Out of the Ashes

Chapter 12

Morning of a New Day

I hate a lot of things, but something I really hate is morning people. Kinoe was not a morning person as he set our new training schedule to always be in the afternoon. So while he was really weird and definitely seen as eccentric by literally everyone, I could tolerate his schedule. Bu was also not a morning person as he was just as tired but definitely not as cranky or temperamental in the morning as myself.

Then, we have Kyuketsu.

This goddamn morning person woke me up at 6am nearly every day. Sasuke and I had a couple of fights during my early genin days because he was jealous I graduated early. Regardless of if we were fighting that day or not, Sasuke wanted to throw Kyuketsu out of the compound but instead we bickered the first morning until Sasuke kicked me out, half dressed to see what he wanted. The little shit even locked the door behind me so that I couldn't come back in without resolving the issue. Kyuketsu believed that training early in the morning was good for you and as young Genin, we needed some good training.

The first morning this happened; I stood in front of Kyuketsu with my hair a few inches shorter than usual due to how tangled and messy it was. My shirt was one of the ones Itachi left behind and it was pretty big on me and hid the fact I wasn't wearing pants. Sue me, Fire Country gets way too fucking humid and hot even at night during its hot seasons. Kyuketsu was decidedly unimpressed by how I looked upon greeting him.

"How ugly, Hime. I thought princesses were supposed to always look good."

Me and Sasuke were the only ones in the district, obviously, so it allowed us to be as loud as we wanted, "Fuck you, Kyu-Kyu."

That first morning ended up with Sasuke kicking us out of the district because while no one else lived there but us, Sasuke wasn't going to have me waking him up an hour and a half early. It was easy to get me loud because Kyuketsu knew exactly which buttons to push to get me to start yelling. Not that it was hard to spark my temper in general, but still, Kyuketsu was well attuned to my character. We almost got into a brawl before Sasuke started tossing my cookbooks at us from a window and yelled at us to leave.

"Give me pants then!" I snapped at Sasuke when he ran out of cookbooks to throw at us.

Kyuketsu gave me a questioning look while Sasuke facepalmed. He disappeared into the house.

"Why aren't you wearing proper clothing?" Kyuketsu inquired politely.

I scowled at him, "Why are you waking me up when the sun isn't even up yet!" It actually was up, barely. The sun was hardly peeking over the houses in the district and I usually didn't wake up until it cleared the roofs.

"Training in the morning is good for discipline and conditioning." Kyuketsu replied with an automated tone that told me he was reciting that from somewhere.

Sasuke returned to the window and threw a pair of shorts at me, some bandages and my holsters. We ended up walking to Bu's house after I pulled my shorts on. While I had said pants Sasuke was right in getting me shorts. The day would get incredibly hot because of how stupidly humid Konoha was. When we arrived at Bu's Onna wasn't home and knocking on the door didn't get us anywhere. So we did the ninja thing and walked up their small house to the second floor and opened Bu's window. Kyuketsu went in first and stifled a snicker. I followed and nearly fell into the room when my eyes landed on Bu.

They had a traditional home and slept on futons but Bu did have his own room that was cluttered with things and weapons. He had some pictures and posters on his walls and his closet was half open with clothes spilling out. Bu himself was sleeping on his futon with his arms and legs spread wide and only a thin tank top and boxers with little fiery hearts on them.

I had to sit down.

Kyuketsu left the room quietly to get some water while I tried to come to terms with Bu's stupid boxers. From the piles of clothes that also helped decorate his room I found that his mom definitely did his shopping because the rest of his underwear had ridiculous pictures on them. He had traditional heart ones, some smiley face ones, kunai and shuriken ones, dog ones. The list goes on and I really, really needed to breathe instead of smother my laughter so I closed my eyes,

When Kyuketsu returned he had a tall glass of water that he promptly dumped on Bu's head. Bu jumped up shrieking and, granted he did react by getting into a fighting stance and swinging at Kyuketsu with the kunai he evidently had under his pillow, he promptly slipped on the blanket that he had discarded during the night. He crashed to the floor and both Kyuketsu and I were clearly not impressed. Good thing he wasn't a real badass ninja yet because he'd be dead if Kyuketsu had wanted to kill him. Really he should train himself to sleep lighter to catch people sneaking into his room. It wasn't like Kyuketsu and I were trying to be super sneaky, I had to smother my laughter and Kyuketsu snickered until he left the room.

"What the hell!" Bu shrieked, his face paling when he saw Kyuketsu.

I stood up from where I was leaning beneath his window and Bu's face turned red when he saw me. For someone as tan as Bu was Bu's blushes showed like no ones business. He looked down at himself and then stared at me, his face steadily getting darker until I thought he was going to pass out or die.

"Get dressed." Kyuketsu ordered him, kicking him lightly in the head, "We're going to train."

He gave Bu a similar talk to what he gave me, preaching that we really needed to train to get strong and that training early in the morning was good for you. Bu looked just as impressed as Sasuke and I had been but since we were already in his house he couldn't really do much about us.

Bu tried to shoo us out of his room and I told him that even if I didn't have his permission I was going into his bathroom and using his hairbrush since I was forced out of my home this morning. Bu did in fact give me his permission so I did my bandages and started to brush my hair. Bu joined me in the bathroom while I was brushing my hair.

Have I given a bathroom rant yet? Well, you're going to get one. Houses here had amazing bathrooms. They had separate bathroom compartments with a room for the toilet, a room for the bath, and a room for the sink. The sink had a spray wand which was great for washing your face and waking you up in the morning while bathing was something you got used to. It was a family thing where generally Sasuke and I could share a bath without it being awkward although I usually tried to wash myself off and use the bath before Sasuke got home or got up. I still had that American view on privacy and what not and once Momma died and stopped enforcing our bathing rituals I was doing my own thing. Also, the washer was in the bathroom because you cleaned yourself off before getting in the bath since the bath was more for relaxing than cleaning and you could reuse that water for clothes. Neat, huh?

While I hadn't been to Naruto's apartment the bathroom there wasn't as large. There was less room for all of this stuff and he actually didn't have a bath tub but he did have the separate room for the toilet. Both Naruto's apartment bathroom and our home bathrooms were made so that the entire room could get wet which was really convenient.

Bathroom rant done.

"No wonder your hair is always so knotted and awful," Bu complained when he saw me brushing my hair, "I didn't think a girl could brush her hair wrong!"

I glared at him, "Excuse me?"

Bu rolled his eyes and grabbed his brush from my hands. It had been filled with pink hair from both he and his mother but now some dark hair was tangled around the pegs from me. Bu turned me around so I was facing the mirror and came up behind me.

"You don't brush your hair from your roots like that when your hair is long, idiot." Bu told me as he grabbed a handful of my hair. He started to brush it from the end and slowly made his way up before starting on the next handful.

In my previous life my hair had been thin and I never really let it grow past my shoulders because of how bad I looked with long hair. My hair had always been greasy and thin and awful. In this life my hair was very, very thick and if I left my hair short I looked too much like Sasuke. Not to mention I wanted to be beautiful this time around. So my hair was currently at about my waist if it was brushed nicely.

Bu turned me around and brushed my bangs to the side, staring into my eyes. He stepped back after a moment and appraised me, "Huh, you actually look human now."

He regarded his brush and made a noise, then he looked at the floor and made another noise, "But damn do you shed."

I smacked his shoulder, "What are you, a girl?"

Bu rolled his eyes at my common way of insulting him and he started to brush his own hair the way he showed me. He braided his usual braid from the top of his head and kept it tight to his scalp before he brushed the rest of his hair. The other bang had volume and he brushed it to the side before he finished by pulling the rest of his hair, that was about past his shoulders, into a ponytail in the middle of the back of his head.

"You really are a girl." I laughed and I left the bathroom before Bu could swing at me like he was usually tempted to do.

Kyuketsu was leaning against the wall outside and chewing on an apple he clearly stole from Bu's kitchen. He tossed another pilfered apple to me and I bit into it with no remorse. Kyuketsu had a third apple that I was sure was for Bu, and he apparently had used his goggles to carry the apples because they were in his hand. I had actually never seen him without them and they normally hid his eyes from view with their odd tint.

"Is Pinky your best friend?" Kyuketsu suddenly asked me.

I paused and stared at him. Kyuketsu had taken a liking to Kinoe's nickname for Bu apparently. I wasn't sure what brought up Kyuketsu's comment and he looked away stiffly, gesturing to my hair. It was honestly brushed nicer than it had been since Momma had been alive.

I shrugged and took another bite of my apple, "I don't really have many friends in general. I have you and Bu. That's it."

"You count me as your friend?"

I looked up and met Kyuketsu's eyes. They were a dark burgundy color, appearing as a dark almost black brown but flashing red when he looked up and his eyes caught the light. Then he looked away again and held his apple and Bu's apple in one arm while he put his goggles back on. For the first time in awhile, Kyuketsu had actually appeared as a sincere twelve year old. Had he been jealous? I couldn't actually tell, but whatever it was, I felt something warm in my heart and I smiled. When Bu stumbled out of the bathroom and nearly stubbed his toe, I forced my smile away for my usual half neutral half frown.

Kyuketsu tossed the third apple at Bu as I predicted and we left for our training grounds soon after.

The grounds were empty when we arrived and we started off with stretching. I was the second most flexible person on the team with Bu having the elasticity of a dancer. He went into a full split which prompted both Kyuketsu and I to stare at him.

"Um..." I tried to find something to say that could convey what I was thinking but I honestly couldn't.

Bu blinked when he realized Kyuketsu and I were staring, "What?"

"You're in a split." I said, "Like, a fucking full on split."

"Such language." Kyuketsu sighed while Bu blushed, defending himself with, "Hey, my mom says being flexible could save my life as a shinobi!"

"Guys aren't supposed to be that flexible." I demurred and Bu rubbed his head and folded his legs back. He fell backwards into a broken sword stretch. That was a stretch I could do and I fell back into my own.

"One would think he is a girl." Kyuketsu added as he joined us in our stretch.

Bu waved his arms in the air, "Seriously guys, being flexible is a big deal!"

It was funny he preached that because while I could reach my toes in this life I couldn't fold myself like Bu apparently could. With several more stretches Bu was able to push himself to what could only be his body's maximum. No doubt Onna had drilled her son mercilessly to get him to be able to stretch further than most of the girls in the academy.

When the sun was high in the sky our sensei appeared. We had done some light training all day with Kyuketsu and I working off each other while Bu did chakra exercises. He wanted to have large reserves and his mother gave him a training regime to do just that. He was meditating when Kinoe arrived in a poof of smoke. Kyuketsu and I stopped trying to screw each other up with our various long range weapons (We started off with normal target practice which then evolved into hitting a moving target: the other's projectile) and we turned to face Kinoe.

Kinoe was still wearing his doctor's coat and he had several pens stuffed into his breast pocket while what looked like lollipops were spilling out of his lower pockets. Behind each ear was a pencil and a third pencil hung from his lips exactly like how it had been when I met him in the hospital. Kinoe tossed a lollipop at each of us while exclaiming, "Such good kids! Training before sensei even gets here!"

I unwrapped my lollipop and chomped right through the treat while Kyuketsu ignored his and Bu actually stuck the lollipop in his mouth like it was intended. Kinoe and Bu stared as I crunched through the hard candy but Kinoe cleared his throat after a moment and clapped his hands together. He bounced on his heels in excitement.

"I'm excited to start with you three! In celebration I brought this!" Kinoe opened his labcoat to reveal it had pockets on the inside. From one pocket he produced four pieces of paper and he waggled them at us. Taking one in his left hand I felt him channel chakra into it. The paper dampened before splitting in half.

"You're testing us for our chakra affinity already?" Kyuketsu questioned, surprised.

Kinoe nodded, "To celebrate!"

He passed one out to each of us and explained that we had to channel chakra into it. Bu and I already knew our natures as we were both clearly fire. But we used the papers anyway and as expected our papers ignited and then turned to ashes that floated away in the wind. Kyuketsu's paper crumpled into earthy dust that fell to the floor.

"We have a pretty balanced team then! I was born with a water affinity and trained myself in wind, while Kyu-Kyu is earth and Pinky and Hime are fire. We just need lightning!" Kinoe sat down in the dirt and the three of us followed him closely. He put both his hands on his knees and he seemed to bounce in place despite sitting with his legs crossed.

Kinoe smiled a large, happy smile, "Before we start training I just want to say how glad I am that you guys are my team. I haven't had a genin team before so we're going to be learning together. Best of luck to us!"

"Are you going to teach us any jutsu?" I inquired with Bu nodding vigorously beside me.

Kinoe shrugged, "I don't have any of your natures but I can ask around. In fact, Hime, isn't your shishou Hatake Kakashi?"

Oh yeah. I nearly forgot about him. Whoops.

I scowled and Kinoe suggested, "Go to him and ask for him to do training with you guys. He won't be able to say no to his cute little princess!"

"No."

I glowered at Kakashi and he returned the look with a narrowed eye.

"You graduated from me. Goodbye." Kakashi waved his hand at me for good measure and made a shooing motion. We were in the middle of the civilian market where I had tracked him down. Can't say it was fun trying to taste every signature in my range trying to find the man.

Kinoe, who had come with me as moral support, peered around the corner he was hiding behind with a coy look, "But, Kakashi-san, didn't you say as her shishou you're her guardian until she's a chunin?"

Kakashi managed to convey a very displeased look towards Kinoe. Kinoe pouted at him and Bu and Kyuketsu stuck their heads around the corner. Bu gave his best impression of puppy eyes while Kyuketsu just stared at Kakashi as if his eyes would hypnotize him.

"Or you weren't lying to me because you were worried when she was in the hospital, were you?" Kinoe gasped, "Or, could it be...? Are you secretly..."

Kinoe came out from around the corner and stood behind me, putting both hands on my shoulders. Kinoe pinched my cheeks and tried to mold my face into a pout.

Kinoe, in a scandalized whisper, said, "A lolicon?"

Bu made his own scandalized gasp while Kyuketsu disappeared around the corner and an audible slap was heard. I bet he facepalmed. I'll bet one of my eyes on that one.

"Not only are you a pervert who reads porn in public but you-"

And Kinoe got nailed in the face by said porn. Kakashi retrieved his book from Kinoe's face and he tugged me away from Kinoe.

"The only lolicon here would be you, Kinoe."

Kinoe wailed, "First name basis already? I'm scared! The scary pervert is gonna get me!" A few civilians stopped to stare at some point. Honestly I couldn't blame them. We were currently acting like we just broke out of the psych ward.

"Will you stop the dramatics if I agree?" Kakashi asked, his voice sounding like he was dead inside already.

Kinoe smiled brightly, "Possibly probably!"

"He won't." came the muffled voice of Kyuketsu, also sounding dead inside.

"It's a chance you'll have to take." I chirped to Kakashi, nodding my head sagely. Kakashi uttered a few choice words under his breath (Excuse me, I do NOT sound creepy when I try and sound happy! Stupid bitch.) and agreed.

Kinoe pumped a fist in the air and I was reminded of how weird my sensei actually was. But I suppose despite how high maintenance the man was Kinoe was one of a kind and our team was pretty odd anyway.

"Ne, Hime, speaking of your romance life, got a boyfriend? I want to scare off the boys who come after my cute little genin!"

Bu laughed as I took a swing at Kinoe, proclaiming that I was going to punch him in the face. Kakashi leaned against the wall and closed his eye and put a hand to his head while Kyuketsu tried to slink away without being noticed. All in all, my first day as a genin was pretty eventful. Not so bad if I do say so myself.

AN:

Fun Fact- It's annoying writing Fushicho because I have to find words to alternate with glower, scowl and glare.

I am actually really upset, this chapter was done up to the Kakashi scene a few days after I last posted but I lost the chapter because my mouse reset the page before I saved. Needless to say, I've been saving like crazy as I write now. ;-; Losing that much really caused me to slump in my writing speed.

Also the review thing is functioning really weird and saying chapter ten was reviewed several times by several multiple times by multiple people. If I missed you then please let me know so I can fix my list! Thank you! ^u^

Thanks to the following for reviewing (:

FleurSuoh
Thomas Drovin
lizyeh 2000