KONOHA

We arrived in front of the BBQ saloon at exactly four-twenty-nine after midday. Temari and Kankuro were already there, waiting. “Hello again, Temari. Kankuro,” We greeted before looking around for the redhead. “Gaara couldn’t make it?”

“No,” Temari said siding up to us as she tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

“He was… busy,” Kankuro added. The shinobi took our other flank, essentially boxing us in. Noticing this, we partitioned a section of our attention towards monitoring the duo’s chakra. Sure, we were in the centre of the village and the likelihood of us being attacked was negligible, it still wasn’t zero. Similarly, we paid their assertions to be Genin no mind. There were no absolutes in the world, nor did we imagine ourself invulnerable—not even in the face of the so-called “junior shinobi”.

Gaara’s absence was an unfortunate turn of events. It would have been nice to have him around. The bloodlust in his scent was a rather curious thing; thick and heavy which chakra in a manner we had never experienced before. How we would have cherished the opportunity to investigate it in a non-combat scenario. Alas, after today, we doubted we would ever get such an opportunity again

Dispelling these thoughts from our mind, we glanced at the girl. From her posture, and the tension between herself and Kankuro, it was apparent that Temari was the only one eager to be there. It was a fortunate thing that human females found our current appearance attractive. We were well aware of the usefulness of having a pretty face and were always on the lookout for new ways to improve our appearance.

“Have you eaten yet?” we asked Temari, ignoring her brother in favour of speaking with her.

“No.” Came her reply, curt in a manner that suggested bashfulness. She reminded us of both Ino and Sakura, both of whom tended to behave in a similar manner whenever we went out with them on trips such as this. Strange things females were. Familiar in an unending myriad of ways, yet all so… varied.

“Well then,” we said, turning to face the building in front of us, “since we are already here, why not have some barbeque before we leave?”

“I would like that.”

“Kankuro?”

“Sure. Whatever.”

As agreed, we had a bit of barbeque before leaving to “sightsee”. At the end of the day, even with the associated risks of fraternizing with an unfamiliar group of shinobi, as well as the loss in the form of Gaara’s absence, we deemed the trip a reasonably significant success. After bidding the duo goodbye we made our way back towards our domicile. As predicted, Temari proved herself our most pleasing companion today. There was so much new information we needed to sort and put down in writing.

Oh, how pleasant!

***

A Week Later.

We arrived at the academy fifteen minutes before four to see our teammates waiting outside for us. “You’re late again!” Naruto shouted, jabbing his right index finger in our face. His digits stank of garlic and miso.

“No, I am not,” we replied, gently brushing the boy’s offensive appendage away. “You are just early. Also, were you eating with your bare hands? They stink.”

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“...No,” Naruto replied, his demeanour so blatantly suspicious it was almost amusing.

“Stop bothering Sasuke, Naruto,” Sakura chided. We turned to face her, nodding in lieu of a greeting.

“Good morning, Sasuke,” she said. “How was your night?”

“Fine. We’re all set, right?” we ask. The duo nodded. “Let's go in then.”

***

“Hey!” a voice called behind us. “You’re Sasuke, right?”

We paused mid-stride. Turning around, we gave the speaker a once-over. A boy, oddly enough, wearing a light green bodysuit, with orange leg warmers wrapped around his calf stood behind us. His hair was a shiny black bowl-cut, his eyes round and crowned with prominent lower eyelashes, and very thick eyebrows giving him a rather… distinct look.

“Yes…” we replied hesitantly, unsure of the reason he sought to speak with us.

“Hi. My name is Rock Lee.”

“...Yes?”

“You and me, here and now… Wanna fight?” he said, assuming a stance.

We looked at the Genin, then at the crowd of foreign, unfamiliar shinobi surrounding us, before turning back to face him in askance. “You are asking for a duel? Here?”

“Yes!” Lee replied vigorously. “I have heard much about you from my master! He warned me to be wary of you these coming exams!”

“...And you still wanted to have a duel with me? Here?” we asked, baffled still. Sakura stared at the fellow in confusion. For some reason, Naruto seemed to have taken offence at not being the victim of this unwanted situation. Sadly enough, even that was not unexpected.

“Yes! Your prowess intrigues me! I want to test the effectiveness of my techniques against the infamous…. Uchiha Sasuke. Our battle would be—”

“Oh, shut up!” A brown-haired girl, in a pink sleeveless jacket appeared behind Lee, interrupting him as she dragged him back to the other end of the hallway.

“But! Tenten!”

“Let’s go!” she said, cutting him off again. “I am sorry about him,” she apologised as she dragged her colleague away by the collar. We watched the bickering duo disappear down the crowded hallway before turning to face the Hyuga boy silently staring at us.

“What?” we asked, and without saying a word, he turned around and left in the direction of his companions.

“Why is everyone acting so weird today?” we mumbled to ourself.

“...I don’t know,” Sakura replied, still staring at the departing shinobi.

***

“...Next is Gaara of the Sand. Desert country. Six C-rank missions and two Bs. Wow! Very few rookie shinobi ever get a single B-rank assignment before graduating, much less two. Since he’s from the desert, I have less on him… But you want to know what’s interesting? He comes back from every mission… Unscathed! Without a scratch!”

We stared at the stack of cards in Kabuto’s hand, and for the first time in our life, we experienced a certain stirring in our guts. Greed, we realised.

“Ah!” Kiba smirked folding his arms. “Do Sasuke next!” he demanded.

Our gaze whipped around to face the mutt. “Please don’t,” we replied. Unlike most of the fools gathered here today, we would rather not have any data regarding us, no matter how irrelevant, up for public perusal.

But of course, we were completely ignored, Naruto and Kiba goading Kabuto on. “Uchiha Sasuke,” the older shinobi began, “the Evil Flame. Konoha. Twenty-five D-rank missions. Specialisations… Unknown. At age six… he was reported to have singlehandedly murdered a certain Fuu Yamanaka, an ANBU-nin from Konohagakure…”

A weighty pause followed.

“At age six… he was rumoured to have attained mastery of a high-level fire-style Jutsu with which he razed a fifth of the Uchiha district… At age six… he was rumoured to have activated the Uchiha clan’s unique Kekkei Genkai… The Sharingan.”

The hall had fallen silent, with every pair of eyes in the room turned to face us.

Shit.