Chapter Text
7 year old Sasuke was walking around the village after shuriken practice when he heard 2 women whispering.
“Did you hear? There was a massacre! An entire clan was wiped out!” the first whispered excitedly.
“No way!” the second responded.
“Yeah! Apparently it was a young boy who killed them all!”
“A young boy? Why?”
Sasuke dropped down and fiddled with his laces. He untied them and retied them, straining his ears to listen.
“I don’t know! He was probably crazy or something.”
“Which clan?”
Sasuke held his breath. Please not the Uchiha. Please not the Uchiha.
“The Haruno.” Sasuke let out a sigh of relief. It was horrible, but he was still glad his clan wasn’t gone.
“There was one survivor right?” A survivor? Who?
“Really? A survivor? Huh.” Who was the survivor?
Right when the other woman was about to reply, a man walked up to them. The topic changed and they walked off, leaving Sasuke alone in the middle of the path. He briefly contemplated running after them and asking who the survivor was, but it was late and Sasuke had a curfew. He was probably late for dinner as is. So he ran off towards home, mind whirling with all the news he had learned.
When he got home, he burst in excitedly with the news. Nii-san already knew; he was an ANBU so they probably told him there. Tou-san already knew; Nii-san told him. Kaa-san also knew from Nii-san. Nii-san told them there were two survivors from the clan. One was a little girl, and the other was the killer. The boy killed his entire family? It was fascinating and horrible.
The next few days passed in a blur. The Uchiha’s were moved back into the center of the village. ANBU found a broken door in Hokage Tower. There were forbidden scrolls missing. The clan meetings were shorter and Tou-san was in a better mood. It seemed that Tou-san had just been stressed about some recent events. Nii-san was also more fun and he took him out to train more often.
When the weekend ended, Sasuke returned to school. Nothing was different until class started. There was a seat next to him that was empty. Usually, there was a pink-haired girl that was obsessed with him sitting there. Maybe she was sick.
“Class,” the teacher called, “I have an announcement to make. Haruno Sakura will not be attending this class for a month.” Haruno Sakura. That was the pink-haired girl’s name! So she was the survivor?
“What class will she be in then?” a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes asked.
“Yamananka-san. She is not going to be in school for the month,” he replied.
There were shouts of disbelief and anger.
“Why does she get to skip school?” a blonde boy shouted. His name was Naruto and he was always bothering Sasuke. “You never let me skip school!”
Sasuke realized then, that no one else seemed to know about the massacre. It made him feel proud. He knew something they didn’t!
“Because her family is dead.”
The class went silent.
When Sakura finally returned to class, she didn’t turn to Sasuke and ask him how he’s doing. She didn’t stare at him. She didn’t even glance at him. In fact, she didn’t look at anyone or anything. She sat in her seat with blank eyes fixed on her desk wearing a jacket, a sweatshirt, and an overcoat, shivering. A couple of times, Sasuke asked if she was cold, but when there was no answer even after his 4th time asking, he let her be. It was weird and different. Any sudden noises caused her to jump. Any loud noises made her flinch. Any touches made her shrink away. Sasuke didn’t know what to do, so he didn’t do anything.
A week later, Sakura dyed her hair dark brown.
Sasuke was happy. He was graduating after passing the exams and Nii-san was coming to see him graduate. He was top of the class by 20 points more than the runner up and tou-san finally told him he was proud of him. It was easy though. Sakura was top of the class in some subjects until the massacre. Now, she was below Naruto. She barely managed to graduate but she didn’t go up for any other awards. Sasuke walked home, hanging off of Nii-san’s arm, squirming away from Kaa-san pinching his cheeks and ruffling his hair. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Sakura walking home, a wide berth around her like she had a disease.
Sasuke was put on the same team as Naruto and Sakura. Tou-san was a little worried, but no one else seemed to mind. When Sasuke asked why, Tou-san just brushed the question off. Nii-san told him Tou-san was worried about Naruto. What was wrong with Naruto? He was just annoying, but then again, so was everyone else. After a few days of nobody protesting any of the teams, Tou-san calmed down.
“My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes are none of your business. I have a few hobbies. My dream? Hmmm… never thought of it.” So apparently his jonin instructor was a complete fake.
“My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen and Iruka-sensei buying me Ichiraku ramen! I dislike the 3 minutes it takes for ramen to heat up! My hobby is trying and comparing ramen! And my dream is to… get everyone to acknowledge me and become RAMENKAGE- I mean, HOKAGE!” And his teammate was an addict.
“My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like training with Nii-san and tomatoes, I dislike sweet foods and weird people, my hobby is training with Nii-san, and my dream is to become a better ninja than Nii-san!” Hmm… Maybe he said too much about Nii-san. Maybe he was an addict too.
“My name is,” she mumbled something incoherent. “I like… nothing, I guess. I dislike… people. My hobby is… I don’t know. My dream is to… become the fastest person ever.” And she was weird.
What a team. A fake, 2 addicts, and a weirdo. Sasuke privately wondered whether Team 7 would ever amount to much.
Tou-san said Hatake Kakashi was eccentric but extremely powerful. Kaa-san assured him he will do fine. Nii-san warned him to look underneath the underneath. Sasuke was worried. Kakashi was an elite Jonin and he had mentored Nii-san in ANBU. Nii-san had told them stories of Kakashi fighting the likes of Orochimaru, someone with Wood Release, and having a perfect mission record. How could Sasuke possibly fight against that?
The next day, Sasuke arrived at the training grounds 30 minutes early. Sakura was already there. Naruto arrived 32 minutes later. Kakashi-sensei arrived 104 minutes later. Sasuke sat while he waited. Naruto took a nap. Sakura jogged in place.
They passed the first try. Naruto started out with a one-on-one confrontation. He used some clones that were solid. They were called Shadow Clones. While Kakashi defeated them, Sasuke dragged Naruto into the bushes. He found Sakura and told them his plan. Naruto burst out with shadow clones again. Sasuke threw shuriken expertly that boxed Kakashi-sensei in. The clones surrounded him so he wouldn’t have room to dodge the shuriken. Sasuke then used a fireball to torch the area. When Kakashi-sensei jumped out of the way, Sakura sped forward and grabbed the bells. Naruto grabbed the bells and made a shadow clone. It replicated the bells and they all had one. Kakashi-sensei passed them.
Nii-san was happy and proud. So were Tou-san and Kaa-san. They had a celebration dinner.
Their first higher ranked mission was a disaster. The client Tazuna was a drunk and he asked for their names. Sasuke told him his first name only; the Uchiha name was a powerful one, but also one with lots of enemies. Kakashi-sensei told him he was Hatake Kakashi, Jonin of the Hidden Leaf Village. Naruto told him he was Uzumaki Naruto and he’s going to be the next Hokage, dattebayo! Remember my name! Sakura muttered something under her breath.
When Tazuna asked for her name again, she muttered again. From the looks of things, Kakashi-sensei didn’t know her name either (he probably didn’t even bother to open their files) and Naruto had probably forgotten her name.
“Her name is Haruno Sakura,” Sasuke informed them politely.
That was a mistake.
Sakura’s eyes widened and her breathing began to speed up. Her eyes were glassy, her fists clenched, she hunched over, covered her ears, closed her eyes, buckled her knees, and began shivering. They watched in silent horror as she spasmed on the ground. Kakashi-sensei talked to her quietly and felt for her pulse. It was erratic and fluttering uncontrollably. What did he do? All Sasuke had done was say her name. It wasn’t like anything big! What was wrong with her? After a long, long debate, they decided to continue with the mission once Sakura was back to normal.
When a puddle transformed into 2 ninja, Kakashi-sensei dispatched them instantly. Then he questioned Tazuna. Did he have anyone after him? Those were chunin level rogues. He couldn’t tell who they were going for but assuming they were going after Tazuna, he needed to know. Tazuna confessed that his land was poor and there was a man hunting him down. He was trying to inspire hope in his people. Despite his character, Tazuna seemed like a good man. Sasuke voted to help them. Naruto agreed. Sakura had calmed down enough at this time to agree. Team 7 continued on.
When Sasuke returned, Nii-san was happy he was safe. Kaa-san was worried but relieved and Tou-san was proud he completed an A-rank. He was also proud he unlocked the 2 tomoe sharingan. Sasuke had gotten it when desperation and a sheer need to protect had come over him. He thought he died, but he had woken up. Naruto nearly killed Haku for that, but stopped at the last second. Kakashi-sensei fought Zabuza. Sakura had protected Tazuna. Or at least that’s what she was supposed to be doing. She had collapsed again when Zabuza drew his sword. Tazuna had spent the rest of the fight trying to calm her down.
Sasuke was ecstatic when he qualified for the chunin exams. They were all entering. With his sharingan, the written portion was a breeze. Sasuke had the ingenious idea of Naruto using shadow clones to get the answer. Before the test, Naruto made 20 shadow clones and transformed them into necklaces. Then he transformed into an instructor and gave the necklaces out. Near the end of the test, some of the shadow clones dissipated and Naruto was able to get the answers. Sakura was sleeping soundly. She didn’t even write a thing. When the tenth question was given out, she didn’t rouse. Sasuke was confident in his sharingan ability and Naruto still had 13 shadow clones left. Sakura was a gamble but Sasuke decided not to quit. They passed.
Inside the forest of death, Sakura slept soundly. It was extremely hard to wake her up for her turn to keep watch and in the morning. Sasuke could barely sleep. It was too creepy and scary in the forest for him to sleep. They had entered and Sakura was lagging behind and dragging her feet, so Sasuke had told them they should turn in for the night almost immediately. Setting up camp and gathering food would take some time anyway. Naruto had complained but Sasuke subtly drew his attention to Sakura who was falling asleep standing up. When he saw that, Naruto resigned.
They passed through the forest in no time at all. It was a new record. 3 hours. They had gotten lucky. A team had passed them an hour after they had started setting up camp and they had an extra of the scroll they needed. Naruto grabbed their own scroll and replicated it using shadow clones. He then offered one of the cloned scroll in exchange for the extra. The other team accepted. Once they were far away, Naruto released the clones. The fake scroll in the other team’s hands disappeared. That team didn’t make it to the third round.
Sasuke was up against a person who can drain chakra from people. His name was Yoroi. Sasuke easily defeated him by beating him up. His taijutsu sucked. Naruto was up against Kiba. At first, it looked like Naruto would lose, but he scraped by with a fart. Sakura was up against Ino. They began by trading fists. Ino tried using her mind transfer jutsu, but something happened and it failed. They continued to trade fists. Things spiralled downhill once Ino pulled out a kunai. Sakura scrambled backwards, shivering, and pressed her back against the wall, her chest heaving. After a tense few minutes, Sakura slowly pulled out her own kunai. With his sharingan, Sasuke could pick out the slight trembling of her hands. Sakura took a visibly deep breath, closed her eyes, and charged. She almost literally exploded off of the ground and plunged the kunai into Ino’s arm. Without even pausing once, Sakura drove the kunai into Ino’s arm over and over again. It took 3 Jonin to stop her. Sakura had a crazed look on her face. Ino spent 4 days in the hospital.
That night, when Sasuke told his family what happened, Nii-san told him that the girl came from a civilian clan. The boy who killed her clan was her older cousin. The older cousin was also a civilian. He murdered 156 men, women, and children that night with a kunai knife he stole from her bag. That was probably why she was so scared of kunai knives. He had also attacked her with the knife: not enough to kill, but enough to leave scars… in a certain pattern. She was left alive for unknown reasons and she refused to speak on the matter.
Sasuke resolved then and there to be nicer to her. She wasn’t weird, she was just traumatized.
There was news they had to tell as well. Orochimaru of the Legendary Sannin tried to take Nii-san’s body, but Nii-san was too strong for him. 2 seconds after the initial confrontation started, Orochimaru was in a coma. Ha! No one can beat Nii-san.
It wasn’t that hard to be nice to Sakura. There was something about her big green eyes staring at everything with poorly concealed fear, her small, shaking hands, and her small, unassuming figure that made it easy to sympathize and pity her.
Sasuke was training with Nii-san for his final fight against Shino. Naruto was supposed to be with Ebisu, but he found Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin for a teacher instead. Sakura was training with Kakashi-sensei.
After training days, he went with her and Naruto to Ichiraku Ramen for lunch/dinner. He paid for her food most of the time, since she had no source of income besides what the Hokage gave her, and paid for half of Naruto’s food. Even if the Uchiha were wealthy, no one could afford to buy 10 bowls of ramen every day.
He learned pretty early on that Naruto had a crush on Sakura. Sakura was pretty and cute and she was so small that she looked fragile. She was thin and her distinct coloring gave her a fairy-like quality. Sasuke was pretty sure that crush ended when Sakura freaked out over Naruto calling her ‘Sakura-chan’. Sasuke and Naruto had to physically restrain her to prevent her from attacking them and the red scratch marks lasted for a week before disappearing. Naruto was wary of her after that and kept his distance, both physically and emotionally. He was still friends with her and hung out, but he kept his personal confrontations at a minimum. They all slowly got closer as the month went on, meeting often, conversations that much smoother, laughter (in Sakura's case, half-smiles) burbling out easier, characteristics previously thought different and strange, now familiar and comforting. Sakura was still a little too withdrawn and Naruto still a little too loud. Sasuke found he kind of balanced them out. He was quiet but he enjoyed their company. It was nice to be with peers who were equal and (dare he say?) a little inferior to him. It was a breath of fresh air to stop being judged and compared and criticized by the Uchiha as the spare heir.
Sasuke was a little jealous and kind of angry that he never got enough attention, but as time went on, he found that Tou-san didn’t prefer Itachi over him. He loved both sons equally, but he had to spend more time with Itachi because he would be the next heir. Sasuke actually didn’t really care for the heir, politics kind of stuff, so he didn’t mind. Kaa-san nagged as always to bring his friends over, which he adamantly refused to, because he knew if he brought over Naruto, it would make Tou-san uncomfortable, and if he brought over Sakura, Shisui would never let him hear the end of it.
The day of the exams, things changed. Dosu had dropped out for some reason so Gaara was automatically moving up to the next round. Sasuke was fighting Shino, Kankuro was fighting Sakura, Shikamaru was fighting Temari, and Naruto was fighting Neji.
Sasuke burnt most of Shino’s bugs and his sharingan allowed him to see when bugs were creeping up on him. He had to admit, some of Shino’s strategies were really smart. Without the sharingan, he wouldn’t have noticed the bugs on his arm. He wouldn’t have noticed the Shino in front of him being made of bugs. Shino was extremely powerful, he was just a bad match-up for him. Sasuke won.
Sakura charged immediately after the proctor said to start. Before Kankuro could even smirk and get a snide comment in, she smacked both figures in the face. The puppet caved. Kankuro’s nose began to bleed. He doubled over clutching at the wound. He connected to the puppet and was attempting to control it when Sakura broke off some of its arms and legs. Another punch to Kankuro’s face and he was out cold. It happened so fast. Well, she did say she wanted to be the fastest ever...
Shikamaru was smart. He used shadows and the sunset and a parachute to elongate his jutsu. Temari marked where his shadow ended. But then Shikamaru tricked her by falling flat on his face in the middle of the jutsu. His body created shadows on the ground which he used to propel the length of the shadow, and before Temari could overcome the surprise of Shikamaru suddenly collapsing, he caught her in his jutsu. Once he had caught her, the stands nearly went crazy. They all knew she was trapped. She couldn’t do anything. What was Shikamaru going to do? He forfeited. He complained he was out of chakra, but Sasuke knew Shikamaru didn’t want to go against Naruto, Neji, or Gaara.
Against all odds, Naruto defeated Neji. He began by using Shadow clones to confuse him but Neji’s taijutsu was too good. Each and every time Naruto made shadow clones, they would soon be destroyed. Then Naruto’s tenketsu points were all hit and closed off. He couldn’t even use his chakra anymore. Sasuke thought it was over right there because Naruto had huge amounts of chakra, and his fighting style consisted of ninjutsu and taijutsu. He could barely stand and his chakra points were blocked; at this point, he was a sitting duck. Then he released some sort of angry, heavy chakra and his speed and power suddenly increased. There was a struggle between them for a while before the arena exploded. When the dust settled, Neji was crawling out of a hole while Naruto was unconscious on the floor. Darn. It was a good fight though. Naruto suddenly burst out of the ground! His fist connected with the bottom of Neji’s chin and snapped his head back. That unexpected ending had Sasuke screaming and cheering along with the rest of the crowd.
It was now Sasuke versus Sakura and Naruto versus Gaara. Temari forfeited as soon as she saw Naruto take out Neji. Apparently, his chakra seemed familiarly scary and she wanted no chances that she would verse him. They were given a week of rest and training time.
Sasuke didn’t want to fight Sakura. She seemed so weak and helpless. But Sasuke knew she was probably stronger than she looked. Tsunade Senju came into the village to heal Orochimaru at the behest of the Third Hokage. Apparently, even though Orochimaru was evil, the Third still cared about him. Tsunade Senju was impressed by how much Sakura figured out about chakra enhanced speed and strength and offered to teach her. It was a real honor.
Sasuke was learning sharingan techniques and genjutsu with Nii-san. Tou-san taught him some more fire style jutsu and taught him some signature Uchiha-style kata. He was also doing some training with Kakashi-sensei now that he was free. He learned the Chidori, Kakashi-sensei’s own jutsu. He increased his speed like crazy to be able to blitz Sakura, hopefully, and to be able to handle the jutsu’s speed.
The day of the fight, Sasuke was nervous. His parents and Nii-san were in the stands watching him. Nii-san was wearing a cheesy “We Love Sasuke!” shirt and Kaa-san had these giant noisemakers. At least Tou-san was normal. No, never mind. He had painted ‘Go Sasuke’ on his chest and now he took off his shirt. Ugh.
Somewhere, Orochimaru was in the stands. Nii-san had shown Orochimaru a torture so painful that Orochimaru abandoned his experiments. Being on the receiving end of the torture and pain made Orochimaru realize that giving people power and searching for immortality at the expense of others was probably bad. It seemed like an obvious thing, but to Orochimaru, this was a huge realization. For the first time in years, the Legendary Sannin were back together.
As soon as the match started, Sasuke charged forward, hands empty. Kunai elicited a negative reaction from her and a chidori would probably be lethal. His sharingan was active so he was able to see any counter moves. Hopefully, he could hit her hard enough to make her forfeit without major damage. But Tsunade was a healer and the best one at that. If she had taught Sakura anything, it would probably be to heal herself. For all he knew, Sakura would probably be able to heal any damage he inflicted on her and just outlast him.
He swung his arm like a club and nearly toppled over when he hit empty air. What? Sakura was probably the first person to outmaneuver an Uchiha with their sharingan active. In his defense, Sasuke was more worried about her than he was about hitting her and he only had 2 tomoe. Oh, who was he kidding? That was still impressive. Before he could get his balance and go for another attack, Sakura forfeited the match. She declared she wasn’t ready for the rank of chunin and ran out of the arena. Sasuke just stood there in shock.
Naruto and Gaara’s fight was epic and intense. Naruto used a rasengan, which was the signature jutsu of the Fourth, to drill through the sand and many shadow clones to get closer to Gaara. Then he punched him very hard. Gaara went crazy and transformed into a monster, but Naruto summoned a giant toad which leapt about spewing water bullets to counter the monster’s air bullets. The frog then pulled out a giant sword and began slashing through the columns of sand hurtling towards it. It flipped and twisted as it fell, showing grace, poise, and agility far above any normal ninja’s level. When the toad finally got close enough to grapple with the monster, Naruto leapt off. He ran forward and smashed his head into the slumbering Gaara’s. The sand began to crumble and fall in large chunks. With a thundering roar, the monster crashed to the ground, its shape gone. Gaara lay on the floor, dazed and in pain. Naruto staggered to his feet and the proctor declared him the winner. The crowd went crazy cheering and screaming Naruto’s name. They all loved him now.
After the battle, Sasuke found Sakura crying outside.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. It was always good manners to ask what was wrong when someone was crying.
Sakura just sniffled and shook her head.
Was she scared? She was scared of kunai and swords and her name. Sasuke had done none of those things.
Suddenly, Sasuke had the greatest idea.
“Can I call you Ra?” he burst out excitedly. “Ya know, instead of… your name?”
Sakura just stared uncomprehendingly. It had been kind of off topic, Sasuke thought sheepishly.
“I’ll call you Ra, okay? Ra-chan,” he clarified.
Sakura nodded slowly. The corner of her mouth lifted slightly. It was progress.
“So, Ra-chan, what’s wrong?”
She took a deep breath. “I-I’m sorry.” Her voice was high and thin and pretty. “I’m sorry for quitting. I didn’t want to fight though. I’m scared.”
Sasuke was confused. “Scared? Of what?”
“Fighting,” she replied simply.
So Sakura didn’t want to fight at all. And knowing what happened to her, Sasuke could understand. If she became a chunin, she would be sent on more dangerous missions where she would have to fight more. So she quit.
“It’s okay. I understand,” Sasuke reassured her. He squatted beside her. He didn’t know what to do. All of the Uchiha girls were giggly and flirty or they were tough and gruff. He never met a sad girl and now he had no idea what to do. He knew he should try to cheer her up or something so he thought of what would make her laugh. A joke? Sasuke recalled a joke he had heard Shisui tell a girl once. Maybe he could try that.
“Hey, are you an S-ranked ninja? ‘Cause you snuck your way into my heart,” he told her.
Sakura openly gaped at him. What? He sighed in relief when she started to giggle into her knuckles. Good. It worked.
“D-did you just use a pick-up line on me?” she sputtered. Sasuke fidgeted. A what now? He just told a joke…
Sakura apparently found it hilarious. He didn’t know what he did, but if she enjoyed it, it was good enough for him. They stayed there talking about nothing in particular until Kaa-san called him away. He waved and got up. His knees were all creaky and sore and he might have groaned a little like an old man. Boy did he hurt all over. As he turned to leave, Sakura got up as well. She shyly wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips to his cheek before running off in the opposite direction. For the second time that day, Sasuke stood there, shocked. Was this the first time he was kissed by a girl? Obviously not. Was this the first time he was kissed by a girl other than Kaa-san? Yes… Did he like it? ...No comment.
After a three day break, Sasuke faced off against Naruto. Even with all the training Nii-san gave him, they tied. Naruto summoned a toad and Sasuke quickly trapped Naruto under a genjutsu. It was only a simple E-rank genjutsu, but Naruto wasn’t too good at breaking out of genjutsu. Then, with his sharingan activated, he dodged the toad’s attacks. He forced the toad to disappear when he cornered it and threw a kunai at him. It was either the toad go back, or it gets impaled. Naruto broke out of the genjutsu at that moment. The playing field was level with Sasuke’s sharingan and Naruto’s numerous clones. Sasuke used a fireball but Naruto used a dozen clones with rasengan in their hands to direct the fireball elsewhere. They began playing a deadly game of dodgeball with Naruto lobbing clones and rasengan and Sasuke blowing fireballs and chidori. Eventually, Sasuke and the real Naruto clashed with a rasengan and chidori. In their exhaustion, Sasuke’s lightning chakra fizzled out and Naruto lost control of the tightly spinning rasengan. It exploded and blew them to opposite ends of the arena, knocking them both out.
In the end, Shikamaru, Shino, Sasuke, Naruto, Neji, and Temari were promoted to chunin. Gaara was too unstable, and Kankuro was defeated too quickly. Sakura was considered for Chunin, but she denied it. Naruto barely scraped by, but his unconventional thinking style was eventually approved as smart enough to lead a team. Sasuke was relieved Sakura wasn’t promoted. She had already had enough trouble in her life.
Tou-san and Kaa-san invited all the chunin and a couple Uchiha to their house for a celebration party. They were allowed to invite others. Shikamaru invited his team (Ino demanded it), Shino invited his team, Sasuke invited his team, Naruto casually invited the Legendary Sannin and the 3rd Hokage, Neji invited his team, and Rock Lee invited the Sand Siblings.
Their house was jam packed with people. Shikamaru was off in a corner sleeping, Choji was next to him eating, Ino was talking to literally everyone (except Sakura), Shino was standing in another corner, Hinata was next to him (staring at Naruto), Kiba was jumping off the walls, Naruto was talking animatedly with everyone, Sakura was in another corner of the room, Tsunade was drinking, Orochimaru was apologizing, Jiraiya was talking to Tsunade and Orochimaru, the Third was smoking and laughing genially, Neji was hovering around Hinata protectively, Tenten was talking with a few people, Rock Lee was being ‘youthful’, Gaara was trailing Naruto, Kankuro was desolately fixing his puppet, Temari was bossing some people around, Gai was looking for Kakashi-sensei, Kakashi-sensei was avoiding Gai, Asuma was smoking and avoiding the Third, Kurenai was drinking, and Sasuke was with his family.
Some partway through, when Sasuke managed to extricate himself from his family, he walked over to Sakura. Naruto and Kakashi-sensei joined them a couple seconds later and they began to talk about training, the exams, missions, and the future of the team. Kakashi-sensei told them that since they were chunin and technically full ninjas, they were able to run missions by themselves. They could leave the team any time they wanted to take solo missions and work towards Jonin. Naruto shouted about how he would never abandon his friends and how he would stick by his team forever. Sasuke was quieter, but he agreed with the sentiment. Sakura and Naruto were people he knew and trusted. Besides, if he and Naruto left, Sakura would be all alone. That wouldn’t do.
Naruto went off to play pin the tail on the donkey with a couple of friends except the pin was a rasengan and the donkey was a picture of a rogue ninja. Ehh… Sasuke supposed that with some adjusting of the placement of a couple of pictures, the hole in the wall wouldn’t be too visible. Kakashi-sensei continued to meander around the room avoiding the shouting Gai while reading his Icha Icha. Sasuke and Sakura were left alone in their corner of the room. They sat in comfortable silence. At one point, Shisui found them and began teasing him.
“Who’s the lucky girl, Sasuke-chan?” he asked, voice high and lilting. “Is she pretty enough for Icky-poochie-kins? What’s her name?”
Uh-oh. Sasuke glanced over at Sakura, worried. Hopefully, she wasn’t too uncomfortable. Shisui saw his look of concern and was about to tear into him until Sasuke minutely shook his head. Shisui leaned in for a better look at Sakura’s face. She was pale and trembling. Luckily, he got the message and backed off.
After that, nothing much happened except a fiasco with a wine bottle, a drunk Rock Lee, a stray cat on steroids, Orochimaru, Kakashi-sensei’s Icha Icha, and the Third Hokage’s hat. Sasuke didn’t even know where to begin describing the situation. In the end, a miffed Tsunade healed a scratch covered Rock Lee, unstretched a floppy, nearly lifeless Orochimaru, heimliched Kakashi-sensei’s Icha Icha out of said Orochimaru, and lectured a triumphant cat. Said cat went back to brag about destroying Orochimaru in a fight with Drunk Lee running interference. The Third Hokage’s hat would not be coming back any time soon. It was either digested, on the moon, or on the other side of the world. Sasuke had lost track of where it was halfway through the situation.
Besides that, everyone enjoyed themselves, mingling, meeting new people, and establishing friendships. A surprising friendship developed between Gaara and Shino (although they were both shy and quiet and controlled things in a similar manner). Naruto made friends with everyone there. He especially had a great time hanging out with Shisui. Adults drank and kids played and generally had a great time. The party went until midnight.