The fireball spewed from his mouth in a concentrated stream before expanding into a large orange sphere. The force of the jutsu blew his bangs back, hot wind blasting his face. There were gasps from the other kids as well. He thought he even heard Iruka-sensei say something in astonishment. Once the flames subsided, Sasuke blew smoke through his nose.
The girls cheered, screeching about how cool his jutsu was while the boys murmured in shock amongst themselves. All except Naruto. Sasuke caught his glare and the smirk that lay beneath it. Do you accept my challenge, loser?
He tried. The fidelity of his Shadow Clones was impressive, but they weren't nearly as flashy as Sasuke's fire jutsu. Just like he'd promised Naruto, he wouldn't lose in a ninjutsu assessment against him or anyone else in this class. The victory was a welcome reprieve from the confused ball of feelings in his head and heart.
As he watched everyone's display of the ninjutsu they knew, he was thoroughly unimpressed. Most of the children couldn't properly gather up their chakra let alone perform a jutsu. Hinata was able to charge with relative ease but as her clan specialized almost in taijutsu, she didn't know any basic ninjutsu.
Naruto was most impressed by Sakura though. She was able to charge her chakra in a tightly controlled manner, although there was not a lot of it. The blonde boy was grinning widely and put his hands to his mouth.
"Great job, Sakura!" he shouted. The pink-haired girl looked in their direction but diverted her eyes from Naruto to him. When she shyly smiled at him, Sasuke frowned and looked away.
What's wrong with that girl? Sasuke thought.
"Oh wow, she totally smiled at me," Naruto said, laughing quietly to himself. The Uchiha boy wondered for a moment if he'd burst his classmate's bubble but decided against it. The blonde boy changed the subject. "What do you think your score's gonna be?"
"Better than yours," Sasuke said matter-of-factly.
Naruto grumbled and then said, "Yeah, I guess you blowing a big fireball out your piehole is kinda neat. But next time, I'm gonna learn a new jutsu that'll blow anything you can do out of the water, ya know!"
"In your dreams, loser. I'd like to see you try," Sasuke said with a playful smirk. Naruto smiled back.
When Iruka-sensei announced the scores, Sasuke was proud to hear his name first. It was something he could tell his father about. When they were getting back in line to go to class, the Uchiha boy found his way behind Hinata. As he looked at her, all he could remember was what Itachi had told him.
Why her?
"You did really well," she said quietly, blushing as she always did speaking to him.
"Thanks," Sasuke replied returning the smile. Then, he asked, "Why don't the Hyūga use ninjutsu?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. I..." she paused as the line began to move. Sasuke heard her whisper, almost just to herself, "He wouldn't tell me..."
When they were back in class, Iruka-sensei didn't give them any time to talk about their scores. He immediately sat them down and took attendance. After finishing a head count, he cleared his throat. "Alright everyone, settle down. We're going to go over an important piece of history that ties directly into the upcoming Tsurara Snow Festival next week. Open your textbooks to chapter five, part four, and five of the Second Shinobi World War."
Sasuke listened as Iruka-sensei dramatically weaved a tale of desperation and war. Some of the great nations had grown poorer while others had gained territories, expanding their borders and increasing their wealth. He named several great heroes that arose during that time, including Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang of Konoha. It also featured a battle between Hanzō, some old geezer from a village where it always rained, and the Legendary Sannin, who were named on this day as a result of their fight. The night that they received their titles, winter snows touched Amegakure.
Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru. Sasuke thought he had heard the last name before, whispered quietly by Itachi and Father when the boy had been eavesdropping on the scenic route back to his bedroom. And it was not a good name. His lord father had spat it out with disgust and his brother spoke it with cold, dispassionate indifference, something that Sasuke had figured out meant he truly didn't like someone. He wondered what the man had done to be hated the way he was. In the history books, he was one of Konoha's shining heroes during the Second World War. What happened to him after that?
"Our world can cause you to become cold if you let it," Itachi had said. "Those that don't possess the Will of Fire can't keep the frigid grip of hatred from their hearts. And, even if they manage to fight off that hatred, the chill still remains." Sasuke also remembered his father's words regarding Madara and how he hastened his fate by being motivated by hatred. Maybe, that same hatred had consumed Orochimaru too.
When Iruka-sensei had concluded their lesson, he passed out papers for them to take a quiz on the First Shinobi World War that they'd gone over at the end of last week. Sasuke blazed through the test, answering each question without so much as a second thought. Next to him, Naruto took his time, tapping his head with his pencil and then excitedly writing his answers down. When Sasuke got out of his seat to walk his test down, he glanced over at Naruto and saw that he'd only completed a third of the quiz.
He saw a flash of pink as he reached the bottom of the steps. Sakura stood next to him in front of Iruka-sensei's desk and the young instructor looked up at them, a flash of surprise on his face.
"Done already? Did you double-check your answers?"
"I did, sensei," Sakura said.
"Don't need to," Sasuke said.
"Well, alright." Iruka received their tests and dipped his head. "You two can head back to your seats. Try not to disturb your neighbors."
Naruto tapping his pencil against his hollow head would be more of a distraction to Sasuke than he would to him, but he gave a respectful nod to his sensei's instruction and turned to climb up the stairs.
"I hope you did well, Sasuke," Sakura said shyly. He looked over at her and noticed that her cheeks were pink.
The Uchiha boy felt his eyes narrow, and he sighed inwardly. "Yeah, you too." He left her quickly and glanced over to where Hinata sat. He just caught her milk-white eyes watching his interaction with Sakura before looking back down at her test. At the same time, he saw the pink-haired girl giggling with a blond girl with blue eyes.
How annoying. Sasuke sat next to Naruto and sighed softly. Again, he looked at Hinata, watching her slowly go through her test, second and third guessing her answers. Part of him wished he was sitting next to her so that he could coach her through it, but he had to remember that she was fine. Whether her father makes her the heiress again or not.
That was another thing that made him angry. How could Lord Hiashi choose that arrogant boy, Neji? Sasuke wondered if he'd been cruel to Hinata and if they'd fought for the position of heir. Had she been hurt?
"Sasuke?" The Uchiha boy glanced up and saw Naruto looking down on him with concern.
"Yeah, what?"
"You were just starin' at nothing. I thought that something was wrong," Naruto said.
"I'm fine," Sasuke replied, gentler than he usually did when addressing the Uzumaki boy. This seemed to just make him worry more and to this, the Uchiha adopted an aloof mask. "I said that I'm fine." He got up and brushed past Naruto, following the rest of his classmates as they headed out of the door.
Sasuke glanced up at the clock and realized that it was time for lunch and then recess by extension. He'd left his lunchbox beneath his seat. When he turned back to look, Naruto was gone. That would save him the awkward exchange of speaking to him again. He walked back up the bleachers and grabbed his lunchbox then turned on his heels to head to lunch.
He almost collided with Sakura who was three steps down behind him. His brows furrowed and the color left the girl's face. She looked like a rice ball with raw salmon wrapped around it.
"S-Sasuke–" she exclaimed.
He was furious and annoyed to the point of silence and brushed past the girl. She was always there, following him at his heel or eyeing him down from across the room. Naruto was a loser but his goofy outbursts were more often than not endearing. But this Sakura...she was...
"So annoying." Sasuke spat the words out, throwing a quick glare her way before he left the room. Only part of him felt guilty until he rounded the corner and saw Hinata. She saw him too, he realized, before he had left the room. Her Byakugan was retracting when they came face to face, and she blushed a deep red.
"I-I was waiting for you to come to the cafeteria..."
"I know, I'm sorry," Sasuke said, hoping she took his dual intention.
Hinata paused then blinked shyly at him. "Is...she ok?"
"I don't know."
"S-she's crying."
Sasuke stopped to listen. Sakura's soft sobs were barely audible but the walls carried them to his ears. The part of him that felt guilt had begun to grow.
"I didn't mean to..." he said quietly, wondering if that was in fact the truth. Sakura had been working her way to be around him for weeks now. She complimented his jutsu, and squealed with her friends whenever he so much as glanced in her direction. He didn't understand what she wanted.
"She wants to be your friend," Hinata said softly.
First, Naruto. Now, Sakura. Sasuke frowned. "How do you know?"
"That's what all the girls say when they talk before class," Hinata said.
Sasuke remembered the group looking at him when he'd shown up to class a bit late, the same day he'd lost his sparring match to Naruto and had scared Hinata while trying to defend her. His thoughts shifted back to the burden he carried on his heart and mind. The promise he'd made the heiress.
"I...found out what you wanted to know," Sasuke whispered. Hinata flushed again. The Uchiha's gaze softened. The news that he had required a safe space. "Let's go outside."
He led them outside and away from the ruckus on the playground. The boys were reenacting a battle from the Second World War. Naruto was in the middle of them, grinning as he declared his own name rather than one of the historical shinobi they'd learned about. Shikamaru tried to calmly explain to Naruto that he was missing the point of the game while Kiba laughed and called him an idiot. Choji opened his mouth to say something and Sasuke caught his eye by chance. The fat boy's mouth closed.
After they were far enough away that Sasuke could no longer make out Naruto's cries of retort, he turned his gaze to Hinata. She gulped and twiddled her fingers. "I'm scared," she said.
"There's no reason to be," Sasuke said with a smile, not knowing if she'd be frightened by what he'd learned. He sighed deeply and tried to summon some form of inner strength. "I know why our clans are aligned. And, what happened to you..."
He'd expected her to be hesitant or to tell him that she didn't want to know anymore. He had almost been counting on it, afraid to share what Itachi had told him. But, the little girl's mouth twisted, and she gulped again. "Tell me," she said.
Sasuke was surprised at how resolute she sounded. Instead of questioning it, he simply spoke the truth according to Itachi.