So Master Kakashi was annoying. And powerful, I knew. My father, being the head of the Katana clan, (although our clan was very rare; I think I must be the only one left, but I did hear a rumor about another boy living in Sunagakure.) was very knowledgeable.

My mother was an Uchiha. This combination was pretty much forbidden, not by law, but it was just a general rule. I was known among the older generations in the village as “the Uchiha Katana”. For this reason, many adults refused to acknowledge my existence, due to another Uchiha Katana years ago who had sworn revenge on Konoha, and had attacked a few years before I was born. Therefore, I hated the nickname (although it does sound pretty cool).

I had first heard about Copy Ninja Kakashi, the man who had copied over a thousand techniques with his Sharingan eye, when I was four. I had always admired him, even when I had developed my own Sharingan a few months later. Even now, I had still only managed to develop one eye. Since I was only half Uchiha, I guess my other one would be slower at coming to me.

                But the fact that my right Sharingan was fully developed was a great asset when fighting particularly strong enemies… like Master Kakashi. I would probably have to use it tomorrow. What struck me as funny was that I knew my Uchiha chakra was the one that was hidden inside me, almost like a jinchuriki and their tailed beasts’ chakras, and that my Katana chakra was the one I usually used. But my Katagan, known as “the chakra shield”, was not even close to being fully developed. I could only use it for small parts of my body and for a small amount of time. It would be very useful when used alongside my Sharingan, I knew.

            I my charm and smiled. I just hoped I wouldn’t have to use it too soon. 

Sakura

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the village, looking for things to do. My mother was out shopping, and my father was helping the academy teachers, for what reason, I do not know.

            “Sakura!” I heard a voice behind me, and I turned. It was one of the few girls who had no interest in Sasuke, Koyuki Kazehana. She was a tomboy who always wore “boy clothes” and, like Karina, never paid any attention to Sasuke. But she was nice.

            “Hey, Koyuki,” I said as she caught up to me. “Watcha doin’?”

            “Nothing; I just thought I’d hang out for a while. So what are you doing?”

            “Nothing.” I answered, and we both laughed.

            “So I suppose you’re liking your new team?” Koyuki was aware of my interest in Sasuke; actually, it was hard not to be aware since more than half the class was always trying to sit next to him.

            “Yeah… I guess you could say that,” I giggled. “Of course, Karina’s pretty nice, too. And she even had the guts to call our master ‘annoying’!”

            “She called a jonin annoying?!” Koyuki stared at me in surprise. I laughed and nodded.

            “Yes…”

            “Why?”

            “Well… are you sure you want me to tell you? It’s a little complicated.”

            “Yeah! Here, I bought a couple of dangos at that shop over there. Let’s go into the shade, and you can tell me the story while we eat dangos.”

            “Well…” I hesitated, then nodded. “Okay.”

            We walked over to a nearby tree and sat down in it’s cool shade. Koyuki extracted two dangos from a small bag and handed one to me. I took it and chewed the top ball.

            “Okay, so what happened?” Koyuki prompted.

            “Well, our jonin teacher is called Kakashi Hatake. He told us that we would be doing a survival exercise tomorrow morning. Karina asked him what the test was for, he said that he couldn’t tell us because we would chicken out. Karina asked him anyway, and he said that out of all the classmates who had passed the graduation exam, only nine would actually become Genin. Of course, as you can probably

imagine, we were all surprised. Guess what he said?”

            “What?” Koyuki slid another dango ball off the stick and popped it into .

            “See? You’re chickening out already! “

            Koyuki laughed at this. “I can imagine Karina glaring at him like crazy…”

            “Yes, at this point, she told him that he was annoying. I have to say, I agree.” I munched my last dango ball and put the stick back into the bag that they had come in.

            “Yeah… our teacher told us that we would have a test, too, but she wasn’t nearly as annoying.” Koyuki stood up and stretched. “Well, sorry, but I have to go find my mom at the Nara household. You know, Shikamaru’s house…?”

            “Yup… haha, I’d love to see Ino’s face when they do their own test and Shikamaru’s just lying on the ground staring at the clouds, and Choji’s finishing off his fiftieth bag of chips.” I laughed. Ino-pig would never get Sasuke before me! He was my teammate, not hers! She had no chance at all! “Sasuke’s much better!”

            Koyuki laughed too. “Okay… see you later, then. Bye!” she jogged off, waving. I waved back, then returned to the busy street. I sighed. Would Koyuki pass the test? Would Ino? What about Hinata? She was such a quiet, shy girl. Would she pass?

            And more importantly, would we?!

Sasuke

             “Sasuke!” a voice shouted behind me, and I sighed. Why did it have to be now? I ignored whoever it was and kept walking, heading for the dock.

            “Sasuke, please wait!” I gritted my teeth and spun on my heel. What did this girl want?

            “What?” I asked impatiently. “If it’s nothing important, go away!”

            “I was just wondering… um…” it was, predictably, Ino. “… would you like to come to my house for dinner tonight?”

            “No. I have my own plans.” I continued walking, ignoring her smile. When would these stupid girls learn to leave me alone? Having two of them on my team was bad enough.

            I mean, Sakura Haruno? Why in the world would they put me with her? She was perhaps very intelligent at her studies, and was smart enough, sure. But she didn’t have any real talent in ninjutsu or taijutsu. Her genjutsu skills were more advanced than most, however. But still…! She was so annoying!

            I had to admit, Karina was better. At least she wasn’t obsessed with winning my heart. Her ninjutsu was pretty good, and her taijutsu too. Her genjutsu… well, I hadn’t had much chance to check it out. But I did know that overall, her scores were just below mine. Which was a pretty good feat. But she was still a girl, and girls usually drove me nuts. I could probably handle Kakashi by myself. No need for silly girls to in.

            I arrived at the dock and sat down at the edge. I sighed. My father had taught me my first fire jutsu here. Although he had never paid much attention to me, when Itachi had started acting strangely, he had turned to me. And there was never a day when I didn’t wish for my clan back. Even if I had to deal with a father who didn’t love me.

            “Sasuke…” said a soft voice. I whipped my head around and glared at whoever it was. I was surprised to see that it was Karina.

            “What do you want?” I asked roughly. She put her hands on her hips and frowned at me.

            “That’s not very nice, is it? I mean, it’s really not nice.”

            “So? What do I care?” I guess Karina could be annoying.

            “Nothing, probably, but you should.”

            “Shut up.” I gritted my teeth.

            “I don’t want to.”

            “I said, shut up!”

            “Do you miss your family? Poor, poor Sasuke.”

            “Shut up!!” I launched at her, ready to land a hit. She scooted backwards, and I ran after her.

            “Get back here, you idiot!” I yelled. I pretty much never got this worked up, but she was sooooo annoying!

            “You’ll have to come get me!” Karina called back. A moment later, she had performed a jutsu that I didn’t recognize. It was like the art of the doppelganger, only it wasn’t genjutsu. There were five solid bodies!

            “What…?” There weren’t many jutsus that I didn’t know.

            “It’s called Kage Bunshin no Jutsu… the Art of the Shadow Doppelganger!” one of the clones yelled.

            “And if you don’t get me quick, I’ll tell everyone that you love Sakura!” another clone taunted. Heat rose to my face. I did not love Sakura! I was close to hating her!

            “Get back here, you moron!” I sped after the clones, and took out a shuriken. I threw it at a clone. I didn’t hit the real body; the clone disappeared in a big cloud of smoke. I kept chasing clones and hitting them, until the last one disappeared. But where was the real body?

            “Over here.” I heard Karina’s voice, and turned, shuriken in hand. Her head popped up from behind a tree. “That was pretty impressive. Nobody’s ever destroyed my clones so quickly before.”

            “What are you doing? What’s your intention?” I stalked over to her angrily. “Why did I have to chase after all those clones?”

            “I was just testing you,” Karina replied calmly. “After all, you’re my teammate now, and I like to know a bit more about people I’m going to work with before I do work with them.”

            “Then go do it to Sakura or something! Stop bothering me!” I raged. She shrugged.

            “No need. I got Koyuki to do it for me.”

            “Why, you…!” I was about ready to punch her when she laughed. I stared at her.

            “Calm down, Sasuke! Save your energy for tomorrow. I assume you’re going to pass Master Kakashi’s test?”

            “Of course.” I dropped my hand.

            “Then… well… bye!” and the clone disappeared. I sighed. I guess the real body was somewhere else to begin with, and all of them had been clones. Oh, well…

            I walked back to my apartment and started preparing for dinner. It was getting late, and I needed enough energy the next day to beat the living daylights out of our worthless jonin teacher.