I'll be going back to previous chapters- mainly the first ones, and editing them, adding omakes, correcting errors, etc.

Warning; The copy-nin appears, Omake, Narcissist Sasuke is best Sasuke.

"If you don't share someone's pain, you can never understand them." – Nagato

I double-checked my appearance in the bathroom mirror, nodding in satisfaction at my new ninja outfit. I wore a dark high-collared sleeveless top and light gray shinobi pants that ended at my sandals. I had wrapped bandages up to my forearm and wore arm and handguards along with guards in the front of my shinobi sandals reminiscent of the ANBU style. On top of the pants, I wore a skirt-like durable apron that stopped above my knees that had a slit down the side of it for maneuverability. (Author's note; reference WIP) The finishing touches were the Uchiwa proudly displayed on the back of my shirt and on the front of the apron. Some may argue that the apron was stupid, but had paid money for storage seals to line the entire inside surface, making me appear to have an endless amount of senbon that I drew out of nowhere.

Oh-ho-ho- have I got a nice stock of senbon. I bought out quite a few weapon stores with my newly acquired headband to accumulate such a large stash of the needles. Putting thoughts of making my enemies into human porcupines aside- I finished checking myself out and grabbed this new satchel I bought- It was shinobi grade and a very nice soft brown color. It held my sketchbooks and other art stuff, some scrolls, and books I checked out(Or stole) from the library and the clan archives. It was small enough to be inconspicuous and new. I finished the look by tying my hair into a low ponytail, and I do say it resembles Itachis quite a bit.

My hair had become… less of a rat's nest over time- which I'm thankful for; because I couldn't smooth it down to save my life. Anywho, I slung the satchel over my shoulder and grabbed my headband, tying it around my forehead. Giving one last glance at my reflection, I hurried out the door and onto the rooftops. My ponytail whipped behind me as I made my way to the academy for team assignments, pulling out a tomato from my pocket and stuffing it in my mouth as I shinobi roof jumped.

I stopped outside of the academy and look inside of a window, smirking when I saw everyone already in class. I opened the window silently, making my presence known when I dropped down onto the desk of a random classmate, making him yelp in surprise. I raised my hand, "Yo, did I miss anything?" Iruka sighed heavily, "I was just assigning the teams. Get in your seat Sasuke." Grinning at his defeated and tired demeanor, I walking across the desks, stepping over other genin and finally made it to my row, sitting down next to Naruto. He was snickering to himself, while Sakura on his other side facepalmed. I still had no idea what made me so likable to girls- but Sakura is still head-over-heels in preteen love for me.

Shivering at that thought, I laced my fingers together like cannon Sasuke and stared out the window, contemplating the meaning of life. What does it mean to exist- "-em 7." I blinked once, breaking myself out of my reverie and turned my gaze to the front of the classroom. "Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura-" Sakura cheered fist-pumping the air and shouting, "Take that Ino-pig!"

"And Uzumaki Naruto." She deflated, sending a look the jinchuriki's way, but he didn't seem to noticed over his own excitement. "YES! I got Sakura and Sasuke on my team dattebayo!" he sobered up and leveled a dead-serious stare my way, making me raise a brow. "Hn?" he didn't blink, and jumped up on the desk, eerily similar to the cannon- oh wait. He locked eyes with me, getting all up into my personal space. "That means that our rivalry is going to-" he scrunched his nose in concentration. "Get stronger? Whatever, you know what I mean." Smirking, I replied, "Tch, of course. Not like it'll take much to one-up you anyway." It was at this moment, that the person behind him accidentally bumped him, making him fall into me. This resulted in him only kissing my cheek- which was thanks to my reaction time- but the deed was already done, and his fate was sealed. He jumped back gagging and coughing, while I frantically wiped my cheek, hoping to get the saliva and ramen smell out. I coughed out in between my laughter and disgust, "Wow, didn't know you were already falling for me Naruto-chan."

Naruto blanched at that, eyes widening in terror as the killing intent of all my fangirls(especially Sakura) pressed down on him threateningly. I calmed down and blatantly ignored the sounds of him getting pummeled by angry preteen girls, and instead turned to Shikamaru. "So, how are you this fine evening?" His half-lidded eyes blinked slowly, then he yawned, "It's morning- ah, whatever. You're too troublesome for me to try-" -he yawned again- "to correct. You could've moved out of the way, why didn't you?" I thought about this and shrugged, a smug smirk on my lips. "I'd be too much of a drag."

After all the teams were assigned, we had a lunch break and then after that, we'd be picked up by our Jōnin sensei. Of course for lunch, Narut- "Let's go to Ichiraku's dattebayo!"

Sakura and I shrugged, "Sure Naru-chan, sounds like a plan." The pinkette nodded along, "Yeah, what Sasuke-kun said…"

So that's how we ended up at the famous ramen stand covered in noodles with a constipated Naruto and a murderous Sakura.

It honestly started out like any other time we've been there, but it seems now that we're on team 7 the curse applies to us now. 'Everything will become more complicated for weird, cosmic reasons.' C-rank mission? Hah, now it's an S rank. Trying to happily do some simple D-ranks? Someone will mess up something, somehow. Trying to get some ramen with your new team?

…

I sat down in the middle stool, with Naruto on my right and Sakura on my left. Waving at the cheery Teuchi and his daughter(that I still don't know the name of. Was it Ayame?), I ordered some miso ramen- same as Naruto. Sakura looked pensively at the menu, presumably having some kind of internal struggle until her stomach growled, loudly. She flushed, looking between Naruto and me in embarrassment. "S-sorry! I really have no idea-" -growl- "- why… uh… I'll have the same as them." Thus ended her 'perfect' diet streak- or something, I'm not really sure. We scarfed down the bowls of ramen, with Sakura barely starting on hers while Naruto was already on his third bowl. Let me fill in another little detail; we were very close to one another, our elbows were touching. Naruto was on his fourth bowl when he suddenly froze, a pained expression on his face.

I held my bowl up to my lips to finish the broth, pausing, and sending a concerned look his way. "Uh, Naruto? Are you-" he groaned, jumping up- and jostling me which resulted in me also jostling Sakura. I don't know why my gut reaction was to throw the bowl up, instead of dropping it, but I swear it wasn't my fault. The broth and leftover noodles drenched my lovely hair, while Sakura yelped and tried to avoid the broth that hit her in the face. Eyes wide, I reached up a hand to pulled one of the noodles out of my hair, blinking at it slowly. Sakura fumed, turning her glare on Naruto- who shrank back and was still clutching his stomach.

"Naruto" she growled, and stood from her stool, picking up her own bowl and chucked it at the boy in anger. It shattered against his face and noodles went everywhere. I tried in vain to wipe the ramen off my face while Naruto whimpered and tried to run to the bathroom- only to be stopped again by Sakura who kicked him in the leg, making him lose his footing on the slippery floor and fall onto his face. "You Idiot!" Sakura growled, then muttered more angry threats under her breath that I dare not repeat. Naruto tried to stand, but slipped again and landed on his ass. Realizing what she just did, Sakura brought her hands up to her mouth in shook and looked rapidly from me to Naruto.

It was quite the scene for passersby. A noodle covered Uchiha sitting shellshocked, A panicking jinchuriki who looked like he was about to shit himself, and a pink-haired girl who was apologizing profusely and looked to be on the verge of tears- all in all, that was the sight the copy-nin happened upon on his way to the memorial stone.

"Come on Sakura, it was that bad." I called out into the bathroom, pretending I didn't hear the ugly sniffling and mutterings of; 'I'm so stupid. Such an embarrassment. Why am I like this-'

"Yes, it is Sasuke! I threw my bowl at Naruto. I'm never going to be able to show my face at Ichiraku's- much less in public ever again!"

"I-it's ok Sakura, we've done worse." came Naruto's voice from the other bathroom. I stood in between the two entrances, still covered in ramen. She blew her nose, coughing out a hiccup, "You a-and Sasuke's pranks are different Naruto!" was her reply. Sighing, I looked up at the sun to check the time. We still had a few minutes until we had to be back at the academy- though we technically had plenty of time since Kakashi is always late. "Listen, we need to be back soon. Let's just clean up, and pretend that nothing happened. Is that ok with you, Sakura?"

She came out of the bathroom, as clean as she could be from dosing herself in water. "I guess," she replied, fidgeting with the hem of her dress. "Do you think we have time to go home and change?" I contemplated this, before shrugging. "I guess. But I just don't want to go through the trouble. We'll meet our Jōnin sensei, do introductions, then go home. That's our best bet. Changing now wouldn't make much of a difference- 'plus I'm lazy'" we both heard Naruto frantically trying to flush a toilet, groaning in annoyance. He emerged from the bathroom, sighing in relief. "Ok. I think I'm good dattebayo."

"Good. Though I'm thinking about just jumping into the Naka river instead of trying my chances in… there…" I went silent, the rest of my team silent in agreement. Coughing to break the awkwardness, I continued, "We should head back to the classroom now."

They both nodded, lips set in grim lines. With my hands on my hips, I sighed, then met their solemn gazes. Nodding once, we all dispersed, taking to the rooftops and racing to the academy.

The other genin eyed our team curiously- though I suppose we did make quite the sight. I still had noodles in my hair that I'd pick out and eat- earning quite a few disgusted looks, and Naruto and Sakura look like they'd tried to drown each other in a river. We moved as a group and sat in the front two rows; Sakura and Naruto in the front with me behind them. We chatted for a bit and watched as Jōnin came to pick up their rowdy teams.

Pretty soon we were the only ones left, Iruka sending us a small smile before heading out the door. "I'm sure you won't be waiting much longer." was his goodbye, though I could almost sense the sadistic smile form on his lips.

Soon it became too much for Naruto to bear, and he jumped up from his seat, snatching the chalkboard eraser left on Iruka's desk and snickering evilly to himself. "What are you doing Naruto?" came Sakura's tired question, frowning when he cackled and propped the eraser up using the door. "This will teach him to be late dattebayo." Yawning, I glanced up from my journal where I had basically written and sketched out all the information on the people of this world(even filler characters) that I knew of; including future exploits. It was all written in English, and was specially made so it was fire and waterproof- and scrambled the pages around randomly without any pattern.

It was pretty thick since I had to write out detailed backstories and descriptions of abilities, and so on. I had started on it a few years ago, though I rarely worked on it since I trained my ass off all the time.

Smirking lightly, I closed the book and stored it in a scroll, shoving it back into my satchel. "I'm sure that'll work on a seasoned Jōnin." was my reply, though delivered with heavy sarcasm, was my wholehearted opinion. The cosmic forces were working their magic; because at that moment, Kakashi walked through the door, pausing when the eraser hit his head with a 'poof' and clattered to the floor. Naruto cackled, "He fell for it!" while Sakura apologized on his behalf. "I'm so sorry Sensei- he's an idiot." though from the mischievous gleam in her eyes she found the whole situation amusing aswell. "At least the chalk matches your hair, old man." I smiled innocently with my eyes closed and could fell his burning one-eyed gaze scrutinizing me briefly.

"My first impression of you… Is that I hate you. Meet me up on the roof in five minutes." With that, he shunshined away-show off. Sakura wilted, repeating, "He hates us."

Naruto quickly scrambled out the door, Sakura following at a more leisurely pace. Shrugging, I opened the window and wall-walked up to the roof, getting there first and taking a seat on the stairs. "Hmm. You know mastered the tree-walking exercise already?" was the scarecrow's comment. "Hn," I responded in the standard language of the Uchiha, crossing my arms and waiting for Pinkie and Naru-chan.

Naruto burst through the doors, Sakura right behind him. He pouted at my smirk, "How'd you get here already teme?" Sakura flipped her hair, taking a seat on my left, "Because Sasuke is cool like that." Naruto rolled his eyes, "Right." and sat on my right. Kakashi was silent for a moment, before giving us an eye-smile. "Why don't you introduce yourselves, one at a time." Sakura raised her hand, "Introduce ourselves? What are we supposed to say?"

Kakashi spread his arms in a shrug, "Things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future. Hobbies, things like that." He crossed his arms. Naruto piped up, "Why don't you tell us stuff first? I mean, before we talk tell us about you so we can see how it's supposed to work."

Kakashi pointed to himself, "Me? I'm Hatake Kakashi. Things I like and things I hate… I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future; never really thought about it. As for my hobbies, I have lots of hobbies."

Sakura turned to us with a deadpan stare, "That was totally useless. He didn't tell us anything but his name."

"Ok, your turn. You on the right, you first." Kakashi drawled, and Naruto perked up with a grin. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at Ichiraku's noodle shop." He paused and sent me a look, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "But I hate the three minutes you have to wait when you pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobbies are eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them, and my future dream is- to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and treat me like I'm somebody; somebody important!"

Kakashi made a sound of contemplation then leveled his eye at Sakura. "Next."

She rested her hands in her lap, smiling at Kakashi in an innocent way. "I'm Haruno Sakura. What I like- uh- I mean the person I like is-" she sent me a flustered look. "Uh, my hobby is- uh- Training." she giggled, "My dream for the future is-" she sent me another look and flushed a bright red, burying her face into her hands in embarrassment. Kakashi looked at her unimpressed and spoke, "And, what do you hate?"

Sakura frowned, then glared at our resident Jinchuriki, thinking back to the ramen fiasco earlier. "NARUTO!" she said with so much passion that even had me surprised; though I think she was just being dramatic. Scare-crow sighed, then finally landed his eye on me. "Last one."

Here was my time to shine hehe hehe. I cleared my throat, a small smirk present on my face while I spoke. "My Name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like art, tomatoes, and those I care for. As for things I hate? A few people and things. I could get all philosophical but it's way too early for that. Hobbies include my art, reading, and training. As for my dreams-" I pause for dramatic effect. "What I have isn't just a dream, it's something I will make a reality. That goal is world peace. Killing a certain someone-" -Zetsu can suck my dick- "and protect those who are precious to me."

If Kakashi was surprised, he didn't show it. "Hmm, you all seem to be unique individuals. We'll have our first mission tomorrow." Naruto bounced with excitement, asking, "What kind of mission are we gonna have?" I nodded in agreement, holding back a knowing smirk from finding it's way onto my lips. "It's a task that the four of us will do together." was the Jōnin's response. The blonde pouted, "What is it? Come on, tell us dattebayo!"

"It's a survival exercise."

"Huh? Survival exercise?" Naruto scratched his head, and Sakura piped up. "I thought we were supposed to have a real mission, not more practice! We already did this stuff at the academy, that's how we got here."

"This is not like your previous training," Kakashi said cheerily, setting us all on edge.

"So, uh, what kind of training is it then?" Naruto asked, sweating nervously when Kakashi began laughing sadistically to himself- I think I'm beginning to like this man.

"Hey, that's a normal question, what's so funny?" Sakura asked, nervously fiddling with the hem of her dress. His snickers quieted enough for him to answer, "Well, if I tell you the answer, you're not gonna like it." Naruto puffed up his chest and jumped to his feet. "We can handle anything you throw at us! Tell us what the test is, old man!" Kakashi's eye narrowed before he gave us a serene eye-smile and responded, "Out of the 27 graduates that passed the academy graduation exam, only 9 will actually become Genin. The other 18 will be weeded out and sent back to the academy. In other words…" He paused for dramatic effect, before his voice took on a sadistically happy-go-lucky tone. "There is a 66% chance you'll fail."

Sakura and Naruto gapped before I raised my hand. "So, basically, You have the last say in whether or not we actually become a ninja?" He eye-smiled, "Yes, you are correct Sasuke."

Clapping his hands once he ended with, "Meet me at training ground 3 at 6:00 tomorrow morning. Oh, and don't eat breakfast, or you'll puke." With that, he shunshined off, leaving a swirl of leaves in his absence. We all shared a look, before Naruto spoke, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna eat breakfast."

Nodding I crossed my arms, "Same here."

Sakura looked between us with a frown, "But Kakashi-sensei said not to." Naruto and I exchanged a look, before I sighed, "He was late today, what makes you think he won't be late tomorrow?" She bit her lip, and I placed a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to eat breakfast, just… eat a big dinner, kay?" blushing from the contact, she nodded mutely, before choking out, "O-ok Sasuke."

The sun was just peeking through the leaves when we made it to the designated training grounds, all of us bright and cheery and ready for the day. Well, I was- Naruto and Sakura looked like they threw themselves out of bed and used every ounce of willpower they possessed just to walk all the way here. The jinchuriki groaned, slumping against the ground and curling up into himself. Sakura yawned and took a seat cross-legged next to him. I rested my hands on my hips, grinning widely at them when they blinked and groggily turned their attention on me. "Don't you think we should get some training done in the meantime?" I proposed, taking a tomato out of my bag and shoving it into my mouth.

Naruto clutched his head, "Not so loud teme." the pinkette on our team nodded, "Yeah Sasuke, don't you think it's too early for training?" Shaking my head, I responded, "Just cause I'm late-" -crunch- "- most of the time doesn't mean I sleep in. I have a dream, an ambition, just like you Naruto. You gonna let a little fatigue stop you from being Hokage?" He scrunched his face, then slowly sat up, "No" he grumbled, "I just didn't get much sleep last night cause' I was so excited about today dattebayo."

"Come on, let's spar with shadow clones. Sakura, care to join us?" she blinked then joined us, standing tiredly. "You can make shadow clones Naruto?" she asked curiously, and Naruto nodded proudly. "Yeah, I learned it when I beat up a traitor from the village." he sniffed, puffing out his chest proudly. "He didn't stand a chance against a great ninja like me, dattebayo."

"It's true." I cut in when Sakura looked skeptical. Her eyes widened and a look of slight awe bloomed on her face. "Wow… that's really cool Naruto!" he blushed, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "It was nothing-" I slung an arm around his shoulder, "Yeah, I did most of the work anyway." he scowled, trying to throw my arm off of him. Just to annoy the blonde, I avoided all his attempts while still resting my arm comfortably on the boy. Eventually, he snapped and tackled me, trying to strangle the life out of me. "TEME!" Headbutting and kicking him off, I rolled over and jumped up. "That didn't work when we were eight, what makes you think I'd work now?" I said in the smuggest tone I could muster. Narrowing my eyes when he suddenly grinned evilly and taking a step back. He clasped his hands together in that iconic design that I know so well- "Shadow clone jutsu! Didn't you want to spar?"

I schooled my look of surprise, a smirk slipping back onto my face. "Hmm, I believe I did… dobe."

We both charged at each other, ignoring Sakura's annoyed shout for us to stop acting so immature.

Omake; If Sasuke joined the Akatsuki(Part 1)

I blinked slowly, staring into the rinnegan eyes that bored into my very soul. I stood in a spacious meeting room, in front of a table lined with all the members of the Akatsuki. Coughing, I smirked, "So. Nice to meet you all- except Itachi- we already know each other, duh. Who's gonna be my partner Mr. Leader-man." Pain narrowed his eyes at his self assigned nickname, before lacing his fingers together and leaning forward. "Since we never took Orochimaru-san's ring, we have reluctantly decided to accept him back into this organization for that purpose." I made a face at that, while Itachi's posture became tenser, Sharingan boring into Pain's head in silent objection. "Uh, would that be wise?" I raised my hand in question, a few other members agreeing with me.

"That snake can't be trusted." Sasori's gruff voice sounded from inside Hiroko, Kisame nodding along to that. "Yeah, he already went after Itachi-san once. What's to stop him from going after his brother?" the shark man offered.

"To have such uncertainties might disrupt our purpose and missions." Itachi finally voiced, his tone apathetic, but I could tell he was silently panicking. Pain sighed, thinking over his options, before leveling his stare on me again. "Do you have any… suggestions for partners, Sasuke-san?"

Contemplating this for a moment, I rubbed my chin in thought. "Hmm… I have one, and he would go along with it because he knows if he tries to deny it I'd force him." Leader-chan nodded, "Very well. Is this person from Konoha?" An evil grin slowly formed on my lips, making Deidara and Obito-pretending-to-be-innocent-Tobi shudder. (Though I'd like to think he was wary of me.)

"Yes."

Shikamaru's eyes slowly peeled open, blinking groggily at the sudden light. Wait… he didn't remember going to sleep- not that would be cause for concern, but the surface he was on felt like damp concrete. His eyes snapped open, gawking at the sight before him. There was a table of very dangerous-looking S-rank criminals staring at him with varying expressions. "Finally awake Shika-kun?" a familiar voice chirped, making him snap his eyes up to meet the onyx stare of Sasuke. Immediately, his expression fell into a deadpanned stare and stood up slowly. Looking between the table of criminals, and then Sasuke, he sighed. "Why does this not surprise me? What a drag." He drawled, making Sasuke chuckle evilly. He just noticed that his elder brother was present aswell- Itachi.

Looking in his direction, he noticed with annoyance that the Uchiha was smirking faintly, amused at his misery. "Oki-Doki. This is the guy I meant" Sasuke gestured to him, grinning widely. "Shikamaru is my best friend and the perfect partner. Don't worry about him trying to run away, he knows that I'll find him no matter where he tries to hide." The youngest Uchiha said with too much enthusiasm. The orange-haired man nodded once, "This is acceptable."

Never before did Shikamaru feel regret from befriending Sasuke so strongly.

In this world, wherever there is light – there are also shadows. As long as the concept of winners exists, there must also be losers. The selfish desire of wanting to maintain peace causes wars, and hatred is born to protect love." – Madara Uchiha

"It is only through the eyes of others that our lives have any meaning." – Haku

And ~scene~