You were standing under a tree, talking to your friends when you first saw them; two ninja's coming towards you, they were wearing the normal chunin uniform and both looked like they were around their early 20's.

They reached you within a couple of seconds; you could never understand how they moved so fast, stopping abruptly in front of you & your group of friends,

'The hokage wishes to see you immediately' one said, he had light brown hair

'Why?' was all you asked

'He didn't say, just that it was urgent'

'Fine' you replied, 'I'm guessing he's waiting for me in the main building?'

'Yeh, we shall escort you there'

'Sure, whatever' you replied sighing, 'I'll see you guys later, kay?' you turned to face your classmates

'What does he want?'

'How am I supposed to know?' you asked rhetorically

'Well, tell us as soon as you know'

'Will do' you replied turning round to face the couple of chunin waiting for you. You followed them, at a normal human pace, back to the hokage. You arrived outside the door and knocked,

'Come in' a voice said from within, you twisted the handle and stepped into the room, your father was standing next to the hokage, you narrowed your eyes & quickly surveyed the rest of the room to check there was no-one else, your head snapped back when the hokage began to speak

'Good, your instinct to check a room when you came in will come in handy for you'

'Huh?' you questioned, confused.

'I am sorry, but your father has requested that I enrol you in the academy to train as a ninja, so you would be able to protect them & yourself should the need arise'

You just stared at him, shocked, why would your father chose you? Why not your brother? Sure you were older, but he was by far healthier & fitter. You guessed at the reason, right from the beginning of your memory you had always had an instinct to fight, you just seemed to be naturally good at it, but with training your brother could easily overtake your level. That meant only one thing then, something bad was coming, and soon. Otherwise he would have chosen your brother.

'Who is it?' you asked when you finally lifted your head up, you were looking at your father but the hokage replied

'Ah, She's smart your girl'

'Hn,' was all your father said to this

'We think the akatsuki have got their eyes on you because of your abilities'

Your eyes widened at his words and flicked to your father, he showed no signs of having heard anything. Of course you knew what the Hokage was talking about; when you concentrated you could read other people's emotions & apparently when you had been younger you had seemed control the actions of other people occasionally, but no-one ever talked about it. Whenever you'd tried to broach the subject with your Dad, he'd promptly reminded you that some things "we don't talk about".

'But I was told that was the reason I wasn't enrolled in the academy in the first place!' you protested

'Yes, you were stopped, but only because we thought that if you were not able to fight then you would be useless to evil ninja organisations such as the akatsuki, but, your skills seemed to have developed by themselves, of course not to the level of a ninja's but you'd be able to fend off an attack from someone who hadn't been trained, & now that you have the basic skills, the akatsuki leader has decided they could train you further'

'What if I just refuse to join them?'

'Then your family will be killed'

'What? Why!' you demanded

'As a means to persuade you to join them'

'That's supposed to make me join? Why would I join up with the people who killed my family?'

'Try telling them that'

'Fine, Whatever, I'll join your stupid ninja academy! But don't expect me to be any good, I've seen what those guys can do, I can't do anything like that' you warned

'Not at the moment at least, but you show great potential & you will be personally tutored by your sensei once you have been put into a group'

'What! I'm going to be put into a group with a load of actual ninjas?'

'Not a big group, there will be two or three other ninjas in your team, and soon you will be an actual ninja as well. I myself will teach you the move you will have to perform to graduate into a genin'

'What? When?'

'Now'

'What! I can't learn a move right now'

'Why not? The earlier you start training, the better. I'll also give you a list of exercises you'll have to do every night if you're to get up to the level of the rest of the people in your class.'

'Whatever, just show we the stupid move'

'As you wish,' he paused, turning to your father before continuing, 'You may leave now.' your father nodded his head in agreement and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

'Ok, watch me first, then I'll tell you how it's done & you'll have a go, but don't worry, you won't get it first time, no-one does. Okay, Ready?' he asked, when you nodded your head he brought his hands together in front of him, the middle and index finger pointing up while the others clasped each other.

There was a puff of smoke and you immediately brought your arms up to guard your face, you stared, amazed; as the smoke cleared you saw an exact copy of the old man standing right next to the real one, you could tell the one on the right was the real one, you could feel his chakra.

'Now, can you tell me which one of these is the real me?' both of them spoke at the same time, 'If so, hit the shadow clone with the kunai on the desk' you turned your head to see the small blade lying against the notched wood, you picked it up, feeling the cold metal against your fingers and the slightly worn grip around the handle. You didn't even hesitate before throwing it into the left one. The kunai hit the shadow clone which disappeared in a cloud of smoke

'Very good, you were able to tell which one was the shadow clone & your aim isn't too bad either.' he paused to look at the kunai now stuck into the plaster on the opposite wall, 'but, do you think you'll be able to make a clone yourself?'

'No' you answered simply

'Well I'm going to teach you how, just close your eyes and bring your hands together like I did.'

You did as he said, even though you didn't believe for a second you'd be able to do it,

'Now, try and sense the chakra inside you, this should be easier for you then it is for most people, can you feel it?'

You nodded your head

'Right, now try and pull on that chakra, just a small bit at first and try to focus it into a shadow clone'

You did as he said again, pulling on just enough chakra to fill about half your hand and concentrated on forming it into a shadow clone, you released your chakra and opened your eyes, to see a head of shoulder-length red-tipped black hair in front of you,

'Wha-?' you cut yourself off as you realised you'd succeeded in making a shadow clone! But, as you looked around the room you noticed that you may have succeeded too well. The room was packed to bursting with multiple doppelgangers of yourself.

'Wow, I've never seen that happen before, you got the balance between the two types of chakra perfect! How much did you use?'

'About enough to fill half my hand'

'Huh?'

'Enough to fill half my hand' you repeated

'I heard you, but I've never heard of anyone visualising their chakra quite so well.'

'I can' you retorted

'Yes, it seems so, well this has gone better or worse then we could have ever expected'

'What do you mean better or worse?'

'Well, it depends how things turn out, either you'll be able to fend off the akatsuki when they come, in which case it will be excellent, or you won't but they'll see enough potential in this skill of yours that it may become an even bigger problem'

'Urgh, since when did my life get so difficult?'

He smiled slightly at this, 'Only through challenging ourselves will we ever become stronger. Now, if you could just get rid of these things'

You rolled your eyes, and released the shadow clones, they all disappeared simultaneously in yet more puffs of smoke.

'Right, seeing as you got the hang of that so quickly I'll give you a quick test & then devise a list of stretches & exercises for you to do every day.' he paused and came to stand in front of you, dropping into a traditional karate stance, you copied him, 'Good, now, try and kick my head, don't worry I will block you, hit as hard & as high as you can, I want to check your flexibility'

You nodded your head. You decided a round house kick would probably be best; he had his arms held as if to block a forward attack. You raised your leg and snapped it out, straight towards his head. He blocked it, but not before your foot clipped his ear.

'Hm, tell me why you chose that kick instead of a straight forward front kick.'

'Because you were holding your arms as if to block a forward attack, and you were watching my eyes not my leg, by raising my leg up as if to hit you in a forward kick I could catch you off guard.'

'Yes, and that you would have done if you'd been faster & I slower, Very good, you assessed the situation well within a small amount of time, your kick was powerful & you looked as though reaching that high wasn't a big problem'

'No, I do a lot of swimming which strengthens the leg muscles, despite what a lot of people think, and I do stretch regularly already'

'Why?'

'Because I used to do gymnastics when I was younger, I stopped several years ago, but I kept up the regular stretching every day.' you shrugged your shoulders

'Good, a sense of determination, not giving up. All very important skills a ninja needs'

'Urgh'

'Okay, just try to hit me now, in any way possible; don't be scared of hurting me.'

He had dropped his guard while he'd been talking and you seized the opportunity, you struck out with your left hand, directing it straight for his face, he brought his arms up in a cross and blocked your attack, throwing you back a few paces.

'Very good, keep coming.'

You ran at him, pulling back your hand as if to strike, the only way you would manage to hit him is if you tricked him into dropping his guard or blocking in the wrong place, you'd never fought an opponent that you'd been beaten by but you weren't stupid, you knew this guy could take you any day, despite how old he looked. You pulled your hand back to strike as your approached him, but at the last second dropped, skidding forward and using your left hand to support yourself, swung your legs round to trip him up, you caught one of his legs, but he twisted as he began to fall and landed lightly, supported by both his hands & following straight into a forward roll.

'Good, You saw that the only way for someone of your level to beat me was to trick me, and you took the fact that I still underestimated you to your advantage & pretended you were going for the obvious attack while you were actually planning something quite different. Whoever your sensei ends up being they're going to be very surprised at how little they will actually have to teach you.'

'Whatever, are you finished with that list yet?' you asked in the bored tone you normally adopted when people were complimenting you, it hid how embarrassed you really were.

'A few lessons in manners & respect for your elders might be in order though.' you rolled your eyes but smiled and took the paper that he now held out to you.

'If you don't need to test me anymore I would like to get back home and relax'

'Not before you've done those stretches, your father will be keeping an eye on you and making sure you have done everything on that list at least once a day.'

'Fine whatever' you grumbled leaving the room and slamming the door behind you. You took the side way back so as to avoid any chance of seeing any of your school friends.

You opened your front door to be greeted by two cats looking expectantly up at you

'Urgh, how much food can two animals get through in one day?' you asked them fondly, they stared up at you with their big hopeful eyes, you sighed and walked into the kitchen. You opened a draw and pulled out the cats' fork then bent down to pick up the can of cat food by your foot, which had been nudged there by the noses of the cats. You smiled down at them and opened the tin, spooning out the food into two bowels, they both immediately started eating. You rolled your eyes and checked their water bowl, it was still almost full, that done you then proceeded upstairs and into your bedroom.

You immediately set about doing the exercises the Hokage had given you.

'50 PUSH UPS?' you exclaimed as you read the first thing on the list, 'I Can Hardly Do 10!' you sighed and dropped so you were in position to do push ups.

You'd only got to 15 when your arms gave in, 'Urgh, this is impossible' but despite that you pushed yourself up on your hands again and got through another 4 or 5 before collapsing again, you could feel your heart hammering against your chest and your arms felt like lead, you hadn't realised you were this unfit.

You gave up on the push ups and moved onto the next thing on the list, 50 sit-ups. This time you got to 28 before you couldn't do anymore, you gradually moved down the list like this until you got to the bottom, writing next to each thing how many you were able to get. You then redid everything on the list two times until your attempts added up to the number needed.

You lay on the floor, dripping with sweat, you wanted to get up and have a shower but your limbs felt like they were nailed to the floor. Eventually you groaned and rolled over onto your stomach, pushing yourself up onto your hands & knees before standing up, using the side of your desk to support your weight as you did so.

You walked to the bathroom slowly and shut the door behind you, locking it. You stripped and stepped into the shower, turning it on and just standing there, your eyes closed as the water poured down on your upturned face. After awhile you reached out a hand for the bottle of shampoo, keeping your eyes closed you tried to sense the bottle but your "vision" was blurred by the orange/red drops of water coming from the shower. Your "vision" worked a bit like infra-red, you could sense the energy given off by an object, outlining & filling it in. A bottle of shampoo would only give off a small amount of energy around the edges, the rest of it would be a dark patch, but that in its self told you where the object was. But there was more to it than that, if you applied a little of –what you now knew was- your own chakra to your vision then it would sharpen & become clearer and you could almost feel where the object was.

You tried this now, feeling the bottle with your mind, you tried to manipulate the energy around it, to lift it up, but you only succeeded in making it wobble and fall over. You sighed & opened your eyes, bending down to pick up the bottle and, flicking the lid open with one of your fingers proceeded to wash your hair with the liquid inside, massaging it into your skull, which was still pounding slightly, though whether from the exercises or just the heat of the water you weren't sure.

You climbed out the shower, wrapping a towel around yourself and your hair. You opened the door silently and walked back to your bedroom, closing your bedroom door without a sound. Once back in your room you sat down at your desk & shoved your headphones in your ears, turning your IPod onto shuffle and grabbing your brush. You pulled it through your wet, shoulder length black hair, grunting whenever you caught a knot.

Later that night, as you lay in bed & stared up at the ceiling you thought about what your first day at ninja school would be like, did they even call it that? Would it be anything like ordinary school? The Hokage said something about being in teams of 3 or 4, you wondered what they would be like; would they be nice? Would they all be ridiculously strong? Would they think you were too weak to be a ninja? Would they think you were just a dead-weight, someone they were unfortunate enough to get stuck with? Would they hate or despise you because you aren't as strong as they are? And even though you hated yourself for being so petty you worried about these things all night until finally the hands of sleep smothered you, bringing only the normal nothingness of oblivion.