Hello everyone :) I hope you're all well. I'm just about to start my A level exams so I'm revising like crazy on top of all my writing. Exams suck, eh?
Anyway, I'm sure you'd rather I didn't ramble on and on so ... Lets get this show on the road!
Academy and Beyond
Chapter II
Konoha Academy; known worldwide not only for its sporting and academic excellence, but also for its unparalleled Ninja Arts program. It was this very same program which produced the Legendary Sannin and Konoha's White Fang. Those who graduated were seen as the cream of the crop, the very best. The grounds, much like the rest of Konoha were filled with lush greenery and well maintained flowers. The First Hokage, who founded not only the village but also the Academy, found that such an environment was highly stimulating and therefore encouraged the wildlife to flourish.
At this moment in time, Kiba and Naruto were doing their utmost to destroy its reputation both as a skilled Ninja Academy and a tranquil learning environment.
"Would you two please calm down?" Sakura hissed through gritted teeth as she walked through a set of double doors. From the train station to the Academy, a trip of around half a mile at least, neither Kiba nor Naruto had shown any signs of dropping the subject of the mysterious group of people that they had encountered on the train. Sakura too found them intimidating, but she did not feel the need to dwell upon the matter so much.
Several heads turned to watch as the group passed through the corridors. In the confined space the chakra emitted from the pair was downright oppressive, as if both boys felt the need to re-establish their positions as Alpha males. Even from Kiba, who constantly expressed his dominance in everything he did, this seemed a little extreme. It was as if all control of their chakras had vanished entirely. Naruto's whisker marks had deepened in colour and widened considerably. There were flickers of scarlet emerging in his eyes. Many students (even those whom were not part of the shinobi program) moved out of the path of the group purely because of the feeling of their chakras. The way that so many people stopped and stared in a different manner than usual embarrassed Sakura immensely.
With a deepening pink flush, Sakura spoke up once again, "Seriously, if you don't calm down soon I'll ..."
"Do what?" Kiba snarled, turning to face Sakura the instant she uttered the words. He towered over her, folding his arms and narrowing his eyes, "Go on? You'll do what?"
Sakura could feel the oppressive nature of his chakra pressing down upon her. She fell silent the moment that his eyes locked with hers, his Alpha challenge forcing her to break off from her threat.
When Sakura broke eye contact with him and shifted into a more submissive stance, Kiba bared his teeth with a growl, "Pathetic. You don't even have the guts to back up your threat."
Sakura felt someone stand close behind her. A brief glance backwards showed Sasuke stood protectively a few inches away from her.
"Back off Inuzuka." he warned, "Sakura's not an enemy."
"He's right, man." Shikamaru sighed, finally stepping forwards to second the Uchiha's words, "Those guys are long gone. Drop it and leave Sakura alone."
It seemed as if the whole corridor felt silent and still in anticipation of Kiba's next move. Would he attack Sakura like he was so prone to doing whenever anyone else challenged him? Or would he walk away? Expecting the former, Sakura's fist clenched. Kiba's body language gave no indication of him backing down, that is until he finally seemed to come to his senses.
Kiba blinked three times before shaking his head, slowly regaining his self control. The teen realised from whom the challenge had come only once he had looked down at Sakura again. He saw Sakura's fists clenched by her sides, ready to knock him senseless, her eyes burning with the same desire, "Oh ... Sorry Sakura. I guess I got a little carried away, didn't I?"
"What on earth gave you that idea?" Sakura snapped, pushing past the Inuzuka heir.
Shikamaru let out a heavy sigh.
"Great job, Kiba." he said, "Now we're all gonna get it in the neck. Why can't you just keep a low profile for once?"
With that, he too walked down the corridor.
Kiba rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling sheepishly. How many times had he lost control of himself after surrendering to his instincts? So many times that it almost became comical. The Inuzuka glanced towards Naruto who had also begun to calm down in the wake of the confrontation. He certainly did not wish to get on the pinkette's bad side any more than he should.
"C'mon, we'd best get going." Naruto said nervously, "Sakura-chan'll want an apology anyway."
"Best idea you've had today." Sasuke smirked, "But it still won't soften the blow later."
"Shut up, teme!" Naruto snapped, "She's not going to find out!"
"Hn." Sasuke grunted, dismissing what his teammate had said completely. Something inside him didn't like the way that both Kiba and Naruto were insulting Sakura's intelligence. Still, he accompanied the pair down the corridor as they followed in the wake of their two friends.
XxxXxxXxxX
Homeroom had been an awkward affair. Sakura hadn't uttered a single word other than when their sensei, Kurenai, had called her name. Even though both Naruto and Kiba had tried to apologise, she had merely shrugged it off. Even now, as the group sat in their Medical Training class, Sakura refused to say a word to anyone but Shikamaru and Sasuke; something which proved to be problematic for both Naruto and Kiba who planned to rely upon Sakura's pre-existing medicinal knowledge to get them through the lessons with Shizune.
The classroom was brightly lit with plenty of windows allowing the sunlight through. Positioned atop Shizune's desk was a massive tank full of different sized fish. The smallest fish were for the beginners when it came to chakra control and, over the course of the next two years, the class would hopefully be able to move up through the ranks to perform minor operations on humans. On the blackboard was a diagram of the chakra network within the fishes that the class was supposed to be working on. Shizune had explained the concept of channelling their chakra into the fish's own chakra network in order to rapidly accelerate the fish's ability to heal itself. She had begun to circumnavigate the room while both Naruto and Kiba stood staring down at a small fish which lay motionless upon an unravelled scroll. They were supposed to revive it and place it back into the water tank; a task which was markedly more difficult than anything else that they had ever done. However, now that they were juniors, each Ninja Arts student was required by Konoha law to have at least basic knowledge of medical ninjutsu.
"Dude, I'll never call a medic weak again." Naruto whined as the green glow around his hands fizzled into nothingness once more, "How do they do it?"
"It's all about chakra control, Naruto-kun. You'll get it eventually." Shizune's voice as she moved behind the pair made both of them jump. It was scary how a jonin could move so silently, even during a lesson. She smiled softly as she wandered around the classroom, "I'm not expecting you to be as skilled as Sakura-chan on your first day. After all, she's had training with Tsunade-sama remember?"
Both boys simultaneously glanced over at Sakura who was far beyond anything that the rest of the class was doing. Her hands hovered over a human body which had been borrowed from the university's research facility, healing the collection of wounds with a speed which astounded them both.
"I could do with some of that myself." Kiba grumbled.
"Screw the medical training," said Naruto, "I wanna learn how to make craters with my bare hands."
"That, boys, is even more complex." Shizune laughed from across the room, "Just stick to your fish.
"Class!" she called, "If you find that it's not working as well as you'd like, then you'll need to refine your chakra a little more. Just remember not to do it too much or you could do more damage than good!"
"Now she tells us." Kiba groaned as he removed his hands once more to see that the gash across the fish's side had deepened considerably, "And this is only the first fuckin' lesson! How much more difficult can this shit get?"
"Here's a little incentive for those of you who are losing the will to live." Shizune smirked, glancing over at Naruto and Kiba as if she had read their minds specifically, "This exercise not only helps with your medical abilities, but it can transfer to your Ninja Arts studies too."
Naruto, Kiba, Sasuke and even Shikamaru's heads shot up to look at their sensei. How on earth could medical ninjutsu help during a fight?
"Confused?" she laughed, "Look at it this way ... The better your chakra control, the more efficient your jutsus become. You can even take it to the extremes that Hokage-sama and Sakura-chan have and, as Naruto rightly said, increase your physical strength to monstrous levels."
Shizune's eyes glinted as she leaned over Naruto's and Kiba's desk, "Hokage-sama has even used her chakra control to find a way of cheating death in battle."
That got everyone in the classroom working. The chance that they might be able to master a technique of that calibre was too big an opportunity to pass up. With a renewed vigour Kiba and Naruto began to channel chakra into their fish, the signature greenish glow surrounding their hands and encompassing the fish's wounds. Sasuke, true to form, had passed from the small fish and was now working on a larger one which Shizune had personally taken from the tank at the front of the classroom and slashed with a kunai. But it was Shikamaru who took the cake. His fish was large enough to take up half of the desk by itself. It figured that he would be talented with his chakra considering that his shadow manipulation jutsus required precise control.
Kiba wiped away a bead of sweat from his forehead and relaxed for a brief second. Through the open window a breeze blew into the room, carrying with it a scent which made the dog boy growl instinctively and his eyes snap to the window.
"What is it?" Naruto asked, seeing Kiba become more agitated all of a sudden.
"Them." he snarled through gritten teeth as he pointed outside.
"You sure?" Naruto asked.
"I'd recognise the stink of their chakra anywhere." Kiba growled. A whine came from inside the boy's bookbag. It appeared that the scent had permeated the material, waking the slumbering canine, "So would Akamaru." he added.
Naruto looked out of the window at last, just in time to catch a glimpse of a group of around ten people walk towards the main building. At the very forefront of the group was the blonde Hokage, Tsunade. She was talking rapidly to a tall man with silver hair which seemed to defy gravity. Naruto's brow creased in confusion, "What's Baa-chan and Kakashi-sensei doin' with those assholes?" he asked.
"Beats me." Kiba shrugged, "But I don't like the smell of any of them."
"Oh give it a rest!" came a hushed whisper. Kiba looked over to see Sakura glaring at him. There was no mistake who had chastised them, "Just drop it!"
He and Naruto shared a glance, "Skip English with me?" Naruto suggested, "We'll talk then."
"Sure. Get Shika and the Uchiha and we'll see what we can do about that lot." Kiba agreed.
"Right class!" Shizune called, interrupting the arrangements being made between the pair. Behind her stood the silver haired Hatake Kakashi, one of his hands thrust into his pocket while the other gripped an orange book in front of his face, "Hokage-sama wants everyone in the main hall in ten minutes. I'll end the lesson early so that you can get there on time. Your homework is to practise your chakra control. Next lesson we get serious. "
There was a shuffling of bags and a scraping of chairs before everyone filed out of the classroom, muttering excitedly about what the Hokage might want to talk to everyone about. Visits from the Hokage were few and far between, the woman preferring to delegate such tasks to her underlings, so a moment like this was intriguing for all.
XxxXxxXxxX
The main hall was filled with chairs stood in rows which stretched from one side of the room to the other. In front of them, usually used for awards ceremonies, was the large podium. At the back sat the seven students who had been on the train with Sakura and her friends. None of them looked incredibly enthusiastic about being in front of the entire student body, particularly the big blue one who dwarfed his chair with his huge body. Tsunade was stood just to the left of her platform, talking to a boy with long, raven hair. He looked to be a year older than Sakura's group of friends and his uniform was slightly different to everyone else's. His tie, rather than being purely green, had golden stripes sewn onto it. A gold badge was also pinned to his lapel saying 'Head Boy'.
"Oi, teme!" Naruto said, nudging Sasuke hard, "What's Itachi doin' up there?"
"Isn't it obvious, dobe?" Sasuke grunted, "It's the head boy's job to show the new students around. Itachi''ll be acting as a guide for a few weeks."
"Poor guy." Kiba said, "I wouldn't want to spend even one moment alone with those guys."
Sakura had just about had enough of Kiba's incessant whining about the new students. Her eyes scewered him as she snarled, "Well no-one's asking you to! Stop bloody complaining about something which has nothing to do with you!"
"Why do you keep telling me what to do?" Kiba retorted, "I don't like the look of them and I'll say so if I want to!"
"Fine! If you do it once!" Sakura argued, "You haven't shut up about them since we saw the bunch of them on the train! If I didn't know better I'd say you were in love with one of them or something."
The pair descended into intense bickering across their friends who sat in the two seats between them. Sakura's curled hair shook with her head as she put every ounce of her previously restrained fury into chastising Kiba. He gave just as good as he got, countering Sakura's barrage with witty one-liners and counter-arguments which made the pinkette unsure of whether she should laugh or be even angrier with him.
"Settle down now everyone!" Tsunade called down the microphone which was attached to her stand.
"We are far from finished, Kiba." Sakura said in a hushed whisper as she sat back in her chair.
The entire room fell into complete silence as the Hokage addressed them all simultaneously, "First things first, allow me to welcome you all back for another year. I would like to say well done to all of you for managing to pass your exams and advance.
"That's what I'd like to say." Tsunade frowned, "But quite frankly its a wonder that many of you are here at all. I don't know what the Sandaime was doing but obviously the standards of this Academy have fallen substantially since I studied here."
Each of the students shared half insulted, half confused expressions. Many stomachs sank, those pupils knowing that Tsunade was addressing them directly as they had only just made it into the next year by the skin of their teeth.
"That is why I have been in intense negotiations with our allies in the other Hidden Villages." Tsunade continued, "I feel that many of you need to be pushed; challenged." her eyes somehow managed to rest upon Naruto, Kiba and Shikamaru, "Some of you have been allowed to become lazy. As a result, our Academy's reputation has suffered. Our shinobi are supposed to be the best! But I know for a fact that there are some of you who still cannot manipulate your chakra correctly."
A snicker erupted from Naruto's mouth, attracting attention from all sides.
"I don't know what you're laughing at, brat." Tsunade snapped, "Unless you've rapidly improved, your chakra control is some of the worst I've seen in years!"
Naruto suddenly stopped laughing, his cheeks turning bright red as Sakura chortled beside him.
"Now then, with the Sandaime's retirement, there will be some new changes made to the shinobi system; one of which some of you will have already experienced." Tsunade said, "From now on, every Ninja Arts student will be required to have at least basic knowledge of medical ninjutsu before they graduate." Kiba and Naruto winced at that. They had barely grasped today's lesson. How were they supposed to survive the year?
"I'm sure you will understand that in order to survive on the battlefield, we need medics." Tsunade said, "Well this method allows each team to have at least some medical knowledge at their disposal, therefore increasing their chances of survival.
"Of course, there is also the matter of your grades; and I am talking exclusively to the Ninja Arts students now. That is why I've invited the very best from each Hidden Village Academy to come and study here for this year." she continued, "As the best, they will push those lazy asses to work harder to attain their positions as shinobi."
Sounds of protest filled the room which made Tsunade chuckle.
"Oh c'mon." she smirked maliciously, "Are you all afraid of a challenge? Afraid that these seven might be stronger than you?"
"Hell no!" roared Naruto. He was met with murmurs and nods of approval from his surrounding classmates.
"Good." Tsunade smiled, "Then allow me to introduce ...
"Yahiko and Konan from Amegakure."
The blonde Hokage gestured to the blue haired girl and her orange haired friend with multiple piercings. Both of them stood up and bowed, almost reluctantly, to the students.
"From Kirigakure, Hoshigaki Kisame."
This time the enormous, blue-skinned, shark-like boy stood up and waved briefly before reassuming his seat.
"Hidan from Yugakure and Kakuzu from Takigakure."
The silvery haired boy stood up with the boy who appeared to have his mouth sewn shut at both sides. A shiver shot through Sakura's spine when she saw him. Meanwhile Kiba and Naruto were becoming slowly more agitated again. Whether it was Tsunade's teasing or the group's chakra, they didn't know.
"And last but not least, from Iwagakure we have Deidara and from Sunagakure, Sasori!"
Once again, two students stood up. This time it was the blond Ino lookalike and the young looking boy with deep red hair. Both bowed respectfully and sat straight back down. Tsunade looked particularly proud of herself upon seeing the mixture of fear, excitement and agitation within the students. 'We may get our best year yet.' she thought as she motioned for Uchiha Itachi to step forward.
"Itachi, our head boy, will be showing these seven around just until they learn the ropes." Tsunade said, "Do me a favour, brats...
"Don't make Konoha look stupid."
How did that go? I hope I didn't drag it out too much.
Reviews are always appreciated :)
Until next time,
AN. T. Karismah