Chapter 1 : Adversaries
"All right, class, listen up!"
Iruka let out a heavy sigh, rubbing the long scar across his nose gently as he glanced around the large classroom. Young as he was, even he, a recently promoted Jounin, could not quiet the exhilaration flooding throughout the young students before him. Teenagers quickly snatched seats, and within seconds, the classroom was quiet and orderly, though anyone could have noticed that the prolonged, intense excitement was still present.
"Starting today," Iruka began, brushing a strand of dark brown hair from his attentive black eyes as he paced around the stone room, "all of you are actual shinobi."
At once, the silence began to disappear, replaced instantly with exciting squeals and uncontrollable twitching. Iruka frowned slightly.
"However," he continued, his voice significantly louder now, hushing the enthusiasm once more, "you are all still Genin, and this role is not to be taken lightly. In order to actually help your own village, you will be assigned various missions. As a result, we are to divide you all into three-member teams, and each team will be assigned a Jounin as their sensei. Now, this particular class consists of a total of twenty-eight students, so one team will have four Genin. Is this all understood?"
"Yes, Iruka-sensei!" the class chimed impatiently.
As soon as Iruka began reading out names, a young, blonde boy in the very back of the room turned in his chair to face the pink-haired girl sitting next to him. He grinned, his cheeks flushing a light pink as he completely tuned out his sensei's words.
"Team seven!" Iruka continued, his young voice projecting easily in the spacious room. "Your team will be a four-member team—Uzumaki Naruto! Haruno Sakura! Uchiha Sasuke! Tsubaki Miyako!"
The blonde boy's grin widened significantly as soon as he heard Sakura's name. Naruto turned to look at Sakura once more, only to realize that her cheeks were also flushed, but the reaction was undoubtedly directed elsewhere. Naruto's bright, sapphire eyes dulled with disappointment and his lips pursed with dislike as he surveyed his other teammate.
Uchiha Sasuke had completely ignored the young girl's flirtatious smile, crimson cheeks, and batting eyelashes. Naruto's frown deepened as he glared at his fellow teammate, whose black eyes remained emotionless as he heard the names of his teammates, and his brain searched wildly for any reasons on how the suave student in front of him had managed to attract the attention of so many kunoichi in the past. No doubt Sasuke had always been the class's top Genin, having always surpassed the academy's students in ninjutsu, but other than that, Naruto couldn't seem to comprehend any other positive characteristics. Uchiha Sasuke seldom spoke, though when one did come across such an extraordinary occurrence, he nearly always gave a one-worded response.
Naruto craned his neck back in an effort to glance around the room, his azure eyes searching eagerly for the fourth member of their team. At once, his keen eyesight located the correct name tag, but his heart sank faintly as he recognized the young kunoichi sitting behind the tag, the student known as Tsubaki Miyako.
There were a number of peculiar attributes to Miyako. Perhaps it was the fact that her personality, in fact, was exceptionally similar to that of Uchiha Sasuke's. She was talented, her shuriken performance and test scores only falling short only to none other than Sasuke. Miyako was also quiet and reserved, though she was normally more verbal than Sasuke. Her glistening amber eyes were her most fascinating attribute, as they never seemed to dull. Long, dark eyelashes brushed against her layered black bangs, and she merely blinked as she too heard the names of her fellow teammates. Naruto cocked his head to one side as he continued to survey her, clearly befuddled by the mask she wore around her mouth, which hid the remainder of her face, providing her with an enigmatic, and at the same time, an uneasy presence.
Naruto's attention was brought back to earth by Iruka's voice, which had increased in volume, signaling the end of team assignment.
"You are all to proceed to the village square," Iruka instructed, reviewing the students one last time. "From there, you will each be assigned a Jounin sensei, who will be the source of your team's information as more importantly, your missions. The more missions you complete, the more experience you will obtain, and undoubtedly, the more advantages you will have when the time comes to advance as Chunin. That's all for now, class dismissed."
"So… I'm the unlucky Jounin who gets assigned to four Genin rather than three."
Four heads looked up simultaneously as a tall, lean figure approached them along the rooftop of the village square. Each Genin sat a considerable distance from each other, with the exception of Sakura sitting merely inches away from Sasuke. Naruto had decided that it wasn't worth sitting next to his all-too-quiet rival just to lessen his distance to the cute, emerald-eyed Sakura, though his unhappy glares clearly revealed the internal battle with his own thoughts.
Miyako glanced up as the Jounin stopped before them, and her eyes widened in curiosity as she noticed a black mask tied across the lower half of his face, an appearance unmistakably like her own.
Despite the fact that a significant portion of his face was hidden and that his hair was an unusual gray, the four of them could tell at first glance that he was still young, perhaps in his mid or late twenties. Like the rest of them, his forehead protector bore the symbol of Konoha, the Leaf Village from which each and every one of them had been raised, but unlike them, the headband slumped downwards, covering his left eye from view. Just by glancing at his right eye, however, one could easily tell that he was smiling.
Naruto stood up instantly and crossed his arms across his chest, a deep scowl spread across his face.
"Where have you been?" he demanded. "All the other students left with their instructors nearly an hour ago!"
The Jounin brought a gloved hand to his chin and rubbed it thoughtfully. "Well, I got a bit lost."
Naruto glowered and shifted his forehead protector edgily. He had never been the type to wait, especially not when it came to training.
"So," the Jounin said, leaning lazily against a pillar and folding his arms, his one eye searching the cloudless sky. "Let's introduce ourselves…with say, your name, your likes and dislikes, dreams and goals, anything… starting on the right."
Sakura raised an eyebrow, her green eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why don't you introduce yourself first, sensei?"
"Oh… me?" he replied airily, bringing his attention back to the situation. "I'm Hatake Kakashi. I don't see any point in telling you my likes or dislikes… my dreams for the future? Hmm… and I have quite a number of hobbies…"
Kakashi said all this as if he were mumbling words to himself, causing three more eyebrows to raise in addition to Sakura's.
Naruto stood up instantly and cleared his throat; eagerness practically radiated from his body. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen, but I dislike waiting three minutes for the ramen to cook the most. And my dream is to become Hokage and have the people of Konoha acknowledge my existence!"
Miyako noticed the tiny movement in Kakashi's facial structure that had indicated a small smile underneath the mask. The other Genin said nothing as Kakashi merely nodded and turned his attention to the dark-haired boy sitting several feet next to Naruto.
"Uchiha Sasuke," he said clearly, his voice void of any emotion whatsoever. Amber eyes flickered, but the uneasiness disappeared within a blink. "There are plenty of things I dislike, and at the same time, I don't really like anything. My dream is more of an objective, which is to resurrect my clan and… to kill a certain man."
There was a brief silence following Sasuke's ominous answer, but Kakashi merely nodded again; his still composure indicated that he had heard nothing surprising.
Sakura was next. She blushed innocently before speaking, her olive eyes practically glowing in admiration as she glimpsed at Sasuke, causing the frown on Naruto's face to deepen.
"I'm Haruno Sakura," she said in a quiet voice, twiddling her thumbs anxiously. "What I like is… or well, who I like… my dreams… err…"
She paused, glancing over at Sasuke once more before giggling. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, and, after waiting a few seconds to ensure that she had finished her introduction and soon concluding that she had, gave another terse nod.
His eyes flickered in surprise as he noticed a similar, dark mask on the young kunoichi's face. Her long, dark eyelashes fluttered as she too, like Kakashi, assumed that Sakura had finished speaking.
"Tsubaki Miyako," she said softly. "I enjoy starting the day off before sunrise… mm, I dislike noisy and crowded environments. I don't have a dream or ambition in particular, but I do hope to increase my strength and skills in order to become an asset to this village."
Coffee orbs gleamed in the sunlight as she blinked, allowing it to look as if she was smiling through her eyes alone. Kakashi paused momentarily, his eyes flickering from one Genin to the other, and then nodded.
"All right, that's it for introductions. Tomorrow, we will begin our duties as shinobi. Be sure to get a full night's rest, and meet by the forest entrance tomorrow morning. You are dismissed."
"Increase your strengths and skills? To become an vital asset to this village?"
The deep, sardonic voice caused the young kunoichi to cease walking. Within an instant, a figure had appeared a couple feet in front of her, hands tucked into his pockets, a wild smirk pasted against his lips.
"Tch," he snickered, his black eyes flashing mockingly. "Too embarrassed to spit out what actually happened?"
The kunoichi's shoulders shrugged downwards as she sighed heavily, cocking her head to one side as she recognized the young shinobi in front of her.
"Uchiha," she said exasperatedly, rolling her eyes. "You've never spoken to me once at the academy… what's changed so suddenly?"
"Ironic, isn't it?" he sneered. "How the two of us were assigned to the same team, that is… I never thought you would've become this pathetic. Then again, it was pretty humiliating, the way my clan completely annihilated yours."
Miyako's eyes flashed angrily, yet she remained still. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, his black eyes gleaming maliciously.
"It seems like I touched a nerve," he snickered.
"Mm," she began thoughtfully, her lips curling into a wry smirk beneath her mask. "If I remember correctly, the Uchiha clan was also eradicated, by one of their own, actually, and in a single night at that… so I believe you aren't in a position to argue such a point."
A single shuriken whizzed soundlessly at her face, disappearing and reappearing in less than the time it took for her to blink. Miyako lifted a gloved hand and caught the shuriken almost lazily, twirling it between her fingers, her smirk widening as she noticed the fury beneath those dark eyes.
"Don't you dare let the name Uchiha spill from your mouth so easily," he snarled, eyes flashing threateningly. "Don't think that you're stronger just because you hide behind that useless mask, Tsubaki. I could rip it off anytime… besides, your pitiful clan will always and inevitably be considered beneath ours…"
"Uchiha," Miyako replied coolly as she tossed the shuriken aside, completely ignoring his threat. "If you happen to loathe me so much, then you'd be clever enough to not remove my mask. Since you're already so familiar with my clan, I'm sure you understand the duties behind such an action."
Sasuke said nothing, but his mouth was still curled into a snarl, connoting the fact that she watch her words. He scoffed again, and without another word, turned around and leaped into the forest, out of sight.
It hadn't surprised her that their first encounter—perhaps maybe their last, judging from the conclusion it reached—didn't consist of an offer to leave the past behind and start anew on a clean, blank slate. Though of course, Miyako thought warily as she watched the clouds pass across the clear, open sky, the chances that she and Sasuke resolved anything were about the same as the chances the Uchiha brothers would arrive at a peaceful agreement: miniscule. Miyako shook her head gently, allowing the cool zephyr to loosen wisps of hair from her ponytail, and heaved another sigh, continuing along the dusty road as if nothing irregular had interrupted her walk.