Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She was not ok. At all. 

Who would be ok after discovering that they are definitely not in their own body? Not this girl! Well, boy now. Is this normal? No! Why did she even ask that?

The moment she (he? No!) woke up, (s)he knew something was wrong. As the fog cleared from her mind, they found out exactly what was wrong, and he (It's she! Body means nothing!) was not liking it. Immediately, she (?) threw off her (his?) covers with a little difficulty figuring out how to move, and tried to run into the bathroom to have a panic attack. Problem was, her body did not want to cooperate. It meant that her legs tripped up because her mind remembered being several inches shorter, and the extra height got in the way. After stumbling (crawling) her way into the bathroom she tried to stop herself from looking at the mirror and why did she even go to the bathroom again? She was not able to stop herself from looking in the mirror and horror sunk in as she looked at her reflection.

Oh no, she thought, I'm hot...

And that was the perfect example of the wrong type of thoughts to have in this situation.

What stared back at her in the mirror was a 12-year-old boy with dark eyes, dark hair, dark clothes, dark everything besides for his milky-white skin. He had an angular face that looked like he's never smiled in his life, and she couldn't help the snort she let out at seeing his hairstyle. The face in the mirror became what could be called an amused expression, and hey, wait a minute, what's so funny? She went to wave to the boy and... his hand followed hers. 

Oh, she waved the hand in front of her face slowly, right, that's me.  

The hands in front of her were the same milky white as his (her?) face, but they were rougher.

And then it truly sunk in. She wasn't in her body anymore. She was he. Her life, her house, and holy shit her grades! She probably has average grades! No! She did not work for the whole school year to get straight A's just to have that taken away from her! Ok, so it's probably wrong that the thing she's most distressed about losing is her grades, but she worked hard for those!

At least she probably won't be repeating material.

Wait, this body has school, right? And I'm probably late!

Ok, he (has to get used to it) is totally having a sick day today, if only to get used to this body.

He doesn't have parents. Guess that's a curse that carried over to this body too. Actually, he doesn't have any caretakers. What happened to them? Oooo, he hopes it's something exciting! Like, maybe a serial killer! Or maybe a betrayal by their best friend? Yeah, maybe his moms best friend killed his parents because they had him, and the best friend liked-liked his dad and they considered that betrayal, so they snuck into the house to murder them while he was at a friends house because despite all the best friend didn't want to traumatize him, but daddy-dearest had a gun, so-

A knock at the door brought him out of his rapidly darkening thoughts. He walked (he was getting better at controlling the extra inches) over to the door and opened it to reveal a young man with straight white hair and a weird fashion style ( Mizuki-sensei... a small part in the back of his mind whispered).

Ok, act normal. Act like your totally whoever this person is and did not switch bodies with them. Don't show personality.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun. Why aren't you at The Academy?" Oh, so that's his name. He's Sasuke. Ok.

"Sick," Sasuke rasps, and he really does sound sick. Also, this school is attentive. Usually, if someone doesn't show up they just count it as an absence.

"Oh," The man (Mizuki-sensei) sounds concerned, "do you need to go to the hospital?" 

"'s just a cold. Don't think I can go to," He called it the Academy, so... "The Academy today, though." Sasuke is really lucky he was good at acting.

Mizuki-sensei (What a weird name) looked almost surprised, but by what, Sasuke doesn't know and says, "Ok... Just make sure to do your Kata's and stretching if you can handle it." and then closed the door.

I'm not being taken to crazy-people place today, suckers!

He laughs a releived laugh and starts going towards his bed because he does actually feel kind of sick, so he has to sleep, and then he notices something.

Wait-

Do I have to do mandatory PE in this school?

Chapter Text

Ok, cool. This is fine. He's in Naruto, as Naruto, and very dead in his world. Fine. Ok. Also, pre-Genin. Hoorah.

Can he quit without being suspicious? No, he wouldn't be allowed to anyways. He should go to The Academy. Yes. Good idea.

...Naruto (??) stops pacing around his apartment and puts on the classic 'Naruto orange jumpsuit' with the goggles before grabbing some cup-ramen (overrated) for breakfast.

Wait- where is the Academy?

Uh... Walk straight, take two lefts, walk straight again then turn right. And how the fuck does he know that? No time for questions, just go! 

He bursts through the apartment door and thanks whatever deity there is that he and Naruto have practically the same body type as he jumps over the railing, remembering the move from the parkour that he did Before.

He runs past, bumping into random civilians and spotting at least 4 shady things going on while he runs. He takes a sharp turn at the street that he just knows, don't ask how, is the right way. He follows this pattern, just going where feels right, and soon enough he sees the Academy, or at least what looks like it. 

No one’s outside, but he can hear the sound of voices talking inside the building, so he assumes that he’s late and why is he acting like this is totally normal?

No time just go, go, go (if you go fast enough you don’t have time to think about your problems)!

He walks through five (really, why?) sets of stairs before the weird instincts that have been guiding him tell him to turn right and Naruto (?) bursts through the door with all the grace of a newborn lamb. He overestimates the amount of force needed and he barrels head over heels into the classroom and as he’s nursing his new head wound to the best of his abilities-

“Uzumaki Naruto! Do you have anything to say for yourself?” and woah that's trippy. He automatically understands the words even though he was an English speaking American who didn’t touch the Japanese versions of the anime he watched with a ten foot pole.

“Uh, yeah actually,” what the fuck? How does he speak Japanese if his thoughts are in English? A mind filter? Actually, with chakra that’s entirely plausible. “I stayed up way too late last night and even my alarm clock wasn’t enough to wake me up. And then I went into that still-asleep-but-kinda-conscious mode and thought ‘I never get this much sleep’ and ‘oh no I’m probably late!’ And then I-”

“Ok, that’s enough, Naruto.” the scarred man said and that's Iruka, isn’t it? “Just make sure to get enough sleep on the day of the graduation exam; if you fail again we’re going to have to kick you out!” He threatens/warns. You can never tell with ninja.

That half-truth seemed to have fooled Iruka, and Naruto starts walking towards the seat that feels right. Because black voodoo magic. At least half the class is laughing at him and he notices something off. Didn’t Naruto sit next to Sasuke?

“Hey, Iruka sensei!” Naruto yells over the sound of the class, “Where’s Sasuke-” wait, didn’t Naruto always call him Bastard? Abort mission! , “-teme?

The class quiets down when Iruka speaks, because apparently everyone wants to know what happened, “He’s sick.”

It seems like the entirety of the class deflates at that. 

He sits down, and class begins again.

He was one day before graduation. He can work with that. Right?

Naruto can't pay attention to class, zoning out before Iruka even said his first word, and all he can think about was the whole situation with Mizuki. The thing is, he isn't exactly adverse to not having the shadow clone jutsu. Sure, it was useful, and it was one of Naruto's main techniques, but he isn't Naruto. He's just some random kid occupying his body, and the thoughts makes him feel a bit guilty. He just... up and kicked a person out of their home, ruining their chance at a future. It isn't right. But he'll have to deal with it, because he's Naruto, and he has to save the world. He doesn't have time for minor inconveniences like morals.

In the end, he decides that he didn't want the shadow clone jutsu. As much as he said that he needed to save the world, it can wait just a bit, can't it? Mizuki should be dealt with by the adults.

But not having the shadow clone jutsu meant that he has to work his ass off to actually pass the exam the first time.

Suddenly, he hears a very, very loud bell ring, and realizes that he zoned out through the entirety of class. Everyone was already gon.

Everyone except for two, Sakura and himself. Should he go over there? He wants to have a good relationship with Sakura for when they're on a team, but she looks kind of... out of it (and that's the understatement of the century, isn't it?). Oh well, maybe talking with him will enrage her so much that she'll snap out of it! He walks over with all of the joy that he doesn't feel and sits down next to her.

"Hello, Sakura-chan! Do you want to go get ramen with me?" He really can't deal with anymore ramen right now after what he had for breakfast, but it's what Cannon-Naruto would say, so, ramen?

"Mhm. Sure..." She says in a daze. She gets out of her chair and starts walking towards the door. That is decidedly not normal behaviour. Is she sick? Should he call a hospital? Is he going to kill a major character before his second day of being in the Naruto-verse because of his ignorance? 

He pats her shoulder to get her attention and asks, "Hey, Sakura-chan, are you ok? Are you sick?"

She stares at him with an unimpressed look, for an unknown reason, and says, "No and no, Naruto. What made you ask?" Oh good, she's not sick- wait, why isn't she ok?!

"What?! Why aren't you ok? What's wrong? Are you dying!? Wait- no, your not sick. YOUR BLEEDING, AREN'T YOU?! Do you need to go to the hospital? Uh, I think I have a first-aid kit somewhere-"

"No, Naruto. Physically, I'm fine. It's just the stress of the upcoming exam is getting to me and I need some time to unwind. Thank you for your offer to hang-out, I think it might help me." Sakura interupts with a smile so fake it physically pains him to look at and he has to do a quick once-over of himself to make sure that he isn't actually hurt.

"Ok! Though if you don't want to get ramen, I understand. We can do something else if you want to..."

"Thank you, Naruto. Really. How about we get ramen first, and then we can go from there?" His offer doesn't help her smile become more real, if anything, it makes it become more pained, if that was possible.

She turns and drags Naruto with her towards the door with his hand, and he makes a promise to himself.

By the end of the day, Sakura will have cracked a smile. Naruto's not giving up until she does.

"Hey, Sakura-chan? What's your favorite ramen flavor? Mine's Chicken." Naruto asks once they're at the ramen place (Ichiraku?).

"Hm? Oh, I like the Miso." Her voice is too timid for the Sakura that he's come to know when watching the series, though he guesses it's bound to be different now that he's not watching it, but living it.

"Cool! Miso is a close second for me, but it's just... chicken." He says with a goofy grin, hoping that his joy (He's surprisingly happy for someone who just go ripped from his universe, though maybe it's his coping mechanism) is contagious.

She looks at him seriously and says, "I can't fault you for that. Chicken is the best meat. Well, no, that's a lie. Steak is the best meat." Sakura is doing a good job at pretending to be normal, but she just looks so sad.

"What can I get for you two today?" The Ramen Guy, Teuchi(?) interupts.

Naruto looks up at the man with his best grin, hoping that it might win him free dinner, and says, "I'll have a Medium Chicken Ramen!"

"Miso, medium." Sakura pipes up.

"Wow, Naruto. You usually go for the extra-large and then ask for seconds. What's gotten into you today?" Teuchi jokes.

"I had extra cup ramen for breakfast this morning, so I'm not really that hungry." Naruto replies.

"Well, your order will be right up!" He disappears into the kitchen.

He then gets the brightest idea ever.

"Sakura-chan! How about after ramen we do some training together!" He'll get to test out how different the fighting styles are from his world to this one, get rid of excess energy so he can actually sleep tonight, and Sakura was never the best at Taijutsu so she won't be able to call out his probably-wack fighting style!

She looks like she's about to puke, but then her eye gains a calculative gleam and she looks the most positive that he's seen her, "Okay. Okay. I can do that."

(He failed. Sakura never even grinned; not for the entire day.)

Chapter Text

She is… sitting? In what? Where is she?

Her eyes are open, she realizes. She’s looking at a school desk. Did she fall asleep in school without her noticing? No, it’s the weekend. She has no school (she thinks).

Looking up, she’s greeted with the sight of a classroom, but oddly enough, it isn’t her classroom. Her classroom is… what does her classroom look like again? She can’t remember (Is this odd? Should it be? Why can’t she remember anything?).

That brings her back to the original question: where is she?

And that brings her back to the original answer: A classroom. Now that she looks closer, it looks… familiar, almost.

Mostly just panic inducing, but vaguely familiar.

A headache is beginning to form in the back of her head, but it’s not big enough to be a major concern as of now.

Why is she here? Why can’t she remember? Where is she? So many questions.

Her questioning stops when she spots a strand of pink hair drifting into her vision.

Why do I have pink hair…?

And then the questioning starts up again and is even more panicked. Did someone dye her hair while she was asleep? Or had she always had pink hair? Was she kidnapped? No, because then she would be tied up. Did she sleep-go-to-a-barber and get her hair dyed? No, that’s just crazy. What is happening?

Her headache, which has been slowly growing from ‘minor headache’ to ‘probably a migraine’ levels pulses beneath her eyes in a steady rhythm and she feels the urge to bang her head against the very convenient desk. Maybe it will knock her out and she’ll be back in the real-world, because this is very dream-like. A weird nightmare.

She bangs her head against the desk before she can decide not to, and knocks herself out with the force of the blow.

When she wakes again, she finally has memories. It’s not a lot, but she knows that she died in a plane crash, was an absolutely tiny 14-year-old, and her favorite food was Olive Garden (but for the life of her, she can’t remember her own name). And that’s not all! Her brain, for some unimaginable reason, has decided that the most important thing was a piece of fiction that she may have watched… ok, so probably a lot, but that's not the point! 

Sadly, her headache has the power of a thousand suns and she’s pretty sure she has a concussion, so the memories came with a price. A very painful price.

You know, sleeping sounds good . And then her hair occupied her vision for the second time and she remembered, hey, didn’t one of the main characters have pink hair? And that's why the classroom looked familiar! And wait, why was she there?

Once her ability to panic came back, she panicked, because she’s fairly certain that she’s Sakura. An amnesiac Sakura.

Fuck.

Iruka comes in and the bell rings about 2 minutes after she got her breathing under control, and now that she thinks about it, what business did Sakura have being here so early?

As the kids start filtering into class, Sakura waits, and waits, and waits for her possible-future-teammates to show up, but they never do. Neither of them.

Oh no. Did I accidentally kill them just by existing? Did I make an AU that killed them before they could save the world? Am I going to have to do it myself? 

She’s panicking again, because she can’t save the world! Hell, Naruto Sakura didn’t even save the world herself, and she was a badass! How is she going to do anything? What will she do? Is she going to die before she reaches the age of 15 again?

Her mind runs around, sounding a lot like this for the majority of class, only giving herself a break when they have a laughingly easy pop-quiz. After the pop-quiz though, she’s back with her thoughts. Her thoughts, instead of focusing on how things are going to change because Sasuke and Naruto are probably dead, focus on how they’re going to change for the even-worse, because she doesn’t know how to fight! Like, at all. Well, she’s pretty sure that she danced in her past-life (don’t call her out on it, she’s not entirely sure), so she has a mean kick and pretty-good balance.

Real question is: Can she use that to fight people who have gone through training for all of their life?

No. No she can’t. 

…

Wait a second.

How is she going to use chakra?

Double fuck.

Needless to say, when they get an hour-long study-break in between classes, she gets a book about chakra and hunkers down in a particularly nice looking corner and tries to learn all that she can about it.

When she tries to use chakra for the first time during the last 15 minutes of the study-session after speed-reading 3 small novels about chakra (eidetic memory is really useful during times like these), it’s… surprisingly easy. She tears off a piece of paper from one of the many books and tries to stick it to her forehead, and she gets it the first try. Maybe it’s like muscle memory, but for chakra? Yeah, probably (she can’t be that good at chakra control, though… It does feel a bit easier to control than it should. It feels like holding sand with your cupped fingers, while she’s read that it’s supposed to feel like holding water with cramped fingers. Not fun. But it feels fun? For her. What if having a second life affected her, because she has vague memories of not having it at all? How could she use this- no, not the time, Sakura)

She takes a book on the Henge and speed-reads that even faster (5 minutes, she’s still not sure she actually got most of the context but… whatever).

She needs to imagine herself as whatever she wants to be, the better the image, the stronger and more detailed, and if she pours more chakra into it, it would last longer. The faster you could conjure the image and work out the details, shaping your chakra into the shape that you want it to be and layering it upon the user. Technically, you could Henge another person into you, or someone that you know.

Well, I guess I’m lucky that I had a very active imagination before I died.

Sakura (it’s not like she has any better name) sends the book an apologetic look and tries to Henge it into Kakashi’s infamous Icha-Icha ( no way is she trying to do that on herself until she has the details worked out). She watches as her chakra reaches out and covers the book in a gentle-minty glow and gets to work trying to mold it into a perfect replica of Icha-Icha, and all of a sudden, when she’s done working out the details, it poofs into smoke and the book that she wanted is there. 

Sakura regards it with curiosity, and picks it up for inspection to make sure that she didn’t damage the book (She’s only known the librarian for an hour, but Sakura already knows that she’ll be dead by the time the hour was over if she hurt the books). Opening the pages, she reads the first few sentences of a random page and nearly throws the book away from her to stop whatever it is that’s going on with that book. After a few minutes to calm down she opens the book again, and what stares back at her…

Well, it’s what she would expect of Icha-Icha, something that she has never read. Ever. 

What the actual fuck.

And that, she decided, was enough for today.

When she gets back to class, she’s numb. Naruto and Sasuke are gone and it’s all her fault and everyone’s going to die, and she knows what to do but she’s too cowardly to do it- And this is why she decided to be numb, because if she’s anything else, she panics.

And then someone kicks the door down and Sakura feels like everything might be okay again, because that’s Naruto! The overwhelming relief that she feels at the sight of him nearly drowns out the panic, and guess what? Sasuke was just sick! The world might stand a chance after all!

(Her mind isn’t very convinced that everything is fine, it’s still convinced that Naruto and Sasuke are dead and that the boy that just charged in was an imposter. Sakura tries to ignore it.)

She’s emotionally exhausted and confused, wondering why she even cared. She’ll get to live for another 3, maybe 4 years, and that’s a lot. Why was she so distressed?

After class, when Naruto came to her and asked to hang out, she accepted because she wanted to know why she was so upset about the safety of a person and a world that she only knows through observation.

(Not because she needed reassurance, no. Why would she? Why would she want someone to comfort her after she worked herself into a storm over nothing-)

Chapter Text

“What?” She (wait- no, it’s he now!) said in horror because of what he saw. 

He was looking for books in his house to study with (he’s bored!) and…

…in order to perform the Great Fireball Jutsu, you need to do signs: Horse, Tiger, Serpent, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse and Tiger in order while bringing your chakra from your core to your mouth while changing the nature of it to fire.

If you do this correctly, fire should start coming from your mouth and into a ball…

What. The. Hell.

Breathing fire?! That goes against, like, every autonomy book that he’s ever read (which granted, isn’t a lot, but still!)! Unless, of course, Sasuke isn’t even human…

Well, that would be all kinds of messed up. 

I have got to try this out.

All you need to know about what happened is that Sasuke might be a pyromaniac, fish can fly if they’re hot enough,these trees can burn quite nicely, and he’s pretty sure the authorities were called at some point.

He’s also fairly certain that the authorities are also partially insane, given that they congratulated him for nearly burning down the whole forest, but who’s he to judge?

After ‘studying’ some more (he didn’t actually try to do anything else after the Flying Fish incident), he’s come to a few conclusions: Physics are guidelines, not rules, his family is absolutely murdered , everyone is insane (have you looked at their history? Insane), and after looking back on his day he’s found that he really needs some friends.

Well, this body might have some, but he repeats: Sasuke needs friends. Badly. Because otherwise (if the books are right, which- eh, debatable) he’ll become even more insane than he already is.

He shivers at the idea. People. He has to actively maintain relationships with other humans.

Well, it’s better than being insane, I guess.

He studies, he reads, and he wonders. He wonders what he’s going to do now, how he’s going to continue. How will Sasuke act like ‘Sasuke’ so that he doesn’t end up in the ‘T&I’? He asks questions ( how will I pass this ‘graduation exam’ if I don’t even know how to throw a punch?), and each answer that he comes to opens up more ( muscle memory? But how? How would that even work?) .

He reads, he studies, and he has a small crisis when he realizes he’s out of freezer meals only to find that they were in the back of the fridge, and he worries. He hasn’t worried this much since, well, ever. Sasuke spends his day familiarizing himself with the things that this world calls ‘jutsus’ (he really hasn’t learned anything from earlier), and then he wonders why the ‘Kawarimi’ is an Academy Jutsu. It is actual freaking teleportation. Hello, people?

The day passes, but it doen't help his growing anxiety.

Tomorrow, he thinks, will probably be the most stressful day of my life.

When he woke up, he woke up to a black cat screeching its head off next to his window. He promptly got a water bottle and threw it at the cat after opening the window, effectively getting it to leave.

Grumbling, he went to brush his teeth and realized that he had no toothpaste left, but that was fine, it’s not like he needed it anyways. His throat was bothering him, so he went to get water in the kitchen after he finished brushing his teeth, but Sasuke, like the dumb person that he is, threw his water out the window at a cat!

Getting a bit more upset, he went to the fridge to get eggs for breakfast, possibly the only thing that wouldn’t betray him.

Carrying his eggs to the counter to be cooked, his hand… slipped. And. He. Dropped. His. Freaking. Eggs.

This has to be a bad omen or something, right? He thought.

The thought was drowned out by a scream of rage that resonated throughout the whole house and would have probably disturbed the neighbors if he had any.

The morning kept going bad in similar ways, resulting in a very disgruntled Sasuke (partly because his hair just wouldn’t cooperate! Plus, these clothes are just… emo ).

He feels like he’s about to go into a full-blown panic attack, but he ignores it. Because if he ignores it and no one sees it, it’s like the urge was never even there in the first place.

Going to school, he tripped approximately 7 times, and he started to get an audience after the fifth time. Because of course, people had to see his embarrassing mishaps.

After hearing a… squeal(?) Sasuke’s body went into muscle-memory mode, automatically falling into a stance that reeked of boredom and arrogance. Is it a type of exotic bird that wouldn’t bother you if you showed no weakness? Odd, but reasonable compared to everything else.

“Sasuke-kun!” a high-pitched voice called out to him. It probably wasn’t a bird, and most likely a blonde girl his age. Probably a Yamanaka (Sasuke's books are very useful). He turned and grunted at the voice, silently panicking because this girl probably used to know him, what will she think of Sasuke now?

The blond beamed at him and started fawning over him while he acted a bit… stiff, would be a nice word for it.

When he was almost at the school and the girl still didn’t notice his changes, his anxiety let up a bit and allowed him to fully appreciate how annoying the girl was. It was obvious that she didn’t know Sasuke well, or she definitely would have noticed the change.

He picked up his pace, trying to lose the blond, but she only started talking faster and started trying to get his attention. Sasuke was visibly pained from this interaction, and he decided once and for all that this girl can not be his friend. Quickly, he spread out his ‘chakra’ and found a perfectly nice rock (just big enough to trip the blond; she’s right behind Sasuke) to ‘Kawarimi’ with.

As he heard a scream a few seconds later, he smiled.

Um… ok. This math is- surprisingly easy?

He looked down at the worksheet, surprised to be met with the hardest equation being 7th-grade math (they were 7th-graders, but graduation.) and not the hell that he knew as…

He forgot the name, but it was an unholy mix of algebra and geometry and it can go die in a hole.

But the point is, he finished about 5 minutes after the test (this was the graduation test?!) started, and he spent another 10 minutes triple checking his answers. Middle school, he remembered, should not be this easy! Like, at all! And they're graduating. From school.

Why?!

After that mini breakdown, he spent the rest of the test time ( 3 hours!) working on his ‘chakra control’. And he was trying to see the other’s answers just to make sure that he was right; that was too easy for a graduation exam. There was one kid who was right next to him that was absolutely failing the test. Sasuke almost felt bad for him; he seemed really motivated. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit and goggles, and he had blonde hair and blue eyes. 

You know, that boy could be my friend; he seems nice. And everyone knows that the best way to make friends was to help them and then pressure them into hanging out with you as payment. It’s how he got all of his friends in his past life!

…

You know, maybe that was why they hung out with him once and then avoided him. No matter!

Discreetly, he tipped his answer sheet toward the boy (a part of his mind called him Naruto), but Naruto(?) was too focused that he didn’t notice. So Sasuke tapped him on the shoulder. That got his attention, and soon Sasuke was staring face-to-face with him.

“Hey,” Sasuke whispered, “Look.” and he tapped his paper for emphasis. Naruto looked confused, like he didn’t understand what Sasuke was trying to do. Getting a bit more aggravated, he spelled it out nice and clear for him, “I’m trying to help you out here.”

Then he seemed to understand. His eyes widened in the picture of perfect innocence and he smiled so brightly it seemed that Sasuke might need sunglasses. But it seemed… almost strained. He’ll look into that later; he can’t have any friend of his being sad!

As he let Naruto cheat off of his answers, he made sure to cast a small genjustsu to make it seem like they weren’t moving from their positions. It was simple, and anyone competent could see through it (they weren’t moving at all, not even breathing), but it was one of the few that he was able to master before class. 

When Naruto was done, he uncast the genjutsu, and the rest of the test was fairly normal

Iruka-san (the teacher, but he’s not Sasuke’s teacher anymore. So -san.) called out to the class telling them that the test was over, and the kids immediately went berserk, rushing out the door like a herd of stampeding buffaloes.

Iruka-san was left staring at the nearly empty classroom, the only ones staying being the ‘smart ones’, consisting of a girl with pink hair and green eyes that looked an odd mix between determined and terrified, a shy-looking girl with purple (or dark blue) hair and pupilless eyes, a boy with a spiky high pony-tail and a perpetually bored expression, the boy’s friend with weird markings on his cheek and underwear on his head, and the kid with a collar even higher than his own that sports the darkest sun-glasses that Sasuke’s ever seen. Sasuke’s new friend also stayed.

“You can have your lunch break now,” the sensei said, exasperated.

The only ones that even moved were the pink and purple ones, the rest just pulled out their lunchboxes and started eating.

Chapter Text

The day has ended, and tomorrow is the day that teams get assigned. Surprisingly, Naruto passed all the exams (just barely, though.) It might be because he has slightly better chakra control than the Original Naruto did, or because he spent the entirety of the previous night studying for the clones. It is a bit of a bummer that he won’t be learning shadow clones, but he’ll do without it.

During the chaos of everyone being congratulated for passing, he got a glimpse of the swing that Naruto sat on in the show. It was more broken down than he thought it would be; the rope was so fringed that it barely supported the main part of the swing, and in general it looked unsafe. Yet, for some barely explicable reason, he felt a strange fondness for it. Like he was visiting an old childhood home. As he walked over to it, he noticed other things, like that it had worn blue paint and was impossibly close to the ground.

When he got there, he ran his hand over the rough wood of the seat. It was falling apart; some parts of the wood were rotting, and others looked so cracked that they might snap if any pressure was put on it. Then he remembered the many scenes where the Original Naruto sat on the swing, and decided that he might as well pay homage to the child that he replaced and, making sure that it didn’t suddenly break on him, tried to sit on it. 

As he was sitting and looking around, he saw several things. He saw that Sakura’s parents weren’t there, how Sasuke was just standing there without a purpose, how this one civilian kid was looking longingly at a couple hugging their daughter, and how, in the background, Iruka looked slightly sad and almost- scared?

As he looked closer, he started to notice other things too, like how in one spot the wind didn’t blow right, and how this one twig or rock was vibrating ever so slightly, or how he could hear mumbled voices when he tilted his ear in just the right direction, how he could see the barest outlines of people if he squinted.

He thought about it for a while and just chalked it up to his imagination. Sure, there might be maybe one person watching him, but the amount that he saw was just too much.

Eventually, he stopped. He stopped looking too closely, and everything odd went away. Suddenly, he heard a shout. Right next to his ear. He turned around to look at who it was and possibly yell at them back, but he was surprised to find that it was Sasuke.

“Hi?” He said. He was kind of suspicious of Sasuke. Like, first, he helped him with his test. Second… Well, actually, that was just about it, but it was enough to be really weird.

Sasuke cleared his throat, “Hi, will you be my friend?”

Second, that. Sasuke wants to be his friend now? What? But Sasuke is supposed to be the loner kid, and Naruto is supposed to be his rival! He decided to voice his thoughts, “What? You want to be my friend?! But why? You never wanted any friends before now. And with me? I thought you hated my guts!” He said this all while whisper yelling. “No, actually, that's wrong. I thought you hated everyone's guts!” 

Sasuke frowned a little, “Well, I changed my mind.” and then grabbed his hand.

Sasuke dragged Naruto all the way to his house, opened the door, and then dragged him inside. After he put him down, he didn’t even have the decency to stay! He went off to a random room.

Naruto couldn’t really do anything, as he didn’t know what to do. So he just stayed. 

When Sasuke came back, he came back holding a book. “This,” he pointed at the book and shook it a bit, “is the reason why I want friends.” He opened the book to a page and gave it to him and said, “Read it.”

Well. Ok then.

It was something about revenge and curses of hatred and insanity; on-brand for the Uchiha. Maybe Sasuke decided to read his clan library earlier than he did in cannon? That made some semlance of sense. 

Just after he finished it, Sasuke ripped the book out out of his hands. “So,” Sasuke said, “will you be my friend now?”

And well… why not? Naruto said as much, and then he had a friend.

He would have to get Sasuke and Sakura to hangout more. Maybe even before cannon started.

Chapter Text

When Sakura got to the Academy the day after the graduation test, she had eye bags as deep as a canyon and an almost complete mastery of the basic academy three, along with a start on tree-walking.

She also studied the fuck out of every single book that she owned, so she now knew almost the same amount of history of the Elemental Nations as she does her own world. Her own world- she didn’t know how to react to that besides having a complete and total mental breakdown, so she shut down that line of thought.

She still had one major question- where were her parents? Sakura had parents, she knew that for a fact, but there was only one family picture, and it looked so horribly awkward that Sakura only knew that they were her parents because they looked like her. 

She couldn’t know. But moving on to another problem:

Sakura still had no clue how to fight. She studied the Kata’s and theories hundreds of times last night, but she didn’t dare do any practical work besides the academy three. 

And now, standing in front of the academy, the day of team assignments, Sakura regreted. She should have worked on everything while she could. She couldn’t anymore; today was team assignments.

Her stomach twisted into knots, and she felt like she was going to throw up. Sakura lived in a world filled with professional killers- she was expected to be a killer. She could barely even slit the throat of a rabbit, let alone another human being! 

And looking at the academy, with training grounds instead of a playground, with sparring instead of sports, with shuriken instead of toys, Sakura knew she was going to die.

It’s unavoidable. She. Will. Die. Unless she could do the impossible and become strong enough to stand beside Naruto and Sasuke and Kakashi (all impossibly strong and determined people;  perfect people-) She would meet an even earlier end than before.

The need to throw up was getting stronger, and she could feel her breathing start to speed up. Quickly, she ducked behind one of the many trees and hurled her guts. Immediately after she finished, she tried to find her way back to the academy door; if she was too late it would be suspicious and then she would be found out as an imposter-

She didn’t make it very far, collapsing again about three tree’s away. She was somewhere in the forest, away from prying eyes, and dropped her head in her hands. Maybe it would help?

Somewhere in between throwing up and holding her head to stop the raging fear running through her, Sakura started crying. No! She had to stop! She had to be strong, in mind and body. (or else, her mind whispered to her, you’ll get caught.)

To her, Kaguya wasn’t even the greatest threat. At the rate she was going, she wouldn’t even make it to the chunin exams, not to mention Orochimaru-

Her hands started shaking, and Sakura did her best to stay quiet, but she could barely even breathe anymore. 

She needed to stop, or she would be late. Sakura was never late. She was now Sakura. If she was late- It wouldn’t be good.

Suddenly, an idea came to her. Sakura remembered reading something about soldier pills, in her frantic information gathering session last night, about how they helped null emotions, and that was why the ANBU favored them so much. And she remembered how she put nearly everything imaginable in her pack.

Quickly, she fumbled through her pack with shaky hands, grabbing ahold of the bottle of soldier pills that she knew was there. Popping the cap open, she blearily recalled that you were only supposed to take two every three days, at most , and swallowed one of the pills dry. No more. She would like to sleep, thank you very much.

Almost immediately, Sakura felt a difference. Her fear disappeared, leaving only a detached concern for her future, and the fog clouding her mind cleared up. Logically, she knew that she was likely to die, but she didn’t really care as much as she did before . Her hands stopped shaking as bad, leaving only a slight tremor.

Sakura started being able to breathe again, and she noticed how she was still crying a bit. Getting out a handkerchief from her go-bag, she dabbed at her eyes a bit, cleaning up the last of the tears. She also got out some water and a bit of makeup, content to fix up her appearance a bit before she went to the academy.

She was itching to finally move, to get home and study some more, as that was what she enjoyed.

Getting up after she was satisfied with her appearance, Sakura went to the academy.

Sitting in her seat, Sakura watched Iruka announce the teams.

“Team 7: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura-” Naruto cheered, if a bit different from what Sakura remembered from the anime, “-and Uchiha Sasuke, your jounin-sensei will be Hatake Kakashi.”

Doing her part, Sakura cheered when they announced that Sasuke would be a part of her team, though Naruto didn’t deflate like he did in the show. Hm… Sakura thought, what changed?

“Wow, Sakura-chan,” Naruto whispered excitedly into her ear, “isn’t this awesome? We’re all in a team together!” Sasuke decided to contribute to the quiet conversation with a grunt. Sakura really was lucky that she had soldier pills, she noted, otherwise she would likely be having a small panic-attack at the moment. But because she did have soldier pills, all she felt was a small amount of curiosity. Sasuke even bothered to respond? Unprecedented.

“Yeah!” Sakura acted enthused, even though she knew this was going to happen, “We can be, like, the next generation of the Sannin!”

Before Sakura mentioned that, Sasuke seemed to be only paying half attention, but that comment got him interested. “I can be Tsunade-sama; Taijutsu and medical ninjutsu,” Sakura elaborated, “Naruto can be Orochimaru; Ninjutsu, and you can be Jiraiya-sama; uh, everything else.”

“Everything else?” Sasuke scoffed, but then thought about it for a minute, “Actually, yeah, that’s accurate.”

When Sakura looked over to him, Naruto’s face was crest-fallen, “Aw,” He whined, “Why can’t I be Jiraiya-san?! He has such cool summons…”

Sakura was starting to understand why The Original thought that Naruto was so annoying, even though she couldn’t really feel annoyed at the moment. More that she knew she would later. It was such a simple concept, why didn’t he understand it? Even her, who was very new to the whole ‘shinobi’ thing, understood. “Because, Naruto, you have chakra in spades, therefore: ninjutsu.” And because I don’t want Sasuke to be with Orochimaru - that spells disaster.  

Oh. That thought sounded vaguely panicked. Was the pill running out already? As a test, Sakura thought about how she was in a fictional universe, and how said universe was one of wars and child-soldiers, and only felt a ‘normal’ amount of fear. No, the pill wasn’t running out, the thought was just that terrifying.

Zoning back into the team announcements, Sakura just caught the tail-end of Iruka's lecture about being a shinobi, and then he told everyone that they could break for lunch. Getting up, Sakura glanced at both her teammates, satisfied with how Sasuke was already gravitating towards them instead of going off on his own, however uncomfortable he might have looked. A glance at Naruto saw that he was deep in thought, and Sakura suddenly remembered that he must have faced Mizuki last night, and remembered that as his teammate, it was her job to comfort him.

“Hey Naruto,” Sakura said in a soft voice, “are you okay?” His head shot up, and his face scrunched up a bit, possibly about how Sakura was acting concerned for him when she never did before. The thought had her freezing up a bit before Naruto smiled a small, genuine smile and said in an equally soft voice, “Yeah. I’m fine, just a bit… overwhelmed, ya’know?” Sakura nodded, understanding. He was probably a little bit scared of the future too.

Sasuke seemed to be impatient, waiting near the door for them to hurry up while being attacked by fangirls. Sakura was honestly surprised that he was waiting for them; she thought that he would go off on his own after she focused her attention on Naruto instead of him. Quickly, Sakura grabbed Naruto by the hand, draggin him towards the door, and they went off to eat lunch.

Lunch was less tense than Sakura thought it would be, and generally, Naruto and Sasuke got along. Though they still had petty arguments, it was far less than what it was in the show. Maybe the creator just embellished it?

“Hey,” Naruto said after stuffing his mouth with food, “We don’t know eachother. Like, at all.”

Sakura knew that. Sasuke knew it. Naruto knew it too, apparently.

“But I thought we were friends…?” Sasuke protested. It was surprising, coming from him.

“Of course we’re friends!” Naruto was quick to assure the boy, “But we just became friends yesterday, and now Sakura-chan’s here.” He smiled, “So, like, what do you think we should know about you?”

Sasuke looked around, and though his face still had that same impassive look on it, she could tell he itched to get away from the situation. Apparently seeing how Naruto would not let any of them get out of this, he sighed a small sigh and said, stilted, “I like experimenting.” That was slightly concerning, and it seemed to be all that he wanted to say, but at Naruto’s glare, he deflated (as much as an Uchiha could deflate) “I don’t like… girls.” He then seemed to realize that one of the people was there, and hastily corrected, “ Fan girls. And, um.” He paused for a bit, then squeaked out, “My favorite food is apple pie.” 

Sakura perked up. Oh, that was different. Apple pie? What about tomatoes, Sasuke? He must have seen something in her expression, because he glared at her (again, far less intense than she thought it would be) and spoke up again, “I-uh.” He seemed to be stuck, but then he continued as if nothing happened, “I would like to avenge my clan, if possible.”

And there it was, his ambition. Naruto seemed satisfied with what the boy contributed and moved onto Sakura, motioning at her with his hand. She was planning, for when Kakashi asked them to introduce themselves, to use the same introduction that cannon Sakura used, but since she already contradicted that with her actions, she decided to go with something more honest.

“I like to read, and I think I might want to be a medical kunoichi- part of the reason why I mentioned the Sannin. I dislike tomatoes, and self-righteous jerks.” Sakura paused, thinking of anything else she could add, and before the thought got her permission to speak itself, she said, “I want to live past the age of 15, if possible.” Hm. That was probably a mistake, now that she thought about it. Oh well, hindsight’s 20/20, after all.

Thankfully, it didn’t seem to make the atmosphere awkward, so Sakura just decided to move past it.

Then, it was Naruto’s turn. “I like ramen, and toads! I want to be really, really strong, believe it!” The verbal tic seemed to just flow out of his mouth. He leaned closer to both of them, and in turn, they leaned closer to him, “I think Mizuki’s is kinda ugly.” He said to them like he was telling a secret, and Sasuke nodded in agreement, even though he looked confused.

That made sense; Mizuki must have attacked Naruto yesterday, and he was probably still recovering from it.

Naruto leaned back out of their little huddle group with a slightly sheepish expression, and Sakura intervened before he could start apologising for ‘making things weird’, “We should head back soon; Iruka-sensei said to return by noon.”

Sasuke nodded, and Naruto was already up and going.

 “-And that is why I think that Kawarimi should be regarded as more than just a ‘stupid academy jutsu’.” Sasuke finished his rant. Sakura mentioned how transformation could be used to transform inanimate objects, and even that was enough to get Sasuke started on a rant. That was not how Sakura remembered him from the show.

Then again, cannon seemed to have been thrown off a cliff the moment that team seven started getting along, so who knows, this could be normal to them.

“Hm. Well, as I was saying before you interrupted me,” Sakura said, wanting to impart this bit of knowledge on her teammates, “You can transform inanimate objects. So, theoretically, you could transform into an inanimate object as well.”

Sakura really, really wanted to try doing it. Like, now. She had so much chakra, she wanted to move. It was one of the only things that she wanted to do, after she took the soldier pill. Then she got a good idea for how to harmlessly (mostly) spend said energy.

“You know what?” Sakura stood up rather suddenly. She got the feeling that no, her teammates did not know what, so she continued, “I’m going to trap him. Prank him so bad. He’s going to have neon pink hair for the rest of his life.”

Sasuke only quirked a brow and said, “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Aside from the Sannin and the Hokage, Hatake Kakashi is the strongest shinobi in Konoha.”

“I know it’s not a good idea,” Sakura was still facing away from him, “But even if it doesn’t work, well, it's worth a shot, right?” Sakura got out her trapping/pranking scroll from her bag and started rigging the loose tile right next to the door. Now, how was she going to do this?

Naruto bounded over to her and pointed out something, “Hey, you know, you can’t put it there. He’ll notice immediately.” After Naruot pointed it out, Sakura could see what he meant; it wasn’t exactly subtle. Nodding her thanks, she started rigging the door instead, and handed Naruto some of her supplies. Having a pranking master help her would probably increase her chances, right?

As they were working on setting up the bucket (filled with permanent, neon-pink hair-dye, of course. Don’t ask why she had it in go go-bag, she just did), Sakura felt a hand on her shoulder, and she squeaked, turning around to see it was only Sasuke behind her. And Sasuke was behind her. With his hand out. To accept pranking supplies.

She felt a distant surprise. Wow, where did she go right? What caused this? Resolving to look over her every action when she got home, she handed him some supplies like he was going off to war. Which, like, they were, but this was far more safe.

They worked together rather efficiently, with only about three close calls with the hair-dye, and got it done in under fifteen minutes.

“Wow, we got that done fast, ” Naruto said as he looked over their creation. It was far more complicated than Naruto’s original eraser prank, with strings, a tripwire, and so much more.

“Yup,” Sakura agreed, “I am very proud of us. Good job team!” She held out her hands with the intention of a high five, getting a very enthusiastic one from Naruto and a slightly more reserved one by Sasuke.

“Now all we have to do is wait.” Sasuke said in a quiet, plotting tone.

In Sakura’s personal opinion, she thought that this new team seven was much better than the original.

(It didn’t matter that the most she felt for them was a distant curiosity. It hardly mattered at all, because that was more than she felt for most things that day.)

The rest of the wait was more quiet; Sakura pulled out a book, Sasuke glared at the door, and Naruto glared at both of them. It seemed that their camaraderie had ended, and they were back to being near-strangers. Oh well, not much that Sakura could do about it now.

Suddenly, Sasuke tensed and glared at the door much more intensely, and now that Sakura looked more closely, she could feel something on the other side. Oh! Their sensei was there. Sakura was a little bit apprehensive; Hatake was one of the strongest shinobi in the village. If anyone could figure her out, it was him.

But Sakura was more excited to see how the trap worked out than she was scared of Hatake, so she perked up a bit. Slowly, the door opened, and Sakura leaned forward in her seat. She chose one moderately close to the door; but not too close, as a pissed off jounin is a jounin that could very easily kill a gennin.

She could see him step into the door, and his foot stressed against the trip-wire. He was clearly aware of the trap, but it seemed that he allowed them a little amusement.

In slow motion, the bucket fell. They rigged it so that it would fall in a way that would allow the dye to fall out in its full potential, and Sakura could see that even Sasuke was waiting in anticipation. In a rather anticlimactic splat, the bucket fell right on Hatake’s head.

Naruto burst out laughing, clapping his hands over his mouth in an attempt to muffle the loud noise, and even Sasuke was giggling a bit. Now, Sakura did not exactly see what was so funny, as the soldier pills dulled even that emotion, but she laughed anyway. Well, no, she could see what could be funny. Hatake Kakashi, with hot pink hair. It was just a little ridiculous. That thought made her laughter a bit more genuine.

Carefully, Hatake pulled the bucket up off of his head, clearly expecting it to have been water instead of the pink goop that it actually was. He shaked his head a bit (like a dog, Sakura noted), and then eye-smiled at them.

“Well,” Hatake said with a look at the pink liquid covering his clothes, “My first impression of you all is…”

They all leaned forward, wanting to see how he reacted to their Epic Prank™, and he continued in a deadpan, “I hate you. Meet me on the roof in five minutes.”

Sakura did know that having your jounin-sensei hate you was bad, but she still shared a fist-bump with her teammates at their victory.

 (Little did Kakashi know, the pink hair dye would not fade, no matter how many times he washed it.)

Chapter Text

Make it to the roof in five minutes?

Sasuke glanced around at his teamates, one of which was looking at the window like him. Sakura was… odd. That was the best description of her. But it seemed that she had the same idea he had, which was to test out the whole ‘walking on walls’ thing.

Speaking of, what the fuck even is that? What even is- ‘Walking on walls’- pff.

Well, Sasuke has long since come to terms with the fact that nothing in this place is normal, so he should probably just accept it like he did the talking dogs.

Sasuke stared at the people in front of him, and got an idea, “What about… a race?” Immediatly, Naruto started whooping and telling them how he was going to win, and Sakura simply nodded.

“Ok.” Sasuke started. They all moved to the middle of the room, to make it fair, “Three, two, one!”

They all moved out of the room faster than he thought possible, and Sasuke was left hanging out the window. He hadn’t quite mastered sticking on walls using only his feet yet, so he put his hands on the wall on top of the window, and tried to pull it off. It stayed.

That’s the test to make sure that yesterday wasn’t a fluke, done. He put his other hand there too, and then pulled himself up, one hand infront of the other. In his original life, he would have never had the ability to move himself like he was now.

Eventually, he got to the point where he could put his feet on the wall as well, and he started crawling up the wall.

Oh my god, he thought, slightly dazed, as he worked his way up the wall, I’m climbing a wall with nothing but magic. It took a tremendous amount of effort to stay there and to climb up successfully, but eventually, he made his way up to the roof. Peaking up over the roof, he saw that he was the first one there. He won.

The thought gave him an unfair amount of pleasure, and he pushed himself up a bit more, looking his new sensei straight in the eye.

“I’m spiderman~” Sasuke whispered with his hands infront of his face to substitute for a mask, using only his feet to hold himself up. He knew he probably looked idiodic, doubly so to someone who doesn’t know who spiderman was, but this moment was for him. He was spiderman.

Hatake-sensei gave him an odd look, but Sasuke was too busy trying to push himself onto the roof to worry about that. His foot was stuck on some bit of the wall, and he had to tediously wigle it and add a miniscule amount of chakra to loosen it up.

As he was doing that, Sakura Kawarimi’d to the roof top, and Hatake-sensei turned to smile at her. At her.

“Congradulations, Pink One! You made it here first!” Hatake-sensei said. She made it first!? What about Sasuke!? He was there before she was! He was there!

Anger bubbled up through him, and Sasuke all but ripped his foot from where it was to lunge at the bastard who fucking ignored him. No one ignores him! Sasuke didn’t make it very far, getting caught by Bastard-sensei before he could sink his claws into him, but he still kept kicking and clawing at the man who took away his win.

His body automatically made it’s way into the places that would be best to attack the man in, and it was so facinating that he almost stopped attacking Bastard-sensei to puzzle over the mechanics of it. Almost. He still kept attacking the man, though.

Sakura poked Bastard-sensei’s side to get his attention, and asshole turned towards her, not even giving Sasuke his full attention , and asked, “Yes, Pink One?” 

“Who are you calling pink one, Sensei?” Sakura asked, “You’re pink too.”

The girl in question smiled. It wasn’t a very nice smile, Sasuke noted through the haze of rage. It was one that promised pain. The observation was mostly ignored in favor of hatred for Bastard-sensei, choosing Sakura, someone who was worse than him , over Sasuke.

Suddenly, Sakura’s leg kicked out towards the asshole holding him, and Bastard-sensei had to jump away to avoid taking a kick to the balls. Sasuke paused in his vicious attacks to Hatake’s person, twisting a bit to look at Sakura in surprise. Sure enough, the girl was going after Bastard-sensei, though with far less omph than he was.

Vindicated pleaser rushed through him, because Sakura, the person who Bastard-sensei was praising instead of him, was on Sasuke’s side. He continued to kick and punch at the man who was holding him, coordinating his attacks with Sakura, and Sasuke thought that they would make a pretty good team.

If only Naruto was here, we could beat the shit out of this bastard, Sasuke thought, and as if it summoned the boy, Naruto came bursting through the door leading to the roof, but paused as he took in the scene infront of him.

“Naruto!” Sasuke snarled as he kicked Bastard-sensei in the stomach, “We are going to use this opportunity as team training, and this asshole is our dummy!” The statement was said with no room for denial, so Naruto nodded and started attacking the bastard along with them.

“Maa, now what did your poor sensei do to deserve this?” Bastard-sensei said with an eye-smile, and suddenly Sasuke felt something press up against his hip, rendering his leg imoble and causing him to lose his balance and fall.

He saw his teammates fall as well, and they all crawled together in a huddle at Sasuke’s insistence. Naruto was crowing about a successful training session, and Sasuke’s rage was dwindling and being replaced by disappointment in himself and sadness. He lost, three times. How didn’t he see how it was all a rouse to anger him? 

He got played by a man with bright pink hair. 

He sniffled a bit, causing his teammates to look over at him in question, and Sasuke felt an embarrassed flush crawl it’s way up to his cheeks. Damn his competative streak! Why couldn’t he just accept defeat? He always has to overreact.

Seeing him overreacting, Sakura said, “It’s okay, Sasuke. We probably got at least one hit on him.” Sasuke got the feeling that it was supposed to be comforting, but with the flat undertone, it wasn’t all that comforting. It almost felt condescending, and that made a little bit of frustration come up again.

“I’m fine.” Sasuke snapped, and Sakura didn’t even react, just looking away.

“Maa,” Bastard- Hatake-sensei said. “How about we start with introductions before we try to kill eachother, ne?”

Sasuke nodded, and was about to start before Naruto interrupted him, “Sensei, how about you go first!”

Sakura nodded, and Sasuke knew that even if he didn’t want to know anything about Hatake-sensei, they would get an introduction anyways.

“I'm Hatake Kakashi. I like alot of things, and things I hate…? I don’t think you need to know. I’ve never really thought about my dream for the future, you’re too young to know my hobbies.”

So, you’re an overpowered pervert who follows orders to a T, Sasuke sumerized.

“Now you,” Hatake-sensei pointed to him, “Angry One. Go.”

Sasuke knew he didn’t really have a choice whether he would introduce himself or not, but he could try, “But sensei,” he protested, “we all know each other all ready.”

Hatake-sensei levelled him with a stare, and Sasuke sighed, “My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like experimenting, cats, and apple pie. I don’t like you, or losing, or most things actually. My dream is…” He had to think about this one, because even though he said the same thing in his introduction earlier, he didn’t know if it would be good to say so to Hatake. In the end, he decided to do the same thing with one simple change. “Not a dream, really, but more like a distant hope. I would like to allow my clan to move on.”

He’s read through his clan’s texts, their culture, and he knew that the only way for them to move on completely is to kill the one who killed them. To avenge them. Uncomfortable with the way his team stared at him, Sasuke shifted a bit.

“Okay, Pink One’s turn!” Hatake-sensei said suddenly. Forgetting that he is a Pink One.

Sakura’s turn went mostly the same as it did when they were introducing themselves before, as well as Naruto’s, and soon they were done with introductions.

“Tommorow, we’re going to have survival training at training ground three, five-o-clock sharp,” Hatake-sensei said.

The man turned away from them, but before he left, looked over his shoulder and said, “Don’t eat breakfast, you’ll throw up!” And he teleported.

It wasn’t even a Kawarimi; Sasuke had obsessed over it enough to realize that much. But then what was it…?

Almost immediately after his clock hit four AM, Sasuke rolled out of his bed and went to the kitchen. Yes, he knew that he was told not to eat breakfast. Was he going to anyways? Also yes. Sasuke was a being of spite and petty revenge and this situation was no different.

Eating his slightly burnt toast with a bit too much jam, Sasuke plotted for how he was going to do the ‘survival training’. It was likely the famed second test that all gennin had to take, where only 33% of the teams were allowed to pass. That meant that the teams that were going to pass were probably preditermind. If team seven was one of those teams, it really didn’t matter if they absolutely bombed it, they would end up passing anyways.

But in the same way, if they were set to go ‘back to the academy’, it didn’t matter if they were the best at the test, they would fail.

He wasn’t actually sure if he would be upset if he was one of the ones that wouldn’t pass. Of course, he was probably going to pass, as his team was the last loyal Uchiha, the best kunoichi, and the only remaining Uzumaki in the village. It was almost garentied. But still, he decided to think about what might happen if he didn’t pass, because almost wasn’t definitely and he wanted to be prepared.

If he didn’t pass, he would be sent to the gennin corps, and one of the council members that wanted the sharingan would probably try and argue to train him. Since almost no one could defy a council member, he would be trained until he broke and then trained some more. That probably wouldn’t be too bad; in order to let his family rest, he needed to be strong. They would not be kind to him, that much he could garenty, and after he hit puberty they would likely force him too-

Okay, so the only thing Sasuke was allowed to do was pass this exam.

He looked at his breakfast with regret boiling in his stomach, thinking that he should have listened to his sensei, because he needed to pass, no matter what. If his breakfast was the end of him he would forever be laughed by his conciounce and Sasuke didn’t need that for what he might have to go through.

Sighing, Sasuke stopped eating and went out the door, wondering what his future might hold

Sitting, Sasuke prodded at the warm energy residing in his core, and curiously, it responded by twitching violently. Hm. Was that ‘chakra’? He knew that it was the energy that supposedly powered their magic, but when he did it before, he just usually… thought it into existence, and did the hand signs.

Ok, yes, he knew that it sounded dumb now that he put it into thoughts, but it’s true! That was the first time he actually interacted with it. Carefully, Sasuke directed the energy from his stomach down to his hip, and then tried to make it move down his leg. Frustratingly enough, he didn’t even make it half-way to his knee before he lost control over it and it fizzled out, making his leg feel a bit tingly.

A little bit irratated, he stopped prodding at it, and decided that it could be practiced at a time when he could be allowed to set some something on fire as stress-releif.

Usually, things just… clicked for Sasuke, before the transfer and after. He was always the top of his class, and it seemed that he shared that much with the original ‘Sasuke’. So when he struggled with something, he usually just gave up, deciding that it would be better to rely on his other strengths than to work on his weaknesses. He realized, now, that he would have to work on everything to become strong enough, but that didn’t make actually doing so any easier.

Sighing, Sasuke sat up from his place laying down on the bridge, and cursed himself for being so early. He got there at four-thirty, and it was only four-fourty-five. He still had fifteen minutes at least , and judging how their sensei was late last time, he would probably have even more time alone to his thoughts.

Having time alone to his thoughts was bad, because then he had time to think about things. Things like what he might have to do, things like his nightmares.

You see, Sasuke had been getting nightmares ever since he woke up, almost nightly. About Itachi, his sweet older brother, killing his entire clan. It was disturbing, and in the nightmares, Sasuke was Sasuke and never anyone else, feeling the emotions that he must have felt at the time. Yes, it helped him understand who the boy was, but it also made him know things he didn’t want to.

(He didn’t want to know what his mother’s dead body looked like soaking the floor through with blood, he didn’t want to know what Batoko-oba-san looked like with her body thrown half-hazerdly on top of her shop, he didn’t want to know.

But maybe it was worth it for the glimpses of what they were like when they were alive, because now he knew that Hito-ojii-san always gave him a pat on the head whenever he passed by his shop, that his mother always smelled like peaches and weapon oil, that Shisui-san was obsessed with mochi, that Itachi-nii always poked his forehead-)

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t notice when someone snuck up behind him, and the poke on his back was an almost unwelcome reminder that this whole thing wasn’t just some sick joke played by his imagination. At almost neck-breaking speeds, Sasuke whipped around to look at the person who shook him out of his thoughts.

Sakura, the girl on his team, was behind him, and she… didn’t look alright. She looked exhausted, maybe, would be the word for it, but even then it might have been an understatement. She had deep bags, and blue circles around her eyes so dark that they almost looked like buises. She didn’t look right.

Sure, yesterday, Sakura had seemed almost unhealthaly sleep-deprived, but she acted mostly energized, so Sasuke figured that it would be okay. Now, though, the girl had a tired slouch to her shoulders, and Sasuke had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t because she wasn’t a morning person.

Sasuke couldn’t quite stop himself when he said, “Hey, Sakura, do you want to spar?”

He knew it wasn’t good to push a tired person past their limits, but maybe she just needed to get some blood pumping through her veins.

In the middle of the spar, right as Sakura was about to land a hit on him, she blanched, seemingly realizing something, and ran away back to where she put her bag. Immediately, she started digging through her bag, looking for something, and all Sasuke could do was follow her to where she ran off.

Looking past the girl, he spotted what she had grabbed. A bottle of pills. Soldier pills. Now, Sasuke wasn’t the most well-versed in what they were, his clan library having close to nothing on the subject, but he knew that if someone took too many, they would die.

Sasuke didn’t want Sakura to die-

Quickly, Sasuke snatched the bottle out of his teamates hands before she could open it, and with a cry from Sakura, he threw them into the river and turned back to her.

Grabbing ahold of the girl’s shoulders, Sasuke looked her in the eyes and asked, “Sakura, what- Why- why would you take soldier pills ?”

His teamate started shivering, and with a slightly shaky voice (so much different than the one he heard yesterday) she said, “I- I need them. To function . I p-panic, and panicking means that I can’t move. I can’t move, I’ll die! Sasuke, I need them-!”  

At this point, Sakura had started crying a bit, but Sasuke didn’t notice. Instead, he took his hands off of her shoulders, still looking her in the eye, and thought. It- as much as Sasuke hated to admit it, Sakura had a point. If she had such bad panic-attacks that she couldn’t move, and regularly, she wouldn’t make it. An enemy would take advantage of that, and far before the soldier pill’s effects could harm her, she would be dead.

And Sasuke did not want Sakura to die.

His mind made up, Sasuke turned his attention back to Sakura, and said, “I’ll allow you to keep- taking them. But I need you to promise not to over dose. Sakura, I need you to promise. And then we can find a- something. Alternative. An- anxiety pill? I would make you one.”

Sakura nodded, and with a relieved sigh, she promised.

Chapter Text

Naruto was starting to seriously worry about… everything.  

Sakura was even worse than she was before. He didn’t have the shadow clone jutsu. He was pretty sure that Kakashi hated them even more than he did in the original. Naruto wasn’t even sure that he wanted to pass. Those were only the least of his problems.

Oh, he was way in over his head. He was Naruto. How… how was that even possible? It wasn’t. He was in a fictional universe. That- it wasn’t- he died! He remembered his last moments as Nick; pain. He was at school, and someone had a gun. Probably? He didn’t know . All he knew was that the last moments before he woke up were painful.

(Breath in, breath out.)

This. It was fiction. It was a piece of entertainment that he watched for his own enjoyment! He was supposed to go to heaven, or get reincarnated, or something. Not- not whatever this was! He wasn’t even reincarnated- He was thrown into the body of a fictional character . He couldn’t even go back! (Did he even want to go back? He had no one to go back to , after all.) Maybe- maybe it was just a figment of his imagination, and he was in a coma? No, he felt pain. You can’t feel pain in a dream, and he assumed that comas were much the same. 

He held his head in his hands, sitting on his bed, and he didn’t know. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what happened. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He was clueless, and more than anything, more than the fact that he was in a universe where he would have to kill for a living, that, that scared him. Distantly, he realized that his breathing was starting to become faster than it probably should, and in an attempt to not hyperventilate, thank you very much, he purposely slowed down his breathing.

(Breath-in-breath-out-)

It wasn’t working on slowing his thoughts, but his breathing was starting to seem more normal. It still sounded a little shaky, though. But- did it even matter? Was he even… alive? Should he be? He replaced Naruto. It- he wasn’t even supposed to be there! Wait- actually, thats a given. Him being there made everything weird. Sakura was depressed, Sasuke wasn’t a complete jerk (still emotionally stunted though), and Kakashi- well, Kakashi was normal. Should he be glad for that? Maybe. Kakashi had a shit backstory, and he guessed it would have been better to avoid that.

And… should he fix it? He didn’t really want to. He wanted to let the world run his course. (An eternal dream didn’t seem too bad , his mind whispered .) But, then again. That would ruin his ability to ‘tell the future’. He knew it was selfish, but without that, he was nothing. He would… die, without it. Could he die? That was something to test out later.

His thoughts were starting to become more sleepy, and he sunk down on to his pillow. It was nearly midnight, and he did actually want to sleep. His eyelids got heavier, and with a huff he fell back onto the pillow.

(In…)

It wasn’t even three seconds after he got under his covers, and he was in the dark.

(...Out)

It was wet. He hadn’t even been asleep for 3 minutes and it was wet-

Opening his eyes, Naruto saw a dank, musty, moldy, grey roof. It looked awfully familiar…

And then it clicked. His eyes widened to what must have been almost comically wide, and he shot up from his position laying in the water and locked eyes with a giant-ass fox and oh no why-!?

Nope. He was cool. He was as cool as a cucumber. He was cooler than icecream. And because he was so cool, he opened his mouth and said, “Huh-!?”

Wait, no dammit, backup! Control z! Redo! He didn’t mean to say that, he was supposed to make a good first impression!

In response to his totally-supposed-to-be-cool introduction, the Kyuubi opened it’s eyes and looked down on Naruto judgmentally. Oof. He didn’t mean to say that- Wait, maybe he could redo? Maybe they could justu agree to forget that, and he could redo his first impression? Yes. Good idea, he was such a genius!

Just as Naruto opened his mouth to say hi, the Kyuubi stopped looking at him with it’s cold gaze and said, “So this is my new host?” It scoffed, “I’m dissapointed.” And noooo, his introduction was ruined!

To his surprise, it didn’t go immediately back to sleep, or even attempt to coerce Naruto to sell his soul to it. It just sat there, staring at him. “So?” It said again, “Are you going to try to steal my chakra? Chain me up? What do you want?”

It was expecting to be chained up-!?

No, he was cucumber . He was icecream . He was using ice-cold water to douse his feelings in a giant explosion-

“What!?” Ah, there went his icecream. Naruto watched his calmness float away in the murky water of his mind, and in it’s place panic and surprise took him. “I- chain you!? Your- Kyuubi!? I can take- what- it’s accident?!” 

The Kyuubi stared a him for a moment, probably parsing out whatever he said. Naruto didn’t blame him; he didn’t know what he said either. Naruto wasn’t sure how he was even breathing, to be honest. The Kyuubi’s chakra was so… so just, malevolent. Maybe he was just insane.

Yeah, that sounded about right.

“You… came here by accident?” The Kyuubi said, clearly still trying to wade through Naruto’s statement, but what he already did was admirable.

“Yes! I just fell asleep, and now I’m here?” Naruto tried to explain frantically.

The Kyuubi looked slightly disgruntled, but then just sighed, “Go.”

“I would like to, but uh, I don’t know how?” Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Go.” The Kyuubi said again, “Or I will eat you.”

Of course, said in the low baritone of the Kyuubi’s voice, it was intimidating. But, all in all, it was kind of a lame threat. I mean, come on. Eating someone? That was one of the most basic of threats.

Just incase he said that out loud, Naruto quickly sat down and slowed down his breathing to a pace that likely would have been considered dangerous if he was anywhere but his own mind, and as he swirled in a nauseating mix of a roller coaster and the feeling of just stoping from spinning, he thought, well, at least he wasn’t wet anymore, right?

Oh. My. God.

The anime wasn’t exaggerating. Kakashi was three hours late. Five? Did you mean eight , you asshole? Naruto could almost understand why Sasuke went ballistic on Kakashi yesterday; he was feeling like he could try and kill the man and feel no remorse. Like, come on! If you’re going to be late, tell them. They did not need to be there at five.

With a great heaving sigh, Naruto sat up from where he was sitting on the floor and drawing to point a finger at Kakashi and yell, “You’re three hours late!”

Kakashi ignored him and with a wave he said, “Yo, kids! Sorry I’m late, I got lost on the road of life.”

Internally scoffing, Naruto thought, Yeah, lost on the road of self-hatred.

But before Naruto could call the man out on it any more, Kakashi held out his hands that helf two bells on them. Ah, the bell test. How could Naruto forget?

“Now, kiddies, you need to try and take these bells-” He jingled them a bit, “-from me.” Kakashi eyesmiled, “Whoever fails to get one fails my test and gets sent back to the academy.”

Naruto, personally, wasn’t too worried. Team seven managed to pass in the original, and this one was already seeming so much better.

“But Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto called, “We already passed the gennin test! We’re full-fledged ninja!”

Kakashi eyesmiled again, “ That one was to weed out the ones who had no hope. This test is the real gennin test, and only 33% pass!” The last part was clearly meant to dissuade them, and if Naruto was actually Naruto, he would probably be feeling pretty bad. Even then, Sasuke was starting to look like he was doubting his chances.

“Well, I’m not going back to the Academy! Nuh uh!” Naruto pointed at Kakashi, “I have my headband, and I’m going to keep it!”

Kakashi eyesmiled, again, and said, “We’ll see about that.”

Chapter Text

Sakura felt the need to giggle uncontrollably.

Throughout the entire ten minutes that the test had been going on, Naruto hadn’t used the shadow clone jutsu even once. The same jutsu that he spammed constantly! In the opposite direction, Sasuke had just spewed out a low-rank water jutsu that he definitely shouldn’t know. And she had approximately zero soldier pills.

Haha. Hahaha. Oh dear god, she was going to go insane. Gonna go insane in a tree. Ha.

She buried her head in her hands for what felt like the billionth time that day and counted to ten, and then let out a shaky breath. She had to conceal her feelings, not let anything show. Wait. Sakura rolled that though around in her head for a second before she realized what sounded so odd about and she let out a small giggle.

“Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let it show~” Sakura sung under her breath, and giggled again. It was just so silly. Her entire fate rested on this test and she was wasting her time making non-existent movie references.

Tasteful movie references, her brain pointed out. 

Wait. Hold that thought. Movies. Movies that aren’t Naruto. Sakura clenched her eyes shut tight, trying to fight off a panic attack. So, in conclusion, she remembered movie references. Because of course that’s what her brain decided to prioritize.

Sakura took one more deep breath, and then jolted when she felt a presence that felt weirdly white behind her, and she turned around, only to see a very tall, lanky man with a distinct air of genjutsu around his hair lifting his hand in a peace sign. Oh no, it’s Kakashi. But…

 “I see the hair-dye worked, Pink-Two.” Sakura’s mouth said, and then her brain caught up.

Oh, no. Please shut her up. Get the duck-tape, please. Almost immediately after she said that, Sakura put a hand over her mouth before she could somehow say something even more incriminating.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me. Haha, my brain has a mouth of it’s own. Wait no that’s wrong- Uh, my mouth has a brain of it’s own-?” Instead of continuing her word-vomit, Sakura burried her head in her hands. “That still sounded wrong.” She whispered.

Kakashi was looking at her weirdly, and ok, fair. His singular eye-brow was raised as if to ask, ‘how did you graduate the Academy like this?’.

Sakura looked back at him with a grimace on her face, and she was constantly wincing. She pinched her eyebrows together in a way that she hoped said, ‘I have no clue!’. Oh, how she wished she could just rewind time and undo that entire experience.

Kakashi was just sitting there. Just. Not moving. Oh god, kill me now. Smite me down. I can’t deal with right now, s he thought. A mortified blush was quickly rising it’s way up on her face and she just sort of wished that she could melt into the tree under her and disappear. She knew from expirience that, unless she somehow managed to get Mokuton, she was doomed to suffer, so instead she started looking for ways that she could escape.

Suddenly, Kakashi looked upwards as if praying for strength, and then looked directly into her soul and said, “Are you… ok?”

Ok. That was it. She was gone. Dead. Her soul (along with her common sense) just straight up evaporated from her body. If she was really so much of a mess that Kakashi -someone infamous for not caring- was concerned for her, did Sakura really deserve to say that she was living? 

Sakura slumped backward and layed down on the tree, doing her best impression of a corpse. She rolled over a bit and curled in on herself. “Nooooo,” Sakura whined into her arm, “I think I’ll just roll over and die now, if that’s okay with you. I’m so sorry for being the way I am. Go on. I’m a lost cause.”

Kakashi made no move to leave. Oh, yep. It’s official. Sakura will never forget this encounter. It will be forever burned into her brain.

Because Kakashi wasn’t going to leave, Sakura decided that she was going to leave instead. She rolled just a bit, and suddenly she was falling. Wind rushed through her hair, but not for long.

She hit the ground, with about a couple hundred rocks punting their way into her back, but Sakura didn’t move. She was a corpse.

After about a minute, Sakura remembered that her entire fate rested on this test, and she rolled away into the tree-line to find one of her ‘teammates’.

Sakura was laying on the ground, entirely exhausted. She kind of just wanted to sleep for no less than a week. But sadly, she couldn’t just not try. Her alive-self would never forgive her.

One good thing about being so sleep-deprived she could smell colors was that she could no longer spare any energy to freak out about everything. Her head was refreshingly quiet.

She heard a rustling sound from her right and just prayed to god that it wouldn’t be Kakashi, and slowly turned her head towards the source of the noise. Thankfully, instead of Kakashi coming out of the bushes like a demented stalker, Naruto came running out full-speed, directly into her.

Sakura, in a moment of brilliance and misceif, put her legs up into the air and stook her leg out in the air. Almost comically, he tripped over her, flying past her until finally coming to a stop several feet infront of her with his face smashed into the ground.

Slowly, and clearly with a bit of pain (oh no), Naruto lifted his head up off the ground and looked directly at Sakura’s dirt-ridden face. “Sakura…?” He said.

Sakura’s face slowly contorted into a devious smile, her eyes crinkling in a way that made here eyebags more pronounced. “Hello, Na-ru-to–kun!” She giggled out. For some reason, the politely confused look that Naruto was sporting just seemed to do it for her, and before she knew it, she was having a full on laughing fit. Some of the laughs may or may not have resembled sobs.

She was so lost in her own world that she didn’t notice when Naruto got up and went behind her, and when he put a hand on her back, she flinched. She looked up at Naruto, because he was standing now, apparently, and he looked… concerned. Confused, concerned, panicked, and a little bit hysteric. And then he opened his mouth, and Sakura knew what he was going to say before he even said it.

“Are you okay?”

There were a thousand and one answers to that, most of them being some variation of ‘no’, ‘maybe’, and ‘have you looked at me?’, but there was one more. One that stood out.

‘Why do you care?’, she almost said, but instead she somehow managed to school her face into an almost-okayish smile, “Yes. I’m fine. Uh, so, do you need something?”

Naruto didn’t look like he believed her, but instead of pushing, he took his hand away from her back and smiled a million-watt smile that Sakura could only wish to have. “I do need something, actually! I’ve figured something out about the test! We’re supposed to work together, because like, how else would we beat a jounin?”

And Sakura smiled, about to agree, thinking the only thing wrong with that interaction was how Naruto was less confident than he was in the show, but then her mind caught up with what Naruto was saying and her entire world froze. Naruto… Naruto wasn’t supposed to be able to figure that out. She was supposed to be the only one to know that. Naruto did not know that.

Naruto mistook her silence for something else, and put his hands up behind his back and said, “I already got Sasuke to agree to it, and I already got a plan? So, uh, we’re going to need you to complete it!”

As if that was the dam, Sakura snapped out of her stupor and looked Naruto directly in the eye, before briefly looking back down at the ground. “Yup!” She said, a little too loudly.

Naruto beamed. “Great!”

Oh, dear god. Oh no. Oh no.

Sakura screeched as she felt something very warm come up behind her and had the unique experience of being chased by a fireball.

She turned, and skidded around a corner, grabbing on to a tree and quickly tying a wire around it. Immediately after, she ran and high-tailed it back to the fight in a fit of insanity.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no, I’m so stupid,” Sakura chanted to herself as she ducked under a rogue kunai. She should go away from the dangerous pokey things, not towards them!

Sasuke was doing his part, distracting Kakashi so that Sakura could run around and tie gasoline-drenched metal wire, surrounding them all. The idea was that it would trap Kakashi in there, even though it would likely (definitely) not work. And trap them in there with him.

Oh, this was not a good idea.

During that whole thing, Naruto was supposed to be using a rudimentary earth jutsu that Sasuke taught him to go underneath the ground, hopefully surprising Kakashi enough to get the bells. Or not. Probably not. But that’s fine, right? Because they were supposed to show teamwork.

(Sakura was getting less and less sure by the minute.)

The rest of the plan was basically attack a jounin and hope for the best.

Why, oh why did she agree to this?

As Sakura jumped over a crouching Sasuke, she gritted her teeth. She got a kunai to the leg a little while ago and it was hurting like a bitch. Each step made her upper calf throb, but she walked through it. She had a mission , and she’d be damned if she let a stupid stab wound ruin her entire future.

Jumping past the tree, Sakura tied the wire around it and ran back into the fight.

Wait, the cue!

“BANANA PHONE!” She hollered. Sakura waited a few seconds, before thinking that maybe she somehow messed the cue up. Oh, that would be just her luck, wouldn’t it?

And then the world went up in flames.

“That was a very…” Kakashi trailed off, seemingly trying to settle on a word before he finally decided, “creative idea, but next time, please remember that blowing up a training ground is strictly prohibited.”

Apparently, the gasoline that Sakura grabbed was not gasoline, and instead was some other extremely flammable fluid that she forgot the name of. And apparently, Sasuke used a B-rank fire jutsu that he got from who-knows-where instead of the great fireball, which was supposed to be one of the only ones he knew.

Because that’s her life now.

Sasuke was beaming, seemingly proud of his accomplishment of setting everything on fire. His entire outfit was slightly singed, though somehow he managed to prevent it from getting to his face. Probably some jutsu he somehow knew.

Naruto was just sitting there, a bit shell-shocked, probably not expecting to blow up a training ground on his first mission, and in general he gave of the vibe of a burnt marshmallow.

Kakashi looked well-done, and he had a tic in his brow. The only unburnt part of him was his hair, and even then, it had the tell-tale buzz of chakra that meant it was a genjutsu.

Sakura herself, well, she was just glad that she didn’t die, but she felt the need to stick up for herself. “It isn’t my fault that the store forgot to label their flammable fluids.” Sakura said, then pointed at Sasuke, “If anything, blame him. He was the one who used that fire jutsu.”

Immediately after she said that, Sasuke squawked and flailed his arms around, before finally pointing them at Naruto. “Nuh-uh! It’s not my fault! Naruto was the one who came up with the plan!” He said, and that seemed to snap Naruto out of his stupor because he sent Sasuke a slightly betrayed look before he scowled.

“I made a good plan,” Naruto grumbled, “you guys just didn’t follow it.”

“What did you expect?” Sakura said. It was a serious question. Naruto knew that they worked together horribly.

Suddenly, Sakura got the greatest idea. “Wait, guys.” She said, before she lowered her voice a bit. “I know how we can all get out of this, blame free!”

Once it was clear that Sakura had both of the boys attention, she leaned towards them a bit and whispered, “We blame Kakashi!”

Kakashi’s once slightly pissed-off look that he wore before quickly turned slightly surprised-but-yes-I'm-totally-innocent, and he raised a hand towards himself to give off the impression of ‘who, me?’.

“Oh. Ma. Gosh.” Naruto said, leaning towards her. “That is the best idea that I have heard all week. ”

Sasuke hummed thoughtfully, “Hm. Yes, but what I really want to know is-,” he turned towards Kakashi, “Do we pass?”

Kakashi sighed, and like it physically pained him, he said. “Yes.”

Sakura cheered.