Hey guys! As I was typing the last chapter I noticed I really wanted to do 3rd POV so this story will be changing to 3rd POV instead of 1st. Hope you guys enjoy! Also, I'm still deciding on which team Akari should join. Should she be with her brother and team 7 so Kakashi can keep an eye on her like he does with Naruto? Or team 10 so we can get more Shikamaru/Akari time, but I feel like that would disrupt Ino-Shika-Cho. Or have her join team 9 by replacing Shino at least temporarily. What do you guys think?

Akari had already gotten her picture taken and had it approved by the Hokage before she started her kunai throwing training. She wanted to be sure she was 100% confident she could hit the mark every time. She'd always been this way, ever since she was a child only it was geared towards protecting Naruto the best she could. They were taken care of until she was able to do small jobs around the village and take care of rent in the apartment provided to them by the village. She was so focused on what she was doing that she never noticed the person behind her. He watched her practice and noted the targets set up getting further and further away from her. Kunai were stuck in the trees and ground around the targets and there was at least one kunai in the center of each target. She'd landed a kunai in the center of the target before moving to a target further away. He looked her over as she threw another kunai. Her form was perfect, just as they'd been taught in school, and her aim was nearly flawless. So why was she practicing so hard on their day off? He noticed the

"What are you staring at, Shikamaru?" He froze at her words. He hadn't known she'd known he was there the entire time.

"What are you doing here? You know there are training grounds for this, right?" Shikamaru asked her and she glared as she turned back to the target she'd set up. She'd set herself up in a clearing far from the village so she wouldn't hear the whispers she know knew was because of something out of her control.

"The fox and wolf spirit that killed Iruka's parents and destroyed our village has taken over your bodies. You are the nine-tailed fox and the ten-tailed wolf. Didn't you think it was strange how they treated the two of you? Like dirt, like they hated you just for being alive! That's why you will never be accepted in this village."

"I get enough trouble just walking through the street. I'm not about to invite more trouble in my life," she told him while throwing another kunai. He just watched her and took in her words. He'd seen the look both siblings received as well as heard the whispers like all the kids in their class had. Even his own parents would talk about it, but when they noticed him in the room they'd immediately stop talking about it and find new subjects to talk about.

"You don't have to do everything alone, you know?" he told her going to lay down next to her standing form. She stared down at him as he watched the clouds above them.

"You're a clan kid. What do you know about doing anything alone? You have a family to look after you. All I have is Naruto," she said before getting back into her training.

"What does me being in a clan have to do with anything?" He asked her confused.

"Are you serious?" She asked giving him a look. "Have you ever had to struggle just to make sure you can eat something? Most of the people in the village had to be talked into me even doing a basic job so I could pay rent or feed my brother. Someone like you couldn't understand what kind of life that is." He'd turned from the clouds to stare at her as she ranted. Her grip on the kunai had tightened and she seemed to grow angrier and angrier as she talked. She was right. He hadn't had to know any of that because his mom always had food on the table for him and his dad, and his dad made enough money as a shinobi to take care of them. Not to mention his dad was the clan head.

"You're right, I don't know what that's like," he told her and she looked down at him. She hadn't expected him to agree with her so quickly, but what did she know about the boy next to her? She knew as much about him as he knew about her: only what she saw in school. She moved to her kunai laying on the ground and in the targets and put them back in her kunai pouch on her right leg. She moved back to him after debating whether or not she should sit next to him and sat down. He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes before looking back up. "Lay down and relax for once."

"How do you know I don't relax?" She asked him.

"You're training on your day off. That tells me everything." She stared at him before laying down and staring at the clouds. They were silent for a moment before one of them finally spoke up.

"What are you training today? Don't you start back at the academy tomorrow?" He asked reminding her that no one really knew that she and Naruto had graduated the night before.

"I guess the news hasn't gotten out yet. Naruto and I passed and will be starting as a genin with everyone else tomorrow," she told him.

"When did that happen?" He asked her slightly shocked. Last he'd seen neither she nor Naruto had passed the exam at school.

"Last night. Iruka-sensei gave Naruto his headband and gave me mine this morning after I had my picture for my ID taken," I told him. The Hokage had told Naruto and me that the events of last night didn't need to get around so we had to keep quiet about it.

"Wow. I figured you could have graduated last year with your age group, but I honestly wasn't expecting Naruto to pass," Shikamaru said and Akari glared at him from the corner of her eyes.

"And why wouldn't Naruto pass?"

"Because the clone jutsu is one of his worst jutsu. How'd he pass?" he asked her and she smiled at his words. He wasn't wrong, but at the same time, he now had something to replace that jutsu.

"The same way you did. By proving himself." Shikamaru looked at her as she stared up at the clouds with her soft smile. He turned away from her and back up at the clouds. His mind had calmed, as it normally did, but he also thought about her words. How did she and Naruto pass yesterday after the graduation? His dad had to leave suddenly during the middle of the night, but when he came home he didn't say anything about what had happened. Is that how the Uzumaki siblings had proven themselves? What happened last night that they proved themselves? They continued watching the clouds talking about little things that passed through their minds or what the clouds looked like before finally parting for their own homes.

When Akari got home, Naruto was already eating ramen at their small table.

"Hey sis, you're back late," he said.

"Yea." She grabbed an apple and started munching on it while thinking about her day. It had started as planned but hadn't ended as she thought it would. She had talked with Shikamaru before at school, but she hadn't really gotten to know him. Maybe he wasn't as bad as she'd origianlly thought?