Underlined - English

'Italicised' - thoughts

GENIN - PART ONE

NARA SHIKAMARU

The day was a perfect one - clouds in the sky, but still sunny and warm enough to be outside without too many layers. The grass was coming in well - the Nara compound's new way of seeding was paying off. The air was quiet, and barely a breeze rustled in the calm afternoon air.

"STAG! STAG! Stag Stag Stag Stag STAAAAAAAG!"

I wince, and I can hear Tou-san chuckling from the porch. Tous-san may have never been told exactly what that nickname meant (or even that it was a nickname) - but after hearing it nearly every day for the last two years, he picked up the idea of it.

Blatantly refuse to sit up from where I was laying in the grass - knowing that Noa wouldn't care if I was laying down or running up a tree - I wait for my strange foreign friend to dart in from wherever troublesome girls like her spring from each morning.

As it turns out, I didn't have to wait long. Barely a minute passes before I suddenly have a armful of curly hair and wiry elbows. "Ooof!" I gasp as all of the air in my body was forced out in an instant, "Get off me, you troublesome girl!"

Laughing, Noa sits back on her heels- and waves some kind of form I'm far to lazy to take a proper look at in my face. "Hello to you to, Stag! Guess what! Guess WHAT!"

I close my eyes - rubbing my ears in vain against the assault to my senses - and pretend that I don't hear Tou-san's quiet laughter in the background. "I dunno, what?"

My frustration only seems to spur her on, because she flops down on her back next to me with another laugh and holds up the form to admire from as many angles as she can. "So grumpy, Shika! I haven't seen you for days! I passed my genin exam and - here's the news - my sensei helped me get the paperwork done faster!" She shoots off rapidfire, and she sits up - pulling me along with her. "Nara Shikamaru, I am now officially - as of half an hour ago - a citizen of Konohagakure no Sato!"

"What?" It takes a sec for what she just said to hit me - and I belatedly realise that my tou-san has gone quiet. "What?! You got your citizenship? Wait - you didn't even have your citizenship?! What?"

Noa stifles a laugh behind her hands, and I catch a glimpse of the village's official seal on the paper in her hand. "Yeah! I didn't know that I didn't either! But then my sensei said that if I didn't pass our genin exam then I'd lose any immunity that I had in Konoha - which would be bad - but I passed and he helped my expedite the process to get my citizenship! Isn't that great?!"

I hear a choking sound behind me - tou-san - "He threatened to do what?"

NOA

Kakashi was both more and less infuriating face to face.

Or, well, as face to face as you get when one of the faces is basically just an eye.

Reading about him in the books only half prepared me for actually going face to face with the man. My knowledge of him and his past made better understand him and how he functioned - knowing his values and where he frequented was helpful when having him as my mentor.

I could also say with conviction that Kakashi was a far better teacher this time around. Without the added stress of Ruto's completely sabotaged education, Sasuke's possibilty of defecting and obsession with revenge, and Sakura's fangirling (all of which amountted to a very troublesome - blame the Nara - Team 7), Kakashi was patient while also demanding. I felt pushed by him, yet also encouraged.

His quirks were worse in person though. It was all well and good to think about how annoying it would be to wait three hours for your sensei to show up - but it was far worse when you were actually waiting those three hours. We still showed up on time every day - (Kakashi was so the kind of person to show up on time that one day we were late) - but with a gentle push from me, the boys and I actually utilized the waiting time as independant training rather than just slothing around. This seemed to be the catalyst that Kakashi was looking for - and as we trained more consistently in our down time he began to come earlier and earlier (although still late).

Ruto and - surprisingly - Sasuke were still as determined as ever to see under Kakashi's mask. They're failures were hilarious to me - although I kept that to myself - and only seemed to encourage them further. I decided that there was no logical way to gloat that I had seen the artist's sketches of the mysterious jounin before I got dumped in this world.

Kakashi seemed surprised by my complete and utter lack of interest in his face - but I spelled it out for him when he alluded to it one day after a particularly embarrassing attempt by the boys.

"A person's face doesn't really matter," I had shrugged. "If you wanted us to see it - you would show us. You not showing your face is your right - as is it the right for anyone to show or not show their face to whomever they choose: I show my face proudly because I wish to embrace my heritage with pride. Sasuke shows face in order to allow his clan to live on through him. Ruto wishes everyone to see his face - to see him for who he is.

In the end, it doesn't matter what one's face looks like - only what choices they make and what is in their hearts. I will judge you by your actions, Kakashi-sensei - not whether you have balloon lips or buck teeth."

After Team 7 has existed for three weeks - and we had successfully completed 323 D-ranks (a ten year record - I hear) - I decided it was time to address something important.

"I think it's about time that we begin to teach you English, Kakashi-sensei." I call out casually to our teacher from where I was perched on a tree branch towards the end of training.

Kakashi - to his credit - froze in his movements for only a second before he went back to demonstrating a more advanced kata for Ruto. He didn't comment as he finished walking - focused only how to improve Ruto's rather dismal stances, not on the bomb I had just dropped on him.

I had a pretty good idea what was going through his head - he was wondering what he had done to earn my trust. Just helping me with paperwork didn't fit my 'patterns.'

Up until now, I had yet to teach a single adult English - not even Iruka-sensei. Iruka-sensei - who I've known for five years and went so far as to entrust with Ruto - who after those same five years only knew a few words and common phrases. Of course - it was arrogant to think that terms like Mr. or Miss and common words like yes and no hadn't been translated (or at least close to) but English was still largely a mystery to the people of this land.

I knew that once I taught Kakashi English he would be forced to report it to the Hokage - as was inevitable when divulging closely guarded secrets to an elite jounin - but I didn't plan on teaching him too much. Just basics at first, as to test the waters in a way. I still had my limited skill with Spanish to fall back on, after all.

The topic doesn't come up again for nearly three days, but when I feel confident that Kakashi wasn't about to jump at me and demand to learn as much as possible as soon as possible - I decide to get started.

Teaching Ruto and Sasuke was a long process in which I would start slipping more and more words into my everyday conversations, defining as I went. Teaching Shika was an issue of increasing both of our vocabularies, so we traded words by explaining definitions as we went.

But Kakashi was an adult with an adult mindset. I had no such goal to increase my own vocabulary, only to teach him the basics he'd need to call commands and understand the battlefield - so I needed to have a different approach. Plus he would want things that he could take the time to memorize with his Sharingan. After some brainstorming, I decide to take a more elementary school style approach.

That morning - about halfway through training - I use my chakra to create a low desk in the middle of Training Ground 7, pulling out pencils and sheets of paper that I had bought the night before. Ruto and Sasuke saw what I was planning, and quickly beckoned Kakashi over before sitting down to watch the show.

Kakashi was curious - as any genius of his caliber would be - but he still kept his cool, lazily walking over to where I was beginning to write up the basic alphabet. As he sits down and begins to look over my shoulder, I jump right into 'teacher mode' - eyes still on my paper.

"English is fundamentally different than Common on even the most basic level. I'm not nearly bored enough to draw up a list - but both languages have sounds that the other doesn't, and sentence structure is very different. Common also has two different forms of writing - kanji and the kana systems (A/N I'm not familiar enough with Japanese to be precise with this explanation. Please forgive my need to simplify and any errors). The meanings behind kanji are based off each stroke - the meaning varying even if the sound is still the same. The kana systems are more based off sounds - allowing for more variety and less precise meanings. There are hundreds upon thousands of symbols used in your language to represent your writing system."

I finish writing - going back to the top of the page to write 'THE ALPHABET' in careful block script - and turn to look at Kakashi. I jump back when he's far closer than I realized - his face mere inches from my left shoulder, looking with no small fascination with my neat lettering.

I recover quickly, and gesture at the sheet in front of me - holding it between the two of us so he had as clear of a view as possible. "English is different - we are more like a code. There are 26 characters called 'letters' with two variations of each letter: 'Capital' and 'lowercase.' All the letters can be compiled into one list called the 'Alphabet.'"

I gesture at the two distinguishments and the title, and when I see that he was following - continue on. "Different combinations of letters form different sounds - it's all phonetic. However - because English is stupid and was formed from a mix of a bunch of different languages from thousands of years ago - the rules suck and are barely ever consistent with a crap load of exceptions. Don't worry though - we'll start basic."

I pull out another sheet of paper - a the lined kind that was used to keep Common writing neat. "Your people write top to bottom, left to right. In English, however -" I rotate the paper 90 degrees "- you write left to right, top to bottom."

Placing the paper carefully on the table, I clearly pencil 'Kakashi Hatake' in neat roman letters. "The capital letter signifies that it's a proper noun - a proper noun - and that it's the name of something. This would be your 'first name' - your given name - and your 'last name' - your clan name." I point at the each name, and catching his confused look - I quickly clarify.

"You've heard me call people Mr. or Mrs. right? Our naming system is different - with the given name first and the clan name second - hence first and second. Honorifics don't really exist - only titles, and those come before the name."

I slide over the paper in front of him and drop the pencil on top with a slight clack. "This is where you start. Copy over the Alphabet at least two times and your name until you can write it by memory. If you can do that, we can move on to words."

As Kakashi picks up his pencil apprehensively - I turn to my team. "Who's up for target practice?"

Kakashi was getting his writing down fast - his writing neater than even neat-freak Sasuke - though I would think that Obito's Sharingan sped up the process quite a bit. After I described the name of each letter and the basic sound that each one made, I made a simple list of basic shinobi terms with Common definitions next to them - words like 'throwing star' and 'ninja.' After he inevitably memorized and began pronouncing passably, we moved on to verbs and essential adjectives.

After I decided that the elite jounin was chalk full of words that he could use on missions and communicate orders to us with I gave him his first proper assignment.

"Okay!" Declared with finality after drilling Kakashi on everything from 'jump' to 'bleeding' to 'shadow clone.' "Now you need to start getting used to mixing!"

Kakashi looked at me like I had just grown a second head - and Ruto began cracking up from his somewhat precarious position in a nearby tree - and I grin a bit ferally at 'my student.'

"Mixing!" I repeat with a level of enthusiasm that would make Gai proud. "You've got sentence structure and common verbs - plus writing, which Shika has trouble with - so now you gotta start hearing the oddities! I'm not a good enough teacher to remember all the words that you should know - so you just gotta start hearing them and asking questions! I use idioms and terms that don't translate well all the time, and when I talk sometimes I just kinda slip into English. So now I'm just gonna start doing it on purpose!"

Sasuke must've spotted some mistake that I made, and stepped in to save our sensei. "What Noa means is now she's gonna start doing what she did to teach us - we're all gonna start incorporating more and more English terms into our daily speech so you can get used to hearing them. Noa tones it back a lot around other people - but she's actually a lot more comfortable speaking in English - as the way she thinks uses English words most of the time. So instead of taking the time to translate whole chunks, she'll just gradually introduce you to more vocabulary."

The Uchiha's explanation must've made more sense than mine did, because the silver haired jounin nods his understanding. He begins to stand and stretch - when he suddenly turns to me. "'Doing what she did to teach us?'" Kakashi repeated Sasuke's words back at me, a hint of curiosity in his voice. "If you taught your cute little teammates verbally, then why did you take the time to write up the Alphabet and give me all of those word lists?"

I laugh at that, and decide that I would give him a bit to chew on. "Oh, that. Well, I know that you wouldn't be satisfied with the whole 'learn as you go' principle - even though that's kinda how you teach. I figured that it'd be easier for you to get everything in your head with a list that you could…" I gesture up at my left eye - subtly referencing Kakashi's still unrevealed Sharingan, "Look over yourself, see?"

Turning my back to him before I could properly gauge his response, I turn to Sasuke and Ruto - "Hey pests who eat my cooking! I need groceries and guess who gets to carry them?"