Author's Note: Okay. So there's a whole story behind this one.

I had this idea, and I wrote the whole book in the space of a few weeks. I put everything I had into this story. I don't know why this one was such a deep emotional investment and personal journey for me, but it was. I nearly made myself sick finishing it. The whole novel is finished.

But for a while, I couldn't post it. The emotional investment was too deep. And after that I was so distraught I didn't even look at this story for a whole month. A lot happened in that month - including me going through a self identity crisis, getting a job, and coming out the other side stronger for it.

I think I'm finally ready to let the world see this story, and get back into starting writing for book two. I will only start posting each book after I finish them. This is book one. It covers the Academy's last year and is eleven chapters long.

With that said, please treat this story gently. For my longtime readers, it is the first one I deeply care about since The Right to Live. It is my baby. Please try to be nice to it, and give it a chance to wow you. It is paced and described like a normal novel.

And finally, enjoy.


Series: The Healer and the Hunter, The Monster and the Flower

Book One: The Seven Week Spring Project

Chapter One

Iruka was nervous the day he announced the assignment. He was shifting from foot to foot as he got his coffee in the teacher's break room before class. The creaky old coffee maker rumbled and squealed in front of him on the table, before finally gasping out a long stream of steaming hot dark liquid.

"You're sure you can do this, Iruka?" He turned around. Mizuki was smiling jokingly from the doorway, his long silver hair falling in carefully layered waves around his young face. "You're really going out on a limb here. A lot of people are saying personal contact has no place in the world of the shinobi."

Iruka smiled, feeling a churning kind of nauseousness. "I know what I'm doing," he said, trying to be polite.

"Hey, it's not me you have to convince!" Mizuki laughed. "I'm not the one saying it!"

"It's not them I have to convince either," said Iruka wryly, with an irritable jerk of his head toward the general direction of the rest of the Konoha Ninja Academy outside the door of the tiny, humble break room filled with tables and chairs and threadbare commercial carpet.

"It's Hokage-sama," Mizuki realized, sobering. "Yeah. Good luck."

"Thanks," said Iruka as Mizuki left, though he wasn't sure Mizuki hadn't meant it in an ironic way.

The Hokage had taken some convincing.

"We're always talking about the importance of comradeship among the fighting forces of Konoha," Iruka had said in the meeting before the Hokage's grand mahogany, gold-gilded desk, leaning forward in his cushioned chair intently. "What if we started that earlier? The students training at the Academy don't understand it yet, but when they go out into the village fighting force as shinobi ninja, many of their classmates will turn into their peers, their comrades, their fighting team members. Wouldn't it be good for them to have some practice getting to know at least one person closely? It's an important skill to cultivate. If we don't know someone, we can't really love them - not in any sense."

The Hokage, a tiny old man with a sagging, lined, and pockmarked face, had sat back and taken a puff on his wood pipe, smoke furling out from his nose and mouth. His silver goatee was always immaculate, as were his Hokage's robes, but with his chosen summons his adversaries had taken to calling him "monkey man" behind his back. When Iruka scolded people for this, he was laughed at. He tried not to think of this as the Hokage gave him the silent and razor-sharp staring cross-examination of someone who had led a major Hidden Village through more than one war.

"You always were idealistic, Iruka. It's why I like you," said the Hokage at last. Iruka's heart sank; he sensed a wholly humiliating 'no' coming his way. "Since we seem to be trying to live in a more idealistic time these days, I will allow it." Iruka's head shot up. "But as usual I want weekly reports on the students, and I had better see real results - changes in how they behave towards one another.

"After all, there are the beginning Genin teams to think of."

Iruka had bowed his head. "Yes, Hokage-sama," he had said softly.

A lot was riding on this. It was wholly Iruka's idea, Iruka's project. He knew people were laughing at him behind his back; with his zeal and his idealism it was not an infrequent occurrence. Iruka was used to this - he'd been the class clown in school himself - and it didn't bother him the way it used to.

He took a deep, bracing breath, grabbed his coffee, banged out the break room door, and headed down the squeaky linoleum hallway for class, past countless classroom doors until after what seemed like ages he reached his own. The walk felt longer than usual. He entered his classroom, put down his eggshell white and brown mug, and shuffled around some papers on his teacher's desk, just for something to do amidst the buzz of loud chatter around him that usually meant the clock near the top of the far left wall hadn't hit eight yet.

Spread out around him were long, wide tiers, a bit like one side of a wedding cake, leading in a great ascending arc up to the top of the room, where there was another door into the classroom. Each tier carried three tables, and each table could sit three to four students. Konoha Ninja Academy students were much like preteens in other places - excepting for the fighting-ready outfits and the weapons and equipment holsters tied to their thighs.

They didn't have dark bands tied to someplace on their bodies with the Konoha symbol on them, nor did they have dark forest green flak vests. Those were reserved for Konoha ninja, often older and higher ranked Konoha ninja - teachers, for example, like Iruka, who was wearing both himself, the hitai-ate band wrapped around his forehead above his brown ponytail and the wide Umino Clan marking across the bridge of his nose.

Sunlight sparkled through the dappled green leaves of an outside tree and then through the huge crystalline far right window, shining into the classroom. It was spring. The window was slightly open to let in a breeze and bees buzzed around white flowers on the tree outside.

The clock hit eight.

"Can I have your attention, please?" Iruka clapped. The hubbub quieted down into total, expectant silence. "I have a new project to announce today. Not to worry - it's not intensive, and you will have several weeks to complete it. See? The easiest assignment you'll get during your tenure at the Ninja Academy."

Maybe. He hoped. He could feel a distinct note of suspicion in the air from his students. They were waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Students will be paired up by me," Iruka continued. "They will have to learn ten important facts about each other over the course of the next several weeks. Now, these aren't facts like what their favorite food is. These are facts about their life, or their past, or insights into their personality and hobbies. I want you to really try for this - get to know a comrade better. At the end, you will submit an essay talking about the ten things you learned from this person."

He was passing piles of assignment sheets down the front row. Each person in front took a paper and passed their pile directly backwards, frowning down at the sheet. Now the students looked confused. Iruka, his palms sweaty and clasped together behind his carefully poised back, could see them wondering: Why were they being given this assignment as ninja?

He decided not to tell them this was a new experiment he was trialing. Too much potential ammunition. Best simply not to say anything at all.

"Your deadline and all other details are on the sheet of paper being passed back to you. You have seven weeks, starting Monday. Grade weight details are also on this paper. As you can see, this is not as big as an exam but it's still a pretty significant project. Gives you more incentive to finish well.

"Now. A few final rules before I announce partners. You are allowed to switch partners once with another person - just once - if both pairings are willing and still think they can finish in time. Notify me if you do.

"I also have an extra credit anonymous email or letter exchange of this same kind available with someone from a foreign country, if anyone wants to take me up on that offer. It is this same idea, but applied to international relations." He waved his hands wide, the theatrical sort of enthusiastic gesture that he thought might be part of the reason for the other adults' snickers behind his back. "Again, however, it is only extra credit. You will still have to get to know someone in your class either way.

"I will now announce the partners."

He took up a sheet of paper from his teacher's desk and read off the names carefully, getting many and varied reactions as he went along. He had made these partnerships while taking into account student personalities and relationships.

There was one threesome, there being an odd number of students. "Because of uneven student numbers, Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji are our one group of three!" he called. More than one member of the threesome moaned from their seats. Shikamaru and Chouji disliked Ino about as much as Ino disliked them.

But everyone, even the threesome, was paired according to personal foibles. For example, he had paired Haruno Sakura with Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto with Hyuuga Hinata.

Sakura was a Sasuke fangirl, but he thought one of the more reasonable ones. Iruka thought Sakura, so brilliant and sensitive in class, stood the best chance of seeing that all this time crushing on him she hadn't really understood or gotten to know Sasuke at all. Perhaps better understanding could be fostered between them. And Sasuke, handsome and talented but cool, calm, and icy with a dark and dour, serious and quiet demeanor, could do with being close to anyone.

Naruto had a crush on Sakura, but Hinata had a crush on Naruto. Sakura was deeply irritated by Naruto; a forward and emotional girl by nature, she hated his loud-mouthed class clown persona and rather dim overt intellect. Naruto was not and never would be brilliant Sakura's type; the most they could hope for was friendship, and Iruka thought in this assignment they might just irritate each other. Meanwhile, Hinata was a shy and gentle shrinking violet, but she had a good heart. She could deal more calmly with Naruto, and Iruka thought Naruto should be paired with someone who appreciated him and stood loyal to him for what he was, instead of getting on his case about what he was not.

So: "Haruno Sakura with Uchiha Sasuke. Uzumaki Naruto with Hyuuga Hinata."

Sakura cheered enthusiastically, "I get Sasuke-kun!" Every other fangirl in the room looked envious and outraged, and a delighted, grinning, competitive Haruno Sakura could clearly care less.

Naruto complained loudly, "Hey, I wanted to be with Sakura-chan!"

Sakura bopped Naruto lightly over the back of the head from the table above him to shut him up, scowling. "Don't complain about what the teacher assigned, idiot!"

The other two didn't speak. Sasuke looked annoyed, like he didn't even want to be doing this. Hinata looked hesitant, cautious, but hopeful, glancing smiling in Naruto's direction.

And Iruka told himself he wasn't playing matchmaker with his students. He really wasn't.

The rest of the morning passed by as normal and when he'd released his students in a loud, excited flood through the top door to lunch, Iruka headed with relief through the bottom door and down the Academy hallway, back to the break room. He paused outside the door, hearing voices and his own name spoken within.

"You really think this project will work?"

"Nah, Iruka's always doing something weird." A few chuckles.

"Poor thing. He tries so hard. Don't pick on him."

"Well, he is a bit slow, and a little ridiculous."

"He has a good heart."

"Good hearts don't always get you very far as a ninja. Why do you think he's still teaching here but not headmaster yet? No promotion, eh? And he loses his temper with too many kids to like them."

"Well, they do make fun of him."

"Yeah, but he's so weird! Always grinning and theatrically waving his arms around like this, like a bird!" Laughter at a probable impersonation. "And he likes hot spring visits, massages, manicures, and pedicures. I don't even know many kunoichi women who are into that kind of stuff. What kind of a man is he?"

Iruka swallowed a lump in his throat that just ended up going down into his chest, feeling every bit the awkward, overly eager dork. He took a deep breath, straightened, put on his pleasant face, and burst into the room.

"Hello, everyone -!" he called cheerily.

Maybe nothing significant would come of this project at all. But the person who never tried anything never discovered if anything worked, Iruka had decided long ago.


"Why do you get to be with him?!" Yamanaka Ino demanded of Sakura just outside the main Academy building front doors into the central courtyard. The Academy was a long series of forbidding brick buildings with multiple stories that went around a big central courtyard in a semicircle. The courtyard carried dirt, grass, and trees, flat space broken by tall trunks with finger-like branches reaching up toward the hot clear blue sky. Insects buzzed past them in the shimmering heat. There were training fields out back behind the buildings. Even the buildings themselves showed an unusual amount of color on this day, the dark revealing a bit of red inside it in the sunshine. Sakura decided that was a good omen.

"Because I'm better, and love conquers all!" Sakura told her fellow fangirl, grinning, and then she stuck out her tongue as Ino positively seethed. It was delightful. "Now if you'll excuse me," said Sakura smugly, "I have to go find my work partner."

"You lucky little -!"

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called, and scampered off after him. To her delight, he was waiting for her impatiently on the edge of the courtyard. Right as she got near him, he turned abruptly and began walking, leaving her to follow him toward the farthest left building that almost abutted the wide paved avenue beyond the grounds.

"So," Sakura began, chattering into the silence, "are you ready to begin our project? Because I know I am! I want to hear all about your life, and your interests, and your -!"

"Are you alright with eating in an empty upstairs classroom? It's where I usually eat." The interruption came so neutral and abrupt that Sakura was momentarily thrown off guard.

"Oh, uh - of course!" Sakura reached back in her memory bank. "Are you nervous and shy? It's okay if you are. You don't do much socializing, huh?" She nodded. "I know all about that. It's okay," she said positively.

Sasuke gave her an odd look, but said nothing. Well this wasn't going swimmingly. That was okay, though - they had time. She supposed she shouldn't expect him to open up so immediately.

Yet again, she gave him a sideways glance and admired how handsome he was. All the girls thought so; well, everyone seemed to except for that Hinata girl, Sakura wasn't sure she trusted that. Who wouldn't immediately love Sasuke? Tall, pale, lithely muscular, dark, and handsome, he was almost absurdly the pretty boy, and he wore the dark and navy clothes to match. He had deep jet black eyes that his dark hair fell into, and he was reserved and cool, and he was so talented at everything to do with fighting and so icy and brave, and - ah, he was perfect! She didn't care how little he said!

Eagerly, she continued, "Do you want to know all about my life? I can tell you!" And she began chattering away, filling what she saw as an uncomfortable silence in which Sasuke was simply not adept with words, kind of shy, and did not know what to say.

He would open up. Of course he would. And he would appreciate her efforts.


Sasuke sat in his usual empty classroom, which was today filled with an unusual amount of chatter. Haruno Sakura still hadn't stopped talking as they ate lunch. She seemed to have assumed he was shy and socially inept. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

He really wasn't. He just didn't always have much to say, especially not in the face of such… enthusiasm. On a ninja level, this whole assignment baffled him, anyway. He didn't see the point.

So far, he had learned that her parents argued a lot and she didn't get along with them, that she came from a rather humble background in shinobi terms, that she loved books and puzzles and sweets, that she had very sensitive senses and couldn't stand loud noises and spicy food, that she had a very fat pet ginger colored cat, and that she used to be friends with Yamanaka Ino back before they'd started bickering over him.

It all came so easily. He supposed reluctantly that he should say something at least surface about himself, even if he didn't really want to.

Sakura was pretty, he'd give the Uzumaki dipshit that. She was small and slim with long soft pink hair and big bright leaf green eyes. Her face was in a heart shape and as her fighting outfit she wore a little red summer dress with shorts underneath.

She was just… very… something. He wasn't sure he could put his finger on what it was he found so grating.

Suddenly, he interrupted her. "Why do you think we were given this assignment?" She paused in surprise. "You're intelligent," he allowed, which was clearly true in their class exercises. "Your tactical and academic marks are superb. Why would we be asked to profile people not seen as a threat… as ninja?"

It still baffled him.

"Hm. Well, it's probably to foster comradeship and connections, that sort of thing," said Sakura knowledgeably. She seemed hopeful he'd ask her to elaborate, but he didn't. That was the sort of general answer he'd expected, and it left him dispirited.

"This just seems like such a waste of time," he scoffed. Sakura wilted and went quiet. "Well - I didn't mean you," he sighed in frustration, realizing they weren't connecting at all. "You're not a waste of time. The project itself… Look, I suppose you want to know something about me."

Sakura brightened. "Yes!"

Sasuke looked down quietly. "I'm an orphan," he said. "My clan was one of the biggest in the village, but they died. I work out a lot in my spare time. I like tomatoes, in salads and rice balls, things like that. I like cats, but I don't necessarily have a specific pet. I don't really have any close friends. Just lots of… distant popularity."

It was a lot for him to just tell anyone about himself. Sakura listened closely, and then immediately pounced in a bossy sort of voice.

"What exactly happened to your clan? You seem so smart; don't you do any reading? Is health a big thing to you? Why don't you get a cat? Is it because you're shy that you don't have any friends? Would you like some? I can help!"

She immediately pressed him searchingly for more information. Apparently what he'd already given wasn't enough to talk about.

He closed his obento pail abruptly, feeling irrationally angry. Sakura flinched. "I think that's all the sharing for today," he said coldly, and he wasn't sure what his face looked like.

"Hey!" said Sakura, a little upset. "Don't be like that! I shared a lot more with you! I elaborated!"

"I know. And I didn't ask you to," said Sasuke. He realized he was being kind of an asshole, but he also thought it was a good point. He went to staring out the window, not in a sulky way, just quietly, trying to enjoy the view and ignore what was happening in the classroom.

"Look," said Sakura crossly, "being shy is no reason to -"

"Of course I read, but it doesn't overly interest me. And I'm not shy. I don't want anymore social contact than I already have. I'm not prone to long, philosophical conversations and I'm not interested in elaborating. I'm just quiet. And I don't like people who talk at me." Sasuke sighed. "Now I sound whiny. This is a disaster.

"Look, lunchtime is up, let's just go back."

He stood, realizing Sakura looked visibly upset but not sure what to do about it.

"I'm sorry," he said, but he felt helpless in the face of such potent emotion. It was the sort of thing that always made him irrationally want to hide, an urge he would never give into no matter how much he wanted to.


At the beginning of lunch, Hinata walked up shyly to Naruto, playing with her fingers. He was watching Sakura morosely from across the courtyard, sulking. Hinata stood there patiently, waiting for him in silence.

Naruto was not conventionally handsome, but Hinata didn't care much about things like that. It was why Uchiha Sasuke didn't overly interest her. She liked people who uplifted her and made her feel good, who were good people, and Naruto was his own little ball of sunshine. He wore bright orange, had a messy head of blond hair and ocean blue eyes, bore a round face with mischievous whisker-like cheek markings, and his expression carried a wide grin.

Well. Usually.

Naruto looked around and jumped. "Hey, wow! I didn't see you there!" he said to Hinata in surprise. Hinata sighed. That was a common problem for her. "That's so ninja of you," he said, oblivious and impressed.

"... Thank you," said Hinata, though she suspected it was a little less ninja and a little more doormat.

"Uh, sorry, I was -" he began awkwardly, half looking over to where he'd been staring at Sakura.

"It's quite alright," said Hinata firmly, even though it hurt her how much he was interested in someone else. "I understand. You care about her and it must be disappointing."

"You know, you should talk louder. I can barely hear you," said Naruto matter of factly, and Hinata retreated even further inside herself. "Come on. Let's go eat lunch!" He jumped, ninja-like, up to the nearest roof. "I like high places!" he called down to her.

"O… Okay!" said Hinata, wide-eyed, feeling a little like she was being pulled along by a tidal wave, and she leaped off after him.

Maybe this was what it was like being with someone so clearly heroic, the one who had saved her from those bullies that day as children long ago. Maybe it was just like being pulled along by a tidal wave.


Naruto spent a long time talking to Hinata on the sunny hot Academy roof about nothing in particular, and she sat there quietly and let him. He complained about Sakura, about Sasuke, about Iruka.

"And she's in love with this total dick, and he thinks he's so cool but he's not, and Iruka-sensei's always getting on my case about -! Well, everything, really," Naruto finished.

He looked sideways at Hinata. She really was pretty quiet, wasn't she?

"Hinata, wasn't it? Sorry, I just always knew you as weird quiet girl," he said, not meaning any offense and grinning. Hinata blushed furiously, seeming more embarrassed than angry. "Don't you have any questions for me?"

"Well… why do you think it is that you like Sakura and dislike Sasuke so much?" Hinata asked softly. "Because I always kind of thought… you know, in a way Sakura's like you. Always wanting acknowledgement.

"I can understand that. I've always wanted acknowledgement, too.

"And Sasuke… well, I understand he can be a bit much sometimes, but he is alone, like you."

She was still so soft spoken.

"... Yeah." Naruto laughed nervously, leaning back against the flat roof, and there was an awkward silence. Naruto privately didn't know what to do with understanding, and he even less wanted to talk about the deeper subjects. That wasn't what he'd expected with this unusually fun class project.

"Sorry," Hinata said suddenly, ducking her head, her face heating up again.

"For what? It's no problem. You apologize a lot," said Naruto curiously, still leaning back against the roof.

"Sorry!"

Naruto laughed. Hinata was kind of cute, he'd admit, tiny and curvy with a pale moon face, short blue-black hair, and big violet-silvery eyes with no pupils. She wore lots of reserved sweaters and pants. And she blushed and was shy and embarrassed a lot.

This was getting interesting.

"We… we should talk about hobbies," Hinata forced out, looking down at her clenched fists in her lap and sounding oddly humiliated.

"Well, okay," said Naruto, nonplussed. "I like playing pranks… and taking care of plants."

"You garden!" Hinata seemed to capitalize rather eagerly on this.

"Yup." Naruto shrugged. "You?" he added curiously.

"Well… I like baking, flower pressing and crafting, and I like making herbal remedies," said Hinata, smiling a little shy, glowing smile.

"Okay. Well, that's that part done," said Naruto, not bothering to see Hinata's expression. She said nothing, so he assumed she was fine.

He sat up, grinning, and looked around the courtyard. "Maybe I should prank someone talking to their partner," he said mischievously. "Really heat things up. Maybe I'll prank Kiba. He got an ugly girl. I bet if I made fart noises she'd be really embarrassed." He snickered.

Hinata frowned. "Naruto-kun…" she said softly, "that's kind of mean…"

"What?!" Naruto looked around to her, blinking big blue eyes. "You still talk too quietly! Eh, it's alright." He shrugged and stood before she could speak. "I'll just be back in a few minutes." He leaped away, Hinata's mouth open after him.

"Okay…" he finally heard a soft, uncertain voice say.


The last bell for the afternoon rang.

At the end of the day, as people were packing up in the classroom with a great shuffling to go home, Iruka shouted somewhat desperately, "Remember your partners! Maybe exchange numbers and meet to talk this weekend?"

And so, shouting over each other in a great round of chatter, partners began exchanging phone numbers there in the classroom.