Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter 1
The Hirashi ChroniclesChapter 4: The First Lesson
"Okay students, listen up!" Iruka tried to put on a stern demeanor to quell the rowdiness in his students. They were, after all, in the forest and the young ninjas-to-be could not help but rejoice in their freedom from the confinement of their classroom.
Iruka raised his hand again to call for silence. The banter gradually diminished to a few soft murmurs. "I want everyone to form into groups of three. Choose your partners wisely. These will be the people you will take the graduation exam with and possibly the teams you will be assigned to when you become Genins." The clamor rose again as friends discussed and negotiated fervently to determine the teams.
"One more thing: There must be at least one girl in each team." Iruka grinned as he heard many groans from boys and girls alike. This means that I'll have 17 teams of two boys and one girl, a suitable Genin group. I think I'll have to put Hirashi and Serra together so I can keep an eye on both of them.
He smiled broadly as he approached his two victims and told them the 'good ' news.
"Wha-?" Hirashi's eyes widened and his mouth gaped open. Serra was more accommodating and seemed to like the idea. She smirked and twirled a stray strand of hair from her fringe.
"Thanks for helping me convince him, Iruka- sensei!" She beamed at the shell-shocked boy next to her.
Seeking to remedy the 'situation', Iruka came up with a suitable compromise. "Look, Hirashi. If it's any consolation, I'll let you choose the last member of the team."
Hirashi seemed to recover some semblance of his composure. "I would be glad to be on the same team as Serra, Iruka-sensei." He forced a smile. "But it would be great if my best friend, Haibach, could join us. "
"Done!" Iruka admired the boy's adaptability to the situation. He would make a great ninja. "I'll leave you to inform him then." A scroll materialized in Iruka's hand and he jotted down their names in the first slot of a table. The names of the members of other teams quickly followed as each came to report to him.
Hirashi found his best friend sitting under an old elm tree. "Haibach, you're in my team with Serra." Hirashi announced frankly, jerking his thumb back to point at the girl trailing behind him.
"Huh?" Haibach's eyebrows narrowed. The sharp jaw line, which marked members of his clan, tightened. "Did I hear you right, buddy? " His voice was tinged with bitterness, but mostly disbelief.
"Yes." Hirashi hauled the brown-haired boy to his feet. "Now if you're going to have a chance with her, you better get your act together and introduce yourself." Hirashi whispered fiercely into Haibach's ear.
Before he knew it, Haibach was propelled towards Serra. "So you guys are not together?" He managed to slip the question to Hirashi.
"Of course not, dolt. Whatever gave you that idea?" Hirashi replied. I do have my own suspicions on how she knows my name though, but that is my personal problem, not yours.
In an instant, Haibach was nervously fidgeting in front of his first crush. His eyes roamed everywhere except her. He barely even felt the elbow from Hirashi, prompting him to talk.
"Hi, I'm Haibach." He stuttered.
"It's nice meeting you, Haibach. I hope that we'll become good teammates." Serra offered her widest, sweetest smile to the blushing boy before her.
"Well, I..." Haibach started nervously.
"Let's go, guys. Iruka-sensei is calling us." Hirashi inadvertently saved Haibach from his predicament, earning a grateful glance from his best friend. The trio moved quickly towards the center of the clearing to join the rest of the class.
The lesson had just begun.
"The focus of today's lesson is on peer teaching. I am sure all of you have sufficient knowledge on how to throw a shuriken or kunai. It's only a matter of how fast and how accurate you are. Each team is to practice separately in different clearings nearby. Your teammates will be your teachers. They will be the ones giving you advice on your throwing techniques, not me. I'll drop by occasionally to check on your progress, so don't slacken off. Besides, we'll be having a competition here when you return at noon. I'm treating the winners to something special. Dismissed." Iruka was left alone in the clearing as his students leapt away in their teams.
"So, where are we going to practice?" Haibach asked Hirashi, who was leading the way.
"Here." The trio dropped down onto the forest floor. Hirashi lightly, Serra more gracefully and Haibach clumsily. The clearing Hirashi had chosen was teeming with life. At every glance at least two species of insect could be seen. The air was filled with the buzz of their activity.
"Not a very pleasant place." Serra commented, wrinkling her nose. "Pretty humid. Smelly too." She unconsciously swatted away a few unwelcome guests from her hair.
"Yeah, it's real stuffy." Haibach tugged at the collar of his shirt trying to cool his body down. Rivulets of sweat flowed down his exposed neck. "Why are we providing the insect's with a free meal?"
Without a word to either of his comrades, Hirashi removed a shuriken from its pocket and threw it swiftly, seemingly at the branch of a tree. Upon closer inspection, the sharp point of the shuriken had neatly pined the body of a wood spider.
"Target Practice." Hirashi smiled all-knowingly and proceeded to remove his shuriken. "If you can hit moving targets, stationary ones shouldn't be much of a problem."
"Too slow." Serra criticized. Hirashi raised an eyebrow. He barely had a glimpse of the throwing needle leave Serra's hand, flash across his eyes and pierce through the exoskeleton of an unfortunate mosquito, knocking it out of the sky. "Not very accurate too. I would have sworn you were aiming for its head." Serra smirked.
"Same to you, wonder-girl." He picked up the dead mosquito and placed it before her eyes. The needle had gone through the abdomen instead of thee main body of the insect.
"Seems that we still have a lot to learn from each other." Serra laughed, a carefree tinkle that lightened the atmosphere.
"It seems so." Hirashi acknowledged with a nod and a rare smile. He was beginning to like her an awful lot. Sure, he didn't really know her yet, but that didn't mean he couldn't start liking her anyway.
Haibach glanced back and forth between the dead spider and the mosquito.
"You guys have got to teach me some of this shit!"
Author's note: Only one more chapter till Naruto's first appearance!