Hi again

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but SOME of these characters are my own creation as stated in the last chapter.

I want to improve my writing since my current English class is all about essays (no creativity) so PLEASE READ AND REVIEW. MOST IMPORTANTLY, REVIEW

The 2nd Day

Ryuu's POV

Class the next day seemed better than the first in some ways. There was less chaos per class and I had remembered to put my homework into my bag before school. Hikari showed up at the door at exactly the same time as she did yesterday due to her perfect punctuality. I, on the other hand, was still gulping down my breakfast before sliding out the door. While walking to the school grounds, I had come to realize that, like every single year of my education, nothing interesting happens past the first day of school besides gym class. Today we were given a "fun" challenge.

The head of the ninja-in-training department, Daichi-sensei, decided to set up a really long and complicated obstacle course. "Alright you ugly ducklings, listen up," his voice boomed and echoed like a sonic wave. Every single kid dropped his or her conversation and stood a little straighter than usual. Yeah, Daichi-sensei was intimidating. From that, I mean, he was one of those guys you would see on the professional wrestling channel with a really, really short haircut and ginormous arms that could crack your skull if you ever pissed him off. His jaw twitched under his heavily tanned skin. I had my suspicions he was from the land of lightning because from what my dad had told me, everyone from that area was as scary as hell.

Once he was sure he got our attention, Daichi-sensei continued with a confident stance, legs shoulder length apart and arms behind his back like a typical military general. "As you know, this entire week will test your abilities and yours alone. You are not working together, nor will you be put together in groups. This will continue until you are completely analyzed and assigned teams by the end of the week. Recently, you have been tested on speed and endurance. Soon you will be tested on strength, flexibility, agility, weaponry, and hand-to-hand combat. Today, we will work on agility with this fine obstacle course. In order for us to easily record your skill, I will run you through this course in several groups. Groups in this case does not mean team and being best friends! It means you run this entire course with several shadows."

I got confused at that last word and turned to ask Hikari, "Are we actually running with shadows?"

She used her peripheral vision to look sideways at me. "Figuratively speaking, the people with you are like a shadow. No help but no hindrance."

"Oh, then why didn't he just say so?"

"Uzumaki!"

Crap. He didn't sound very happy at all. I think my stomach fell out of my body, but I knew I shouldn't let him know. "Yes, sir!?" I replied in my best military tone, though I was sure my voice was an octave too high.

"You will be in the first group." Daichi sensei jerked his almost bald head at the base line. I walked as swiftly, calmly, and carefully as I could. Honestly, I didn't want to trip in front of him or else he may make me drop and give him fifty. As he called out four other names, I finally got a good look at the death trap that awaited me. What lay ahead, was an empty space (I assumed was for running), rows of tires, monkey bars with mud puddles underneath, nets, raised platforms, more bars reaching higher and higher, a rock wall, ropes, loops, tunnels, ladders, something that looked like a zip line, and… water? The whole thing was built to loop around and make the teacher know that we weren't cheating… which was probably why it didn't seem too taxing unless you really thought about it. After knowing that Ken and Kaito were in my group, I relaxed a little.

Daichi demanded, "Any questions before we start?"

Sheepishly, I raised my hand and waited to be barked at before asking, "Um, what do we do, exactly?"

Daichi was ready for this and promptly summoned a scroll and nailed it to a board with two kunai. It was a diagram of the obstacle course. I studied it for a while, trying to memorize what to do at each stage. First, we were to run over a cliff, catch the rope, swing safely to the ground, run a few more meters and through a row of tires, run some more, avoid nets falling on top of us, jump over a small line and onto the monkey bars, swing again and onto several raised platforms that led to an extremely long ladder, ride the zip line, dive into Ryuunoha lake, swim back to the bank, and run for the last time back to the starting point. Definitely not a piece of cake.

Ken's eyeballs bugged out and even Blazer tipped his head sideways at the diagram with a drooping tail. Kaito sighed heavily and ran a hand through his dark hair. "I'm going to sleep good tonight."

Ken looked back at the scene and stated, "Well, I'm pretty sure I'll pass out right about… there," he pointed towards one of the platforms. I would've laughed had I not been so scared. I was pretty sure that today was the day I would die.

"Uchiha!" Daichi snapped.

"Yes, sir?" Hikari replied with a raised eyebrow. It was amazing how she could keep her voice level when someone like Daichi was downing her.

"Don't give me that snobby look, Uchiha. I saw you talking as well. Think you're so sneaky? Well, you're in the next group. I expect you to be in the front of the pack!"

"Yes, sir," She replied calmly. A small vestige of a contempt smirk crawled into her expression. Of course, I knew she had the guts to be the best at this. Uchihas were well known for speed and agility.

That idea made me wonder about my own heritage. My mother was from the well distinguished Hyuuga clan, but where was my dad from? Sure, he's the hokage and all, but I don't recall ever having some sort of special ability or bloodline trait from him. And even with the Byakugan, I was far from ever winning a race against Hikari-

"RUNNERS ON YOUR MARK! GET SET!" Daichi-sensei howled at us with his supersonic voice. I snapped back into reality and took a stance. "GO!"

We sped off in a blur as the rest of the class cheered us on. Their encouragement fueled my muscles with energy like an adrenaline shot. The three of us kept pace while the two other guys sped up, eager to impress the girls. I had to admit that Ryuunoha had a lot of pretty girls, but I definitely needed to conserve my energy. Ken knew this too, but he made an effort to make his strides look longer and faster.

I took a gulp before diving off the cliff. Of course, we all screamed for the horror of death that awaited below us. Ironically, I had always wondered what it was like to skydive. Now, I could cross that off of my bucket list, but before I could even do that, I needed to find the rope. Thank goodness there were plenty after falling for what seemed like fifty meters. With a little chakra in my palm to prevent some serious rope burn, I latched onto the one nearest to me and swung safely to the ground.

That was initially my plan, but consequently, I put too much chakra into the rope. It snapped after feeling my total weight, leaving me to plummet once again. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Another rope came into reach, I touched it…. It slipped back… I tried again and finally got a better grip. The rope held my full weight until I was only five meters from the ground. I let go in order to land, but I was still going too fast. My torso began to dip down and I did my best not to face-plant. "GAAHH!" Hopefully, no one could hear my squeal. The last thing I needed was a broken face and all my friends laughing at me at my own funeral. Pulling my arms up and tucking my head, I managed to hit the ground without breaking anything. WHABAM! Like a fish out of water, I flailed and rolled around on the earth until my speed slowed down. Though nothing broke, I was definitely going to wake up with a purple and green back in the morning. Truth be told, I ended up with a little bit of grass in my mouth and my limbs splayed in every direction. Rejoicing at my miracle, I lifted myself off the grass. "I'M OKAY!"

"DUDE, MOVE YOUR- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Some extremely powerful force hit me from behind as soon as I had gotten up and sent me pummeling into the ground again. I spat some more blades of grass out of my mouth and discovered that Ken was the culprit.

Ticked off at him, I yelled, "What was that for?"

"What? I said move!" Ken rose to his feet and we both started jogging towards the tires.

"Of all the places to land, you had to land on top me!"

"I figured you'd move!"

"After I've already been tossed around like a bunch of kids playing kick the can!" I retorted sarcastically.

"Ha-ha-ha! Yeah, so moving some more wouldn't have been too hard."

"Shut up. We gotta catch up to Kaito."

"Where is he?"

"He got to the ground first and sped off."

"Smart guy! Or else he would have been hit with the both of us."

"I hope he passed those two lamoes that tried to impress the girls."

"Ditto!"

We came upon the tires and passed them in what seemed like hours. There were so many, I was already starting to pant really hard… well I did get the breath knocked out of me twice consecutively just a while back, so that must have been it. After the last tires I received my second wind and Blazer barked excitedly next to Ken.

"Ken?"

"Huh?"

"How did Blazer...huff… get off…huff… the cliff…huff… if there were only ropes?"

"I used the bottom…huff… of my rope to…huff… tie around his waist…huff… and untied him when…huff… we were close enough…huff… to the bottom."
"Is that why you…huff… landed on me?"

"Yeah…huff… now shut up… can't breathe!"

I smiled and watched Blazer speed ahead towards the monkey bars, taking one giant leap and hurling himself on top of the metal. Awe-inspiringly, the wolf-like puppy trotted on the bars as if he was on a tree. However, Ken and I used the usual method. With just two swings, we flung ourselves onto a raised platform and climbed the insanely long ladder.

"I see the zip line!" I shouted.

Ken snickered, "I see the light at the end of the tunnel!"

"Hahahahaha!"

Waiting at the zip line for us was none other than Kaito. What was he doing standing around? I must've had this weird look on my face because he answered my question before I could even ask him.

"Before this started, there was a pile of cloth pieces that were to be used for the zip line. The two guys ahead of us threw them off the platform."

"Fudge those Benches!" Ken spat his substitutions for curse words.

Kaito turned his attention back to me. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, we're not done here yet," I answered. "We just need to think outside the box."

Suddenly, I had an epiphany. It was probably the most ingenious thing I had ever thought of since insisting that my mother did not have worry wrinkles whenever she asked. This idea was literally going to take us far; it may have been the peak of my IQ potential. "Ken," I prompted in a tone that often meant something like 'you've got an eyebooger.' He checked his eyes.

The said boy raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"That collar you picked out for Blazer is a very nice one."

Kaito raised an eyebrow as well at me. "Ryuu, I don't think this is the time for… OHHHH!"

Ken and Blazer both tilted their heads to the side in bewilderment. Kaito stepped towards Blazer and unbuckled the collar. "Let's go!" He nudged his head towards the zip line.

"OHHHH!" Ken jumped, finally getting the message.

Kaito placed each end of the red cloth on the zip line and waited for us to follow suit. I grabbed his legs, Ken attached one arm to my leg and the other around Blazer, and off we went. This wasn't my first time using a zip line and it would've been fun if I hadn't been so scared of falling before reaching the lake. The three of us screamed while Blazer literally howled in terror. "WWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

At some point in time, Kaito let go of the collar and we shot into the lake like a meteor shower. To be honest, I was really glad to wash some sweat off before meeting everyone at the finish line. The two other guys were nowhere to be seen until we came ashore. One was pumping his fists in front of a group of his friends while the other one was trying to flirt with Hikari. The guy was putting on his best smile and held up his biceps for her display. I laughed inwardly when I realized that she wasn't even paying attention to the guy. He eyes were scanning the riverbank in fierce concentration. Once she located us jogging to the finish line, she trotted up to meet with us. As soon as we crossed the finish line, all four of us collapsed from exhaustion.

"That was no biggie," I breathed as she looked us over.

"Are you guys okay?" Hikari asked with a hint of concern in her eyes.

Kaito chuckled and picked himself up. "No, we're just being overly dramatic."

She continued, "You all took some pretty nasty falls."

Ken was obviously alright since his response was, "Yeah, it hurts right here!" He pointed towards his lips in a humorous manner.

Hikari rolled her eyes but soften when Blazer brought his collar to her and wagged his tail in an attempt to make her take pity on him. She complied and fastened his collar back on. After which, Hikari began to rub the back of his ears. Yep, she pitied the dog… probably for having an owner like Ken.

"Participants in line!" A booming voice echoed. The other two guys, Ken, Blazer, Kaito, and I scrambled into a quick line standing shoulder to shoulder, facing the direction of the voice. Daichi-sensei entered into the fray, silencing everyone.

He stood in front of me with a stiff expression. Oh boy, I had forgotten about the whole "no team" idea and now he was going to send us off the clean the urinals for a week. "Kaito, Ryuu, Kenshin!"

"Sir," we all replied at once.

"I strictly said you were not put into teams just yet." Yep, here comes the punishment.

"However, the three of you and the dog did just that." Could it be urinals or laundry?

"In a time of desperation we all do things we don't plan on doing." Hmmm, I hope it's just laundry duty.

"Good job." Laundry, laundry, what?!

"Nice work on the zip-line, too. You're welcome to hit the showers or hang out and watch these other numskulls puke their breakfast." Diachi sensei-even wore a smile in front of us. Talk about mixed messages.

He then turned his attention to the other guys and his aura suddenly went dry. "I don't appreciate the act of sabotage during my class! Go find those cloth strips you dumped and don't comeback until you've found every single one of them." The two said boys muttered something inaudible and begrudgingly headed towards the trees. Once they were gone Daichi-sensei said, "Since there are no cloth strips along the zip line, I implore the rest of you ducklings to improvise like these boys!"

In a brisk manner, the imposing figure before me twisted around and barked, "Uchiha! Yoshido! Matsuro! Watanabe! Handa! On the line!" Hikari, Emi, and some other people rushed to the said location.

"Good luck!" I said to Hikari.

"RUNNERS ON YOUR MARK! GET SET! GO!"

Hikari took off with immense speed, leaving everyone in the dust.

"GO HIKARI!" Ken and I yelled for our friend.

If she heard us, then she didn't show any sign of response. I watched her dark purple ponytail until it disappeared over the cliff.

"I don't think she likes me," Kaito said aloud.

"It takes her awhile to get used to someone," I said. "For you, maybe a week or two."

Kaito seemed to disagree but didn't press the subject any further. Instead, he brought up a new one. "So, should we call it a day or hang around for a bit?"

"Are you kidding me?" Ken retorted. "There's a ton of girls out here and you want to go shower? I don't know what's going through your head, man, but I'm staying."

"Dude, maybe he has a point," I interrupted. "I mean, do you honestly want some chick to think you smell terrible and walk away the minute you say 'hi'?"

Ken's cocky expression dropped immediately. "Oh. That is a good point." He nodded as if to physically show us his response.

"Let's catch our breaths first," I suggested. The two nodded and we began watching the race below the cliff.

Hikari had just touched the ground and sped towards the tires like the impact hadn't affected her. Two others somersaulted to the ground and chased after her. One had just caught onto a rope while another landed but fell back down. I was disappointed that no one else had experienced an epic fail like I did.

Ken saw the girl that had lost her balance and cried, "FAIL!"

I turned to him and retorted, "Yes, but we had an EPIC FAIL."

The both of us laughed whole-heartedly as a figure came upon us. "Are any of you hurt?" A calm voice asked. I looked up to find the school nurse hovering over me and inspecting my scratches like they were mutating into octopus tentacles.

"Well, it doesn't hurt now," I replied. The older woman turned to Ken and Kaito but they shook their heads, too. She rolled her eyes, pulled out some disinfectant, and sprayed us.

"ACHHH!"

"Now it hurts!" Kaito piped as the acidic solution contacted his skin.

"It's clean, that's what matters," the nurse mumbled and pulled out some gauze.

"What's with the bandages?" I asked.

She gave me a look and replied, "Have you seen your left arm?"

Instantly, I looked at my forearm; a few scratches decorated my skin, but nothing too serious. The nurse huffed and made my forearm bend towards my chest, revealing the outer arm and my elbow. "OH MY GOD!" I yelped at the site of a tremendous gash that had formed just after my elbow.

"When did that happen?" Kaito asked.

"I don't know."

Ken commented, "That's nasty."

After I got sprayed again and bandaged, we turned our attention back to the race. Amazingly Hikari cleared the tires effortlessly. She didn't disappoint dodging the nets either. A brunette guy behind her started to increase his speed. His strides became longer and when he lunged at the monkey bars, he managed to take them two at a time.

As I watched I tapped Kenshin on the shoulder and indicated towards the guy advancing on Hikari. "Hey, isn't that Benjirou?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah. He's in our class, man. Good guy."

"How do you know him?"

"He was in our class for a semester last year, remember?"

"Yeah, it's coming back to me. Why for only a semester?"

"I think the counselor messed up his schedule and couldn't correct it until then."

"Oh, that explains it."

We watched as Benjirou Watanabe caught up to Hikari but after she glanced his way, he fell back. He must have been out of breath after the monkey bars and jumping from platform to platform. I didn't blame him; the platforms weren't positioned very close together and it took some serious calf muscles to propel oneself up there. Once Hikari reached the top of the ladder, she didn't pause to think about something to use on the zip line. Instead, she peeled off one of her socks, folded it twice, and launched herself down the zip line.

"Wow," Kaito gasped. "She makes this obstacle course from hell look easy."

"Yeah," Kenshin agreed.

I piped up with, "I wonder what people where thinking when they saw us out there testing the course."

A throaty laugh echoed around the three of us as Daichi-sensei approached. He must have overheard us. "You boys would've made headlines if Ryuunoha newspaper sent a reporter here. HAHA!"

"Uhh, Thank you, sensei?" I replied. And just as quickly as he came, our gym instructor walked away, scribbling some notes on a clipboard.

I turned back to the scene only to find Hikari reaching the shoreline. Though she moved through the course with ease, I could tell she was only human, just like the rest of us. Her eyes were heavy with exhaustion and her breathing was quick and shallow. After crossing the finishing line a nurse looked her over until she deemed the Uchiha unscathed.

"Good work, Uchiha! Hit the showers!" Daichi-sensei hollered from his clipboard.

Kaito, Kenshin, Blazer, and I congratulated her as she wrung out her dripping ponytail. Holding up one arm and a giant smile, I high-fived her. She gave a small smile back and put out the slightest chuckle when Kenshin pulled her into a friendly bear hug. As soon as he was done, a mass of people crowded around us congratulating the girl; her expression went back into its usual indifference. I almost forgot how many fans Hikari had, though she never let the popularity get through her head. Honestly, she never showed any kind of amusement whenever total strangers crowded her as if they were her friends. Once, when we were about twelve years old, she had made it clear to us that we were her friends, not the crowd that clustered around her. Like a snake, Hikari managed to slip away from the crowd and head off towards the girls' locker room.

After the confusion, Benjirou crossed the finish line and we ran up to him. Kenshin greeted the guy with a friendly high five. He asked, "Hey Ben, what happened out there?"

"Yeah, you almost caught up to Hikari," I added.

Benjirou shrugged, "I don't really know. For one, I did get tired. She was pretty fast."

Ken chuckled at this and patted Watanbe's shoulder as we walked towards the locker room. "Aww, did she bat her pretty lashes at you?"

He stopped and contemplated this. "You know, I honestly don't remember. She just glanced at me to see who I was and then I just froze up. Well, not really freeze, I slowed down."

"You crushing on her?"

"Who isn't?! She's hot," Benjirou laughed. "It's not like I don't appreciate a glance every now and then from a pretty chick."

Kenshin threw his head back, snickering. "HAHAHAHA! I know what you mean."

"Wait, are any of you guys dating her, yet?"

At this very moment, I tripped on my own shoelace. "WAHH!" And then I was down for the count. Instantly, I spit grass out of my mouth, received some snide comments, and answered, "Why would you think that?"

The brunette shrugged, "Ryuu, you and Ken have known her for so long. I figured at least one would grow the balls to ask her out."

I made a face and looked at him as if he just told me the sky was falling. "Dude I've known her since we were babies. She's like my twin sister, man!"

Kenshin shrugged. "Eh, I guess I haven't really put much thought into it."

Kaito stepped into the conversation. "Ken, you flirt with her a lot."

"Nah," I interjected. "He flirts with any skirt that passes him by."

"That I do."

"Well," Watanabe smirked. "Then I guess she's fair game."

"Don't try anything stupid," I sighed.

"Yeah! Rub her the wrong way, and she just might break your arm."

Ben turned around. Playfully, he challenged, "Oh yeah? Keep taunting me, and I'll kick your balls to the moon."

"You can't even catch me," Ken retorted and sped off towards the locker room.

"The money in your pocket says I can!" Watanabe chased after him, leaving me and Kaito to catch up.

My brunette companion laughed at the sight and turned to me. "Wanna race?"

I snickered inwardly as my mischievous side came into play. "Yeah."

"Ready-!"

I threw my arm across his face, pointing into the distance. "Daichi-sensei!"

"What?"

Like lightning, I took off, leaving Kaito in my dust. I looked back to find his jaw dropped in shock. He shook his head and joined the chase.

Kenshin's POV

I tugged at my collar, trying to adjust it. I don't know why, but I could never get it right the first time, especially when I had a tie to put on with it. Blazer stretched out on the tile floor of the boys' locker room, exhausted. Jealousy crept over me. While my dog was free to sleep whenever and wherever he wanted, I still had the rest of school to go through. A sigh escaped from my attempt at self-composure. This had been a long day. From every boring class in the morning to a second hard worRyuuut at noon, every muscle and whatever moved when I walked was sore and stiff. Daichi-sensei had told us that the aches meant that my body worked hard just like a ninja should train. I just hoped that I would get used to it. Of course, I was not the only one in pain. Everywhere I looked, each boy in the room wore the same tired expression and grunted from the pain before sitting down. Inwardly, I chuckled from the fact that even the most menial of tasks was slow and painful after a worRyuuut from hell.

Ryuu was having trouble with his tie as well, but after quite the number of attempts, he got it. When finished he glanced my way and I jerked my head in the direction of the door. He nodded and grabbed his school bag. Blazer blew through his nose in annoyance as he realized where we were going. The one year old puppy picked himself off the floor and trudged after us as we made our way into the cafeteria. Because all schools in Ryuunoha were open-campus, the cafeteria was never over crowded. But, why go out and buy lunch with your own money when your parents put money into a school lunch account and there's hot food waiting for you in the cafeteria? At least, that's what a majority of students think. Again, the cafeteria was never overcrowded.

We sat at the same spot yesterday with everyone there after Ryuu got his steamy bowl of ramen. "Dude, why ramen?"

"Huh?" Ryuu turned his attention to me, a noodle hung from his mouth.

"Of all the things to eat every day, why ramen?"

"Why not?"

"It's so… unhealthy."

"No its not. It's good stuff."

I raised an eyebrow at this as we sat down at the table. Emi glanced up from her meal. "What's good stuff?"

"Ramen!" Ryuu held up his bowl of soup like a toddler holding up his best mudcake of the day.

"Yeah it is!" Emi piped. The cousins high-fived one another.

My mouth dropped. "But every day? Isn't that unhealthy?"

Hikari looked up from a book she had stuck her nose into and defended her implied brother, "It's not that bad."

"It's gotta be bad. How is it not?"

"Think… what's in it?" She said without looking back up.

Snatching Ryuu's bowl away, I looked at the contents. Egg noodle, broth, barbecue beef, steamed veggies, and an egg. "Oh… I guess it's not that bad. Nothing too unhealthy." Blazer lifted his front paws onto my seat to take a look at the bowl as well. His head tilted as if his thoughts coincided with mine.

"Hn." Hikari's gaze was still fixated on the book while she popped a rice sandwich into her mouth.

"What are you reading?" I asked out of curiosity.

"A book."

"I can see that."

No reply came from the Uchiha. Emi turned her head upside down to look at the cover, her pigtail sprawled across the table. "It looks like a textbook… of jutsus!"

"Whoah! Where'd you get that?" I reached for the book to take a peek, but as soon as I got within a centimeter, Hikari jerked away with an annoyed expression in her dark green eyes.

"I don't like people to take my stuff without permission. Pet peeve."

"Whoops. May I see it?"

She complied and spread the book out onto the table. Everyone leaned in as she flipped to a certain page. "This textbook only has ten jutsus, but it also has step by step instructions on hand signs, several taijutsu formations, and some basic genjutsu techniques." She flipped to another page. "This is the jutsu I've been studying for a while," Hikari pointed to a figure kicking the air and producing some fire along its path of travel. "The Wall of Fire."

"Wow," Emi breathed. "I want to learn that one, too!"

Before, Ryuu was inhaling his noodles. At Emi's suggestion, he took a breath from his food and said, "You can only master that skill if your element is fire."

"Oh, darn!" The brunette frowned.

I spoke up, "I had almost forgotten about the element principle. A shinobi has at least one specific element that defines him or her. Some have trained hard enough to draw out the second and third. Didn't the first Hokage managed to combine Earth and Water to create wood?"

Hikari answered, "Yes, but that was very rare. Though, something like combining Water and Wind to make ice is more common and easily attainable."

Kaito hadn't spoken much since he joined our group. I guess he just wanted to fit in first before he made any waves. Despite this reason, I wanted him to feel comfortable. "Hey, Kaito, didn't you say that you were from the Mist village?"

He swallowed the rest of his lunch and blinked. "Uh… yeah."

"Do you know any special jutsus from there?"

Hikari mused silently and fixed her gaze on the new guy. It was strange and also scary how she acted around new people; always tense and analytical like a lion trying to figure out how break open a turtle's shell.

Kaito swallowed again and answered, "Not really. I didn't decide to become a shinobi until a few years ago. I'm not too skilled in the fighting department yet."

"You seem to do fine athletically," Hikari added.

Teru chuckled next to the Uchiha and then composed himself only to add, "I remember you said that you and your mom traveled from place to place. Did you ever live in the Sand Village?"

"Umm… for only a month or so. The sand that constantly filled up my shoes was the thing I remembered the most. For the majority of the time, I stayed indoors. Have you ever been?"

The boy laughed again. "That's my second home. I go there every summer to visit my two uncles. My mom was originally a Sand shinobi, then she got married and moved here."

"Oh, so do you know a lot of people there?"

"Meh, a few."

Emi butted into the conversation, "Oh, don't believe him. He knows everyone!"

We all laughed together and exchanged a few comments. It was too bad the bell rang, signaling the end of fun and the start of art class.

Ryuu's POV

I had my first kiss in art class back at the Academy when I was ten. There was a girl who sat next to me in that class. She always had these huge ideas for a project and since I was never too creative with paper or clay, I chose to be her permanent craft partner. One month we were supposed to create something to be displayed at the spring festival. The girl had hatched an idea to produce a paper-maché cherry blossom tree with simple origami animals decorating the trunk and limbs. To pull my own weight, I designed the basic structure while she corrected the work and detailed every inch of the project. During the last day of work, we were on a tight schedule since several flowers hadn't been painted and even more origami animals needed to be created. My hands were covered in pink paint and glitter was dusted around my face as if someone had sneezed sparkly stuff on me. After we attached the last of the origami sparrows, she rejoiced and pecked me on the lips. I was disgusted and embarrassed at first, but now I'm just glad it was done when I didn't see it coming. That way, I don't have to stare at the ground whenever someone asks me whether I've had my first kiss or not. Though, I still feel bad about the fact that I couldn't even remember her name since she moved.

In the Sanin Academy, things are different. Art class serves a more psychological purpose, or so my dad said. About a decade ago, the school board believed that many shinobi were traumatized at a young age due to lack of a happy childhood. I wonder how they ever thought of that. To combat this "crisis," the board established an art program with numerous experts in which a student's artwork would be critiqued by a psychiatrist who just happens to understand a thing or two about the world of art.

Despite this somewhat purposeful change in curriculum, I find a lot of difficulty in actually succeeding in this class. For one, the instructor never tells us the reason for making a project or the theme that we have to use. The only rule is use a certain method for each project like painting with sumi-e brushes on paper or rolling pieces of wet clay. When finished, each student must have a discussion with the instructor for constructive criticism.

For the first week of school, Ayaka-sensei instructed us to make a self-portrait using pencil and paper. Mirrors glittered among the black tables as students studied their reflections. One could laugh all day when seeing the faces some people make when trying to copy images to paper. As usual, I started off with a squiggly circle, erased it, drew another one, and repeated until I got an acceptable geometric shape. Obviously, I had a neck and shoulders, so I automatically drew those into the medium.

Now came the tricky part: eyes. More than once have I actually drawn a pair of decent eyes, but a ninja is an athlete not an artist. When two charming charcoal orbs appear on a finished product, it means that I spent nearly an hour for each one. But this product rarely comes to existence due to the fact that I easily become impatient with my work. To speed up the process for today, I took a peek at Hikari's work.

"Woah, how did you do that?" I inquired. The female Uchiha had expertly carved two eyes and was erasing some stray marks that dotted the figures.

She raised an eyebrow. "With a pencil."

"Can you do mine?"

"No, but I can show you." Hikari pulled out a piece of scratch paper and created two horizontal lines. As soon as she completed the basic shape of both eyes, my internal light bulb turned on.

"Oh! I see what you did there. Thanks," I said and went back to my own paper. The two lines were drawn lightly in order to serve as guidelines. This made both eyes the same size. To myself, I asked why I couldn't ever think of this. But then again, I usually put my attention elsewhere whenever Ayaka-sensei starts lecturing about technique. When at last, I created the basic eye shape, the final bell rang.

"Finally," Hikari muttered under her breath and quickly put her supplies away. I scrambled to get everything put up. Apparently, I had been one messy artist because my portion of the table was covered in eraser marks. In a quick manner, I blew them all away as if an invisible tsunami swept away the debris. She was already waiting for me at the door. Together we pushed through the halls until we broke sunlight.

Apparently, we were the first of our friends to emerge from school, so we waited near the usual tree. "I hate art." Hikari murmured.

I turned to her. "I'm gonna go on a limb here and ask. Why?"

"It's useless, and no matter how much I do, I can never seem to get a perfect score."

"Believe it!" I shouted. "Last year I stayed afterschool to work on several projects but ended up getting even more work that has to be done. Shinobi are athletes, not wimpy artists."

"Excuse me?" A voice challenged from behind.

We froze in place for only a moment before turning around in slow motion. Perched on a low tree branch that we had been leaning against, was none other than one of my father's best men; Sai.

I stuttered for an escape route. "Uhh…. what I meant was that I am not an artist like yourself. I… I could not possibly create such uh… such awe-inspiring pieces of work that are also so fierce in battle. I mean, there's no way I can make my pieces come to life and-"

"Alright, I forgive you, Ryuu. Relax. I just dropped by to say hi. So… hi."

"Hello, Sai-sensei," Hikari greeted.

"Oh… hi Sai-sensei," I repeated. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you've seen one of my students lately." Sai-sensei inquired. I had nearly forgotten that he was given a squad to teach a couple years ago.

"Which one?"

"Jun."

"Uh, sorry. I haven't seen him. But I hear he's been hanging out at the library recently."

"Hmm," Sai tapped his chin. "He's not the bookish type. I wonder…"

And without another word or gesture, Sai disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

I turned to Hikari, "I want to learn how to do that."

"HIIII!" A voice cracked. I jumped and nearly knocked myself out on the low tree limb. The rough bark dug into my forehead and a little bit of blood dripped but stopped, a shallow scrape. "Oh my gosh, Ryuu. I'm so sorry." Emi's voice turned back to a normal tone. She spun me around to get a good look at my forehead and I winced when my cousin tried to wipe off more of the bark. I swatted her hand away to stop the burning and was relieved when she complied.

Turning to her next victim, she started at Hikari, "So, word on the street is that Daichi-sensei will hold hand to hand combat matches tomorrow."

Hikari glanced at me and smirked. Instantly, I felt pumped. "There's finally some real action around here!" I shouted.

Next chapter is up whenever I have the chance. Please have patience with me as I currently have my plate full... a bad habit.

Tell me if anything needs work: Character Development, Detail, Syntax, Plot, etc.

PLEASE CRITIQUE ME!