Disclaimer: I Don't Own This
Ch. 7
Namikaze Kushina formerly Uzumaki cackled rather evilly. She'd always vaguely known that the Sharingan could only be activated in extreme life or death situations, but she'd just today had it confirmed by Mikoto during their weekly tea. Mikoto had seemed alarmed by Kushina's interest and told her rather firmly that, no the Uchiha would not appreciate a prank that scared the living day lights out of them even if it allowed them to activate their eyes.
Well, Mikoto wouldn't appreciate it. The other Uchiha might, but only after they destroyed Kushina. No one was allowed to prank them. After extricating a promise from Kushina that she wouldn't prank the Uchiha, though Kushina continued to cackle evilly, which was rather disturbing to Mikoto, Mikoto sent her on her way. As she watched the red head leave she wondered if they should increase security. But Kushina had promised, and if there was one thing Kushina was known for it was never breaking her word.
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Summer was rapidly ending Sasuke noted as he lounged on a tree and watched once again blondie and pinkie fight to the death. Since summer was going to be over soon they had decided to do a tournament. It was taijutsu only and this was the semifinals. It wasn't that shocking that the two had made it this far. Ino had gone against Shikamaru who had taken one look at her and forfeited.
This had of course led to Ino chasing him around the training ground trying to beat him up screaming something along the lines, "Come back here you baka! How dare you forfeit! It was just because you didn't want to fight a girl, wasn't it? Stop running, you lazy ass!"
No one had been stupid enough to try to stop the enraged girl. Somehow Shikamaru had managed to evade her. Shikamaru had then hidden behind Chouji and it had been up to Chouji to calm the enraged girl. It hadn't worked to well.
Ino instead yelled at him, "Move it fatass! I'm going to destroy that stupid baka!"
It hadn't ended well for Ino. By the time she was called up again to fight Hibachi she was spitting mad and completely destroyed the kid with one punch. Sasuke still wasn't sure why Hibachi was allowed into the meetings, but since he'd been humiliated by Ino it wasn't a huge deal.
Sakura, on the other hand, had fought Kota. Kota had put up a decent fight, but Ino had already won her first fight and there was no way Sakura was going to be left behind. Her next fight had been against Ami which hadn't been much of a fight. Instead they'd spent most of the fight talking.
"I'm going to beat you so badly, you have no idea," Sakura had taunted. Ami had merely smirked back at her not in the least bit bothered by the girl's words. Instead she answered them with her own taunt.
"Still need to make up for you gigantic forehead, huh, forehead girl? What's your name again? I can't even remember. I just get so distracted by your forehead," she answered. It looked like they were about to break into a vicious fight. Sasuke had frowned. Most of what Ami said was true, but Sakura really didn't have that big of a forehead.
Sakura had noticed as well and angrily told Ami, "My forehead isn't that big! Why do you always insult it?"
For a moment Ami had seemed shocked. She didn't seem to know how to respond. Why did she make fun of Sakura's forehead in the first place?
"Duh! It doesn't have to do with your actual forehead, stupid. It's more to do with the fact, that you're all brain and no brawn. Or at least you used to be. I guess you've gotten a bit better since then," Ami sniffed. Sakura stared at Ami in shock. Had the girl just complimented her?
Ami, for her part, was pretty proud of herself. She'd made that all up on the fly. It wasn't really true. Back then it had just been a way of asserting herself at the top in front of Fuki and Kasumi. To do that you had to bring someone else down or at least that's what Ami had thought. That someone had been Sakura. She kind of felt bad for it now. Okay, she felt really bad for it now. Which was why she was going to fix it!
Sakura's world had just shifted on its axis. Her forehead really wasn't that big. Instead the moniker forehead had actually been a bit of a backwards compliment. She blinked at the hand Ami had stretched before her.
"Friends?" Ami asked. Sakura continued to stare at the hand in front of her before nodding and shaking it.
She smiled timidly at Ami before announcing, "Let's make this a good fight!" From Sasuke's point of view it had been a pretty good fight, though after Ami lost he was surprised she walked off still talking to Sakura like they were the best of friends. But then girls were weird like that. Ino's and Sakura's fight had been much the same with lots of talking and little action. It was probably a good thing Sakura won because Chouji had won the other semifinal round. He would've decimated Ino.
He'd still beaten down Sakura with his family's famous strength. But then again Chouji had really wanted the prize. It had been a meal at the all you can eat barbeque place down in the market district. Naruto had arranged for the prize and seemed pleased with how the tournament had turned out. He and Sasuke hadn't competed but had instead served as the referees. Sasuke hadn't really minded. It'd been a really hot day out he'd enjoyed lounging in the sun with Shikamaru and making Naruto do all the work.
After the tournament instead of heading out for dinner like they normally did, Ami headed off with Sakura and Ino to go do some girl thing and jauntily waved at Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto didn't seem the least bit perturbed and instead turned to Sasuke.
"Want to go out for dinner Sasuke? Ooh wait, my mom's cooking tonight! Let's go!" Naruto told Sasuke before dragging him off to his house. Sasuke glowered at Ami's back as he was dragged out of the training ground mumbling about evil best friends and blondes who had no idea of what personal space was.
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The next day Sasuke was woken up bright and early by someone pounding on his door. He groaned and attempted to go back to sleep, but the pounding on his door just got louder. He went to answer it in his pajamas only to find a grinning Ami standing outside his door. He stared at her for a moment before glaring.
"You woke me up!" He accused angrily. Ami didn't look the least bothered. She'd probably planned to wake him up anyways.
As Ami barged into his house she told him, "Oh relax! I brought tomatoes you know," she said as if that solved everything. It almost did. Tomatoes were his favorite food.
"Also" Ami leaned in as if sharing a great secret, "I didn't invite Naruto" Sasuke stared at her for a moment before sighing.
"I suppose you're forgiven," he told Ami who was already raiding his kitchen for food. He frowned at her. How come Ami always barged into his house like she owned it? It just wasn't fair. Sasuke had never even been to Ami's house. He had a rough idea of where she lived since it was pretty nearby, but she'd never even invited him over.
As Ami dragged him to the library to explore some conspiracy or other of hers, after all, summer was almost over, he brought up his doubts about never being invited over.
Ami looked surprised and then a little unhappy as if she didn't really want to discuss it, "Well, whenever I bring you up my mom always… I don't know! It's just like she doesn't want me to be friends with you! Okay? So, I just can't invite you over. It's not because I don't like you or anything! I really don't know." here she looked at Sasuke suspiciously, "Your parents didn't do something bad did they? Because I know my mom's not the only one who gives you looks. In fact, whenever I'm with you I've seen older people look at you funny! What'd you do?" Ami asked. Sasuke just shrugged. He didn't know! Ami's eyes it up with that familiar spark and Sasuke groaned.
He knew what she was going to say right before she said it, "It's a conspiracy!" and with that Ami began to pull him in earnest much like a certain blond towards the library.
While Ami busied herself with trying to solve the conspiracy around Sasuke, Sasuke, who had rather pointedly told her he wasn't getting involved, looked into something that had been bugging him since the clan versus clanless debacle at school. It was a little difficult to find as the librarian wasn't very helpful, but eventually he found the list of genin who passed the academy and then their jounins second test. That was surprising to Sasuke. He hadn't known there was a second test to be genin. But as Sasuke stared at the list he felt himself go numb. No way! No way this was true! It couldn't be!
Ami noticed Sasuke's almost catatonic state and stared at him for a moment wondering what was wrong. She went to stand behind him and read what he was reading. For a moment she didn't understand. It was just a list of names, after all. But after a while the meaning of it all began to sink in.
"No way! No way! That's not possible! There is no way that's true! It's lying! It's got to be lying." Ami told Sasuke. Sasuke looked at her for a moment and then back at the sheet he was holding.
He shook his head before saying, "Where ninja. This is what we do. What happens to students who don't pass the genin test?" They both know which genin test he's talking about. The jounin one, the real one.
"They go to the reserve ninja corps. They're cannon fodder. A few might become something or get to join anbu, but most just die, a complete and total unglamorous death. My dad was one of them, you know? He died fighting the Kyuubi as cannon fodder. I swore I wouldn't go there. But I guess that doesn't matter does it? All ninja who don't have the contacts or aren't from amazing ninja families go there" Ami said bitterly. Sasuke frowned and looked at the list for contradictions. He blinked at one year.
"That's not true. Look at this year! It's almost all civilian ninja. None of them are from clans!" Sasuke told Ami. Ami looked at the year and then took out a piece of paper and began writing down the people in their year.
She ignored Sasuke as she circled eight names on her sheet before announcing, "There are nine ninja who are passed into the elites each year. They are given the best jounin senseis and the best chance to eventually advance to jounin themselves. They are the elites. I always thought they just took the top nine, but that's not true. Based on your list clan kids and people with connections are given priority. If you apply that to our year then there is only one open spot for a civilian ninja to get into the elites and nineteen civilians competing for that spot. However, if they follow their normal pattern then it has to be female which leaves seven civilian females competing for that one spot. If they take the highest scoring civilian female, then it's Sakura. Shit! There's no way I can beat her! Even yesterday proved that!"
Ami then circled Sakura's name on the list. Sasuke frowned. Did this mean he didn't even have the slightest chance at the elites? If they only had one spot and it was a female spot then where did that leave him? He glanced down at the list again and frowned. His name was circled.
He glanced at Ami before asking curiously, "Why's my name circled? I'm not from a clan and I don't have amazing connections either." Ami stared at him for a moment like he was stupid. Sasuke stared back angrily. Ami was still pissed off from learning that her lifelong goal of getting into the elites was pretty much impossible and Sasuke was going to have it handed to him no matter what he did! And he was too stupid to even realize why. It was probably what caused her to snap at him.
"Are you stupid? I'm Sasuke and I don't have any amazing connections at all! No one notices me and I have to train myself! My life sucks, just because some people don't really like me! It's not like an Anbu taught me an elemental jutsu or whenever I want I can go to the Hokage to complain about my problems. Get real, Sasuke! How many people have ever actually spoken to the Hokage? And yet you treat him like he's practically your grandfather! He takes you out to eat on your birthday for kami's sake! No amazing connections my ass. I'd trade spots with you for anything!" Ami ranted.
Sasuke stared at her completely shocked and bowled over. While he had never admitted how strange his relationship with the Hokage was it wasn't like he was given special privileges because of it. Why the hell would she want to switch spots with him?
He glared at Ami, "Are you crazy? Have you seen how much everyone hates me? Hell, you pointed it out today! Even your mom doesn't like me! I'd give anything to have a loving parent like you do! But no, you're too busy freaking out about the fact that your family doesn't offer you privileges to appreciate them. The Hokage only looks after me because there's no one else to do it and because no one else wants to bother! You act like it's all just going to be handed to me! It's not. I still have to work just as hard as everyone else to get my spot!"
With that Sasuke got up and left, but he still heard Ami yell, "That paper of yours said otherwise!" There was a grain of truth to her words and perhaps Sasuke was technically going to be handed a spot, but he was still angry at the idea that Ami would be willing to switch spots with him just to get his connections to the Hokage. Didn't she understand how hard it was for him to endure the indifference and sometimes hatred of the villagers? He'd give anything to have a family who loved him. Even give up being a ninja!
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Kushina followed the black headed boy who she was pretty sure by now had to be an Uchiha. After all, who else could glare like that? The boy had left the library in a rather foul mood and was currently stalking around town a cloud of anger surrounding him. Passer byers gave him a wide berth. He headed towards the abandoned training ground he always went to when in the mood to skulk and Kushina grinned. Woo hoo! Her plan was working! She'd covered the area in traps a while ago, but the boy hadn't been here alone in a while. Now was her chance. As the boy settled in pacing and muttering and complaining to the sky Kushina closed her eyes before releasing a burst of chakra.
Sasuke leapt to his feet as the ground around him exploded. He immediately jumped behind the largest tree he could find for protection wondering what the hell was going on. For a moment, as he hid behind the tree his heart pounding in fear, he thought the explosions were over.
But then the tree itself exploded. Sasuke was thrown back and he threw a hand down to the ground to break his fall before falling into the academy roll meant to stop damage from occurring. As Sasuke popped back up a barrage of shuriken came flying towards him. Without thinking he dropped to the ground as they passed above him. He then, using the underbrush for cover, attempted to reach the cop of trees to the west of him to gain cover.
However, before he could reach them he tripped over what he assumed was concealed ninja wire. Cursing slightly the ground around him began to explode. Thinking fast he performed the trick Naruto had been nice enough to attempt to teach to the class, kawarmi. Sasuke had never mastered it, but in a do or die situation that wasn't important. As he switched out with a twig from a tree he watched frozen from the branch of the tree he was concealed on as a figure dressed all in black walked out of the smoke from the explosion.
"Come out! Come out wherever you are!" the figure taunted. Sasuke tried desperately to control his breathing. This wasn't some horrible training accident! Someone was attempting to kill him! He was going to die. Sasuke could feel himself beginning to panic. He didn't want to die! He needed to say sorry to Ami or tell Naruto that they were actually friends before he died. He hadn't watched clouds with Shikamaru yet, or gone out for barbeque with Chouji. There was so much he still had to do. He didn't want to die!
With a new found resolve and courage Sasuke began to think. He needed a plan. There was no way he was going to die just yet! As the figure began approaching Sasuke began forming seals. While the grand fireball technique probably wouldn't kill the assailant it would give Sasuke the time he needed. He poured as much of his chakra into the technique as possible and blew the fire out. Sasuke felt his lips burn slightly but he ignored it. He used the cover of the fire to stealthily go onto the field where he collected the discarded ninja wire and shuriken. He scanned the area for other supplies before disappearing back into the shadows.
"Not bad brat!" the voice called with a laugh. The unspoken, but not good enough, was clearly heard by Sasuke, but he didn't care. Yakumi-sensei had always praised Sasuke's creative use of ninja wire. It was time to put that skill into practice to create the ultimate trap. Sasuke quickly pooled the ninja wire around the trees setting up kunai in certain areas to push the black clad figure into an open clearing. From there Sasuke would destroy them with fire. They wouldn't have anything to kawarmi with.
First, though, Sasuke had to get the figure to fall into the trap. Sasuke attempted to create a bunshin, but the attempt failed as always. Sasuke swore. He'd wanted to use it as the bait, but he'd just have to use himself. Sasuke's taijutsu was pretty good, but he was taking a big risk. He attempted to approach the figure as stealthily as possible before running to throw a hit. It was immediately blocked and the figure laughed at him.
Sasuke jumped backwards his eyes wide in shock. The figure leapt forward towards him a foot coming towards his face. Sasuke barely had time to block. Damn it! Instead of him pushing the figure towards his trap the figure was pushing him back. As the figure approached their foot came forward again, but this time Sasuke was ready to block. He miscalculated. The foot was just a feint and Sasuke found himself held in a grapple hold around his throat. Sasuke couldn't breathe!
"You're going to die now, brat" the figure told him. Sasuke's vision was getting blurry and the world was starting to fade in and out of focus. I'm going to die was his only thought. He was going to miss all his friends and he'd never get to be a ninja. He wondered vaguely if they'd miss him.
As Sasuke succumbed to death a voice howled within, "Don't you dare die you brat!" Suddenly energy was shooting through Sasuke. His hands grew claws and he ripped the hands choking him off his neck. With a flurry of energy he propelled himself forward attacking like a feral beast. The figure stared at him in slight horror and stumbled backwards. Turning to flee the figure fell right into Sasuke's trap. As the figure tried to kawarmi the hell out of there they used the log Sasuke had set. The trip wire was set off and kunai exploded out of the forest. The figure escaped into the empty clearing, where Sasuke after seeing his trap go off had escaped to. The figure was wrapped in ninja wire from entering the clearing and Sasuke's trap. Sasuke sent a fireball directly at the figure. It made contact. However, before Sasuke could celebrate his victory the figure disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Sasuke was left alone in the empty clearing staring at the spot where the person had been in shock. All the energy from the battle deserted him and he fainted from exhaustion.
Kushina watched the boy from above the trees. He'd been pretty impressive. Didn't academy students not learn kawarmi until later? She was pretty sure academy brats only learned how to access their chakra and some chakra control exercises in the first year. So how had he done it? It was a question to puzzle out later because the moment of truth had already passed.
He wasn't an Uchiha. His eyes had never activated even when he'd been an inch from death. Instead he'd accessed the fox's chakra. His eyes had turned red, but not the red of the sharingan. Was that supposed to happen? Did he know about the fox? It raised some disturbing questions that she'd have to report to the Hokage. For now, though, she just had to watch the brat. She'd gotten the Hokage to assign her to watch the brat like the Anbu did. It wouldn't have been a good thing if one of the Anbu had interrupted her fight with the boy, after all. Her watch was supposed to end in about an hour. For now, she'd just sit back and relax. The kid was sleeping, after all.
An hour later when the Anbu Cat came to replace her the kid was still sleeping. It was getting a bit worrisome at this point for Kushina. But she was leaving now! It was officially the other Anbus problem! It's not like she'd done anything to cause his problem, right?
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Namikaze Naruto was in a bad mood. He hadn't seen his ka-san all day and Sasuke hadn't shown up to training today! It was one of the last days, too! How dare Sasuke not show up! Ami had begrudgingly admitted that it was probably her fault the other boy hadn't shown up.
"Huh? Did you tell him not to show up?" the confused blond asked. Ami looked embarrassed and glowered at Naruto.
"Of course not, stupid! We just got into a fight is all," Ami admitted. Naruto being Naruto immediately wanted to know all about the supposed fight.
After hearing about who became ninja and who didn't, Naruto's eyes widened before he declared, "Really? I didn't know that! But it's wrong! The best should be ninja. Your family and connections shouldn't matter! I'm going to talk to the old man about this!" Ami was pretty shocked, but she wasn't stupid. She didn't think Naruto would be able to get anything changed. That meant if she wanted to be an elite she'd have to beat out Sakura! Well, at least she had a new goal. And she'd make Sasuke help her with it even if it meant she had to apologize to the boy! She was going to be an elite, believe it!
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When Sasuke woke up in a hospital room he knew something was wrong. There were people all around his bed. What the hell?
Naruto was the first to speak, "Sasuke! You're awake! How'd you get chakra exhaustion, huh? Were you practicing some awesome jutsu?" Naruto's eyes were wide, but Sasuke frowned at him.
Chakra exhaustion? Slowly the memories came back. Someone had tried to kill him and he'd… he'd tapped into some weird power. His chakra had been red! But chakra was blue. The only chakra that had ever been red… the nine tailed fox! What did this mean? He'd have to ask the old man.
After Naruto spoke it was like the dam had been removed. Everyone wanted to say something. Practically everyone from the training session was there. Sakura was explaining to Kota and Ino, who was pretending she already knew, what chakra exhaustion was. Fuki and Hibachi looked uncertain as if they weren't positive they were invited while Kiba was telling anyone who would listen that Sasuke was holding back on them and wasn't teaching them everything he knew. Shino and Shikamaru were talking quietly to each other while Chouji bemoaned the fact that the hospital wouldn't let him bring his chips inside. Ami stood to the side staring at him.
When everyone but Naruto had trooped out she said softly, "They say if you're not careful you can die from chakra exhaustion. The doctor said your coils were all burnt up. They've healed now, but you could've died! And then… then I never would have been able to say sorry! You would've died and our argument would've never been resolved. I'm sorry Sasuke!" Sasuke stared at her a moment before grinning.
"Yah, me too! I'm sorry. And you know what? I'll help you as much as I can! There's no way you won't get into the elites!" Sasuke told Ami. As the group settled down and played cards and games Sasuke felt pretty content. Sure, someone had tried to kill him, and they were still out there, but he had his friends to protect him. Because they weren't just the Namikaze's friends they were his as well.
That left a bit of a problem for Sasuke. His largest goal had always been to be acknowledged, but that'd already happened. So what did he do now? As Ami and Naruto fought over whether or not the other had cheated during the game of cards Sasuke glanced at them. He'd been attacked and almost killed. He needed to get stronger. So, being an awesome ninja was still part of the plan. But, Sasuke didn't want to be completely absorbed in training like he had been at the beginning of the year. What would be the point of life if you didn't live it?
So he needed a second goal! Sasuke grinned! He'd fix the clan versus clanless program! Ninja life should be based on who was the best. The uppers sabotaging the clanless had to stop. And Sasuke already knew his first step. While he couldn't touch the program politically right now he could try to level the playing field for non clan students. The summer program was definitely one of the best levelers out there. So, he'd just have to continue it!
"Hey. Naruto! I think we should run the summer program next year, too! We should invite all the years even the years younger than us! You know level the clan and clanless playing field!" Sasuke told Naruto.
Naruto blinked at him for a moment before nodding seriously and saying, "I'll work on the political front! Civilian students should be given the top jounins just like clan kids. Otherwise it's just a waste of talent! Don't worry I'll raise awareness about it in the clan world and convince the old man and his crusty advisors, too!" Ami grinned at them.
"So operation level the playing field is a go? What should I do?" Ami asked. Naruto and Sasuke glanced at her and grinned.
Sasuke asked, "Your grandpa's on the civilian council because he's a big merchant, right? So, you just have to raise awareness and outrage about the ninja system over there and we'll get what we want! In peace times the civilian council has a lot of power and clout. If you convinced them the ninja system was unfair to civilians they'd raise a lot of fanfare. Then the Hokage and the clan people who Naruto's already been working with will have to change the system!"
"Yah! And if they try to argue that clan kids are better than non clan kids it won't work! Because Sasuke will be running the summer program and making sure all the clanless kids are just as good as the clan kids even without all the extra special training clan kids get," Naruto put in.
Sasuke grinned. Life was good. So, someone had tried to kill him? He'd just get stronger! There was no way anyone was going to stop him. He, Ami, and Naruto were going to take on the world. Believe it!
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Uchiha Fugaku looked at the scroll he carried. It contained various ninjutsu, genjutsu, and even kinjutsu. In the wrong hands it could be deadly. Besides that it carried basic chakra control exercises and other basic academy skills. Fugaku thought it would be perfect for his son Sasuke. It would definitely be the leg up Sasuke needed to usurp the Namikaze's position in the class. It wasn't the ideal, but it was better than nothing. Hopefully it would help make up for the fact that Sasuke would never access his Sharingan.
The problem had been dealt with when Kushina had forced Jiraiya back into town to look after Naruto, so she could escape to god knows where. The Sandaime had immediately enlisted Jiraiya's help in sealing Sasuke's sharingan eyes. Even if they wanted to they could never develop unless the seal was removed. Jiraiya had been sworn to secrecy, but Fugaku still would have rather the man not known. As he dropped the scroll into Sasuke's apartment Fugaku was tempted to take a look around, but he quickly stifled the urge. The boy was meant to be clanless for a reason, and Fugaku could never claim him.