Finally, it was the day of the Academy graduation.
Kasumi was the only one in the Yamanaka household that was excited about the special day. Everyone else continued as if it was every other day. While the brunette girl had wished for there to be some change in demeanour, she knew it was all false hope and so went about her usual morning routine. The last thing she wanted was for one of her 'family' members to ruin this highly anticipated day for her. As she wandered the hallways of the 'house of horrors', as dubbed by her and her friends, she relished in the thought that it may be her last time doing so. If she was able to graduate then she would have more control over her life and the first thing she would do would be to leave the Yamanaka compound and never look back.
Nami had given her an early celebration and congratulation gift the day before. After the discussion with Tsume about Kasumi's future as a member of the Inuzuka clan, Nami had given the Yamanaka girl something to help with the move. It was a simple sealing scroll. Every shinobi used them. They were used to store rations, weapons and other supplies but this time it was being used to store Kasumi's few possessions so she wouldn't have to return to the house later to collect them. There also wasn't much which Kasumi believed that she would be allowed to take without suffering the wrath of Airi, Ino or Inoichi. The only things she decided to store were a few books, mainly the ones that Elder Runa had given her, and her clothes. She didn't own much else. It would have made the girl sad if she wasn't so excited about the prospect of never having to deal with those people again and never having to enter the compound. She would be free.
Kasumi made sure to leave the house earlier than usual. Not just so that there was less time for the Yamanakas to ruin her day but also because she was so excited about the graduation. Well, she was excited for the opportunity to graduate but terrified for the exam and the thought of failing and having to wait another year for the chance of freedom. She would also be letting down everyone who had helped and supported her. Her friends, Elder Runa, Nami, and even Tsume believed in her and gave her blessing to join the Inuzuka clan. After everything that everyone had done for her, Kasumi couldn't fail.
But what if she did?
No!
No. No. No. No. No.
She couldn't think like that.
She could do this. She would do this.
She was at the top of her class. She knew how to do all of the basic jutsus and she studied every day. She knew what she was doing. She just had to make sure not to freeze. She had to have confidence in herself. She had to believe in herself.
Others did.
And it was a nice feeling.
Kasumi had been walking at a snail's pace while contemplating all of this and had barely made it halfway to the Academy. But it didn't matter. She still had plenty of time.
After gaining a little bit more confidence in herself and renewing her resolve, Kasumi continued her journey to freedom at a quickened pace.
Waiting was going to be the most difficult task of the day.
If they went by surname then she would have to wait until the very end.
The torment and torture would just have to be the price of freedom.
"Kasumi!"
Kasumi wasn't the only one to arrive at the Academy early but she was the first of her group of friends. It didn't surprise Kasumi that TenTen would be the next one to arrive but she was shocked that the girl was being so loud. They usually left that stuff to Daiki.
"Excited?"
It was either the excitement or the nervousness which meant that TenTen was unable to recognise the sarcasm or rhetorical question but the antics did help Kasumi feel better about her own apprehensions.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!"
"Same. I can't believe that we could become ninjas today. I don't know about you but I still feel a bit too young,"
This caused TenTen to immediately stop the happy dance she had been doing and look at the other girl with an utterly dumbfounded expression.
"If you don't feel ready then none of us here are ready! You're not just the most mature but also the most talented! And Neji doesn't count because he's stupid!"
Not very many of their classmates were there yet but Neji was and this last part was exclaimed a bit louder than what TenTen had intended. Especially considering that the few other students that were there had decided at that exact moment to suddenly turn quiet. The Yamanaka had to stifle a giggle at the red complexion of her friend and the evil eye that the Hyuga was sending their way.
Fortunately for TenTen, a certain Inuzuka arrived just in time to save her further embarrassment.
"Kasumi! TenTen! Can you believe it?! We're going to graduate today!"
Daiki was as optimistic as ever and even Katsu was chiming in with his own supportive barks of agreement. With Daiki's interruption, everyone went back to their own conversations and Neji just rolled his eyes at the group before going back to looking out of the window and brooding.
"You seem really sure of yourself,"
"Well yeah! We have all trained together and we all know everything for the Academy. We'll graduate for sure! Hey TenTen, why is your face so red?"
"She's just excited,"
"Oh, okay,"
TenTen gave Kasumi a thankful smile as she moved from in front of the desk the Yamanaka was seated at to a seat beside the girl. Daiki then took over TenTen's previous position and remained standing while leaning his elbows on the desk. The trio talked like this for a bit with Katsu gradually moving to rest on TenTen's lap. Daiki and TenTen were both using the same technique of trying to cover up their nervousness with excessive optimism and enthusiasm while Kasumi tried to maintain a calm façade in order to give her friends emotional support. Eventually, Tatsuya turned up as well and seemed to be following the same strategy as Kasumi. Tatsuya stood beside Daiki and the group continued to discuss their plans for when they graduated. There was one topic however that the group purposefully avoided, team allocations. There was four of them and the teams would only consist of three genin. This meant that they would inevitably be split up and they weren't even guaranteed for any of them to be on the same team together. While all four of them were excited to graduate they were also somewhat sad, once they became genin and started going on missions they wouldn't see each other as much if they weren't on the same team. Nami had said the night before that she would still train them but that was still no guarantee that they would all be trained together. It was a reality of being a ninja that they would have to learn to face but for the moment they were content with ignoring it for the time being. Today was supposed to be an exciting day. They had spent the last few years training and studying for this moment and it would change each of their lives in different ways. This was the first goal on the road towards their dreams and there was no way that they would lose.
As the start of the Academy gradually drew nearer the classroom began to fill with excited and nervous students. Some were confident while others were scared but no matter how they felt, everyone became instantly silent as soon as Itona sensei walked through the door. Said teacher couldn't help but smile at this reaction, no matter how many times he facilitated the graduation exam he always got the same reaction. Even the naturally rowdy students were finally respectful of his authority and the fact that he held their graduation in his hands. Too bad it was only during the day of the graduation that they realised this. Itona wouldn't have minded having this respect throughout the rest of their education. Oh well.
"As I'm sure you're all aware, today is your graduation exam. I will call each of you one at a time and we will go to a separate examination room. Myself and another chunin will conduct the exam and we will tell you immediately whether you have passed or failed. After this, you will be taken to another room depending on whether you passed or failed. Once everyone has taken the exam, we will either give you information for the start of your shinobi career or how to improve for your next graduation exam. Is that understood? Are there any questions before we begin?"
Nobody dared to say anything, some may have even held their breath. Nobody wanted to do anything that would prolong the torture of waiting for the exam.
"In that case, let's begin,"
As Kasumi had predicted, the exam was done in alphabetical order by surname. This meant that she would be going last and wouldn't even get to know if the others had passed or not until she had done her own exam. Fortunately, this also meant that Neji was one of the first people to go but was followed shortly after by Daiki. Kasumi didn't envy the people who would have to deal with the pair if they ended up in the same final room together. She hoped they did. It was clear that Neji would graduate and she had faith that the Inuzuka would as well.
Even at the beginning of the exam when the room was full of students it was still as silent as it was when Itona sensei was talking. Throughout the whole process, the only sound was when the next person for the exam was called. Without her friends around, Kasumi no longer had a need to appear calm and was now openly freaking out. All of the worst-case scenarios were running riot in her mind, becoming more and more extravagant each time someone was called for the exam.
Kasumi just wanted to take the exam. She wanted all of this anticipation and fear to be over. She tried every technique she could think of to try and remain calm and take her mind off of the exam. She thought of using this as some sort of emotional training but then that got her thinking about how it was only useful if she became a ninja and then she started thinking about the exam again. And so, the spiral continued. It was a similar train of thought when she did some mind strengthening techniques that Elder Runa had taught her.
By the time the Yamanaka was called for her turn to take the exam, she was lying face down across the desk with her arms hanging limply over the sides.
"Come on Kasumi, your turn. Lucky last as they say,"
"Yes Sensei,"
The journey to the examination room was silent. Kasumi was too nervous to say anything and Itona Sensei had already wasted his day having mixed results at destressing his individual students. He wasn't worried about this particular student though. She had the best academic grades in the class, was able to complete all of the recommended jutsus flawlessly and, after her setback due to her period of absence a few years ago, one of the best in combat training. She had improved in leaps and bounds with her taijutsu after the initial setback. At some point she had surpassed her friend, TenTen, to become the strongest female and was nearly on par with Neji. Given the Hyuga clan's speciality for taijutsu this in itself was an admirable accomplishment. Kasumi was a quick thinker and this gave her a great advantage in academics and her reaction times and strategies in combat. Itona always found it funny that she was from the Yamanaka clan, raised by the Inuzuka clan, was most similar to the Nara clan and had a rivalry going on with a gifted member of the Hyuga clan.
She had potential and now was her time to prove it.
The pair made it to the examination room. Itona took his seat next to a fellow Chunin teacher while Kasumi stood in the open space in front of their desk. The chunins noted that she was keeping her composure a lot better than some of her fellow classmates. The only sign of nervousness was the fact that she wasn't making direct eye-contact and had her hands clenched in fists. Other students would stare directly at the floor, their hands would be trembling and some even shed a few nervous tears.
Although it wasn't directly a part of the assessment, it definitely ticked those extra boxes and the teachers always made sure to note these details. They were always keeping an eye out for these extra bits of information; they were ninjas after all. Not only did it give them information about whether a student was ready to become a genin but also helped them in assigning groups and predicting the possible future career, helping to set them on the right track. Most of the children came from shinobi clans and would already have an idea and be trained to follow a certain shinobi path but for the civilian born and the exceptional it was something very important. It didn't just help the individual but assisted in strengthening the entire village.
"Alright Kasumi, let's begin,"
The girl still stared at the floor before taking a long, deliberate breath and then lifted her head, eyes now burning with determination.
"Yes, Sensei,"
Itona gave his student a nod of confirmation before turning to his fellow chunin and doing the same. When the other chunin returned the signal, the assessment officially began.
"Kasumi Yamanaka. For the Academy graduation exam, you will be required to produce at least 3 clones and perform the transformation jutsu on one of them. You will be assessed on the clarity and precision of your jutsus and execution. Begin when you are ready,"
"Yes, Sensei,"
This continuous formality was another indication of nerves but not a bad one. It demonstrated her ability to focus on and continue with missions despite nerves and fear. There was another short break of a few seconds. Again, not a bad thing. Other students had been frozen by fear for multiple minutes, sometimes the chunin instructors would have to interfere if the time became too prolonged.
Then Kasumi began moving her hands in the familiar motions for the required jutsus. The movements were deliberate and in a matter of seconds she had demonstrated her potential as a ninja and cemented her new rank as a genin.
She restricted herself to 5 clones, each a clear copy of the young Yamanaka, to conserve her concentration for the transformation. Itona knew that she was capable of producing at least 7 clones on any other day and noted her decision to air on the side of caution in order to make sure that she was able to correctly complete the second part of the graduation exam. Some students would get caught in the trap of trying to impress and show-off instead of being practical. Kasumi took a little longer to complete the transformation of one of her clones. It was always easier to do it on yourself and became more difficult for clones and then harder again on another person, especially if they were a ninja.
As soon as a copy of Itona was facing the assessing chunin, the real Itona gave a smile.
Kasumi Yamanaka was one step closer to her dream and her freedom.
"Congratulations, Kasumi Yamanaka. You are now officially a ninja of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Throughout your time at the Academy and during this exam you have demonstrated that you have the capability of a genin rank kunoichi,"
Kasumi's façade that she had tried so hard to uphold throughout the exam had completely disappeared at these words. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Itona knew how much this meant to the young Yamanaka. This was an important moment for a lot of graduates with the start of their new life and the accomplishment of their childhood dream but it meant just that little bit more with Kasumi Yamanaka. The teacher got up from his seat with a Leaf Village headband in his grasp and approached the stunned girl. Kasumi didn't even move when Itona was standing in front of her. Itona grabbed the young girl's hand and placed the headband in it, closing her fingers around it and keeping his hand on her fist while his other hand was placed on the top of her head.
"You don't have to be brave all the time. You should be proud of what you have accomplished, considering what you have had to go through. Take the time to be a child and don't be afraid of your emotions. There will be situations and people who you can open up to. Emotions can be both an advantage and disadvantage, the skill is knowing when to hide your emotions, not in turning them off completely. You're a good kid. Good luck,"
"Thank you, Sensei…"
Even with Itona's words, Kasumi wouldn't allow herself to be vulnerable in this moment. She knew that the emotionally eruption would be prolonged and catastrophic. All of her emotions throughout her entire life had been bottled up and were threatening to come out at the realisation that the nightmare was over and that she had succeeded. Kasumi hadn't taken her eyes off of her fist which held her headband, partly out of disbelief but also because if she lifted her head and looked at her sensei, she would no longer be able to keep control of her emotions. All she felt that she was capable of doing to show Itona her gratitude was a small whisper.
Itona ruffled her hair one more time and squeezed her hand before letting her go and returning to the desk and the other chunin. Kasumi needed a few more seconds before taking a shaky, deep breath, bowed her head towards the chunin and promptly left the examination room. All without making eye contact with either of the proctors and gripping her headband as if her life depended on it. Because it truly felt like it did.
The other chunin was supposed to escort the graduating students to the second waiting room while Itona got the next student but neither of the chunin stopped her from leaving the room by herself. She was the last participant for the graduation exam and with her sensory abilities the two chunins knew that she would have to problem making it to the correct room to receive the information that was to be given to all graduates about the start of their new shinobi lives.
Kasumi made her way to the designated classroom on autopilot with her gaze still fixated on her furled hand which had yet to relax its grip on the headband. Her headband. It was something that she couldn't quite believe. Thankfully the hallways were empty so she had some alone time to try and process everything. Hopefully she would be able to control her emotions by the time she walked into the room. Hopefully all of her friends would be there as well. Hopefully this was the first step for escaping the Yamanaka clan.
Tatsuya couldn't believe what had happened. He couldn't even move when he entered the examination room. He couldn't remember what had happened either. All he knew was that at the end of the exam he had graduated and had his own Leaf Village headband to wear with pride.
Tatsuya also couldn't believe that he was currently sitting next to two out of his three friends. Daiki and TenTen had graduated as well but no one had the energy to be excited or express happiness. They were all of course overjoyed at graduating but there was also a large amount of suspense while waiting for the last member of their friend group to join them. Or not.
No one believed that they would all graduate while Kasumi would fail but there was still a part of them that was terrified of the possibility of the nightmare coming true. The rest of their classmates who had succeeded in graduating were excitedly talking to anyone else nearby who would listen. Tatsuya, TenTen and Daiki were the complete opposite. Their joy was in turmoil with their nerves and they were trying their best to keep it all internal so as not to make it any worse for the others. Katsu was the only one making a conscious effort to lighten the mood. He wasn't just sedentarily sitting on Daiki's lap, as he usually did, but was moving between the trio and trying to comfort all of them.
Fortunately, Katsu was residing on Tatsuya's lap when Kasumi finally came through the door.
"Kasumi!"
"Hey guys,"
Daiki and TenTen synchronised their exclamation and their dash over to the Yamanaka who was tackled to the ground by the energetic pair. If Katsu had been on either of their laps, he would have found himself flying across the room. As it was, Katsu, Tatsuya and Kasumi were too stunned to do much, besides Kasumi mumbling out her own little greeting.
"We all made it! Can you believe it?!"
Daiki was finding it impossible to sit still. Before it was out of nerves but now it was from pure excitement and happiness. Some of the other students in the room were giving him dirty looks and didn't approve of his unnecessary loudness, such as Neji, while others didn't care and were too happy at their own success at the graduation exam to give a damn.
"Told you,"
Kasumi was trying as hard as possible to not break down and start crying. She had to be strong fir the others. If she started crying then TenTen would start crying and Daiki would get flustered and Tatsuya would have to try and sort everything out and control the situation. Katsu would more than likely be bear hugged by one of the girls. Not that he tended to mind the affection but it was always worrying to think that one day they may hug him a bit too vigorously.
The Yamanaka was overcome with emotions and the worst part about it was that they were conflicting. Se was overjoyed that she had graduated but she was terrified of having her request rejected by the Hokage and the possibility that she would have to stay a resident of the awful Yamanaka compound.
She was determined not to let this fear or anxiety bring down her friends. They deserved to be happy and celebrate this special moment.
Tatsuya eventually made his way over to the trio of friends, carrying Katsu in his arms and then the group was finally all together.
"You okay?"
He came to stand by Kasumi's side and voiced his concern such that Daiki and TenTen would be unable to hear it through their own conversation, something to do with how they were going to kick ass on their first mission and go to exotic lands or something else dramatic and 'awesome'.
"The first hurdle completed. Just a million more to go,"
"Yep. The start of the rest of our lives. But we will get through it together. Just think of everything we accomplished just at the Academy,"
"Together,"
Tatsuya nodded and handed Kasumi the cute fluff ball called Katsu and went to join in the others' conversation. Giving the girl a bit more time alone to think things over and come to grips with her emotions more. Tatsuya was a lot better at handling emotional and delicate situations compared to the others and the conversation would go a lot differently if either of the other two picked up on Kasumi's continued fear and anxiety.
"Settle down everyone!"
While all of this was occurring within the small group of friends, Itona had entered the room to begin the official conclusion of the graduation exam and give the new genin some important information to get them started on their shinobi careers. The room went instantly quiet and everyone rushed back to their seats to listen intently to what their soon to be former sensei had to say. There had been enough time for the reality of the graduation to sink in and everyone was aware of how seriously they now had to take everything.
"Firstly, I would like to congratulate all of you in successfully completing the genin exam and graduating form the Academy. I'm proud of all of you and even though I will no longer be your official teacher I still encourage all of you to not be afraid to come to me if you have any problems or questions. Secondly, I know all of you are eager to start your shinobi journey as soon as possible but you have the rest of this afternoon off and things won't be starting until tomorrow morning. All of you will be meeting back at the Academy at normal starting time in this room and you will be placed into your genin teams and be introduced to your sensei. You will then start your training that afternoon so I suggest that you take tonight to celebrate but also rest. Lastly, I just want to emphasise how serious a shinobi's life is as well as how dangerous it is. Joking around could get you or your teammates killed and you all have to be prepared to kill, witness death or be killed. I don't mean to darken the mood but it is a reality that you will now have to officially face as a genin. Other than that I will see you all back here tomorrow for the last time and I want to see all of you wearing your Leaf Village headband with pride. Dismissed!"
Merry Christmas to all of my wonderful readers. I love all of you and I am so sorry that it has taken so long for this chapter. I'm hoping the next few will be a lot quicker and I should get more time to write.
On another note, yay! They finally graduated. Now they can get into even more trouble in training and on missions. Not sure how long it will be until we get to the chunin exams but hopefully nobody gets bored before then.
Thank you for reading 3
