If there are any readers here that are reading 'Blaze' and having a 'WTF?' moment, I needed to get this bunny out of my systeem. Blaze'll be up in a week.
A Sasuke time-travel fic that I hope will not be as typical as most. Any feedback, ideas and/or advice in general is welcome.
((***))
"Begin!" The silver haired man exclaimed, and the genins dispersed… or so he had expected.
The blonde kid, the nine-tails container, Uzumaki Naruto, was grinning at him, striking a heroic pose with his hands on his hips. "Okay, let's get this on!" Kakashi stared at the kid, mentally disrupting his chakras to break an illusion. Nope. Still there.
"… you're a bit different, aren't you?" As he said this his lone eye drifted off a bit, only to find that the Uchiha was present as well. Strange, he'd seen the brat leap toward the trees and then he'd stopped paying attention to the prodigy in favor of the more obnoxious 'threat' in front of him… but judging by the seated position the raven had assumed, the dirt on his white pants and the light scrape on his left knee, the boy had not managed the leap for the trees and fallen to the ground.
The Uzumaki kid, following his gaze, jolted at seeing Sasuke. "Oi, bastard, you gonna try and steal my bell when I get it? The hell you are!" The blonde growled menacingly, but he might as well have remarked on the green color of the leaves for all the impression it left on Sasuke. The boy raised his hands in front of his eyes and stared at them, dazed, whispering to himself.
His lips read something along the lines of 'the fuck is this?' Kakashi noted. Seeming to get a bit of a grip, Sasuke glanced up and his eyes quickly landed on him and Naruto. Kakashi gave him his best unimpressed look. "Done with the, what do you kids call it, 'emo-phase'?" He asked, pulling out his make-out paradise novel, feigning disinterest.
Sasuke's expression became collected and he rose, not bothering to dust of his pants, and removed his arm warmers (which Kakashi thought sensible as the wide pieces of cloth were not exactly aerodynamic, and fast arm movement was essential for shinobi) and tossed them on the ground. But his attention shifted to back to Naruto as the boy (and two shadow clones, impressive) charged at him. Kakashi sniffed the air discreetly and decided that the one on the right smelled like the real one. The smell of ramen was so thick to his sensitive nose, he felt like he'd been at a ramen stand for half a day.
Kakashi evaded to the right, putting both clones between him and the real one, and smacked the one closest on the head, making it disappear. The explosive tags that were now stuck to his arms surprised him, but seeing the were tags designed to burn, rather than explode, he body-flickered to the body of water nearby and stuck his arm in.
Pulling it out, he stood by the edge of the pool and faced the remaining clones, and Sasuke, who wasn't even watching but poking at his arm with a needle.
'Yeah, that one cracked a hell of a lot sooner than I expected.' Kakashi thought wryly. He had to wonder what he was going to tell Itachi if they ever met again. "Yeah, he leaped for a tree, fell, and hit his head really hard. Who'd have thought?" He turned his attention back to the orange clad disasters-waiting-to-happen. "Cute, I'll give you that, but not exactly successful, was it?" The smirk on the orange clad brat almost made nervous. Almost.
Instead, it made him more attentive, more supsicious, so when three clones popped up from under the water behind to leap at him, he was not caught off guard and quickly disposed of them with a few well-placed kicks. Quickly whirling around he hit the clone approaching with the original on the head with his book (such a waste) and quickly flickered behind the original. 'Now, for some comic relief' "1000 years of death!" And accordingly shot the squealing blonde into the air, expecting him to drop into the water when suddenly a snake shot out of nowhere, wrapped around the blonde boy and dragged him from his trajectory, landing beside Sasuke, who had the snake's tail wrapped around his wrist.
((*))
Naruto gasped when he hit the ground instead of the water as he had kind of expected. When he saw the snake wrapped around him, he freaked out. "Agh! Get it off, get it off!" When it disappeared in a puff of smoke a second later, he leaped to his feet and pointed an accusing finger at Sasuke. "Don't EVER do that again or I'll kick your ass, bastard!" He yelled at Sasuke. How dare he launch a snake at him… how had he even gotten that snake there in the first place?
Sasuke ignored him and walked up to Kakashi. "The point of this test is to make us set aside our differences in favor of the common good, getting the bells. Passing is not about whether or not you get the bells, but about the way you attempt to get them." Naruto's eyes widenend at the revelation. They'd been divided in teams… of course this was about teamwork! It was so obvious it was baffling! He heard rustling to his side and saw Sakura appear, pulling a twig from her pretty hair and looking as bewildered as he probably did.
Kakashi, however, narrowed his eye at the raven. Naruto shivered at the look and nearly jumped out of his skin when the man spoke up. "Naruto, Sakura, you are dismissed. There's no need to continue this when you get the point. You pass, be here at dawn tommorrow." His eye smiled at them and he gave them a thumbs up. Then his eye turned bored again."Sasuke, I think we need to have a talk." And then he started to walk off.
Sasuke glanced at them briefly with an unreadable expression and then trod after their sensei.
Naruto turned to Sakura for help, but found her staring worriedly at Sasuke's retreating form. Naruto decided that he, for a change, was going to have to be the obedient one. "C'mon Sakura." He said, tugging her arm and gently dragging her away.
She didn't resist, and he was thankful for that, but it did not put him at ease, if anything it made him more unsettled. What was going on?
((*))
After his teammates had left, Sasuke tried his best not to bolt as well. The snake had been an instinctive move, he had after all pinned the beginnings of a summoning seal on his arm with a needle and some chakra molding, why not use it? The seal may have drained a lot of chakra as it was incomplete, but still. In hindsight, it was daft. Using the great snake's signature jutsu in front of an experienced and sharp jonin? Good going.
But instead of running or fighting (which would be a losing battle for Sasuke), he and Kakashi stared at each other for a minute… and then he felt the familiar tingle of genjutsu wash over him. He couldn't tear his gaze away, so when Kakashi raised his headband and revealed his Sharingan, he could only stare as the previous genjutsu forced him to, and let the eye to its horrible work.
Or so Kakashi would assume, had Sasuke's own Sharingan not flared to life and broken both illusions at once, booting the copy-nin out of his head with a mental 'piss off'. The sudden strain on his chakras send him to his knees, however. Outwardly, the silver haired man was unfazed, but Sasuke knew he was puzzled... and probably had a headache building from the snapback. Served the man right for attempting to poke around in his head.
"…you are Sasuke Uchiha, all my senses, my Sharingan and your Sharingan confirm it, you aren't under any illusion, I would've seen it when I put one on you so…"
His eyes narrowed as he walked over and dragged the boy up by the collar of his shirt so they were face to face. "Explain to me how a boy, renowned for his anti-social behavior and a lone-wolf reputation suddenly did a complete mental whiplash and not only used a forbidden jutsu, but used it to aid a teammate he considers a waste of space, understand the very social workings of this test and is now staring at me with fully matured Sharingan." His tone was light, but Sasuke could hear the threat. You have five seconds to persuade me before I drag you of to Anbu and have them use a sharper version of the 1000 years of death.
Sasuke licked his dry lips, working past the fear in the pit of his stomach, he answered. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I like… my family and… justice. I hate" his eyes whirled. "prejudice and discrimination by old fools. I don't have a dream, but I do have an ambition: to do my family justice and… to redeem a certain someone, and bring him home."
Kakashi held his gaze, before eye-smiling at him and putting him down. "Okay, I believe you. You pass as well, of course. I'll see you tomorrow at dawn."
"You mean noon." At Kakashi's quirked brow he smirked. "I'm not the only one with a reputation." And then his expression melded into guarded suspicion. "And that's it? That's all?"
Kakashi smiled at him again. "Yup."
Sasuke racked his brain, searching for the logic here, and found it in a story Kakashi had told him during their training period before the chunin exam, the story about Obito Uchiha, and how it changed all Kakashi was in the span of a day. At the time, he hadn't cared but now…
Sasuke felt pang of pain shoot from his eyes to the rest of his skull thinking of Obito Uchiha. There was something there, something important… but he couldn't access it. Had someone messed with his memories before they sent him back to this time? He could only recall bits and pieces, recalled a glowing yellow man (boy?) with two different Mangekyo Sharingan eyes morphing into some strange, ripple like pattern.
"Are you okay?" Kakashi's voice snapped him out of his racing thoughts, and he waved him off.
"Just tired. I'm gonna get something to eat." But first he'd walk around Konoha… it had been so long. Then he turned and left, knowing Kakashi could care less about politeness.
((***))
You're confused? Duh, it's a mystery! :DI honest to god don't know whether this bunny is worth continuing. Well, I guess you'll decide. Oh, while romance is not very important in this story, it is a part of human interaction and life and this story involves both. If you want to request pairings, go ahead, I'll work something out, provided you give me a logical reason to do so. I'm not doing a pairing for 'they look so cute' or 'she deserves it!' I need them to function. :p
Next chapter will probably contain some team seven madness. I'm thinking of something with chickens.
