4: Kakashi's other team
Summary: Whatever happened to previous teams that Kakashi failed?
The day of team placements had arrived and I felt nothing but a pit of dread. My eyes scanned the room for the only Characters in this class, easily picking them out from years of practice. Tenten with her distinctive buns sat near the front looking eager. Prim, superior Neji sat by a window (of course) and a longhaired Lee sat in the back corner looking determined. I sighed and averted my gaze to my fingers drumming on my desk.
Would I end up replacing one of them on team Gai? From what I can tell from my visions, it seemed likely. My memory-not-memories all seemed to point to new variables like myself being magnetically drawn to Characters. Those of us who don't belong; who recall being 'other' than what we are, we're here for a reason. We inevitably get drawn into Plot. I looked around the room at my classmates, wondering not for the first time if any were like me. And not for the first time I dismissed the idea. They were all too… well, not normal- genin-in-training are never normal, not in the way I'd consider the word, but I guess that's my point. They were normal to this world's standards, fluent in its culture the way I never would be.
To distract myself from my fears I allowed myself the luxury of gazing about my classmates who aren't Characters and imagine what it would be like to be on a team with any of them. I didn't have any time to get to know them outside of school because of all my copious chores requiring me at home but I made up for it with people watching and observation skills.
Natsui Yuhi was easily the most popular boy in the class though mostly only in regards to the girls. To his own fair share of fangirls he coped with their attentions admirably well, claiming he only wanted to be friends yet still managing to make them each feel special. And when Neji coldly broke the hearts of all the rest of the girls, Natsui was the one to comfort them and give them advice. Other boys tended to hide their jealousy by calling him out on his own femininity. This didn't seem to bother him much; often bragging about his fabulous aunt could take them all out without ever touching them with the use of genjutsu. I could see the doubt in his eyes though when he looked at other boys, in the way he moved and especially during spars. With neither a fangirl's rose tinted glasses or a rival's proud overestimation, I could clearly see passed his seemingly easygoing and confident nature to how he held himself insecurely and shifted on his feet. I could picture him being a considerate and respectful teammate I'd have bet my favorite blanket that he was gay.
The least popular kid in the class on the other hand, was Tsumu Aburame. No one really liked him. Well, I liked him- he kind of reminded me of fluffy little caterpillar, or one of those fat, squishy grub things that most people find utterly gross but I think are kind of cute in the way they awkwardly squirm. He's always serious but says the funniest things… usually by unintentionally insulting someone while trying to give them heartfelt advice. Tsumu was a sweetie. I tried giving him pointers on how to get what he meant across better but I was kind of glad it didn't work. I liked him the way he was and if other people didn't get it then that's their loss. At least Tsumu knew that I understood him. He was probably somewhere on the autism spectrum. I thought of him as a kind, clueless, adorable, hilariously honest underdog that I wanted to protect. He had a clan to do that though, and I didn't have any time outside of taking care of my siblings and helping with the family business. It was a shame though, since out of all the kids in my class he was the one I could really see myself becoming friends with. Being on a team with him would probably be exasperating at times and totally worth it at others.
Moving on, my eyes started to wander on to another target classmate to contemplate when our harried homeroom teacher finally showed up, his chunin vest looking damp and… orange paint stuck in the crevices. Ah. Naruto's latest victim. Without preamble or waiting for us to settle down he began listing off names in teams and my previous anxiety returned fourfold. It didn't help that I didn't want to be there. I didn't even have that much of a desire to become a shinobi. But my family was adamant.
The Meizen family herb and flower shop didn't do nearly as well as the Yamanaka's even though we'd been doing it for much longer, simply because shinobi tended to trust the wares of shinobi. As if some head-shrink's de-stressing after-hours hobby was more reliable than generations of toil. Ugh, I'm sounding like my grandma. She was the only one against sending me off to the academy to bring our business more credibility. But as the eldest daughter my father argued it was my duty to do what was best for the family and since he didn't want to wait until I was old enough to marry a shinobi he made me become one instead.
And here I was: about ready to bite my nails off from nerves, and getting my first team assignment to become a real ninja.
"Team four: Minamitsu Meizen," My head snapped up to attention, "Natsui Yuhi, and Tsumu Aburame."
I glanced over at my new teammates and blinked. Did thinking about them as teammates make it happen? No, I picked them at random; it was completely natural. It didn't feel like one of my visions and those two definitely never appeared even vaguely in any of my memory-not-memories. This wasn't at all like the time I dreamed in cold black and white the night of the Kumo alliance.
I finally slumped in my chair in relief. I wasn't on Gai's team. I didn't replace a character. I leaned my arms behind my head, content to be a simple butterfly causing tornadoes across the world. I didn't need to be in the eye of the Ultimate Ninja Storm.
Jonin came one by one, called their team numbers and took their genin away. Maito Gai made his DYNAMIC ENTRY! And slowly but surely the classroom emptied out. Then all that was left was us: team four and our homeroom teacher, and he too eventually had to leave. Tsumu and Natsui and I chatted while we waited, discussing our skills and weaknesses and what we hoped to learn.
"If you put more effort into your appearance you could be a very good infiltrator Minamitsu. And as long as your indecisiveness doesn't appear in battle Natsui, I think you could be a fine shinobi." Tsumu commented, pleased with both of us when we didn't show disgust at his bugs.
Accustomed and amused by Tsumu's unintentionally backhanded compliments I merely quietly thanked him watched to see what Natsui's reaction would be. It was confusion.
"How am I indecisive?"
Tsumu nodded and held up a finger, eager to coach a fellow comrade into better self-knowledge. "For short term decisions like what you want for lunch you are quick, but long term you don't know what you want. How do I know this? You have many girls vying for your attention but you can't seem to choose one of them."
Ooh, Tsumu must've been really proud of his conclusion to be falling onto the old Aburame question-and-answer verbal tic. Adorable. But how was Natsui going to react? I hoped for the sake of the team that it wasn't bad. Natsui was more popular than the two of us put together, and if this was going to work he would have to get used to our weirdness's. To my happy surprise Natsui burst out laughing.
"I don't choose one because I'm not interested in romance." He explained once through with his bout of giggles. "But I'm glad you think I could be a good ninja." He sent his charming smile at both of us. "I'm glad you guys are both on my team. We haven't really hung out much and it's always nice to make new friends."
Tsumu blushed behind his Kelly scarf and mumbled, "Agreed." I smiled and nodded. The three of us talked on and on, and I learned a lot about my teammates. Tsumu's favorite colors were red and green but only wore green because it wasn't as flashy. Natsui admitted his parents weren't so pleased that he had decided to follow in his aunt's footsteps but he hoped that through following his dream he could reconcile Kurenai with the rest of the family. I told them how becoming a ninja wasn't really my idea: that I was mostly doing it for my family and that I was more interested in the investigative side of shinobi work than combatative. They were both surprisingly supportive of my preference.
"Your dedication to your family is admirable, both of you." Tsumu said solemnly.
I nodded along and didn't mention my dedication was really towards my own ass cheeks.
After an hour or so passed and no one had come to pick us up, I began to get worried. "You think they forgot?" I asked.
"I wouldn't underestimate our sensei so." Tsumu said. "This is probably a test of patience."
We took that explanation easily and I settled back to observe my new teammates chat. Another hour passed and it was just by chance I was looking at the door when he came in.
My eyes unfocused and another vision superimposed on my now blurry sight. An eraser dropping on his head. My first impression of you… I hate you. Iruka looking worried: Kakashi has never passed a single team! Someone, (the Hokage? A faceless chunin?) assuring him: in hindsight, all the teams he failed ended up… something I trust his judgement.
I blinked as my eyes cleared to the present and felt my stomach twist.
Kakashi Hatake surveyed us with his lone eye and I tensed. We must be one of the previous teams he failed. On the one hand maybe I could use this as an excuse to get out of being a shinobi? On the other hand who was I kidding, of course not and I'm not likely to get as good a team the second time around.
We did our standard introductions:
I, Minamitsu like puzzles, hate lost puzzle pieces, write mysteries for fun and dreams of living to see my baby brother and little sister grow up and fall in love.
Tsumu likes worms, hates people who stomp on worms, sneaks anonymously written self help books into the library and wants to share with the world the therapeutic qualities of buzzing sounds.
Natsui likes his aunt, dislikes Asuma Sarutobi, enjoys shopping and meeting people and dreams of uniting civilians with shinobi, a.k.a. get his dad to talk to his aunt again.
And then Kakashi told us about the second test and left.
When I told my father who my new sensei was he was thrilled. When I told him about the test that no one had ever passed he was ecstatic. "You'll be the first then!" He said.
"And… if I fail the test like everyone else?" I asked. He gave me a look that said I knew exactly what would happen if I failed. Punishment in front of my siblings.
I don't know what it said about me that I wanted to be a shinobi so that my father wouldn't spank me.
Training ground three. Countless images overlapped my sight as I looked at the familiar landscape that I had never been to. Mostly I saw shades of orange and blue, flickering pictures of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura, the team seven that was to be- other people sometimes overlapping or taking Sakura's place. Those people were like me, intruders in this world. I shook my head, pushing all divinatory thoughts aside, squared away in a back corner of my mind. That information was obscure, contradicting and unreliable, like vague recollections of a story with hundreds of variations. It is better to focus on the data at hand and compare it later to things I think I know.
"So sensei, yesterday you said this test has a 66% failure rate. How many teams have you tested?" I asked when he finally arrived.
He seemed casually pleased that we didn't all leap into action right away. "About six."
"So two of them passed?" Natsui asked.
"No they all failed."
"Sensei, I don't think you understand statistics. That would mean this test is 100% failure rate." Tsumu observed
"Well jonin get to pick their own tests. Overall 66% of students fail those tests. Mine just happened to be much harder." Kakashi replied.
"Why? Do you not want to have a team?" (My only answer was a smile and a shrug.) "Or did they send us to you because they wanted us to fail?" I questioned.
"Why so negative? Maybe they sent you to me because they thought you'd be the first to pass."
"I doubt it. None of us are particularly remarkable, no offense, especially in the combat department which you are famous for. …Sensei, do you want to lead a team of reckless heavy hitters? You have a larger than life reputation but in person you present yourself with a smaller than life attitude. You're a big asset to the village and they're probably eager for you to pass on your skills. But you've failed all your teams so you either don't want one or want a perfect one. Considering you act in a way that downplays your skills I'm guessing you don't want a team… but the village probably wants you to have a perfect frontline team. Our class didn't really have any of those, but I guess Neji, Lee and Tenten are all relatively close range fighters… And yet Maito Gai got that team, not you. So we, as arguably the least well suited to your skill set, got assigned to you. But why? Do they want us to fail, or want you to fail us? Sensei, did you have a choice in testing us?"
"Not really. All jonin who have never taken on a genin team are required to test genin hopefuls."
"Huh, and I doubt they'd make an exception even if it suited their own goals. Once one person gets out of something everyone else will want to. But why wouldn't they want you to have a team? Short term you are more valuable unencumbered by inexperienced students but long term… oh, long term! There's no one in this class they want you to teach so they sent you a team you would obviously fail so that you would be free for next year! Tsumu, your cousin is in the class below, who do you think they're gunning for Kakashi sensei to teach?"
"The Uchiha most likely. And perhaps Inuzuka."
"Oh! Maybe Hinata Hyuga!" Natsui supplied. "She's my aunt's apprentice now but Kurenai isn't a jonin yet."
"That makes sense that they'd want Nin of a thousand Jutsu to teach two dojutsu users. So sensei, what kind of team do you want? If you fail us then you're definitely going to get the village's dream team next year. And I don't think it is politically safe to fail three clan heirs."
"I like you three. Minamitsu was it? You know how to look underneath the underneath." Kakashi gave his famous eye-smile. "You pass!"