Akira woke up following the shrill sound of a whistle. The warm, vibrant morning rays had already risen, much like Sasuke, who was already in the kitchen preparing breakfast by the time his sister lazed out of bed. The smell of miso reached her room as she pulled on her cargo pants and clasped them over the hem of her black sleeveless shirt. She threw on her teal happi and left her room, breathing in the smell of miso and scorched rice cakes. Sasuke acknowledged Akira with a glance as she entered the kitchen, and she gave him a quiet 'good morning' before grabbing their small clay teapot to steep jasmine flowers and green tea leaves. Small bowls and cups were set on their bamboo table and Sasuke served the soup while Akira poured the tea. They both ate in comfortable silence, then washed their own dishes and set them to dry before Sasuke left home without Akira.
Akira returned to her room to wrap a crimson and navy scarf around her waist, hoping to mitigate the fact her pants were too large, and tied her father's bandana over that. She clasped a few kunai and shuriken pouches to her belt and thighs, then struggled to slip her feet into her sandals as she put on her stud earrings. Eventually, Akira gave up with the sandals until her hands were free, and then ran out of the house to meet up with Kai.
She sat on the bench underneath the blossoms again, staring at the people walking by and going about their business. A few of them said hello, another pulled her child away, some congratulated her on the bandana that was gleaming around her waist. Akira stared as they walked away, watched as their clothes rippled in the breeze, as they kicked a wayward stone without even thinking about it.
Kai appeared moments later, clad in a nicer kimono than usual, and Akira noticed he'd actually taken the time to comb his hair.
"Wow, even you're putting effort into picture day," she joked.
"Hey, this is going to be my picture on file for at least the next two years, it needs to look good," Kai said.
In the Academy, waiting in line, most of the girls were passing around portable mirrors, the guys were messing up each other's hair or, in Naruto's case, were busy painting their faces because, of course, as per Naruto's usual behaviour, a serious picture did not warrant seriousness.
"Naruto, this is your identification picture, not a class picture," Akira groaned, watching Naruto paint himself red and white. "It really isn't the time to goof off—Kai don't even think of dropping your finger in that paint!"
Kai slowly backed away the finger that was inching towards the paint and smiled sheepishly. Akira pushed him ahead, all the way to Kiba and Shikamaru, who were next in line for their pictures. Shikamaru made a face while Kiba was being photographed, resulting in a hilarious picture of Kiba doubled over in laughter so that you could only see his face in a semi-decipherable blur, and Shikamaru didn't smile at all, instead, looking rather annoyed as Kiba tried to make him laugh as well. Kai's picture turned out rather good, as he'd threatened to hit anyone who tried to ruin it, and Akira got to take a picture without distraction as well. She didn't smile completely, and she thought she looked a little cocky until she saw the flower petals in her hair and laughed.
After Akira convinced the picture lady to give her a 'blackmail' copy of Kiba's photo, as she put it, the four friends went over to the nearest classroom for orientation. Akira and Kai sat down together with Kiba, while Shikamaru sat a little further back so he could inconspicuously nap. Naruto, no longer covered in face paint, sat in front of them, a table ahead of Sasuke, which took everyone by surprise. Technically, Naruto hadn't graduated.
"What're you doing here, Naruto?" Shikamaru asked, trying to get in a comfortable sleeping position. "This isn't for drop-outs. You can't be here unless you graduated."
"Oh, yeah? Do you see this, do you see this?" Naruto said, pointing at his headband with his thumb. "Open your eyes, Shikamaru, it's a regulation headband."
"Yeah, Shikamaru, open your eyes," Akira chuckled. Shikamaru threw her an old chunk of eraser.
"Let me put it this way: I look great in this headgear, it's like it was made for me! Believe it!"
Akira chuckled as Naruto and Shikamaru kept bickering, then looked around at everyone else. She knew most of them from her own class, but others she didn't, including Hinata Hyuga, which she only knew of. Akira didn't think that she'd get to know Hinata much; she was the definition of shy. Her pale lavender eyes were nearly always cast down and if her hair had been longer she'd probably use it to hide her face. But she couldn't, and Akira could see her blushing as she stared at Naruto.
"Hyuga has a thing for Naruto..." Akira whispered to herself.
"Yeah, it's pretty obvious," Kiba said. "Though, admittedly not as bad at Sakura and the rest of the Sasuke fan club."
"Speaking of which..."
At that exact moment, Ino and Sakura came barging into the classroom, panting and arguing.
"I'm first!" they said together.
"I won again, Sakura," Ino announced.
"Give it up! I had to look back to see you, my foot was at least a tenth of an inch ahead!" Sakura argued.
"Have you always been this delusional?"
The second Sakura walked into the room, Naruto's face went just as red has Hinata's and he couldn't help but stare. It got worse when she looked over and assumed she was looking at him when, in fact, she was looking at Sasuke right behind him. When she jogged over and he got up to say hi, she pushed him to the ground so that she could talk to Sasuke.
"Uh, good morning, Sasuke," she said shyly.
Sasuke glanced at her but said nothing.
"Mind if I sit next to you?"
"Back off, Forehead! I'm sitting next to Sasuke!" Ino barged in.
"I was here first!" Sakura said under her breath.
"I walked into the classroom before you did, everyone knows that!"
"Dream on!"
"Hey!" Akira called sharply. "Pick a seat before I take the one next to Sasuke, you hear me?"
Unfortunately, the plan backfired, and it only animated more girls in the class, especially those who didn't know Akira and Sasuke were related. Irritated, Naruto stood then launched himself toward Sasuke to glare at him. He jumped onto one of the desks and crouched down so he was level with Sasuke, which made all the girls worry about him getting into a fight.
"Ugh, this is going to make me vomit," Akira groaned. "Why does it have to be my brother?"
"It's not just your brother," Kai said, a small smirk on his lips. "It's Uchiha's in general, apparently."
"What're you talking about?"
"Look around, Kira," Kiba said, leaning back against his chair. "Unless all these guys we don't know are staring at my striking black eyes, they're looking at you."
Akira looked around, slightly disgusted.
"Do I still have petals in my hair?" she asked. "You guys said it looked cute the other day—I do not want to look cute!"
"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, bringing everyone back to the seating situation. "Stop glaring at Sasuke!"
Naruto glanced from Sakura and the horde of girls, to Sasuke, to Akira, and then back at the horde of girls.
"See, her I can understand!" Naruto said, pointing at Akira. She groaned and sunk into her chair, pulling her hair over her face. "But what the hell do you see in this guy?"
A cacophony of shouts rung throughout the room. Akira heard a girl saying that Sasuke should beat up Naruto for even looking at him, and then, a second later, there was complete and utter silence at the scene before them. Someone had bumped Naruto and sent him forward, resulting in him involuntarily kissing Sasuke.
"What the—"
"I don't know."
"Uh..."
"Damn, where's my camera when I need it?"
Sasuke and Naruto pulled apart and began gagging and spitting and coughing, trying their best to remove whatever contact they'd shared. Akira's eyes were wide as saucers, shocked and blankly staring at the two boys. Not even Kiba's waving hand in front of her face could snap her out of it.
"Curse you, Naruto!" Sasuke growled.
"My mouth is rotting!" Naruto yelled.
Sakura started screaming about stealing Sasuke's first kiss, which effectively snapped Akira out of her stupor, and it took a few shouts from Iruka-sensei, who'd just entered the class, to settle everyone down into their seats. In the end, Sakura ended up taking the seat beside Sasuke, and Naruto moved up a row to sit next to her.
"All right, everyone. As of today, you're all ninjas. You've all faced difficult trials and hardships, but that's nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult," Iruka said.
"Reassuring," Kiba said sarcastically.
"Now, you're only Genin, first-level ninjas, so don't let it go to your head. All Genin will be grouped into three-person squads, and since we're an uneven number, there'll be two squads of four Genin. Each squad will be led by a Jōnin, an elite ninja."
Akira's mind wandered off as Iruka continued speaking. She wondered what the Jōnin were like, if they were serious, scary, if they were even capable of tolerating annoying Genin, at all. Akira hoped her new sensei would be at least a little nice, like Iruka-sensei, but Jōnin had gone through much more than him, so she doubted that the Jōnin would be as cute and cuddly as Iruka.
Did they make teams at random? Did the Jōnin chose who they wanted to teach? Did they try to make balanced teams? If that was the case, her dream of being put in the same team with Kai, Kiba and Shikamaru were gone. Sasuke and Naruto would definitely end up in the same team seeing as they were the best and worst of the graduates, but she wondered where people like herself, Sakura or even Hinata would fit in.
"We want each squad to have a balance of strengths and abilities, so that's how we set them up," Akira heard Iruka say as she came out of her thoughts. "I will now announce the squads."
Akira tuned most of it out. She heard Kai get sorted into a squad with Kiba, the Hyuga girl and some boy she didn't know. A few moments after, Shikamaru got put into a team with the annoying Ino, which made him groan loud enough for Iruka to hear, and Choji Akimichi. Akira's attention only perked up when she heard her name called just before Naruto's. They shared a grin, but Akira's faded when Sakura's name came after. Confusion followed as Iruka called Sasuke's name to complete the team.
"Both Uchiha's in the same team," Akira scoffed. "How's that balanced?"
"Beats the hell outta me," Kiba said. "You would have been better off with me and Kai."
"Seriously."
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto protested. "Why does a great ninja like me have to be with a slug like Sasuke!?"
"Sasuke and Akira had the best scores of all the graduating students. Naruto, you had the worst scores in the history of Genin. To create a balanced group, we put the two best, which compensates for your worst."
"Just make sure you don't get in my way, loser," Sasuke said in a low voice.
"Hey, what did you say!?" Naruto shouted.
"Hard of hearing?"
"Knock it off, both of you!" Akira said sternly. "Sit down, Naruto."
"After lunch, you'll meet your new Jōnin teachers," Iruka said as Naruto sat down. "Until then, class dismissed."
Everyone exited the class slowly, chatting up their new teammates. Akira walked out with Kiba, Kai, Hinata and Shino, the boy they didn't know, and stuck together until they were standing in front of the Academy.
"You guys go figure each other out, all right?" Akira called as she walked backwards towards the street. "Don't forget to tell me about your new sensei! Oh, and tell Shikamaru that I'll go to his funeral when Ino strangles him!"
"Yeah, yeah," Kiba chuckled.
As they left, Sakura came out of the school, calling for none other than Sasuke Uchiha.
"Wrong Uchiha."
"Ugh, you. Why did Sasuke go running off so fast?" Sakura said.
"That's what he does. It is Sasuke, after all," Akira sighed. She glanced at Sakura. "Hey, Sakura?"
"Hm?"
"I know you don't like me, and well, you know I'm not fond of you either, but uh... I mean, we're on the same team, we might as well try and get along. You wanna have lunch together?"
"You, me, lunch?" Sakura muttered, a little surprised. "Um, sure. Why not?"
Akira sent Sakura an awkward smile and stuffed her hands in her pockets, walking off.
"Hey, wait up!"
"Well, hurry up! We don't have all day!"
"Ugh, you are so full of yourself!"
"Look who's talking!"