Orochimaru marched confidently into the village hidden in the Mist, flanked by two of the sound ninja four, Tayuya and Kidomaru.
"Lord Orochimaru, what do you want us to do?"
"Be patient Tayuya," Orochimaru planted his feet firmly on the ground. "Let us wait for our welcoming party."
-Time Skip-
One month has passed since Yumi arrived in the Hidden Leaf village. At first she was forced to stay with Sakura, but eventually Kakashi found somewhere for her to live by herself. After enrolling in the academy she had been attending classes for three weeks. Yumi had been having trouble hiding the extent of her power and skills, and even with severely restricted use of her powers her classmates had still labelled her as a prodigy. The only information she had managed to gain from Iruka-sensei was that the graduation exam was going to be held two months from now.
"And by the looks of things I'll be the only one graduating this year." She added snidely as she talked to Kara in her room. Her eyes clouded over as she let out her annoyance. "I still haven't found anything useful though." Kara slithered onto Yumi's bed so that she was at eye level with the girl who was sitting on the floor.
"Do you want me to take a report to your father?" Yumi stared at the snake, surprised.
"No, I wouldn't make you do that. Besides, there's no point reporting in just to tell him we have nothing to report. What a waste of time." She hugged her knees to her chest, frustrated with her lack of progress.
"Why don't you try searching from a different angle?" Kara suggested.
"That's easier said than done. For starters I don't even know what I'm looking for here. It makes the mission that much more confusing and difficult." She punched the floor in anger, making the picture frame fall off the wall. "Whoops." She muttered.
"We have another mission already. What a drag." The voice drifted through her open window from the street.
"It's not that bad Shikamaru. Asuma-sensei's going to buy us lunch if it goes successfully!" Yumi got up and walked out to stand on her balcony so she could identify the speakers.
"That may be a good incentive for you Choji, but it's still a drag. We barely got two days to rest."
"At least you guys get to go on missions." She called, butting in to their conversation. "Some of us are still at the academy." The two boys glanced up, trying to find the person who had spoken. Yumi grinned childishly.
"What are you doing Yumi?" Kara called out, making Yumi cringe. She motioned for the snake to be quiet. Reaching back into the room she grabbed the bag of chips she had been eating before she summoned Kara for a chat. She leaned over the railing as she bit into a chip. The skinny black haired boys face paled as the other stared hungrily up at Yumi or, more specifically, the chips in her hand.
"Barbeque chips…" he muttered. She shrugged and threw the packet down to him.
"You really shouldn't be so quick to give Choji food." The black haired boy cautioned.
"Don't say that!" Choji complained. "Don't listen to Shikamaru!" He called up to Yumi on the balcony. She smirked and held her hands up in submission.
"Well I can't do both things now can I? You guys are just going to have to compromise. Anyway, good luck on your mission." She moved to go back inside but Choji called out again.
"What's your name?" Looking back over her shoulder she paused.
"Yumi Fujikawa."
"Well, thanks for the chips Yumi. Barbeque is my favourite."
"It's alright. I wasn't really going to eat them anyway. I have to go to class now, see you guys around." She closed the door and grabbed what she was going to need for class, noticing that Kara had disappeared. Smiling absently she locked the door to her apartment and headed for the academy.
-At the Academy-
"Okay class, today we'll be working on making clones." Iruka-sensei made some hand signs and a copy of himself appeared beside him in a puff of smoke. Yumi frowned, thinking. Those hand signs are different to the ones that Naruto did. If we're only learning a regular cloning jutsu here then where did he learn to create shadow clones? Surely it would be too advanced for that knucklehead. Someone elbowed her in the gut.
"Yumi, are you paying attention?" Iruka asked her. "Why don't you come down here and demonstrate for the rest of the class what I just did." She rolled her eyes and trudged down the stairs to the front of the class. Closing her eyes she made the hand signs slowly, as though she was trying to remember how to do them. There was a small puff of smoke. When it cleared there was two completely identical Yumi's standing in front of the board. Her classmates started whispering to each other. Iruka's eyes were wide in shock; he hadn't expected her to able to do it.
"Can I go back to my seat now sensei?" She asked, bored of the attention. He nodded so she dispelled the jutsu, her clone disappearing in another puff of smoke.
"Okay, now it's time for the rest of you to have a go at making clones. After that you can all go outside for some physical training. Yumi rested her head on her arms as the others began trying to create their own clones. No-one had managed to do it on their first try, but then again neither had she. Yumi had been doing that particular jutsu for years and had perfected it a long time ago. After half an hour of practise nearly everyone had exhausted their supplies of chakra so Iruka-sensei said they could have a short break before they went outside for target practise. One of the boys came over to Yumi.
"How come you can do it so easily?" he asked, irritated by his own failed attempts. "I watched and I did everything like you and Iruka-sensei, but it's just not working!" She rubbed her temples, the beginning of a headache setting in.
"Go away Konohamaru." She lay her head down on the desk.
"Please teach me!" he begged, clasping his hands together and bowing his head. She groaned in frustration.
"Okay, fine! I'll teach you. But not now, so leave me alone." He jumped up triumphantly and ran off, probably to brag about getting lessons with the prodigy. Yumi buried her head in her arms before jumping up suddenly, marching out the door mere seconds before Iruka-sensei said the break was over.
"Everyone you know the drill. Make a group and pick a target. Konohamaru dragged Yumi off to join his group, and they picked a tree at the edge of the area away from the other groups.
"Okay Yumi, you can go first." he offered. She took up a stance and pulled several kunai knives from her leg pouch. She focused all of her concentration on throwing badly, but even with all that effort she still hit on the edge of the target, embedding her first kunai deep in the board. Cringing she went to yank it out, examining the massive indent she had made in the tree.
"Too much power." She scolded herself quietly.
"Nice try. Maybe you're just better at jutsu." He was trying to be encouraging, although the disbelief was clear in his face. It's a good thing he hasn't noticed the hole. She reassured herself that she hadn't mucked up too badly. Konohamaru threw next, and his hit surprisingly close to the centre of the target.
"Wow Konohamaru, that was pretty good." Yumi was honestly shocked at the boy's apparent talent.
"I've been practicing." He stated proudly. She rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, maybe I should practise more too." Someone snickered from in the trees and Yumi spun, sending her kunai flying into the branches before she even realised what she was doing. There was a clash of metal and her kunai felt to the ground.
"See, you're good after all." A familiar voice called out as he jumped down from the tree. She frowned; annoyed that he had made her lose her composure twice now.
"No-one asked for your opinion Sasuke." She complained bluntly. The black-haired boy laughed mockingly at her.
"If you hide it they'll just hate you more. I would know." Yumi glared at him as she walked warily over to collect her kunai from the dirt.
"Seriously, I didn't ask for your opinion or your help." She whispered threateningly when she leaned past him. He was shocked for all of half a second before his obnoxious smirk reappeared on his face.
"Sasuke, you know better than to interrupt practice sessions." Iruka-sensei warned. Sasuke put on an innocent expression.
"I was just helping Yumi with her aim. She's really quite good if you catch her off-guard." He danced back as Yumi slashed out at him, scowling. "See?"
"Why don't you leave me alone and go beat up Naruto or something?" She asked him, throwing the knife at the tree behind his head. He dodged it easily, retreating to the edge of the training field.
"Don't tease her Sasuke. Go home." Iruka sighed. Sasuke turned around and left, heading for some unknown destination. Iruka yanked Yumi's kunai out of the tree, surprised at how deeply it was embedded in the trunk. "You really have some impressive upper arm strength Yumi." He commented, turning back to her. She snatched her kunai out of Iruka's hand and stormed out of the training ground.
"Where are you going?" Konohamaru called after her. "You still have to help me practise!" Ignoring him she jumped the fence and started wandering aimlessly around the village.
Meanwhile…
Kabuto leaned heavily against a tree trunk, taking a moment to catch his breath. The border patrol had nearly spotted him earlier; he had only just managed to get away before they arrived. He knew he had to keep moving; he needed to get further away from the village, where the border patrol had no need to search.
"If only I didn't have to watch over Yumi on her stupid information collection mission." He muttered angrily, readjusting his headband. He was of half a mind to just head back to the hideout, but Orochimaru would have his head if he abandoned his mission before it was completed. Sensing a presence heading nearer he groaned and jumped off, veering deeper into the forest and away from the village of the Hidden Leaf.
In the Leaf….
Yumi kicked a loose pebble in frustration as she skulked around the back streets of the village.
"Stupid Sasuke, blowing my cover like that. If I'm not careful he'll ruin everything. I've worked really hard to build my current mask and he goes and breaks it with such ease. Father's barely even laid eyes on him, I highly doubt he knows anything about his powers of perception." She muttered to herself under her breath. Finding herself alone she bit her thumb and summoned Kara once more.
"Is class over already? That's surprising." She slithered along next to Yumi, easily keeping pace. Yumi leapt up into a tree and Kara followed her up into the branches.
"No, it's still in session. I ditched early after a run-in with a certain irritating person. Hey Kara, do you think it's possible that my father actually sent me to keep an eye on Sasuke?" Kara's slit eyes watched her, deep in thought.
"Well it's a despicable thing to lie about mission details to your own daughter, but then again Orochimaru is a despicable person. No offense." She hedged awkwardly. Yumi shook her head absently.
"None taken. I know he's not a very well-liked or respected man. I just don't understand what's going through his head. Not to mention the fact that I haven't seen Kabuto since I got here." She stared through the leaved, watching the street below while she distractedly carved the sound village symbol into the tree trunk.
"You probably shouldn't do that." Kara pointed out. Yumi blinked and looked at the knife in her hand.
"Oh." She shoved it back into her weapons pouch and swung down from the branch, landing steadily on her feet. "Never mind Kara. You can go back if you want to." Kara followed her until she got back to the main street before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Unbeknownst to Yumi someone was watching her curiously, having seen her conversing with the snake. His decorative animal mask glinted in the sun as he moved to follow the strange girl.
A/N: Yeah this chapter is mostly about how Yumi interacts with different characters around Konoha. I was kinda stuck for actual plot ideas, so I decided to do this first. Sooo... If anyone has any suggestions I'm open to them. I have a long term plot goal, but it's the build up to that which is getting the better of me right now.