I was on time, as usual, not too early, not too late. I hated being here early, it left too much time for me to do nothing. And if I was late, I would miss out on meeting the jounin who was supposed to be training our squad, I was stuck with the oddest group of people. The two people I dislikes most, and the girl I was practically in love with when I was a kid and fell out of touch with. This experience would be difficult to say the least, I just hoped they didn't get in my way.
Sakura was there before me, and I went to sit down, away from her, as I ignored her irritating greetings. Didn't my lack of response let her know that I didn't want to talk to her? Clearly it didn't, because she was still just as determined as ever. The other day when we were assigned our teams, I even told her that she was annoying and to get away from me, she was yapping about Naruto and how the reason he misbehaves so much is because he doesn't have parents to raise him right. I immediately took it as an insult, seeing as how I had no family anymore, and she just didn't understand what it felt like to be completely alone.
I sat in a chair away from her and soon we heard crashing frown down the hall, and I heard his obnoxious voice again, Naruto was here.
"Ow! Sarah, let me go!"
"Get in there!"
The door flew open and Naruto slid across the floor, banging his head against the wall, he groaned in pain and rubbed the knot that had just formed from the impact. Sarah stormed in behind him, hands propped upon her slim hips as she glared playfully down at him.
"You don't have to be so rough!"
"Naruto, don't forget you failed the first time you took the test, just because you got the headband and learned some special jutsu doesn't mean you get to act out. I'm just trying to make sure you don't get ahead of yourself."
I noticed how close these two had become over the years, it was almost as if he were my replacement, I wasn't sure how I liked how that idea settled in my stomach. Was I jealous, hell no. I just didn't think that he was anywhere near my standard. However, they did act more like siblings than anything else, not like she and I used to.
"I know, but seriously though, where do those muscles come from?"
He continued to rub his head and winced, she chuckled and shrugged.
"I'm abnormally strong for my size, what can I say?"
She stated jokingly, Sakura glared icily at her, but Sarah paid her no mind, it was almost as if the pink haired girl didn't even exist.
We all stood and sat around for about an hour, which was significantly later than the sensei was supposed to be here. My eye twitched in impatience, where the hell was this guy?
"Ah! Where is he? Why is he so late?"
"I'm sure he has a good reason, Naruto."
Sarah wrinkled her nose and tapped her finger on the table.
"He better have a damn good reason, I could have been sleeping this whole time."
She snapped coldly, Naruto then jumped from his perch and grabbed an eraser from the front board. He placed a chair against the wall and slid the door open, propping the object in the crack tightly, giggling like a child as he went.
"Naruto, what the hell are you doing?"
"He was late, it's his fault, so now when he shows up and walks into the room, he's going to get a surprise!"
Sarah's pink lips formed into a smirk.
"I would say something, but I think the guy has it coming for being so late."
"This guy is a jounin, do you really think he would fall for that?"
I droned, for once actually saying something to these people. Sarah perked up at the sound of my voice, looking at me with those same curious eyes. Sometimes when I caught little glances at her, she still appeared to be the same girl I knew before, so lively and young, happy and ready to explore. But when I took a closer look, if I ever bothered, I could see that she wasn't the same, she had grown up.
"Sasuke is right, this is so stupid."
Sakura, of course, agreed with me and suddenly we heard the door open and a hand slip through the crack. A tall man, with crazy grey hair and a mask covering all of his face aside from one eye stepped in, and surprisingly enough, stood there as the eraser fell right onto his head.
"AHA! See he totally fell for it!"
Naruto fell on his butt, pointing and laughing hysterically, Sarah covered her mouth but I could hear her snickering, she would laugh at something like this. Sakura looked mortified, and I was just stunned that a man of his rank would fall for something so idiotic.
"I'm so sorry, sensei! I told him not to but he wouldn't listen to me!"
As usual, she was a kiss up the moment she met the man. Did she have to be so determined to get people to like her more all the time? It was exhausting for even me to watch. The man just stood there and stroked his fingers through his hair, he seemed puzzled, but not upset.
"My first impression of this team...you're a bunch of idiots."
My face fell, how dare he lump me in the same category as them? I hadn't done or said anything since he arrived here. Naruto was the moron who set up the trap and Sakura just couldn't keep her mouth shut for five seconds.
The five of us went outside to the roof of the building in order to speak personally with our new sensei, he was sure to be a lot different from Iruka. I could already tell that he wasn't as happy and go-lucky as the other.
"So how about you tell me about yourselves?"
The man suggested as he sat across from us, but we just stared back at him.
"And say what?"
Sakura questioned and he stroked his chin in thought.
"You know, your name, things you like, things you hate, hobbies, dreams for the future."
"How about you go first?"
Sarah pointed to him quickly, I think we were all on the same page. We weren't going to divulge any personal information if he didn't do the same.
"I'm Kakashi Hatake, I like many things, I also hate many things, I have lots of hobbies...as for my dream for the future...I don't really feel like telling you that."
I almost felt like collapsing on the ground, was this guy for real? That was all he was willing to tell us and he wanted us to give details? I already had a problem with this guy.
"Now your turn, how about you, on the end?"
Naruto was first, he spent about twenty minutes babbling about ramen, did this loser have any other interests besides that? The only clear and coherent sentence that stood out to me was this.
"My dream for the future is to become the greatest Hokage, that way people will start treating me like I'm somebody, somebody important!"
I scoffed, that boy would never become Hokage, he could barely make a clone of himself. Sarah was smiling brightly at him, it seemed as though she didn't feel the same as I did.
Sakura was next, she was useless, every single thing she answered had to do with me, was she really stupid enough to think that I didn't see her staring at me and giggling? I didn't want her to be my girlfriend, I didn't even want her to touch me.
"I HATE NARUTO!"
His eyes bulged out and he called out in distress.
"Ok...you."
Kakashi pointed to me next, I stayed in my position.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I hate a lot of things and don't particularly like anything. As for my future, I do not have a dream, I have a goal. I will restore my clan and kill a certain...someone."
My voice was ice cold and everyone stared at me, except for Sarah, she knew, she didn't need to ask any questions. A specific darkness shrouded my heart, the thought of Itachi caused my blood to boil, still to this day I had no idea how he could have done such a thing to me. Constant images of my hands around his neck flashed through my mind, so much so that I didn't notice Sarah's drastic change in demeanor. Her smiled fell along with the rest of her face and she turned away from the rest of us, looking sorrowfully to the ground.
"Ok, I guess you're the last one."
She glanced up, and cleared her throat before blushing.
"I'm Sarah Sukiyaki, I like writing, reading, video games, and photography or anything artistic. I hate waking up early, rude people, customer service and snobs. My main hobby is writing along with training as much as I can. And my dream for the future is to become the first female ANBU captain."
"Captain, huh? That's quite and ambition."
Kakashi stated, she nodded in response. I glanced at her briefly when I heard this, I didn't expect that to be her goal. However, she was most likely the only other person in the academy, aside from me, that was strong enough to get anywhere. That isn't a compliment, it's simply an observation, but I had to be honest with myself, I may have loathed the majority of the people here, but no matter what Sarah was never someone I could hate. We had too much history, too many memories together for me to dislike her. But there was no future for us, she had to remain at a distance for her own good and for mine, getting close to her once more would only prove to be a mistake.
"Tomorrow is your first task as a squad."
"Ooh! What is it? A dangerous mission?"
"It's a survival test."
Naruto jerked from his seat, his eyes twitching along with the rest of his body.
"A survival test? We took a bunch of those already, shouldn't we be going out doing missions, everyone else is!"
Kakashi grunted, I could almost see something sinister forming under that mask.
"No, this is something that all of the new teams must go through, you all are just genin. It's important that you all go through this and pass because if you don't you are going to be sent straight back to the academy."
His voice held a tone of ultimate seriousness, I could tell that he wasn't playing around. This test was important and I had to do well and pass in order to get closer to Itachi. I needed this training, no matter how much these people bothered me to no end, how else was I going to achieve the strength to kill my brother?
"I am warning you though, there is only a forty percent pass rate, we'll meet on the training field at seven in the morning tomorrow."
He stood up to leave but then stopped himself.
"Oh, and don't eat any breakfast or else you'll puke."
Naruto gasped, Sakura looked wide eyed and full of terror, Sarah just shrugged, stood from her seat and left. Kakashi didn't frighten me and neither did this test, it appeared to me that he was just trying to scare us, maybe psych us out to make us fail. Piece of cake.