Hello everyone! Sorry it's been so long, of course life is hectic, I bought a house, spent 3 weeks just trying to get internet at it (its rural) and I'm still not even unpacked because I've been working 50-60 hour weeks.
It's been reaaaaaal hectic.
Anyways! because of the long wait I decided to put two chunks that I woulda probably split into 2 different chapters into 1 mega chapter. It's easily the longest one by far. And I finally split the google doc holding this story into 2 different one's so that I can write on my phone again instead of just my computer, which helps me get chapters done faster. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up much sooner than last. I hate making people wait so long.
Thank you to everyone who has been so patient with me, I hope that I'll be able to post more frequently.
I do not own Naruto, only my OC's.
Three days later Sasuke had been officially discharged from the hospital and I was finally home. I didn't want to leave Sasuke, but currently he was having a private session with Inochi. I argued about why I should be with him, but Inochi argued back that it was best for Sasuke that he didn't develop a dependency on my presence for comfort. Which I had no response to, but wasn't happy with.
Damn brain ninja and his stupid logic.
Currently my mother was out getting some stuff so that Sasuke could stay with us…
For a limited time.
I wasn't too happy when I had learned that he could only stay with us for 2 weeks before he had to move into his own personal apartment. There was a whole meeting with all the clan heads and apparently there was a 'conflict of interests' if the Nara clan had possession of Sasuke, the last remaining Uchiha. It angered me how they (mainly Hiashi) were referring to Sasuke as if he was a thing instead of an actual living person. Shikaku had to personally escort me out of the room before I threw my water glass at the Hyūga clan head. The only reason that I had been allowed in was because it was my house requesting to allow Sasuke to live there. The clan heads sans Shikaku and Inochi had no idea that I had actually also been there the night of the massacre. Few people knew and those that did were told to keep their mouths shut. And the Hokage preferred to keep it that way.
I wasn't complaining about that decision.
Sarana and I were currently sitting in my room, I had just finished putting up privacy seals in every corner that I could imagine, since it was time to have our conversation.
How Sarana had been able to hold in the rage that she had directed at me for these last few days left me both impressed and terrified. That ment she was really mad at me for having been able to hold it in this long, but she also had the control to have not got off on me yet.
Sarana sucked in a deeeeeep breath of air before letting it out slowly. It was like she was doing an airbending exerci- "WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO IT ALONE!" Sarana yelled.
My whole body scrunched away from my enraged friend.
"WE HAD A PLAN, AND YOU JUST WENT WITHOUT ME. THEN I FIND OUT YOU WERE ASLEEP FOR A WHOLE DAY? I KNOW YOU THAT DOESN'T JUST HAPPEN. SO. What... Happened…" The last two words slipped from shouting to a hiss that made me recoil.
Yes. I knew that I had messed up. I knew it the moment Obito showed up. But there was a greater chance of both of us or one of us having ended up dead if she had been there. And there wouldn't have been enough time to get Fugaku's eyes. As much as I hated to admit it, the way it turned out was probably the best case scenario. So, I spent my time explaining everything that happened. From Obito finding me, to him almost killing me and Itachi's interference, which still left me mildly puzzled, to how I barely had enough time to get the eyes like I had planned and that, had I gotten her that part of the plan probably would have failed.
Sara's anger simmered down after my explanation. Though finding out about my near death Obito experience didn't help, it was a reminder to both of us that he was a factor that we forgot to include.
"I'm… I'm still angry with you. But there's something else that we need to talk about," Sarana said, crossing her arms trying to deflate her annoyance. I knew that the anger came from a place of worry for me, so I really wasn't too bothered about it.
I raised my eyebrow curiously "What. Did something else happen?" I asked curiously. I had no idea what she wanted to talk about. Though I did know that when she was done with whatever it was that I needed to tell her about the whole Madara thing. Speaking of which, I hadn't seen him since that first time. So maybe he felt guilty about that ass whooping he gave me?
Eh probably not.
Sarana awkwardly rubbed the back of her head "So, I have been getting these weird feelings for a while now, and the other night I had a really strange dream type thing," She started.
My eyes widened "You too?" I was surprised. The fact that it had happened around the same time was weird. Maybe the massacre had triggered it?
Sara gave me a weird look "You did too? I guess he did say that you would have one too. But I didn't expect you to have had a dream at the same time as me," She responded.
"He?" I asked curiously.
"Huh? Oh yeah the First Hokage, the Hashi-guy. Apparently I'm his descendant or something and can use wood style…" She rambled off then she looked at me curiously, I was staring at her dumbfounded because she had the freaking FIRST HOKAGE in her brain and was treating it so casually...WAIT..DESCENDANT? WOOD STYLE!
"Who is your trainer anyways? He said it wasn't his brother but wouldn't tell me any more than that," Sara asked, not really caring about the sudden mind melt that I was currently going through due to her current info dump.
My mouth took a few moments to find the words since Sara was so casually dumping very important facts to me like they were nothing. "Uh… Uchiha Madara," I answered with a plain tone, my brain was still trying to digest the info she had dumped on me. She could use the freaking wood style! That was amazing! She could make furniture for us. Wait did that mean she also got a wolverine style healing factor? Not as powerful probably, but still!
Sara had to think for a few moments before going "Wait isn't he that super strong Uchiha guy or something? Wasn't he like friends with Hashi?" she paused for a few seconds "Oh! The guy with the Raditz hair! He dropped those two meters right? He is the guy in that video you showed me multiple times….wait isn't he one of your Naruto crushes?" She asked, her voice becoming smug.
My face became slightly red from both embarrassment and annoyance "Not anymore," I grumbled looking away. I didn't know if Madara could just listen into my conversations in real time or if he could just skim my memories later on. Really he never explained what it was like for him. Whether or not he just showed up when he felt like and was in the afterlife other times, or if he was just there all the time trying to fill his boredom. But I really didn't want him hearing this conversation.
"Owch that bad?" Sarana asked with a small wince.
"He doesn't pull punches," I said with a half dead tone.
"Oh that's real rough. Hashi is so nice, he's just happy that someone else has wood style, but he also likes teaching. Said it's much better than dealing with paperwork,"
I sighed as Sarana spoke then said "Of course you get stuck with the super nice one. And I get the 'Dodge!' DBZA Piccolo style guy. Madara doesn't even teach, he just expects me to learn by doing," I flopped helplessly to the ground.
"Yeah but if you got Hashi you'd probably take advantage of his niceness and would convince him somehow to let you slack off," Sarana said, knowing her best friend all too well.
I put up a finger as if I was going to launch back a rebuttal but the finger dropped after a moment of thought "ehh you're probably right. I still don't understand why it had to be him. Why not Tobirama?! I'm far more interested in Fuinjutsu than stupid Uchiha style bullshi-" there was a weird feeling in my gut and suddenly I felt slightly afraid. Oh no...Had Madara heard that?! Ah crap he was gunna kick my ass.
"Dude you okay?" Sarana asked with a raised brow.
"I… I am gunna die," I said with a slight quiver in my voice.
She continued to look at me weird.
"I think he heard that…" I explained.
Sara let out a laugh before putting a hand on her chest "I'll make sure your funeral is a party,"
I put my hands on my face and made a muffled scream into my fingers.
Sarana only continued to laugh at my suffering.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door, Sarana and I looked at eachother.
"Oi! Are you two done talking yet?!" Naruto yelled from the other side. With my privacy seals you could hear from the outside in, but not inside out. Kinda like a two way mirror.
Sarana got up, knowing I wouldn't, to open the door.
Naruto stood on the other side with his arms crossed and an unhappy pout on his face. "What were you two talking about anyways?" He asked with annoyed curiosity.
"Girl talk," I responded plainly without missing a beat.
"Ew, gross," He said and Sarana laughed at his expression. The boy walked into the room with a disgusted look on his face.
Another two kids entered the room with Naruto.
"Get used to it. They're both female. It's troublesome," Shikamaru said scratching the back of his neck with a tired expression.
Choji was munching on some chips and sat down next to me, offering me to eat some, which I gladly took a few.
Choji was great. Choji gave me food.
"Just be happy that they are nice enough to not subject us to that torment," Shika added going to my other side and laying down next to me with his arms crossed behind his head. "Unlike the girls in class."
Naruto plopped down on the ground as Sarana went and pulled the privacy tags off of the walls. Now that the talk was done there was no reason for them to be there anyways. Plus My mom would get mad if she found them there.
Even if they were extremely well done.
"Uggg! I hate it when the girls go on and on about Sasuke. What's so special about the jerk anyways," Naruto huffed crossing his arms.
Sarana sighed "Naruto, remember we are being nice to Sasuke right now. Even if he is mean or rude. And you know why," she scolded in a motherly type tone.
The feel of the room became slightly awkward.
"Right...Sorry," Naruto said quietly.
"Mah, don't beat it over your head Naruto. It can be easy to forget," I tried to assure. "Anyways, has anything crazy happened in the last few days?" I asked sitting up to continue conversation with the group.
"Naruto set the teachers desk on fire. I think he got one of your tags," Shika said in a plain tone. He didn't sit up for the conversation, actually his eyes were closed like he was gunna nap any moment now.
Sarana joined us on the ground and let out a huff of annoyed air. Obviously she had already scolded the boy for the action, since he shied away from her when Shika had ratted him out.
"I don't know if I should be annoyed or proud…" I said with a fake tear. Because yeah Naruto had taken one of my combustion tags (something different than an explosion tag that I was working on) without my permission, buuuuut he also set something on fire. Was the boy starting to inherit my pyrotechnic will? I was so proud!
Sarana threw a pillow at my face. "NO! Do not facilitate that kind of behavior!" She scolded both of us. "Seriously what am I going to do with you two," She muttered annoyed.
I dunno what she was so cross about. I would never leave anything extremely dangerous in a place that Naruto could actually get it.
"I feel so sorry for Naruto's future Jounin sensei. They've got a lot of work cut out for them," I said off handedly.
"Oi!" Naruto said as Sarana started laughing at my comment, probably finding the same humor in it as I did. Since, unless we messed up the timeline, we knew who that person would be.
Somewhere in Konoha Kakashi sneezed and he wasn't sure why.
Kakashi wasn't sure what exactly to think of the two kids that seemingly decided to adopt him in some backwards way a couple years ago. Who would have thought that an established Jounin such as himself would somehow be dragged into a strange relationship by two 4 year olds.
Yeah it sounded weird to him too.
It was obvious that Sarana and Nikki were both advanced for their age, both mentally and as shinobi in training. They were literally geniuses.
Maybe that was why he had decided to humor them that day.
After everything he had gone through, and after everything he had seen Itachi go through…. Maybe it was best to let those kind of kids grow up a little.
Kakashi stood in the taped off Uchiha compound, around the area that he had found Nikki cradling the Uchiha heir. He hadn't known that she had made friends with the kid. But then again he wasn't really one to ask. They both kinda had kept their lives from each other only mentioning casually what was going on in it if it was relevant. Nikki was actually quite reserved and logical depending on who she was around, though if you added the right person into the mix….Kakashi remembered the look that had been on the girl's face that night, and every time that she thought that Sasuke's safety could be at risk in the hospital. She looked ready to kill.
Speaking of looks that could kill, when Sarana had shown up at the Hospital Kakashi could feel the rage radiating off of her in a way that reminded him of Kushina. Actually a lot of the girls personality lined up with Kushina, she was headstrong, impulsive and extremely stubborn. It made his chest ache a little to think about it.
Kakashi casually scanned the area with his eyes while his hands were in his pockets. All of the bodies had been cleaned up by now, but he was told to double check for anything out of the ordinary that might have been missed, but thus far everything had been well swept through.
The only thing really out of the ordinary had been the odd blood splatter in the Uchiha clan heads house. Blood spilled, but it was blood from after someone had died. It smelled the same as the light mostly faded smell of blood from Nikki's hands that night. He hadn't mentioned it to anyone, even her, but it had made him curious when he had picked up on it. And his curiosity doubled when he had inspected the house today.
Something else had happened that night that Nikki had kept from him and the Hokage. But why? Why had there been blood on her hands that belonged to the deceased clan head? Kakashi let out a sigh. He was going to keep this information to himself for now. There wasn't a lot of concrete evidence to point to anything anyways. For all he knew the blood that he smelled on her hands could have came off of Sasuke from when he had found his parents…
A chill ran down Kakashi's spine.
Finding your dead parent was something that he could relate to.
It made him a little happy to see that Nikki had been so adamant to help Sasuke in any way possible. As much as he wouldn't admit it to anyone ever, part of him wished that he had that kind of support when his dad had…
Kakashi pulled out the recent book of Makeout paradise from his back pocket. He had been stopped mid chapter when the Hokage summoned him. This chapter was pretty good too. He walked out of the compound to go give the Hokage his report. Which was pretty much nothing. There was nothing, which was fishier than finding something.
Hm…. he wondered if there was still going to be a dinner night at his place tomorrow after the events of the last week.
Guess he'd find out tomorrow.
*Thump* I was unceremoniously woken up as an eraser hit me on the head. I peeled open my eyes to see that Ichiyo sensei was glaring at me with his arms crossed, and pretty much the entire class was staring at me.
"What," I said tiredly, putting my chin on my hand as I stared guiltlessly at my teacher. We didn't have Iruka as a sensei yet, which had left me wondering when he would show up. We only had 2 years left of School when this one finished next month.
"You are not allowed to sleep in my class. Usually it's only your cousin, but I don't want both Nara's slacking off in my class!" Ichiyo ranted.
I glanced to my left to see that Shika had a small white puff of chalk on his head, yet he was still asleep. Why was I stuck to being the one yelled at? The teacher must have given up when Shika didn't wake up.
"That's asking a lot man," I muttered quietly under my breath but it was obvious that the teacher had heard me because his face went slightly red in anger.
I could hear Naruto chuckling behind me.
"Nara Nikki you are staying after class," The sensei said before returning to his lesson.
I huffed in annoyance before slouching back into my chair. Jeez I was so tired.
"You good?" Sarana asked, leaning towards me at an angle. Her, Naruto and Choji sat behind me, Shika, and Sasuke. Naruto and I were both in the middle of our respective rows.
"Yeah," I muttered quietly, giving her a look. She quickly knew what I meant when she saw me then returned to half paying attention to the lesson. It was something that I had already had a conversation with her about and we couldn't come up with a good solution to.
Madara was kicking my ass.
I grumbled and pretended to write notes, when in reality I was drawing up our current sensei getting fireballed. I was not happy that he had woken me up from my nap.
I thought that training with Madara had been bad at first. Well once I was ten he cranked that shit up like 1000%. It didn't really help that I had a habit of pissing him off all of the time. Though I would admit that even if Madara was always cranky with me I could tell he cared in a weird kind of way. A major downside to having the Sharingan I found out, was that you remembered stuff that you saw with it. Perfectly. And I soon found myself having nightmares about the night at the Uchiha compound, and how I had taken a human being's eyes. Yet, everytime that nightmare started, only a few seconds in miraculously Madara felt it important to have a training session.
I will admit that my ass beatings were partially my own fault. I had gotten into the habit of seeing how fast I could piss him off, because it was kinda funny….Until he started throwing fireballs. Currently the fastest way to piss him off was to just say 'Tobirama'. Actually the first time I had ever seen the Susano was when I had offhandedly mentioned that Tobirama's Hiraishin technique was genius and that I had wanted to figure out how it was done.
I continued to doodle on my paper as class continued on. The drawing only became more intricate as the day went on and soon class was finally over. I sighed audibly as my fellow classmates all got up from their seats and made their way out of the classroom. Naruto gave me a slightly pitying look, since he was used to being the one left behind, along with sometimes Shika, Choji, and Kiba.
Speaking of the dog boy, I saw him walk up to Sarana with a slightly sheepish look on his face "Uh… Sarana-chan. Did you want to go do something today?" He asked. Akamaru barked from his position on the boy's head.
"Uh one moment," Sarana responded, completely oblivious to the boy's feelings. It was a recent development so I really didn't really blame her. "Yo Nikki do you want me to wait for you?"
I shook my head in response then waved the group off "Mah, go have some fun without me. I'll survive."
Sarana gave me a curt nod "Okay," She then faced Kiba "Yeah we can play or something," She answered.
"We?" Kiba asked.
"Yeah Naruto and I...Yo! Shika, Choji wanna join?" She asked the two other boy's. Both of them shrugged.
"Ah…" Kiba said his voice was less enthusiastic.
Both Shikamaru and I let out snorts at that, but the group ignored it.
"Yeah lets play Ninja!" Naruto cheered with a fist in the air as the group started to move out of the classroom.
I smiled at their antics as they left, then my attention went to the teacher who was standing at his desk still.
Ichiyo sensei uncrossed his arms and let out a loud sigh as he sat on his desk. "I know that you aren't using your full effort in class. Which, honestly I don't mind too much as long as you pass. But I need you to actually pay attention." he said.
My eyebrows crinkled at what he said. Well why could Shika sleep and I couldn't? That wasn't fair!
It was as if he read my mind because he continued "Shikamaru is a different situation and you know it. Everyone already expects him to sleep in class and don't think anything of it. But when you fell asleep it distracted the class, since all of your companions started worrying about you,"
"So what. I get detention because my friends are worried about me?" I said in annoyance.
"You know that's not why." My teacher responded with a slightly aggravated tone. He then calmed himself and breathed out deeply. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm supposed to take notice of my students health and wellbeing you know. And when one of my students who never has before, starts sleeping in class. Well I'm going to take notice." He explained trying to word it properly.
My anger shrank down to slight annoyance. Ichiyo sensei was worried about me, and my health. Huh. who would have thought.
"Oh," I said quietly then was silent for a few moments.
"I'm okay Sensei. Just not sleeping well and training probably too much," I half answered truthfully.
"It's not right to hear that a Nara is training too much" My teacher responded in humor.
I chuckled in amusement and let the grace of a smile touch my face.
"Well anyways, you still need to carry out your detention for today," He added.
I groaned in annoyance and sunk into my seat. Of course I did. So evil this sensei was. I put my hands behind my head and stared at the ceiling. I could hear my teacher shuffling papers on his desk. At least he wasn't making me do any exercises, then again I was here because I was sleeping due to overwork, making me do more work probably wouldn't help out the situation.
"Hmm.. This is an unusual sight," A gruff voice caught my attention and I sat up in my seat, recognizing Shikaku's voice and chakra. The door was open and said man was standing in it looking up at me sitting at my desk, his eyes glanced to my sensei then returned to me "Usually it's Shikamaru that is in detention. What could you have done to get stuck here? Did you use one of your combustion tags?" He asked me in a tired tone.
I gave him a slightly offended tone "I would never bring those to school. I don't trust anyone not to take them. Especially Naruto,"
A quiet "wait that's where he is getting them from?" came from the desk.
Shikaku then looked over to Ichiyo sensei who was now giving me a scrutinizing look. Ah yeah none of the teachers knew about my fuinjutsu. They'd expect more from me if they did. Damn it Shikaku you may have damned me .
"Can I take the kid?" Shikaku asked my teacher.
Ichiyo's attention snapped to the jounin commander. "Um...can I ask what for?" He asked. Which that was a fair thing to ask, since I was currently in detention and unless it was important the teachers didn't like to let kids go. But this was the Jounin Commander so he couldn't exactly just say no.
"I'm going to show her around headquarters," Shikaku answered.
Both me and my teacher looked at him incredulously. Wait was he talking about Jounin headquarters? Why would he want to take me there?
"I...guess…." Ichiyo sensei hesitantly said, not finding a good reason why he should keep me here.
I was out of my seat in an instant to stand next to Shikaku, I didn't see the look of surprise on Ichiyo's face because that was the fastest he had ever seen me move because I was too busy looking up at Shikaku with a smile. This guy was probably my favorite adult, with Kakashi coming a close second.
"Lets go?" I said wanting to get out of the classroom as soon as possible. I was getting to leave like 40 minutes early. I already hated spending so much time in this room already, which is why I usually avoided detention, but of course I had a big mouth when I was tired.
Shikaku let out an amused sound and gave me a pat on the head before walking out of the room, I followed next to him.
"So are we actually going to the jounin headquarters or was that just an elaborate jailbreak?" I questioned.
Shikaku gave me a side eye glance. "What do you think?" He asked me.
Occasionally instead of just answering my questions sometimes Shikaku would basically let me analyze the situation and come to a conclusion myself.
"Hm….well since Shikamaru isn't with you we probably aren't going to the compound, or you would have probably grabbed him too. And usually you don't show up at the school. Especially for me. And since this is my first detention, you wouldn't have known I'd need rescuing. So you were waiting for me to get out of class. Soooo most likely is that we are going to the headquarters?" I deduced.
"Correct," Shikaku answered as we continued to walk.
"Why?"
"You get to shadow me today. And depending on how it goes, once a month till you graduate," Shikaku answered.
I was perplexed. "Wait, shadow your job as the jounin commander?" I asked confused. Then it was like a bunch of buttons lit up in my head, threads connected together. "Do you and the Hokage plan on making me the next Jounin commander?" I asked. It really would explain how the Hokage had known about me on the first day of school so long ago, and why he had seemed mildly interested in my progress.
"It's a possibility," He answered. "But not an assured thing," He answered.
I frowned. "But why me? Shikamaru-ya is obviously smarter than me, I rarely beat him in shogi anymore," I questioned. It was true, he was definitely smarter than me, even with my past life. I had a head start and the boy had surpassed me. His brain was just wired differently.
"That may be true in some sense. But there are other things that you surpass him in," Shikaku answered. "For example, though you may not have beaten me in shogi when Shikamaru has, you've lasted far longer than he has before you were defeated. You prefer to try to lose as few pieces as possible to survive for as long as possible. While Shikamaru will do sacrifice plays in order to win,"
I was quiet as I absorbed what Shikaku was telling me. Yeah my strategy was in a way more passive, but when playing Shogi I tried to treat the game as a battlefield and the pieces as my comrades. I didn't really like the sacrifice plays. It just made me think of the ending of season 13 of RvB where Church said "There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero... never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith" and it freaking rang a cord within me. I never wanted to make someone have a sacrifice play, not if there wasn't really a certainty that they would come out alive. Because I wanted them to know that we had won. That every freaking choice we made was worth it, and that it made a better future.
I crossed my arms "That's probably because Shika-ya treats it as a game." I said back to him.
"You have different perspectives on strategy. Honestly I'd prefer for both of you to be preparing for the possibility of Jounin commander, but my son has inherited my lazy streak, and has a little more growing up to do before he's ready to start learning," Shikaku responded.
I put a finger on my chin in thought. Shika and I did do a good job of bouncing ideas off of each other, if it was possible to have two Jounin commanders once we both grew up, well Konaha would probably have a terrifying strategic force.
I think Shikaku might have read my mind because he let out a light chuckle.
We eventually entered the headquarters and I looked around in curiosity. There was the occasional jounin just lounging around, I assumed that they had recently finished missions or were waiting to be given new ones. One of them was just casually sitting on a couch drinking a cup of coffee while reading a book on the human nervous system… alrighty I'll avoid that one for now.
We eventually made our way to an office where there was a large pile of papers on the desk. Shikaku paused when he looked at them before he sighed heavily, rubbing the back of his head "Those weren't there when I left," He muttered before pulling out a flask from his flack jacket.
My eyes flickered to the metal container for a moment before my attention returned to the desk. Honestly I couldn't judge. The stack of papers was like half of my own height.
Shikaku took a drink then returned the flask into his jacket. He rubbed his face then turned to me "Alright. First things first, you're helping me with this paperwork."
My shoulders sagged "You sure this isn't all just some kinda ruse to have someone help you do your work?" I asked.
Shikaku didn't answer my question but instead pulled up another chair to the desk "Anything classified that you see, forget you saw it." He said.
It was nice that Shikaku trusted me so much. It made me trust him an insane amount. To the point where sometimes I wondered if I should tell him about my first life. But since that would also affect Sara, I kept quiet. But he was also definitely using this as a way to do less work.
Shikaku was looking over a paper with tired eyes.
Alright maybe he deserved a little help.
Oh my god. The plot was happening.
Currently Naruto was tied up at the front of the room next to Iruka-sensei because he had painted on the faces of the Hokage this morning.
Sarana and I both glanced at each other with looks in our eyes, we had both just realized it at the same time. Yeah I had known we were getting close I just hadn't expected it to happen so suddenly. Then again the classes graduation test was tomorrow so it made sense I guess.
Part of me couldn't accept that it had already been 12 years, and that we were officially going to become adults in the minds of this messed up society. Well at least I got Madara to promise to give me the night off so that I would be plenty rested to take my tests.
"Alright class! Surprise test! I want everyone to line up and use the Henge no jutsu to transform into me!" Iruka said as he turned to the class.
Pretty much everyone groaned except me, Sarana and Sasuke. Whom the last just let out a small annoyed sound. Somehow Sarana and I had managed to make the relationship between Naruto and Sasuke less hostile and more friendly. But there was still a spark there that they couldn't get rid of. Oh well as long as they weren't at each others throats all of the time then I was happy.
The whole class was in a line together, with Naruto being the last in line, he had a look in his eyes that said he was planning something. Sarana and I were closer to the back but not right at the end.
There were poofs and pleased or meh sounds coming from the front of the line, and those who finished went back to their seats.
I turned to Sara with a grin "Yo, wanna have a little bit of fun?" I asked her quietly.
My best friend rolled her eyes at me before asking "what are you planning? Nothing like Naruto I hope," She asked.
"Oh heck no. I'm thinking that I go two and you go one?" I asked with a smirk on my face.
After a moment of thinking Sarana realized what I was talking about then shrugged. "Sure, why not. Iruka knows we can both do it perfectly already anyways," She answered. In these past few years we had both pretty much perfected our chakra control. Sarana was now to the point where she could even use the mystic palm jutsu to an extent to heal minor injuries. Shikaku had gotten her an internship at the Hospital by pulling a couple of strings. It really helped that a fair amount of hospital staff were Nara. Sarana had told me that at first they had been extremely reluctant, especially since she was still in academy, but after seeing how quickly she learned and how well she did it at her age they had quickly warmed up to her.
We were soon to the front of the room and Iruka gave me a look. I wasn't one to cause him trouble, but I wasn't one to stop it when it was happening either. "Hey sensei do I have to transform into you or can I choose someone else?" I asked with a smile.
He looked mildly hesitant despite my good record of not being a pain in his arse during class. It was possible that it was because of how close I was with Naruto but who knows. "I...guess," He said hesitantly and I took that as my cue to freaking go.
My hands whipped through the hand signs as I pictured who I wanted to transform into clearly in my mind. There was a light pull at my chakra reserves and a poof as I transformed. A few seconds later I could hear a poof beside me as Sarana transformed too.
I let a small smirk grace my face as I looked at Iruka.
"The 2nd?" Iruka asked confused while looking at me, before he looked at Sarana who now looked like the 1st Hokage. He looked back and forth between us confused as to why we would decide to turn into the previous Hokage.
"Now all we need is 4th and we've got a party," I said my voice was much deeper and waaaaay more manly due to my transformation.
"Anyone wish to join?" I asked.
No one answered. I assume none of them had a clear enough idea of what the 4th looked like to transform into him or they were too confused by mine and Sarana's transformations into the first 2 Kages.
Sarana laughed right beside me and she put a hand on my shoulder "I think that's good enough, uh bro, lets go sit down. We've perplexed our teacher enough," Her voice was definitely exactly like Hashirama's, not that anyone here would know, and it was strange to hear.
Some of the class laughed, some of them were just confused. Those who knew me well just shook their heads not surprised. My interest in the second Hokage was not unknown to my friends.
"Yeah you two pass… I guess.." Iruka said, giving us both a very confused look before continuing on with testing others.
Sara and I decided to stay in our transformed forms as we made our way back to our desks.
As soon as I sat down I felt an odd feeling in my gut that only happened when I said or did something that pissed off Madara. I guess transforming into Tobirama was something that he didn't approve of. Well it appears that I will not be getting that good night's rest tonight.
That was unfortunate.
It appears that the academy seating wasn't designed for a fully grown man, so I had to sit in my seat awkwardly angled with my chair all the way back.
"Why." Sasuke said quietly beside me, so that no one else would hear. He kept up with the whole quiet emo kid thing around everyone, but would occasionally put that aside when talking to me. It really helped that I didn't fawn over him like the rest of the girls in class sans Sara.
"Hm… because it's fun. You should try transforming into one of the Kage's sometime. Though the 2nd one is probably your best bet, because sounds like the 1st and 4th Kages were secretly goofballs, and you don't want to hurt your image," I answered, it was extremely weird to hear Tobirama's voice coming from my own body.
Sasuke looked towards Hashi-Sara who was sitting comfortably in her/his chair with their hands behind their head. Sasuke had a look on his face as if he was trying to get the reasonable one to make sense of the situation. Jokes on him we were both crazy loonies.
"NARUTO!" Was shouted from the front of the room and all three of us had our attention drawn to the front of the classroom where Naruto had transformed into a naked lady, though somehow the clouds from the transformation tastefully covered up any not safe for television bits. Huh it was strange how that worked. Was that an intentional design of the jutsu or was that just a random byproduct of its creation?
My attention was pulled from my musings when a bright faced Iruka continued to yell at Naruto "Don't invent stupid jutsu's!" he yelled at the boy as Naruto returned to normal. Huh he didn't get a nosebleed like in the anime. Well it was nice that silly gags like that weren't a thing. I never really found it all that funny, but then again I had first watched the show as a 10 year old girl. Huh 10 years old was only like 2 years ago for me in this life, yet it was 23 years total ago for me.
Ugh reincarnation made age confusing.
"Idiot," Sasuke muttered under his breath about Naruto.
My currently red eyes (a la Tobirama's unexplained strange appearance) flicked towards Sasuke in disapproval, even if Naruto was being silly there was nothing good in calling him rude names.
Sasuke's mouth opened as if he was going to say something but then closed when he probably realized that it was gunna be a stupid thing to say.
"Keep that up and you'll probably end up in the same group as him," I said in a joking yet serious manner.
Sarana let out a snort behind me and Sasuke gave me an annoyed but also curious look.
I sighed as I crossed my arms. "There are some main default groups that are usually made in graduation classes. For sure there will be Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji in a group because InoShikaCho groups are some of the best in teamwork due to our clan connections. There will also probably be a tracking team, that if I am correct will consist of Hinata, Shino and Kiba, since they all come from clans that have specializations in tracking. Then there is what I think of as the 'balanced' group, where they take the top boy and girl and the lowest student and put them in a group. That would consist of you, Sakura and Naruto," I explained. "The rest of the groups might be balanced in a similar way, the next two top students and the next lowest. Or they might just be combined by the possibly best combinations," I explained, I tried to make it so my voice was quiet enough that one one would hear me other than Sasuke and Sarana, though that wasn't hard as everyone's attention was on Iruka scolding Naruto.
Sasuke looked a little pale at the mention of Sakura, and I didn't blame him. We had little to no interaction with the girl, short of the few times she joined the entourage of Sasuke's angry fanclub. "Why Sakura, and not you or Sarana," He asked genuinely confused.
I shrugged "neither of us attended Kinochi classes ever, which was also part of our grades. We technically aren't top of the class if you look at the numbers. We're actually both about right in the middle so we look about average,"
Sasuke looked at me curiously before looking at Sarana with the same curious look.
Had he not known? I knew I slacked in class, I thought it was obvious.
"Any idea where or who we might end up with?" Sarana asked leaning in. Man was it strange to see Hashirama just chilling in the academy, though he probably looked more natural in the environment than the grouchy, curt, Tobirama.
"Honestly, I have no clue. Though I think the Hokage knows what'll happen if we aren't in the same group. Even if having two women in the same group is unheard of," I mentioned.
"Oh yeah, I already made mention of it to the old man," Sara-Hashi said with a small almost evil grin. The expression looked extremely weird on the first's face.
I honestly didn't want to ask.
Soon enough class was over and we made our way out of the classroom, after returning to normal of course. Naruto couldn't join us since he had to clean off the Kage statues with Iruka, and it was also dinner with Kakashi night so he didn't usually join us anyways.
Somehow the other kids didn't know about Sarana and I's dinner nights with Kakashi. They just knew we were busy Thursday nights and no one asked. And honestly we didn't see a reason to just tell.
Though depending on how teams go they will probably find out soon enough.
Sarana and I had quickly made our way to Kakashi's house, he had actually started keeping his fridge stocked after a few years of our pestering, it made it much easier to not have to shop before dinner every Thursday.
Sara was stirring the curry on the stove, while Kakashi was sitting backwards on a chair reading makeout Paradise, and I was laying on the floor with my hands behind my back, hoping I could convince Madara to not kick my ass because of my test tomorrow.
I looked over to the silver haired man. "So you excited to be a Jounin sensei?" I asked, raising an eyebrow towards him.
"Mah. Any students I get will probably fail my test anyways. So I won't have to worry about it," he responded, his eyes never leaving the book.
"And what if you get me and Sara?" I asked curiously. Though I knew the possibility of it was unlikely.
Kakashi actually looked up and seemed to think for a moment. "Maybe you two wouldn't be so bad as students," he responded before returning his gaze to his book. "Though, I'd limit your use of explosives," Kakashi added offhandedly.
"Maybe you should be our sensei," Sarana muttered putting down the spoon.
I lifted my head to glare at her "oi,"
"You have an unhealthy obsession with fire. Honestly you're a pyromaniac," Sarana scolded me, hands on her hips.
"It's just that will of fire or whatever," I responded coolly, waving my friend off. It wasn't my fault that my chakra nature was fire, and thus I had an affinity for it.
"That's… not what that means," Kakashi piped in, flipping a page in his book.
I merely shrugged from the ground. There was no good response back to them. Maybe I did have an unhealthy obsession with fire. Honestly I blame Madara, he's the one who's thrown fireballs at me for years, then taught me to throw fireballs at others.
Man was it fun.
"Well whatever students you end up getting, I hope you whip them into shape. A lot of the kids in our class are real shit at teamwork, so they need to learn how to work together," I said. And honestly it was true. Minus the InoShikaCho combo, who are literally taught teamwork when growing up the rest of the class was extremely lacking in it. Mainly they liked showing off who was the best or who could do this or that better.
"Hm," Kakashi hummed as he flipped a page, but I knew was listening.
"I tried to convince the teachers that they should add more team building exercises to the curriculum but they didn't want to listen," I sighed and closed my eyes.
"Yeah I tried to convince them too but they didn't care. Yet there's a reason why we have 3 man teams. Why the hell wouldn't they work on teamwork," Sarana added.
We both knew about Kakashi's thing with teamwork, but we also understood the necessity of it pretty clearly. Bad stuff happens when one person tries to do something on their own.
And yes I was stupid the night of the massacre.
"Hopefully Nikki and I end up with someone who's willing to work with us," Sarana added before turning off the heat of the stove. "All right foods done."
Instantly I Shunshin-ed to the table. I had no qualms using that jutsu to get to food faster.
Sarana nearly rolled her eyes at me.
I rubbed my hands together in excitement before pausing. "Oh.. this could be our last dinner for awhile. If you have a team and we are on a team we might have conflicting schedules…" I realized, not having thought of it until now.
"We will find time," Sarana stated matter of factly. There was absolutely no room in her response for a rebuttal.
Kakashi put down his book on the table, flipping his chair around. "Hmm. We'll just have to wait and see,"
Well the day of the test had been a shit show. Both Sarana and I had passed of course, but for some reason. Even though Naruto was ahead of where he had been in the anime, he had failed.
Had he broken under pressure? Had the teachers used their own personal bias to fail him? Sarana and I weren't sure. We definitely knew he had decent chakra control. Though the normal clone jutsu was still difficult for him, he had gotten to the point where he could do it if he focused. Hell he could even use the tree walking technique at this point! (As could Sasuke who got jealous when he found out both Naruto and I could use it). So when we found out he had failed we were furious.
Naruto had looked so defeated that it made me feel heartbroken. That kid was a living ball of sunshine and seeing him so sad filled me with rage. Had I any less self control I would have blasted into the teachers lounge with my fireball jutsu.
Naruto didn't even want to be around me or Sarana after the test and had run off to be alone. Making us both feel even worse.
After that Sarana dragged me to the Hokage tower to give the old man an earful. It was most likely that the teachers had failed him on purpose and she, nor I would stand for this injustice.
A bit into our rants on the ridiculousness of the situation a shinobi poofed into the office to report that Naruto had taken the scroll of sealing.
Sarana and I had both stood shocked at that.
It wasn't that we had forgotten, but we were surprised that, even with our interference, the events were still playing out similarly.
The Hokage then ordered us home, and told us we weren't to interfere, which we definitely would have had he not given us both a look that sent chills down our spines. He might be an old man but he was still powerful.
We had gone our separate ways, despite what we wanted to do, and went to our respective homes.
And now it was the morning that we would be separated into our teams. Naruto was sitting happily with his forehead protector next to Sarana and I felt such a huge relief in my body when I saw him this morning.
I didn't know if everything had played out the same as it had in the show, but there was definitely something different about Naruto now. Part of me wondered if he had told Sarana about the Kyuubi at all, we hadn't had a chance to talk.
"Alright class! Starting today all of you are officially shinobi!" Iruka sensei said from the front of the classroom. He was no longer joined by Mizuki and I wasn't too surprised.
"You are only Genin and your journey has only started. You will soon get missions to help the village, so today we will create 3 man teams led by a Jounin sensei," Iruka continued. Everyone in the class listened intently to what he was saying.
He then started listing off teams and I zoned out, not hearing any of my friends names. There were 29 graduates in our group, so I was curious as to what would happen with the odd ones out.
Eventually Iruka got to team 7 and my attention refocused " Team 7 will be…Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke!" He said.
Sasuke's head turned to me in shock and annoyance that my prediction had been right. I merely shrugged and looked forward before I let out a huge sigh of relief. At least that was still the same. I could feel through her chakra that Sara felt the same.
"Team 8 will be Inuzuka Kiba, Hyúga Hinata, and Aburame Shino," Cool that was still the same.
The people on team 9 were ones I didn't really know. And team 10 was our generation's InoShikaCho.
"And finally our last team, team 11, will be Nara Nikki, Sarana, and Inuzuka Watage," Iruka read off.
I blinked, frowned, then looked to Sara to see if that name meant anything to her, but she only shrugged in response.
I then quickly looked to Kiba, the only Inuzuka in the class to gage his reaction. " gawh, why does that bastard have to be teamed up with Sarana," he groaned clutching his head, obviously he still had a crush on Sara. Akamaru barked in response to what his partner said.
That still didn't give me enough of an answer so I raised my hand. Iruka looked at me and nodded showing I could speak "Um, sir sorry. But I have no idea who that is?" I said confused.
Iruka nodded "because of the irregular number of graduates a genin from the corps was pulled to be in your team. He's only a year older than you guys," Iruka explained.
Sarana and I shared another look before I just shrugged in confusion.
"You will all wait here for your Jounin senseis, Team 11 you'll go with team 7 and their Jounin sensei will take you to the Hokage tower after they're done," Iruka said, putting down his papers.
The whole class looked at Sara and I curiously and I couldn't blame them. Everything about our team assignment was strange, from being put with someone outside of the class, to having 2 females in the same group. Plus we were to meet at the Hokage tower? Something really strange was going on. Though it was good that Sarana and I got put in the same team. We worked very well together, and honestly we woulda thrown huge fits had we not. But why were we meeting up at the Hokage tower? Did this have something to do with who our sensei would end up being? Because I had no idea on who it would be either.
One by one teams were taken out of the classroom by their jounin senseis, and both Sara and I knew, had the timeline stayed remotely the same as it had, it would be awhile before team 7's sensei arrived.
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were all getting impatient, now that it was just us, them and Iruka in the classroom, and eventually Iruka dipped, leaving just us in the room.
Sarana and I were just playing a game of Shogi in the back of the room (I kept a board in a scroll with me at all times) leaving the others alone, hoping that maybe they would try to get to know each other as a team. However, that was not going so well…
"What are you doing?" Sakura's annoyed voice came from the front of the classroom.
Sarana and I looked up from the board to see what was going on. Naruto was putting up an eraser on the top of the door.
"That's what they get for being late," Naruto said, jumping down from the wall.
Sakura looked towards Sarana "Well are you going to do anything about it?" She asked.
Pretty much everyone knew the only one who could control Naruto at this point was Sarana. But said girl only shrugged "Hey he's your teammate. You gotta figure that stuff out," She responded.
Sakura merely huffed "hm, well I'm not involved," she said walking away. It didn't seem like anything about canon Sakura had changed, though Sarana and I had done nothing to change it. We already had enough on our plates and it wasn't our job to fix every single thing. She also treated Naruto like garbage so we weren't fond of being in her presence.
Sasuke scoffed "Like a Jounin would fall for such a lazy, stupid trap." though from his body language he looked mildly curious. Some of Naruto's trickster habits had rubbed off on him a little. He might not partake in anything, but he casually observed the results.
A minute later a hand showed at the door and everyone's attention snapped to it, though Sara and I were less curious. I had sensed who it was, and had relayed that info over to Sara. We had been right. It was all going the same more or less.
Kakashi walked through the door and there was a *thump* as the eraser hit his head.
Naruto started laughing at the grey haired shinobi "hahahaha! You fell for it! You fell for it!" he continued to laugh with a hand on his stomach, while Sakura started apologizing to Kakashi.
I pulled out my scroll for my Shogi board and quickly sealed it inside while the shenanigans quickly continued on. I was careful to seal it with all the pieces in place in case Sarana wanted to finish our game. She didn't play often, but since it reminded her of chess she would play me occasionally.
"Hmmm how can I say this," Kakashi started, it was the first time that any of team 7 had heard his voice "My first impression is…. I don't like you guys," He said plainly.
I snorted in amusement and Sarana gave a light chuckle.
Kakashi's eyes flickered up to us before he gave us a small eye smile "Don't worry I'm not talking about you two, though the fact that you didn't stop them is pushing it," He said. He then looked back to his genin "On the roof, 5 minutes" He told them before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Sarana let out an amused sound "Drama queen,"
We all quickly made our way up to the roof of the building, where Kakashi was waiting with a book out. Quickly he put it away before the kids saw it.
Team 7 all sat near each other and Sarana and I sat off to the side, since for some reason Kakashi was taking us to Hokage tower after his meeting.
"Well, lets begin with introducing ourselves," Kakashi said.
"What do you want to know?" Sakura asked. With a head tilted to the side. I rubbed the side of my face as this went on. Honestly I felt like I could be doing something else with my time instead of just sitting around. There was something that I wanted to work on...but the math was killing me. But it was definitely something that I wanted...no I needed to figure out.
"And my dream is...To find a certain man.." Sasuke's voice pulled me out of my brain and I focused on his words. Ah he was talking about his 'dream' I completely missed Naruto's intro, but it wasn't like I didn't know him. Plus, if i remember correctly Sasuke had said he wanted to kill a certain man in the anime. It looks like our conversations had worked. I had convinced him to find his brother and find out the real reason he had done what he did, instead of killing him.
"Okay, now the pink haired girl," Kakashi said.
Sakura perked up "My name is Haruno Sakura, and the thing I like is… well the person I like is….. And um my dream for the future? Um….… Oh yeah! What I dislike is...Naruto,"
Sara and I both scowled at Sakura for her dislike of Naruto. She shriveled at our gaze when she saw us then continued a little quieter "Uh my hobby is…."
Kakashi looked completely put off by the conversation and looked like he was ready to just leave. His eyes then flickered to Sara and I.
"Your turn," he said blandly.
I raised my eyebrow "You want us to introduce ourselves? But we literally know all of you." I said. That seemed like a waste of time at this point.
The team 7 genins looked confused at my comment of knowing everyone.
"Humor me,"
"I'm Sarana," my friend cut in wanting to get this over with. "I like cooking and having friends, I dislike anyone who hurts my family, And my dream for the future is to make the world better for the people I care about,"
I nodded to her words, it was a pretty solid introduction. I then gave mine "My name is Nara Nikki, I like dango, the second Hokage, and explosions. I dislike excessive work and dealing with people. My dream for the future is…" I paused. I didn't really have a dream for the future. Well not one that I could just tell everyone. Wanting to stop a war that hasn't happened from happening and preventing an alien chakra god from being revived was something that I couldn't just casually drop. "Uh, to make the biggest explosion ever," I said lamely.
Kakashi looked deadpanned "Mah, Nikki, perhaps you should look into a different dream,"
I crossed my arms defiantly "Hey I've never blown up your apartment,"
"That's because I don't let you take any paper into his house," Sarana added.
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all looked confused, though Sasuke was mulling it over with a finger on his chin.
"WAIT! You guys know each other?!" Naruto shrieked jumping up. He looked annoyed at Kakashi, like he had taken something of his.
"Thursday nights…" Sasuke said quietly, coming to a realization.
Both the boy's knew we were busy on Thursday nights, they never knew why.
Naruto looked to Sasuke, processing what he said then he pointed to Sara, having realized what Sasuke meant "Oi! Why didn't you tell me?"
"You didn't ask,"
Naruto deflated.
"Well now that that's over," Kakashi butted into the conversation trying to get it back on track. "Tomorrow, the four of us will be doing some survival training. And your opponent will be me,"
Team seven looked confused. The confusion only grew when Kakashi started laughing.
"What's so funny sensei?" Sakura asked.
"It's just that, when I tell you this, you are all going to freak out," Kakashi said, his voice growing darker.
I leaned towards Sara "yeah, total drama queen."
Kakashi's eyes flicked to us then back to his team. "Of the 29 graduates only 9 to 12 of them will officially be genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy. This training is a very difficult exam with about a 66% failure rate,"
I yawned and laid backwards as I could hear Naruto and Sakura freaking out. Sasuke's chakra was wavering so I knew he was freaked out by this news as well. It made sense though. You only wanted those who were truly ready to graduate and could handle themselves should the situation arise to pass. It prevented a lot of unnecessary deaths.
"I told you you'd freak out," Kakashi said with an almost humored tone.
"But… No way! We worked so hard….. Then what was the point of graduating!" Naruto yelled.
"Oh that? That was just to select who would have the chance to become genin," Kakashi replied. "Anyways tomorrow you have your chance to reveal your true skills on the training ground. Bring all of the shinobi tools you have…..Except no tags from Nikki,"
Smart man. Though I wasn't going to give them any anyways. I had my own test to pass.
"Oh… and skip breakfast or you might just throw up," Kakashi gave a small eye smile. He then started to pass out papers "The details are on this paper. And don't be late tomorrow."
Kakashi then walked over to Sarana and I, leaving his students to panic on their own. "Alright, I'm to take you two to the Hokage tower. Let's go,"
Sarana looked over at Naruto who was freaking out along with Sakura. Sasuke was just sitting there quietly, though it was easy to see that he was rattled "I'll see you at home tonight Naruto."
Naruto calmed down slightly "Okay Sarana-neesan. I'll see you later." he then pointed at her "And you're going to tell me everything!" he shouted, obviously still annoyed that we somehow knew his sensei.
Sarana shrugged and then us three were off in a flash. None of us bothered to walk, instead we jumped over the rooftops till we got close enough.
"Are you excited for that group of misfits as your team?" I asked with a small smirk.
Kakashi had his hands in his pockets "Do you think that they'd even pass?"
I shrugged "Well, at first, their teamwork is gonna suck, especially with the love triangle dynamic they got going on. But with the proper tutelage, they have the potential to be a great team. Though Sakura has an insane amount of catching up to do," I said.
"No kidding," Sarana said as we walked up the steps. She definitely wasn't a fan of the pink haired girl. Especially since Naruto was basically like a brother to her.
Kakashi merely hmmed and continued on.
We soon entered the office of the Hokage, where he was sitting at his desk, stacks of paper everywhere. Off to the side was Shikaku and some boy with a dog I didn't recognize.
The Hokage sighed "Ah Kakashi, you're finally here?" he said with a slightly annoyed tone in his voice. Geez, how long had he kept the freaking Hokage waiting? Only Kakashi had the balls to make the leader of the village wait for him.
The Kage then looked over to Sarana and I "Well now that everyone's here, I guess I will explain. Nara Nikki, Sarana, and Inuzuka Watage of team 11," the boy I didn't recognize moved to stand beside us, his dog following suit. Huh so he must be Watage. "You three will be paired with Nara Shikaku as your Jounin Sensei," He said.
My eyes widened in shock. But the Jounin commander wasn't supposed to take a genin team right? He already had too many other duties to fulfill with his job.
Hiruzen smiled "As you might know, this is an unusual occurrence. Normally the Jounin commander doesn't take a group of students. However, you three already have exceptional skills. Nikki and Sarana, you could have easily graduated from academy years prior and possibly could have achieved the rank of chunin by now, had Shikaku and I not thought it unwise at the time. And as part of the Genin corps, Watage has plenty of on the field experience. And we thought it best to put him in a permanent 3 man team,"
I furrowed my brows at this information. I guess, logically it made sense. To try and put people he thought would work best together, and were advanced together. But why Shikaku?
"That being said, there are still a lot of things that you three need to learn. And Shikaku is the one with the experience and skills needed to teach you three," his eyes then fell on me, and it made me wonder if it had anything to do with me learning Jounin Commander stuff.
"Though since Shikaku will not be able to teach you all the time, occasionally if he is busy with Jounin commander work, you three will join and assist team 7, Hatake's team" The Hokage said, motioning to the silver haired jounin who had been standing off to the side.
I blinked. That was...odd. Then again, it assured that if there was ever a mission that was too much for team 7 to handle that there would be extra people there to assist. Especially since team seven was composed of a jinjuriki and the last Uchiha. It could provide extra assurance of their safety.
I glanced at Kakashi to see his reaction. I didn't seem too happy about this but he wasn't too phased by it either. He had probably already known about this. Still it was cruel that the man who was terrible with children would sometimes have to deal with an extra 3. I truly felt sorry for him.
"Kakashi, I would suggest informing your team of this tomorrow," Hiruzen said, he then looked towards Sarana and I "Congratulations on making it to genin. Though you still have your test tomorrow with Shikaku," He returned to a more serious mood. "You are all dismissed," The Hokage staited, and with that we all exited the tower. Kakashi poofed away without a goodbye, leaving the newly formed team 11 to itself.
"Alright," Shikaku said, his voice sounding exhausted. "I don't feel like getting up bright and early tomorrow so we will meet up at 11." He said rubbing the back of his head. "Come prepared with all of your tools and such. Nikki, no explosives over level 3" Shikaku said, giving me a look.
I looked away non-innocently. I had ranked my explosives by their power level. Level 2 was around the same level as the generic explosive tags you could get from the store. At least he didn't bar them completely like Kakashi had.
"I suggest you three get to know each other before tomorrow," Shikaku said, and with that he left. Honestly I didn't blame him. He just got extra work put on his plate, and I couldn't imagine the amount of paperwork he had to do today with the team assignments. The Hokage might sort the geinin into groups but Shikaku had to go through all the available Jounin to see which ones were available for teaching, and help pair them best with groups in order to create the best learning and team dynamic.
"What did he mean by level of explosives?" Watage said with a slightly curious, and possibly mischievous look on his face.
I looked over to my new teammate, finally getting the change to give them a good inspection. He was, as Iruka said, a little older than Sara and I, with wild spiky brown hair that mainly fell towards one side and green eyes. He had the Inuzuka fangs on his cheeks and was wearing a light grey shirt with a green fur lined jacket that was rolled up to his elbows, and black shinobi pants. His dog partner was a white wolf that sat patiently at his side.
Sarana rolled her eyes than glared at me "She makes her own explosive tags, which she started ranking by explosive level,"
Watage smirked "Nice,"
Sarana groaned "oh no. Not you too…"
I laughed out loud "Haha! Someone who recognizes my genius! Now, how 'bout you introduce us to our last team member and we can all learn about each other at dinner? I'll need to learn about your abilities, strengths and weaknesses so I can try to come up with some strategies tonight," I had motioned to the dog when talking about the last teammate, because, technically speaking we were a 5 man team.
Watage gave a fanged smile "This is Shiromaru, my partner. She's mainly got wolf blood, and of course got her name from the white color of her fur," he seemed happy that I included his canine partner as part of the team.
Sarana knelt down to pet the pup "And she is absolutely gorgeous!" she said scratching the dog under the chin. Obviously her love of dogs had taken over. Shiromaru melted into Sarana's hands and gave a happy bark.
The boy blinked "Oi, she is never nice to new people that fast…" he looked slightly jealous at Sarana.
"I think Sarana's gunna steal your dog," I said, staring at the dog who was now lying on its back as Sara rubbed its belly. They both looked happy.
"Oh I absolutely will," Sarana responded as she continued to shower the dog with love.
I shook my head and looked at my teammate. "So, Akimichi Barbeque?"