Angel looked at the ticking hands of the clock, writhing eagerly in her seat. She nibbled the pencil she'd absently placed in her mouth a while ago and tapped her fingers on the desk. Her tail swished back and forth behind her, causing the other bored children to focus in on it for lack of anything better to do. At the front of the room, Iruka continued with his lecture on Summon Creatures.
There was a light tug on one of her ears and she looked over and up to see Murray hunched over her desk, reaching for her.
"I dunno," Angel whines, lazing back in her seat and kicking it back on two legs. "If sensei'd ever stop talking, I could figure it out-"
"Angel!" The weasel yelped and crashed to the floor, causing the whole class to laugh. Iruka sighed as she flailed wildly in an attempt to get back up. "Would you like to see yet another day go by as you sit in detention?"
"No," Angel whined, clambering up just enough to peer over the desk.
"Well, too bad, because --"
BRRRRINNNNG
Angel vaulted over the desk and was halfway out the door before the bell finished ringing. "If I don't hear it, it's not illegal," she yelped as she fled the room. Iruka attempted to call after her, but gave up when he discovered that she was long gone.
Angel watched the people pass under her from her perch on the lower branch of a large oak tree in the front of the Academy. Her legs were hooked over the branch, allowing her to hang upside-down. She patted her shirt, but decided that, since no one was looking up, it was ok for her bra to be exposed. For a moment, she considered just dropping on the next person that walked by. That plan failed when a sudden, second weight appeared on the branch next to her, offsetting her balance and nearly throwing her to the ground.
"What's that for!" Angel shrieked as she struggled to sit back up. "I should-- Oh, it's you, Murray."
The dog-girl waved and Angel grinned at her. "How pissed id sensei?"
Murray stuck her tongue out, and Angel laughed.
"Yeah, he probably does want to kill me. Let's go get some food - I'm hungry."
Murray dropped from the branch so suddenly, Angel didn't have time to keep her balance and fell off, crashing at Murray's feet. "Ah, damnit!"
Murray yanked her to her feet and Angel continued to cuss. Dusting herself off, Angel pointed and cried, "Onward! To food!"
The two girls took off, bolting from the Academy grounds and running into, literally in Angel's case, Lee and Neji.
Murray waved continuously and quickly as Angel picked herself up again. She glomped Lee (whom she'd known and stuck up for since she'd first joined the class) and grinned at Neji (the son of her father's friend). "Hey Lee-kun; hey Neji-chan."
Angel yelped as the Hyuuga punched her in the side of the head.
"I never gave you permission to call me that," Neji growled.
"Kyaa..." Angel whined. "You're so abusive, Hyuuga-san..."
"Neji-san," Lee cried, shaking a fist. "How dare you make my fiancée cry!"
"Since when am I your fiancée?" Angel asked as she began to chew on Lee's braid.
"Since I decided just now."
"Cool."
Murray and Neji sighed. The Hyuuga cast the weasel a sidelong look. "I thought your cousin was your fiancée?"
"I have a harem."
Neji gave a disgusted groan. "What do you want?"
"Food." She released Lee's braid and told them. "We were thinking about some sushi. Want to join us?"
Lee grinned and gave a mock-salute. "Ossu! Let us go, Neji-san!"
Neji ducked out of Murray's reach as she attempted to grab him. "I need to go back to the House."
"Meanie!" Angel cried after him as he left."
"!" Murray agreed.
"Well then come along, Angel," Lee said, ignoring his rival. "Let's go eat ourselves."
"Ok!" Angel clambered up onto Lee's back. "Onward!"
It was a rare moment in the Nara household. It was completely still and completely quiet. Shikamaru lie on the couch, throw pillow over his face, breath evening out as sleep caressed his eyes. He was content...
"Oh, Shika-kun! Where are you lover?"
Oh, god, why?
Shikamaru groaned and lifted the pillow just enough to glare at his cousin who was hovering over him, grinning manically.
"What do you want, Angel?"
The weasel's tail wagged and her grin widened. "Guess what's going on next week..."
"No." Shikamaru put the pillow back on his face.
"Our class is graduating!" Angel cheered, ignoring Shikamaru.
"Go to hell," Shikamaru whined.
"Now remember, lover, you have to get me something." Angel waggled her finger as Shikamaru writhed and nearly fell in the floor. "If you don't get me something and we get married, I'll never let you forget it."
"Damnit, I'll buy you something if you go away!"
"Woohoo!" Angel ran upstairs as she cheered, "I'm gonna go plan my graduation outfit - you think of something to get me!"
Shikamaru groaned and pressed the pillow closer to his face, wondering if he could suffocate to death and get out of buying Angel anything.
Iruka stood in front of the class, trying to calm the eager students. When the din of excited chatter failed to cease, the teacher sighed. He didn't want to have to do this again...
Iruka leapt on top of his desk and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Silence!"
He could almost heat crickets chirp as the entire class stared at him with the usual deer-in-the-headlights look. He rubbed his aching throat and grinned. "Now, class, your final exam will be over the transformation jutsu. You will be called individually into the next room where we will give you your objective. The grading will be harsh, so practice while you're waiting." He looked at the list in his hand. "Anito, Ruki. Come to room ten-fifty-one in five minutes."
"Yessir!"
Iruka nodded to her and left. Immediately, the class broke into another rumble of chatter. Angel twisted around in her seat and grinned at Murray, holding up her fingers in a V-for-Victory sign. "Transformations are my specialty!"
Angel frowned. "You're right. I didn't think of that. Damn." She glared around the room conspiratorially. Finally sticking out her tongue in disgust, she leapt from her seat and bounced over the desks (ignoring the other students' yelling) and perched in front of Lee, yelping when Murray slammed into her, knocking her to the ground.
"What's up, Lee?" she asked, rubbing her sore butt and glaring at Murray as she grinned.
The eccentric boy sighed. "I'm no good at jutsu. I'm going to fail for sure..."
"Aw, don't be sad, lover," Angel crooned as Murray poked Lee in sympathy. "Iruka-sensei can be cool - I'm sure he has something else for you."
Lee just rested his head on his desk as Ruki finally stood and left the room to take her test.
It was nearly an hour later when all the students left were Angel, Rock Lee, Tenten, and Murray. Iruka poked his head into the room, "Yamino, Angel. Your turn."
Angel snored from her napping spot under Lee's desk. Murray, sitting on top of the desk behind her, picked up a stray binder, left behind by an over-eager student, and chucked it at the weasel, smacking her in the had.
"Aw shit!" she yelped, sitting up quickly and nearly cracking her skull open when she hit the desk.
"Goddamnit, Angel," Iruka sighed. "Get your ass into the testing room before I fail you on account of being a moron."
"I think I'm bleeding into my brain," Angel whined, clutching her head and stumbling to the door.
"Good," Iruka mumbled. "Now that you finally have blood in there, maybe you'll smarten up."
Angel stuck her tongue out as she was led into the testing room across the hall; instructor Mizuki smiled at her. "Good day, Angel. Your task is to transform into..." He checked his notes. "Iruka-sensei. Go on."
"Does it have to be the henge no jutsu?" Angel asked, flicking her ears irritably at the strong stench coating Mizuki.
"All you have to do is transform," Iruka reminded her, beginning to head to his spot next to the blue-haired instructor.
"Ok," Angel chirped. Without warning, she snatched Iruka's arm and bit into it, tearing away a layer of flesh and filling her mouth with his blood.
"Damnit!" Iruka cried, yanking his arm free and kicking Angel across the room and into the closet. He cursed again and clutched his bleeding arm as he glared at the shadows in which Angel was concealed.
Angel grunted as she tossed the junk that had fallen on her to the side. Her mouth was full of Iruka's blood and she felt her teacher's DNA being absorbed through her tongue. Swallowing the coppery liquid, she felt the shadows surrounding her react with the new genes in her system. Silently and painfully, her own DNA was torn and recoded, her flesh, bones, and organs shifting with the most disgusting feelings.
She shakily climbed to her feet and reentered the main room - body now a complete copy of Iruka's. "Damnit, I hate falling!"
Iruka just grumbled as he bandaged his arm, and Mizuki sighed, saying, "You would almost be passing with flying colors if you remembered the scar."
Angel blinked and crossed her eyes to glare at her nose. She forgot that DNA didn't transfer wounds and scars. "But I'm still passing, right?"
"Just barely. And--"
"Woohoo!" Angel bounced back into the shadows, painfully reminding her DNA of her true for and bounded out of the room, ignoring whatever else Mizuki was trying to tell her.
She was already in the hallway when Iruka threw something at her, smacking her in the back of the head. She whimpered and whined, glaring at Iruka. "What the hell was that for?"
"Take your hitai-ate and come back tomorrow at 0700. All graduates are required to attend."
Angel snorted at him, stooping to pick up her forehead protector before she forgot it. She stuck out her tongue at him as he reentered the classroom and called for Murray.
Angel waited in the tree, hanging upside down by her knees and watching the front gates intently. It was almost half an hour before Murray and Rock Lee exited, and Angel allowed herself to fall (landing on her feet this time) so that she could run up to them as she straightened her shirt.
"Did you two pass?" Angel chirped, waggling her tail in curiosity.
Murray put her hands together and, without even moving her lips, transformed into a perfect imitation of the second hogake. Regaining her true form with a puff of smoke, she took her hitai-ate from her back pocket.
"Cool. What about you, Lee? Did you have to transform?"
Lee grinned. "Nope! Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei let me show off some of my taijutsu. I ever got a special hitai-ate for it!" He pulled out his forehead protector, the metal plate stitched onto red fabric instead of blue. "This shows that I'm a taijutsu specialist!" he continued cheerfully. "I never knew there were so many types of hitai-ate bands! It's so cool!"
"They told you about the band colors?" Angel asked as Lee grabbed her to dance in glee. "That is so unfair - I wanna know too!"
"Well, that's too bad," Lee laughed, dragging Murray into their dance. "You'll just have to wait until you're older to find out."
"You suck, Lee," Angel whined as she and Murray were dragged off to celebrate their graduation.
Angel yawned as she headed inside her aunt's house at two in the morning. She wasn't sure how she, along with Murray and Lee, had been to distracted, but she did know that her aunt would kill her if she was out any later than sunrise.
She tugged on her ear to keep herself away long enough to get inside the house and sneak into her room, collapsing on top of the covers and passing out into blissful oblivion.
Her snoring was cut off by a pillow smothering her face. She gave a muffled cry and flailed wildly, trying to smack whoever was trying to kill her.
"Get up, Angel," Shikamaru said, finally removing the pillow.
"Damnit..." the weasel whined, still writhing. "Stop trying to kill me."
"Get up," Shikamaru repeated. "It's your graduation meeting."
Angel paused. "When was I supposed to be there?"
Shikamaru glanced at the digital clock next to his cousin's head. "Ten minutes ago."
"Mother of shit!" Shikamaru suddenly found himself on his face outside of Angel's room as she frantically dressed.
A fishnet bodys suit held in place by black leather buckles at the throat, wrists and ankles; a too-small sailor shirt with a blue scarf that showed off and ungodly amount of stomach (in her uncle's words); a pair of her grandmother's old priestess pants she had found in the attic, dyed a light blue and held up with her hitai-ate. She quickly pulled her hair into a bun, leaving her bangs to fall in her face and secured it with a pair of chopsticks, her grandmother's banishing charms engraved up and down the light-brown wood.
"Angel, wait!" Shikamaru called as she bolted from her room and stuffed her feet into her zori the had been resting by the door and grabbed a roll of bandaged to wrap around her thigh.
"What is it, lover?" Her tone was strained and she grunted as, once again, something hit her in the head. "Sonofamotherf-- wha?"
"Happy graduation," Shikamaru said as he walked away, heading to his room to sleep.
Angel looked at the small, reverse-pentagram pendant in her hands, the moonstone it was made from a beautiful pure white. With the little hook fixed into the top of it, it would fit perfectly on the collar about her throat. She carefully attached it, smiling and silently thanking her cousin. Until she remembered what time it was.
Then she was cursing again.
I only own Angel. Everything else belongs to other people, including Murray who belongs to Bomb-O-Maniac. So, till next time.