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Who Would Have Thought
Chapter One
Pairs
The young Uchiha walked slowly, in a bored fashion even, through the village of Konaha. Kakashi, his sensei, had ordered that their team meet by the forest. Why, he had no clue. He had heard a few of the other squads talking about some up-coming mission that would include them all, but he had dismissed this memory until now. If this were true, why would it concern all 4 of the teams anyway? After all, he had handled many missions in his own with ease, no matter how frustrating.
He leaned against an oak tree, upon reaching his destination, and ran a hand through his onyx coloured hair. He could already see both Kurenai and Guy's squads gathered in the area, but there was no sign of anyone from his own, or Asuma's for that matter.
A sudden weight on his shoulders, followed by a squeal of delight, brought him right out of his thoughts.
"Sasuke-kun!"
He didn't even need to look around to see who was clinging onto him, he recognized her voice already. Yamanaka Ino, one of his obsessive fan girls, and also a member of the Asuma Squad. He paused before attempting to shove her off of his shoulders. She let out a moan in protest, before turning on him with puppy-dog eyes.
"What a drag…" came a voice to his left, followed by a loud munching sound. Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji, the lazy and the greedy. It seemed that the whole of Team Asuma had arrived.
A sudden harsh voice from a certain kunoichi also announced the arrival of his own team. "Hey, Ino-Pig! Get you're dirty hooves of Sasuke-kun!" the pink-haired Sakura was pointing at Ino accusingly, a look of disgust glued on her face. Ino looked in her direction, before making a face.
"Is that jealously I smell, or is it just you're usual stink, forehead?"
Sasuke took their bickering as an opportunity to escape from Ino's grasp. He slipped away from the pair of them and went in search of Kakashi.
"Sensei," he said, after finding him sitting in one of the near-by trees, "what exactly are we all doing here?"
Kakashi averted his eyes from the book that he was reading, Make-Out Paradise, and looked at his pupil standing to his right. "Ah, well," he put the book back in his kunai-pouch and stood up so that he was taller than the boy. "Each of you is going to be paired with someone whose talents are the opposite of yours."
Sasuke hoped to God that he would not be paired with Naruto. He was already aware that they had been put in the same squad due to their differenced, but one more mission with him and he just might crack. He was also hoping to avoid either of his fangirls. Thankfully Sakura and Ino were the only ones swooning over him out of the four girls. He could not recall ever having a conversation with the Hyuuga girl, and he had no idea who the kunoichi in Guy's team was.
Apart from the three mentioned, he was not really bothered about who he got paired with. He did not really fancy being stuck with either of the ninja on Team Guy, one a snob and the other just plain weird, but he supposed that he could cope if need be. His best bet for an opposite that ruled out these 5 was Inuzuka Kiba on Team Kurenai, who seemed to be a less-annoying version of Naruto with a dog thrown into the mix.
When it came to announcing the partners, he was pleasantly surprised with who he got paired with. Hinata Hyuuga. He didn't think she would cause him much trouble on the mission, so he moved to stand beside her as had been instructed. He glanced at her before turning his attention back to Asuma, who was reading out the pairs, and he noticed that if anything she looked disappointed.
Well, that was a first. He had never known another girl to not be excited at the opportunity of getting paired up with himself. Maybe he was just being a little to full of himself, but this was one strange girl.
The rest of the pairings didn't come as much of a surprise to him. Naruto had been put with Shikamaru, Neji with Ino, Sakura with Kiba, Tenten with Shino and Lee with Chouji. The last he thought of as rather ironic, and he couldn't help suppress a smirk that crept onto his face. Naruto and Shikamaru being paired together seemed a logical thing to do, stick idiot with smart-ass. Neji and Ino seemed polar opposites, same with Tenten and Shino. He wondered if Sakura would feel like she was being paired with Naruto all the same.
Kakashi cleared his throat, and each of the youngsters turned to look at him. "Now, the mission is to survive in the forest for 4 days and 4 nights with your partner. It will be your responsibility to look after each other. And I don't want to hear any complaints," he added, noticing Naruto's rather miffed expression growing.
"Ugh, this is so troublesome." Shikamaru stated, as Naruto crossed his arms in defiance, and his face formed a pout.
Ino complained to Neji about him not being good enough for her. Sasuke wouldn't have been surprised if Neji had turned and slapped Ino, just like that, in annoyance. He did seem like the type of guy to do that, too.
Lee was happily chatting to Chouji about how the two of them would surely come first, while his team mate nodded between munches. Tenten seemed slightly let-down by her partner, who stayed completely quiet throughout her greeting. Kiba and Sakura, on the other hand, had greeted each other with happy smiles and a hand-shake.
Sasuke, for some reason already looking out for his partner, felt the glares of Ino and Sakura directed at Hinata. He should have guessed that this would be the case, whoever he had been paired with. It being a girl only made his fangirls even more jealous. He then realised that he hadn't spoken to his companion the whole time that he had been standing next to her. He turned to her and stuck his hand out, indicating for her to shake it.
"Just ignore those two, by the way," Sasuke said, one of his first attempts at trying to be nice to a girl in a long time.
She let out a slight squeak when his hand first appeared in front of her, then proceeded to shake it gently with her own, a blush growing over her cheeks.
.