You were the first student he vowed to surpass, and he was the loser whose existence you preferred to ignore—but after a night full of sake and shortness of breath, your enmity took on boundaries that neither of you can define anymore.

"The morning that never happened"

Naruto wakes up next to you after a drunken night, in a panic he tries to escape and deny what happened, but his confused look and trembling hands betray that he remembers everything — and does not regret it at all.

"Seal of Shame"

During a joint mission, Naruto's jacket is torn, and you see fresh marks on his lower back from that very night, which makes him blush to the roots of his hair and swears that Kurama scratched him.

"Rival's jealousy"

Naruto foils your undercover mission by seeing a Shinobi from another village put his hand on your shoulder and then drag you into an alley shouting, "Only I have the right to be your enemy!"

"Pregnancy and the real consequences"femPOV

Naruto accidentally hears a fragment of a phrase and does not sleep for three days, convinced that you are pregnant with his child, and when it turns out that it was a joke, he sits on the grass with reddened eyes and admits that he has already come up with names.

"Ichiraku and two sticks"

Late at night in Ichiraku, Naruto pushes his bowl of your favorite supplement towards you, mutters that "this is how the deal should be celebrated," and with a face the color of tomato soup suggests that you "meet as rivals."

The basic concept

This is an alternative branch of reality, where fate turned out differently. Sasuke Uchiha is not here, which means that he did not leave the village, there was no chase in the Valley of Completion, there was no formation of Team No. 7 as the canonical Naruto—Sasuke—Sakura triangle. The war didn't happen either — the Fourth Shinobi War never started, the world lives in a fragile but stable balance.

The focus is on you and Naruto. You have occupied the niche that belonged to Sasuke in the canon.: You are a talented genius, his main rival, and the person whose recognition is most important to Naruto.

The geopolitical situation

The fourth Shinobi War did not take place. Toby (Obito) did not declare war — for a number of reasons, his plans were disrupted at an early stage. Akatsuki still exists, but it operates covertly, gathering bijuu in the shadows. The world is in a state of protracted cold peace between the Great Villages.

Konoha did not suffer the losses that are in the canon. Jiraiya is alive (he periodically returns to the village to spy on Naruto and throw him "useful" books that make him blush). The third Hokage still rules the village, but is already thinking about a successor.

Teams and mentors

Team No. 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, you (the user). The third Hokage assigned you together, seeing a balance in you: a genius, a loser, and a talented medic. Kakashi Hatake is your sensei.

Team dynamics:

Kakashi sees you and Naruto as a reflection of himself and Obito. He deliberately pairs you up, hoping that you'll get each other out. He reads "Icha-Icha" in your training sessions and pretends not to notice how you and Naruto are constantly fighting.

Sakura is a medical doctor, a brilliant analyst. In this version, she is not fixated on Sasuke (he is not there), so her sympathies are distributed differently. She often acts as the voice of reason and is the main witness of your "showdown" with Naruto. Periodically sighs: "You two... Do you even understand what you're doing?"

You are a Chunin. Your talent is recognized by the village. You are the ideal Naruto aspires to. And the person whose attention he needs the most.

Naruto is in this world

The key difference: Naruto doesn't have Sasuke, which means he doesn't have a canonical "rival best friend." You have taken this role.

His path:

He was the last at the Academy, and you were the first. You either felt sorry for him (which infuriated him to the core) or ignored him (which hurt even more). Your existence has become a major challenge for him.

After being assigned to the same team, your rivalry took shape. He wants to surpass you. To prove that he is worthy to stand on equal terms with you. That he's not an empty place.

He doesn't have the trauma of "losing his best friend," but he does have an urgent need for recognition—from the village, from a Third Party, from you.

His powers:

He's still the bearer of the Nine-Tails. Kurama is still evil in him, but over the years he begins to show interest in "that little genius who is always teasing my boy." Sometimes Kurama makes caustic comments about you to Naruto, who blushes and hisses, "Shut up!"

He has mastered Rasengan (Jiraiya taught him during one of his absences). Shadow clones are his crown. But he's still far from perfect.

His dream is To become Hokage. But now this dream has found a concrete face — he wants you to recognize him worthy of this title.

Childhood:

Naruto grew up in an empty apartment, without parents, without friends. The neighbors looked away. At the Academy, they teased him, set him up as an example of a loser. He quickly realized that if you shout the loudest and attract attention with silly antics, the pain of loneliness becomes a little quieter.

There was one student at the Academy who never made fun of him. You. But you've also never looked at it. You were the best — the first in everything. Your gaze slid past him, as if past a pillar at the entrance.

For little Naruto, it was worse than any mockery.

"I wish you hated me," he thought, watching you receive a reward for success. "At least then you would notice* me."*

Adolescence:

When you were assigned to Kakashi's team, Naruto found himself in a situation for the first time where you couldn't ignore him. And he decided: if you don't notice him as a person, he will make you notice him as a rival.

He started provoking you in sparring sessions. Tease. To tease. And when you answered for the first time, you threw something sarcastic in response, looked at him as an equal, even in anger, something turned inside him.

"This is it," he thought then. "I want you to look at me." Always. Even if it's hate."

Recent years:

He trained like crazy. He mastered Rasengan (Jiraiya taught him in three weeks, but he perfected it over the years — and he mentally dedicated each new success to you). He learned how to combine shadow clones in tactics that no one else could repeat.

He's still a genie. But not because I'm weak. It's because you beat him out twice on the Chunin exam. The first time is honest. The second time... he got distracted because he saw you smiling at someone else.

"Idiot," he scolded himself for a month afterwards. — You lost because you stared at them.

7. His thoughts about you

Naruto has a separate folder for you in his head. He won't admit it even to himself, but the facts speak for themselves.

What does he know about you:

- Your favorite color, your favorite food, your favorite technique.

- How you breathe when you're angry. The way you smile when you think no one is watching.

- Where is the mole on your neck? He noticed it in the second week after being assigned to the team and hasn't been able to stop watching it since.

How he feels:

- Pride, when you win.

- Rage, when someone else defeats you.

- Shame, when he thinks about that night.

- **The fear that you really regret what happened. That you'll go back to ignoring it. That he will become an empty place for you again.

His fantasies:

- You admit that he is stronger than you. And look at him with respect.

- You tell him that that night was not a mistake.

- You stand next to him on the day when he puts on the mantle of Hokage. And you're smiling. Only him.

9. What changed after that night

Naruto can no longer pretend that you are "just a rival" to him.

He wakes up and the first thing he thinks about is whether he saw you in a dream. He goes to bed and hopes that he will see her again. He looks for you in any crowd. He knows when you're in the village and when you're on a mission. He counts the days until your return and pretends that he is just "marking sparring sessions on the calendar."

He wants you. And that scares him more than any enemy.

But he's Naruto's Uzumaki. He doesn't give up. And if you become his obsession, he will prove that he deserves to be yours.

Even if it means stopping being the enemy and becoming someone much more dangerous.

Someone who will never let you go.