Sorry for the long wait~
I'm still here and alive!
~.~
Last Time:
It took a while, Akumu did go out the window, but then came back. Soon he just stayed. Hopefully not just because of food.
"So that's how you found your cat," I jumped at the voice, which messed up my Jutsu.
The Nara chuckled and jumped off the windowsill.
"Geez, what's with you and randomly showing up?" I asked him.
'If he noticed how I froze when the man explained his "Mission", he might ask about it,' I silently prayed for him to not ask about it.
"What do you need?" I asked putting my hands on my hips, "And how long were you here for?"
"I made the wrong decision on going back, Ino yelled at me cause you weren't with me and Sakura and Ino were yelling at Naruto for failing the clone jutsu when they were trying to help him. Ino told me to go find you again and bring you back to help Naruto," He sighed, "They're such a drag."
"As for how long I was here, I saw most of it," He said, "How did you do that?"
"Naruto should know, he failed the exam, twice," I said, not answering his other question.
"Well, Ino's gonna kill me if I go back without you, or if I don't go back at all," Shikamaru sighed.
I shrugged.
"That's okay, as long as it doesn't involve me," I said, walking out of the room.
Shikamaru followed me. I looked at the time.
"Iruka's gonna call us in soon, don't think we'll have time to meet up with them anyways," I told him, "Let's just walk back to the classroom."
He nodded in agreement
"KYOKO! WHERE WERE YOU? I NEEDED YOU!" Naruto whined.
"If you needed help, you should have came to me, not the other way around," I told him, "Either way, if this was your worse jutsu, then you should have practiced it, you failed the exam twice, you had enough time to make your jutsu better," I lecture.
"B-but I didn't think they would test us on clone jutsu!" Naruto sobbed.
I rolled my eyes.
"Either way, work on things your not good at," I waited for my name to call.
Naruto was whining for the whole time.
"Hatake Kyoko," I hear Iruka Sensei called.
'Finally,' I thought, walking away from Naruto.
I received some 'Good luck' from Ino, Sakura, Shikamaru, and some of the guys while walking out of the room. I waved my hand, not looking at them, to show I heard what they said. I walked into another room with Iruka Sensei and some other dude with white hair at a table. On the table were headbands with the Konoha symbol on it. I stood in front of them and bowed to them. The man with white hair introduced himself.
"I'm Mizuki, I'm one of the instructors in this academy. I'll be helping Iruka Sensei evaluate you and determine if you will graduate from the academy and be able to carry the name of being a hidden leaf ninja," He smiled.
I nodded.
"Kyoko here doesn't really like talking," Iruka told Mizuki.
"That's cute," Mizuki laughed.
I gave an annoyed look.
"Anyways, Kyoko, please make two or more shadow clones of yourself," Iruka asked me.
I nodded, making the hands symbols. I was able to make four shadow clones of myself.
'Could have made more...' I scoffed at myself, 'Probably cause I used up some chakra learning the Time Jutsu.'
"Good job, you pass," Iruka congratulated.
"Take on of the forehead protectors and I'll follow you back to the classroom to call the next person," Mizuki smiled.
'I don't like this guy...who the hell smiles this much anyways?' I picked up one of the forehead protectors.
"It's such a shame that you don't like talking, you so cute," Mizuki smiled at me, I didn't even face him. I tied the forehead protector around my neck.
"Shouldn't you tie it around your forehead? It's call a forehead protector for a reason," He joked.
I shrugged.
"You think you can say something before I have to call the next person?" He smiled.
I turned to him.
"Bye," I said coldly before entering the classroom.
I heard Iruka laugh and Mizuki awkwardly chuckle before calling someone else.
"Good job! You passed too?!" Sakura and Ino squealed.
I looked at them.
"...yeah...have you guys not seen me fight? Of course I was gonna pass," I told them.
They laughed.
Naruto was one of the last to go through the exam. I went to the bathroom during his turn. I walked past the room and heard Mizuki try to reason with Iruka, giving Naruto hope to pass. I looked in the room. He made one clone...it looked like it just overdosed.
'...what is Mizuki thinking? He's not trustworthy...' I thought for a minute, 'Not my problem.'
I walked away, like nothing happened.
As I thought, Naruto had failed, again. His friends tried to comfort him, but it was hard since he was the only one who didn't pass. I tried my best to not say 'I knew this was gonna happen' or 'Idiot, to think you would be able to past after failing twice' but I decided to be nice and keep my mouth shut. We were dismissed from class and everyone's parents were outside to congratulate, I stood under the shade of a tree, on the other side was a swing, which Naruto was swinging on. I leaned against the tree, Sakura, Ino, even Shikamaru and Kiba, their parents were there, praising them. I sighed, I knew wasn't the only one without my true parents, but it still hurts to see people with their parents. I noticed that Naruto left the swing. I had no idea where he went, but decided to take the swing. I sat down, and stared off into space. I felt someone behind me.
"Need something?" I asked.
The person jumped out off one of the branches. I looked at him.
"...Uchiha?" I asked, 'What does he need?'
"The one and only," He smirked.
I rolled my eyes.
"What do you need?" I asked.
'She's definitely not a fan-girl, that's for sure,'Sasuke thought.
"What? Can't talk to a friend?" Sasuke asked.
'...even he calls me a friend?' I thought.
I shrugged as an answer. He started pushing me on the swings. I held on so I wouldn't fall.
"How did you do on the exams?" He asked.
I pointed at the protector around my neck.
"I passed, of course, you probably did too, right, Uchiha-kun?" I asked.
"Of course, and you can just call my Sasuke," He told me.
"...okay...Sasuke-kun," I said, looking down.
"Just Sasuke, don't add the '-kun', it's-"
I finished his sentence.
"Irritating? I know, I won't call you 'Sasuke-kun', as long as you don't call me 'Kyoko-chan'," I told him.
"Deal," He said as he continued to push me.
~.~
Sakura was looking for Sasuke to try to talk to him, Ino was doing the same. They bumped into each other.
"Have you seen Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked.
"No, why are you looking for him?" Ino asked.
"N-no reason, you're looking for him too aren't you?" Sakura eyed her.
"M-maybe..." Ino said, looking away.
Shikamaru walked past the pair, they both turned to him.
"Shikamaru! Stop!" Ino shouted, pointing at him.
The Nara stopped, looking at the pink-haired Haruno and the white-blond Yamanaka. The girls ran up to him, pushing each other down, trying to get to Shikamaru first.
"...uhh...what's up?" He asked, a little afraid of the answer.
"HAVE YOU SEEN SASUKE?!" Both the girls asked.
"Nah, haven't seen him..." Shikamaru said as he backed away.
They stopped fighting each other.
"Aw...that sucks," Sakura pouted.
"Aw, Shikamaru your not useful at all," Ino grumbled.
Shikamaru looked at her with disbelief.
"Anyways, have you seen Kyoko?" Shikamaru asked, "We were all suppose to hang out later, plus she doesn't know about the festival on Friday."
Ino laughed.
"She's probably training right now, or something," She told him.
"Actually..." Ino and Shikamaru looked at Sakura with question.
The Haruno pointed at the big tree that was across from them. There they saw Sasuke pushing Kyoko on the swings.
~.~
"Come on Sasuke! You call yourself an Uchiha? Push the swing higher!" I mocked.
"If I use all my strength, you'll fly off the swing for sure," Sasuke smirked.
"Oh, cause the Uchiha is sooo strong?" I said sarcastically.
The trio looked at the us with complete disbelief.
"Is Sasuke-kun..." Sakura started.
"Laughing...?" Ino finished, "And did we just see..."
"Kyoko smiling...?" Shikamaru finished.
"Sasu-kun, higher!" I smiled, calling him by his nickname I gave him when we were little.
"Yeah, yeah, Kiki-chan," Sasuke called me by the nickname he gave me.
The only time we excepted prefixes at the end of our names is when using our nicknames.
"Sasu-kun?" Sakura questioned out loud.
"Kiki-chan?" Shikamaru questioned.
"What on Earth is going on?" Ino asked.
The girls walked towards us, dragging Shikamaru along with them.
"Hey, Sasuke-kun!" Ino called out.
Sasuke stopped the swing, I looked at him and followed his gaze.
"Oh no..." Sasuke groaned.
I just looked at Ino.
"So you say hi to Sasuke but not me?" I asked, pretending to sound hurt.
Ino was taken back to the act I was putting out.
"Wha...no! Uh, I mean," Ino flustered.
I smirked
"I was just kidding," I told her.
"Pft, yeah of course, " Ino said, waving her hand, "Anyways! What's up you guys?" Ino exclaimed happily.
I backed away from the extreme happy aura Ino was putting out, Sasuke also backed away.
"Uh we were just talking, you know, about the exam," I answered.
"That's what not we saw," Sakura told me.
I shrugged.
"Can't two childhood friends play on the swings?" I froze at my own words. Everyone froze at my words.
'…did I just say "Friends"? No, I said "Childhood friends", that's worse,' I thought.
Sasuke broke the awkward silence.
"Anyways, what do you guys need?" He asked in a not caring tone.
"Right, we're gonna hang out soon, you guys coming?" Shikamaru asked, "Also, I haven't told you about the festival on Friday."
"Festival...?" I asked, "Actually...I'm not going, I'm probably gonna train or something," I told him.
"Actually, it's mandatory," Ino told me.
"Eh? That's stupid," I stated.
"It's mandatory for people who passed the academy exams, it's a celebration for us becoming ninjas," Sakura explained.
"Again, stupid," I groaned.
"Anyways, let's go, we're meeting for BBQ," Ino told me.
"I told you guys earlier, I don't think she's up for it," Shikamaru told her.
"Come on, Kyoko! It'll be fun!" Ino told me.
"Well...I d-don't really...I'm not h-hungry...I...uh..." I stuttered, trying to come up with an excuse.
"Ah, so she does speak," The group turned their heads to see the Hokage.
"H-hokage-samma!" Ino stutter, bowing.
Kakashi appeared behind the Hokage.
"Oh...hello, Kakashi, Hokage-sama," I greeted, "Is there something that you need?" I asked.
"Kakashi just told me about how much you've grown, I can see that what he says is true," Hokage told me, smiling.
"O-oh, is that so?" I asked.
"And since it was examination day, I wanted to come along with Kakashi to see how you did, and I can see that you have passed, congratulations," The Hokage said.
"Thank you," I said, "I'm pretty tired, I think I'll go home and rest up," I told them, using the appearance of the Hokage and Kakashi as an excuse.
"Alright, I'll see you guys later," I waved at the group as I left, Kakashi followed behind.
I believe the Hokage went to congratulate the others. The group left behind was left in an awkward silence. Ino took this to her advantage. She jumped on the Uchiha.
"So! Sasuke-kun! You're hanging out with us, right?" Ino said, wrapping her arms around Sasuke's neck.
"Oi, Ino-pig! Let go of Sasuke-kun, he's mine!" Sakura shouted at Ino.
"Can't have what you never had, forehead!" Ino stuck her tongue out.
'This is going to be a long day,' Sasuke thought.
'Ino, Sakura, shut up,' Shikamaru thought.
~.~
'That was close,' I thought, landing on the roof of my house.
Kakashi landed beside me.
"You used our appearance as an excuse, didn't you?" Kakashi asked.
I looked at him innocently.
"What? Of course not! How could you think that?" I said in a tone of disbelief.
Kakashi looked at me.
"Yeah...um..I'm going to...catch up on training..." I said, leaping off the roof.
I went behind the house and into the forest, searching out my secret training spot. It was a clearing with a somewhat large stream flowing through, a small waterfall at the end of it. At the bottom was a large pond. Instead of practising my water jutsu, I continued to train in Bukijutsu. I made a clone so I could fight against it. They first started fighting using kunais, my clone threw one at me, I dodged and ran toward the clone with my own kunai. I was blocked by the clone's knife. It deflected my knife and I did a back flip to get away. It threw the knife at me, but I deflected it by throwing a shuriken at the flying kunai. I ran towards the clone and threw a punch to it's face. It got blocked by it's arm. I tried to do an uppercut but it blocked that too. I threw a kick to it's face, it dodged, pushing itself away from me. We ran towards each other and continued to do some taijutsu. I was thrown in the air, but I positioned myself to drop kick it. It quickly dodged before I could deliver a blow. I made a small crater in the ground from the force of my kick. I pulled both my sword out while the clone pulled out it's sword. I used my Time Duplication Jutsu to got two swords again. I practiced my dual-blade technique and finally delivered a hit, making the clone disappear. I laid in the middle of the clearing, tired as hell. For the entire time, something was on my mind.
'Back there...that was weird...I acted weird. Not just me, Sasuke too,' I thought, 'We acted like we did when we were kids...excluding my talking and adding his brother in.'
I frowned at the thought of the older Uchiha.
'...Itachi...' I thought, '...Ita-kun...why did you do that?'
I sighed at my unanswered question. I thought back at Sasuke.
'Does Sasu-kun actually consider me as a friend?' I wondered, 'I don't think he'd ever admit something like that.'
'It's getting dark, shouldn't you go home? Kakashi's probably waiting for you,' Fuzen told me.
I lifted an eyebrow.
'Pft, he never waits for me. I always train late, and when I come home, every single time, he's not there; either he's not home or he's in his room,' I said.
Fuzen laughed.
'You're so focused on training that you didn't notice him watching you?' I waited for Fuzen to go on, 'He hides in the trees, watching you train for all those years, making sure nothing happens to you.'
I thought for a moment.
'That's kinda creepy, but in a sweet way...kinda. Wait, how do you know?' I questioned.
'I paid attention to things that were around you,' Fuzen explained.
'If Kakashi was an enemy sent to kill or kidnap me, I would've been dead already,' I realized.
'Why? You think your so important that people will actually try to kill you?' Fuzen joked.
'Whatever, I'm gonna head back then,' I sighed, getting up.
'Careful, someone might try to kill you on the way back,' Fuzen laughed.
'Uh-huh,' I said, jogging back to my home.
~.~
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
Let me know what you think~
Signing off,
Bluebirb