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It had been a perfectly ordinary day.
Sakura had attended all her classes that week with a smile on her face and had been on her way to check on her ridiculously important potion due in that coming Tuesday for one of her classes. So far the brewing process had gone well, and she was confident she’d be getting full marks. It was the final assignment of the year, and by far the most important, so making sure she got the recipe perfect was essential, hence her need to constantly check on it… even on weekends. She needed all the marks she could get if she want to land herself in her dream job. It was similar to the dreams of the two idiots she called friends, and it involved them all working for the highest powers available – The High Council. The one made up of the Head Mage and the seven Elemental Overlords. Only the best and brightest were allowed to work with them.
“Naruto! You idiot!” Sasuke’s voice reached her first as she stopped in front of the out-of-the-way lab she’d stored her potion in – precisely so no idiots would ruin or sabotage it. She was at the top of all her classes, so there were plenty of jealous students who would be happy to try and knock her out of her top seat.
“It was an accident!” Naruto yelled, his voice echoing all around the place.
“You shouldn’t have been using your magic around—”
The door clicked open, Sakura walking in on a scene she found to be very confusing. The laboratory was a mess, glass bottles smashed on the floor, evidently victims of a certain mage’s wind magic. Sasuke had a hand slapped to his face, his shoes drenched in a silvery liquid. Naruto was standing next to the table where her brewing equipment was… not… It was odd, Sakura mused, staring at the silvery puddle Sasuke was standing in. The recipe had said a correctly brewed potion would turn out silver. A smile cracked at her lips. Of course, Naruto wouldn’t have been as stupid as to ruin the potion which took three whole months to make only a few days before it was due to be handed in. Naruto wouldn’t have dared to do such a thing, because he knew it would end up one way. The same way it had ended in their first month of school at Konoha – him beaten black and blue, with an unhealthy respect for ‘sweet-looking pink-haired girls with the temper of his own mother and monstrous strength to boot’.
“Sakura!” Naruto flailed, his wind magic knocking a few more important-looking glasses and test tubes to the ground. He’d always sucked at control – having far too large mana stores to properly control the amount of power he had. “It was an accident, I swear!”
“Naruto,” she greeted, her smile sickly sweet. “That’s not my potion on Sasuke’s feet, is it?”
“It is,” Sasuke grumbled, lightning sparking around his body as he prepared to flee her wrath. “The dobe knocked it over… but we can help you remake it?”
Sakura grinned, teeth bared. “It takes three months to make.”
Sasuke paled. “Shit. When’s it due?”
“Three days’ time,” she said, smiling all the while, rage simmering beneath the surface as her magic hummed to life. Sakura paused, the cool, comforting feeling of her magic vanishing the more her rage built at Naruto’s dumbstruck expression. “It’s worth half of my grade this year.” Her magic simmered underneath her skin. Because of Naruto her grade in Potions would be terrible. Because of Naruto she might not get the career she’d always wanted. All her hard work over the years might be all for nothing.
Naruto squeaked, throwing himself into Sasuke’s arms, who cradled him like some sort of princess out of instinct. He’d done it far too many times already to even act surprised when he was faced with an armful of terrified blonde. “Teme, save me!”
The inferno raging inside her built and built, her vision tinting red the more she thought about the reality of what her idiotic friend had done, and then the room became unbearably hot all of a sudden as she stared at the duo who were too shocked to move.
“Naruto! Shield! Now!” Sasuke squeaked, clutching at the blonde as tightly as he could before the room around them exploded in oranges and reds.
::
Kakashi stared at his mentees.
His mentees stared right back at him… from the smouldering wreckage that had been Konoha Academy only minutes before.
He blinked, the scene remaining unchanged, his once cute mentees all in varying stages of consciousness before he stumbled back, deciding enough was enough. There was only so much his sanity could take, so being the twenty-something lightning mage he was, he decided to extract himself from the situation before any of the equivalent of the mage police force could get there, but not before saying a polite goodbye to his mentees. “Fuck this shit, I’m out.”
::
Sasuke was not OK.
Sasuke would repeat that HE WAS NOT OK.
Naruto, the blithering idiot, had ruined Sakura’s very important potion. Sakura had then demolished the entire school – the same one that had been founded by the current Water Overlord. The exact same Water Overlord who was currently glaring daggers at all of them as they sat in the glowing blue translucent cell. Well, Naruto and Sasuke sat. Sakura was sprawled out across the floor, unconscious from whatever magic she’d used – and wasn’t that a surprise? Sakura was registered as a Water Mage – not a flame spewing beast.
“So…” Tobirama began, looking exactly how he did in the painting that had once been situated in the entrance hall to Konoha Academy. “I hear you three took it upon yourselves to destroy a hundred years’ worth of history in the space of two minutes…” His smile reminded them of Sakura’s – at least before it had turned into a manic grin when the flames erupted from her body. “Care to explain?”
Sasuke, being the mature seventeen-year-old he was, immediately pointed his finger at Naruto. “It’s his fault,” he declared. “All his fault.”
Naruto choked. “Sasuke!”
Tobirama scowled. “None of you are registered as Fire Mages,” he continued, glaring intently at the pair of them. “So we’re going to have to rectify that, as well as make you cough up the name of whatever spell you used – because only one that’s forbidden would cause that much destruction.”
Sasuke’s eyes narrowed. “We?”
“The Head Mage and the Fire Overlord are—”
The door to the room clicked open, and Naruto made a valiant effort to hide behind Sasuke. Head Mage Hashirama had always been Naruto’s role model and meeting him from behind a prison cell wasn’t exactly the meeting either of them had thought they’d have with him or two others of the group that made up the world’s most powerful mages. They were practically guaranteed to survive whatever the world threw at them – all of them having the unaging trait of a mage coupled with a ridiculous amount of magic which made it near impossible to kill them in the ways one would off an ordinary mage. Sasuke silently wanted to be like them, but that dreams was slowly getting further and further away as he swallowed audibly.
He was staring at Uchiha Madara, one of the many previous heads of his clan, and he did not look happy. Though maybe that was his default expression. It was the same for many Uchiha, including him.
Naruto was peering around him to eye up the Head Mage, meeting the dark eyes that stared at the two of them and silently wondering why the guy looked so damn cheerful, considering the situation they were in.
“So,” Hashirama said, clapping his hands together. “Who was it, and what spell did you use?” he asked. “I think it’s best we get this over with as quickly as possible so you can all get home…”
“Answer, brats,” Madara grumbled, folding his arms as he stood there in all his spiky-haired glory. “We do have better things to be doing with our time.”
“I, um, think it was an accident,” Naruto mumbled, pointedly looking at the floor. “So I don’t think a spell was used…”
“You think?” Madara snapped, a scowl in place. “So it was you who—”
“No!”
“Don’t interrupt me!” he snarled, and Naruto quivered.
“Now, now, Mads, don’t get too worked up.” Hashirama patted the bristling man’s shoulder. “Just listen to what the boy has to say.”
“Don’t call me that!” Madara hissed.
Sakura groaned.
Sasuke and Naruto stilled, each of them tensing as their female companion blinked slowly before bright green eyes snapped onto them.
Naruto leapt into Sasuke’s arms. “Shit, teme, she’s still in beastmode! Run!”
Madara snorted. “There’s nowhere to…” he trailed off, watching as Sasuke sprinted away, passing through the glowing blue translucent wall like it was nothing.
“Tobi…” Hashirama mumbled, watching as the pair smashed through the nearest window. “Wasn’t that cell supposed to suppress their magic…?”
Sakura growled, stomping towards the wall of what had been their cell, scowling when a spiky black-haired figure moved to block her. Her fist went back, a snarl of rage escaping her as she stared after the fleeing duo. How dare they flee from her like cowards rather than taking their beating… “NARUTOOOOO! SASUKEEEE! YOU’RE SO FUCKING DEAD WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU! SO FUCKING DEAD!” she roared, punching through the cell wall like it was made from styrofoam rather than intricately woven magic, throwing whoever the hell had tried to block her path to one side as she stormed towards the broken window. Flames wrapped around her, crackling to life as she left the building in an explosion of brick, mortar and glass.
::
Madara blinked from his position – half embedded in a nearby wall – taking a few moments to digest what had just happened. He’d been thrown across the room, and it had happened so quickly too… not to mention it had been a slip of a pink-haired girl who’d thrown him too… one who was now spewing fire left right and centre as she chased after the other two.
Tobirama scowled. “Why are we all just standing here like a bunch of idiots?”
Hashirama raised a finger, seemingly uncaring about the sounds of explosions reaching them through the newly installed archway. “Technically, Mads isn’t standing.”
“Shut up, Hashirama!” he hissed, pulling himself out of the wall he’d just become intimately acquainted with, silently walking back over to the Senju duo before he paused. “Damn…” Madara muttered, staring at the flaming hole left in the wall, silently appraising the sheer devastation left in Sakura’s path. “That girl is a complete and utter beast…”
Hashirama swallowed audibly.
“Get your head out of your arse, Uchiha!” Tobirama snarled. “We need to stop them before they destroy another ancient building or two!”
Madara was chasing after them in seconds, Tobirama at his side as they followed the trail of destruction left in the wake of the three troublesome teens. “I’m so taking her on as a student,” he mumbled dreamily. “Imagine all the flaming carnage she’d be capable of after a few years…”
Tobirama snorted. “Get your own student.”
He blinked. “What?”
“She’s registered as a Water Mage – and I saw her first,” Tobirama said matter-of-factly. “You can’t steal my future student.”
“She’s clearly a Fire Mage!”
“Dual Elements, it seems,” he mumbled, stroking the red marking on his chin as they chased after the flaming mop of pink hair. “I’m still taking her on as a student.”
“Well, I’m taking her on as a student too,” he harrumphed, folding his arms and glaring off into the distance. “And you can’t stop me.”
One white eyebrow rose. “Wanna bet on that?”
“Screw you, Senju!”
Tobirama tilted his head. “Your place or mine?”
Madara’s cheeks turned that adorable shade of red. “Mine, obviously,” he said, looking straight ahead. “I have the superior bed.”