Chapter 2

"Why is our squad leader the only one that's late?" Naruto complained loudly. "The other squads have gone off somewhere with their new teachers, and Iruka-sensei also left."

"Complaining isn't gonna make him come any faster," Sakura quipped, hiding her own annoyance.

Though she played it cool, Sakura's own nerves buzzed with excitement, her mind filled with questions as to what her new squad leader would be like. Many had spoken of their experiences of their own teams, remembering them with a bittersweet fondness - of a time marked with struggle, but also filled with growth and learning.

She wondered if this stranger would be anything like her dark haired mentor, Hasao, but quickly hoped otherwise as she remembered the painful memories of her trainings. The man gave no inch of mercy no matter how much pain the exercises had put her through.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as she noticed Naruto busying himself with something in the corner of her eye. He grinned broadly as he finished squeezing an eraser between the sliding door and the doorframe, the trap designed to drop on whomever pulled the door back to enter.

He proudly surveyed his work and turned to hop off the stool he used to reach the crevice. "It'll be his fault because he's late."

Sakura leaned back on the stadium seats in thought. She was never one to generate friction with authorities, but her curiosity overwhelmed her disapproval. A jounin can catch shuriken flying at 100 miles per hour - there's no way they won't be able to catch a falling eraser, especially one aiming for a vulnerable target such as their head. If anything, their new leader would it - no harm, no foul.

Sasuke seemed to voice her thoughts. "A jounin wouldn't get caught with such a weak booby trap."

Sakura shrugged playfully, deciding to play along with Naruto's little prank. "Who knows, Sasuke? It seems like a pretty elusive-"

Her words were cut off as a hand emerged, gripping onto the sliding door. Everyone froze, their attention fixated on the hand as they held their breaths, wondering how the jounin would evade the trap.

"Shock" was a bit of an understatement when they watched the eraser bounce off the jounin's shock of gray hair, emitting a soft cloud of powder on impact.

Everyone blinked in stunned silence. "Wha…?!"

Once again, Sakura's hope plummeted. Not only would she be stuck in a nonfunctional team, given that neither teammates seemed like the type to plan or follow orders, her teacher doesn't seem very promising either.

But as a kunoichi with pink hair, she knew better than anyone else not to judge from first impressions. Despite this knowledge, she found it difficult to swallow her doubt through Naruto's victorious laughter and goading.

She eyed her team leader skeptically. "Jounin, hm?"

"How can I put this? As for my first impression of you guys?" Kakashi leaned back on the heels of his feet, eyes closed in thought. "Well, I hate you."

Sakura found her eyes wandering across the rooftops of her village, lingering in the direction of the hospital. A small smile flickered across her face at the thought of her mom. It was impossible not to worry about her mother, no matter how much Mebuki Haruno insisted otherwise.

She realized she was zoning out when her new team leader, Kakashi, began introducing himself. His half-assed introduction, only really revealing his name, wasn't a new approach for her. She'd had her share of experience with emotionally unavailable men, but still twitched an eye in irritation.

But if he initiated this whole thing shouldn't he at least put some effort into it?

She shared Naruto's look of disbelief and rolled her own eyes, shrugging. Late, non-committal, alarmingly casual… she was starting to think the jounin was forced into this job.

"Next is you guys."

Sakura readjusted her sitting position, ears perking in interest toward her teammates. Though she shared a class with the two, she never shared any conversations about anything further than surface level. If she was to be on a team, she might as well understand how they think.

Naruto's introduction turned out to be a spiel about his true love for ramen and his aspiration of surpassing the hokage. Though the first part exasperated the girl to no end, she could respect his dream. It seemed so far fetched, and yet he declared it so easily without a trace of doubt or fear.

Her curiosity got the best of her, and she couldn't help but blurt out, "Why?"

He blinked at her, surprised for a second, before he broke out into a grin, his bright blue eyes disappearing under the force of his toothy smile. "So that everyone in the village will have to recognize who I am!"

His smile was infectious, and she found herself returning it. She held out a fist for him to bump, a new admiration growing for the boy. "Well, I hope I get to see it when it happens."

Naruto sat in surprise, having rarely received a positive response to his declaration. But once again his smile returned and touched his fist to hers. "Believe it!"

"And what about you?" Kakashi asked, observing their interaction with mild interest.

Sakura felt like the interest was forced, but continued regardless. "I'm Sakura Haruno. I like picking flowers for my mom. My hobby is learning, and I want to protect the ones I love."

Kakashi's expression didn't seem to change, but it was hard to tell under the mask. "And your dislikes?

Sakura hesitated, her eyes flickering to Sasuke. His dispassionate look, eyes forward without even regarding the rest of his team, fueled her answer. "Arrogance."

Obsidian eyes fell on her for the first time since they went to the rooftop, expressionless, but bordering disdain. It wasn't even worth addressing. Because what did she know? She mentioned her mother - at least she had one.

His introduction was spoken slowly, filled with malice as he declared his ambition to restore his clan and "kill a certain man". But other than this, he failed to go into further detail, and though it piqued Sakura's interest, she had a feeling he wouldn't answer as freely as Naruto had. Especially not after her stab at his attitude.

However, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Kakashi's expression had darkened considerably. Her curiosity bubbled up again. Did this have to do with the massacre? She heard about the Uchiha massacre, but not in detail. Her mind wandered to the library, wondering if his family history would yield any answer.

But what if someone had searched up the history of the Harunos?

Sakura grit her teeth at the surge of discomfort accompanied with the thought and decided against research. In the end, it was Sasuke's own family history. It was none of her business to go prying around, especially if she would hate it if roles were reversed.

Instead, she turned her attention toward her new sensei and the new "mission" he was assigning them. As he continued describing the exercise, her heart rate slowly picked up pace. She didn't even know she was grinning from ear to ear until she noticed a slight ache in her cheeks.

"That's crazy, dattebeyo!" Naruto exclaimed, his hair seeming to stand up with indignance. "Then what was the graduation test for?!"

"To select potential genin," Kakashi responded matter-of-factly, strangely happy despite his menacing declarations. "I will be determining whether you pass or fail."

Sakura let out a breathy laugh, shaking her head. He's a sadist, clearly.

It would explain everything about this strange new team leader of theirs.

She could make out Naruto's body starting to shake as the weight of the situation dawned on him. Having barely passed the academy exam, the possibility of failing again wracked the confines of his mind.

However, the declining moods of her teammates couldn't quell her own enthusiasm. Finally would she be able to see her teammates on the field. Her sensei might even participate, which would completely make her day. Years of lone practice and exercise had isolated the pink haired girl, and she couldn't be sure of her own growth without missions or evaluations above the academy level.

She put a reassuring hand on the blonde's back, giving him a smile that she hoped would calm his nerves. "Don't worry. As long as we work together we got this little exercise of his." Despite her prejudices against the Uchiha, she turned to look at him too. "That goes for all of us."

After all, it wouldn't do to have her teammates shaken before the exercise. Though she was a little anxious about team performance, they had two of the top students in the entire academy. There was no way they would fail.

Right?