From Day One

An Alternate Universe Fanfiction

Chapter One

By Catrina

A/N: This is my first attempt at an AU story and my second attempt at a Naruto fic (for those who read One Moment), so please review. You'll find many pairings in here the main one being Naruto and Sasuke. There will also be het couples and slash pairins as well. I will warn as needed as the pairing come up.

As always these characters aren't mine!

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It wasn't that they didn't know each other. It was just that they didn't acknowledge each other, and that way was almost best. Because even though they didn't know each other they unknowingly competed against each other. One was number on in the class, while the other closer to last. One was extremely popular while the other one had only a few friends. One was surrounded by cold, rude people, but the other one was surrounded by laughter and friends. But the easiest way to compare them was by looks, because one was dark as night and the other as bright as sunshine. They were polar opposites.

Sasuke had pale skin but his eyes were dark as midnight and his hair darker if possible. Tall and lanky around 98 of the female population had a crush on him, the other 2 percent…were…well not interested in boys. The boy himself was stoic, no one was even sure if he could smile, or if he had a sense of humor, and while everyone liked him they kept their distance, and he never seemed to be surrounded by anyone as though he had his own buffer zone. He was class president and in a way had everyone's reverent respect, though the boy himself didn't seem to care one way or another. He was always the picture of decorum, uniform clean and pressed, tie held in place with a tie pin, black shoes shined, and occasionally you could catch him wearing the glasses he was told to wear when he read. He was indeed the picture perfect student.

Naruto on the other hand was as bright as sunshine. With a bright shock of blond hair, bright blue eyes, and huge smile, he drew others to him. He was tall, not as tall as Sasuke, and he had naturally tan skin, the only blemish to his skin was six small scars on his face that no one really questioned or even thought about, they were just part of Naruto. The boy himself refused to conform to the norm, always rebelling by never wearing his school tie, or wearing a bright orange shirt under the dark black uniform that was required for, the Konoha Private Academy. He was the picture of mischief and laughter and for the most part he was well loved if only by those close to him.

And for their two years of middle school and three years of high school they had been able to avoid each other. But it couldn't last forever. It was a fateful day when their names were read together to work on a project. How could it really be avoided with names like Uzumaki and Uchiha? But in the end they both looked at each other with surprise. The teacher seemed to pick up on the tension.

"Sauske, Naruto…is there a problem?" Kakashi asked, grey eyes eying first one student then the other. He took in the registered looks of surprise and wondered really if this was a great idea, but he trusted his 'associate'. It was true that Sasuke was far too isolated and the best person to stop that would be Naruto. He seemed to attract people to him with either intense like or dislike. He knew that there was no love loss between the two of them, but he wondered if it was simply because they didn't know each other, he guessed that they would soon see. But so far he had only seen them exchange glares, much like they were doing now; he had never seen the other boy gifted with Naruto's bright smile.

"Its fine, Sensei. We can work together." Sauske told him quick to be the model student. He sent a dark glare to the other boy who returned it with a stare of his own. The class seemed to be silent looking from one boy from the other. The teacher wasn't the only one who had picked up on the tension in the room, at this point in time it seemed tangible.

"Yeah, don't worry," Naruto stated as well with laughter, but most could tell it was forced. But still he turned his face back to the front as the rest of the class was paired off. Most of it wasn't a surprise, but this was. Naruto looked over to his partner and knew that this would be a disaster.

It wasn't exactly that he hated Sasuke, it was more that he hated everything about Sasuke. How the girls would fawn over him, how he easily got good grades, how he always went home to a family, how other's seemed to care about everything he did, how he never seemed to want for anything.

It seemed odd, really, Naruto knew that he had friends, plenty of them, and they spent time together, he always had people around him, but always felt just a little alone. But it made him wonder what exactly was going on. All of their teachers made sure not to pair the prince of the school with him, the nobody. He turned his eyes to his teacher studying him for a moment. He wondered what the man was actually up to. He quickly jotted down the assignment, a little upset about the amount of work that would go into it, then the bell was ringing.

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"I don't think it was a great idea." Kakashi leaned casually against Iruka's desk as he spoke reaching over to play with the other teacher's hair.

"What are you talking about?" Iruka asked, his eyes still on his desk as he slapped away the hand that was playing with his hair tie threatening to pull it out.

"Naruto and Sasuke." The hair tie was yanked from his hair and Iruka glared as his auburn hair fell in layers to his shoulders. "You're so pretty…" Iruka ignored the last comment and grabbed his hair tie back from his partner and placed it around his wrist knowing that it would just get pulled out again if he tried to place it back in his hair.

"Trust me, Naruto is just was Sasuke needs, that boy will turn into a frigid bastard like his brother if we don't step in and maybe he can be a calming influence on Naruto…god knows they both need help."

"Have you even met his brother?"

"Yeah, he's a bastard, really, the guy has much emotion as a worm and is colder then ice. Sasuke can be so much better then that and Naruto can learn from him…they can learn from each other."

"I don't know what you see in that kid, Sasuke has a future; Naruto has nothing going for him."

"Naruto is amazing and some day everyone will see it."

"So idealistic…it's so cute." Kakashi leaned forward kissing the other man on the lips.

"Can you ever be serious?"

"Well at least I did as you asked, and I would be dead two times over from the glares they sent me." Kakashi stated playing with his lover's hair, ignoring the hand batting him away.

"Well I couldn't do it, I teach math, and math doesn't require partner work outside of class. And would you stop that?" Iruka asked trying to jerk his head away, "We are at work." Kakashi leaned down to look closer at Iruka whose cheeks were just starting to fill with color.

"We've done a lot more in this office then just talk." Kakashi stated raising an eyebrow while pinning his boyfriend with a suggestive leer.

"Until we almost got caught by one of my students." The brunette stated pushing away from his desk to move to the filing cabinet to his left and filing the exams that he was working on. His office was of course connected to his classroom which left it open to students, personally he thought that Kakashi wanted to get caught, "You are a pervert and worse you're an exhibitionist, you want one of our students to catch us." Iruka slammed the cabinet shut and locked it but before he could turn around an arm snaked around his waist. Kakashi stood flush against him chest to back and leaned down to whisper in his ear.

"Why not? We could show them how to do it right." Kakashi laid a kiss on Iruka's neck as he dropped his head to his filing cabinet.

"Hopeless…you are hopeless." Iruka sighed giving up this battle.

"It's why you love me." Then again Iruka wasn't really fighting that hard anyway.

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Sasuke ate at one of the benches outside, enjoying the warm weather and crisp breeze. Glasses perched on his nose, he took notes as he paged through the text waiting for the bell to signal the end of lunch. A shadow fell over his book and he waited a moment for it to pass when it didn't he decided to look up.

Naruto squatted down coming eye level to Sasuke. If Sasuke wasn't used to calculating looks he may have squirmed, but instead he stared back and raised a dark brow in question.

"I don't see what's so special about you."

Sasuke's eye twitched and he felt a headache coming on.

"I mean, you're pale and your dark hair makes you look like death warmed over. And really, it's not like your really tall and muscular or anything. So what's the big deal about you?" Naruto seemed to ponder the question.

"You're an idiot." Sasuke told him, somewhat amazed by the audacity. Never had he had anyone come up to him and say that. What was so special?

"No, come on…tell me…why do you have all these girls fawning over you, and why does everyone… like care what you think…and what makes you worth it?" Blue eyes looked into his and for a moment he looked at Naruto…his opposite. If Sasuke was night, Naruto was day. He was really a handsome boy, bright blue eyes, tan skin, shorter then Sasuke, but more muscular. He knew very little about the person who kneeled in front of him right now. "Is it 'cause you're rich?" Naruto asked and Sasuke switched from studying the other boy to glaring.

"I'm not the only rich person at this school. It is a private school, most people have money…just like you do I'm sure." He watched as Naruto blinked then pulled away.

"Well, whatever… When do you want to start working on this project?" Naruto stood once again blocking the sun and casting his face and expression into shadows. Sauske wondered if he had hit a nerve, but he hadn't said anything untrue.

"Do you have the book?" Sasuke asked irritated, this boy got on his nerves.

"Nah, Kakashi-sensai will lend it to me. No big deal." Naruto shrugged his shoulders.

"Well how about you read it tonight then?" Sasuke felt he was talking to a child, "then we can watch the movie say Friday?" He still couldn't see Naruto's expression but he could tell he had just tensed up.

"Man it's like 500 pages!" Naruto exclaimed a little upset today was Monday, that left him only 4 days to read it.

"Is that to much for you?" Sasuke asked and even though he was sitting down and Naruto standing, it felt very much to Naruto that Sasuke was looking down on him.

"Whatever, do you have the movie?" Naruto asked.

"I've seen it; I'll rent it before I come over to your house."

"Your house at 9:00." Naruto objected. "My place is noisy."

"Fine, my house then, just get the book read."

"Yes sir!" The sarcasm was heavy as Naruto turned. Naruto felt his stare as he walked away, but was quickly distracted as a heavy arm fell around his shoulder.

"Heya, Naruto!"

"Kiba," The blond boy hung his head when he caught a glimpse of his friend's attire, "one of these days you are going to get in trouble for not wearing your blazer." Kiba had been one of his best friends for almost forever, only because they were so much alike. No one seemed to understand how both of them had such energy and could be so vocal. They were more like brothers the friends. Kiba had dark brown hair that fell in spikes around his face and shoulders and into his eyes. He was tan, tall, lanky, and seemed to walk with a clumsy grace, falling instead of sitting but always looking graceful. With bright eyes full of mischief Kiba was a force to be reckoned with, but the thing that stood out the most with Kiba were the red tribal markings that he wore on his face. He loved the here and now, but his family had history, and he stayed true wearing the red markings on his face each day, no one really questioned it anymore. But all of that made Kiba a walking contradiction. Most people actually found it intriguing.

"I haven't gotten in trouble yet. I doubt I will." He walked with his arm slung over Naruto's shoulder and it drew a couple odd stares but neither paid mind. They had heard the rumors that the two of them were 'together' and while it wasn't true it kept the rumor mills running. "So Uchiha, huh?"

"Yeah…you're lucky you got Sakura."

"Maybe I guess."

"He's gonna be a jerk about it. He wants me to have the book done by Thursday."

"Dude, man you have to work…like every day."

"I know, and I don't get off 'till 9:00 and with all the other stuff…" Naruto shook his head showing how little he really wanted to think about it.

"Well you could always just say, 'I have to work, why don't you read the book and I'll watch the movie'."

"I doubt that would work, like he even knows what real work is." Naruto had a valid point and Kiba agreed nodding.

"Probably never had to lift a finger." Kiba agreed, "Are you still gonna be able to come on Friday?" Kiba asked as he finally dropped his arm from his shoulder to pull the door open, and then allowed Naruto to walk in first. Kiba was the only openly gay boy in school and he had no shame in checking Naruto out whenever he could.

The blond haired boy looked over his shoulder with a glare, "Probably just gonna be late, now stop checking me out or I'll tell on you." Naruto was also the only person that knew who Kiba's crush was. Kiba looked offended for a moment but then just flashed him a big smile, showing off his bright white teeth.

"No you wouldn't. You like me to much to ruin my life."

"You never know, maybe telling him would solve all your problems." Naruto said really looking at his friend. No doubt Kiba was attractive, all sinewy muscle and lazy grace but the one time he and Kiba had kissed it had ended in laughter…really they had best friends ever since.

"I doubt it, can't read the guy for the life of me." Kiba laughed and drew the attention of some of the lower class girls they stared for a moment before he winked at them and then they giggled.

"That's why you like him."

"I know…but what about you and Mr. Pole-in-the-ass?" Naruto had to laugh at the description.

"You mean?"

"Like attraction, is there any sparks?"

"No sparks man. But he does seem lonely."

"By choice, he never comes outta that shell he's in."

"I know, but that used to be me too, until I came here and met all of you guys."

"Yeah, but you weren't the hottest guy in school either."

"He's not that hot."

"Man! Are you blind? I don't care much for him but at least I can see he's good looking." Kiba blinked in awe somewhat confused.

"Really he's pale and then he has really dark hair and eyes…isn't that like odd?" Naruto argued. The bell interrupted their argument, so the boys parted ways. At the end of the day, Naruto headed down to Kakashi's office, when he didn't find him there he headed to Iruka's office.

Peeking his head in cautiously, he peeked around the corner to see if Iruka was alone. The conservative teacher looked up and smiled.

"Naruto, come in, Kakashi's not here but he said that you would come by. He said to give this to you. May I ask why you are reading The Bourne Identity?"

"It's his latest project. We have to partner up, read the book, then watch the movie, then act out a scene from the book or movie."

"At least he didn't assign you Little Women." The teacher stated on a joke, he knew how cruel his lover could be when tempted.

"True, so why did he partner me and Sasuke together. All the other teachers are afraid to do it." Naruto asked knowing that Iruka would be honest.

"Maybe he hopes that you two can learn from each other." Naruto took the book from his hands and frowned.

"I doubt it. But hey I got to run, I have work at 4:00 and I have to change yet." Naruto barely heard the 'See ya' as it was said, but quickly got on his bike and rode home. He rode his bike down the alley and then chained it to the fire escape. He lived above a restaurant and basically worked the rent off. He was really lucky to have found this place, the lady who ran it was a little overbearing and was more prone to giving orders instead of asking, but Naruto was usually pretty good about being nice, besides he owed her so much. The restaurant that he helped out in was a small noodle place, known for their ramen, which was actually Naruto's favorite, but they had other stuff as well. Naruto helped out as needed, sometimes he was a cook, other times he would be a server, but he really was indebted to Tsunade. It was luck that she had found him, luck that she had trusted him, and luck that she had an apartment for rent. She never asked where he came from, or what he was doing and neither did her husband, they just said that he had to go to a good school. They just trusted him and let him live, and in return he worked his ass off. He thought that it was an even trade. Now seventeen almost eighteen he wasn't going to throw away what he had worked so hard for. He would live up to all their expectations.

Quickly running up the stairs he changed into his khakis and a white shirt and ran down to the restaurant.

"Hey Grandma!" He yelled out in greeting as he came in.

"I'm not your grandma! You're serving today, specials written on the board, first table was seated a couple minutes ago. You're late!" She turned hard amber eyes on him and he just smiled.

"Busy day at school." He told her.

"Well now busy day at work, get started." He owed her but damn she was mouthy.

"Yes Ma'am," He told her with a mock salute, then ducked to avoid the spatula thrown at his head. It did indeed prove to be a busy night at work, and even though he was only scheduled to 9:00 is last table didn't leave until quarter after ten. After that he helped clean up, and was in his room at 11:30. In the shower he washed quickly getting the smell of grease and cleaner out of his skin and hair, and then sat down at his kitchen table to start his homework. After that was done he looked at the soft-covered book in his bag. The book looked large and daunting and while he was tired he pulled it out of the bag and started the tedious task of reading the book. He was asleep by page three.

He woke up the next morning late, still slumped over the book at his kitchen table. In a hasty rush he got ready for school but when he got to his bike one of the tires was flat… it was going to be one of those days. He looked at his watch and realized he could still walk to school and still be on time. Coming out of the alley he ran into a familiar face.

"Hey Shikamaru!"

"Naruto." But the passing student barely passed him a glance as he watched the clouds in the sky.

"Have you ever run into anything?" Naruto asked the other boy. As if by instinct the other boy stopped walking as a cat was about to trip up his feet. He blinked and looked at Naruto narrowed dark eyes looked at him and smirked.

"Nope." The other boy wore his long dark hair in a spiky ponytail on the top of his head, and while it looked odd, no one really made fun of him, everyone knew that he wouldn't care. The boy was second in the class with out trying and it made most people wonder if the reason he wasn't already through college was because the boy was so un-motivated that he made a slug look like a speed demon.

"So what's going on?"

"Nothing." The two boys walked together, and Naruto filled up the air with talk while Shikamaru 'hmmm' or 'ummm' in response. It was only when Naruto asked a math question that he actually got more the a breath out of the man. While Shikamaru was known for not trying it didn't mean that he didn't understand. He actually understood better then most but only his friends were really aware of his intelligence. The one thing that was reliable was the Shikamaru would do his homework, then help you with yours, then bitch about it the whole time.

Shikamaru was shorter then Sasuke but had Naruto's build, more muscular then lanky. He was also dating the school bitch. But then it more along the lines of she said they were going out and it was to troublesome to deny it. So that was the way that it had been since the start of the school year about a month ago.

"How's Ino?"

"She's Ino." Shikamaru paused, eyes not shifting from the moving clouds, and waiting for the car that ran the red light.

"Man, that is eerie." Naruto had paused when he did, just because he had known Shikamaru to long to know that he was never really wrong.

"Listen to something other then yourself some time, and you'll be able to do the same thing." He looked over to Naruto with an almost smile, and Naruto glowed back at him.

"But that would mean that I would have to stop talking."

"Yeah, that was the…umpt…hi Kiba."

"How are my two favorite guys this morning?" Kiba graced them both with a bright smile and Naruto smiled while Shikamaru handed him a piece of paper. "What's this?" He asked grabbing the paper.

"Math homework."

"Man you rock!" Kiba yelled and Naruto looked over and couldn't help thinking that this part of life…the friendship part…was great.

However great that was though it didn't help with the fact that he couldn't seem to catch up, he used every study hall and break he had at school and work to read the book, but by Thursday afternoon he was still only half done. One of the servers didn't show up Thursday, so he once again picked up the slack, but at least Tsunade showed her thanks by feeding him, and by 4:00 in the morning he had only two chapters left. His friends had stopped bugging him during lunch and he had decided that he would do well on this project simply to show Sasuke that he wasn't that great. He had finished the book by the end of class Friday, but got stuck working until almost 8:00, when he ran upstairs and took a quick shower, then started the long trek to Sasuke's house.

Everyone knew where Sasuke lived. It was a place of legend really, the great Uchiha mansion, everyone has seen the outside yet no one had seen the inside. When he got to the drive way he realized that the entire grounds were fenced in. Going to the main gate he pushed what looked like a doorbell. The black screen above the button flickered and an older, sickly looking version of Sasuke appeared. He glared, as thought he was burdened with answering the call. Thrown for a loop he didn't speak right away.

"What?" The boy snapped from the other side.

"I'm here to see Sasuke. We are working on a school project." The picture flickered out and the gate opened. He walked up the walk and as he went to knock on the door it was pulled open. "Hey." For a moment he stood shocked. Sasuke looked a lot different out of school uniform. His jeans were dark and somewhat snug over the thighs but loosened as they fell over the knees and calves. He wore a dark blue sweater with a white button up shirt underneath. Blue really was his color, because for the first time, Naruto actually noticed that what Kiba had said was true, Sasuke was hot.

"Hey," he whispered but for some reason he thought that he was yelling. Sasuke stepped back and motioned him in with his hand.

"Good, you're on time; I have the movie started upstairs." Sasuke started then turned around and looked at Naruto. The boy looked slightly out of place in the foyer of his home. He was wearing greenish colored cargos with pockets and zippers and an orange t-shirt over a long sleeve white t-shirt and his hair seemed damp. He seemed like a bright star in the dark impersonal foyer of the home. He looked around eyes wide and looked a little awed and disgusted at the same time. Never had he had anyone come in the house and look disgusted. "Ready."

"You live here?" Naruto looked back at him as he turned over his shoulder.

"No…I just pretend to live here and but actually live in a car." Sasuke stated sarcastically not noticing the look of anger cross the face of the other teen.

"Let's get this over with." Naruto stated following the other up the stairs and to his room. He was disappointed to see that it was as impersonal as the rest of the house. They sat in uncomfortable silence while they watched the movie, and then shared notes. It was almost midnight before they had the outline for the report.

"So was that your brother?" Naruto asked packing his things up. Shikamaru's birthday was this week and the party was today. He was running late like he had told Kiba, but he doubted that they would be at the club when he finally got there.

"Yeah," He stated packing his things up as well, and then threw the bag down beside his bed.

"Must be nice." Naruto stated, before gathering what was left and dropping them in the bag.

"No, not really, sometimes I wish they would all disappear." Sasuke stated then shook his head surprised that he had been that honest.

"You don't mean that?" Naruto asked incredibly. "At least you have someone."

"What do you know?" Sasuke countered, this time he did notice the look that passed over his face.

"I know more then you think." Deciding to not get personal he went back to the project, "I'll write the report, you wanna do the visuals and comparison part of the paper?"

"Can you write an A paper, or should I do it all?"

"You're really a bastard you know that?" Naruto asked pinning the taller boy with a glare.

"And you're a loser turning into a nobody." Sasuke countered and before he knew what was happening he found himself sprawled on the floor, a throbbing in his cheek. Amazement flew across his features and lit up his dark eyes. "You hit me!" It came out in a shocked whisper.

Naruto really couldn't explain where the burst of temper had come from… maybe it had been all the taunts that seemed so familiar.

"You're a loser."

"Brat! You're going no where."

"You're useless, you can't do anything right!"

"You're a curse, kid, you're better off dead."

"You killed him, it was your fault."

"What right do you have to judge me. You're the loser. One day, I'll be better then you, and all the money and power in the world won't even buy you a look from me. And forget the project, I'll take care if it. I'll see myself out." He walked out the door, and down the hall. He passed Sasuke's brother without a glance but he could feel the other man looking at him. He just walked down the stairs and out the door, then off the property. He didn't stop walking until he got to Crazy, the underage club that he and his friends went to every Friday. He walked in the door and looked around quickly. It wasn't until he saw Kiba on a table waving at him that he realized they were still here. He smiled and walked over giving Shikamaru a big hug.

"Happy Birthday buddy. You to Ino."

"Whatever." He stated but the smirk on his face said he was happy that he made it. Looking around he noticed that everybody had made it this week. Kiba stood by Shikamaru and on his other side was Ino, who was talking to Sakura, Lee stood by her talking enthusiastically to Neji who was watching Hinta who was calming talking to Shino a blush on her cheek after noticing Neji direct stare.

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Well here is the start, please be sure to let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.

Cat