.:Chapter One - First Day of School:.

"Okay, I admit it. She was charming, in a stubborn, irritating kind of way."

-Spirit, commenting on Rain.

Uchiha Sasuke groaned unhappily as the glaring morning sunlight woke him from his semi-deep slumber. He rubbed his sleep-swollen eyes and stretched langourously. Eyes still bleary his began his morning routine, going through a few basic excersizes before ejoying a brief shower and an even shorter breakfast. Today was his first day reaching at Konoha Ninja Academy.

He glanced at a picture on his mantle piece and his eyes almost misted. He caught himself before he could show any emotion, it wasn't the Uchiha way. The photo had been taken eleven years ago at a new years party. It depicted himself and Uzumaki Naruto stumbling around drunk that night. The picture had been taken the last night he'd ever seen Naruto. It was the only photo he had of the both of them together.

He sighed and glanced at the clock on the wall. He had about a half an hour before he had to head down to the Academy. He decided to lounge about and waste what time he had. However, after approximately three-point-five minutes of lounging he got irritated with the inactivity.

After a few moment of deliberation Sasuke thought to take a short jog around Konohagakure. He neededto clear his thoughts before he went to meet his students.

He passed all of the "Rookie Nine's" houses on his backward way towards the school, those who still resided in Konoha at least. He remembered everything from back when he'd betrayed, abandoned and come back bloody-handed. He'd succeeded in killing his brother, only to find out the truth. Unsure of himself, and confused as to what to do next he'd returned. He had endured the punishments and then become a Konoha Anbu. He'd retired the moment Naruto had disappeared, which had only been about a month after Sasuke had returned.

The Uchiha had spent three years searching unsuccessfully for the blond, and after no less than a few million dead ends he'd given up. Naruto didn't want to be found. Sasuke became a teacher then, on a whim. Each year he would travek to a different village and academy to teach, in the hopes of accidently coming across the other boy.

Finally he'd returned to Konohagakure once more, a week ago. Naruto had disappeared off the face of the planet. His searching had been completely useless, there was no chance of finding him.

Sasuke sighed as he'd come within sight of the Academy. It was time to ready for his students. He wasn't teaching a class. This year he'd opted for a genin group. He wanted to try something new and could use the challenge. He'd also signed himself up to help head the exams when they came around. He'd proved a surprisingly good teacher and even more astonishingly, he liked it. It wasn't an easy job, by far but it was fun. And fun hadn't been up to high on his priorities list since...ever.

The "fun" of his career had revived him from the disapointing defeat of his beloved aniki and the even more disappointing loss of his best and most trusted friend; the one whom he's assumed he'd never have to face losing. He'd been even more emotionless after he'd finally given up on Naruto but the challenges of teaching had brought him out just a teenie bit and he felt himself almost smiling sometimes.

He was meeting his team of Genin today and was rather excited to do so. Konoha's ninjas were by far the best and he was relishing in the chance to teach a group himself. He was absolutely jumping with excitement to meet his genin! (Not in the literal sense of course.) He could see them now. A blushing girl with surprising strength, a moody boy with a chip on his shoulder, and a loud-mouthed, blue-eyed blond who lit up ever day with is smiles. Sasuke shook his head and sighed. He was imagining the wrong group.

He wandered in through the front doors of the school building. Everywhere young ninjas-in-training were running around pretending to be their favourite grown-up-real-ninjas. Sasuke smirked knowingly, he'd played the same games with Itachi any time he could when he was young, before...everything had happened and his life had altered so drastically. He noticed a particularly shy girl in a corner and he made his way over to her.

"Hey, why aren't you with the other kids?" He asked in a relatively passable attempt at concern. The girl looked up with tears in her eyes and thrust a sewn doll at his face. He resisted the urge to gasp and looked at the..thing. It was the ugliest doll he'd ever seen. It was misshapen and oddly sewn, not to mention the fact that the head looked near ready to fall off.

"Those meanie-heads made fun of Ai-Chan!" She wailed, waving the doll, Ai-Chan dramatically.

"Uh..." Sasuke immediately regrettd coming to the girl's aide. He had no idea what to do in this sort of position. He opened his mouth to say whatever first came to mind when a blur of black-and-red-and-blue whirled out of nowhere and stepped between him and the child. He was shut him mouth slowly as he looked at the back of a decidedly older, ninja-in-training.

He listened as the young kunoichi soothed the child and sweet-talked her fears away. He sighed audibly when he noticed he'd just been rescued from a difficult situation. He turned to continue onto his meeting place with his genin when the girl turned on him.

"Ohayou someone-sensei! At least I think you're a sensei! I would assume you are because you don't seem like you would be a father because you just don't seem like it. Anyways, nice try with the little girl. She's all better now and thinks you're god! Gotta run though, I'm late!" The bundle of energetic little girl disappeared as quickly sa she'd appeared and he was left infinitely more confused than he'd been when he'd walked into the building. Deciding he'd likely never see the girl again he made his way to the stairs and onto the roof of the building, where he'd arranged to meet the three.

thisisaline

On the roof he was (inwardly) delighted to not all three of his students were on time. He liked nothing less than having to wait, he was an Uchiha after all. He didn't have to have patience, no one made an Uchiha wait. From what he could see there were two girls and a boy. One girl and the boy were chatting up a storm while the third just sat looking like she was feeling slightly out of place. Sasuke breathed in deeply and let out a soft sigh. He goes nothing he mentally told himself.

He looked over his students carefully. Memorizing what they looked like for future reference. The shy girl was short, with short brown hair that reached only to her shoulders. She was wearing a baggy white hoodie and plain black pants. There was nothing surprising in her concealing, wardrobe. The boy had bubblegum pink hair and Sasuke pinned him as a relative of Haruno's, not that he'd seen her since he'd arrived but he would soon. He was wearing a green t-shirt and white shorts. The third was wearing a short blue dress much like Sakura's had been at that age and a pair of black shorts. Sasuke almost gasped, She was the girl that soothed the child earlier!

"Ohayou." He said simply, effectively catching the young ones' attentions. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I am your sensei." The first two greeted him heartily while the third nodded respectfully. "Introduce yourselves." He pointed at the shy girl and nodded in what he hoped was encouragement.

"My name is Inuzuka Hinako. I am named after my Okaasan, Hinata. I am eleven years old. I want to be an accoplished ninja like my Otousan and Okaasan." She blushed lightly and smiled. A bark from behind her alerted everyone to the small puppy laying there. "This is Ichi, she is Akamaru's first-born puppy and only female." The dog was cute, Sasuke had to admit. It was all white, like it's father, save for one black ear.

Sasuke nodded in approval and Hinako beemed joyfully. He turned his gaze to the young boy with surprisingly pink hair.

He grinned and jumped up. "I am Ichirou Lee! I am the first-born son! My younger brother's name is Nirou and my youngest brother is Sanrou! There are two more brothers on the way who are named Shirou and Gorou! I am exctied for they're come! My okaasan is Haruno Sakura and my Otousan is Rock Lee!" Sasuke mentally shouted bingo." They are proud of my youth! I am ten years old! I want to be able to walk on my hands around the village five hundred times like my Otousan and punch holes in the counter like my Okaasan! The power of youth---"

"That's enough Ichirou-san." Sasuke cut the boy off. He was way too enthousiastic for a ten year old and if Sasuke was ever forced to listen to another of Lee's The power of youth phrases he would certainly shove a kunai into his ear!

The last didn't need any prompting to introduce herself. She started off quickly and enthusiastically but with much more class than Ichirou. "My name is Mikoto Kushina Uzumaki! I will become hokage! Believe it!"

Sasuke did a doubletake. "Repeat that, please." He asked with wide-eyes.

"...My name is Mikoto Kushina Uzumaki. I will become hokage." She repeated, less entusiatically, clearly annoyed at having to repeat herself. She glared at her teacher, "Did you hear me that time, Baka?"

"Hai." He nodded. "Family?" Sasuke wanted to know more. The girl intreged him as he gave her a quick once-over. She was clearly no older than ten or eleven years old. She had mid-back length hair held up in a loose pony-tail and the brightest blue eyes he'd seen since...

"Baka-sensei. My Otousan's name is Uzumaki Naruto. I have no other family." She said with no regret or sadness in her voice.

Sasuke gasped.

.:End Chapter One - First Day of School:.

This is chapter one of one of the many stories I should have had up months ago if it weren't for BOTH of my computers untimely deaths. I've had to rewrite everything from scratch aswell as get a new computer. I hope you like it. Review if you'd like, I appreciate all kinds of responses evenif they' don't exist. :)