Song: The Greatest
By: Sia
"Come on kiddies, we're going to live in the village hidden in Hot Water."
"But why?" The boy with the dark red hair demanded. "I miss my friends from Kiri!"
"Well, I don't, and since I'm the adult here, I get to make the decisions see?"
"Obviously you don't miss them, since you killed them all," the black haired girl sneered.
"It's not my fault they were all stupid enough to stop me from killing the Mizukage!" the jester man defended.
"Shut up and let's just go. Yugakure is known for its pacifism, and everyone knows what that really means. They accept missing-nin, like Father, so there shouldn't be any problems staying."
"Right on, my darling little Koichi-kun! Plus, I've always wanted to have my own restaurant, and I wouldn't be able to do that if I was always on the move. We'll be able to apply for citizenship! Onwards!"
I introduced Naruto to the Gang, and boy did they hit it off. Naruto was so excited I swear I could feel vibrations from his pounding heart. He had never had the chance to make friends before (except with me, but for some reason that didn't seem to count for him.)
It was the morning, an hour before the start of the academy, and Naruto was charming them all with his epic tales of prankery, of princesses and dragons, of hokage and justice.
Yea, all that corny stuff that kids soak right up. Funny thing is, despite the fact that us street kids fear ninja, we still revere the hokage. Who couldn't possibly turn down that kindly fatherly demeanour and the power of gods?
Except me, of course.
I suppose that's why, when Naruto brought up his dream of becoming hokage, none of them flinched. Except Junko, whose eyes narrowed slightly, and I didn't miss when they darted towards me questioningly. Ah, she guessed then.
I tried to act innocent. Really, I was going to tell them at some point. Just, I didn't expect Naruto to be the one to blurt it out straight after declaring his goal of becoming hokage.
"We're going to the academy together! It'll be awesome!"
Dead silence reigned. Emi and Eri looked shocked, Kiyoshi actually choked on his own spit, while Akemi only looked thoughtful while Junko was glaring at me.
Takeshi, though…
"Oh jeez tha' sounds awesum! Like, weally cool! If you become hokage, ya can, like, help us 'n stuff! Ooh, ooh, you could teach me what you learn!"
"Takeshi! Listen to yourself!" Junko growled. "Do you remember what ninja have done to us? They're scoundrels! And Sasayaki, I am honestly disappointed in you. You're going behind our backs to become a ninja? How did you even get enrolled, anyway?"
Oh crap, I need a distraction, quick!
Luckily, Naruto kindly provided one for me.
"What?" Naruto asked, looking genuinely confused. "What do you mean? Ninja are heroes! Why shouldn't we become heroes?"
Oh great. Now what do I do?
I cleared my throat.
"Look, um, we've just had some bad experiences with ninja," I explained to Naruto. "Not all ninja are good. But at the same time, not all ninja are bad," I said, looking specifically at Junko. "Like the founder of our Gang, he was a ninja wasn't he?"
"Yea, but that's beside the point," Junko grumbled, but I could see her resolve was weakening at the mention of our founder.
"The founder?" Naruto enquired, but he was ignored. He wasn't privy to that information, yet.
"Well anyway, I think this could be a good thing," Kiyoshi put in. "After all, if Sasayaki gets strong enough she'll be able to protect us from the bad ninja. Plus, she'll be a wealth of information…"
Ah yes, Kiyoshi with his grand scheming mind… he would surely be planning things for me already, and probably including Naruto too because his reputation as the 'demon child' could be rather useful if handled right. No doubt he would talk with Junko later about this, not that I had anything against it if it raised Naruto's chances of being accepted.
Junko seemed to be realising the same thing, if the way she was exchanging glances with Kiyoshi was any indication.
"We'll be talking about this later, Sasayaki," Junko added icily. I winced. Emi and Eri sent me sympathetic glances.
"But for now, you better go. We still have our jobs to do, right Gang?" nods all around. "You two, scram, you have the academy to attend."
I internally sighed with relief. At least she was letting me go to the academy.
Junko took Akemi's hand.
"Alright everyone, get those arses moving!"
Iruka, I was surprised to find out, would be our teacher for the duration of our time at the academy. Naruto had already had him two years in a row, and although they hadn't bonded enough to go to the ramen stand together, there was obvious warmth in his eyes when he spotted Naruto. So kudos to him.
I suppose it was lucky Naruto was my age. Normally he would be two years above us, since he'd been coming to the academy for two years already, but apparently Iruka thought he should give him a fresh start and put him back with our year, i.e. his own age group. Or maybe Naruto had just skipped so much that he may as well not have been going to the academy for the last two years.
Yea. That was probably it.
Anyway, the first day at the academy was a rather exciting affair. I was giggling and staring around at my to-be teammates. Gods above, we were gonna rule the world together! I cackled inwardly.
Such potential…
Wait that was starting to sound a bit weird… I should really stop my thought processes there.
Eh… it's true! We'll be awesome kick-ass ninja and the world will bow to us!
This time I couldn't quite stop my evil chuckle and a few of the kids shot me weird glances.
We had chosen our seats in Iruka's classrooms, the parents of the kids having said their last goodbyes (that sounded morbid) at the academy entrance, so many of the kids were on edge, as well as being excited.
I thought I could even hear a girl crying behind me. It was probably her first day away from mummy.
Dumb brat.
I could spot the rookie nine, and just seeing them made me want to squeal. Ok, yes I was totally biased towards them, but damn they were just so cute at this age.
Not like Naruto cute, but pretty close.
Unfortunately, they hadn't ended up sitting near us. I suppose it was no surprise Shikamaru and Chouji had ended up sitting together since their parents had probably already introduced them. Ino was sitting in the row in front of them, next to her being another girl I didn't recognise (I think her name was Ami?). The other rookies had ended up separated as well, all in different parts of the room sitting with unimportant- I mean random characters- er, people.
Yea, I should stop seeing them as fictional shouldn't I?
Another thing to note was that none of the kids seemed to have yet realised that Naruto is the 'demon child', thus some kid actually sat next to Naruto! I knew it wouldn't last though. The desks of three, auditorium style, meant that it was likely someone would sit next to us, but still. Naruto totally went into a state of shock.
I couldn't remember the kid's name, but he seemed the timid sort. He had a brown bowl cut and glasses. That bowl cut really wasn't doing him any favours, let me tell you, but I could overlook that since he smiled at Naruto and me, though Iruka started calling the roll before he could talk to us.
"Alright class, welcome to your first day at the academy! Now that I've called the roll, we'll get straight into work…"
Wow, that was quick. Really, straight into work? We're only six you know.
Then again, we were training to become ninja. It was probably expected that we somehow grew a work ethic within minutes (not to say that didn't happen to some people apparently, case in point Itachi Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake. But they really weren't a representation of the general population).
The rest of the day went pretty much as expected (except for the book). At recess and lunch, the kids began forming their friend groups and changing their places. Bowl-cut kid ended up abandoning us and moving next to Shino after recess, so I figured some of the older kids must have already started whispering rumours about Naruto.
I had to admit, I really wanted to talk to the rookie nine, especially Sasuke because if you could have seen him then, you would never have guessed the person he would turn into.
He was actually smiling! I could see him having a fine old time talking with Shikamaru and Chouji at recess.
Us, on the other hand…
Well, we had claimed our spot under the tree with the swing. No one bothered us.
"Hey Naruto, what's that book you've got?" I asked when I noticed him pull it out at lunch and inspect it.
"Eh? Oh, I found it on my doorstep this morning. I don't like reading though, I think I'll just give it away."
I accepted it when he handed it over, studying the cover with surprise.
What on earth..?
It was titled 'A Guide to Level One Fuuinjutsu for Aspiring Masters of the Trade'.
Firstly, why the hell did this have such a long title?
The question was answered when I read the author.
By Minato Namikaze.
I froze, a breath leaving me in something more of a confused wheeze.
For a moment, I thought I'd lost my rocker. How in the world did this just happen to appear on Naruto's doorstep this morning?
"BULLSHIT!"
Naruto jumped slightly, startled.
"What?" he gasped. "What is it?"
I ignored him though.
So you're telling me… in the anime he was given this by some random stranger, probably the hokage, this gem and he threw it away because he didn't like reading?
I eyed Naruto suspiciously.
There was clearly only one solution to this.
Everyone knows fuuinjutsu is the strongest, the best jutsu out there! It can do practically anything!
"I'm keeping it! Who could turn down a book written by the fourth hokage?" I declared. "I'll become a master of fuuinjutsu! This was obviously meant to happen. It's a sign!"
Naruto stared at me like I was crazy.
"Sasa-chan, you're being weird again," he pointed out.
What does he mean 'again'?
But then his eyes landed back on the book.
"Wait, was that really written by the fourth hokage?" Naruto demanded, slack-jawed.
"Yea!" I confirmed enthusiastically. "He was like, one of the strongest ninja and now-"
I yelped when I was suddenly bowled over, Naruto ripping the book from my grip.
"I'm taking this back! Haha, as if I would throw this out!"
"Naruto! Get back here, that book is mine!" I yelled, and tore off after him.
He laughed as he waved the book in the air gloatingly, dodging my attempts to tackle him in the academy yard. Other kids turned to stare and point.
"Troublesome…" I heard one particular boy mumble, though despite his comment his eyes were trained sharply on me.
"So… no one wanted to be our friends at the academy, not even on the first day…"
"It doesn't matter. We have more important things to worry about. Are you ready?"
"Yep! We need wigs too."
"I'll get the long, spiky black one. Which one do you want?"
"The orange one. The really spiky orange one."
"Mask?"
"Well, foxes are orange, so the fox one obviously."
"…Really. I should have known. As long as you don't start wearing orange jumpsuits too."
"Where did that come from?"
"Oh, nowhere..."
"Though now that I think about it… An orange jumpsuit would be awesome! It would totally bring-"
"FORGET I SAID ANYTHING! Commence the prank right now!"
"HAI MASTER!"
-2 fireworks, 7 paintballs later-
"YES! We got them! We got them!" Naruto yelled with delight, as we ran away from the screaming stall-tender.
Really, he had it coming. That kick in the balls I had gifted him with the other day hadn't been enough.
In my arms, I had a fox mask and two wigs.
Now we would truly be able to begin our prankster reign.
"Hey, Kiyoshi? Takeshi?" I asked into the silent room. It was dark, and I was lying on a thin tatami mat beside the bed that Takeshi and Kiyoshi were sharing.
It was Kiyoshi's home. I would be spending my nights there until further notice.
"Yea, Sasayaki?" came the tired response from Takeshi.
"I'll be away tomorrow, I have, uh, this special training thing with… a teacher…"
Well technically Yugi-sensei counted as a teacher. She just wasn't a teacher from the academy.
I didn't know how I was going to explain this to Naruto.
It's simple, just don't tell him. You don't have to tell him everything, after all.
True. If he asks, I'll just tell him I needed a day off.
On the second day of the academy? Plus, you're going to need an excuse every week.
Yea, well, whatever. I'll figure it out.
Takeshi spoke first.
"Sure. Just remember you gotta teach me everything you learn from the academy!"
"Eh?"
I didn't remember signing up to do that.
"And while you're at it, you may as well teach the rest of us," Kiyoshi yawned. "I spoke with the rest of the Gang, and we all decided we want to learn some ninja tricks from you."
…Oh.
Well, that was unexpected. At least it would be good practice for me, and maybe Naruto if he wanted to help too.
"Alright, sounds like a plan."
Song: The Greatest
By: Sia
Question:
What Harry Potter house do you think Sasayaki would be from?