Hisato stared at the gleaming head band resting in his hands, tracing the engraved symbol pressed into the shiny metal with his thumb. It was a stylised leaf, a symbol of Konohagakure, and the mark that singled him out as an official ninja of Konoha's shinobi forces. The forehead protector was his. He'd done it. He wasn't a student anymore, he was a genin. He couldn't wait to inform his father. The time for lagging behind the rest of his family was over. He was now on the path to becoming their equal.
"You passed too then?" Hisato looked up to see Biwako slide into the seat next to him, a huge smile on her face and a blue strip of cloth gripped tightly in her right hand. She waved her own hitai-ate at him with glee, the polished metal throwing the last light of the setting sun from outside the window into his eyes.
"Yeah." Hisato held up his own Hitai-ate, a stupid grin on his face. "It was touch and go during the spar for a while, but the paper test was easy, I hit the target dead on during the accuracy tests and my ninjutsu were nothing to sniff at."
Biwako sighed. "I don't think I did too well in the spar either." She admitted. "But I'm pretty sure that my three ninjutsu were flawless."
"It doesn't matter now." Hisato told her. "We've graduated. No more tests. No more school!"
"No more school." Biwako repeated softly. She was now staring out of the window, a sad look slowly creeping across her face. In the space of a few minutes she had gone from manically happy to melancholic.
Girls. Hisato rolled his eyes.
It wasn't long before all of the examinations were complete, and those that passed were all gathered once again in classroom four. Their number had shrunk from thirty to nineteen, four children having decided not to sit the test and the rest unfortunately missing the mark. Kagami entered last and took a seat next to Danzo just in time to pay attention to the re-entry of Junpei Yuhi, who made his way back to the podium, this time with a small smile on his face for the group.
"Congratulations." He told them. "You're all now genin of the Leaf from today on. You'll report back to this classroom at nine tomorrow morning for team assignments, and after that you'll meet your jonin sensei, who will be in charge of your education from this point on. Go home. Get some rest. You all did great today." He nodded at them all. "Dismissed."
"Dango?" Biwako asked Hisato as they stood up to leave.
"You bet." Finally he had something worth celebrating. There was still some time yet before he had to be home for dinner, and for once he didn't really worry about his father's anger should he be late. Surely the news that he had graduated early would grant him a free pass to celebrate with a friend tonight, right?
A/N:
There was a bit of a gap between chapters here, and that was because uni work started to pick up. This is another short chapter, but I hope to have the follow up posted sometime soon, maybe tomorrow? I don't know...