After being left behind in their classroom, Reika decides to just eat her lunch alone in the empty classroom. It was ideal, since it's noise-free and she can be alone. Don't get her wrong; she likes Sasuke or Shikamaru or even Chouji's company, but she needs her time alone. Not long after lunch time is done, one by one the teams disperse with their respective Jounin sensei, until Team 7 is the only one left.
"He's late…" Naruto says in exasperation. Reika agrees. It's been two hours since they are left in the classroom. She decides to just fold her arms on top of her table and lie her head down on her folded arms. She closes her eyes and tries to tune out Naruto and Sakura's voices.
"Wait! What are you doing, Naruto?!"
Reika groans and lifts up her head, giving up on sleep to see Naruto putting a blackboard eraser between the top of the sliding door. Classic prank.
"Serves him right for being late!" Naruto says as he looks at his prank as if it's his masterpiece.
"A Jounin wouldn't get caught in such a weak booby trap," Sasuke says.
"That's right. You're such an idiot…"
Before Sakura can finish her sentence, a masked tall man dressed in standard Jounin outfit with gravity defying silver hair and hitai-ate covering his left eye slides the door open. And just like that, Naruto's prank actually works.
Reika looks on with eyes wide. Is he really a Jounin? Reika thinks. Naruto is laughing loudly and Sakura is apologizing at the person who seems to be their sensei. Reika knows better, though; she knows that Sakura is just as amused as Naruto. Reika also knows that Sasuke is thinking the same thing as she does.
"Hmm… how shall I put this? My first impression of you guys would be… well, I hate you."
Reika rolls her eyes at that.
xXx
Team 7 follows their Jounin sensei up to the roof. Naruto sits on the far left, Reika right beside him, followed by Sasuke, and Sakura on the other end.
"Let's see… first off, let me have you guys introduce yourselves."
"…what should we say?" Sakura asks.
"Your likes, dislikes, your future dream, hobbies, things like that!" their sensei says as he leans on the railings with his arms crossed.
"Hey, hey! Before that, please tell us about yourself!" Naruto says.
"Me? My name's Hatake Kakashi. I don't feel like telling you guys about my likes and dislikes. I've never really thought about my future dream… as for my hobbies, I have many."
"In the end, all we get is his name," Sakura whispers to her teammates. Reika has to agree. Their sensei is… rather unique, to put it lightly.
"Next is you guys. Let's start with you, orange boy."
"My name's Uzumaki Naruto! I like cup ramen, but what I like even more is the ramen from Ichiraku that Iruka-sensei treats me to. What I dislike is the three-minute wait after pouring hot water in the instant ramen. My hobby is eating and comparing different types of cup ramen! And my future dream is to surpass the Hokage! And so I'm going to get the entire village to acknowledge my existence!" Naruto says as he plays with his hitai-ate.
Reika closes her eyes and listens to his introduction. She feels strangely worried about the fact that he talks a lot about ramen, and wonders if he's been eating something more nutritious than ramen. She opens her eyes and raises her eyebrows when he said that he wanted to surpass the Hokage. It'll be a million years too early with your skills now, Naruto, Reika thinks.
"Okay, next. You, pinky."
"I'm Haruno Sakura. What I like… I mean, who I like is…"
Reika closes her eyes again and mentally sighs as Sakura introduces herself, or more likely, announcing to the world her 'love' for Sasuke.
"And, my hobby is, I mean… my future dream is…"
And then she squeals and Reika squeezes her eyes shut as she grimaces at the sound. Good god, she's loud.
"And? What about your dislikes?" Kakashi asks her.
"Naruto and Reika!"
Reika can tell that Naruto is downtrodden over her words, but Reika can care less. Feeling's mutual, Reika thinks.
"Next, the other girl."
Naruto and Sakura give Reika their full attention. As much as she'd like to deny it, Sakura is very curious about her female teammate. She only knows that Reika is definitely close to Sasuke, but she doesn't seem to have a romantic interest in him. Sakura has never really seen her do anything special; she just seems like a very tired looking girl to Sakura, judging from her deep bags under her eyes.
Naruto knows very little of his teammate. He knows that Reika looks a lot like Sasuke and she gives Sasuke a different kind of attention than his other fangirls, so Naruto knows that she's not just another Sasuke fangirl. Reika is not really close to anyone except for Sasuke and Shikamaru. According to Shikamaru, she's kind and very smart, but she's kind of detached. Shikamaru told him about a 'certain darkness' in her eyes, but Naruto can't really see it. Is it because of the bags under her eyes? Her eyes are dark…
"I'm Reika. I like silence. I dislike noises in general. My hobby is playing crossword puzzles and reading. My dream… no, my goal is to find a certain someone and ask him about the truth behind the death of someone precious to me while protecting my brother," Reika says with a straight face, looking straight into Kakashi's eye. She notices that his eye widens a little bit, but she ignores it.
Naruto and Sakura look at her with wide eyes. They are shocked about the fact that she discloses more information in a couple of seconds than she does in the few years they have known her. She has a brother?! Naruto and Sakura think.
"And lastly…"
"My name's… Uchiha Sasuke. I have lots of dislikes, but no likes in particular. And… I don't feel like summing up my ambition as just a dream, but I do have an ambition: to restore my clan and without fail, kill a certain man."
Reika looks down as Sasuke introduces himself. The silence that comes after he finishes his introduction is deafening, no matter how much she claims to like silence. She can tell that Naruto and Sakura are both looking at Sasuke.
"Good! The four of you are very distinctive and interesting! We'll have a mission tomorrow!" Kakashi says.
"Yes, sir! What kind of mission?" Naruto asks excitedly.
"First, we'll do what we can do with just five people."
"What is it? What is it? What is it?" Naruto asks rapidly.
"A survival exercise."
"Why are we doing an exercise even though this is supposed to be a mission? We've had more than our share of exercises in the Academy!" Sakura protests.
"This is no simple exercise," Kakashi refutes.
"T-Then what kind of exercise is it?"
To their surprise, and Reika's horror, Kakashi only laughs.
"What's so funny, sensei?" Sakura asks, clearly annoyed by their sensei.
Kakashi continues to laugh, until he composes himself enough to say, "No, well, if I tell you, I know you'll be discouraged."
"Huh?"
"Of the twenty-nine graduates, only ten will be recognized as Genins. The remaining nineteen will be sent back to the Academy. In other words, this exercise is an extremely difficult test with a failure rate of 66% or higher."
Reika knows that everyone is shocked, even though they either try to hide it or show it openly. Reika sighs in annoyance. I knew that graduation test was too easy.
"See, see? You got discouraged!" Kakashi says in a mocking tone. Reika is starting to dislike her sensei.
"That's crazy! Then what was that graduation test for?!" Naruto protests.
"Oh, that. It was just to select those who have the potential of becoming Genin."
"Whaaaaat?!" Naruto exclaims.
"Well, that's the way it is. I'll be determining whether you pass or fail. Bring your complete set of Ninja tools! We meet at five in the morning!"
Reika looks to her left and sees that Naruto is shaking. She frowns. Does he really have no confidence over his own skills? He can make shadow clones, for heaven's sakes; Reika thinks that he should be fine. Reika can care less about Sakura, so then she turns to her right to find Sasuke's clasped hand shaking. He turns to her and his onyx eyes meet her identical ones, and then the shaking stops.
"Okay! You're dismissed. Oh… and don't eat breakfast unless you want to see it coming back up."
Reika's eyes widen for the umpteenth time that day. She can tell that the exercise-slash-exam is going to be really tough.
xXx
"I'm home."
"Welcome home, nii-san. Go and get changed. Dinner's almost ready."
Reika puts two bowls with rice followed with two bowls with miso soup, two plates of grilled fish, and one bowl of grilled tomatoes. She goes back into the kitchen to start making tea when her brother – her twin brother – steps into their dining-slash-living room. When Reika comes back with a pot of tea in one hand and two cups on the other, Sasuke is already sitting in front of one of the bowls.
"I told you that you don't have to wait for me to start eating, nii-san."
"And I told you that I'll always wait for you, Reika-hime. Now sit; I'm hungry."
Reika grumbles about 'why don't you eat first if you're hungry' but she doesn't push the topic. She puts the pot and a cup each in front of her and Sasuke, and then they cup their hands together and say "Itadakimasu" before they start eating.
This is a usual sight in the Uchiha family dinner – or, what remains of the Uchiha family. Reika would come home first and then a few minutes later Sasuke would come in. They do this to make sure that no one knows that they live together, especially Sasuke's fan girls, who have mastered the art of stalking, which forces the Uchiha twins to master the art of stealth. Before Sasuke comes in, Reika tries to prepare dinner as fast as possible so that her brother can just get changed and eat.
Not a lot of people know this, but Reika – Uchiha Reika – is the fraternal twin of Uchiha Sasuke, which explains their there-but-not-there resemblance. Some of her facial features are similar to Sasuke's but the features around her eyes look very much like those of their eldest brother's, Uchiha Itachi. From what she knows so far, only the Sandaime Hokage and a handful of Jounin know about this. Sandaime Hokage was the person who suggested that they keep their real relationship hidden as a security measure.
According to Sandaime Hokage, their family's kekkei genkai, Sharingan, has always attracted a lot of attention, being one of the most coveted doujutsu in history. After the Uchiha Massacre, a lot of people had been scavenging for the eyes from their relatives' dead body. Should someone find out that there are survivors, surely they will be targeted.
The thing is, while Itachi was very famous for being an Uchiha prodigy, not a lot of people knew of the existence of the clan head's only daughter. In extension, a lot of people knew that Sasuke was an Uchiha, having shadowed their oldest brother since he could walk. Sasuke was also in favor of keeping Reika's real identity as an Uchiha a secret, in order to protect her and their family legacy. Thus, what people know is that the Uchiha clan had been massacred by Uchiha Itachi, but he left one survivor and one survivor only: his younger brother, Uchiha Sasuke. To the citizens of Konoha, Uchiha Reika had died along with her clan.
Even to his twin, Sasuke is an aloof person; which she doesn't mind, because both Sasuke and Reika are natural lone wolves. Despite his aloofness, Reika knows that he loves her and is very protective of her, and she knows he knows that she loves him just as much and is just as protective over him as he does her. Sasuke just hates looking at her eyes, for obvious reasons. Sometimes, he even shows a rare display of affection, such as the hug that happened earlier that afternoon in the empty classroom.
Being twins, Reika and Sasuke have very keen observation regarding each other. They also have that so-called telepathy where they can tell what each other are feeling or thinking most of the time. But for some reason, after their clan was massacred, their bond somehow strengthened and in turn, if they concentrate enough, they can distinguish each other's chakra better than anyone else's even when they're not sensor types, which is why Reika could easily find Sasuke in the warehouse earlier.
"What do you want for breakfast, nii-san?" Reika asks as she eats a piece of fish. She maintains eye contact even though Sasuke is looking at her weirdly. No matter how much she knows that he hates her eyes, she likes to look at someone straight in their eyes when she's talking to them.
"…Kakashi said not to eat breakfast."
"And kaa-san said to always eat breakfast. Shisui-nii-sama always emphasized the importance of breakfast too. I don't care what Kakashi-sensei says; you are not leaving this room tomorrow morning until you've had breakfast," Reika says with a small glare. Sasuke looks away from her.
Uchiha Shisui, otherwise known as Shunshin no Shisui, was the Uchiha family cousin and Itachi's best friend. Even though she has two brothers, Reika can honestly say that she was way closer to Shisui than her brothers, despite the fact that Sasuke is her twin. Ever since they were small, the twins had always wanted to gain their father's approval. She knew that her father was extremely proud of Itachi, and in turn, it made her and Sasuke want to gain the same recognition from their father. Unfortunately, Itachi was already snagged by Sasuke, rendering her mentor-less. At least until Itachi introduced her to Shisui.
Reika grew attached to Shisui like Sasuke was to Itachi. She tried to make him train with her every time they meet, but unlike Itachi, Shisui had more time on his hands, so he could train her more than Itachi could Sasuke. One of the first jutsus Shisui taught Reika was the Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Jutsu), the jutsu that gained Shisui his fame. It was a basic jutsu, but Shisui taught her how to utilize it to her absolute advantage.
While the thing that got in the way of Sasuke learning more from Itachi was Itachi's business, the thing that got in Reika's way of learning more from Shisui was her weak constitution. She had always been a frail child, to the point where her mother stopped letting her out of the house in fear of her getting sick. That was the other reason why Reika liked being with Shisui so much. Shisui was reasonably protective of her, not to the point where Reika felt suffocated ("I know Mikoto-san told me to go easy on you, but you know I won't, Reika-hime."). Shisui also gave her the reason to get out of the house and train. Shisui had always said that she had enough mental strength to make up for her physical shortcomings, and Reika believes it until now. She still retains her weak body, but she learns to know herself well enough to know her limits.
With the amount of time spent with Shisui, in her childish eyes, Shisui was her hero. He was her first love, the first person to give her the attention she needs from a male figure, and the person whose opinion matters the most to her. Slowly but surely, her desire to gain her father's recognition changed when she started craving Shisui's acknowledgment instead. So when she heard the news that Shisui had died from being pushed off a cliff into the Naka River by Itachi, Reika was devastated – both because of his death and the information that the one who killed him was her eldest brother –, possibly even more than when she found out that she had lost the rest of her clan members and her parents.
While Sasuke wants to find Itachi to kill him, Reika wants to find Itachi to find out why he killed Shisui. Because of him, Reika dreads sleep. Ever since she found out that Shisui had died in Itachi's hands, she has had recurring nightmares about Itachi pushing Shisui off a cliff into the Naka River. She'd then wake up, but unable to continue sleeping for fear that she'll have the same nightmare. The bags under her sunken eyes are proof of her sleepless nights. But every time someone dies, she finds out after she wakes up from a dreamless sleep, so in a way, she's thankful of the nightmares.
"Reika-hime?"
Reika shakes herself out of her stupor and looks straight into Sasuke's onyx eyes, who maintains eye contact for only 5 seconds until he looks away, "Sorry. What did you say?"
"I said I want tomato stuffed onigiri for breakfast tomorrow."
Reika scoffs with a smile, "You and your tomato obsession."
"I am not obsessed."
"Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that."