Title: Drowning
Genre: Angst, Romance, Friendship
Pairing: ? X Sasuke
Summary: Memories of a past life are never supposed to be remembered. But when the
Mangekyo damages his psyche Sasuke suddenly remembers another life where his current one was part of a fictional story.
Warning: Reincarnation, Semi Self-Insert, Yaoi (Boy X Boy, Slash…), Hinata X Sasuke frienship


Chapter Seven

Kakashi… was really starting to like those kids.

Said man leaned back on the branch he was seated on while he watched his new genin team. After the test – which he had been very impressed by those same kids – he had wanted to learn more about their dynamics. He had come early, even before the designated time he had told the team to meet so as to be able to observe them. And yet, even he had not expected this.

Before the test, his expectations of those kids had been pretty straight forward. First, there was Naruto, his late sensei's son. Having been one of the boy's ANBU guards during his childhood, Kakashi had watched the boy grow up and so he had a pretty clear picture of the kid. He was hyperactive, childish and a prankster: a right little troublemaker but with the most unpredictable behaviour sometimes. And of course, he was also the dead last of his academy class.

Second was the only girl on their team, Haruno Sakura. She had perfect scores for academics but was average at best in the ninja arts except for having good chakra control. Her most negative trait however – and what was holding her back the most – was her unhealthy obsession with her other teammate.

Said teammate had been the one the Hokage and the council had been most concerned about. Uchiha Sasuke, the last loyal Uchiha. He had been filed as a suicide risk after the Massacre, after the ANBU that had been sent to protect him for a month after the event – in case his brother went back to finish the job – had seen him deliberately injure himself with a kunai. Fortunately, that had been a one-time occurrence and had not happened again. His apparent friendship with the Hyuuga heiress was also noted, mostly as it diminished his flight risk.

Kakashi had expected a broody brat with an overconfidence in his own skills and a tendency to look down on his less skilled teammates. He had even expected a kid bent on revenge from the reports of his determined training regime. In a way that was exactly what he got and yet not.

Uchiha Sasuke was confident in his skills to the point of overconfidence. He had a tendency to look down on his teammates but he was coming to realise that it was not necessarily due to their lack of ninja skills compared to him. No, Uchiha Sasuke looked down on them because they did not take their ninja career as seriously as he did. Unlike him who had already gone through one traumatic incident, the others in his age group saw being a ninja through rose-tinted glasses. They were still far too innocent and naïve compared to the jaded Uchiha and this rubbed the boy the wrong way, if subconsciously.

Kakashi had not expected the kid to work with his other teammates and yet not only was he the one to bring the team to work together for the test but now, they were talking about their issues. Talking. Well, more like Sasuke telling the other two what he thought was wrong for the team in their attitudes but it was still so much more than he could have expected. Instead of making do with the team he had gained – and probably ignoring them in the process like Kakashi had excepted – Sasuke seemed to have decided that he would try working with the team and that apparently meant making sure he actually could work with the other two.

With the girl's unhealthy obsession with Sasuke and Naruto's antagonistic attitude towards the boy – which was, it seemed, without provocation on Sasuke's side – Kakashi knew that actually getting those three to work together would have been more than difficult. Well, it would seem there was no need for Kakashi to interfere after all; Sasuke had taken control of the issue himself.

At first, Kakashi had thought that the way those three would even think about working together would be through having to work together during missions. After all, putting your life in your teammates' hands usually created some level of trust, particularly on genin teams since those could last years, disregarding death or promotion. Thankfully, that was not needed and Sasuke was even proactive in getting them to work as a team.

Before, he had already had idea of how he was going to deal with his newly acquired genins. He was going to bring them on D-ranks, teach them this or that but mostly chakra control and some taijutsu. If they were ready, he would bring them on enough C-ranks that they would qualify for the Chunnin exams and when the time was right, he would either lose them to other teams (if they became chunnin) or to the genin corps. There would be no need to become really attached and he could put the bare minimum effort into training them, while keeping them alive long enough for them to be transferred to other teams. Easy and pain-free.

Now? Well, now he had other ideas on how to proceed.

Well, Kakashi was really starting to like this team.


Kakashi appeared hours after the meeting time as expected. The silence had become a bit awkward after Sasuke's outburst but to the young Uchiha it was much more preferable than the other two's usual loudness. They started their meeting with a mission, a D-Rank and as Sasuke had expected, they could only be classified as chores. However, unlike what he had expected, neither of his teammates protested.

It made for a strange sight to see the newly instated Team 7 quietly working on their first ever mission together. Both of his teammates followed behind Kakashi as they met their client and then set up to paint the fence. Naruto and Sakura were contemplative. They were quiet, contemplative, thoughtful.

Maybe they were really taking what he had told them seriously. Maybe they were finally going to get serious and maybe they were finally not going to drag Sasuke down.

He did not know. Right then, it could not be said what the future would hold.

Sasuke knew a future – a possible future if his not-memories were to be believed even if they were lacking in quantity – and he was making steps to change it. He could never truly know what the future held. Even if his memories were to be believed, his mere actions were already changing things. He could not rely on faulty information as that could very well mean death and since he could only remember the bare bones, they were hardly reliable. Instead, he could only do his best to prepare for possibilities while he still had the time. It would be honest to say that the possibilities scared him; he was terrified of what was to come but more than that, he was terrified that they would not be ready for it. and of course, there was the fact that though there were similarities, he was different from what he could remember himself to be like in his memories.

Sasuke from his memories was him and yet not. Other Sasuke took decisions that, if not for being an outside observer, he would have most probably repeated, such as leaving the village for power. In hindsight, that might not be the best decision – being surrounded by hostiles waiting to take over his body or kill him, hungering after his bloodline, being hunted down by Konoha, etc. Only fools would make the same mistakes again and learn nothing from them and if Sasuke was anything, he was most definitely not a fool.

His worries were cut short when, after their uneventful mission and subsequent report, Kakashi directed them back to the training ground with the bridge: Training Ground 3 allocated to Team 7.

"Alright, team!" Kakashi began cheerily, even clapping his hands together like an excited school girl as he smiled down at them. "Today I am going to assess your individual skills. 100 sit-ups, 100 push-ups and run 30 times the perimeter of the training ground. Go!"

And they were off.


Sasuke was the first to start running but Naruto quickly caught up to him. Sakura on the other hand lagged behind, limbs visibly trembling as she tried to complete the exercise after the long trial of completing the sit-ups and push-ups. Naruto and Sasuke finished at more or less the same time, Naruto having sprinted to catch up to Sasuke and Sasuke slowing down to maintain his stamina. While the Uchiha was red in the face and panting under the searing sun, Naruto seemed, while also exhausted, far less tired than his counterpart. As for Sakura, she found herself unable to complete the exercise, collapsing under the shadow of a tree, sticky with sweat and looking far less composed than her usual perfect appearance.

Kakashi watched them with a critical eye and did not give them any time to rest. Immediately afterwards, he called them to spar: Naruto vs Sasuke, then Sasuke vs Sakura and finally Sakura vs Naruto.

When they were done and the matches were won as to his expectations, he called them back together and it was a disgruntled bunch of puppies that came over to him, dirty and smelling like they had never known what a shower was.

"Alright! Well done, children!" he eye-smiled at them with all the obnoxious cheer he could muster.

"Kakashi-sensei, was that really necessary?" Sakura groaned and Kakashi was pleased that she had discarded her desire and attempt at trying to look good even while exercising after she finally broke a sweat. Honestly, she just made working out even more difficult for herself but that was something he could go through with her at a later time. Naruto and her had been broken from their contemplative mood with the exercise and for a while they had reverted back to habits. He wondered how long that was going to last. Well, Sasuke had already made the first step at making this team into a working one. Kakashi could only try to make this easier on him.

"Of course. Now, before I give you my assessment, I have a question for you. Do you know why you have been put together on a team?"

Ever the perfect student, Sakura replied, "Iruka-sensei said that the strongest and the dead last are put together to balance the team."

"Well, that's one way to put it."

"So that's not it?"

"Oh, it is. But there is more than that. Team 7 is and has always been a combat team. What do you know of combat teams?"

While Naruto looked confused, as if he had never even known such a thing as team specializations were a thing, Sakura took in her role as their spokesperson again. "Combat teams are generally geared towards more combat-oriented skills and specialise less in other skills like tracking or intelligence gathering. They are usually the powerhouses assigned to missions that are more likely to turn sour or would definitely have combat involved. In times of war, combat teams are the… frontliners…"

She trailed off, her face going partially white as she appeared to register what she had been saying in terms of the team they were in. Beside her, Sasuke eyed her critically but made no comment and on her other side, Naruto looked like a light bulb had lit itself in his head.

"Yeah! The best teams!" he cheered. "We get to save princesses and become heroes!"

"Maa, both are right but do you know why you have been placed on this specific team?"

"Because we're strongest!" was Naruto's quick response.

"Not exactly," Kakashi refuted without remorse. "Let's go over it individually. We'll start with you Naruto. Dead last at the academy. You failed the theorical assessments at the academy, your taijutsu is barely developed and subpar but you make up for it with your stamina and perseverance. Your ninjutsu is so-and-so, with your shadow clones the only noteworthy jutsu you do know. From your files, you are noted as not even being able to detect genjutsu."

"Hey!"

"It's just the truth, Naruto. But don't worry, we can work on all that. Now, Sasuke. Rookie of the Year. Good taijutsu, very well developed and practiced. I noticed you used both the academy style and some Uchiha forms. How far have you worked on your Uchiha forms?"

Sasuke frowned. "I know all the forms but I can't use the advanced ones without –" He cut himself off and motioned his eyes, ignoring the confused looks his other two teammates gave him.

"Good. Good. We can work on them when you develop your sharingan."

"Sharingan? What's that?"

"Maa, later Naruto. Now, you're good at noticing genjutsu but beside the henge, you're not taught any genjutsu casting at the academy, so we can also work on that for all three of you. You ninjutsu on the other hand is very well developed. You already know elemental ninjutsu which usually chunin level shinobi start to work on. Is there anything else you want to add about your skill set?"

Sasuke took a moment to ponder whether he wanted to talk about his skills in front of his teammates, his eyes flitting towards the other two, Naruto looking like he was sulking and Sakura looking starry eyed at him despite the talk they had had earlier that morning. It would seem like they had reverted back to their obnoxious selves if slightly more subdued than usual. He wondered if Sakura was going to remain as a shinobi after this day; she was finally learning that being a shinobi was not all fun and rainbows as she had thought and she finally acknowledged the danger she put herself in while on this team. If after the first month, she was still there and Naruto started to learn some restraint and maturity, he wouldn't mind acknowledging them as his teammates but for now…

"No," he concluded.

"Alright," Kakashi sighed. "We'll come to that later. And now Sakura." There only female teammate gulped and blinked at their sensei, exhaustion forgotten for the moment. "Kunoichi of the Year. Good at theory, getting perfect scores in all your tests. Impressive. Taijutsu perfect. In fact, too perfect. You know the academy style very well, but that makes you too predictable. Your stamina is also the worst on the team, you have very little muscle mass which will not help you on the field. You have, however, been noted as having very good chakra control compared to your peers and your teachers at the academy have categorised you as a genjutsu type. Do you know what that means?"

"Um… I am good at noticing genjutsus and I'll probably be good at casting them?"

"Yes, but not quite. Anyone with enough dedication can do that. Genjutsu types, however, are generally more intelligent than their peers as you have already proven at the academy with your perfect scores. They pick up the theory quickly and are generally better at learning from books than everyone else. They also tend to neglect the physical side of things unfortunately if they are not properly stimulated."

He also notably did not mention that the most recent genjutsu type of note that Konoha had produced had been Uchiha Itachi and, before him, the Nidaime Hokage. One would probably make one of the genins murderous and the other would probably frighten the poor girl because of the perceived expectations. It was a good thing at least that her teachers at the academy had mostly categorised her as a lost cause because of her obsession with the last loyal Uchiha. Else, he knew she would have been drafted into the darkest side of Konoha at an early age. At least that worked for her but there was no way that he was going to let her squander her potential now that he held hope in this team. There was a reason that out of all the other girls who had graduated from the academy with her, Sakura had been assigned to team 7, with the last Uchiha and the jinchuriki, and with him as their teacher. As he looked at the three genins staring at him with different degrees of interest, he sighed.

"Well, we have a lot of work ahead of us. This is how we'll do this: in the mornings, we will work on team building exercises, followed by missions. Then we will come here to work on your individual skills. Questions? No? Well then, let's stop for today. Go home. Rest, and make a list of what you want to work on and we will see if it is feasible."


That night, Sasuke laid in bed staring at his ceiling in thought.

That… was different. He did not think this was something that had happened in his memories. As far as he could remember, he had the impression that the only training Team 7 got from their teacher was the tree climbing exercise. This was new. Sasuke was not against it if Kakashi decided to actually train them but it definitely put the reliability of his memories in doubt. But then again, it could be that this had been omitted or that this was included in all the memories he had forgotten from before the chunin exams. Whatever it was, Sasuke had to be satisfied with at least getting the training he desired.

Now he could only wait and see if this team was going to last, if his two other teammates were going to take what he had said seriously or if they were going to fall back into bad habits.


AN: Nothing is going to be perfect from the get-go. Don't expect the two to completely change from here but yes, there will be changes.

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