I sat at one of the desks reading one of the many books my brother had gotten me while he was on missions. It was his way of apologizing for being gone for so long (even if it was only a day). All around me my former classmates were talking animatedly about what their first missions as Genin would be. My brother didn't even tell me anything about what would happen now. He'd told me it was my job to figure it out on my own.
"Huh? What are you doing here, Naruto?" I looked curiously at the blonde clown adults seemed to hate and fear at the same time. I never understood why and Kakashi would never tell me. "This isn't for dropouts. You can't be here unless you graduate."
"Oh yea, do you see this? Do you see this?" Naruto asked pointing to the forehead protector on his head. "Open your eyes, Shikamaru. This is a regulation headband. We're gonna to be training together. How do you like that?" Shikamaru didn't say anything. "Let me put me to you this way. I look great in this headgear like it was made for me. Believe it!" I turned back to my book and continued reading. I didn't even bother looking up when the charging footsteps of Sasuke's fan-club burst into the room.
"As of today, you are all ninjas," Iruka-sensei told us once he'd joined us and the class had calmed down. "To get here, you faced difficult trials and hardships. But that's nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult. Now you're only Genin, first level ninjas. All the Genin will be grouped into three man squads.
Three man squads? I questioned in my head. But why?
"Each squad will be led by a Jounin, an elite ninja," Iruka-sensei told us. "We want each squad to have a balance of strengths and abilities, so that's how we set them up. I will now announce the squads." I sat and waited as he read off the list of squads and names. "Squad seven. Naruto Uzumaki. Kiyoko Hatake. Sasuke Uchiha." I sighed quietly. Of all the people I was teamed up with it had to be both of them? They hated each other and Naruto was always trying to one-up Sasuke in everything we did. "Those are the squads."
"Iruka-sensei." Naruto stood up and pointed at Sasuke, anger clearly written on his face. "Why does a great ninja like me have to be in the same group with a slug like Sasuke?"
"Sasuke had the best scores of all the graduating students," Iruka-sensei told him. "Naruto, you had the worst scores." Everyone laughed at him. "To create a balanced group, we put the best student with the worst student."
"Ugh!" Naruto growled in anger at his favorite teacher's words.
"Just make sure you don't get in my way, loser," Sasuke told him.
"Ugh! Hey, what did you say?"
"Heard of hearing?" Sasuke asked him.
"Sit down, Naruto!" Iruka-sensei ordered. "After lunch, you'll meet your new Jounin teachers. Until then, class dismissed."
After lunch, Sasuke, Naruto, and I waited for over an hour for our Jounin teacher, but he never showed.
"He's late," Naruto complained looking out the door. I was sitting on one of the desks as Sasuke sat behind another with his head on his clasped hands.
"Would you stop your groaning, Naruto?" I complained.
"I don't want to!" he told me. "How come our teacher's the only one that's late?"
"Maybe he got lost," I sighed.
"Well, I'm ready to roll. Believe it!"
"I'll believe something," I mumbled.
"The other groups already met their new teachers and took off on some adventure or something, and Iruka-sensei's gone, too."
"Really?" I asked him sarcastically. "I didn't know that." I watched as Naruto grabbed an eraser and a stool. He placed the stool next to the door and stepped on it before holding the eraser on top. He closed the door and made sure the eraser was in place before letting go of it. "What are you doing?"
"That's what he gets for coming late." He jumped down from the stool. "Surprise!"
"You really think that'll work?" I asked, mildly curious as I stared up at the eraser.
"Our teacher's a Jounin - an elite ninja," Sasuke reminded us. "You'd think he'd fall for that?"
"You're probably right," I agreed. Suddenly, we saw a hand grab the door and my eyes widened as I saw a familiar head poke in and be pelted by an eraser before it fell to the floor. Naruto burst out laughing pointing at the man who'd just walked in.
"I got him! He totally fell for it!" Sasuke and I were quiet as Kakashi picked up the eraser and stared at us.
"How can I put this?" he asked looking at the eraser before looking up at us. "My first impression of this group. You're a bunch of idiots." A depression fell over us at his words and mine was harsher than theirs. This was my big brother after all.
Kakashi led us to the top of the academy and leaned against the railing and we sat on the steps in front of him.
"All right," he said. "Why don't you introduce yourselves one at a time."
"Seriously?" I asked him and he nodded. "What do you want us to say?"
"Things you like. Things you hate. Dreams for the future. Hobbies. Things like that," he listed off shrugging.
"Why don't you tell us stuff first?" Naruto asked him. "I mean, before we talk, tell us about you, so we can see how it's supposed to work." Was it that difficult to understand?
"Me? I'm Kakashi Hatake," he introduced and the boys turned to me.
"Yes, he's my older brother."
"Things I like and things I hate - I don't feel like telling you that." I snorted seeing that coming. "My dreams for the future - never really thought about it. As for my hobbies - I have lots of hobbies."
"What was the point in that?" Naruto mumbled. "All we did was learn his name and he was your brother."
"Okay, your turn," Kakashi said. "You on the right - you first."
"Believe it. I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiraku noodle shop. But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobby is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing 'em." Does all this kid do is think about ramen? "And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage. Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody - somebody important."
"Okay, next."
"Do I have to do this?" I asked him and he just gave me a look. I sighed before starting. "I'm Kyoko Hatake. I don't take the time to care about much of anything to like or hate anything. My hobby is to read. My dream..." I thought about what dreams I'd had over the years before finally looking up at my brother. "Is to protect those who are important to me."
"Last one."
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things and don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan and destroy a certain someone." The three of us just stared at him.
"Good," Kakashi said after a brief silence. "You're each unique, and have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" I asked confused.
"Uh, what kind of mission are we going to have?" Naruto asked happily.
"It's a task the four of us are going to do together."
"What? What? What? What?"
"A survival exercise," he told us seriously.
"Huh?" Naruto asked. "Survival exercise?"
"That's not exactly a mission," I pointed out. "That's the same stuff we did at the academy."
"This is not like your previous training," he told us.
"So, uh - So, uh, what kind of training is it then?" Naruto asked him. Kakashi just laughed at Naruto's question and I couldn't help but feel nervous. It wasn't a happy laugh.
"Why are you laughing like that?"
"Heh, well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it," he laughed again. "Of the 27 graduates who just came here, only 9 will actually be accepted as Genin. The other 18 will be weeded out and sent back to the academy. In other words, this is a make it or break it, pass-fail test, and the chance that you'll fail is at least 66%." No wonder he didn't tell me anything this morning. "See? Didn't I tell you, you wouldn't like it?"
"That's crazy!" Naruto shouted at him. "We worked hard to get here. Believe it! What was that graduation test for anyway?"
"Oh, that. That was just to select candidates who might become Genin - or not."
"What?" Naruto asked surprised.
"That's how it is," Kakashi told me. "I decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at 5 a.m., and bring your ninja gear." I glared down at my feet. "Oh, tomorrow you better skip breakfast, or else you'll puke."
That night I was sitting at the table poking at my food with my chopsticks.
"You alright?" Kakashi asked me and I nodded.
"Just thinking."
"Are you angry I didn't tell you about the test or being put in squads?"
"You can't tell me everything, Kakashi. I have to learn things on my own."
"There are things that you shouldn't have learned when you did." I finally looked up at him and offered a happy smile.
"You've done your best," I reminded him. "You can't blame yourself for what he did." He nodded, but I knew he didn't believe me. After looking up to the same person for your entire life, you just know things.