Warning: This will contain shounen ai of the SasuNaru variety. If that
makes you nervous, stop right here, hit the back button and go on as if you
never saw this story. For those of you anticipating SasuNaru, it will be a
slow developing thing, so please be patient.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, of course not. Isn't that basically a given?
--------
Prologue and a Beginning
History written by men has never been too accurate or very truthful, always swayed by the whims of the writer and the bias of society, but one thing was a clear fact even in those skewed annals. One man had turned the tides of time to his favor some ten years ago, marching upon his neighboring countries with armies of destruction and conquest, mercilessly turning the once peaceful land of Fire into an embodiment of its name.
It was ten years ago, that the country of Sound, a small, seemingly insignificant scrawl on a map, had attacked every country that it did not consider an ally, tromping over them like a giant over an anthill, killing all who got in its way without distinguishing between soldier and innocent. Fire country, being its foremost enemy, had suffered the most devastation out of everyone involved, its armies of skilled ninjas decimated before a force too great for anyone to have ever imagined.
Ten years ago, Fire country lost the battle of Borderline and lost most its lands and people to the country of Sound. The horrible loss had forced survivors to retreat to Konoha, their last stronghold, their only measure of hope. Ever since then, Konoha could only send out limited number of soldiers to fight the unending battles on the bloody fields outside Konoha, just barely managing to keep the enemy from the gates.
The losses were great, the number of able bodied soldiers decreased every day the war raged, and so, the leader of Fire country, the Third Hokage as he was diademed, set forth a law that might have seemed heartless in gentler times. He decided that since there were not enough adults to fill the space of soldiers, so it must fall to the children.
That is how the Special Academy was formed. That is how the children of Konoha began training as soldiers. That is how destiny was put into motion for a select group of children.
--
In his heart, he knew that he could have done better. He knew that had he studied a little harder, maybe even trained a bit more, he could have passed with top scores in his class and gotten into the Special Academy as a star.
It was just too bad that he was too damned lazy to care about any of that stuff.
Nara Shikamaru, a fifteen year old boy of too little ambition and too many complaints, pondered about his acceptance into the Special Academy a bit more before slouching off to the main building where he was supposed to meet the rest of his battalion. From the looks of the graduating class, it seemed that only nine or ten of his classmates had actually passed the tests to get into the Special Academy, himself included, but he could care less about that. All he wanted to do was get to the building, find out who his roommate would be and get some sleep.
He knew from the letter sent by the Academy office that he was a part of the 121st Battalion, and that his team would consist of twelve soldiers and four commanding officers. Besides that, no one had deemed it important enough to tell him, and he had not cared enough to inquire.
'Ah, well,' he thought as he passed through the front doors, 'I guess I'll find out all that soon enough..'
--
Haruno Sakura, the pink haired vision of loveliness, sat only three chairs away from his devoted eyes, her smile enchanting and her green eyes sparkling. He had known that Sakura had aimed to get into the Special Academy and had tried his best so that he could go with her. Now, it seemed that all his sleepless nights and migraine headaches have paid off; after all, was he, Uzumaki Naruto, not sitting in the same room with his dream girl, in the Special Academy, and in the same battalion at that?
Somebody upstairs certainly must have loved him, because it was too wonderful to be true.
He had loved her since he was too young to know the difference between boys and girls, and had followed her around ever since then despite the constant put downs, turn downs and god knows how many physical assaults from the pink goddess. During school, when they had been learning the various arts of the ninja, he had sought to impress her with his stylish moves, but she had never paid attention. But then again, that might not have been so bad, since he did mess up most of the times and had been laughed at more than admired.
Actually, Naruto could not remember being admired at any point, but that was beside the point. Admired or not, messed up or not, here he was, in the Special Academy. That alone must show Sakura that he was not a loser, that his blond, sunny hair did not mean his head was as empty as it stereotyped and that he did indeed have a chance to be in her presence without feeling her wrath.
Naruto's intense scrutiny of his position in relation to Sakura blocked out all other things around him, such as the fact that other members of the battalion were trickling in one by one. Had he paid attention, he would have realized that most of them were from his graduating class, and that each and every one of them was giving him a look that was a cross between confusion and utter surprise.
"Hey," whispered Shino as he sat down next to Shikamaru, "why is Naruto here?"
Shikamaru picked his head up from the desk to stare indignantly at Shino who had bothered his near venture into sleep. Aburame Shino, he had not changed much since graduation, but who could tell with half his face covered by the raised collar of his coat and his eyes behind those creepy sunglasses?
"He must've passed. Or he's trespassing. I don't care."
It was rather troublesome that Shino had brought up the question, however, since he had been wondering about that himself. How had Naruto come to be in the Special Academy when Shikamaru knew for a fact that the boy had failed practically every exam ever given in the school? Not to mention, Naruto had been terrible at all types of jutsus, an essential and mandatory skill for anyone to get into the Special Academy. In one incident, Naruto had somehow succeeded in blowing up a part of their classroom with his failed fire jutsu and had sent their teacher, Iruka, to the emergency room.
Shikamaru narrowed his brown eyes as he stared at Naruto's back, as if staring hard enough could bring him the answer, but at that moment, yet another classmate from his class entered and broke his concentration by sitting himself directly in his line of sight to Naruto.
"Well, well," muttered Shikamaru, "if it isn't the prince himself.."
Snorting to himself, Shikamaru buried his head into his arms on his desk, protecting his ears from what could be a very loud and piercing noise.
"Sasuke-kun!!!!!!"
Everyone, with the exception of Shikamaru who had already taken preventive measures, cringed in pain, as a blur of long blond hair streaked from one end of the classroom to the other in a pace so fast that it created a tailspin wind behind her. Aforementioned Sasuke sat impassive in his chair, not paying attention to the adoring mass of female standing a little too close to him.
"I knew we'd be in the same battalion!" gushed Ino, her blue eyes wide and sparkling with joy. She would have continued on with the gushing, but soon she was ousted from Sasuke's side by Sakura, her best friend and worst enemy.
"My, aren't we a little forward, Ino?"
"My, aren't we a little ugly, Sakura?"
The two raging females stared and growled at each other over Sasuke's dark mop of hair, their arms raised in fighting stances and their chakra level spiking. Sasuke merely stood and moved to another chair, away from the two girls fighting over his non-attention like two squirrels over a nut.
Throughout all this, Naruto could only frown in heartbreak. Sakura, his vision of perfection, was only paying attention to Sasuke again. She had never even deigned to give him the time of day, but when Sasuke showed up, she would cater to his every whim.
That is, if Uchiha Sasuke even had a whim. Naruto wasn't so sure if Sasuke had whims, or emotions.
That aside, it ticked him off that Sasuke, who had the adoring attention of Sakura, did not even appreciate what he had. And what did Sakura, or any other female in existence, see in Sasuke anyway? Naruto turned his baby blue eyes to the Uchiha boy and shook his head. He could see nothing too different that set Sasuke so far apart from him. Sure, the guy might have been good looking in that ice man kind of way, what with his dark, almost bluish hair, complemented by his black eyes and pale skin. Yeah, Naruto thought, Sasuke might be a good looking guy, even if he looked somewhat like a frozen corpse.
Okay, sure, Sasuke might be better looking than him.. and he was taller, but then again, who the hell wasn't.. and he was smarter if their test scores told anything.. and he was better at jutsu, be it ninjutsu, genjutsu or taijutsu, but hell, everyone was.. and he was the last of the illustrious and powerful Uchiha clan.. and he was rich..
Naruto stopped before he could go on. This was depressing him.
But damn it, they were on equal ground now, weren't they? They were both in the Special Academy, so what did it matter if Sasuke got in with the highest scores and he had barely squeaked by the skin of his teeth? Setting his chin at a confident angle, Naruto decided it was time to make sure Sakura knew that he was alive and on the same level as Sasuke. He looked at Sakura, still engaged in a stare battle with Ino, then at Sasuke who sat between him and the object of his affections, girded up his proverbial loins and stood. He would walk up to Sakura, show her that he was as good, if not better than Sasuke somehow, and make his mark.
So intent was he on Sakura, so concentrated on her beautiful form as he was, Naruto failed to notice that there was an extraneous chair in his way. Therefore, he could only gasp in surprise when he tripped and plunged towards the floor face first.
Lucky for him, his face did not meet the floor, but landed on something a bit softer, a little more yielding. He registered that whatever his face had smashed into was somewhat pleasant and warm, and he sighed in relief. At least he had not broken his nose for that would not have impressed Sakura any.
Then it actually registered in his brain just what that something his face was on. It was a lap. For a blissful moment, Naruto pictured it was Sakura's lap and felt a blush creep onto his face, but the next moment, he realized something. His left cheek was against something that just did not belong on a female's anatomy.
'Oh, shit..' Naruto thought, just before he lifted his embarrassed and chagrined face towards the owner of the lap.
A very pissed off, disbelieving Uchiha Sasuke.
A brief thought of 'why do these things happen to me' occurred to Naruto before Sasuke stood and shoved Naruto's shocked body off him. Only then did Naruto see that it wasn't only Sasuke who was looking at him with murder in his eyes but Sakura and Ino had the same look in their eyes as well. Also, it seemed that everyone in their battalion had arrived and was staring at him with gaping jaws.
There could have been a messy slaughter of one Uzumaki Naruto, there could have been a massive round of laughter from his classmates about his current situation. Hell, there even could have been singing choirs of angels welcoming him into the bosom of heaven, but none of it happened because thankfully, at that moment of shocked dead air, one of their commanding officers walked in and demanded attention.
"What is going on already?"
All heads whipped towards the voice, from Naruto who was nearly prone on the floor to Sakura who was in the middle of picking up a chair to bash his head in.
There stood in the doorway, leaning rather casually against the door jamb, was a man with a cigarette dangling from his lips quirked into a smile. His dark eyes held amusement at the scene before him, and he did not quite know if he should scold the class for such a raucous behavior or compliment them for their liveliness.
"I hope all this energy won't disappear on the battlefield," he said as he walked casually into the midst of his shocked soldiers, "and I suggest you all take a seat."
Almost immediately, everyone took a seat at the nearest chair possible, and fortunately for Sakura, it was right next to Sasuke. Smiling smugly towards Ino who was a bit further off, Sakura tossed her hair right into Naruto's face just behind her.
Before Naruto could lodge a complaint, before he could even acknowledge that his beloved had touched him albeit accidentally and painfully, the commanding officer took the situation into his hands.
"Welcome to the 121st Battalion. I'm one of your commanders, Sarutobi Asuma."
With that, he looked around at the faces of his soldiers. There were twelve of them, and only three were not replacements. The three, Hyuuga Neji, TenTen and Rock Lee, were the only survivors of the 121st and had been with him for a year now. Only four weeks ago, the 121 was a fully manned twelve soldier team, but then, they had gone off to battle near the Borderline. And only those three and the four commanding officers had made it back alive. It was depressing to Asuma that he had survived so many skirmishes and battles only to see the young soldiers in his command get killed and injured beyond repair. Most of them were between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. If it wasn't for the war with the Sound, they should all be in school, worrying about tests and dating instead of stepping onto the slaughtering fields.
"Anyway," Asuma continued, clearing his head of sad thoughts, "welcome, nine rookies, and welcome back, Neji, TenTen, and Lee."
He nodded towards the three that he knew and received a nod from each of them. They were sixteen, and according to record, only a year older than the nine rookies. He wondered if they would all get along, if they would all get to be friends only to say goodbye when one of them died.
He wondered if he could take this for much longer.
--
"Someone up there really fucking hates me," grumbled Naruto as he lugged his bag to his newly assigned dormitory room. Earlier, he had been ecstatic, convinced that his luck had finally turned for the better, being so damned near Sakura. Then, as they say, the shit had hit the fan, in the form of his face plant into Sasuke's lap. Then more shit had come flying straight at him, because after the lengthy explanation and orientation by Asuma, he had found himself assigned to the same damned room as Uchiha Sasuke.
When he stepped into his new room, he found that the shit had not stopped flying just yet. He had somehow hoped that even if he was sharing a room with Sasuke, there would be enough space for him to set up camp and not ever interact with the boy. Unfortunately, such was not the case. There were three beds lined up against the far wall separated only by a small lamp table between them and the rest of the space only amounted to a tiny section with a low rising table with barely enough room for a cushion.
Basically, from the space available and the arrangement of furniture, it seemed that Naruto would have to spend his time in this room with Sasuke in his face.
"Yep, really hates me, damned bastards.."
Wait, three beds?
"Move, will you? I need to sleep."
Naruto took a reflexive step into the room before turning his head. At the door stood Nara Shikamaru, his face twisted into his usual expression of annoyance, his brown hair twitching like a cat in a stir.
"What are you doing.. I mean," Naruto stuttered, his brain unable to comprehend anything beyond the basic fact that Sasuke was his roommate, "are you here to switch with me?"
The last bit came out fast and with an upsurge of unbelievable hope, but Shikamaru rolled his eyes at Naruto's enthusiasm and merely stepped in.
"You idiot," Shikamaru sighed, "I'm your roommate, too."
Huh? Naruto owlishly stared at Shikamaru as he unpacked on top of his selected bed then reread the paper that had assigned him to a Sasuke filled hell. And lo and behold, right below Uchiha's name was..
Well, it had to be better than sharing a room alone with that stuck up ice prince, right?
But, wait, why the hell was Shikamaru unpacking on one of the beds against the wall?
"Shikamaru, NO! You have to take the middle!"
Eyes narrowed, Shikamaru ignored Naruto as he continued, but it was so hard, so very hard to ignore a hopping lump of blond energy yelling at him in panic.
"If you don't take the middle, then I'm gonna have to sleep near Sasuke! That's not cool! In fact, that is just fucking wrong!"
"Shut up, idiot," came a voice and Naruto whirled to see Sasuke, the one who was causing all this mental distress, standing casually in the middle of the room staring at him as if he was the disgusting one.
"I refuse to sleep here! I'm changing rooms!"
"You really are an idiot," Sasuke spat, "this is the military. You don't get room changes because you don't like your roommate."
"But.. but.." Naruto sputtered, "I hate you! And you hate me! One of us is gonna end up dead before the night's over!"
"Yeah, you, dead last."
"Fuck off, asshole!"
"Both of you, shut up! I'm going to sleep!"
Sasuke and Naruto turned in unison only to realize that they had gotten too close to each other during their argument when their faces ran into each other with a painful crack.
"I'm going to kill you," Naruto grated as he staggered off to the middle bed holding his nose which was most likely going to swell to the size of Sasuke's goddamned ego.
"Not if I kill you first," Sasuke growled as he walked to the bed furthest to the right, hoping against hope that he would not die from an aneurysm before he even saw battle.
--
In the building across from the boy's dormitory where Sasuke and Naruto were currently cursing everything holy and unholy, there stood the girl's dormitory. It was not nearly as large as the boy's seeing how there were more boys in the Special Academy than girls, but it was a nicer building filled with delicate female nuances.
At least, it would seem that way until anyone stepped anywhere near the room shared by Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino.
The two girls were currently in the middle of an argument to see who would get the bed by the window and who would be relegated to the shadowy wall. So far, they had argued about everything, from who got which desk, who got the first turn at the bathroom in the morning, and of course, who had the rights and the feminine wiles to date Uchiha Sasuke.
Their voices escalated, their tempers frayed, and the sounds carried through the half foot of concrete and steel into the room adjacent to theirs, right into the ears of Hyuuga Hinata and TenTen. When they used some colorful words, Hinata blushed delicately, infusing her pale cheeks with pink color as her silver eyes looked off in a random direction, pretending not to hear. Occasionally, she twirled her short, dark hair in her finger, trying to find a way to not eavesdrop on Sakura and Ino who just kept getting louder.
TenTen, on the other hand, had no such reservations and listened to every word unashamedly, even laughing softly at some of the more creative insults the girls threw around. It was good entertainment before going off to bed, really. She giggled some more as she unbound her brown hair from their restrains and ran a brush through it.
"Hinata, right?" She said, tilting her head towards her new roommate. "Don't be so shy. They're the ones screaming."
"It.. it's just that," Hinata stuttered as she twiddled her fingers together, "they.. well.. we shouldn't.."
'Good gracious, she wouldn't be so bad if she could finish a sentence..' thought TenTen as she put her brush down and lathered some lotion on her arms. Her roommate before Hinata, Masaki had been her name, had been a boisterous girl filled with words. She had grieved when Masaki died four weeks ago, and even now, there was a space in her heart that seemed empty. She wanted Hinata to be like Masaki, damn it, if only to fool her into thinking that someone who had become her friend had not died before her eyes.
"Anyway," TenTen said gently, almost sadly, "it sounds like they're having fun. That can't be so bad, you know?"
Not knowing what to say, Hinata remained quiet, but carefully eyed her roommate from the corner of her eyes, wishing that she could do something, say something to erase that haunted look that filled her brown eyes.
--
Asuma lit his cigarette, taking a deep drag as he considered the other three officers before him. The four of them had shared the command of the 121 for two years now, but till now, they had never dealt with a group almost entirely comprised of rookies. It worried Asuma that the children, despite being accepted into the Academy, were not ready. Hell, not even the three who had been with them a year were barely ready for battle and they had seen more action than they should have.
"Don't think so hard."
Asuma smiled at the gentle admonishment from his long time friend and fellow officer Yuuhi Kurenai. She was certainly a war hardened veteran, her clear ruby eyes never confused or anxious even in tough situations. Right now, she was sipping tea that tasted like sewage water that she insisted was good for her health, her pretty face crunching into disgust with every taste.
"So, what do you think of our new soldiers? Promising, aren't they?"
Kurenai sighed and turned to face Gai who had posed the enthusiastic question. That man was always so damned enthusiastic, whether it was about battle or about the lunch menu. When she had first met him two years ago to command the 121, she had been put off by his attitude and his bowl cut hair, but now, it was all very endearing, if not comforting. As long as Gai could be so enthused about everything, the world would not fall off its axis.
"I would say so, yes," replied Kurenai, "but I'm rather worried about.. well, you know."
"You shouldn't. He's just fine."
"Kakashi, do you ever worry about anything?" Kurenai huffed, her exasperation showing rather clearly.
"Not if I can help it." Kakashi replied, his only visible eye twinkling in nonchalant humor.
Asuma chuckled at Kurenai's sour expression and Gai nodded sagely, knowing that this was an old argument. Kakashi just sat and continued reading his book of illicitness, occasionally rubbing his hand against the mask that covered half his face.
"So, you think it's okay having the Demon Bound in our-"
"Kurenai," Kakashi said, his voice mild but somehow dangerous, "he has a name. I believe it's Uzumaki Naruto."
Silence stretched thickly as each pondered the complication in the form of Uzumaki Naruto. None of them knew whether or not he would be a great asset or a great liability, but they would not, could not, sign him out of the war effort.
As the Third Hokage had told them, Naruto could be the key to victory.
Or the last thing anyone ever saw before the world ended.
--
TBC
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, of course not. Isn't that basically a given?
--------
Prologue and a Beginning
History written by men has never been too accurate or very truthful, always swayed by the whims of the writer and the bias of society, but one thing was a clear fact even in those skewed annals. One man had turned the tides of time to his favor some ten years ago, marching upon his neighboring countries with armies of destruction and conquest, mercilessly turning the once peaceful land of Fire into an embodiment of its name.
It was ten years ago, that the country of Sound, a small, seemingly insignificant scrawl on a map, had attacked every country that it did not consider an ally, tromping over them like a giant over an anthill, killing all who got in its way without distinguishing between soldier and innocent. Fire country, being its foremost enemy, had suffered the most devastation out of everyone involved, its armies of skilled ninjas decimated before a force too great for anyone to have ever imagined.
Ten years ago, Fire country lost the battle of Borderline and lost most its lands and people to the country of Sound. The horrible loss had forced survivors to retreat to Konoha, their last stronghold, their only measure of hope. Ever since then, Konoha could only send out limited number of soldiers to fight the unending battles on the bloody fields outside Konoha, just barely managing to keep the enemy from the gates.
The losses were great, the number of able bodied soldiers decreased every day the war raged, and so, the leader of Fire country, the Third Hokage as he was diademed, set forth a law that might have seemed heartless in gentler times. He decided that since there were not enough adults to fill the space of soldiers, so it must fall to the children.
That is how the Special Academy was formed. That is how the children of Konoha began training as soldiers. That is how destiny was put into motion for a select group of children.
--
In his heart, he knew that he could have done better. He knew that had he studied a little harder, maybe even trained a bit more, he could have passed with top scores in his class and gotten into the Special Academy as a star.
It was just too bad that he was too damned lazy to care about any of that stuff.
Nara Shikamaru, a fifteen year old boy of too little ambition and too many complaints, pondered about his acceptance into the Special Academy a bit more before slouching off to the main building where he was supposed to meet the rest of his battalion. From the looks of the graduating class, it seemed that only nine or ten of his classmates had actually passed the tests to get into the Special Academy, himself included, but he could care less about that. All he wanted to do was get to the building, find out who his roommate would be and get some sleep.
He knew from the letter sent by the Academy office that he was a part of the 121st Battalion, and that his team would consist of twelve soldiers and four commanding officers. Besides that, no one had deemed it important enough to tell him, and he had not cared enough to inquire.
'Ah, well,' he thought as he passed through the front doors, 'I guess I'll find out all that soon enough..'
--
Haruno Sakura, the pink haired vision of loveliness, sat only three chairs away from his devoted eyes, her smile enchanting and her green eyes sparkling. He had known that Sakura had aimed to get into the Special Academy and had tried his best so that he could go with her. Now, it seemed that all his sleepless nights and migraine headaches have paid off; after all, was he, Uzumaki Naruto, not sitting in the same room with his dream girl, in the Special Academy, and in the same battalion at that?
Somebody upstairs certainly must have loved him, because it was too wonderful to be true.
He had loved her since he was too young to know the difference between boys and girls, and had followed her around ever since then despite the constant put downs, turn downs and god knows how many physical assaults from the pink goddess. During school, when they had been learning the various arts of the ninja, he had sought to impress her with his stylish moves, but she had never paid attention. But then again, that might not have been so bad, since he did mess up most of the times and had been laughed at more than admired.
Actually, Naruto could not remember being admired at any point, but that was beside the point. Admired or not, messed up or not, here he was, in the Special Academy. That alone must show Sakura that he was not a loser, that his blond, sunny hair did not mean his head was as empty as it stereotyped and that he did indeed have a chance to be in her presence without feeling her wrath.
Naruto's intense scrutiny of his position in relation to Sakura blocked out all other things around him, such as the fact that other members of the battalion were trickling in one by one. Had he paid attention, he would have realized that most of them were from his graduating class, and that each and every one of them was giving him a look that was a cross between confusion and utter surprise.
"Hey," whispered Shino as he sat down next to Shikamaru, "why is Naruto here?"
Shikamaru picked his head up from the desk to stare indignantly at Shino who had bothered his near venture into sleep. Aburame Shino, he had not changed much since graduation, but who could tell with half his face covered by the raised collar of his coat and his eyes behind those creepy sunglasses?
"He must've passed. Or he's trespassing. I don't care."
It was rather troublesome that Shino had brought up the question, however, since he had been wondering about that himself. How had Naruto come to be in the Special Academy when Shikamaru knew for a fact that the boy had failed practically every exam ever given in the school? Not to mention, Naruto had been terrible at all types of jutsus, an essential and mandatory skill for anyone to get into the Special Academy. In one incident, Naruto had somehow succeeded in blowing up a part of their classroom with his failed fire jutsu and had sent their teacher, Iruka, to the emergency room.
Shikamaru narrowed his brown eyes as he stared at Naruto's back, as if staring hard enough could bring him the answer, but at that moment, yet another classmate from his class entered and broke his concentration by sitting himself directly in his line of sight to Naruto.
"Well, well," muttered Shikamaru, "if it isn't the prince himself.."
Snorting to himself, Shikamaru buried his head into his arms on his desk, protecting his ears from what could be a very loud and piercing noise.
"Sasuke-kun!!!!!!"
Everyone, with the exception of Shikamaru who had already taken preventive measures, cringed in pain, as a blur of long blond hair streaked from one end of the classroom to the other in a pace so fast that it created a tailspin wind behind her. Aforementioned Sasuke sat impassive in his chair, not paying attention to the adoring mass of female standing a little too close to him.
"I knew we'd be in the same battalion!" gushed Ino, her blue eyes wide and sparkling with joy. She would have continued on with the gushing, but soon she was ousted from Sasuke's side by Sakura, her best friend and worst enemy.
"My, aren't we a little forward, Ino?"
"My, aren't we a little ugly, Sakura?"
The two raging females stared and growled at each other over Sasuke's dark mop of hair, their arms raised in fighting stances and their chakra level spiking. Sasuke merely stood and moved to another chair, away from the two girls fighting over his non-attention like two squirrels over a nut.
Throughout all this, Naruto could only frown in heartbreak. Sakura, his vision of perfection, was only paying attention to Sasuke again. She had never even deigned to give him the time of day, but when Sasuke showed up, she would cater to his every whim.
That is, if Uchiha Sasuke even had a whim. Naruto wasn't so sure if Sasuke had whims, or emotions.
That aside, it ticked him off that Sasuke, who had the adoring attention of Sakura, did not even appreciate what he had. And what did Sakura, or any other female in existence, see in Sasuke anyway? Naruto turned his baby blue eyes to the Uchiha boy and shook his head. He could see nothing too different that set Sasuke so far apart from him. Sure, the guy might have been good looking in that ice man kind of way, what with his dark, almost bluish hair, complemented by his black eyes and pale skin. Yeah, Naruto thought, Sasuke might be a good looking guy, even if he looked somewhat like a frozen corpse.
Okay, sure, Sasuke might be better looking than him.. and he was taller, but then again, who the hell wasn't.. and he was smarter if their test scores told anything.. and he was better at jutsu, be it ninjutsu, genjutsu or taijutsu, but hell, everyone was.. and he was the last of the illustrious and powerful Uchiha clan.. and he was rich..
Naruto stopped before he could go on. This was depressing him.
But damn it, they were on equal ground now, weren't they? They were both in the Special Academy, so what did it matter if Sasuke got in with the highest scores and he had barely squeaked by the skin of his teeth? Setting his chin at a confident angle, Naruto decided it was time to make sure Sakura knew that he was alive and on the same level as Sasuke. He looked at Sakura, still engaged in a stare battle with Ino, then at Sasuke who sat between him and the object of his affections, girded up his proverbial loins and stood. He would walk up to Sakura, show her that he was as good, if not better than Sasuke somehow, and make his mark.
So intent was he on Sakura, so concentrated on her beautiful form as he was, Naruto failed to notice that there was an extraneous chair in his way. Therefore, he could only gasp in surprise when he tripped and plunged towards the floor face first.
Lucky for him, his face did not meet the floor, but landed on something a bit softer, a little more yielding. He registered that whatever his face had smashed into was somewhat pleasant and warm, and he sighed in relief. At least he had not broken his nose for that would not have impressed Sakura any.
Then it actually registered in his brain just what that something his face was on. It was a lap. For a blissful moment, Naruto pictured it was Sakura's lap and felt a blush creep onto his face, but the next moment, he realized something. His left cheek was against something that just did not belong on a female's anatomy.
'Oh, shit..' Naruto thought, just before he lifted his embarrassed and chagrined face towards the owner of the lap.
A very pissed off, disbelieving Uchiha Sasuke.
A brief thought of 'why do these things happen to me' occurred to Naruto before Sasuke stood and shoved Naruto's shocked body off him. Only then did Naruto see that it wasn't only Sasuke who was looking at him with murder in his eyes but Sakura and Ino had the same look in their eyes as well. Also, it seemed that everyone in their battalion had arrived and was staring at him with gaping jaws.
There could have been a messy slaughter of one Uzumaki Naruto, there could have been a massive round of laughter from his classmates about his current situation. Hell, there even could have been singing choirs of angels welcoming him into the bosom of heaven, but none of it happened because thankfully, at that moment of shocked dead air, one of their commanding officers walked in and demanded attention.
"What is going on already?"
All heads whipped towards the voice, from Naruto who was nearly prone on the floor to Sakura who was in the middle of picking up a chair to bash his head in.
There stood in the doorway, leaning rather casually against the door jamb, was a man with a cigarette dangling from his lips quirked into a smile. His dark eyes held amusement at the scene before him, and he did not quite know if he should scold the class for such a raucous behavior or compliment them for their liveliness.
"I hope all this energy won't disappear on the battlefield," he said as he walked casually into the midst of his shocked soldiers, "and I suggest you all take a seat."
Almost immediately, everyone took a seat at the nearest chair possible, and fortunately for Sakura, it was right next to Sasuke. Smiling smugly towards Ino who was a bit further off, Sakura tossed her hair right into Naruto's face just behind her.
Before Naruto could lodge a complaint, before he could even acknowledge that his beloved had touched him albeit accidentally and painfully, the commanding officer took the situation into his hands.
"Welcome to the 121st Battalion. I'm one of your commanders, Sarutobi Asuma."
With that, he looked around at the faces of his soldiers. There were twelve of them, and only three were not replacements. The three, Hyuuga Neji, TenTen and Rock Lee, were the only survivors of the 121st and had been with him for a year now. Only four weeks ago, the 121 was a fully manned twelve soldier team, but then, they had gone off to battle near the Borderline. And only those three and the four commanding officers had made it back alive. It was depressing to Asuma that he had survived so many skirmishes and battles only to see the young soldiers in his command get killed and injured beyond repair. Most of them were between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. If it wasn't for the war with the Sound, they should all be in school, worrying about tests and dating instead of stepping onto the slaughtering fields.
"Anyway," Asuma continued, clearing his head of sad thoughts, "welcome, nine rookies, and welcome back, Neji, TenTen, and Lee."
He nodded towards the three that he knew and received a nod from each of them. They were sixteen, and according to record, only a year older than the nine rookies. He wondered if they would all get along, if they would all get to be friends only to say goodbye when one of them died.
He wondered if he could take this for much longer.
--
"Someone up there really fucking hates me," grumbled Naruto as he lugged his bag to his newly assigned dormitory room. Earlier, he had been ecstatic, convinced that his luck had finally turned for the better, being so damned near Sakura. Then, as they say, the shit had hit the fan, in the form of his face plant into Sasuke's lap. Then more shit had come flying straight at him, because after the lengthy explanation and orientation by Asuma, he had found himself assigned to the same damned room as Uchiha Sasuke.
When he stepped into his new room, he found that the shit had not stopped flying just yet. He had somehow hoped that even if he was sharing a room with Sasuke, there would be enough space for him to set up camp and not ever interact with the boy. Unfortunately, such was not the case. There were three beds lined up against the far wall separated only by a small lamp table between them and the rest of the space only amounted to a tiny section with a low rising table with barely enough room for a cushion.
Basically, from the space available and the arrangement of furniture, it seemed that Naruto would have to spend his time in this room with Sasuke in his face.
"Yep, really hates me, damned bastards.."
Wait, three beds?
"Move, will you? I need to sleep."
Naruto took a reflexive step into the room before turning his head. At the door stood Nara Shikamaru, his face twisted into his usual expression of annoyance, his brown hair twitching like a cat in a stir.
"What are you doing.. I mean," Naruto stuttered, his brain unable to comprehend anything beyond the basic fact that Sasuke was his roommate, "are you here to switch with me?"
The last bit came out fast and with an upsurge of unbelievable hope, but Shikamaru rolled his eyes at Naruto's enthusiasm and merely stepped in.
"You idiot," Shikamaru sighed, "I'm your roommate, too."
Huh? Naruto owlishly stared at Shikamaru as he unpacked on top of his selected bed then reread the paper that had assigned him to a Sasuke filled hell. And lo and behold, right below Uchiha's name was..
Well, it had to be better than sharing a room alone with that stuck up ice prince, right?
But, wait, why the hell was Shikamaru unpacking on one of the beds against the wall?
"Shikamaru, NO! You have to take the middle!"
Eyes narrowed, Shikamaru ignored Naruto as he continued, but it was so hard, so very hard to ignore a hopping lump of blond energy yelling at him in panic.
"If you don't take the middle, then I'm gonna have to sleep near Sasuke! That's not cool! In fact, that is just fucking wrong!"
"Shut up, idiot," came a voice and Naruto whirled to see Sasuke, the one who was causing all this mental distress, standing casually in the middle of the room staring at him as if he was the disgusting one.
"I refuse to sleep here! I'm changing rooms!"
"You really are an idiot," Sasuke spat, "this is the military. You don't get room changes because you don't like your roommate."
"But.. but.." Naruto sputtered, "I hate you! And you hate me! One of us is gonna end up dead before the night's over!"
"Yeah, you, dead last."
"Fuck off, asshole!"
"Both of you, shut up! I'm going to sleep!"
Sasuke and Naruto turned in unison only to realize that they had gotten too close to each other during their argument when their faces ran into each other with a painful crack.
"I'm going to kill you," Naruto grated as he staggered off to the middle bed holding his nose which was most likely going to swell to the size of Sasuke's goddamned ego.
"Not if I kill you first," Sasuke growled as he walked to the bed furthest to the right, hoping against hope that he would not die from an aneurysm before he even saw battle.
--
In the building across from the boy's dormitory where Sasuke and Naruto were currently cursing everything holy and unholy, there stood the girl's dormitory. It was not nearly as large as the boy's seeing how there were more boys in the Special Academy than girls, but it was a nicer building filled with delicate female nuances.
At least, it would seem that way until anyone stepped anywhere near the room shared by Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino.
The two girls were currently in the middle of an argument to see who would get the bed by the window and who would be relegated to the shadowy wall. So far, they had argued about everything, from who got which desk, who got the first turn at the bathroom in the morning, and of course, who had the rights and the feminine wiles to date Uchiha Sasuke.
Their voices escalated, their tempers frayed, and the sounds carried through the half foot of concrete and steel into the room adjacent to theirs, right into the ears of Hyuuga Hinata and TenTen. When they used some colorful words, Hinata blushed delicately, infusing her pale cheeks with pink color as her silver eyes looked off in a random direction, pretending not to hear. Occasionally, she twirled her short, dark hair in her finger, trying to find a way to not eavesdrop on Sakura and Ino who just kept getting louder.
TenTen, on the other hand, had no such reservations and listened to every word unashamedly, even laughing softly at some of the more creative insults the girls threw around. It was good entertainment before going off to bed, really. She giggled some more as she unbound her brown hair from their restrains and ran a brush through it.
"Hinata, right?" She said, tilting her head towards her new roommate. "Don't be so shy. They're the ones screaming."
"It.. it's just that," Hinata stuttered as she twiddled her fingers together, "they.. well.. we shouldn't.."
'Good gracious, she wouldn't be so bad if she could finish a sentence..' thought TenTen as she put her brush down and lathered some lotion on her arms. Her roommate before Hinata, Masaki had been her name, had been a boisterous girl filled with words. She had grieved when Masaki died four weeks ago, and even now, there was a space in her heart that seemed empty. She wanted Hinata to be like Masaki, damn it, if only to fool her into thinking that someone who had become her friend had not died before her eyes.
"Anyway," TenTen said gently, almost sadly, "it sounds like they're having fun. That can't be so bad, you know?"
Not knowing what to say, Hinata remained quiet, but carefully eyed her roommate from the corner of her eyes, wishing that she could do something, say something to erase that haunted look that filled her brown eyes.
--
Asuma lit his cigarette, taking a deep drag as he considered the other three officers before him. The four of them had shared the command of the 121 for two years now, but till now, they had never dealt with a group almost entirely comprised of rookies. It worried Asuma that the children, despite being accepted into the Academy, were not ready. Hell, not even the three who had been with them a year were barely ready for battle and they had seen more action than they should have.
"Don't think so hard."
Asuma smiled at the gentle admonishment from his long time friend and fellow officer Yuuhi Kurenai. She was certainly a war hardened veteran, her clear ruby eyes never confused or anxious even in tough situations. Right now, she was sipping tea that tasted like sewage water that she insisted was good for her health, her pretty face crunching into disgust with every taste.
"So, what do you think of our new soldiers? Promising, aren't they?"
Kurenai sighed and turned to face Gai who had posed the enthusiastic question. That man was always so damned enthusiastic, whether it was about battle or about the lunch menu. When she had first met him two years ago to command the 121, she had been put off by his attitude and his bowl cut hair, but now, it was all very endearing, if not comforting. As long as Gai could be so enthused about everything, the world would not fall off its axis.
"I would say so, yes," replied Kurenai, "but I'm rather worried about.. well, you know."
"You shouldn't. He's just fine."
"Kakashi, do you ever worry about anything?" Kurenai huffed, her exasperation showing rather clearly.
"Not if I can help it." Kakashi replied, his only visible eye twinkling in nonchalant humor.
Asuma chuckled at Kurenai's sour expression and Gai nodded sagely, knowing that this was an old argument. Kakashi just sat and continued reading his book of illicitness, occasionally rubbing his hand against the mask that covered half his face.
"So, you think it's okay having the Demon Bound in our-"
"Kurenai," Kakashi said, his voice mild but somehow dangerous, "he has a name. I believe it's Uzumaki Naruto."
Silence stretched thickly as each pondered the complication in the form of Uzumaki Naruto. None of them knew whether or not he would be a great asset or a great liability, but they would not, could not, sign him out of the war effort.
As the Third Hokage had told them, Naruto could be the key to victory.
Or the last thing anyone ever saw before the world ended.
--
TBC