Chapter #01: A New Day in Konoha
A new day in the fire country; the air crisp, the light rain sprinkling down from the sky. A weird occurrence for the hidden village in the leaves, the rain falling upon them from above. People rushed to their houses, afraid of getting wet. Small children yelled wildly, trying to play in the puddles while their mothers pulled them to safety. Today, though, wasn't only special for the rain - it was also a very special day somewhere else in the village as well.
A new adventure was about to begin, and it was about to start at the ninja academy in the middle of the town..
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"Ugh, sorry - Mr. Kenpai, right?" asked a elderly man, holding a pile of papers inside the ninja academy. He wore a traditional ninja outfit for the village, his head band across his forehead; the symbol of the leaf on the silver plate, showing loyalty to Konoha. The person the old man was talking to, though, was certainly younger than him. He had long spikes of black hair, vibrant blue eyes to go along with it. He wore a white shirt, green vest and some black pants, the head band he controlled tied on his left ankle.
"Yeah, that's right, buddy." he smiled slightly, looking bored at this place. He was alone, and why wouldn't he be alone? It was raining cats and dogs outside. He leaned back on the chair he was sitting it, at his feet resting on the desk the old man worked at. Kenapi, as he was called, yawned softly, watching the man sit at his desk; their eyes met, showing connection. One were young and exciting, blue. The other were old and bored, grey.
"So, your here today for jounin exams which are taking place in a few days?" asked the grey-eyed man, looking as bored as Kenpai, wanting to get home before it started raining harder. Kenpai sighed, sitting up-right on his chair, making his eyes meet the old man's once more. The young-man smiled warmly. The old-man didn't smile back. "So, exams?"
"Yeah, Yeah. I got some promising young chunnin's looking to rank up this year." he commented, moving his chair left-and-right so he didn't have to sit still. He put his hands together, almost like doing a jutsu and tapped his fingers together. "They've been excited all year for these days..."
"Don't care, Mr. Kenpai. Your students, why aren't they here with you? Usually, at this level for Jounin exams, the students are old enough to sign themselves up?" questioned the old man, looking serious. A little disgruntled that the brats who Kenpai wanted to sign-up weren't here to make the work load go faster. "I mean, I know it's raining, but they don't have to be laz -"
"All of them are on special assignments, Mr. Whatever the hell your name is." Kenpai broke the guy off before he could finish his sentence, almost taking offense at the guy calling the kids he had been working with for years 'lazy'. "I thought you would know this, since you are organza the sign-ups and all. Thought you would know the top candidates from the leaf..." The blue-eyed man smirked at the older one, winking with his right eye.
"Gah - you know, I can't know ALL the top students going out for jounin. I'm not a book with information you know, I'm only getting everyone from this village's applications so they could participate." The grey-eyed man, who was bald except for sprouts of gray hair on the edge of his scalp spoke, showed a expression of anger and frustration at the younger and more handsome instructor.
"Oh yes, and how many are actually going out this year from the leaf? The last few years we've been in a rut, I've heard at least, only one from the Konoha became a jounin last year. And only four competed in the exams. That's sad. Very sad."
"Eh, to my count, including your three, six...are competing in the exams." said the almost baled man, turning his head to the side, not wanting to see the satisfaction on the annoying older instructor's face. "But - but since the civil war ten years ago, the students and children enrolling in the ninja academy has dropped. Parents are scared of what happened those ten years ago."
"Screw that. The civil war was a bogus trip, sure, I was in it. Thousands of Konoha soldiers lost their lives on both sides; children and mothers were killed. The side of Uzumaki Naruto our Hokage and the rebels of Konoha was a fierce battle that waged for two years, but still, to make a excuse like that to why only a few people from our village are at jounin level, it's embarrassing. Just embarrassing.
The reason why no one is up to that level, is because we've grown weak in Konoha. Not because of the war. The ninja in general. The teachers, the instructors, and probably most of the high-ups except for, of course, our Hokage; the man I would let hold my life if one-hundred ninja surrounded him." spoke Kenpai, looking serious at the moment. His hands were on the table, smacking some papers that the old man had put on.
"I'm sorry, sir..." The older man seemed to now show fear towards Kenpai after seeing him get a little serious. "I didn' -" But once more he got interrupted by the young instructor, putting his right hand up in his face.
"Forget it, loser. Another example of a weak higher-up. Apologizing for doing nothing wrong," said the young-man, continuing, "Pathetic."
The person on the other side of the desk just didn't try to make eye contact. Kenpai rolled his eyes at this. "Anyways, excluding the fact I waisted my time talking to you, I have three top students that can actually get the job done."
"Names?" replied the higher-up, still not wanting eye contact. He kept checking down at his papers, slipping out a pen from his shirt pocket; the pen went down on a random piece of paper on a clipboard, ready to write when Kenpai spoke.
"Fine. Student #1 from Team #5 of Konoha. Name - Risa Yaku. Age - sixteen. At the moment, like you SHOULD know, she's doing the chunnin exams. She was personally asked from the Hokage, with the lack of jounins, to do the second part of the exam. Lucky she isn't her to, would of kicked your ass for calling her 'lazy'. One thing Risa isn't, is lazy.
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The lawns of the secret grounds of the forest of death swirled with wind. Twenty or so students stood in front of the tall thirty-foot fence that held in the forest. Most of them looked nervous, but some of them looked calm and relaxed to get this over with. Alot of them wore different head bands, only three or so wore the leaf band across their foreheads.
A young girl, probably in her middle teens, stood in front of them all, her hands on her hips. She was in a sense, cute and beautiful. She was blossoming from her younger stages to her older, like any teenage girl would. Her height stood at 5'4 or so, her clothes a white top, a pink vest with a flower on it, and a pair of pink pants; her feet were held up by the wooden sandals she wore.
"My name is Risa Yaku, kids." she said, her voice soft and sweet. All the kids turned to her, maybe one or two trying to act cool and not turn and show respect. To this, Risa, from her long brown hair, dug into that hair and pulled out a kunai knife. Risa put on a deadly face and with amazing speed chucked it at the boys whispering to each other.
It just missed their faces by inches, scaring them both back, making them fall to the grass. They had on bands of the mist village, which gave no real importance to Risa. They could be from her own village, she didn't want this crap. The air was cold and the wind was picking up, and if she didn't have to be out here any longer, it would be a good thing.
"Ahhh!" screamed the blonde-haired mist village boy, scratching the grass that he sat on. Risa rolled her eyes, ignoring his reaction. Attention whore, she thought. She smiled brightly, trying to change her mean image quickly into a cute one. Risa scanned the kids, the Mist Genin now paying full eyes to her.
"So, cutting from the little interruption, here are the rules. You got - Bleh, don't know why they gave you more time, ten days to navigate through that crappy forest and -" Risa explained the rules of the forest; the scrolls, not opening the said scrolls, and the most important part, "If you die in the forest of death, bad luck for you. Your fault for screwing yourselves in the foot for taking these exams."
She grinned cutely once more and revolved her body around. The brown-haired teenager skipped off, throwing her hands at the genin to go to the booths where they would get their scrolls. They would get them and she would officially start the exam. It wasn't that bad, she would get to hang out in the tower for ten days before the jounin exams and just hang-out, eating some delicious food.
Probably will be fun watching the kids get attacked by the snakes and the stronger opponents, thought Risa, blushing at the prospect of watching on her small television all the action in the forest. This brought back memories of her experience inside the forest four years ago with her current teammates still, Akira and Gin.
"Ah, wonder how those guys are doing...hoping they're missing me." she said to herself, blushing once more at her two teammates. Both of whom she had developed a crush on in her time together with them. Both of them were cute and strong, but so different...amazing how they survived four years together...four years.
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"Okay, got her, Miss Yaku...Next, Mr. Kenpai?"
"Hmmm...next, let's see. My two boys. Both strong. Heh, let's go with the baka first, I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of going over Akira. "Student #2 from Team #5. Name - Gin Bashi. Age - Sixteen..."
Author's Note: Thank you for reading. I appreciate any reviews at all you may give. Questions at all, and I will probably answer in my next installment. Thank you again,
Author's Note 2.0 - Edit Version: Egh, sorry folks. I messed up my names on the storyline because I'm a dolt. Takeshi equaled Gin. Gin equaled Akira, and Takeshi appears in the next chapter.
Ha - small mistake there. Sorry.
-Ace-