Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Only Exception ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 1

Mika stared quietly at the little basket lying beneath a gazebo, sheltered from the rain, with a scared look on her face. Uselessly using her stealth, she approached the little bundle. Slowly unraveling the light blue blanket, she found a peacefully sleeping infant, hardly three months old she'd guess. There was a crumpled envelope lying in the arms of the child. She took a deep breath, and snatched it away from the baby. “Annabelle Night” it said on the cover. Mika pushed the envelope back into the basket, and bundle the child back up. Slipping the basket under her arm, she began her walk back to her apartment.

It was there that she read what was in the envelope. It was there that she decided this was a blessing from Kami, and she should take the responsibilities onto herself and raise the little baby girl. The envelope simply stated information about the baby.

DOB: February 8
Sex: Female
Blood: AB-
City of Birth: Iwa, Earth Country

Although, it didn't list her parents. Only a sibling. Gavin Night, age 6. Mika sighed, and looked over at the still sleeping child. “What am I suppose to tell the Hokage?”

~12 Years Later~

“See ya later Mika!” Annabelle called out to her guardian. She'd just graduated from the ninja academy, and was now on her way to the after-graduation to see where to go next.

“Good luck!” Mika called back, watching her adopted child leave.

Annabelle ran the whole way to the academy, too excited to slow down, a smile plastered on her pale face. Her green eyes lit up as she came into view of the school, and she began to slow her quick pace. 'Today I am a genin.' she thought, a silly smile still in place.

“Oi, Anna, whatchya smiling for?” Asked one of her fellow classmates, Naruto.

“I graduated, you dummy!” she said, bumping fists with him as a greeting.

“Really, me too!”

“No way! I could of sworn you failed...” She said, biting her lip.

“Shut up, they changed their minds is all!” Naruto defended.

“Come on, or we'll be late!” dragging Naruto by his hand, Anna rushed into the classroom. It was only half filled with students, enough seats left for choice. Naruto's faced turned red when he saw two empty seats near Sakura. “You wanna sit next to Sakura?” Anna whispered to Naruto. He nodded shyly. She let go of his hand, and walked over to the empty seats.

Sadly that left Anna to either sit next to Sasuke, or Ino. At least Sasuke doesn't talk. As she sat down, she could feel almost every females eyes set on her.

“If you all actually wanted to sit next to him, you should have done it ten minutes ago.” She commented loud enough for the fangirls to hear. “Don't worry, I'm not rabid.” She told Sasuke, and got a brief smile out of him.

“Hn.” Was his reply. She rolled her eyes, and turned back to talk to Naruto, only to find him not even there. She looked around, worried he might have gotten himself in trouble again, and saw him squatting on Sasuke desk, staring him down. 0.o

“What the hell Naru-” She got cut off by Sakura.

“Get away from him, loser! You'll get your germs on him!” Sakura complained.

“What's going on here?” Annabelle said to herself, confused by the situation but ignored none the less.

Just as Naruto squinted his eyes a tiny bit more, the boy sitting behind him bumped him with his elbow. And POW! Right in the kisser. Literally.

“Wow.” Annabelle was speechless. Sakura was standing there shocked, but regained her composure and yanked Naruto away vigorously, with an angry look on her face.

“What do you think you're doing to Sasuke-kun!” As Sakura said this, several other girls suddenly ganged up on poor Naruto.

Annabelle stood up, concern written on her face. “Don't hurt him! It wasn't his fault.” She tried to explain, again being ignored by the pink-haired girl.

“I can't believe he just did that!”

“Yeah, what does he think he's doing?”

“Settle down class, take your seats.” Iruka called lazily. Everyone in the room turned away from the scene, and looked at Iruka. “Today we'll be assigning you to a three-man team, one with a four due to the odd number of students in class.”

~Annabelle's POV~

I can't believe what I just saw. My good ol' buddy Naruto, lost his first kiss to a boy, none other than Uchiha. Secretly I despise Sasuke Uchiha. He doesn't even care, he hardly even tries at the academy, and yet look at how far he's gotten. It's unfair. I hardly graduated, let alone passed any of the exams during our academy days.

“... Squad 7, Annabelle Night; Sakura Haruno; Naruto Uzumaki; Sasuke Uchiha. Squad 8...” I was just barely listening to Iruka, and was glad to have caught the team I was on. I turned to Naruto, gave him a high-five, then noticed how our whole team was at this one table. Is Iruka winging it? Oh well, doesn't matter.

~Ten minutes later~

“Dismissed. Be back in 1 hour.” Iruka announced lunch. I bit my cheek and lifted my head off the desk. Iruka sure knows how to talk.

“Hey, Naru, you wanna go get a bite to eat? My treat?” I asked. He nodded, and I could just see Ichiraku's in the back of his head. We ended up going to this one small restaurant that serves spaghetti, my favorite food. It's one of the only ones in town, so I thought myself lucky to live only two doors down from it.

“Oi, Anna, why do we always eat here?” He asked as I twisted the delicious noodles onto my fork.

“Because, I love spaghetti. It's like how you love ramen.” I explained. Once we finished we decided to walk back to the academy, and on the way there we ran into something I really wish we hadn't.

“... you know what I think? I think it's because he doesn't have any parents. If I did anything that stupid my parents would definitely ground me! He doesn't have any discipline, and he's a loser-”

“As of if you'd understand.” I spat out to her. “You have no clue what it's like for him. You have someone to come home to, someone to love you unconditionally. He has an empty house. Think before you speak for once.” I grabbed Naruto's hand and started to drag him towards the door.

“S-Sasuke-kun, I-”

“...you're annoying.” was all Sasuke muttered, before following after me and Naruto.

Once inside, I sat Naruto down at the desk we were sitting at. I sat on the table.

“I'm sorry, Naruto. I wish you didn't have to hear that.” I apologized.

“No, it's fine. Sakura just... doesn't understand is all...” he said, a downcast look on his face that was soon replaced with his fox like grin. “I wonder who our sensei is gunna be?” he got this sort of dazed thinking look on his face that made me laugh.

After about two hours, Iruka left, leaving Team 7 by themselves, awaiting our late as hell sensei. Naruto decided to play a prank on him by putting an eraser in the door.

~Third Person POV~

“What are you doing?” Sakura said in a slightly snappy tone.

“This is what he gets for being so late!” Naruto replied, the same ol' foxy grin on his face.

“This'll be great.” Annabelle commented, a smile on her face. Sasuke did his “hn” thing, and Naruto pulled the chair away from the door, and back up to the desk.

A hand popped up out of nowhere and slid the door open. A puff of dust came from the eraser as it landed on a head of silver hair. Naruto started laughing uncontrollably, Sakura frowned at him, but smirked a little when she thought no one was looking, and Sasuke (you guessed it) hn-ed.

~Back to Anna~ :)

I was speechless. My sensei is Hatake?!

“H-Hatake?!” I voiced my thoughts.

“Yo,” He said smiling. “I'm guessing you had something to do with this.” He grumbled, patting the dust off his clothes.

“What are you doing, becoming a sensei?” I asked, a frown on my face.

“Anna-chan, I've been on the registration for a while now. It's just, none of my students have passed!” he smiled though his mask. Naruto's laughter died down.

“How do you two know each other?” He asked curiously. I rolled my eyes as Kakashi waved him off.

“Let's go somewhere a bit more airy for introductions.” he instructed, and we all followed him out.

~A Few Minutes Later~

“You, on the right. Introduce yourself.” Kakashi announced, pointing at me.

“But you already know me!” I complained.

“Does your team know you?” he asked stupidly.

“I've been here my whole life, I'm sure they know me.”

“Do it anyway!” He glared at me with fake malice.

“Fine... I'll set an example for the others, I guess...” I began, “My name is Annabelle Night. I am twelve years old, turning thirteen in February. My favorite food is spaghetti, and I really like to train, mostly with water. I really hate humid weather, and I don't like training with fire. I'm a night owl, and I love the rain. My goal is to become a strong kunoichi, and to find whoever the bastard was the left me here.” I smiled, thinking back to the story Mika told me when I was young. Kakashi sweat dropped, having already heard the story from Mika when he first saw Anna as a baby.

“Very... nice. Okay, you there next to Anna.” He said pointed at the blonde haired boy. Naruto fidgeted with his headband, and began to introduce himself.

“My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I'm also twelve, going on thirteen. My favorite food is ramen, and my favorite thing to do is cook and compare ramen. I really hate the three minutes it takes for ramen to cool. My goal is to train really hard and one day become the next Hokage, dattebayo!” The blue eyed boy practically said in one breath. I stared at him incredulously.

“I wonder what Naruto's going to eat for dinner...?” I asked aloud, and Naruto glared at me playfully.

“That was very interesting, Naruto. I especially liked the ramen part.” Kakashi said, egging him on.

“Which one?” Me and the silver haired jounin chuckled while Naruto fumed. “Okay, enough teasing. Pinky, introduce yourself.” I said for Kakashi, earning myself a mini glare.

“My name is Sakura Haruno, twelve years old. My favorite food is dango, and my favorite thing to do is... “ a glance at Sasuke, “...well, anyways! I really hate Naruto and Annabelle, and my goal is... well, “ another glance at Sasuke, “um, yeah!” Sakura finished. I rolled my eyes at her girlish fantasies. Why can't there be any truly strong kunoichi who aren't obsessed with boys and makeup in my age group?

“Gloomy kid, you're up next.” Kakashi said, yawning through his mask. It has been a long day, for us it has at least. Kakashi's tardy ass shouldn't have room to yawn.

“My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I don't have a lot of things I like, and I hate a lot of things. My goal is to kill a certain... someone, and to restore my clan.” Sakura blushed at the last part. I stared with a 0.o face at the “kill” part. Melodramatic much?

“Well done, everybody. Well meet at the training grounds tomorrow at no later than 5 am. Oh, and don't eat anything for breakfast tomorrow.” Kakashi warned.

“Why?” I said, cheekily. He smiled widely.

“You'll throw up if you do.” That made me sigh.

“Eat well tonight, I guess...” I muttered, kicking at a stone one the ground. I began walking away when an idea sprung to life in my head. “Hey, let's go out and eat Naruto. Pinky, Gloomy, wanna join?”

“No way!” Sakura spat, holding her chin up. I inhaled to keep myself of pouncing on that hoe.

“Uchiha? How 'bout you?” I tried, uselessly.

“No thank you.” He replied, surprisingly.

“Okay, then. Come on Naruto, ramen on me.” I said with a smile. He grabbed my wrist and dragged me to Ichiraku's without warning.

~The Next Day, 5 AM~

I stretched my arms as I walked down the street, the bridge and training ground already in view. Once there, I saw Sasuke already waiting on the bridge, hands in his pockets and eyes closed. Is he sleeping? I decided like the retard that I am, to sneak up on him with a surprise attack.

Tiptoeing silently, I made it within 24 centimeters of the Uchiha when I pounced.

“HIIIYA!” I shouted like a movie ninja, earning a surprised yelp from the usually gloomy boy.

“What are you doing?!” He yelled at me as I clung to his back.

“The element of surprise is powerful Sasuke. With great power, comes great responsibility, and it's my responsibility to cheer you up!” I recited out of nowhere. He shook me off, resulting in me falling on my ass.

“Itaaai!” I whined, rubbing my sore bum. “Did you have to be so rough?”

“Do you have to be so weird?” He yelled back.

“Yes.” I replied, dumbly. “If I wasn't, you'd be Gloomy for the rest of your life.” I said, just as Sakura appeared at the bridge.

“Ohayo, Sasuke-kun! … Annabelle.” She said, giving me an extra glare. I stuck my tongue out at her, and she 'hmphed' at my actions.

Naruto showed up right around then as well. I knuckle punched him for greeting, and sat down on the bridge, closing my eyes. I already knew Kakashi was going to be late. And by late, I mean it'll be close to noon by the time he gets here.

~Several Hours Later~

“Ohayo, team seven!” Kakashi's voice rang. He was holding an orange book in his hand, and had a smile on his face.

“You're late again!” Naruto yelled, pointing an accusing finger at his sensei.

“Gomen, you see, as I was walking down here a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way-”

“Liar! Let's just get on with it!” I said, standing up. My legs weren't numb due to my inability to sit still for six hours. I was switching positions the entire time, from laying down, sitting up on the railing, hanging upside down, to playing with the water below.

“Today will not be a day of training, rather, it will be a test.” Kakashi began, “A test to see if you a fit to become genin, and a test slim down the number of genin we have. Only 9 out of the 20 or so will become genin.” Naruto's draw dropped at this information.