May 13, 13 AK
Sakura glanced over at Sasuke again, her face becoming heated as she took in every detail she could in the brief window she allowed herself, lingering on the boy's cool expression of aloof superiority and awesome hair. She glanced away hurriedly after only a moment, wary of coming on too strong to her beloved. There would be plenty of time for that later now that they were on the same team!
She couldn't help the tiny squeal of delight that bubbled out of her at the thought. She was on a Genin team with her beloved Sasuke! The only way it could possibly get better was if that loser Naruto wasn't on their team as well.
It wasn't that she really disliked him, or anything, but he was just so annoying, and he kept on grumbling at Sasuke-kun which was just not okay at all. Couldn't he see how perfect and awesome Sasuke was? Everything about the Uchiha was just so wonderful and cool, and he was so strong and…
She looked at the clock for a moment in irritation. Fantasizing about her future marriage to Sasuke was all well and good, but they actually needed to start being proper ninja first, and that meant their Jounin instructor needed to actually show up eventually. Who was this Hiroki guy anyway?
The clock ticked 2:00.
Sakura blinked, a sudden impression of… something red?, rapidly fading as she noticed the time.
She blinked again; there was someone standing in the classroom! How had she missed that?
"Team Seven: Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura."
The voice was calm and monotone and she could feel the invisible eyes of the Jounin on her for a brief instant as he said her name, beetle like shapes glimmering from the shadows of his hood. Was this their new Sensei?
"You have 30 seconds to reach the roof."
The ninja flickered for a moment and was gone.
Sasuke was up and out of his chair in less than a second, dashing through the door towards the staircase as fast as he could. Naruto only had time to holler angrily before he sped off after her future husband. It took Sakura a full second to shift gears before she too started sprinting after her teammates.
She arrived at the roof a little out of breath, but within the time limit thanks to her precision jumping up the staircase. Sasuke didn't even seem to be sweating; he was such a great ninja!
The Jounin who had called them there was seated across from the benches where the boys sat, perched precariously on the railing with his elbows on his knees, fingers casually laced in front of his face. Once more Sakura was sure he was looking at her, but she only caught the same fleeting glimmer of dark eyes under heavy shadow before his attention shifted.
She chose a spot as close to Sasuke as she could get, which unfortunately put her next to Naruto, but oh well.
They waited for a long moment in awkward silence as the Jounin inspected them before he opened his mouth, stretching and flexing the fabric of his mask as he spoke.
"Acceptable performance, I suppose. You will do better, I hope, with some more… incentive. As you may have already surmised, I will be your Jounin sensei."
The eyes glittered under the unnatural shadows of the hood once more as he regarded them with dispassion, even Naruto's exuberance wilting slightly under the impassivity. The Jounin's hands rose slowly, lowering the hood and pulling down the mask to reveal a face… that was pretty ordinary, really. He looked a bit like Sasuke, actually, short dark hair, dark eyes, pale skin...
"My name is Hiroki. Formerly of the Uchiha."
Sasuke shook as if he had been physically struck and leapt to his feet.
"What?!"
The dark eyes were suddenly on Sasuke, and now they were very visible indeed; a demonic, swirling red and black that seemed to hit her beloved like a physical blow.
"Sit. Down."
Sasuke complied, almost boneless with shock, and Sakura glanced between her future husband and their new Sensei nervously.
Hiroki stood from the railing and pulled his hood and mask back up, once more concealing his face before he neatly folded his hands behind his back, giving them all another intent look.
"You may call me Sensei or Hiroki-sensei and I do insist that you do, because the fact that any Uchiha besides Sasuke survived the Massacre has been a well-guarded secret for the better part of a decade. While this fact is more likely to come to light now that I will be taking a highly public role as your instructor, the longer the charade can be maintained the better."
Naruto was practically hopping in his seat, hand waving wildly, though it didn't seem to bother Hiroki-sensei at all, as he merely sent the enthusiastic Genin an emotionless glance.
"Yes, Uzumaki-kun?"
"What's 'charade' mean?"
Hiroki-sensei paused for a moment, and Sakura was worried that Naruto might have just spoiled their teachers opinion of them with his stupidity.
"Charade means 'act', or 'deception'; a lie you allow others to see to prevent them from reaching the truth. Does that help?"
Naruto nodded happily, and their sensei gave him a nod in return, turning back to sweep his attention over the group again.
"Please feel free to ask any question, no matter how obvious or simple it may seem. In your class there was pressure from your peers to avoid making yourself look foolish, but your Genin team will be very much like your family in the months and years to come; you should never be afraid to look a bit silly in front of your family."
Sakura noticed a certain shift in tone at those words, a twist in Sensei's mask and a transient stilling of Naruto's flamboyance. Even Sasuke seemed to hunch a little tighter in his seat.
"At any rate, if you do not ask questions it will be difficult for me to know what you do and don't understand, and thence repair those deficiencies. Now, why don't we introduce ourselves properly? Hmm? I'll go first."
Sensei smiled pleasantly at them, and though Sakura couldn't point to anything specific, for some reason the expression seemed slightly wrong on his face, like he had seen a picture of what smiles were supposed to look like but hadn't tried out the expression with much regularity.
"My name is Hiroki. I like cherries, my precious people, and training. I dislike brussel sprouts, seeing subordinates get injured, and lack of progress in my training. My hobbies include experimenting with Poisons and Fuinjutsu, and training. My dream for the future is…"
Here he paused for a moment, seeming a little surprised and lost. Sakura had the sudden depressing intuition that Hiroki-sensei might not have a dream for the future, but he continued after a moment of thought.
"...World Peace. ...And to see all my cute little students reach S-rank. Now, how about we start with you, Uzumaki-kun?"
Naruto grinned hugely before launching into a rambling spiel that hit all of the high points that everyone who had ever met Naruto already knew. Ramen and Hokage. That was about it for Naruto.
Then it was Sakura's turn and she could barely mumble out a few words through her nerves, sending Sasuke-kun little sidelong glances all the while. She got the distinct feeling that Sensei was slightly disappointed and she trailed off a little under the inscrutable stare.
"I see. Uchiha-kun, if you would?"
"I don't like many things, and I dislike lots of things. I don't really have any hobbies, but I do have a dream, or more of an ambition. To rebuild my clan…" -Sasuke's expression flickered for a moment as he looked at Sensei- "...and to kill a certain man."
Sakura barely restrained herself from saying anything, allowing the little voice in her head to scream Sasuke's praises in silence. He was so cool!
There was a long moment of quiet, and once more Sakura felt an aura of… disapproval radiating from their teacher.
"...I see."
Their sensei tilted his head slightly as he regarded them all in silence once more. Sakura felt a tickle of resignation in her gut; this seemed likely to become a running theme.
"Well, if there are no other questions…"
"Oh! Oh! What was that thing you did with your eyes? How old are you? Are you related to Sasuke? What's that writing on your arm thingies? Are you going to teach us cool jutsu now? Why do you wear that hood?"
Hiroki-sensei smiled minutely at Naruto, and Sakura though it was likely the most genuine expression he had displayed so far, feeble and fleeting as it was.
"In order: it is called the Sharingan; it is the hereditary technique of the Uchiha. I celebrated my 16th birthday about a month ago, and yes I am related to Sasuke, though not closely; second cousin once removed. His great grandfather was my great-great grandfather. The markings on my bracers are called Fuin; seals can do lots of things but these ones act to generate barriers. I may end up teaching you some jutsu later, we'll touch more on that in a moment; as to why I wear the hood… Let's call this a teachable moment, shall we?"
Everyone shifted slightly in position, Naruto slumping just a little bit as Sakura straightened and Sasuke let his eyes track up to focus on Sensei. Their instructor held out his hands as if weighing something.
"In this world there are two things which matter most. First: what someone believes to be true. Second: what is actually true. What people believe matters because that is what affects what they do, the actions they take. What is actually so matters because that is what determines the outcome of actions taken. For example. Uzumaki-kun, would you like a cherry?"
The small red fruit appeared in Sensei's hand as if by magic, dangling in front of Sakura's blond teammate temptingly. Naruto for his part seemed a tad surprised, but happily so, for he snatched up the fruit and popped it into his mouth quite cheerfully, smiling as he chewed.
"Observe. Uzumaki-kun believed the cherry to be safe to eat, and so did. Now that the action is taken, what matters is whether or not I might have put something in the cherry, for I did mention my fondness for poisons, did I not?"
Team 7 froze, and Sakura could see Naruto becoming very pale, and slightly green, before Sensei chuckled softly, and offered what was probably intended to be a comforting smile behind the folds of the mask.
"Don't fret, I would never give you something poisonous without first warning you. But I hope my point is made? So, in that thread, Uzumaki-kun; why do you think I wear this hood?"
Naruto still seemed a little shaken but responded rapidly enough after a moment to swallow his mouthful of (hopefully unpoisoned) fruit.
"Uh, well, because it looks cool, and makes you look like a scary, awesome, powerful ninja, I guess…"
Hiroki-sensei nodded, but did not voice agreement.
"How about you, Uchiha-kun? Why do you think I wear this hood?"
Sasuke glowered at the man, but after a moment spoke.
"To make other people think you're stronger than you are. Hiding weakness."
Another nod of acknowledgement, but Sakura felt that Sasuke might not quite have got the point of what Sensei had said.
"And you, Haruno-chan?"
Sakura blinked and almost spoke up, before pausing for a moment to consider the problem.
Riddles and puzzles were a favoured pastime of hers, a way to stretch an intellect stifled by the rigid curriculum of the academy. She hadn't had much chance in recent years, too busy studying up for graduation, but it felt good to try and follow the twists of logic.
What actions people take, what the outcome of those actions will be…
"...I think, you wear the hood to make other people think you are trying to look intimidating."
Sensei gave her a small smile in response, rather than merely a nod, and Sakura smiled back at the approval, running a bashful hand through her long pink hair.
"Very good. While you were all technically correct, Haruno-chan was the closest. Uzumaki-kun represents first level thinking. He saw something, and assumed that the obvious solution was most likely the correct one. You may be familiar with the expression 'appearances can be deceiving', but the operative word there is 'can'. Most of the time, if a ninja looks very scary, it is because they are very scary and if you like I can show you some photos from the Bingo Book that support this sometime."
The teen gave a soft sort of smile, sending a tiny quiver down Sakura's spine at the falseness of the expression. She huffed quietly and resolved to ignore the feeling of disquiet; he didn't appear to be trying to give her the willies.
"Uchiha-kun might be what we could call a second level reasoner; he saw surface conditions and tried to imagine what sort of mind state would produce those surface conditions. If I am trying to look intimidating, why? One possible explanation is that I am not really very strong, and my appearance is a bluff to try and scare off more powerful ninja. However, it should be noted that I am a Jounin, so an attempt to bluff a higher level of power seems perhaps somewhat pointless, wouldn't you say?"
The expression on Hiroki-sensei's face was almost predatory as he looked at Sasuke, his teasing tone failing to take the sting out of his rebuttal.
"My old sensei had an expression he enjoyed; 'look underneath the underneath'. Don't just look for what might be hiding under a mask, but what's hiding under that. Haruno-chan seems to have understood this lesson. If I look threatening, it is most likely because I want to look threatening. I might be weak, but you have seen no real sign of weakness yet. I might be strong, but again, evidence is somewhat scarce. You must consider what you know carefully in order to find the most likely set of possibilities which could explain what you see."
Sensei paused for a moment in the lecture before his posture relaxed just slightly, the oddly colored jacket he wore shifting from grey to pale green with the change in position.
"In actuality, the answer is a combination of reasons, as it usually is. I wear the hood primarily to help conceal when I activate my eyes, as they are a highly coveted and rare trait. I also wear it to help keep off the sun; when I first chose this style I had been spending extensive periods active mainly at night or in dark spaces so the daylight was quite irritating, but wearing sunglasses would impede the use of techniques which required direct eye contact. Lastly, yes Uzumaki-kun, I do wear it to look like a cool ninja. Although when I first started I was quite a bit shorter than I am now so the effect was closer to endearing or ridiculous rather than frightening."
He smiled slightly in reminiscence and Sakura wondered for a moment exactly how old he had been… but further speech interrupted her musings.
"Now, you asked if I would teach you cool jutsu, and I said we would touch on that later. Now is later; so. First you have to pass a test."
Naruto echoed Sakura's inner irritation quite vocally, slumping over in his seat and groaning loudly.
"Ahh, man! A test? We just got through that! I want to be an awesome ninja and become Hokage!"
"And you may yet get there. However, the tests you took at the academy were only to determine if you were worthy of becoming Genin, not if you were adequate to be taught by a Jounin."
She noticed Sasuke's eyes narrowing slightly, and spoke up in shared confusion to spare her sweetheart the effort.
"I don't understand Sensei, aren't you going to teach us?"
Hiroki shook his head, regarding her with an unreadable expression as he tapped gently at the metal of his bracers.
"That remains to be seen. Your class was special, the students most likely to succeed and go furthest in your ninja careers, but ultimately the choice is up to me. Jounin are a valuable resource; the village cannot afford to waste them teaching children with low potential or…" -his eyes tracked over Sasuke briefly- "inappropriate temperament. If you fail my test, you will join the Genin Pool, where you will likely stay for a very, very long time, if you ever manage to get out at all. So, I will see you at training ground 3, tomorrow morning at 6 am sharp, to give you a… survival challenge. You shouldn't eat beforehand; you'll probably just throw up."
And he was gone, before they could ask any questions, disappearing in a brief swirl of leaves that reflected the light of the strong late afternoon sun. Sasuke took off a moment later, leaping to the roof across from the academy and leaving Sakura alone with Naruto. The girl sighed heavily before making her way down the stairs, ignoring her blond tagalong all the while as she focused on mentally preparing for the upcoming test.
Nothing was going to take her away from Sasuke-kun! She was going to pass that test no matter what!
. . .
A/N:And the final arc begins!
Many thanks to Jackercracks, DasStan, LuxEterna and hexxart for their aid in beta reading (seriously, I'm useless without a beta and my older stuff can testify to that most readily, they helped immensely).
Thematic Music for Sakura's arc: Hellbent by Mystery Skulls