Sasuke left behind his dazed young charges and headed for the training field. Meeting the brats was disturbing his usual, meticulous daily schedule. His already low tolerance for interruption was again irritated when he spied the form of a lone Anbu perched upon the training post. He sighed, "Now what?"
He approached a characteristic frown plastered on his face. The Anbu hopped gracefully down from the post before him. Sasuke laughed to himself, "What else could the Hokage possibly want from me?"
The masked Anbu spoke, "Nothing at the moment. But I do."
He raised an eyebrow incredulously, "You do? And you are?"
The porcelain cat mask that obscured her features should for most make it difficult to assess her thoughts. But the acidic contempt in her response made it quite clear that she did not like him. "Hokage-sama has given me a new mission. To supervise you. And your teaching methods."
"How cute." Sasuke scowled, "She forces me into this stupid job and now she assigns me a babysitter."
"Because clearly you need one," the Anbu cut.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he said tersely, eyes flashing.
"I saw what you did to those kids," she scoffed, equally terse in her manner, "putting them under genjutsu like that, first time you see them. Some sensei you are."
"I was just showing them what it really means to be a ninja. It's not my problem if you're too softhearted to accept that." He was done talking and ignored her parting threat to tattle to Tsunade as he pummeled the training block she had originally sat upon.
Who was this girl to judge him? She was nothing. She couldn't even understand what he had had to bear. It was so long ago. But he still punched his hands raw remembering his past. A past full of hatred and regret.
He finished there and was only hoping to return home when he was ambushed by Naruto. A pair of strong arms thrown around him and a loud voice yelling in his ear as he walked purposefully through the bustling Konoha streets.
"SASUKE," he shouted his voice full of joviality, "Come get ramen with Shikamaru and me. We can talk about our new teams."
He shook his way out of the boisterous blonde's arms with a harsh, "No thanks." But Naruto had experience with Sasuke's stubbornness and would not so easily be deterred.
"If you don't come I'll just follow you home. And break into your house. With fifty clones behind me. And I'll stay, and talk, and eat your food, and mess up your OCD organization and bother you until yo—"
He stopped in his tracks. A man could only take so much irritation in one day. And with Sasuke had maxed out hours ago. "Fine!" he grunted, "I'll go. Come on."
Why he indulged Naruto so often he couldn't understand. Though part of him thought it might be because of Itachi. He had entrusted the safety of the village to Naruto. Not him. He had been trying to destroy it at the time. He wanted to see how Naruto could love a place that had wronged him for so long so much. He wanted to see because Itachi was the same. And it was a sentiment Sasuke was unsure he could truly replicate.
They met Shikamaru who waited boredly, hands thrust in his pockets, outside of Ichiraku Ramen. He greeted them with a seemingly disinterested "yo" and the three sat down. Only for Shikamaru to look up startly at the boy about to take their orders, "Hayate?" he asked.
A woman Sasuke recognized came up behind him, placing an arm caringly around the boys shoulder. It was Ayame. The daughter of the old owner. She had aged a few years and apparently had a son.
"Your son's on Shikamaru's team, Ayame-chan?!" Naruto all but shouted, "That's great."
She smiled proudly and ruffled the boys hair causing him to groan,"You're embarrassing me, mom,"
"Go help your grandfather then, Hayate, I'll take their orders," she responded, bopping him playfully on the head with a ladle.
"Yes, mom" he sulked away.
Sasuke tried to repress his growing frown. Children were so bothersome. Why couldn't they just act like little adults he wondered.
"I remember when you three were his age, sitting in these very seats," she reminisced, "Even you, Sasuke-kun," she added with a giggle, bopping him in the head with the ladle. The look of genuine surprise, and then near murderous anger, that graced his face caused Naruto to nearly fall off the stool with laughter and even Shikamaru to choke on the water he was sipping. Needless to say Sasuke was not amused.
The dinner went on and they discussed their respective teams. Naruto bragging that his "babies" would beat both Sasuke and Shikamaru's genin at everything, especially with an amazing sensei like himself to guide them. Shikamaru occasionally commenting about the strategy involved in forming the teams and Sasuke saying his brats would be lucky if they survived their first mission.
At last he could finally go home. He dropped down the groceries he had picked up after the delightful dinner with Naruto and was about to flip on the light when he sensed something off. There was someone else there. Sharingan blazing and kunai at the ready he moved quickly closing the distance between himself and the intruder.
AN: Wow it's been a while. Sorry. I was having some issues but now I've consolidated some ideas and have a good idea on where this is going. Hope you all like this. Let me know what you think :D I'm kind of out of practice. Might rewrite this chapter. Meh.