A year had almost passed since the Yamanaka twins commenced their attendance at the Academy in their village. Things had gone well for the first couple of weeks and then Kasumi's world was darkened yet again. With nothing good in her life and nobody to turn to Kasumi simply lived day to day with her solitude and books. She was isolated at home and religiously avoided at the Academy, even eventual intervention by their teacher had accomplished nothing and if anything had angered her parents at the news of this involvement. They were angered even further when the teacher asked them to come into the Academy one afternoon so that the female chunin could speak to them personally and Airi made sure to tell Kasumi of her possible punishments if she dare to embarrass the clan.

The fateful afternoon arrived and Ino and Kasumi both had to stay behind after the conclusion of their classes to wait for their parents. Ino tried her best to talk to the teacher and earn as many brownie points as possible but the unchanged stoic expression of the older female proved this hopeless but did not deter the energetic, and slightly oblivious, Yamanaka. Both brunettes in the room breathed out a sigh of relief when they were joined by two other adults, although Kasumi's relief was short lived at the sight of her mother's expression. The parent-teacher-student meeting commenced… with silence. After offering the Yamanaka clan head and his wife a seat with their children standing one either side the chunin remained quiet, seemingly contemplating her next words extremely carefully.

"Inoichi Yamanaka, Airi Yamanaka. Thank you for coming. As you know I have asked you to come here today to discuss your daughter,"

Airi cast a glance to her youngest who stood by her side, to ensure displeasure could be expressed swiftly. After noticing this, the speaking woman added another sentence to her rehearsed speech.

"All good things I promise you. I would actually like to discuss her promotion into the year above,"

"Of course. That is wonderful,"

"Wonderful! When will Ino start?!"

Inoichi and Airi both responded positively in their own ways but the last question from the wife of the Yamanaka clan head made the other woman extremely uneasy.

"Well Ino is definitely above average within the class but Kasumi is the one with exceptional talent and the potential to succeed in going further,"

Inoichi's hand fell from Ino's shoulder, who stood by his side, while Airi could not hide her astonishment fast enough to not be noticed by everyone present.

"I'm sorry?"

The teacher turned to look at Airi directly.

"Kasumi has come number one in every aspect of the class and I have heard that she has great success in her kunoichi classes as well. Kasumi dedicates herself to both her physical training and her theory studies. She has aced every test and has an unnaturally mature demeanour for someone her age. With her kunoichi classes I hear that her extensive knowledge of flora, her extreme patience and her calm attitude has led to her being quite accomplished in the activities and lessons. Basically, her level of work makes it unfair and unproductive to keep her at this level when she easily has the potential to keep up with the higher class. I have discussed this with other chunin here who have observed and agreed with me and this has been taken to the Hokage and approved. All we are doing now is notifying you of this opportunity as the last piece needed to make this move official is your consent,"

Both of the Yamanaka parents remained in shock because their brown eyed daughter had never told them of the success she was having in class. Ino was always telling them about her day but Kasumi would just say that everything was 'okay' and this satisfied both parents. Now they were caught completely by surprise and didn't really know how to react. Yes it was good that one of their daughters was doing exceptionally well in her shinobi studies and representing their clan well and with great distinction but they never thought it would be the brunette twin to succeed to this extent. Kasumi always seemed too reserved to become anything more than a competent kunoichi while Ino had the social skills to climb the ranks and the confidence to never give up in this endeavour.

After this initial shock had time to wear off Inoichi demonstrated some of his shinobi skill by suddenly appearing behind his quiet daughter and placing a gentle hand on top of her head.

"This is great! She must have a lot of skill if she was able to fool us! So, when will she start?"

Inoichi finally found his voice through the rising bubble of emotional pride that swelled in his throat at the accomplishments of his little girl and was softly laughing with joy as he praised her and asked his question.

"Well, it is almost the end of the year so she wouldn't be able to do much in these next few weeks but if she goes to the next class now she can meet her new peers and be better prepared for the next year,"

"Wonderful! Tomorrow Kasumi will start her new shinobi path,"

Inoichi continued to speak on behalf of his family and clan while Airi still hadn't spoken a word. All of the finishing details were dealt with between the family and teacher before the four Yamanakas left the Academy building to do some impromptu celebrations. They had entered that building believing that Kasumi was in trouble only to discover it was entirely the opposite and, while Airi still hadn't come to terms with all of this, Inoichi felt that he needed to make it up to Kasumi for doubting her in the first place. With this the group made their way to a well-known restaurant for a celebratory dinner and a brief interrogation of Kasumi to find out what she had been doing for her studies and training to gain such notice by her teachers.

The dinner was the first one in a long time where they were like a proper family. Airi was actually engaging and talking with her youngest daughter, Kasumi wasn't scared that everything she did would turn into some sort of punishment or an argument, Ino was being somewhat genuinely nice and sincere towards her sister who she usually teased and isolated and Inoichi was smiling which had become more and more rare as his family slowly fell apart and his work prevented him from changing too much. All in all Kasumi had gained respect from her family and felt more accepted in that moment than she had for over a year, which felt like forever. Her mother talked about taking her to the flower shop sometimes so that she could expand and practise her knowledge of flora and her father talked about meeting up with the Naras and Akimichis to tell them about all that was happening. If Kasumi had known that working hard at the Academy would produce results like this with her family she would have told them about her good grades a long time ago instead of hiding them out of fear of making her twin look bad and getting told off again for 'embarrassing' Ino.

When Kasumi returned home with her family she excused herself from their company with the excuse that she needed to rest for tomorrow when in fact she wouldn't sleep a wink the entire night and the hesitant smile refused to dim at all as well.


This was even more frightening then her first day of the Academy almost a year ago. This time she wouldn't know anyone and nobody else would be feeling the same thing that she was experiencing right then and there. Everyone else in the class would have known each other for at least two years and here she was, an outsider just walking into their class and disrupting the balance, structure and hierarchy that had been created by the students over these couple of years. She was most likely not going to be welcomed with open arms or if she was accepted it would be because two groups were fighting over new 'members'. Either way it was not going to be very fun for Kasumi but like her previous teacher had said, these last couple of weeks in this class were for her to become comfortable and familiar with her new surroundings before she started another new year after the brief break given to the students at the end of the year.

Kasumi had made sure to arrive at the Academy earlier than usual on this day so that she had the opportunity to meet her new teacher before having to deal with all of her new peers. Upon entering the new classroom her efforts were rewarded by the sight of a male teacher about the same age as her previous teacher but with short, dirty blonde hair and bright green eyes. He obviously heard her entering, and probably her slight erratic breathing, as he turned to face her with a small but warm smile.

"You must be Kasumi Yamanaka,"

"Yes sir,"

Kasumi didn't want to get on her teacher's bad side and assume that her reputation would keep her safe and so politely replied to the statement with a quick bow and nod of the head. This amused her new teacher who then went on to introduce himself as Itona Sensei and explain the rough structure of the class work and activities before describing the type of work she would have to complete in order to catch up to the rest of the class but all of this was said with the same confident smile. It was after this short time of about a quarter of an hour that other students started to arrive and quickly took notice of the new presence which sent uncomfortable whispers spreading throughout the small body of children. Once the class commenced there was a small introduction and explanation concerning Kasumi before she was directed to the end of a bench on the front row of the class to start work.

Everything was very similar to her previous class except that the work was harder and more in depth and the activities were more complicated, as expected. Even the class breaks weren't very different with Kasumi choosing a tree to sit beneath to read another book. It seemed that the rumours from her previous class had spread much further then Kasumi had first anticipated as her new classmates were avoiding her like the others. It was beginning to amaze Kasumi at what these shinobi-in-training were willing to believe; she had hoped that these older students would have had a bit more common sense but she shouldn't have expected too much of a difference if most of the adults in her clan acted the same way. Even with all of this it was safe to say that Kasumi enjoyed these classes a lot more than her other one because even if they were almost the same if Kasumi didn't have to worry about Ino then it was all worth the change and temporary uncertainty experienced at the beginning of the day.

All of this became a new routine over the next couple of weeks with nothing new or exciting happening until the very last day of the Academy for that year.


Being the last day of the Academy meant that the teachers were taking a bit of pity on their students and giving them a bit of a treat by spending most of the day outside and doing no theory work. This particular class had gotten permission to head out of the Academy grounds and go to one of the larger training areas in the village. This was something usually reserved for the years above but Itona Sensei said that they should get a bit of experience in before the next year.

Once at the desired destination the activity was explained and turned out to be quite simple. It was a survival exercise where the students had to organise their own alliances and strategies while the game was in progress. You were out if you got any paint on you and this paint would come from the fake kunai given to every student. This was not only to determine individual survival skills but also the ability to work with each other and who worked well with whom. The information that Itona collected from this activity would help go towards the potential squads in the future, even if this future was still a few years away as other class activities could be organised to place certain students with each other to strengthen this bond. It wasn't always done this way but if it became difficult to separate and decide who had the marks to balance out a team then this knowledge would allow the best teams to be formed with the most collaborative potential.

It didn't take long for the game to get underway and most of the quickly formed alliances were extremely easy to guess. A few teams made up from clan kids separated into popular and loser with the same structure going into the few civilian teams and Kasumi quickly leaving the clearing to find cover in the surrounding bush, which was still within the perimeter set out for the activity, so as to avoid the almost inevitable status of first casualty. Kasumi had a lot of experience in the art of hiding-from-someone-who-wanted-to-hurt-or-annoy-you when it came to avoiding Ino and so was able to keep clear of the initial fight that occurred in the clearing. It got a bit trickier when her classmates started to realise that it would be better to fight in the density of the surrounding trees and bushes then in the open which is when Kasumi had to be extra conscious of her back.

Kasumi was just going from hiding place to hiding place so as to avoid any further hate being directed at her. If she decided to get involved and got someone out then they would have a personal reason to hate her instead of just the stupid superstition and follow-the-leader. Kasumi was darting from tree to tree in order to get away from the clashing of two clan based groups when she stumbled upon another concentrated area of conflict. One of the civilian groups had been reduced to only two boys and had been hunted down and cornered by the clan team who considered themselves to be the 'cool' kids in the class. Nothing good was going to come from a group of six ganging up on a weaker group of two. It seemed that a few of the children in this particular village loved the idea of being sadistic and tormenting their powerless peers. Unfortunately this rule encompassed the members in the group of six. Instead of just hitting their two frightened opponents with the kunais they kept scaring them and causing them to fall over or drop their own kunais out of trembling hands. All of this was done simply to allow the clan kids to have an opportunity to laugh and taunt the apparently inferior civilian raised students. Kasumi could sometimes be considered to have as much intellectual potential as a Nara but this would be an example of a situation in the contrary to that.

When the laughter rose and the tears started falling Kasumi jumped in to stop it, literally, but not before throwing one of her kunais to hit the 'leader' of the bullies in the chest. Kasumi had another kunai with her and with her speed and advantage of surprise she was able to quickly take out another boy and a girl by slashing paint across their chests. With half of the group 'down' she then put herself between the victims and remaining aggressors, daring them to face her with the now even odds. What she didn't plan on was the 'zombie' actions of the ones she had just taken out of the game. Once someone was out they were not allowed to play the game anymore and had to sit out, these kids obviously didn't want to play by these rules but not all of them were of the same opinion.

"Hey! Takeshi! What are you doing?! Taichi! Suzu!"

One of the smaller boys from the large group had stepped forward and questioned his leader and teammates when he realised that they had no intention of backing down and if anything had become more infuriated at the intrusion of Kasumi.

"Come on Daiki! Don't be a baby! We are a pack and as the leader you have to listen to me and we have to defend those that wrong us. Isn't that what Inuzukas do?"

The one who had stepped forward and had been referred to as Daiki looked down in shame at the mention of his clan and some of the values they stood for and would uphold with their own life. The one called Takeshi knew the power he held over the other clan kid and was about to go further when he received a hard kick to his back followed closely by his two friends receiving a similar fate. Kasumi had delivered the first blow but it seemed that with the extra support the two civilian raised kids got the courage to take down Takeshi's two sidekicks by themselves. With half of the group on the floor again Daiki only raised his head but his two remaining comrades decided to allow their anger to control them and charged forward. With this forward assault the two civilian kids got intimidated as they had lost their kunais towards the end of the taunt by this same group and so Kasumi had to face them on her own, two to one with only a single kunai herself.

The clearing the stood in was very small and was quite crowded with the nine children gathered beneath the light. Even with two hiding on the outskirts and another three currently kissing the ground it was still going to be difficult to manoeuvre. First of all Kasumi had to make sure not to let the two aggressors escape into the trees or she would lose them and the density of the forest would also mean that they would be able to easily sneak up behind her and the two civilian kids. Secondly she had to make sure that those already taken out stayed down.

Let the battle begin.

As the two clan kids, both brown haired boys, closed the distance between themselves and the lone Yamanaka she finished mentally finalising her battle plan and began. The assailant to her right was promptly thrown on top of his two fallen comrades as they tried to stand back up again. This quick movement made the last boy hesitate which gave another opportunity for Kasumi to strike. With the paint-covered wooden kunai Kasumi stuck his wrist which held his own weapon before twisting to kick the girl on the floor in the head so that she couldn't cause any more trouble. Now behind the last standing opponent Kasumi had clear shots of his back and so with quick punches to his lower back and a jab at the back of his knee caused yet another one to meet the forest floor. By this time the other three had gotten themselves up and ready for the fight and in doing so had scared one of the civilian raised kids away which caused another problem for Kasumi in terms of trying to protect him from these bullies as him fleeing may cause some of the bullies to pursue him. The Inuzuka still stood to the side and seemed conflicted by his own emotions and his clan's dedication to the pack and loyalty. For the moment he could still be ignored but must be kept an eye on.

Kasumi was starting to tire at this point and still had three opponents that needed to be immobilised before they could hurt anyone else. The main problem was going to be the leader. Takeshi obviously had skill if he was able to intimidate his peers into obeying him. Kasumi was confident that in a one-on-one fight, even in her current condition, she could win but with his two sidekicks it would be a near impossible challenge. That wouldn't stop her.

As predicted, Takeshi made his two colleagues go first and as Kasumi engaged with them he positioned himself behind the struggling Yamanaka. All Kasumi could do was block half their punches and grimace through the others. She also knew that allowing her opponent to have a clear shot of her back was extremely dangerous and would be fatal once she became a shinobi but right now there was nothing she could do.

So someone else did something for her.

The last member of the civilian group had toughed it out this far and was finally able to overcome his fear. This last boy had grown to be very wary of clan born kids and had heard the rumours circulating around the Academy about this particular Yamanaka girl. But she had stayed to help him while all of his friends since childhood had ran away this reserved and excluded girl had been prepared to take on all of the bullies by herself for people who were just as much bullies themselves when it came to her personally.

The boy took advantage of his position because as Takeshi moved behind Kasumi's back he turned his on the presumably non-threatening civilian. Said boy did something he had never been able to complete before, even in class, an unbreakable choke-hold on someone who was bigger and stronger than himself. He was never going to doubt Itona Sensei again.

Kasumi threw her final kunai but missed both of the assailants that continued charging towards her. They grew large, evil smiles upon their faces and continued stalking forward, until they both received kunais pressed against their throats. Daiki had taken a side and was no longer standing with his head down, lost. He had decided on a real pack and silently pledged his allegiance to a real alpha. With that strong resolution resounding in his head Daiki took the final step in knocking out his former pack.

After this the three children stood in the small clearing staring at each other. No one made a sound or moved a muscle.