It's a quite morning in the Uzumaki household as the sun begins to breakthrough the horizon. The only one awake at this time usually is Kushina Uzumaki, and on this particular day that was bad news for her son. Kushina was preparing breakfast for her husband and son, a rice omelette with ketchup on the side. The smell engulfed the entire house and made Kushina's stomach rumble. She decided to fight through it though as she wanted to sit down and eat with her family. The sizzling of the eggs got her in the end as she decided one bite wouldn't hurt, just as she was pulling the chopsticks towards her mouth, the doorbell rang. The sound made her jump back and drop the chopsticks and omelette piece onto the floor.
"Ah Damnit." She whispered to herself.
Kushina wondered to herself who could possibly be here this early in the morning. She walked to the door not caring about the fact that she was still in her red silk pajamas with fox print, and that her long red hair was a frenzied mess. She walked over to the door and peeped through the hole. It was Naruto's childhood best friend Shikamaru Nara. Kushina was puzzled as she unlocked the door to let Shikamaru inside. Shikamaru looked tired and was wearing a black shirt and ripped black jeans.
"Shikamaru why are you hear so early? You usually don't hang out with Naruto till 2."
"What? Naruto didn't tell you? Today is our first day of classes and we have a class together in 30 minutes. Is he getting ready?"
"Classes? Like first day of college classes?" Kushina asked the question in such a unnerved tone that it sent chills up the spine of Shikamaru. Instead of putting himself in the line of fire, he wisely just nodded his head.
"Well please come in, I'll go get Naruto up and he will be ready in 5 minutes." She said while cracking her knuckles. Kushina walked over to the kitchen and grabbed two large frying pans, before heading up stairs she smiled at Shikamaru as a sort of inaudible "Thank you." Once Kushina's foot hit the steps, Naruto's fight or flight response activated. He knew that no matter what he needed to get up, but his bed was too comfy and too warm to move! The effects of staying up late last night trying to figure out what to wear for the next day were still lingering. His movements were too slow, much too slow, as his blonde head was lifting up from his pillow the door swung open. It was his mom, clanking two pans together. Each clank sent vibrations through Naruto's ears as he tried to cover them with his hands.
"NARUTO UZUMAKI WAKE UP WAKE UP! NARUTO UZUMAKI WAKE UP WAKE UP! NARUTO UZUMAKI WAKE UP WAKE UP!"
Kushina continued her sound assault until Naruto sprung up to his feet.
"Mom what are you doing?" Naruto asked in a panic.
"No the question is, what are YOU doing Naruto? Its your first day of college and you're already sleeping in! Shikamaru is downstairs waiting on you!" Kushina had her hands on her hip and was clearly disappointed with her son's lack of action.
"Wait wait what time is it Mom?"
"It's 7:30!"
Naruto completely taken back by the statement, quickly started pushing his mom out of his room.
"Naruto what are you doing?"
"Mom thank you so much for waking me up, I love you but I need to get dressed!"
Naruto gets his mom out of his room and slams the door shut. Kushina knocks on the door twice.
"Naruto! What about your breakfast?"
"I'll have to eat it on the train!" He shouts back.
Kushina scoffs and shakes her head. She walks downstairs to the kitchen and begins wrapping up her sons omelette. As soon as she finished tying it up, loud footsteps could be heard running down the steps as Naruto reached the living room. Naruto was wearing rimmed glasses, a white T-shirt, black pants and black shoes. Kushina felt as a lump in her throat and tears in her eyes as she saw her son standing tall and ready to take on the world. Her one and only baby boy had grown all up and she got to see every bit of it. She wiped away the tears forming in her eyes and smiled at her son.
"Naruto here is your breakfast." She held the bag out in the air. Naruto walked over and grabbed the bag and then hugged his mom and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you so much mom." He said as he pulled away. Kushina realized that she wanted to take a picture of this moment.
"Naruto wait one minute, I gotta grab the camera." She said waving her arm and running towards the steps.
"Mom I gotta go! There is no time, take a picture once we get back!" He said while opening the door, he shoved Shikamaru out and proceeded after him.
"Naruto wait wait wait!" The door slammed.
"Good grief that son of mine, always late and in a hurry." Kushina said while grabbing a baby picture of Naruto off of the hallway wall. Kushina tenderly touched the photo and smiled as tears came to her eyes again. Words couldn't describe how happy and proud she was at that moment. Meanwhile Naruto and Shikamaru sprinted towards the train. They both pulled out their wallets mid-run and got on board the train and slapped their key cards to the sensor. The two immediately take a seat in the train and take a minute to get some air back into their lungs. Shikamaru turns to Naruto and shoots him a dirty look.
"Why the hell weren't you answering my text or calls? I've been trying to get ahold of you all morning." Shikamaru said.
"I know I know and I'm sorry, I was up really late last night trying to decide on what to wear and what not and so this morning I guess I slept through my alarm and your calls."
Shikamaru sighed and just put his hand on his chin and looked out the window. The sound of the train hitting the tracks soothed both of them as there were very few people on the train and none of them were chattering. The city whirled by them as it circled around to go through the mountain forest.
"Why did it take you so long to decide on what to wear last night? You're usually not the kind of person to care about what other people think."
Naruto thought to himself for a moment and had a sad smile to his face.
"I wanted to try something different. I wanted to look better I guess and garnish more attention, get a fresh start? I don't know. I just know that I always had a hard time making friends at school and was kinda always seen as the class prankster or fuck up. I just want to be seen differently not only by my classmates but also by my dad, I know he is gonna have an eye on me since it is his college so..." Naruto trailed off as he felt a hand on his forehead. He looked over and saw that it was Shikamaru's hand and Shikamaru was staring at him with a look of complete disbelief.
"Are you sure you don't have a fever or something?" Shikamaru asked with a genuine look of concern. Naruto pulled his hand away and blankly stared at his best friend.
"No I don't have a fever, and I'm being serious! I want this first year of college to be the start of a new Naruto Uzumaki!"
Shikamaru sat back in his seat and let his head rest on the window.
"Naruto you know you don't need to change right? At the end of the day people can either like you for you or they can fuck off. There is no reason to change yourself and use a ton of effort worrying about that stuff. It all sounds like a drag to me." Shikamaru said and then closed his eyes.
"I know I don't have to, but I honestly do want to. It's not about me not liking myself, I just want a new experience ya know?" Naruto looked at his friend, looking for a confirmation of his actions. Shikamaru opened one eye and then closed it again.
"Yeah I know Naruto and I got your back so if you need any help with this transformation or whatever, I'll help you even if it is a drag."
Shikamaru fell asleep and Naruto began digging into the breakfast Kushina had made for him. After 15 minutes went by the train had moved past the dense forest into an opening and right there was Konoha University. An absolutely beautiful school. The main building was made of stone and a huge staircase led up to its door. A large stone walkway with a fountain right in the middle led from the train station to the building. An enormous grass field surrounded the walkway with trees sprinkled hear and there. Students were outside, talking, laying in the grass, smoking by the steps. While it may have amazed most, Naruto who had already been to this place a thousand times due to his father's work, was not impressed at all. The train stopped and Naruto shook Shikamaru to wake him up. The two once again were sprinting full speed to reach their class in time. Past the beautiful fountain and up the tall stone steps, Naruto and Shikamaru moved as fast as they could. Finally after losing all the oxygen they had in their lungs the two reached the classroom and walked in, attempting to hide the fact that they just ran as if their lives were on the line. Three empty seats were open in the back of the classroom. The two sat down and took a deep breath.
"You two are Shikamaru Nara and Naruto Uzumaki I assume?" A tall man with white hair and a scar across his eye, wearing a black button up shirt and white tie stood in front of the classroom. He held a clipboard in right hand and a novel in his left.
"Yes sir I'm Naruto Uzumaki and this is Shikamaru Nara." Naruto said nervously. The entire class had turn their attention to the two tardy students.
"Pleased to meet you, as I just told the rest of your classmates, I am your professor for this class Kakashi Hatake." Just as Kakashi had informed Naruto and Shikamaru, the door swung open. Naruto looked over to see who it was and who he saw took more air out of his lungs than all the running he had done today. A beautiful girl with short pink hair and flawless skin walked in, for Naruto it was as if time had slowed down, his heart skipped enough beats to where if a doctor was present they could pronounce him dead on the spot. Naruto noticed every detail about her, the way she moved gracefully and confidently into the room, the blue jeans and pastel pink shirt she wore, the way she moved the chair next to Naruto. Naruto suddenly was snapped back to reality as he realized that this unbelievably gorgeous girl was sitting next to him. Naruto was so nervous that he could feel the moisture in his mouth drying up. Just as he thought he was going to pass out from the nerves, he heard a name that he would never forget. Kakashi looked at his clipboard.
"And you must be..... Sakura Haruno."
End of Part 1
