Author note. The disclaimer and any author note except for this chapter will only be at the end of the chapter.

The Longer Road. Chapter one.

The night before.

Naruto smiled as he lay on grass of the Hyuga clan's garden, having been invited over by Hinata to hang out. On his left lying next to him was his best friend Hinata and on his right was their little sister Hanabi...Well adopted little sister in his case. As he looked over at the Hyuga sisters he frowned as he remembered how he and Hinata first met. The day he made his first friend.

Four years ago the day the academy starts.

Naruto was excited as he ran through the Konoha forest on his way home; it was a path he often took after his pranks so he knew this path well. 'Hokage jiji said I'm going to Ninja school.' Naruto thought happily. The blond boy had heard of the cool jutsu ninja could use and he was eager to learn them. All of a sudden Naruto saw a little girl of about his age with midnight blue hair dash in front of him not to far away and chasing her were three older boys soon after.

"I'd better check this out." Naruto said to himself as he dashed off in pursuit.

And when he caught up he was glad he followed his gut; seeing as the boy in the middle had the girl by the hair and was about to give her a knuckle sandwich. So Naruto did what he felt was right and leaped forward.

"HEY, YOU BASTARDS LEAVE HER ALONE." The blond shouted and drawing all the attention towards himself.

"Uzumaki… What the hell are you doing here?" lackey number one said.

"You had better get lost brat before we do to you what we're going to do to this bastard Hyuga here." The leader said menacingly as he tightened his hold on the blue haired girl.

The girl flinched at that.

"IF YOU DON'T LEAVE HER ALONE I'LL BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF ALL OF YOU… DATTEBAYO!" The blond boy loudly exclaimed.

The three boys laughed.

"I'd like to see you try Uzumaki." The leader chuckled as he dropped the Hyuga girl roughly to the ground causing the girl to yelp in pain.

Naruto gritted his teeth in anger and got into a sloppy taijutsu stance; which caused the three bullies to laugh.

"What kind of stance is that?" The leader mocked and to add insult to injury the bully didn't even adopting a fighting stance.

"Man you must really want to get your ass kicked coming into a fight with such shitty taijutsu. Lackey one laughed.

Your guard is wide open." Lackey two mocked.

The little girl looked on in fear; not for herself but for her blond, blue eyes savior. She knew from the blond boy's posture that he had no fighting experience and was about to get beaten up and her fears proved to be true not long afterwards.

Naruto charged with a yell and threw a wild punch at the leader, but the older boy merely side stepped and buried his fist deep into Naruto's gut causing the blond boy to double over in pain.

The Hyuga girls fear turned to a look of horror as the ringleaders two friends joined in and surrounded the blond boy. But that horror soon turned into determination, Hinata felt the determination to not let someone else get hurt for her sake well up inside her. So with a confidence she didn't know she had Hinata stood up, and in that moment she had finally found her fighting spirit.

"I told you that it was a bad idea to get involved Uzumaki and you didn't listen. Now we're going to beat the living shit out of you. "The leader said with a smirk on his face as his friends laughed cruelly.

"Byakugan!" The four boys heard the Hyuga girl shout.

The three bullies turned to see the blue haired girl was in taijutsu stance.

The leader laughed, "So the weak little Hyuga suddenly grew a spine." This got a round of laughter from his two friends.

Hinata's face was a stoic mask, however, "Leave him alone and walk away… This is the only warning I will give you." The little girl said with a slight stutter.

"Oh, and what'll you do if we don't?" The lead bully asked as he backhanded the blond boy.

"Gah" Naruto grunted in pain as his head was forced to face plant into the ground due to the strength of the hit. This caused another round of laughter from ringleader and his lackeys.

"That does it." Hinata exclaimed softly as she made her move.

An instant later she dashed at the leader; moving too fast for the older boy to react. Hinata then hit him with one palm strike to the stomach and the leader dropped like a sack of potatoes. He was out like a light before he even hit the ground.

Both lackeys looked on in shock and fear at what the girl just did to their leader.

"Take your friend and get out of here." The girl said softly with a slight stutter.

To anyone else Hinata's meekness; yet be so forceful might have been funny, but to the bullies she no longer looked so meek or soft. What with the fierce Byakugan glare she was currently giving them.

Both boys nodded rapidly and took their friend and made a run for it.

Naruto eyed widened in shock at seeing the little girl lay out a guy that was bigger and stronger than her and she did it with one blow. So he excitedly ran up to talk to her, "WOW THAT WAS SO AWESOME… WHATEVER IT WAS YOU DID. DATTEBAYO!" Naruto yelled loudly causing Hinata to flinch and bringing her back to reality.

"Did I just do that?" The girl asked herself in a whisper as she blushed at the praise the boy just gave her. Praise that she was unused to getting.

The blond boy smiled widely apparently having heard her.

"YOU SURE DID!" The boy said in a loud voice, before his voice lowered, "Thank you, no one has ever stood up for me before." The boy said in a sad tone with his eyes downcast. The girl seeing the sad look it made her want to comfort him somehow, but his sadness disappeared quickly and the light returned to the boy's eyes as he asked a question that would change her life.

Naruto smiled widely," MY NAME IS UZUMAKI NARUTO, FUTURE HOKAGE WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE FRIENDS WITH ME umm…" Naruto trailed off.

The little girl giggled cutely, "My name is H..Hyuga H..Hinata and I would love to be your friend Naruto...kun." Hinata stuttered out with a shy and gentle smile on her face, it seems her shyness was coming back since all the action was over.

"YAY, I GOT MY FIRST FIREND…DATTABAYO!" Naruto shouted for joy as he jumped high into the air and pumped his fist skywards in celebration.

Hinata for her part smiled all the wider knowing she had she too made a difference in someone's life.

Naruto's smile returned at the memory, it was one of his happiest memories he had in his short life; even if it hadn't been one of his best moments and meek Hinata surprised him with how strong she could be. He had thought she would've run away and left him to get his ass kicked... Instead, she took out the ringleader with one blow. Naruto smile widened as he remembered when Hinata introduced him to her adorable little sister Hanabi the very next day.

The day after Naruto met Hinata the blond boy went looking for her…He didn't have to search for long because he soon saw Hinata walking down the road hand in hand with a little black haired girl who wore a black kimono in contrast to Hinata's white one.

"Hi, Naruto-kun." Hinata said with a smile and a stutter, but Hanabi hid a bit behind her sister because she was shy when it came to meeting new people.

Naruto smiled," Hi, Hinata-chan I've been looking everywhere for you; were you looking for me too?" Naruto asked.

Hinata blushed, "Yes I was Naruto- kun. I wanted to introduce you to my little sister Hanabi-chan… Hanabi-chan say hello to Naruto-kun …Don't worry he won't hurt you." Hinata said softly.

Hanabi stepped away from her sister and walked forward a few stepped towards the blond boy, "Hello it nice to me you Naruto-san...My sister told me what you did for her and I would like to thank you for helping her." Hanabi said with a small bow.

"Wow, you sure are smart." Naruto thought out loud while scratching the back of his head; before a wide smile came upon his face," It was no problem and it's nice to meet you to Hanabi-chan, I hope we can be friends as well." Naruto said as he stepped forward and shook the little girl's hand.

Hanabi smiled and blushed at the compliment as she shook the blond boy's hand, "I would like that Naruto-san."

It didn't take long for Hanabi to warm up to him and before long she started calling him Naruto nii-chan and he came to consider her his little sister as well. Every time he heard her call him Nii-chan it would bring great warmth to the blond boy's heart.

"Naruto-kun?" Naruto heard Hinata's voice call out.

"Yes, Hinata-chan."

"Do you think we'll pass the test we have tomorrow?" Hinata asked with uncertainty.

Hanabi at this point piped up, "of course you and Naruto nii-chan will pass have some faith Nee-chan."

"I'm sure we'll be able to pass Hinata-chan. "The blond boy agreed, but little did Naruto know how wrong he was.

The next day, April 7th.

Kakashi watched as Sasuke and Sakura ate and how they completely ignored Naruto's whining for them to share; Sasuke having told her not to share anything with their blond idiot for a teammate when she nearly caved.

'It looks like this has gone on far enough.' The silver haired man thought to himself as he decided to reveal him.

Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves completely scaring the crap out of Naruto and Sakura.

DON'T ...But Naruto quickly shut up when he saw the glare the silver hair man was giving him, it stated shut up or else.

Naruto gulped with an expression of fear on his face and just nodded.

"Genin team seven failed... miserably might I add." Kakashi drawled out in a bored tone. He didn't raise his voice; his tone only held disappointment.

Sakura looked down at the news on the verge of tears.

' I lost my chance to be on Sasuke's team and it's all Naruto baka's fault.' The pink haired girl wailed in her mind.

Naruto, on the other hand was about to explode, but he didn't get the chance to voice his outrage.

"WHAT!" An enraged voice shouted.

While it wasn't surprising that a genin hopeful would be angry after being told they had failed; however, it was the owner of the voice that was the surprise. Sasuke was on his feet and tense as killing intent rolled off of him in waves. Naruto and Sakura were taken aback and frightened as they've never seen the usually cool, calm and collected Uchiha this angry before. Though in Naruto's case he didn't know why he was feeling the way he did. Sakura, on the other hand, did know.

'Killing intent.' Sakura thought to herself as she sweated.

Kakashi however was completely unaffected as he stared at the last loyal Uchiha with a bored expression on his face.

"You heard what I said or have you gone deaf." Kakashi drawled.

Sasuke was livid now, "I bet it was these two losers that caused me to fail..." Sasuke's rant was cut short as Kakashi vanished in a burst of speed and appeared in front of Sasuke. The jounin then buried his fist into the Uchiha's gut.

Sasuke doubled over in pain and nearly vomited. Before he even had a chance to recover let alone retaliate he was hit with an incredible amount of killing intent. It made him break out into a cold sweat and it completely paralyzed him in fear to the point he could barely breathe as he saw his own death flash before his eyes.

Meanwhile, Naruto eye widened and had his jaw dropped in disbelieve at hearing the news they had failed. The blond was, of course, devastated and enraged. Normally he would be protesting up a storm after hearing such a thing, but he didn't due to being in shock.

'After all that work.' Naruto thought bitterly as he let his head drop in defeat.

Sakura was even in worse shape as she struggled not to cry at the thought of Sasuke considering her a loser.

Suddenly Naruto and Sakura saw Kakashi disappear and hit Sasuke hard and a moment later they were hit by a blast of killing intent that made what Sasuke did earlier look like a joke. Naruto and Sakura's eye widened in terror and they started to sweat profusely as breathing became very difficult for them; after a moment Sakura collapsed to her knees from the pressure with tears streaming down her face. Neither Naruto nor Sakura had to even look for the source because it was obvious who it was coming from. Both children saw the look in the silver haired man's eyes as he looked down on at the fallen Uchiha and it nearly made them piss themselves in terror, but Sakura got the worst of it since she was now close to fainting from being so scared.

'Note to self, don't piss this guy off.' Naruto and Sakura each thought in a panic.

"No Sasuke. In the end it was you who was technically the most responsible for this team's failure; albeit neither Naruto nor Sakura were any better than you." Kakashi explained with glare. No longer looking bored as he dropped the killing intent and the three genin breathed a sigh of relief at this; though in Sasuke's case it was nearly inaudible.

"What do you mean Kakashi?" was all Sasuke could say with a defiant look his eyes.

Kakashi sighed, "This entire team was a mess from the beginning." He let those words hang in the air for a few moments before speaking again.

"Naruto you were only interested in proving yourself and competing with Sasuke. What's worse is you're not taking the Shinobi path seriously by acting so recklessly. You will get yourself and your teammates killed if you continue to act like a child." Kakashi said matter of factly as he fixated a glare on his sensei's son. The blond prankster looked down in shame at the assessment.

Sakura almost smiled at seeing Naruto get put down so harshly. In the back of her mind she knew it was wrong, but she was so mad at Naruto that she just didn't care.

The silver haired man; having sensed a change in the pink haired girl mood then focused his glare on her and this caused Sakura to instantly wilt. "And Sakura you're not any better than Naruto… You were only interested in following Sasuke's lead, not only that but like Naruto you're not taking your training or this career seriously so you're just as childish and immature as he is in my eyes."

The pink haired girl mood dropped like a stone again at the assessment. She might have been in a worst condition than Naruto as she cried at being lumped into the same category as Naruto.

Sasuke at this point spoke out as he looked up at the silver haired man. "And what about me, I displayed the most skill here?"

Kakashi sighed again as he focused on the Uchiha again, who was still kneeling in front of him, "And that's just it Sasuke, your arrogance and selfishness is your greatest flaws; just like it is for Naruto and it's what makes you equally low ranked as Naruto and Sakura."

Sasuke frowned in anger at being considered on the same level as his two losers for teammates. Naruto gritted his teeth in anger as well at begin considered as bad as Sasuke and Sakura looked even more upset, but Kakashi didn't give one damn about their feelings. Future shinobi didn't have the luxury of being coddled, so Kakashi continued his lecture.

"Just like Naruto you thought you could go it alone, but unlike Naruto who didn't know any better, you should've had the intelligence and maturity to put your personal issues aside and work together with your team. Instead you've developed a belief that your teammates will slow you down, thus you are unwilling to work with them. This behavior shows me that you're not ready to be a shinobi, just like Naruto and Sakura aren't ready."

Kakashi sighed "I could go on, but the real reason for this team's failure is you refused to share with Naruto and convinced Sakura to do the same. In the long run your lack of trust will get you and your team killed if you continue going down the path you're walking Sasuke."

Sasuke looked down as he thought about what Kakashi had just said to him. The only sign of him being humbled was the flicker of shame that flashed in his eyes, but it disappeared just as quickly; replaced by his anger and a renewed look of contempt he shot his two teammates.

Kakashi shook his head; the jounin could clearly see that his words didn't get through, 'He still doesn't get it.' The one-eyed jounin thought sadly.

"WHAT! Sakura screeched, "But you told us not to give any food to the blond baka, so why did you say that if you expected us to do the opposite?" Sakura yelled as she finally had enough and spoke her mind.

Kakashi, however ignored her question and said, "If the three of you want to continue the path of shinobi you will have to take a remedial summer courses before trying again next year."

Naruto began to struggle against his bonds as his anger from before suddenly burst out, "YOU BASTARD… WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE US FOR OUR MISTAKES AND JUST DROP US BECAUSE WE DON'T MEASURE UP RIGHT NOW?" Naruto yelled furiously as he struggled against his ropes.

Kakashi just shook his head in disgust and left in a leaf Shunshin.

Naruto grumbled," That bastard just ignored me."

Sasuke looked at his former teammates with contempt. "Make no mistake regardless of what Kakashi said you two losers were the reason I failed." This shocked his former teammates. With his piece said Sasuke walked away with his hands in his pockets.

Sakura just stood there wide eyed and her mind could handle it so she spun around to face Naruto, with tears streaming down her face.

Sakura was the first to recover from her shock and rounded on Naruto, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT NARUTO BAKA, I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS!" Normally Sakura would have hit the blond baka, but in her current state she just ran away. Leaving Naruto still tied to the training post.

Naruto gritted his teeth at his failure and at the fact that he was abandoned by what should've been his team. His rage surged and his chakra answered his called. In an explosion of blue power and the ropes holding him were broken. The blond boy shot to his feet as he roared in anger to the heavens.

"TO HELL WITH YOU!" I'll SHOW YOU…YOU ONE EYED BASTARD THAT I WILL BECOME A SHINOBI AND THAT I CAN CHANGE MYSELF!" Naruto screamed in frustration as his chakra whipped around wildly.

Naruto eyes widened as he realized the way he was behaving which threw cold ice on his rage. His chakra dispersed as he tried to calm himself by closing his eyes and thinking of the blue haired Hyuga girl that is his best friend. He realized that he needed to see Hinata, so with that in mind, Naruto ran towards the Hyuga compound.

.

Chapter end.

Author note. I don't own Naruto or any other series that I may take inspiration from, it belongs to Kishimoto or to their prospective creators.

This is a challenge from Solvdrage so I want to give a shout out to the creator of this challenge. This is my first fanfiction so it probably won't be any good, however I hope with time I can improve any reviews are welcome here.

I was thinking of having Sakura changing her perception of both Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura would have seen Naruto in a better light while seeing Sasuke's flaws for the first time. The reason I didn't go that way is I wanted team seven to be unsalvageable. That said Sakura won't see Naruto as a demon, monster or whatever, however she will dislike him more than she did in canon. As for Naruto, while it looks like he will remain canon. He won't remain canon for long, neither in his abilities or his personality. That said I'm not going to completely do away with his canon personality either.

I'm looking for a beta. Not only to help me edit, but to be someone to discuss the story with as well.

'Regular. ' Human thoughts.

"Regular. "Human speech.

'Bold.' Bijuu/Summons/second personality thoughts.

"Bold." Bijuu/Summons /Possessed individual.

Italics flashback