It was that time in the life of all genin.
And Naruko was ready. That morning, as soon as the sun came up she was up.
"SASUKE! HAKU!" She screamed, banging pans together as she stomped through the house. There were loud groans that came from both rooms. A smile spread across the girl's face as she burst into Sasuke's room, her blond hair down and messy, sticking out and up. "Sasuke!" She jumped onto his bed.
"WHat the hell do you want." Sasuke groaned, sending her a glare.
"It's time!" She shook him.
"TIme for what?" Sasuke sat up, pushing her away.
"Don't you remember?" Naruko pouted. Sasuke just replied with a groan.
Haku leaned in the doorway, dressed and ready, yawning.
"The chunnin exams are soon so Naruko wanted to start training today. Don't you remember, Sasuke?" He said with a triumphant smirk. Naruko smiled.
"Ah! Haku! You remembered." She smiled, hopping off Sasuke's bed and wrapping a friendly arm around the semi-taller boys neck. Sasuke's eye shot open. He sat up.
"Naruko go eat breakfast." He said. Naruko pouted, but let go of Haku and walked off. Haku glared at the Uchiha.
"No fair." Haku growled, walking after the blond.
Sasuke changed his clothes and headed downstairs to where Naruko was eating a bowl of cereal with Haku. He let out a sigh, his two roommates, he had no idea why he was so angry whenever Haku and Naruko were alone together. But he had the ability to make Naruko do something else if he please… though that wasn't fair to her, he felt a little guilty afterwards.
"And we'll train so hard, it'll be impossible for anyone to-" There was a knock on the door that interrupted Naruko's sentence. Sasuke walked over and answered it, it was Kakashi.
"Ready for training?" He asked him, doing that eye smile.
"...What?" Naruko and Sasuke said at the same time.
I was later that Sasuke was walking with Kakashi, he had left Naruko and Haku to train, or to go see the Hokage and find out who would be training them. Kakashi glanced down at Sasuke.
"You look frustrated. Is something the matter?" He asked with a slight smirk, hidden by his mask.
"Nothing." Sasuke said hastily, still angry that his teacher had taken him away from his home and his friend. Kakashi chuckled.
"Naruko will be fine without you for a little while, you don't have to be with her all the time." He said teasingly.
"I'm not with her all time time, plus she doesn't know anything about what the world's like now." Sasuke said indignantly.
"She knows enough. You know, when we were kids she was my rival. Well, i mean, she's still a kid. But… you know." Kakashi chuckled. Sasuke looked up at him, forgetting that he too knew NAruko, and was close to her. It must hurt to not be able to hang out like before. "I want to protect her too. But she has to learn on her own." He said. Sasuke nodded. Naruko had to learn on her own… He was right.
Naruko and Haku on the other hand had gone off to the Hokage's tower to find out who their teachers would be for the chunnin exams.
"Yo! 5th!" Naruko waved, walking into the room.
"Oh, Naruko, and Haku, I was just about to send for you two." The hokage smiled as Haku walked into the room after Naruko.
"Mhm! We need teachers, or are we training by ourselves?" Naruko asked, her bright blue eyes gleaming with anticipation. The Hokage chuckled.
"You will both have separate teachers, Naruko, i'm sticking you with Ebisu, Haku, you'll train with Iruka." He said, nodding as both teachers walked into the room.
"Ehhh? I have to deal with Ebisu?!" Naruko whined, remembering the stuck up boy from her days back in the past. Ebisu looked at the girl.
"Still small and annoying I See." He smirked.
"Still pretentious and snobby I see!" Naruko retaliated. The two glared at eachother. Haku sighed, bowing a bit to Iruka before the two walked out together.
It was later that Naruko was arguing loudly with Ebisu, it resulted in a fight, a fight that the girl one with ease. She stomped off in her victory, hoping to find Sasuke or Haku somewhere in the big city of Konoha. INstead she found herself watching in amusement as an old man was kicked out of the womens bath for peeking. But… she recognized him from somewhere, especially when he summoned a frog to ride right in her direction.
"Watch out!" She yelled as the frog skidded to a halt. The man looked down, and his eye went wide. Naruko smiled up at him. "Hi Grandpa!" she grinned. Jiraiya dropped down from his frog and knelt in front of her.
"You…. you can't be… you're dead…" He muttered, lifting a hand to touch her face. Naruko reached up and grabbed his hand, tilting her head towards his hand more.
"Hi grandpa…" She said, obvious tears in her eyes.
"Naruko." Jiraiya pulled the young girl into a tight hug.
The two stayed like that for a while, hugging in the street. Naruko's arms not reaching all the way around her grandfather. She enjoyed being wrapped in his arms again, completely buried in his clothes.
"I missed you…" She muttered.
"I missed you two kiddo." Jiraiya responded, pulling away and looking at her once again. "Look at you! You haven't aged a bit… your father would be very happy." He chuckled, trying to make light.
"Yeah…" Naruko wiped her eyes with a smile.
"You can fill me in later… what are you up to now?" Jiraiya asked.
"I'm training for the chunnin exams… but i got stuck with Ebisu, so i kicked his snobby ass." she smiled proudly. Jiraiya smirked and gave her a high five. "Hey hey… grandpa… do you wanna train me?!" She asked with a devious smile. Jiraiya just broke out laughing.
Kakashi was watching Sasuke train, he had given the boy instructions and was waiting to see him have some sort of break through the with technique he was learning. Only to feel some familiar chakra, some unsettling chakra. He slipped away from Sasuke to find the source, though he was scared that he was right.
"Itachi…" Kakashi glared when he reached where the man was standing. Itachi simply stared at Kakashi, who threw a kunai at the man, hoping to catch him off guard. Of course that didn't work and Itacho ended up in front of the masked teacher, sending him into a genjutsu just as the others got there.
"Kakashi!" Guy caught his friend from falling, accompanied by Asuma, Anko, and Kurenai.
The four teachers stood in front of the unconscious Kakashi, ready for a fight.
"Where's the nine tails." Itachi demanded.
"Dead." All four teachers recited at once. It was what they did to protect an old friend who had come back from her 'death'. Itachi chuckled, and with that, he vanished.
Itachi walked back over to his partner.
"She's definitely awake, but I'm not sure who her master is yet." He said.
"Well let's go get her then, i saw her talking to some old pervert." Kisame laughed. Itachi rolled his eyes, following his partner to the next town, where Naruko and Jiraiya were catching up at a bar near a hotel.
Meanwhile, Haku had heard the news about Kakashi, him and Iruka went to visit the man in the hospital, where all the jounin were talking about what their next move should be.
All got silent when Sasuke burst in.
"It was nothing Sasuke, he's just sick, don't worry about it." Anko said casually. Haku kept a straight face and nodded, when a ninja burst in.
"Is it true that Kakashi was attacked by Itachi!?" he yelled, earning stern, panicked looks from everyone in the room.
"What…" Sasuke, looked back.
"And is it true that he's looking for the nine tails!?" The guy asked, everyone groaned in exasperation, when Sasuke sprinted out of the room.
"Sasuke! Wait!" Haku ran after the boy.
"I have to find her. I have to find her first." Sasuke yelled back at Haku as they ran through the town.
"NARUKO!" They both called out.