Fading Dream

A/N: Okay, this is the first fan fiction I ever wrote! ^^ And to top this, it isn't written in my mother tongue. I hope you all understand it, when there's something ... odd. I'm glad about every suggestion for improvement.

I already uploaded "Masks" and "Butterflies" here, but as said, this is my oldest one, and will be uploaded here because of FFs policy towards MA stuff. Prologue and chapter 1 to 12 are already finished and will be uploaded bit by bit.

Haha, actually I don't like the title anymore ... It's cheesy, but I can't think of any other title =/

This is no all-are-happy story! Violence, curses, insults, self-harm (though not in main-storyline), thoughts of rape and so on. Not happy with it? Don't read.

Also, a _bit_ violence and blood occurs, but as said, only a bit.

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Prologue: My world

When Naruto woke up this morning, he immediately knew he didn't like this day. It wasn't that he isn't the type to get up early, he got himself adjusted to that necessity. It wasn't also that he had to go to school in a few minutes.

Realizing, that he overslept while looking dazed at the clock, he jumped out of his bed. "Fuck! I'm gonna be late!" he mumbled to himself while getting dressed. Hurrying to get out of his room and to school he couldn't stop to fall back to his musing why he didn't like this particular day.

Soon he came to his answer:  it was the first day of a new term. And even worse, it was a whole new year. That meant new classes where he didn't know most people. But that didn't meant they don't know him and don't hate him.

Although he was at easy that in difference to last year he at least knew the reason for this hate towards him. He assumed, most children even didn't know why they hated him. They were just told by their parents to do so. Even more it hurt Naruto. It wasn't his fault that everyone despised him.

It wasn't his fault.

Twelve years ago , just hours after his birth, a demon fox was sealed within him. Iruka told him, people fear demon beings. Those, who become a vessel for a tailed beast, are told to be more aggressive and violent. Naruto wasn't able to say anything about the truth of this since he was always who he was. However, he didn't even believe in demons, ghosts and other fairytales.

But soon after, the fox spoke to him the first time.

Just when the bell that announced the beginning of lessons rang, Naruto noticed that he wasn't running to school anymore, but standing in the spacious courtyard of Konohas 'Green Leaf' School. Shocked at being late for the first lesson in the new year ,he started to run again. Although he wanted other people to acknowledge him and have their attention, he realized that those two not always go hand in hand. And being late is one of the things people don't like. So he ran for his class to the wide fields behind the school building.

He was happy having chosen a practical class for the morning. He knew that he wasn't a good thinker and some training in the morning usually helped his brain to start working.

All together he was happy being at this school. It gave its pupils the most possible freedom for choosing their lessons. They still had to do at least one theoretical and one practical lesson a day and at least one of every field once a week. However, in the end they had either a lot of free time, but needed more years to graduate, or had a whole shit of work to do, but were able to leave this special boarding school after two or three years. Of course Naruto preferred to the more practical lessons and he took his time for graduating. There wasn't anyone waiting for him back at home.

Special boarding school … Yeah, that was the right term for the green leaf. It was called a military school. But it wasn't like a regular military school. All in all it was a place where children could be whoever they want to be, but still kept them grounded and gave them a way to achieve their dreams. And though it was a boarding school, more than 90% of its students came from Konoha.

With this thoughts he arrived for the first lesson in this new year.

…



"Oh, please no!" Sakura sighed when Naruto fought his way through the bushes to the training place that was assigned to his group.

'My group isn't as bad as it could be,' Naruto thought and grinned at the pink haired girl with the light green eyes, which leaned against a tree. Though Sakura didn't like him very much, he liked her. She was his first crush and that didn't change even after the two years he knows her now. To his most happiness, she was never offensive against him, what meant she liked him at least a little bit. The third member of his group was Sasuke. Well, Sasuke didn't seem to like anyone. Nevertheless all girls fell for him, including Sakura, which stared at Sasuke now, giving Naruto a glare from time to time. However, Naruto decided already years ago that Sasuke would be his Nr. 1 rival since everyone called him a genius.

Eventually their teacher for this lesson arrived. Naruto never saw him before and wasn't sure what to think about a man who covered most of his face.

"Yo! My name is Kakashi. I'm your supervisor for 'Basic Combat Training I', or short 'BCTI', starting from today on," he said with a friendly tone and holding up his hand in a greeting. "I see you already warmed up, Naruto. Good preparations," Kakashi told his blond student after looking into his papers, which earned even more glares from Sakura.

"But Kakashi-sensei! He was late! He just looks like that because he was running to class!" Sakura argued in hope for getting more time alone with Sasuke.

"Well, he was here before I was and is ready to start lesson. So I guess I will oversee this for now. You see, I have to introduce myself to more groups, so please read this and try to find another group you can train with during this lessons," with which Kakashi gave his students a small booklet and wandered off, waving. Naruto stared at the silver haired man and decided that he liked him.

The first day went on and nothing notable happened.

The new term wasn't as horrible as Naruto thought it would be. He knew most people in his lessons already. Well, there were some new students he never saw on campus before, which looked somehow odd. Shikamaru told him they just transferred from a partner school which was named 'Yellow Sand' in Suna to the green leaf. And Suna was just a hell away from Konoha. That explained their odd sense for fashion to Naruto and so he didn't bother to think more about the three siblings.

…



The first month went away and then the second.

Naruto noticed, their sense for fashion wasn't the only odd thing about the sand-siblings, how everyone called them by now. It looked most likely if the older two always avoided their little brother, though the girl sometimes looked sad at her littlest brother. The youngest one also didn't seem to bother about his siblings. Every day after his lessons he just sat in a tree in the outskirts of the forest that was behind the school. Not that Naruto cared about him, but once when he had detention he saw the child sitting in his tree even though it was already night. He just sat there calmly, looking at the sky, not moving for hours.

…



As time went by, it was the date of their first practical exam.

"The test for BCTI consists of two parts," Kakashi explained to his assembled students. 16 groups were sitting on the grass in front of the forest. "First, all groups will get one out of two scrolls. Then all groups will enter the forest behind me, starting from different spots. In order to process to the second part of the exam you will need to bring both scrolls back to me or any other responsible teacher within 48 hours," he continued and introduced Iruka-sensei, Guy-sensei, Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei. "However, who opens a scroll will fail immediately and who don't bring back both scrolls to us within the time limit will also fail. There aren't any other classes this week, so you don't need to fear anything, Sakura," he said, those last words smiling to the fidgeting pink haired girl.

"That isn't, what I'm wondering about, Kakashi-sensei …" Sakura muttered.

Kakashi sighed. "Then what is it?"

"Am I right that at maximum half of the groups can pass this test?"

"You're right-"

"But that's unfair!" the girl interrupter her teacher.

"Sakura …" Kakashi growled slightly annoyed, "I never said that all of you are able pass this class. To be correct, it will be at most half of you, but it also may be that no one will pass."

Some of the students gasped, some smirked in anticipation about the upcoming test of their skills.

"Make your last preparations, we will start in about half an hour," was Kakashis last statement before leaving the groups alone.

…

Naruto sat down on the grass and looked at the other groups. He already knew one of them since they were their partner group for training. He also knew most of the students of the other groups, even though he didn't knew up to now they were visiting this class. Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji  formed a group and also did Hinata, Kiba and Shino. There were even older students like TenTen, Lee and Neji. But one group confused him. It was the only group where all members had a different age - and how was it supposed to be different - it were the sand-siblings. It was clearly visible that the older two still avoided their little brother, which was just staring at the forest without any emotions at all in his face visible. Naruto mused if they would make it even through the first round. His musings were stopped by Kakashi, who announced the exam to start in about five minutes.

…

After the first part of the exam, 6 groups were still in. Mostly those Naruto knew. His own group made it just in time, giving them no time to recover from this trial.

"The second part of the exam will be held in the gym. Everyone, please follow me," Kakashi told his exhausted students and those which came just back from the dorms. Naruto was surprised seeing the sand-siblings as sole group coming from their rooms. The girl and the older boy seemed to be even more nervous around their brother.

They arrived at the gyms and Kakashi started to explain the second part of the exam, "This will be a one on one fight of randomly chosen opponents. I know very well, that you are used to fight in groups, but you need to be able to fight alone as well, so please no interruptions, Sakura. Well, I and the other teachers will judge your abilities and decide whether you pass this exam or not. To win your fight is not necessary to pass, but it may help you a lot. If you don't feel ready for this now, you may quit now."

Sakura started to fidget again at those last words. "Come on, Sakura. I know you will kick the ass of whoever you will need to face!" Naruto reassured the sad looking girl. Seeing his smile, she got her self assurance back and smiled back at him.

The one on one fights were more or less interesting for Naruto, some causing him to cheer for one of the opponents. Naruto himself had a hard time with his own fight, but in the end he did win, leaving a pissed Kiba.

But the fight that really caught his interest was the one of the youngest of the sand-siblings. Something in his depths gave him an odd feeling while watching at the skinny, small boy with the pale skin, the blood-red hair, those black rimmed green eyes, which seemed to look at nothing, the odd gourd on his back and the Kanji-tattoo on his forehead. It was the first time Naruto was able to read it and he mused, why a boy would want to have Ai, love, written on his forehead. It was also the first time Naruto noticed, that this boy didn't have any eyebrows at all.

All this together still wasn't the reason for the feeling, Naruto had right now. There were a lot of things about Gaara - Naruto just heard the name of the boy for the first time when he was called to the arena - which would give people the creeps, but nothing of this was the cause of the feeling Naruto had right now.

Over his musings he didn't even notice the start of the fight, not till he heard the sound of screaming girls and cursing boys.

He searched for the course for the reaction of his fellow students and followed their gazes. Then Naruto saw it.

There was a mass of sand floating in the air.