It was a beautiful morning, birds were singing, flowers were blooming, and three genins were waiting for their late sensei on a very familiar bridge.
"Morning Sakura!" Naruto chirped with a salute.
"Good morning Naruto," the rosette said with a yawn, stretching her arms above her head lazily. The jinchuriki smiled, before his face contorted in confusion.
"Hey, where's Sasuke?"
Sakura gestured to the river.
"He's hanging upside-down under the bridge, he says he's practicing his chakra control and meditating." she explained, causing Naruto to nod in understanding.
"Ah, thanks. Good morning teme." he called, hearing a faint, "Morning" in response. The three waited in relative silence, only broken when Sasuke deemed to join them by flinging himself up on top of the railing.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I was lost on the road of life." came a familiar drawl, their silver-haired sensei materializing on the bridge's archway.
"WHAT?" Naruto exclaimed,.
"That's bullshit." Sakura added, scowling.
Kakashi mock-gasped.
"Sakura-chan, language." he reprimanded, pausing to take a swig of his canteen and letting out a long sigh. He dropped down, and immediately, Naruto began chattering away.
"So what's our next mission Kakashi-sensei? And none of that dumb beginner stuff- I want a real mission Dattebayo! One where I can show what I'm made of!" he exclaimed, gaining a determined fire in his eyes, making Sasuke chuckle.
"Yeah, I agree, plus it's not like there's many other missions we actually could take…" he quietly added, trailing off at the end with an almost smug smirk.
"Ah right, follow me to the next mission my cute little genins," Kakashi commanded in an unenthusiastic voice, ignoring how Naruto started boasting about how he was going to beat Sasuke. The wave mission had for some reason, made the boy more competitive with his friend, which in turn made Naruto try to one-up Sasuke in all their missions, much to the Uchiha's amusement. When your daily missions consisted of chores, most of the time Naruto's enthusiasm didn't really help him much.
…
…..
Team seven was currently picking weeds, one of the few tasks they succeeded at for the most part. Sasuke was humming to the tune of a song when methodically plucking the invasive plants by their roots and depositing them in a pile. Naruto scowled, then turned his sights on the garden.
"Sasuke's not gonna one-up me." he muttered, then vigorously started pulling up all the plants until he was left with a hefty pile. The blonde grinned and started giggling to himself, reveling in his victory over his best friend(and rival.)
The woman who hired them came out to check their progress and blanched at the huge pile of herbs and weeds stacked behind the jinchuriki.
"Hey, you!" she said angrily, stomping over until she was face to face with the blonde menace. Naruto turned to her in surprise, then continued grinning in pride.
"Oh hey lady, I pulled up all the weeds dattebayo! Pretty cool huh?"
The woman clenched her teeth together and closed her eyes in irritation. The boy's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Uh, what's wrong?"
"You pulled up the weeds, but you also pulled up all my plants! Those were special herbs!" the lady snapped, making the boy pale.
"You destroyed them!" the client continued, sucker-punching the blonde in the face. Sasuke looked on in mild surprise, "Woah, damn. Hey Kakashi-sensei? Is she allowed to do that?..."
This pattern continued all week, with Naruto almost falling to his death and Sasuke saving him, opting to wash the most aggressive dogs and getting bitten(multiple times), and getting attacked by a horde of angry chickens, among other things. Sasuke and Sakura were helping a limping Naruto down the road behind their sensei. Sasuke, ever-amused, couldn't keep the smile off his face or hold in his snickers.
"You're so hopeless Naruto," Sakura said with a shake of her head, more exasperated than annoyed.
"Kekekeke~ chickens." Sasuke added, making the jinchuriki flush in embarrassment and shake his teammates off.
"Sasuke!" he exclaimed, trying to tackle the Uchiha but was surprisingly stopped by the kunoichi of their team.
"Quit it Naruto! Or I swear I will punch you." she growled out a threat, gripping the boy's arm painfully.
"O-ok- ok! Ow-ow-ow!" Naruto whined, sighing in relief when she let go.
"Let's call it a day. I gotta file a report for this mission, so you can go and do whatever." Kakashi said offhandedly, taking his eyes off his book for once and scanned the three genin briefly.
"Weeeelp, I'm off, gotta do some stuff. Tatty-bye~" Sasuke wiggled his fingers in a mockery of a wave and soon disappeared in the opposite direction.
"Hey wait! Sasuke-" Sakura retracted her outstretched hand dejectedly, looking in the direction he disappeared, forlorn.
"Don't worry Sakura, you can hang out- I mean train with me dattebayo!" Naruto suggested with a dopey grin, wincing when she scowled back at him. Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke, not wanting to be involved with a hormonal Sakura.
'Is he leaving me some alone time with Sakura-chan?' Naruto thought smugly, before turning around in surprise when he heard someone scurrying behind him. He blankly stared at the box painted to look like a rock, eye twitching at the absurdity of it. He walked forward a bit then stopped, noting that the box followed him. He narrowed his eyes then started running back and forth, the box scurrying to catch up with him until he abruptly stopped and turned around, hands planted on his hips. Naruto dramatically pointed a finger at the poorly disguised academy students, and exclaimed.
"That's the worst disguise of all time- there's no square rocks! It's completely obvious!"
"YOU LITTLE!"
Sasuke shivered when he heard the sounds of Naruto getting his ass kicked, knowing all too well what was going down.
"It won't be too long now." he said quietly to himself, his lips curling up into a mischievous smirk.
"Oh, this will be fun."
The Uchiha wasn't actually that far away from his teammates, just waiting for the team sand interaction. He cocked his head to the side, sticking his hands into his pockets.
"I wonder if panda-kun will think I'm interesting or not this time around. Afterall, I don't really hate anyone- at least on the surface." he mused, before pausing once more, enhancing his ears with chakra to hear Konohamaru's protests and Kankuro's annoying voice. He closed his eyes in amusement.
"Guess that's my que."
Konohamaru screamed along with Naruto as they ran away from an irate Sakura. The boy wasn't looking where he was going and unfortunately ran into someone, sending the academy student to the ground.
"O-ow…. Huh?" Naruto stopped, taking in the sight of two mean looking genin from the sand. The boy with the purple face paint looked on with disdain, "Do you need something?"
One thing led to another and a few minutes later the puppeteer was holding the kid up by his collar.
"Does this hurt punk?" he said condescendingly. The kunoichi with sandy blonde hair scowled,
"Put him down kankuro, you know you'll pay for it later." she complained in vain. Sakura was next to Naruto with her hands clasped together in front of her.
"Hey, I'm sorry- it was my fault."
Naruto clenched his fists in frustration, bringing them up in what he thought was a threatening manner.
"Let go of him right now!" the blonde exclaimed, glaring when the face-painted boy smirked. He ignored Naruto.
"We got a few minutes until he gets here, why don't we mess with these punks?"
"Let go of me you jerk!" Konohamaru struggled, but the sand genin remained unfazed.
"Feisty, aren't you? Not for long." Kankuro snickered, while Naruto looked increasingly frustrated by the second.
PUT HIM DOWN!" he screamed, and rushed at the puppeteer with a fist raised. Kankuro's fingers twitched and the blonde was sent to the ground with a thud.
"What the- what was that dattebayo?!"
"Ha, you're a leaf genin too? Looks like your village is full of wimps." Kankuro sneered. Konohamaru's two friends called his name worriedly, while the small boy let out a whimper, "H-hey, it hurts."
Meanwhile out of view, Sasuke tsked, and leaped up onto a tree near them silently, narrowing his eyes when Kankuro stated that they were all annoying brats then went to punch Konohamaru. The Uchiha grabbed a handful of needles and threw them, hitting the puppeteer all along his arm, one lodging painfully in his hand.
"OW fu-!" Kankueo yelped in pain, dropping the small boy in the process.
"Wow, you're so cool! Beating up children in a foreign village- you must have balls of steel!"
I exclaimed sarcastically with a shit-eating grin, not bothering to hide my amusement when they all whipped their heads up to me in shock.
"You little-"
"BORING." I exclaimed, cutting the older boy off. Sakura lit up when she saw me, "Sasuke!" the rosette said in relief, while Naruto looked a little miffed. Writing his attitude off as concealed hero-worship, I turned my attention to Temari next. Tilting my head to the side, I offered the blushing kunoichi a serene smile.
"Ah, you're his enabler, you must be a huge bitch then."
Immediately her small smile dropped and the woman's demeanor changed to one of anger, making my smile widen.
"Another leaf village wimp to piss me off?" Kankuro challenged, trying to play off the needles as nothing at all and pulled them out with a wince. Crinkling my eyes, I simply replied in an airy tone, "Get lost. Or I'll turn you into a human porcupine. it'll go with your makeup I'm sure."
Sakura beamed up at me with admiration, something I still didn't quite understand considering my personality but whatever.
"Sasuke's so cool," she commented, the little girl with pigtails nodded in agreement. Konohamaru turned to Naruto with a pout, "How come you're not cool like him?" the blonde blanched and kneeled down to the younger boy's height.
"Ar' you kidding? I could've taken that guy out in two seconds flat." he reassured him, the latter not convinced at all.
Kankuro tried to look cool and demanded in a flat voice, "It's not makeup- it's war paint! Come down here punk!."
I stared back unblinkingly, silently raising a brow at the request.
"It's brat's like you I hate the most." he growled, slinging the bandaged puppet over his shoulder and letting it fall to the ground in front of him with a thud.
"Are you seriously going to use the Crow for this?" Temari asked in disbelief, probably only concerned with Kankuro foolishly revealing his cards in an uncalled situation. Before things could escalate further, a gravelly voice rang out from beside me, "Kankuro, back off. You're an embarrassment to our village."
I involuntarily shivered; being in the presence of something you're told is dangerous and watching from afar are completely different indeed. I had only sensed him because I knew where to look. That thought was mildly unsettling- I'd have to up my game then.
"Ah- hey Gaara…" Kankuro nervously said, The redhead's gaze shifted and we locked eyes, his cold while mine were full of mirth. Whether he was surprised or not I couldn't tell.
"Hello there! You must be their third teammate then. Nice to meet you, I'm Uchiha Sasuke, the best genin in the history of genins- and I come from a famous clan, so that means I'm better than you." I stated nonchalantly, immediately letting him know his place and mine. He ignored me, making my face fall into an expression of hurt, the redhead shunshining down to his siblings.
"I apologize for my teammates behavior." Gaara says, crossing his arms and regarding my two friends with something akin to apathy.
"You don't sound too apologetic." I teased, hopping down from the tree and putting my arms behind my head in a 'naruto-esc' pose. "Though, no hard feelings. Totally understand having to reign in your team's dumbass."
"Kankuro, we're leaving." the red-head rasped, ignoring me again.
And just like that, the three sand genin vanish, much to my disappointment.
"Uh, that guy seemed dangerous." Naruto says dumbly, surprising me with his insightfulness.
"Let's avoid them from now on." Sakura adds nervously, "Right Sasuke-kun?"
My smile in response was not reassuring in the slightest.
Wow it's been almost-
*checks watch*
TWO years since I've updated this huh? Perhaps longer. Well, chapter 15. was sitting unfinished in my docs so uhhh I finished it today so now I'm posting it. I have no idea what I wrote in that author's note, but it was all a lie, i forgot this story ever existed tbh. Which is sad cause this story has gained the most traction out of all my works across Wattpad, Ao3, and ? Anyways, the beginning chapters are painful to read, so I'll update them some day, but for now I suppose I'll just work on the Chunnin exam arc.
Ngl I kinda fell out of Naruto and have moved on to other things, but i still very much enjoy the show! I'm getting back into it, slowly but surely.
If you want to read what I've been up to, my Ao3 account is named 9thstar. I'll try to put a link in.
My ao3 account