Hana opened her front door, only to find the father of one of her dumb brother's lame friends standing on their porch.
"Hello, Hana." Chouza Akimichi smiled at her in that weird Akimichi way, even as she quirked an eyebrow in unamused disinterest at him. "Is Chouji in here by any chance?"
She had to stop herself from laughing at that.
"Dad's working a double shift. Kiba never brings anyone home if he's not here."
Her brother was stupid and insufferable. His friends had adopted those unfortunate characteristics and she was more than happy that they were not here... Even though, she could admit, it was odd that Chouji hadn't returned to his house yet. It was already pretty late.
Chouza's face lost the dumb smile and adopted a worried frown.
"It's nine thirty... Aren't you worried that your little brother hasn't returned?"
Hana sighed heavily, rolled her eyes, shifted so that she was resting her weight on her right leg, and shook her head. "Of course not. The little idiot never gets back here early if ma doesn't tell him he has to."
One of her dogs barked at her about how the other two were ganging up on him and she promptly ignored the three idiots and gave Chouza an annoyed look. Either he left or she did; but she wasn't standing at her door for any longer if he didn't have anything important to say.
"Would you by any chance know where-"
"Check the Haruno kid's house. Or the taverns. And don't come back here looking for any of them; Kiba doesn't like bringing people here."
She hated that too. That's why she chose to instead go to her friends' house rather than have them over. Her house was embarrassing, her family was insufferable, and her Clan was insane.
"Alright, well, thank-"
She had slammed the door before the Akimichi could finish saying anything.
With a heavy sigh, Hana returned to her room to continue reading the book on medical theory and dreaming about the day she could finally move out of this stupid house and make a life for herself without her family dragging her down.
Chouza wound up standing in front of Tsume's door for a couple of seconds, blinking in shock.
Hana was supposed to be Kiba's sister. But she hadn't seemed even marginally concerned with his well being... Or his friends' well being.
It wasn't too late at night, but Chouji, Sakura, and Kiba were still very much children that needed to be looked after. And even though tomorrow was Saturday, that certainly did not mean that they should have been running around Konoha without any kind of supervision so late in the day.
He had always known that the Inuzuka were rougher around the edges than most clans, but he had also believed that they valued family- or, as Chouji insisted on calling it, 'pack'.
"Well... She is a teenager..."
The man was more than aware that this particular age Hana was in was difficult and confusing, so he wasn't too taken aback by her nonchalance. But he was still bothered by it.
Still, the man had done as instructed and made his way towards the civilian area of Konoha to hunt down the Haruno home. Once he had found it, he had knocked softly on the door and patiently waited for someone to answer him.
His son's rather developed chakra signature was emanating from the top floor of the house, so he knew that he had found the kids' refuge. But he didn't feel any activity going on inside... As if the kids were sleeping, actually.
The rather undeveloped chakra signature of one of Sakura's parents stirred at hearing him knock and, after a minute or so of waiting, Chouza found the drowsy face of who he assumed to be Sakura's father looking at him.
"Yes?" The man sounded groggy and slightly lethargic, undoubtedly after having been awoken.
"Sorry to be a bother, Mebuki-san, but I'm Chouza Akimichi- Chouji's father. It seems that my son is inside your house and I was wondering if I could go up to fetch him?"
Upon hearing his name, all of the grogginess on the man's face vanished. His eyes widened and he took a step back, seemingly frightened.
Chouza smiled softly, rather accustomed to this reaction from civilians that were not accustomed to being around Clan Heads.
"Chouji? I know that Sakura's here, asleep, but I highly... Well, you are the shinobi here." The man murmured softly to himself, then shrugged. "Alright, just this way, Lord Akimichi."
This was the first time they met, Chouza mused as he followed after the pink haired man. Even though he had seen Sakura's parents during different school functions, he had never actually spoken to them. He usually always spent those functions around his own friends, Inoichi and Shikaku, even though Chouji's best friends were Kiba and Sakura... Hmm... Maybe it was about time he made an effort and reached out to other parents...
When they reached Sakura's room, the civilian opened the door a crack and pointed at his daughter's sleeping form on her bed. "See, it's just her."
Chouza smiled softly and pushed the door open even further. Because of this, the light in the hallway illuminated more of the girl's bedroom, and two lumps on the floor became visible.
"It seems the children decided on an impromptu sleepover."
Chouji would be getting punished for not having warned his parents about such an activity and they would be speaking seriously about asking for permission rather than forgiveness, but for now, Chouza would not wake the child up.
"I'll take the Inuzuka and my own kid off your hands."
Sakura's father was much too stunned by finding two clan kids in his daughter's room to properly answer.
Civilians were really rather amusing sometimes.
Mebuki's worst fears had finally come to life: her daughter's friendship with two Clan kids was much too developed to break.
Now she found herself a quiet and fearful witness to those two Clan born children invading her home for sleepovers almost every week... And she was much too terrified of possible repercussions from either the Inuzuka or Akimichi Clan to try and tell them that she would not allow it...
Kami help her... Her daughter was ignorant to all the danger she was in because she trusted too much...
She should have put a stop to the friendship years ago, before it had become an actual friendship. But now it was too late.
Today was going to be a big day. They all knew it.
Winter break came with a cold vengeance, leaving the children of Konoha downtrodden with the onslaught of constant rain they were not able to fight off. Most of their winter break was spent indoors while valiantly combating against the dark forces that were boredom and further learning from educational games that weren't nearly as fun as some parents tried to say they were.
"Are you ready for this, Kiba?"
Sakura jumped from one fun-ducational book on the floor over to another, highly invested in their game of 'the floor is a highly hungry beast that'll eat you if you touch it'. Kiba, in the mean time, was fussing over the special clothes his mother had given him for the very occasion.
"Of course I am! I just hate these stupid clothes!" He growled as he pulled at the high collar, then proceeded to scratch at his left side with a huge frown on his lips.
Chouji frowned softly at his distress, "Just why are you supposed to wear them? If they're so uncomfortable, maybe you should go change..."
Just as Kiba began to play with the hem of his shirt to pull it off- he still wasn't too receptive to the fact that boys shouldn't be changing in front of girls, and Sakura didn't seem to mind much anymore-, Hana appeared and smacked her brother on the back of his head and received a heated growl from him.
"Those are specially designed clothes that block scents, Chouji." She sighed as she ignored her brother's own theatrics, a roll of her eyes following before she elaborated a bit more. "We try to stamp down our scents as much as possible when we go meet the puppies- their noses are extremely sensitive and can get easily overpowered with our scents."
She was wearing a set of gray colored clothes that were much like Kiba's, albeit a tiny bit longer. She was even wearing clothes on her feet, something Chouji had never seen.
"I hate these things!" Kiba commented- precisely talking about the odd garments.
"They're called socks and it's only for a day, you big baby. Stop whining."
Sakura stopped in her bouncing around over the books when Hana sent her an unamused glare and Chouji began to feel extremely self conscious as she continued to shake her head at them.
He looked down at his own hands and played with the gloves Sakura had stolen for them... What had they done wrong this time?
"Alright! Let's go get Kiba's partner!" Daichi Inuzuka brought back the warmth that Hana had managed to suck away from the three children, immediately making them jump and begin to cheer in excited anticipation.
Hana rolled her eyes for the second time since she had appeared in the Inuzuka Clan Head's living room.
"Remember, pups, you two can't come into the shrine. But, once Kiba's finally gotten his partner, we'll go out to celebrate by buying lunch." The man promised them after he'd bent down to look them both in the eyes, his only visible one shining with clear pride and happiness.
Finally, Kiba's terrifying mother, Tsume Inuzuka, appeared from the second floor of the house. The four members of the household were clad in the specialty Inuzuka garments that covered their whole bodies- except faces- and looked rather bland. But Chouji didn't comment on it. He merely followed them all out of the Inuzuka Clan Head's home, happy to pet the dogs that chose to walk up to him to receive his affections.
Sakura's parents had not really wanted her to go with Kiba and his family on the day he was supposed to finally meet his canine partner. They would have liked it much more if she had spent her day indoors, reading up on trading routes and trade relationships between Konoha and smaller towns nearby, seeing how they insisted that she should have knowledge for a possible back-up plan in case being a ninja didn't work out... But, luckily enough, Daichi had managed to convince them that she should have gone along.
"It's important for the dogs to meet their partner's friends, too. And, considering how these three are just about inseparable, the sooner the better. That way the dog can start to connect all of them as its human, not just one. That'll ensure that this canine partner will do everything in its power to protect them all!"
There was no doubt in her mind that Daichi had made all of that up on the spot just so she could go with them because he didn't want her to be left out. Chouji's parents had absolutely no problem with him going on the important day, so she would have been the only one to have missed the occasion if Daichi hadn't argued in her favor.
It was supposed to be a big day for their Inuzuka friend. Sakura knew this because he hadn't stopped talking about it for the past month. Every single day they had hung out together, he had made sure to remind them of the big day that was his 'partner finding' day.
In all honesty, she was just happy that she was able to spend yet another day out of her house and with her friends. Her family wasn't all that approving of much of what she did so it was nice to be able to avoid them whenever possible. They would much rather have her safe and sound at home than having fun running around with their friends. They still couldn't understand that she wanted to be ninja and she loved getting dirty when she was with her friends... But she was sure that they would eventually understand what she loved and would stop putting a damper on her mood!
The walk to the Inuzuka shrine didn't take too long, although they did wind up having to stop a couple of times because of all if the dogs that flocked to them so they would get pet by Sakura and Chouji. Kiba frowned at all the dogs because he wanted to get a move on, but Daichi simply allowed the two outsiders to have some fun before they got to the boring part of their trip.
Once they reached the large shrine that was nestled into the very back of the Inuzuka Compound, Sakura and Chouji were left outside with Kuromaru, the Haimaru brothers, and Daichi's own dogs. In part they were there to make sure they didn't stray or get in trouble. But they also weren't allowed inside of the shrine because they weren't wearing any of the scent dampening clothes that was imperative to wear before someone was allowed to go inside.
Sakura and Chouji busied themselves by running around with a few of the dogs that ran up to them, although Kuromaru scared them off when they started to get a bit rougher than necessary.
That left both children bored for a couple of seconds. Then Sakura got a rather bright idea.
"Hey, Chouji, let's race up that tree!"
It was not too big of a tree, just small enough that if they fell from the top in the right way, they wouldn't break any bones. But it was big enough to challenge them, so Sakura believed it was the perfect tree to try the newest skill Kuzu had taught them on.
Chouji immediately agreed and they took off running before any of the dogs around them interrupt their run and stop them. Although Sakura did hear Kuromaru barking after them, asking just what in the world they thought they were trying to do.
"We're going to climb a tree, of course!" She called back as she ran forward, only to finally reach the tree and begin to head upwards.
Chouji was only a couple of inches ahead of her because of the head start he had gotten. But she had quickly closed that distance and had managed to stay on par with him until they reached the tree. When she took the first step to run up the tree, it took her a fraction of a second longer to stabilize her chakra than it did Chouji. So her friend was able to reach the top faster than her by just a tiny bit.
"I win!"
"Yeah, well... You ran off before I could say go!"
Chouji smiled at her from the branch he had chosen to sit on, all the while she huffed and crossed her arms, all the while perched on her own branch. They were on either sides of the tree, but could still see each other.
"You sound a lot like Kiba right now, Sakura." Chouji smiled broadly and Sakura had never felt so insulted before in her life.
To make sure the Akimichi understood he had crossed the line, Sakura stuck her tongue out at him and turned away from him to look over at Kuromaru. The large dog was now at the base of the tree, looking up at them both with an unreadable expression on his face.
"Is everything alright?" She asked him, suddenly worried over what could have been worrying him.
This tree wasn't all that big... So it wasn't too dangerous to climb. And they had done exactly as Kuzu had instructed them to do whenever they were going to climb up trees- they had not missed a single step.
What had they done wrong?
"Yeah... No, everything's fine, kid."
Then why do you sound like you're ready to tell me someone's died?, Sakura found herself wondering, even though she didn't give her thoughts a voice.
Looking over at Chouji, she found her own worry mimicked in her friend's face.
What had they done?
The day an Inuzuka met their canine partner was one of the most important, if not the most important, day in an Inuzuka's life. This was the day the human and canine halves became wholes and finally began their lives. It was such an important day that it was tradition for the whole family unit to take the day and spend it together- it was almost like a holy day for them.
Kiba had been waiting for this day for what felt like forever. Well, of course it had felt like long- he'd wanted to get ahold of a partner as soon as he had been old enough to know that Inuzuka were able to use animals in battle.
When they had entered the large space utilized to breed and take care of the Inuzuka's finest dogs, Kiba had felt like someone had died. The space was large, but quiet. There wasn't the usual rumbling and growling that could always be heard within the Inuzuka Compound. Everything was quiet, and the silence was only broken every now and again by the soft whines of puppies.
His parents directed him towards the viewing area of the shrine, where the puppies that were old enough to be adopted were exhibited. It was a room that was separated from the rest of the space by a large window, ensuring that the creatures inside were safe from the outside.
As soon as he walked up to the glass, Kiba fell in love.
Some of the puppies were currently eating from bowls placed on the ground- none of those interested him. There were a few that were playing together, biting and pawing at each other with a lot of energy. None of those called out to him either. But there was one that was currently trying to chew through the door that led to the outside world, energetically biting at the door and lifting his paw every now and again to try and escape.
After Kiba had looked at the puppy, it was as if the connection was created in mere seconds.
The puppy stopped in his escape endeavors and looked over at the window where he stood... And he yipped excitedly, running up to the glass to jump over at Kiba.
"I found my partner in crime!"
He heard his father chuckling whole heartedly behind him, then felt a large hand pat down on his head. "There are other options, kid." His mother murmured from behind him, "Other, less... worrying options."
Kiba had no idea what that meant.
He looked down at the puppy, who looked back at him with wide eyes and a tail that wagged so fast he could barely keep track of it. The pup barked at him, panted, and barked once more.
Kiba smiled down at him and nodded, "This is going to be my best friend, ma."
After they had grown bored of talking in the tree, Chouji and Sakura had jumped down from their perch in the sky and began to go through some of the motions Kakuzu had taught them. And once they had finished up running both the old man's sequence and the less strenuous one Iruka-sensei had taught them, they decided to take part in a light spar.
It wasn't all that amazing, seeing how neither of them were as competitive as Kiba strove for them to be. So it was mostly throwing random punches and kicks, rather than actually trying to defeat one another.
Kuromaru may have scolded them for not taking such a thing seriously at one point. But before he could tell them that all fights were to be taken seriously, no matter how familiar the opponent, they heard a shout of joy that could only belong to their Inuzuka best friend.
"Guys! Meet Akamaru!"
Chouji turned away from Kuromaru just in time to find Kiba running down from the steps of the shrine the Inuzuka family had gone into, a small white ball of what Chouji could only describe as fluff captured in his hands.
"That seems more white than red..." Chouji heard Sakura mutter softly, but, from the lack of reaction from their canine-like friend, the Akimichi guessed that he had not heard her say such a thing.
When Kiba was right in front of them, he proudly displayed the small puppy he had acquired while he had been separated from them. The small animal looked at Chouji and Sakura, sniffed softly, and then yipped at them.
Chouji decided that Akamaru was an absolutely adorable creature immediately. Sakura cooed over how small he was, walking up to Kiba to look him over from closer up.
"This little guy is going to be our newest partner in crime, got it? He'll learn how to pick locks and create distractions and do all sorts of stuff that'll help us enhance our skills! Just you wait until we show him to the old man- I'm sure he'll be able to see how much potential this guy's got for infiltration and stealing!"
As their friend said this, his family walked up to the children. Chouji looked over at them and noticed just how weird Daichi Inuzuka's smile became for a split second, leaving him confused.
There was something about Daichi Inuzuka that just didn't sit right in Chouji... Not anymore.
Actually, now that he thought about it, it seemed that Daichi was hiding some kind of secret. Because his parents had looked pretty similar a couple of months ago, when they had tried to hide the fact that his cousin's cat- whom had been one of Chouji's favorite pets in his whole life because she had been big, lazy, and very loving towards cuddles- had died.
He was curious enough to want to know just what it was that was bothering Daichi Inuzuka so much. But he was respectful enough to know that he shouldn't be prying into the life of an adult if said adult was clearly against saying much about what it was that was bothering him.
"I thought you had grown out of the 'old man' phase after you got your ass handed to your for lying on a school project, pup." Hana rolled her eyes, walking up to them with her arms crossed over her chest.
All three of them froze upon noticing Kiba's grave mistake, but the Inuzuka made a point of huffing and telling his sister to shut it, she knew nothing, to try and divert attention away from the topic. Which was a good thing- they didn't need to have Kiba's parents focusing on them and their stories about the old man once again.
"Weren't we goin' for food?" Kiba quickly turned to his mother after having shouted at his sister, who growled down at him and told him to apologize to his sister.
The next few minutes were spent walking outside of the Inuzuka Compound while Kiba refused to apologize and Hana incited his anger by telling him that he had to if he didn't want his mother's wrath on him.
While this happened, Akamaru passed from Kiba's hands to Chouji's. And Chouji was incredibly delighted when the puppy decided to burrow into the large pocket of his right pant leg to take a nap.
It was a rather odd name... But he was sure that this little pup would make a fine addition to their small pack.
Kiba had been right. Akamaru quickly became their perfect partner in crime.
They had started off small, of course, because they were more than aware that Akamaru was a small puppy that had not been born with the skills to commit a heist. First they had just had him as look-out; barking at them whenever anyone got close to them so they could scatter before they were caught doing something that would have landed them in trouble. But, quickly enough, the dog proved to be smart enough to acquire important roles in their mischief.
"Alright, boy, just as I taught you."
Sakura wasn't sure just why it was that Kiba liked stealing from this particular butcher so much, but she knew that the meat they got from here was delicious, so she didn't mind it as much as she would have if the meat wasn't all that great.
The old man was supposed to come over today and it would be the first time he'd meet Akamaru. So they were going to cook up a delicious meal, seeing how Chouji was already rather skillful at making a couple of simple yet delicious meals. Steak was Kiba's favorite- it didn't matter which kind of steak- and, because of this, preparing simple steak meals had been the first thing their Akimichi friend had learned.
Akamaru yipped in excitement, made his way towards the pack of dogs that had congregated around the outskirts of the merchant area of Konoha, and began to bark out orders. This specific brand of interaction was always interesting to witness, seeing how Akamaru was about the size of her palm and the other dogs were huge. But they were Kiba's helpers in most of his misadventures and so knew who to listen to.
As his partner dealt with relating the plan to the rest of the dogs, Kiba turned to his friends with a wicked smirk. "Alright, you two, let's go to the rendezvous point. If we get spotted with the dogs we'll be the first to be fingered for this."
Kiba had taught a pack of wild dogs how to steal. Just when Sakura thought she had learned all she could about her best friend, he came up with brand new ways to shock her that were only logical, but still somehow surprised her.
"Alright." Sakura nodded, followed by Chouji.
Soon enough, they were hiding by the tavern area and waiting for the rest of the dogs to pull off the heist. Seeing how Chouji and her had already done their job- which had been setting up specific explosive tags that were to go off when Akamaru pressed on them-, they felt rather sure of how successful their plan would be.
"I think the next thing we should ask Kuzu to teach us should be some more about Earth Style ninjutsu." Chouji commented conversationally, which made Sakura nod.
She was a fan of this particular style because it made her feel powerful. Wind and water both sounded like they required grace and wit, which was cool... But it just didn't call to her. And fire style was explosive, but not her particular cup of tea. Earth Style, though... She had seen only a handful of moves that Kuzu had shown them so they could see what they could rely on if they trained well enough... And she was mesmerized by it.
When she had been younger, she had been too weak to do much for herself. But now that she had some idea as to what friendship and pack were... Well, she wanted to be strong enough to protect her pack. And Earth Style just called to her.
"We should get him to set up some sort of test or somethin' for us." Kiba murmured as he ran up a fence and balanced himself at the top, "See how far we've come, y'know."
"That'd be cool."
They continued to speak a bit more about the old man and what they wanted to do with him next. After a couple of minutes of waiting, though, they were able to hear the excited and animated barks of the group of animals that Kiba had recruited for this mission. And after a few seconds of waiting, the rather large herd of dogs appeared in front of them, Akamaru perched on the head of the large, scarred dog at the very front.
The little pup yipped and Kiba congratulated him.
"Alright, guys, a deal's a deal. Come on, Chouji'll cook for you too."
A pack of dog was aiding them in stealing steak from a merchant... Life was truly an interesting thing when Kiba Inuzuka was around.
Kuzu found them in the Forest of Death with their food prepared and packed. The group of stray dogs they had contracted for aid was already off in Konoha, after having eaten their share of the loot, of course.
Part of being a ninja, Kiba was sure, dealt with having the right connections and keeping them. Even though a group of stray dogs wasn't the kind of contact many people may have thought about, it only made sense. Stray dogs could go just about anywhere and hear just about everything that was said. And if ever they did anything odd, they would just be passed over as stupid dogs.
… He'd never say it, but Chouji had given him the idea to contract these dogs for help. The Akimichi had once made a comment on how it seemed that dogs were everywhere. And from that small observation, Kiba had gotten the idea. Now he had a group of loyal strays that helped them commit a couple of small heists in exchange for food.
"Old man! Meet Akamaru!"
The man hadn't even crossed through the threshold of thick trees before Kiba was bounding up to him with his partner jutted out in display.
Kuzu stared down at the pup for a couple of seconds... Grumbled something unintelligible, and then said, "He's a puppy. Useless in a fight."
Kiba growled, but the man sighed and spoke up once again, "But I'm sure he'll be useful once he's bigger."
Damn straight.
"Come on, Kuzu. We made you food!" Sakura called from their favorite tree, where she had the food and drinks packed in a neat lunch box.
Kuzu grumbled some more as he moved towards Sakura, which made Kiba quirk an eyebrow at him.
"Everything alright, old man?"
As Kiba followed after him, Kuzu waved his hand noncommittally at him. Then he sat down on a thick room and placed his forehead in his right hand, looking much more human and tired than Kiba thought was possible.
"It's nothing, kid." He grumbled softly, then looked up.
First his eyes looked over Sakura, then he looked at Chouji, who was picking up stray kunai and shuriken so that they could take part in some target practice while the old man ate. And, finally, his unique eyes fell on Kiba... and hardened.
"Today you'll be learning the basics of water walking. It's much tougher than walking on trees, but I want you all to know a specific set of skills before you graduate."
There was something about the old man that didn't feel right... He looked... Sad.
Kiba found that he was dumbfounded because of this realization. The old man had shown a whole array of rather negative emotions- like anger, annoyance, irritation, and some more anger. But never before had he seemed to have the weight of the world on his shoulders.
"Your Academy's curriculum is more than lacking, so you'll be learning a lot more on practical skills, rather than useless theories. Pressure points and vulnerable spots in the human body will be what we'll be dealing with the next time I come to Konoha. Once you've shown me that you're worthy of moving on, we'll go on an excursion that will double as a mock-mission. Have I been understood?"
All three of them nodded quickly, all the while Akamaru yipped in agreement.
"Good. Now get to practicing your aim. I want to see only bull's eyes. Every miss will receive a penalty of fifty push-ups."
"Alright! Let's do this!"
The best part about Kuzu was that he didn't treat them like children. He didn't use kid gloves when he spoke to them. He treated them as if they were training to become ninja. And, dammit, Kiba couldn't believe how stupid his Village's teachers could be now that he knew what a true education was.
"Come on, Akamaru, let's try and see if you can throw kunai!"
"He doesn't have thumbs, Kiba." Sakura called after him as he ran towards the practice dummies they had set up eons ago.
"Then senbon!"
Akamaru would become the strongest and most important nin-ken to ever exist!
The girl he had been told to tail for the month was the same age as the three idiots he had agreed to teach. She was just as impulsive and loud mouthed as the Inuzuka idiot... But she didn't have any friends like him.
Kakuzu knew that he was not a good man. He knew that he wasn't even an okay person. He was a monster, through and through. Murder and violence ran through his veins and he had never faltered to complete a contract, no matter how pitiful his target had been.
But there was something about the girl from Takigakure that had been cursed to carry a chakra monster within her... There was something about her that made Kakuzu feel. Just like these three Konoha idiots that he would make sure would be able to stand a chance in the real world.
Ninja were supposed to be ruthless killing machines. Their job was unpleasant and dangerous. Konoha was weak and was falling into a dangerous cycle of creating weak ninja. If he allowed these three kids to go out into a battlefield with only the knowledge given in the Academy, they would be slaughtered in no time. It was almost laughable that such a powerful Village was allowing such mediocrity to prosper.
But Kakuzu would make sure that these kids were prepared for the real world.
"Focus, you idiots!" He barked out as the Akimichi fell through the water's surface yet again, all the while the Inuzuka and his pup swam around. The civilian was the only one that was still dry, but it was because she had not tried to step onto the river's surface yet.
"Pinkie, if you don't get in there, it'll be a hundred push-ups!"
The girl squeaked in fear and promptly fell into the water, right beside the Akimichi.
Stupid kids.
~..~..~
I haven't forgotten about this story! It just takes some time to write for it...
Anyway, I'm thinking that I'll write one more chapter about them as kids, then have another time skip to their final days in the Academy so that we can finally get to the genin stuff. What do y'all think about that?
Also, 102 reviews, 305 followers, and 231 favorites?! Thank you all for the love and support! I hope I keep making y'all proud with what I write.
Please review!
