Hidden Villages

I: First Impressions

It was his big day.

Despite the rather lackluster night of worrying whether his father hated him Sasuke slept well. He awoke in the morning excited knowing full well one or both parents came to the entrance ceremony at the academy. He dressed himself in a hurry, but waited excitedly in the eating room for breakfast.

The other members took longer in getting up, although he heard Itachi working out in his room. His father came in first and sat down while his wife went into the kitchen to prepare their meal. "What are you so excited about this morning?"

Sasuke didn't catch the slight change in his father's facial features and instead let his excitement bubble over. "Today's my entrance ceremony into the academy."

"Oh, I see." At that moment Sasuke's mother brought out some tea and his father took a drink.

His mother looked up. "I hope you make some friends today."

"He's friends with Aana and Noren." The man took another drink of his tea.

"Aana and Noren are girls. Gross." Sasuke's facial features crinkled up while his father's eyebrows shot up in amusement.

Itachi came in at that moment and looked between his brother's scowling face and the look of amusement on their father's face. "What's so funny?"

"Girls are gross," Sasuke repeated.

"Oh." Itachi sat down next to his brother and placed a hand on Sasuke's head. "Father once told me, 'you don't think that when you're older'. He was right, but I still don't get them."

"You don't exactly get anybody though Itachi." Their father said setting his cup down. This comment made the oldest flinch and his eyes drift towards the table.

"Sorry."

The sound of the sliding door of the room slamming open interrupted the small family's breakfast. A shinobi bowed down. "I'm sorry sir, but something has come up."

Itachi frowned as their father started getting up. "Today's Sasuke's entrance ceremony."

The man looked at Itachi apologetically, but the words which needed to be said didn't come out of his mouth. Sasuke stared at his food. His eyes widened as if he felt like crying, but the corners of his mouth puckered up.

His older brother's calloused hand reached over and ruffled the top of Sasuke's head. "I'll go with you, okay?"

Sasuke nodded his head, yet found himself unable to rebuild his enthusiasm. He picked at his food and continued staring at the dishes. Eventually Itachi tapped him on the shoulder and Sasuke looked up. His older brother stood and Itachi held out his hand with a smile on his face. Sasuke felt a smile creep across his own face and took his brother's calloused hand, but noticed how his hands were much smaller.

He clung close to his brother, but passed by Aana and Noren who were heading to the academy with their mothers. The two Uchiha girls giggled making Sasuke cling tighter and frown. One of the Uchiha's asked why Itachi was taking Sasuke and he mentioned his father was unfortunately having to deal with an emergency.

Upon arriving at the academy Sasuke watched a girl with short blond hair rush past him towards a group of girls. He wasn't sure what was going on beyond the fact the girl with pink hair seemed upset and the girl with blond hair had come to her rescue. They disappeared into the school, but he soon saw them again when he headed up to the roof with Itachi.

Sasuke continued holding onto his brother's hand and watched his brother interact with some of the parents. There were a few comments about how they found Sasuke adorable, but thought Itachi was an amazing older brother. He also saw Aana and Noren standing next to each other ignoring all of the other girls, but they kept looking at him and giggling. His mouth creased into a frown as he didn't like this, but his hand tightened around the hand of his older brother.

The Hokage gave a speech about the importance of serving the village and being good students at the academy when they headed downstairs. Apparently their homeroom teacher hadn't attended, so another teacher led them downstairs before taking the students who'd attended the opening ceremony of a family member to their classrooms, but a light tap on the back from Itachi convinced Sasuke it was okay to go.

A blond haired boy was already in the classroom. Many of the kids ignored the boy or gave him a wide birth due to the fact he'd not attended the opening ceremony. Sasuke couldn't help but notice the vivid blue eyes and strange markings on the boy's face. He walked over and sat down next to the boy, but the boy paid him no mind. Eventually he introduced himself.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the number one pupil of Jiraiya sensei! Don't you forget that! Believe it!"

Sasuke found himself a bit taken aback, but when the boy went up to demonstrate the jutsu he'd apparently invented he found his cheeks heating up from embarrassment before hiding his head in his arms. Every so often their teacher came by and patted him on the back, but didn't tell him to raise his head up until lunch came. "Sasuke, you need to eat something."

He found himself picking at his food in a rather melancholy manner. So far he hadn't made friends with anybody like his mother wanted. They dismissed the children to play outside and get some fresh air, yet he found himself hanging back. Iruka attempted encouraging him to go out and join the other children rather than hanging out in the entrance.

From where he stood he saw Naruto sulking, but also the child named Kiba. Neither he or Iruka head what Kiba said to set Naruto off, but the blond-haired child with vivid blue eyes flew at the other boy and they were soon tumbling on the ground. Sasuke found himself rather taken aback by this, but when he finally got back to the classroom he found both boys sitting together in the classroom.

They were soon joined by the rather lazy boy who'd sat on the other side of Naruto, but also a slightly chubby boy as well. Sasuke found himself even more alone. The teacher started handing out blank sheets of paper.

"So, one of the ways you'll learn is by writing and drawing things down. Since this is only the first day I'll keep things simple and ask you draw a picture of your family." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Naruto start to sulk again. "Of course, some of you were raised by someone other than your parents. If that is your family, it is okay to draw that."

This seemed to cheer Naruto up. Sasuke turned to drawing a picture of him and his family. He'd almost finished when he Kiba said something rather loudly. "He looks like a spiky toad!"

"Yeah. Jiraiya sensei does look like that," Naruto piped up.

Nobody asked about his picture, but he could easily see the other students were sharing their pictures as they shared them. The exception seemed to be one girl with short dark hair and pale violet eyes. She held her picture close until a boy wearing glasses showed him the picture he drew. Something seemed to upset her and she hid her face.

He turned and saw the two girls he'd seen earlier sharing their pictures. Neither noticed the girls who had picked on the pink haired girl snickering and pointing at them. Sasuke finally let out a sigh and let his head rest on his desk in frustration.