AN: Hey, guys! To any of my old readers who're checking this out, I'm sorry for not updating. I've been going through writer's block for the past few months, and I kind of feel like I might have to reboot some of my other series in order to make it work. Nothing's for sure, so don't panic yet, but if you see an update one day, and the chapter reads Author's note then I'm probably rebooting it... again.

On the other hand, this story is one I've been excited about. I've been meaning to get this started for a long time, but I wanted to wait and see what canon would throw at me before I started... Kaguya certainly came out of nowhere. I've probably ranted enough about that to all of my other friends, so let's just get on with the story.

Diamond in the rough- Chapter 1

Naruto yawned, stretching his arms up into the sky. He blinked for a moment, getting his eyes used to the morning light...

Wait, morning? Naruto glanced at his alarm clock.

5:12 AM

"Shit," Naruto jumped out of his bed, and ran around the room like a yellow flash(*wink*wink*), "Shit shit shit shit shit! I'm late!"

He brushed his teeth with one hand, and with the other he dressed himself up. A daunting task for most people, but Naruto was used to multitasking. Foam was oozing down the side of his mouth, but Naruto was too busy to care. He flew down the steps of the orphanage, and jumped into the kitchen. His sandals skidding against the wooden floor.

The head matron turned around, her steely grey eyes as sharp as ever, "You're late"

"I know, I know. My alarm didn't go off" Naruto said, as he tied an apron around his waist.

She raised her beak-like nose at him, "Hmph, excuses. Get to work already"

Naruto muttered something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," He called out.

"Good"

The head matron walked out of the kitchen and her footsteps started to sound weaker and weaker until they were entirely gone. Naruto perked his ears up and paused, but there was nothing to be heard.

"Bitch"

He heard someone behind him sigh, "You really shouldn't call her that, Naruto"

"What? It's true!"

Tanaka tied his long brown hair into a ponytail, "She's stressed enough trying to keep the orphanage afloat. Let's not try to make her job any harder, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Naruto mumbled.

Tanaka sighed, "Let's just get to work, alright? The younger kids are gonna wake up soon"

Naruto fastened the knot on his back, "What do we have left in stock?"

Tanaka rubbed his chin, and with the apron on he looked especially girly today. His body was slender, and his skin was like a porcelain doll's. So many guys tried to hit on him everyday that he barely even bothered to correct them anymore.

"We're low on meat like always, so let's just fry up some eggs and vegetables for today"

Naruto nodded, and pulled his knife out with a satisfying shiiing. It gleamed under the light of the rising sun. Naruto took a moment to admire it. He'd bought it himself with the allowance he'd saved up. Kunai and Shuriken were easy to get from the Academy, and once he became a ninja, he'd have enough money to buy his own, but a good cooking knife?

Naruto grinned, eyeing it from top to to bottom. Good cooking knives were priceless.

Tanaka gave him a strange look, "You look like some sort of serial killer when you do that, you know?"

"Shut up," Naruto said, "You're gonna hurt Yaiba's feelings"

"...You gave it a name?"

Naruto glared at him, "It is a she, and she would like to be addressed as such"

Tanaka sighed, "Whatever, let's just start cooking"

Naruto caressed his knife, "Don't worry about it, Yaiba. That blockhead just doesn't know beauty when he sees it"

Naruto began chopping up the vegetables.

Usually, it was up to the oldest kids to prepare the food, but there had been an unusually high number of parents who wanted to adopt older kids in the past few years, so he and Tanaka were pretty much the only ones left. Urushi-nii would come back every now and then to leave some money behind, but former residents like him were few.

Naruto didn't blame them. It was hard enough to make a living as a ninja without some sort of fancy clan background, and the ones that went into civilian work probably had enough problems on their own.

In a dog eat dog world, you had to look out for yourself. Naruto's knife hit the chopping board with a resounding thud.

He wiped his hands on his apron, "Hey, Tanaka, I'm gonna get some water from the fridge, you want some?"

"Wait, don't!" Tanaka scrambled to block his path, "I'll get it for you. Just stay here"

"Why?"

Tanaka avoided his gaze, "Because uh, I need the exercise! Yeah! The ladies don't like big bellies on their men, you know?"

Naruto quirked an eyebrow. Tanaka was sweating all over the place. He was definitely hiding something, and not very well either. Naruto knew this because of three reasons.

One, the fridge was like ten feet away; he was pretty sure that that didn't count as exercise.

Two, Tanaka was so thin he could wear girl's clothes without any problem. He'd seen it himself when some of the younger girls played dress up.

Three, Naruto was pretty sure that Tanaka was gay. Sure, the guy hadn't exactly said it, but judging from the looks he'd given the other men at the baths, and the nosebleed he'd get from the 'heat' Naruto was confident that his friend wasn't interested in the fairer sex.

Which meant he was lying. Naruto just didn't know why.

"Fine," Naruto said.

"W-What?"

"I said, fine. You can get my water from me"

Tanaka's face morphed into such pure relief that Naruto was almost sorry he had to take it away...

"Not"

Naruto made a handsign before seemingly disappearing into thin air. Tanaka whirled around to stop him, but it was already too late.

"Wait, don't!"

Naruto ignored him, and swung the fridge door open to find...

"Hey, Tanaka," Naruto said, "What's this?"

Tanaka was digging his toe into the floor, "What's what?"

"This," Naruto pulled out a simple chocolate cake from the fridge with orange frosting on top that read, 'Congratulations!'

Naruto gave his friend a searching look, "Who's this for?"

Tanaka played with his ponytail, "It was supposed to be a surprise. The other kids knew that today was your graduation test, and they wanted to do something to celebrate," Tanaka chuckled, "You should've seen them. It was adorable. They pooled all their money together from their savings and were planning to surprise you when you came back this afternoon, but... I guess it's not a surprise now, is it?"

Naruto was too dazed to even respond. The kids had done all this... for him. Takeshi, Takumi, Ryo, Hajime, Raku, Kaizaki, and all the other little ones had saved up their money and bought a cake for him.

"Look, I sort of forgot to hide it from you today, and if the kids know I ruined their surprise party they'll kill me, so can you just act surpris- Hey, are you crying?"

"No!" Naruto rubbed at his eyes, "The little brats must've picked out something that I'm allergic to"

Naruto sniffed, placing it back in the fridge while Tanaka looked on, trying to keep himself from laughing.

"Seriously," Naruto gave the cake one last look, "They can't do anything right"

Naruto came back, and started chopping the onions while tears continued falling down his cheeks. Tanaka found all this hilarious, of course, the smug little bastard wouldn't find it so funny later tonight when there was hot sauce all over his toothbrush.

Tanaka smiled as Naruto tried to focus on happier things, but that smile slowly slipped off.

"So what are you going to do?"

Naruto stopped his chopping to look at him, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when you graduate are you gonna stay behind or get your own place?" Tanaka said, "I mean, it's your choice and all, but the kids are gonna miss you, and it'll be hard to take care of this place by myself"

Naruto looked down at his knife, "To be honest? I don't know," Naruto said, "I mean, I've been dreaming of leaving this place for years, and just making it on my own out there, but..." Naruto smirked, "I can't trust you to keep things running by yourself, now can I?"

Tanaka grinned, "So you're staying?"

"Well, not exactly"

Tanaka's face fell, "Oh"

"Don't get me wrong, I'll still visit all the time, but the Hokage's had an apartment lined up for me just in case I ever wanted it, and..." Naruto forced a smile on his face, "I can't stay here forever, you know?"

Tanaka smiled back, nodding, "Yeah, yeah, I know. Your ego always was too big for this little place"

"Hey!"

"Just... promise me one thing" Tanaka said, looking him straight in the eye.

Naruto nodded.

"No matter where you go, or what you become in the future," Tanaka smiled at him, "Never forget us, alright?"

Naruto snorted, "As if you guys would ever let me forget"

Naruto couldn't help the corners of his lips from rising and stretching out into a smile.

Thud

Thud

Thud

Thud

"Dammit, Naruto! Can you stop hitting your head on the table!? I can't focus!"

Naruto turned his head to glare at her before hitting it extra hard.

THUD!

"Fine!" Sakura stood up, nose turned towards the air, "I'll sit next to Sasuke-kun then"

"Good luck," Naruto said before mumbling under his breath, "And good riddance"

Naruto still couldn't believe it. He'd failed... again. For the third time.

He groaned. And after all that big talk he'd said this morning too. How was he supposed to face Tanaka and the others without a forehead protector to show them? They'd even bought him a cake and everything.

"Stop it," Sasuke said from the row behind him, "You're gonna lose whatever brain cells you have left"

Naruto glared at him, "Fuck you!"

"Oh, please," Sasuke smirked, "After you"

Naruto jumped up on his table, grabbing Sasuke by the collar, "You want to take this outside, bastard?"

Sasuke didn't even seem slightly bothered, "I don't want to hear that from someone who couldn't even manage to graduate"

Naruto growled.

Sasuke snarled.

Naruto felt someone push him from behind.

Sasuke paled.

Both of them screamed soon after.

Naruto stood in front of the orphanage entrance. Might as well get it over with. He prepared himself for the worst. His hands clasped around the door handle, and he pulled it open with one mighty heave.

"Congratulations! Naruto-niichan!" He heard a chorus of young voices shout.

Naruto slowly peeked out of one eye before both of them widened in amazement. There was a banner hanging from the ceiling that had congratulations written on it in big bold red.

Dinner was already set up with a big piping hot bowl of Ichiraku ramen laid out at his regular table while the twins, Takeshi and Takumi, held up the cake from this morning.

Megumi, a seven year old little girl with purple hair braided into pigtails smiled at him, "You like it, Naruto-nii?"

"I... don't even know what to say"

You don't have to say anything," Tanaka called out, "Just show us the new forehead protector!"

Naruto felt his breath hitch. All of the kids were looking at him, and had even prepared all of this. Naruto hated having to give them the bad news, but... he knew he had to.

Naruto steeled himself, and told them that he'd failed. They seemed disappointed, but they didn't seem mad. They still gave him the ramen and the cake, and everyone went to sleep that night already starting to forget the day's events... Or at least that's what Naruto wished had happened.

"I'm sorry guys, but..." Naruto looked at the banner, "I wasn't able to..." Naruto looked at all of their smiling faces, "... bring it with me because I'm still getting it shined!"

"That's okay, Naruto-nii!" Megumi said, "You can show it to us tomorrow!"

"Yeah, sure," Naruto said, smiling as he ruffled her hair, "Tomorrow"

"But for now," Naruto turned towards all the kids, "Let's celebrate!"

The kids cheered as Naruto wondered just what the fuck he'd gotten himself into.

Naruto sat out on the roof of the orphanage watching the sky. Sometimes when he needed to think or he'd had a particularly bad day then he'd come out here, and just watch the stars for a while. He knew the constellations by heart.

The Tree of Hashirama.

The Sage's Staff.

The Uchiha fan.

He wondered if he would have a constellation named after him one day. What would they call it? The liar's cake, maybe?

"You didn't graduate, did you?"

Naruto turned around, and saw Tanaka climbing out of the window. His

Naruto smiled thinly, "So you figured it out, huh?"

Tanaka shrugged, sitting down beside him, "It wasn't too hard. You left the table after finishing only three bowls of Ramen; it wasn't that hard to figure out"

Naruto stayed quiet for a long time.

"What are you gonna tell the kids?"

Naruto huffed, "I don't know, man. I don't even know why I did it. I just didn't want to... disappoint them, you know?"

"Yeah," Tanaka nodded, "I know"

Naruto dug his nails into the roof, "You think I should tell them?"

Tanaka shrugged, "It would probably hurt more if you don't. They're gonna find out eventually, you know?"

"Yeah," Naruto lied down on the roof, and closed his eyes, "I know"

Tanaka stood up, brushing the dust off his pants, "I'm going to sleep, you probably should too. We both have a long day tomorrow"

Naruto didn't say anything until he heard the window close. Naruto didn't like lying to them... but he also didn't want them to know he'd failed the test again, so what should he do?

Naruto furrowed his brows.

What did Mizuki-sensei say about a special test, again?

AN: So that's the first chapter of Diamond in the Rough. I always found it interesting to see what would happen if Naruto ever did stay at the orphanage, and you know, the only reason he'd ever stay was if he had any friends there. I'm planning to make this a more regular series for me, and am probably gonna update about once every two weeks or so? That's the plan anyway, but heaven knows I'm not good at those, so if you wanna find out how the current chapter's going then just PM me.

I'm not sure if this idea's been done before, and if it has then please tell me in the comments because I don't want to unintentionally end up copying something from the other story.

If you like it or if you have any suggestions then feel free to post those too, but until then...

Review, favourite, and follow- Aleandros137