were kinda mean already though, before the Sakura thing, but I'll let it slip as you having a bad day. But be nice to me from now on! I don't like being yelled at!" he whined.

Smirking, the Uchiha said, "Well, smarten up, and I won't have to,"

"Ha ha," he replied sarcastically.

Walking with the blonde, Naruto rambling on about what they should do when they got an assignments, Sasuke thought to himself, 'I guess cutting the guy some slack is okay…'