Prologue
People usually think of spies as seriously badass, good-looking people who do seriously badass stuff for the good of their country. They see movies about them, they watch their fights. They watch their wins, their highs, and their lows on the big screen. They think, man! It'd be so fucking cool if I could be as kick-ass as that spy. They think a spy's hardest challenge is whether or not they look as great as they think they do when walking away from an explosion going off behind them, like it was nothing.
And sometimes, it can be that way. Lord knows there are enough spies in the Konoha Intelligence Agency whose sole purpose, it seems, was to do just that. Who thought they were 'all that' and a bag of chips.
But the first thing a spy must learn to deal with is accepting loss - especially the loss of someone close to you. As a spy, there are more risks and less miracles than you would think. Your enemy is good. Really good. Probably as good as you, maybe even better. Any move you make could kill you and, or your entire team. You have to be good, great, amazing - and there was no such thing as an 'off day'. Your teachers tell you to bring a hundred and fifty percent to school everyday, spies have to bring it three hundred percent for every single moment. Every move, every command, every breath.
But there is no such thing as perfect. And in this line of work, you have to accept that your loved ones were not fucking kick-ass and amazing enough to stay alive. Or, you have to accept that your loved one gave their lives to save others. And you have to accept that there was nothing that could have been done.
The first thing a spy must deal with is letting go of someone precious to you.
The second, accepting the possibility of your own death.
"Sasuke Uchiha, you have hereby been called to work in Squad Seven, under superior Kakashi Hatake, with two teammates, Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno. You will be roomed together in the boys' dorm with Agent Uzumaki, in dorm Genin. Superior Kakashi Hatake will call on you and your teammates sometime in the next two months, after initiate training, with details on your first assignment.
Congrats on graduating from the Academy, and welcome to the KIA. Any questions?"
It was just like you expected a high-class party to be. There was music that played in the background, people swaying together on the dance floor, the soft, but distinct sounds of voices fluttering around the fourteen year old, now-graduated young spy, Sasuke Uchiha. Other newly graduated agents mingled with their families and friends in the fanciest tuxes and flashiest dresses. Occasionally, there would be a laugh that resonated higher than any other noise in the ballroom, but that, too, would fade away into the background.
Sasuke himself was dressed in one of his finest suits, sitting at his table stubbornly, away from all the music and dancing, the talking and the socializing. His black hair glinted darkly in the bright lights, and his eyes were stuck in a glare of some sort, yet it didn't seem to take any beauty away from him.
He hated these parties. Always did and probably always would.
Maybe it was the fact that this kind of celebrating made no sense to him. Why would you celebrate something so trivial? Of course they all graduated. That wasn't the important part. The important part of graduating was that they were agents now. They were official spies, and they were needed on the field.
"Well isn't this surprising?" a voice said beside him, and Sasuke turned to look at the newcomer. "Sasuke, sitting all by himself, away from socializing. How odd."
Sasuke tried not to smile too widely. "Itachi."
"Congrats on graduating," Sasuke's brother, Itachi, said, sitting beside him at the table where the young agent sat and passed him a champagne glass full of punch. Sasuke took it gratefully. "Although, I guess it's not surprising, what with our background."
Sasuke took a small sip of the punch Itachi had gotten for him, now gazing thoughtfully towards the ballroom wall. "Thanks."
It was a brief response, which might seem a bit off putting to others, but for the brothers, it was enough. Neither had ever really been the type to chat.
Itachi nodded, absent mindedly. "Why aren't you dancing, little brother? I've seen a dozen girls glance this way, hoping to catch your eye, so I know it's not because you don't have a choice in partners."
"I don't want to dance," the younger one remarked to the older one, "it's not as fun, or as interesting, as people assume it to be."
"Ah, and that's where you're wrong," Itachi said, leaning back into his seat comfortably. "Dancing isn't supposed to be fun, or interesting, it's supposed to get you out there, talking and interacting with other people."
Sasuke looked at his brother with an amused smile. "Do you really believe that?"
Itachi shrugged.
Silence settled between them, and Sasuke watched as a boy, with brown hair and red triangles on his cheeks, threw back his head with a loud, booming laugh that made Sasuke cringe. Kiba Inuzuka worked in the canine unit, using dogs to track anything and everything, so naturally, he was a little loud. He seemed to be moderately smart and he was also okay with a gun, but only barely.
As he looked around, he recognized other students from the graduating class of the Konoha Academy for Future Spies.
There was Ino Yamanaka, who was dressed in a short, short purple dress, with her long, platinum blonde hair, that could potentially be used to strangle someone, swaying around her, chatting with Sakura Haruno.
Haruno, his new squadmate, with her short pink hair and green skin tight dress, who was at the top of their class, with Sasuke right behind her, of course.
Shino Aburame was right behind her (who was more of a scientist than a spy, but was for some reason still in the spy program) and standing by Kiba as the boy talked to Hinata Hyuga, a shy girl with gray eyes that seemed empty and no confidence whatsoever, until Sasuke was sure her ear would fall off.
He recognized a few others in his class and classes of other academies, but the rest are family of the graduates.
The one who sticks out the most, however, is a boy with blonde, golden hair and scars on his cheeks that look like whiskers, which he's claimed since they were ten were from a knife fight he got into with one of his friends. Sasuke is under the impression that he simply fell on his face.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the sight of the boisterous boy, Naruto Uzumaki, his new partner, assigned to him by Director Tsunade. They had never really gotten along, though, Sasuke was never sure why. Naruto liked to pick fights with him a lot. But that was during their training in the Academy. Sasuke could remember coming back home to Itachi with bruises up and down his arms, once he got a busted lip too, and how Itachi's eye would twitch. Sasuke never told Itachi about Uzumaki. It was never important enough. Itachi would want to protect him and cause a scene, but Sasuke didn't mind the fights. Not entirely, anyways.
Sasuke wondered if things would change now. Now that they were on the same squad team.
As Sasuke unconsciously stared at Uzumaki, the blonde turned to him, as if sensing he was being stared at. Sasuke blinked when the boy smiled at him, then raising his glass with an excited look that seemed to scream 'We did it! We graduated!'.
Hesitantly, Sasuke raised his own glass in response, which got the blonde to grin wider, only to turn away again, leaving Sasuke to continue blinking at his back.
"A friend of yours?" Itachi inquired, sitting forward again and staring at his brother intently. Then he shook his head. "No... that's not it, you're blinking in surprise too much."
Sasuke didn't answer to him, instead, he changed the subject. "Can we leave, Itachi? This is boring. I want to go and train some more before my first assignment in assigned."
Itachi studied Sasuke's face intently, looking for some kind of sign as to what he was thinking, or how he was feeling, but Sasuke kept his face relaxed and his eyes clear. He was thankful for his Emotions Study class at times like these.
Finally, the older brother sighed, to Sasuke's relief. "If we must. I did promise I'd show you a new technique, didn't I?"
Naruto was already upset at the fact they were up at such an ungodly hour. When he had learned he was rooming with the one person he had argued with most? That just added to his frustration.
The blonde boy grumbled a bit, shoving his clothes into their assigned drawers, as he had been doing the majority of his time in the dorm room.
Sharing the dorm room with Sasuke Uchiha was going to suck. Naruto knew it before he had even finished unpacking his things, when the bastard, whom he was sharing a room with (which, again, good fucking job, Granny Tsunade, honestly a great pairing there, not like they'd potentially kill each other or anything), finished in half the time it had taken himself and was now reading a book on his bed, like a fucking ninja.
Bastard.
Sasuke pissed him off, but Naruto pointedly ignored him in favor of fantasizing about the KIA's training facilities.
As only students of the Academy, Naruto's class had only been to the KIA's facilities once before, for a training camp during one hot summer, but they had only gotten a brief glance at everything. And as that was years ago, Naruto was sure they would have some even more exciting things.
Even Naruto had never, despite being the Director's godson, been on the campus other than that one camp. Granny was always visiting him at the academy, usually to yell at him about his classes, his performance in class, yada yada yada.
Sometimes, she could be quite boring.
Shizune, Granny's assistant, was going to show them around the KIA base after they were done packing. The blonde felt like bouncing off the walls. This was going to be so fucking cool! He could imagine it now, growing up in this place, showing off his skills and potential like a fucking badge, getting the best missions anyone could ever ask for. He could practically smell it and that made him smile wickedly. He could follow in the footsteps of the greatest people he knew of.
That thought was oddly calming, yet exciting.
Don't get too far ahead of yourself, he tried to chide himself, to no avail. You still have to get through initiate training and then you have to convince Granny to even let you on the field so early.
A knock sounded on the door, and Naruto looked up, along with Sasuke, who the blonde had half forgotten was there, to see Shizune standing at the door hesitantly, smiling at both of them. "Are you both ready? We should head out so I can show you around before the Initiate Assembly."
Naruto grinned at her, simultaneously kicking his mostly unpacked bag under the bed, in an attempt to hide the evidence that he wasn't done before Shizune could see. He could just do it later. "Yep! All set."
She looked at him skeptically, but Naruto felt his grin widen. Luckily, she dropped the topic, already familiar with Naruto's procrastination. "Sasuke?"
The raven looked up at her and nodded, saving his page and standing up, making his way to the door and past Shizune. Naruto huffed through his excitement. Typical. Sasuke always had to be first. Must be his ego.
Shizune lead them through the dorm, leading them past the entrance they had gone through when they had arrived to the opposite end. Naruto couldn't stop his hands from twitching in excitement as they reached the back door.
With a smile, the director's assistant opened the door, letting the sun from the outside stream through the opening, making Naruto's eyes burn, but he could've cared less in that moment.
Naruto had spent years dreaming of this, hadn't he? He'd spent years of dreaming he'd be good enough to step onto the KIA's grounds as an official agent. Years of training, despite not immediately having the talent for it. He had spent years of deliberately getting into trouble as a way to hone his skills (even if it did fail almost every time, he still did it). And the moment was here.
At last.
Sasuke seemed as hesitant for this moment as he was, lingering behind Shizune and, for once, not making the first move. He stared at the door in equal wonder and awe, as if realizing what a big moment this was for them both.
Shizune stepped out of the door, beckoning them out with her. Naruto stepped forward first, following Shizune out and breathing in deeply, as if there was a change in air just because they were at the KIA. The KIA.
Sasuke came out behind him, joining him in looking around.
The KIA grounds were big. Really big. To their left, Naruto saw modern buildings of varying sizes, standing tall and proud. To their right was a what Naruto could, safely, assume was a training ground. He smiled when he noticed that two people were sparring already so early in the morning, with what looked like…. Were those nunchucks?!
"Welcome to the KIA, boys."
Naruto closed his eyes and smiled. The air smelled no different, not that he thought it would. Yet, the atmosphere had changed. This atmosphere was familiar to Naruto, very comforting. It reminded him of two people who he had very little memory of.
"This way, I'll show you the more boring stuff first, then we'll get to the exciting things, yeah?"
Naruto nodded as Shizune led them towards one of the smaller of the buildings, still a bit dazed by it all. He was here! He was here, standing on the same grounds…..
….So this was where his parents had trained.