DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does. I don't own Hikari Aino.
A/C: Constructive criticism is warmly welcomed and appreciated, as well as readers' suggestions/ideas. (Particularly when it comes to Lemons – I really suck at those! :S) Flames and mean comments are not welcome – saying 'no offence' means squat. If you don't like what you're reading don't leave a comment!
THE BIRTH OF TEAM SEVEN
We are Fighting Dreamers Takami wo mezashite
(We are Fighting Dreamers, aiming high)
Fighting Dreamers Narifuri kamawazu
(Fighting Dreamers, not caring about appearances)
Fighting Dreamers Shinjiru ga mama ni
(Fighting Dreamers, because we believe)
Oli Oli Oli Oh-! Just go my way!
"Say 'Cheese'!" hollers the mothers, holding cameras over their eyes and beaming from ear to ear.
"Cheese..." We mutter in embarrassment as flashes go off and we are left trying to blink away giant white splodges that have suddenly clouded our vision. Naruto staggers slightly, rubbing his eyes.
"God, man I hate it when that happens." He bitches understandably. I nod in agreement.
Today is our Graduation Day from the Academy – and every single one of us (Naruto had to try again for the second time after Iruka-sensai took pity on him when he flunked, and eventually Naruto gained his Konoha Forehead Protector, which he now wears proudly around his forehead) have become qualified Ninja and Kunoichi.
Forehead Protectors glint brightly in the Afternoon sunlight as parents gush over their children – promising special things for their child(ren) when they got home. My two friends blink sadly when they hear these promises and I squeeze their hands sympathetically.
"Don't worry, Mom's invited you 'round for dinner and dessert." I announce and instantly Naruto brightens considerably.
Sasuke shrugs nonchalantly, but I could tell that he was pleased and he squeezes back, but doesn't let go of my hand. A shadow descends over us again and I feel an unpleasant feeling of de-ja-vu at the same time that Sasuke immediately drops my hand turns on his death glare on the unsuspecting person.
"Congratulations, sweetheart!" Mom beams.
Sasuke immediately shifts expressions just as Mom turns her proud look on him and Naruto.
"You too boys. I'm sure your parents are proud of you as well."
Sasuke smiles a pained grimace just as Naruto hooks an arm around my shoulders and presses his cheek against mine.
"Thanks Aino-sama!" Naruto grins.
Mom rubs Naruto's head affectionately then sighs nostalgically.
"Oh, the three of you are going to have fantastic futures ahead of you."
And with a simple jerk of her head, she starts to lead the way home using the same road she and I had taken the day I first spotted Sasuke on the gangplank.
The weekend passed by and Sasuke, Naruto and I headed back to the Academy to be assigned to our teams and meet our new teachers.
dfNervously, I reached out a shaking hand and slid open the classroom door. I instantly spotted Naruto and Sasuke sitting together at a desk, although to my amusement they were sitting faraway from each other as the desk would allow them. Obviously, one or both of them were giving the other the silent treatment. Shaking my head, I wondered over to act like a mediator to my stubborn friends but was unexpectedly blind sided by Ino.
"Hikari-chan!" she clutches onto my hand with an iron grip courtesy of her excitement.
"I can't believe we made it!" Ino shrieks into my ear as she tugs me next to her at a nearby desk, much to both Sasuke and Naruto's confusion.
"Neither can I..." I mutter back and shoot Sasuke and Naruto a 'help me' look.
Naruto shrugs, at a loss at what to do – or not willing to suffer the wrath of a pissed off Ino, and Sasuke smirks and shakes his head, his expression clearly saying 'you're on your own there'. I scowled at my crush and poked out my tongue at him. However, I smirk in triumph when Sasuke is immediately surrounded by fangirls (probably because of his smirk – which can be incredibly sexy sometimes) and he shoots me a panicked look.
Karma is a bitch.
"Oh!" Ino starts beside me, causing me to jump and look at her questioningly.
"Forehead girl is about to make her move on Sasuke-kun!" Ino suddenly snarls and I look over.
Sure enough, Sakura is sidling up to Sasuke and is practically trying to sit in his lap.
"C'mon, we gotta stop her!" Ino said and drags me over to where Sasuke and the fangirls are and I find myself standing pressed up against Sasuke.
We?
I start to panic and I look down at Sasuke who is staring at me incredulously and I can practically read his thoughts.
What the hell are you doing?
Good question. I don't know how I got roped into this.
I look up and see Naruto frowning at me and I instantly want to disappear. Suddenly, Sakura's head pops into my vision and I flinch back in surprise.
"What are you doing touching my Sasuke-kun?" she snarls. But before I could respond in the negative and deny the possibly of doing such thing, Sakura's words cause an uproar and knock me sprawling directly into Sasuke's lap.
"What do you mean your Sasuke-kun?" snaps Ino angrily, not noticing the fact that I'm sitting in an awkward position in my friend's lap – Sasuke's face had immediately flamed up both from embarrassment and anger.
I probably didn't look much better, except that I was mostly embarrassed than angry. I tried desperately to get off his lap, but was not having much luck, particularly when there were at least a dozen girls around us fighting over a disinterested Sasuke.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke." I apologised.
Sasuke made no reply. Instead, he simply stood up carrying me bridal style – to the shock and outrage of the fangirls and my mortification – and shifted across the desk towards a shocked Naruto and placed me gently down beside him, and then sitting down again beside me.
"Don't worry about it. It's not your fault." He whispered in my ear, his warm breath tickling my ear, and resumed his standard brooding position on the desk. Naruto places a hand on my shoulder and I look over him.
"You okay?" he asks concernedly.
I nodded and try to look anywhere but at the group of seething fangirls who were probably plotting my demise because I had the 'audacity' to fall into Sasuke's lap, when in reality it was actually their fault I had fallen. I only hoped Ino wasn't one of them. The classroom door opened and in stepped Iruka-sensai with a large scroll in his hands. He took an expert look at the situation at hand and instantly narrowed his eyes sternly at the girls who all backed off promptly and returned to their seats.
All still shooting me death glares that weren't nearly as deadly as Sasuke's.
"Alright everyone, settle down. Settle down." orders Iruka as he remains silent waiting for everyone to give him their full attention. Then he cracks a congratulatory smile.
"Okay. First of all, congratulations for passing your graduation test. As of today, you are all ninjas. To get here, you've faced difficult trials and hardships."
We all grinned proudly at our achievements.
"But that's nothing. The next part is far more difficult."
That sobered everyone up quickly.
"Now you're only Genin, first level ninjas, and you will be grouped into 3 man squads, led by a Jounin. An elite ninja." He explains.
Everyone started chatting excitedly – the loudest being Sasuke's fangirls who started bickering amongst themselves about who was going to be on his team. I rolled my eyes at the typical behaviour. I looked over at Sasuke and saw that he looked sceptical about the situation. Subtly, I reached either side of me and grabbed onto Naruto and Sasuke's hands, which caused them to look at me for answers. I looked at them hopefully – praying that I'll be on the same team as them.
Something in my look made them both smile slightly or nod before I let go of their hands to pay attention to Iruka. But I also couldn't help but notice Naruto casting longing glances at Sakura – despite the fact that she had been ignoring his advances ever since that day Sasuke told her to go away while we were snacking on Onigiri.
"Okay everyone. Listen up for your name, I'm going to be reading out your groups."
We nodded patiently.
"Now these groups have been put together according to Academic scores and talent."
I heard Naruto gulp beside me – his test scores weren't exactly fantastic and he only just made it to Genin by the skin of his teeth and some support from Iruka-sensai. We listened somewhat impatiently for our names to be called out for each team. Soon Iruka came to Team Seven.
"Now before I read out the members of Team Seven, everyone should acknowledge that because of the odd number of graduating students, Team Seven has four members instead of three. Understood?"
We nodded.
"Okay. Team Seven: Naruto Uzumaki."
Naruto silently whispered 'YES! BELIEVE IT!' beside me, punching the air in his excitement and I giggled with amusement. Sasuke just rolled his eyes.
"-Sakura Haruno."
The blood drained from Sakura's face – or so I could see from where I was sitting and Naruto gave Sakura the thumbs up, which caused the pinkette to groan unhappily and allow her head to hit the desk with a hollow sounding thunk.
"-Sasuke Uchiha."
"Oh great..." Sasuke mutters distastefully from beside me and Naruto scowls in irritation at Sasuke's choice of words. I take another look at Sakura's face and I see that she had instantly made a miraculous recovery from her despair when she learnt she was on the same team as Naruto and threw me a self-satisfied smirk that practically said 'you lose, I win' that I scowled angrily at.
Everyone (especially the rest of Sasuke's fangirls) waited with bated breath to hear who the final member of the coveted position in Team Seven was.
"and Hikari Aino." Iruka concluded, oblivious to the competitive aura radiating from his students.
The expression on Sakura's face was priceless. And all I could think was a triumphant:
Another one bites the dust!
Iruka moved on to the next group – but not before Naruto suddenly spoke up.
"Iruka-sensai? Why should a great ninja like me be in the same team as that Teme, Sasuke?"
"Naruto!" I exclaimed in shock. I couldn't believe she was saying something that mean about his friend. But Naruto ignored me. Iruka looked up from the scroll and sighed.
"Sasuke had the best grades of the class. You on the other hand had the lowest." He said angrily, sounding like he didn't want to enter into an argument with him.
"I'm crushed dobe, I thought we were friends." Sasuke taunted Naruto with a smirk as Naruto snarled with annoyance.
Naruto didn't make any reply, he just sank back into his chair and started to sulk.
After lunch, we filed back into the classroom waiting for the Jounin in charge of our teams to come and collect us. Pretty soon, Team Seven were the only ones left waiting for our VERY late teacher to collect us. Naruto was getting extremely restless and fidgety, whereas Sakura and I was dying of boredom and Sasuke was getting increasingly irritated by the minute.
"He's late!" Naruto grumbled, bouncing around the room like a rubber ball.
Sakura looked like she was about ready to strangle him.
"Naruto, just sit down!" she snapped.
"I don't want to! How come our teacher is the only one who's late? I'm ready for our first mission – and I'm gonna rule at it! Believe it!" Naruto boasted.
Sakura scoffed unimpressed and then moved off to sit down next to Sasuke who groaned in annoyance and shifted away from her. I was sitting down on the window ceil watching my new teammates and yawning every few minutes. Eventually, Naruto decided to mess with the door our teacher was going to enter from.
"What are you doing?" Sakura demanded.
I looked over at Naruto and saw him perching a loaded chalk eraser precariously above the door. Should anyone come into the room at that moment, the eraser would instantly fall on their head.
I chuckled.
"Naruto!" Sakura looked appalled. Naruto grinned mischievously.
"That's what he gets for being late. Surprise!"
He stepped down from the table and admired his handy work. Sakura stood up from her perch and put her hands on her hips in an imperious way. At this rate, she'll have a permanent scowl on her face.
"But that's just asking for trouble, you know you shouldn't do that!" Sakura protested vehemently. I scowled at her – getting fed up with her miss goody-two-shoes sense of right and wrong.
"Aw, let him go! It's just some harmless fun – besides it's not gonna hurt him when he does eventually show up." I explained, trying to defend Naruto and get over my boredom.
Sakura instantly turned on me and stormed over to where I was quietly sitting on my own on the window ceil and stepped into my personal space. I leant back from her feeling extremely uncomfortable. Sasuke snorted disapprovingly from where he was leaning against the wall watching Naruto's prank unfolding.
"Please, Hikari. He's an elite Jounin, there's no way he'd fall for that."
I looked away from him and proceeded to watch the door – determined to join in on Naruto's fun and actually be entertained by playing a harmless prank on our teacher. Seeing how put out I was, Sakura used the opportunity to side with Sasuke unnecessarily with his opinion.
"Sasuke's right! You're all so clueless."
I rolled my eyes, choosing to ignore her. Just then the door opened and all four of us turned in time to see a tall, masked Jounin with silver gravity defying hair and his forehead protector which was over one of his eyes, walk in. The chalk eraser instantly fell from the top of the door and landed on his head before cluttering on the floor at the Jounin's feet.
Everyone sweat-dropped at the same time.
"I stand corrected." Sasuke muttered unimpressed by our teacher already.
Naruto jumped up in triumph.
"He totally fell for it!"
I tried to suppress my giggles behind my hand when I saw the expressions on both Sasuke and Sakura's faces. It was like they had been told the Easter Bunny wasn't real. Sakura looked like she was about to have kittens.
"I-I'm so sorry, Sensai! I told him not to do it, but he wouldn't listen!" Sakura grovelled at our teacher's feet in true goody-two-shoes style as he bent down and picked up the Eraser.
"I'd never do something like that!"
Sasuke, Naruto and I exchanged looks and raised eyebrows as we watched Sakura kiss up to him. Sasuke looked like he was still trying to work out how an elite Jounin could fall for one of Naruto's lame pranks.
"Hmmm. How shall I put this? My first impression of you four is that you're idiots."
We all stared at him with shock.
"Excuse me?"
He turned to look at me.
"You got something to say?"
I shook my head, feeling offended – considering that I didn't do anything. It was Naruto's prank. Sakura looked incredibly smug that I had gotten told off. Naruto flushed feeling embarrassed and Sasuke looked put out.
"Good. Follow me please."
We followed him to the Academy roof where our teacher perched lazily on a nearby ledge and surveyed us over the top of a small, orange book that had mysteriously appeared out of nowhere in his hand.
I frowned.
I don't think he's taking this very seriously...
"Alright then. Why don't you introduce yourselves, one at a time?"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at our Sensai while Naruto and I exchanged curious glances at the odd instruction. It was Sakura who spoke out her question first.
"Introduce ourselves? What are we supposed to say?" Sakura asked frowning.
"Things you like, things you hate, dreams and hobbies. Things like that."
Naruto blinked innocently at our teacher.
"Why don't you tell us stuff first? I mean, before we talk, tell us about you so we can see how it's supposed to work." He suggested, trying to be helpful. The silver-haired Jounin scratched his cheek thoughtfully.
"Me? I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate? I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future - I've never really thought about it. As for my hobbies, I have lots of hobbies."
Such as?
But Kakashi-sensai didn't elaborate. He was more interested in reading the book in his hands. I was slightly disappointed about the lack of information I had just received from my obviously unenthusiastic Sensai. I sighed disinterestedly and headed over to the wall – where upon I lent up against it and clamped my arms across my chest.
"That was totally useless."
Sakura bitched which grated on my nerves even more. I looked up slightly seeing Kakashi's eyebrow twitching at the annoying comment.
"All he did was tell us his name." Naruto piped up trying to change the subject.
I nodded and looked at Kakashi waiting for him to get on with the lesson.
"Alright, your turn."
Kakashi pointed to Naruto who grinned excitedly.
"Believe it!" Naruto said, adjusting his headband.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant Ramen in a cup, and I really like the Ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiraku Noodle shop. But I hate the 3 minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the Ramen cup-"
Kakashi raised an eyebrow at Naruto's obvious loud overbearing self.
"-My hobbies are eating different kinds of Ramen and comparing them. And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody important!"
Kakashi smiled at Naruto who grinned back and scratched the back of his head.
"Thank you, Naruto. That was very illuminating."
"Alright. Next person please."
Sakura managed the impossible and unglued herself from Sasuke's side and jumped to her feet bouncing like an excited child on Christmas Day about to open a present. She smiled sweetly at Kakashi who frowned slightly.
"I'm Sakura Haruno! What I like, uh, I mean the person I like is-"
She turned to Sasuke and giggled. He frowned in disgust.
"-Uh, my hobby is, uh-" She giggled again.
"-My dream for the future is." Sakura squealed, trying to contain herself.
Kakashi looked at Sakura in confusion and decided to move things along.
"And what do you hate?" he asked warily.
"Naruto!" Sakura answered immediately, frowning at Naruto whose face jolted in shock.
"Hah?" Naruto responded sounding hurt.
I felt an overwhelming urge to comfort him and instinctively I wondered over to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He looked up at me in surprise.
"Just ignore her, Naruto."
Kakashi noticed this gesture and motioned for me to go next.
"You seem to be the maternal type. What's your story?"
I looked at him like a deer caught in headlights and blushed under the scrutiny of everyone's look. Naruto and Sasuke knew some stuff about me. But I decided to reveal a bit more about myself.
"Um... I'm Hikari Aino. I was originally born in the Village Hidden in the Snow, but I moved to Konoha with my Mom and grandmother after my Dad and grandfather were killed by a Rogue Ninja from the Sound Village."
I heard Sasuke's breath hitch when I said this. I felt extremely uncomfortable being in the limelight but decided to continue my story and get it over with as fast as I could before letting Sasuke have his turn.
"I like cute animals, such as bunnies and puppies; sweets – like my Mom's cakes; helping out others; training and learning new techniques. I dislike fan boys, perverts (Kakashi somehow smirked the moment I said this), people bullying my friends (I gave Sakura a warning glare), disrespectful behavior, scary things, people who hurt my friends, thunder, lightning and being alone."
Kakashi realised I had forgotten something.
"And what are your hobbies and your dreams?" He asked politely.
"Oh! In my spare time I like singing, looking at the night sky for the moon and the stars-"
Sakura pretended to be violently sick. I ignored her.
"-going for walks, hanging out with my friends and reading. And my dream is to train hard and become stronger, and find out exactly who killed my father and grandfather all those years ago." I said solemnly and resumed my place, leaning casually against the wall. I turned towards Sasuke and gave him a small but shy smile before Kakashi directed his attention towards him.
"And last but not least..."
Sasuke rolled his eyes and straightened up, shoving his hands in the pockets of his white shorts.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm gonna restore my clan and destroy a certain someone."
We all stared at him incredulously and he immediately shut down and returned to his place, sitting down and waiting for his next instructions. His words made me pale a little bit and I thought I heard Naruto gulp when Sasuke mentioned destroying a 'certain someone'. Kakashi smiled and stood up from the railing, nodding in approval.
"Good. You're each unique and have separate ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow."
Sasuke, Sakura and I looked at him dubiously. This couldn't possibly be all that we were doing today. However, Naruto's reaction was completely the opposite to ours.
"YES! What kind of mission are we going to have?"
Kakashi smiled at him.
"It's a task. That the five of us will do together."
That just seemed to egg Naruto on.
"What what what what what?" Naruto bounced excitedly on the balls of his feet causing Kakashi to sweatdrop – feeling disturbed.
"...a survival exercise." He replied.
"A survival exercise." Sasuke repeated warily.
Kakashi face-palmed.
"Is there an echo in here?" We ignored his comment.
"I thought it was going to be a real mission, not MORE practice! We did all this at the Academy before." Sakura complained indignantly.
"This isn't like your training at the Academy. My methods are slightly different."
Naruto scratched his head with confusion.
"So, uh, what kind of training is it then?"
Kakashi suddenly doubled over with laughter, causing all four of us to frown at him quizzically.
"What's so funny? It's a legitimate question." I asked feeling lost.
Kakashi shrugged causing Sakura to pout childishly.
"This sucks!"
Kakashi ignored Sakura and her petulance to explain a few things to us before we were allowed to go and prepare for his lesson tomorrow.
"Of the 27 graduates that came here, only 10 will actually be accepted as Genin. The other 18 will be weeded out and sent back to the academy. In other words, this is a make it or break it, pass/fail test. The chance that you'll fail is at least 66%."
My mouth dropped open as did Naruto and Sakura. Sasuke however made no reaction – he simply stared at Kakashi with a 'get-on-with-it' expression.
"You're joking."
Kakashi didn't look amused.
"You're not joking."
Sakura rolled her eyes and I accidentally-on-purpose stepped down on her foot. Sakura shrieked in pain.
"Then what was that graduation test for?" Naruto shouted loudly.
"That was just to select candidates who might become Genin. Or not." Kakashi replied looking like he cared less.
"Whaaaat?" shrieked Naruto exasperatedly.
Kakashi shrugged.
"That's how it is. I decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at 5 am. And bring your ninja gear."
Naruto growled in anger, Sakura rocked back and forth on her feet and Sasuke clenched his fists. Me? I said nothing. Mom had told me what was likely to happen, as she had been there and done that. But she did warn me to be cautious with my teacher, because as Kakashi had already explained to us, each Jounin teacher had their own method of teaching their students. I was fairly certain and confident enough that I would pass the test.
"See you tomorrow. You're dismissed." Kakashi waved us off and buried his nose in his orange book. Naruto, Sasuke and I looked at each other with some apprehension, but nevertheless stood up and turned to head down the staircase to the street outside. Sakura following Sasuke like a lost puppy.
"Oh, and tomorrow-"
We jerked to a stop and looked at our teacher. (Sasuke pulling his arm out of Sakura's grip).
"-You'd better skip breakfast, or else, you'll vomit." He warned us and then disappeared with a large puff of smoke.
Gross. I didn't need to hear that...