Sasuke sighed as he changed his clothes to go to bed. He probably had the worst team ever and his sensei wasn't exactly much better. Naruto Uzumaki was a complete idiot and prankstar who had failed the exam. Sasuke couldn't believe Naruto had been allowed to join a team. Sakura Haruno was just a girl who went goo-goo-eyes when ever she saw him...just like that blonde haired girl and a bunch of others.
He shook his head slightly as he layed down on his bed and pulled the blanket over him. He lived on the outskirts of Konoha in a small house away from the main Uchiha Clan House. Too many bitter memories for him to live there. Sasuke closed his eyes and let the darkness engulf him as sleep claimed him. He would need all the sleep he could get for their first 'mission' tomorrow with Kakashi.
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'The stars are bright tonight,' thought a figure who wore a dark red, short sleeve dress as she walked towrds Sasuke's home, thought she didn't know it. Her dark hair was in two braids that hung over her shoulders, the ends curling slightly. Her bare left foot stepped on a sharp rock. She slipped and fell, tearing the skin of her foot and the outside of her calf.
The girl cringed in pain and bit her lips as a muffled scream came through her arm, not loud enough to be heard by anyone. She forced herself back up and continued to walk, putting as little weight as possible on her left leg. Once she reached the door to Sasuke's house, she sat down and leaned against the door, curling up. She cringed slightly, seeing the blood on her leg. There was nothing she could do about it, as of now. Tomorrow was another day.
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Beep...beep...beep beep beep!
Sasuke's hand slammed down on his alarm clock. He rolled over, annoyed at being woken up, and looked at the time on the clock. 5:00. Dawn was only an hour and a half away. He rolled out of bed, stretched his arms and found some clean clothes. Sasuke pulled his clothes on, one limb at a time.
He walked into the kitchen barefoot and opened the cupboard to get some breakfast. He then remembered that Kakashi had told them to not eat breakfast. Sasuke would not be the one to screw up at the beginning. Kakashi already didn't like his team, no need for his sensei to hate them more.
He went to the front door and glared at the smaller shoes next to the ones he wore daily. He really needed to throw his old shoes away. They wern't doing him any good. He glanced around the room, making sure everything was in place. He grabbed his bag and swung it onto his back and opened the door.
Sasuke lifted his foot and put it right back down in place, seeing a sleeping girl in front of him. She looked about six, no older then seven with black hair falling an inch past her shoulders in two braids. Subconciously, he thought, 'Her hair's the same color as mine.' He thought about waking her, but decided against it, seeing her bloodied foot and leg, he sighed.
He went back inside and grabbed some rags from a closet and got them wet in the kitchen. He also grabbed some bandages. He had enough lying around the place. It was a nuisance to have to get them from the store everytime you got hurt while you tained. On a whim, he went back and found some disinfectant. He went back towrds the door and saw his old shoes. He picked them up and went back outside.
Sasuke sat down next to the girl and wiped the blood away from her leg and foot with one rag, in the grey early morning light. He needed to hurry so that he wouldn't be late. He poured some of the disinfectant on the girl's leg and foot. Her face cringed and she moaned as the disinfectant did it's job of disinfecting. Sasuke wiped the leg and foot dry and began to wrap her foot and leg with the bandages he had brought out.
Sighing as he finished the job, he pushed his old shoes onto the girls feet and took all of the medical suplies and went back inside putting them where they went. He grabbed some food for the girl to eat when she woke back. 'Why did she have to show up on my door step? In the words of Shikamaru, 'how troublesome.'' Sasuke went back out and thought once more about waking the girl up. 'She might be a slow walker, then I would be late,' he reasoned with himself as he put the food in his bag. He then bent down and swung the girl onto his back.
Glancing at the bag on the ground, he picked it up and started off to the point where Sasuke would meet his team members, Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno for their first training session with Kakashi Hatake. 'What am I going to do with this girl?' Sasuke thought as he neared the point where his path joined the one of which Sakura and Naruto walked, looking dazed.
"Good morning," said Sakura, one hand rubbing her eye, to rub away the sleep.
"Hey..." said Naruto, one arm out stretched, obviously still half asleep.
Sasuke was wide awake and said nothing as he walked forward towrds his two team mates, not really caring what they would say about the extra person. The three stood in a triangle facing eachother as the sun came up.
"Sasuke-kun," asked Sakura confusedly in the morning light. "Whose that on your back?"
"She was on my door step this morning," said Sasuke in his usual cold manner.
"So your going to take care of her?" said Sakura perking up. "That is so cool of you Sasuke-kun. So noble!"
"I have no intention on that," said Sasuke. "I shall take her to Hokage-sama after training." Sasuke laid the girl on the ground next to himself. 'She can keep the shoes,' he thought, looking as the girl curled up into a ball.
"Oh," said Sakura, her eyes downcast, her tone obviously affected.
Naruto hadn't heard any of this and was still half asleep as the sun climbed higher into the sky. He sat on the ground while Sasuke and Sakura stood, still asleep. After awhile, Sakura sat down, knees raised, he arms on top of them. Naruto was in the same position, except his arms were crossed, his head atop them, sleeping. The girl still slept. Finally, Naruto awoke.
Naruto shook his head a few times as he stood and looked at the sleeping girl who was still laying next to Sasuke's feet. "Hey, Sasuke," said Naruto in a confused tone. "I didn't know you had a sister."
"He doesn't," said Sakura, bonking Naruto on the head with her fist, trying to impress Sasuke obviously. "Sasuke-kun found her in front of his door this morning. Idiot."
"Hey, Sakura-chan," whined Naruto. "I didn't know that!" He was gripping his head where Sakura had hit him.
All of this, caused the girl whom Sasuke had found to jump as she awoke before pulling herslef into a ball, hands over her head. "D-don't hurt me!" she exclaimed, wondering where she was and why she was no longer in front of a door and who the people around her were.
"Sakura-chan," said Naruto. "She woke up."
Sakura turned around from where she had been standing and kneeled down next to the girl. "Hey there," she said. "Are you okay?"
Naruto leaned down next to Sakura and said, "Who are you?"
To Sakura, the girl said, "I think I am." To Naruto, she said, "My name is Rinji." To both she said, "Whose house did I fall asleep outside of? Who bandaged my leg?" She had noticed her bandanged leg and shoes. "And who put these shoes on me?"
"Sasuke-kun's house," said Sakura smiling. "He must of bandaged your leg and put the shoes on you. Didn't you Sasuke-kun?"
"I did," said Sasuke turning around the looking at the girl, Rinji.
Rinji stood up and walked in front of Sasuke. She bowed, arms in front of her as she said, "Thank you very much." She hesiated as she rose before adding, "Onii-san."
Sasuke almost looked suprised but he managed to keep the emotion hidden behind a stony face. He had never been called 'Onii-san,' by any one before. He was slightly shocked by it. He had hardly done anything for the girl. Just bandaged her up like most any decent person might. 'At least a decent Uchiha,' he thought.
The sun continued to rise as Sasuke got the food out of his bag and gave it to Rinji. "Thank you Onii-san," she said as she ate, sitting on the ground, legs crossed. She was studing her shoes when she looked up and noticed they were the same as Sasuke's. She sat next to Sasuke as him, Sakura and Naruto stood in front of their bags, waiting for Kakashi, though Rinji didn't know it.
Finally, a silver haired man came walking towrds them. "Hi fellows. Good morning," he said in an even tone waving.
"Your late!" shouted Naruto and Sakura, Naruto leaning forward and Sakura pointing an accusing finger at them.
"A black cat crossed my path so..." he said pointing with one hand. Naruto and Sakura simply growled in an annoyance at his answer. Kakashi coughed into his fist and said, "Let's move on..."
The four of them, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Rinji watched as Kakashi walked over to a tree stump with a clock on it. They were suprised Kakashi had said nothing about Rinji.
"Alarm set at twelve PM," Kakashi said, pushing the top of it.
The three Genin looked at the Jounin as he jingled two bells that had strings attached to them. "Today's topic is to get one of these bells from me," the Jounin explained. He jingled them again before continuing. "Whoever can't will have no lunch."
"What?" said one of the three Genin, most likely Naruto.
"I'm going to tie you there, and eat lunch in front of you," Kakashi continued, ignoring the remark.
Sakura clutched her stomach as it growled. Naruto clutched his face in distress as his did and Sasuke's face was down fallen as his did. 'So thast's why he said...' thought Sasuke. 'Don't eat breakfast,' thought Sakura.
"But wait, why are there only two bells?" Sakura asked, putting up two fingers in front of her.
Kakashi laughed a bit as he obviously smiled beneath his dark blue mask and said, "Since there's only two, at least one will have to be tied to the log. That person will fail since he failed to complete the mission. The person will go back to the academy," he explained as he jiggled the bells at the end part. "It might just be one, or all three," he continued as Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke got determined looks on their faces. "You can use your shuriken. You won't be able to get these unless you have the will to kill me." He finished by pulling the bells up inside his hand.
"But that's too dangerous, Sensei!" Sakura protested, extending her arms.
"Yeah! You couldn't even dodge that chalk eraser," interjected Naruto, hands behind his head, looking over confident. He was referring the trick he had pulled on their late Sensei from yesterday, when they had first met him.
"In society, those who don't have many abilities tend to complain more," said Kakashi. "Just ignore the guy with the lowest score." This changed Naruto's posture. "We're going to start, after I say, 'ready, start.'"
"Excuse me," said Rinji sticking her hand up in the air.
Kakashi looked over at her as if seeing her for the first time, which in fact he was. "Yes?" Kakashi asked.
"I'm neither a Ninja nor your student, so," she said. "What should I do?"
"Watch," said Kakashi. "Or do as you like. Just don't get hurt. Speaking of which, why are you here?"
"Onii-san brought me here," said Rinji pointing as Sasuke.
"Adopt someone Sasuke?" asked Kakashi, jokingly. Which only made Sasuke glare.
Naruto pulled a kunai out of his leg holder, spun it on his middle finger, grabbed it in his hand as he lunged forward towrd Kakashi, shocking Sasuke and Sakura as well as Rinji. He ran forward and next thing any of them knew, Kakashi was standing there holding Naruto's Kunai hand to the back of Naruto's head to the Kunai was pointing at it, his other hand holding Naruto's head, much to Sakura and Sasuke's amazement, Naruto's dismay and Rinji's horror.
"Don't get so hasty," said Kakashi darkly. "I didn't say 'start' yet."
Sakura and Sasuke backed away as Rinji crawled away. Kakashi released Naruto, pushed him forward and he (Naruto) grabbed his Kunai hand with his free one.
'No way,' thought Sakura. 'I couldn't see him at all.'
'So this a Jounin...' thought Sasuke, determination clear on his face.
'Wow,' thought Rinji. 'Onii-san's sensei is strong!'
"But," said Kakashi. "It looks like you have the will to kill me now." He laughed and thought, 'I can finally start liking you three. Maybe even that little girl.' "We're going to start," he said.
"Ready," Kakashi said. "Start!" The three Genin's jumped off and Rinji stood up and walked close to a bush where she sat down, cross legged.
A/N: Wow, I cannot believe I wrote so much! I'm amazed at myself. As you should be able to tell, this is starting right after team assignments in the Naruto series so please bare with me. This was the best spot to start in my opinion.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto charecters, manga or anime. I also give credit to stuart07 from and his Naruto anime uploadings which I watched as I wrote this. Namely, episode four for the chapter.
In the next chapter:
The training begins and Rinji suprises everyone including herself!
Edited: 2007-July-12