I haven't had any reviews, so I don't really know what people think of this story. I will keep writing regardless of whether I get reviews or not, but it would be nice to know what people think. So if you have any comments (things you liked, things you didn't like, things I should improve, things I should change) please let me know what you think and review.

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

~White escapes all things~

~Exposing hidden fears~

~Run from blinding light~

As the night grew darker, lamps around the arena began lighting up, revealing the outcome of the fight.

"No way!" Kiba shouted upon seeing Naruto's unconscious form.

The light had been too dim in the last minutes of the match for anyone to see for more than a few feet, so he had thought for sure Naruto would win. No one ever escaped his poison dagger.

But, Sasuke had and was now crouching over an unconscious Naruto.

After standing up from over Naruto, Sasuke untied her robe and let it flow around her ankles once more. Slowly, she walked over to her audience. When she reached the small group of people outside the arena, she was met by four very different expressions.

Kakashi was cheerfully smug, being the one who taught her everything he knows. Iruka was passively congratulating, ever the proud teacher. Kiba was furiously seething, embarrassed by his loss.

The commander was unreadable.

Everyone remained as still and as quite as possible waiting for his reaction, even Kiba who obviously wanted to scream at Sasuke.

The night drew on as they all waited for the Commander to say something, anything. None of them wanted to be the first to break the silence.

…

"You'll be bunking with Naruto and Kiba," the old soldier finally said and without another word, started walking away.

"WHAT!?" Kiba yelled, expressing Sasuke's feelings perfectly.

The Commander stopped momentarily and looked over his shoulder at them. "There aren't any openings in the girl's cabins. Anyone who wants to be picky and proper doesn't belong in the Academy."

"Well," Kakashi began in his usual annoyingly cheerful voice, "I'll go get your bags. Hey, Iruka, can you show me the way. We'll get a medical team to pick up these two on the way."

"Of course, Kakashi," Iruka agreed. "Kiba, you can take Sasuke there ahead of us."

"But … but … she's a girl," Kiba whined.

"What a brilliant observation," Sasuke retorted, rolling her eyes.

"Are you going to disobey an order from the Commander?" Iruka asked, before they could start arguing again.

Kiba grumbled something similar to a "no" and with one last glare started walking away, motioning for Sasuke to follow him. With one last glance at Kakashi, who nodded his encouragement, she followed Kiba across the lawn.

"This should be fun," Kakashi chuckled once the two children were a little further away.

"Here it is," Kiba announced begrudgingly in front of the first cabin in a long row.

As the entered the Cabin, Sasuke could not help but be bothered by the fact that the entire cabin was only as big as her old bedroom in the Institute, but seemed to be meant for two people and included a washroom and kitchen.

And, the room was filthy. When Sasuke let a disgusted expression show on her face, Kiba grinned pleasantly and added to her discomfort by saying, "Don't worry. We clean every week. In fact, we just did a thorough cleaning yesterday."

Sasuke just glared.

"That's my bed on the left of the window, Naruto's on the right," Kiba continued unfazed. "Bathroom's through that door over through the door on the right and there's a small closet through that door on the left."

After his brief tour, Kiba strolled over to the kitchen area of the cabin just to the left of the entrance, grabbed some bread and meat, and moved to sit at the small dining table on the opposite side of the entrance.

Breathing out slowly to calm herself down, Sasuke walked even further into the Cabin. She rubbed her eyes and walked slowly over towards the bathroom to examine the mess. Deeming it acceptable, for now, she walked inside and slammed the door.

Finally alone, Sasuke let out a deep sigh. This was not going to be easy, but she would manage. Her first method of coping would be to clean this bathroom. With one last sigh and a rub of her temples, she left the bathroom to see Kiba wolfing down a sandwich.

She stood awkwardly outside the bathroom door until a knock on the cabin door announced Kakashi's arrival. Thankfully, that gave her a distraction from being along in the horrible room with a guy who currently hated her. Over the next hour or so, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Iruka tidied up the cabin to make room for Sasuke's belongings.

"Where's she gonna sleep?" Kiba asked from his bed, where he was currently mourning his new predicament.

"Well," Iruka began in thought, "I suppose she can sleep in Naruto's bed while he is in the infirmary and we will try to get an extra bed moved in here tomorrow."

"Why can't she just sleep on the floor?" he murmured. "Or even outside?"

Too tired to argue anymore, they all just choose to ignore him and finish unpacking. Finally, Sasuke got to the last thing on her agenda: changing the bedding.

As she began to carefully remove Naruto's bedding, disgust distorting her face, Sasuke saw Kiba jump from his bed and march over to her.

"You can't just take his bed," he shouted, grabbing onto Sasuke to stop her from touching his roommate's things.

"It is very easy for a healer to remove a person's hand," Sasuke said icily, staring at Kiba's hand around her wrist.

He quickly dropped her hand, not forgetting the damage she had just done to some of the Academy's best students.

"Don't get too full of yourself," he continued bravely. "We were just caught off guard by your new techniques."

"Yes," she continued with a smirk, "and if this were a real battle, you would be dead regardless."

"Well …"

"Just go to bed both of you!" Iruka demanded. "You both are expected to be in class tomorrow morning. Sasuke, classes are associated with your cabin. It makes it easier to keep track of the students. Just follow Kiba in the morning. And, Kiba, don't even think of trying to get out of it or your whole team will be punished."

Without any more arguing, Kiba trudged to bed. Sasuke finished changing the bedding on Naruto's bed and climbed carefully into it as if expecting it to attack her with disease.

'I'm here' Sasuke thought as she stared up at the wooden ceiling above her, so different from her old room of marble. 'One step closer.'

She knew this quest would take a long time, but this one accomplishment seemed like such a huge battle won. From here, if she did well, she was almost guaranteed a position in the Royal Soldiers. Judging by the fact that she had just bested three of the allegedly greatest students of the Academy, she felt confident in her chances of success here.

'I'm getting closer, mom.' With that thought inside her heart, she drifted off to sleep.

Cold.

That was Sasuke's first sensation of the day. Cold and wet was what she felt as she entered the waking world. But, why?

"You stupid mutt!" she yelled, realizing the source of her discomfort came from a bucket of cold water courtesy of Kiba. He stood over her, grinning widely.

"Sorry," he taunted, "but, we have to leave for class now."

"What?" She shot up alarmed. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

"Iruka only said I had to make sure you follow me. He never said anything about giving you time to get ready. We have to leave now or we'll be late."

"Fine," she growled, jumping out of bed.

"Hurry up. I don't think you should be late on your first day." He ran out the door just as Sasuke picked up one of her boots from the floor and threw it at him.

Hungry, dirty, cold, and wet Sasuke grabbed the boot still next to her bed and trudged through the filth of the cabin towards the door. At the door, she stopped to pick up her other boot. Slipping them on with a yawn and a sigh, Sasuke steeled herself for anything Kiba had in store for her.

Outside the cabin, she just barely caught sight of Kiba in the distance and had to run so as not to loose him. They walked through the rows of cabins for a while before stepping out onto a wide open field. To the left of the field stood a much larger building than the cabins. In the distance, Sasuke could see a huge mansion, which she assumed was the main offices of the Academy.

"This is the main base for our class," Kiba explained, though reluctantly, referring to the small building next to the field. "That big building there has the mess hall, the infirmary, and the mission office on the bottom floor and all the teacher's and the Commander's offices on the second floor. No one really knows what is on the top floors." Satisfied that he had done enough explaining to satisfy Iruka, Kiba walked into the building without a second glance at Sasuke.

Sasuke looked around the landscape once more before following Kiba into the building.

Inside, she noticed twenty or so people sitting on benches in front of tables that stood against the walls. There was a black board on the far wall and a small desk in front of it, obviously meant for Iruka. In the center of the room, a large blue matt covered most of the floor.

Everyone turned to stare at her as she entered. What a spectacle she was. Wearing a, now wet, white robe, when everyone else was wearing black long-sleeved shirts, pants, and boots. Her hair was knotting and curling up around her shoulders because it was wet and messy from sleep.

All she could do was stand there in front of the entrance doors. She did not really think about what she would be doing once she got into the Academy.

Naruto was the first to break the silence. "Hey, jerk, look what you did to me," he said, referring to the amusingly large white bandages on each of his cheeks.

"A fight is a fight," Sasuke replied glad to be able to focus on something besides the fool she was making of herself. "If you whine every time you get a scratch during a fight, I don't know how you made it so far in the Academy."

"I suppose not everyone cares about how they look," Naruto smirked eyeing Sasuke's disheveled appearance.

"Looks don't win a fight."

"That doesn't mean much coming from the girl who used her looks to win a fight."

"That doesn't mean much coming from the guy who fell for it."

By now, every person in that room was enthralled by all the new juicy gossip. Just because this school was to train soldiers, that did not mean it was not full of teenagers always hungry for drama. There had never been such great rumors as a top student being taken out by a spoiled rich lady, who also happened to be a lowly healer.

"So, you slept in my bed last night," he grinned. "I hope you liked it."

"I'm sure I must have gotten some sort of disease from last night."

"Hey, I'm clean!"

All the girls were practically drooling at the implications.

"I don't see how that is possible in the mud whole you call a room. Don't worry, we cleaned it up last night. Of course, we had to get rid of a lot of," she paused to walk up close to Naruto, "garbage."

"Don't touch my stuff!" He yelled, shoving her backwards.

"Hmm … you seemed to enjoy touching my … things, last night."

"Don't flatter yourself. I was disgusted, not happy."

"Are you sure? Well, maybe you have just spent too much time without any romantic interactions, if you've had any at all, that it's made you impotent."

"Why … you … I'm NOT impotent!!"

"How very good to know, Naruto," Iruka said, walking into the classroom from the back. "Sit down. Now. I will not have you bullying our new student. Sasuke won the match fair and within the bounds of the rules. Rather than complain, you should train harder."

"Yes, Iruka sir," Naruto replied with as much self control as years of the Academy had instilled in him, though all he wanted to do was cut up Sasuke's face in revenge.

As Naruto moved from in front of Sasuke, Iruka was able to see the state Sasuke was in. "What happened to you?" he asked in shock.

" … Nothing," she said after contemplating the consequences of telling the truth, "When I woke up, I went to wash my face, but I had some trouble with the sink and did not have time to clean up before coming to class."

She had to remind herself that she was not here to get along with nor fight with any of the other students. She had a mission to complete and she was not going to let any teenage drama distract her from her goals.

"Well, after classes, please have Naruto show you how to use their bathroom correctly," Iruka chided, not fully believing her excuse. "Please take a seat next to Naruto."

"What!?" Naruto yelled, jumping up from his seat.

"The Commander himself ordered you and Sasuke to be training partners for the remainder of your time here," Iruka explained sternly.

"What about Gaara?" Naruto continued adamantly.

"He will be assigned to train with his brother, Kankuro," Iruka answered patiently. "The Commander has worked out all of the details, Naruto, and if you do not wish to get punished, you will do as he wishes. Gaara, please move over and make room for Sasuke."

Naruto wanted to argue more, but could not think of anything to say that could change his situation. So, with one last glare at Sasuke, he sat down on the bench, which was now without Gaara. He glanced over apologetically at Gaara before turning his full attention on Iruka.

"Go sit down, Sasuke," Iruka commanded gently.

Reluctantly, she went to sit down next to Naruto, leaving as much room as possible between them without falling off the bench.

"As I'm sure you all know by now through gossip, this is Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka introduced. "She will be a part of this class from now on. She has earned her spot just like the rest of you, so I expect you to treat her the same as any other classmate."

"This is not over," Naruto whispered as Iruka began lecturing about some subject or another.

Though not particularly interested in the lesson, Sasuke did not bother to respond to Naruto. The lesson progressed slowly, giving Sasuke plenty of time to process just how much her life had changed in the last few days. Before, her ideas for the future where just dreams, but now, she could see hope.

She would not let some mangy muscled cat or dog get in her way.

After a lecture that dragged on for hours about something no one really paid attention to (knowing the terrain in battle, Sasuke noted), Iruka ordered them all out of their seats to stand around the matt in the center of the classroom.

"We will now practice sparring," Iruka began, a lecture bubbling under the surface. "It is a fighters most basic skill. One can not always rely on magic or weapons. Magic may take time you do not have and weapons can be lost. A fighter must never put any techniques above the training of his … or her ... natural physical abilities.

"We will begin a series of two on two matches. You and your partner will be fighting another team. Teamwork is another skill a fighter must posses. Without it, there is no point of even being at this Academy because you will never even get work as a bodyguard.

"Sasuke. Naruto. Why don't we work on your teamwork?"

They both glared heatedly at the other.

Iruka sighed in frustration. "You can fight … Zabuza and Haku."

'Please don't kill each other.' Iruka prayed as all four people walked into the ring.

'I will not kill Sasuke.' Naruto gritted his teeth.

'I have to prove myself.' Sasuke thought as she looked around to all the black clad bodies.

~Black surrounds all things~

~Hiding faults within the soul~

~Rest in calming shade~

~*A*N*G*E*L*~