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Team 7
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The second time Sakura saw Sasuke was on their first day in the Academy. He was sitting with someone from his clan, surrounded by their classmates already. And most importantly, he was talking to Ino.
Sakura had wanted to talk to him again right there and then. She wanted to tell him that she had managed to make the water vibrate, just like he had told her. And that she had managed to somehow convince her parents to enroll her in the Ninja Academy. Of course, they thought their daughter was only going through a weird phase. And that she would soon notice that the life of a shinobi was not the life she wanted. After all, Sakura was soft like a flower petal.
But the girl had been determined to change herself. Because she was invisible. She was invisible next to Ino, and now she was invisible away from Ino. Someone had to see her.
She commanded all her courage and went over to a group of girls who were fawning over Sasuke.
"Sasuke really is cute, right? I like him too!" she told them after having overheard their conversation. They immediately turned to her to agree. "That's why one day, I will marry him!" Everyone laughed at her then. But laughing was better than not seeing her.
And from that day on, Sakura was the girl crazy enough to believe she could one day marry Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke never said anything to her proclamation. Whenever a girl told him of her deep and sincere feelings, Sasuke would either politely thank her, or blush a bit and change the topic, or nicely tell her he was too busy training.
But everyone knew that an Uchiha would not marry a civilian girl. And that made Sakura only more certain in her decision.
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Sakura left her home later than she usually would. There had been one final argument at breakfast on whether her parents could allow the dangerous lifestyle their daughter chose. Because somehow, becoming a shinobi had proven a phase of Sakura's life she did not grow out of after all. And Sakura was no one to give in anymore.
Her former best friend Ino signed up to become a Genin, and so did Sasuke. There was no way she would quit on all the fun.
She was walking down the street, when suddenly, Ino came around the corner. Their eyes met, and an immediate fire ignited in both of them.
"Good morning, billboard brow. I didn't think you would be on your way to the Academy today." Ino hurried up a bit, so she could walk in front of Sakura.
"You wished. I'm not going to lose to you anymore, Ino pig." Sakura increased her pace, slowly overtaking her. Neither of them would start running, but it was clear that their way to the Academy had become an unofficial race between the two.
They eventually arrived at their classroom door at the same time.
"See, I beat you again, Sakura," Ino said, sticking her head into the classroom.
"What do you mean? The tip of my shoe was in the room first," Sakura answered, pushing Ino aside. The girls' eyes fell on Sasuke, who was sitting at the window and resting his chin on his palms. He was looking outside, not interested in the chatter that took place around him. The shoving and pulling between Ino and Sakura got worse as they both had their eyes on the empty seat next to him.
When Sakura had heard that Sasuke's whole family had been killed, she cried, because everyone looked sad and Sasuke was missing in the Academy for a week. When he was back, Sasuke became even more famous in her class and the Academy, and all of Konoha. He wasn't just the son of the Uchiha clan head anymore.
Sasuke was the last Uchiha. Sasuke was special.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted her with a bright smile. His cheeks blushed as he realised that the girl was running straight at him. He opened his arms, ready to greet her with a strong hug.
This was the day his life would finally change. He was a shinobi now and Sakura had to be impressed by his Konoha headband. His mouth dropped open as she stormed past him and almost jumped at the seat next to Sasuke.
Ino pulled at her, trying to get her off again, as it dawned on Naruto that she hadn't even realised he was standing there. But that just meant that he had to try harder. So he sat down next to Sakura after Ino left to sit elsewhere, wearing a big frown on her forehead.
"It's really exciting to finally become a Genin, isn't it, Sakura-chan?"
"Sasuke, I heard you earned a full score on every single subject in the final exam. That's so amazing," Sakura said to Sasuke, who was still staring outside. And it so just happened, that neither Sakura nor Naruto managed to start a conversation with their desired person.
"Naruto, what are you even doing here? I thought you failed," Shikamaru asked. He was sitting a row behind Naruto, looking like he was about to fall asleep.
Naruto instantly turned around, happy someone was talking to him. He pointed to his headband. "See? I passed too."
Iruka-sensei opened the door and stepped inside. The students were still chatting, and the voices only slowly died down as they realised there was another person following Iruka.
"Who is that?" Ino asked Shikamaru.
"How would I know? I don't look at girls. They are too troublesome."
"I've seen her around the Academy before," Kiba answered her. His puppy was sitting on his lap. They never left each other's side, not even when Kiba went to the Academy.
"Quiet, please," Iruka started. "First of all, congratulations. You all passed your final exams here at the Academy." He pointed at the girl standing next to him. "This is Naho Kanazawa. She joined the Academy only two years ago and was thus placed in a different class from you guys despite being your age. However, she asked to take the exam too and passed. So she will become a Genin with you."
The girl wore the Konoha headband, but it was too loose, so it kept sliding down, blocking her view. "I… am Naho. Nice to meet you all." Her voice barely reached the back of the room. She hurried away from Iruka's side and sat down.
"Another timid fawn." Sakura yawned. Being reserved never got you noticed, that she had learned. Especially not by Sasuke.
She turned towards him again to continue the one-sided conversation, and, to her surprise, Sasuke had finally taken his eyes off the window.
He sat straight; his eyes pinned on the new girl sitting in front of them.
"What's wrong? Do you know her?"
Sasuke looked away without answering.
Sakura now eyed the new girl's back closer as well. She couldn't see anything special in her, but Sasuke had never shown any interest in a girl before. Not her. Not Ino.
"Today, every one of you becomes a full-fledged shinobi. However, you are only Genin now. The hard part is still to come. From here on, you'll be in a squad of three, with an exception of one group of four. Every squad is assigned a Jounin leader, and you will all carry out missions together." Iruka picked up a paper. "We have done our best to balance the teams according to their strengths and weaknesses. Let's see. Team 1…"
Sakura was praying that her name would be read out together with Sasuke's. Naruto listened closely for his name, but his thoughts slowly started to drift away as Iruka-sensei read out team after team and his name never came up.
"Alright, next up the four-man squad. Team 7…" The first name Iruka read out was that of the new girl, Naho Kanazawa. The next name was Naruto. Naruto seemed pleased enough to be part of any team, but he jumped up in excitement as he heard that Sakura Haruno was to be the third member.
Sakura, on the other hand, turned all white. Her parents would never allow her to be on the same team as Naruto Namikaze. But she completely forgot about all her ensuing troubles as soon as the last name got announced: Sasuke Uchiha.
"I thought teams were supposed to be balanced. Why does Sasuke get to be in the 4-man-squad?" Shikamaru mumbled.
Ino laughed. "They have Naruto on their team. They will need the extra person." But Ino's eyes were focused on Sakura and Sasuke. As though Sakura could feel Ino's gaze, she turned around and stuck her tongue out at Ino. Ino was about to fire back as her own name got called out.
"Team 10: Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji."
She glanced at Choji, who was eating potato chips, and sighed.
"Why do I have to be on the same team as Sasuke?" Naruto complained to Iruka.
"Because Sasuke has the best grades. And you have the worst, Naruto."
His classmates laughed, and Naruto threw a sharp glance at Sasuke. "You better not get in my way."
Sasuke returned the glance. "Don't steal my line."
"Stop picking fights with Sasuke." Sakura was sitting between them and punched Naruto on the shoulder.
"You are dismissed until you meet your Jounin teachers." Iruka left the room and everyone slowly got up.
Kiba walked over to Hinata and Shino. "It seems like we are a team from now on." His puppy, Akamaru, happily barked at their new teammates.
"I hope we will work well together," Hinata said shyly. She stayed with her new team, but her eyes kept searching for Naruto. Every time they found him, she would blush and look away again. It was a habit of hers that Kiba had noticed a long time ago.
Ino picked a fight with Sakura before she could follow Sasuke out of the room.
"You don't have to cry because I get to be with Sasuke, Ino. This was destiny after all." Sakura walked past her.
"You… just because you two are in the same team doesn't mean that he'll fall for someone with a forehead as huge as yours." Ino ran after her.
"At least I get to spend all my days with Sasuke from now on." Sakura laughed Ino in the face and stepped into the hallway to follow Sasuke. Her smile vanished the instant she saw him talking to the new girl.
"What was your name again?" he asked her.
The girl pushed her headband back up. "Naho Kanazawa. You are Sasuke, right?"
"Have we… met before?"
Ino and Sakura simultaneously sank to the ground as they both realised that this girl had already received more attention from Sasuke than they had gotten over the last three years.
"I don't think we have. Why?"
"Never mind. It's nothing." He walked past her and left.
"Hey, Sakura-chan." Naruto stood in the doorway. "Since we are in the same squad and all, why not have lunch together?"
"Why should I eat with you?" she yelled back at him.
Naruto was irritated by her sudden outburst of anger. "Well… We're in the same group, so…"
She bit her lip. "You are annoying." Sakura ran off, past the new girl. She would find Sasuke, and she would make sure that she was the only one spending time with him.
Naho raised her hand at Sakura as she stormed past her, but no words left her mouth. Instead, she turned to Naruto. "Naruto… I'd like to eat with you. If that's alright." Her headband slipped down again, and she had to push it back up.
Naruto sighed. Sakura's words had hit him deep, but he still managed to smile at his other teammate. "Let's go."
Naho returned the smile. "Do you know our other two teammates well? Are they nice?" They left the building together.
"Sakura-chan is a really nice girl. I'm happy I get to be in a team with her. She is cute, and…" Naruto blushed and laughed in embarrassment.
"She is? She seemed a bit… intimidating just now."
"Oh no, that's just Sakura-chan's personality. I'm sure you'll like her when you get to know her. Sasuke on the other hand…" Naruto stopped talking as he spotted Sasuke and Sakura together. "Sorry, Naho. There is something I need to do." Naruto waved at Naho and ran off.
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Naho was on her way home. Sighs accompanied her. The girl had grown up outside of Konoha, and this whole shinobi school system was new to her. But what she had to realize quickly in her old class was that civilian girls were not liked much among clan children. And they were liked even less when older yet less proficient in jutsu.
So Naho had spent the last two years working thrice as much to be able to join the children her age. And now that she had made it, she really wanted her new teammates to like her.
She suddenly came to a stop and blinked twice as her eyes spotted all three of them in a park together. Naho's heart sank. Obviously they had known each other for years. It was natural they were closer. But she felt left out, so she slowly approached them, not sure yet what she was going to say to them, if she was going to say anything at all.
Sakura was sitting next to Sasuke on a bench. Both of them had a lunch pack on their laps.
"Naruto, can't you understand that I don't want to talk to you?" Sakura was yelling at the boy. "I'm having lunch with Sasuke. So get lost. You are in the way!"
"Why would you want to have lunch with Sasuke? He doesn't even talk to you. You should have lunch with me instead!"
Sakura got up and stamped a foot on the ground. "Dammit, Naruto. Has no one ever taught you any manners? When a girl wants to be alone with a guy, you take the hint and just leave her be. But I guess you just do whatever you want to without ever considering anyone's feelings. If only you had parents who actually raised you right!"
Sasuke finally got up. His face looked annoyed, angry almost. He turned to Sakura. "You know how you always say Naruto annoys the hell out of you?"
Sakura nodded eagerly, pleased he finally said something to her.
"Well, that's how you make me feel. You annoy me. I don't want you next to me and I definitely don't want you next to me complaining about Naruto all the time. I can't stand either of you."
He pushed past both of them and left.
Sakura was crushed. Naruto was angry at Sasuke for hurting her feelings.
Naho decided to turn on her heels and leave again. It was a bad timing to make friends. She could only pray the timing would ever be better.
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The next day, the four new Genin found themselves stuck in a room together for several hours as they waited for their Jounin teacher. Naruto was complaining about him being late.
Iruka had given them a handout when they went to see him and told him that their teacher was two hours too late already. He told them to fill it out while waiting and hand it to their Jounin teacher once he arrived.
Sasuke had filled it out in five minutes. Sakura and Naho were still sitting over it, thinking. Naruto hadn't bothered starting yet.
"Sasuke, what did you put for your likes and disliked?" Sakura asked, trying to start a conversation with him.
"I don't have any likes. And I have too many dislikes to put them all down."
Sakura thought his answer was really cool.
"I can tell you my likes and dislikes, Sakura-chan! I like ramen." Naruto took out a pencil for the first time to write it down on the handout. "And my dislikes? Waiting until the ramen are done."
"You didn't even spell that correctly, you idiot," Sakura said as she glanced over to him. "Besides, I'm sure this is supposed to give our teacher some insight on how to train and match us up properly. So I'll put you down as my dislike and Sasuke as my like."
Naruto and Sakura kept arguing with each other.
Naho watched them. Her paper was empty still. Contrary to Sasuke, she had too many likes and couldn't think of anything she truly disliked.
"My dream for the future? That's a hard question." Sakura was biting her pencil.
Naruto took the opportunity to announce to everyone again that his goal was to become Hokage. But not only Hokage, he wanted to become the best Hokage to ever exist. Better than his father. Better than the First Hokage even.
The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, had always been considered the strongest shinobi to ever exist in the Hidden Leaf. And Naruto was once told that he could achieve this strength as well. Because he, just like the legendary Hashirama, had the ninetails sealed inside of him.
No one believe in Naruto anymore. But that only made him more determined to prove them wrong.
Sakura ignored his proclamation and asked Sasuke about his dream instead.
"None of your business," he snarled at her.
She dropped her pencil and bit her lip instead. Naruto started another fight with Sasuke, but Sakura chose to just overhear his comment. With too much enthusiasm, she asked, "What are you writing down as your dream, Naho?"
It was the first time Sakura spoke to her, and it startled Naho. She suddenly felt forced to come up with a good answer on the spot.
"How about… protecting others? That's why people become shinobi, right?"
Sasuke scoffed. "People become shinobi to kill."
"But you kill to protect others, no?" The girl didn't sound too sure of herself. Naho had moved to Konoha after her parents died. It had seemed like the right thing to do. Something had always interested her about the village, but her parents had never taken her. So she arrived there all alone, for the first time in her life, and money was not growing on trees.
Yet she could hardly put down money as her goal, and plans for the future she didn't exactly have.
Sasuke got up and walked to the door. "I'm done waiting. This guy's not coming."
Just when his hand reached for the door, it opened, and Kakashi stood there.
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The Uchiha used to have their own quarters in the village. They had their own corner on the graveyard too. They lived together, died together, and they were buried together.
Most of their graves had the same date engraved on them as well – the day that Sasuke's brother murdered everyone.
Sasuke stood in front of his family's graves. He didn't go there often. Dwelling in the past did no good when he would rather look into the future, at his revenge. But today he felt the urge to look at their gravestones again. To read the names on them. There was his mother's name, Mikoto, next to his father, Fugaku. And next to her mother was his aunt's gravestone. She was the only one of his closer family who had died prior to the Uchiha massacre. Everyone else died at the hands of Itachi.
Between Mikoto and her sister was a smaller gravestone. It belonged to his cousin. Itachi had always loved her like a sister. At least that's what Sasuke used to believe. He'd even been jealous of her at times. Itachi never had much time to spare, and if he did, he made sure to divide it equally between the two young Uchiha.
But apparently Itachi never loved her enough to spare her. Protect her, was what he'd always told Sasuke. Protect her like I would protect you. In the end, it had only been another game of his to show Sasuke how weak he was. He couldn't protect her. And he had seen her die for it. With his own eyes.
Sasuke put down a wildflower he'd picked on his way. Protecting loved ones was a sweet dream. An innocent goal. A goal his younger self would have chosen as well. There was no one left to protect though. Revenge was the only thing left for him.
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Naho felt exhausted when she arrived back at the orphanage. She wasn't ready to go on missions with her new squad, so she was relieved when their new teacher told them there would be another exercise first.
She opened the gate; kids were still playing in the yard. A short glance at the time told her that dinner would be served soon. The orphanage was on a strict schedule. Those who missed breakfast or dinner would have to stay hungry until their next meal.
The front door opened and one of the sisters stepped outside accompanied with a strange man. Naho had seen him visit before, but none of the other children knew who he was. Two of the younger children followed them, holding a bag in their one hand, and clinging to each other with the other.
"Thank you so much for your visit today, Lord Danzo. I hope these two will prove apt." The sister bowed several times.
"Who is that man?" she asked the sister after he'd left.
"Lord Danzo. He is the Hokage's right hand. You should know him."
"Where is he taking them?"
The sister called over to the playing children, shooing them inside to not miss dinner. "Feeding all of your mouths until you are old enough to graduate from the Academy and earn your own money is costly for our village. Danzo helps us. He takes care of the really young children." She grabbed a broom to sweep the stairs.
"There was someone here looking for you earlier. I think she wanted to invite you to dinner."
"Tenten?"
"How should I know? You brats give me enough names to remember already. You know how I feel about dinner invitations, right?" The sister swept around Naho's feet. She had an intimidating look about her and would remind most children of the orphanage of an evil witch with the broom in her hands.
A smile formed on Naho's lips. She straightened herself and put one finger up, readying herself to cite the sister. "A mouth that doesn't have to be fed is a good mouth," she said with her best old-lady-impression. "But it's late already. Can I really go?"
"You are a Genin now. From here on you basically only rent one of our beds from the money you earn on missions. So you are free to do whatever you want. Run around the village all night long for all I care. Just make sure to bring some money home." The woman turned around and vanished inside the building.
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Tenten's father owned a tool shop with a small flat over it. Her mother was dead, but Naho never asked what happened to her. She didn't want to talk about her own parents, so she didn't expect others to talk about theirs. It took a while until Tenten's father opened the door.
"Oh, little Naho. We already thought you wouldn't come." He laughed, a loud laugh. He was no shinobi, but still had the strong arms of a hardworking man, and an equally strong laugh. "Come in, come in. Sorry we started without you."
"Ah, don't mind me. Maybe I shouldn't have showed up this late. I'm sorry if I interrupted your dinner."
He grabbed her before she could run away again and pulled her inside. "No worries, kid. The more, the merrier." He clapped her on the back and lead her up the stairs.
Tenten jumped up and gave Naho a hug, who in return blushed in surprise. "You are late. Don't tell me your new teacher made you stay this long on your first day?"
"No, I got a bit lost in time at the library. We have a survival exercise tomorrow and I wanted to look up the basics again."
"Survival, eh? I sell some really decent matchsticks in my shop. Even work when they are soaked. I'm gonna slip you some later." Tenten's father laughed again.
"Your first day out of the Academy and you spend half the day at the library? Come on, Naho! But tell me everything, how was it? Who`s your teacher? What about your teammates?" Tenten sat down again and the questioning started.
Naho sat down around the Japanese style table too. They were having a hot pot. "I guess it was alright," she said, putting some vegetables in the pot. "I was teamed with Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto."
Both Tenten and her father stopped chewing and looked at the girl. "Naruto?" There was worry in Tenten's voice.
"Yes, you know him? He kind of seems to be the nicest of the three."
There was a long moment of silence. Tenten's eyes kept switching from her plate to her father, who just kept eating like he wasn't part of the conversation at all. Naho realised she must've said something wrong, but didn't know what it was.
"I don't know. I've never really met him." Tenten forced herself to a smile.
Tenten's father suddenly stood up. "Sorry, girls. I gotta go see the toilet. Don't mind me, Tenten. You should tell her."
The two girls watched as he left the room and Naho threw some confused looks at Tenten.
"Maybe… you should be careful around Naruto," she started. "You probably don't know since you don't have parents in Konoha, but you've heard of the nine demons, right? One of them is sealed in Naruto. Naruto can't control its power. I've never seen him completely lose himself, but pretty much everyone in the village older than us has. They reinforced the seal keeping the demon locked away some years ago, and there haven't been any incidents since, but still... He's dangerous."
"I'm not sure I understand. From the textbooks it always sounded like those nine demons were just mythical figures. I never knew they were… real. How can one of them be sealed into Naruto?"
"I don't know. My dad he… doesn't really like to talk about it. And he probably wouldn't really know much about it anyway, not being a shinobi. But…" It was obvious that Tenten was considering how much to tell her friend. "That demon, the Kyuubi, has killed hundreds of people from our village in the past. And it is now sleeping inside of Naruto."
Tenten's father came back. He gave the girls a short smile, before continuing to fish some vegetables and meat out of the hot pot.
"Why don't you tell me about your teacher? What's his name?" Tenten forced another smile.
A frown formed on Naho's forehead. She wanted to know more about this demon, but clearly it was nothing Tenten's father wanted to hear about. "Kakashi Hatake." Naho agreed to change the subject.
But again, Tenten was just about to bite into her piece of beef when she heard the name and let it fall straight back onto her plate. "Kakashi, really?" she asked, her eyes got bigger. "Gai-sensei, my teacher, goes on and on about him. Apparently they are rivals or something. Too bad you are a year younger than me. Maybe you and I would have made nice rivals too." She pointed a chopstick at Naho and a big grin formed on her face.
Naho smiled back at her, glad that the atmosphere in the room went back to normal as her father joined in with his usual laughter as well.
"But you are really unlucky, Naho," Tenten continued. "I also heard that he's sent every single one of his disciples back to the Academy so far. He must be strict."
"Are you serious? Please tell me you are making this up to mock me!" A look at Tenten's face told her that she wasn't joking. Naho sighed.
The sisters would be furious at her if she was sent back to the Academy after managing to somehow pass the final exams. But it wasn't like they could throw her out of the orphanage because of it, and Naho herself was sure another year or two wouldn't hurt.
She didn't feel like a shinobi yet.
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A/N
I know some people don't like reading fanfics in which Sakura punches Naruto and is disrespectful. But I do want to keep the characters close to canon, at least in the beginning. I think it gives a lot of room for character development (which was also there in canon, but I plan to expand on that). I also really like a good Naruto&Sakura friendship, so that is something that will eventually happen (I hope).
As to pairings, in case anyone's wondering, there are none in this fic since the characters are like 12/13. I'm keeping the canon crushes (like Sakura on Sasuke, Hinata on Naruto), but that doesn't mean I plan on adding actual romance.
MORE IMPORTANTLY: Jinchuuriki and bijuu. I came up with a different origin for tailed beasts, which will slowly be explored. They are more like demons in this AU. If a Jinchuuriki dies, the tailed beast is able to break out. So instead of protecting and healing the Jinchuuriki, they try to hurt them (or get them to hurt themselves). Also they've been around for a few hundred years, so there have been many Jinchuuriki before. I made both Hashirama as well as Madara former Jinchuuriki. I want the tailed beasts to be important to the story, and I think both Hashi and Madara being Jinchuuriki makes sense and explains why they in particular were super op.