Frostbitten

As a resident of Konohagakure, any child has the option of going through Shinobi training in the academy. The Clan kids usually start later than the civilians, mainly because the big Clans of Konoha often have their own style of fighting. It wasn't that surprising when my father started teaching me some little tricks from the moment I could walk –or rather from the moment where my fine motor skills were good enough-. The cat's cradle is a handy little game that helps with dexterity. Cat's foot however is a technique where you learn to walk with a minimum of sound produced.

Neat little tricks to ease your way into tai- nin- and genjutsu aren't the only thing parents or teachers learn their students. Over the years you get desensitised to the gore and hard, sometimes morally questionable actions that you'll have to live through.

At the age of nine I too started my formal training at the academy, four years later than the first generation shinobi. I never had any siblings and most of my social contact was with either my parents or in some cases one of their 'friends'. So when I was dropped in this new environment, I didn't know what to do. There were only a few other Clan children. There was Sasuke Uchiha, who was the sole surviver of the Uchiha incident. Though I wasn't officially allowed to know about this. Then there was a boy named Shikamaru, from the Nara Clan but he was mostly dozing off in the back of the class.

At first I spend most of my time sitting alone, occasionally sharing the swing with a boy named Naruto –including the occasional bubbly conversation- but this was quickly discouraged by my mother. We never really talked afterwards but it was sad to see him being shunned by everyone. Sharing the swing with him was the closest I could get to continuously offering my friendship. We always offered each other a small, sad smile. Later I met Ino Yamanaka who would grow to be my closest friend.

-o-

"Goodbye mama!" Ririko waved at her mother who was already working hard in the bakery. With a small backpack on her back, containing her bento box and a book, she walked down the streets, eager to be sorted in her new genin team.

She really hoped to be paired with at least one of her friends but since most of them were female this seemed a bit of wishful thinking. There was usually only one kunoichi per team. Mostly because there were les girls that graduated than boys.

her hands behind her back and her eyes on the clouds she walked the fairly short distance towards the academy building. Ririko was a bit of a dreamer, and it took her most of her life to learn how to walk safely with her thoughts and attention elsewhere.

"Good morning Ririko-chan" As soon as she stepped into the class room, she was greeted by the pretty blonde girl that was her best friend; Ino.

"Ah good morning Yamanaka-san" she smiled as she took a seat in one of the middle rows near the window. The sunrays were warm and pleasant on her face.

Ino went back to the conversation she was having as soon as Ririko pulled out her book. Perhaps this was one of the reasons she lacked the skill of a proper ninja, because she would always be found with a book in her hands instead of a weapon. But the vivid descriptions of people and scenery would always capture her attention more than the work out sheets.

"hehe" she looked up from the book, only to see Uzumaki Naruto grinning to himself not too far from her. She tilted her head confusedly. As far as she knew, Naruto had failed the exam. He gave her a bright smile when he saw her looking at him.

"Huh? Naruto, what the hell are you doing here? Only those who pass are supposed to be here." The blond grinned again, eager to say he actually passed.

"hey hey, can't you see this head protector?" His finger pointed to his forehead and indeed, a konoha headband rested upon it. The attention however was quickly diverted by a certain pink haired kunoichi.

"Hey, will you let me through?" Sakura Haruno was probably not one of the most friendly girls in this class but that didn't seem to bother Naruto. His face lit up with glee and Ririko couldn't help but feel sorry for him when Sakura yelled at him. "Naruto! Move your ass! I want to sit on the other side of you!" It's really sad when you realise that poor neglected Naruto had a major crush on Sakura.

Naruto let out a confused sound before looking to his left, his face fell when he saw Sasuke sitting there, brooding, and glaring at nothing. The black haired boy noticed the blond looking at him and muttered out a slightly rude "what?"

Sasuke as far as I knew from my parents used to be an incredibly nice boy before the Uchiha incident. The progress that he made in only 3 years was immense. I'm fairly certain that he was the all-around top of the class. A 'master' of all the academy taught subjects I suppose is the best way to describe him.

"what do you mean; what?" Ririko sighed; this was almost a daily occurrence by now.

"Sasuke-kun, can I sit next to you?" The pink haired girl pushed Naruto to the side in order to get to the object of her affection. As she took the seat next to both boys there were mutters of 'damn that girl' from other girls nearby.

The brown haired girl returned her focus to the book she was reading but it was quickly pulled away again by the surprised gasps all around her. Unable to contain her curiosity, she turned around and saw something she had wished she had not seen. Her cheeks went red at the sight of Naruto and Sasuke, lip locked, and both wide eyed. They quickly pulled away and started their over dramatic tendencies that tended to show when it concerned each other "Naruto, you bastard! I'll kill you!"

"Ahh! My mouth is rotting!" Naruto stopped his chocking sounds and looked around wide eyed, a scared look on his face only to see the angry, slightly scared look of Sakura Haruno. This was not going to be pretty at all.

Battered and bruised, Naruto laid his head down on the table, still seated in the same place he had been earlier.

"Beginning today all of you are real ninjas. But you are still merely rookie genin. The hard part has just started." Just started? Ririko got slightly nervous at that part. "Now… you will soon be assigned duties by the village. So today we will be creating the 3 man teams… and one 4 man team due to the uneven number of graduates. Each team will have a jounin sensei. You will follow that sensei's instructions as you complete the assigned duties." Iruka droned on and on until he started to divide the teams. So far The name Mitsuhara had not yet been called.

"Next, team 7… Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto…" Iruka was interrupted by a loud Yay from said blond and a dejected look from Sakura. "Uchiha Sasuke…" this time it was a loud 'Hell yes' from the Sakura and a dejected look from Naruto, all the while Sasuke still kept his brooding look. I was starting to think that his face was permanently stuck like that. "…And Mitsuhara Ririko." Ririko had barely heard her name when Naruto stood up and started shouting. "Iruka Sensei! Why does an outstanding ninja like me have to be on the same team as that asshole!"

"Sasuke's grades were first among all 28 graduates… Naruto you were dead last" Iruka-sensei looked slightly mad "We have to do this to balance the teams, understand?" This time it was Sasuke that said something, and it did nothing than aggravate Naruto even more. If I was sitting any closer I would have put my hand on his shoulder or said something to him to calm down.

"Ok. This afternoon we'll introduce the jounin sensei's, take a break until then." Ririko sighed and stood up, her backpack on her shoulder as she intended on eating outside. "Ririko-chan, would you like to eat with us?" Her green eyes found those of Ino Yamanaka and she shook her head gently. "euhm no, I euh…" she motioned to the book in her hand and smiled sheepishly. "Oh right, sorry I always forget" they smiled at each other and said their goodbyes. There was no need to explain in detail. Ririko would mostly read during her lunch periods.

Sitting down under the shade of a tree, Ririko opened her bento box and looked at the assortment of foods that it contained. Rice, steamed vegetables, and a few pieces of fruits as desert, just how she liked it. "itadakimasu…" she muttered to herself before she started eating.

-o-

After lunch, she went back to the classroom, arriving as one of the last. Once again she was lost in her own little world. One by one, the teams left with their sensei until it was only team 7 that was left. Her arms were stretched out on the table in front of her, soaking up as much warmth from the sun as she could.

"Naruto, stay still!" Sakura shouted at the blond who was impatiently looking out the door. "why is the sensei of our team so damn late?! All of the other teams have gone off with their teachers. Even Iruka-sensei left…" Ririko could understand the boy's pouting, she too was getting tired of waiting and sighed.

"Hey what are you doing Naruto?!" he was placing an eraser between the slightly opened doors, all the while chuckling slightly, a grin plastered on his face. "that's what you get for being late." He jumped of the table he was using to get higher up and sakura muttered a 'geez.' "I'm not involved".
my gaze was still focussed on the door because almost at the exact same time did she detect a chakra signature.

"pft. Like a jounin is going to fall for such a simple booby trap." Ririko was slightly surprised when Sasuke said something, as far as she knew this was the first thing he had said since they had entered the classroom again. As if on cue a hand pulled open the doors and the eraser fell on the man's head. Coating his white hair in chalk dust.

"gya hahahah! You fell for it!" came Naruto's loud laugh and the brown haired girl couldn't help but let out a little giggle of her own.

"I'm so sorry sensei, I tried to stop him, but Naruto…" Sakura muttered pathetically.

"hmm… how can I say this..?" the white haired jounin raised his hand to his covered face in a thinking position. "My first impression is… I don't like you guys." Everyone's face fell at that comment. Well that was harsh. He did however look slightly familiar.

He took the four of them to a roof. "Ok, let's begin with some introductions." He told the genin that sat on the steps in front of him.

"what do you want to know?" Ririko asked.

"how about… your likes, dislikes… dreams for the future, hobbies, stuff like that." He told them shrugging slightly. He seemed like such a laid back person but the signature Ririko got off him earlier seemed to contradict this. She wasn't the best sensor, not at all even. At the moment she only had a reach of about 15 meters and the ability to differentiate and recognise only the chakra of Ino, Iruka, her parents, and Naruto –because it was downright weird-

"hey hey why don't you introduce yourself to us first?" Naruto grinned up at him.

"Yeah..; you look suspicious." In all honesty, Naruto and Sakura were right.

"Oh me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you guys about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future…? Well I have lots of hobbies…" His bored look never left his face, not even when Naruto and Sakura were complaining to each other about only learning his name.

"Now it's your turn, from the right." He told them and Naruto looked up smiling as he adjusted his headband.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like cup ramen! What I like even more is the ichiraku ramen Iruka-sensei buys me. What I dislike is waiting 3 minutes for the cup ramen to cook. My dream… " Ririko couldn't help but sigh slightly as she shook her head. He really was kind of cute, she really didn't understand why her parents were so against her playing with him as a child. "…is to surpass the Hokage! And then have all the people of this village acknowledge my existence!" the determination in his eyes shocked Kakashi slightly. "my hobbies…pranks I guess.." Kaksahi-sensei scratched his head slightly before resting his eye on Sasuke.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are tons of things I dislike but I don't really like anything. And … I don't want to use the word 'dream' but I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and …to kill a certain man." We all looked at him slightly shocked at the revelation. Ririko's heart went out to him, while he really was a bit of an arrogant punk, his goal was noble in a way.

"ok… now the Pink girl."

"I'm Haruno Sakura, the thing I like is…well the person I like is.." she looked at sasuke with a blush on her face. "umm… should I say my dream for the future..?" Again she looked at sasuke "OH MY!" she squealed excitedly. "the thing I dislike… is Naruto." Well that came out harsh… Naruto looked dejected and sulky. "my hobby is…" Again her gaze wandered to Sasuke.

"ok. The last girl." The other 3's gazes turned to me. "Oh right I almost forgot she was even here…" muttered Naruto silently to Sakura who just nodded. The downside of being quiet and not drawing any attention to yourself.

"Euhm My name is Mitsuhara Ririko, the things I like… books I suppose… and cloud gazing… the things I dislike…? Hmm hot weather maybe? I can't really deal with it all that well." She clarified. The downside of the ice based bloodline limit. "My hobbies. Euhm.. reading, being pummelled into the ground by my father in training?" she smiled sheepishly. Her father was a very strict trainer but wanted her to learn the ways of the clan. "and my dreams for the future… live to be 25, and become a seal master?" she almost offered. Her clan new various sealing methods and uses but it took a lot of dedication and determination to achieve the title of seal master. She thought she saw a brief flicker of something in her new sensei's eye but quickly dismissed it.

"That's enough of that. We will start our duties tomorrow." The sensei's bored look was a bit unnerving.

"Yay! What kind of duties?" Ririko couldn't help but smile at Naruto's enthusiasm. He had already come a long way.

"First we are going to do something with just the five of us." He told us cryptically.

"what what!?" We asked

"Survival training." That did not sound nice at all.

"Why is our duty, training? We did enough training at the ninja academy."

"I'm your opponent, but this isn't normal training." He told the 4 kids in front of him and Ririko couldn't help but be slightly scared.

"then what is it?"

Kakashi-sensei started chuckling "Hey what's so funny sensei?"

"No well… it's just that… when I tell you this, you guys are definitely going to flip."

"Flip" asked Naruto.

"Of the 27 graduates, only 9 in this case maybe 10 will be chosen as genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy. This training is a super difficult exam with a failure rate of over 66%!"

All 4 of them looked shocked, worried or dejected and kakashi just chuckled slightly.

"What the hell!? But we worked so hard… then what was the point of graduating." Screamed Naruto and the others couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"Oh that's just to select those that have the chance to become genin."

There was an exclamation of disbelief, if Ririko was right, then they could not be send back to the academy if they failed. Instead they would be send to the genin corps where the four of them would be stuck until they found an independent sponsor to train they. Climbing your way up from the genin corps to Chunin was difficult.

"Anyway, tomorrow you will be graded on the training field. Bring all your shinobi tools…. Oh and skip breakfast, you'll throw up. The details can be read on this printout. Don't be late tomorrow." He gave each of the 4 genin a piece of paper.

"Throw up! Is it that tough?!" Sakura had her hands in her hair but a determined look on her face.

Ririko looked at the paper and swallowed nervously, her father had never told her anything about this test or the fail rate. She was determined to pass but couldn't help but feel sad because she knew that she wouldn't make it with only her genjutsu skills. She cast a brief look at her new teammates. Sakura was smart, Sasuke was all around good at everything, Naruto, she wasn't completely sure what his specialty was.

The next morning came quickly and her mother presented her with a light breakfast telling her to eat at least something because no daughter of her would starve herself, not even because he jounin sensei told her to. Before leaving the house her mother also gave her a small bento box with a wink and a hug. She definitely knew something.

Ririko arrived last but still long before their sensei appeared with a wave and a good morning only to be greeted by a chores of "You're late!" from the 4 students,-some a but louder than others-. The only the only thing they got was a lame excuse that none of them believed before he put a clock on a wooden post.

"Here are two bells. Your task is to take these from me before noon. Those who cannot get a bell by noon get no lunch. I will not only tie you to one of those stumps but I'll eat right in front of you." Ririko didn't know whether he was joking or completely serious. "You only need to get one bell. There are only two so two of you will definitely be tied to a stump. Those two who don't acquire a bell fail. So, at least two of you will be sent back to the academy." All of us looked nervous and or determined. "You can even use your shurikens." Now that sounded plain condescending "You won't succeed unless you come at me intending to kill."

All of us had different reaction to that sakura's was concerned. "But! You'll be in danger."

Naruto's was more laid back and ridiculing. "Yeah you're so slow you can't even dodge a black board eraser! We'll kill you!" he laughed at his own comment. Ririko's was concerned, not for her sensei but for the four of them. He seemed a lot more dangerous than tomorrow, his chakra was already fairly wild but yesterday it was more subdued. "I don't think…"

"In the real world, those with no talent often bark the loudest. Well, ignore mister dead last and start when I say so." Naruto looked mad at the insult that he just received from the laid back teacher and he quickly grabbed a kunai out of his pouch, confusing and surprising the 3 other genin even more when he actually ran to attack the sensei.

He was quickly immobilised, with one hand gripping his hair and the other the hand that was holding the kunai, now only centimetres away from naruto's head. "Slow down. I haven't said start yet.' Ririko's eyes widened, she had severely underestimated the skill of her teacher, she had barely seen him move.

"Well it seems like you're prepared to come at me with intent to kill so you've finally acknowledged me? Hehe… seems like I'm beginning to like you guys." Ririko bit the inside of her cheek, her hand inched towards the weapon pouch on her left leg. "Ok, let's get going. Ready… START."

-o-

A/N: Well, I have decided to rewrite the chapters that I have already written out. This one has a 1000 word increase alone. I hope that I portrayed Ririko's personality a bit better now though. I have already planned out all the events and character development up to the Gaara rescue mission in Shippuden and I'm honestly a bit excited for it. again I am a uni student and my schedule is weird and messed up so please bear with me!