As he made his way down to his team's meeting point the next morning, Sasuke couldn't help but be a little surprised at himself. He was Uchiha Sasuke, the lone avenger. And he had reasons for it…
My foolish brother… If you want to kill me… curse me! Hate me! And live a long and unsightly life…
He had to get stronger. He had to kill Itachi. That was his mess to clean up and only his…
At least, that's what he'd thought. But Inoichi-san was right in that Itachi had deprived Konoha of the strength of an entire clan. Fellow Ninja, teammates and friends at least. It wasn't the same, not by a long shot, but… did that truly mean Sasuke couldn't accept their help? As long as he was the one to deliver the killing blow…
Run away… run away… and cling to your pitiful life.
Yesterday it had seemed so much clearer, but after a night to think it through… he wasn't sure anymore. About either side of the argument, to be honest.
And then some day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me.
But could he? Itachi had always been so much better than Sauske… and everyone had known that. Itachi had known. He had to have known with how their father had treated the two of them. Sasuke had been the spare. Even at a young age, he'd known that Itachi was the heir and Sasuke would always be second best.
And… it was hard to think past that. He'd tried, but, if he was honest with himself, he knew he always would come in behind Itachi. He could only hope for a miracle or for his supposed 'brother' to slip up enough for him to get in a decent shot.
But Itachi never slipped up.
If he wanted to kill Itachi any time soon, then he would need someone to help create openings.
When he thought about it like that, it all started to make sense again.
Besides, it was Itachi who wanted him to curse and hate and supposedly grow strong enough to test his 'brother' more…
And Indra-san was right in that that didn't make sense. Itachi had other ways to test himself, so why kill the entire family? And how? Sure, he'd been good, but had he honestly been that good? At 13? And if so, wasn't that just more reason for Sasuke to train with a team?
Yes, he finally decided. Yes, it was.
For the first time since he'd woken up an orphan at the age of seven, Sasuke felt a weight lift from his chest – a weight he hadn't even known he'd been carrying. The responsibility of avenging his clan had been something he would have happily carried with him for the rest of his life, however long that was. But that was the thing, no matter how willing he was, according to Inoichi-san (and Kakashi-sensei, and Indra-san and Iruka-sensei), he didn't have to. He just needed to find people who were willing to carry it with him.
Maybe Itachi had grown strong secretly hating everything around him… but Sasuke didn't want to be like him. So why was he taking that man's advice? He'd never really thought about it like that before.
Besides, even if he did try to go Itachi's way, and even if that was the only way to get strong in Itachi's eyes, it was painfully obvious to everyone who had ever known them that Sasuke wasn't Itachi. Perhaps it was time to stop trying to follow in his 'brother's' footsteps. He needed to do this his way, not Itachi's.
(The weight on his chest seemed to lighten even more… huh.
That… felt good.)
And for the first time ever, he was looking forward to training with his team. Well, kind of. More specifically, he wanted to discuss team tactics with Indra-san and then try for some practical application of some of the ideas he'd gotten yesterday. If he played his cards right, perhaps he could get his teammates to help him fight the older Uchiha like Kakashi-sensei had wanted them to fight him during their second genin test. While forcing himself to work with the other two specifically didn't exactly appeal to him, he did want to implement some of the ideas he'd spoken with Shikamaru about. He'd also come up with a couple of ideas of his own the previous night before he'd gone to bed. Although he'd likely have to heavily modify them for Naruto and Sakura now that he thought about it. They were, after all, the dead last and best paper nin of their class respectively. He had tentative hopes for Naruto now that his education wasn't being sabotaged (seriously, who did that to a future Konoha ninja?! Mizuki deserved whatever he'd gotten), but at the same time… it was still Naruto.
His enthusiasm plummeted whenever he thought about those two… but they would be what he had to work with, he supposed. At least for now. Maybe he should view this as a challenge? Hmm. Sasuke liked the sound of that. He started going over his teammates' current skill sets… and came up with nothing. No, seriously, the only thing that remotely set their team apart from the others of their class were the dobe's Kage Bushin and Sakura's ability to answer questions correctly. That was it. Nothing else about his teammates set them apart from his other classmates in any positive way.
Sasuke huffed in frustration and then shook his head. No, there had to be something that set them apart enough to be on Sasuke's – the head of the class' – team and not completely thrown out of the academy (although not for a lack of trying on Naruto's part…). But nothing came to mind. Nothing. He frowned as he realized he needed more information. Perhaps he should hide when he got to the meeting point? He could follow them and observe their training to see what, if any, new skills the two had developed. Yes, that sounded like a viable way forward. Then he could make accurate plans and—
A flash of light-colored hair drew him out of his thoughts shortly after passing the midway point. Years of looking out for Ino had honed his skills in that area at least. Sasuke wasn't sure he should be thankful that he saw his classmate's father striding towards him instead, wearing a smile that set Sasuke on edge. He briefly entertained the idea of dashing away and hiding from the older ninja. If Naruto could constantly escape ANBU, then surely it shouldn't be too difficult to hide from a Jounin… right?
After the initial pani— apprehension passed, his logical side pointed out how his last attempts against Jounin had gone: buried to his neck and humiliated by one, repeatedly beaten to a pulp by the other. Sasuke wisely chose to wait, albeit with a guarded expression.
The blond man greeted him cordially as he strode up to the genin. "Good morning, Sasuke-kun. I just wanted to let you know that there has been a change in plans for today. You are now scheduled to train with – or against, if you prefer to see it that way, I suppose – Team 8 under Yuhi Kuranai. Follow me, please."
Sasuke blinked in surprise and the young Uchiha barely got out a, "My Team—" before Inoichi cut him off, his smile growing larger (that did very little to put the genin at ease).
"I had Ino inform your teammates about the change, so you don't have to worry there. Now let's get going. We need to get there in the next ten minutes."
At first, Sasuke felt a pang of disappointment (small as it was – marginal, really) that he wouldn't be training with his teammates today, but then he thought about the skill set of Team 9 and figured some tracking focused exercises wouldn't be out of order, given his goal with Itachi. As annoying as the sudden change was, he could make the most of this situation.
So he nodded once, firmly, and then fell into step behind the blond Jounin.
At least it wasn't more mind-healing sessions.
XXX
The members of Team 8 hadn't changed much in the last few days, Sasuke noted with disappointment. From Kiba's rowdiness to Shino's stoicism to Hinata's withdrawn nature, he couldn't see how they could have possibly become anything more than what he remembered. Although, he had to admit that they also had their own skills and clan abilities that they hadn't been really allowed to use to the fullest extent in the academy. Not only did those clan techniques and abilities give them the potential to be much stronger than what he remembered, but they also made the three genin stand out when it came to their potential in tracking. Inazukas were known for their excellent hearing and sense of smell, Aburame had the ability to control bugs and then, of course, the Hyuugas' Byakugan. He actually wanted to see how well the girl could use those eyes of hers as there hadn't been much chance to observe her techniques before.
Sasuke had never heard of their sensei before she'd come in to pick them up on the day of their assignment. The woman he was introduced to seemed less jaded and more personable than either of the male jounin Sasuke had fought with in the last week. That might mean he had less likelihood of getting beaten down by her…?
This is the kind of pain you will go through on a regular basis if you wish to grow stronger quickly. Indra's words ran through his head and he almost found himself hoping she was stronger than she looked…
Somehow, that didn't strike him as a good way of thinking. He really shouldn't want to get beat into the ground…
"Hello, Uchiha-san," the Jounin Sensei said with a warm smile. "I am Yuhi Kuranai. I'm sure you remember Inazuka Kiba, Aburame Shino and Hyuuga Hinata."
"Hello," he said as he bowed to them. Shallowly. He would be polite, of course, but that was all he had to be.
Kiba frowned. "Sensei, what's he doing here?"
"It isn't unusual for a sensei to bring in other students for spars and the like," she replied patiently. "Uchiha-san was the rookie of the year, right?" Nods from all of her students, albeit Kiba's looked annoyed. Sasuke didn't roll his eyes, but it was a near thing. "Well, we're going to have him fight each of you today. Unlike in the academy, this will be a no-holds barred fight except for permanent maiming or worse, of course. You can use any style of Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, whatever you wish.
"At first we'll try one-on-one and then we'll see where to go from there."
Ah, so that was why plans had changed at the last minute. Yuhi-san had asked for him to help train her students. Sasuke wanted to scoff. He didn't have time for things like this… but a glance back at Inoichi let him know that he wouldn't be getting out of it any time soon. He repressed his annoyance as best he could before sighing and preparing himself.
Turned out fighting each of them with no holds barred (save maiming and death) was far different than the taijutsu only spars they'd had at the academy. Not that Sasuke hadn't known that but knowing and experiencing were very different, it seemed. For one, they each had their own strengths, and each spar turned out differently than he'd initially thought.
Kiba fought almost wildly and ferociously, his taijutsu heavily modified from the basic style the academy taught. Apparently he'd spent more time honing his clan style, the use of which was discouraged and frowned upon in the academy – something about the same basis to work from for each kid? Honestly, if Sasuke hadn't fought Naruto on a regular basis, he'd almost say Kiba's clan style was outright brawl-ish. It had little obvious structure which made it difficult to predict, but also left several openings. However, Kiba took advantage of those hits Sasuke got in, tanking them and using the resulting closeness to get in shots of his own.
Maybe Naruto would benefit from learning a style like this? He definitely needed more structure than whatever he currently had. Of course, Indra had been working on that with him, but there was only so much one could learn in a couple of days.
Sasuke still won that spar, but it was more difficult than he'd thought it could possibly be. Once Akamaru grew, they would be a formidable pair. For now, though, the ninken couldn't fight much and served mainly as a distraction. It even worked a couple of times.
The Uchiha hadn't felt that proud of a win in a long time. From the strange looks Kiba gave him when he thanked the Inazuka for the fight, he hadn't expected Sasuke to be cordial. Which was ridiculous. He could respect strength.
Hinata was next and Sasuke couldn't keep his grin to himself. He had rarely fought her before. He knew of the clan rivalries between hers and his, but saw little point in it (especially now) and had always hated how the teachers had seemed to keep them apart. Now, though, he could go all out. He couldn't wait.
Fighting the Jyuuken was definitely an experience, and he winced at the pain in his arms when he blocked incorrectly (which happened more often than he'd like to admit). The biggest problem from her was how she didn't strike confidently. Oh, she knew where her hit would likely land and would often prepare for any follow ups she would need to give, but more than once he saw her hesitate. He knew it was likely just her nature coming through, but it still ticked him off.
"Fight me for real!" he said a couple of minutes into the spar. She froze, looking at him with wide, almost terrified eyes. "You're hesitating! Stop looking down on me!"
He knew she wasn't… but he couldn't help but feel that she was nonetheless. It reminded him of…
No. No, he couldn't go there. Not right now.
To her credit, she redoubled her efforts.
He still utterly defeated her not a minute later.
Shino, on the other hand… Shino took him by surprise. Sasuke went in for an attack and the other boy seemed to be happy to play the defense. Then, only minutes into the fight, Sasuke realized he was lower on energy than he should be. He frowned.
The other boy tipped his head to one side. "You have begun to feel it. I can tell. Why? Because you have slowed down."
Sasuke paused at that, scowling. "What did you do?"
"I had several of my bugs land on you. They have been siphoning off your chakra since our fight began. You will not have enough stamina to finish this fight."
It was probably the most he'd heard the other boy say… and to be honest, Shino probably shouldn't have told him that.
He had to finish this quickly.
So, instead of continuing to fight with taijutsu, he decided to go for Ninjutsu, pouring a good chunk of the energy he had left into his great fireball technique. Shino dodged, fairly easily, but that was fine. Preferred even. Sasuke could only grin as the technique set the area on fire. It was enough of a distraction that when Sasuke threw shuriken at him and Shino dodged again, he didn't notice the ninja wire that wrapped around his legs and tripped him up.
Shino 's eyes widened in surprise and he looked down, then back at the all-too-near fire. That was exactly what Sasuke needed.
He used a kawarimi to get behind the bug user and knock him out (he was immensely glad that worked). Then he collapsed and could only watch as the fire he'd created inched closer to them. Thankfully, a large burst of water raining over the field (and Sasuke and Shino) put the fires out. Shino woke up with that water in his face, but he didn't seem angry at all. On the contrary, he seemed almost impressed.
Sasuke wondered why. He'd been the rookie of the year for a reason.
"Excellent job, everyone," Yuhi-san said with a smile as she clapped her hands. "I know some basic healing and will be looking at everyone before lunch. I know it's a little early, but you all obviously need it."
So Sasuke ended up sitting next to a quiet Hinata as Kuranai looked over all of them. Once she got to Sasuke, she tsked at some of the internal damage that had been done to his arms via Jyuuken.
"S-s-sorry, S-s-sasuke-kun," Hinata whispered quietly.
He frowned at her. "Why?" he asked, utterly perplexed.
"I… h-h-hurt you," she replied, her voice even quieter.
"You were supposed to."
She just bit her lip and looked away, troubled. He didn't know what to say to her so he looked up at Yuhi, who just shook her head. He wasn't sure if that was her saying to drop it or that she didn't know what to do either.
"I'd be more hurt if you didn't," he finally decided. Hinata blinked and looked at him in surprise. "I need to get better – stronger. I have to. If people keep going easy on me, I never will."
Eh, she could take that however she wanted. He'd spoken more than enough. At least she looked thoughtful. And Yuhi's expression seemed somewhere between surprised and extremely pleased. He didn't know why…
Team 8 was weird.
Then again, Team 7 was pretty weird too, now that he thought about it.
"Alright, I hope you all brought some bentos," Yuhi said with a smile as she finished healing Sasuke. Her way of healing had felt less… abrasive than Indra-san's. Her chakra had been… smoother? Calmer? Brighter? None of those quite worked but were close enough, he supposed. He wondered why.
"Sasuke-kun?" the older woman's voice broke through his thoughts and he looked up at her. "Do you have a bento?"
Oh. Right. He shook his head. He'd been planning on buying a couple of onigiri from a nearby convenience store.
"Well, it's a good thing I usually bring an extra," she said as she handed a box to him. He blinked down at it and then up at her. She seemed to expect something.
"Thanks," he muttered, embarrassed.
Her replying smile could have given Naruto's a run for its money when it came to pure sunshine. "You're welcome!"
They all tucked in and that was when Sasuke noticed that Inoichi wasn't there anymore.
"Where is Yamanaka-san?" he asked politely.
"He had to leave due to his job," Yuhi answered.
Sasuke nodded and went back to eating. That made sense.
"Still the rookie of the year, huh?" Kiba said suddenly… around the food in his mouth. Sasuke had to concentrate to not make a face. Even Naruto wasn't that bad… most of the time.
"Hn," he replied.
The Inazuka snorted. "Same as ever, I see."
"Not everyone likes to talk all the time," Kuranai said, admonishing. "That's not necessarily a bad thing."
Kiba snorted. "My mom says if you don't talk things out, it just grows inside. She says to say what's on your mind. Or to fight it out. That works too. But she says that isn't always a substitute for talking."
"That doesn't mean you should say what is on your mind all the time," the brunet woman insisted. "You can give away vital information like that. Or you can hurt a teammate, bolster an enemy…" she faded off pointedly.
Kiba pouted and next to him, Akamaru – who had been eating a lunch of his own – yipped.
"Traitor," the Inazuka grumbled.
Hinata giggled and even Yuhi's expression softened.
"Fine, whatever," Kiba finally said as he went back to eating his lunch.
Sasuke looked around at everyone there. They already had an easy camaraderie going that his team seemed to lack. Was this what he should be looking for in his own team? He thought back to his two teammates and had to suppress a grimace. He wasn't sure they'd ever have a camaraderie like this…
He wasn't entirely sure he wanted one…
And yet…
Hmm.
They finished the rest of their lunches in relative quiet.
Once they'd cleaned up, Kuranai announced the next leg of their training.
"I think, since Uchiha-san won all the spars earlier today, it's only fair that the three of you fight him as a team."
That took everyone back and Sasuke felt himself pale a little.
Well, if what Indra said was true, he'd be getting stronger today after all.
xXx
Running from these people was impossible.
Granted he'd known that escaping a team geared for tracking would be difficult but he'd thought he could maneuver enough to get to a more favorable position. Maybe split them up a bit? But no, they all moved together and did not leave blind spots for him to exploit.
So he'd resorted to traps. Unfortunately, they took more time to set up than Team 8 allowed him – well, traps that wouldn't be immediately noticed by one of them. He could only scramble around doing his best to avoid the members (and especially the small Aburame bugs that drained chakra) while thinking of a plan.
He finally went with a simple if layered trap of having a tree snap at them with some shuriken attached. This allowed the Uchiha to distract Shino enough that he was able to sneak up on the bug user again (he was so glad that had worked a second time). Hinata and Kiba reacted quickly, though, and while Kiba moved around to come at Sasuke's side, Hinata moved in directly. A decent pincer, he approved – or he would have had he not been the target. Sasuke was forced to reposition himself to keep both in his field of vision.
When the Inazuka moved for the actual attack, Hinata immediately rushed to get Shino out the way. Then Kiba managed to put himself in between the Uchiha and his teammates. Sasuke charged Kiba in a side to side fashion to both keep Kiba from being able to brace himself as well as keep an eye on Hinata behind the Inuzuka.
When it looked like Hinata had sufficiently moved out of the way with Shino, Sasuke feinted along back and then to the side before speeding right at Kiba, catching the other boy just enough off guard to allow Sasuke the positioning he needed to throw Kiba down. When he moved in to properly restrain his captive, his instincts screamed at him. Sasuke jumped back just in time to avoid a Jyuuken strike to the shoulder, though it hit his wrist instead.
Hinata moved much faster than she had earlier, which caught him by surprise. Unfortunately, Kiba had recovered enough to kick out and trip the Uchiha up, bringing him to the ground as well. Hinata followed up with a palm to the chest (without chakra, thankfully), but it did signal his loss in this spar.
He lay there looking up at the canopy above him for several seconds as his mind caught up with what had just happened. How had she done that? He'd hardly been able to even follow her movement! And why hadn't she moved like that in their one-on-one spar earlier.
"S-s-sorry, Kiba-kun," he heard Hinata say. "I was t-t-too slow again."
That did not sound like the kunoichi who had more or less won them the spar.
"Nah. You did fine, Hinata," Kiba reassured.
Before he could say anything else, though, Yuhi showed up, a bright smile on her face. "Well done, team. I have absolutely nothing negative to say about your tracking formation. That would have put a chuunin team to shame, let alone another genin team.
"However," she continued, her smile fading away, "it seems we will need to work on transitioning into your team battle positions and formations. Kiba, you were lagging behind and that was why Sasuke could get to Shino. Shino, you need to watch out from behind. Your hive can't always warn you on time. And Hinata… well, you were the MVP of the exercise, picking up slack when you needed to and making sure you fulfilled your roll. Excellent job."
Hinata's face turned bright red and she nervously tapped her pointer fingers together.
"Although, we probably could work on your speed, you did everything right today."
"Th-th-th-th-thank you… S-sens-sei…"
Yuhi grinned at them, then finally turned to Sasuke. "You did a fine job as well, Uchiha-san. This was just the training exercise my team needed and I hope you learned something as well."
Sasuke, who had just sat up, nodded at her but said nothing.
"Well! If you're okay with ending training for today, we could go grab a mission," the older woman suggested brightly.
Instead of the excitement Sasuke expected, Kiba groaned.
"Not more D-ranks!"
Oh… right. He'd read about those. It had somehow slipped his mind that his team would have to do those before they got any real missions.
Sasuke sighed as he rose to his feet and brushed himself off. While Yuhi-san told Kiba off, Sasuke approached Hinata.
"Why didn't you move like that before?" he asked.
She started and backed away from him, eyes on his. "Wh-what?" she asked.
"Before, in our spar, you had a hard time moving. Just now, though, I had a hard time even seeing you move. What changed?"
The girl's nervous finger tapping returned and she swallowed. "W-w-well… you were g-going to hu-urt Kiba-k-kun. You'd already h-hurt Sh-shino-kun. I… c-couldn't let that h-h-happen."
Sasuke just stared at her for several seconds.
"You… wanted to protect them?" he asked slowly. The thought seemed a little foreign to him.
"O-o-of course!" Hinata said. "Th-th-they're m-m-my team-mates."
They're my teammates.
Huh.
And that had given her such strength…
"Hn," he finally said and they fell into silence while Kiba and Shino continued to speak to their Sensei about the spar and their contributions.
"U-u-um… h-h-how is N-n-n-aruto-kun?" Hinata whispered, her face going bright red again. Which was weird. Why would her face take on the same color that some of the girls in the class had taken on when they'd spoken to him?
And then it hit him.
Oh.
Oh.
Team 8 really was weird.
"He's fine," Sasuke muttered. "Been training a lot."
Hinata's face softened into the most heart-felt smile Sasuke had ever seen. "I-I-I s-see. I'm so g-g-glad."
"Hn," Sasuke replied.
Before either of them could say anything else, Yuhi turned to them. "Thank you again for your help, Sasuke-kun. Hinata, would you mind leading the way?"
The Hyuuga girl nodded and she stepped forward. "G-g-goodbye, Sasuke-kun."
"Yeah, bye," Kiba said with a wave of his hand. Even Shino lifted a palm in farewell.
"Hn," he said with an acknowledging nod.
xXx
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