1 Graduation

I sat up on my bed, looking around. The room around me was barren, with very little decoration around it. As I continued to look around, I noticed a crest on the wall, half of it being red and the other half being white. When I looked at the crest, a rush of memories assaulted me.

I remembered living a life as Sasuke Uchiha. I grew up in Konoha, living in the clan compound. I attended the academy, but I could never live up to my father's expectations of me because my older brother, Itachi, was a prodigy that graduated early. That all changed when Itachi decided to slaughter my entire clan in one night, with myself being the only Uchiha left. From then on I dedicated myself to becoming powerful enough to kill Itachi for what he had done. I had just graduated the academy and today was the day we were supposed to get assigned our teams.

Along with those memories, though, came the memories of someone else. Someone who viewed the entire life of Sasuke as one of fiction, an anime for them to watch. Those memories showed me a path I could take, one that would lead to Naruto eventually getting me to return to the village after the Fourth Shinobi War.

These two sets of memories came together to form the new Sasuke Uchiha, but something had changed. I could feel control of my body down to a molecular level. The life I had before Sasuke remembered these powers as ones similar to Chad Taylor from Super Powereds. The power to have complete control of his body gave him a variety of abilities. With this new power and my new memories, I would be able to be come the strongest Shinobi.

'So I'm Sasuke Uchiha. I don't want to take the same path the other Sasuke did, he eventually succumbed to Naruto's Talk no Jutsu. I'm not going to just succumb to that idiocy.'

Today was the day I needed to go to the academy to get placed on my team, but first I had to work on the new powers I just got. Getting out of bed and heading to the kitchen, I made a high carbon meal and as I ate I manipulated the carbon that was entering my body to strengthen it. It would take a little while, but I should eventually reach the point that my body is too strong for anything to pierce it.

Leaving towards the Academy, I continued to notice how empty the compound felt. Even if everyone had been dead for a long time, it still hurt to notice I was the only one left. Clamping down on those emotions by regulating the chemical reactions in my brain, I regained a focused mindset. I needed to be able to push forward and get as strong as possible as quickly as possible.

Eventually, I made it to the Academy and entered inside. I was one of the first ones there, with only Shikamaru and Choji already having got there. Shikamaru had his head down, either fast asleep or faking it well enough. Choji was sitting next to him eating. Moving towards a seat at the top right corner of the room, I sat down and waited for Iruka and the rest of the students to arrive.

While I was sitting, I began to think about how I wanted to get stronger. 'I need to go to the store and buy as much carbon and other minerals as possible to continue to make my body stronger. I also need to begin ingraining reflexes into my mind, so even if I end up unconscious I can continue fighting.'

I spent the rest of my time waiting reworking my brain, making it so that I could better analyze opponents and began to embed commands to fight even when I couldn't consciously make decisions.

Eventually the rest of the class arrived and finally Iruka walked in with Naruto.

"Naruto, what are you doing here you failed the exam?" Kiba asked.

Naruto put on a huge grin and said "No I didn't, look I've got a headband."

"Yes, Naruto managed to pass an exam and graduate as well." Iruka said.

Some people looked annoyed at the fact that Naruto graduated even though he failed the exam, but I didn't really care all that much. It didn't matter whether he passed or not, he would just be a stepping stone for me.

Naruto walked over and sat in front of where I was sitting. He looked at me for a second as he sat down, but didn't say anything otherwise.

"Okay class, you have all managed to graduate from the Academy and begin your path to become true Shinobi. You will each be placed in teams of three with a Jonin sensei to teach you. I will read out the names of each team, so pay attention so you know what team you are on."

After saying that he read out some names of people I couldn't be bothered to even try to remebered, before he finally got to Team 7.

"Team 7, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha. Sensei, Kakashi Hatake."

Naruto let out a cheer when Sakura's name was announced and then got depressed when mine was announced. The opposite was true for Sakura, with her taunting Ino when my name was called.

The rest of the Teams were read out before Iruka said "Wait here for your Jonin Sensei's to arrive." and left the room.

After he left, Ino and Sakura tried to come and bug me, but I didn't want to deal with either of them or Naruto potentially accidentally kissing me, so I got up and left the room.

"Hey Sasuke where are you going? We're supposed to wait here for our sensei's." Sakura called out.

"I'll be back." Was all I said as I walked out the door. I could hear some arguing in the room behind me, most likely Naruto getting mad about something, but I just ignored them and left to go to the store. I knew Kakashi wouldn't get there for 3 hours anyway, so I had time to go grab the minerals I would need to strengthen my body.

It didn't take me long to get everything I needed and drop it off at my house, taking the time to consume some while I was there. It wouldn't make an entirely noticeable change right away, but it wouldn't take long for my body to become strong.

Making my way back to the Academy, I entered to find only Naruto and Sakura still there.

"Sasuke, you're back." Sakura called out while running towards me.

Ignoring her, I walked to the back of the room and sat down again. Naruto was glaring at me, but I didn't pay it any mind. Eventually, Naruto got bored and decided to set a trap for the teacher. I zoned out for it and waited until I heard the door open to look up and see Kakashi get hit by the trap.

"My first impression is, I hate all of you. Meet me on the roof." He said before vanishing, leaving leaves behind. Standing up, I walked out the door towards the roof, with Sakura and Naruto following me up.

Once we got to the roof, we all sat down in a semi-circle around Kakashi.

"Alright, we'll be doing introductions. Say your name, what you like, hate, your dream for the future, and hobbies." Kakashi said.

"Why don't you go first, before we talk tell us about you." Naruto said.

"Alright, I'm Kakashi Hatake. I don't feel like telling you what I like or hate. Never really thought about my dreams for the future and I have lots of hobbies."

"Well that was useless, all we learned was his name." Sakura said.

'Wow, you really called something else useless.'

"You on the right, you go next." Kakashi said.

Naruto adjusted his headband and said "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen in a cup and I really like the ramen from the Ichiraku ramen shop. I hate the 3 minutes you have to wait after you put the water in and my dream is to be the greatest Hokage, so everyone will stop disrespecting me and treat my like somebody, somebody important."

'I wonder who it was that made him think that was how being Hokage worked. You would have to be acknowledged to become Hokage, not the other way around.'

"Fine, you next to him continue." Kakashi said.

It was my turn, so I introduced myself. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I like training and tomatoes, I hate a certain someone. My dream is to be the strongest, so that the very thought of challenging me is idiotic."

Sakura was looking at me with a smile on her face while Naruto looked like he was thinking about what I said. Kakashi was as stoic as ever as he said "Alright, you pinky you finish."

"Don't call me pinky. My name is Sakura Haruno. I like..." she trailed off before looking at me.

"I hate Naruto." when she said that Naruto had a depressed look on his face.

"My dream for the future is..." she trailed off again while blushing and looking at me.

'Ever the fangirl.'

"Alright, with introductions out of the way, we'll move on to determining if you all will be Genin."

"What do you mean, we already graduated and became Genin Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said.

"That was just to determine who has the chance to take the real test. Only 33% of teams pass the real Genin exam. Meet me at training ground 7 tomorrow at 7am, and I suggest you don't eat." Kakashi said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Getting up, I began leaving as Sakura called out to me "Sasuke, would you like to get lunch."

"No" was all I said before jumping off the roof and walking back towards my house. Once I made it back, I went to the back where the training yard was set up.

'Sasuke never realized he had unlocked his Sharingan after the massacre, but I know I have.'

Pushing Chakra towards my eyes, I was suddenly able to see clearer. The leaves around me were moving more slowly. Looking into the mirror I had brought with me, I could see my eyes had turned red with one tomoe swirling around within each of them.

With my Sharingan activated, I could feel a slight drain on my chakra, but it wasn't terribly intensive. Leaving it active, I moved on to beginning practice on something I wanted to eventually master. Molding my chakra, I focused on trying to change it into lightning. I already knew fire style jutsu, but I didn't know any lightning release yet so this was a first attempt for me. It took several hours, but eventually I managed to form small sparks in my hand.

Once I had accomplished that, I began trying to coat my hand in the lightning. I had perfect chakra control due to my absolute control of my body, so it wasn't difficult to shape it, it was only difficult to change its form. The lightning spread along my hand and along my entire body, coating it in a light layer of lightning.

'This is the first step towards replicating the Raikage's Lightning Chakra Mode.'

Even if I had coated my body in the lightning, it wasn't potent enough to actually be effective. At the moment it was just a shell that wasn't actually all that effective. All it would do is release a small shock if someone hit me. I was almost out of Chakra from keeping my Sharingan active for hours and attempting to form lightning, so I called it a day and headed inside. I ingested as much minerals as possible to continue strengthening my body before heading to bed for the night.

The next day I woke up at 6am and ate breakfast. I knew what the bell test was, so I wasn't going to deprive myself food for no reason. Even if Kakashi was going to be there 3 hours late, I could still do some training while I waited.

I made my way to the training ground and got there at exactly 7. Naruto and Sakura were already there and waiting.

"Hi Sasuke." Sakura said.

"Hn" I grunted before walking over to one of the trees. I wanted to get tree-walking down now instead of later. As soon as I molded my chakra I took a step onto the tree and my foot held. I took another step and began walking up the tree.

'I have perfect chakra control, so it wasn't hard to do the tree-walking exercise. I can probably walk on water just as easily. I should look into learning some medical ninjutsu.'

"Whoa Sasuke, how are you doing that." Sakura called out from below me.

"Hey, teach me how to walk on walls Sasuke." Naruto said.

Thinking about it, we needed to show teamwork to pass this exam so even if I didn't like them all that much, Kakashi could be watching and this could help us pass.

Jumping down, I said "Alright, you just need to focus your chakra to your feet and keep it steady so you can stick to the wall. It can't be too strong or too weak, or else you'll either fall off or break the tree."

Sakura nodded her head, while Naruto took a little longer, but also seemed to understand. They both walked towards the tree to try it. Sakura got it pretty quickly, while Naruto was struggling. I didn't feel like explaining why she got it quickly while he couldn't, so I spent the rest of the time we were waiting reworking my brain to react faster. I couldn't do anything Chakra intensive, as I needed it for the test.

I made some good progress before Kakashi finally arrived. "Yo" was all he said as he appeared in a swirl of leaves.

'I have to get him to teach me the Shunshin. Shouldn't be too hard, he always favored Sasuke anyway.'

"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto both yelled.

"Sorry, I got lost on the road of life." Kakashi replied.

Both made annoyed faces, but didn't dignify that with a response.

"So what's the test." I asked.

Kakashi pulled out two bells, "You have to try to get these bells from me before the timer rings. Whoever gets a bell will graduate."

"But Kakashi-sensei, there's only two bells and three of us." Sakura said.

"Exactly" Kakashi replied.

'It's a pretty good way to test teamwork. It's stupid to test the teamwork of a brand new team though, so the entire test is flawed.'

"Come at me with the intent to kill or you'll never get the bells. Go!" Kakashi said.

Sakura and I jumped away while Naruto waited in the middle. Ignoring him for the moment, I moved towards Sakura.

"Sakura, this test is designed to test our teamwork. There are no 3 person teams, we need to work together to get the bells."

Sakura nodded as she said "Alright Sasuke, so what do we do."

"You distract Kakashi-sensei for a little bit, I'll go get Naruto and explain it to him. Then we can attack Kakashi at once."

Sakura got into position as I looped around. Naruto was just about to suffer the 1000 years of death, but I threw a kunai at Kakashi, which made him dodge. Dashing forward, I grabbed Naruto by his collar and threw him into the forest. As I moved to follow him, Kakashi came towards me, but Sakura threw a few Kunai to distract him again.

Making my way to where Naruto landed, I found him with an angry look on his face.

"What the heck Sasuke, why'd you threw me?"

"The point of this test is to work together, me, you and Sakura need to team up to beat Kakashi-sensei."

"Then one of us doesn't graduate." Naruto said.

"No, the whole point is to make us think like that. We have to work together, or there's no way we can beat Kakashi-sensei, he's a jonin."

'We couldn't beat him anyway, at least not like I am right now.'

Naruto finally agrees and we both move to attack Kakashi. Naruto dashes out of the bushes while summoning shadow clones to back him up in his charge. I take the opportunity while he is forming the hand signs to flash my sharingan and copy the shadow clone jutsu. When Naruto charges, I loop around the opposite side of him and come at Kakashi from the side. As we pinch him, Sakura comes out of the Forest as well running at him.

Naruto's clones grab each other and throw themselves towards Kakashi. Kakashi ducks under some of them and throws others away from him. Sakura takes the opportunity to get close enough to reach for the bells, but Kakashi reacts and jumps over her, before kicking her, sending her flying. I take the opportunity to form hand signs.

I never understood why everyone said the attack names out loud, so I only thought it.

'Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu.'

I spew a fireball from my mouth towards Kakashi. His single, visible eye opens for a second before the fireball collides with him, but he's replaced by a log. Turning around, Kakashi is behind me as he send a kick at my head, but I substitute with a log.

As Kakashi turns looking for the rest of us, Naruto bursts from the ground and grabs the bells. As he does so, the timer rings.

Kakashi looks at Naruto before saying "Well Naruto, which teammate gets to pass with you."

"Either you pass all of us or none of Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said.

Kakashi just stares at him for a second, before squinting his eye and saying "You all... Pass."

Naruto jumps around excitedly while Sakura just smiles. I stand although a small smile comes onto my face before going away.

"Remember, those who abandon the mission are trash, but those who abandon their teammates are worse than trash. We'll get started on mission tomorrow, so rest well." Kakashi said before using the Shunshin to leave.

I turn around and walk away from Sakura and Naruto. Sakura asks if I want to go get lunch with them, but I just wave behind me and continue to leave. Even if I was willing to cooperate with them for this test, I wasn't going to be all buddy buddy with them. I needed to get stronger fast.

I returned to my training grounds and continued to work on the Lightning Release Chakra Mode. I first worked on increasing the density of the lightning. I made a good amount of progress on increasing its thickness, but it was a big drain on my chakra. Continuously draining myself everyday like this should help my reserves increase, so eventually I would have a huge pool of chakra. I still had an above average chakra pool, the Lightning Chakra Mode was just incredibly intensive.