4. Konoha's Twelve Rookies
As they approached the Main Square of the village, the buzz of chatter filled Chika's ears. She flinched inwardly, not liking the strange noises at all. They were familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, an unusual feeling, as if she were talking about something she knew nothing about. Hinata, sensing the nervousness from the older girl, asked her quietly, "Are you a-all right?"
Kiba looked over his shoulder to see what was going on, and from behind his glasses, Shino's eyes slid towards the conversation. Chika's eyebrows furrowed, and she flushed a little.
"I guess I'm just excited to see Konoha properly, again." Chika lied, a smile on her face. "I'm looking forward to see what the new Genin are like."
"Oh," Hinata didn't know what to say. Kiba looked on ahead, to where the Ramen Bar was, and noted that almost all of Konoha's rookies were there. They got to the ramen bar, where Kiba and Shino slid into two seats. Chika took a place next to Hinata, where she sat beside Shino. None of them said a word, until-
"HEY? Shikamaru when did you make a shadow clone?"
Chika's head bent, and her eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say that's Naruto."Hinata nodded silently, and Kiba smirked.
"I didn't, you idiot. That's my sister,Chika." Chika heard a familiar voice say. She looked up to see Shikamaru was in the seat next to her. He raised an eyebrow, and nodded towards the blond ninja. "That dumbass is-"
"NARUTO UZUMAKI,FUTURE HOKAGE!" The boy jumped to Chika's side and inspected Chika closely, as if she were an alien. Which, she supposed, he thought she was. "Wow Shikamaru, I never knew you had a sister."
"Well obviously you wouldn't know if she wasn't a ninja." A new voice drawled in annoyance. Looking to where the voice had come from, Chika saw a pale boy with dark spiked hair, an eyebrow raised,and a smirk on his face. Either side of him were a pink hair girl younger than Chika with green eyes, and the oh-so-familiar Ino, with her long ponytail and vividly blue eyes. From beside Shikamaru, Chouji waved, mouth full of noodles. From beside Chika, Naruto was fuming.
"You think you're so cool, chicken butt head!" Naruto pointed accusingly at Sasuke, who just rolled his eyes.
"Guys, don't you think you should introduce yourselves?" Chouji said indistinctly. Ino nodded.
"Yeah, Chika doesn't know almost anyone except for Cell Ten."
"And Eight." Kiba added. Ino rolled her eyes. The pink haired girl then spoke.
"My name's Sakura Haruno, and I'm on Team Seven." She smiled politely, but her eyes glared at her slightly. Chika then grasped that she was the girl Ino always gave out about, how she was always trying to steal her Sasuke-kun. So, she was saying, "Stay away from Sasuke-kun"? Chika nodded, and smiled back, not worried about the younger girl.
"Sasuke Uchiha." The boy beside her said in a bored tone, pitch black eyes staring coldly at her.
"AND I'M-" the loud-mouthed ninja beside her started to say, before Shikamaru cut him off.
"Naruto, we get it. Jeez." Shikamaru frowned, and buried his head under his arms. Chika rubbed her forehead with her right hand. Good God, this boy was a pain. Naruto looked hurt.
"You didn't have to be mean Shikamaru." He told Chika's brother. From under the mess of arms, and from Chika's bent head, they both groaned.
"What a drag."
Kiba and Sasuke smirked, while Ino and Chouji just looked at each other knowingly. Naruto snorted in disbelief. Hinata and Sakura hid their smiles behind their hands. Shino stayed quiet, though behind the collar of his shirt, his mouth was quirked upwards slightly.
"What is it now?" Shikamaru complained, while Chika looked up.
"Nah, it's just-" Kiba started to say.
"You two are like TWINS!" Naruto yelled. Sakura yanked his ear, and told him to shut up, so vicously, Chika was taken by surprise, but was glad to see the boy quieten down.
"I suddenly have a new found respect for you, Sakura." She told the kunoichi, who smiled, forgetting about her precious Sasuke. The ninja then decided to order their food. As they waited, Sakura started up a conversation.
"So Chika, if you're not a ninja, what do you do?" Sakura asked, eager to find out information about the older girl. Ino looked at Sakura and answered for her.
"What's it to you, billboard brow?"
"I was just trying to make conversation, Ino-pig!"
"Ino,Ino it's fine." Chika attempted to calm down the blonde Kunoichi. Ino paused and sat down, with a 'I'm just saying.' Chika answered the question.
"You see Sakura, I worked on the Deer Farm the Nara family own. I decided to get out of Konoha for a while, and I arrived back just yesterday." She smiled a little fakely. Sakura nodded, wondering what kind of work she had done.
"Kiba. You said Team Eight knew her already, but how?" Naruto demanded. Ino nodded too.
"Yeah, how come me and Chouji weren't told! We knew Chika the longest!"
"I forgot Ino, jeez, take a pill." Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
"Oh yeah? Well, if you really want to know, Chika's been made an official member of Cell Eight." Kiba grinned, hands resting behind his head. Akamaru yapped in agreement. Surprised caught Naruto, Sakura, Ino, Chouji with a hint on Sasuke's face.
"WHAT? SHE DIDN'T EVEN TRAIN AT THE ACADEMY, AND SHE'S A NINJA!" Naruto yelled in fury. He failed, even after he went to the academy.
Chika flinched visibly, and stood up abruptly. "I'm going home. Thanks for inviting me Hinata." She said sincerely to the violet haired girl. She gave an apologetic look to Kiba and Shino, and walked away from Ichiraku's Ramen Bar.
Shikamaru scowled at Naruto and Kiba growled. "Look what you did you idiot!"
Naruto folded his arms and shook his head in denial. "It's not fair."
"He has a point."
Everyone turned to look at the speaker. Sasuke Uchiha had made the first full sentence since Team Eight arrived. He had his arms on the bar table, and was staring straight ahead.
"What makes her so special that she can become a fully-fledged ninja without the proper training abilities we've all had to go through for years? Even of she was good enough, she must be recommended by one of the Jounin Elite."
Shikamaru lifted his head off the table as everyone looked at him expectantly. Sighing, he decided to give an explanation.
"Chika was made a ninja by Asuma-sensei, who recommended her to the Hokage. He said that Chika would make a unique ninja because she hated hand to hand combat, so.."
Asuma had told him this exact information earlier on after they had finished training. He went to the Hokage to seek out his confirmation. When he did say yes, Asuma hoped Chika would be able to fight the genjutsu. Which by the look of things, she had. Shikamaru smirked to himself. For one thing, Sasuke and Naruto's faces were priceless. The second thing was, how was Chika going to cope?
*With Chika*
Chika had retreated to the dark forest with it's green trees, awa y from all of the young genin. God she didn't like kids that were capable of speaking for themselves. They were such a nuisance, especially when they were loud. Walking along the dusty dirt ground, Chika let out a low whistle. The trees were a roof over her head, with their branches twisting and turning. She had seen ninja jump from branch to branch like they were defying gravity. She would never be able to do that, Chika knew that she was not a quick in her movements. Heck, Chika hadn't even passed as a Genin, how was she supposed to pass the Chunin Exams?
For whatever reason, she got the notion that it wasn't a punishment as such. According to Shikamaru, their father had suggested it. But it made no sense, why would he let her become a ninja, if he knew she wasn't able to? Something importantly dangerous was about to happen. Chika knew it. To her, she didn't 'just get a feeling'. It was the most logical explanation. And she only believed in logic, that was her faith.
Looking skywards, Chika saw that it was just gone twilight. Letting out another low whistle, she walked towards the target area where she had practiced throwing kunai, trying to hit the target. Only she hadn't hit it. She couldn't even hit it, when the kids two years younger than her could. She walked around the clearing, and felt for the kunai hanging from the belt loops of her trousers. Snatching them in frustration, she threw them through the air, and let them fly and hit the target board. It hit the outer corners, but no where near the centre.
Finally she heard the sound she was waiting for. Hooves thudding against the ground, letting the dirt fly upwards. Haru, her faithful companion. Chika remembered finding Haru when he was just a foal, with both of his parents hunted, he was only a few weeks old. Chika was eight years old at the time, and when she arrived home with the long legged bambi, she remembered her mother's shocked face as she saw the creature, and how Yoshino had helped her wash Haru's dirty coat and feed him food mix, for runty deer that needed the more nutrition. Haru – Spring. That was the day Chika found him, on the first day of Spring. Now as Haru cantered towards Chika, she could see he deep brown fur, the colour of chocolate. His antlers were the stag's pride, widespread like trees, and his dark eyes focused on Chika, as he came to a stop before her.
Haru muzzled Chika's neck, as the girl wrapped her arms around his long thick neck, remembering the sorrowful past of the animal. As Haru raised his neck, Chika smiled and patted the deer's cheeks. There was a sharp breeze and as Chika turned around and saw the smiling face of Asuma Sarutobi. He had a cigarette in his mouth, and asked Chika.
"So, I heard you're a member of Team Eight. Congratulations."
"Thank you Asuma-sensei, although I don't think I fully qualify as a ninja yet." She looked at Haru, whose eyes were staring back at her with an intelligent expression in his eyes, as if he understood. Asuma raised his eyebrows.
"And why not?"
Chika scowled, not wanting to admit it to herself. "I'm not physically or mentally trained for the life of a ninja."
"Oh really?" Asuma questioned. "Well, maybe you lack in taijutsu and ninjutsu will make up for your mind power and from what I heard from Kurenai, your fencing abilities."
Chika was still unsure about the situation. Asuma shook his head.
"Look kid, you have some brain, probably better than Shikamaru's. But unlike Shikamaru, you have the ability to try. Use that, and you could be brilliant."
The encouraging words left Chika speechless. There was no one's opinion she thought higher than Asuma's. To her, he was the best both ninja and person, she could depend on. She met Asuma when she was nine. Her father was friends with Asuma, so when she met him, she was surprised to see how much wisdom he had about the world. She could also recall the day he sat her down, and taught her how to play Shougi. She wasn't a bad player, but relied on her sense of judgement and resorted to cheating, which he didn't realize until she confessed to him a year later. Asuma was Chika's role model in many ways. He always seemed to have time for her too. To listen to her thoughts, give her advice and fill in the blank pieces of information. She could easily remember the time she asked about his cigarettes…
*Flashback*
"Asuma-sensei?" Twelve year old Chika asked the Jounin, who was taking his time thinking about his next move in the game of Shougi. He lit a cigarette and taook a puff before looking up.
"What do you want to know?"
"Well, Asuma-sensei, I want to know what's so addictive about those cigarettes of yours?" Chika asked, "I mean I know what's in them, but I can't see the attraction…"
That wasn't what Asuma was expecting. The child wanted to know the attraction? He knew Shikaku would hunt him down if he knew Asuma was telling the child about cigarettes, so he decided to put Chika off. Tipping the end of the cancer-stick, letting the ash fall, he passed the cigarette to the girl, who looked at him skeptically.
"Go on," He said, and smirk on his face, "Try and see."
Chika raised the cigarette to her lips, and like she saw Asuma do many times, she took a drag of the stick. As soon as she did, she coughed and spluttered as Asuma took the cigarette off of her.
"That was possibly the worst thing I ever did to my lungs." She coughed deeply, ridding her lungs of the smoke. Asuma just chuckled as Chika went on. "How could you do that to me?"
*End Flashback*
Chika looked at Asuma and smiled. "I will Asuma-sensei, I swear on the Nara Clan's name, I will become a ninja."
Asuma chuckled, "I know you will. Now you better get home, before Shikamaru sells you out."
"He wouldn't do that." Chika shook her head, "Shikamaru's my brother.."
"I bet you lunch for Team Ten that he's selling you out as we speak. He couldn't face the wrath of Yoshino. Not even Shukaku could do that."
Chika nodded, and mounted Haru.
"You're right, Asuma-sensei. I owe you lunch." Haru cantered away at a fast pace.
"I hope you're rich, Chika." Asuma called after her. "You do know Chouji's on Team Ten."
But she didn't even hear him.
