A/N: Greetings. I've been slacking. Yes, I have. Running away from actually writing things. And now, I've finally resolved to write. This is most certainly an interesting story that's been in the works for...a year now? A story that I have devoted days to the concept of the story... and less to actually write it out. I mean, seriously. The plot's already all worked out, the characters and their development complete, heck, I've even chosen the OP and ED songs and composed character themes.
Also, this is a Redux Chapter for chapter one. The original was too simplistic, too straightforward, not realistic, and plain made me want to stop reading. Hopefully, this is a better attempt. Enjoy.
If you're like me and usually ignore A/N's like the jerks we are, the story is right below. I lied. Disclaimer first. I do not own Naruto.
Chapter 1: The Graduation Exam
She stumbled over a root. The little girl crashed into the ground, crying out with pain as she realized that her ankle was broken.
But she had a far greater worry. Trying to ignore the pain, she attempted to stand and collapsed back to the ground, her ankle betraying her.
Desperate to do something, anything, the girl crawled behind a tree and assumed a foetal position. There was no escape, and deep down, she knew it.
She felt cold. The arctic winds whipped around her, as if they were mocking her, and the coldness of the snow on the ground was creeping up her body. Unless a miracle happened, this forest was going to be her deathbed.
Suddenly, the gusts of wind stopped and a sole man appeared on top of a nearby tree branch, holding a triangular shaped knife in his hand. He observed the girl as he approached her, making no noise as he jumped from tree to tree.
Sensing movement, the girl withdrew further into the comfort of her knees. She was paralyzed with fear and her body trembled uncontrollably, yet not a sound left her throat, earning her a tiny measure of the man's respect. He stopped right in front of her.
At this point, the girl was terrified, and her trembling turned into irregular convulsions. The man tipped her head up and saw saw her tear-streaked face as he stared impassively into her eyes.
Looking into his, the girl saw certain death. His blood-red eyes swirled quickly in a hypnotic circle that was terrifying and yet fascinating at the same time, so much so that for a split second, she was no longer concerned with the fear that accompanied death.
The girl's scream echoed in the snow-covered forest, but the question is; if a scream echoes in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
"Hey, Shikamaru, where d'ya wanna go for lunch later?"
Mizu sat in the front row, her left eye twitching at the repeated shouts of one Akimichi Chouji. For the third time, Nara Shikamaru, the laziest kid in class, didn't answer him. It was no surprise though, as Shikamaru was too busy sleeping to formulate a reply to Chouji's questions, though that minor detail seemed to escape the chubby boy.
The class was being far too noisy to suit her. Mizu was used to quieter places, and had learned the value of silence from a young age, although she was far from being an introvert herself. Nevertheless, the raven-haired girl regarded the non-stop chatter with obvious distaste. She crossed her arms and rested her head on her forearms, trying to block out the noise of the other rowdy students.
After another three minutes of torture, she was saved by her teacher, Umino Iruka. The moment he entered the classroom in a fit of rage dragging a rope-bound blond with goggles on his forehead behind him rather mercilessly, everyone stopped talking. Iruka let go of the rope and paced about for a while before, leaving the blond student in the centre of the room. Mizu raised her head, slightly interested in the teacher's reaction this time.
After he had calmed down somewhat, the chuunin teacher took a deep breath and turned to his hostage.
"Listen, Naruto." Iruka began. "You've already failed the last two graduation exams. Your last chance to take it is tomorrow! You don't have time to pull pranks, you idiot!"
The boy in question simply huffed and turned his back on the teacher, not bothering to answer. Mizu didn't know whether to be impressed by his outstanding bravery or to shake her head at his blatant stupidity.
Not getting a desired reaction from the blonde boy irked the chuunin to no end, and the man turned to the class, opting to ignore the boy sitting at his feet.
"Alright. We're going to review Transformation." Iruka announced. "Everybody's doing it, even those who passed the last time!"
Almost in unison, the class began to protest. Ignoring the cries of the students, the teacher raised his voice again.
"Everyone form a straight line." The vein in his forehead bulged when no one paid heed to his instruction. He tried again, a little louder. "Everyone form a straight line!"
Once again it went unnoticed by the students. Unable to contain his anger any longer, the chuunin exploded.
"Form a straight line, NOW!" He roared. This time he got an instant response from the students, and he watched them scramble to form a line.
Iruka smirked. Still got it.
"Haruno Sakura. Here I go!" A young girl with cherry pink hair announced before performing the proper hand seal for the Transformation. "Henge!"
She vanished into a puff of smoke, and was instantly replaced with a perfect replicate of Iruka. The teacher inspected his mirror image before saying, "Pass!"
Despite being an E-ranked jutsu, forming a Henge was harder than one would think. It required acute perception for execution and a fair amount of concentration to maintain.
A boy with dark hair and jet-black eyes walked forward, ignoring the cries of the girl who went before him. "Uchiha Sasuke."
Without waiting for a confirmation, he immediately transformed into Iruka. The Chuunin looked at the finished product and passed the boy.
Uzumaki Naruto was next in line. The blonde boy, who was the centre of the commotion earlier looked unusually grim-faced as he stepped up. Then again, Mizu rationalized on his behalf, he was probably tired of getting yelled at.
"Henge!"
Immediately, a beautiful nude girl replaced the blond student, making rather inappropriate moaning sounds while posing provocatively. Mizu rolled her eyes; she should've expected Naruto to do something like that. She turned to gauge the reaction of their sensei.
The Chuunin instructor had blood streaming out of his nose. Naruto reverted to his original self, laughing at the reaction of his teacher.
"Whaddaya think? I call it the Sexy Jutsu!" He said in between waves of laughter.
"YOU DUMBASS!" Iruka retorted. "Don't waste your time inventing stupid jutsu and go STUDY!"
Actually, that jutsu can be pretty useful. Mizu thought. Once you get used to the depravity of it, that is.
Mizu was restless. Although she disliked noisy places, she preferred it to being completely alone. That was the problem; she lived alone.
She lay on her bed, trying her hardest to fall asleep, and yet nervousness kept her awake. It was natural, though, seeing as the graduation exam was on the very next day.
Twisting and turning, she imagined success, failure, the questions that would be asked, the tasks that she might have to complete, and countless other scenarios. It was said to be laughably easy. However, Mizu was not a person who trusted rumours.
Still, I'm probably better than a few of the other people in my class… I think.
Although that wasn't much of a reassurance, it helped to calm her nerves. She lay on her back, measuring up to her capabilities to the classmates that managed to leap into her mind at such an absurd hour.
Staring at the grey ceiling whilst comparing herself to Hinata, a shy girl sitting beside her, Mizu finally managed to drift into unconsciousness.
"Now, we will begin the graduation exam." Iruka announced. "Those who are called are to go into the next classroom."
Most of the students were paying rapt attention to their teacher, but a handful of them were still sleeping on their desks.
"The first test will be the Academy Three, taijutsu and Projectile Accuracy." He said before going into the aforementioned classroom.
Mizu relaxed. It was just the general examination that they'd done literally a hundred times. She looked to her right to see Naruto's face screwed up with worry. She chuckled; he was probably worried about the Clone jutsu. The Clone jutsu was easily Naruto's worst out of the basic three and the whole class knew it.
"Akimichi Chouji!" Iruka's voice was heard. The chubby Akimichi walked into the room, still munching on his bag of chips. After a few minutes, another name was called. The process repeated itself. Once, though, a student came out looking absolutely miserable. Mizu could only assume that he failed. A few more names went by until...
"Uzumaki Naruto!" Iruka called.
The blond kid looked so determined to pass as he entered the classroom that Mizu felt that he could probably overcome the challenge.
She was proven wrong when Naruto came out looking completely depressed. It was expected, yet she felt that his failure felt so out of place. Sure, she had heard that he had failed twice before, but still…
"Mizu!"
Her train of thought was derailed when her name was called. Feeling butterflies flapping around in her stomach, she opened the door to the next classroom and shut it behind her as she walked in.
Her brain registered two teachers sitting behind a table, one was Iruka-sensei and the other a white-haired teacher whose name she had forgotten, but had seen regularly around the academy. On the table were dozens of forehead protectors with the symbol of Konoha inscribed on the metallic centreplate.
"Hello, Mizu." The white-haired man greeted her with a smile.
She smiled in response. "Good morning, sensei." My hands are getting sweaty.
"You can begin now." Iruka said, also smiling at her. "Let's start with the Clone jutsu. Make at least three."
She nodded. Mizu closed her eyes and concentrated before reopening them. She allowed her chakra to flow along the paths of her body and formed the handseal for the jutsu.
Instantly, six Clones appeared, all looking identical to her. She allowed herself a small smile at the results.
"Nice job." The teacher smiled. "How about Henge?"
She did as asked, and transformed into a mirror image of Iruka. The two instructors inspected the clone before nodding at each other.
"Well done." Iruka praised her. "Let's try a Kawarimi."
Mizu nodded and focused her chakra. In an instant, she was a few feet away from where she was before, and a chair stood in her place.
"Alright. Now, for taijutsu, try to land a hit on me."
Mizu nodded and got into her stance as Iruka stood up and walked in front of her.
"Begin!"
Immediately, Mizu dove into a series of kicks based on the Academy Style taijutsu. After blocking a few, Iruka nodded.
"That's enough. Your form is textbook perfect, but you lack speed and strength. You should condition your body more."
The bitter taste of disappointment filled Mizu's mouth as she nodded. Would she fail because of it?
"One more test left. Hit the target at the end over there using both shuriken and kunai, at least three of each kind."
Mizu nodded and and let fly a couple of projectiles. While one shuriken managed to hit the bulls-eye, the other projectiles hit anywhere within the second ring of the bulls-eye.
"About 84 percent accuracy. She passes, don't you think, Mizuki-sensei?"
So THAT'S his name. Mizu thought, remembering the teacher's name. I can't believe I forgot. It even sounds like mine.
"Without a doubt." Mizuki smiled.
Iruka rose from his seat, took a forehead protector and handed it to her. "You've passed the basic test. Now go into the other classroom and wait for everyone else to be done. There's still the written test left."
Mizu nodded. She received the protector and walked on to the next classroom, where she sat waiting for the written test.
"Time's up!" Mizuki declared. The white-haired instrutor looked around the class. Most of the students were done with the test. Some were already sleeping, in fact.
Mizu had been staring at empty air for the past hour. She was quite satisfied with the test and thought she did quite well, although she had to hazard a guess here and there.
Mizuki began collecting the test papers. Halfway through, however, he stopped, his eye twitching. Mizu watched him with slight interest. What kind of test paper would be able to unnerve the normally calm teacher so much?
"Nara Shikamaru!" Mizuki yelled, slamming the desk.
That explains it. Mizu pieced together.
The sleeping boy raised his head wearily and gave a groggy "What."
"It's an EXAM. You didn't fill up the paper, not to mention your write your own name!"
The entire class chuckled at the classic Shikamaru behaviour.
"It was too troublesome to pick up a pen and write." Shikamaru shrugged, and leaned back onto his chair, looking bored.
Mizuki's eye twitched again, and took a deep breath before recomposing himself and walking off to collect test papers, muttering under his breath. He stopped again, however, at another student.
"Akuma! Why didn't you fill up the paper as well?" Mizuki shouted. "You're supposed to write down the answers to the questions, not doodle on the entire paper!"
Again, the class laughed. They knew the troublemakers in their class had a few eccentricities, but to do so during an exam?
The red-haired boy who was the target of Mizuki-sensei didn't even raise his head from its rested position on his hand. He simply looked up at the teacher. "I wasn't in the mood."
Mizuki gave a rather controlled growl and continued on. He stopped once more, but seeing as the student in question this time actually did attempt the paper but didn't have the knowledge to complete even a quarter of the first page, he sighed and walked off.
"Alright, the graduation exam is over. Congratulations on passing to all of you."
Mizu gave a sigh of relief. The exam was over and done with.
As the students and parents gathered outside the academy, Mizu noticed someone sitting on the swing alone.
It was Naruto. He looked completely down, as if the world had come to an early end just because he failed. He kept his head down to hide his disappointment, but Mizu could see it clearly. The blond boy was hurting badly.
She knew that Naruto was somewhat akin to her. He was an orphan as well, placed in the Konoha orphanage until he was old enough to take care of himself. When he reached the age of six, the orphanage kicked him out, and the Hokage provided him with an apartment and some allowance for his daily necessities. She went through the same thing two years later.
There was a difference, however. While most of the village folk were kind to her, only a handful of them had any compassion for the blond orphan. He was frequently cheated of his money, badmouthed by the villagers and belittled by the townsfolk.
"Yeah, that's the kid." Mizu overheard two mothers talking.
"I heard he's the only one that failed." One of them was saying.
"Hmmph. That's good." The other replied. "We can't have him becoming a shinobi. Since he's the…"
"Hey, we're not supposed to talk about that." The first one stopped her rather hurriedly.
Mizu clenched her fists. It was always the same. Nearly everyone talked about Naruto like that. At first she thought it was the pranks that he constantly pulled, but after a while she realized that it was something far, far deeper. And everytime they started talking, they would stop, saying something similar about not talking about 'something'.
What was that something? What had Naruto ever done to them?
Feeling sorry for the blond boy, Mizu walked towards him.
"Naruto." She began.
"What?" Naruto asked rather bitterly. "You're going to mock me as well?"
"No." Mizu replied. She wasn't used to seeing the blond boy like this. He was normally so cheerful, so bright that this particular attitude did not suit him well.
"Then what?" He asked, his eyes downcast.
"Are you okay?" The simple question seemed to lift his spirits a bit.
"Yeah, I guess." He raised his head at her and narrowed his eyes. "Why do you care?"
"Why shouldn't I care?" The girl couldn't stop the reply that came from her mouth.
Naruto looked startled. They stood there for a while without exchanging words. Finally, she broke the silence.
"I know that the villagers treat you like trash, Naruto, but don't give in to them. You're better than that." The raven-haired girl gave him a reassuring smile.
Naruto simply looked at her with disbelief written all over his face. He nodded and put his goggles back onto his forehead.
They both turned as they heard footsteps approaching them. Mizuki-sensei appeared before them with a kind smile on his face. It was obvious that he was looking to have a private conversation with Naruto.
"Mizuki-sensei." Mizu greeted before turning and walking back in the direction of her apartment, completely aware of the stares that the townspeople were giving her. After all, she had spoken to 'that' kid. Whatever 'that' was supposed to be.
"Mizu-chan." Naruto called.
She stopped, waiting for what he was going to say.
"Thanks."
She turned her head and gave him another smile. His trademark grin had returned to his face, just the way she knew it should be.
A/N: There. A near-complete re-write of Chapter 1. Some parts were recycled, but I digress. I hope you enjoy and don't throttle me.
Normally, this is the part where I beg for reviews. No more. I will not grovel...
Ah, what the heck. Reviews are cool and I want some. :)