Title: Drowning
Genre: Angst, Romance, Friendship
Pairing: ? X Sasuke
Summary: Memories of a past life are never supposed to be remembered. But when the Mangekyo damages his psyche Sasuke suddenly remembers another life where his current one was part of a fictional story.
Warning: Reincarnation, Semi Self-Insert, Yaoi (Boy X Boy, Slash…)

Chapter Six

The next morning, Sasuke came prepared to the training grounds where the new Team 7 was supposed to meet. His other two teammates were already there but not their sensei even though Sasuke arrived later than their scheduled time. It was not completely a surprise; Sasuke was expecting this since the Hatake was apparently infamous in the village for his lateness. Much like in his… memories.

"Sasuke-kun! Good morning!" the shrill greeting from the prepubescent girl almost made him make a swift U-turn but he steeled himself and continued forward.

"BASTARD! YOU'RE LATE!" On the other hand, Naruto's greeting could very well just turn him deaf at this rate.

"Shut up, Naruto! It's not like it counts since sensei is late too!" the girl scowled at the blond, waving her fist at him threateningly.

"Stop," Sasuke frowned at them even as they turned to blink at him. "I want to have a talk with you both. Sit." He sat down and waited for the two of them to join him before he got out a notebook from his pouch.

"What the hell do you want to talk about, bastard!?" Naruto squinted his eyes at him suspiciously.

"Na-ru-tooooo…" Sakura growled at him.

"Enough. We're wasting time."

"It's not like sensei is here anyway," Naruto huffed, crossing his arms. Sasuke's eyebrow twitched in irritation.

"Shut up and let me talk," he hissed through gritted teeth.

"I don't have to listen to you! You're not the boss of me, bastard!"

Alright, he gave up. He could not deal with someone who could be so difficult. Sasuke knew he was on a time crutch. He felt a certain sense of urgency in his need to become stronger but the frustration with having to deal with someone like this, so argumentative without any good reason, was not worth it. He would have to find another way. He might have wasted his time the previous night preparing but he would rather decide now whether it was a lost cause or not, or have to waste the time in the future. Clearly Naruto was too argumentative to work with him.

"Forget it!" he snapped. "Stay weak and useless for all I care!"

"HAH!?"

He made to stand up but before he could, Sakura had reached out and wound her arm around Naruto's neck, slapping her hands on his mouth and effectively shutting him up.

"It's fine, Sasuke-kun," the girl smiled sweetly and Sasuke almost blinked at the dangerous tilt to her tone as she tried to choke the blond. "What did you want to say?"

Furrowing his brows contemplatively, he decided that, well, if the girl could keep control of the blond, then at least he could give it another try. He chose to start another way this time; there was no need to incense Naruto to try to get into a fight with him.

"Yesterday," he started, "we became a team under Hatake Kakashi's tutelage. This means that we are stuck together at least until we become chunin." Seeing that he had both of his teammates' attention, he continued, "I don't know about you but if we're going to be stuck together for who knows how long, I believe that we need to at least be able to work together."

"What does that have to do with me becoming Hokage?" Naruto harrumphed, crossing his arms and squinting his eyes at Sasuke. Sakura had let go of the blond after Sasuke had started talking, seeing that Naruto had stopped struggling.

"Everything. For one, Konoha prides itself on teamwork. The Hokage, of all people, has to represent this ideology."

"Sasuke-kun, you can't be saying Naruto is going to be Hokage. If anyone is, it's of course you, Sasuke-kun," Sakura interrupted hesitatingly, though with a tone of slight derision in her voice when talking about her blond teammate before becoming simpering at the end of her comment. Said teammate's expression became stiff but surprisingly he did not say anything to refute her claim.

Sasuke gave her a hard stare. "There's nothing stopping him from becoming Hokage." Naruto snapped his head towards him, eyes widening in shock even as Sakura took in a sharp breath in equal surprise. "Of course, right now the way he is, Konoha would sooner fall into ruin before he can ever become Hokage."

"HEY!" Naruto shouted, though it was more of a reflex; his heart was not into it.

"What I mean," Sasuke stressed, "is that right now we need o work on us as a team. If I am going to be stuck with you two, at least I'd like to know you can have my back."

"Of course, I'll always have your back Sasuke-kun!" Sakura simpered, hearts in her eyes.

"No," said boy stopped her in her track. "You don't."

"Eh…?"

Sasuke pursed his lips and stared down the other two. Sakura had a look of hurt on her face and Naruto held a conflicted look. The harder part of the conversation was yet to come. If his memories were to be believed – which he had decided they were for the time being until he was proven wrong – then those two had the potential to be greater than they currently were.

Right now, Sakura was the weakest link between the three of them; she might have been the top kunoichi in their year but that had been mostly because of her smarts. She was not that great in taijutsu and her ninjutsu, from what he could remember from their classes, was only good enough to pass the academy exams. In real combat, she would not be able to provide much even as merely support. Instead she would most likely be their weakness; she could be taken hostage or they would have to keep her safe. Additionally, much like the other civilian girls from their class, she was one of Sasuke's unwanted fangirls and she had the delusion of Sasuke being some kind of prince charming. She probably even had the wrong belief or desire of having Sasuke save her like some knight in shining armour. This could even lead to her not saving her own hide to have Sasuke save her which would most definitely lead to their deaths down the road.

Then there was Naruto. The blond, as proven during their test against Kakashi, could make solid clones and was strong enough to at least hold his own. However, Sasuke had also fought him before during their academy taijutsu matches. The boy fought like he was fighting in a brawl; he had no true form and allowed for a lot of openings which Sasuke had viciously exploited during their matches. Additionally, he was reckless and tended to jump in in situations without thinking. Who knew what kind of situations he might drag them in with that kind of attitude?

There was a lot they needed to work on. Sasuke was stuck with them and that meant that his life depended on how good they would be out in the field. He needed to make this team stronger, if only to save his own hide.

And that was why he needed to address those issues now, when they were just starting out as a team and had not yet settled.

"Sakura," Sasuke started, voice hard and unrelenting.

"Yes!" said girl squeaked, blushing and jumping in surprise at her name being said by her crush. This made the Uchiha frown harder.

"You say you will always have my back but can you really?"

"Of course, I'll always –!"

"No," Sasuke interrupted mercilessly. "Right now, you are more preoccupied with your looks and impressing me to amount to much as a kunoichi."

"Eh…?"

"HEY, BASTARD! THAT'S NOT THE WAY TO SPEAK TO SAKURA-CHAN!"

"Do you want her to die, Naruto!?"

"Wha – OF COURSE NOT! WHAT – !?"

"Because it's what's going to happen to her if she continues the way she is!" Sasuke hissed. Naruto snapped his mouth shut. Beside him, Sakura teared up, not understanding why her crush was being so mean to her. "Look," Sasuke continued, though his tone was not as hard, it could not be called gentle either. "I'm not saying this just for the sake of hurting you. What would you do if we're out on a mission and we're attacked by higher ranked shinobi? Hide behind us?"

"But – that – that's not how missions work," Sakura tried to reason. "We are given missions according to our level."

Sasuke snorted derisively. "And what? You think missions are so clear-cut?" At her silence, he sighed. Taking an exasperated breath, he continued, "anything can happen out on the field. We can run into any enemy of the village and we'd be expected to fight if running is not an option. Besides, do you even know who you are on a team with?" He took in her confused look. "Do you really think that me being the Last of the Uchiha is just a pretty title?" He did not even pause at her flinch. "I have a bloodline that anyone would do anything to get to. Any mission that we take outside the village is a good an opportunity as any for people to come and try to snatch me up. That'd be the moment I'm most vulnerable since I won't have the rest of the village for protection anymore. And what about our new sensei?"

"What… What about him?" Sakura asked in a stilted whisper.

"He is Hatake Kakashi. He is infamous through all the Elemental Countries. That means he has a lot of enemies. We are fresh genins under his command and that means we are also his weakness. He gave us this whole speech about teamwork which means he's not one to leave a teammate behind but what would that mean if we have to face a whole squad of jounins? He'll try to keep us safe and we'll only be in the way."

"No way!" Naruto shouted. "We'd totally beat them!"

"Be realistic, Naruto," Sasuke frowned. "I'm an Uchiha and the first of our class. That would usually mean I'd fair better than anyone else, right?"

The two nodded hesitatingly.

"I'd die in seconds facing a who squad of jounins and that's being generous."

The two fell in a grim silence. Having Uchiha Sasuke, the one person in their year group that always seemed unreachable say something like this was daunting.

"That's why, we need to improve both our individual strength and our teamwork," Sasuke finished decisively.

"But… won't Kakashi-sensei be teaching us just that?" Sakura inquired quietly.

"I don't know what he will or won't do. I'm not going to be teaching you guys, if that's what you're asking. I'm more concerned with a few issues that we need to take care of before we can work together as a team." Seeing as he had both of his teammates' attention, he continued, "I'm going to be frank here and say thinks the way I see things. First, Sakura, for whatever reason you have a crush on me, one that makes you try to appear all feminine and girly while trying to impress me."

Sakura blushed.

"I'm going to say this once and in simple words," Sasuke stated flatly. "Listen attentively." She looked up at him with wide starry eyes, probably thinking up some ridiculous scenario where Sasuke was declaring his undying love for her and this made the Uchiha frown harder. "I do not and will never have any kind of romantic feeling for you. Right now, I can hardly feel anything positive about you since all I see is a little girl playing at being a ninja in a world where the strong rules. You are relatively intelligent, as seen through your perfect scores at the academy and yet you are also physically weak. Between the three of us, it's not Naruto who is the weakest as you probably think but it's you. At least Naruto can fight for himself. You would rather wait for someone to save you. If you don't want to be a ninja then stop right now before you walk to your death or drag us to our death trying to protect you."

The girl had started crying not long after Sasuke had started and now refused to even look at him, and to be honest, he was not overly surprised. However, while it was not pleasant, it was also something she needed to hear. Surprisingly, Naruto had not jumped in to defend her like Sasuke had expected. The boy had remained silent since he had last protested and was now only giving the girl worried looks. Yet he was still not refuting Sasuke's claims. Maybe deep down he knew Sasuke was right and that the Uchiha was not being unnecessarily cruel just for the hell of it. Either way, Sasuke was thankful not to have to argue with him about that.

"Second, Naruto," Sasuke continued after a moment of silence except for Sakura's quiet sniffles. The blond boy straightened at his name and gave the Uchiha a wary look. "For whatever reason, you seem to have a problem with me. I don't know why and honestly, I don't care." Naruto scowled and opened his mouth but the Uchiha cut him off before he could say anything, "What I care about is our ability to work together. If we are to be stuck on a team I would like to know if I can trust you to watch my back as I would watch yours." Naruto snapped his mouth shut. "Even though you don't know a lot of taijutsu, it's clear that you're a strong fighter. There are a lot of things you need to improve but that doesn't mean you can't. My concern is whether you'd be willing to fight by my side and not pick fights with me when all I'm doing is minding my own business."

There was a long moment of silence.

With that, Sasuke decided to leave the two of them to their thoughts. He could not push them to make up their minds but he had to say all this to make them understand where he stood. He could not and would not deal with a team that did not take being ninjas seriously. He already had too much on his shoulders. There was not way he would accept to deal with a dysfunctional team like the one from his disjointed memories. He had said what he needed to say. Now it was their turn to make their own decision.

AN: That was... heavy but it needed to be done. I hope Sasuke does not seem too out of character. He is really stressed right now and feels the urgent need to become strong -and drag his new team along with him kicking and screaming. He has - sort of - accepted his memories for now but not completely. He is still doubtful but at the same time there are too many coincidences for him to completely disregard them as a simple reflection of his madness. This is why, knowing in a way what is to come in the future, he feels fearful and apprehensive, knowing that the way they are now they are not strong enough to survive the future. That's why he is reacting that way.

SO. Don't forget to tell me what you thought. I love reading your comments and at least I know if I'm doing something right or not.

Leight