Hey, guys, BT here! I'm going to apologize in advance for any sloppiness or errors, or any extended periods of time in the future that I don't update for a while. I'm grounded, and not aloud on the computer except for homework purposes, so I've been writing the stories down on paper at school and typing them up before my dad gets home. Right now I'm uploading because I've got homework to do on here right after this, and I can always say I'm doing homework. Anyway, I hope you guys like this one! Review!
Kisses!
~Melissa
4
Before I could meet with the rest of our team at the training grounds, I had to get new clothes before the ones I was wearing ripped any more and fell off my body.
Sighing, I rubbed my temples. I hated shopping—with a passion. I decided to just grab what matched, was durable, and was cheap. This turned out to be a tee shirt under a ¾ sleeve fishnet shirt, black shorts, and black boots. My Hidden Leaf forehead protector was still tied around my upper right arm. My violet hair was swept back into a ponytail, with the bangs brushing down around my forehead. Now that I was in clean clothes, I felt loads better.
I even felt like I might be able to laugh again.
This strange feeling that I could laugh, that it was possible, came suddenly, unexpectedly. It frightened me that I might already be growing attached to these people. It frightened that they could make me feel such a thing as happiness.
I was almost to the training grounds when I made my decision: I would not allow these people to grow close to me. I would make them hate me.
"Hey, Aoi!" Rin greeted me, smiling.
I muttered a quick hello before leaping up into the branches of a tree several feet away, so I was set apart from the others. I didn't look at them, didn't talk to them. Tried not to think about them.
These people were not my friends.
After a few minutes of complete and utter silence, I heard a crunch at the base of my tree. I lowered my gaze from it's place in the sky to meet Obito's. I blinked in surprise, then frowned. What did he want?
I sighed. "What, Obito?"
His animated face, for once, was blank, but his voice suggested concern when he spoke. "Is something wrong? You seem kind of detached."
Grimacing, I thought, Of course. I shrugged. "I just don't want to be here."
"Oh." He was silent, but didn't move.
I growled lowly in the back of my throat, narrowing my eyes as I glared down at him. "Do you need something, or did your toes just magically attach themselves to the grass?"
He frowned. "No, but… are you sure you're okay?"
I nodded. "I'm fine, Uchiha. Quit worrying. You'll get old faster."
He laughed. "As in grey hair and frown lines? I think I can hold out for a while. Hey, what do you say we all hang out after training? We could all go get ramen. Rin gets these crazy cravings if she works too hard."
I shrugged. I could be a part of their team without being their friend. That was do-able, right? … Right.
"Sure, whatever. I haven't had lunch anyway, so I'll be hungry enough."
Obito grinned. "Great! I'll go tell Rin and see if I can convince Kakashi to come along, too. I'll have to work on him for a few minutes, though." He turned and took off towards another tree a few yards away. Rin was slumped against the trunk at the base, and I knew Kakashi was perched somewhere in the thick limbs, hidden by the masses of leaves.
I watched as Obito opened his mouth, but before he could start pestering our teammates, a puff of smoke in the center of the clearing announced Minato's arrival.
"Hey, kids," he greeted cheerily, a bright smile plastered across his face. God, why was he so happy all the time? It was unnerving. "I see you're all on time," he continued.
"Unlike a certain blonde idiot of a sensei," Kakashi muttered, and I stifled a laugh. Rin turned to glare up at him, and Minato's face flushed. He reached up to scratch his head.
"W-well, you see, guys, I actually started out early, and it's really a funny story, because, uh—
"Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before. What was it this time?" Obito asked sarcastically. "Black cat? Pretty lady? Hokage called you?"
Minato laughed. "Well, actually—
"Please, do spare us," Kakashi interjected, and the sensei shook his head.
"Never mind. Anyways, today we're going to focus on accuracy."
My eyebrows rose without my permission. This was going to be interesting.
Obito's eyes lit up, and he resumed his remarkably obnoxious persona. "Really? Great!"
"I've been needing to practice with my kunai anyway," Rin added.
Kakashi snorted, and I rolled my eyes. Accuracy was pathetically easy, but I'd have to be wary of Obito's aim. He seemed a little too spontaneous to be aloud to throw around sharp objects.
"Well, it seems our two resident jonin are a little overconfident," Minato said, smirking, and my eyes widened slightly.
"Two jonin?" I repeated nervously. I'd known Kakashi had already been promoted to jonin level, but the rest of us were still genin. But Minato couldn't be talking about himself, could he?
He grinned at me and nodded.
"Yes, Aoi, two. I tried to tell you guys I was summoned to the Hokage's office but you wouldn't listen… It seems as though Lord Hokage deems it appropriate to promote Miss Aizuko to jonin level. Congrats, kid." He smiled radiantly.
My green eyes bugged out. Jonin? Me? But I'd only received my shinobi status yesterday!
Minato must've noticed the doubt flit across my face. "Don't worry, the Hokage doesn't make mistakes like that. He must have a whole lot of trust in you if he's willing to recognize your abilities to such a large extent."
"But… But, I—
"Trust me, Aoi. You'll be great; being a shinobi really isn't much different than being an assassin—you just have to be a bit more controlled sometimes."
"Yeah, Aoi, you'll be great!" I looked down, shocked, to meet Obito's confident, encouraging gaze.
"Definitely! We'll be right behind you all the way, no questions!" Rin encouraged, her brown eyes bright.
An emotion I was unable to identify welled in my chest, and my heart seemed to expand. The corners of my lips twitched up into the first little infancy stages of a smile.
"Thanks, guys, that means a lot," I mumbled. I tried to remember that these people weren't my friends. They weren't my friends. They were comrades, nothing more. I could get attached to friends, but not to comrades, not to allies, and that was what these people were. Just comrades. Nothing more.
"No words of encouragement for your teammate, Kakashi?" Minato prompted.
My face flushed and I raised both hands to object. "O-oh, no, that's not necessary, really. He's already let me into his home, I don't need his support, too!"
Obito and Rin stared at me, and it took me a moment to realize what I'd said. Every last drop of blood in my body rushed to my face, and both of my hands smacked over my mouth.
I didn't just say that. I didn't just say that. I didn't just say that!
"You're staying at his house?" Obito asked incredulously. I shook my head frantically.
"Only for a couple more days, until I find an apartment! It's not permanent, I swear! I'm just staying in the guest room for a couple of nights!" I hurried to explain, wildly waving my hands back and forth in front of me.
Rin's eyes narrowed, but only slightly.
"Do you two have a thing?" she asked. Her tone was laced with innocent curiosity, but I could detect a faint underlying menacing, angry note. Was she being… territorial?
"No!" Kakashi and I both yelled at once. I leaped from my position in the tree to land easily on the balls of my feet in front of her, pointing up at Kakashi where he was leaning forward in the tree, barely maintaining his crouched position. Rin's question must have startled him.
"I will never—I repeat, never—have a thing with him. Ever."
She smiled then, her eyes losing their protective gleam. "Oh, okay. Just checking."
I snorted and crossed my arms. "Alright, moving on. I presume we're practicing on the surrounding trees and not"—I shot a warning glance at an innocent-faced Obito—"our teammates?" I asked, turning to Minato, eager to move away from the embarrassing subject of the current location of my residency.
He nodded. "That would be correct. Each of you will be using a tree of your choosing from the surrounding forest. Do not try to hurt each other while practicing. And Obito, Kakashi? You're both in for a beating if you've gone further than quarrelling when I get back." He flashed his teeth and disappeared with a white puff of smoke. When the wind had carried the smoke away, he was gone.
