Chapter Text
“I’m hungry~!”
Naruto cries out, cheekily glancing between his teammates and the dead bandit lying on the dirt ground. Sasuke judges the cooling body with a disgusted face, “Hn.”
Sakura nods, “Sasuke’s right, low quality meat is bad for your stomach! We’ll get something better for you later, Naruto.”
Kakashi quietly considers retirement. It wouldn’t be too bad right now. Some nice tea, a good Icha Icha Paradise book. Far, far away from psychotic possibly cannibalistic kid(s)? Unfortunately, that can’t happen. He should’ve retired while he was still in ANBU, or maybe even flee the village when the Hokage tried to suggest supervising a team. Tazuna’s green face and shaking bones makes him wish for a cozy bed even more.
“Uhhhhh, kids?”
Three eyes stare back at him. There’s really no manual on how to prepare for supposedly green-eared genins brutally murdering a grown shinobi is there?
“How about we get moving? It’ll be harder to travel in the dark.”
Sakura nods in agreement, Naruto eyes the body again, Sasuke has already started walking off. Kakashi heaves a sigh that drains his body of ten years, gesturing the quivering Tazuna to follow along, sidestepping the body.
Then again, maybe the signs were there in the beginning and he chose to ignore them.
- + +
Kakashi decides that he hates children and does not want to be within 5 feet of any of them. They’re immature, ignorant and annoying. The chalk dust threatening a sneeze from under his mask is a top reason why.
Three children sit at their desks, all next to each other, faces clear of any crimes committed. He narrows his eye at them.
According to his files and memory, the one on his right, grinning and kicking his legs about is Uzumaki Naruto. His teacher’s son and jinchuriki of the village. The file he skimmed on his way to the classroom reports of an overcompensating and slightly violent behavior, causing havoc in the classroom and pranks about the village. Dead last in pretty much every subject, a pity really. He expected more from Minato’s son.
On his left sits Uchiha Sasuke, who’s demeanor was just about what he expected. Cold, unbothered and disassociated from the world. The boy rests his hand against his head, observing some unseen dust on his table. He didn’t even look up at the commotion when Kakashi entered the classroom. His file is short and brief, nothing to add to his initial observations. Lack of motivation and mediocre grades.
Right in between the two polar opposites, sits Haruno Sakura. She’s immediately attentive to his presence in the classroom, chastising Naruto for his pranks, teacher’s pet Kakashi guesses. Her files report an overachiever, probably because of her civilian background amongst clan heirs. Top in every class, notes ruthlessness in taijutsu. How unsuspected.
- + +
“I’m Uzumaki Naruto! My hobbies are sleeping, eating and pranks! I like looking for food, and I don’t like not finding any! I guess my dream is to eat tasty stuff!”
The blond gives a sharp, toothy grin and leans back, nearly falling on top of Sakura. She catches his fall before he even flails.
“Uchiha Sasuke…” He glances to his side, the other two glance back. He crosses his arms.
“My name is Haruno Sakura. I enjoy reading and training in my free time. I like libraries and hate people who look down on others. My dream… to be strong I guess.”
- + +
They had good teamwork, great even. Kakashi has never been more surprised in his life. Maybe except for the time his dogs decided that his bed was a great place for dinner while he was out on a quick mission. It was almost as if the three had telepathic communication with each other, seamlessly throwing tricks and attacks that nearly flew under his eye with no stop in between. He nearly considers using the Sharingan at the neck breaking rate they continue to fly at him, interchanging with each other. Naruto is obviously their tank of sorts, summoning multiple clones - shadow clones- all twenty of them or so coming at him from every angle with brute strength and energy he can only expect from the powerhouse of chakra the Kyuubi houses. One of Naruto’s clones nearly has him close from his blind side, before Kakashi expertly replaces his body with a log.
In a second, all the clones disappear with a tsunami wave of smoke, had it not been his trained senses, Kakashi would’ve never noticed an unassuming girl plow through the earth. He can’t even pause to think how this civilian-born child knew to commit such a feat, never mind how she got there in the first place. Her fists -covered in scars and calluses now that he can see them at such a close angle- rain down upon, he notices that they come at him from his left side as he dodges between each hit. He wonders if they were infused with chakra by the way the wind whistles sharply as if it were being cut by the momentum.
And then the clones come back once again. It’s a complete haze of clouds of dirt and smoke, Kakashi feels his blood pumping with what he can only guess is excitement. He sees multiple Sakuras, he doesn't take the chance that they were only Naruto clones, he does not want to get caught under those punches.
Amidst the dodges, he catches the sound of a whistle. As if it were from a small bird. The sound of it rings again and the violence stops. Kakashi stands with two bells missing from his belt and two wildly grinning children before him, perfectly maintained pearly teeth and razor sharp fangs. He turns around and Sasuke stands across the field twirling the bells around his finger, each turn resounding a sweet ring into the air. The blank-faced boy lifts his chin and sends each of the two bells across the crumbled, ruined training grounds to Naruto and Sakura, that same chirping whistle flies through the air once again. The pair receives his gifts without trouble, as if they were sent from a wired line in the air.
Kakashi sighs, “Welcome to Team-7.”
- + +
Sakura loves her team. She feels balanced, at peace between the sun and moon grounding her, giving her gravity to the chaos of the world. She strives to become that same anchor for the two, to destroy anything that threatens the perfect bubble they’ve created for each other.
She’s the brain of the group, she knows. And she’d do anything to keep them together no matter what. Sakura scours records and devours knowledge like a beast. She finds patterns in chance. The Uchiha Clan was and still is powerful, even if their numbers had been reduced to two. And Naruto was important enough to be kept a secret and avoided, she notices it all. Groups were formed in threes, generally two boys and one girl. The traditional InoShikaCho group meant that those three were out, tracker teams most likely consisted of Hinata, Shino and Kiba. Those two powerhouses had to be balanced both politically and in terms of chakra. An anchor. And so she trains.
Naruto helps her in terms of physical strength and stamina. His endless bounty of energy forces her to keep up and to entertain the beast he says is inside of him. Sasuke shows her scrolls upon scrolls of clan secrets and teachings, muttering that he couldn’t be bothered to understand and that someone has to know it anyways.
The three of them spend their academy days in the empty Uchiha Compound. Sasuke thinks the estate is warmer with his two friends with him, not that he ever voices that though. Naruto keeps him distracted from the bloody memories of his fallen family and Sakura reminds him of the cherished moments he spent with them. With the two, he feels a reason to remain.
He doesn’t even mind that Naruto is a supposed “monster” as he puts it. The seal on their blond haired friend worries them though, Sakura pours hours of research into it. Naruto is always hungry, and so the three start a garden. It’s small at first but slowly grows out to cover the majority of the backyard to Sasuke’s room. The boy doesn’t mind much. In the dark nights covered by red smoke, he looks out and sees vines that pull him back to reality. What was once a rotting acre of abandonment transformed into neat rows of vegetables organized by Sakura.
Things are a little bit messy when Naruto devours a raccoon that was habitually stealing their radishes. Sakura is immediately attached to his side with a handkerchief she pulled out of nowhere, rambling about being messy and all the blood over their radishes.
Naruto obliviously laughs and his two friends relax slightly, darting careful eyes to each other.
That night, they lean against the wooden window frame, softly conversing, though even a bomb wouldn’t wake up Naruto.
“It’s that seal on his stomach.”
“I overheard Ino-Pig’s dad talking about it before… is that why he’s always hungry?”
“...”
“Well he can’t be eating any random piece of meat he finds! Ok! So Naruto eats raw meat, that’s ok!”
“…Is it?”
“Of course it is, humans need food to survive. Naruto just happens to need a… different kind!”
Sasuke looks away, unconvinced.
“Well… it’s not normal but haven’t you noticed? The way people look at him? How differently they treat him? That shopkeeper barely even let him look at his produce!”
Sasuke nods, even mothers of their classmates from their early academy days send hateful gazes at him from a distance.
“We’re friends. And friends don’t abandon each other just because they’re different.”
Sasuke looks at her tearing emerald eyes.
“We’re all he has.”
He bows his head and turns the corner back into the room where Naruto is peacefully snoring away.
Sakura looks back at his resolute eyes, black as steel.
“He has that stupid look on his face again.
She laughs and pulls up the corner of Naruto’s blanket to cover his shoulders.
“He’s probably dreaming about ramen again.”