He was in control, his training giving him all he needed to keep the glowing hoverbike on track. He was leaning forward in his seat, slowly closing in on the last person in front of him, the loud buzz of all the motors filling his ears even through his helmet, though he's gotten used to the sound by now, so he's not distracted. He grits his teeth in concentration as he skids around a tight corner, picking up speed again once he was past it, and his front wheel starts to pass the leaders back wheel, getting excited that he was so close to passing them and winning the race. The finish line was coming up, and if he was going to win he'd have to go all out. He steadies himself, then flicks his thumb over a button, tightening his grip on the handles to prepare himself for the sudden jolt backward into his seat that the power surge caused when he suddenly burst forward, his hoverbike gaining speed, enough to finally pass the bike in front of him. He struggles to keep it straight, the sudden speed only just under his control as he and the other racers climb the last giant hill, the finish line just at the very top. His power surge ends a few moments later, but he's already far enough ahead that it doesn't matter. He rides up the hill, up and up and up until he at last crosses the line, and is suddenly floating upward, the bike disappearing from under him. He is instantly confused, they had never explained what would happen when they won the final challenge, but this was nothing close to what he expected. He waits for a few minutes, but nothing happens. Was he just going to float here forever? What was going to happen to him? Was he… was he dead? Was that what happened when the winner was victorious? Were they dissecting him and trying to copy his DNA? He had no idea. Would… would he ever see him again? As soon as he thought of him, he felt arms wrap around him from behind, and he turns his head to look. As soon as he saw those dark eyes he felt calmer, a soft smile on his face. "What's going on? Did you win too, Sasuke?" The raven haired boy just snickers, holding the blonde closer, "No… that's not why I'm here… this is the last time we'll get to see each other… I'm here to say goodbye."
Naruto was running down a long hallway, looking stressed and a little panicky. He was going to be late if he didn't go faster, and on the first day! He sped around corners and his feet echoed in the empty hallway, and he finally found the open door seconds before the bell sounded, a harsh ringing in the air as he passed through the door, and he pauses to pant a little, out of breath from the running. It takes a minute, but he regains his composure, feeling quite happy to have made it in time, looking back as an older student shuts the door behind him, locking automatically. Yes! He wasn't late… He looks around, finding that most of the people in the room were staring at him. He blushes, going a little stiff, not really knowing what to do, but he looks around again, this time searching for a seat. Almost all of the seats were taken, but one looked particularly enticing, a pink haired girl was sitting in the middle of a three person desk, the seat on her right open. He forgets about the people looking at him, and smiles when he sees her, the girl one of the few not looking at him, though the ones that were eventually look away, especially when he starts walking across the room.
She doesn't look up when he reaches her table, and he isn't quite sure what to do. He clears his throat, trying to get her attention, while making an attempt to look cool, placing one hand on the desk and the other in his hair, pushing the front up and back, "Hey beautiful, is this seat taken?" She finally looks up, but seems distracted, "What? I don't care… leave me alone, don't talk to me." She then turns back to the boy sitting next to her, flipping her long hair and obviously trying to flirt with him, even though he seemed to be ignoring her. Feeling highly rejected and put out, he sits beside her, depressed but somewhat consoled by the fact that he was at least sitting next to her. He listens to her talk, silently trying to find a point where he could jump in. "So Sasuke, what are you doing after all this? My mom won't mind if I'm away for a few hours after session, who do you think you'll be paired with? I'm totally sure we'll end up together, I don't see myself with anyone else. So! Where are we going to go for our first date huh? Somewhere pretty and quiet, so we can have lots of alone time… like a tea shop… or a book store… we'll be so cute together… all the other girls will be so jealous, but that won't matter anymore."
Wow.…she was really fawning over him… why did she have to like this Sasuke and not Naruto? What was so great about Sasuke? He stands up and goes to the front of the desk, earning a few more looks, but he was just a little too pissed to care. He puts both hands on the desk and scoots up onto it in front of this Sasuke guy. Naruto just glares at him, fuming about how unfair all this was. He'd really like to beat the crap out of him, but of course Sasuke was the top of the class, besides Sakura herself of course, no one was smarter than her. He continued to glare at him, Sasuke slowly looking up at him, looking a little confused at first, of course, he probably didn't even know why Naruto was so pissed, he was 'too cool to care'. Naruto growls a little, really getting pissed here. He doesn't notice when the girl's start crowding around him, until they speak up, "Don't just sit there and let him glare at you like that Sasuke, kick his ass!" It was Sakura… she was rooting for Sasuke… again… damn it why? What did she see in him that Naruto didn't have? He pulls back his hand, balling it up into a fist, preparing to punch Sasuke right in his stupid face, when a girl comes up behind him and shoves him, sending him crashing forward and into Sasuke face first. Their faces slam into each other, and Naruto is thrown off balance, pawing at Sasuke's chest to try to push off him, suddenly flustered just from being thrown against him, but then he is frozen in shock as it slowly registers that their lips are touching. His eyes go wide, and all thought drains from his mind. He was just staring into Sasuke's eyes, which were also looking pretty wide and shook. He can't move, his mind frozen as he struggles to comprehend what exactly was going on. One minute they were glaring at each other, about to fight, and now? Now they were kissing. At last Naruto manages to regain control of his faculties and pull his head back so they were no longer kissing, He just stares at him for another second before it really hits him. He just kissed a guy! He shoves himself back, making a grossed out noise, turning his back to Sasuke and wiping off his mouth.
When he finally looks up after trying to get the Sasuke germs of his mouth, he finds all the girls that had gathered to see Sasuke beat the crap out of Naruto were now staring in shocked horror at him. His eyes fall on Sakura, who's face was… well… it was pretty fucking scary. His skin crawls a little when he sees her dark expression, knowing what was coming, "Er… Sakura?... I… I didn't… "
"You.… I was supposed to be Sasuke's first kiss…. You… you stole what was rightfully mine… I'll… I'll kill you." Naruto can only stare at her as she grabs him by his shirt front and pulls him over to her, her fist cocking back and punching him in the face as hard as she can, which was pretty fucking hard, she had the boniest knuckles, and she really seemed to hate him now. Not just the general distain she had had for him, just because he hadn't been Sasuke. Her punches are not the most painful thing he was going through at that moment though, the fact that she hated him hurt a lot worse… ok, maybe not a lot worse, but still it hurt like hell, her punches hurt pretty bad too though. Eventually she wears herself out, and gives a final kick to the blonde boy on the floor. Naruto's nose was bleeding, and his eye was swelling up, he just looked rough, and didn't feel all that great in general. Once Sakura walks back to her seat, he slowly gets up, wincing when his body twinges with pain. This was pretty fucking embarrassing, he just got his ass handed to him by a girl, but it wasn't like he could exactly fight back either, so this was all he could do. He goes back to his seat, next to the girl that just kicked the shit out of him… because he kissed her future boyfriend. He wished for the possibility that the system would put Naruto and Sakura together, partners for life… unless one of them won and was chosen to do… whatever it was that winners do. Maybe… maybe if they did put her with him, he wouldn't try so hard to win, and if he didn't win, he'd have Sakura, they could get married and have a life together…. Unless of course she hated him the whole time and refused to have anything to do with him besides what was required by them being partners.
A few seconds after he finds his way back to his seat, the Director enters the room, actually officially a few minutes late, but he has a key to the door to get in, so it wasn't a huge deal. At least, it didn't seem like it to the Director. Despite being late, he seemed all business, Writing his name on the board and turning to the class, beginning the first session. Naruto wasn't really paying attention to what exactly he was saying, he was just looking at him, getting a feel for the guy. He had dark brown hair, dark eyes, and a scar across his nose, but despite the scar he had a soft face, and looked pretty young to be the director. Maybe his skill wasn't good enough to instruct anyone higher than entry level, and that was why he was stuck training them. He rubs his hands together, getting a bit excited, no way was he being left behind, he was gonna do his very best not to fail. He was gonna be the winner he just knew it in his heart. Only the very best could possibly win first place in the contest, and even though nobody knew what happened once you won, whoever was the winner was remembered as a hero, only the strongest, smartest, most talented people ever won, the contest was always the same, but people were not supposed to talk about it to people of a lower level, giving away answers was considered cheating, and cheating wasn't tolerated. It suddenly occurs to him that he should probably be listening, so he stops thinking so much and focuses on what this 'Iruka' was talking about. "In order to ensure that each of your partners are a perfect match, you will all be required to undergo extensive testing… and the results will determine who you will be paired with for the extent of this group's contest. Only one of you will be selected as the winner for your year, the rest of you will be members of regular society, required to do jobs, and allowed to marry your partner if you choose to do so. "
The thought of not being a part of this society was rather attractive to Naruto, as he'd been pretty much rejected by everyone for as long as he could remember, and he had no real friends to speak of as people tended to avoid him for reasons he wasn't exactly sure of, as no one had ever cared enough to explain it to him. He would never admit it to anyone, but being alone really bothered him. Sure, his greatest desire was to leave the people here for an unknown alternative, but if he was being honest with himself, he wouldn't turn away a friend either… anyone… even just one person who offered to be by his side until at least the contest was over. That's why he was so looking forward to being given a partner, as it meant someone, just one person, would be required to be by his side for the tests and challenges. Finally he wasn't going to be alone, he'd have… someone.
He was a little absorbed in his thinking, so he was taken by surprise when his gadget beeps, signaling he'd received something. Looking around, he realizes everyone was activating their gadgets and opening whatever it was. He lifts his right arm in front of him and presses the button to activate the touch screen. There was indeed something on his holographic screen, a file had been sent to him, and he opens it. It was a written test, probably the first part in determining their partner choice. Smirking a bit, he gets started taking the test, the multiple choice options easy to understand and answer. He tries to pick answers that sound the most like what he wanted from a partner, someone smart, determined, talented, and interesting. Of course he'd be happy with anyone at all, so he tries not to be too picky. There are about one hundred questions, so it takes a while to go through them all. By the time he reaches about question seventy, he hears a soft wooshy beep next to him, and he looks over to see Sakura deactivating her gadget and putting her arm down. Wow… she sure finished quickly. He tries to focus on his own test, but about five questions later he hears that wooshy beep again, a tiny bit further away this time. Looks like Sasuke was finished, not that Naruto cared about him or whoever got stuck with him as a partner. As he nears completion, the wooshy beeps ring out over the entire room as people finish their tests, one after another until finally Naruto finishes his test. He presses the finish button and the test closes and sends automatically with a wooshy beep. He smirks, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back smugly as he waits to hear how many beeps are after his.
He doesn't wait long however, as soon as his test sends to the Director's gadget, he hears a chirpy chime, and the director looks pleased. "All tests are in. Time for the next assignment." What? Did that mean he was the last one to finish his test? Well shit… that sucked… and did not bode well. He had to get better and faster at taking tests if he was going to win. "If you'll all open the e-book on your gadgets, 'Getting to know yourself: A guide to better understanding' We'll be reading chapter one in class, you yourselves will read chapter's two through five." He points to a girl sitting in the leftmost seat in the front row, "You'll start us off, reading the first paragraph. Whenever you are ready." The girl is timid, but does as she is told, reading the text from her forearm for about a minute with everyone else following along with her on their own gadgets. Naruto was actually paying attention this time, wanting to absorb as much as he was able to from this book, as it would tell him what he needed to know about himself to pick a perfect partner. The chapter is slowly read out paragraph by paragraph by each person in a line along the desks until it gets to Naruto, who is just a little excited by having everyone's attention on him. He starts reading aloud, speaking somewhat quickly, as he is excited, and he makes sure his voice carries across the room, as he had noticed some of the others were soft spoken and had been hard to hear. He didn't want that to be a problem with him. After about the third sentence, he hears Iruka clear his throat and he pauses, looking up a little confused. "No need to shout Naruto, we can hear you just fine." He blushes a little, had he been shouting? Oh shit… He clears his own throat, and tries to speak softer, only to be interrupted again by saying he was too quiet. Feeling embarrassed, but wanting to salvage thee situation, he purposefully goes back to shouting, enticing a few giggles from a few people. Iruka just looks annoyed, "Stop fooling around, this is supposed to be serious. You want a partner don't you? If you keep this up we might stick you by yourself, and the person who was supposed to be your partner will be alone too. Do you want that? The person you were supposed to be with until the end resenting you? Get your act together."
Naruto finishes his turn, looking smug at having gotten the director to lose his cool and get mad, but he goes back to paying attention when it's the next person's turn, especially seeing how it was Sakura who was speaking. She speaks evenly, at the perfect level, and with a smooth voice. She sounded perfect, like always. It was nice to hear her talking about something besides Sasuke for a change, even if it was just from a book. He listens intently to the nuances of her voice, a soft lazy smile finding its way to his face. Damn but he was in love with her, had been since he first saw her. Everything from her pink hair to her shoes was just wonderful. Sure, he wished she was nicer to him, and that she didn't like Sasuke, but those were secondary things, they could work past them if he worked hard enough. Not for the first time he considered the possibility of not winning on purpose if he was partnered with her, but his pride had him recoiling at the thought. He had to win, there was no getting around it. He wanted nothing more than to be remembered as a hero, to have people care about him and have his name alongside others who were great enough to win the contest. He sighs softly, unknowingly earning a sour look from Sakura when he does so, who finishes reading a moment later with a somewhat stuck up sounding huff of satisfaction. She then shifts a little closer to Sasuke, who starts reading his paragraph.
He sounded bored, and as though he were above it all and not at all concerned with getting to know himself. He sure was pretentious, Sasuke was such an asshole, though he never seemed to be trying to be. It just seemed to come naturally to Sasuke, like everything else about him. Did he have to be so smart? Did the girls have to find him so good looking? He was second only to Sakura in their classes, and all the girls, Sakura especially, fawned over him like he was a god or something. He didn't seem interested in anything though, despite being so naturally talented. Naruto finds himself wondering what, if anything, motivated Sasuke, and then finds he doesn't really care about Sasuke and thinks he could go die.
Sasuke finishes without much flourish, still staring at his wrist as the next person reads and scrolling to read along with them. He really did look bored, but then again so did Naruto, which was why he was looking at Sasuke instead of reading along like he should be. He was lightly gritting his teeth irritated at Sasuke even though he wasn't actively doing anything. Naruto would never admit it, not to anyone, but he was pretty jealous of Sasuke, not that he wished he was him, just that he was better than him in all the ways that were possible. He really wished he had something to rub Sasuke's nose in, to get rid of his superior attitude once and for all.
The rest of the session goes without incident, the chapter is read after a slow progression through the entire group. Though it is long enough that they had to start the line over, though it ended before the last person had to read again, and this time Naruto just reads normally, trying to take in as much information as possible, as the only way he was going to win was if he took it seriously. The class is given a pdf file to fill out for each assigned chapter and the session ends for the day. Naruto wasn't much looking forward to reading on his own, as he wasn't one to read for pleasure to begin with, unless it was manga or something similar. Naruto follows the crowd out of the room, thinking about what he'd do after he finished the chapters he had to read… and finished the pdf's that had been assigned of course. Probably go spend some of his allowance on food then go be a good little boy and do some training exercises. His aim with a plasma pistol could be improved upon, and he could always use more exercise.
He eats a few bowls of ramen at his favorite little hut, then goes to one of the main training buildings and uses the electronic id tag on his gadget to sign in, as they didn't like it when you didn't register, liability for damages of course. He warms up with a few basic stretches, things like lunges and shit, he didn't know all the technical names, but he'd learned how to do them by watching others… and physical education in the academy of course. Before he starts though, he clicks a button on his gadget and swipes through a few playlists, turning on one particular shuffle that was particularly motivational. He stretches and gets limber for about five minutes, not wanting to cramp up in the middle and have to suffer through it or look like a wimp, that was just one of the worst things. He starts off with a basic work out warm up, thirty minutes on a treadmill to get his adrenaline pumping, followed by about an hour of arm chest and ab exercises. Once he was through the basics, and feeling just a little sore, though he was nowhere near done, He starts with some actual training, taking one of the practice pistols to the firing range and working on his short to mid range aim. The blast from the pistol isn't quite loud enough to warrant ear plugs, but the recoil was killer on his arms.
After about twenty minutes of shooting at non moving targets, he heads to a separate room. Here, he has to put on a sensor suit and glasses, trading in his plasma pistol for a special laser pistol that would only ever shoot the targets, not people. Seeing how no one was waiting in line for this part at the moment, he sets up an extended session. He scans his id tag on the door, sets the difficulty for the highest he was comfortable with, not wanting to go too easy on himself, but not wanting to push himself so hard that he just failed as soon as he entered. With an electronic beep a one minute timer starts and Naruto gets his mind settled and prepares himself for what he was about to do.
When the timer runs out, the electronic door sweeps open and after a second for the computerized targets to register that it was open in human reaction times they start shooting at Naruto. Naruto takes cover just outside the door, waiting for the enemy to "reload their thermal clips" by pulling on the pump action. As soon as this happens, Naruto zooms out from behind cover and surges forward into the room, the door shutting behind him as he takes cover again behind a wall. The enemy fire resumes a half second after he hits the wall. He then begins quite a process of shooting haphazardly at the enemy, sometimes advancing too soon and taking a few shots. He misses a lot, but his pistol is easy to shoot quickly, though he has to reload often as a result to keep from overheating. It takes him quite a while, but eventually he has it down to one enemy, and he throws caution to the wind, charging recklessly head on at the hologram and firing off shot after shot. He takes a few hits himself as a result, but he downs the image and the lights in the room switch from an intense red to a calm green. He grins, looking smug and spins his pistol in his hand, heading back to the now open door that he had entered from. He looks at his score, and grins. He had done well this time, three thousand points. He'd have had more if he hadn't have gotten shot so much, they take points off for that, but the difficulty also upped the point value. He still had a long way to go if he wanted to be in the top ten, but at this rate he was well on his way there.
As he goes to take off his suit and glasses, he hears the door open and turns to look. When he sees who it is his entire body just groans in unison. Great… why did Sasuke have to decide to train right after Naruto? Despite wanting nothing to do with him, his face burns just a little as he remembered what had happened in class today, their faces coming together like that… surely that didn't count as his first kiss… right? Sasuke doesn't speak to him, but simply puts on one of the other suits and glasses, and Naruto can't help but be curious. Was Sasuke any good at this? There was a balcony on the next floor where people could watch if they wanted, and his curiosity getting the better of him, he rushes off to watch, especially seeing how Sasuke couldn't start until Naruto left the room, so he puts away his pistol and heads up a lift to the broad window. By the time he gets there, the door is already open, and there are a few holographic corpses lying around the door. Geez, how high was the difficulty? There were way more obstacles to get around, and almost twice as many enemies as when Naruto went through it. However, Naruto didn't see Sasuke in the room. He then sees a shot come from the open door, felling one of the enemies and realizes he hasn't entered the room yet. He blinks in surprise, knowing that the further away you were from the target when you shot it the higher your score for the kill. Sasuke keeps ducking in and out from behind the door, spending about two minutes shooting down the nearby enemies. About half the enemies are downed before he even tries to enter the room, quickly taking cover. Had he even been hit yet? It didn't look like it… was Sasuke going to go without getting shot on an even higher difficulty than Naruto had been on? It certainly looked that way as Sasuke worked his way around the room behind the walls, and Naruto notices something for the first time. He wasn't taking any unnecessary shots, and he never seemed to miss either.
Naruto couldn't believe it. Sasuke…. Sasuke was so much better than him. His score was easily three times Naruto's and he still had a few enemies to go. He doesn't rush to kill them either, staying cool and calculated right up to the end, where he snipes the last hologram just as the image was taking aim at him. Sasuke stands straight as the lights switch from red to green, and even from this distance Naruto can clearly see his face. He wasn't smirking or anything, just as cool as a cucumber. He hears a shrill squeal from beside him and notices for the first time that Sasuke has drawn a crowd of fangirls and admiring guys, the girls probably wishing Sasuke was theirs while the boys wish they were him. Feeling angry both at himself and at Sasuke, he rushes back down to the room he had left, catching Sasuke just as he's putting the suit glasses and pistol away. Growling at him, he viciously points at Sasuke. "Don't think even for a minute that just because you're good that I can't be better! I'm not gonna stop practicing until I leave your score in the dust! You're going to look super pathetic once you see how high I'll get my score, just you wait!" He snickers and points at himself with his thumb, his hand in a fist, "I'm gonna be the winner of our year's contest, no question. If you think there's a chance I'll lose you're dreaming!" Sasuke just stares at him for a moment, clearly looking a little confused.
"Uh.… " Sasuke mutters, "Yeah whatever… Do what you want, I'm not gonna try to stop you… but really.. That's such a lame dream. You're just like everybody else… wanting to win. Can't people just improve their skills without trying to win anything? I really couldn't give a shit less about some stupid contest, so if you're gonna try to win… well… good luck I guess… Now… I'm gonna go." Sasuke shakes his head a bit, sticking his hands in his pockets and walking past Naruto out of the room.