Chapter 3

~X~

After lunch was over, I walked back into class accompanied by Kiba, Shikamaru, and Chouji. I walked back to my seat with Chouji by my side and sat down as Iruka-sensei came in.

"Okay students, we'll be going outside to practice our kunai and shuriken throwing. After that we'll focus on sparring and a bit of chakra concentration," Iruka-sensei informed us.

I paled a little at this. I was going to make a fool of myself! I have terrible aim and I know almost next to nothing about chakra. And I have to fight?! I'll get all dirty and bloody! Just as I was about to drown in my negativity, Chouji snapped me out of it.

"Are you coming Kaoru-san?"

"Oh, um yea sorry," I apologized nervously as I stood up and followed Chouji and the rest of the students back outside.

We walked a little bit further, past the playground, and that's where we showed up in a little training area.

"Alright, everyone go grab a weapons pouch and stand next to a target," Iruka-sensei instructed.

Everyone voiced their consents before doing as told. When I grabbed my own weapons pouch, I was surprised to find it heavy. As I walked toward an open target, I peeked inside the pouch to find kunai and shurikens laying inside.

I looked up just as Iruka-sensei gave us a brief example of the stance we were supposed to take when throwing a kunai and shuriken. You had to stand with your feet shoulder length apart. If you were right handed, you stood with your right foot a little bit in front of your left foot. If you were left handed, you stood with your left foot in front instead. I was right handed so my right foot was in front.

After Iruka-sensei's example, he let the other students begin before walking over to me. When he was next to me, he stood off to the side so he could watch.

"Now, Kaoru, I want you to try and hit the bull's eye with a kunai, okay?"

I nodded in response before wrapping the weapons pouch around my thigh as I had seen others do. I pulled out a kunai, holding it by the hilt, and got into my stance.

"Stop."

I frowned.

"What's wrong? I'm doing my stance correctly, aren't I?" I asked looking over at Iruka-sensei.

"Yes you are," Iruka-sensei said as he walked up to me, "But you aren't holding the kunai correctly."

As he said that, he put his hand over mine and moved it so that my index finger was inside of the little loop at the end of the hilt. Without letting go of me, he pulled my hand back toward my chest before thrusting it forward.

As Iruka-sensei let go of my hand he said, "Now try it like that, alright?"

I nodded silently as I looked at my hand and the kunai in it. I took a few practice swings, mainly me just thrusting out like I'm gonna throw the kunai but never letting go. When I deemed myself ready, I took a deep breath and glanced over at Iruka-sensei who was staring at me intensely.

'Gee, way to pressure me.' I thought sarcastically.

I turned my gaze back to the target. Closing my eyes and taking another deep breath, I reopened them before pulling back my kunai and thrusting out.

This time I let go.

It felt like eternity waiting for the kunai to hit the target. But when it did, I was slightly disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the kunai hit the target. It just didn't hit bull's eye. Instead, it hit the outer rings of the target.

I guess I couldn't really be disappointed at this. It's a miracle I even managed to hit the target at all. It's just that I was really hoping to impress Iruka-sensei by hitting the bull's eye. I took a discreet glance at the other students. I could see that though they didn't hit the bull's eye every time, a majority of their kunai and shurikens hit it.

Just as I was beginning to drown even further in depression, Iruka-sensei spoke up, "That was very good for your first try, Kaoru."

"It was?" I asked doubtfully.

"Yes it was," he reassured me as he walked up to me, "Most kids take a while to learn to hit the target correctly."

I smiled a little, my mood having been lifted.

"The only thing that I suggest you do, is focus on the bull's eye. The more you think about hitting the bull's eye, the more your weapons will hit its target. You have strength behind your throws, all you need is to center that strength."

I nodded as I thought about his words. I was glad for the compliment, but I also was thankful for the subtle criticism. Iruka-sensei understood that it would be hard for me to catch up with the other students whom all had 6 years of training and learning under their belts.

But thinking about that, it was all divided into sections over the years. This year was more like a huge review of everything that's happened which will allow me the time to learn and train to be a true ninja.

I smiled at this new philosophy.

"Now try it with the shuriken," Iruka-sensei instructed.

Iruka-sensei took a step back as he watched me get back into my former stance. I took out a shuriken from the pouch on my leg before holding it up. I had to be careful with this one because of all the pointy edges it had on it. Though they were a little dull, I knew that if I applied enough pressure that I would most likely cut myself.

For a second I thought that I had to put my finger through the loop in the middle of the shuriken to throw it, but I found that a little to hard to do. So instead, I just held onto one of the edges. I flicked my wrist a couple of times to get the feel of having a shuriken in my hand. After a couple more seconds, I brought my hand up to my chest before thrusting forward and letting go.

This time, it didn't feel like that long of a wait as the shuriken flew towards the target. I was even more disappointed with this one though. Unlike the kunai which hit at the side outer rings if the target, the shuriken hit towards the bottom outer rings.

"Don't worry, Kaoru, shurikens are hard to work with for most of the kids. That's why most prefer to use kunai when doing target practice. Just try flicking your wrist upward instead of down," Iruka-sensei told me from his spot.

I processed this new information. I looked around to see that indeed a majority of the kids were all using kunai though some did switch out to using shuriken, but that was rare. I looked down at my wrist before pulling out another shuriken. I pulled my hand back toward my chest and thrusting forward letting the shuriken go. But this time, I focused on my wrist and not the target. When I did, I saw that I did indeed flick my wrist downward unconsciously.

I looked up at the target to see that my second shuriken had landed next to my first shuriken. I took out another shuriken before doing the drill again. This time I made sure to flick my wrist upward instead of down. When I threw it, instead of toward the bottom outer rings, my shuriken landed at the top outer rings. Not exactly a bull's eye, but it was still an improvement.

"Good job, Kaoru," Iruka-sensei praised me.

I smiled a little, trying to hide my giddiness at being praised.

"I'm going to help the other students. Will you be fine without me?"

I nodded in reassurance before turning my attention back to the target.

~X~

A while later, Iruka-sensei called the class to a stop. Right now we were all lined up in a row as Iruka-sensei handed us medium sized leaves. When he handed me mine, I looked at it curiously. Iruka-sensei noticed and explained it to me.

"I want you to stick this on your forhead by using your chakra."

"Um, how do I use my chakra?" I asked hesitantly.

I blushed slightly as I heard a few of the other kids giggle at me and whisper about my stupidity.

"You mix together both your physical and spiritual energy before guiding it to a center in your body, the center being your forehead."

"Okaaayyy," I said slowly.

Iruka-sensei smiled encouragingly at me before walking back to stand in front of all of us. He pulled out a stop watch before telling us to begin. Whoever's leaf fell from their forehead had to go sit out and practice some more.

I, of course, was the first to get out. I had placed the leaf on my forehead and imagined mixing together my physical and spiritual energy. As soon as I took my hand off the leaf, it fell down to the ground. I was thankful that nobody laughed at me, but it was probably because they were too focused on keeping the leaf stuck to their forehead.

I walked off to the side and sat down. I noticed that almost immediately a blonde boy came and sat down a little ways from me. I watched as he sat glowering down in anger at the leaf in his hand with a hint of sadness gracing his features. I tried ignoring him though in favor of figuring out how to mix my physical and spiritual energy. Obviously just imagining them mixing together hadn't worked.

Despite being determined to do this, I couldn't help but sneak a peak at the blonde boy sitting not too far from me. If you ignored the blatant anger on his face, you could see that he was actually pretty cute. His blonde hair was in a disarray, but instead of looking messy it looked like it was fixed that way though effortlessly.

From what I could see of the side of his face, he had unblemished, tan skin. I could've sworn that there were little lines on his face too. Wait, those are lines. There were three of them on each side of his face. But the most startling thing about him, were his cerulean blue eyes. They shined with curiosity and untold sadness. I furrowed my eyebrows at this before blinking.

'He's caught me staring.' I thought alarmed.

I quickly averted my gaze back to the other kids in front of me. From what I could see, nobody else had gotten out yet. Sneaking a quick peek, I was surprised to see the blonde boy still staring at me and this time he was a lot closer than before.

I gasped at his close proximity, only a couple inches away from my face. In my hurry to back up and out some space between us, I ended up falling on my back.

'Oh, Kami.' I mentally groaned.

"Ah! Are you alright?!" I heard the blonde boy ask.

I nodded deftly before I sat up and tried to brush myself off. There were pieces of grass sticking to my open back and shoulders and it was itching me.

"Sorry, sorry!" The blonde boy exclaimed before reaching over and brushing all the grass off for me.

My breath got caught in my throat as we were once again in close proximity. I watched as the boy finally pulled back though not enough to calm me down. We sat staring at each other for a while and I held my breath. That's when he leaned over once more and raised his hand up to my face. As a reflex, I flinched slightly and shut my eyes tightly.

~Naruto POV~

I sat there staring at the girl in front of me. She was the new girl and Sakura's cousin which was sort of obvious, even for me. Like Sakura, she had bright pink hair. Instead of letting them down, she kept them in little twin pigtails. Her eyes were different from Sakura's though. Unlike the shiny emerald eyes that I loved, this girl had red eyes that almost seemed to glow against her pale skin.

Her outfit wasn't exactly ninja material, but I can't really judge. After all, I do wear a bright orange jumpsuit. The black corset she wore around her waist emphasized her chest which looked a little bit bigger than Sakura's. I quickly averted my eyes and met her gaze once again.

Over all, she was really pretty. She wasn't beautiful like my Sakura-chan, but she was pretty nonetheless. I had been hoping that maybe she would be my friend, but that possibility was soon squashed as I realized that her parents probably already told her to stay away from me.

That's when I noticed that she still had a leaf in her hair. I leaned forward once again and raised my hand up to her face. I watched as she flinched back and closed her eyes. I immediately assumed it was because of fear and I couldn't help the sharp pang of sadness that shot through me at her reaction. I tried to ignore it though as I went ahead and grabbed the leaf still placed in her hair.

~Kaoru POV~

With my eyes still closed, I felt him touch my hair before pulling back. Slowly opening my eyes, I saw him staring back at me with a leaf placed within his hands. Reaching a hand up to my hair, I patted it wondering if that's where the leaf came from.

"It was in your hair."

'Well that confirms it.'

"Oh, thanks," I said uncertainly.

I couldn't help but to notice the look in his eyes. There was even more sadness in them than before, but this time there was a hint of rejection. Something that I recognized easily from all the times boys confessed to me and I had rejected them. But that confused me. I was pretty sure that this boy hadn't confessed to me, so why was he feeling rejection?

"Is something wrong?" I blurted out.

I immediately covered my mouth with one hand. That was both rude and impolite of me. I had absolutely no right to pry about his business.

'But I am curious.'

The boy looked surprised by my question but answered nonetheless, "No, nothing's wrong! Sorry to have bothered you."

Just as he stood up and turned to go, I realized what he said.

Again I blurted out, "You weren't bothering me."

'Why the hell are you still talking? Just shut up and focus on learning how to use chakra!' I mentally screamed at myself.

I couldn't help it though. My mouth seemed to be talking on its own. Something about the boy just wasn't quite right. Maybe it was the heartbreaking emotions in his eyes or maybe it was the hideously bright orange jumpsuit he wore. Maybe it was my curiosity of the whisker-like marks he wore upon his cheeks. Either way, I wanted to learn more about him.

The boy seemed surprised at my outburst, but I ignored that in favor of motioning for him to sit down again. He did so, albeit a bit slowly as if he was waiting for me to take back my invitation. I stared at him once he was seated next to me. He wasn't too close to me this time, but he wasn't far away like before.

I tilted my head to the side as I peered at him before asking, "What's your name?"

I saw him perk up a bit before he held his head up proudly and pointed at himself with his thumb, "I'm Naruto Uzimaki! Someday I'll be Hokage, believe it!"

I blinked at his enthusiasm. He wanted to be Hokage? That's a really big goal to make. But looking at this boy, Naruto, made me think. If someone like him had such a big goal, then surely I could make graduating the Academy my goal.

I smiled slightly at him and stuck my hand out, "Nice to meet you, Naruto. I'm Kaoru Haruno!"

He stared at my hand for a second before looking back at me. Slowly, he lifted his hand to mine and shook it. An idea soon came to mind.

"Hey, Naruto?"

"Yea?" He replied back after letting go of my hand.

"Do you know how to use chakra?" I asked.

"Sure, I do. I'll even teach you if you want!" He exclaimed with excitement.

"Please do. I'll need a lot of help catching up with the other students if I want to graduate," I said the last part mainly for myself.

Naruto still heard it anyway and replied, "Don't worry, with my help you'll be caught up in no time!"

He gave me a huge grin and a thumbs up which I giggled at. Before I could say anything more, Iruka-sensei had called the class to attention. Next we were going to spar. I paled at this. No, absolutely not. I'm gonna get pummeled. But I still got up and followed everyone. As I was walking with Naruto to go to the sparring area, Iruka-sensei approached me.

"Kaoru, you can sit out the sparring matches until you think you're ready to fight, alright?" Iruka-sensei offered.

"Alright, thank you Iruka-sensei," I said as I breathed a silent sigh of relief.

Iruka-sensei smiled at me before walking off.

"Lucky! You get to sit around for who knows how long while I have to go and get my ass kicked!" Naruto whined in complaint.

I raised an eyebrow, "You admit to getting your ass kicked?"

"What? I never said that! I said while I have to go and kick ass. It's such a chore really," he denied in an attempt to cover up his previous mistake.

I shook my head, but wore a small, amused smile.

~X~

Watching the others spar was pretty entertaining. I saw some moves which looked both basic and complicated, but I was determined to try them out later on. I was surprised when afterwards Sakura dragged me with her to a different classroom then Iruka-sensei's.

Apparently this classroom, or class in particular, was for kunoichi classes where they taught us about other cultures and how skills such as flower arranging will help us to blend in during an infiltration mission.

This was easily my most favorite class. Already, I was earning praises from the teacher and I knew I was on the track to becoming her new favorite. It was just my luck that Ino used to be her favorite, at least from what Sakura told me.

I sat with Sakura in this class, so every time I did something correctly in the teacher's eyes and she praised me for it, Sakura was sure to send Ino a triumphant smile each time. Even though it was me who was doing everything. But I was happy to know that I was able to make my cousin feel victory against her rival.

After that class, it was time to go home which I was glad to do. As we walked out of the gates, I spotted some of my earlier made acquaintances (I don't exactly consider them as friends yet).

Waving to them I called out, "See you tomorrow Chouji! You too Kiba, Shikamaru!"

I heard Akamaru bark at me and I giggled slightly, "Sorry. I'll see you tomorrow too, Akamaru!"

He made a bark before climbing on top of Kiba's head from his shoulder. I smiled slightly at the sight before facing forward again. But before I could, I also spotted Naruto in the distance.

"Naruto!" I called out.

I watched him turn around before I waved, "See you tomorrow!"

He stood still for a second before his face broke out into a large grin and he waved back enthusiastically. After that he turned and jogged away. My smile widened a little bit and I turned to face forward again when I noticed Sakura staring at me disbelievingly.

"What?" I asked worried.

"What? What?!" She repeated.

'Is she insane?'

"You not only talked to three guys, but you even talked to Naruto of all people! Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed loudly as we walked home.

"Yes, and?" I questioned.

I wasn't seeing the problem here.

"And?! You basically have three boys wrapped around your finger! And Naruto - Kami, Naruto," she groaned before continuing, "He's a complete loser! Not to mention that he's the dead last in the class!"

I frowned at this, "That's kind of rude, Sakura. As far as I know, I'm a dead last too."

"Well, you have an excuse because you just started. But Naruto," she spat his name out angrily, "He's had years to practice, but he never does! He's annoying too! All he ever does is pull pranks and try talking to me! And then he always smells of ramen too!"

I sighed as I allowed Sakura to rant and rage on and on about my new acquaintance. This is gonna be a long walk home.