The pleasant sound of a gentle song being hummed silently by Konoha's smartest genin was what villagers in the area woke up to. Her wake-up call was welcomed by all as more and more woke up from her song whilst she walked down the, near, empty streets of Konoha's outer routes. 

"Oi! Shut up!" 

Well...almost all.

Though this only caused the genin to hum louder with a more upbeat song. She grinned at the groan that followed as she changed beat. 

'Let's see...The boys have probably already started their training and here I am - Disrupting the peace in the village...- Oh geez, I'm turning into Naruto' Sakura thought. Her inner-self screaming in panic while running around inside her vast imagination. 

A sudden clanking noise from beyond the bushes to the left caught the pinkette's attention. Sakura furrowed her brows as she quietly jumped into the trees for coverage and hid her chakra.

With no beginning thought of what the noise would turn out to be, she jumped forward - toward the growing sound. 

'What the hell...?' She thought to herself, her inner self for once in sync with her, as she stared down at the bodies layered across a small patch of open space hidden within the forest.

As strange as it was to discover bodies in the leaf village's forest, the weirder part was seeing the Sand Village headbands on their foreheads. 

Sakura scanned the area for potential threats but only felt the small chakra signatures of wild animals in hiding. She jumped from her high perch, into the bloody scene. 

The genin was quick to feel the corpses for any pulses but found none. The only thing she could tell from their bodies and their dried blood is that they've been laying here for a while.

"This doesn't make sense..." She mumbled to herself, deeply frowning at the scene.

Only when she turned to head back to the village center, where the Hokage tower was, did the pinkette notice a small piece of cloth stuck to the branches heading toward the village. 

Sakura studied the cloth for a moment before carefully lifting it from its restrained environment and turning it over. 

"Wha-!" She gasped, dropping the material. 

The cloth silently landed on the ground with the shocking news faced upward.

"I have to tell Sasuke and Naruto!" Sakura urgently stated before grabbing the material again and jumped away into the shadows of the forest.

_____

"Ahhhh-Ya!" The thrilling sound of an Uchiha heir sounded throughout the battlefield.

A loud smash followed almost immediately after. Rocks came loose from its original boulder, shattering into tiny pieces and littering the desert-like field.

Sasuke heaved heavily, his chest reaching out desperately for oxygen to force back into his lungs.

His legs felt like the noodles in Naruto's ramen, begging to give up. Even with his characteristically strong willed mind, the genin's body could only persevere for so long before needing mercy.

His hands shook as if he hadn't eaten in days, in reality, he had lunch about two hours ago. Small bursts of blue lighting surrounded those shaky hands every few seconds.

"I think that's enough for today, Sasuke" The lazy voice of his Sensei called out to him.

"Hn..." Said genin grunted, unable to speak as his breath kept running from him.

"You've reached the limit for this jutsu in any case. Do it one more time and you'll die." Kakashi announced with his usual speech of positivity.

"Then...let's...fight!" The Uchiha breathed out and readied his stance with a kunai.

Kakashi stared down at the boy with a mixture of emotions. It was simply choosing which one to show that was proving a little difficult.

Scolding the genin would only drive him further into disobeying. On the other hand, showing even a hint of pride for the Uchiha would most definitely encourage the same thing.

"Do you want to die?" Kakashi questioned a little awkwardly.

The question seemed to be the only thing that made it past his mind and out his mouth that didn't encourage him to keep training.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him and slowly shook his head, starting to feel a little wary.

"Then don't train for the rest of today. Go home and rest" The Jounin ordered with a small, light, smile.

Sasuke lowered his eyes to his feet and gave a nod. He felt dejected. The raven-haired genin thought he had more chakra and power than this but in all reasoning, the curse was stopping him from going all out in their spars.

He turned to leave and sighed, power or no power, he was tired either way.

"Sasuke" Kakashi suddenly called as the genin was trudging away.

Sasuke stopped and turned slightly to glance back at him with a curious look.

"Take the meat out of the freezer, would you? I'm making Sweet Ginger Meatballs tonight" Kakashi announced with a delighted smile, clearly feeling good about himself for increasing his cooking skills so much as of late.

Sasuke ran a hand through his spiky hair and sighed "Hai" he muttered and left.

"Only he would get excited about cooking..." the Uchiha mumbled under his breath while making his way into the village.

"OOOOHHH!!" An ear-piercing, thunderous, voice yelled.

Surely, even the citizens on the other side of the village heard that boisterous yell as clear as the day.

Sasuke felt a vein pumping through his forehead in annoyance at the disturbance.

He glanced over to a Dango store and frowned in confusion as he witnessed their second-exam Procter - Anko Mitarashi - swallowing Dango after Dango with tears rolling down her cheeks and a huge stuffed smile on her lips.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her 'Guess Kakashi-sensei isn't the only one after all...' he thought and carried on home.

As the boy arrived at the clan house, he twitched his lips upwards upon outside.

'Almost feels like Team 7 is its own clan' The Uchiha thought while strolling through the front door.

"AHH-YA!" A loud shriek startled the genin but not as much as the sudden weight he felt dragging him to the floor.

Sasuke grumbled incoherent words under his breath as he caught the sight of pink hair.

"Ra..." he muttered in confusion and stared down at her as she lay frozen on his chest.

"What are you doing?" He questioned with an eyebrow raised.

"Hm hmthogt hmyu hmwer hmd" she grumbled into his chest, still frozen, though her words were blocked by his shirt.

"Say again" Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes, simply leaning onto his elbows now as he waited for her to calm down.

Sakura stayed silent for a moment. Sasuke could've sworn he heard the deep inhaling of her breath but played it off as his imagination.

The pinkette suddenly jumped up onto her feet faster than the boy had expected with a bright red blush covering her cheeks.

She frowned down at Sasuke, who stared back at her with a tired expression.

"You wanna start over?" Sasuke asked, giving her a chance to play out her actions a little better.

She said nothing but gave a strong nod, clenching and unclenching her fists.

The Uchiha slowly got up onto his own two feet and cautiously stared down at her hands.

"You're not gonna hit me again, are you?" He questioned with caution.

Sakura sighed, relaxing her fists and shaking her head "Gomen..." She mumbled but quickly snapped up her head with urgency.

"Somethings happened" She said, her voice unsure yet firm.

Sasuke immediately snapped to attention and stepped forward "What?"

_____

"Again!"

A small puff of smoke answered the boisterous yell only to reveal a tiny green tadpole.

"Uh..." Naruto grumbled and gave a heated sigh.

"Again!"

Naruto frowned but complied and tried the summoning jutsu again.

"Tch..." The blonde glared down at another tadpole.

A deep, tired, sigh sounded from behind him. Naruto turned and glared up at the old, perverted, shinobi.

"You're not helping" The blonde stated with a glare. 

Jiraiya huffed "You need to tap into your chakra. The type you have deep within you" He responded with a serious look.

'Could he be...? There's no way he's referring to the Nine-Tails chakra...right?' Naruto thought to himself while giving the older male a curious glance. 

"Again!" He yelled again, bringing the blonde out of his thoughts.

"Tch" Naruto grumbled and tried again but failed again.

Jiraiya sighed with annoyance, gaining Naruto's attention as he did so. 

The blonde scowled at the older male "What kind of chakra are you talking about tapping into, old man?" Naruto narrowed his eyes, testing his information.

Jiraiya halted in rubbing the tired expression of his face and looked down at the kid, immediately seeing what he was doing.

'Smart kid'

"I think you know, Naruto" Jiraiya responded, having no need to hide that he knew.

Naruto almost immediately lunged forward at hearing those words, his instincts to protect important information kicking in. 

The blonde drew a kunai and jumped into the air, ready to use his momentum to overpower the large male.

Though his efforts were noted, they weren't as efficient as he'd hoped as Jiraiya grabbed him from the air by the throat, the older man's other hand on Naruto's wrist to keep him from lashing out at the Sannin with the kunai.

Naruto grumbled, kicking and struggling as much as he could to escape the powerful grip.

"Naruto" Jiraiya called, halting the boy's movement.

"I've always known, Kakashi knows I know" 

Naruto almost immediately breathed out a sigh of relief. He was unsure of what the man would do with the information he thought he'd recently learned and knowing his sensei knew about this as well gave him an extra boost of relief. 

Kakashi had given him strict orders not to tell anyone about the nine-tails. He wasn't even supposed to know himself.

Jiraiya mumbled something under his breath, confusing Naruto as the words "Don't" and "Die" caught his attention. 

He suddenly found himself without a kunai and without Jiraiya's hand around his throat. Though he also felt a sting in his chest and the air blowing wildly around him. It took the genin a moment to realize the Sannin had kicked him in the chest and he was now sailing through the air, heading for a massive gap in the ground that he, most likely, wouldn't survive.

'Well then...' Was his only thought as he glared in the Sannin's direction, the panic slowly taking over his thoughts as he dived into the familiar sewerage of his mind.

"I'm starting to think you're trying to die" The Nine-Tails murmured, his head resting carelessly on his paws as he eyed the young ninja with contempt.

Naruto sighed, a tired frown on his face "It's not that I want to. It's that people keep trying to kill me" He mumbled, crossing his arms.

The fox rolled his eyes "And I suppose you want my chakra to help you out of this little...situation" 

"I mean...I wouldn't exactly call it little but yes" Naruto huffed, eyeing the beast.

The Nine-Tails seemed ready to refuse but as Naruto's shoulders sagged and he looked the fox dead in the eye with a fierce determination, he found himself hesitating. 

"Please." Naruto added, the sincerity and determination lacing the word heavily. 

The fox growled lowly before sighing "You owe me, kit"

The beast then poured his chakra into the blonde before the genin could react to the words leaving the fox's lips. The sudden charge of chakra brought the blonde out of his mind and back into the situation at hand. He'd have to thank the Fox later.

Naruto realized he'd already fallen into the gap and was growing closer to the, seemingly endless, darkness at the bottom. 

Fear showed clearly on his face but quickly turned back into determination as he bit his thumb "Summoning Jutsu!"

Naruto watched in awe as he felt and saw his own blue chakra being revealed before red, fiery, chakra followed close behind, pushing his chakra forward. 

A puff of smoke suddenly overtook the chakra and Naruto felt himself hit something hard but squishy.

"Ugh..." Naruto's stomach had been flipped upside down at the sudden halt in his fall.

"Where the hell am I?!"

A sudden and ear wrenching thunder of a voice yelled, its angry voice echoing loudly off the walls of the gap.

Naruto clutched onto his ears, tightly. The sound being too much for his young ears to handle.

It took the blonde a moment to gather himself enough to look down at what exactly he'd summoned.

Surprise was an understatement at what the boy felt upon seeing a massive crimson-colored toad gripping either side of the walls and as the genin sat back in shock, the toad seemed to realize his existence.

The toad's tongue lapped out of his mouth in a roll, large piercings covered the inner parts of the muscle.

"Hmmm? Looks like I've got a rat hiding away on my head!" The toad grumbled unhappily.

Before Naruto's reasoning and near-perfect control of emotions could make even a step into his thoughts, anger and frustration blew right through his mind and out his mouth in seconds of hearing the insulting toad.

"What you say you overgrown frog!? Just who are you?" The genin shouted whilst jumping forward, onto the toad's short, round, nose.

"Who you calling an overgrown frog!" The toad bellowed and shook with rage.

Naruto had to crouch down and hold onto one of its many warts so that he didn't plummet to his death...again.

"I am Gamabunta! Who summoned me? Was it that Jiraiya?!" The toad announced and questioned, unhappy at the thought of being summoned by the white-haired male.

Naruto felt even more insulted when it was clear the blonde had summoned him, as hard as it was for the genin to believe as well but there it was.

"I summoned you!" Naruto yelled, anger gone from his tone as he finally got a hold on his emotions but having to still yell in order to gain the toad's short attention span.

"You?! HA! A little rat couldn't summon me!" Gamabunta roared with disbelieving laughter. 

Naruto huffed but remained silent as the toad finished his further insulting game.

"Who are you, rat?" The toad questioned, starting to come to terms, it seemed, with Naruto being the one to summon him.

Naruto stood up from the toad's nose and lifted his chin in confidence, something that didn't go unnoticed. "I am Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze" 

____

"It's just around-"

"I know. I can sense it..." Sasuke interrupted his pink haired teammate with a concentrated frown.

He could feel the familiar feeling of death lurking in the shadows of a freshly fought battleground.

The two sailed through the trees, growing closer to their target with tense anticipation.

Sasuke tried to pinpoint any nearby chakras but only found the occasional animal far away. There was no need to go in with stealth then.

They broke through the treeline, coming down right into the well-hidden battleground.

Sakura stayed near the edge of the small massacre, keeping a lookout as Sasuke cautiously and carefully stepped over the bodies layered across the ground.

The raven-haired genin seemed to be extra careful as to not leave any sign that they were ever there, should anyone find these shinobi.

He frowned at seeing the piece of cloth Sakura had dropped on her hasty departure. The village symbol glared up at him and he wondered what the Hokage was doing - If it was the Hokage.

Whatever it was, it had to be big. A Hokage wouldn't slaughter their own soldiers like this, at least Sasuke hoped not.

A light shimmering across the boy's face alerted him of something within the nearby bushes. He cautiously stepped toward it, kunai at the ready, and lifted his hand to move the bush.

As he took another step forward, he used his speed to suddenly appear behind the bush, in hopes of surprising the enemy but found nothing except a lone headband laying on the ground, covered in dirt. 

"Tch" He hissed, he could have sworn he'd felt someone behind this bush. Instead of dwelling on it, Sasuke bent down and picked up the headband, seeing sand village headband, the familiar wavy lines on the metal reminded him of the three genin they'd met earlier.

"Could they have done this? They seemed suspicious enough-' 

"Ke, Did you find anything?" Sakura abruptly interrupted his thoughts, startling him enough to point his kunai at her throat.

Sakura gulped as the weapon's tip grazed her jugular. She looked into his black eyes, feeling relieved he hadn't activated the Sharingan otherwise she'd have been pulled into a genjutsu by now. 

Sasuke lost the glare in his eyes and stepped away from the girl, feeling slightly ashamed for reacting like that. 

The pinkette obviously thought nothing of it as she continued surveying the area in comfortability. 

"Well?" She questioned.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow in question causing Sakura to roll her eyes.

"Did you find anything?" She repeated the previous question.

The Uchiha seemed to kick his mind back into place as he, too, surveyed the remaining area. 

"Hn" 

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"...Hn" 

Sakura heaved a heavy sigh and scrunched her eyes shut. She promised herself to really work on both her teammates' social skills because it was starting to become appalling. 

"Nod once for yes, remain silent for no" Sakura grounded out, her teeth clenched.

Sasuke gave a nod and continued looking for more clues whilst Sakura threw her hands up in the air with frustration.

"What did you find?" She questioned, trying to remain calm. 

Sasuke glanced at her and back down at his hand that still held onto the foreign headband. He held out the item to his teammate, listening to her gasp of shock before hiding the headband away in his pocket.

"What do you think happened?" She asked sadly, looking around at the lost ninja. 

Sasuke looked at her, the intensity in his eyes making her slightly nervous.

"I don't know" Sasuke muttered, frowning deeply at the feeling of uncertainty. 

Sakura opened her mouth to reassure the genin but chose the wrong moment it seemed, as four Jounin of the leaf dropped down from the high tree coverage - pointing their kunai at the duo.

Sakura immediately shifted into a defensive stance whilst Sasuke simply kept a calm posture, knowing they wouldn't kill them until they've been taken to the Hokage. The Uchiha did, however, scowl fiercely at the four shinobi around them. He didn't even get a hint of their chakra signatures and that irked the genin more than he liked to admit.

"Well well well...Looks like you two got yourselves in quite the predicament here" A female Jounin stepped forward with a wicked grin.

Sasuke frowned as he didn't recognize the woman but her voice. He recalled hearing a shrill voice yelling something about 'Dango' not too long ago. 

"Hn" The genin huffed, suddenly realizing who they were dealing with.

Sakura kept shifting her gaze between the two, wondering if her teammate knew this woman enough to get them out of this situation but alas...Sasuke Uchiha didn't have many 'friends'.