I own nothing but my OC.
Chapter 3: Sasuke and Sakura
"Huaah…!" April yawned and stretched happily when she woke up the morning of the 15th. She was feeling well-rested and refreshed after taking it easy and sleeping all yesterday once she was done taking her graduation picture. She had felt like she was running on empty, but now she was fully charged and ready to take on anything… which was good, because they were supposed to go to school today for an explanatory meeting about what they were supposed to be doing next. "Well, I guess I'd better get dressed and finish packing up our lunches." April said with a smile as she hopped out of bed.
Next door, Naruto was also waking up and rolling out of bed, but he was feeling a bit drowsy after running around all day yesterday with Konohamaru and his closet-pervert of a tutor, Ebisu. Out of habit, Naruto stumbled into his kitchen, made some toast, and poured himself a glass of milk.
–∞–
Meanwhile, the older ninjas were having a meeting of their own. All of the jōnin and chūnin serving as academy teachers and team leaders had been gathered before the Hokage.
"Team 7 will be Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and April Starr." The Hokage announced. There were some murmurs amongst the crowd upon hearing this.
Four genin to one team? That was unusual… Not to mention the members…
"I will be placing Kakashi Hatake in charge of this team." The Hokage continued.
'Kakashi-san?' Iruka thought, concerned. He had heard Kakashi was a very harsh grader when it came to the survival test. Would Naruto and April be all right?
"Got that, Kakashi?" The Hokage asked.
"Sure." Kakashi said casually. They probably wouldn't pass anyway. No one ever did.
"Team 8…" The Hokage said, moving on. "Hinata Hyūga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Abarame. Kurenai Yuhi will be in charge of these three."
"Yes, sir." Kurenai said dutifully, standing at attention.
"Kurenai, this is your first time in charge of genin, isn't it?" He asked. "The jōnin in charge will decide their future."
"Yes." She said, nodding in understanding. "I will be careful with them."
"The genin of squad 10… Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chōji Akimichi. I'm placing Asuma Sarutobi in charge of them."
"Understood!" Asuma said confidently.
"Well, that's it for team assignments." The Hokage said. "School will be starting soon. You are all dismissed." Kakashi turned to leave with the others, but he was stopped when the Hokage called out to him again. "Kakashi… I'd like to have a word with you about some of the genin on your team."
–∞–
April and Naruto finished getting ready and emerged from their apartments at about the same time. Their eyes met and they shared a grin.
"Race ya!" Naruto said, taking off at a full sprint.
"You're on!" April said, hot on his trail.
"Ha!" Naruto let out a triumphant laugh when he reached the stairs first, leaping down to the first landing. "What do you think of that?"
"I think I'm winning!" April shouted with a grin as she forewent the stairs and leaped onto the rooftop of the neighboring building and hit the ground running.
"Ah! No way!" Naruto yelled in dismay as he quickly scrambled to catch up.
"Haha!" April grinned as she jumped again, enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing through her hair for a brief moment before picking up speed.
"How can someone so weak be so fast!?" Naruto complained, huffing as he tried to keep up with her.
" 'Morning!" April greeted the Hokage and the silver-haired ninja wearing a chūnin/jōnin uniform who was with him as she touched down on the road next to them, taking off like a shot.
'Oh, I can see an after image…' Kakashi thought, a little impressed. She wasn't even using any chakra to enhance her movements.
"Hey, wait up!!" Naruto shouted after her, sprinting past them as if he hadn't even noticed their presence. He must have been too focused on catching her.
'That one doesn't seem to be very mindful of his surroundings.' Kakashi noted. The girl with purple hair had this in the bag.
"Hmm. I see those two are just as energetic as always." The Hokage remarked.
"They do this often?" Kakashi asked. Now that he thought of it, he did remember being passed once or twice by those two kids before…
"Almost everyday." The Hokage answered with a smirk as he took a puff on his pipe. They were a bit early today, though. They must be excited about graduating… "Come, our destination is just a little further ahead."
–∞–
"Hehe." Naruto grinned as he rested his head on the desk in the classroom. April smiled. He was so pumped about their first meeting as genin, that he didn't even care that he had lost the race. They had gotten there a little early, but the class was almost full now. Iruka-sensei should arrive soon to get them started.
"Huh?" Shikamaru said, pausing on his way to find an empty seat when he spotted Naruto sitting between April and Sasuke. "Why are you here?" He asked him. "Today's explanatory meeting is only for those who graduated."
"Hey, hey, can't you see this forehead protector?" Naruto retorted, pointing his thumb at the one he was wearing.
"Yeah, check it." April said, motioning to it like a professional hand model.
"Starting today, I'm also a ninja." Naruto said proudly.
"Hmm?" Shikamaru said, sounding skeptical.
"You wanna hear the story?" April asked. "Though, I doubt you'll believe it…"
"Huh?" Naruto said, furrowing his brow slightly in confusion as he glanced at her. "Why wouldn't he?"
'Naruto-kun was able to graduate…' Hinata thought happily, blushing shyly as she watched their exchange from across the classroom.
"Hey, will you let me through!?" Sakura asked as she walked up to them with her hands on her hips.
"!" Naruto instantly perked up. 'Sakura-chan~!!' He thought happily, blushing slightly.
"How about a 'please' first?" April deadpanned. She knew Naruto liked Sakura, but April didn't appreciate it when people asked her for favors with such bossy attitudes, especially since Sakura probably just wanted to sit next to Sasuke. Personally, she didn't understand why he was so popular. Sure, he had a nice face, but more than half the time she wanted to put a bag over that personality of his.
"Please?" Saukra said with a tense smile, trying to look cute in front of Sasuke.
"Well, since you asked so nicely…" April said, shrugging, as she stood up and moved out of the way, deciding to let the younger girl through after all.
'Could it be she wants to… sit next to me…?' Naruto thought excitedly, still caught up in his own little dream world.
"Naruto!! Move your ass!!" Sakura snapped impatiently, dropping her cutesy façade when he failed to move out of her way. "I want to sit on the other side of you!!"
"Huh!?" Naruto said, sweat-dropping. What was with the sudden change in attitude…? April let out a sigh.
'I knew it…' She thought with a wry smile. 'Poor Naruto…' She watched as he whipped his head around to glare at Sasuke.
'Ugh! This guy… he was the most popular in our class…' Naruto thought, clearly disgruntled that he was the center of Sakura's attention. Sasuke Uchiha… the guy he hated more than anyone!
"What?" Sasuke asked when he sensed Naruto staring.
"What do you mean, what!?" Naruto snapped, chagrined.
"Now, now…" April said calmly. 'Let's not start a fight before the teacher even gets here…'
"Sasuke-kun~! Can I sit next to you!?" Sakura asked brightly, quickly shoving a surprised Naruto out of the way.
"Are you all right?" April asked him. Sakura seriously needed to chill.
"Barely…" Naruto grumbled as Sakura scooted past him to settle down next to Sasuke, acting completely oblivious to his pain.
'Damn that Sakura…!' The other girls in the classroom thought jealously, glaring daggers at the pink-haired girl.
'Today I'm going to get Sasuke-kun~' Sakura thought happily, blushing as she gazed lovingly at the indifferent boy. 'Cha! And I'm going to steal his first kiss!!' Inner Sakura declared confidently with gleaming eyes, pumping her fist.
'Her eyes say it all…' Naruto and April thought, sweat-dropping. She couldn't be more obvious. And Sasuke couldn't be less interested…
'What's so good about that guy…?' Naruto wondered as he hopped up on the desk, crouching down to stare Sasuke directly in the face. '… I just don't get it…' Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the silent challenge.
'Well, this looks like it has 'disaster' written all over it…' April thought, wondering if she should intervene or just let it play out.
"Naruto!! Leave Sasuke-kun alone!!" Sakura yelled at him with a vein throbbing on his forehead.
'Way to toss some kerosene on that fire, Sakura-chan!' April thought with a wry smile as the stare escalated into a glare that was so potent, you could practically see sparks of animosity flying between the two boys.
"Grrr…!" Sasuke and Naruto growled at each other with their faces only inches apart. Neither one of them wanted to back down.
"Kick his ass, Sasuke-kun!!" Some of other girls cheered, egging them on.
"Shut it." April said firmly, shooting the idiots a sharp look to shut them up. Those guys didn't need any encouragement!
"No way, really!?" The boy sitting in the row in front of Sasuke's seat exclaimed, knocking Naruto off balance as he swung his arm back, too focused on his own conversation to realize what was going on behind him.
"Ah…" April said as the other girls froze, like they had been turned to stone by the shocking scene before them.
"Oops, sorry about that!" The clueless troublemaker said, turning around. He stopped cold when he saw what he had done. When Naruto fell, he had been too close to Sasuke, and they ended up locking lips…
Sasuke… and Naruto… were… kissing!!
"Wha…" Sakura said numbly as her brain finally began to get over the initial shock and register the information her eyes were taking in. "WHAAAA—!?" She screamed as her mind imploded, nearly fainting. The two boys immediately separated, gagging, as they made a show of trying to rid of the other's germs after their little accidental 'kiss'.
"…!" April nearly bit her tongue in half with the effort of holding her in laughter. She felt bad for Naruto, losing his first kiss to his worst enemy... but you had to admit, from an outsider's point of view, it looked pretty freakin' hilarious—especially Sakura's reaction!
"Yuck!!" Naruto cried, on the verge of throwing up. "My mouth is rotting!!"
"Naruto, you moron!!" Sasuke growled, feeling mentally and physically scarred. "I'm going to kill you!!" April was visibly shaking now.
'Huh?' Naruto thought, freezing, as he suddenly broke out into a nervous sweat. 'I sense something bad…' Naruto flinched when he saw the open hostility in the eyes of every other girl in the class. If looks alone could kill, he'd already be 600ft under by now…!
"Naruto…!" They growled like feral cats, starting to close in.
BAM!
"!!" They all flinched and took a cautious step back when April slammed her hand on the desk and shot them a fierce warning glare not to encroach on her territory any further. The class idiot was under her protection!
"It was just an accident. No one has a problem with that, right?" She said pointedly, sending shivers down their spines with her icy blue eyes. The girls all quickly shook their heads. "Good." April said with a brilliant shit-eating grin. "In that case, maybe you should go back to your seats… Do I have to count?" That sent them running. Those girls were back in their seats in the blink of an eye.
Unfortunately, there was still one girl who was way too angry to be affected, and while April was busy taking care of the others, she used it as her chance to strike.
"It wasn't my fault, I swear!!" Naruto said nervously.
"Naruto… you are… annoying!!" Sakura said darkly with a deadly look in her eye as a vein throbbed on her temple, cracking her knuckles.
"Eh…" Naruto said as tears began to form in the corners of his eyes and cold sweat poured down his face. Sakura was so transformed by her anger that she barely even looked human anymore!
WHAM! BAM! SMACK!
"!" April gasped when she turned back and saw the pink-haired girl wailing on Naruto. "Sa-ku-ra-chan." She said in a dangerous tone of voice, making the younger girl freeze in her tracks when she realized she had been caught.
"But he—!!" Sakura started to protest.
"Do you want me to get involved, Sakura-chan?" April asked with a scary smile that said 'touch-him-again-and-you'll-need-surgery-if-you-ever-want-to-see-your-forehead-protector-again.' Sakura immediately released Naruto and sat back down.
'Cha! But it's not 'cuz I'm scared or anything…!!' Inner Sakura shouted shakily.
"Th-Thanks…" Naruto said weakly, a little dazed from Sakura's mean right hook.
"Don't mention it." April said with a friendly smile, as if it were nothing, as Iruka-sensei entered the room, ready to begin.
"Starting today, all of you are officially shinobi." Iruka told his class proudly. "But you are all still new genin. The hard journey that lies ahead has just started. Now that you can start accepting missions, you will be divided up into groups of three… with the exception of one group, which will have four because we had an odd number of students graduate this year…" He said with a quick glance up at April and Naruto. "And each team will have a jōnin sensei. You will follow your sensei's instructions in order to successfully complete your missions."
'Oh, so that's how they're going to do it…' April thought. 'I'd prefer it if Naruto was on my team, but either way, this could be a good way for him to make new friends.'
'Tch… Three man teams? That only means more people in my way.' Sasuke thought cynically.
'I just have to be in the same team as… Sasuke-kun!!' Sakura thought determinedly, clenching her fist.
'Hmm… I want to be with Sakura-chan and April…' Naruto thought. 'Anyone besides Sasuke!'
"We tried to balance each team's strength." Iruka sensei added.
"What!!?" Virtually the entire class yelled incredulously. If they were all balanced, then how were they supposed to get an edge!?
'Is it really that surprising?' April wondered, raising an eyebrow. It only made sense. Having weaker students train with stronger students would help the weaker students get stronger, and if the teams were balanced, then no one had to worry about ending up on a 'weak' team. She thought was a good thing.
Iruka began announcing the teams and calling the names of all the people on them. Team 1, Team 3, Team 4… The names just seemed to fly by, until finally…
"Okay, next is the special team of four I mentioned earlier, Team 7." Iruka said, pausing for dramatic effect. Everyone still left seemed to perk up after hearing that. "April Starr."
"All right!" April said with a smile. She had a good feeling about this. "Seven is my lucky number."
"Naruto Uzumaki."
"Ah." Naruto said, sitting up.
"Sakura Haruno."
"Yeah!!" Naruto cheered excitedly, high-fiving April, while Sakura hung her head in disappointment.
'I'm stuck with those two!? I'm doomed…' Sakura thought gloomily.
"Cheer up, Sakura-chan!" April said. "You're on the 'special' team."
'Yeah, 'special ed'…!!' Inner Sakura growled.
"And Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka concluded.
"Hell yeah!!" Sakura cheered, completely revived. Salvation, thy name is Sasuke-kun!
'Looks like pretty much everyone got what they wanted, except Sasuke-kun.' April mused with a wry smile, taking note of the annoyed expression on his normally stoic face.
"Iruka-sensei!!" Naruto shouted abruptly, shooting out of his seat.
'Uh-oh. I guess I spoke too soon…' April thought, sweat-dropping.
"Why does an outstanding shinobi like me… have to be on the same team as that prick over there!!?" Naruto demanded hotly as he pointed straight at Sasuke, earning himself a glare from Sakura.
'My, what a convenient memory you possess, Naruto-kun…!' April thought as her head slipped off the hand she had been leaning against. Did he already completely forget the part where he almost didn't pass at all?
"Sasuke's grades were the best of all twenty-seven graduates." Iruka informed him. "And yours… were dead last… You do understand we have to do this to balance the teams, right?"
'Wait a minute… then what does that say about me and Sakura?' April wondered dubiously, sweat-dropping.
"Che. Just don't get in my way, Dead Last." Sasuke said, furrowing his brow in annoyance. Naruto grit his teeth and trembled with anger as the rest of the class laughed.
"What did you call me!!?" Naruto demanded incredulously, daring him to say it again.
"Give it a rest, Naruto!!" Sakura snapped with a vein throbbing on her temple as she took a swing at him.
"Ah! April!"
"Sorry, Naruto. But you walked right into this one." April said with a sigh. Iruka sweat-dropped as he watched them.
'Let's hope this'll work out…' He thought as he moved onto the next team. 'Even with Naruto…'
–∞–
"So, this is where the 'outsider' lives?" Kakashi asked, glancing around, as they let themselves in. Like April's hair, it was very colorful inside. There was a little strategic clutter here and there, but it was pretty clean and well organized otherwise. You could tell a girl lived there. "Is it true that she's really from another world?"
"Yes, at least, as far as we can tell." The Hokage replied. "I had Ibiki interview her when she first 'arrived', and as unbelievable and impossible as her story sounded, he said she was telling the truth about everything. And this was confirmed by Inoichi Yamanaka."
"Inoichi Yamanaka, huh?" Kakashi said thoughtfully. "I guess there's no doubt then…" This world was full of stranger things than he had imagined.
"She was also examined by a medical squad. At first glance, there's nothing different about her from the average girl her age, but her chakra levels are well below average. Frankly, I'm amazed she can use any ninjutsu or genjutsu at all. You'll see what I mean once you've had time to read her file." The Third continued. "Despite her disadvantage, she's a fast learner and a hard worker. She's a bit strange, but she seems like a good kid. As you can see from the contents of her fridge, she does a lot of cooking. I heard from Iruka that she's been making school lunches for Naruto. The two of them became friends shortly after she moved in here, and she's been looking out for him ever since. I suppose they found a common bond as two outsiders looking in…"
"I see…" Kakashi said as he took the invitation to examine the fridge. It's contents were well balanced. All of the important major food groups were well represented. Closing it, he spared a glance at the rest of the kitchenette and noticed there were some dinner plates still in the drying rack. One was still wet, probably the one she had used for breakfast, but the other two were dry. She must feeding Naruto dinner, too.
"Come, Naruto lives right next door." The Hokage said, leading the way to the door.
"That picture…" Kakashi said, pausing when they passed the Starr family photo on the way out. It was the only actual photograph in the apartment. It looked old and slightly faded, but the man, woman, and child in the picture all looked very happy. He knew they were a family with just one look. The little girl, who was probably only four or five, was the spitting image of her mother, aside from the pale-brown hair and sky-blue eyes, which she had obviously inherited from her father.
"Oh, that's April with her parents." The Hokage said. Of course, she was much older now, but even so, she almost looked like a completely different person after dying her hair light purple.
"They must be worried about her." Kakashi said.
"… They died when she was five." The Hokage said solemnly as he opened the door and stepped out of the apartment. Kakashi's eyes widened slightly.
'So she's an orphan, too…' He thought. That was probably another reason why she started looking after Naruto. She understood some of what he was going through.
"She was raised by an uncle after that, but from what I've heard, he wasn't much of a parent to her." The Hokage stated, frowning slightly in disapproval, as they finished exiting and moved onto Naruto's apartment next.
"… Why did you allow her to become a ninja in our village?"
The Hokage paused with his hand on the doorknob.
"Hm. If you ask her why she wanted to become one in the first place, then you'll understand." He answered with the hint of a smile as he turned the knob and opened the door.
"And, this is where Naruto lives?" Kakashi said as they entered the noticeably dirtier apartment. The fridge was virtually empty, and the kitchen drawers were stuffed with containers of instant ramen. 'What a huge difference…' He thought as he picked up the milk carton that had been left out on the table. 'This milk went bad a couple of days ago…' The two kids clearly didn't eat breakfast together, because he was sure someone as on top of it as April would have made Naruto toss the expired milk in the trash if she knew he still had it.
"Yes." The Hokage said, sitting down in the chair at the table. "Naruto isn't very smart, but I think giving him to you is best. He and April are both 'unique' children that we need to keep an eye on, and you have a nose for these types. Plus, your team will also have Sasuke of the Uchiha clan." He added. "Good luck!"
"Yes, sir." Kakashi said, sweat-dropping. The last surviving member of the Uchiha clan, an idiot, and a girl with low chakra and incredible speed… 'This could be troublesome…'