The Senju Prince & The Last Uchiha

"Sakura-chan!" A hushed whisper came from behind her. Said girl jumped but fortunately, she didn't give away her position to their enemy aka their teacher—at least, she hoped their teacher didn't know where she was hiding. She craned her neck to see who had called her.

Her cheeks warmed when she noticed their close proximity but Haruto didn't seem to notice. "What?" she whispered back hotly, trying to calm her beating—for more than one reason—heart.

"Let's work together," Haruto said earnestly; even in the dark, Sakura can see it in his eyes. "This is the key to success: teamwork."

"How do you know that?" Sakura asked, frowning.

"Well… my dad was quite close to Kakashi-sensei, so…" the Senju shrugged helplessly. "Anyways, we need to get the Uchiha-bastard's help."

"Can't we do this without her, please?" Sakura knew she was being selfish but she really didn't like the Uchiha much and how Haruto always tried to include their socially stunted teammate into every activity was annoying. "And besides, there's only two bells, so only the two of us can make it!"

Haruto frowned. "Sakura, have you ever noticed a team with less than three genin?"

Sakura opened her mouth to reply but snapped it shut as she recalled the many times, as a child, she'd seen a group of three genins and their jounin senseis. Slowly, she shook her head, resigning herself to be in the Uchiha's team. And she was hoping they can all avoid that, maybe only she and Haruto can succeed.

"So, let's go get her!" Haruto's bright grin slid off his face. "Oh, shit! Go get that bastard, I'll distract Sensei for now."

"Wha—Wait, Haruto!" But the boy was already gone. Desperately, Sakura pokes her head out of the bush she was hiding in just seconds ago to see her hopefully-teammate-and-maybe-someone-more.

Haruto stood before Kakashi, his arms crossed over his chest with a solemn look—he looked oddly funny when he tried to be serious—on his face. Nothing happened.

"Taijutsu," Kakashi said after a moment of staring off and Sakura was wondering where Satsuki was; is she watching this? "Hand-to-hand combat." His hand twitched behind his back as he went for his pouch. Sakura blinked, he said it himself, hand-to-hand combat, so why was he drawing his weapon?

Haruto blinked, then yelled, "Pervert!" the moment he saw the orange book in his teacher's hand.

Sakura strained to see but she couldn't make out the words on the book cover from her vantage point of view. She wondered what made the Senju's face so red. Kakashi must've noticed too. He chuckled. "Ho, aren't you a bit too young to be reading this?"

Flustered, the Senju lunged, throwing a rather sloppy punch. "Shut up!"

From this distance, Sakura was actually surprised she could see the boy's eyes. When their eyes met, she only saw one message: find the Uchiha. She obeyed, and someday, in the not-too-far future, all the Senju's eyes would be reflecting was this message, repeating over and over.

Sakura ran, jumping from one tree branch to another. She stopped, breathing hard, in a clearing. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and gazed up at the sunny sky, noting that their time was almost up, closing to noon and the sun was reaching the middle. She really needs to find Satsuki.

"S-Sakura…" The girl turned and she screamed. "Help… m-me," the Uchiha groaned, her body riddled with kunais and other sorts of weapons.

The blood and was that intestines spilling out from the girl's guts? Her teacher was nuts, he'd gone too far…

Sakura fainted.

***

In another clearing, Uchiha Satsuki sneezed.

She clasped her hand over her mouth and nose to stop another one but it was clearly too late. She jumped off the tree branch, whirling around to face her teacher.

Her face remained a calm and impassive mask but internally, she was brimming with fire from the challenge presented before her.

Hatake Kakashi studied his student—hopeful though with how the Genins were acting, he didn't think they would be a team anytime soon. He pretended to read his book, taking in the graphics of how the two girls—stop, Kakashi ordered himself as he subtly glanced at the immobile Uchiha.

And suddenly, she disappeared. Almost lazily, Kakashi brought his forearm up to block her attack. He repeated the same, switching the hands he held his precious book with, when she threw punches at him. Uchiha had good taijutsu, Senju did too. But they both had the same flaw: their brashness. For all of Uchiha's cool and Senju's defense, they detested it when things didn't bend their way and they were eager to finish things. The will to not leave any loose ends might come in handy someday in their career, but just not now; it was hindering their teamwork.

He could see the tell-tale signs of Senju getting the hint or maybe Jiraiya-sama had already told the boy. Sakura was a civilian, she had not much will to lead and the Senju had given her orders, she'd done it and failed. Sakura following orders, it was like a master and servant conversation instead of teamwork.

Close, but not enough.

And the Uchiha was even worse, she didn't even interact with either of her team. It was almost too bad for Kakashi to fail them because each of them showed so much potential that could brew into something so much more. But if he ended up taking care of the brats, the time he could spend on his book would lessen.

Damn. Caught between a wall and a hard place.

"Dammit," Satsuki cursed, somersaulting backwards when Kakashi bat her away and landed on her feet nimbly; her actions reminded Kakashi strangely of cats and how they usually land on their feet. He didn't like her much after all.

Satsuki's hands flew into a series of handseals which Kakashi recognized. "Impossible," he murmured, awed, because Genins usually don't have enough chakra to pull it off. But this particular Genin did; large, searing and continuous flames burst forth from the girl's chapped lips.

Kakashi dodged, almost caressing his precious book. He saw the smoke fuzzing at its edges and his eyes simply burned with anger. Maybe he should retaliate, special treatment for the last Uchiha after all.

His hands flew into a series of handseals, the speed he formed them much quicker than a Sharingan-less Uchiha to follow and much faster than Satsuki's own, he pulled his mask down lightning quick and spewed out the same amount, if not more, of flames back at the Uchiha.

She looked stunned but luckily, it wasn't because of seeing his face—he doubted she saw. She was most likely amazed at his speed.

Much to Kakashi's horror, she didn't dodge. Shit, he cursed and was about to lunge forward and pull her away himself when a flash of red and the flames scorched the grass into crisps.

Kakashi remained in his place, stunned.

The red flash just now… "Arashi-sensei?"