Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter One
Sasuke woke up early graduation day partially because he was impatient and partially because of his mother, who was home today from working and banging around in the kitchen. Sasuke dressed quickly; he had an appointment before his test that he couldn't neglect..
Mikoto was home, and he could hear her downstairs, cooking something. The stove was groaning as she pushed it; they really needed to replace it. He went down the stairs easily, his feet hitting the steps in a rhythm of sorts, a rhythm honed from years of descending and ascending journeys.
Mikoto was waiting for him, as he had expected. "Hello, Sasuke," she greeted him softly. "Are you hungry?"
He wasn't, actually, but he accepted her offer anyway. "Thank you."
"Today's the day, eh?" Mikoto said conversationally. Sasuke nodded. That did not perturb Mikoto; she was used to her son's taciturn nature. "Are you ready?"
"Yes," he answered swiftly. Finally, he added wordlessly. Once he passed his graduation exam (and he would pass; there was nothing on this test that he didn't know by heart) he would leave the academy and its overcrowded, far too simple classes behind and be able to work towards chunin status. He would have the chance to achieve higher level jutsus and more powerful techniques. This was a day he had anticipated greatly for years, and he was eager for it to begin. Naturally, Sasuke wouldn't say he was excited. "Do you have work today?"
Mikoto smiled and shook her head. "No, I don't. Hiro gave me the day off."
How charitable of him. Sasuke kept any potential sarcastic remarks back with another forkful of food. Chewing slowly, he let it melt in his mouth. He would miss this when he was on missions; the two of them eating together, no interruptions, just calm quietness. But it was a price all ninja had to pay.
Despite the calm, comfortable nature of his home and the earliness of the hour, Sasuke left early. He knew his mother understood. She kissed him on the way out, and he didn't resist.
The memorial stone was deserted; no unwelcome visitors. Occasionally a visitor would stop by at this time, but such an event was rare. Shinobi who came to visit dead relatives, lovers, and friends wanted solitude, and most of them were careful to respect the wishes of others. There was an unspoken schedule that Sasuke had effortlessly slipped into when he started visiting regularly several years ago.
Sasuke walked up to the stone and gently let his hand fall on it. Respectfully he touched each name, his fingers automatically finding his relatives, men and women he had heard of but never known. Uchiha Yashiro, Uchiha Kei, Uchiha Kanaye, UchihaYakumi; the list was far too long. As always he saved his father's name for last.
Uchiha Fugaku. His hand stopped. He spared a moment of reverence for his father as the sun rose higher over the plane. It felt right to stay for a minute.
Voices carried up to him from the road nearby, stemming from children on their way to the Academy. Time for the graduation exam.
Sasuke had found that the key to avoiding the annoying girls who persisting on tormenting him was to arrive just before class began. There was always a seat open beside one of the loners of the class. Generally, these people didn't bother him, and he always had a buffer between him and the rabid girls.
The academy was wild with activity. Kids talking, kids fighting, kids studying, and one thing on everybody's mind. The test would be the accumulation of all their years at the Academy, and no one wanted to be "the kid that failed and had to stay back".
Sasuke entered the room right after Iruka and chose the seat closest to the wall in the only empty row. The seating in the room had obviously been increased for the written portion of the graduation exam. Cheating was too rampant; Sasuke had heard from Shisui that Iruka was tired of throwing out students who were blatantly and sloppily cheating and then having to listen to parent after parent complain about their little angels.
"Alright, everyone find a seat!" Iruka yelled over the din. Sasuke wondered idly if Iruka's throat was ever hoarse from all the screaming he did. "One seat between each kid! If you fight over a seat you automatically fail! If you cheat you automatically fail!" Groans and protests echoed from every corner of the room, but the children obeyed.
A pink-haired girl stole the seat near Sasuke. "Hi, Sasuke-kun," she said in a high pitched squeak. Normally he would have told her off, but the girl was a complete loner, a kid with no friends. A small measure of pity kept his harsher words back. Still, he glared fiercely to clearly communicate that he did not want any conversation. The girl took the hint and just smiled. A group of girls scowled angrily at their peer's success.
"No speaking during the test," Iruka ruled as he passed out papers. As soon as Iruka handed him the test, Sasuke started the problems. They were fairly easy. The pen jotted down the answers he'd heard since infancy. Within twenty minutes he had finished. Turning his paper face down, Sasuke pushed it a few inches in front of him.
Out of curiosity and boredom he looked at the girl beside him. He expected her to be maybe halfway done at the most.
Her paper was face down on the desk, just like his. She met his gaze and smiled bashfully. His head snapped back to its former position. She giggled.
The day trudged onward slowly. Each E-rank had to be executed satisfactorily. Sasuke passed each section with flying colors. "But of course," the proctors murmured. "He is an Uchiha, and Fugaku's son at that."
Sasuke had no small amount of pride at being Uchiha Fugaku's son. His strength and courage was widely known. Every child knew the story of the Nine Tails' attack, of the many wounded and killed, of the utter chaos that ruled the fight. Talented shinobi, men and women who had devoted years of their lives to the study of the ninja arts, were falling like first year genin. It seemed hopeless.
His father had attacked the Kyuubi head on. This approach had been disregarded for many reasons, primarily because an average shinobi would only survive for a few minutes before dying.
Uchiha Fugaku was no average shinobi. He knew exactly what he needed to do. The Fourth Hokage could stop the beast; however, the multi-step technique would take him nearly ten minutes to complete the entire process. For those long minutes he would be defenseless. That was where Fugaku came in.
There were many stories of the battle, some of them over exaggerated, some of them under exaggerated, but even the most unsympathetic of tales did not hide Fugaku's skill in the fight. Sasuke often wished he could have seen his father face the Kyuubi in the fearless manner his mother described, hitting the monster with every jutsu he had ever learned in a rhythm that was synchronous with the notes of the battle and a fury that could not be denied. And he wished even more that he had had the chance to hear his father tell the story.
Two last tests; basic clone jutsu and substitution. Students were split by gender; the female half stayed inside for the basic clone jutsu examination while the male half ventured outdoors for the substitution test. This year's trial involved one of the three proctors flinging a projectile and/or hitting a student, who would have the chance to substitute themselves before being sliced and/or having a bone broken.
To pass the time, most of the kids were bragging about how well they had performed each test and how easy it all was for them. They were all ridiculous. Sasuke did not pay much attention to his attention hungry classmates, but even he was aware that the brunette who said he could make an army of clones could barely form two and the boy up front who "didn't get a single question wrong" on his exam had barely passed, if he had passed at all. The nervousness that they thought was so cleverly concealed was laid bare before his eyes.
The child ahead of him moved forward. Sasuke centered himself, letting his chakra flow freely throughout his body, preparing to complete the jutsu.
"Ow!" The boy's voice was a panicked yell, and he sounded close to tears. From what Sasuke could gather, he had not finished his substitution in time, and the shuriken had sliced into his arm, cutting it deeply. One of the assistants, who were all chunin demoted for bad behavior, stepped up and led him away.
"Uchiha Sasuke," A nameless proctor announced loudly. Sasuke answered the call. "Are you ready?" He merely nodded.
The kunai came quicker than he anticipated, and quicker than they had for the other pre-genin, but that did not phase him. The signs formed themselves rapidly; the kunai slashed harmlessly through the top of the wooden dummy had he left in his place.
Sasuke appeared next to a tree behind the proctors. It's too simple, really, he thought. An assistant saw his cockiness. Without warning he flung three shuriken at Sasuke's stomach. His head jerked towards the sound, but it was too late. A gasp echoed across the field as the blades ripped into his abdomen.
The grass clump collapsed to the ground, horribly mutilated. Not one of my better substitutions, Sasuke thought. But at least it worked. The chunin definitely hadn't been playing games. Sasuke eyed him warily as he crouched on the branch.
Satisfied, the head proctor scribbled a few words beside his name. "Alright, that's the last one. All of you head inside to test your clones."
Unfortunately, the girls had not completely vacated the testing area as there were still two that needed to complete their tests. "Sasuke-kun!" Ami screamed happily as she rushed out of line to greet him. Sasuke cringed instinctively.
"Stay in line!" Mizuki barked. "Tanaka, it's your turn!"
"But, but, but!" Ami cried. Sasuke grinned imperceptibly.
"Go now, or forfeit!" Whining, she entered the classroom. There were a few other girls as well, but they remained in their positions. Sasuke relaxed slightly. This was the last hurdle to cross, and it was passable. Performing the basic clone jutsu was elementary; he merely needed to decide whether he should shoot for three or four shadow clones.
Tanaka exited with Mizuki, who vigorously directed in her across the room and to the door. The next kid, the last girl, stepped in, and the door slammed shut after her. Impatiently Sasuke waited for his turn, ignoring the subdued chatter that flew around him.
Two more people were before him: Aburame Shino and Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto…now there was a loner. For whatever reason, no one liked him. The adults hated him with a passion; even Mikoto seemed anxious around him, a reaction entirely strange for her.
No one was willing to talk about why Naruto was ostracized; it was the status quo, the way things had always been. The kids copied their uncharitable parents. Naruto wasn't exactly endeared to the Academy instructors either; he had a bad habit of messing with them. Sasuke could appreciate making fools of the teachers once in a while (especially that duplicitous and arrogant Mizuki), but Naruto took pranking teachers into the realm of ridiculousness. If he trained the amount of time he spent planning and carrying out jokes and pranks, he would have surpassed half of Konoha's jounin by now, Sasuke mused. Naruto was completely careless with his chakra control; Sasuke sometimes doubted he had any at all; but even Sasuke's admittedly inexperienced senses could recognize Naruto's extraordinarily high chakra levels.
As they waited in line one of the kids began goading Naruto into a fight. Usually it only took a few words or a half-hearted insult to set the blonde off, but today he was showing considerable restraint. He had built up his reserves, and he resisted, although Sasuke could see the struggle on his face.
"What's the matter, freak?" Shigero taunted. "You're not going to pass, you know. You don't have any skills at all."
"Shut up!" Naruto retorted angrily.
"Are you sad? Poor little Naruto. You're not gonna make it. You're just a sorry, stupid little bastard. Nobody likes you. You should just kill yourself and get it over with, because you'll never be a shinobi," Shigero baited him shamelessly.
Don't react, idiot. You know he just wants you to get yourself thrown out of the exams. Naruto ignored his mental advice. "Shut up! I'm stronger than you! Believe it!" Naruto charged recklessly at the other boy. In his fury he didn't see Akira, one of Shigero's cohorts, pull out a kunai from a hidden pocket. All weapons were confiscated at the beginning of the test, and they were only given back during certain sections to avoiding cheating or unfair advantages. Akira raised the kunai menacingly, poised to bury it into Naruto's side.
Sasuke flickered to Naruto's side and deflected the blade. Shocked, Akira didn't even have the time to move before Sasuke neatly disarmed him and flung the kunai to the side. "You really should look before you blindly rush into a fight, dobe," he said to Naruto.
Naruto gaped at the other boy from a moment, paralyzed from surprise, but he recovered almost immediately. "Oh yeah? Well, I didn't need your help, teme, and I didn't ask for it!" He seemed to have momentarily forgotten Shigero, who was retreating to distance himself from the new argument. He obviously hadn't planned on dealing with an Uchiha. Naruto stepped up to meet Sasuke.
"What's going on?" Iruka asked suspiciously, examining them. Sasuke berated himself for not having noticed the teacher's sudden presence. A crowd of their classmates had congregated around Sasuke and Naruto in a very conspicuous manner. The kunai Sasuke had discarded stuck out of the wall like a huge arrow pointing to a disturbance. Shigero was backed up against the outskirts of the gathering, and Akira was jerking his head around like a drunk chicken as he looked for a way out of the inevitable consequences. "Well? Is anyone going to tell me?" No one answered him. Iruka inspected the scene one last time, apparently trying to decide whether or not to push the issue farther.
He chose not to. "Fine. Sasuke, you're up next."
Sasuke nodded and walked out with Iruka. Naruto glared at him furiously, and Sasuke pointedly ignored him.
A/N: And so concludes Chapter One, Part 1. I am definitely not that happy with this chapter; it's a little too slow and too disjointed for my tastes, but I decided to post it anyway. After erasing this chapter accidentally (twice, I might add), I couldn't go through writing it again. Thanks to BriBri, Xx-Silent Ookami- Xx, and Bulla 49 who reviewed! You guys rock!
Thanks to everyone who struggled through this abominable mess! Reviews are greatly appreciating; I'm not updating until I have at least three or four.