Chapter 1: Narumi~! Ninja To Be!!
The night was dark, the silence deep. Little settlements dotted the hillsides around the deep, impenetrable forest like speckles 'round a paint blot. Inside the forest (rather deeply inside the forest) was a 'Hidden' village that everybody knew about. Of course, this never affected the villages lives all that much. An invasion, a war... this hadn't happened in many years; not since the legendary Sages War, where the three legendary ninja's had united one last time – on opposing sides of the battle force. That had been a fearful time. But all had turned out well, and the inhabitants of the village could sleep soundly knowing one of the most powerful ninja villages in the world was right on their back doorstep. Usually it never came much closer than that. The Hidden Leaf slumbered peacefully along with the villages, enjoying the peace..... far, far into the distance, in the middle of the black forest.
"I'm starting to think maybe we shouldn't be doing this," said Narumi, squinting to make out her home fort in the distance. "It's kinda...far."
A soft landing on the branch behind her.
"Now you say it," griped Gai, which was an unusual tone for the meekly quiet boy. "You've never said that before. It's always 'hey, yeah, let's see how far we can get before they catch us' and I'm the one who gets blamed when they suspect anything."
"I get punished too!" snapped back Narumi. Then she stared off into the distance at the darkened shadow of Konoha. "It's just... why tonight, of all nights, did you decide you wanted to do this?"
"I wanted a last bit of happiness before my impending death," Gai murmured gloomily, "Just a bit of a bright spot so that I can go without any regrets. Is that too much to ask?"
"You IDIOT!!" yelled Narumi so loudly that Gai almost fell off the branch. "It's just the stupid Academy exams, that's all!! What's with the 'last bit of happiness before I die' crud?"
"SHHHH!" gasped Gai. "You don't know who's—"
"Come on, I would sense them," said Narumi boredly. "Alright, alright, I get it, I'll keep on going. You have the money, right?"
"Of course!" said Gai, straightening up happily. "We're going to the village by the west bank of the river, I think it's called Nakada Village?"
"Only in this situation do you ever remember the names of anything," muttered Narumi, but it was good-natured. "Well then, let's be off."
The two of them leaped from branch to branch through the forest, as only ninjas can do effectively. Gai blended in more with his surroundings due to his green jumpsuit that he wore like a shield, awkwardly like his personality and his jumping, which was cautious and fraught with almost-missteps. The girl waiting for him impatiently, legs splayed out decisively and firmly planted on the tree branch, was much more brightly dressed to the average looker, with her orange and blue coat matching her father's old one. Indeed, except for the long blond hair, she looked like a boy in her walk, talk and mannerisms. She was also by far a better ninja.
Gai's foot slipped on some moss and down he went. Before he even had time to scream, Narumi was crouching on the same branch on the same moss, holding him by the arm above a 60-foot drop.
"Darn it!" gasped Gai in released tension, "I've been trying not to do that!"
Well, seeing as that's the first time you've messed up tonight after nearly an hour of travel, I'll forgive you. For now." Narumi looked ahead of her. "Let's hurry... I've got a bad feeling tonight for some reason."
Gai gulped and wrestled himself back onto the branch.
The village of Nakata rested peacefully on the riverside. It was not as dependent on fishing as some places, indeed it relied more on agriculture and the irrigation that it came from. Its center of town was small, with nothing but a grocery market, a book store, a music shop, and a bank to its name. However this was enough for the two crouched on its outskirts. Gai held the money tightly in his hand.
'This would be so much easier," Narumi grumbled, "if they hadn't outlawed us from going into the music shop in Ko no Ha. Wider selection too."
"It can't be helped," said Gai, eyes fixed on the battered sign in front. "It was getting in the way of our training, and kept us away from our studies."
"Not MY training!' hissed Narumi. "I don't really have an interest in it, I mean, music is nice and all but—"
"You know you don't have to come," Gai said suddenly, hunching into himself. "I mean – you could get into trouble if anyone ever found out. We're not supposed to be out of the fort without permission, and—"
"Whaaat?" Narumi sighed, then grinned. "Nah, don't even worry about it. You put up with me and all my crazy training stuff, like the frog pit – "
"I'll never see a frog without screaming again," shuddered Gai.
"And using the roofs as slides, when no one was watching—"
"I almost died three times."
"Yeah, and trying to paint on Kakashi-ojisan's face when he was sleeping—"
"Ohhhhhh Gooooooooooddddd~~~" moaned Gai, starting to shiver. "Let's just go in and buy it, okay?"
"Right, right, I just wanted to make a point. This is probably the only dangerous thing you've ever done in your life, so I want to support you in that undertaking."
"This has no comparison to ninja courage," Gai whispered, sneaking slowly towards the locked door. "It's just the one thing that gives me pleasure in my life, that's all. Hand me the key."
"Yeah, I know," said Narumi, handing him a 'borrowed' specialty ninja key that unlocked most doors. "Sometimes I think it's hopeless to turn you into a ninja."
"Don't say that," murmured Gai, turning the key slowly, "I may just agree with you forevermore."
Narumi was strangely silent as she watched him push open the door cautiously. It was true that out of the class, Gai was probably the lowest skill level, and it was true that he had never in his life actually wanted to do any of the training she'd put him through as her best friend, but even so--- even so---
She suddenly realized something as the door swung wide open to reveal the dim interior. Tables, counter, racks of outdated music – but sitting in a chair—
"GAI!! Take cover!!" she yelled, shoving him down, grabbing a kunai and holding it out to defend herself as well as him, mind whirling as she cursed her self for only looking for someone chasing her and never thinking somebody might be waiting for her---
"You failed to consider the possibility," said Kakashi-ojisan, stretching himself conspicuously, "that someone would have thought out where you'd go, and have been studying where you got all that lovely music that your friend is still playing in secret. Hm?" His eyes took on a dangerous look. "Disappointing.... for the child of a Hokage."
"Run, Gai!" yelled Narumi, snapping out of it and wracking her brain for a jutsu that would get him off their trail and yet not destroy the shop. Fireball? Bad. Clone technique? Useless. Running as fast as she could? Well maybe---
"Oh no no no," said Kakashi, using his one arm to rise himself up from the chair. "No, you're not going to get away this time, Narumi."
~*~
"DAMN you!!" yelled Narumi, struggling at the rope bonds that held her. "What's the meaning of this, huh? You can't just tie a person up when it causes damage to their - uh – health!" She was referring to Gai, tied on the other side of her, who has passed out from shock.
Kakashi calmly rocked back and forth in the same chair he'd been sitting in originally. "You know why you're here, don't you? Then you know why you're tied up."
Narumi's face turned red in anger. "We ALWAYS pay for it!" she yelled. "I have never stolen anything in my life, never!"
"Except this key...." sighed Kakashi, swinging it round his finger. "Which, if I remember correctly, is my own."
"I was just borrowing it, I always returned it!" sputtered Narumi.
"Stealing or not stealing is not the issue here," snapped Kakashi in a hard voice. "You know how serious the offense of leaving the fort without permission is. I could report you as a missing-nin, you know, and kill you right here and not even your father would be able to say anything against me!!"
Narumi was silent.
Kakashi sized her up frankly, as he stretched the stillness out a bit. In any other pre-genin, there would have been fear obvious in the face. Most would break and start crying, beg Kakashi not to hurt them, they hadn't meant to do any harm. He would forgive most of them for doing it, too. They were still children after all, barely 12. Gai, he knew, would beg if he was awake.
Narumi was silent.
Ah, Naruto, thought Kakashi. She's your child, isn't she.... yet I think that to tell you of this would disturb you as equally as it does me.
She had broken the rules – knowingly. She had put her life in danger and risked becoming a missing-nin – knowingly. For what purpose? Apparently not one of her own. She was not the one who spent hours and hours at a piano playing old classical music whenever her parents let her. No, she was a promising young kunoichi.....
Kakashi shook himself out of this train of thought, not really wanting to go where it was taking him. He averted his eyes from her scared but determined ones first. She had a habit of a gaze that looked right through you – probably due to her mother.
"This must not continue like this," Kakashi spoke as to himself. "I will not tell your parents, at least not your father, but the Academy exams—he will have to be removed from them."
"Wh-what?!" gasped Narumi, poker face broken. "Gai? You mean Gai?"
"He is not suited to be a ninja," Kakashi continued. "Nothing like his namesake used to be, who for all his foolish ways, was among the best ninja's I ever knew."
"Well how could he be – when you're always comparing him to his dead namesake!!" Narumi yelled angrily back. "Besides, how would you know who will become a good ninja and who won't? You know his father's among the best ninja's in the tribe, and he doesn't even have any Charka!"
"That is a matter of sheer will, which Lee has and Gai does not." Kakashi shrugged, "Sometimes it skips a generation."
"You – you're not going to fail him?" asked Narumi, some hesitation creeping into her voice for the first time.
Kakashi blinked. "Yeah. I'm going to fail him."
"DON'T!" screamed Narumi so loud Kakashi hastily dropped the key and put his one hand over her mouth. She tried to bite him.
"You can't do that!" she wailed when she was able to speak again. "Look, it's not his fault this happened, I've done this before! For things such as training! I swear I barely even sleep at home any more! Besides, if I hadn't been helping him, he would never have gotten this far alive! He sucks at traveling!"
"Most certainly true," nodded Kakashi.
"I've been working with him for months, trying to get him to be able to pass this exam... please... it'll kill him if he doesn't get through it... I don't want him to have to live like, like the failure in the town! You know, the one who everybody snickers about, the one where they say 'his mother must have drunk bad water' behind his back – and they already do! I want to prove that—" She huddled into herself briefly, then straightened up again.
"My father will understand. Please Mr. Kakashi—take all the blame form from him and place it on me. I will accept full responsibility."
"Full....responsibility?" asked Kakashi, shocked though he didn't show it. Are you merely stupid, girl, or can it be...?
"I mean it," said Narumi, meeting him full in the eyes with her vaguely creepy stare, made more so by the stress showing through the veneer. Yet she was serious.
Would you have been so serious, Naruto? It is like you feared.... she has grown up too fast for us.
"Indeed," Kakashi said, showing in his one visible eye the full seriousness of the offer she had just made. "Then I will consider your settlement."