Right. So. This is Be My Escape. It's pretty much an OC story. As a warning, I will be diverging from canon because canon disappoints me. I mean, it was going good for a while, but then I noticed that Sasuke never really changed. Honestly, with the exception of Sakura, none of them really go through a path-changing experience. And I really don't think that he would have been able to just leave Konoha like he did. I mean, he was born there so he would have a lot of information on Konoha. Also, seeing as he's the last of the Uchiha and his single-mindedness on revenge, then he would have been monitered. At least, that's what I would have done. .
T Rating because Makoto swears, is a teenager, and there will be blood spilt, obviously. This may be subject to change. Ages have been changed, so Sakura is fourteen, Sasuke and Naruto are thirteen, and Kakashi is, like, twenty-six. Makoto's fifteen, if you're wondering. I'm not quite sure if there will be a pairing. I just picked Sasuke and Kakashi for the character tags because, with what I have in mind, it made the most sense. Both will play larger parts than most, if not all, of the other characters. There will be a sequel. I already have several ideas for it and a couple more for how this story will end.
The Wakahisa Clan and Makoto, are, to my knowledge, of my making. As such, I own them. Anything you recognize is more than likely the doing of Masashi Mishimoto.
Reviews would make me the happiest camper ever. I like constructive critism. If you can't stay constructive without flames, please don't bother. If you are confused with anything or you feel that characters are not acting as they should be, feel free to tell me.
So, without further procrastination, here is the first chapter. :D
The hazel eyes of Makoto Wakahisa stared up at the ceiling in an odd mix of boredom and curiosity. She was curious because she'd been there for nearly an hour now and her sensei had yet to show up. But also bored because there was nothing to do other than listen to a desperate pinkette trying to get the attention of an emo kid and the complaints that seemed to flow from a loud, orange jumpsuit-wearing knucklehead.
'Why did I get stuck with Cockatoo, Pinky, and Shorty?' Makoto groaned mentally, now glaring at the ceiling. 'Why can't I be on the same team as Hinata? Or Shikamaru? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?'
The screech of a chair being dragged across the floor caused Makoto to wince and sit up, sliding her feet from the desk in front of her. Arms folded, she sweat dropped when she saw Naruto balancing on one foot to wedge a chalk eraser in the crack of the door. Sakura rolled her eyes at the blonde's antics while Sasuke scoffed.
"There's no way a Jonin," the Uchiha stressed the rank, "would fall for such a stupid-"
Before the dark-haired boy could finish his sentence, a hand opened the door, causing the eraser to dislodge and land with a dull thud on a head of silver, gravity-defying hair. Makoto couldn't resist grinning a small grin as a cloud of leftover chalk formed while Sasuke grimaced. The brunette rolled her eyes at Sakura as she started apologizing to the man she presumed to be their Sensei. Getting up, the oldest of the group made her way over.
"Oh, come on," Makoto deadpanned, now watching a hysterical Naruto roll around on the floor with dull amusement, "you know you enjoyed it."
Said pinkette 'humph'ed, glaring at the older girl. Simply brushing off the death stare, Makoto looked over at the man with observant eyes.
He wore the standard Jonin uniform, green vest and all. The man's hair was an odd silvery grey and spiky to the point of defying the laws of gravity. The headband around his forehead, like all of the others, had the Hidden Leaf symbol carved into the metal but it was crooked, covering his right eye. A dark mask reached up to the bridge of his nose. Combined with his forehead protector, he had effectively blocked all physical features of his face - with the exception of one coal gray eye - from view. Makoto couldn't help but file this away in her mind under Possible Further Use, or PFU, as she had abbreviated it.
'Wait a minute,' Makoto tipped her head to the side in thought as the man began to look familiar. 'Mask; check. Tilted forehead protector; check. Gravity defying silver hair; check… Ahhhhhh, shit inna bucket, we're fucked!'
"My first impression of you all….hmmm, how can I say this?" he spoke in mock thought, having slipped into the classic Thinking Pose, before continuing bluntly, "I hate you all."
Naruto went to look over at Makoto curiously when he heard a small noise of disbelief come from her direction but found her gone.
"Uh, Mako-chan?" the blonde questioned, spotting her in a corner near him.
The teen was squatting there with her back to them. Makoto looked at the younger over her shoulder as tendrils of what looked like shadows stretched out to them, face nearly covered by another shadow that had fallen over the top half of her face. Naruto lifted a hand weakly to ask if she was alright when one of the shadows started inching toward one of his feet. The blonde yelped and jumped back, quickly hiding behind Sakura. This brought both Sakura's and Sasuke's attention over to the oldest of the group. The three looked over at the silver haired man after a few seconds of confused assessment, all with very large sweat drops and one large question mark floating above their heads. The Jonin only gave them a single, closed-eye smile.
"Follow me," was the only thing he said before disappearing out the door he had come through not even ten minutes before.
Sasuke was, unsurprisingly, the first to recover from the sudden mood swing of Makoto. He merely shoved his hands into his pant pockets and walked out of the room, muttering something about 'idiotic teammates' under his breath.
"S-Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called out, caught off guard.
The pink-haired girl soon raced out the door in pursuit of the Uchiha. Naruto, after a few seconds, noticed that his crush had left him and startled when a hand rested itself on his shoulder momentarily before retreating. He blinked a couple times and watched the black rosebud on the back of Makoto's shirt as she too walked from the room, now seemingly back to normal.
"H-hey!" he yelled. "Guys! Wait up!"
Makoto didn't hear him as she walked behind Sasuke, Sakura, and their sensei.
'There's no way,' she denied both her instincts and her knowledge, 'There's no way that the freaking Copy Ninja is our sensei.'
Makoto's gaze lowered to the floor in thought. Both her sister and her brother had warned her about her sensei this morning, but they hadn't been very specific. At all, really. They had only said that Makoto might have a hard time with the sensei depending on the teammates she was paired with.
'What else had they said?' Makoto frowned in concentration, unknowingly having started counting the steps that had appearing in her line of vision. 'Jesus Christ onna crutch, this is gonna bother me for days…'
Finally, the five of them arrived at a small section of the roof, Naruto in toe after having caught up to the rest of them. Makoto looked around her briefly.
The part of the roof they were at was guarded by metal railing and had some trees planted in little squares of grass behind them among the concrete. A bit farther in front of the trees were three or four steps. Sasuke had chosen to sit on the topmost step, mouth leaning on intertwined hands with his elbows on his knees. Naturally, Sakura had chosen to sit near the Uchiha, though down on the step after the first. The pinkette brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Makoto noted that her attention was actually on their sensei rather than Sasuke and grinned internally.
'Maybe she has the potential of not being a rabid fangirl…'
Naruto, surprisingly, picked the opposite side of the dark haired male and also sat on the second step. Sighing inaudibly, Makoto chose to place herself next to Naruto, laying down on the steps and resting one hand behind her head while the other rested across her stomach, crossing her ankles while she was at it. She situated so the hood of her shirt was being used as a pillow along with her hand and the concrete steps were a bit more comfortable. Makoto closed her eyes but soon opened them again when Naruto snickered.
"What?" the oldest asked, slightly irritated.
Naruto grinned at Makoto.
"You hang around Shikamaru too much, Mako-chan," the blonde informed her, grin now turning mischievous.
Makoto rolled her eyes and waved him off with her unoccupied hand, though the affect was countered by the quiet chuckle that followed. A mutter of 'idiots' was heard from nearby. Makoto rolled her eyes again, this time in annoyance, before looking over at Naruto and winked.
"Uchiha, you're just jealous," Makoto spoke with casual ease.
Sakura made an affronted noise and Naruto's grin returned.
"In your dreams, Wakahisa," Sasuke retorted, monotone.
Makoto's grin widened into a smirk, seeing an opening.
"I didn't say you were jealous of Naruto-kun, Emo Boy."
The result of such a simple comment was enormous. Sakura made an odd squeal of disgust hiding her face in her hands and Naruto was launched into loud laughter, nearly falling over. Sasuke stiffened considerably.
"Hey, I didn't miss that little steamy bit in the classroom."
Naruto's laughter faded and he looked over at Makoto in slight horror.
"Maaaakooooo-chhhaaannnn!" he groaned, though was soon drowned out by Sakura loud voice.
"Ugh, you're so disgusting, Wakahisa!"
Though the reaction was very momentary, something flooded through hazel eyes before disappearing. Makoto just grinned more and shrugged. The four's sensei, who had remained silent through all of this, looking on and assessing, was the only one who saw it. The silver haired man's visible eye narrowed ever so slightly on Makoto, who popped open an eye and met the gaze momentarily before closing it again.
"Ah, I apologize, Sensei," Makoto told the man, "it was an opportune moment I couldn't pass up."
Their sensei just shrugged, the attention of the four back on him, though there was still a distinctly green hue to Sakura's face.
"Let's begin with introducing yourselves," he stated more than suggested.
"What do you want to know?" Sakura counteracted automatically.
Makoto, who had decided to keep her eyes open lest she did pull a Nara and fall asleep, watched as their sensei shrugged again.
"Likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies," the Jonin listened off flippantly. "Things like that."
Makoto jerked an eyebrow up momentarily, beginning to question if this was actually the Copy Ninja.
'He fits the description but he's so damn laidback….' Makoto thought, frustrated.
"Hey, why don't you introduce yourself to us first?" Naruto suggested.
"Yeah, he looks kind of suspicious…" Sakura spoke in an undertone.
Makoto simply couldn't resist.
"That'd be the mask, dear one."
Ignoring the glare that the cherry blossom sent the brunette's way, Makoto leaned back against the steps again, gazing up but zeroing in on everything the man said.
"Alright," he conceded, "Well, my name is Kakashi Hatake…I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes…dreams for the future, hmm…and I have lots of hobbies."
Four large sweat drops appeared on each Genin head. Makoto pushed back the need to slam her head onto the concrete repeatedly. But before anyone could voice their disagreements, Kakashi went on.
"So, let's start from the right."
Makoto sighed and sat up, silently regretting her decision to sit next to Naruto.
"My name is Makoto Wakahisa," the hazel eyed teen started out. "I like puppies and long walks on the bea-"
"Wakahisa."
Makoto looked over at Sasuke, who had been the one to speak up.
"Seriously," the Uchiha deadpanned when he was sure he had the older girl's attention.
For a moment, they stared at each other, neither moving and completely motionless, before Makoto rolled her eyes, breaking eye contact. Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi watched this in jealousy, confusion, and amusement, respectively.
"Fine, fine," the teen muttered, for once not putting up a fight. "I actually like music and reading. I dislike bright colors and people with superiority complexes. My hobbies are training and writing."
A period of silence followed as the rest waited for a dream to be added to the predetermined list. An unseen frown appeared on Kakashi's face when Makoto leaned back against the steps again and closed her eyes, obviously not planning on saying any more.
"Dreams?" Kakashi finally prompted.
Once again, a hazel eye, now more tinted brown and guarded, popped open.
"They aren't important."
It was a simple statement that shouldn't have really made the impact it did. Sakura looked at the older girl in slight confusion, wondering what in the world that was supposed to mean while Sasuke hid his frown behind his hands, thoughts, for once, on the same level, if not a little more intelligently. Naruto, on the other hand, looked at Makoto blankly. Silently, the blonde promised himself to find out just what was eating at one of the few people who didn't look at him with cold eyes. Kakashi once again watched the brunette with an unyielding eye.
"Next."
The man's voice brought everyone from their thoughts and made Naruto snap to attention. Makoto opened her eyes and turned her head in the hyperactive Genin's direction.
"Right! My name is Naruto Uzumaki," he began. "I like ramen, especially when Iruka-sensei pays. I dislike the three minutes I have to wait to eat cup ramen. And my dream…"
Naruto trailed off momentarily before grinning widely and reaching up to adjust his headband.
"My dream is to surpass the Hokage! Then everyone in this village will have to acknowledge me!" Naruto then rubbed the back of his head and continued, "Hobbies? Eh, pranks, I guess."
Makoto couldn't help but grin at the blonde. He had made such a bold statement, saying that he would surpass the Hokage, then ended it all with little thought to exactly how outrageous it sounded. This was one of the reasons she was able to get along better with the Uzumaki than the Haruno or the Uchiha.
"Blue."
Barring that he looked slightly miffed about being called 'Blue', there was barely a change of expression on Sasuke's face.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There are a lot of things I dislike and there's not much I actually like. And…I can't really call it a dream." The young Uchiha paused before continuing, "But I have an ambition: the resurrection of my clan and…"
The second pause made Makoto frown but she kept her eyes closed.
"To kill a certain man."
The frown on Makoto's face deepened while Naruto and Sakura looked at their teammate in shock. Taking a peak at Kakashi, Makoto became troubled in seeing that he didn't look shocked or worried. Though faint, the only thing there was a grim, fulfilled expectancy.
"Ok." Kakashi glanced at the four of them, gaze stopping on Sakura. "And lastly, the other girl."
Sakura blinked a couple times and looked away from Sasuke and over to the man.
"My name is Sakura Haruno," the bright-haired girl started before obviously starting to stare at Sasuke out of the corner of her eyes. "The thing I like is….well, the person I like is….And, um, my dream for the future?"
The familiar overwhelming urge to bang her head on the concrete hit Makoto again as the pinkette squealed at whatever she was thinking. Instead, she opted to bring her hand up swiftly to slap her forehead, feeling something akin to shame and embarrassment for the younger girl.
"What I dislike….is Naruto."
At this, Naruto made an odd whimpering noise, though it was promptly ignored by everyone except Makoto, who spared him a pitying look.
"My hobbies…." Sakura once again trailed off, now having turned her head to fully stare at the most dark haired of present company.
"Saaaaaakuuuraaaaaaa…" Makoto groaned, now sitting up with her face in her hands, rubbing at her eyes as her mind went through what Sakura could possibly be thinking about now. She feared that the images had imprinted themselves into the flesh that covered them. 'There goes her potential…'
Said girl looked over at the brunette with unfriendly eyes.
"What, Wakahisa?" she answered with what sounded like great reluctance.
"Can you, please, yanno, leave absolutely nothing to the imagination? Just for once?"
Sensing a coming argument by the sizeable glare coming from the pink haired one's eyes, Kakashi intervened.
"Ok!" The exclamation effectively drew everyone's attention to the masked man, who inwardly sighed and proceeded, "Tomorrow we start our duties as shinobi."
This seemed to automatically get Naruto's adrenaline going.
"Yeah!" The boy shouted and, oddly enough, saluted, "What kind of duties!"
"First, we're going to do something with just the five of us."
Makoto arched an eyebrow at him, immediately suspicious. Her instincts screamed at her that something was up, he was going to pull some kind of card on them. Of course, that could be her paranoia talking.
'I always have gotten those two confused,' Makoto thought with distance, instincts and-slash-or paranoia causing her mind to go a mile a minute. The teen was soon brought back by her blonde teammate asking what they'd be doing together. She barely caught the answer.
"Survival training," Kakashi told them simply.
'Yep,' Makoto sighed internally. 'Definitely up to something.'
She wasn't the only one confused. Sakura and Naruto had immediately begun to question this and, though he didn't voice anything, Sasuke's eyes narrowed a little. Makoto was sure there was a small frown behind his hands but let it go, turning her focus back to Kakashi and the others.
"Why is our first duty training?" Sakura asked, clearly confused. "We've had enough training at the academy."
The silver-haired man shook his head, a smirk almost visible beneath the dark material of his mask.
"This training is different," he told the four, "This time, I'm your opponent."
"What's so funny, Sensei?" Sakura half questioned, half demanded as said Jonin began to flat out giggle.
"Well," he started out, letting out another chuckle. "It's just that, when I tell you, you guys are going to freak out."
"Freak out?" Naruto echoed. "Why?"
Kakashi leaned toward them, and reached up with a couple hands, finally shifting his arms-and-ankles-crossed position to push up the part of his headband above his uncovered eye. There was definitely a smirk underneath his mask now.
"Of the twenty-eight graduates, only ten will be chosen to become Genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy." Kakashi elaborated to them, "This survival training is a very difficult exam with a failure rate of over sixty-six percent."
Makoto slowly felt shock and foreboding enter her mind and body, slowly processing everything Kakashi had just said. What did he mean that he'd be their opponent? Were they to fight separately or conjoined? Well, that wouldn't work out well. The four of them were far too at odds with each other to work together. They'd have to do it separately. The man was so far ranked above them, how could they even stand a chance, even on the off possibility that they decided to work together? Makoto glared at the man as he began to laugh quietly again.
A heavy weight had descended in the air while Makoto went through her thoughts, all the while an even heavier presence settled itself in her chest. Though some of the confidence that she had had before slipped away, Makoto leveled her gaze at the Jonin, not really looking at him. It made more sense that way, at least. They were finding the weakest and throwing them back to the academy so that only the capable ones would become true shinobi.
"Alright," Makoto breathed quietly, causing the others to look at her. The oldest noted this but made no move to lighten the atmosphere as she usually would have and continued, "So all that work we did in the academy; it was only to figure out who would have better chances to become Genin. We're going to have to put everything we learned into a much more realistic situation…"
Makoto didn't bother to recognize the shock in her teammates or the twinge of dawning acknowledgement in the Hatake's eye.
'I can deal with that,' the hazel eyed teen finished in her head, not bothering to do so vocally. When this seemed to cross Kakashi's mind, he carried on.
"Anyway, tomorrow, you have to show your real skills on the training ground. Bring all of the shinobi tools you have." The silver haired man paused before adding a warning, "Oh, and don't eat breakfast unless you want to throw up."
He pushed off of the railing and walked toward the group, papers in hand. Makoto, sensing the end of this meeting, stood and received hers. Hazel eyes scanned over the paper carefully. There was little that Kakashi hadn't already said but she folded it a couple times and stuck it in her pocket never the less.
With nothing else said, the man made a hand seal before disappearing with a poof of smoke, leaving a few leaves in his place. Makoto sighed before turning to speak to the others but found two of the three others gone. Watching Sakura run after Sasuke, she frowned before turning to Naruto. The older one didn't get a word in.
"See you tomorrow, Makoto!" Naruto called to her, already a good distance away in the others' direction.
Ignoring the small bit of annoyance that flared, said teen stuffed her hands into her pockets and began walking the opposite way and down a set of steps. She really needed a new team.
