I don't own Naruto and make no money by writing this fic. Some of this had been edited by the lovely Master of the Rebels. She edited this back on February 3. Yeah, I've had this chapter for a while. Needless to say it's been tweaked a TON since then. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Dedicated to Fallenkarma.

Like Ninja Fighters

Chapter One: Preparing for Battle

It was fifteen minutes until the end of the school day. Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto both sat – not in a class – but in the principal's office. Sasuke's normally immaculately styled black hair was tussled, and there was a dark bruise forming on the left side of his cheek, contrasting dramatically against his pale skin. Naruto sat scowling beside him, his lip split and bleeding slightly. Neither looked at the other. Instead they faced the principal who sat staring at them from behind his desk. A little, golden sign reading "Principal Sarutobi" perched before him.

Principal Sarutobi frowned at the two young men sitting next to each other. He remembered a similar scene from their first day of their freshman year, almost four years prior.

On their first day of high school they had gotten into a fight that had drawn an enormous crowd due to their intense and impressive fighting skills. Both used karate moves that left not only students but also teachers afraid to get in the middle of the apparently skilled fighters. Watching them fight was like watching a ninja movie; their karate abilities were that good.

Of course, beating the crap out of each other wasn't the best way to start their first day of high school no matter how entertaining the rest of the school found their fight to be. It was as though the school populace had never seen such a fight, and they feared they would never see anything as spectacular again.

Not that it was the last time that the two boys had fought in school. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Seeing the two in front of his desk had unfortunately been a repeated occurrence in the past four years.

They'd had many fights their freshman year, a handful of fights their sophomore year, maybe just two or three their junior year, but (thankfully) this had been their first fight their senior year. It was almost the end of the school term, and Sarutobi had hoped that the two had matured enough not to have any more fights.

Their current predicament stated otherwise.

It had been hard to separate the two as the crowd that gathered around to witness the fight seemed reluctant to have their show end.

"Sasuke, Naruto," Sarutobi's voice rumbled, "I had hoped that the two of you had managed to work out your differences. You have four weeks until your graduation, and this is unacceptable behavior. I know that the two of you have both been accepted to the same university," Sarutobi said, tapping his fingers on two manila folders, files with the names Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke clearly splashed on the tab and down the side, emphasizing the reason as to how he knew. "At your university, behavior like this will not be tolerated. You will both be kicked out without a refund of your money."

Sarutobi gazed directly into cool, coal eyes. Sasuke looked at him as though seeing through him, Sarutobi's words seemingly having no affect on the stoic boy. Sasuke was probably unaffected because it was something he'd already known. At least, Sarutobi hoped Sasuke understood the severe consequences his actions would have at his university. Principal Sarutobi shifted his gaze to look into cobalt blue eyes. Naruto stared intently back, his teeth and tongue playing with his split lower lip, at least looking slightly apologetic at what he'd done.

"Since it's toward the end of the year, I'm going to be a bit more lenient on the both of you. I'm only going to give you two days out of school suspension-"

"Two days?!" Naruto burst out. Sasuke shot him a glare.

"It's normally three. Be grateful," Sasuke hissed. Naruto clamped his mouth shut and murmured an apology for his outburst.

"I will contact your guardian. I'm sure he will be disappointed in the both of you," Sarutobi said firmly. "Get your things and head home. I will see the two of you back here on Monday – behaving."

By the time Sasuke and Naruto had gone to their lockers, the bell had rung for the end of the day. Other students rushed up to them, asking them for details about their fight. Naruto said that he had won, boasting loudly how he had gotten in a good right hook on Sasuke. The shiner on Sasuke's cheek attested to Naruto's boast. Sasuke ignored him and anyone else who asked for details. It wasn't as though the many onlookers couldn't have told the ones that hadn't been there what had happened.

They got on the same bus, Sasuke heading straight for the back, Naruto bouncing right into the front seat where he happily talked away to the elderly bus driver. Even in the back of the bus Sasuke could hear Naruto telling her how it had been Sasuke's fault that the two of them had gotten into a fight, and therefore Sasuke's fault that they had gotten into trouble.

Twenty minutes later, the bus stopped and Naruto dashed off of it, walking quickly toward the direction of his home. Sasuke took his time, sauntering slowly off the bus and down the same street. Kids gazed out the windows after him, knowing, like Sasuke did, that Naruto was probably waiting just out of sight to ambush him as soon as the bus driver and any other witnesses had driven away.

Rumors around their school said that the after school fights between the two boys were more violent and more spectacular to witness than the already entertaining brawls they had in school. Students would pay good money to see the two rivals fight outside of school grounds with no teachers to stop them from fighting all out.

But the bus had driven out of sight by the time Naruto stepped out from his hiding spot. There were no other witnesses save Sasuke to see the fury on Naruto's face as he glowered at Sasuke.

"Two days. Two days of suspension!"

An onlooker would have seen the angry glare and assumed that Naruto was angry that Sasuke had gotten him suspended.

Sasuke knew better. He knew the true reason behind Naruto's anger. After all, it mirrored his own.

"I guess Principal Sarutobi thought he was trying to be nice. It's strange that he broke the standard procedure for fighting, giving us two days instead of three days out of school suspension. At least we didn't get in-school suspension instead."

"But we were counting on three days suspension! We planned so hard for the three days. We'd be off tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then Monday as well! Now the timing's all messed up. We'll never be able to beat the newest Ninja Chronicles game before we have to go back to school! And we'll probably be at the height of the story plot then. What if we don't finish it before the last episode airs Monday night?" Naruto grumbled, moving to walk next to Sasuke. His tongue darted out to play with his still slightly swollen lip.

People from school would have been shocked to see the two boys walking like best friends next to each other. Faculty and students alike would have wondered why they weren't trying to kill one another.

Their mutual guardian, Kakashi, would have been able to tell them the true story behind their strange relationship, and the real reason behind all the fights. They looked like best friends because they were best friends – and had been for years.

Sasuke and Naruto walked together in silence, both thinking of ways to get out of going to school on Monday. Sasuke took out his key as they walked up the driveway to their adopted father's home and opened the door.

"Maybe...maybe if we start on the game today, right now before Kakashi gets home..." Naruto suggested. Sasuke frowned, and they both shared a look.

It wasn't a good idea to risk it considering past results with this type of scheming. Kakashi was on to them. He had figured out the true reason they got into fights at school, even if it had taken him during the beginning of their junior year to finally put two and two together. It wasn't too hard for him to realize they only got into fights after the latest videogame had come out. In short, they got into fights to be suspended on purpose for three days off when they could play videogames together.

Upon finding this out, Kakashi made sure to punish his adopted sons to prevent such behavior: namely taking away their videogame system and games.

That was why they had gotten into so few fights their junior year. Kakashi discovering their secret had made it difficult to play videogames when he piled on chores to get them to stop skipping school – even if they had found a "legitimate" reason for skipping. They didn't care that it was put on their permanent record. Apparently, Kakashi did.

But Sasuke and Naruto had devised past schemes to get as much playing time in as possible for certain games, even if Kakashi might suspect them and try and stop them. Kakashi worked every day of the week; so even if they were grounded, they could still play when he wasn't home.

They had already hidden away their game console, controllers, the game that they had bought the day before, and whatnot, going so far as having a backup generator hidden safely away incase Kakashi had the power shut off like the one time in their junior year to prevent them from doing what they were attempting to do now.

Sometimes Naruto and Sasuke wondered if Kakashi did it just because he liked messing with their heads more so than actually being mad that they wanted to play videogames.

It was always hard to tell with Kakashi. Either way they had planned around his potential scheming just in case so they could finish the game before Monday night.

From the gaming reports online, they had figured out how much time they would need to beat the game in two player hard mode before the last episode of Ninja Chronicles aired on Monday. They would play all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and finish the game early Monday, giving them time to do their make-up work from school. They had even factored in the time it would take to do all the normal chores Kakashi would give them for being suspended.

But, if they didn't have Monday, they would need to start tonight to try and make the Sunday deadline before going back to school the follow day. However, if Kakashi caught them playing the game now after talking to the principal, then he'd take it from them, unless they could make a bargain with him. Unlikely.

But still...to beat the game before they went back to school, to finish the game before anyone else did to prevent spoilers for the ending…! But most importantly, finish it before the final episode of Ninja Chronicles aired on Monday night – was it worth the risk to try and beat it before all of that?

Sasuke and Naruto shared a look, knowing the answer to that question.

"If we get caught, I'm blaming you," Sasuke finally said. Naruto grinned.

"Come on, teammate. We have some enemy ninjas to take down!

Next Chapter: The First Battle

Finally. And by that, I mean, this fic has already been written out and has the ending written. There are a few scenes left to be tweaked, and one or two that I want to add, but for all intensive purposes, I've already finished this entire thing. Updates should be at least once a week.

I started working on this back January 12th of this year. I still have three other fics I'm working on that have yet to be posted (multi-chapter) and then six that I've posted a few chapters for.

Oh, and can I just add I do NOT condone skipping school and/or getting expelled to play videogames. This is just a story.

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! The next ones will be longer. ~ Jelp