After all the drama of the year, the final exam was practically a cakewalk. Unless I horribly failed the practical—and I wouldn't, given that I'd practiced with Rin and Obito and…and Dad, back when he was alive—my scores would carry me through. I was easily within the top ten percent of the class in books and ninjutsu. My taijutsu wasn't as strong, but I hadn't been allowed to bring my shinai for the class sparring sessions. The teachers said it wasn't fair, even if the two Inuzuka clan kids were allowed to bring their dogs. The only thing I had trouble with, other than taijutsu, had to do with the special kunoichi classes, mostly due to lack of interest. In the last month, though, I had Mom and Rin help me polish up my feminine skills.
Hayate might be a bit traumatized in the future, given that I used him as practice for putting hairclips on someone else. Mom's hair was too full of ribbons.
Rin was less skilled in the physical realm, but she was better at the Clone Jutsu than I was. I think her brain was just generally more oriented toward genjutsu than mine was, while I had my former artist's brain backing me up for the Transformation Jutsu. Replacement was less than perfectly stable for either of us, but Obito had that more or less down.
Actually, the only one we were really worried about was Obito, since his test scores sucked.
He did have a very low intelligence rating before. The Dreamer wasn't being especially productive in her opinions, since we were rapidly approaching a pretty dangerous gap in our information. We needed to meet up properly and reassess our understanding of everything that happened or would happen over the course of the next year. I couldn't think of much.
Rin and I waited anxiously outside of our classroom for him, since his last name meant going way after either of us. Both of us had passed, so he was just keeping us in suspense.
On the other hand, Rin and I were sporting fashionable new headgear—we'd both passed easily, and while Rin had chosen a traditional hitai-ate, I preferred the bandanna style. It made me feel a bit more grown-up and fit better with my distinctly boyish hairstyle.
Hey, if I was gonna be named Keisuke for the rest of my life, I might as well get some amusement out of the endless misunderstandings.
"I'm sure Obito passed." Rin said, sounding unsure despite her words.
"He'd better hope so!" I said crossly, to cover my anxiety. After my test, all of the worry I'd failed to use on myself was apparently stored up for Obito's sake. "After everything you two have done for me, we're supposed to graduate together!"
And at just that moment, Obito exploded out of the classroom in the midst of a victory dance. "I PASSED! I told you I could do it, Rin-chan, Kei! Isn't this great? We might even get on the same team tomorrow!"
I punched the air, graceless in victory. Rin laughed with relief.
"So, ready to find an awesome sensei and join Team Awesomeness?" Obito asked, bumping shoulders with both of us.
"Is there even any room on Team Awesomeness for us?" I asked.
"You bet!" Obito laughed, throwing his arms into the air. "Come on, I'll buy us all lunch!"
"Buy me strawberries and we'll be even." Rin said, "It's too early for lunch."
"Dango for me." I said. "I'll even pay for enough for all of us."
"You haven't paid for any lunches yet." Rin teased.
"Strawberries and dango? Sure. I like those too. Sounds like a picnic! Anyone got a spare blanket?"
Remember, these are the moments we're fighting for.
Obito kicked the Academy doors open and we stepped out into the bright sunshine together.
In the Academy yard, there was a huge crowd of proud parents, siblings, and various other relatives. Since Rin and Obito were orphans, we'd agreed ahead of time that we'd all be celebrating together. I just had to find Mom and Hayate in the sea of people, while Obito would make his way back over to use whenever he calmed down enough to remember. He and Hayate would be the only boys. It was a good thing that Hayate liked him.
Speaking of which, it was pretty easy to find my family because Hayate was sitting on Mom's shoulders, putting him well above the average height of the crowd. Hayate had his child-sized shinai in his hand and a grin on his face, while Mom seemed to glow with pride. I danced my way through the crowd so I could greet her without making her set my brother down.
"Mom!" I called, waving my arms. "I passed!"
"I knew you would, Kei-chan." Mom said, and she looked a bit misty-eyed. "I just wish…"
"I know, Mom." I said. I didn't need to hear the words to know Dad would be proud, too.
Mom blinked a couple of times and finally let Hayate down. He bopped me with the shinai, but not very hard, and Mom said, "Hayate-chan, your sister is a real ninja now. Isn't that something?"
"I'll be a ninja too!" Hayate said. Bop.
"Hello again, Hayate-chan." Rin said, having decided not to risk bowling people over when it came to greeting my family. "Will you be joining the Academy soon?"
At age five, I suppose that Hayate could have joined, but I'm not exactly sure I would be content to just leave him alone if he did. On one hand, he'd be learning how to be a ninja. On the other, he'd be learning how to be a ninja. And earlier than I had, to boot.
If Mom hadn't taken any chances with me, she probably wouldn't with Hayate.
"Maybe." Mom said, discreetly directing Hayate's shinai away from Rin's face with one hand. "I like to be sure my students have the skills to be successful before I send them running off into the wild."
Unspoken: Academy teachers don't bother, figuring the rest is up to the jōnin leaders of each team to make sure you all survive. Fuck them.
"Hayate-chan will probably be ready before I was." I admitted. "Give him a year and he'll probably be better than I am now."
"But he'll still be able to learn things from you." Rin reassured me. She was just a reassuring kind of person, I think. It certainly explained why Obito went after her.
Obito, as though called by the siren song of his name and the idea of things happening without him, appeared in a blur of blue and flailing limbs.
"Mom, we're gonna go get a snack. Can I bring Hayate-chan with us?" I asked.
Mom spared me the barest of glances for us before nodding. "Where are you all going in such a hurry?" she asked, "I thought that we'd have a proper celebratory dinner at home later tonight…"
"I'll be home in time and I won't spoil my dinner," I said, "but we're going to celebrate our last day of classes first, okay?"
"Well, I suppose that this is the last day before team assignments." Mom said. She sighed, "Dango?"
"Exactly!" I said.
"We'll try not to keep her out too long." Rin said.
"Yeah, Kei will be home before you know it!" Obito said, bouncing back into the conversation. "I promise!"
Are you marrying them or something? This sounds familiar. It ought to involve porches and shotguns and cars and meeting the parents…
"You both suck." I said flatly. "And Obito, you never get anywhere on time anyway! Don't talk to me about schedules."
Mom said, "Try to be home by five, and stay safe." Mom punctuated this by taking Hayate's shinai from him, but handing me a pouch full of kunai. "Run along now."
We did.
Later, sitting a riverbank next to what would, eventually, be the Team Minato training grounds, we had eaten our way through three sticks of dango each, along with a giant carton of strawberries. I'd have probably gone for ice cream, preferably of a green tea flavor, but we were content to watch the world go by otherwise.
"You know, as ninja we're going to be dealing with some pretty heavy stuff." I said after a while, the last dango stick still in my mouth. I liked having something to chew on, if possible. It was an easy distraction, and being able to throw stuff shaped like senbon as actual weapons, like Genma, sounded pretty cool.
"So what?" Obito scoffed. "We're Team Awesomeness and there's no way anyone can stand against the power of our teamwork!"
"I wonder who our sensei will be." Rin said mildly. She sighed. "We don't even know if we'll end up on the same team…"
"They're probably still going to stick with the two boys, one girl format. I think we have enough girls graduating for that, at least." I suggested.
What I didn't say was that, as the top two kunoichi in our year, Rin or I would probably end up with Obito one way or another, just because of tradition. I kind of hoped it would be Rin—she had the personality to deal with Kakashi and Obito without wanting to murder either of them despite the way they grated on one another. I loved Obito like a brother, but that didn't mean he wasn't capable of pissing me off with his antics. And Kakashi would probably drive me up the wall just by being himself.
Yeah, it'd be better if Rin dealt with the boys, and I stayed by the sidelines to help when asked.
Except if she did end up on Obito and Kakashi's team, she'd be dead before fifteen.
Fuck.
I was glad that Hayate had found the river utterly fascinating, because I didn't need him to see my utter failure to keep from breaking out into a cold sweat. I kept an eye on him and an ear on my friends, because the idea of Hayate drowning on my watch? So many levels of terror were involved there that I didn't have words for them.
"Well, even if we end up on different teams, we'll still be friends." Rin said.
"You're both allowed to come over to my house whenever." I said firmly. "Mom and Hayate-chan have pretty much adopted you two anyway."
"And you?" Obito teased.
"I wouldn't put up with you if you weren't pretty much family." I replied. Wait, no. "Well, actually, if you were enough kinds of crazy or asshole or both, I'd drop you like a hot iron and then beat the crap out of you."
"Aw, you can tell she loves us." Obito laughed. Rin giggled.
"Cruel to be kind, you said?" Rin mused. "It's amazing that we can even find you under all of those spikes."
I stuck my tongue out at them.
"So, if you're a sea urchin," Rin began, making Obito laugh and me smile, "what does that make us?"
"You're a stuffed animal, Rin-chan." I said. "With a set of lock-picks and a brick in it."
"Then what am I?" Obito asked.
Rin and I looked at each other.
"I don't know. He kind of reminds me of a tomato." I said.
"Hey!" Obito didn't seem quite sure if he was supposed to be offended or not.
"Um…maybe a puppy?" Rin suggested.
"You mean incredibly lovable and huggable?" Obito asked.
He's got it bad. And puberty hasn't even happened yet!
"Sure, let's go with that." I said.
Obito pouted.
Then it was time to go home. I fished Hayate out of the shallows, where he'd shucked off his sandals and been wading around chasing fish, and let him roll around in the grass until his feet were dry enough to accept shoes again. Obito packed up the picnic blanket and Rin took the basket, while I grabbed my brother's hand and we all walked to my house for dinner.
Like hell I was gonna leave anyone I cared about alone.