Sasuke was supposed to be training to be a better ninja, and this was the teacher he got? Enough was enough. Time to manipulate his teammates into helping. AU
Working Together
In Which Sasuke Is Frustrated
It was a Tuesday, and Sasuke was this close to screaming and tearing out all of his hair.
His lips were chapped and blistering, he was sweaty in all the awkward places, and his shirt was sticking to his back. The air was still and muggy, giving him no respite under the 11 a.m. sun. Even his hair lay flatter than usual, and he kept running his fingers through it to get rid of some of the sweat.
He glanced as his two teammates, one blond, leaning against the railing of the bridge with his head in his hands, and the other, pink-haired, sitting with her eyes closed and her head tilted back.
They had been like this for the past two hours.
"Okay!" he exclaimed suddenly, he voice unexpectedly loud after the long, tired silence. "Enough is enough." He wasn't talking like how Uchiha Sasuke usually talked - which was not at all - but he had never thought he would ever seriously contemplate killing a teacher, either. "I'm going to get an early lunch."
Naruto had lifted his head from his hands and turned towards the sound of his voice, and Sakura was staring at him. She started to say, "But what about-" but Sasuke wouldn't hear of it.
"Kakashi-sensei," he said slowly, pausing for dramatic effect, "can go fuck himself." He relished the sound of the words on his tongue. He started to walk off the bridge, but stopped when he didn't hear movement behind him.
"Well," he said impatiently, "are you guys coming or what?"
Twenty minutes later found them sitting comfortably in a small restaurant, waiting for their food. There had been a minor fight on where to go to eat, which Sasuke had easily solved by ignoring his teammates and continuing to walk to his favorite diner. His mother had used to take him here when he was small, and he knew the owner quite well.
Naruto and Sakura and been strangely quiet upon arriving at the restaurant, and Sasuke was enjoying the silence. He wasn't, however, enjoying the uneasy looks they both kept exchanging. He supposed it was because of him.
He decided to speak up. "Look. I'm tired of sitting around, waiting for Kakashi-sensei to teach us something." He looked at them expectantly, which looked more like a scowl on his face. "I need to become a stronger ninja, and I'm sure you both want to, too. So I propose we work together."
This wasn't a split second decision on Sasuke's part. The heat wasn't enough to make him willingly talk to both Naruto and Sakura. No, he had thought long and hard about this. He no longer had any family to teach him anything, and any family scrolls left were still too advanced for him, as much as he hated to admit it. The Academy had taught him little to nothing, and now their genin teacher was proving to be just as useless. It had only been a week since they'd passed the bell exam, but he didn't get the idea that Kakashi would start teaching them anything any time soon. Sadly, Naruto and Sakura were the only two people he had left. They were the only people he currently knew who might be able to share with him new skills.
And he was confident they would agree with his idea, because, quite frankly, he knew they didn't have anyone else to turn to, either.
Naruto and Sakura looked at each other again, and, after a short hesitation, Sakura said, "Okay, what do you want to do?"
Sasuke smirked to himself. He would probably be done with them in a week, because he figured they wouldn't know much he didn't already know. But until then, he would do his best to squeeze them dry.
Another fifteen minutes, and they were headed back to wait for Hatake Kakashi. He probably still wasn't there, but the three genin agreed that there was no need to purposefully piss their teacher off
Their server at the restaurant had made a brief commotion about having to serve Naruto (maybe Naruto had pranked the man?), but Sasuke had glared him into submission. He didn't have time for such nonsense – he was trying to be a ninja, damnit, and he was hungry.
After the serve had left, they had settled into their food, Naruto sniffing his sandwich suspiciously before trying it. They discussed only briefly what they wanted to do, planning to talk more the next morning. They were going to share their strengths and weaknesses (Sasuke would have to think about what his weaknesses were), figure out what each person could contribute to the team, and then plan a training regimen accordingly.
And now they were headed back to the bridge, Team 7's meeting place. So far, they hadn't accomplished much, but Naruto hadn't been too obnoxious and had actually been listening, and Sakura hadn't been fawning over him as much as usual, and had actually had a few intelligent things to contribute. He knew her forehead was big for a reason.
It was a Tuesday, and Sasuke was feeling more optimistic than he had all week.