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Chapter 9
The Hokage sighed as he stared out the window of his office. Minato… he thought as his eyes landed on the stone face of the Forth Hokage. Whenever he saw the man's face, whether on a picture or on the mountain he could not help, but feel regretful. He had been too young and Sarutobi was too old, had been too old even back then. The only thing the Yondaime left behind was his jutsus and a child – Uzumaki Nori.
The Sandaime had mixed feelings about the small girl. Nori was an enigma of a child. She could be so intelligent one second and socially stunned the next. For the latter Hiruzen blamed himself. Nori was a peculiar child. In some ways, it was working in the village's favor, for now. After all, Nori did not seem to harbor any ill feelings towards the village that resented her for being the jailer of the demon that killed so many, the night she was born.
On the other hand, Nori was smart, Hiruzen would have called her a prodigy, had he not been trying to protect her - and keeping a low profile for the girl was the best. Thankfully, Nori did not seem like she wanted to be known as the smartest. Her scores were average at best; it was as if she made great effort to keep it that way. In a way, she often reminded him of the Nara, except, Nori was not lazy – she was calculative, which was a scary thing to see in such a young girl. If it had not been for her unexpected friendship with Gai and then later the Hyūga heiress and Uchiha Sasuke – Hiruzen would have been concerned. Concerned for she shared certain personality traits with none other than his former student, Orochimaru.
Additionally, Nori seemed to have taken a liking to a civilian woman name Ayumi. The Hokage had immediately ANBU monitor her every move. One can never be too sure in such situations. However, as it turned out Ayumi was just an ordinary civilian woman who came to Konoha looking for a better life.
However, lately it was becoming a problem to keep Nori under the radar of certain individuals, as her training schedule and the results of it did not go unnoticed. Nori was exceptionally talented for her age, easily besting the young Uchiha at taijutsu and keeping toe-to-toe with the Hyūga heiress' whose taijutsu was unique to the clan. Additionally, the girl seemed to soak knowledge in like a sponge, had limitless stamina thanks to the fox, the list went on really. However, what truly concerned the Hokage was Nori's maturity. She wasn't just smart – she was mature. She seemed to have a grasp of certain things that seem to be impossible for a child her age.
Gai expressed a wish to request Uzumaki Nori early for his team once she graduates, but Hiruzen had to decline as he was intending Nori to be on someone else's team entirely, much to the dismay of Gai.
"Iruka, I know this must be hard for you, but please try to see past your hate. Nori, she…"
Iruka who was bowing in front of the Hokage nodded, albeit his face was serious. "Hai, Hokage-sama, I think I understand."
The Hokage smiled. I truly wish you did Iruka. I truly wish you did…
"I do not think he likes me very much," muttered Nori concerning her new teacher. Sasuke frowned and looked the man over. When he had entered the classroom, Iruka had greeted them all with a friendly smile and introduced himself.
Sasuke watched Iruka for the rest of the class, observing his behavior towards the students, especially towards Nori. It was true, he did treat her differently. It was as if he was almost ignoring her presence. When his eyes looked over the classroom to see if everybody was paying attention, he seemed to flinch whenever his eyes landed on the redhead. Sasuke was growing suspicious of this.
It wasn't just Iruka; it seemed everybody had a problem with Nori. Her mere presence seemed to put people off. They glared, and whispered and just generally seemed ill minded towards his best friend. Yes, Uzumaki Nori was his best friend. He liked Hinata, but Nori was… well, Nori. It couldn't be explained any other way.
Therefore, naturally it bothered Sasuke to no end that she was treated that way. But, why? It was something that the Uchiha boy could not explain. Nori was… well, sure she was awkward and silent – didn't really fit in, that ridiculously bright hair colour made her stand out (though, not that Sasuke would ever admit it, he likes Nori's hair colour – it reminded him of tomatoes).
He needed to know.
Giggles.
"Huh?" he turned to see his red-haired friend quietly laughing. She turned to him with a small smile on her face.
"You looked so funny just now. Yen for your thoughts?" she asked cheekily holding up a coin. Sasuke blinked, once, twice, trice.
"Did you just make a joke?"
Nori blinked, obviously confused. Now it was Hinata's turn to giggle.
Iruka was a bit baffled as he observed the smiling trio in the back of the class. "As I was saying!" he said a bit louder to regain their attention. It worked though the Hyūga girl still looked mildly amused as Sasuke was eyeing Nori incredulously and Nori just looked plain confused.
"I do not think Sasuke likes jokes," she said as Ayumi sat the tea in front of her. The older teenage giggled quietly, she had been the one to tell her about joke lightening the mood in tense situations, and well sometimes, they did, other times they just made everything worse.
"Is that so?"
Nori nodded taking a sip of the tea. Akuma didn't seem interested in anything till Ayumi sat some tuna on a plate in front of the cat. He meowed, pleased with the development of the situation. The continuous feeding he received from the older female human was the only reason he let her pet him. Otherwise, it was just Nori who was in the cat's good graces. Everybody else – stay three feet away.
Ayumi frowned when Nori just sat at the table watching her tea impassively. "Nori-chan?"
The young girl blinked a few times snapping out of her trance. "Huh?"
Ayumi tried to smile. "Everything alright Nori-chan?"
"Aaaa."
It didn't sound convincing to Ayumi.
"Are you sure?"
The red head hesitated before sighing. "We received a new teacher at the academy."
Ayumi waited patiently for Nori to continue, when she didn't the older girl asked quietly. "Is everything alright? Is that teacher not treating you fairly?" The older girl found herself getting worked up. It wasn't fair, Nori wasn't hurting anybody. Yet, everybody remained hostile towards her. Ayumi still didn't know why, but there was a reason.
She remembered it when the Hokage had come to Ichiraku's. It had scared Ayumi nearly to death.
"I assume you must be Ayumi-san?"
Ayumi found herself nodding numbly, not sure what to expect. She may be oblivious about most things, but from her association with Nori she knew that the Hokage was a very important man in the village. One who held a lot of power.
One awkward order of ramen later and the Hokage was clearing his throat, deciding to cut to the chase.
"Ayumi-san, it has been brought to my intention that you have a close relationship with Uzumaki Nori-chan."
Ayumi nodded, she didn't know what to say. After she saw the Hokage smile, she found some courage within her. "Nori-chan is a very sweet girl."
The Hokage nodded. "That she is." He eyed Ayumi, gauging her. "Ayumi-san, as you are probably aware, Nori-san isn't much liked among the population of Konoha. You are new to the village, so I assume the reason escapes you." At Ayumi's nod he continued. "Unfortunately I cannot say it either, it is Nori's secret to share as she sees fit, though as of this moment not even she is aware of it," the Hokage paused as Ayumi's brows rose. She didn't know why people disliked her?
"Hokage-sama?"
The aged man before her looked deep within her eyes as if searching for something and Ayumi felt completely bare as if he could see her every secret.
"Ayumi-san, I hope you will continue to be like you are with Nori-chan. Kami knows she needs more friends."
Ayumi nodded, though she felt like the conversation was far from over. Additionally, it left her even more confused on the issue of Nori's popularity.
"It's not that," mumbled Nori regaining Ayumi's attention. Nori just looked frustrated with her eyebrow drawn together, as if to try to figure out the situation. "I just…" It sounded like she wanted to say more, but stopped herself.
Ayumi put a hand to her shoulder. Nori looked up at her, their eyes meeting. Nori gave her a small smile. "It's fine, I'm used to it," she whispered.
Ayumi's grip tightened on her shoulder. You shouldn't have to be.
The next day Nori was doing her usual training after classes had let out when she encountered none other than Gai.
"Senpai," she greeted casually. Gai gave her a blinding smile, his teeth shinning in the light. I really have to ask him what he does to them, thought the red head as she observed the man.
"My youthful kohai! How are you this lovely afternoon?"
Nori gave him a close-eyed smile, her head titling to the side.
"I'm alright. What are you up to senpai?"
Gai beamed at her before pulling something out of his kunai pouch. "I got something to improve your youthful training!"
Nori blinked as he dangled the object on front of her eyes. "Those are special weights. I want you to wear them at all times. When you get used to the weight come to me and I will make them heavier," he said and then proceeded to explain how they are based on a seal array and actually used a person's chakra to weight said person down.
"That's really useful. Thank you senpai!"
Gai beamed.
"Nori-chan! Your flames of youth are shining brightly today!"
After Gai gave her a new training schedule (which Nori was going to tune down – no way were 10 laps around the village a good warm up), they got to talking about everyday life.
"You seem very close to your friends, Nori-chan!" A thumb up followed the sentence at which Nori just smiled.
"Yeah, too bad we are probably not going to stay a team after graduation. What with my bad chakra control, maybe I won't even graduate," she grumbled disheartened.
Gai stood up, suddenly full of energy. "Never fear Nori-chan, there is a way for you three to stay a team, but, are you three willing to work for it? It's not going to be easy."
Nori didn't even think twice before nodding. Gai grinned. "Then Nori-chan, bring your team here tomorrow and we can discuss the details!"
"A way to stay in a team together?" Nori nodded at Hinata who smiled brightly.
"That would be great, b-but how?"
Nori shrugged. "I do not know yet. I mean I cannot even perform the bunshin and my chakra control is downright terrible." Sasuke snorted at that. Nori gave him a half-hearted glare.
"What?" asked the Uchiha, a small smirk on his lips. "You are the only person alive to make the leaf blast of you instead of sticking it to your skin."
Nori looked down defeated while Hinata tried desperately to cheer her up.
"Oi!" Sasuke yelped when Hinata hit him on the shoulder. He rubbed his arm up and down. Hinata stuttered, stunned that she actually did it before working up courage again.
"D-don't b-be m-mean to N-nori-ch-chan! She has it really hard w-with chakra con-control!"
Sasuke continued to rub his shoulder even though it didn't hurt. Hinata was finally growing a spine. It was about time.
"It's fine Hinata-chan, Sasuke was only teasing."
Hinata nodded, but didn't fail to shot Sasuke a small glare. Sasuke felt like a kitten was staring him down, he tried not to laugh.
"Now, usually potential genin do not get to pick their future team mates," Gai started explaining as they were finally seated in the middle of training ground four. "However, under special circumstances, such requests can be taken into account if you can name valid reason for such and if you get a jonin to testify for your team work."
Nori nodded. "That jonin would be you, senpai?" Gai gave his kohai a simple nod.
"That is true, now I have run this request over with the Hokage," eyebrows shot up and confusion entered the young potential genins' faces, but they kept quiet and waited for more information. "He has agreed that you could become a potential team, but the requirement is that you must graduate at least a year before your peers and you all must graduate at the same time. If you cannot do that you will be split up and put into traditional squads."
Nori's shoulders slumped. Without performing a bunshin she could never graduate, not even with her perfect taijutsu results.
Nori tensed when she felt a hand on her shoulder, but relaxed when she saw Hinata's pupil-less eyes staring into her own. The Hyūga gave her an encouraging smile at which Nori nodded.
As they were walking home, Sasuke noticed that Nori seemed terribly worried about not being able to perform the required jutsus in time. He sighed.
Nori smiled when she felt Sasuke ruffle her hair when they came to a halt at Sasuke's apartment. "Don't beat yourself up over it. Without you it's not worth graduating early. Anyway, even if we get separated it doesn't mean we can't stay friends," the Uchiha trailed of as he watched for any visible reaction from Nori.
The red head gave him a small smile before nodding. "Aaa."
Sasuke smiled as he watched her head home to feed Akuma. He knew she was going to swing by later just to check on him and see if he has eaten. Sasuke would never admit he was actually looking forward to that.
A/N: I know I'm late and I know it's short, but I really wanted to post something and I'm still working on the next chapter. Still can't really figure out graduation, but Iruka will have a bigger part in it, so there is that. Next chapter will be longer!
Anyway I hope you guys enjoyed and until next time (which will hopefully be next week) :)
Thanks to everybody who favourite/followed this story! :) You guys rock! :D
Special thanks to Lavendor Queen, kuromiin, Arianna Le Fay, TamashinoSuzume, The Almighty Pyro, KumorikoKumoriko, Guest#1, OlafIsoherranen, Guest#2, Illogical Human, xenocanaan, Guest#3 for reviewing.
Often asked questions.
Is Sasuke/Nori the main pairing?
Answer: As of right now, I myself don't know what the main pairing is, or who either of those two will be paired with. I have some ideas; it might be like you guys said. However, I generally start writing characters and see how they fit into the story. There might develop something more than friendship, but it won't be until later in Shippuden.
Who will be in team 7?
Answer: I think this chapter is self-explanatory. But, I always planned for it to be Hinata and now I have finally worked out a team dynamic that fits these guys well.
Will Akuma be a nin-cat?
Answer: No. However, Nori will not summon toads. I have hinted at it, but later in the story, it will be revealed.
That's all for this time. Please review I always like to hear your opinions, they help me write chapters, as odd as that sounds.
