Sorry for the very late update. Life got in the way.

So sorry for the wait and here it is.

Disclaimer: I do not own.

Chapter Two - Teammates all around.

Sasuke watched Naruto glare at them all, still slightly confused as to the sudden shift the boy's emotions went through. One second he was laughing loudly, nearly falling off the step and the next he was glaring murder at everything around him. He tried to feel annoyed about Naruto laughing at his statement but the emotion was hard to come by, the blonde's actions putting him off kilter.

"Okay, Naruto, there's no need to bite our heads off." He heard Kakashi ask from behind him. Naruto scowled at them once more before seating himself again; though this time he was facing away from the rest of the team. He heard a sigh of relief from behind him but couldn't tell if it came from Kakashi or Sakura, though they all seemed to be in the same mind frame. The boy could be terrifying if he felt like it.

"Sorry" The apology was almost unheard but the message was understood. He did wonder why Naruto was losing his temper so easily though, normally he would just ignore those who were annoying him or insult them. This cold anger was actually frightening is comparison to the blondes normal reactions. He never wanted to see him actually angry.

Kakashi moved back to his spot on the fence after Naruto introduced himself and looked at them in silence for a second. His gaze was blank and Sasuke felt prickles down his spine. There was something off about people who could seal their emotions so easily; his…brother had been the same way. He tried to think of something else, it wouldn't be a good thing to have a breakdown in front of his new team, though maybe that would do something to Sakura and her terrible infatuation with him.

The blond was still ignoring them to the best of his ability, even when their new sensei started talking again.

"Okay then," He clapped his hands, "now that that's out of the way, I'm here to tell you that you're not actually Genin just yet… Sorry, not sorry."

What?

-**-(Line)

This was one thing Kakashi didn't mind about meeting his apparent teams. The shocked looks he got every time he did this was something that kept him amused for hours. Their small fragile hopes gone, dashed, all in a second. Well that was what normally happened but this time round only two of the three were giving him any entertainment.

Naruto, the boy who was nothing like his records, was staring at him blankly and like he was unimpressed with his life altogether. It was obvious that he already knew about the second test and was not so amused by it. Well bad luck to him.

"Now that that's out of your system, Ill explain. Or I wont, here's some information pre-written all for you." Kakashi said as he lazily waved towards three sheets weighed down by a rock. "All you need to know is that tomorrow you meet me at training ground 13 at 6am. No Breakfast or you'll be sick. Don't be late or you'll be in trouble. Ok, Bye."

With that he body flickered away, masking it with fallen leaves from nearby. Not that he went far, just onto a higher roof to listen to the ensuring conversations. Naruto was the first to move, gathering the sheets and handing them to the rest of his would-be team. Sasuke accepted it with more grace than thought and Sakura flinched from him as soon as she received it. That would have to be sorted out sooner than later, otherwise there was no way the team would be able to do anything.

There was also something worrying about Sasuke. The mandatory psych tests that each student goes through before they can even try to become genin. Kakashi was considering reporting to that Hokage that they seemed quite out of line with the boy. They had stated that the boy was well adjusted and had no problems from the incident. Now that he could see the boy himself, he could tell that that was not true; there was something off about the way the boy acted – something he only saw in older shinobi. People who had seen too much and wore it like a cloak of despair, it was in the shadows in their eyes. It was a frightening prospect to think about, the boy hasn't even been on his first mission yet.

However, while that was sometime he would have to keep an eye out for in the long run, the more immediate problem was whether or not they would pass the next exam. As much as he did not want a team, nor feel ready for one, he knew that there was a high chance that this team would pass. If not by of their own abilities, but by the councils order. Apparently the last Uchiha had a free pass no matter how he did and the Haruno child was the daughter of a council member so there was pressure there as well. The Hokage had noticed this and decided that it was probably the safest way for Naruto to pass, with such protected children there would be no suicide missions for his team.

It was sad that that was even a concern. The boy, be who he might be, was still worth more than they thought he was. The Shinobi in general held some sort of respect for the boy, more than the civilians anyway, but that was more to the fact that they actually understood the mechanisms of sealing where as to the civilians some of the stuff they did seemed like magic. That ignorance has made it dangerous for shinobi quite a few times, with civilians trying to apply their morals and/or ideas to the shinobi way of life. Lets just say that when it was a completely shinobi run council the academy and what they learnt there was quite different. Made more competent shinobi, even if it was more, ah, dangerous than most people would have liked.

They didn't know what they were talking about anyway.

-**- (Line)

Sakura was worried about telling her mother about who was on her team. Not that she would blame her, no that's not it, but her mother's anger was a frightening thing. There were a few things that had been replaced just recently from her mother's latest bad day. Luckily they had some free of charge from the local shops, her mother always seemed to have her ways of getting what she wanted. It was actually quite frightening.

Naruto was also frightening, just like her mother had said, though there hadn't been any red eyes. She hadn't expected them in the first place though, it wasn't like he was from any clan nor did he have a bloodline, she wasn't sure what her mother had been expecting.

Luckily, when Sakura got home her mother was still out and it looked like she had only just recently left. Which was good for Sakura's slowly developing headache, her mother always asked for many things whenever she was around. 'How is the Uchiha boy? Have you made any progress with him? You have to clean yourself up for him you know; no one likes a messy girl. It's what your father would have wanted for us. Such a family connection would do us good and you wouldn't have to ruin your hands with all the inane work of others.' Her mother had strong view on many things, especially on how her daughter ran her life.

But that was the way it should be, after all mother knows best.

-****-(Line)

As always the clan buildings felt like ghosts inhabited them, just as they had for the last 5 years. There was no laughter, no familiar faces, just silence and the oppressive weight of all the memories of people that no longer existed. Duty to the clan was all that was left for him, other than that man, the man he had to kill.

This was what haunted his waking hours and his unconscious. Sasuke new this routine like he knew this compound, nothing was new anymore. He his team was new though, something he hadn't seen every day.

Their new teacher was not what he would have expected from someone so recognised. When he had first heard the nickname 'Kakashi of the Sharingan ' he had been confused and then alarmed. Someone who wasn't part of the clan had the Sharingan and Sasuke had no idea how he had gotten it. For all he knew Kakashi could have raided the body of a clan member to get it. It was only later than he found documents in the archive room that he understood what had happened.

Having his as a teacher was to be expected, with only two people in the village having the eyes, it was obvious that one would have to train the other in how to use it; the scrolls in the library only helped so much.

His other teammates where a different story. Sakura actually frightened him slightly, with her obsessive devotion and delusions. He was quite sure he had seen her following him around the village a few times, dogging his steps for hours on end. Having her on the same team was not something he was looking forward to, though he hoped that actually becoming a shinobi might just tear that out of her. Maybe they could fix her problems with Naruto as well. She had the chakra control to become quite dangerous if she put her mind to it, he had seen people do much damage with very little chakra, damage that could rival the largest jutsus he knew.

But Naruto was the wild card in this team. For all his observational skills, Sasuke knew very little about his orange clad teammate. They may have seen each other almost every day since they were put in the same class but that did not amount to much in the end. What he did know was that he had started the academy two years earlier than Sasuke himself. That, in and of itself, was odd, as they had stopped taking early entrants years ago once the war settled down. So for Naruto to have started so early means that someone was pulling strings in the background, though he wasn't quite sure as to why they would want such a young child to become a ninja. # They generally ended up dead or insane when they started that young.

He also wondered why it took him three years to actually pass the exam. It wasn't that hard and it was probably very similar every year; and from what he had heard, Naruto had failed this year as well but managed to make his way into the team anyway on orders of the Hokage. Something about the whole situation didn't sit right with him, and because he was one the same team as the boy, it was something that could become a problem for him personally, thus unavoidable. He did wonder though, if he had actually learned anything of use in those two extra years or if they were all for nought.

But in the end, there was nothing he could do about any of that now, he could only observe and see what was what, and train. Train and train and train. Anything else could wait, his clan would not.

-*****-(line)

Though Naruto could tell something was off as he slowly got closer to his apartment, the smell of smoke was the final sign. Picking up his speed only brought the burnt out husk of a home closer than he needed. The civilians who had crowded around dispersed quickly when they realised whose apartment it had belonged to. After all, to them, that was exactly what he deserved. The Shinobi on the other hand stayed, with saddened one giving Naruto all that they had salvaged from the wreckage so far – a book that the Hokage had said came from his family, a blue green hair pin that he had been using as a book mark for the book and a photo, lightly singed around the edges but not enough to distort the picture.

"Thank you."

That was all he could say. Everything that he had owned was in that building, and now there was no building. All the presents and rewards that he had kept around the place would not be salvageable, though maybe the box hidden under his floorboards would be okay. Though only Naruto would be able to open it, so that would have to wait until the mess had been cleared out slightly, maybe tomorrow he would be able to find it. He needed what was in the box.

So he gathered himself up and wiped the charcoal from his hands, putting the box into a storage seal in his pocket. It wasn't the best but it would do for now. There wasn't much he could do now at all. What he could do was calm down; the Fourth Hokage's head always helped him out with that. There he could work out what he wanted to do. He didn't really want to intrude on anyone he really knew, at least not without talking to them before hand. But it was too late for that. Iruka-sensei was still working and the others would have just started and wouldn't be finished till morning, and then they would sleep for the first half of the day. He really didn't want to get in the way of their routines tonight.

Unfortunately the choice was taken out of his hands when his body decided that three days without proper sleep were to many and took matters into it own hand. The last thing he new was the red and gold sunset that turned Konoha into a glittering fire before his eyes. The first thing he knew when he woke was green. Green, a sparkly grin and a booming voice.

(To Be Continued.)

Hey lookie here, an update. I'm actually amazed I even wrote that, it's been quite a while. Don't worry the others will be longer.

Anyway, there you go. What do you think?