-- YEARS LATER --
Growing up without a clan is troublesome, Sasuke mused hearing the whispers of the civilians as he headed to the academy.
The whispers didn't get to him as they did before however the names such as 'hellspawn', 'abomination' and such still filled him with sadness, although he didn't let it affect his mask of stoicness.
During the last three months he spent with his family, the civilians didn't even dare to nudge each other especially when his brother who had refused to take any missions throughout the last three months accompanied him.
Upon getting to his classroom, he was greeted with the loud and excited voice of Naruto Uzumaki, a child he truely began to notice after his clans massacre as the civilians referred him to the exact same way they referred him (and this confused him greatly because he could chalk up the civilians behaviour towards him for his looks but Naruto was a completely normal kid baring the three whisker marks on each cheek) jarred his sensitve hearing as he walked through the door, he frowned in displeasure and hurt as everyone (except Naruto) stopped talking and just looked at him in fear, as he passed Kiba seat, Akamaru whined loudly and cowed behind his owner who also shook like a leaf in absolute fear.
Fear brought about by Sasuke once losing control in a sparring match against Kiba and went primal, beating the kid over and over again until, the Hokage himself came and knocked him out. That fight had put Kiba in the hospital for three months and lead to Sasuke being restrained as he got sued by the Inzuka clan head, Tsume.
After a few minutes, the tension from Sasuke's arrival passed and everyone got back to chatting while Sasuke stared out the window, Iruka arrived and asked the class to settle down.
Predictably, no one heard him as everyone was chatting with someone, excited about the team placements. Sasuke's gaze skidded trough the room and he did a quick count of those present.
'The numbers don't add up. Odd.' He thought.
"SETTLE DOWN!" Iruka-sensei roared, using his Big Head Jutsu, obviously at the end of his patience. As the Chūnin moved, Sasuke noted the small stiffness in his movements.
'So he was still feeling that wound Mizuki gave him.' (Sasuke was aware of the forbidden scroll incident as it happened in the forest behind his house and no one knew that Sasuke was one hell of a sensor)
Silenced and a bit cowed, the class quieted down. Iruka nodded, pleased and cleared his throat. "First and foremost, I would like to congratulate you for graduating. Secondly, I wish to tell you, that now you are shinobi of Konoha and once you leave this classroom, you will be considered adults. Act accordingly. Your actions reflect on your team, on your village. And most importantly, your actions may mean the difference between life and death. I wish you luck on your journey, as shinobi."
Sasuke saw a few unsure glances between friends, some whispered softly about things he couldn't catch, but nothing more.
"Now, on to team placements. I will name your teammates and your sensei in numerical order."
Sasuke only half-listened, bored out of his mind as Iruka went from Team One to Team Twelve
"Team 13 is Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, your Jōnin-sensei is Hatake Kakashi. Your third teammate is a Genin from last year, Kurama Suzume. Now, please wait for your sensei to come and pick you up. I wish you all luck during your career as shinobi of Konohagakure," Iruka said and then left the classroom.
"How did you get an older teammate?" Chouji asked Naruto and for once, he wasn't eating his beloved chips.
"That's so unfair they have an older team member!" Kiba called, pointing accusingly at the boys although a glare from Sasuke shut him up, he turned away and shook in fear as flashbacks of the intense beatdown session he had with Sasuke came back strongly in his mind and stayed like that until his Jōnin-sensei came to pick him up.
Everyone was gone.
Every single team had already been picked up by their Jōnin. Except for Team 7.
"Where the hell is he?!" Naruto growled pacing around impatiently while Sasuke had his eyes closed and his brows were furrowed as he tried to sense their sensei... no such luck, he growled as he snapped his eye opened, sand already gathering in his anger, he sighed and diffused the sand watching with amusement as Naruto was mixing something in an iron bucket.
'Probably something he wants use for our sensei' he thought amused then he pulled out a single kunai as he sensed someone coming towards the room, the Chakra signature was too strong to be that of a genin or chunin and it seemed even stronger than the regular Jōnin but he knew that it was their sensei
"He's coming" He told the blond boy who looked at him and seemed to get it as he smiled evilly and put the bucket on the slightly ajar door.
When a few seconds later Kakashi opened the door, Team 13 (at least the boys) watched with way too much glee as the neon-orange paint (mixed with something Sasuke did not dare to ask about to make it sticky like glue) poured on the Jōnin. Kakashi's visible eye twitched in annoyance then widened as he saw a kunai racing towards his eye at high speed courtesy of Sasuke. He swapped places with a duster on the podium and nearly winced when he heard the sound of the duster getting impaled by the kunai and slamming on a wall down the hallway.
He looked at the boys with a deadpan look and Naruto laughed so hard he fell off the chair he'd been sitting on.
Sasuke wasn't laughing, but his expression was one of annoyed amusement that said 'you deserve every bit of that.'
Kakashi glared at them. "My first impression is... that I hate you. Meet me on training ground five in five, that's where your last team member is" He said and relished the utter confusion in Naruto face and disappeared with a swirl of leaves. Sasuke stood up about to use the shunshin when he noticed Naruto's confused and distraught expression.
"Would you like to come with me?" He asked and the blond boy looked up at him with a wide grin.
The two boys strolled into the training ground and saw their sensei leaning against a tree reading an orange book, meditating in front of him, was a girl, she had shoulder length brown hair and she was wearing a long sleeve black kimono-styled shirt that had a red sash holding it, blue shinobi pants and black ninja sandals.
Upon sensing their arrival, Kakashi closed his book and stood upright
"Sit down and introduce yourselves," He said, his words bringing the kunoichi to reality and she turned and saw her new teammates and flinched when she saw Sasuke, the 'cracks' on his body and his left eye scaring her.
The boys obeyed the order and joined their female teamate on the ground — curiously, with Naruto in the middle.
"Sensei," Naruto called, his tone unsure and confused, "What… are we supposed to say?"
"State your names, likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future," he explained. He got two deadpan, almost confused looks and one flat look in return, and he just barely resisted the urge to groan out loud. "Fine… let me start then. My name is Hatake Kakashi, my age is classified. My likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future are none of your business. Your turn, whiskers."
Naruto frowned but complied "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen — Ichiraku's is my favourite, pranking and reading. I hate the three minutes it takes for ramen to boil and My dream is to become the Hokage" He declared enthusiatically.
'You grew up interesting Naruto' Kakashi thought and turned to Sasuke "Your turn emo" and nearly shivered at the flat look given to him by Sasuke.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I like tomatoes, reading and training. I dislike arrogant people, people who judge others by their appearance and people who can't distinguish between bijuu and jinchuuriki. My dream is to repopulate my clan" He said rather expressionlessly then spoke again "Oh although my short term dream is to find whoever did this to me" he pointed to his eye and the lines that adorned his body "and make that person surffer so much that they'll be begging me for death" He smiled like a maniac and Killing Intent erupted from him scaring his other teamates who shuffled away from him.
Kakashi frowned deeply under his mask 'He didn't even mention Itachi, it seems that his hate is directed to who experimented on him' he sighed and turned to Suzume "Last but the least... ladies" she gulped having hardly recovered from Sasuke's KI.
"M-my name is Kurama Suzume" Her voice faltering in spite of herself "I like dango, sleeping and cooking, I dislike boys who think they're better because I'm a girl and... nightmares" She shivered at that "And my dream... I'm not sure yet" she shook her head and silence settled over the genins.
"Well this is an ideal team of Shinobi" Kakashi intervered looking at the children "Meet me here at six tomorrrow morning, we'll be having a survival run"
"A survival run?, we've already done that at the academy sensei" Naruto bawled
In response to that, Kakashi chuckled darkly.
"I find nothing amusing in that statement, sensei" Suzume pointed out.
"I'm sorry, it's just that out of the twenty seven students graduating from the academy, only nine pass the test given by their jounin instructors and the rest get sent back to the academy which means that only 33% of graduating students successfully become genin" he said happily watched their expression. Naruto's mouth dropped open, Suzume looked shocked and Sasuke just smiled.
"Then what was the point of the graduation exams" Naruto bawled when he had regained his wits.
"Ah that, that was just to elimanate the truely hopeless cases" He replied loving the incredulous expression on Naruto's face then added "I suggest you don't eat breakfast tomorrow or you'll puke" then stole one last look at their expression and disappeared in swirl of leaves leaving the genin of Team 13 (or at least most of them) stupified.
The three members of Team 13 sat there in silence for another long moment.
"I hope you two paid attention to sensei's words." Sasuke drawled standing up and looking out at the setting sun. "He suggested it. Arriving on empty stomach will only see you easily lost to frustration and, furthermore, weak. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, doubly so for shinobi. Do not skip it."
His others teammates looked up at him in shock then thought about his words and concluded him to be correct. Skipping breakfast was a stupid idea.
"But sensei said-"
"Shinobi Rule One, Look underneath the underneath. Shinobi Rule Two, always follow orders, unless those are to hinder your performance or they are to endanger you or your teammates." He interupted and turned back to his teammates and added "Kakashi-sensei's order can affect your performance so you're entitled to disregard them" He said calmly and they just stared at him.
He smiled and disappeared in a blaze of flames much to the suprise of Naruto and Suzume.
Naruto stood up and declared to beat Sasuke one day and offered to walk Suzume home and she grudgingly agreed.
Although none of them knew that it will eventually become a habit that lead to something else...
...