02. Fate's Selection

My reflection stared back at me from my mirror. My violet-shaded eyes were clear and did not betray the fact I'd gotten little sleep last night. I ran my brush through my curly, dark brown hair that fell to the middle of my back. I felt no need to change my wardrobe and dressed in my typical black quarter-sleeve shirt and olive green cargo capris. The only new addition was my shiny new headband tied around my upper arm.

I wanted to feel excited about today, truly I did. It was an important day after all. It would be the last time we sat in the Academy seats we were so accustomed to. Today we would receive our team assignments and meet our new sensei.

My anxiety over the prospect had kept me up half the night. Whoever I was placed with would a crucial part of my life for the coming years; at least until I made chuunin, and likely still until I made jounin. Would I be lucky enough to be part of a talented team? Or at the very least, with team members who respected the shinobi arts? I think I may have mentioned I have no plans on dying for at least awhile.

I wanted to make jounin, like my brother. To be as talented as him. To be strong enough to keep those I love from dying. To never have to attend another funeral.

I was still trying to ease my racing thoughts as I made my way to the Academy. I'd skipped breakfast, having no appetite and made my way out early. A strange sense of nostalgia took me as I passed through the Academy doors. Memories ran through my mind as I walked the familiar hallways and slid open the door to my, what would seen be, old classroom.

It seemed many students may have been anxious, or excited about today as I found the classroom filled with more students than usual at this time. While half of the class was still missing, plenty of students were sitting in seats or on the tables, excitedly chatting to their friends.

My eyes caught sight of navy blue, taking me off guard. Uchiha Sasuke sat in his normal seat, in his normal somber position. Elbows on the desk, chin atop his laced fingers. No fangirls had taken up their positions yet today. And that's how I was able to see a figure sitting a seat away from Sasuke, orange jacket and all.

"Naruto?" I asked, climbing down the stairs and stopping at his desk. The boy perked his head up, sky blue eyes searching mine. I suddenly felt a lack of words. What are you doing here; I felt might be extremely rude. I thought you failed; equally as rude. So in the end, I settled for, "It's nice to see you."

Naruto blinked, taken aback. But then a grin slowly slid onto his face and he nodded at me, almost gratefully.

I gave him a small smile of my own. No sooner had our exchanged ended when the sliding door slammed open and a simultaneous: "I won!" Rang through the classroom.

In immediate retreat, I quickly stole into the aisle above Sasuke and Naruto and beelined for the window seat.

As soon as I'd taken my seat, a blur of pink streaked past me. When Sakura reached the aisle below me, she first stopped next to the desk, giving Naruto the opportunity to stand. He attempted to greet the girl, for his crush on Sakura was just as apparent as hers was on Sasuke, but Sakura shut him down. And not in a polite or even normal way either. She completely ignored Naruto's greeting and physically shoved the poor boy out of the way and onto the floor.

"Good morning, Sasuke," she tried, pink creeping into her cheeks.

Hand on my palm, I watched the seen below me. Sasuke merely glanced over at Sakura, his lips pursed together.

"Mind if I sit next to you?" Sakura asked.

You know those sounds that remind you of nails on a chalkboard?

A flash of purple and suddenly, Ino was beside Sakura, glaring. "Back off, forehead. I'm sitting next to Sasuke."

"I was here first!" Sakura said.

"I walked into the classroom first! Everybody saw it!" Ino insisted.

"Actually, I got here before either of you," another girl walked up. And like the plague, suddenly the row was crowded with fangirls.

"Nu uh! I get to sit next to Sasuke!"

"No, me!"

I watched Sasuke's expression never change once as the mass of girls began to argue. Finally, he closed his eyes and turned his head, returning to his previous position. I glanced over my shoulder to the doorway but there was still no sign of Kiba. I glanced back to the arguing girls.

I began to wonder to myself. Would any of them faint or shut up from pure shock if I just caused a little trouble? Intrigued by my own questions and desperate to return to my non-headache state, I decided I could have some fun in my last hours as a student. Had I known what the consequences would be, I would have stayed glued to my seat.

But as I can't see the future, I proceded. I clambored atop my own desk and pushed myself off, managing to gracefully land in the seat to Sasuke's left. He glanced at me with just a hint of surprise in his eyes but, as usual, said nothing. I winked and put a finger to my lips as an indication he should stay silent. Like he needed the invitation. He returned to his previous position and I tried to act as natural as possible. But it wasn't really me that ended drawing attention.

While the fangirls continued to argue amongst themselves, I watched as Naruto picked himself off of the ground, snuck past the girls and climbed onto the desk. I blinked as he squatted, eye level with Sasuke. He was glaring, his teeth gritted in obvious anger. In fact, his nose was practically eskimoing Sasuke's. Sasuke didn't move an inch aside from opening his eyes and frowning, irritated at the blonde.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" I whispered, wondering if he had a death wish. And the feeling that I'd suddenly landed myself into more than I'd bargained for washed through my head.

Whether the girls had actually heard me, or if they'd simply looked over, Naruto did not go unnoticed.

"Naruto, what are you doing!?" one of the girls squealed, appalled.

"Nakao!" Sakura suddenly yelled, noticing me. If looks could kill…

I didn't even glance at her. Instead, I kept my eyes on Naruto and simply held the back of my hand up to Sakura. "Not now, Strawberry Shortcake, we have bigger troubles right at the moment."

And indeed we did. I could practically feel the testosterone pumping into the air as Naruto and Sasuke glared at one another.

"Naruto...maybe you should uh, give some personal space, yeah?" I tried, trying to diffuse the tension in the room. If a battle were to ensue, I wasn't really in a great position.

"Nakao," Naruto turned his head to me in aggravated surprise. "You're one of them too!?"

I hissed as though the comment burned. "Never! Look, this is just causing a huge thing…"

I tried to use my eyes to show him there was an angry group of girls ready to pummel him to pulp but he wasn't even paying attention. Great.

I boosted myself atop the desk and slid down to the aisle beneath us. I grabbed Naruto by the waist and pulled him down, as he flailed and protested the entire way. I huffed as I turned back towards the desk Sasuke sat at, running a hand through my bangs.

"I swear, if I'm put on your team…" I muttered under my breath, but didn't get the chance to finish.

"It's not me!" Naruto protested, punching his fist into the air in anger.

With Naruto being a bit vertically challenged, his fist hit me in the upper back, sending me flying forward with an embarrassing flail. And the next thing I know I'm in a lovely lip-lock with no other than Uchiha Sasuke. Of course I'm being ironic!

There was a collective gasp from the room. Naruto's hands flew to his mouth.

I pulled away sputtering while Sasuke and I both vigorously rubbing at our lips, though him doing it in a quiet, much more dignified manner.

Sasuke cooties! My mind screamed. I was about to glare viciously at Naruto but my back stiffened and the hair on the back of my neck sprung up. I sense bloodlust…

I turned my head to find the entire mob of fangirls glaring at me. Sakura was cracking her knuckles. Ino seemed unsure of what to do, as we had a decent rapport, and looked as though someone had run over her dog. The other girls looked ready to light some torches.

"Nakao! You're dead!" Sakura seethed through clenched teeth.

I took the extra effort to throw my head back while I laughed. "What are you going to do, Pinkie? Think at me? Do you even carry kunais in that holster or is it filled with lipstick and eyeliner?"

If Sakura wasn't angry before, she was now. Her entire body was twitching, like she physically couldn't capacitate the anger. Her face was a shade somewhere between a tomato and a plum. I have to give her some credit for the fist she swung at me, but it was a bit pathetic. I caught it easily before twisting her arm behind her back.

"Don't touch me," I said seriously as she winced.

"What is going on here?"

The tension burst like a bubble as everyone in the classroom, for all eyes had been trained on me, turned their attention to the new arrival. It was Iruka-sensei, carrying a clipboard at his side and watching our altercation, confused.

While the girls were caught off guard, I released Sakura who immediately glowered at me. Iruka-sensei noticed and his gaze bored into me. "Nakao, what is going on here?"

I became acutely aware that every pair of eyes in the classroom were trained on me. I shot a glance at Sasuke, who was back to being expressionless but was watching me, to Naruto who still seemed to still be in shock, to the fangirls who were glaring angrily.

"Uh…well you see…"

Iruka-sensei rolled his eyes and shook his head. "You know what, nevermind. Just, please, everyone take your seats."

I didn't need to be told twice. Spitting my tongue out at Sakura, I pushed some hair out of my eyes and returned to my original, trouble-free spot. Kiba seemed to have arrived during the drama and was giving me a taunting grin from his spot next to mine. A quick kick to his shin quickly wiped it away.

Sakura ended up taking the seat next to Sasuke and Naruto slumped back into his original seat. Everyone else rushed to a spot as Iruka-sensei made his way to the pit and faced our class with a smile.

"Today, you are all officially ninja. From here on out, you will face difficult trials and hardships, but that's only the beginning. Right now, you are all only genin, which is only the first level. All genin will be placed in a three-man squad, each quad will be led by a jounin- an elite ninja. Since this year we have an even number of students, one squad will have four genin," Iruka-sensei informed.

This caught me a bit by surprise. A four-manned squad? The would certainly have its advantages. That hadn't happened in a long time.

"We want each squad to have an equal balance of skills and abilities, so that's how we set them up. I will now announce the squads."

As Iruka-sensei read off the members of squad one, the entire classroom came alive with energy. Most everyone was fidgeting in their seats, waiting eagerly for Iruka-sensei to say their name.

"Squad seven: Uzumaki Naruto…Haruno Sakura…"

Naruto jumped up from his seat, cheering while Sakura hung her head in defeat.

"Uchiha Sasuke…"

This time, Sakura jumped up from her seat cheering while Naruto hung his head.

"…and Makase Nakao."

I didn't realize my hand had been holding up my chin until it fell and slapped onto the desktop with a noisy echo. My jaw dropped and I stared at Iruka-sensei in horror. "WHAT!?"

No, no, no! This is the worst possible cirumstance!

Iruka-sensei ignored my obvious distress and moved on. "Squad eight: Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino."

At that time, Sakura turned around in her seat, smiling slyly at Ino. She held two fingers up in a V, flaunting her lucky accomplishment. Ino growled in anger. "How did you get on Sasuke's squad!?"

"What do you see in a guy like that?" Shikamaru asked, looking bored as usual.

"You are so beyond foolish Shikamaru; don't you get it?" Ino said.

"No, I don't get it, because I'm not a girl," Shikamaru responded, probably now feeling sorry he had even said anything.

Ino sighed and turned her head away. "You are so full of yourself. Jealousy is a terrible thing. I'd hate to be on your squad."

"Squad ten: Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji."

Shikamaru looked over to Ino with a laugh. "What were you saying?"

"Those are all the squads," Iruka-sensei announced after squad eleven. No sooner had he glanced away from his clipboard when Naruto shot up in his seat, pointing a finger at Sasuke in outrage.

"Iruka-sensei, why does a great ninja like me have to be in the same group as a bum like Sasuke!?"

Sakura glared over at Naruto.

"Sasuke had the best scores of all the graduating students, Naruto," Iruka-sensei put his hands on his hips. "You came in dead last. We put the worst student, with the best student."

Naruto slumped in his chair in defeat as the entire class erupted in laughter.

"Just make sure you don't get in my way, loser," Sasuke said without even glancing to Naruto. The boys in the class laughed while the girls all swooned.

"Hey Sensei…"

"Yes Sakura?"

"I mean, if Naruto's going to ask…why am I with her?" Sakura looked over her shoulder, shooting me a glare, which I returned, bristling at her audacity.

Iruka-sensei sighed. "Sakura, you had the best intellectual scores in the class, but your skills scores are remarkably low. Nakao is our second highest-scoring student."

"HA!" I said childishly. Sakura glared angrily, crossing her arms defiantly over her chest as she returned her attention forward.

Iruka-sensei cleared his throat. "After lunch, you will meet your jounin senseis. Until then, class dismissed. Might I suggest you eat lunch with your new teammates to get to know them better."

"Fat chance," I muttered before dropping my head dramatically onto the desktop as students began to get up from their seats and file out of the classroom.

"Wow, tough break Nakao," Kiba sympathized, getting to his feet.

Before he could get far, I grabbed onto his jacket with both hands, forcing him to look down at my pleading face. "Please, Kiba, kill me."

"No can do, Nakao," Kiba said, managing to pry my hands away from him. "Look, I'll see you after lunch."

I watched in despair as Kiba met up with Hinata and Shino, who had silently waited by the door for him.

Feeling rather sorry for myself, I got to my feet and made my way outside. Choosing a shaded spot on the grass beneath a tree, a plopped myself down. With a sigh, I opened my bento box, but food didn't sound appealing. Worry was already flooding my system. There was no way in hell this squad was going to work. I was definitely going to die…

My bout of self-pity was interrupted as something blocked out the sun in front of me. I glanced up and frowned. I really wasn't in the mood. Setting my bento aside, I sighed and crossed my arms.

"Princess Bubblegum. To what do I owe the honor?"

Sakura chose to ignore this. She was already mad and was glaring down at me, hands balled into fists at her sides. "Listen up, Nakao. You had better stay away from my Sasuke!"

I feigned surprise just to piss her off. "We can own people now!? How much do they usually cost?"

"I'm serious!" Sakura was shaking in rage.

I sighed, watching Sakura with annoyance. "Okay, I've got two things to say to you, Pinkie. One: I don't want your Sasuke, okay? You can have him, whatever, but if one day I find out he's been murdered out of a jealous rage, I'm going to testify against you. Second, you're probably better off not coming over here and ruining my lunch with your demands. You see, there's this thing called reverse psychology and by telling me not to do something, my brain is wired to desire doing that thing."

"Nakao!"

"Hey don't blame me!" I held up my hands in defense. "Blame biology!"

Sakura threw her hands up in the air with an aggravated sigh. "You're a freak, you know that!?"

"Thanks for the heads up," I replied dryly. Using my hand, I made a shooing motion.

"I'm serious Nakao. He's mine," Sakura said one last time before stalking off.

"That girl really needs to sort out her priorities," I rolled my eyes before looking back to my lunch and forcing it down my throat.

—

"He's late!" Naruto complained yet again, poking his head into the hallway, scanning it.

"Naruto, just sit down," Sakura ordered irritably.

"I don't want to," Naruto said defiantly. "How come our sensei is the only one that's late? I'm ready to roll!"

"If he was smart, he probably high-tailed it out of Konoha as soon as he got this team," I muttered, arms crossed over your chest, eyes closed. I was leaning back in a chair in the first row, on the opposite end from Sasuke. Sakura was leaning against the desk next to the one Sasuke and I were stationed at.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Sakura asked, shocked.

I opened my eyes, glancing over to Naruto. Sasuke did as well. Naruto was on a footstool, wedging a chalkboard eraser in between the door frame and the door.

"Naruto," Sakura scolded.

"That's what he gets for being late!" Naruto said, jumping down from the footstool.

"Our sensei is a jounin, an elite ninja, you really think he's going to fall for that?" Sasuke asked, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against his hands.

"I loath to agree with Sasuke but he's right, Naruto. Besides," I glanced to the eraser. "If you're going to do something like that, why do an eraser? Can't you at least find something that will hurt him? Like a lead pipe or something."

"Nakao, you're so stupid," Sakura glared over at me.

"Shut up you adolescent boy!" I glared, leaning over the desk and pointing a finger at the kunoichi.

Sakura gave a cry of anger, raising her fists. "I am not flat-chested!"

"Compared to the rest of the adolescent boys I know, you're right. You beat them; congratulations."

"Erg, Nakao-!"

Sakura was cut short when a noise near the door grabbed everyone's attention. The four of us watched as a gloved hand grabbed the side of the door and pushed it open. The entire body walked through the doorway and down came the eraser, popping the person in the head and then dropping harmlessly to the floor.

"Haha, I got him! He totally fell for it!" Naruto laughed.

I could only gape. This is our sensei!? He can't even dodge an eraser!

I analyzed my new teacher carefully. He was wearing the typical jounin uniform; blue pants, a black, long-sleeved shirt and a green vest. He had silver hair that defied gravity and stuck up in several different directions. He wore his headband around his forehead, but on his left, the headband angled to cover his left eye. A black cloth covered the rest of his face, only revealing to us a single, beady eye.

"I'm sorry, Sensei! I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen!" Sakura immediately simpered.

The jounin said nothing, but silently bent over, retrieving the eraser from the floor. He held it up for inspection, watching it for a moment before he returned it to the chalkboard tray. He then slowly turned back to look at our expectant faces.

"How can I put this?" he cupped his chin in his hand, thinking. "My first impression of you guys…you're a bunch of idiots."

—

So much for that great impression Keitaro was talking about, I thought to myself several minutes later, as we found ourselves atop the roof of the Academy building. We'd taken seats on a series of three, stone stairs in a diamond formation. Naruto sat on the bottom stair, Sakura on the second to his right, and Sasuke on the second to Naruto's left. I sat on the fourth step between Sakura and Sasuke. Our sensei was leaning against the railing in front of us.

"Okay, why don't we start out by introducing ourselves?" Our sensei suggested.

This caused us to glance at one another.

"What do you want to know?" I asked.

Our sensei shrugged. "Things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future, hobbies…things like that."

"Why don't you go first?" Naruto asked. "You know, so we can see how it's supposed to work."

"Me?" Our sensei pointed to himself in question. "I'm Hatake Kakashi. Things I like and things I hate…I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future…I never really thought about it. As for hobbies…I have lots of hobbies."

"That was useless…all we really learned was his name," Sakura muttered. For once, I had to agree.

"Okay, your turn. You in the front, you go first."

Naruto smiled, futzing with his headband, moving his up and down on his forehead. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto. I like instant ramen in a cup. But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the cup. My hobbies include eating and comparing different kinds of ramen. And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody; somebody important!"

"Alright, next," Kakashi turned his visible eye on Sakura.

She grinned, hands on her bent knees. "I'm Haruno Sakura! What I like…I mean, the person I like is…"

Sakura looked over to Sasuke and squealed. I rolled my eyes.

"…My hobby is…uh…"

"Stalking Sasuke," I coughed out, holding a fist to my lips to make it seem legit.

Sakura chose to ignore me. "And my dream for the future…"

Another squeal.

"Raping Sasuke," I coughed out again.

Sakura whirled around, glaring at me.

"And what do you hate?" Kakashi-sensei asked as she was still turned around.

"Nakao!" she said angrily before focusing her attention on Naruto. "And Naruto!"

Poor Naruto's face fell, looking devastated. I shrugged.

"Okay, you," he nodded his head in my direction.

I started for a moment, realizing I hadn't thought about what to say.

"I'm Makase Nakao," I said with little fanfair, my head rolling through possibilities of what to say. "I like…um…training? I guess. And spending time with my best friend. I guess I'd better hate Sakura too since we're on topic. Hobbies? Um…training? I do a lot of training with my brother. Dreams for the future…?"

I don't know what actually made me say it aloud in front of a group of people I don't even like. I'd been desperately searching for things to say as I made my little introduction and it just kind of popped out.

"I don't ever want to attend another funeral for a loved one."

There was a brief moment of silence as everyone glanced at me. My face immediately lit up with embarrassment and I became extremely interested in my knees.

After a moment, Kakashi-sensei nodded and turned his attention to the brooding teen to my left. "Last."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything…"

The look on Sakura's face was a Kodak moment.

"…What I have is not a dream…more of an ambition; I'm going to restore my clan and destroy a certain someone."

Surprise shot through me, pulling my attention to Sasuke.

"Itachi! Itachi can we train today? Please? Nakao and I want to learn that technique!"

The memory hit me out of nowhere and I had to blink a few times to reorient myself to where I was.

"Good, you are each unique and you have your own ideas," Kakashi said after a moment of silence. "We start our first mission tomorrow."

"What kind of mission!?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"It's…a task that the four of us will do together," Kakashi said, seemingly choosing his words carefully.

"What, what!?" Naruto prodded.

"A survival exercise."

"Huh?" Naruto stopped practically bouncing in his seat and stared at Kakashi.

"I thought we were supposed to go on an actual mission, not do more practice," Sakura said. "We already did this stuff at the Academy."

I rolled my eyes. Idiot. Doesn't she know our jounin is supposed to train us to be better shinobi?

"This is…a different kind of training," Kakashi said.

I love all this cryptic talk.

"So what kind of training is it then?" Naruto asked, his butt half way off of his seat in anticipation.

Kakashi-sensei didn't answer at first, and simply chuckled.

"Hey, that's a normal question, what's so funny?" Sakura asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"That's the kind of laugh crazy people do when they're about to hack your arm off…" I whispered and Sakura actually nodded in agreement.

"Well, if I tell you guys the answer, you're not going to like it."

"Would you just tell us already?" I exasperated.

"Of the twenty-eight students who just graduated, only nine or possibly ten students will actually be accepted as genin. The others will be weeded out and sent back to the Academy. In other words, this is a make it or break it, pass/fail test. The chance that you'll fail is at least sixty-six percent."

My mouth dropped open in surprise. Why had no one mentioned this!?

"See, I told you, you wouldn't like it," Kakashi-sensei taunted.

"But we worked hard to get here! What was that graduation exam for then!?" Naruto asked.

"Oh that? That was just to select candidates that could possibly become genin…or not. I decide if you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at five AM. Bring your ninja gear."

Kakashi-sensei then turned his back to us, raising an arm in the air, his hand station dismissively. "That is all. Go. Oh, and tomorrow you'd better skip breakfast…unless you want to see it again."

I rolled my eyes but there was no denying the anxious flip of my stomach. Why did I have the feeling I was royally screwed?