Sasuke tightened his headband as he looked out onto the village in front of him. A gust of wind pushed his hair back. He was standing on top of a massive water tank and could see the Hokage monument ahead of himself. The breeze carried the smell of pork hung in the air. He turned to where the smell was coming from and saw a barbecue restaurant. He dropped down to the village streets and walked over to the shop.

He had known that this shop existed, but he couldn't remember why he always avoided it. Then like a screeching banshee he was reminded. "Sasuke!" He tried to turn around. "Sasuke over here!"

"Leave him alone." Came the response of a familiar voice.

Sasuke was about to step out of the restaurant when he felt a strong yet gentle hand on his shoulder. "So you're the Sasuke we hear about."

Sasuke turned and saw a massive woman smiling at him. "Mom, just let him go." Came Choji Akimichi's plea.

"Nonsense Choji. He needs some meat on his bones." She said grabbing his arm and pulling him to the table that Choji and the other members of Team 10 were sitting at.

"Hey Sasuke." Shikamaru lazily greeted the Uchiha.

Sasuke grunted as he was put in the seat beside Shikamaru. Ino glared at her rotund teammate who ignored her glare and put a piece of meat in his mouth. "Seriously Mom, you can tell he doesn't want to be here. Sasuke doesn't like us."

"Sasuke doesn't like anyone." Shikamaru pointed out.

"That's not true!" Ino bellowed. "Isn't that right Sasuke?" She smiled at the uncomfortable boy.

Mrs. Akimichi walked back to the kitchen, most likely to get Sasuke some food. "I heard what happened with Tobio." Shikamaru said between yawns. "That's insane."

Sasuke stiffened at the mention of his late teammate. "I doubt it bothered him though." Choji pointed out between breaths. "Like you said, Sasuke doesn't like anyone. Besides, he's seen worse."

"Choji." Shikamaru snarled at his friend.

Without a word Sasuke stood up from the booth and walked out of the restaurant. "See what you did you moron?" Ino screamed.

"What?" Choji asked.

Sasuke trudged through the village. Seeing them again was a stark reminder to how everybody saw him. He was the poor child that was left with no one. And because of that he became hard and closed off to everything. It took watching his first friend die to realize how lonely Sasuke really felt. He glanced up at the Hokage monument and looked at the Third.

When he said that Team 7 would be split up he couldn't let that happen. He felt a bond with people, and he hated to think that he'd lose it that fast. Choji was right though, Sasuke didn't care about anybody, and that was something that needed to change.

For so long all he carried inside of himself was hatred and anger, something needed to change. He held his hand over his chest and nodded his head.

He turned down a street he hadn't been down in years. He put his hand on the large Uchiha fan that was painted onto the wall. The district was largely abandoned and hadn't been used since that night. The villagers tended to avoid it because of the rumors of haunting. He still didn't fully understand why the entire thing wasn't burned to the ground.

He slid open the paper door and slipped his shoes off as he stepped into the house. He turned down the hallway he had memorized and opened the same door he had all those years ago. He half expected to see their bodies still lying there, but the room had mostly been cleaned. The blood still left a faint stain on the floor where they had been. "Hey." He said to the room. "I haven't been here in a while, but I just wanted to say…" He stopped for a minute. "I made a friend." He walked into the room and shut the door behind himself. "I didn't really know him when we were in school, but we were put on the same team. He kind've reminded me of myself. He was driven by someone else, and what they meant to him. It almost felt like looking in a mirror…" He paused for a moment. "He's dead now. And I haven't felt this alone since…" He rolled his neck as he felt the lump in his throat. "Since you two died."

He visibly relaxed as the words came out of his mouth. "I know you wouldn't like who I've become. I'm obsessed with avenging you, but I never actually stopped to be myself. I'm still chasing someone else, even now I'm chasing after him." He balled his fists as his eyes shifted to their red color. "These eyes, I get it now. They aren't a blessing they're a scar." A single tear fell from his eyes before he shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'm going to be make you proud. You're going to be proud of your boy." He turned around and walked out of the room without another word.

XXXX

"Glad you could join me." Sakura said crossing her arms as Sasuke walked towards her. "Have you seen sensei?"

"He'll be here soon." Sasuke answered sitting beside the pinkette.

She looked around to make sure that no one was playing some kind of trick on her. Sasuke was sitting next to her, and not because she was the one who sat with him. "Is everything ok Sasuke?"

"Yeah." The Uchiha said keeping his eyes forward as he leaned on his knees and laced his fingers together.

Sakura looked closely at her teammate. There was something different about him, but she couldn't figure it out. Her thoughts were stopped when their sensei landed in front of them. "You're late, and to make things worse you've become a bad example on Sasuke!" She shouted pointing at the Uchiha.

"Late?" Kakashi asked in shock. "I always said to meet at this time, isn't that right Sasuke?"

"Yup."

"See." Kakashi eye smiled at the kunoichi.

"Great, you two are picking on me now." Sakura put her head in her hands and shook her head. "So what are we doing today Sensei?"

Kakashi leaned back and looked at the two of his students. "Well since your piers will be training for the Chunin exams, I thought it would be best if I trained you two to be on their level."

"But Sasuke was the best in our class!" Sakura shouted. "He's already better than any of them are."

"For now." Kakashi nodded his head. "But what about once one of them becomes Chunin? What's to stop any of them from getting better than you, or Sasuke, or even me? Even the Hokage starts as a Genin."

"So what kind of training were you thinking?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm glad you asked Sasuke." Kakashi said with a smile. "We're meeting a friend of mine, he has his own team of genin, and I think you two could learn something from them."

"You have a friend, sensei?" Sakura asked with a smirk.

Kakashi said nothing as he pulled out his book and started walking. "Come along children."

The two genin both rolled their eyes as they all walked through the village. Sasuke turned his head as he saw into a ramen shop. He had known that it was actually a popular meetup spot for some of the locals, but he had never actually tried the stuff. "You ever eat there?" He asked Sakura.

"Hm?" She turned her head to look inside of the restaurant. "No, I haven't." Her cheeks blushed as she looked back at Sasuke. "Are you asking if I want to go?"

"What? No." Sasuke responded as he sped up his pace to walk beside Kakashi, deflating the Kunoichi behind him.

"That was rude." Kakashi said just loud enough for the Uchiha to hear.

"Friendship is one thing, that's another." He said putting his hands into his pockets.

"I suppose." Kakashi said with a breath.

XXXX

"Here we are." Kakashi said looking around the training field.

"Sakura!" Came a scream from inside of the woods as a blur burst from inside. Sasuke didn't hesitate to get in front of the girl before a boy with a bowl cut and thick eyebrows was standing in front of him. "Sasuke Uchiha." The boy said quickly. "Please step aside so that I might woo her."

Sasuke stepped to the side once he saw the Lead headband around the boy's waist. "Be my guest."

Sakura looked at her teammate with betrayal etched onto her face. "Sakura the most beautiful!" He shouted at her. "I would love to ask if you would accompany me to dinner this evening." He got down on one knee and held his arms out, as if he was expecting her to throw herself into his arms.

"I'm good." Sakura said walking around the boy who didn't move. Once she was beside Sasuke his eyes opened in shock.

"Gai Sensei!" He screamed as he ran at full speed back into the woods.

"What was that?" Sakura asked Kakashi. The Jonin looked on in shock and fear. "Sensei?"

"There's two of them." Kakashi said as if he was looking into the pits of hell themselves.

"Kakashi!" Came the loudened scream from inside of the forest. With wind to his back another man emerged from the forest. He was dressed exactly like the boy who had come out at first, only he wore a flak jacket. "My eternal rival!"

"Hello Gai." Kakashi said holding his hand up but not waving it. "My students here aren't going to be participating in the Chunin Exams, so I figured seeing the progress your students have made would do them some good."

"I see!" Gai shouted as he turned his attention towards the two genin. "I'm sure if they are half as youthful as you, they will become great ninja."

"Sorry what?" Kakashi shook his head as if he had been sleeping.

"So cool." Gai said to himself.

"Gai Sensei, don't just run off like that." Came the voice of a girl. Sakura looked past the man to see her girl with chestnut brown hair, that was tucked into two buns on the top of her head. Her eyes showed the gentleness to her personality. "Oh, hi." She said waving at the other two genin.

"Neji!" Gai shouted. "What are you waiting for?"

"I'm here Sensei." Came the calm voice of another boy who emerged from the tree line.

"Neji here is considered to be a prodigy among the Hyuuga." Gai said proudly. "A natural born ninja." He looked around for a moment, "Lee!"

"Coming Gai Sensei!" Came a scream before the first boy came back and was jogging in place.

"What is he doing?" Sasuke asked.

"I was not able to woo the lovely Sakura, so I must run for fifteen minutes, even if that means I have to do it in place!" He screamed into the air.

"Atta boy Lee!" Gai shouted to the boy, giving him a thumbs up. The sun seemed to shimmer off his teeth.

"What is going on?" Sakura asked in confusion.

"Don't worry, you get used to it." The girl said with a giggle. "And who's this?" She said turning to look at Sasuke.

"Name's Sasuke, Uchiha." He paused as he looked at the white eyed boy in front of him.

"I've heard." Neji said with a smirk.

"Gai Sensei!" Lee screamed. "I wish to spar with Sasuke Uchiha!"

"Not interested." Sasuke cut them off.

"Nonsense." Kakashi responded. "What's a little competition between two young boys? Isn't that right Gai?"

"Lee, win this for the power of youth!" Gai screamed at the boy.

"Youth!" Lee echoed.

"I'm dreaming, it's the only thing that makes sense." Sakura said looking around in sheer confusion.

"Just relax." The other girl said putting her hand on Sakura's shoulder. "My name is Tenten."

"Hi Tenten." Sakura said between breaths. "We might want to get out of the way. Things could get a bit erratic."

"Ok." Sakura nodded as she walked with Tenten and Neji closer to the tree line to watch Sasuke's sparring match.

"You can't be serious Kakashi." Sasuke said looking up at the Jonin.

"Entirely." Kakashi responded as he looked over at Gai. "You're gonna need your Sharingan for this kid."

"There's no way." Sasuke scoffed looking at the two fools across the way. "They're crying." He pointed out as they tearfully embraced.

"Yeah, Gai does that." Kakashi responded as he pulled out his book. "Good luck out there Sasuke. And remember, if you lose, it's not the end of the world. He does have an entire year of experience on you."

"Whatever you say." Sasuke said looking over at the boy who was stretching his legs.

"Sasuke Uchiha." Lee said taking a weird stance where he had one hand extended in front of him. "I have been told that you are the man that Sakura long for. I shall defeat you and prove that I am worthy of her."

A tick mark appeared on Sakura's head. "Kick his ass Sasuke, you can do it!" She screamed.

Sasuke took a breath and shut his eyes. "Shinobi combat, begin!" Gai shouted just as Sasuke's eyes opened revealing his two tomoed Sharingan.