Chapter 3

" " – speaking

'italics' - thoughts

Natsumi's POV

'I don't want to wake up'

Was the first thought that went through my head as I opened my eyes from a deep dreamless sleep. I sure as hell didn't want to go to this stupid meeting but I had no choice. Groaning and twisting, I just threw a silent fit on the bed and tossed the covers over my head before throwing them off. i took a quick shower and wearing my jounin uniform, I tied the headband around my bicep and headed to the Hokage's office.

A few hours later

As soon as I entered the tower and stood at the door, I sensed multiple chakra signatures inside before the door flew open. Stepping aside lo let the Hokage's advisers and Danzo outside, the old man just stared at me as I went inside slamming the door on his face. "Why is Danzo here all of a sudden?". Dad just sighed and gestured for a later conversation and I stood at attention with the other jounins. The Sun shined through the windows as we discussed about the village reports. "What about Mizuki" questioned Kakashi suddenly. Mizuki was a chunin and former instructor who once taught at the academy. The Anbu had been keeping an eye on him for the past few months as there were reports about him meeting a suspicious group of people at the borders of the Land of Fire during the night. What was strange about him was that when I tried to sense his chakra, there was an evil aura coming from him which resembled a snake. A few weeks back, I tailed him on Dad's orders as he went to the border of the Land of Fire and met a group of four people. Loud exclamations and curses were heard from the group before I stepped in and engaged with them. It was actually a pretty one-sided fight as the group fled abandoning him on the spot and left me to pick him up.

"Mizuki is currently being held at the T&I interrogation center. Ibiki worked on him for quite a bit before he revealed everything" said the Hokage.

"He is Orochimaru's disciple, isn't he?" everyone looked at me while I just shrugged and rolled my eyes. "Come on! The snake seal on his shoulder and the scent of snakes?". Dad just nodded and confirmed my statement. "He just cried that he has been working for Orochimaru a while back but that's it. Natsumi, I want you to go and find out about him after this meeting. We will continue this discussion later"

Everyone refocused their attention on the crystal ball or Jiji's peeping ball, as I once liked to call it, on the table. The ball zoomed on on the kids screaming and laughing, playing with each other. But then it focused on a weird scene. Everyone present there saw an orange jumpsuit wearing boy locking lips with none other than Sasuke while the other girls not including Mito and a girl with the characteristic eyes of the Hyuuga clan, were protesting and shouting at the pair. I was gobsmacked. Asuma and Kurenai were shocked as well and Guy for once was silent. "So that's Uzumaki Naruto?" muttered Kakashi.

I just stared at the scene infront of me with wide eyes. Hearing a perverted giggle beside me, I turned my head and saw Kakashi grinning underneath his mask. "Is there something you would like to say Kakashi?" seeing the scowl on Minato's face, he turned pale and stopped giggling.

Dad then cleared his throat and continued speaking "So anyways these are the teams you will be leading. I have already announced the team Natsumi will be leading yesterday. The details of the teams the remaining of you will be leading are in these files. Best of luck" he handed the files to the respective jounins except me and shooed us out of the office. Before I could head out, I heard him say "Good luck Natsumi". Turning around, I just nodded and headed out to meet my team.

Reaching the academy classroom before the others, I stopped at the doors and took a few moments to compose myself. Listening to the kids shouts and squeals of laughter coming from inside, I wondered if I was really ready to be playing the role of a sensei. Taking a deep breath, I threw the doors open and strode into the classroom. The kids instantly became silent as I entered the room. Looking around, I saw Hana's brother, Kiba and his little puppy peeking from his jacket, I smiled and waved at him. He just waved back with a huge smile on his face and turned towards a boy wearing a green jacket with an upturned collar to cover his mouth 'Aburame '. Naruto, with his face full of bruises was lying his head down on the desk alongside a boy sleeping with his hair tied up like a pineapple and a fat boy with the markings of the Akimichi clan on his cheeks 'Nara and Akimichi'. I spotted my younger sister, Mito, with her hair tied up in a ponytail looking at me with an impassive expression on her face while beside her, the pink haired girl, Sakura along with the rest of the girls just glanced at me and continued staring at Sasuke like he was a celebrity. Speaking of Sasuke, he just looked at me with a strange look on his face before turning away.

"Team 7?" I called out and the respective genin stood up. "Come up to the rooftop" and went there while nodding to the just arriving jounins on the way.

Leaning on the railing, I silently waited for them. After a few minutes of silence, I heard footsteps echoing from the stairwell and the door flew open to reveal a weird sight. Naruto was shouting at Sasuke for some reason while Sakura glared at Naruto. Sasuke just ignored them in turn while Mito was silent. Looking at the group before me, I sighed to myself and gestured for the four of them to sit down.

"Ok everyone. Now that all of you are settled down, I would like everyone to introduce yourselves"

"Why don't you go first sensei?" I glanced at the pink haired girl. "I mean we don't know anything about you sensei. So maybe you could show us how it's done?"

"Ok then. As you all know my name's Uzumaki-Namikaze Natsumi. I like the village, my friends and ramen" Ignoring Naruto's enthusiastic shout of "Me too!" I continued speaking. "My dislikes are…. well I don't have any dislikes at the moment. My hobbies… no need for you to know. And my dream is to have a happy life I guess?" I finished scratching my chin. They just stared at me. "Well! Now you know how to introduce yourselves now? Naruto you go first" seeing as he was excited to start first.

The exuberant boy perked up. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like cup ramen. What I even like more is the Ichiraku ramen that dad and mom buy for me. What I dislike is waiting 3 minutes for the cup ramen to cook". 'Is ramen the only thing he thinks about?'. "My dream is to become the greatest Hokage ever and make my parents and my neechan proud of me! And my hobbies are ... pranks I guess?"

Hearing his words, I couldn't help but smile at the excited boy in front of me. Even though he didn't remember me clearly, I remembered him when he used to follow me around along with Sasuke 'He certainly grew up in a very interesting way'. Composing myself, I looked at the girl constantly stealing glances at Sasuke "Your turn pinkie"

She scowled for an instant "My name is Haruno Sakura. The thing I like is … squeal…. Well… the person I like is… again squeal… Umm my dream for the future… Oh my! And I dislike Naruto."

'Is she a pig or something? And why are girls of her age more interested in love than ninjutsu?'

I shook my head sadly and gestured for Sasuke to speak. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are tons of things I dislike but I don't really like anything" At the word 'like', for a split second he looked at me before averting his eyes 'What?' "And … I don't want to use the word 'dream' but ... I do have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and to kill a certain man"

Everyone became silent and the air whooshed between the five of us. Sakura, being the usual fangirl she is just stared at him in awe. Naruto for some reason trembled with fear while Mito was indifferent. 'Has he always been this dramatic?' I then turned towards the last member.

"I am Uzumaki Mito. I like my parents and my brother. I dislike rapists and perverts. My hobbies are training and learning. My dream is to join the ANBU". 'Short and simple. Ok then'

I took a deep breath and clapped my hands. "All right. Since everyone introduced themselves now, we will start our missions tomorrow". Before Naruto could interrupt me, I cut him off and continued speaking. "But first, we are going to do something tomorrow with just the five of us". "What?" exclaimed Naruto and Sakura while Mito and Sasuke just looked at me with a questioning look on their faces. "Survival training".

"Huh? Survival training?"

"But we were already trained at the academy?"

"To answer your questions Naruto and Mito, this isn't normal training"

The four of them got even more confused. I just sniggered at their expressions. 'Is this how Kakashi felt?' "What's so funny sensei" said Sakura indignantly. "Well I am afraid that if you tell you, you might flip"

"Flip?" said Naruto.

"You see, out of the 28 students that graduated, only 10 will be chosen as genin. That means the rest will be sent back to the academy" they instantly turned pale on hearing my words. "This training is difficult since it has a failure rate of over 66%". I just smiled at their expressions "I warned you would flip".

"Then what was the point of graduating?" screamed Naruto.

"Well, the graduation exam was just a test to select children that have the chance to become genins"

'Didn't dad and mom tell Naruto and Mito about this? Didn't they teach them anything?' Shaking off my thoughts, I ignored their indignant expressions and continued speaking. "Anyway, tomorrow you will be graded on the training field depending on your performance. Come to training ground 7. Also on a side note, you might not want to eat breakfast tomorrow. You might throw up. Now get out of here." They just muttered their goodbyes and left. I stretched my body and was about to leave when I spotted a pair of violet eyes looking at me. I raised an eyebrow in question. "Mom wants you to come home for dinner" she answered. "Really?" I questioned her. She just nodded in affirmation. "OK". She said her goodbyes and left while I sighed and left the academy.

As i walked home, I took a detour and went to the Konoha Intelligence Division. Entering the tall building, I greeted the various chunins and jounins working there before I reached the division housing the Torture and Intelligence Force. I knocked on the door and it flung open to reveal a large figure with his head covered by his forehead protector and his face covered with scars. Ignoring his signature scowl, I just walked in and sat on the couch."What happened with Mizuki?". He sat down at his deck and proceeded on with his work before replying. "He revealed nothing important as of yet. If he has not revealed anything, he will be taken to to the Analysis department and Inoichi will personally interrogate him". I just nodded and after a few pleasantries, went on my way.

After an intense training at the grounds with Kakashi, I looked up the stars beginning to shine through the sky and went back to my house saying my goodbyes to him. Entering the house, I stripped off my sweaty uniform. Taking a lengthy bath, I washed myself off and donned a long sleeved white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and tucked it into my favorite denim jeans. Examining myself in the mirror, I put on my comfy sneakers and let my hair down. Tying the headband around the belt loop I stepped out and locked the door behind me leaving the house.

"Natsumi!"

As i was moving slowly through the streets of Konoha, wondering on how to tackle this situation, I heard my name being called turned and around to see Hana running towards me. I got an idea "Hana! Just the person I wanted" and took her into my arms. She reached her arms around my neck and hugged me. "Why? Anything wrong?". I released her and taking her hand in mine, we walked towards the Namikaze home. Entwining our fingers, she asked again "Natsumi? What happened? Where are we going?". I hesitated for a few seconds before answering. "My mom wanted me to come home for dinner. Would you like to come along with me?". She became silent. After a few seconds, she spoke "Well how do I look then". Looking at my confused expression she just laughed "Well it's pretty obvious that the reason you are bringing me along is to introduce me to your family right?". Taking a deep breath and looking at her sparkling eyes, I couldn't tell her the reason that I was bringing her along was because I was afraid. "Yeah..." taking in her beautiful figure covered by a white t-shirt tucked into brown cargo pants and wearing a pair of white sneakers, I couldn't stop the smile appearing on my face and tucked her hair behind her ears. "You look great by the way". She just blushed and pecked my lips as we continued on our way holding hands the entire time.

I stared at the huge gates infront of me. It looked exactly as it was when I walked out years ago. Hana squeezed my hand in reassurance as I placed my other hand on the gates. A sign briefly glowed before it opened and we entered the compound. The garden looked like it had been freshly mowed with the pool glistening under the moonlight. Inhaling the scent of the flowers and hearing the trees gently swaying in the wind while the leaves rustled under our feet, I knocked on the door. Mito instantly opened the door as if she was waiting for us and looked at Hana before she allowed us in. Stepping inside, we left our footwear at the threshold while she went to the kitchen. "Dad! Natsumi neechan and Hana are here!" she shouted at the kitchen. Dad came out hurriedly wearing an apron. I just smiled at him seeing that he wore the same type of apron even after all these years. "Hey Natsumi, and Oh Hana! Pleasure to see you here. Wait for a few minutes at the table. We are just setting the food". Noticing me looking around, he replied "Um, Kushina went out to bring Naruto back. You know how he is these days. Oh and Mito? Be careful when you bring out the plates would you?" he just looked on nervously as Mito precariously balanced the plates on her arms. I pulled out the chair for Hana as she smiled gratefully at me and sat down. I then sat next to her at the table as Dad and Mito set the food and plates down.

"I see that you are still being a housewife Dad"

He just laughed quietly. "Some habits never change I guess. And how have you been Hana?". "I am fine Minato-san. And I appreciate you talking to my mother". The confusion must have been apparent as he just laughed "I just had a small chat with Tsume yesterday. And did you inquire about Mizuki?". I nodded and replied "He seems that he didn't reveal anything significant". But before I could finish my sentence, we heard a knock on the door and loud footsteps were heard from the hall before Naruto burst into the kitchen. Catching sight of me, he bounded over and almost knocked me off the chair with his hug. I just hugged him back when I heard a voice. "Wash your hands Naruto. You don't want to be late for dinner"

I clenched my fists under the table and scowled instantly. Noticing my expression, Hana reached her hand out and squeezed my thigh letting me know that she was there. I relaxed myself and sent a silent thanks to her before I turned my head around and looked at her. For a woman in her late thirties, she still maintained her angelic face and her slender features. Her hair was still the same shade of red cascading down her back. Her violet eyes twinkled under the lights as she looked at me. For a moment, I saw surprise cross her face before her face schooled into a small smile.

"Natsumi, Hana. It's good to see you. How have you been?"

Seeing that I was not in the mood to answer, Hana took the lead. "We are fine, Kushina-sama. It's been quite some time when we last saw you". She just nodded awkwardly and sat down beside Mito. Minato already sat himself at the head of the table while Naruto sat at the other side of Kushina. No one spoke as we ate. The silence between us quickly became uncomfortable and awkward as I waited for someone to start a conversation.

"How was your day Natsumi?" asked Kushina.

"Good" and I left it at that. She just nodded awkwardly and continued eating.

The only sounds that we heard were the occasional clinking of spoons and Naruto slurping his ramen like he was possessed. After a few minutes of looking between me and Hana, he finally spoke up "Are you two together or something?". "Naruto!" barked Mito with a red face. "It's okay. I don't mind" I replied and took her hand in mine before answering his question "Yes we are". Minato and Kushina just looked at each other before he spoke with a grin on his face. "Well, I already gave my approval". Hana just smiled and blushed while I chuckled. Finishing our dinner, we stood up and said our goodbyes as I just wanted to get out of there when Kushina grabbed my hand.

"I need to speak to you Natsumi"

Should I continue using the third person POV or first person POV. I am thinking of using the third person POV.