Kizuna no Hodoku

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Well, this is my third freaking time typing this up, since my little brother has deleted it (I'm typing it on his computer...). But, I'll still do my best to type it up. I'm stuck typing this at one fifty-one AM since I can't get to sleep because of my stupid cold. Can't settle down long enough to stop coughing. It's freakishly annoying. Well, as a random note before I begin, I will answer reviews... So, leave any comments, constructive criticism, or ideas for me in there!

Disclaimer – I don't own anything you may recognize from the Naruto anime series.

Claimer – There are a few things I own, including all the Genin characters, the Jounin senseis... Their breakfast cereal... Just not any familiar people you recognize. Though, some may belong to old clans.

—

'Moving to a new ninja village after you've already graduated early in your old one is a big problem. From the Hidden Cloud village to Konoha, neither of which are on great terms with the other. I doubt I'll make any friends very quickly, though not like I care. I didn't have any in the Hidden Cloud either.

Now that I think about it, they'll probably make fun of me for having a guy's name, too... I'm going to go through a living hell.

Let's just hope they can accept someone as... different... as me. Though, I know there'll be some that hate my guts. I'll have to accept that until they learn to accept me. Gawd, why'd the Raikage have to go and make a deal with the Hokage to send another orphan to their village. I'm sure they have quite enough without me.

I've stood without anybody else to support me up till now, and I could live like that for the rest of my life... It's... Just getting a bit lonely. Whatever, the train ride is stopping soon in a city about twenty-five kilometers from baka-Konoha. I better stop writing here in my journal.'

Sakete Okita closed her small book of a new journal and sighed, looking out the window at the desperately different countryside from that of the almost constant-raining, forest-filled Lightning country. Almost all she could see was rice-fields, though in the distance there was a rather tall forest.

About to go deep into thought, the intercom interrupted. "We will be arriving in Shinmachi shortly, please gather all belongings and please look at the provided guides for finding your next destination. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your ride."

It was another five minutes before you could actually tell the train was slowing down. Grabbing her one bad, Okita stood up and smoothed out her light blue Haori and ran her fingers through her long, light purple hair. "Well, here it goes. I think the letter said 'a Konoha jounin will pick you up upon arrival'."

As the train pulled into the small station, she could only see one person with the Konoha hitai-ate. After waiting in the ever-slowing line leading out onto the platform, she walked up to the person, who greeted her immediately. "Well, hello! I'm guessing you're Sakete Okita? The transfer from Hidden Cloud?"

"You make it sound like something bad." Okita put on a neutral look and cast a semi-bored gaze, semi-glare at the older man. "You already know who I am, who are you."

"How rude of me... I should've introduced myself first, since you'll be staying with my family. My son is the exact same age as you, actually. He should be in your graduating class from the academy. But, yes... I'm Nakagura Hitarou... Nice to meet you."

"Same here... Eh, is that cart out there on the road for us..? Um... What should I call you?" She looked around the man to get a better look. It was a passenger cart, for sure. Specifically meant for four or less people.

"Just call me Nakagura-san. And, yes. That's what that cart is for. Is that all of your luggage?"

"Yeah." She was going to say: 'Got a problem with it?', like she usually would have, but she held it back. Just for the sake of a decent first impression.

The trip to Konoha was rather quiet. Just random questions asked about Okita and such. Eventually it had gotten too annoying and she just didn't bother answering. They reached Konoha as the sun was setting and the sky was fading from brilliant oranges, pinks, and purples into midnight blue. It was completely dark before they'd reached Nakagura-san's house.

"Wow... It's big." Way bigger than any of the crappy apartments I've had...

"Not really, you should see the Hyuuga Estate, and the Uchiha Estate. They're whole small villages in themselves." He was rubbing the back of his head and heading towards the door, which was flung open by what appeared to be a nine-year-old or so girl.

She ran and jumped at him, giving him a huge hug. "Daddy! Hatorou has been mean to me, he stole my cookie!"

"I didn't steal your stupid cookie, you'd already had one and I took it from you and put it back in the jar. Stop falsely accusing me of all the crap you do." A boy, Hatorou, who seemed to be Okita's age, walked out of the house. He switched his attention from his little sister to the new arrival.

His silver-colored eyes narrowed into a glare. "Damn, a girl. Dad, when you told us the transfer's name I thought it'd be a guy, not a stupid girl."

Okay, that's it. "Damn it! Look, I've already got sent here against my will, I have to take a Genin graduation exam for a second time even though I've already passed, and I have to live with some people I don't even know! I don't need some retard like you giving my even more crap!" She had walked up to him and was staring at him right in the eyes.

"Well, I don't need some betrayer from a rival country living in my house, being near me, or even breathing my air!" He pushed her hard, intending to have her fall down and lose her confidence, though it had the opposite effect and he just had made her more mad.

"That's it, you pretty boy." She reached for something tucked in her waste band, but yet another person walked out of the door.

Seeming all too cheery for the obvious situation, Hatorou's mother walked out. "Well, if it isn't the new arrival, Sakete Okita!" She basically jogged right over and grabbed both of her hands. "Aren't you so cute... Wow, you're really pale, is it because the sun is almost always covered by clouds in the Lighting Country?" That was when she leaned in and whispered, still sounding motherly, but with a new sense of something that should be feared... almost. "Remember, even though you're not a member of this family doesn't mean I can't punish you for fighting with chores, being grounded, or anything of the sort." Standing back up and smiling, she let go of one of Okita's wrists but still dragged her into the house by the other. "I'll show you your room."

Two thoughts drifted into Okita's mind right then. Are all parent's this strange? And Genin Exams are tomorrow... I wonder what they're like here. The rest of the night was basically a blur, setting up her new room (which was bigger than her old apartment), meeting the rest of the family, and eating dinner where too many questions were asked.

—

"Hello, everybody. I know you know today is the day of the Genin Exams. But, before I begin to explain the rules, I have to introduce a new transfer from the Hidden Cloud. The current Raikage and the Hokage made a deal and she's been sent here to become a ninja, so please be kind to her." Yamanaka Ino, now a 6th year teacher at the ninja academy said. She turned to the side door of the classroom and said, "Please meet Sakete Okita."

Okita slid open the door and walked in, dressed in her best change of clothes and with her long hair tied up into a pony-tail. "Hello, I'm Sakete Okita." She said, bowing. Gawd, I hate being formal. "Pleased to meet you."

"Okita-san, please sit next to... Nadare-kun." Ino pointed to a seat in the middle back row, next to a guy with spiky snow-white hair and what seemed to be light blue streaks in it. Okita walked up the stairs, hearing several rude comments from the other students as she walked up.

Once she'd taken a seat, Ino began to announce the rules for the exam. Even though it actually was basically the same as in her village, Okita listened for any differences. That was when the boy next to her finally said something, whispering to not get into trouble. "Why'd you have to come here?"

"What?" Keeping her head still so it still looked like she was listening intently, Okita turned her eyes to look at the boy.

"The wolves of your country killed my older brother. All of them are the same, including you." He glared at her as he spoke, though it was obvious that he was holding back tears. "They killed him, he wasn't even a ninja! Just delivering a package to relatives who've moved to a small town near the village."

"Wolves? What? Look, I don't have a clue wha–" That was when two pieces of chalk hit the two in their foreheads.

Ino was standing at the front of the classroom, looking cross. "If you two wish to have a conversation, please share it with the rest of us. Otherwise, save it until after exams. Now, as I was saying, first is the written exam, then the sensei of this school will evaluate you each on your skills in short one on one battles that are open for view by the villagers. The results will be posted tomorrow, and the meeting for new Genin will be this Friday at nine in the morning. Nadare-kun, would you pass out the tests?" He glared at Okita before getting up and passing out the ten-question exams.

What are the nine countries with known ninja villages?

"Well that's obvious..." Okita said as she wrote down her answer. Lighting, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Waterfall, Grass, Sound, and Rain.

What are the twelve generic hand seals, please name and draw a diagram of each.

Okita sloppily drew each of them, and named them. The rest of the questions were easy, general knowledge for any useful ninja, and were finished quickly. Being the first one done, she got up and handed the paper to Ino. "Great job, Okita-san. You may wait out in the large courtyard. A small arena has been set up there for the fights, you may practice until the matches begin. People may have begun arriving to watch, just ignore them. I know how tough it must be, to switch village at such a critical age."

"You have no clue how tough it is..." Okita whispered to herself as she walked out of the room. Because her guard was down, she didn't notice the girl watching her from the desk closest to the side door of the classroom.

Mitarashi Ame watched the new girl walk out the class, and the sad look on her face that was hidden from the rest of the class. Is this what mother felt like after returning from the newly founded Sound village a long time ago?

—

Walking outside, Okita saw that the small glimpse of the large courtyard she'd been given on her tour had just been a small part. The area was huge, huge enough for several sets of stone bleachers that had obviously been there for a while, a really large, fenced in fighting area, and a whole practice area with padded logs, bars for pull ups and chin ups, and everything else that someone could think of off of the top of their head.

There was also a medical area, with several medic nin and cots laying around. So, they actually think people are going to get hurt in this stupid exam? Hah, nothing but a cut or two can be given in a two minute fight. As she was getting ready to pull her wakizashi (short sword) out of her waistband for some practice, she noticed that her 'exchange family' if you could call them that, was there. Probably for baka-Hato.

She pulled out the wakizashi and began usual drills of different sorts of swings and attacks. My sword is dull, I haven't sharpened it for some time... Oh well, at lest I won't hurt anybody too bad, and I can always turn it around backwards so I just hit them instead of cutting. "Ha!" She swung the sword hard from her lower right to upper left. Turning her head to see the position of her sword after spotting someone's feet to her left.

Her sword had ended right under the chin of a girl she recognized as sitting near the front of the class on the right, and had actually left a small scratch that was lightly bleeding. "Well, that's quite a strange way of greeting people... Do you do that with everybody, or am I special?"

"What do you want?" Okita said, lowering her sword and re-sheathing it. The new arrival was about three centimeters taller than her, and had dark blue hair that was pinned up in the back, giving a sort of peacock effect.

"To greet you and welcome you to Konoha, of course!" She gave a mix between a half-hearted laugh and a giggle. "I'm Mitarashi Ame, yoroshiku. (Nice to meet you). And, don't think nobody understands you. My mother ran away from Orochimaru a while after he'd given her a curse seal and came to Konoha. She's heard a bit about you, and told me to tell you, if I got to meet you... That, if you ever need help for anything you can come to her. And, you can come to me too, okay, nyu tomodachi? (new friend)"

After that long speech, she just walked away, wiping off the small line of blood that was from the cut Okita had accidentally given her. "... Friend?" I made a friend... And I didn't even try to be nice? She didn't even give me a chance to apologize...

It wasn't too long until everybody else was finished, and the bleachers were already so full with people that some were just standing or sitting on the ground by the arena. Why is it such a big event here? I know things have changed since the Great War began, but... Is fighting this important to everybody? They have to come see the new talent? ... Whatever, I'm going soft, I have to show them what I have, that I'm not some wimp that was just sent here because my country doesn't want me.

Ino had walked to the middle of the fighting arena with a microphone headset on her head. "Hello, everybody! Whether you're from far or near, we all know you're here to see the new group of possible Genin. Hopefully they won't disappoint you. Now, for those of you who haven't come in years past, these matches are randomly decided, and are one on one. The match will be two minutes long, or until I decide there is clearly a winner.

"Each person will fight one match, and afterwards... Adding their cumulative score from this match and their written test, it will be decided who get's to become Genin or not! Our judges are some important people in our village, including the Hokage himself, Uzumaki Naruto. Now, let us begin... The first match is..."

That was when a cloth was pulled off of a large screen behind the judges. Two rolls of names were quickly going up and down on the screen. They stopped. "Sakete Okita versus Yowane Nadare."

They both cast a glare at each other across the training yard, and began walking towards the gate into the arena. As Okita had expected, some people were boo-ing at her from the crowd. News spreads fast here...

They reached the center of the arena, where Ino was standing, and faced each other. "Are you ready for this, Rai no Oukami? (Wolf of Lighting) There's no way I'm losing to the likes of you."

"And there's no way I'm losing to somebody who keeps bitching about the past instead of living in the here and now." Okita smirked getting into a fighting stance. Nadare did the same.

Ino just stood there and smiled. "Match one of the Genin Exams, begin!"

—
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Yes, yes. First chapter is done. As a random note, I just had to change the Genin exams, I mean... They're so easy, and now that they're in rougher times, it would obviously be harder to become a ninja for the protection of them, since they'd have to be stronger during a war. Now, before I leave you for each chapter, I'm going to have a character profile each chapter! Since there's so many characters that I've made up, it'll probably come in handy until I begin drawing them for you guys.

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Name: Sakete Okita
Name Meaning: Sakete, screaming. Okita, woke up. Basically, if you wrote it the American way, first then last name, it'd be woke up screaming. I'd go into the details, but I don't want to spoil future chapters.
Age: 12
Birthday: November 7th
Height: 165cm (5'5")
'Theme Songs': (Yes, I give my characters theme songs. Live with it.) Avril Lavigne - 'Nobody's Home' and The All-American Rejects - 'Move Along'.