AN: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters.
The shine of the early daybreak filtered through the blinds, and Ino lazily rubbed away the sleep from her eyes.
It was the same dream again. Well, it may as well have been a nightmare, considering how treacherous its premise was.
For the past few months she'd been having these dreams that terrified her.
In her recurring nightmare, she was stuck in a fire, with no route to exit. Earlier on, the dream had followed and ended with her being saved by the prince of her dreams, Uchiha Sasuke.
Though after years of being rejected and ignored by him, recently her dreams had turned more insidious.
There was still the fire.
She was still in mortal danger.
Sasuke was still in the dream.
But instead of saving here, he spared a glance at her, turned around to speak to an invisible presence and said "Do whatever you please with her. The girl means nothing to me" and then leaving her alone with the unknown figure. At this point Ino would wake up, and the first few times it had happened she had burst into tears.
Now though, she was giving the idea some thought. For years now, she along with many other girls had done everything in their abilities to get his attention, to no avail.
Some of the girls had since stopped stopped their efforts, and someone had even spread the nasty rumour that he had a proclivity for members of his own gender.
It was never find out who had done this, and if the culprit had been caught some very strange and unexplainable things would've been committed by them courtesy of the Shintensin no Jutsu.
But it had forced her to confront reality- that Sasuke had shown zero interest in her, and after an afternoon discussing the issue with her mother, she had realised to her a one-sided devotion was unhealthy for the devotee - herself.
Turning her attention to her clock, she took note of the time and sighed.
Today was the day of team assignments.
At the same time, another blonde-haired, blue-eyed genin had just returned from his morning exercise. Naruto took off his porcelain mask and set about getting ready for his last day at the academy and the day of team assignments.
He had a fair idea of what his team would be, and although he was not particularly religious, Naruto prayed to The Big Guy upstairs not to give him the team he suspected he would be punished with.
For generations now, the team assignments for graduating classes had followed the same three-pronged system: a tracking team, a reconnaissance team or a combat team.
And there were further protocols in these teams- two dojutsu wielders could not be in the same unit, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio was to be maintained wherever possible, and one of the three-man cells consisted of the Rookie of the Year, Kunoichi of the Year and the last-placed student of that graduating batch.
And as Naruto knew who all three of these individuals were, he was not looking forward to it. One of them was a pseudo-emo consumed with taking the life of his elder brother who disregarded anyone and everyone else as a nuisance, and the other was somehow even worse- a fangirlish banshee obsessed with said emo-boy, whose fangirlish tendencies often bordered on outright obsession, and the third, since Naruto had failed the graduation test- would be him.
The only person he would not have a personal problem with would be the sensei of this team- Hatake Kakashi.
He was the only logical choice as out of all the viable candidates, the Hatake was the only with both a Sharingan and decent sealing skills, both abilities which were a minimum qualification for this specific unit.
What he would have a problem with was, the man's infamous tardiness. Naruto had known the man practically since birth, and although he loved him like an elder brother, he had heard too many stories of the man's unpunctuality when it came to non-shinobi matters. He hoped that this would not extend to his team, otherwise it would make an already difficult situation unbearable.
Speaking of the devil, he spotted a small object sticking out of his couch. Concentrating on it, he noticed that it was a bright red book mark. Sighing, he removed the book mark out of its hiding place, viewing the scantily clad girls on the bookmark with distaste. Seriously, did adults have no sense?
It was a waste of time to read this crap anyway, but to try to coax young teens into this nonsense was juvenile.
"Okay, you got me" he called out into his apartment.
A scarecrow like figure revealed itself this moment, almost detaching itself from the coat hanger.
He dusted himself off and waved his hand "Yo."
Naruto facepalmed in reaction. The man before him was the foremost of ninja, surpassed in their village only by the Hokage himself and an elite few others, and he put his tremendous camouflage skills to use by trying to brainwash kids into reading smut.
The man mistook Naruto's exasperation as dejection and tried to console him "Oh don't be sad Naruto, you're rapidly improving. Last time it took you more than five minutes before you realised I was here and you were almost butt-naked."
Naruto flushed pink "Shut up! Stop trying to sell that porn crap on me you pervert!"
The man chuckled as a response "Run from it. Hide from it. Your lust will arise."
Any other person would've been creeped out from this, but Naruto was used to such eccentricities from the man since he could remember.
"Besides" the silver-haired man continued "your conception is the source material for one of these priceless pieces of literature."
At this point, the young blonde's entire face had gone tomato red, and to prevent his head blowing up from the information it was receiving he clamped his hands over his ears to stop his head from blowing up into smithereens.
"Enough" he hissed, his own voice barely audible to him.
To quickly change subject, he glared fiercely at him "You better not be late, otherwise..." leaving the sentence unfinished so as to send an ominous message.
Kakashi winked with his one visible eye "You better hope so", before saluting him and shun-shining away.
Naruto shook his head and went about his daily activities, and after cleaning up was in a a bit of a dilemma- what to wear?
He absolutely loathed the orange eyesore he had worn for the better part of the last six years, but had understood its importance in giving him the mask of a dimwit- as he was not yet a shinobi yet and still under the jurisdiction of the civilian council who were always looking for ways to make his life as difficult as possible.
Now though, the headband atop his head officially made him a ninja, and under the Hokage.
He much preferred his mission gear, or the black trousers and grey shirt he wore at home.
Wearing this to the academy today would certainly raise a few eyebrows today, an occurrence which was already going to happen as he had failed the theory exams. No, it would only increase suspicion, and Naruto had long had the feeling that a few of the more observant students like Shikamaru and Shino had sensed something was amiss.
In the end, he went with his usual orange eruption deciding that, once he was in his three-man cell he would do as he liked, as there would be reduced contact with his current classmates.
Konohakagure no Sato Shinobi Academy
Just outside the entrance Naruto paused; taking one last good look at it. He may not have had many fond memories of this place, but he had learned about the human character in these classrooms, by observing students, teachers and even janitors- what motivated them, their goals and fears in life.
These things may seem trivial, but he had learned from the stories of his elder brother-like figure just how significant these details could be.
After a moment, he walked inside in the direction of his classroom. From the other side, he spotted one Yamanaka Ino walking in his direction. "Talk about a headache" he sighed to himself.
She too saw him, and she neared him Naruto could see a frown on her face.
"What are you doing here?" she asked accusatorily. Not even bothering with a reply, he just entered the class and didn't look back even once.
Inside, the whole class was abuzz with anticipation, and in the case of the members of the 'Uchiha Sasuke Fan-club', nervousness. After all, there was only one Sasuke-kun and there were so many of them. The chances of any of them being with their beloved were slim.
Of these 'lovely ladies', two were currently locked in a race for the most important event of the day- sitting next to Sasuke-kun.
Ami was just about to win when her hair braid was yanked backwards and she slipped on the stairs. Outraged, she got up to give her rival a piece of her mind, who was currently sliding up to Sasuke-kun, flashing a smug smile on her ugly mug.
"What the hell Forehead, that was a cheap shot!" she raged.
She received a tongue in return "All is fair in love and war Ami-pig."
Just as she was about to jump atop her rival and tear a new one, she heard the voice of their instructor "Now now everyone, let's settle down."
Naruto went towards Iruka-sensei to discuss something, leaving Ino rooted in the same spot. 'The nerve of that loser!' she raged mentally. '
Who the hell does he think he is to just ignore me like that?!'.
Unable to forget the perceived insult, she marched her way towards the fellow blonde, who seemed to be engrossed in conversation with their sensei.
"I asked you Dobe" she said out loud, drawing the attention of the entire class now, with the obvious exception of the three, sorry four creatures at the back including Akamaru; and all of them were pondering the same question she was about to ask "What are you doing here?"
In response, the idiot sighed in exasperation, as if she were not worth his time. This enraged her even more. To be ignored like she were insignificant deeply insulted her, especially coming from someone like him!
As he went to take a seat, she moved her body ahead of him, blocking him off.
He looked at her with bemused eyes, like one would at a pet about do something interesting.
"You didn't answer my question."
"And?" finally, at least he hadn't lost use of his vocal cords since he failed the exam yesterday.
"Well I want an answer!" she demanded, with the petulance of a five-year old at a candy store. He pointed to the hitai-ate fastened to his forehead as a sufficient answer, and moved off, not even looking back at her, to the stares of all his classmates, yes, including the remaining Uchiha.
Naruto walked up to his usual spot, next to Choji and Shikamaru, and right behind Kiba and Akamaru. Almost as if on cue, Choji just finished his bag of chips, and turned towards his bag to remove his bag of sweets, when he noticed an orange jumpsuit in front of him. He looked up to see Naruto, and almost spat out the chips of his mouth "Naruto, I thought"..
At the mention of the Dead last, Kiba turned around sharply. Dumbfounded, he stood up "What the hell are you doing here dobe?!
Naruto rolled his eyes at the short attention span of the dog-nin and walked past him.
This did not go down well with the Inuzuka heir, who lashed out a paw and grabbed Naruto by his elbow. He was about to give the loser a piece of his mind before all the air went out of his lungs.
The look on Naruto's face was worse than anything that Kiba had ever seen before, yes, including that one time he had gone to sleep with the tap on and had been woken up with a shoe-full to his mouth courtesy of his mother.
No, this- this was almost evil, demonic and a bunch of other fancy terms Kiba didn't know.
There was just something totally wrong about the expression on Naruto's face, as if he had wanted Kiba dead. And if he was being honest, at that point in time Kiba wasn't totally sure that Naruto wasn't capable of doing just that.
Not realising Iruka-sensei was calling out to him, Kiba felt a gentle tug on his sleeve. He jerked out of whatever had fixed his eyes on Naruto, and looked over to see Choji prodding him.
"Oi, Iruka-sensei has been calling out to you for the last 20 seconds. Where was your focus?"
Kiba looked down to see Iruka-sensei giving him that classic 'Disappointed Parent/Teacher' look. Kiba quickly removed his arm from the blonde boy and retook his seat.
Naruto continued to his spot and settled himself down, and unbeknownst to anyone, was struggling to hold in a laugh. 'Now that was funny. The look on Kiba's face had been priceless.'
He hadn't intended to frighten the Inuzuka so much, but it was the second time he had been accosted by someone in 5 minutes. Enough was enough.
Besides, Kiba was a good friend of his, or as close to a friend he had around his own age.
After settling down in his seat, he glanced at the front of the class and saw the Yamanaka girl giving the doe-eyes to Iruka-sensei.
And for some odd reason, their instructor's eyes scanned over Naruto and gained a conspiratorial quality, which forced Naruto to cross his fingers and hope for the best...
Up at the front of the class, Iruka was setting up his desk, making sure he had everyone's papers ready.
Once he was finished he looked up, intending to address the class.
Instead, he saw the face of young Ino looking up at him almost expectantly.
Refraining from frowning, he addressed his student "Why aren't you in your seat, Ino-chan?"
"Um, because Ami is there."
Indeed, Ami was in Ino's seat, right next to Sasuke-kun. Looking around elsewhere to see an empty seat, he spotted something. The spot next to Naruto was empty; or would be if he kept his bag down.
Fighting down his professionalism for once, he bit back a grin and looked back to the girl. "Well Ino-chan, there is one empty spot."
The girl sighed in relief, and followed her sensei's line of vision to the available seat.
Her mouth agape in horror, she jerked her neck back and shook her head profusely "Absolutely not Iruka-sensei" she protested, "Anywhere but there."
"Tut-tut Ino-chan" Iruka shook his head.
Ino glared back at him in outrage and pointed a finger in his face "You're enjoying this aren't you?". His smile was all the confirmation that she needed to know his answer.
Iruka took out a sheet and pretended to read it.
"Well you know the rule Ino-chan: last one standing.."
"Is the only one in detention" Ino groaned, finished the proverb for him.
"And that will be you if you're not where you're supposed to be by the time I finish reading this paper."
Accepting defeat, Ino turned around and gazed reluctantly at her seat, before begrudgingly moving there.
Iruka had to disguise his snort as a cough as he saw Naruto's look of dismay. Looking at the two, he thought to himself 'They'd make a cute couple' before shaking the thought away and getting back to his work.
Naruto became increasingly apprehensive as the Yamanaka heir moved closer and closer. He was already going to have an annoying 'kunoichi' on his team, he had no need for another one.
His suspicions were confirmed when she stopped next to him and turned around to face him, hands on her hips.
"What are you doing here" he said out loud, maintaining his policy of 'no eye contact'.
A tick appeared on Ino's forehead, having understood that he was trying to rile her up; and that to her chagrin, it was working.
"What do you mean what am I doing here? What are you doing here?"
"This is my spot. It's where I've always sat."
"I know that you idiot. I mean what are you doing in this classroom? You failed the exam."
"That's none of your business. Now move, you're blocking my path."
'Who the hell does this guy think he is?!' Ino protested to herself. There was no way she would give in to the demands of a loser like him. All her carefully built up social standing would diminish quicker than Choji could get through a bag of chips!
Fortunately, she was saved from her dilemma by Choji himself.
"Don't fret guys. Naruto will just keep our bags down and you can sit down."
Naruto raised an eyebrow "He will?"
Seeing the imploring look on his friend's face, Naruto desisted and did as ordered.
Once this was done, they settled in and listened to Iruka-sensei talk about their responsibilities as shinobi.
Droning him out, Choji turned to Naruto "Hey man, what do you think the teams are going to be?"
Naruto was about to give a generic confused answer before being rudely interrupted by Ino "Stop talking Choji, Iruka-sensei is saying something important."
Rolling his eyes, Naruto replied anyway "I dunno man, I just hope I don't end up with Uchiha prick or that pink-haired harpy."
Ino was positively furious now. No one got to say that about Sasuke-kun! And she may be rivals with Forehead, but the hell if she was going to tolerate anyone else insult her!
"Shut up you Dead Last! Don't talk about Sasuke-kun like that. And Forehead either."
As consistent with the theme of the day, Naruto ignored her and continued talking to Choji anyway.
That was it.
This was the last straw.
Disregarding every instinct in her body that screamed NO! she thrust a hand out and grabbed his orange collar; and then the world turned black...
On the other side, Naruto couldn't believe she'd had the nerve to do that. He'd never let anyone do that, and sure as hell not a pompous, self-serving, vain arrogant princess like Ino Yamanaka.
Oblivious of her condition, Naruto decided to give her the 'Bright Eyes' as well.
"Stop."
Naruto froze his head in mid-air. Narrowing his eyes, he looked toward the giver of the order.
"What is it Shikamaru?"
The pineapple-haired boy gazed at him for a moment, as if pondering how to express himself.
"You're being troublesome" he finally decided. "Both of you. Switch places with Choji."
Choji looked in-between them, catching up to the tension in the space.
"Ye-yeah man, let's switch. I'd like to listen what Iruka-sensei has to say to."
Naruto chose to listen to them and soon again, the three of them went back to chattering amongst themselves.
As for Ino, she didn't think she could erase what she had just seen. Or heard. Or FELT.
When she had grabbed his collar, she'd felt this...presence.
Her mind was too jumbled to be able to coherently acknowledge what she saw. All she felt was this deep-rooted feeling of foreboding, this-this ominous presence lingering in the background, just waiting for the right moment to strike out and devour her.
She had never experienced as much fear as she had than in the moment she those eyes! Those gigantic eyes!
They oozed of malevolence, and yet somehow she doubted it was human. It seemed to menacing and too large for any man.
The rest of the world seemed to be pass by her, and she had no way of escaping that...hell, unable to escape.
And that was what had terrified her. That paralysed and powerless feeling of the unknown, no matter how much she tried she didn't think she'd ever be able to rub it out of her skin.
'Just what are you Naruto?' she whispered to herself. She was glad that Choji was sitting in-between them. Anything to be away from that...sinister being. When her sensei came, she was all too glad to leave, hoping to never have to experience that again, or be this close to Naruto.
Time would tell how wrong she was on both those fronts.
3:00 PM
Sasuke was annoyed. He'd never felt this way in 3 years, not since...since HE slaughtered his family.
After that day, Sasuke had forsaken everything else, and consumed himself with one goal, on one path without any deviations.
And somehow, someway, someone he did not know and had never even seen, had managed to piss him off.
The day Sasuke unlocked the Sharingan, he was going to go after this man, as soon as he had finished off the other...
Five hours. That's how long he'd been stuck in this room with that insufferable banshee and that Dead-last loser.
Speaking of the Dead-last, Sasuke was intrigued to say the least of how different he seemed. And all of this within a day too.
Not that he'd ever admit it to anyone, even himself.
He saw him still at the end of the class, not having even looked at anything apart from a book he had been reading.
Usually he wouldn't pay a second glance if anyone else had done that, but when Naruto was that someone, it certainly raised a few eyebrows.
Next to him, the unendurable Haruno Sakura too had a book open, on some stupid paper art called origami, which with Sharingan or no Sharingan, Sasuke could clearly see she was pretending to read, having seen her peep at him nervously out of the corner of her eyes every now and then.
If that is what his team was going to be like, he'd be best off alone by himself. He didn't have the time for these weaklings to catch up, not when he had a much more important task at hand...
He was displaced from his brooding by the jingling of the bell atop the classroom door, signifying that someone was coming through.
Sakura was bored. She'd been sitting idly, reading Do-It-Yourself Origami for over 4 hours now. She loved origami, she really did- but there's only so much she could read before boredom set in, and that was what had happened.
She'd been secretively glancing at Sasuke-kun every now and then, only he had been staring at the windows each and every time.
That only endeared him more in her heart. She liked to think his could-shoulder treatment was just his way of saying that he was well...shy.
Not once could she remember her Sasuke-kun making crude, illiterate jokes like the other boys.
He was always respectful- well by being detached as possible.
Still, she admired that.
Once upon a time, he wasn't as disconnected as he had been since the...incident.
Back then he was polite, funny even. He had saved her from some bullies once, who incidentally turned out to be his elder cousins, who had been teasing her relentlessly for her bubble-gum pink hair.
That was amongst Sakura's favourite memories.
Speaking of the past, there was another thing bugging her: her other teammate.
Sakura would confess privately that she was never kind to him, or knowledgeable of his life- but even she knew that he was quite probably the most thick-headed person in the village.
And in the blink of an eye, he had seemingly transformed into this ordinary person, if only a bit solitary.
Something was amiss. People didn't just change overnight. Not unless there was a considerable cause, or the other more unlikely factor- that they had never changed, only hidden their real self. And she couldn't even begin to think why, and more importantly how Naruto was capable of pulling it off.
She glanced back to take a close look at him, and saw him looking at the door. Following his eyesight, she saw the door slightly ajar, and the person who shuffled in could only be described as the most bizarre looking man she had ever seen.
Even Sasuke was at a temporary loss of words. He was of course aware of the secretive nature of shinobis, but the man standing in front of him seemed more like an oddball than a professional killer.
Spiky silver hair that defied gravity, a slouch so casual it gave the impression there wasn't a spine supporting it, a mask concealing his lower mouth, and a hitai-ate slung over his left eye, meaning the only visible part of his face was his right eye and ear.
Most damning of all though, was the book the man was engrossed in. Sasuke realised this to be one of those filthy adult comic books that some of his clan members had used once upon a time, and he didn't appreciate the implication that that trash was more important than he was.
Sakura seemed to recognise the book too, how he did not know or care to find out; and she too was far from happy- being a member of the female species she clearly did not appreciate the objectification of women.
Only Naruto seemed unfazed- almost as if he were used to this. That was another new mystery about him, and Sasuke could've sworn Naruto was looking at the man with part admonishment and part admiration.
He shouldn't have been. To the best of his knowledge, Naruto was an orphan with no next of kin, his parents having died in the Kyubi Attack with no relatives to take him in.
For whatever reason, he was ostracised by most of the village and had no significant relationship in his life.
Then who was this person that evoked such a reaction in Naruto, caused him to look at the man as if he were family.
And why was Sasuke bothered by it so much? And that was something he didn't like. That Naruto was at the centre of his thoughts.
Their sensei finally shut his book and looked up at them.
"My first impression of you is... I don't like you. Meet me up on the roof."
As soon as he said those words, the man seemingly disappeared into thin air, leaving the faint scent of leaves behind.
Sasuke stared at the spot where the man had just stood for a moment, before getting up and heading towards for the stairs, not caring to wait for his new teammates.
Sakura stared dumbfounded, her eyes the size of golf balls and her mouth elongated like a pufferfish.
Was it just a trick of the light, or did that man vanish into thin air? And what was that odour of trees? She would've been rooted to her spot for the rest of the day had she not seen Sasuke move past her to the door. She saw him exit the class, presumably heading for the roof.
And in all this time, not once did he look back at her- and that stung. That sting was enough to jolt her out of her astonishment, and she too decided to make for the roof.
Taking a cursory look behind to see if Naruto was following her, she saw no one. To her puzzlement, one of the windows was latched open. Resolving that he must have went ahead while she was in a daze, she thought nothing of it and left.
Outside the window, Naruto facepalmed. 'One is too self-centred, and the other too oblivious. Kami help me.'
Sasuke grasped the door handle, holding onto it for a moment, hearing the faint 'tik-tok' of Sakura's sandals behind him, and opened the door.
A miniature silver comet careened towards him, and it was only due to his heightened senses that was able to dodge in the nick of time.
The projectile skimmed past him and struck Sakura's elbow. She staggered back and gave a howl of pain, clutching her arm desperately, struggling to hold back tears as the pain reached unbearable levels.
He grabbed his kunai out of its upholstery and cast it back, hoping to strike the belligerent.
To his embarrassment, the man from earlier came into view, twirling Sasuke's kunai in one hand, fiddling through the pages of his book with the other.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Sasuke glared at the man.
He looked up, almost in surprise, and stored his book away. "Oh, so it was you guys. You certainly took your merry time."
Sakura struggled in after him, having guessed who it was that had attacked her "Why did you attack us sensei?"
His right eye blinked in confusion, "Sensei? Why yes, you must mean me! I'm sorry, where are my manners? Please, take a seat" and he shooed them toward the backside of the roof, where Naruto was awaiting them.
"How did you get up here?"
"Fire exit" Naruto answered, cocking his head behind.
Of course, Naruto had in truth walked up the wall, but what his teammates didn't know wouldn't hurt them.
Sakura made to sit down on one of the ledges, and as her body shifted weight onto the ledge the entire object shook.
"Tut-tut" their sensei shook his head. "That's the second time. You know what I do with people who fall for my traps twice?"
"Wh-what?" Sakura stammered nervously, apprehensive of the punishment she was about to receive.
The silver-haired man's mask stretched upwards, signalling he was smiling, "I give them a nickname".
"Oh" Sakura realised, thinking that wasn't so bad, which was her mistake.
"Taking into consideration your unique physiology, I have made up my mind. From this day forth, you shall be known as Princess Bubble-gum!"
Sakura would've cried injustice if the man hadn't spoken over her. Ignoring her protests, he turned to Sasuke "Yo Duck-hair. Why don't you introduce yourself?"
"Isn't it courtesy to tell someone about yourself before asking them to? And what you want to know about us?" Naruto interjected.
"Fine" the man waved him off, before leaning onto the wall.
"I am Hatake Kakashi. I have no intentions of telling you my likes and dislikes. I've never really thought about my future dream. As for my hobbies, I have many." and then looked at Sasuke expectantly.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and kill a certain someone".
"That's pretty intense. Bubble-gum, you're next".
"Well, I'm Haruno Sakura. What I like... I mean, who I like is..." she shyly sneaked a look at Sasuke; "My hobby is origami. My future dream is.." another glance at Sasuke, "And my dislikes are people who mess about and don't let people be in silence" and this time she took another secretive glance, but in Naruto's direction, who saw and duly ignored her.
"Take us home Scarface" Kakashi instructed to Naruto.
"Uzumaki Naruto here. I like instant ramen, but what I like even more is the ramen from Ichiraku. What I dislike is the three minutes after pouring hot water in the instant ramen. My hobby is eating and, comparing ramen. And my future dream...is to find inner peace".
Neither Sasuke nor Sakura knew what to make of Naruto's last statement, having never seen this side of him before. And so an uncomfortable silence grew on the group before Kakashi dropped a bomb on them:
"What if I told you that you aren't genin yet?"
"What?!" Sakura erupted, and even Sasuke stared -blindsided by this revelation.
"But we passed the academy test sensei" Sakura protested.
"That was just a smokescreen, to select the 27 candidates with the best chance of passing. The real test is conducted by the Jonin senseis. Of the 27 candidates, only 9 will be chosen. The other 18 will be sent to the reserves. In other words, these tests have a failure rate of 66 %."
"What are the reserves?" Sasuke frowned.
"All the prospective genin who fail the test to form a unit, are sent to the reserve squads. They are Konoha's back-up ninjas so to speak, and actually form the largest part of our workforce."
"So what test do we have Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.
"I'm glad you asked" Kakashi eye-smiled, and Sasuke could've sworn a dark shadow passed over him. "You have a survival exercise. Be sure to bring your complete set of ninja tools. We meet at 5 in the morning. Report to Training Ground 3."
Kakashi got up and whipped out his book, exiting the roof. Just as he was about to open the door, he stopped and turned his head up "And you'd best skip breakfast. Or you're likely to throw up."
This threw all of them off-track. It had been drilled into them since the first day of the academy that nutrition was a must for shinobis. And Sasuke didn't like the tone in which he had given the order, as if it weren't actually an order, but more a trick question.
He looked towards Naruto, who seemed to have reached the same conclusion, but Sasuke had the nagging feeling that his teammate knew more than he was letting on.
Sakura was in a dilemma. Yesterday she was a fresh genin, and today she was neither a genin or an academy student. And the only way to become a genin was to pass a survival exercise- for which they had been told not to eat anything beforehand.
That didn't make sense to her. How where they supposed to perform on an empty stomach? She turned to her teammates with these conundrums "Hey guys, you don't think Kakashi-sensei really wants us not to eat anything do you?"
"I don't know Sakura" Naruto shrugged, "the message sounded pretty straightforward to me."
"It's a trick" Sasuke asserted. "It wasn't an order, just a suggestion made to look like an order. He's trying to see if we can think for ourselves."
"Arigatou Sasuke-kun. How would you like to go dinner? Our first meal as teammates."
She turned to her other teammate, not wanting him to feel left out "you should come as well Naruto, all of us can go together."
"No" Sasuke declared. "We won't be coming to dinner. You can ask someone else."
He turned around to see her in the same spot. "Leave" he ordered.
She didn't need to be told a third time, and as she left she couldn't get rid of the feeling she was being dismissed from something important.
"Why did you answer for both of us?"
"You knew it was a ruse. Why did you lie?"
"That was something she needed to figure out on her own. If she can't think for herself then she shouldn't be here."
Naruto stepped towards the fire exit to go home.
"You know him" Sasuke stated. It wasn't a question, but a confirmation.
Naruto answered without looking back "What makes you say that?"
"I don't need a Sharingan to figure out when two people know each other, least of all when one of them wears every emotion on his sleeve."
Naruto thought of an answer for a moment before settling on: "Don't take him lightly. Those porn books are another trick. He's one of the strongest jonins in the village. Oh, and get there before 5, it's an unknown battleground and we need every advantage we can get."
"Why didn't you say all this to Sakura?"
"She's still a pampered little girl without any knowledge of the real world. At this point she would only be a hindrance. She's not like us"
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "And what makes you think we're anything alike".
"I'll see you around Uchiha" Naruto parried back, before exiting down the fire escape.
'Yes you will Uzumaki, yes you will.'
Let me know what you think about the OOC personalities of Team 7. As much as I love Naruto, I've always had a quarrel with the dynamics between Team 7, and this is something I hope to alter in my story. Please comment, favourite, follow, and don't forget to Stay Safe!