A/N: I hate going through the Stations of the Canon. They're exhausting.
o.o.o.o.o
February 16, 2008
12:42 PM
Konohagakure
Sasuke looked down at his hands, and the hitai-ate that was there.
He was a shinobi now.
Huh.
Onto his forehead it went, snug against his skull, and he made his way out to the Academy yard. He thanked his lucky stars that his surname was near the beginning of the Hiragana alphabet, because that meant he could escape before most of the girls got out. Before most people in general got out, actually. Shino, Kiba, and Chouji were already done, metal glinting on their heads. He gave them a short nod as he exited the Academy yard and headed home. He had a call to make.
(He awkwardly ignored the sight of Naruto on the swingset, looking morose and lacking a hitai-ate, because that was definitely not a situation he wanted to get involved in. Good at comforting people, he was not.)
The call went about how he expected, actually.
"I knew you could do it. You've been top of your class for a while, haven't you?" Tony's voice was joking, mostly. "I'm proud of you, though, kiddo. You've been working towards this for a long time."
Sasuke wasn't entirely sure if this was the kind of praise that most kids got (there was an undercurrent of "duh, of course you succeeded," that left him feeling a bit underwhelmed), but he was aware that his Uncle was trying, so he took the congratulations for what they were. "I know I said I didn't care if you came to my genin exam, but my first Chuunin exam is probably in the next two or three years."
"I know, kiddo. I promised I'd come to that one." Tony might have been laughing, there. "Trust me, I'll be there no matter what."
"Unless you're dying."
"Unless I'm dying." Tony agreed, because this had recently become a thing for Sasuke, and he was willing to play along with it. Sasuke knew he was getting a bit strange about some things, but he'd seen Tony push himself through enough science-induced injuries for the sake of a breakthrough that Tony doing something important despite being in the middle of dying was a legitimate concern.
At least, Sasuke thought so.
"You're meeting your team tomorrow." Tony said, pointing out the tiny little issue that was liable to crop up. "Anxious?"
"No." Sasuke said immediately, glad that he was inside his own house and not somewhere that would lead to him getting psycho-analyzed by a dozen overly paranoid ninja. "I'm just not sure I'll be placed with someone I can easily work with."
"Teamwork is called work for a reason, kid." Tony pointed out. "I'm not exactly a team player either, but I do know that it's something that takes time and effort, no matter who you're working with. If I were on a team with no one but Pepper and Rhodey, I'd still have trouble making it work unless I tried really hard. With anyone else, it would be even worse."
"I know, Uncle. The fact that it's going to be so hard is what I'm worried about in the first place." Sasuke made a face and walked over to his fridge, checking over the contents. He could make… eggs, maybe. "There's a number of people in class that are probably going to cause trouble if they're placed with me, no matter how much effort I, personally, put in."
"Is this about the girls, again?" Tony asked.
"Mostly." Sasuke admitted, pinching the phone between his ear and shoulder as he started setting up his after-school snack. "There are a couple of boys that like to pick fights for whatever reason."
"Are you being a dick?"
"…I don't think so. If I was acting like you, at least I'd know how to fix the problem." Sasuke said, and smirked as Tony sputtered on the other end of the line.
"Rude!" Tony finally exclaimed. "I'll have you know that I am the epitome of class."
Sasuke didn't say anything.
"…I am, and you know it."
"Uncle Tony, are you pouting?"
"Absolutely not. I am a grown man. Adults don't pout."
"Sulking?"
"What did I do to deserve a sassy little brat like you in my life? I'm a good person!" Tony paused, "Mostly!"
"You try." Sasuke allowed. "Mostly when Pepper reminds you."
"You wound me." Tony said. "But anyway, back to the point. Do you actually know what's making the guys in your class hate you?"
"…I'm Rookie of the Year?" Sasuke hazarded. "And they want to fight the strongest person in the class to prove themselves?"
"Ah, the hated genius problem. Yeah, no, I had the same issue. Still, at least you're the same age as your potential teammates. You don't want to know how much it sucks when everyone you work with is ten years older than you and treats you like a kid that got in on money and daddy's reputation instead of legitimate skill." Tony laughed, though he clearly wasn't amused by the memory. "Your problem might actually have a solution."
"You think?" Sasuke frowned at the food he'd taken out. The rest would need two hands, minimum, once the frying pan finished heating up.
He shrugged and put the phone on speaker.
"Depends on how stubborn and/or desperate they are." Tony said. "You might be able to talk them around right away, and you also might have to put effort into building the team for weeks before seeing them start to soften up."
"And the girls?"
"I was always more than happy with the fangirls, but… if you do get one of the girls crushing on you put on your team, maybe tell her that you refuse to date until both you and your potential significant other are at a certain rank and you've worked together enough to be friends first?" Tony didn't sound nearly as sure as Sasuke hoped he would.
"So… basically force them to either give up or become better kunoichi?" Sasuke asked. That didn't sound too bad.
"You could say that you know people are after your eyes, so you want any girl you date to be capable of defending herself and her children should you eventually get married and have kids." Tony suggested. "Or something like that."
"It's a good starting place." Sasuke said, by now in the middle of frying a pair of eggs. "I can't immediately think of a way for it to backfire."
"I can." Tony said brightly. "But only in dark, dark ways that I don't want you thinking about."
Sasuke snorted. "Right."
o.o.o.o.o
February 18, 2008
1:12 PM
Konohagakure
The teams had been announced a little after eight that morning.
Sasuke and his new team ended up waiting for their teacher for about five hours.
(He really hoped this wasn't an indicator of future behavior, but honestly, it probably was.)
Sasuke had thought about declaring his supposed new rules for dating when he was stuck with Sakura in a room for several hours, mostly alone, but had decided to wait.
Or chickened out. Either-or, really. There was something almost predatory about the girl, when he looked past the sweet, giggly surface. Like a really cute dinosaur. The pink hair was camouflage, a distraction meant to make you underestimate the ruthless creature beneath.
Probably, anyway.
He wasn't sure if he was wary of her suddenly treating him like Naruto, or if he just didn't want to deal with her crying. He'd had more than enough of weepy women (and men, and children of various genders) while visiting the Xavier Institute. Granted, crying there was more often caused by intolerant relatives or bad grades than anything else, but there was still more crying there than in Konoha's Ninja Academy. They were civilians, though. They were more likely to cry in general.
Sasuke kind of just… settled in and tried to ignore Sakura and Naruto until their teacher showed up. For the first twenty or so minutes, he passed it off as trying to be professional, which had the advantage of being mostly true. After that, he'd spent too long being silent to break the quiet without it being awkward.
He pulled out the phone that Tony had given him about an hour in, a protoype of the next generation of Starkphone, trying to see what needed to be done to keep Apple from getting the majority market share like it seemed to be trying to do. Granted, Sasuke mostly just used things like the pedometer, music, some study aids, and JARVIS, but he could still report back on things like battery life and signal strength compared to older models.
(Tony had other people using the beta versions the "adult" apps, like the news and the stock tracker and the mobile banking stuff.)
It was honestly surprising that it took Naruto four hours to finally confront him about it in a way that didn't involve glaring from a distance and making passive aggressive comments that only netted him criticism from Sakura.
"Hey bastard, what are you working on?" Naruto was suddenly about three inches from Sasuke's face, expression somewhere between curious and aggressive. The mixture mostly just ended up looking a little constipated.
"Naruto! Stop being rude!" Sakura grabbed Naruto's shoulder and yanked him away with surprising strength, all things considered. Her actions were a bit hypocritical, considering how rude she often was, but not exactly unappreciated. Sasuke wasn't a fan of having people stick their faces into his personal space.
"Studying chemistry." He answered honestly. "My uncle said that even if I'd graduated from the Ninja Academy, I still had to keep up with some civilian subjects."
"Eh? You still have to study?" Naruto looked like he'd bitten into a lemon. "That sucks."
Sasuke shrugged. "It's not that bad. I've actually been allowed to start experimenting a little with the electrical engineering recently."
Naruto blinked. "What's that?"
"…a science thing." Sasuke said after struggling for a few seconds to actually explain. "Using electricity to make things like lightbulbs and computers work."
"Oh. Why didn't you just say that?" Naruto made a face.
"Because saying 'electrical engineering' is quicker?" Sasuke shrugged, feeling a little helpless.
"You have an uncle?" Sakura interrupted, probably feeling left out of the conversation. She blushed and looked away when he turned towards her. "You don't talk about your family much, and the only adult we ever really see you with is that lady with the darker skin, and she disappeared last year…"
"Ms. Darkholme. She was my caretaker whenever I was in Konoha." Sasuke made a face. "My parents died when I was seven, and my uncle doesn't live in Fire Country, so there were arrangements."
"What about the rest of your clan? Couldn't they take you in since your uncle was so far away?" Sakura asked.
Sasuke stared at her.
He turned to look at Naruto, who seemed just as expectant.
He blinked, and then couldn't help but ask, "Are you seriously telling me you never heard about the Uchiha Massacre?"
Two shaking heads now, with Sakura seeming a bit taken aback, while Naruto just seemed confused.
"Okay. That's… not exactly fine, but I guess you were young enough to forget since it didn't directly affect you." He wondered, for a moment, how many of the others in class had no memory of the massacre. A few of the clan kids certainly remembered, but if even Sakura didn't know… "When I was seven years old, my older brother killed the entire Uchiha clan, save for me. I'm not sure why he left me alive. My uncle survived because he doesn't live in the Hidden Nations, and he's only a quarter Uchiha anyway. He's, technically, my mother's cousin."
Sakura's face was stuck in a parody of horror. Sasuke shifted away in case she decided it was time to try comforting him or something; he'd grown used to physical contact from some people, but his classmates were not among that count.
Naruto frowned for a few seconds before saying, "That's kind of fucked up."
"Naruto!" Sakura screeched, a high-pitched noise that made Sasuke want to cringe.
She's smart and relatively competent, but that attitude…
He'd deal.
"What? It is! Who the hell just kills their family like that? Who just…" Naruto gestured wildly with his arms, almost smacking Sasuke in the face. "Throws all of that away?"
Sasuke abruptly remembered that Naruto was an orphan too, and had been for much longer, with far fewer resources.
He should probably have addressed that.
…Nope.
"Well, apparently, my older brother." Sasuke said as blandly as he could manage, catching one of Naruto's flailing arms and shoving it away from him. Naruto, of course, ended up absorbing the momentum in such a way that he fell off the desk he'd been perching on with a squawk.
Sakura squeaked as she scrambled away, and Sasuke looked back down at his Starkphone and hoped he could go back to studying, instead of engaging in awkward conversations about subjects he really didn't want to talk about.
Neither of them bothered him, thankfully, until their teacher showed up. By that point, granted, Sasuke was almost wishing someone would start asking uncomfortable questions again, if only to assuage the boredom.
"Maa," the man said, acting as though there wasn't chalk dust all through his hair. "My first impression is… I don't like you. Meet me on the roof."
Sasuke felt a few choice insults run through his head, and resolutely did not say any of them.
o.o.o.o.o
February 18, 2008
1:17 PM
Konohagakure
Kakashi eyed his students.
They watched him back, visibly nervous.
Well, genin were genin for a reason. They'd lose that anxiety eventually. Sasuke had probably lost most of the battle-related anxiety already, at least.
"So!" Kakashi clapped his hands together and smiled at them. "Let's all introduce ourselves! You know, name, hobbies, likes, dislikes, dreams, that sort of thing."
The three glanced at each other, and tiny little Sakura suggested he go first, to show them how he wanted it done.
Obviously, he did it in the least helpful way possible, because that was fun. Also because it would hopefully get them to maybe do some independent research and practice their information gathering, but that was a long shot.
Sakura and Naruto introduced themselves about the way he expected them to, with gushing odes to Sasuke and ramen respectively. Sasuke himself seemed a little disturbed by Sakura's barely restrained commentary and Naruto's declaration of dislike, but they could work on that.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like…" he frowned and seemed to think on that, "tomatoes and visiting the friends I've made in America, and my uncle and some of the people he's close to. I dislike… sweets, betrayals, and the Church of Humanity."
Kakashi had no idea what the last thing Sasuke said was; he didn't speak English all that well. He'd have to ask later.
"I don't know if I'd call it a hobby, but I study a lot of science, because it's important to my uncle. And I guess watching science fiction shows to practice my English while I'm in Konoha is a hobby. As for dreams… to get some revenge for the Uchiha Massacre, I suppose, and reestablish my clan."
That was much more stable-sounding than most massacre survivors came off as. He'd had a few years to get better, though. And a number of years of therapy, going by his file.
"Well, now I know that we can sign up as possible volunteers for missions to the world outside the Hidden Nations!" Kakashi clapped his hands, waited for their faces to brighten, aaaaand, "Assuming you pass, of course."
And there came the dismay. Ah, what a lovely sound.
