Naruto: Winds and Changes

It was early morning in Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves. The sun was just starting to rise, painting the sky in oranges and yellows. People began to slowly wake up and start their day, merchants getting there shops ready, parents making breakfast for their children, and children getting ready to go to school. Like always it was a normal day.

As the sun shone into his apartment, one Uzumaki Naruto groaned, turning over so the light wouldn't hit his eyes and he could remain asleep and dream of Sakura feeding him ramen as he was named Hokage.

Unfortunately it was not to be as the alarm clock Naruto had set began blaring loudly.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"GAH!" Naruto shouted as he fell out of bed. Blinking he looked around as his vision began to clear. He stood up and shut off his alarm, yawning loudly as he stretched. He looked back at the alarm clock, it was fairly old and worn from use, Naruto had found it in a trashcan and fixed it up.

However he had never actually used it before. For a moment Naruto tried to remember why he had set the alarm clock in the first place. He scratched his belly for a moment in thought before his eyes caught sight of his calendar, more specifically the date with the large red circle.

"That's right, it's the final exam before I become a ninja!" Naruto shouted in a frantic voice as is eyes widened.

He rushed into the bathroom, turning on the water of his shower as he took off his pajamas and stepped into the shower. the water was cold, freezing cold in fact, but Naruto had long since learned to ignore it. The owner of the complex was a rather cranky old lady who, like most of the villagers, meaning around ninety eight percent of the population, hated his guts. She had long ago turned off all the hot water that went to his apartment, forcing him to take cold showers.

Finished washing Naruto turned off the water, grabbed a towel and dried himself off. Moving back into his room, Naruto moved over to the closet. Opening it up revealed his entire collection of clothes, all of them were a bright orange track suit that he had managed to get, he had actually not even bought these, they had been too expensive since he had been charged triple the price for what most people would pay for normal clothing. Naruto had actually been forced to wait until the store owner had finally gotten rid of them, which was what the man had been going to do anyway when Naruto wanted to buy them, and then snatched them from the trash can. He grabbed one of them and went over to the dresser, opening a drawer and grabbing some underwear. He soon put his clothes on and made his way to the kitchen.

Opening his cupboard the blond grabbed one of his cups of ramen, opening it up and pouring some water in it. He moved over to his microwave and opened it up, placing the ramen in it and setting the timer for three minutes. Like all the appliance he had, the microwave was beaten and battered, having been found and fixed up by Naruto after someone had thrown it out.

As soon as the beep sounded Naruto opened the microwave grabbed the ramen and a pair of chopsticks and made his way out of the apartment. Not bothering to lock the door on his way out, after all, no one ever bothered coming here anyway.

Naruto opened the door to the room where he had spent the last six years in training to be a ninja. He looked around for a seat and was disgruntled when the only open one he could find was the one next to Uchiha Sasuke, brooder extraordinaire and his ultimate rival.

Naruto had never understood the brooding emo king. Everyone loved Sasuke, the girls in his class, the teachers in his class, the civilians and other shinobi in the village, everyone. The boy was handed everything on a silver platter, Konoha's golden boy. But for some reason Sasuke remained a cold and aloof bastard. It irked Naruto, who would do anything for the kind of love and attention the raven haired kid had.

Not being able to find anywhere else to sit Naruto moved over to sit next to the last Uchiha.

"Teme." Naruto said by way of greeting.

"Hn."

Naruto merely rolled his eyes at the response he received, having grown used to that kind of response. Hell, that was the only response Sasuke gave anyone, even the teachers had trouble getting more out of him. The only one quieter then Sasuke was Aburame Shino, a member of the famed Aburame Clan, and Naruto was convinced that kid was mute.

"I hope your ready to bask in my awesomeness as I kick ass today teme!" Naruto said, seeing if he could get some kind of reaction out of the boy.

"Hn."

Naruto grit his teeth in frustration. He was just about to start yelling when Haruno Sakura walked through the door.

Sakura was a girl with bubble gum pink hair, and wore a red Chinese style dress with a white circle in the middle, black mid thigh length skin tight shorts and blue shinobi sandals. Like the other girls in his class, she was a complete Sasuke fan girl. However to Naruto she was one of the most beautiful people he had ever met and was the girl he had been crushing on for nearly his entire time at the academy with no success.

Not that something as insignificant as six years of no success would stop him.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically as he waved at the girl. "Hey, hey about after school you and I-"

"Shut up Naruto Baka!" Sakura shouted as she smashed a fist into Naruto's face, sending the boy sprawling back onto his seat. "I don't want to hear your annoying voice today! And move so I can sit next to Sasuke-kun!" With nothing left to say on her part Sakura grabbed Naruto by the jacket and bodily threw him off the seat.

"So Sasuke-kun, I was thinking maybe after school we could go on a date together?" Sakura asked in a hopeful voice as she twirled her hair in her fingers and gave Sasuke a shy look.

Sasuke didn't even spare her a look as he continued to stare out of the window. "Hn."

Naruto winced a bit as he stood up, sighing he took the seat on Sasuke's left. He had grown used to this over the years. He had lost count of the number of times that Sakura had rejected him for a date, as well as the number of times she had hit him for asking. Sometimes after her particularly more harsh rejections, he would often wonder why he even bothered.