Prologue
My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I was six when I began attending the Ninja Academy. At the start, I met my fated mate, Sasuke Uchiha.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen, was giving a speech to all the new Students joining the academy. Afterward, we were sorted into our classes.
When I walk into my assigned classroom. I felt a strange pull, I began to look for the origin of it, when my gaze met a pair of dark, deep eyes. He was a boy my age, his hair beautiful midnight black with blueish highlights, and he was staring directly at me from across the room.
I could not focus during the entire class. Wondering why I felt a sense of safety and belonging coming from the other boy. Due to the fact that it was the first day of school, Umino Iruka covered mostly general topics that morning, such as what to expect in the first year and what subjects they would study.
When the bell rang, I hurried outside to clear my head. The first day was always just orientation day, so classes would actually begin tomorrow. The other kid had stayed, although he was surrounded by other kids, so he wouldn't be able to.
After a couple of minutes, I decided to introduce myself to the other kids before their parents came to get them. I tried to make some new friends, but most of them refused to talk to me and ran away from me as if I had a contagious disease. That didn't deter me, however. I was determined to make friends, no matter how long it took.
When I was about to try to introduce myself again to a different group of kids, I felt the presence again, which caused me to spaced out thinking. I turned around and saw him standing at the entrance.
He slowly came closer, until we were face to face, our noses almost touching. The strange behavior caught the attention of the rest of the playground. The other boy noticed and quickly pulled me behind the big tree in the playground.
Once I was pulled behind the tree, I felt a strange feeling overcome him, a protective urge to protect the boy in front of him, and he reached out with his arms and wrapped around him. The other boy froze in place after a moment, then turned the hug.
I was confused but just stood there for a moment until he didn’t say anything but, he pulled me close with a focused expression on his face, drawing his face near my neck. I was taken aback by a sudden pulse, and then a voice calling him mine. I froze.
I was still stunned, but a moment later another feeling came over him, causing him to bury his head in the other boy's neck. This is when my other half began Awakening, although it was only half-formed. So my instincts are going to grow once I presents.
I took advantage of the moment and the closeness and continued to hug him, experiencing warmth & safety for the first time. It was like the kid wanted him & made him feel like a real person.
A moment later, the boy let go, which left me somewhat confused.
"You're mate," he said confidently as if what he had just said was the most natural thing in the world.
“Huh?” I blinked, not following him and slightly confused.
“My other half tells me,” the young Uchiha assured. “You are fated mate.”
His mother had explained it to him that someday he may find his fated mate, someone who was fated to be his. Not everyone had a fated mate and, if you did, you were highly unlikely to meet them. But, if you did, their scent would be the giveaway, or if you met them when you were a child your other half would awaken although not fully developed, so you would not know if you are an omega or an alpha yet. You are born with your secondary gender, but you will not know it unless you present, which will awaken your Luna or wolf. If you are an omega, your other half will be at Luna. If you are an alpha, your other half will be a wolf. If your other half awakens before you present, you'll have to wait until you have your first rut or heat, to know you were an Alpha or Omega and your other half will finish developing.
For Sasuke, who was only six years at the time, knows with no doubt. That blond kid with bright blue eyes that enrolled in the Ninja Academy along with him, was his fated mate.
He could tell that the other boy was lonely. The boy was lonely. Sasuke decided he would take care of his mate from that moment on. Although his instincts we're not fully developed, they told him to take care of him.
“Your other half?” I say brought him out of his thoughts. “What are you talking about? What do you mean by my other half?” he asked, utterly confused. Naruto said, “Although I don't get that, your presence seems to call out to me.”
The dark-haired boy scowled, realizing he had no idea about secondary genders and had not been taught the basics of secondary genders, even though you're supposed to know it before you start the academy. Which made him mad, wondering who the boy’s caretakers were.
“What do you mean, my presence calls out to you?” Sasuke responds.
“I dunno,” I admitted, sniffing, not sure how to explain. “But it makes me feel… nice. Like what I imagine, it's like having a family.”
Having lived a life without parents, first in the orphanage and then in my small apartment, I didn't know the real meaning of home, assurance, and belonging.
After a moment, he let go and decided to introduce himself, “My name is Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke.”
I quickly responded, “My name’s Uzumaki Naruto, believe it!”
I am extremely happy I made my first friend, even though I don't completely understand what he was talking about.
After that, Sasuke and I started hanging out during break and lunch. Eventually, we started hanging out outside of school.
We quickly became best friends and started sitting next to each other at the academy.
Sasuke was worried that Naruto wasn't getting enough food. So ask his mom, "Mom, I made a friend, but I worried that they aren't getting enough food. What should I do?" My mom responded, "What's your friend's name?" Sasuke responds, "His name is Naruto Uzumaki." His mother smiled, and thought to herself he made friends with Kushina's son, no wonder that he's worried that he doesn't eat enough the villagers treat him like crap just because he's Jinchuriki. I suggest, "Why don't I make an extra lunch box when you go to the academy, and you can give it to him."
Naruto invites him over to his apartment. Sasuke is disgusted. There was no one to take care of him. Most of the food in the apartment was either instant Ramen or expired. Sasuke was mad, but all he could do was help the blond clean it up and get rid of all the expired food.
After Sasuke helped the blond clean up his apartment. He asked, "Why did I have so much instant Ramen?"
I responded, "It's my favorite food, what's yours?"
Sasuke responds "Tomatoes."
About a week after that, we started hanging out at ichiraku. Although, Sasuke would rather eat his mother’s homemade food, even more, if it had a lot of tomatoes in it.
Itachi, Sasuke's brother, had noticed how close we were and often hung out with us when he wasn't busy with his missions.
And so, the days passed like that, peacefully and full of bliss, until, a year and a half later, something happened. Something that no one could ever have imagined.
In the aftermath of the massacre of the Uchiha Clan by Sasuke's older brother, Uchiha Itachi, the last survivor of the clan was completely broken. On the first day of school after the massacre, I didn't even know the Uchiha Clan had been massacred.
When I heard some of the people in his class start whispering.
“Have you heard that almost the entire Uchiha Clan was massacred a Couple of days ago, leaving Sasuke as the only Survivor?”
I stiffened, hearing that, and immediately began worrying about Sasuke.
They continued to Whisper for a few minutes, but he didn't hear anything after that.
I finally snapped out of his shock, but before he got up to go to the Uchiha compound to check on Sasuke, their teacher, Umino Iruka, came in and started class. He started to get up, but Iruka said, “Naruto, sit down.”
As soon as the bell rang announcing the lunch break, he got up quickly and ran out of the classroom. It took him 30 minutes to get to the Uchiha compound, and by the time he got there, he was panting.
I realized he had no idea where Sasuke would be, so began searching the entire Uchiha compound. It took him another 15 minutes to find Sasuke, who happened to be in the main house in the room where his parents had been killed.
I spoke up, “Sasuke,” which caused him to jump and flinch away.
I immediately said, “It's me, Naruto.” Sasuke looked up and immediately ran to hug me and burst into tears.
I wasn't sure what to do, he had never comforted someone before, so he just stood there and held him in a hug and let him cry.
After Sasuke stopped crying, he pulled me up to his room and grabbed a couple of extra blankets. He put the extra blankets on his bed and a couple of extra pillows, then he pulled me down onto his bed with him and cuddled up against him.
I was shocked and asked, “Sasuke are you okay, what are you doing?”
Sasuke responded, “Don't talk, I just need you here for right now.”
I stopped talking and snuggled into Sasuke, and soon we fell asleep. Sasuke didn't remember this because he was so sleep-deprived because he hadn't slept at all since the massacre, which was 2 days ago.
I took care of him, so he was never alone, always keeping him company. Sasuke had taken care of him when they first met, as Naruto does now. It was a couple of weeks before Sasuke didn't get nightmares and needed Naruto there to help him sleep. It also helped that the Hokage Hiruzen at the time had sent a couple of ninjas to clean up all the blood and Repair damage from the massacre.
Despite this, Sasuke was never the same happy boy I originally knew. In his ninja training, he focused on one single goal: he would avenge his family and his clan. The person who had taken his mother and father away, who had taken every Uchiha he knew a way, would be destroyed by him. Sasuke had every intention of killing his brother with his own hands, that was the aim of his entire life. He also planned on eventually restoring his clan. Thankfully, he already knew he had a fated mate, Naruto Uzumaki, although they had yet to bonds or present yet. He imagined a life of having a family of his own with Naruto. He thought that Naruto would be an Omega thanks to how slim he was and because of his outgoing and bubbly personality.
Despite this, he and I remained friends. The only person the Uchiha seemed to tolerate was Naruto, but he didn’t show his feelings to him as easily as before. Still, there has been something in Sasuke’s thoughts that in no way modified: Naruto and he belonged together; they had been proper mates. Giving up his relationship wasn’t on his plans, despite the fact that he knew that caring about someone was a risk because love meant being vulnerable. He could get hurt once more; he could lose Naruto.
We had to get used to their new situation. I had tried to graduate from the academy early a couple of times. The first time I tried taking the graduation exam, I took the beginning of the year final exam. This is an optional final exam that you can take at the beginning of each Academy school year to skip a grade or let you graduate early. In my second attempt, I was taking the exam with another class because their teacher said they were ready to take the exam early, and if I failed, I would just be taking it with my class in six months rather than have to wait for it another year. Sasuke could have taken the exam early because he was top of the class, but decided to wait and take it with the rest of the class. I was nervous because the next time I took the exam, Sasuke would also be taking it and if I failed, Sasuke would graduate without him. I promised myself that I wasn't going to fail a third time.