I wake up. Today is my first day at the Academy! Can't be late! I've gotta get there! I put on a pair of black shorts with white boots. I put on a magenta shirt and metal gauntlets with leathery material covering the palms of my hands. I put the sword on my belt. If we have any sword business in the Academy, I'll have my own sword to use.
I dash to the kitchen and eat cereal. Hate eating alone. Ah well! It's not like I have a roommate or anything. I'll ask the Hokage about that later.
I tie my short blue hair with a dark blue headband and put on my blue scarf. There's no way I'll letting go of this scarf. It's my most treasured gift. I lock the door firmly as I take my satchel and run to school. Yes, it's the same satchel I took from the snake man. And I washed it like 4 times once I found a river. I hate the fact that this once belonged to him but I've got no money to buy anything better so I'll keep this trophy.
I dash to the Academy grounds, scarf flying wildly. I'm at the Academy and I see loads of people the same age as me. I've gotta go register, since I'm the new BAD-ASS child!
I see a man with a scar on his nose with a Leaf headband. Hopefully he's an Academy instructor.
"HEY! I'm the new kid, Katsumi! Do you know where my class is by chance?" I ask. I hear quiet whispers from the other girls.
"Oh, you're Katsumi, are you? I'm Iruka, your new teacher." he smiles.
"Okay, Iru-sensei!" I smile back.
"It's Iruka." he corrects. Nah, with the sensei suffix it's going to be too long and I'm way too lazy for this kind of stuff.
"Okay, Iru-sensei, when does the bell ring?" I ask.
"In ten minutes. Come with me, I'll get you to the classroom." he orders, gently. I nod and walk into the building, hearing the quiet murmurs of some of the girls. Ah well, their problem! I walk inside proudly. I'm so awesome they noticed me in the first 60 seconds!
We walk into a room. It's relatively big with loads of desks. Nobody's in here yet.
RIING!
The classroom starts filling up with students. A few particular people catch my eye: a raven haired emo, a blonde in an orange jumpsuit, a brown haired… large boy, a spiky black haired boy with dark eyes and a brown haired boy with a hooded sweater and a little white puppy. IT'S KIBA!
The class stares at me. Most of the girls stare at me with disdain. Whateves. Their problem. But the boys I've noticed amongst the students, stare at me, quite interested. I have the urge to yell out "Kiba! It's me!" but I'd rather not. First impressions leave lasting marks in people's minds.
"This is Katsumi, a new girl in Konoha. I hope that you can show her around and let her catch up to all of you." introduces Iruka. He motions for me to introduce myself. FINALLY!
"I'm Katsumi and I'm going to be the greatest ninja ever! And if you're gawking, you're gawking at the next strongest ninja to exist!" I yell. The room falls silent. Yeah, suck on that, SUCKERS!
"Yeah! And I'm going to be Hokage!" yells the blonde.
"Naruto, sit down!" roars Iru-sensei. Well, he's in for it. Whateves. Maybe me and Naruto can go do some pranks. He seems like the type.
Iru-sensei turns to me.
"You can go sit next to Sakura or next to Choiji and Shikamaru in the back." he states. I nod. The Pinkette by the empty chair glares at me when she notices the emo is looking at me, interested. Nah. She must be a fangirl or something. I go to the back, proudly and sit by the pineapple haired boy and the chubby boy.
"Now, let's begin strategy class." announces Iru-sensei. I groan. Hate doing schoolwork!
"Hey, I'm Shikamaru. This is Choiji." introduces Pineapple-head.
"I'm Katsumi." I smile. Iru-sensei starts explaining some shit that I don't give two flying fucks about. If I have to work strategy out, I'll do that in a battle, using my head and not writing it down.
"This is way too much effort." mutters Shikamaru. I couldn't agree more.
"Tell me about it." I agree, head on my desk. This is so fucking annoying. I check the clock and groan.
Way to go Katsumi, you've signed yourself up to seven hours of torture.
After sleeping through medical class, I found out that the next class is shuriken class outside. I follow after Shikamaru.
"So, you people aren't good at shuriken?" I ask Choiji and Shika.
"Nah. It's too much work." says Shika, hands clasped behind his head.
"I'd rather eat chips." says Choiji, "It's less effort than this."
I nod in agreement. But Choiji seems like he puts a boatload of effort into the shuriken he throws. He's just missing every time.
Kiba runs up to me and stands to train at the log beside mine. Akamaru barks.
"Hey! Katsumi, right? Remember me?" asks Kiba, smiling.
"Of course I do. You dragged me to the hospital didn't you?" I smile and we prop fists.
"Wait. You went to the hospital?" asks Choiji.
"Well, yeah. I was a thief before I came here and I was caught. Total drag. Ended up in the river running away from my pursuers. And almost went down a waterfall." I explain. They're all surprised, except Kiba.
"Yeah, and I got her to the hospital 'cause she hit jagged rocks in the rapids." adds Kiba. I nod.
RRRIING!
Final break before school's over!
I dash out of the training area. Yeah, this will be AWESOME! Freedom! I'll go catch up to Shikamaru and talk or go race against Kiba.
A platinum blonde girl and a pinkette stand in front of me, smirking across their faces with a group of girls. Blocking my way home.
"Hey loser." says the blonde.
"Hey, team stalker." I smirk.
"It's Ino. And this is Sakura. Do you like Sasuke Uchiha?" asks the blonde.
"Why should I? He's an emo." I reply. I won't tell them that he stood out amongst the other students.
"Well, if you do, then please know that we're all there to kill you." one of them says ominously.
"Yeah, so can I pass through?" I ask, nonchalantly.
"Not until you scram out of Konoha." says Pinkette. So they're not going down without a fight, are they?
They rampage at me and I quickly block their punches and kicks. It's like I know this… It's like I've always known about all of this! It's so weird..
But I go with the flow and block in the same way my instincts tell me. The girls slowly move away. All of them are either too tired to fight, or have been punched in the arms enough times to understand it's futile.
"We'll get ya one day! Don't forget it!" they yell, running away.
"And I'll be waiting." I mutter under my breath.
Kiba runs up to me and grabs me by the shoulders.
"Wow, you ruled at kicking ass. How'd you do it!?" he asks. Naruto rushes up to me and soon, a lot of the guys begin to bombard me with questions.
"Hey! How about you join our game of ninja!" yells one boy in the crowd. I nod. The boys group up.
"Since you're new, choose your team members." explains a boy named Tatsuro, "You'll be playing the hiders. The hiders need to hide well enough so we don't find you in fifteen minutes. The catchers will have to catch you in fifteen minutes if we wanna win. We can hide anywhere in Konoha. You can also fight or run. But nothing worse than a hit to the jaw."
Some of the boys are large, strong, or fast and lean. But they just don't stand out. I want to have a team that really, I can feel that they're good. I don't know how or what this is but unless I feel in my gut that I'll win with this person, I won't choose him.
The first one to stand out is Shika.
"I choose Shikamaru." I answer quickly. The boys whistle. Shikamaru stands beside me and gives me a lazy smile.
"You've got a head on your shoulders, no doubt." he smiles. I nod.
"Good choice. I choose Ginma." says Tatsuro. Ginma, a large lanky boy with brown hair stands beside his team mate.
"I choose Choiji Akimichi." I choose. The boys laugh as Choiji walks out of the crowd, shyly.
"You chose fatso?! You'll so lose with him on your team." calls one of the guys.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP! I'm choosing my team." I yell. They all shut up.
"I choose Ren." smirks Tatsuro. A large muscled boy walks out and stands by Tatsuro.
"I choose Kiba." I choose. Kiba stands beside me, his puppy barking at me. I give him props.
"We'll so win." he smirks, confidently. I nod.
"So true." I whisper.
"I choose Takamaru." chooses Tatsuro.
"I choose Naruto Uzumaki." I call out. Naruto, sitting in the back, looks up in disbelief.
"S-seriously!? I'll be on your team?!" he asks. Looks like he was never chosen to play before.
"Yep. Now come on: we've got a team to beat." I smile. Naruto nods, determined to win. We form two separate teams and sit a little away from each other.
"So, I need all your good tricks and bad ones right now. I'll be able to come up with a strategy better if I know what you're good at."
"I'm good at making hiding stuff, believe it!" smiles Naruto.
"Shut up Naruto! You'll blow the plan." orders Shikamaru. Naruto shuts up.
"I'm good at strategy and I know most of the good cloud watching spots in Konoha." lists Shikamaru.
"I'm good at combo attacks with Akamaru and I've got a good speed." replies Kiba.
"I'm… not so good at anything. I tend to hide beside other people and give them away." mutters Choiji, embarrassed. It sucks I'll have to use the stolen paint so quickly but whatever.
I pull out from my pack a can of paint.
"Here. All of you take it. Good for camouflage." I order. Naruto quickly begins to cover his face in the brown paint.
"How'd you get that?" asks Shikamaru, inspecting the paint.
"Stole it from a village nearby. It was a major waste of energy but now it's worth it." I reply. He smiles, lazily. I explain the strategy to them. When we finish I yell:
"SO WHO'S READY TO BEAT 'EM?!" I yell, enthusiastically.
"YEAH!" the team yells, except Shika.
"Scatter!" says the opposing team and begins to count. I told where everybody should be. I'm on the roof of the Academy.
"Ninety eight, ninety nine, a hundred! We're COMING TO BEAT YA!" yells Takamaru. They scatter off, one for each person. One mistake. They'll regret it later on major.
I made more than a few traps around the area. I throw a kunai to the leader. He rushes closer to my hiding spot.
A trap in a tree by Kiba's catches him as he thrashes in the trap. I smile at him from above.
"First keystone to victory: take out the captain first." I smile. Tatsuro glares at me.
"DAMMIT COWARD!" he roars.
"You're just jelly of my genius!" I smirk. I look up to Kiba.
"Any news from Mr. Binoculars?" I ask. Kiba pulls out his binoculars and checks out how our team's doing.
"You were right about the strategy: it's not even five minutes and most of the other team is taken down. Choiji's inability was useful, he led them right into a trap." he calls out. Tatsuro curses under his breath.
"Looks like I win." I smirk at Tatsuro.
"Dammit." curses Tatsuro.
"HEY! TEAM KIBA-KATSU-SHIKA-CHO-NARU should get over here! We've caught the cap!" I call out, cupping my hands around my face to amplify the sound.
"OKAY!" yells Naruto, rushing onto the scene. Kiba gets out of the tree as Shikamaru and Choiji arrive.
"So, everybody's caught?" I ask.
"Not a sinch." affirms Choiji.
"Man, I'd really like to play shogi with you. You'd be more of a challenge, despite you being a troublesome woman." notes Shikamaru.
"SHADDAP! She ain't troublesome! She's clever!" argues Kiba. I look away, hiding my blush. Never heard people give me compliments…
Somehow I think Shikamaru saw my fiery blush and added to it.
"Yeah, she's smart. She'd be a good challenge. At least she'd play better than my dad plays shogi." he adds. That adds more red to my face.
"Hey, uh Katsumi? Why're you so red?" asks Naruto, oblivious to the situation.
"I-it's nothing." I quietly stutter.
"Can I please get out of the net?!" yells Tatsuro. He's still stuck in the net, moving around as if he can get off easily. I look up to him in the tree, blush fading.
"Well, if you're a ninja, maybe you'd be able to do it on your own. I can think of about three options to get out of your situation. And currently, you're not using even one of them." I smirk. He curses out of frustration.
"Alright, let's bring them all here and go. If I'm late to dinner and my mom gets pissed about it, man, I'll be in serious trouble." groans Shikamaru. I nod, slowly. Naruto's bright face suddenly turns somber.
After we dragged the team out of their traps, Shikamaru's dad, Shikaku came to pick him up. Choiji's parents arrived as well. Kiba and Akamaru left to the Inuzuka compound. However Naruto was still on the lone swing by the Academy, slowly moving back and forth. His facial expression was solemn, sad.
I've heard a very quiet whisper from a person by the Academy about him being the vessel for a monster. And as far as I know, there is only one monster that ever attacked the Leaf: Kyuubi, the Nine Tailed Fox.
I find him like my little brother and I feel like he's my brother. I think I know how to make him happy.
Because I know what an orphan would always want as a child: a family.
I dash into the Hokage office.
After a while of convincing and arguing, I talked the Hokage to walking to Naruto's apartment with me. I knock on the door, my dufflebag close at hand.
Naruto slowly opens the door. His eyes look quite confused.
"Old man, I think you already gave me the money for this months rent." questions Naruto. He's been living on the amount of money the Hokage gives him to pay the rent until he's able to gain his own money via missions.
"No, Naruto. It's on another matter that concerns you and Katsumi, here." says the Hokage. Naruto lets both of us in. He has a huge mess of an apartment. Ramen cups are all over the floor.
"Naruto, as you might already know, the prices on apartments are steadily rising. Katsumi doesn't have enough money for an apartment, so she's willing to become your roommate." says the Hokage, "So, are you alright with Katsumi as your roommate or not?"
Naruto's eyes widen and his jaw falls.
"Y-you mean, y-you'll be living in the same house as me?" he asks.
"As long as you don't go all perverted on me." I affirm. He hugs me in a bear hug. Aw!
"Thanks! Now all we have to do is add Uzumaki to your name and you're my legitimate relative!" he yells and starts ranting on how it's amazing. Yeah, just bow down to my awesomeness.
I can see from the corner of my eye as the Hokage slowly exits from Naruto's apartment. Thank you, old man Hokage.