A/N: Thank you for clicking on this story, and I hope to be able to hold your attention from here on out. I just had to abruptly end the story I *was* working on (for personal reasons), but I think I'll be more than capable of finishing this one.

Now, onto what you're about to read: This is going to be a genderbend, and one in which Sasuke is female (named Satsuki for the sake of femininity), and she'll be paired with Naruto, though it won't be very fluffy for the majority of it.

Another thing to know: I plan on making this fairly dark, and as such, the characters will be a touch older (16-17). This will still take place during part one, with the only difference being Sasuke's gender and the ages of the genin.

Time for Chapter 1

Enjoy!

Naruto had never been a morning person. Mornings tended to be cold, even during the summer months, and they almost always signified the transition from the relaxing non-activity of sleep to the frustrating, unending reality of daily responsibility. For him especially, daytime tended to be a struggle. He rarely sat still, which contrasted with the policies of the classroom he was forced to attend, he was loud, which never failed to draw the ire of his classmates, and he was more or less without assistance.

Indeed, each day was an eight-to-twelve hour stretch that he traversed by his lonesome. For reasons he had been unfortunate enough to learn just the previous week, Naruto Uzumaki was a social outcast. He was rarely abused outright, but he was certainly shunned. Ignored by small children, denied services by workers, and routinely mocked by his own peers, the young Ninja-to-be had long been forced to be self-sufficient, or at least close to it.

It was for this reason that his entrance into the classroom he had seen a thousand times before represented a new start to the boy. He had, through somewhat unsavory means, earned a promotion to genin through the academy. He had matched his classmates, and he would be on an even field with them for the first time in their young lives. They would earn the same wage, fight for the same opportunities, and if worse came to worst, die for the same cause.

It was perfectly clear, however, that Naruto's classmates weren't exactly enthused by that fact as he made his way to his seat. If anything, they looked flatly disappointed. Their final chance to be rid of him had fallen apart. He had passed, and he was still a factor. At this realization, Naruto let a slight smirk cross his face.

'You're still stuck with me. Get used to it.' he thought to himself proudly. He then settled behind his desk and boredly rested his chin in his hands. Iruka Umino, the class instructor, tended to be on time most days, but he had warned them well in advance that the process of gathering the cell assignments for each and every one of them would likely result in his tardiness on the day of their final gathering as a class.

For the following fifteen minutes, Naruto considered the possibilities available to him in terms of teammates. Two of his classmates would be paired with him as part of a four-man cell including their Jonin instructor, and with just over thirty people in the graduating class not counting himself, this left the prospect of prognosticating his most likely candidates almost entirely impossible.

There were a variety of people in the room that Naruto knew he could tolerate, and an equal amount of which he knew he couldn't. On the more hopeful end of that spectrum, Shikamaru Nara and Shino Aburame had always been fairly pleasant, if a bit unengaged. For better or worse, in his present situation, apathy was a welcome alternative to the norm of his social life. On the pessimistic side, he had little patience for Satsuki Uchiha, Kiba Inuzuka, or Sakura Haruno.

The reasons varied for each of them, but they were all potent enough to make the notion of being forced to live and die with them the opposite of enticing. Satsuki was arrogant and prickly, and tended to call him names on the rare occasions that he attempted to make conversation, Kiba was overly confrontational, and Sakura was painfully irritating past a certain point. Of all three, Satsuki was the person he most wished to be separated from. She was far and away the one he most directly clashed with in terms of personality.

Kiba wouldn't be pleasant, but despite his general dislike of the Inuzuka heir, Naruto felt as though a friendship was possible given enough time and work, and Sakura could be tuned out with enough raw will power. Satsuki, on the other hand, would be impossible to ignore. She exuded a confidence that aggravated Naruto to no end, and she was bound to needle him for no other purpose than to get a rise out of him.

Before he could delve any further into these thoughts, Iruka trudged into the room with a file in his left hand. He looked tired, which was to be expected, but beyond that, he looked a touch apprehensive. About what, Naruto knew not. With a clearing of his throat, the instructor silenced the room and drew the attention of the novice Ninja to him.

"Before I make these announcements, I'd just like to say that it's been an honor to be your teacher for all these years. I've known you all since you were very young, and...I feel like I've grown alongside you, if only a little." he began, drawing a collective smile from his soon-to-be former students.

"I'm proud of you all, and no matter where you go or what you become from here on out, I want each of you to remember that. Now, let's get to the cell assignments." he said as a segway into what he had come to do. The first six of ten teams were fairly uninteresting. Just ragtag combinations of students, many of whom had been bang-average all throughout their time at the academy. They would all likely be fairly successful, but not notable. Then came the seventh.

"Team Seven will consist of Naruto Uzumaki…" Iruka started. Naruto's gaze then shifted upward from the wooden surface of his desk to his instructor, now quite interested to hear what he had to say.

"...Shikamaru Nara." he continued. The blonde felt himself relax a bit. Of all the teammates he could have been given, Shikamaru was likely to be one of the most manageable., Naruto returned his attention to Iruka.

"...and Satsuki Uchiha. Your Jonin instructor will be Kakashi Hatake.=" the instructor concluded. Naruto instantly prickled and clenched his jaw. Of all the combinations available for him in terms of comrades, he had been given one of the least desirable of them. Keeping his calm despite his displeasure, Naruto shot a glare in Satsuki's direction. The raven-haired girl's expression was largely apathetic, but an edge of irritation was clear in her lips, which were pulled into a tight, angry line.

In general, Satsuki Uchiha was hardly pleasant-faced. She rarely smiled, never laughed for any other sake than of ire, and tended to be thorny to all attempted engagement. She hadn't always been volatile, and everybody in the room knew why she had changed, but it didn't change who she was presently. Despite her negativity, and despite his general dislike of her, even Naruto couldn't deny that she was superficially attractive.

Her hair was long and dark, her eyes were a deep black, her skin was pale, and her voice was soft, if incredibly patronizing most of the time. At these thoughts, Naruto snorted and shook his head.

'If your personality wasn't garbage, I might actually be into you.' he thought to himself sarcastically. The final three teams were then listed off, all of which the blonde largely tuned out, as they did not pertain to him. Interestingly, Team Seven had been the only cell not told to go to a separate location upon their announcement, leaving the three of them alone in the classroom by the end of the announcements.

Shikamaru, as expected, was lounging tiredly in his seat, and Satsuki was still as a statue, her hands folded in front of her face. Deciding that silence was a worse alternative, Naruto spoke.

"Do either of you know who this Kakashi guy is?" he asked them both. Interestingly, Shikamaru was the first to respond to his question, and he did so with a shrug.

"I've heard the name before, but I don't know much about him. Apparently he's late a lot. That's all I've got." he said bordly as he drummed his fingers on his desk. Naruto then glanced at Satsuki, who had yet to react to any of the recent events of the day.

"What about you?" he pressed. The Uchiha girl finally acknowledged the presence of her teammates with a sigh and a slight turn toward them.

"He's good at his job, apparently. What he's like as a person doesn't matter. All I care about is whether or not he can get me off the ground as a Ninja." she said shortly. Shikamaru snorted and cast a calm look of humor her way.

"Why so serious?" he joked, earning no response from the girl. The group then lapsed into silence as they awaited the arrival of their new sensei. In line with what Kiba had said prior, it took longer than any of the three had expected, nearly twenty minutes in total. When they finally heard footsteps coming down the hall outside the classroom, they breathed a unified sigh of relief.

"You're late." Naruto said bluntly as a man with silver hair and a covered left eye entered the room. He was of average height and build, and his posture was fairly relaxed. In general, the man who had apparently been assigned to lead them appeared to be somewhat mundane outwardly.

"Not a bad spread of kids. A Nara, an Uchiha…" he began, his eyes drifting from genin to genin as he listed off their heritage. When he reached Naruto, he paused a bit longer, seeming to study him in order to gather his thoughts before speaking.

"...and you. Meet me on the roof of this place, you three. Make it snappy." he concluded before vanishing into a puff of smoke, leaving the newly-formed cell staring dumbly at where he had once been. Slowly but surely, they all rose from their seats and began the short trek up to the roof.

Different though they were, each of the three could sense that the coming days would be long.

Kakashi smirked under his mask as Shikamaru, Satsuki, and Naruto all trudged up onto the roof from the cramped stairwell they had been forced to take. They had made fairly good time, all things considered. There was little to take from it in any meaningful sense, but punctuality as a built in feature of the cell was certainly a good sign. As they settled down in separate locations around the small area, Kakashi cleared his throat and stretched.

"Alright, let's get down to what we're here to do. We're going to run through introductions. When it's your turn to talk, tell the group about yourself." he said. Naruto, who was seated in the leftmost corner of the space, raised his hand.

"What do you want to know?" he asked skeptically. The silver-haired jonin shrugged his shoulders and made a wide gesture.

"Just basic things. What you like, dislike, hobbies, maybe a goal or two. I don't like the sound of your voices enough to want much more than that." he said nonchalantly. He then pointed to Shikamaru, who was staring off into space.

"Start us off." he half-suggested, half-ordered. The Nara snapped from his daydreams and briefly appeared to consider his answers. Once he was satisfied with what he planned to say, he opened his mouth to speak.

"My name is Shikamaru Nara. I like sleeping, food, and Shogi. I don't like exercising a ton, and I'm not a fan of hypocrites. My hobbies are cloud watching and naps." he listed in a low tone. Kakashi nodded and chuckled a bit.

"No dreams to speak of, huh?" he asked humorously, earning an honest shake of the head from Shikamaru. The Jonin then turned to Naruto and gestured for him to begin speaking.

"You next, kid." he pressed. The blonde nodded and rested his hands on the overhang of the academy roof.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen, weekends, and exercise. Unlike Shikamaru on the last thing, I guess. I don't like slackers, and I don't like smartasses. I don't really do much other than train and eat, honestly. Not much else to do." he began, pausing for a moment in between thoughts.

"And my goal is to be Hokage. I'm gonna lead this village one day, whether you think so or not." he concluded firmly. Kakashi's mind briefly returned to the face of a long-late comrade. At the thought, he smiled.

'Another one. I guess every generation needs one.' he mused. He then cast his gaze to Satsuki, who was sitting directly across from him on the roof with her left leg folded over the top of her right and her arms folded across her chest. A predictable picture of brooding.

"Go ahead, Satsuki. You're last up." Kakashi said. The raven-haired girl shifted a bit in place and tucked a strand of dark hair behind her left ear.

"My name is Satsuki Uchiha. I don't like very many things, and I hate quite a few. What I have isn't a dream or a goal. It's a conviction. I'm going to make it happen." she began. Much like Naruto, she paused in between sentences. Unlike him, however, her break in speech very much seemed to be for something resembling dramatic effect.

"Speed it up. This isn't a play." Naruto complained, earning a sharp glare from Satsuki. After the short exchange of verbal and nonverbal barbs ended, the Uchiha girl spoke once again.

"There's somebody I'm going to kill. Somebody I need to get rid of. I'll be seeing that through. Sooner or later, I'll have a body at my feet." she said darkly. Her words significantly chilled the atmosphere of the gathering, with each of her fellow cell members visibly growing uncomfortable. Only Kakashi remained unphased.

"Well, that's a bit unpleasant. I'm guessing you're short on hobbies. Either way, that should wrap things up." he said calmly. Naruto frowned at the statement.

"You haven't told us anything about you yet." he pointed out. The silver haired ninja stood up from his seat and leaned back against the lip of the roof.

"My name is Kakashi Hatake. I like some things, dislike others. As for hobbies, I'm pretty varied, I'd say. Goal-wise, I've never really thought about it, I guess." he said. Both Shikamaru and Naruto scrunched up their brows.

"You didn't tell us anything." the Nara said, his tone containing a trace of irritation. Kakashi hopped up onto the ledge and stepped back.

"You're right, and I don't have to. I'm your superior. I know the lot of you probably aren't great at following instructions, but you'd better get used to the chain of command pretty quick. You'll be better off for it. The rest of the day is yours to do with what you please. Just don't get used to days off." he said with a wave.

A moment later, he disappeared for the second time that day.

Naruto kicked a rock aside as he strolled through the streets of Konoha. It was roughly three in the afternoon, and he still had more time to kill than he knew what to do with. He had opted to briefly return to his apartment after Kakashi's departure to eat a late breakfast he had forgotten to eat upon his awakening that morning, but since the meal, he had done nothing but wander. During his somewhat aimless loops around the village, he had pondered much of what he'd heard from his teammates.

'Shikamaru's exactly what he lays out. He's fine with just letting things play out and going along with it. Rumour is that he's a genius, so he'll probably be fine either way.' he thought to himself. Shikamaru had been fairly affable in their brief interactions, if a bit detached. He seemed like a person Naruto would be capable of making friends with, which was good. As a whole, Shikamaru's small recap of his interests and such had been fairly heartening.

Satsuki had been another story entirely. Her monologue had been off-putting, to say the least. Her tone was cold, her eyes were vacantly uninviting, and her posture was unsettling. To speak so freely of wanting to murder another person was more than a bit concerning on more than one front, but as life would have it, Naruto was effectively stuck with her. He didn't like it one bit, but the fundamental truth of Ninjahood rang true despite that fact.

If he hoped to survive long enough to even begin working toward his goal of leadership and recognition, he would need to work with her. Conflict on the battlefield could, and likely would, result in their demise if worse came to worst. It would be far from easy, but it was less a choice than an obligation.

"Maybe we won't get along, but we're gonna work together." the blonde muttered to himself as he trudged along. Seemingly in scorn of his disdain for her, as Naruto rounded the corner, he caught sight of the exact person of whom he had been thinking. Sitting on a bench with a sandwich was Satsuki, and from the looks of things, she had yet to notice his presence.

Though he initially considered turning around and simply taking another route, something compelled him to continue his trek forward. Predictably, the next step he took alerted the girl to the fact that he was present. Glancing up from her morsel of food, the raven-haired girl's eyes narrowed slightly.

"If you've got something to say, out with it." she said bluntly. The blonde pushed down his irritation at her tone.

"You could stand to be a little nicer, you know." he said as calmly as he could. Satsuki smirked and leaned back on the bench.

"Oh yeah? I take it that means I'm getting on your nerves, right?" she said in needling fashion. The blonde bit back an insult and ground his foot into the dirt to distract himself.

"Never said that. I'm just saying, you should probably be a little less rude to your own teammates." he shot back. The Uchiha girl took a small bite of her sandwich.

"This won't be much of a team effort. I get the feeling I'll be doing most of the heavy lifting." she said. Naruto barked a short laugh.

"Yeah, sure. Keep on telling yourself that. Just try to keep in mind, the way you treat us affects how willing we'll be to bail you out when you're on the chopping block some day." he said sharply. Satsuki stared at him for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and standing to her feet.

"I won't need the help. Have a nice afternoon." she said with a dismissive wave of her hand as she turned her back to him and began walking away. Naruto scowled and took a step forward to follow her.

"Where the hell are you going?" he questioned. His interrogative tone did nothing to slow her pace as she further widened the gap between them. Despite the increasing distance, her voice still rang clear to him.

"Home. I need some peace and quiet. You're a headache." she said before casually leaping up onto a nearby roof and zipping away. As she disappeared into the distance, Naruto let go of the breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. He then shook his head and shoved his hands into his pockets.

'So that's how it is, huh? Fine, I can play mean too.'

A/N: I have no idea how this turned out, as this is by far the most difficult task I've ever tried to tackle character-wise with Satsuki. I know, the name will take some getting used to, but Sasuke is way too masculine a name for a female character lol.

I tend to build my characterizations as I write them, so I'll be sharpening a lot of this up as I go. And remember, they're around 16 in this version. A little older than in canon.

Tell me what you thought!

See you next chapter! Read and Review!