Three Dreamers

Scroll 4: Graduation

Haruka

I had been given my own place to stay. It wasn't a lot since I was not an actual genin, it had one bedroom at the back and a living room at the entrance that connected off to a small kitchen. There were 6 windows total, one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom by my room, two at the entrance so I could see the hallway outside my door, and two in the bedroom which looked out onto the street. However, I was under the watch and protection of an adult shinobi that lived next to me. His name was Mokono Daichi, he was a jounin and was often put on duty out at the guard towers until late hours of the night. He had a "spare room" to his rather nice apartment, so his connected with mine. He came over to my house periodically to check up on me and make sure everything was clean. It was almost like having a dad again, but no one could replace my real father.

Everyday was the same schedule. I would wake up in the morning nearly late to school, rushing out the door to the academy. Sensei eventually got used to my tardiness, I had to wash the classroom after school nearly everyday. At the end of the day, if I wasn't too tired from cleaning, Lee and I would head to the training grounds to spar. We both got pretty good at taijutsu. Those afternoons were the best, it was hot in the evening and we had all the time in the world to play around at the training grounds. We became each other's best friend, mostly because the rest of the kids considered us weirdoes. I liked it though, I'd rather have one close friend then a thousand acquaintances.

Around the end of the year I began learning genjutsu and ninjutsu. I was surprisingly good at both of them, I was one of the first kids in class who could create a full shadow clone. I blamed that on my training at home. Since I was fully able to feed myself and keep clean on my own already I had a lot of free time at the apartment to practice nin and genjutsu. I never used it when training with Lee though, I didn't want him to think I was becoming one of the pompous "geniuses" in our class. The end of the year came all too quickly. By the time it started up again I was 12 and still a year older than the kids in my class. That was when things got hectic. Mokono became unhappy with the best friend I'd chosen. He strongly voiced his opinion after school one day when he came to pick me up.

I was talking to Lee about taking the genin exams next year when a hand grabbed mine and began pulling me away. I turned around to see Mokono tightly gripping my arm.

"Mokono! I was in the middle of talking to Lee! It would be rude to not say good bye properly!" I screamed at him while wriggling out of his grip

"I don't want you talking to him anymore Haruka. You have the potential to be great, and you won't reach it hanging around with failures like him" he snapped at me. I looked back at Lee, judging by his face I could tell he heard that last comment.

"He's not a failure Mokono!" I yelled as I broke free of his tight grasp, "he's my best friend and I'm going to go say good bye to him properly". I left Mokono standing there stunned as I ran off after Lee who had started heading home. "Lee!" I said yelling at the top of my lungs, he turned around, "S-Sayonara Lee, thank you for the conversation, I'll see you tomorrow." I said panting and out of breath.

"oh…u-um…thank you too Haruka chan!" he looked happier, "I'll see you tomorrow too, Sayonara!". With that he began walking home again. I made my way back to the academy to find that Mokono had already left for home. It was near evening, he probably had guard duties to tend to. My stomach began growling, I decided to get my favorite food in the world…

"Miso Ramen!" I yelled as I entered into Ichiraku ramen shop. The place smelled of warm noodles and broth. It was well lit and inviting. After living off of oniigiri and rice bowls all my life I had a particular addiction to gorge myself on good food. To me there was nothing more happy then a full bowl of ramen, each ingredient by itself could've been a feast back when I was living with Anei in our hometown.

I knew the shop owner very well, I was his best customer.

"haha, why if it isn't my second best customer in Konoha!" said the head chef man

"Hello sir…wait, second? I thought I was your best customer?" I asked

"sorry, that title got taken a few days ago" he said as he placed the miso ramen in front of me. I quickly pulled out chopsticks

"ITADAKIMASU!" I yelled as I began inhaling the warm noodles, "so who's your best customer now?". chef pointed to a seat at the end of the bar. In it sat a boy around my age wearing an orange jumpsuit with spiked up blonde hair and, were those whiskers on his face? I swear, some people here had the oddest face paint. The blonde kid had a stack of at least five bowls and was working on his sixth. He was a sight to see, it was as if he was worried the ramen would be stolen right out of his mouth at any time. He was inhaling the soup like his life depended on it. I stared at him as I went through two more bowls of ramen. It wasn't until my fourth that he turned around and noticed my glare.

"you got a problem?" he asked, here we go again, what was with these people and attitudes.

" NO I DON'T. SO PLEASE STOP ASKING ME! SHEESH!" I yelled, he sunk down in his chair, "sorry hehe…habit"

"That's a weird habit, you should get tha…WHOA!" he'd noticed the bowls of ramen sitting next to me, "I've never seen anyone eat ramen like I can. What's your name?"

"Haruka, Mousoka Haruka." I said smiling as I gulped down the last of my fifth bowl, "you?"

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, don't underestimate me because I'm gonna be the Hokage one day dattebayo!" he yelled with a pose and a grin. Again, the people here had weird tendencies of shouting their life goals and ambitions. What's a dattebayo?"that's great…really great, good luck!" I said rolling my eyes and mentally smacking my forehead.

"you really think so?" he said. Just like Lee, he was surprised to have someone supporting him.

"Yes! I do! Gosh do the people in this town have a thing with giving small children low self esteem, and not wanting them to achieve anything?" I asked in confusion as I sank down in my chair.

"No, everyone hates me because I'm a jinchuriki. And because they think I'm a failure!" he said getting angry.

"what's a jinchuriki? And why do you fail? You seem perfectly healthy to me" I said referring to his stack of ramen bowls.

"It means I have a demon inside of me. And I'm a failure because I can't accomplish anything, not even shadow clones." his face became grim. He looked like something had sucked the life right out of him.

"Oh! Well I've never heard of a jinchuriki so I don't think I should avoid you, except for maybe when you're inhaling ramen" he laughed, "haha…and if you need some help with shadow clones I can help. I'm pretty good at those!" I said smiling.

"Cool! I'd love some help. You go to the academy right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm a year older than the kids in my class but I graduate next year" I replied.

"cool! I'll see you after school tomorrow and you can teach me some stuff then" he said with a toothy grin.

"sure! Sounds like fun!" I said. Chef asked him for his bill, Naruto looked in his wallet and pulled out what few money he had, "I've got this much" he said pleading with chef to take it.

"Nu uh that won't cover it…I want full! Or else you're going to be washing dishes the rest of the night!" chef said sternly. I pulled out my wallet, I had a little extra cash after paying for mine.

"here chef, I've got the rest of his tab!" I pulled out the money and wove it around.

"Gee! Thanks! I owe you a big one!" said Naruto as he hopped off the stool.

"don't mention it" I replied smiling and throwing up a peace sign, "I'll see you tomorrow". With that I made my way out of Ichiraku.

"Haha, yeah, see ya!" Naruto yelled from behind me.

My schedule became hectic. After school I would wash desks and either spend the afternoon training taijutsu with Lee, or nin and genjutsu with Naruto. Either way I got quite a work out. I hated when I had to tell Lee I couldn't go spar with him because I was tutoring a kid from another class. He was my best friend and I was seeing him less and less with each week. I couldn't help it though, Naruto was terrible at using his chakra! He didn't need a tutor he needed a chackra controling master! Eventually Naruto's bad behavior caught up with him and he couldn't come to tutoring sessions anymore due to filling community service hours. I was so happy, I could finally go back to just hanging out with Lee and preparing for the Genin exam.

A year had already passed since I'd met Naruto. I was now 13 years old and in my last year at the academy. The exams were coming up and I was studying my ninjutsu like crazy, it was my worst area! I hadn't seen Lee in a while. Lately he had been going to the training grounds alone to practice. I began to miss the kid, my afternoons were boring without our sparring sessions. I still talked to him in class, but as the exam grew closer he grew farther away.

Exam day finally came and I was all prepared to take it. We were asked to show our chakra control, taijutsu, and make a full shadow clone. I was lucky enough to get through all three, I wasn't sure how Lee did. I waited outside of the exam door for him. He was one of the last people to take it. I was so nervous, crossing my fingers hoping he'd passed, then he walked out of the door. I ran over to him.

"So…did you pass?" I asked, he looked disgruntled and down. Like me he was held back, he was the only kid in the class who was a year older than everyone.

"I passed, just barely" he said half smiling.

"that's great! Now we can be on teams and go on missions…oh I wonder if we'll be on the same tea.." He grabbed me in a very tight hug, I hugged back. "Thank you Haruka chan!" he said holding back tears, "I'm so sorry for avoiding you recently. I got jealous of you and that kid practicing ninjutsu with each other. I feel like a bad friend."

"Lee, you aren't a bad friend, you could never be a bad friend" I said hugging him back, "I'm just happy you passed!" I smiled and threw up a peace sign.

"Me too!" he said excitedly

"now we get to wear those cool headbands and be on teams" I said. We walked home together that day, wondering what our new lives as shinobi would be like. We were full of dreams and looking wide eyed into the future. It seemed like nothing could stop us now. Everything was looking good so far.

The next day sensei handed out our head bands. I proudly put mine around my forehead, so did Lee. We grinned at each other and laughed because we were so happy to finally be ninjas. Sensei then stood up to announce our teams. He went down the list and I crossed my fingers hoping to be on the same team as Lee.

"Koyo Riinchi, Ryoku Ayame, and….Mousoka Haruka. You are team 13, your sensei is Shizuoka Midori, wait for your sensei after class."

Dangit! I was with two other people I didn't know! Hopefully this team would still be fun, even if Lee wasn't on it. The team listing went on for a while, we both became worried that Lee's name wouldn't get called since he'd barely passed the exam.

"Hyuuga Neji, Ten Ten, and Rock Lee" oh they said his name, "you are on Team Guy"

Wait what? Was I hearing this correctly? It couldn't have been? The super exploding ninja in green?

"your sensei is Might Guy" he said. Oh dear lord, Lee doesn't know what he's in for! He looked quite happy about it all, despite who his teacher was. In fact, he was extremely enthusiastic. I tried to hold back my laughter at his utter happiness to be on this man's team. He sat down and high fived me, I don't think I've ever seen him so happy. None the less, we both had a shinobi squad now. I couldn't wait to meet everyone.

WOW...i just preview read this...it is looooong! good job on surviving all the way to the end, was it good? was it just gut puking aweful...well, THEN TELL ME DAMMIT!

okay now that you have reviewed...please proceed to chapter 5, keep all hands, arms, and tentacles inside the fanfic at all times XD heh tentacles...CTHULU!