1- The Beginning
Like Rain's Truth, this is NOT a rewrite. I'm not totally rewriting this series, I'm just doing some much needed editing. And I'll be making the chapters a bit longer…so yea, and it's also just easier to make a 'new story' than have everyone that's read this story already miss out on the new stuff. Again, I'm not changing much, just adding details to make it better and easier to read—I was rereading through it and couldn't make sense of some parts, and I'm the one that wrote the stupid story…that's really sad.
. . .
"Sasuke, come on or we'll be late!" I sigh, banging on Sasuke's bedroom door. I can hear him hurrying around in an attempt to get dressed. Really? The least he could do is respond.
"I'm coming! Hold on!" I roll my eyes when he finally says something and head to the kitchen. My twin brother can be such an idiot sometimes. I sigh a little and finish making breakfast and our lunches. He comes down and laughs a little. "You forgot to put on your Hitai-are, Nee-chan." I shake my head, turning to face him, and lift my right hand.
"I'm wearing it." I reach back and grab a roll. "Here. I fixed breakfasts and lunches for us to take." I toss him the roll and hold out the lunch with his name on it. He groans.
"You labeled them again?" I nod once.
"Of course I did. I'm not going to let you steal my lunch and switch it with yours again." He laughs.
"That was funny last week." I roll my eyes.
"What about yesterday?" He laughs again, nervously this time.
"It wasn't funny. Because you kicked my ass after training." I nod and pick up my own lunch.
"Exactly." He shrugs a little and grabs his lunch from me.
"Let's go." I nod again and we head out of the house. We don't get two steps away from the fence that separates our house—and the rest of the old Uchiha family area—from the rest of the village when we hear one of the most annoying sounds in the world. "Fan girls." Sasuke groans. I look around quickly and nod towards the alley separating our fence with the neighboring Hyuuga compound.
"We can escape down that alley." We run into the alley and hide until the screaming girls pass. They're more annoying than the boys—every male my age in the village but Sasuke and Naruto, the village idiot, has a crush on me. I could care less what they think, but having to dodge them is damned annoying. I sigh and look out to make sure the coast is clear. "We're safe…let's take the other route. Maybe then we can manage to avoid them until we get there."
"Wonderful." Sasuke sighs a little and we leave the alley, heading a different direction to the academy. I look up and frown. If we don't hurry, we'll be late.
"Oh crap! We're gonna be late!" Sasuke turns to the nearest building.
"The rooftops." I nod and scale the wall to stand on the roof. Sasuke jumps up to join me.
"It's a straight shot this way. Let's hurry." He nods and we start running across the roofs towards the academy. Honestly, we're not technically going to be late for 'class'—today is our first day as Genin, so it's just an orientation and placement onto teams—but we like to be at least fifteen minutes early so as to get the seats away from all the deluded preteens who constantly vie for our romantic attentions. We quickly get to the building and land softly in the yard outside the front entrance. "Here we go. I wonder what teams we'll be put on." I muse as we go inside.
"Teams?" I nod once. I thought that Sasuke knew about the teams already.
"Three man cells. It's basic Shinobi protocol for ninja to work in groups of three or four under a superior." He scoffs.
"Great, that means two people too many." I roll my eyes and head for the classroom. We get inside and I notice Inuzuka sitting in his usual seat already.
"Good morning, Uchiha-san." He says lightly, in the way that all the guys use when they try to start a conversation with me.
"Good morning, Inuzuka-kun." I answer cordially, making it clear in my tone that I have absolutely no interest in even a conversation with him, and pass him as he grins stupidly. I sit down in the middle row near the windows and Sasuke sits beside me. I spot Naruto sit down on the row beside Sasuke and sigh a little. The row is full now, which means that hopefully we're safe for the moment.
Ino and Sakura get here and start fighting to get into the classroom first to try and talk to Sasuke. And then the two of them start arguing over who gets to sit by Sasuke. Are they blind? The row is full. Finally, they stop arguing and I turn to say something to my brother. What on earth is Naruto glaring at him for? Hell, why is he crouched on the desk in front of him?
"Get lost." Sasuke sighs. The girls in the room gather and start yelling.
"Naruto! Don't glare at Sasuke!" I roll my eyes and wait for Naruto to give up—I'm the only person that can win a glaring match against Sasuke. And then, I see the guy in the row in front of us bump Naruto with his elbow. I stand immediately when Naruto pitches forward and his lips lock on my brother's. I slam my hands on the desk.
"Uzumaki, you idiot! You're dead!" Sasuke gags and pushes Naruto back to the other end of the desk.
"Nee-chan, don't bother." I glare at Naruto and sit down, folding my arms. One good thing about all the girls who claim to be madly in love with my brother—they beat the crap out of Naruto even though it technically wasn't his fault. Iruka finally gets into the room and puts a clipboard on his desk. The class goes quiet as he goes into a speech.
He mentions the teams and everyone freaks out—am I seriously the only person in this room that already knew about the team protocol? Iruka quickly calms the class and starts listing off teams.
"I wonder who'll get put with the Uchiha twins." The guy in front of us mutters and my eye twitches. I hate it when people refer to us like that. Sure, we're twins, but we're still individuals who should be acknowledged for something other than looks or talent—or even the stupid last name.
"Team seven. Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uchiha Karin." I blink in surprise. We got put on the same team? That's all well and good, but did we have to get put with the village idiot—who got excited when his crush's name was called but depressed when he heard the name Uchiha—and the most determined of the 'fan girls'—who was depressed until hearing Sasuke's name. This will be interesting, to say the least.
I ignore the rest of what goes on and pull out a piece of charcoal to start doodling on my hand. I know it's not healthy, but I don't have any paper on hand. When I'm bored, I just start doodling—I usually keep my sketchbook on hand at all times, but I didn't bring my bag.
"That's not healthy, you know." I roll my eyes a little. Leave it to Sasuke to actually say something—his way of laughing at the fact that I brought my charcoal but not my sketchbook.
"Shut up, I know that. I'm bored and don't have any paper." Finally, Iruka dismisses us and I go up to the roof. I sit down on the edge and open up my lunch. "Itadakimasu." I mutter and dig into my lunch of fruit flavored Onigiri* and shrimp.
When I finish eating—surprisingly with no incident—I head back to the classroom, meeting up with Sasuke and realizing that we're the first ones back. We sit down and I grin at my brother. "Guess what happened to me during lunch."
"You were attacked by fan boys?" He guesses and I shake my head, still grinning.
"Absolutely nothing! I had a peaceful lunch for once." He sighs.
"Lucky you. Naruto attacked me and tied me up." I raise an eyebrow.
"Why would he do something stupid like that? No. Don't answer that. I know the answer." The door opens and two Jounin enter the room. I don't recognize them, but then again, I don't know many Jounin.
"No one's back from lunch yet?" The woman asks and we both shake our heads.
"Just us. Who are you looking for?" She smiles brightly.
"Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino. I'm their instructor, Yuhi Kurenai." I've heard that name before…oh right, a Genjutsu master who was listed in the bingo book I got hold of recently. I saw those three eating on the west side of the grounds.
"Well, I think they were eating lunch somewhere on the west side of the grounds, they should be getting back pretty soon." She nods and sits down to wait. I look at the man.
"Who are you waiting for?" Sasuke asks before I get a chance and the man sits down beside Kurenai.
"I'm Sarutobi Asuma. The team I'm waiting on is team ten." So Ino, Chouji, and Nara. I nod, smirking.
"They're never going to finish lunch. Chouji will be eating until he takes his last breath." The two Jounin laugh and I start doodling on my hand. Abruptly, a piece of paper appears in my peripheral and I look up.
"Here." I pause, but take the page from Asuma.
"Um, thanks?" He nods and walks back to the front of the room.
"You shouldn't draw on yourself. It's not healthy." I roll my eyes and start drawing on the paper. I'm not really paying attention to the drawing, but it's probably that scene. That's usually what comes out when I doodle like this—if not my last childhood friend before he came along. I'll bet those stupid idiots who think they like me and Sasuke would run for their lives if they knew just why we were so quiet and distant all the time.
Finally, the other Genin start coming in. The room slowly fills up and then empties over the course of an hour, leaving me and my team alone. Iruka leaves after thirty minutes and we stick around for another hour to wait for the idiot Jounin who's supposed to be in charge of us.
"Where is he? It's been an hour since Iruka-sensei left." Naruto complains, looking out into the hall. Sakura sighs a little.
"Naruto, whatever stupid prank you're planning won't work on an elite Jounin. You'll get in trouble." He laughs, pulling a chair over to put an eraser at the top of the door. If that actually works, it's no more than the late idiot deserves. Sasuke makes a comment as Naruto puts the chair away and sits down to wait. Two seconds after the blond is seated, the door opens and the eraser falls flat on the silver-white hair of the entering man.
"So this is our elite instructor?" Sasuke mutters to me and I sigh.
"Seems like a bit of a pushover." I mutter in response and watch Sakura freak out.
"Sensei, I'm so sorry! I tried to stop Naruto!" Naruto bursts into hysterical laughter.
"You fell for that big time!" The man seems to smile—or at least that's what I assume as the visible part of his face lifts in the appearance of a small smile.
"Let's see…my first impression of you four…I hate you." Okay then. And just because he walked straight into a booby trap.
"That was a bit harsh…" I mutter, standing. We all leave the room and follow the guy to the garden on the roof. The guy leans on the rail while we sit down on the steps. Naruto sits to Sasuke's left, while I'm sitting between my brother and Sakura.
"Now, I'd like you all to tell us a little about yourselves." He says lightly. Great. It's the first day of academy all over again.
"Like what?" Sakura asks, clearly confused. Okay, does she not remember this whole gig from when we all started in school? Seriously, is Sasuke the only intelligent person on this roof besides me?
"You know the usual. Your favorite thing, what you hate most, dreams, ambitions, hobbies. Things like that." Well this will certainly be interesting.
"Help us out here, sensei. You go first; show us how it's done." Show…? Ugh! Naruto is even more of an idiot than I thought! Honestly…if you want the guy to just tell us his name and a bunch of edging nonsense, just outright ask instead of edging yourself!
"That's right; after all, you're a complete stranger to us. A mystery." Finally, she says something intelligent. I swear these guys are even more annoying than before we got stuck with them on a team.
"Oh, me? I'm Hatake Kakashi. I'm the kind of person who doesn't feel like talking about his likes and dislikes! My dreams for the future are none of your business. But anyway, I have lots of hobbies…" All he told us was his name! Not that I expected anything less.
"All that and all we know is his name." Sasuke grumbles and I roll my eyes.
"That was the point." Kakashi looks at Naruto.
"Now, we'll start with you on the right."
"Who, me?" Naruto points to himself. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! What I like is instant cup ramen! What I like even better is when Iruka-sensei treats me to ramen at Ichiraku Ramen Bar! What I hate is the three minute wait after I pour in the boiling water. And my dream is to become an even greater Hokage than all the rest! And then all the villagers will have to acknowledge my existence at last! My hobbies are pranks and practical jokes, I guess." Okay, he's obsessed with ramen and wants to be Hokage…well, anything's possible.
"Next, you on the right." Sakura blushes a little.
"I'm Haruno Sakura. My favorite thing is…well it's not a thing, it's a person. A boy…and that boy is…" She glances at Sasuke and blushes brightly. I hate to think of what sort of fantasy that's going through her head. "Uh, let's move on to my dream…" Her blush deepens and I almost gag, knowing that her mind is very quickly going into a very deep gutter that should only involve adults.
Wow she's hopeless. This isn't going to be an interesting experience, it's going to be hell. "I hate…Naruto. My hobbies are…" She blushes again and continues glancing at Sasuke. Kakashi clears his throat and looks at me.
"Next, you next to Sakura." I sigh a little.
"I'm Uchiha Karin. I don't like much, except art, so there's no point in listing my likes and dislikes. I don't have any hobbies to speak of, though I never go anywhere without drawing charcoal. And I don't have a dream—that's just a stupid word—it's more a goat that I intend to accomplish. That goal is to kill a certain man, whose name you don't need to know." I say harshly and Kakashi's eye twitches slightly. I said all that and only gave three pieces of information about myself total.
"Next." Sasuke sighs.
"Uchiha Sasuke. There isn't anything that I like, so it's pointless to list what I dislike. I also have a goal that I intend to obtain in the near future. To restore my clan and fulfill my vow to kill a certain man."
"That wouldn't happen to be the same man as Karin-san…would it?"
"No." He says plainly and I notice that Naruto looks worried. Does he think that simply being an idiot would merit being the one that my brother wants to kill? Kakashi sighs a little.
"Tomorrow, we'll go on a mission that only involves the members of this cell…" He goes into a speech and I ignore it, thinking about what I drew before. It wasn't that scene—when Sasuke was almost killed by Deidara—but it was still bad. The day our parents were killed. "Be at the training grounds at five in the morning. Don't eat breakfast, unless you like puking. And bring all of your ninja gear." Kakashi vanishes and Sasuke hands me a piece of paper.
"You spaced out while he was explaining." I nod a little and get up.
"Thanks." I fold up the paper and put it in my vest pocket before running across the roof and jumping the rail. I land on top of a tree and run across the top level of the village to the house. Once I get there, I start on dinner.
. . .
So there it is. Drop a review to let me know how you like the changes.
*Onigiri, for those who don't know, is a rice ball that's filled with flavoring—often times it's considered an entrée as it's filled with things such as salmon, shrimp, or chicken, as well as other meats—and labeled with color-dyed or shape-cut seaweed. Karin is eating Onigiri filled with raspberry and blackberry pastes that she made herself.