Chapter Text
It was a bright sunny day in the city of Konoha. It was also the first day of school for most students and that included Naruto Uzumaki. The almost five-year old blonde was currently asleep, wrapped in his large black comforter that had orange foxes running throughout the blanket.
“Naruto,” one of his father’s, Iruka, poked his head in from the doorway. “Naruto, it’s time to get up.”
Naruto slowly opened one eye, staring at him before closing it. “Don’t wanna.” He whined.
Iruka stepped into his bedroom, his arms crossed across his chest. “Naruto. Get up. It’s time for your first day of school.” His voice was stern and held no hints of patience.
Naruto groaned once before throwing his blankets off himself. “But I don’t wanna go! Why can’t granda ‘Riya play with me here?!”
Iruka walked closer to the little blonde and squatted on his knees. He looked him in the eye and gave him a sad smile and held onto his arms. “We talked about this, all big boys and girls have to go to school when they turn five. And school starts before your birthday, so you have to go now.”
Naruto sat up slowly, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. “That's not fair! I'm not even five and I hafta go!” He pouted, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the end of his bed.
Iruka laughed before standing up. “I know it's not fair, Naruto. But don't worry, you'll make a lot of friends and your cousin, Sakura, will be in your class too.”
Naruto perked up at name of his cousin. “Sakura? Really?! I can play with her there?” He jumped off his bed and followed his dad to the closet where Iruka pulled out his favorite orange T-shirt, and black shorts.
Iruka began to dress the little blonde. “Well, kind of. School isn't about playing, it's about learning.”
Naruto tilted his head in confusion. “Learning what?”
“Well, you learn to read, you learn Math, which is numbers, you learn a little science, you learn a lot of things!” Iruka stood up and smiled down at the blonde who was now fully dressed and pouting again.
“Learning sounds like a lot of work, Papa. I don't want to go to school! Even if Sakura is there!” He stomped his foot in anger.
“Naruto, it's not all at once. You have lots of breaks in the day where you can play. And everyday you learn a little bit more than the day before until you're as smart as me and Daddy.” Iruka smiled down at him.
Naruto's eyes widened in amazement. “Can I be smarter than you and Daddy?”
Iruka laughed heartily. “If you work hard enough you can!”
“Yeah! I'm gonna be the smartest person in the world!” Naruto exclaimed. He laughed and ran out of the room.
Iruka shook his head before following the laughing blonde down the stairs and into the kitchen.
Naruto laughed the whole way, only stopping once he was seated at the kitchen table.
Kakashi was cooking breakfast on the stove, eggs and bacon with a side of toast, when Iruka walked in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Kakashi smiled at him. “Morning, babe.”
“Good morning.” Iruka placed plates on the table for the three of them, along with silverware and glasses before sitting down next to Naruto.
“Daddy, guess what!” Naruto shouted.
Kakashi turned off the stove and glanced at Naruto. “What?”
“Papa says that if I work hard enough, I can be smarter than him and you! So that's what I'm going to do! I'm going to be the smartest person in the whole world!”
Kakashi chuckled and winked at Iruka as he giggled. “Is that so?” He started to serve the food and placed the pan in the sink. “That sounds like a lot of hard work.” He sat down and the three of them began to eat.
“Mhmfph!” Naruto confirmed, mouth full of food. “But ith woll be werth it!” He tried to reply.
“Naruto!” Iruka scolded. “Don't talk with food in your mouth!”
Naruto quickly swallowed, blushing. “Sorry, Papa.”
The three of them finished up breakfast and soon were on their way to school.
“So you'll be going with me, since I work at your school.” Iruka said to Naruto.
“You'll be my teacher?!” Naruto asked happily.
“No, not yet. Once you're on fifth grade, I'll probably be your teacher.” He smiled down.
“Where does Daddy work?” Naruto asked as Iruka placed him in his car seat and he waved at Kakashi’s car as it backed out of the driveway.
“Daddy works at the high school. So when you're much older, he'll be teaching you.” Iruka replied after climbing into the driver's seat. He started the quick drive to the school and parked his car in the faculty parking lot.
Iruka walked Naruto to his classroom, the little hand grasped in his own. When they reached the open door, Naruto poked his head in and immediately spotted his pink-haired cousin. “Sakura!” He exclaimed and quickly let go of Iruka’s hand.
“I was expecting a much sadder goodbye.” Iruka remarked to the teacher with a frown. “Bye Naruto!” He shouted after the blonde.
Naruto quickly stopped and turned around before giving Iruka a large grin. “Bye Papa!” He turned back around and continued to run to where Sakura was.
“Hi Naruto!” Sakura greeted as she patted the empty desk next to her. “I saved you a seat!”
“Thanks!” Naruto sat down in his seat, throwing his book bag underneath his desk.
“This is Ino, she's my best friend and my neighbor!” Sakura pointed at a blonde-haired, blue eyed girl sitting next to her.
“Hi Ino, I'm Naruto!” He smiled brightly at the girl who smiled back.
“Hi, Naruto!” Ino pointed at a kid who looked like he was sleeping in the desk next to her. “This is Shikamaru. He's one of my friends. And Chouji, too!” She pointed at the kid in front of them who turned around, waving while holding a bag of chips. “And they have a bunch of friends too! You'll have all the friends in no time!”
Naruto stared at her wide eyed. “Really?”
Sakura nodded. “Yeah! Ino knows everyone!”
Naruto stared at her in amazement until a kid walking into the room caught his attention. He had dark black hair and dark eyes. Naruto noticed the kid also looked very sad. He frowned as he watched the kid sit in the far corner of the room, alone. He watched him for a little bit until a hand waved in front of his face.
“Huh?” He blinked before turning to his left to see a kid with shaggy brown hair and long canine teeth smiling at him.
“Hey, my name's Kiba! I'm one of Shikamaru’s friends!” He held out his hand and Naruto started at it before bringing up his own hand and placing it into Kiba’s.
Kiba laughed at Naruto's confused expression. “It's called a handshake.”
Naruto started to shake his hand in a chaotic manner and Kiba began to laugh harder. Naruto smiled slightly at him and then noticed the sad kid looking back at him. He gave him his full attention and the kid quickly faced the front again.
“I like you!” Kiba said, after finishing his laughter. “We're going to be good friends!”
“No, we're gonna be best friends!” Naruto exclaimed.
“Alright everybody, settle down and welcome to your first day of school, and the first day of kindergarten!”
After a couple hours of learning and then a half hour of lunch, the teacher announced that they would then have recess, a time for them to all go outside and play off their energy before the second half of the school day started.
Naruto met all of Ino’s friends during lunch. Besides him, Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Kiba, he met Shino a kid obsessed with anything related to bugs, and then he met Hinata a really shy girl who stuttered very much. Naruto enjoyed the fact that he met so many people and that they all wanted to be his friends.
“Let's play ninjas!” Kiba shouted as soon as the group all got outside.
“Yeah that sounds fun!” Ino exclaimed.
“Okay, we can have missions and stuff and fight bad guys!” Naruto joined in.
“Alright, we can have two people be on a team. That way everyone has someone to be with!” Sakura suggested. The group agrees and Naruto and Kiba quickly ran to each other's side.
Once everyone had their partner, they began to discuss what kind of mission they we're going to do.
Naruto looked off from the group to see the sad kid sitting under a tree, alone. He looked even worse than he did in the morning and Naruto frowned.
“Wait a minute guys,” he spoke up. The group looked at him. “We should ask that one kid to play.” He pointed and the group stared to look.
“I don't know,” Ino commented. “I've never met him before.”
“Yeah, and then we won't have enough people to be together.” Sakura suggested.
“But he looks so lonely!” Naruto felt himself get sad at the thought of the boy being all by himself.
The group looked at each other, unsure. Sakura looked at Naruto and saw the desperate look in his eyes. She frowned before sighing. “Look guys, we can be in a group of three if we add him. And it doesn't hurt to have more friends, right?”
Naruto looked at her hopefully then back to the group.
“Alright, go ask him!” Ino nudged the smaller blonde.
Naruto smiled brightly at them before heading to the kid.
Sasuke Uchiha sat underneath a tree in the small playard of the school during recess. He sighed dejectedly as he looked at his shoes.
All he wanted to do was go to school with his brother. When his mom told him that he was going to start school, he was excited to be able to start going with his brother, only to find out this morning that Itachi was going to be going to a different school now that he's in the sixth grade.
As his mother drove him to school, he was upset and refused to talk to her. “You'll be able to hang out with your brother after school, Sasuke.” She told him as he dropped him off.
When he walked into the classroom, he was determined to not talk to anyone, but when he noticed the blonde haired boy with bright blue eyes, he wanted to break the promise he made to himself. And when he sat down in his seat, staring at the front of the classroom, it was a little bit easier to forget him. That is, until he laughed. It made Sasuke want to laugh too, and have fun and join in.
But as the day progressed, it was easier and easier to not talk and he was sure he could get through the day just fine.
“Hey there!” Sasuke looked up in surprise to see the blonde boy from earlier standing in front of him. “I'm Naruto!” He held out his hand for Sasuke to take.
Sasuke stared at it before saying his name and giving his hand to Naruto who just shook it chaotically. Sasuke stared at the blonde, wide-eyed, before beginning to laugh.
Naruto's mouth twitched as he watched the raven-haired boy laugh. He couldn't help it and broke out into a smile. “What’s so funny?”
“That's not how you do a handshake.” Sasuke said, finishing his laughter. He stood up and took the blonde's hand. He gently lifted it up and down. “It's like that.”
“Oh.” Naruto said in amazement. He held onto Sasuke's hand as he began to pull away and lifted their hands up and down. “I think I got it now.” He smiled and let go of his hand. “Do you want to play ninja with us!?”
Sasuke stared at the blonde and then back at the group of kids that he came from before looking back at Naruto. “Okay.”
“Cool!” He grabbed Sasuke's hand as he began to walk back to the group. “You can be in mine and Sakura’s group. She's my cousin and she's really nice so you don't have to feel lonely anymore! You got us!” He turned his head to give Sasuke a wide grin.
Sasuke smiled back and soon was joined in with the rest of the group.
He met them all and soon their groups got together to discuss their missions. He liked being with Sakura and Naruto, they were nice to him and he didn't feel like he was left out, in fact, he felt like he knew them all his life.
When recess ended, Naruto wanted Sasuke to sit between him and Sakura and Sasuke happily agreed. The rest of the day went by with the three of them talking and disrupting the class with their laughter. Occasionally there was talk from Ino and Kiba too.
At the end of the day, Sasuke admitted he had a pretty good day. His mom picked him up and he waved to Naruto and Sakura who we're standing by Naruto's father, Iruka, as his mom drove away.
“So how was your day today, Sasuke?” His mom asked, looking at him through the rearview mirror.
Sasuke looked at her through the mirror and remembered how he promised not to talk to anyone. But he couldn't hide the smile that refused to leave his face. “I made a lot of friends today, mommy! And I made two best friends, Sakura and Naruto!”
Mikoto smiled at her son, happy that his depressed mood was able to be lifted. “I'm so happy for you, sweetie. We'll have to have those two over sometime, won't we?”
“You mean I can have friends over like Itachi does?” Sasuke asked, shocked.
Mikoto laughed. “Of course you can. As long as their parents say it's alright.”
“I want them to come over everyday!” Sasuke exclaimed.
“Not everyday, Sasuke.” She replied with a giggle. “But we'll have them over soon.”
“I can't wait to go back to school!”