Disclaimer: I guess I don't own this. Sucks, right?

Ch. 12

Sasuke had to admit that upon returning to the village he'd half expected to be ambushed by a frantic Ami and Naruto. They'd been extremely jealous when he'd told them that he was going on a C rank mission outside of the village. With Kakashi as their sensei, Ami had fretted that they'd never get to leave the village and they'd have to live vicariously through Sasuke. Sasuke didn't really believe that of course, but he was used to Naruto's dramatics and was horrified to think that Naruto had somehow infected Ami.

So, he'd expected an ambush of questions upon his return. He'd even prepared himself for it grudgingly. When his team along with "Tsunade" arrived at the gates and no one greeted them, Sasuke had to admit to being a little relieved. But after they'd debriefed and even been back in the village for long enough for everyone to know it, and Ami and Naruto still hadn't hunted him down, Sasuke began to worry a little. For Kami's sake, even Kiba, who disliked him, had tracked him down to hear how his C rank mission had gone. Where were Ami and Naruto?

It was a novel experience to try to hunt the two of them down. He was so used to them coming to him that he didn't really even know where to start. He thought about heading to Ami's house, but he'd never even been inside. He didn't want to have to face Ami's mother, who he had never actually met.

For a while Sasuke put off the inevitable by hunting for them through the training grounds. Besides almost being impaled by a crazy weapon girl on training ground nine, Sasuke had had no luck. Facing defeat he began to march slowly towards his doom— namely Namikaze Kushina.

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"He's late," Fuki irritably told Kota. She was leaning against a training post with her arms crossed and her mouth pierced in a straight line. Kota merely shrugged looking uncertain. Waiting at the training ground with just an annoyed Fuki was really unnerving. Every time her eyes narrowed he jumped a little, but Fuki was too annoyed to even notice or take pleasure from the fear she was inducing.

"Maybe he just forgot?" Kota finally questioned. The silence had become too much for him to handle. He wasn't sure he wanted Fuki's attention on him, but it had to be better than the silence that had threatened to strangle him.

Fuki's eyes narrowed even more and she angrily raked a hand through her auburn hair before muttering, "Forgot? Tsunade clearly told us to meet here for our new sensei. Is he trying to start off on a bad foot?"

She dissolved into angry mutterings and Kota just shrugged helplessly. He really wished Sasuke would get here. Where was the other boy? But more importantly who was their new sensei? After musing for a little on it Kota discovered he had little to no idea and turned to Fuki.

"So, who do you think it'll be?" Kota questioned as he played with his fingerless gloves. He'd gotten them during the trip to Suna. They looked a lot like Kanden's gloves a fact which disgusted both Sasuke and Fuki. But Kota liked them. Fuki's head swung around to stare at him at his question. Her muttering abruptly cut off and she looked confused.

Kota shrugged hesitantly before adding, "Our sensei, I mean. And if you say the snake lady I'll… I'll do something rash."

Coming from Kota the threat didn't really even register. Instead Fuki's eyebrows rose in amusement, before she stopped to seriously think about it.

"I don't really know. I guess we'll have to just wait and see," she finally intoned.

She was interrupted by a voice exclaiming enthusiastically, "That you will! But not for much longer!"

A young black haired man with short unkempt hair jumped out of one of the trees with a grin. He wore a faded Konoha forehead protector and seemed extremely pleased to be there. But that wasn't what drew Fuki's and even Kota's attention. They were drawn to his dark defined eyelashes which turned up at the end giving him an overall feminine look.

"Uchiha Shisui at your service," the girlish man claimed with a cheeky grin. Kota stared at him with his mouth hanging wide open, but it was Fuki who voiced what they were both thinking.

Staring at the Uchiha with a hard look she told him completely seriously, "You look like a girl."

The Uchiha blinked at them nonplussed as if he didn't quite comprehend. A short chuckle was heard from behind the man before it was abruptly cut off as the chuckler attempted to make it seem like a cough. For a moment the four people in the clearing remained in absolute silence staring at each other. Then Uchiha Shisui wheeled around to look at the chuckler and in an offended tone questioned, "You just laughed at me, didn't you Itachi?"

Fuki could finally see the chuckler who she was unsurprised to see was another Uchiha. This Uchiha, however, managed to avoid the feminine look that Uchiha Shisui had obtained, even though his hair was so long that he had put it in a pony tail. If questioned, Fuki would have sworn up and down that he was also wearing nail polish. However, she was distracted by Shisui's long drawn out rant.

"This is how you repay me?" the Uchiha questioned dramatically, "After I beg for you to come with, to help me out," here the Uchiha added a sniff for effect before continuing sadly, "My first genin team ever thinks I look like a girl and you laugh. You were supposed to be my moral support!"

And with a cry Uchiha Shisui ran off into the forest. The other Uchiha rolled his eyes and Fuki merely stared dumbfounded. Kota sighed before asking, "Should I track him down?"

The other Uchiha or Nails as Fuki dubbed him glanced down at the two genin with a look of shock as if he had just noticed their presence before shrugging.

"Probably not. He'll come back after he calms down. He gets like this sometimes- a bit of a drama queen. He insisted I come with him to meet his genin team to make sure it didn't go wrong," Nails told them in a bored tone. Fuki would have sworn though that a bit of amusement shone through.

"We might as well wait," Nails told them before sitting down on the grass to meditate.

Fuki blinked at him sitting on the ground with his pony tail whipping around in the air before asking with a certain amount of dread, "That's our jounin sensei?"

Nails with a look of amusement merely nodded his head in agreement. Fuki groaned before turning to look at Kota.

"Now I know why Sasuke ditched," she muttered. She then plopped down next to Nails and pretended to meditate as well.

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Sasuke was annoyed to say the least. Ami, Naruto, and even Hibachi had gotten to go on a C-rank mission all the way to Wave. Here he had spent days listening to them moan about how they would never leave the village and they were so jealous of Sasuke, and by the time he gets back they weren't even in the village. Figures, Sasuke thought morosely. As he trudged through the training grounds in a foul mood, he had the inane feeling that he was forgetting something. But what? Hmph. He didn't really know. But he was kind of hungry. Maybe he should go get something to eat? Udon noodle sounded pretty good right about now.

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Naruto rather liked his head where it was thank you very much. The idea of getting it cut off honestly didn't appeal to him all that much. But at the time it had seemed like such a good idea—really it had. When they'd been attacked by the demon brothers, Ami and Hibachi had seamlessly pulled off a group attack which was super awesome even if all Kakashi had done was lamely fake his own death. Naruto had guarded the client which while not an epic job, he could grudgingly accept was important. The fact that Ami and Hibachi had displayed perfect teamwork, Naruto understood, was an important step. It showed just how much their team had grown. So when Kakashi had offered their team a way out, Naruto had immediately turned it down.

He was cursing that decision now. This was Zabuza Momochi they were facing and they were totally screwed. They were going to die. He was going to die. He couldn't move. The client was going to die. He couldn't breathe. Why were they here? This was a mistake. Panic was overriding his senses.

Was this killing intent? Maybe I'm not meant to be a ninja, Naruto thought. He felt sick and light headed. Maybe I should just end it all, he questioned. I can't deal with this. Why won't he just kill me? Kakashi's assurances did nothing. Why couldn't he breathe? Why? Why? Why? Make it stop.

With shaking hands Naruto found himself reaching for a kunai. He needed to make it stop. It was only Ami's chilled hand on his that stopped him. He jerked and stared at her. Her eyes were just as wide and frightened as his own. Like him she seemed to be struggling to breathe. Her hand had curled in on itself and squeezed so tightly that she'd drawn blood. She stared into his eyes and asked, "What would Sasuke do?"

For a moment Naruto blinked at her and felt the strange desire to laugh. How was he supposed to know what Sasuke would do? All he knew was that Sasuke wouldn't sit on the ground cowering like a little baby.

Naruto blinked at that. Sasuke wouldn't cower. Sasuke wouldn't let something stupid like this intimidate him. Sasuke would come up with a plan. Sasuke would fight back. He could do that, too. He didn't need Sasuke. He could do all that just fine himself.

He turned to Ami and Hibachi with a solemn nod and calculating eyes.

"Alright. Here's the plan," he told them. Ami smirked at him and Hibachi's dark eyes glinted. There was no way they were going down here. Believe it.

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When Uchiha Shisui finally returned to the clearing two hours later demanding a public apology from Nails, Fuki was beyond annoyed. She was pissed. Sasuke still hadn't bothered to show up and they'd gotten another insane jounin for a sensei. In fact during their two hour wait, she'd been shocked to learn that Nails was a jounin.

"But you seem so normal! You can't possibly be a jounin or even a strong ninja! They're all insane," she argued. Nails had seemed amused by her argument before assuring her that he was indeed a jounin.

Fuki was not convinced and claimed, "But we have snake lady, crazy youth man, lazy ass, smoker, and even fake "Tsunade". You just don't fit!"

Seeing that Nails still did not seem convinced she shook Kota awake. He'd been staring at the fauna and had fallen asleep only thirty minutes in.

"Uuhhh? What? Where's the attack?" Kota panicked as he woke up. He sprung into action only to notice that he was still in the same clearing as before. Sheepishly he put the kunai back into his pocket before turning to Fuki.

"That was mean, you know," he told her with a pout, "I really thought something was wrong."

"Of course things are wrong! Just look at our jounin sensei," Fuki told him with dismay before continuing, "Nails claims he's a jounin, but that can't possibly be right because he's not insane enough."

At this Kota leaned forward to get a better look at Nails as if to assess him. He shrugged and with a yawn claimed, "Maybe he's just better at hiding it. Better question. If he is actually sane why can't he be our jounin sensei?"

Fuki blinked at Kota.

"Sometimes you are a genius," she told him in awe before turning to Nails and begging, "Be our jounin sensei please!"

Nails looked awkward before telling her, "I was offered, but I turned it down."

Kota and Fuki stared at him.

"What? Why?" Fuki asked. Kota just continued to stare at Nails with a look of utter betrayal.

Nails lip curved upwards in slight amusement before he began in a casual tone, "Well you know, they didn't want their most sane jounin corrupted by their most insane genin."

For a moment both genin stared at him in shock before Fuki told him, "I think I hate him right now."

Kota looked confused before asking, "Wow… Does he stalk us or something?"

"Nope… Just Sasuke." Nails told them in his same monotone.

Fuki did a face palm before turning to Kota and muttering, "I take it back. He's just as insane as the rest of them."

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Sasuke had wandered around Konoha trying to decide where he wanted to eat. Based on the beautiful weather he decided to eat his udon out at a noodle bar near the center of town. That way he could head into the shopping district after. Since he'd been on a mission he needed to restock his pantry. He was just finishing up his bowl of noodles when someone plopped down in the seat next to him. Sasuke didn't turn to look at the newcomer but continued to resolutely eat his noodles. But the man was not content to be ignored.

The man with a sniff turned to Sasuke and asked with a sob, "Do you think I look like a..a.a girl?"

Sasuke blinked and turned to look at the man, who indeed did look like a girl, before shaking his head. Sometimes honesty wasn't the best policy.

"Thank Kami!" the distraught man yelled before hugging Sasuke around the middle. Sasuke awkwardly pushed the black haired girlish man away from him and wondered if he should have told the man the truth. Perhaps then he would have avoided the man's hug.

"I'm Uchiha Shisui," the man introduced himself after ending his attack on Sasuke's person. Sasuke blinked at the man before nodding.

He supposed it was proper manners to introduce himself even he didn't really like this man and said, "I'm Sasuke"

"Sasuke," the man interrupted, "How strange! I have a Sasuke on my genin team. Oh crap! My genin team. I've got to go! See ya around Sasuke!" the man said with a giant wave before running off. It took Sasuke a while to process his words. Sasuke, a genin team, and have to go. Oh, wait. Sasuke's eyes widened and he quickly deposited his change on the table before running after the black haired man. Fuki was so going to kill him.

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When Sasuke arrived at the training ground he was unsurprised to see an angry Fuki glowering at him her brown eyes gleaming with hatred. In a show of childishness Sasuke stuck his tongue out at her and Kota dissolved into giggles which he quickly suppressed when Fuki's glare turned on him.

"Excellent," Uchiha Shisui interrupted, "We're all here. As you may be aware I'm Uchiha Shisui. I'll be your jounin sensei. Since you guys are such an unusual team and also my first genin team I've asked Uchiha Itachi to help me train you!" Shisui told them happily.

Sasuke blinked at the man in shock. All three genin were confused.

"Ummm… Weren't you just crying?" Sasuke asked carefully. Shisui smirked rather evilly and the other guy who was Uchiha Itachi seemed extremely amused.

With eyes gleaming madly Shisui told them, "You don't know my specialty, do you? That is where we will begin my little students. The art of deception."