Hey all! Once again, I return with another chapter! A quick note, after numerous people pointed out that banishment wasn't all that believable, I decided to do a quick revise of the end so that the punishment was more strict and, hopefully, more believable. Thanks for bringing that up! Aside from that, seems most of you enjoyed what I did with the Uchiha, so yay! xD
TeninChwang - I'm sorry you feel that way. However, while the banishment has since been replaced, I can assure you that even if I had kept it, having Danzo join the Akatsuki was never, and will never be, my intention. It would neither fit with his character in my opinion, but even if it did it wouldn't fit in with the overall plot. Hopefully you are still able to continue reading the story!
SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan - Fixed! Thanks for bringing that to my attention! :D
RyoshiMorino - We'll just have to agree to disagree, then. ;P
Now, as a quick warning, personally, I did not like this chapter at all. The reason was, as soon as I started attempting to write, I quickly came to the realization that I had completely neglected the Academy stage during my plotting of the story. As such, I was kinda sorta winging it during this chapter - and "winging it" is something I absolutely hate doing. Still, hope you find more enjoyment in reading it than I found writing it! D:
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Naruto games, or... Anything related to Naruto! Don't kill me.
Chapter 10: The Academy
Naruto sighed softly as he sat on the edge of one of many long desks in the crowded classroom. Faint murmurs were whispered among the children, and pencils were scratched on paper as doodles were written down. The room was rectangular, longer than it was wide, and had rows of long, wooden tables held up by a single, yet sturdy, leg that was as long as the table - though it lacked the same girth - each row containing three, with four rows total, making for twelve desks in the entire class. A shorter plank, roughly the same size as the desks and three people wide with plenty of elbow room, acted as the seats. The room had an upward incline, two sets of stairs in between the rows of desks leading up to the back, and the desks were in tiers all the way up.
Incidentally, each seat's backrest was the leg holding up the desk the next tier up, allowing for a very convenient view of those on the lower tier's work.
The ceiling was high as a result, remaining at the same height from the front to the back, being at its greatest distance away from the floor at the teacher's podium. In the very front of the class, a small rectangular stage rested against the wall, and at the frontal edge of that was a tall podium, and upon the wall behind it was a large, currently blank blackboard. The floor was made up of dark cerise colored strips of wood, the ceiling a reflective, dark green tile, and the walls were a pale blue. The Academy was full of classrooms, and most of them were almost exact replicas as the one Naruto was in now, with some minor variations with each.
Next to the blond, Shikamaru stood next to the seat, with a hand on his hip and his head cocked over to the side, with eyebrows quirked in a semi-confused, semi-bored expression. Choji sat on the seat itself, his body turned to face the standing Shikamaru, and he chatted away in a one sided conversation on the wonderful meal he was going to have after class, a broad smile on his round face. Naruto kept a faint smile on his face, despite the fact that he, like Shikamaru, was completely bored out of his mind. Choji's meat-feasting fantasies were entertaining for a short while, but quickly began to lose the boy's interest.
The blond's blue eyes drifted over to the brown, tall door when it was opened inward, and he silently watched when Sasuke Uchiha entered and quietly made his way over to the unoccupied second row seat by the window. Naruto and Shikamaru shared a glance, before Naruto pushed himself off the desk and walked over to the silent Uchiha. Choji didn't really notice Naruto's departure, and if he did he was doing an impressive job of not showing it. Shikamaru half wondered if the Akimichi was even really paying attention to them at all, or if he was just mindlessly rambling on about... food.
Naruto slipped into the seat next to Sasuke, who sat with his shoulders slightly slumped and his hair shadowing over his downcast eyes. The Academy had been abuzz all morning with rumors and whispers, each retelling the same tale - more or less. In a single night, nearly the entire Uchiha clan had been wiped out. Some of the children were too young or too naïve to truly understand what that meant, but Naruto got it loud and clear. The blond hadn't even expected Sasuke to show up today, or that week, or ever again. Yet here, to several other's shock, the young Uchiha was. Even then, Naruto could hear quiet whispers related to Sasuke, but never directed at him.
The blond glanced over when he saw Sasuke's head dip lower, and Naruto knew that Sasuke had also heard the quiet conversations. "Hey, you okay?" Naruto asked with a concerned frown, his voice low and barely even heard by those in the adjacent seats. Sasuke flinched, and shot his head up to stare at Naruto with shocked, wide eyes and a partly open mouth. Naruto blinked; he had never seen the normally stoic Sasuke so easily startled, nor had he ever seen him so readily show surprise. As quickly as it came, Sasuke had returned to his disinterested expression.
"Yeah." Sasuke replied, and shifted his attention back to the front of the class. Naruto sighed, and leaned back to wait for their sensei to show. Sasuke never had been one for many words, but Naruto had seen Sasuke's older brother enough times to figure out why that was. The older Uchiha, Itachi - he was quiet, mysterious, and said few words whenever Naruto had seen him. The blond had guessed that Sasuke was simply trying to live up to his brother's image - and he must have pulled it off wonderfully, because all the girls loved him for it.
After several minutes, the room suddenly went completely quiet when a tall man in a Chunin flak jacket entered the room in a stride. He had brown hair tied in a spiky pony tail, and a long scar running across the bridge of his nose and over onto his cheeks under his dark brown eyes. His skin was tanned, and he bore a kind smile as he turned to examine the children-filled room. "Good morning, class." he greeted with his hands on his hips. Variously tuned 'mornings' were returned, some excited and energetic while others were tired and grumbly. Naruto's was a base even, and in fact his was drowned out by all the others.
Iruka's smile softened even more at the reaction he was very much used to. After teaching for over a year, he had come to expect the kind of varied response he received every time he entered the class. However, even so, a small bead of sweat rolled down his left cheek. The Hokage had introduced a new student to him, and he was not at all excited to know how her peculiar temperament would come to effect his class. "We have a new student joining us today." He said smoothly, despite the grit in his teeth. Naruto's head perked up a tad, but otherwise he remained unmoved. Sasuke didn't move at all. Iruka glanced to the door. "You can come in now."
Several seconds went by before any movement was made. Then a young girl entered, with striking red, lower neck length red hair, held down by a black cap that rested on the very top of her head. As Tayuya entered, she cast a glare at everyone - literally, everyone - in the entire room, as she strode over next to Iruka without a fear in the world. That alone earned her some unusual looks, as most kids were at least a little nervous on their first day. Naruto gasped softly, earning a sideways glance from Sasuke. "Tayuya?" the blond asked in a quiet whisper.
Iruka forced his gentle smile to remain on his mouth, as his eyebrow twitched and the same, annoying bead of sweat continued on its course down his cheek. "Everyone, this is Tayuya. She'll be your classmate from today on." Iruka unnecessarily explained. Everyone already knew that, but procedures had to be followed to a certain degree. The instructor turned to the newest addition of his class. "Say hello Tayuya." he offered, not out of a necessity of her doing it, but as a way to break the ice with the rest of his students. The redhead didn't even shift in her place when she responded.
"Fuck you."
Iruka nearly face faulted at the ease of which Tayuya threw the phrase out, only restrained by the sudden shocked and confused expressions most of his students now sported. Naruto slapped his palm against his forehead with a twitch of his mouth; he had already guessed that such an event would occur the moment Tayuya entered the room. Sasuke remained still, Shikamaru quirked a brow, and Choji stared with his jaw dropped. Meanwhile, somewhere in the back of the room, a small girl with midnight blue hair, pale skin, and wide open, pure white eyes sat shocked with her hands covering her ears.
"Tayuya!" Iruka exclaimed with his eyebrows raised and eyes wide. The redhead barely even turned to look at him for a second, before returning her attention to the rest of the room. While Iruka twitched and mildly contorted, Tayuya's eyes scanned the room from top to bottom - until finally she stared directly at Naruto. She scowled and silently, save for her sandals against the wooden floor, walked over. Naruto blinked and removed his palm from his head, as Tayuya came to a stop beside the table.
"Time to move, fucker." She said in a matter of fact tone - Iruka did face fault this time - with her eyes set upon the table. Naruto's blue eyes fell, and a scowl came over his face, and he briefly glanced to Sasuke before beginning to stand. But a hand to his shoulder stopped him. "The fuck you going?" she asked, to which Naruto quirked a brow. "I was talking to the fucker with the duck ass for a head. Not you, shit for brains." Naruto whirled around to look at Sasuke, who himself stared at Tayuya in horror. The blond's eyes drifted to the Uchiha's hair, before they widened and he forced down a surely exaggerated guffaw.
"It's not a duck's a- a- butt!" Sasuke defended almost pitifully, his eyes wide and cheeks a faint pink, all the while his brows arced down in a scowl as he desperately tried to maintain his established 'cool' demeanor. It wasn't working. The redhead's eyes rolled and her shoulders rotated up in a shrug, before she tilted her head and feigned reexamining the Uchiha's hairdo. The indifferent expression, her face lacking the previous glare, was like a completely different personality in comparison to her norm'.
"Just fucking callin' it as I fucking see it, duckass." she replied, "I don't fucking care what it is, just move your fucking ass out of my spot." Sasuke's mouth opened to speak, but no words came immediately - or at all. Naruto peeked over his shoulder, and wondered where the horde of fan girls that normally protected Sasuke in moments such as this were, and why they weren't attempting to rip Tayuya to shreds. It wasn't as surprising to see that they weren't doing just that when Naruto saw the shocked, bewildered, otherwise totally befuddled expressions on their faces.
"Tayuya, that's enough!" Iruka exclaimed once more, after removing his head from a dent in the wooden floor. His pleas, which should have been an order, were ignored by the redhead, who kept her gradually angering expression on Sasuke. For a few, silent minutes where most of the occupants of the classroom remained frozen in shock at the foul-mouthed redhead, the perpetual staring contest continued with Tayuya adopting a firm glare while Sasuke struggled to regain some dignity at having his hairdo compared to an animal's hide.
For a moment, Naruto could have sworn he saw sparks arcing between the two, lightning literally bouncing off the table in front of him, before it suddenly stopped. Naruto turned to look at the Uchiha, but found that the spot next to him where Sasuke had been sitting had been abandoned - in favor of the window seat one tier up behind them. "What the-?!" the blond exclaimed, and Tayuya quietly slid across the desk to seat herself in the spot the Uchiha had once been. "How?" He asked incredulously, having seen Kiba - the one known most for his thick headedness in the class - lose many a staring contest against the Uchiha prodigy.
"I fucking get what I fucking want, and I wanted a fucking window seat." Tayuya replied lowly, before she turned her head to stare out the window next to them. Naruto chose to ignore the fact that there was another window seat open behind them - or, was open, until Sasuke had moved to it. The blond was smart enough to know that it wouldn't do him any good, and he'd find himself on the receiving end of a very long string of expletives. It wasn't worth the effort. Shikamaru, who was the least effected by Tayuya's abundant use of the dark side of her vocabulary, smirked at the scene.
Iruka finally regained control of his expression, and he shifted to a soft smile once Tayuya had sat down on the seat. 'Well, I guess I can cut her some slack this time. It's only her first day. Her behavior is just because she's nervous.' he thought. Little did he know...
The introduction of a new member to an established student body brought certain educational problems; for the teachers, the old students, and the new student alike. The teachers had the job of putting together a course plan that kept the veteran children learning, while also catching the new student up to the level the established students were at. The old kids had the easiest job normally, as all they had to worry about was shifting their cliques around the newly arrival. The new addition, however, always had the toughest job. Unless they were of a personality type where they made a lot of friends, or became popular through other means, getting integrated into the school could prove to be a very straining endeavor.
That was why, normally, the Academy only ever introduced students in groups, and never as single individuals. Thankfully, an event occurring where only one student joined the rest was not unheard of, and Konoha had prepared themselves in the case that such a thing would happen again. Thus, Iruka and the rest of the teachers were capable of adapting to the sudden appearance of a new child added to the horde of others they had to deal with. As the instructor put in charge of training the students in the ways of the shinobi, Iruka was ordered by the Hokage himself to ensure Tayuya's successful education in that regard.
First came the basics of the shinobi - Taijutsu.
"The fuck you mean 'you're not doing it right'?!" Tayuya bellowed as she glared at Naruto from the other side of a sandy patch surrounded by a white, chalk circle. Weeks had passed since her introductory class, and though the instructors had doubts the vulgar redhead would advance far in the Academy, she had quickly defied their expectations and made leaps and bounds in progress. Unfortunately, she still had a lot of improvement to be made - and she still demonstrated her particular expertise of the vocabulary.
"Your knees are too far together, your hands are too low, your thumbs are on the inside of your fist, and you're too stiff." Naruto reminded her with a small frown. "You're off balance. You won't be able to hit me unless you can roll through the punch without falling over." Tayuya growled, and did her best to fix her stance. Naruto sighed; it wasn't perfect, but it'd do. Still, he did respect her for her deciding to learn taijutsu with the rest of them. The other girls took an extra flower picking - or something - class instead of the physical exercise. "Okay, let's go again!" he said with a grin.
Tayuya charged forward, crossing the short sprint between them and aiming a solid punch straight for Naruto's jaw. Instead of it hitting, the blond simply stepped to the side and avoided the blow. Another strike met with the same result. The third, forth, and fifth attacks were all dodged, and finally Tayuya launched a fierce assault against the blond with a shout. Naruto moved to the side once more, but this time he grabbed hold of Tayuya's outstretched wrist and tugged her forward, causing Tayuya to fall. But then, Naruto slipped around with one foot skidding across the dirt, and he grabbed Tayuya's shoulder. He spun her around, and sent her stumbling back the other way - without falling.
She struggled to a stop, and turned around with a glare. "Fuck! Why the fuck can't I hit you?!" she demanded with a stomp of her foot. Naruto reached up and rubbed the back of his head with a nervous smile and a cautious chuckle, his free hand resting on his hip.
"It's only been a few weeks! Give it time, you'll get better." he assured, with Tayuya giving a huff of annoyance as her reply. She had, in truth, made a good deal of progress in her time at the Academy - taijutsu, however, was one of her weak points. Still, she was already at the same level as the other would-be kunoichi's of the Academy, and Iruka had stated that if she'd kept it up she'd go even higher. As if on cue, Iruka walked up to the small sparring circle from another pair he had been monitoring.
"Everything alright?" he asked with a raised brow and a soft smile. Which, Tayuya had come to realize, when the redhead wasn't cussing or a kid wasn't in trouble, was his normal expression. His formerly soft smile dropped to an over exaggerated sweat drop very shortly after he arrived, as Tayuya began to vent her frustrations.
"Like fucking hell it is!" she began with a glare. "I'm getting fucking pissed off at this fucking douche, and all the fucking while he's just fucking off without a fucking care in the shitty world, and I. Can't. Fucking. Hit him!" she yelled. Iruka pinched the bridge of his nose as he grit his teeth, eyebrow twitching incessantly. Most of the other children in the yard stopped their actions, whether that was sparring or running or punching defenseless dummies, to stare at the irate redhead. Experience had shown - whenever she was angry, there would be pain.
"Tayuya..." Iruka grumbled, and the instructor sighed before dropping his hands to his side. The Chunin turned his head and looked over the field, until his eyes met the back of the dark blue shirt Sasuke wore. "Sasuke!" Iruka called. Sasuke swiveled around, tearing his attention away from a downed Kiba, who wore a white jacket and dark, semi-baggy pants; he was also being barked at by a small dog. As the young Uchiha trotted over, Iruka turned back to Naruto and Tayuya. "Naruto, spar with Sasuke and let Tayuya watch. Tayuya, I want you to pay attention to everything they do, and try to utilize it for yourself."
Tayuya scowled, but sauntered out of the small circle, and Sasuke replaced her. The redhead was soon surprised to observe that most of the students surrounded the two and formed a crowd, and they watched intently with some whispering amongst themselves. Tayuya's scowl deepened while the two stood still, facing each other across the field. She had learned that Sasuke was one of the more successful students in the Academy; but had also discovered that Naruto wasn't too far behind. Despite that, in the weeks she had been there, she had yet to see them fight. Suddenly, Tayuya realized that she anticipated this spar more than she cared to let on.
Iruka glanced between the two boys, and noted how both of their expressions were level; both determined and unwavering. He smiled, and stepped back off the circle. "Begin!" Immediately, the two charged each other, three strides bringing them to meet in the center of the ring. Naruto struck first, his fist flying forward and meeting Sasuke's outstretched palm. Sasuke grabbed hold, and threw his free arm forward to hit Naruto's jaw. Even while being pulled forward, Naruto managed to snatch Sasuke's arm by the wrist and wrenched Sasuke to the side. Not wasting a beat, the Uchiha twisted around and aimed his heel upward in a rotating kick.
Naruto dropped to the floor, letting Sasuke's foot soar over his head, and dragged his own foot around to sweep Sasuke's leg out from under him. The Uchiha left the ground entirely, Naruto's kick harmlessly passing under him, and then he returned both feet to the ground; Naruto rolled away and stood back to his feet, dust coating his back. Once more they lingered a short ways away from each other, both hunched slightly with their arms held at shoulder level. When they assaulted each other once more, they launched into a series of punches, kicks, grapples, and counters that left the dust billowing in the wind.
And then, finally, after a full minute of no real progress being made, their deadlock came to an end. Sasuke punched two consecutive blows, and Naruto slapped them aside with his forearms in turn, and the blond quickly slipped between the broken guard and rammed Sasuke's chest with two fast, powerful (for their age group), open palmed strikes. It wasn't the Juken, the melee style of the Hyuga, but it was certainly similar. Sasuke stumbled back, and even fell, but without a second going by he had once more rolled to his feet. Both boys breathed hard, though Sasuke more than Naruto, with Sasuke's being rapid and Naruto's slower, more controlled.
Iruka watched on solemnly, even as the other kids cheered. Most of them rooted for Sasuke, the Uchiha being the most popular (begrudgingly) student in the class, but a few supported Naruto as well. But Iruka knew that the winner was already decided. Sasuke had skill, that much was true. But Naruto had enough energy to fill the entire village, natural dexterity trained from years of living on his own (with support from the Hokage), and reflexes that sometimes left even Iruka speechless. Even though Sasuke could keep up for a time, it was Naruto who had the advantage in a taijutsu fight. It was just a matter of time.
The instructor blinked, and his eyes drifted from the spar before him to the Academy building. Up, and up, and up he looked, until at last he was left staring at the very top of the structure. There, leaned against a large external vent with her brace plated arms folded over her chest, was a woman whose face was obscured by a white cat's mask with long, purple hair falling down her back. She gave a faceless, brief nod at Iruka, and the instructor then drifted back to the continuing spar. 'You're in good hands, Naruto. We'll keep you safe this time. I promise.'
Tayuya's training would continue, and her gradually improving taijutsu skills would be utilized in the next stage of her shinobi education. Even while she practiced and practiced and practiced her hand-to-hand combat efficiency and physical abilities, she was drilled alongside the other students in the seemingly straightforward art of managing and appropriately wielding the equipment of the shinobi. Kunai and shuriken, smoke bombs, and even traps like thin wired tug releases, trap holes, and foot vices. While teaching a normally irate redhead how to properly use sharp, pointy equipment was probably not the best idea, nevertheless it was necessary for her continued development as a shinobi.
"Whoa, watch it!" a boy yelled when a spinning kunai imbedded itself into the dirt in front of him, forcing the lad to step back; an action that turned into more of a tumble than anything else. Tayuya glared at the target several yards away, and ignored the discontent child as he retreated away from the scene. She squinted in concentration at her objective, a target braced on a stubby, wooden post with a lone kunai protruding at an upward angle with its tip dug in to the red circle of the bull's eye, and another kunai in her enclosed fist. Her eyebrow twitched when Naruto stepped forward and entered her peripheral vision.
"How do you ricochet a kunai off a wooden target, and manage to get it all the way back here?" he said with a mildly concerned frown. Tayuya was far from a novice trainee at this point, and in fact the kunai firmly lodged into the wooden post had been thrown by her, but accidents did happen. And though Iruka was nearby, all it would take was one wrong move at the wrong time, and there'd likely be blood on the ground. Naruto could only hope it wouldn't be his, but with how spontaneously flung that last kunai had been, he wasn't too sure it wouldn't be. Perhaps partly as a tribute so that he wouldn't be skewered, Naruto grabbed the fallen knife and handed it to Tayuya.
"Can it, shit brains!" came her growled retort, though she accepted the kunai readily enough. Her eyes never left the target - Naruto was surprised she didn't accidentally cut herself on the kunai when she grabbed it without looking -, and her brows furrowed in deep concentration. Then, she tossed one of the two projectiles, and it sliced through the air like a knife through butter. Across the field it flew, and finally pierced into the first few layers of the painted wood, scraping along the other kunai and jarring it free in the process. As it fell and tumbled down to the floor, Tayuya threw the third kunai in the general direction of the targets; though not with the intent of hitting them. "Fucking damn it!"
Naruto winced as the randomly thrown dagger slipped by the thick post and lodged itself in between the links of the chain fence beyond. He was thankful that, luckily, there had been no one standing there. The blond glanced to Tayuya, who was huffing angrily with her head dipped low, and tilted his head to the side. "What're you trying to do?" he asked with a quirked brow. "Throwing them that close together isn't gonna' work. You have to aim for the far sides of the circle to avoid knocking your own kunai out." he explained, though he knew full well that Tayuya was aware of the fact. Then he frowned as he got a good look at Tayuya's face.
Tayuya smirked when Iruka approached, and Naruto was shocked when he realized that the ground beneath the instructor's feet was, literally, collapsing. Iruka was shocked himself, eyes widening as his body disappeared abruptly into a small hole dug into the once compacted dirt below. Tayuya burst out in a cackle as the rest of the kids, Naruto included, stared at the scene with wide open eyes and hung open mouths. "It worked!" Tayuya exclaimed with glee. "It actually fuckin' worked!" she announced again, hands held in fists high in the air as she shouted to the sky. "I fucking got him! Fuck yeah!" Barely heard under Tayuya's joyful cheers, a low groan escaped the hole.
One of the students wondered if their teacher was dead in a low mutter, and Naruto rolled his eyes. It would take more than that to kill their teacher, and most of them knew that. It was more likely that he was having difficulty getting up after smacking down on his back than actually any serious injury. Naruto, however, wasn't entirely sure about what had occurred, and advertised his confusion with a frown. "Tayuya." He began, which ceased Tayuya's laughter. "I'm pretty sure you didn't know he'd walk there. There's no way you could have set up a pit trap with the sole intention of pulling a prank on Iruka-sensei."
"The fuck you talkin' about?" Tayuya returned. Just then, off in the distance, a high pitched scream emanated through the Academy grounds as Kiba fell into another, distant trap hole. Naruto could feel the over exaggerated sweat drop running down the back of his face as Tayuya grinned at him. "I filled this whole" she waved her arms around to emphasize "fucking place with fucking landmines! And only I fucking know where the fucking shitholes are!" she explained with a proud lift in her chin. Naruto laughed nervously, and forced down the lump that had formed in his throat. Especially after Iruka pulled himself out of the hole with a vein throbbing in his forehead. And there was only one thing he could say, when stuck between an angry teacher and only-Tayuya-knew how many trap holes.
'We're... We're screwed.'
Months would pass, the seasons changing from late winter to early summer. Despite the advancing of days, the only real change in the weather was a dismissal of the crisp breeze winter provided and a mildly arid climate put in its place. It was almost unnoticeable, except during midday where temperatures spiked the highest. Even then, Tayuya didn't complain once about the change. She found it rather enjoyable, in fact. The high walls of the canyon Iwa found itself in often suppressed any breeze whatsoever, except for when massive thunderstorms raged through and swept down into the crevices. Konoha brought a pleasant change.
And as time ran on, her abilities in the shinobi arts further improved, and they moved on to the next phase - Ninjutsu.
"Okay, class. We're going to go over the transformation technique again." Iruka informed with a brown notebook in his hand and a pencil in the other. Some of the kids in the classroom groaned and whined and complained, while others silently complied with the teacher's wishes without a word. None, however, were particularly happy to be going through the exercise. Oh, it was simple enough. Transform into a replica, or nigh mirror image, of their instructor and wait until he released them. But the simplistic nature of it, combined with the constant chakra output to keep the transformation going, made it one of the less popular exercises.
They left their benches and begrudgingly sauntered down the steps to the front, before filing themselves in a straight line in front of Iruka. Or, mostly straight. The end of the line was forced to curve and rise up the stairs, but other than that it was predominately straight. One by one, the students performed the technique as per Iruka's instructions, a few no-name kids having their turn before Sasuke stepped forward. Naruto, who was next in line, sighed and dipped his head, and Tayuya rolled her eyes directly next to him. "And, let the fangasms begin." the blond muttered, before quickly wincing and giving a glance over his shoulder. "Kidding!" he exclaimed to a large group of royally pissed off kunoichi in the making.
"Ah, fuck off." Tayuya grumbled with a glare, effectively sending shivers down their - and Naruto's - spines. Though at first they put up a stubborn resistance, returning Tayuya's icy stare with a ferocious, unified glare of their own. And then they promptly fled, and rejoined the row of children in their proper places. The redhead grinned smugly, and Naruto laughed with a twitch of his cheek. "Don't get too fucking happy." Tayuya warned, as she quickly switched to a frown. "I would've let 'em fuck you up if I felt like dealing with your beat, shitty ass; better be fucking grateful." she said with a scowl.
Naruto winced once more, but turned back to the front of the room when Sasuke dispelled his almost perfect replication of their teacher. Iruka called the blond forward next, and Naruto walked up and replaced Sasuke - who himself calmly returned to his bench. "You know what to do." Iruka said with a smile, and Naruto curtly nodded in acknowledgement. Then, he performed the short series of hand seals required, and was engulfed in a puff of smoke - something that was customary, though not necessarily essential, to the technique itself. When it retreated, Naruto was revealed to have transformed into almost a mirror image of Iruka.
"Good." the teacher noted with a nod, and Naruto released the technique and also returned to his original seat. Iruka looked down to the next in line, and his brow twitched as soon as he saw Tayuya - and her angry scowl, but that wasn't what had Iruka on edge. She wasn't horrible at the transformation - on the contrary, she was actually very, very good. However, it had greatly annoyed, and embarrassed, Iruka when Tayuya decided to transform into Iruka; and give him breasts. Afterwards, she decided to run around the entire Academy, and even a bit away from it, in that form; an act that added further insult to injury. And so, he hesitantly called "Next, Tayuya."
Tayuya did the same as Naruto had before her, and as all the rest her being was covered in a brief blast of smoke. And in its wake stood yet another Iruka. The pseudo-Iruka bore a wide grin and its right arm tightened in a fist pump. Even so, despite the out of character posture, Iruka felt a smile contort onto his face. Not because the replica lacked a bust, though that was certainly a boon. Rather, it was because Tayuya's transformation was incredibly precise. Though it was looked over by many of the class members, Iruka doubted any of them could tell the difference between the transformed Tayuya, and Iruka himself.
"Fuck yeah!" Tayuya cheered upon returning to her original appearance, and Iruka grimaced at the young girl's exclamation. He had already received complaints from several parents whose children had begun to emulate Tayuya's peculiar mannerisms and vocabulary. Some had even pulled their kids out of the program altogether. Numerous times he had tried to rectify the situation, to discipline Tayuya for her behavior - but each and every time, the redhead managed to either stall long enough for something else to occur to draw his attention, or she otherwise escaped or diverted attention away from herself altogether. Iruka didn't know when, but at some point he had just stopped trying.
The redhead trotted up to the third of the four rows of desks, as the next student in line took their place. Naruto sat once more on the edge, knowing full well that actually trying to take the spot next to the window would result in a great deal of pain. Tayuya hoisted herself over the desk, whacking Naruto with the top of her sandaled foot as she did, and slid smoothly into the seat next to him. Naruto grumbled, and rubbed the side of his head, sure that a bruise would begin to form. "Nice." He said with a sarcastic droll.
"Fucking damn well better be fucking impressed with that shit!" Tayuya agreed with a grin and a nod, and Naruto rolled his eyes.
"I was talking about your kicking of my head." he explained with a level stare, and Tayuya's eyes widened as though a realization had donned on her.
"Well, fuck!" she exclaimed, and then turned to face him with as deadpan an expression as one could ask for. "Me too."
Of course, the shinobi arts that dealt in combat weren't the only essentials that Tayuya was required to learn. It was an art in itself, but also was so subtle that there was no immediately apparent use for it. The redhead complained profusely about being forced to go through the course, and no matter how long was spent in it or how many times she had to go through it, still Tayuya openly, and often vulgarly, voiced her discontent. But no matter how many times she compared it to being stuck in a very small cage over a very deep ravine, Iruka remained steadfast in his refusal to allow the redhead to skip out on the class.
How to be a woman, they called it. Tayuya felt it was more like how to pick flowers and dress fashionably for no apparent reason. Though the teacher of the class had, in fact, explained to them multiple times the purpose behind the seemingly pointless assignments, but Tayuya had paid little attention. She wasn't at all interested in anything the class was about, or anything that was done in it. Yet still she found herself, along with her classmates whom she barely knew, in an open grassy field with spotty patches of multicolored flowers.
Tayuya sat and absent mindedly tugged out a white, five petalled flower from the ground, hardly paying any attention at all before she lobbed it over her shoulder. She paused, however, when a sudden gasp was exclaimed just behind her, followed by a light thud and the crunching of grass. The redhead sighed, and glanced over her shoulder with a scowl. Though she maintained her arched brows, her eyes widened in surprise when she saw a young girl with a strangely large forehead, pink hair, and a face that had a flower stuck fast to it.
The pink haired girl scratched at her face and removed the flower, and then rubbed her reddened eyes. Tayuya blinked impassively, half wondering why the girl had gotten in the way of the flower projectile in the first place, and half not caring either way. She noticed their teacher, a woman with curly black hair, oval eyeglasses, and a pink kimono, stood surrounded by the other girls a bit away from them. They were far enough that the pink haired girl couldn't have just beenstanding there listening to whatever their teacher was explaining, when she was suddenly assaulted by a flower. No, she had to have gotten up and purposefully walked over. With a scowl, Tayuya asked "The fuck you want, pinky?"
"Eh?" the girl said with a flinch, as she ceased profusely rubbing at her itchy eyes. "M-my name's Sakura." she stammered, and if Tayuya had cared enough about plants to remember the color of cherry blossoms, she may have made a joke about it. Luckily for Sakura, Tayuya didn't really care about plants, and thus completely missed the potential jabbing. "You're... You're Tayuya, right?" Sakura asked with a tilt of her head, and Tayuya turned back to the task of mindlessly laying waste to the field of flowers.
"The one and fucking only." she replied, not really caring whether or not that was true. If it wasn't, she'd convince whoever it was using her name to immediately change it. And if they didn't - they'd find out what it meant to piss off a volatile redhead with shinobi training. While Tayuya completely forgot about Sakura's existence, the pinkette fiddled with a blade of grass between her fingertips and scrunched her brows slightly. In truth, Tayuya's excessive usage of "adult" words was something most of the kids had gotten used to, though most of them - Sakura included - continuously were forced to remember not to follow Tayuya's example.
After a few minutes of silence, Sakura attempted to start up a conversation again. "Do you know who I like?" she asked, and Tayuya blinked, scowled, and slowly straightened her neck - in that order. The question was so randomly asked, and she barely even knew Sakura in the first place, that Tayuya had to take a moment to really think about it. It also begged the question, why was Sakura talking to her now? It had been months since Tayuya had joined the Academy, and the only one the redhead ever saw Sakura talking to was that girl with the pale blonde hair.
"Um. I don't really give a fuck?" the redhead returned, as if guessing at the answer of Sakura's question. Sakura continued without missing a beat, as if she hadn't even heard the redhead's response. It was fortunate for the pinkette that the rest of the class was so close by, or else one member of their group would have mysteriously gone missing, never to be seen again. Tayuya truly wished they were outside of hearing distance, but it wasn't the case.
"I really, really like Sasuke." Sakura said, and Tayuya barely contained a snort. In fact, she didn't contain her snort. "All the other girls like Sasuke. But not as much as me!" Sakura once more went on, without even registering Tayuya's exclamations. "Do you like Sasuke?" And finally, the redhead lost it. She convulsed in laughter, neither noticing nor caring whether or not it attracted the attention of their teacher and the other students.
"Wait, hold the fucking hell up." she panted between her laughter. "You actually fucking like that shitfilled duckass?" Tayuya shifted around, and faced the wide-eyed girl with an incredulous, yet still amused, grin. "Shit, tell me I fucking misheard you! Why the actual fuck would you like him? Seriously!" Tayuya didn't understand it. It didn't make sense! She knew she wasn't exactly up-to-date on anything fashion related, or even any sort of "boy-gossip", but even she could see that Sasuke wasn't all that attractive. Of course, she wasn't so easy to fall under sway of the apparent 'cool kid' charm he wielded. It was all one big chunk of a bull's fecal matter. At least, in her opinion.
Sakura apparently didn't share her view. "W-why not?!" the pinkette stammered back. Tayuya wondered if it was her own excessive swearing or her continued insulting of the Uchiha 'prodigy' that forced the cracking in Sakura's voice. Maybe it was both. "Sasuke's smart, talented, and he's so dreamy!" As Sakura spoke, Tayuya's lip twitched at the essential hearts pounding in her eyes. She wasn't entirely certain that this Sakura was actually sane. Of course, she also shared that opinion about all the other girls who were in Sasuke's unofficial fan club, so it wasn't saying much that the pinkette also fit her definition of 'not sane'. "What's not to like about him?"
"What's not to fucking like?" Tayuya paraphrased with a drop of her jaw. Not counting the fact that she had already, albeit mentally, listed off some of the particulars that made Sasuke "unlikeable", the redhead couldn't believe that Sakura would be so blinded by her apparent love of Sasuke that she would assume he was a perfect being. It was ludicrous! "Holy shit, you're a fucking moron. The fucker's paler than a fucking ghost, he's shitty at trying to fucking ignore your asses, and he's got a fucking duck's ass on his motherfucking head!"
"That's not true!" Sakura argued, gaining a touch more control than she had previously showed and baring the fiercest glare she could. Which, in truth, wasn't effective at all to Tayuya - and probably any other person she attempted to use it against. Tayuya could have sworn she saw the small twinkle of a tear drop form in Sakura's eye, but she didn't care enough to attempt to get a closer look.
"Like fucking hell it ain't!" Tayuya replied with a glare that very quickly, and just as easily, squashed Sakura's own. "The fucking bastard's more interested in becoming a fucking shinobi than making a fucking harem! Get the fuck over him!" Tayuya doubted Sakura would listen to her advice, and she couldn't really say she would give much thought about that. Still, the redhead strove to give her own created truth to the pinkette, regardless of how much it probably hurt. Sakura bit her lower lip in a frown, and wiped at her eye - inadvertently confirming to Tayuya her suspicions that the pinkette was indeed on the verge of tears.
"Sasuke's not like that!" Sakura shouted, and Tayuya rolled her eyes. "You'll see! We're going to get married in the future!" And with those final words, Sakura stood and stormed off, leaving Tayuya to solitarily tug at flowers. Which suited Tayuya just fine, because that was how she preferred it. Still, the redhead groaned in annoyance at the presumed stupidity of her fellow kunoichi in training. She sometimes wondered just how screwed Konoha was if this was how their female shinobi were.
She also wondered how their teacher hadn't heard her and Sakura's argument. Suzume, their teacher, was off aiding a struggling girl on how to properly assemble a flower basket, but even so she wasn't all that far away. Still, Tayuya was slightly thankful she hadn't caught on to the discussion. Suzume was less prone to 'forgive and forget' as Iruka was, and more than once Tayuya had been punished by the older woman for her vulgar tongue. "That's not how a proper woman behaves!" she had stated, and as much as Tayuya considered it bull and ignored her instructions, the redhead was not keen on receiving more punishment.
"Shit, I just want this fucking class to end..." She muttered with a sigh, as she continued on to pointlessly remove perfectly healthy wildlife from the soil.
Even still time ran on, and Tayuya's continually improving abilities as a kunoichi in training impressed her teachers more and more. In a little under a year, the foul-mouthed redhead had defied the odds and, while not necessarily a genius by any degree, had managed to gradually enhance her abilities to nearly the same level as her peers who had been training for a longer period of time. On average, taijutsu was one of her weaker points, she had gained in speed and agility, but lacked in actual power. Ninjutsu was a stronger trait, she was detailed and precise in her usage of it, but her chakra reserves were average at best. But the thing she most excelled at, the thing that interested her teachers greatly, was perhaps also the most complicated of the three primary shinobi arts.
It was the final class for the day. The sun was sinking lower and lower over the distant trees, and the sky bore a dark orange over the village. The thick, long shadows cast in through the windows darkened each desk in turn, essentially making any sort of schoolwork virtually impossible. The fact that the last session of the day was in doors was not a normal occurrence, normally the teachers finished the day off with physical exercise in the yard, but on this day the schedule had been rearranged slightly.
Some amount of complaints were thrown around from the students as a result, but Tayuya didn't really care. She never did. The whining and complaining of kids who had lived under a roof their entire lives - while Tayuya didn't despise them for it, it annoyed her significantly enough for the redhead to want to slaughter most of them. Of course, her desires were never realized, and not a single child had died by her hands. Yet. It was only a matter of time before she slipped past the instructor's guard and completely murdered someone, but until then she would remain the volatile, vulgar redhead everyone knew and loved. Though the last part was more a figure of her imagination than anything.
"So... Any idea why Iruka-sensei decided to switch things up?" Naruto asked from the seat beside her with an inquisitive glance. Tayuya grunted in response. She had no real idea why it was either, and had resigned herself to wait to find out. Though her respect for their teacher was as large as a fairyfly, Tayuya knew that - most of the time - Iruka's actions had a purpose to them. Like the time he accidentally spilt a cup of water on a piece of paper, only to reveal that it was the perfect method of confounding an enemy by ruining their documents. Tayuya wasn't entirely sure whether or not that lesson was actually meant to happen.
The room was filled with quiet murmurs, most dedicated to the very same issue that Naruto had asked, though one was distinctly different in that it was about the wonderful meal someone was going to have after school. But then, the whispered words were drained away and an even darker shadow overtook the class. Tayuya glanced out the window, but saw the sun was still well high enough to provide a more intense light, and yet the room became like that of night. She would come to realize that she hadn't simply blocked out the other voices, but instead they had gone silent themselves as they stared at the front of the class.
And as Tayuya turned to join their gaze, she saw just what had surprised them all so. Though not a single person stood before them, the once blank blackboard now had thick, white letters written with chalk. They spelled out a single phrase, only two words left behind by something none of them could see. Yet the words were as clear as day. 'Find me'. As simple as the sentence, as the command, was, it still urged a number of startled or frightened gasps and whispers from the other class members. The only one who was entirely unfazed was Sasuke, who regarded the board indifferently. Even Naruto scowled, though Tayuya doubted he was so much startled as he was curious.
"Where'd that come from?" he asked with a whisper, glancing to Tayuya. The redhead wasn't entirely sure herself, and didn't even know why Naruto was asking her specifically. Surely anyone else could have told him the same thing - namely a 'I don't know', mixed with expletives. Yet even so, Tayuya could feel that something was off, not just see it in the form of the suddenly appearing words on the blackboard. It wasn't the phrase, nor was it the dampened light, but something was wrong. Like there was a faint tingle, a gentle pressure of sorts, that ran through her bones. And then, Tayuya glared at... Well, at nothing, really.
"What the fuck?" Tayuya grumbled, as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Something's not fucking right here... The fucking hell is this?" Naruto glanced to her with a quirk of his brow. "Some kinda... fucking... trick or some shit. It's like a... Like a - illusion?" Naruto winced; not because he was horrible at it, but illusions, genjutsu, weren't his favorite thing. As soon as the words left Tayuya's mouth, the others were quick to come to the same conclusion - whether because they heard it from the redhead or because they realized it on their own. Tayuya could see Sasuke slip out of his seat across the room, and immediately stride down the steps and out the door. "The fuck's he goin'?" Tayuya asked.
"To find Iruka-sensei." Naruto answered, before he too pulled himself off the seat and onto the floor. The blond turned and smiled at Tayuya, and the redhead scowled in return. "We should go too. Sitting around isn't going to win this game of Hide'n Go Seek." He said, and though Tayuya didn't believe this was a game, she agreed on the grounds that they wouldn't win if they just sat around. She assumed there was a 'winner', because it would be easier to find their teacher as more and more students found him. The first one to find him had the hardest job.
"Oh, it'll be way too fucking easy. All we gotta' do is find the largest fucking shithole and the shitty teacher will be right fucking there!" Tayuya exclaimed as she slid off the bench. The redhead knew full well that the search wasn't going to be that easy, but all the same she hoped they could end it soon. Though she also wasn't sure exactly how fair their instructor was going to be playing it - if he was already using an illusion, who was to say he wouldn't be hiding himself with the very same method?
And so they made for the door, but were stopped before leaving by the approach of two other figures from the stairs. "Troublesome tests..." Shikamaru muttered with a yawn, while Choji gave a nod in agreement with a bag of chips open in his hands. "I've got a few ideas where he could be hiding, but this place is so big there's no telling where he actually is." the Nara continued with a frown. "Honestly, I'd rather not even bother, but this tingle is a real pain." Tayuya could actually agree with him on that point - the consistent tingle, pressure, or whatever it actually was, was gradually becoming more and more annoying.
As they left, Naruto asked "Where to first, Shikamaru?", and the ponytailed boy, albeit lazily, led the way down the hallway. Footsteps rang all around them, telling of the attempts of the other children as they struggled to find their teacher, though none were close to Tayuya's group save for their own. Soon they arrived at two twin double doors, and Naruto opened them to reveal rows of low to the ground benches and tables, and a long counter with a squared curve lining the wall. Though it was now removed of food save for some small crumbs and messes, the leftover smell of lunch remained in the air. "The cafeteria?"
"Why the fuck would he be here?" Tayuya demanded of the Nara, who looked around the room with a slow, careful gaze. He remained silent, either ignoring or not hearing Tayuya's query. "Hey! Fucking answer me, dumbass!" she once more asked, this time accompanying it with a sharp blow to the top of Shikamaru's head. He gasped, closed one eye and scowled in a wince, and retreated his eyes from the room itself to stare at the redhead.
"What was that for?!" he asked as he rubbed his head. Tayuya answered with a glare, something she commonly did, and Shikamaru sighed. He knew exactly why she had hit him - though he still believed it was a bit of an overreaction on the redhead's part. "It's big, has a lot of places to hide, central location within the Academy, and the smell would hide his scent." he explained with a frown, though Tayuya didn't care if he was upset or not. However, the room was devoid of all movement, and so - after a quick search around the counter - they moved on to the next location Shikamaru had guessed.
The small, brown, metallic door creaked open as its rusty joints gave way, leaving the four free passage to walk out upon the rooftop of the Academy. The flat, concrete platform was lined by a four foot tall wall of wood, and at the very far end of the rooftop the concrete dipped down, and a brief stairway led to the gradually narrowing end of the building. Past the stairway, the wall was replaced by a sturdy, metallic railing. Yet the entire plane on which they stood was desolate, not a single sign of their teacher anywhere on the roof.
"He's not here either." Naruto muttered as he scanned the rooftop for Iruka. There were only a few places one could be hiding, and those had already been investigated by the four of them. Choji let loose a whine, as he desperately attempted to retrieve the last few remaining chip crumbs from the fourth bag he had eaten during their search. Shikamaru yawned once more, and Tayuya angrily stomped a foot. "So, where to now?" As the Nara turned to answer, he was suddenly interrupted by the very much annoyed redhead of the group.
"Agh! This is fucking stupid! This shitty, fucking, agitating tingle was stronger back at the fucking cl-" then she paused, and her eyes widened as a sense of realization hit her dead center in the face. In hindsight, it had been so obvious what the answer was - too obvious. Naruto quirked a brow, Shikamaru smiled with his eyes closed and his left brow twitching - likely at Tayuya's continued cussing -, and Choji continued to whine at his missing food like he was completely oblivious to the conversation. Which, he probably was. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me!"
The classroom was completely empty, not a single of the children were present as the four entered. The sun's upper arc lined across the high walls of Konoha, and the sky had adopted a fading purple as its light sunk ever lower. The room was dark, barely having any sort of light except for that small amount the sun still provided. Then, a flick of the switch by the door by Naruto, and the entire room was covered in a golden hued light. Tayuya stepped forward, and she glared at the blackboard which still held the words they all saw earlier.
"Alright, fucking teach. We all fucking know your shitty ass is there! So you better fucking show your ugly ass face before I get really fucking violent!" The redhead shouted, earning a mixture of reactions from the three others. And then, a space right next to the board shifted and distorted, as a figure became less and less transparent before their eyes. Tayuya grinned as Iruka's illusion dropped completely, and he pinched the bridge of his nose in agitation. "Fuck yeah! I knew it! First place, fuckers! Hot damn, I'm good!"
"Not quite." Iruka replied to Tayuya's boasts, as he looked to the back of the room. They all turned and saw, seated in the closest spot to the far back corner, a timid, white eyed girl. "Hinata knew where I was from the start." Tayuya gaped at the shy girl, not at all believing that the completely shy Hyuga could have possibly discovered where their teacher was before anyone else.
"How the fuck?!" Tayuya asked, as she turned back to Iruka. Only a second after, another child entered the room. Sasuke quietly sauntered over to the nearest seat to the door and sat without a word. Tayuya had expected every single one of the other girls in their class to come rushing in like a mob, but was pleasantly surprised to realize their absence. Not only were their behavior annoying, but also their sheer number would make the classroom cramped beyond that which Tayuya felt like dealing with.
"You all can head home. Class is dismissed. I'll see you tomorrow." Iruka informed, and though Tayuya would have normally complained about her question not being answered, for once she was too tired to make the effort. And so they left, each at their own pace, with Hinata exiting as the very last, leaving Iruka to wait for the rest of the students to show up. Those that didn't would be rounded up and sent home. Still, the Chunin watched the group with a smile, particularly at the redhead - who was blasting Choji for his never ending hunger.
'It's just as you said, Hokage-sama.' Iruka thought, as his mind drifted back to the conversation they had had so many months ago, when Tayuya was first being introduced to the class. 'Not taijutsu, or ninjutsu, but she's made tremendous progress with both. But, overall, her proficiency is genjutsu.'
Done! Now, as I stated above, I really didn't have anything planned for the Academy. Now, I have two choices. One, I can attempt to think up a mini plot to shove in here to prolong the Academy stage. If not that, my preferred choice would be to skip ahead to the graduation phase, where I can continue on to the plot I had already thought up, and come back in flashbacks or what have you should the need arise. Personally, I'd rather just skip ahead, but I will take some time to think up a mini plot should the interest be shown. I may require more time for the next update should that be the case.
At any rate, hope you enjoyed the read. Please remember to leave a review with your thoughts, questions, concerns, or any advice you have to offer! I appreciate it all, because while I may not be able to fix all the issues, I can still use them to improve my writing for the future. Thanks again!
See you soon!