See, this chapter came pretty fast O.o AUGH! Anyway, I mentioned a couple of OCs that I added before. They belong to my friends who should also have accounts here. I added them for a couple of reasons. -cough- Chuunin Exams -cough-
Enjoy! R&R
A year later after moving to Konoha, Akane had adjusted to living in a whole different setting. This place was so much different from the Hidden Mist Village. The sun shined a lot more then it ever did in Akane's lifetime and rarely would she ever have to experience rain or snow. This place – it was filled with hope.
The moment Akane moved to Konoha her parents decided to let her join the Leaf Ninja Academy where she would then be trained as a Leaf ninja but it was a much different experience for her. Seeing as she was trained under an elite Jounin since she was six, her progress in most fields was slightly advanced. The Chuunin instructors decided to keep her in the currently graduating class because of her skill. Her progress in most Konoha based techniques was much harder for her to grasp and that was the only thing giving her a challenge.
Finally, it was the day before she would graduate into the first rank of a ninja known as Genin. It was the first time Akane could prove to others that she had what it takes to be a respected ninja. But her academy transition was relatively harsh as well since the students all knew each other and she was the outcast from another village related to a serial killer.
It was only a year and Akane still had not made one friend. She spent everyday by herself only because most of the students were afraid of her. Akane rarely would ever associate with anyone else. She did not mean to be threatening to others and the handful of students unaffected by her affiliation scared Akane out of intimidation.
So, Akane sat in her usual seat at the left side of the room against the wall and waited for the other students to arrive and class would start. She needed this day to perfect the technique she would have to use to pass the exam tomorrow.
All was quiet at the moment until Akane heard a slight disturbance growing louder and coming closer. As the voices approached, she realized that it was two girls bickering at one another much like they did every day. The two girls appeared at the doorway and tried to push each other out of the way for one to get in the door first.
"Ino, you pig!" the pink haired girl of the two cried.
"Watch where you're going, Billboard Forehead!" the blonde one, given the name Ino, snapped back.
The two girls entered the room at the same time and immediately seated themselves at opposite sides of the room where they continued their skirmish of insults and everyone was unfortunately caught in the crossfire.
Akane lowered her face in her arms that were crossed on her desk and she groaned because she was not in the mood for their attitudes. They would always throw a fit if she ever tried to stop either of them from annoying anyone else.
Can't there just be one morning where they would both just shut up? Akane wished silently.
A student behind Akane made her ears twitch as they began talking about her and the sword she continuously wore strapped on her back.
"I wonder why the instructors let her bring that in the classroom. Does she get special privileges because she's a transfer from the Mist?" a boy's voice was heard even if it was in a whisper.
Another student joined the conversation and this time it was a girl, "Didn't you hear? She has the fastest progress from most kids in this class. She's only been in the academy for half a year and she might be one of the tops."
They're jealous? Wow, I didn't even want the attention but it seems I can't help it! Akane lowered her face against her arms again.
A shiver ran up and down her back as an unwanted touch stroked her sword. Immediately, she stood up and spun around in time to knock the student's arm back and grasp his shirt.
"Don't ever touch that." Akane made no attempt to make a scene but made it clear that she was angered by the gesture.
"Geez, calm down you psycho," the boy attempted to pull her hands off his shirt, "I just wanted to see if it was real metal!"
Akane released him and turned away to avoid any more unwanted attention. "Of course it's real. Just don't touch it again," Akane warned as she sat back down.
The boy took this as a challenge and stood up to confront her again. "Oh, and what do you expect to do about it, Akane?"
Never backing down from challenges, Akane stepped up to him once again and put a hand on his shoulder. "Back off, please. If you want, I will fight you."
"You are really cocky, y'know that?" the boy pushed Akane's hand off and pulled his other hand back into a fist.
Akane noticed this and looked at the boy in the eyes with a slight smirk. His fist pushed forward as she had predicted and she swiftly stepped to the side and grabbed a container of water sitting on a nearby student's desk.
The boy's punch had already been thrown out when he realized Akane was to the side of him. "How'd you get there?" he gasped before Akane dumped the water on him.
With one hand, she performed hand signs before she positioned her hand like she was going to blow a kiss. She blew out and the boy tried to stop her by throwing his hand out again. Before Akane could do anymore, another student watching from the side of them stopped her.
"Akane, leave him alone," a boy in a black fur lined gray parka motioned her to step back. The dog on the boy's head barked once and Akane immediately pushed herself away from the student that tried to attack her.
"Oh, sorry," Akane sat down at her seat and turned away from the two boys.
The boy that she was fighting with looked at his friends and snorted, "She's just a psycho." He put his hand on the desk and the other kids awed as they stared at him. "What?" He, too, looked at his own hand and yelped when he saw that three of his fingers were frozen together. "What the hell?"
The boy with the dog crawled over other desks and stopped in front Akane. She sneezed once before she looked up to see him standing in front of her.
"Hey Akane," the boy smiled. Akane stared at the red markings on his cheeks before sneezing again. "You know, you shouldn't get into fights with other students if you already have a bad reputation. Oh, by the way, my name is Kiba Inuzuka."
Akane tried to answer him again but only let out another sneeze. "I'm sorry, Kiba." She covered her mouth and stared at the ground. "I'm allergic to dogs."
Kiba watched as Akane moved away from him to another seat more towards the center of the room. There she could finally breathe and she relaxed herself again.
She put her head on her arms and watched the other students run around the room. Akane even listened to the students behind her trying to figure out how to defrost the kid's fingers.
"I can't believe I almost froze that kid. What the hell is wrong with me?" she whispered to herself.
"Hey, hey," a voice whispered from in front of her. Her nose did not twinge so she knew it wasn't Kiba again. "Akane," a boy in an orange jumpsuit stood in front of her, "I saw what you did to that one boy and I thought it was really cool. Maybe you could teach me sometime?"
Akane stared at the blonde kid's smiling face and it was comforting to her. All she did was get into a meaningless skirmish and attracted too much attention to her. Maybe the attention is what she needed to make a couple of friends.
"Really?" Akane's face started to form a smile as her head rose from the desk. "You're name is Naruto Uzumaki, right?"
The blonde boy nodded and smirked. "The one and only! I'm going to be the best ninja this village has ever seen, just you wait!" He laughed with a determined face.
His spirit reminded Akane of her when she told her parents that she would become a powerful ninja that people would look up to. She smiled a bit more and sat up straight.
"You don't think I'm weird or anything?" Akane nibbled on the edges of her thumbs. "No one actually talks to me in this class."
Naruto shook his head and seated himself on Akane's desk. "I don't see why anyone would think so. You were only in the academy a good amount of months after we already started and you're already qualified to become a Genin. I think that's pretty impressive. So, how do you do that technique with the ice?" Naruto leaned closer as if he did not want anyone else to hear.
Akane giggled, "Well, it's taken me a couple of years to master it so I don't know if –."
"Naruto!" a girl's voiced called.
Naruto turned around to face his younger sister that looked very similar to him so it was pretty obvious that they would be called the Uzumaki twins. The girl was Naruto's younger sister by a few seconds at the most.
"Nekkyo," Naruto sighed, "what's going on?"
Nekkyo grabbed his hand and pulled him by the wrist towards their seats. "Iruka is coming so we need to sit down!"
"Wait, Nekkyo, hold on!" Naruto tried to at least say goodbye to Akane but was busy with his sister.
Akane's smile disappeared into her normal emotionless expression. Her eyes lowered themselves to her desk top as she noticed Iruka walking in the door. He addressed the class and half the class greeted him back.
"I see we are alive and well this morning, huh?" The instructor skimmed through numerous papers in his hands. "I hope you all know now that tomorrow is the graduation exam for this class and I hope you will all pass easily."
Akane sat listening to Iruka explain the procedures for the exam as her eyes wandered around the classroom. She was always seated in the back rows because she preferred being away from the front. All of the students in front of her she could keep her eyes on; that's how she knew every student in the class. It was a habit of hers to watch others, learn their movements, and eventually learn their personalities.
She rarely turned behind her to see the last of the students in the room. When she did, she always realized that the looks of the others always seemed so different from the ones in front like they wanted to establish a firm superiority over the rest. It was mostly the boy from the Hyuga clan known as Neji and the Uchiha clan twins, Sasuke and Shizuka, which really intimidated her.
Man, Akane faced forward, those three can give me the creeps sometimes.
"Alright class," Iruka got everyone's attention, "it's time to go outside for some practice. Hurry up now!"
As ordered, all the students filed out of the classroom. Akane diligently followed the rest until Iruka grabbed her wrist and tugged her aside.
"You won't need your sword today, Akane," he smiled, "so feel free to leave it in the classroom." He watched as Akane hesitated for a moment and then grabbed her sword handle.
She looked around the room when the last student left. "Will it be safe in here?" Her tone was still unsure about leaving it.
"Akane, we've done this before. It won't kill you to leave it again." Iruka chuckled as he motioned Akane towards her desk. "Just leave it here and I'll have another instructor keep it safe."
Akane willingly left her sword at her desk and ran outside to meet the rest of the class to begin the day's training exercises. The outside was nice and warm without a cloud in the sky. Iruka motioned for everyone to gather towards him and he started explaining the training rules.
"Alright, we're having a friendly sparring match today with no other techniques besides the transformation, substitution, and clone techniques, okay? This is to build strength in our hand to hand combat skills. There will be other Chuunin officials observing the matches and will jump in when one of you has been knocked down three times."
Akane crossed her arms and scoffed. What do you think she had to do all the time to make sure she could even lift her sword, let alone swing it around in effective motions? Hand to hand combat was nothing more than a warm up exercise.
"Everyone partner up!" Iruka called as the class fanned out trying to find their opponents.
Akane gasped when she watched everyone partnering up all around her. She knew she would be one of the remaining few left. Her eyes searched for a potential partner but failed. Then her nose twitched and she sneezed when she turned and saw Kiba standing beside her.
"Need a partner?" he smirked. "It's okay, I'll even let Akamaru sit this one out." He patted the dog on the head and watched as it trotted over to a safe side of the yard beside a couple of instructors. "Besides, I need a bit of hand to hand training."
Akane found it unfair that she was specialized in this specific skill and nodded accepting Kiba's request. They both took fighting stances and waited for Iruka to give the cue to start.
Kiba chuckled through his teeth, "I'm not going to go easy on you because you're a girl." He saw that the last few people retrieved their partners.
Akane smirked, "You boys think that we girls are inferior, don't you? I wasn't asking you to go easy on me anyway." She watched as Iruka stuck his hand in the air. "You'll be surprised by my abilities."
All of the students took their fighting stances and glowered at their opponents. Iruka brought his hand down and announced to begin sparring. The students all leapt at once for one another and the chaos began.
Kiba started by stepping first. Akane stepped forward and performed a simple push kick that would've knocked Kiba on his back if he had not cartwheeled onto his hands and feet.
"Thought you had me, didn't you?" Kiba smirked as he stood back up and cracked his knuckles.
Akane expected the reaction from him and shook her head. "Of course not, I know you knew better than that." She shrugged with her head and one of her shoulders in the same direction.
He cocked an eyebrow in question as he stepped forward and threw a flurry of punches at Akane. She easily blocked, dodged, or redirected his hands in rapid succession of the other.
"What do you mean by that?" Kiba asked when he was close enough to Akane's face only to be pushed back by another kick.
She straightened herself out and sighed loudly, "What I mean is that I observe the way you fight and I realize that a simple push kick like mine won't knock you to your back so easily."
He wondered silently to himself for a moment and looked back at Akane with a smirk. "So, you're a stalker?"
Akane made a horrified face and clenched her hands into fists. "No! I am not a stalker! I just happen to observe people's weak and strong points!"
"I bet that is just your excuse." Kiba laughed as he pointed towards Akane and shook his head. "You have to come up with something better than that!"
Infuriated by his talk, Akane launched herself at the boy and tackled him. Having him firm in her grip and added force to knock him to ground, she was sure that the first take down was hers. She was confident up to the point until Kiba flipped them over and she was the one to hit the ground first.
The nearest instructor called the first take down to Kiba and Akane quickly jumped back up to her feet ready to take things a bit more seriously.
"Thought you had me then, didn't you?" Kiba mocked her with the same words he had used before.
She chuckled softly and strengthened her glance at Kiba. "Of course not, I knew you had the upper hand. I was just angry."
Kiba made the first step forward again and she looked at his feet then towards the swaying of his body. Akane dodged to one side and delivered a roundhouse kick to his mid-stomach sending him skidding across the ground with his back. She hovered over him as the instructors called the take down to her.
"I'll give you credit on that one. You caught me off guard," Kiba smirked and nodded as Akane helped him up, "but don't expect me to let you do that again."
"I didn't plan on it." Akane retaliated as she released Kiba's arm when he got back to his feet.
Kiba and Akane faced each other again feeling a string of tension being tied around them both. She was first to move this time by throwing a kick towards Kiba's face but missed as he easily ducked and went for an attack to Akane's jaw. She blocked his fist and threw it back before taking a step away from him to create a gap between them.
The two parried for a majority of the sparring. Occasionally, one of them would get in a hit but it would do nothing to knock the other to the ground. Becoming too focused on hand to hand based attacks, Akane and Kiba both forgot they were able to use such techniques as substitution and clone.
After about fifteen minutes, the instructors ordered for the students to cease the sparring matches.
"Alright, respectfully honor your partners for being excellent ninja and return to the classroom as soon as possible. I have a few last minutes notes before your graduation tomorrow." Iruka notified the class and walked inside to wait for the students to enter.
Akane panted and turned to Kiba with a smirk as she straightened herself. "Thank you for the match, Kiba Inuzuka. Your close combat skills are truly formidable," she bowed in his direction.
Kiba copied her actions. "Same to you, Akane Momochi." He nodded as Akamaru jumped onto his shoulder from behind. "I always thought of you as a close combat person anyway. You really put up a challenging fight. It would be great if I could face you again."
He nodded once more before walking back with the class. Akane stared at him as he walked and smiled to herself. I think I actually made a friend.
She started after him when she noticed the other students such as the Uchiha Twins and Neji Hyuga came walking in her direction. Quickly, she jumped out of the way to avoid having them send off an even harsh aura of dislike towards anyone. As the three passed by, Akane particularly studied their body language given off mostly by their gaits, hands, and facial expression.
Angry, tense, bored or maybe just feeling unchallenged? Akane thought of the possible reasons for the three students' seemingly unchanged personalities.
After those three disappeared among the flood of kids, Akane swarmed back into the classroom trying to reach her desk as quickly as possible only to see that her sword had not moved an inch.
She sighed in relief and sat down to quietly pay attention as Iruka began explaining again for the exams.
"Tell us what we have to test on, Iruka sensei!" A student cried out.
The cry started a whole debate where every student was involved trying to convince Iruka to spill the test. He lowered his arms signaling the class to quiet down and smirked.
"Sorry, kids but I have no say in this until tomorrow," he chuckled, "so until then, practice and sleep well tonight."
Iruka then excused everyone and they rushed out of the classroom as different conversations formed into one inaudible uproar. Akane demanded a perimeter around herself so others would not accidentally cut themselves on the Guillotine.
"Hey Akane," she heard a familiar voice over the crowd.
She stepped to the side to avoid the flowing traffic and noticed that Naruto and Nekkyo were calling and waving to her. Her face looked puzzled and she stepped back when they finally caught up with her.
"Hey, so I was wondering if you could teach me that technique since we have time now that we are out of class." Naruto stroked the back of his head and chuckled with a smile hoping for Akane to teach him.
Akane was flattered but shook her head opposing the offer. "I'm sorry Naruto. I have places to be right now. Maybe some other time when I'm not busy?" She waved at the twins and ran off into the crowd.
She exited the academy doors, looked towards the sky, and sighed. The fact that she had to lie to Naruto about the technique bugged her. She swore to Haku that she would never teach anyone the jutsu even if they were her friends. Even then, it took Akane four years to master it.
Akane started walking through Konoha, staring at the buildings and expanding her knowledge of the geography. She had only been here for at least a year and there was still so much she had to find. It was a quiet village. Nothing huge has happened lately that caused uproar – but Akane was happy here.
When she looked around, she saw smiling children and happy families. In the Mist village, she saw nothing but broken faces and dreams. It was an uplifting feeling. The only thing keeping her from fitting in was the tense gazes of other villagers that knew of her affiliations.
Lame end o.o So sorry. I never really planned on spiltting it into chapters much xD Alrighty then, as you could've guessed Naruto doesn't have a younger twin sister and Sasuke doesn't have a twin sister... I forgot if she was older than him xD Haha. My friend, pen name Razorgaze, had a fic including Shizuka but I think she took it off. Oooh, she's got an awesome Transformers fic going on. SERIOUSLY... Check it out!