A/N
THIS STORY MAKES MY HEAD HURT! EVERYTHING GETS MIXED UP IN MY HEAD!
Anywho, welcome to chapter 7! Chunin exams are almost ready, I just need to finish the preliminaries and 3rd one, although the 3rd isn't really that long anyway. Like I said, this story makes my head hurt, I keep jumping from here, to shippuden, to whatever else there is and it makes things get confusing.
So without further ado, let's do some graduating!
Chapter 7:Graduation
I watch the world outside, by the way,
I'm leaving out today.
~Second Chance–Shinedown
"Here is your room. I had a few of my staff members and Komachi arrange it for you." The Hokage opened a door at the end of a long corridor. It was painted bright yellow and light blue, with one full-size window on one of the yellow walls, facing the left side of the room. The bed was in the corner of the room, opposite a full-length mirror. There were two dressers on the other side of the room, one large and one small.
"It's... Perfect!" she squealed and ran to the bed, jumping on the blue bed spread.
"I'll tell Komachi she has good taste then." The Hokage laughed.
"Are you really sure I can stay here?" She asked him seriously, "Cause you have no clue how paranoid I am that I'm going to blow up the village or something."
"I am positive. Well... I'll leave you to yourself for now. If you need anything just come and see me." With that, the Hokage left back to his office.
After looking down the hallway to make sure she was alone, she closed the door and ran back to her bed. She slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out the two objects.
One was a bracelet with a silver chain, four circular gemstones, and a red cloud, outlined in white, then black. The gemstones –which were blue-black and bright-red– were on either side of the cloud.
The other object was a simple white ring. In the center was a red circle with a black Japanese symbol. She remembered it meaning 'important' in Kanji.
She hugged them to her chest tightly.
"I'm... important to someone!"
Kyarra spent the next week in the academy preparing to finally be a ninja like everyone else until finally, the day of the graduation exams came!
Kyarra was in the classroom and was walking over to her seat next to Sasuke. 'Guess Kiba isn't here yet.' She thought to herself when she didn't see the hyper brunet sitting in his usual seat. 'Actually, almost no one's here!'
Ino and Sakura hadn't shown up yet, you could tell by how quiet it was. The lack of yelling and insults really made the room seem like a ghost town. Naruto wasn't there either, so it just added to the silence.
And silence was bo-ring!
When she sat down, Sasuke looked at her for a second, then looked back to the front of the classroom again. Kyarra stared at him, "Well, hello to you too, Princess!" she snapped.
He looked back at her, surprised, then he half coughed, half laughed and asked, "What did you just call me?"
She never broke eye contact with him. "You heard me, if your going act like a princess, I'm going to call you one!" Well, isn't someone wearing their sassy pants today! She smirked at him and looked away, turning to see Choji and Shikamaru enter the classroom. She waved to them then turned around again to see Sasuke still staring at her.
"You're kidding, right?" (1) Sasuke asked her. No one has had enough balls to say something like that to him before... Well, except maybe Naruto, but he doesn't have balls, he has stupidity. (2)
Kyarra giggled at him, "You wish!" Then she started laughing.
'How can this girl be so cheerful all the time?' Sasuke thought, 'She's like a female Naruto!' He scowled at her, but couldn't help the corners of his mouth turning up slightly at how happy she looked. It was like she was contagious.
Like an annoying disease.
Kyarra put her hand down on the desk next to Sasuke's, their fingers touching. The raven was surprised, but he didn't pull away, because he saw that Kyarra didn't seem to notice. But he saw something around her wrist. After further inspection, he noticed that her bracelet had a red charm on it that was outlined in white and black, and in the shape of a cloud. Next to the charm were two very red and two very dark-bluish-black gemstones on either side. 'Wonder what that's for...'
Now that he thought about it, she had been wearing the bracelet all the time. Every time he saw her she wore it, he just hadn't really been paying as much attention to it before. It must mean something to her.
Kyarra turned and smirked to herself, 'Playing hard to get really does work, especially with Sasuke because all the girls throw themselves at him!' She thought happily. 'It's funny cause with Gaara, you have to be very open about it, with Sasuke, you have to be hard to get, and with Neji, you have to really catch his attention.'
Ugh, first a Sasuke fangirl, now an expert on Boyology. What's next?
She was snapped out of her thoughts by her name being yelled very loudly. "HEEEY KYARRA!" Sakura and Ino yelled from the doorway of the classroom. They ran up and gave her a hug from both sides. She noted that almost the whole class was here, now.
When they pulled away, Ino spoke first, "I can't believe we're finally graduating!" She looked nervous. Sakura smirked at her "That is if you can pass the exam Ino-pig!" She was still smirking, but she looked just as nervous as Ino.
Kyarra however was completely calm, as if she has taken the test before. Which, she reminded herself, was completely possible. A strand of her hair got in her face and she flicked it behind her shoulder, waving to Naruto, who just walked in. She was still shocked by the pure-black streaks that were attached to her head. It did not seem natural, but she knew it was. Especially since they wouldn't wash out.
Sakura and Ino then looked over their blonde friend's shoulder to see Sasuke sitting there, staring at the front of the classroom. They didn't seem to notice his and Kyarra's hands. Turning to each other, they just glared for a few seconds, then ran over to the raven, fawning over him as usual.
"OH HAIII SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura yelled in his ear, hugging him. "Hey cutie, how've you been?" Ino winked at him and hugged his other side.
They fought over Sasuke, who was silently begging–well, Uchiha's didn't beg, so asking–Kyarra to help him, until the blond finally spoke. "Hey guys?"
They both stopped mid-sentence and turned to her. "Can I talk to you for a sec?" She asked them innocently, glancing at Sasuke. They two girls looked at each other, nodded, and walked a few feet away with Kyarra.
Sasuke looked over at them and saw Kyarra say something, the girl's eyes light up in extreme happiness, then Kyarra hand them something. As soon as it touched Sakura's hand, they bolted out of the classroom in a second. "Shove it, Ino-Pig!" they heard Sakura yell, then a reply from Ino that could not be understood because of how far away they were.
She walked over and smiled at Sasuke, "You owe me, Princess." She said, now smirking. Sasuke glared at the nickname, then asked, "What did you say to them, and what did you give them?"
"Oh you saw that huh? Well I told them that you dropped you house key and I found it, then I gave it to them." She smiled brightly at him, knowing what his reaction would be.
"YOU GAVE THEM MY HOUSE KEY?!" The Uchiha yelled, standing up. The whole class was now staring at him, and he blushed so lightly that only Kyarra could see it and sat down again.
Kyarra was laughing as she said "Not your real house key, Princess! Just one to a storage room at the Hokage's residence!" She paused. "Or maybe it was your house key..." she shrugged and turned around.
Sasuke grabbed her shoulder and turned her back around to face him again. "First of all, stop calling me Princess, second, what do you mean 'maybe'?!" he asked, panicky. He did not want them stealing his underwear again!
"Calm down Sasuke, I was only kidding!" She answered him, laughing harder. Kami, it was funny to see Sasuke panicking.
A few minutes later, Iruka arrived, dragging Sakura and Ino back into the classroom with him, the girls yelling "BUT WE WERE ALMOST THERE!". Sasuke walked up and wrenched the key out of Sakura's hands, then walked back and sat down. He handed the key to Kyarra when they weren't looking, which was a very hard few seconds to find.
Kyarra put her hand back where it was before her friends interrupted her thoughts, next to Sasuke, their fingers touching. She pretended not to notice again.
Kiba walked in right after Iruka and sat down next to Kyarra, not even saying hi to Sasuke. They started talking enthusiastically while the teacher tried to calm Sakura and Ino down. Once they finally calmed down and walked sadly to their seats, Iruka walked to the front and grinned broadly at the class.
"Today is the day of the graduation exam! I hope and expect you will all pass, and good luck. When your name is called, I would like you to step into the room across the hall with me and Mizuki-Sensei." Mizuki waved and smiled from the door, then walked across the hall.
"The exam will be on the shadow-clone jutsu!" (A.k.a. Art of the shadow doppelganger, for all of you manga-readers.) Kyarra saw Naruto freaking out across the classroom as the first name was being called. She walked over to him, knelt down, and put a hand on his shoulder.
He looked up to see her smiling face. "You'll do fine, Naruto, just stay calm." She smiled sincerely at him, then got up and began walking to her seat. As soon as she sat down, her name was called.
"Kyarra Iyono!" Iruka said loudly from the doorway, then turned and headed back down the hall. She grabbed Sasuke's right hand and Kiba's left hand and squeezed them both lightly. "Wish me luck!" she whispered to them.
"Good luck, Ky." Kiba whispered back. "Luck." Sasuke whispered in a tone that she had never heard from him before. She let go of Kiba's hand, but held Sasuke's just a second longer. She didn't want to let go. She needed the support.
She walked to the front door and looked back for a second, memorizing all the details of her friends faces, hoping that everyone will pass. She locked eyes with Sasuke and smiled slightly. "Luck to you too!" She mouthed to him, then smirked. "Princess."
He shot her the middle finger, but she saw the corners of his mouth turned up in an almost-smile. It was the first real smile in a long time for Sasuke, and she felt glad that she was the one to give him that happiness.
She turned around and walked to the room across the short hallway. She paused at the door, hand on the doorknob, memories of her time in the leaf flashing through her head. She twirled her bracelet around her wrist nervously. She has to pass this exam, she has to be with her friends.
The people she cared about most. They are all she has left.
"This is it." She whispered to herself. She turned the handle and opened the door, leaving behind all thoughts of failure as she stepped into the room where her destiny awaited her.
(1) BARK LIKE A DOG, WOMAN!
(2) You would know, wouldn't you Sasuke? (3)
(3) I am so sorry I just couldn't resist! It was the first thought that popped into my head as I wrote it, okay?!
Ending note!
Okay guys, here's the thing: I never planned for this chapter. I was amazed at how I wrote it though, I normally can't write at all without planning it all out ahead of time.
Maybe I was a bit over-dramatic at the end, but it was dramatic! Think about it, you're about to take an exam that could change your life forever, could separate you from your friends. When you're her, friends are all that you've got. It's possible she doesn't have family, remember.
And then there was the end, BARK LIKE A DOG, WOMAN! And I laughed so hard after reading it. I couldn't have picked a better place to put that.
I've decided on the pairings for this story, but they could change at any moment. Trust me, it's hard to pick who's gonna be with who. I'm not telling what I've decided though, you need to wait and find out when I write it!
One more thing: don't use cake and pastry flour for chocolate chip cookies, unless you want them to have the texture of cake. It's awesome and it tastes awesome, but if you want cookies and not cake, I strongly recommend all-purpose flour.
Love ya!
~Kyarra Iyono 3
