Year 10
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Chiyome was standing in front of her mother's grave, surrounded by butterflies. They flew around her head. The girl let them fly higher, until they dissolved and came raining down at her and the gravestone like a gentle summer rain.
"Aren't they beautiful, mama? I can finally have them all fly at once, and in different directions too!" She was quiet for a moment, almost like she was waiting for an answer. There was none, so she continued, "Soon we will take our final exams. If I pass, I'm made a Genin. But you don't need to worry. I've got straight A's on all my previous tests. Last week the teacher even said I was the smartest in class." She spoke with excitement, but then fell quiet again. The smile on her face vanished. "The teacher said we are having a big celebration after the exams. All parents are invited."
She formed another butterfly in her hand, but used too much chakra and it dissolved before she had it finished.
"Uncle Riku and Uncle Haruto both said they'll come. They never talk to each other anymore, but they wanted to see me graduate." She reorganised the flowers lying in front of her mother's grave and cleaned the gravestone. She wanted it to look nice. Her mother always did the same for Inori's grave, and for her grandfather too.
When Chiyome left the cemetery again, she met Sakumo in the village. He was with his teammates, Akemi Inuzuka and Shoei Aburame. The girl had a dog with her, a ninja dog. The Inuzuka were rarely ever seen without their companions nearby. The boy always ran around with insects crawling all over him.
"I thought you were on a mission," Chiyome said. She hadn't seen much of Sakumo since he'd become a Genin. And now he was away more and more often as his team took on more missions. They were almost at the end of their first Genin year. Chiyome wanted to be like that too. She wanted to go on missions with Sakumo. But when Chiyome was finally close to becoming a Genin, Sakumo had his eyes already set on becoming a Chuunin.
"We came back today, a bit earlier than expected, and were just on our way to get some dinner. Do you want to come?"
Chiyome already nodded when she remembered her uncle's words. Haruto's wife had given birth to twins a few days ago, and they were having a big celebration dinner tonight. Chiyome couldn't be late for that. After all, the older twin was the new heir of the Hyuuga clan. It was a big deal for her family.
"Can we go tomorrow?" she asked.
"Sorry, we are going on a training trip again tomorrow."
"We'll participate at the Chuunin exams soon and sensei wants to make sure we are ready," Akemi added with a smile on her face.
Chiyome felt sad when she continued walking down the streets alone. She missed Sakumo. He was her best friend, yet she wasn't quite sure anymore whether she was still his best friend as well. Riku always told her that she would soon make friends with her new team, that your team was special. Chiyome doubted that. She didn't like anyone in her class more than Sakumo.
Different scents hung in the air as she crossed the market. Most stalls were already closing up. Yet she could still smell the sweet scent of melted chocolate and boiling tea. Next came the smell of fish.
Chiyome spotted her classmate, Jiraiya. He was standing behind one of the stalls, buckets full of fish around him. Three other boys from her class stood in front of him. But they were no customers.
"Selling stinky fish fits you so much better than being a shinobi." Her classmate was laughing.
Another quickly joined in and pointed at the notes Jiraiya had left lying open on a barrel. They were from the Academy, filled with information on the history of noble clans and ninja techniques. "You are just going to fail again. These notes are no good." He grabbed them. Jiraiya tried to get them back. The notes fell down, most of them landing in a bucket full of fish and water.
The others laughed. "That's where they belong. Just like you!" With those words, they left.
Chiyome slowly approached Jiraiya as he picked up his notes. The writing was barely visible anymore.
"What do you want here?" he snapped at her. It irritated Chiyome. She never talked to him at the Academy because that was the tone he always used with her.
She looked at the soaked paper. "Do you want my notes? I can lend them to you and you can copy them," she offered anyways. Chiyome's life at the Academy had become better after Jiraiya joined their class. He was the new center of attention. Picking fights with Jiraiya was more fun for her classmates, because unlike Chiyome, Jiraiya would always fight back.
He looked at her from head to toe. Her white hair was neatly tied and held together by flower clips. She wore a dress of fine silk. To Jiraiya, who wore torn pants and a shabby shirt, the girl looked like a princess.
"I don't need your notes."
Chiyome stared at the notes in his hands. Water dripped down. "Are you sure?" She picked up a piece of paper Jiraiya had missed. It was full of scribbles with a note or two in between of the jutsu they had studied at the Academy. The spelling was completely wrong. "Maybe you should be at home studying or you won't pass the final exam."
It was no secret that Jiraiya failed almost every test at the Academy.
Her classmate grabbed the paper away from her. "Well, some people need to make a living. But not that you'd know anything about that."
The girl really didn't know anything about that. "Is your father not working?"
Jiraiya looked down at her again. "Someone like you wouldn't understand." The words seemed to hit her harder than he'd expected, though he wasn't going to feel sorry for a spoiled princess.
Chiyome wanted to be nice to Jiraiya. She could see that he was like her in a way, that he needed someone.
"So you work here every day and that's why you don't study for the tests?" she carefully asked after some consideration.
He got defensive at first, anticipating her to make fun of him. But there was no sign of ill-will in her eyes. So he simply shrugged as an answer.
Chiyome considered again. This time she pressed a finger onto her lips, thinking hard. She wanted to do something nice. Her mother had always been nice, people told her. "What if I sell the fish for you? Then you can study."
This time, Jiraiya wasn't sure whether she wasn't mocking him after all. "You? You want to sell fish in those clothes?" he laughed her comment off, still unsure whether it was truly genuine.
"Can I not?" A frown formed on Chiyome's face as she looked down at herself. She definitely didn't want to get her dress dirty. Her mother would scold her for dirty clothes. But she did want to help.
Jiraiya became more and more irritated. He was still waiting for a nasty comment. It never came. Slowly he remembered that Chiyome had never said anything hurtful to him, at least not directly. But he'd thought that was the case because he stayed away from her. They barely ever talked.
Yet here she was, standing in front of him, still trying to figure out how to help him with the fish.
"Don't you have to be at home or something?" he asked, mostly to give her an easy way out.
"Oh, right! Actually, I do. But I still have a bit of time left. Do you want me to help you pack up? All the stalls are closing. I can put the fish back into the bucket." Chiyome had carefully observed the little stall and the way it was organised. She saw the fish that lay on display and she saw the buckets with the corresponding fish in it. So she grabbed a rainbow trout that was on display for customers, ready to put it back where it came from. It was slimier than she'd excepted, and instantly slipped away. The fish flew right into the arms of Jiraiya instead.
"I'm so sorry!" Chiyome blurted out, still somewhat shocked at how slippery fish were. It was the first time she'd touched one.
Jiraiya forced himself to sigh with annoyance but he couldn't quite hold back a small smile. "You'll just end up causing me more trouble, so just stay back."
Her head dropped, and a sad pout formed on her lips. The sight caused feelings of guilt in Jiraiya, who suddenly felt like he'd stolen a mochi away from a little child.
"But, you know, maybe I'll take those notes of yours if you really want to help me out so badly." He wasn't quite sure why he changed his mind. He didn't like the girl. He didn't like how she looked and who she was. But somehow, he preferred the smile that was now on her lips again over the sad pout.
Chiyome promised to bring him her notes tomorrow.
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The next day, Chiyome left breakfast with her uncle and aunt early. She wanted to bring Jiraiya the notes so he could start studying right away. Her aunt scolded her for bad table manners when she didn't wait for the two to finish, but her uncle said it was alright. So Chiyome ran back to the marketplace again.
Jiraiya was already standing behind his stall, yelling the same lines at the passing people over and over. His eyes widened when he spotted his classmate. Somehow he hadn't expected her to come. And he definitely hadn't expected her to show up early in the morning.
"Make sure they don't fall into the fish bucket," she said as she handed him her two notebooks. "Look at me. I'm wearing my training clothes. The worst I could find. They are old and all and it's not so bad if they get dirty," she proudly told him. Then, full of excitement, she asked, "So I can help you sell the fish, right?"
"Why do you want to help me sell these stupid fish? What's in there for you?"
She stared back at him with big eyes. "I just want to help you pass the final exams. We are classmates, right? So we should help each other, I think."
He glanced away from her with a look that said he wasn't convinced. Her words still made him happy, but he would never admit that.
"Well, you do look better today. Less like a princess."
"You think I looked like a princess yesterday?" A bright smile appeared on Chiyome's face.
"What? Yes, you always do," Jiraiya said, irritated how she thought he had complimented her right now. The girl was still happy and pleased about his words, so he added, "But that's not a good thing. Princesses are stupid."
"They are not!" she protested. "My mama was a princess and she wasn't stupid at all."
"Whatever." He turned back to the fish. An awkward silence hung between them once again. Chiyome looked at him displeased, yet she didn't leave. Jiraiya didn't know what to do about it. He couldn't decide whether he wanted to shoo her off or make her stay.
Tsunade was walking over the marketplace with her mother when she spotted her classmates. She left her mother without saying a word.
"What are you two doing here?" she asked. She was usually a cheerful girl, but today, there was not even a hint of a smile on her face.
Jiraiya grunted, intentionally loud enough so the two girls would hear he was displeased by their presence. He didn't know how he managed to gather the two classmates that belonged to the main family of royal clans around him. Not after he repeatedly made it clear that he couldn't stand stupid shinobi clans.
"I'm helping Jiraiya pass the final exams," Chiyome said. "Or at least I'm trying to be of help. I wanted to sell the fish for him so he could study."
Tsunade looked at all the fish, then at Chiyome, and at the fish again. She stared at the two as though they were crazy, until her mother came over, telling Tsunade that they still had somewhere to be, and she shouldn't just run off.
"I can't go. I'm helping my friend study," Tsunade replied, and happily walked around the stall to stand next to Jiraiya.
Her mother was displeased, and told her she could do that after their date, but Tsunade literally put her foot down and said she wasn't going anywhere.
"You can go alone. I'm not going! I'll never go!" She was yelling, so loud Chiyome and Jiraiya exchanged irritated looks.
Her mother looked sad, but left without her daughter.
"What was that all about?" Jiraiya asked.
Tsunade grabbed one of the notebooks and sat down on an empty wooden box. "I don't want to talk about it." She started reading Chiyome's notes. "So what were you studying? History of Konoha? Chakra theory? Maths?"
"Are you serious? Get lost. I don't need your help!"
"Oh, are you sure? I saw your last test score. I think you need all the help you can get. Besides, Chiyome is helping too, isn't she?"
Jiraiya grunted again, but stopped complaining. He didn't even say anything when Chiyome stepped next to him and started calling out the same lines at passing people she had heard him use earlier, motivating them to buy some fish.
The next day, the three met again, and the day after. They met every day until the day of their final exams had come. And for the first time, Jiraiya passed.
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Chiyome was sitting in front of her mother's dressing table. Carefully she applied lipstick she'd found in a drawer. It had a deep red colour. Special occasions required a special look. She nodded to herself, then grabbed the kohl.
When Chiyome entered the living room soon after to find her uncle, he was sitting at a table with his wife. Each of them had a little baby in their arms, Chiyome's new cousins. There was a soft smile on Haruto's face as he looked down at his son. It wasn't something Chiyome saw often.
When he turned towards his niece, his expression changed, and he stared at her like he was seeing a ghost. "Chiyome, what are you… what happened to your face?"
"I wanted to be pretty, for the examination ceremony," the girl explained with childish innocence.
"You are a bit too young for that, don't you think?" He forced a laugh.
Haruto's wife quietly rocked her baby. There was no seal on her forehead, not anymore. Marrying into the main family was the one way for a side branch member to escape their fate. She didn't look at her husband's niece. She barely ever did. Their relationship was of a complicated nature, because Chiyome was a bastard, and not even her husband's bastard, yet Haruto treated her with more care than any child could ever hope to receive from their father.
The Hyuuga's head rose and gave his son to someone from the side branch. "Oh dear, I'm not sure I know much about make-up. But let's see if we can turn you into the prettiest girl tonight."
"Why don't you let Fuso handle Chiyome? You've barely had time to spend with Hiashi and Hizashi today," his wife intervened before they could leave the room.
Haruto agreed, and it was Fuso who accompanied Chiyome back to her room, Akari's room. Anything that was once her mother's now belonged to Chiyome. The girl hadn't changed anything. The same pictures hung on the walls, the same poem. The furniture was the same, Akari's clothes were still in the closet, shelves were filled with books and scrolls that Akari had selected. Chiyome had wanted to keep it all, and her uncle had allowed her.
"Are you getting married soon too, aunt Fuso? I heard uncle Haruto say you should," Chiyome asked as Fuso was cleaning the girl's face.
Fuso cringed at the question, but answered that she would. Chiyome was oblivious to all the facial hints of nervousness and discomfort that were on her face. Fuso did her best to avoid Chiyome ever since her mother died. The girl never understood why.
After a short while, Chiyome's face looked like that of an actual child again, and Fuso tried her best to tell her she looked beautiful before quickly leaving again. Happily, Chiyome went back to her uncle to have him accompany her to the examination ceremony in her parents' stead.
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To Chiyome's delight, Riku was already waiting for them in front of the Academy and had brought Sakumo with him. Haruto and Riku didn't greet each other. But Chiyome was used to it. It had been like that ever since her mother died.
There was a short ceremony. The Hokage held a speech and distributed the Konoha headbands to all the graduates, Konoha's new Genin. After that, everyone met in the backyard of the Academy for cake and coffee. Little groups of parents bragging about their children and of children guessing who their sensei would be soon formed.
Chiyome kept close to Sakumo. Both Haruto and Riku vanished into different directions to talk to different people.
She spotted Jiraiya, who was sitting on a bench further away from everyone else. Alone.
"Can you wait here for a moment?" she asked Sakumo. "I want to congratulate Jiraiya for passing the exams."
Sakumo nodded, and Chiyome hurried over to her now former classmate.
"Is your father not here?" She looked around and realised the man she had met a few years prior was nowhere to be seen. She still remembered the hair that was as white as Jiraiya's own hair.
Jiraiya only shrugged. "He doesn't really care whether I'm a shinobi or not." His eyes fell on Haruto, who was talking to parents from the Nara and Yamanaka clan. "Shouldn't you be with your uncle? You don't have to hang out with me out of pity."
She sat down next to him, reassuring him that she wasn't pitying him. But it barely helped to cheer Jiraiya up. He was still staring at Chiyome's uncle, the head of the Hyuuga clan. Wherever he went, people immediately involved him in the conversation.
"I joined the Academy because I thought shinobi were super cool. But then I realised it was mostly just arrogant children of some stuck-up clan members." He glanced at Chiyome, at the hair that was again perfectly done, the dress that was embroidered with blue and violet butterflies. No matter how many fish he sold, he would never be able to afford such a dress. Not that he wanted one. But the same applied to ninja skills as well. All the clans taught their children jutsu and bought them special weapons. Jiraiya had none of that.
"I wanted to become a great shinobi. Shinobi are respected. But I ended up dead last on the exams despite studying all day long. And repeating the class. I passed, but I don't think I can compete with anyone here. I'm sure the Hokage will put me on some loser team. I'll be a shinobi, but a failure of a shinobi."
"My mama always said that if you want to learn something, you need to put in a lot of effort and work, and if you want to master something, you need to put in even more effort and work."
Jiraiya only snorted. "That's easy for you to say. You have a clan to support and teach you."
The girl shifted her weight from one leg to the other. "My clan doesn't teach me much. I guess most of the things I taught myself. Sakumo helped a lot too. And uncle Riku. But they are not my clan."
"Then maybe you just had super smart parents. My father can barely tell a bottle from a vase on most days."
Chiyome was quiet for a moment. Jiraiya didn't look at her. He was too occupied with his own sulking to realise that the girl's eyes had become sad.
"My mother was, I guess," she eventually said.
"And your dad?"
She tangled her feet back and forth. They hung in the air as she was still too small to reach the ground. "How would I know? I'm a bastard, remember?" She brushed her bangs aside to show Jiraiya the seal, then quickly made sure it was neatly covered up again.
Before Jiraiya could say anything, some of their classmates stopped in front of them.
"Look, Chiyome finally found her place as well. Have you seen her sell fish all week long? She always dresses up like she is someone important, but actually, she's just a dirty fish seller like Jiraiya."
The others laughed, and added, "You know, my parents always said that Jiraiya's dad was also Chiyome's dad. It all makes sense now. They are both reeking of fish."
Jiraiya rose. His hands were already pressed into fists. One of them was about to find the face of the boy standing closest to them, when Chiyome grabbed his hand.
"Just let them talk."
He reluctantly sat down again.
Tsunade came over, and, just like she had always done in the Academy, started scolding them for picking on Jiraiya again.
But this time, her classmates didn't apologise nor did they back away. Instead, they turned to Tsunade. One of them pointed his finger at her.
"Did you know? Tsunade's mother is seeing a woodcutter. Soon they'll be married and she'll no longer be the Senju princess but a lowborn civilian."
Tsunade didn't say anything, but her facial features turned more fierce. Her classmates continued.
"The Senju aren't as great anymore as they used to be. They took the title of clan head from her mother because she's only a civilian. Now the Senju clan belongs to one of Lord Hashirama's distant cousins. And guess what, he's not strong at all! My dad said he can't even use a combined nature transformation."
The others gasped in surprise, acting as though combined nature transformation was a basic skill they learned at the Academy.
"Well, I guess now that Tsunade's not a princess anymore, we don't need to be nice to her."
They laughed. Tsunade pressed her lips and fists together. The laughing died down when she was suddenly on top of one of her classmates. Her fist connected with his cheek.
A fight came about and Tsunade was in the middle of it, dealing out more blows than she absorbed.
"Hey, you don't hit girls!" Jiraiya yelled. It was good enough of a reason for him to join the brawl. He'd wanted to beat them up anyways, and now that Tsunade had taken the initiative, he was more than happy to participate.
All eyes were instantly on the Genin wrestling on the ground. They pulled each other's hair, scratched, punched.
Chiyome was overwhelmed at first, then decided to try and stop them. She stepped closer, reached for either Tsunade or Jiraiya, told them not to fight.
No one paid any attention to her. Instead, a random elbow found Chiyome's nose.
Adults hurried over, stopped the fight.
Haruto and Riku both kneeled next to Chiyome to make sure she was fine. Her nose was bleeding.
Her uncle wanted to take her to the hospital right away, make sure it wasn't fractured. Riku laughed at him, saying that children got bruised every now and then and a bleeding nose was nothing special. They kept arguing with each other as Chiyome sat between them, still covering her bleeding nose. Sakumo got a tissue for her.
Tsunade's mother scolded her for starting a fight. A man stood next to her. He nervously glanced left and right, feeling out of place. Her daughter looked at both of them. Her cheek was swollen already.
Tsunade threw an insult at her mother, loud enough for everyone to hear, and ran off. Her mother apologized to everyone.
Jiraiya noticed that Chiyome was bleeding. But the Hyuuga clan head standing next to her intimidated him. He didn't dare speak to her. So he quietly left and went after Tsunade.
Hiruzen had observed the brawl, a smile on his face. His eyes had been on Jiraiya, Tsunade and Chiyome all evening long, the two girls in particular. "Those three", he said to Danzo. "Those are my students from tomorrow onwards."
"The troublemakers?" Danzo scoffed. "But I can understand why you'd want to teach Tsunade. She's Lord Hashirama's granddaughter after all. And Chiyome… Akari's daughter. Two promising girls. But why that white-haired boy? He doesn't even belong to a clan. And I've seen his records."
Hiruzen filled his pipe. Smoking had become a habit of his since he'd received the title of Hokage. "His records are exactly the reason. I can't just take all the best students, can I? People would start talking. But I believe he's talented. He might just need someone to point him in the right direction."
Orochimaru was standing next to Danzo. It was the first time he was at the Ninja Academy. Their relationship had constantly evolved throughout the years. First Danzo had treated him as a servant, someone who was allowed to stay at his house in return for domestic labour. But over the time he'd learned that the boy was too smart to only ever do dishes and wipe the floor.
His parents had taught him basic ninja skills. It hadn't been much, and without proper training, Hiruzen and Danzo both thought him to forget about those again. But Orochimaru didn't. On the contrary, he kept learning, simply by observing Danzo and the shinobi around him.
"These students here are all celebrating because they passed their final examination, is that correct?" Orochimaru asked Danzo. "I wish I could take those exams as well. I would like to see how I match up against those two girls." He had followed the Hokage's glance and listened to their talk about Chiyome and Tsunade. They were both tied at the top, with Chiyome having a slightly better score in the theoretical parts and Tsunade in the practical ones. The Hokage had spoken many words of praise about the two to Danzo, right until Tsunade decided to show her skills to everyone and beat up her classmates in front of them.
"There is no need for you to take those tests," Danzo told him. His voice was monotone, but not exactly cold. He'd stopped being cold towards the boy a long time ago.
Hiruzen smiled again as an idea crawled up on him. "Why not? If Orochimaru wants to become a shinobi, we should not forbid him." He wasn't exactly sure whether Orochimaru hated him or not. After all, Hiruzen had been the one who killed his mother, after she had killed Sarutobi, who had killed her husband. He was aware that he now formed the next link in the chain of revenge. But Hiruzen didn't even know whether Danzo told the boy about the circumstances of his mother's death.
And it also didn't matter. The Hokage had long decided to give the boy a chance.
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Chiyome, Tsunade and Jiraiya were still sitting in their former classroom. Everyone else was already gone, but their teacher had yet to arrive to pick them up.
"That's it, guys. We are the loser team," Jiraiya said. Secretly he was relieved that he'd been put on a team with Chiyome and Tsunade. After all, they had helped him study. He'd thought of them as spoiled clan heiresses, but after the examination celebration, he slowly realised that maybe he'd been wrong, that not every clan's child lived the perfect life.
Tsunade was sitting on the teacher's desk, arms crossed in front of her. She was in a visibly bad mood.
"We are the Genin no one wanted," Jiraiya kept going. "The fisher boy, a bastard and a fallen princess."
He was mostly joking, but Tsunade was not in the mood for it. She jumped up and grabbed his collar. "One more word and I'll make sure to give you a second black eye."
Only now did Jiraiya realise that Tsunade looked perfectly fine. She'd had a swollen cheek the night before, and he'd expected she'd look much worse than him the next day. Yet he was the only one in the room who'd taken visible damage from their little brawl.
"Don't fight, please," Chiyome said. "I'm sure our teacher will come soon."
Tsunade let go of him and turned away.
Jiraiya frowned after her. "I was only joking, okay? No need to become a shrew right away."
"A shrew?" She whirled around to him again.
Before they could raise their fists at each other, Chiyome grabbed both their hands, hoping it would stop them from fighting.
Tsunade bit her lips. "I'm still a Senju. I'm still the First Hokage's granddaughter and my father's daughter," she said. Her voice was weaker than it usually was, like she didn't only try to convince Jiraiya, but herself as well.
"Come on, are you getting this insecure over some idiots? I don't get all this clan talk, but I can see it when people talk shit."
Tsunade's head sank. Chiyome was still holding onto both of them. One link was missing to form a circle.
"And what if they are not talking shit?" Tsunade continued. "Some weird uncle of mine is our clan head. The Third Hokage is not a Senju but a Sarutobi. And my mother is seeing a stupid woodcutter. I'm just a normal girl now. No one calls me Princess Tsunade anymore."
Jiraiya moaned in annoyance. "What is it with you girls and being princesses? Who cares."
"It's not about being a princess," she protested. "It's about… about being myself!"
"Being yourself? I'd say that's overrated as well. Look at me, I'm a fisherman's son. You think I wanna sell stupid fish all day? But it's who I am. Can't change that, so stop whining."
For a moment, Chiyome thought they would both pull away from her and continue fighting, so she quickly said, "I think we can be whoever we want to be." To her surprise, she immediately had the attention of both of them. "I mean, if you don't want to sell fish, then just stop doing it."
Jiraiya was ready to laugh at her childish naivety again. But she wasn't done talking yet.
"You are a shinobi now. You passed the exams, so you are a shinobi. You changed who you are. And Tsunade is still the Hokage's granddaughter, just like I am still my mama's daughter. That doesn't change. But we can still become who we want to be."
They weren't too convinced, but at least they'd stopped fighting again.
"If you want, I can call you Princess Tsunade," Chiyome offered.
"No!" Tsunade immediately said. "That's not what I meant."
"So you think I can be a legendary shinobi one day? So legendary that everyone in the country knows my name? Cause that's who I want to be," Jiraiya asked her in a joking manner, as if he didn't believe his words himself.
But Chiyome smiled and nodded. "Yes! I do," she said wholly convinced.
A warm feeling spread inside of Jiraiya. He only realised that he was staring at her when Tsunade kicked his foot and showed him a big grin.
The door opened and someone entered. It was the Hokage.
The three Genin already expected him to tell them that their teacher wasn't coming, or worse, that they would not get to be Genin after all, as a punishment for starting a fight the night prior.
The Hokage apologised for being late. "We got a fourth teammate today, so I still had to fill out some paperwork." He wasn't wearing the white Hokage robes, but a black training suit.
"We?" Tsunade asked.
"Fourth teammate?" Jiraiya wondered.
Hiruzen walked up to them, and Orochimaru stepped next to him.
"This is Orochimaru. He only took the exams this morning and passed. He'll be on our team from now on." Orochimaru somewhat shyly nodded at them. "And I am your sensei. Nice to meet you all. I hope we'll work well together."
He smiled at them, but his Genin only stared back at him with open mouths.
"You are our sensei?!" Jiraiya eventually blurted out.
Hiruzen nodded. It left Jiraiya speechless.
"You weren't at the Academy," Tsunade noted, looking at Orochimaru. "In fact, I've never seen you around here. Who are you?"
"I'm Orochimaru."
"I know that, I mean… who are your parents? Are you from a clan?"
Orochimaru considered her question for a moment. "My parents were…."
"We allowed Orochimaru to take the Academy exams and he passed with a full score. So we made an exception and made him a Genin straight away," Hiruzen explained for him. "He never received any ninja training at the Academy and still passed. That's quite remarkable, isn't it?"
Jiraiya instantly disliked Orochimaru. He'd worked for years to get through the Academy, had done semesters twice. It wasn't fair that Orochimaru was given a free pass. It wasn't fair that this boy could just pass an exam without even attending the classes.
"I've heard you three talking of becoming a legendary shinobi right now," Hiruzen said. He could see Jiraiya blushing at his words. "Why don't we all go and have lunch together? You can tell me a bit about yourself. I want to get to know you better. I'll also pay, of course."
The five of them left the Academy and went into town together. On their way, Hiruzen asked them about their dreams and goals in life.
"A legendary shinobi!" Jiraiya decided to be the first to speak. It took him a bit of courage, but eventually, he continued, "I want to be so strong that everyone respects me. Famous."
Somehow, he expected them to laugh at his dream. But no one did.
"That's a good goal," his new teacher agreed instead.
Jiraiya was relieved that he'd shared. The day before, he'd felt that becoming a good shinobi was far out of his reach, that he'd never make it. But now, he could feel a wave of energy brush over him. He wanted to try. He wanted to succeed. He was the student of the Hokage.
"What about you, Tsunade?" Hiruzen asked as they entered a ramen shop on Konoha's main street.
Tsunade took a moment to think about it and sat down next to Chiyome. "Hmm... " She kept considering. The girl had a lot of wishes. A lot of things she wanted, and even more things she did not want. When she finally decided, she said, "Hokage. I want to become Hokage." She grabbed the chopsticks and rammed them onto the table. "I'll become the next Hokage and shut up all those little worms. I'll show them. I'll take the title of Hokage back to where it belongs, my clan!"
She let the chopsticks fall and slowly turned her head to her teacher. "I mean, I don't mean you are a bad Hokage, Lord Third. I'm glad you are Hokage, really! I just, I mean…"
Hiruzen laughed. "It's fine, I know what you mean. But don't call me Lord Third. I'm your teacher from now on, so it's Hiruzen-sensei." Everyone ordered a cup of noodles. "What's your dream, Chiyome?"
"I want to be a good daughter," she said without thinking about it. "I want my mother to be proud of me."
A sad smile formed on Hiruzen's lips. "I don't think that's a good dream to have. Because your mother is already proud of you. I'm sure about that. Isn't there something you want to achieve for yourself?"
"Then… I want to make the world a better place. I don't want people to be sad anymore. Or mean." She glanced at Tsunade. "The Hokage can change things, right? So maybe I'll become Hokage too."
"Come up with your own goal!" Tsunade complained.
Hiruzen chuckled at his students. He was certain they'd be good students. He liked their dynamic. "And you, Orochimaru?"
Orochimaru was a quiet child. He never spoke unless directly asked a question. He reminded Hiruzen of Danzo.
"I don't have a dream," Orochimaru said.
Hiruzen tried to encourage him some more to come up with something, but Orochimaru couldn't think of anything.
The ramen was served, and Team Hiruzen shared their first meal together.
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Chiyome was in a good mood when she was on her way home. She'd already been to her mother's grave to tell her of the news, and was now running down the forest path leading to their compound, excited to see her uncle and tell him all about her new team and the fact that the Hokage was her teacher. She knew he'd be proud. Everyone wanted the Hokage as their sensei.
But when she walked through the shinto gate that marked the entrance to the compound, she could tell that something was wrong. A large group of adults stood in front of the main villa together with her uncle. Many of them headed out, fully equipped with shinobi wear and weapons.
She walked over. Haruto saw her approach, but he barely paid any attention to her.
"We have to find her," she heard someone say. "She can't be far yet," another said.
"What happened?" Chiyome asked.
Her uncle didn't tell her, only said she should go inside.
It dulled her mood. But she'd wanted to visit Sakumo and Riku anyway. And she was sure that those two would be excited for her.
"I can't believe Fuso ran away with an Uchiha man. It's a disgrace!" she heard her aunt's voice from the living room as she was on her way to her room. She stopped, and listened for just a moment longer. "And having the audacity to steal the sealing scroll. She'll regret that once they caught her."
Chiyome continued down the hallway. She didn't understand what scroll they were talking about, or where her aunt had gone.
But after that day, Chiyome never saw her aunt Fuso again.
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A/N
Hello everyone!
Surprise, I'm alive (and the story too). I reeeally wanted to upload earlier, but life is so busy right now :(
But here it is - the next chapter! From now on, the story should focus much more on Chiyome and Team Hiruzen. It had actually been my plan from the start to mostly make this about Chiyome, the future-Sannin and the 2nd and 3rd war. So I guess there's still a lot ahead of us. Taking it a bit slower after all the stuff that happened in the last few chapters and want to focus a bit more on relationship building for now. I guess poor Chiyome (and everyone else on her team) could use some more friends :D
So yeah, thank you for sticking around and all, I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)