Author's Notes:
Josei is Japanese for female. Not mother, wife, or prostitute, just female. I found it appropriate for an all female team.
I did my research, and this story idea has apparently been done before. I am a fresh author attempting to put a new twist on an old idea. I think I have something valuable to bring to the table. If you really hate my story because you think it's too tired and cliche, that's fine, I'm not out to please anybody. Don't bother reviewing. If you do, I'm long past the age where I'm going to let an Internet comment on a fanfic ruin my day. But please do give me a chance.
As a show of good faith, I have confined the part that seemed to trip up most authors to two chapters. I have posted those two chapters at once and will be moving on very shortly. Chapter Three is when Big Time Missions start.
Chapter One
"You ever have one of those rare days that totally changes your life forever? A day where you realize you aren't the same person you were at the beginning of it?"
"Team Seven: Uzumaki Naruto, Inuzuka Kiba, and Uchiha Sasuke."
Fury and despair crossed Naruto's face - not only was he not with Sakura-chan, he was with Sasuke-teme! Sasuke's expression did not change. He'd already decided any teammates would only weigh him down. Kiba was smirking, still smug at the idea of making it into Genin rank at all but also the only one determined to make his new "pack" work cohesively.
Kiba, a burly boy full of fluffy hair and fur jacket and jerky and leather scent, with a dog fighting partner, saw all ninja teams as wolf packs. Even new rookie ninja teams full of preteens, like these were. It was all about finding a way to cooperate together for the good of the pack, finding a way to fight together. He looked at the antagonistic Sasuke and Naruto in exasperation and thought that he had a formidable task ahead of him.
But three girls in particular were also upset. Ino looked enraged and Sakura upset at the unfairness of life - neither of them had made it onto Sasuke-kun's team! Their only consolation was that no other girl had either. Hinata was downcast. She was not with Naruto-kun, and so suddenly none of the rest of the team placements seemed to matter to her very much.
"Team Eight: Yamanaka Ino, Haruno Sakura, and Hyuuga Hinata."
Ino and Sakura gasped in dismay - then glared daggers at each other. Of all the team placements possible, each thought with inward uncertainty, they each just had to be placed with their rival for love and former best friend. Hinata sank in her seat, shy and terrified at being placed with two titanic tempers who were constantly at each other's throats.
"Why do I have to be with you?!" Ino hissed to Sakura quietly as Team Nine was announced.
"That's my line!" Sakura hissed back.
Hinata fiddled with her fingers. I wish I was at least placed with two people who could get along, she thought miserably.
"Team Ten: Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Aburame Shino."
Shino was neutral, capable of working with any team in a logical progression. Shikamaru and Chouji, best friends since childhood, were even pleased. Theirs was an easy going team in the making. Naturally quiet Hinata watched them enviously.
"That ends team announcements," said Iruka-sensei at the end, putting away his clipboard in the Konoha Ninja Academy classroom. It was the last time they would enter this classroom as students. They would leave as Genin ranked ninja for their Hidden Village.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto immediately shot to his feet. "Why is a top notch student like me on a team with some loser like him?!" He pointed indignantly at Sasuke, who looked coldly contemptuous but did not react. Naruto and Sasuke's rivalry was infamous - Naruto the class clown with rumpled gold hair and a wild grin, Sasuke the pale and cold and aristocratically carved dark-haired and black-eyed genius. "And why can't I be with a cute girl like Sakura-chan?!"
"Idiot!" Sakura shot to her feet. "Why would I want to be on a team with someone like you?!"
Naruto wilted, and Hinata gasped softly. That was cruel even for Sakura, who was glaring bitterly at Naruto for taking her much-cherished spot by Sasuke's side. Naruto had always harbored a crush on Sakura, but she seemed to find him an annoyance. With a one track mind and a dislike for anything loud and dim witted, she never once looked away from Sasuke.
"Yeah, you think we're happy with the team placements, Naruto-baka?" Ino snapped. "We of course wanted to be on a team with Sasuke-kun, but you don't see us complaining." She was bossy and brisk, glaring as well.
Ino knew Sasuke was aware of her affections. She and Sakura competed openly for him constantly, getting into many a cat fight.
Then Iruka began lecturing Naruto on Sasuke's superior Academy grades in front of the whole class, Sasuke scathingly needled Naruto, Naruto threatened to vault across the classroom and punch Sasuke in the face, Sakura got angrily between them, Naruto became suddenly timid before Sakura, and the whole thing ended predictably from there in a hailstorm of chaos.
Iruka sighed to himself. They had a long way to go.
"Break for lunch," he said. "Come back here in an hour to meet your Jonin sensei."
The three girls met outside the main Academy building in the late morning sunshine.
"We all know we each wanted to be with someone else," said Ino at last. "This might be our last shot with them. Why don't we go talk to them? We all also know we don't want to eat lunch with each other."
"Hey, you're not the boss of me! I'm not doing what you say!" Sakura snapped.
"But I'm obviously the best choice for leader! You two are supposed to follow what I say!" said Ino indignantly.
"Obviously, my ass! I'm not following you anywhere!" Sakura shrieked.
"U-umm…" Everyone turned to look in surprise at Hinata, who was fiddling with her fingers, seeming very anxious. "Why… why don't we…"
"You need to speak louder," said Sakura in flat irritation. "Have more confidence."
"Hinata," Ino sighed, superior, "if you want to have a voice on this team, you're going to need to learn to make more noise."
Hinata scowled in a rare show of irritation. Something about these girls was triggering her usually implacable temper. "Why don't we all talk about what we want!" she said louder. "And then decide! Sakura, what did you want?"
Sakura sighed and crossed her arms. "Strategically, it would make the most sense," she admitted begrudgingly, "that we'll all have months at least to get to know each other. But this is our last shot with each of our respective crushes -"
"That's exactly what I said!" Ino protested.
"I'm not finished," Sakura growled, glaring daggers. "What I propose is this," she added intently. "We find out once and for all, before we're separated forever, exactly what each of our crushes thinks of us."
"Ooh." Ino's eyes gleamed. "I like this idea."
"But - but -" Hinata choked out.
"What's wrong, Hinata?" Ino smirked, half grinning. "Too scared to face him? Don't want to know the truth?"
Hinata looked cornered. "I - I -" Was she? Was that it - was she going to be the one not to face the Naruto she might lose forever, because she was too scared? "Alright," she said, resolve forming. "I'll do it."
"That's the spirit!" Ino crowed, as Sakura clapped her on the back.
Hinata smiled. She'd always been embarrassed for these girls' fangirlish silliness around Sasuke. But they were brave - she'd give them that. Braver in admitting to their feelings than her. They didn't just follow their crush around, watching him from behind trees; they actually approached him and were forthright with how they felt. They were loud, fiery, and forward. And she felt braver around them. So there was that, at least.
And so they parted ways.
Hinata was quieter and simpler. She made a hand seal and whispered, "Byakugan!" The veins around her eyes bulged with chakra, and she searched the surrounding buildings for Naruto. Spying him on the roof of a building alone, she felt a leap in the pit of her stomach. She took a deep breath and jumped off over the rooftops to reach him, horrifically nervous.
Ino and Sakura bickered all the way down the road.
"I'm going to find Sasuke-kun first!"
"No, I will!"
"I bet you don't even know where he is," said Ino smugly, and Sakura paused and flushed.
"Of course not," she said quietly. "He always says he doesn't want to eat lunch with me."
"And you let that stop you? HA!" said Ino smugly, and Sakura's hands curled into fists. "I found out where he eats lunch years ago. I tracked him one afternoon, not that you'd be able to do anything that good. I just always sit a distance away from him, because I know Sasuke-kun prefers to eat lunch in retirement."
Ino looked down her nose at Sakura.
Sakura thought fast - there was no way she'd find Sasuke on her own - and came across an idea. "Then I propose this, Ino-pig," she said, calculating and sly. "We both meet Sasuke-kun upfront and ask him which one he prefers best."
Ino's eyes widened.
"What's wrong?" Sakura mocked, smirking. "You don't think he'll pick you?"
Ino growled. "Of course he'll pick me, Forehead Girl!" she snapped. "Fine! Come on, let's go! This way." And she stormed off. Sakura hurried to catch up with her. Ino tried to get ahead, then Sakura, then Ino, and soon they racing each other to the empty classroom where Sasuke usually ate lunch in retirement.
Hinata reached Naruto's roof just as he leaped off of it. She gasped in dismay and followed him.
Sakura and Ino burst into Sasuke's classroom just as Naruto leapt through the window and tackled him from behind.
"Naruto-kun, no!" Hinata wailed, leaping through the window after him.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura and Ino shrieked, hurrying to help their fallen crush.
Naruto and Sasuke had begun to get into a wild brawl, a wrestling match or perhaps a simple fist fight. Hinata pulled Naruto away, Sakura and Ino pulled an equally angry and rather ruffled Sasuke away, and the entire group stood in the classroom glaring daggers at each other.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted, always the first to break any silence. "I need to know what you think of me before we're separated forever!"
"I think you're irritating, Naruto!" Sakura snapped, glaring. "Loud, obnoxious, pigheaded, and stupid!"
"Yeah, unfortunately for you, Naruto, even I'll admit Forehead Girl has the best intellectual grades in our year," said Ino in cruel amusement. "I beat her physically, but she beats me mentally. You, unfortunately, don't exactly fit at least one of her major requirements."
"Why would I pick you?" Sakura sneered at Naruto, who suddenly looked downcast and heartbroken.
"Stop being cruel to Naruto-kun!" said Hinata softly and fiercely, her courage breaking through at last.
"Why?" Sakura snapped. "Because you've had a crush on him for four years and have chosen to follow him around all the time instead of trying to talk to him even once?"
Hinata's eyes widened and her face was red in horrified humiliation.
"... Uh, Sakura," said Ino helpfully into the silence, "that was actually kind of a low blow. I should know. I'm the queen of them."
Naruto turned to Hinata, puzzled. "You… like me?" Then he grinned obnoxiously. "Hey! Weird timid quiet girl likes me!" he jeered. He was more impressed with himself than he was making fun of her - just some stupid, boasting, grinning twelve year old boy - but Hinata became very tiny and obviously took it deeply personally.
"Naruto, you don't even know her name?" said Ino in exasperation.
"What is her name?" said Naruto thoughtfully. He wasn't kidding either. "Hey!" he said, looking around at everyone as they just stared at him in exasperation. "What is it? Come on!" It was obvious - he wasn't trying to be offensive this time.
Hinata burst into tears.
"You, Uzumaki," said Sasuke with the faint disgust of the knowledgeable but irritated, "are the very image of untactful."
"I can make up big words, too, you know!" Naruto snapped. "Umskushi! Bumfiddler!"
"Just ignore him," Sakura sighed, turning to Sasuke and Ino. "Sasuke-kun… we… had a proposition for you." She suddenly became shy and fearful at the end.
Ino was more bold. "We need to know who you like more," she said bluntly. "Me or Sakura. Because we both like you, and we were wondering who you wanted to pick."
Sasuke stared at them. "I… am not interested," he said with distant politeness. "And I don't think I will be anytime soon."
"In who?" They both looked at him hopefully.
"In both of you."
They wilted in horror.
"I choose neither of you," said Sasuke. "You're both cruel, shallow, silly, and weak. Besides, my lifestyle does not have a girl in it right now. There are too many things I need to do first.
"I choose neither of you," he repeated, glaring faintly at them. "I don't like one of you anymore than I like the other. I don't like either of you at all. How many times do I have to put it differently before you stop staring at me like that?"
They both swallowed past lumps in their throats.
"I think," said Sasuke into the defeated silence, "that everyone in this room has to accept that nobody is getting what they really want. I wanted to be left alone," he muttered sarcastically. "It doesn't look like that's happening either."
The girls suddenly ran out of the room crying, leaving two unusually somber preteen ninja boys behind them.
They sat on the main building's back steps, sniffling, looking out over a quiet grassy field lined with trees that took up the northeast side of the Academy campus. They were staring ahead of themselves in tears. Each patently thought it was the end of the world as they knew it.
"... Weird timid quiet girl," said Hinata softly. "He didn't even know my name. I bet nobody in the class does."
"But I think we take the cake," said Ino with watery bitterness. "Cruel, shallow, silly, and weak. And it was like we were exactly the same to him, after all that work trying to make ourselves stand out. Geez."
"I'm… I'm sorry for outing you like that, Hinata. You deserved to tell him yourself," said Sakura quietly, ashamed.
"What's going on here?"
They whirled around.
A tall kunoichi woman was standing before them. She had long black curls, brilliant crimson eyes, and a big, curvy form covered by a wrap dress. Her hitai-ate was tied, fierce and aggressive, around her forehead. Her body type was not the slim ideal, but she held herself with such innate confidence that it didn't seem to matter. She was powerful, distant, and glamorous, everything a true kunoichi was supposed to be.
"The Jonin Sensei are in the classroom," she said, looking at them sympathetically. "Iruka-sensei told me to find Team Eight out here."
"Great. So at least he saw us crying." Ino angrily wiped the tears away.
The woman sat down on the steps in their center. "I'm a girl. I might be able to relate. What happened?" She looked around in the all business way of a big sister.
They told her the story.
"I'm guessing," she said slowly, "that right now you're all a little lost. We're talking about three to four year crushes here. Those boys have been the center of your lives for so long, you don't know who you are without them."
They stared up at her with big eyes.
The woman sighed. "Most girls have to be trained out of this," she admitted. "Let me put it to you this way. Our lives are formed by the stories we are told. In all the stories you have been told, women are side characters - love interests. So you unconsciously decided to make your entire existence focus around boys. Not even beauty, or popularity, or grace, but boys. Other people.
"You've made yourselves the side characters in your own stories.
"Now you're waking up to the fact that your love interest is no longer in the picture. Now you have to be the main character of your own story. And that scares you, because you've never had to be the main character of your story before. You don't know how to yet."
The woman smiled. She had seen realization and determination forming in the girls. It was easier now, she thought, when they were only letting go of silly schoolgirl crushes, when they had a female mentor and were on the cusp of something great, when they had been rejected directly. Thank goodness she'd gotten to them when she did.
"But you are the main character. You deserve to be treated like one. And you owe it to yourself to figure out how to be one. The perfect time is when you start being a kunoichi of Konoha, yes?" The woman shrugged playfully.
"YEAH!" Sakura suddenly cheered, fists pumped as she leaped to her feet.
"Well of course I'm the main character. I'm amazing," Ino preened, grinning.
Hinata said nothing, but a small smile had formed over her face, a new light of determination in her eyes.
Then the three girls stopped and looked at one another.
"Our rivalry isn't over, Forehead Girl," said Ino at last. "Just because he's no longer in the picture, that doesn't mean I've given up."
"That goes double for me." Sakura glared. "Ino-pig."
Then they turned to Hinata suddenly. "Choose one!" they barked. Hinata jumped. "Hinata," Ino preened, "wasn't I nicer to you? Don't you want to come over to my side?"
But Hinata was glaring, fists clenched, new determination forming within her. "It would make more sense," she admitted, and Ino sensed a victory - "That's exactly why I won't do it." Ino and Sakura stared. "I'm tired of being a doormat!" said Hinata heatedly. "I'm tired of being a footnote! I'm tired of being the weird, timid, quiet girl! I want to be my own main character!
"So I won't side with Sakura because she was mean to me. And I won't side with Ino because she'd try to walk all over me." Hinata crossed her arms, pushing down her own nervousness. "I have my own side," she declared, the barest tremble in her voice, chin lifted. "If this is not a boyish rivalry… there's no reason why I can't change and become a rival, too. What, am I not good enough?" she demanded.
Sakura and Ino looked at her - and smiled.
"Then we're agreed," said Ino. "It's a three way rivalry. And I'll win. I'm going to become the best."
They whirled around to the woman, who was smiling slightly.
"Let's get to being Team Eight."
They all found a gazebo in a quiet Konoha village park and sat around their new Sensei in a circle. Green trees filtered in sunlight overhead.
"We'll each go around and introduce ourselves," said Kurenai. "For example, my name is Yuuhi Kurenai. I'm a genjutsu illusions specialist in my twenties. My hobbies are gardening, studying psychology, wine tasting, and jazz concerts."
"My name is Haruno Sakura," said Sakura uncertainly. She was small and slim, no curves anywhere she had often thought despairingly. Her brainy wide forehead was her most sensitive feature, her pointed chin coming in second. She had a red kunoichi summer dress with shorts underneath, green eyes, and long pink hair with her hitai-ate threaded through it like a hair ribbon. "My parents are ordinary people, so I don't really have any special skills yet. My hobbies are books and puzzles. My best trait is my intelligence. My chakra control is pretty good too," she added as an afterthought.
"Very good," said Kurenai warmly. "Now, Sakura, since your parents are ordinary people you may not know. All Genin level kunoichi should wear their hair either tied up or short. Only a more skilled ninja can keep their hair from getting snagged out in the field. That's why Ino has a ponytail and Hinata has chin-length hair. My hair is loose, but I am a Jonin."
Sakura looked embarrassed and uncertain. "Hair bun," Ino advised. "Messy would look cute on you."
"Use your hitai-ate like a scrunchy," Hinata suggested helpfully. Her own was tied around her neck like a kerchief. "Or… a ribbon or something."
Sakura paused - then tied her pink hair up in a messy bun, securing her hitai-ate around it. "There," she said in satisfaction. "It's not like… I need long hair anymore anyway," she added painfully, remembering all those years of trying to impress Sasuke. Ino also became downcast.
"If I might suggest, Ino… if you feel badly, perhaps you could also change your hair?" Kurenai said helpfully.
Ino thought about it, then became determined. "Okay!" she said. She took out a kunai and, with her hair still in its ponytail, cut about half of it off until it was closer to shoulder length. Then, being Ino, she did something artistic and made all the hair different lengths - but with most of it still long enough to make it into the ponytail. Ino was a one woman act in cosmetics.
Then they turned to Hinata. "Your turn." Hinata blinked. Apparently she had to change something about herself, too. But what could she do that would make her seem as bold as Ino and Sakura…?
"Try taking off your big sweater," Ino suggested. "You've got a pretty magnificent rack, but you never show it off so no one ever sees it."
"Yeah! Do it!" Sakura cheered.
Hinata looked between them, blushing… then she smiled and took off her bulky sweater. Underneath it was a tight black tee showing off her curves and a pair of equally tight black pants. Hinata was an hourglass. She'd always been self conscious of her body, which had grown into itself too fast and too young - hence the sweater. Sometimes it seemed she was nothing but round.
"Man," Sakura muttered, "I wish I looked like that," and Hinata blushed darker, pleased despite herself.
"Really?"
"Yeah," Sakura admitted, smiling.
"Well… I wish I looked like you," said Hinata with a shy smile, and Sakura's eyes widened in surprise.
"Alright, then. Your turn, Hinata." Kurenai turned to Hinata, who now had a curvy body in skintight black boy's clothes and a curvy, pale face that was just slightly too round to be considered naturally beautiful. Her eyes were the silvery Hyuuga clan eyes and her hair was chin-length and blue-black. Her hitai-ate was tied around her neck like a kerchief, unknowingly emphasizing her chest area.
"My name is Hyuuga Hinata," said Hinata, quietly but firmer than she might have a while ago. "My clan specializes in taijutsu connected to our doujutsu. We have all seeing eyes and a hand to hand style full of soft, graceful, lethal attacks known as Gentle Fist. My hobbies are flower pressing, baking, and making herbal teas and tinctures."
At last, they turned to Ino. She had a cute, slinky little black skirt and top set, with an exposed midriff tied with protective bandages. Her hitai-ate was slung around her hips, emphasizing her waist. She had a shoulder-length platinum blonde ponytail full of hair of different lengths, some strands falling around her perfectly oval face. Her features were pointed and smirking, her eyes were icy blue, and her hips were curvier than her breasts. She was a bit self conscious of her big ass, which was why she emphasized it with the hitai ate - Ino was fierce on never letting anyone know she was self conscious of anything.
"My name is Yamanaka Ino," she said smugly. "My clan specializes in ninjutsu - mind and body control, more specifically. My hobbies are shopping and tending to my mother's flower shop. I am free to advise people on both fashion and bouquets. Anything girly? You come right to me. I'll fix you up."
"Very good," said Kurenai at the end. "Now. I have something to reveal to all of you. There is one final test I must administer before you are fully graduated into Genin - Hokage's orders."
They sat up straight, alert.
"If we fail this test, will we be sent back to the Academy?" Ino demanded.
"Yes," Kurenai confirmed simply, nodding.
"After all that work?" Sakura wailed.
Hinata curled in on herself, becoming downcast and timid once more.
"I'm sorry, girls, one more test is needed to pass into Genin," said Kurenai. "It's only a few hours long. Would you like for it to be administered now, or would you rather wait till tomorrow?"
"How much better prepared will we be tomorrow?" Sakura muttered cryptically, annoyed. "All we'll be is more nervous."
"Yeah, we haven't even done anything today!" Ino said louder. "And I brought all my ninja equipment because I thought we might have our first mission! It's only like one-thirty!"
"Let's just get it over with," Hinata said quietly, bracing herself for disappointment. It had been a nice illusion, that strength, while it lasted… Her old downcast Academy mentality set back in.
"Very well," said Kurenai, revealing nothing. "I thought you might say that. Right this way, to Training Area 34."
They all jumped down into the middle of the training area - a grassy clearing surrounded by forests, with a brook running nearby. There were three wood posts in the middle of the clearing.
"This is the standard issue final Konoha Genin Exam," said Kurenai, holding up two silver bells clinically. She attached them, jangling, to her hip. "It is known as the Bell Test. It is called this because your team is given a mission. Its objective? To take these bells from me by force.
"Getting a bell means the person who gets it passes into Genin rank. Simple, right?"
"But wait -!" Ino began.
"There are only two bells," said Sakura, frowning.
Hinata was silent with terror.
"Correct," said Kurenai. "At least one person will get no bell. That person will fail. They will also be tied to the center post, and the rest of us will eat lunch in front of them." She smirked quietly. "None of you ate lunch, did you?"
Three stomachs grumbled as they all became deadpan. They'd been so upset and boy crazy… they hadn't eaten lunch.
"You'll want to be careful of that in the future," said Kurenai. "Not eating before working out means you could faint out in the field."
"But what if we want to look good -?" Ino protested.
"Then find another way to do it besides not eating. Work out a lot. Eat healthily. But ninja need meals, or they become weak - prone to fainting - cannon fodder. Do you want that to be you?" Kurenai asked ruthlessly.
All three girls were silent, swallowing.
"But today, you already agreed to the test, so nothing can be done," Kurenai sighed, shrugging. "Still convinced you'll make Genin?"
Sakura and Ino paused - turned to glare at each other. "Of course," said Ino aggressively. "I have to beat Forehead Girl."
"Then of course I'll do better than Ino-pig!" Sakura snapped.
They turned to Hinata, who'd gone silent.
"You know, Hinata-weirdo," Ino said in smug satisfaction, grinning. "If you want to give up right now, part of this test is over."
Sakura watched her cannily, eyes flinty and determined.
Hinata's eyes widened, caught - and then she paused. Weirdo. Wasn't that what Naruto had called her? Weird timid quiet girl. Hadn't she decided to stop being that person?
Anger formed within her.
"Am I so easily underestimated?" she snapped frigidly. "Ino-pig, Sakura-forehead-girl, I'm still on! And what's more, I'll beat you!"
Kurenai smiled a strange, unreadable smile - and set a timer on the center post beside her. "You all have one hour." She set the timer and held it there. "When I say start, you go. One - two - three - START!"
They all leaped off into the forestry to hide and figure out their separate plans.
Sakura was running through the underbrush. She'd lain under a bush watching Kurenai for a few minutes in that clearing - hiding and watching, like the others, she supposed - but then Kurenai had suddenly disappeared and Sakura had felt a moment of distinct panic. Now she was running.
What was she to do? She no skills. She'd never even been very good in physical Academy training exercises. Whatever she had said, her strategic mind couldn't find a good way out of this situation.
But no! She wouldn't give up! She had to beat Ino-pig and Hinata-weirdo!
Still… what was she to do if she wanted to beat a Jonin level illusions specialist who could move so fast it was like she had suddenly transported herself, dematerialized out of thin air?
Suddenly, she saw Kurenai ahead in a clearing. Her heart stopped. She ducked and hid in a bush near the clearing. Good. Kurenai hadn't spotted Sakura yet. Her back was to her.
"Sakura." Sakura whirled around and Kurenai's face was directly in hers. Sakura shrieked right before she blacked out.
She woke up in the center of the clearing. She completely spazzed, freaking out for a solid minute as she wondered what the hell was going on. Then she heard her parents' voices behind her. "Sakura…" they moaned.
Sakura turned again. Her parents were staggering toward her. They were flooded with kunai, some bulging out of their eyeballs, others out of their legs. They were bloody, mangled messes. They leaned against a tree, staring at her.
"Sakura… she targeted us to get to you… Sakura… you couldn't save us…"
Tears filled Sakura's eyes. A horrible, piercing scream filled the air and she realized it was hers. Her stomach spun, her head swam, and she blacked out.
Hinata, Byakugan eyes active, winced from the surrounding underbrush as she saw Sakura faint, hitting the forest floor. Just as Kurenai had predicted. Hinata usually tried to be charitable with others' performances, but even she could admit, that had been… pathetic.
She saw the illusion, of course, as any good ninja would have anyway, but with her Byakugan active Sakura's parents were nothing more than a misty mirage. They weren't real. Sakura's parents were safe at home, waiting for their daughter. But Sakura's senses, thanks to Kurenai, had told her a different story. If it weren't for a few flaws, the illusion would have been perfect.
Illusions were no joke, even to a Hyuuga. Kurenai could have attacked and killed Sakura at any point while Sakura was distracted by the false image, though kindly, Kurenai had chosen not to. And Hinata wouldn't have been able to stomach killing someone distracted - not even Sakura-forehead-girl. Illusions could even exert a clumsy kind of body control and cause massive damage to the cerebral nervous system, the part of the brain they controlled with chakra.
But Hinata's Byakugan eyes should allow her an excellent advantage against a fighter like Kurenai. She could see through illusions. Those same eyes had managed to help her find Kurenai in the first place.
She waited for Kurenai to walk by her hiding place in the underbrush… then suddenly lashed out with glowing Gentle Fist hands in a taijutsu attack. Kurenai ducked around the attack, and reacted. Hinata saw her replace herself with an illusion.
She smiled and forced right through the illusion, whirling around to attack the real Kurenai, who blocked her successfully but seemed surprised. "That won't work on my eyes," said Hinata triumphantly.
So Kurenai and Hinata began a taijutsu spar, Hinata's specialty. Hinata kept pushing Kurenai back, and for a moment she thought she was winning - then, the same as before, Kurenai suddenly disappeared.
"Only a fool only masters one area," said Kurenai in Hinata's ear, directly behind her. "Did you think I was not also a fast close distance fighter? You are good, Hinata, but certainly not even the best Hyuuga of your age."
Then she knocked Hinata out cold with a chop to the neck from behind. Hinata would awake to find herself tied up with ninja wire it would take her extra time to work her way out of.
When Kurenai walked into Ino's clearing, Ino was hiding but the trap she had lain was ready.
Ino knew. In order to beat not only Sakura-forehead-girl and Hinata-weirdo, but Kurenai-sensei, she'd have to be extra tricky. Sneaky and resourceful, like a ninja. She had ninja equipment and weapons, so she used them.
Kurenai tripped a trigger wire and a vicious round of kunai and senbon needles were meant to hit a few key areas. The kunai knives went directly for her eyeballs while the senbon went for the knee joints in her legs to numb them. Ino had calculated and judged all height distances perfectly, observing while she had the chance, and she wasn't fucking around.
Kurenai disappeared right as the trap was about to hit her.
As Ino predicted, in her speed she appeared across the clearing. That was when Ino stepped out from behind a tree - in a line directly across from Kurenai. "Perfect," she smirked, as Kurenai's eyes widened in surprise. Ino made a hand seal - and Kurenai leaped aside just in time.
Ino scowled. She could take over another's mind and body, leaving her own body vulnerable and unconscious and connecting the two physical forms in the process, but she was novice. She had to be in a straight line away from the other person in order to do it.
Kurenai kept leaping around, unable to be caught, so Ino triggered another trap. Wire suddenly lashed out, wrapping around Kurenai and binding her in place. Then Ino did the hand seal again, successfully connected with Kurenai's mind… she woke up in Kurenai's body, looking at her own slumped form across the clearing.
Then suddenly she felt something hit her mind heavily from behind.
Flash and she was on fire.
Flash and she was frozen encased in ice.
Flash and she was being held over a cavernous ravine.
Flash and she was being thrown toward a boiling pit of hot lava.
Ino shrieked and retreated back inside her own mind, her body waking up. She shot to her feet, breathing heavily. Kurenai was still wrapped in ninja wire across the clearing from her. "Be careful, Ino," said Kurenai calmly. "Your chakra is weak. A strong mind would break through that technique."
Ino smirked. "But I still have you trapped," she said smugly. "So I still get the bells - and I still win."
Then the illusion faded away. A pile of cut wires lay in Kurenai's place. "What the -?" Ino gasped, and then she felt something invisible spring her arms and legs together. She fell over flat on the ground. "Genjutsu," she growled, writhing. "I forgot." She pushed chakra out into the air around her, disrupting its usual flow inside her body - and paused in surprise. She was still trapped. The illusion hadn't broken.
"That is known as an imprint genjutsu," said Kurenai emotionlessly, standing above her. "It is timed. Once you release it, you have five minutes before it leaves your mind."
"Damnit!" Ino snapped, struggling against the genjutsu, as Kurenai left the clearing.
Sakura gasped and woke up, sitting upright. "My parents -! Where are -?"
"It was a genjutsu."
Sakura looked around. Hinata was trying to work her way out of her bindings. Sakura paused - then went cautiously over to help, to Hinata's surprise.
"So it wasn't real," said Sakura, troubled. "I suppose I looked silly, just fainting like that."
"... You have no clan skills," said Hinata simply, reserved.
Once Hinata was untied, they stood and looked at each other. "We'll find Kurenai-sensei with Ino, won't we?" Sakura said seriously.
"Shall we call a temporary truce?" Hinata agreed. "In order to find the action together?" Sakura nodded. Hinata activated her Byakugan - and gasped.
"Ino-pig's lying in that clearing over there. Her heart rate is low and she's not moving! Kurenai-sensei's gone!"
They took to the trees and leapt through the forest branches, landing in Ino's clearing. "Ino!"
"Relax," said Ino calmly, irritated. "It's a timed genjutsu. I can't break out."
"Nonsense," said Sakura clinically. "All you need is a second person with good chakra control, and you're freed. Iruka-sensei told us about it." She walked over and with a tap of chakra she freed Ino, who sprang to her feet.
There was a heavy silence in the clearing as the three girls glared at each other, rivalry reforming.
"I take it no one's gotten a bell yet," Ino said at last, testing the waters.
"No. But I will, of course," said Sakura, her tone hard and angry.
"Not before I do," said Hinata, quiet and deadly.
Suddenly, the timer rang a distance away. They all slumped and Ino groaned. "Damnit!" they shouted to the skies.
Sakura ended up being tied to the stump.
"Well, Sakura is tied to the stump because all she did was faint," said Kurenai, irritated. Sakura hung her head. "But needless to say you all failed."
Hinata had returned back to hopeless, silent depression. Ino looked angry, then uncertain - and for super confident Ino, uncertainty was saying a lot. Was she just… not a good kunoichi?
"I must say you had potential. I'm disappointed." They all looked up. "None of you divined the true meaning of this test, did you? It was teamwork."
Three sets of eyes widened.
"You wouldn't have passed us… no matter what," Sakura breathed.
"It is true," Kurenai admitted. "Had you gotten a bell on your own, you would not have made Genin. Had you worked together, even if you hadn't gotten a bell I would have passed you. The bell was a facade.
"But I think you could have gotten a bell had you worked together. Hinata, you may not be the best Gentle Fist or Byakugan user I've ever seen, but that doesn't make you a bad Gentle Fist and Byakugan user. Ino, you already have at least one mind-body control ninjutsu down, if you're in a straight line away from the victim and have someone to watch your original body.
"So Hinata could have looked through my genjutsu and gotten me distracted and in a straight shot using taijutsu while Ino took over my body using ninjutsu. Then in the few seconds it took for Ino to take me over, Hinata could have grabbed the bells. But who to mastermind all this? Well, Sakura, of course - the brilliant and strategic one. She would also have been useful for watching over Ino's body, and for saving the other two girls from any nasty genjutsu with her chakra control and observational skills.
"But none of that happened. Sakura freaked out and fainted at the first sign of trouble. Hinata and Ino failed through their efforts to try to do everything alone.
"That is why you failed."
"But - there were only two bells!" Ino protested. "That's not fair!"
"True. The test was trying to pit the three of you against each other. But I told you in the beginning - the team's mission objective was the bells. An ideal Genin team would have focused on the mission objective and worked together, even with the chance that every member of that team had an equal opportunity of being doomed. That's how it is out in the field. Teams must work together, but there is always a chance of death.
"One has to be collective and self sacrificing. Teamwork. That is the Konoha ninja way.
"Because you see what happened when there was no teamwork, yes? With teamwork, you were told there was a chance at one death. But since all of you chose to work separately -"
"All three of us would have died," Hinata whispered in realization.
"And the Konoha lesson is this: If you had worked together, in our test, there would have been no death. Ninja have to look underneath the underneath in any exam or mission, so to speak, and none of you did that. It is this, and not your abilities, that are the reason why you failed.
"You are rivals, and that is good. But to be a true Konoha team, you must also be friends. That lack of friendship is what has failed you today."
There was a solemn silence.
"... Give us one more chance," said Ino at last, staring at the ground in consternation.
"Yes! Please, Sensei!" said Hinata, looking up.
"We promise we'll do better this time," said Sakura, pained.
"... Very well," said Kurenai, reserved. "After lunch. But since you know now, the test will be much harder. I have been hiding my skills. After lunch I will reveal them. So eat up. And no one give Sakura any lunch - or the whole thing falls through."
She walked off the field. The girls ate in a heavy silence - and Sakura's stomach groaned.
"It's fine," she told them, smiling weakly. "It'll give me that perfect girlish figure." But they looked concerned.
"Hinata - check with Byakugan," said Ino, determined, turning to Hinata.
Hinata activated her eyes. "I see Kurenai-sensei nowhere," she confirmed icily.
Ino lifted up her tray and began feeding Sakura, holding out a bite of food. "Here," she said, scowling. "You're useless enough as it is. We can't have you fainting again. As beautiful women, all we need is one lunch, right?"
"But -" said Sakura, shocked.
Hinata knelt beside them with her Byakugan active. "I will keep watch," she said firmly.
"But that's against the rules!" Sakura finally finished protesting.
"Sakura-forehead-girl," Ino sighed, pained. "You're not from a special family, so I'm going to make this really simple for you. Keep in mind for future reference - ninja aren't supposed to follow the rules. The only thing that matters is the objective."
"And our objective is the bells," said Hinata icily, kneeling and staring straight forward in determination.
"But the point of the test isn't the bells. The point of the test is friendship." Determination had formed over Sakura's face. "That's what Kurenai-sensei said. And I'm not going to risk my friends by forcing them to break the rules for me."
Hinata and Ino were staring at Sakura in surprise. Sakura looked quite matter of fact and decided.
Then a voice from behind made them all freeze. "At ease, ladies." Kurenai swept calmly back into their midst.
Ino stared in disbelief at Hinata. "I thought you were looking -!" she yelped.
"The Byakugan has one tiny narrow blind spot in its 360 degree field of vision." Hinata was looking speculatively over at Kurenai. "One very few know about."
Kurenai was smiling, a small, glowing expression on her face. "Congratulations, you three," she said. "You all pass into Genin."
"... What…?" They just stared.
"I told you: look for hidden meanings and intentions. Look underneath the underneath. You showed teamwork, did you not?" Kurenai pointed out brightly. "Each of you was thinking only of the others. Ino and Hinata cared more about their teammate and the objective than they did about following the rules or getting in trouble. Sakura was willing to risk her own future safety in order to keep her teammates from getting in trouble on her behalf.
"You don't have enormous skills, but we can work on those. As far as I'm concerned, you learned your lesson and all three of you pass into Genin rank.
"To be honest," she admitted, smiling, leaning forward, "if all three if you had let a teammate go hungry without saying anything, because it was what you were supposed to do, I probably wouldn't have passed you anyway. It wouldn't have been very ninja like of you. It would also have made you shitty people."
Her tone was light and matter of fact.
"Congratulations, Team Eight. You're all ninja."
Ino and Sakura began cheering. Hinata shot to her feet, beaming, and cut Sakura free with a kunai. Sakura, jumping up and down, hugged Hinata and then Ino - and then Sakura and Ino got very sheepish and stared at their toes, becoming silent and embarrassed. Hinata giggled and Kurenai smiled in exasperation.
"You two were friends once, before Sasuke," Kurenai realized, and Hinata looked over at Sakura and Ino in surprise. "It will be nice, won't it, being friends again?"
Sakura and Ino looked up… and gave each other surprisingly shy smiles.
"Come on, team," said Kurenai. "We start missions tomorrow."
As they walked off the field, however, Sakura looked troubled. "Sensei… I've realized how weak I am. I don't want to be the one with no family tied to the post anymore. Is there any way you could… possibly train me?" She winced, looking hopeful.
"I've been considering training you in genjutsu illusions myself," said Kurenai thoughtfully. "You have the main qualifications: you're intelligent and observant with excellent chakra control. You also have no other interfering abilities to work on."
Sakura gasped and brightened, and Kurenai smiled slyly.
"Well then - I want training too!"
"Yeah, so do I!"
Hinata and Ino looked indignant.
"We need work too," said Ino bossily, tossing her head. "I fucked up just as much as anybody else."
"Yes. And being a good Hyuuga is no longer good enough," said Hinata, calm but heated. "I wish to become the best."
"Of course. In any case, you have to keep up with your rival Sakura, don't you?" They nodded. Kurenai pondered. "Then I will personally supervise each girl's immersion into her higher clan arts. Ino, Hinata, the Yamanaka are huge in ANBU Black Ops Torture and Interrogation while the Hyuuga are one of the most prestigious clans in our village.
"You have a long way to go in order to make your families proud.
"I will also be putting you through team training - team management and cohesion exercises, strategy exercises. I want the three of you to become like a well oiled machine, each part expertly predicting the others, putting your abilities to their best effect." Steel had entered her deceptively calm voice.
"Hey, guys!" said Ino in sudden excitement, turning to the other two in the setting sun over the training field. "Remember how those awful boys wrote us off?" Already it seemed like forever ago. "What if we get super strong, stronger than them?
"What if we prove them wrong about us? Not so we can get them back, but just to show them what's what?"
Her grin was mirrored in the faces of the other two girls.
