*Standard disclaimer goes here*
And awesome, I have reviews to respond to! Skip ahead if you don't want to read my responses and just want to get on with the story. Really though, I'm quite surprised with how sharply opinion seems to be divided on having Archerko/Naruko. It seems all of you either live her or hate her, and honestly, I'm not sure why it's only one way or the other.
*Review Responses*
DPSS: It's not that I enjoy emasculating Archer, far from it, after all he is the one from whom the term 'GAR' was derived. No, if anything the reason is because I want all of his abilities, personality, and the like, but I just think Archer-ko is soooo much cooler appearance wise. Also you should know that as originally devised, Shirou and by extension Archer WERE female. They were only written as men to make the Sword/Sheath inuendo less obvious.
Alternate Rogue: The title may have been misleading, but it was not intentional and as such it has been fixed. I simply didn't know there were different terms for male and female ninjas.
Paragon of Awesomeness: I did it because I like Archer-ko more than Archer in terms of appearance, but I wanted Archer's snarky personality and jaded life view.
Element Overlord: I actually haven't planned a pairing yet, if you or anyone else want to suggest one, then you're more than welcome to either by PM or review.
*Spoiler*
So here things are going to be pretty much identical to to the canon storyline, though Archer will be playing the deadpan snarker through the chapter as we'll see, and things will go from there.
*End Spoiler*
OoOoOoOoO
Guided by the faint but growing light of the new day, I rose from my futon and headed to the bathroom to get prepared for the day. A reasonable breakfast followed once I was dressed and by then the sun was properly above the horizon, even if not very far above.
As various vendors came out to setup their stalls for the day, I walked by with only mild curiosity for what would be for sale later, as personally I had bigger things to be concerned with. Mainly I was concerned with just how I would be able to perform in the Academy as that was my main path into the future and my best chance at becoming a hero. My element and origin were still both sword and as such most all magecraft was still closed off to me, my worry was those facets of myself would interfere with my ability to learn and use the jutsus that ninjas were taught. I had managed to learn a few of them from Iruka-san when he had deigned to teach me some of his techniques, but even with his help the many of the chakra based techniques were still frustratingly difficult.
As I approached the academy entrance a new thought occurred to me. Given that I would be in class with fellow genin, I figured it would be best that I got out my hitai-ate to display my position. Carefully I wrapped the cloth around my neck, letting the metal band rest face out, just above my collar bones. Though I hadn't done the normal classes to earn my position like every other genin, I had managed to earn it by what Iruka had been able to teach me in his spare time and by pushing Hiruzen into letting me go forward with my chosen path. So now I had a chance to join the academy proper and be apart of a team. Normally I didn't do teamwork, but I was all too aware of its necessity in the ninja way of life and as such I had to be curious as to what sort of people I would be paired with.
That thought process was a rather short one as it turned out as I didn't really know any of the other genin, and those that I knew the names of I didn't know much about. So in the end I simply took an early seat at the front of the classroom, leaning back in my seat as I propped my feet up on the deal and clasped my hands behind my head to wait and watch everyone enter.
OoOoOoOoO
One of the first people to enter the room after a bit of time was a pink haired girl who was wearing her hitai-ate across her forehead. Instantly I turned my gray-gold eyes on her and began to make my evaluation of her. At the same time, I was aware that she was sizing me up as well. I gave a slight smirk at the wariness I saw creep into her expression which meant she either knew I had Kurama in me or that my appearance was disquieting.
Honestly that last option seemed the most likely. I certainly did stand out with my ember red waist coat and jacket, the heavy black boots, loose black slacks, and the solid black chest plate with silver edging. The colors and the design of clothing weren't something very common in this world from my experience so far, so that probably contributed to the unease. Though a third possibility occurred to me. Perhaps it was because she hadn't seen my in any of their previous classes, much less the genin exam. I decided it didn't matter though as she moved and took a seat in the row behind me.
Several more students entered over the next few minutes, including a tall boy in a heavy jacket with black trim and a puppy sticking out of the neck, there was a blonde girl with most of her hair pulled up into a ponytail. Another was a large boy I recognized as Chouji, having encountered him a few times at a ramen stall I enjoyed. All of the students paused to look me over, seeming to inherently pick up on my scrutiny before they moved onto their seats, with Chouji pausing long enough to give me a brief nod. The last student to enter was a black haired boy who I recognized as Uchia Sasuke, the sole survivor of the massacre of the Uchia clan. That was of a bit of interest to me, including the way he simply met my gaze and walked to another seat in the front row without stopping whereupon he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table before beginning to brood.
A moment later Iruka-san, no Iruka-sensei entered the room, clipboard in hand as he stood at the front of the room, briefly studying the class.
"Good morning everyone," he began, "As you have all now completed your training and graduated to the rank of genin, we will now begin the next stage of your training. As ninjas, you will most often work in four man teams, to prepare for this you will be assigned into groups of three with a jounin as your sensei. If there are no questions I'll begin assigning you to your teams."
There were a few mutters but no forthcoming questions, so with a pleased nod he began to name the teams. For the most part I tuned out the process, though I paid enough attention to match names to faces as the students reacted. When my name finally came up though, I paid more attention.
"Team 7 will consist of the following," Iruka-sensei said, "Uchia Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruko." There were some murmurs in the crowd of students though I hadn't reinforced my ears to pick them out as Iruka gave additional instructions. "Your jounin-sensei will be Kakashi and he has asked for all of you to meet him on the roof."
I gave a nod of acknowledgement to Iruka before I pulled my feet from the desk and stood to head to the roof, Sasuke and Sakura looking a bit startled at me before they got up and followed along behind me.
OoOoOoOoO
Coming out onto the roof, I moved towards the railing at the edge, letting Sakura and Sasuke file out behind me. Instantly I noticed the presence of someone who had been waiting atop the exit, turning my head slightly to glance at the watcher out of the corner of my eye. Their ability to hide themselves was good, but it wasn't anything close to the presence concealment an Assassin class servant would have.
"Ummm...where is Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, mild worry coloring her voice beside a dose of confusion.
"Right behind us on the roof of the stairwell," I replied calmly, not feeling like drawing out the situation any longer than necessary.
Both Sasuke and Sakura turned to the indicated location where they were met with the sight of a gray haired ninja kneeling atop the stairwell as he watched us, a frown visible in the distortion of his face mask.
"You know you ruined whatever observations I had hoped to get out of this," he hesitated a moment before his visible eye narrowed at me, "Naruko."
I waved a hand in dismissal as I turned to face our teacher with a casual grin as I said, "Well then please pardon me, I just didn't feel like wasting time waiting for them to pick up on you or for you to get bored Kakashi-sensei."
Kakashi was quiet for a moment before he shrugged. "I suppose that'll do, for the time being though since I'm out in the open now, we can introduce ourselves. We'll do our names, ages, likes, dislikes, and dreams."
"Then why don't you go first," I said, again putting our to-be teacher on the spot as I nominated him to start the process.
"Hmmm...well okay. My name is Hatake Kakashi...I have no desire to tell you my likes or disllikes. Dreams for he future hm... And I have lots of hobbies." he replied in a bored tone.
"My name is Uchia Sasuke. There are lots of things I dislike and I don't really like anything and... I can't really call it a dream...but I have an ambition to ressurect my clan and...to kill a certain man." Sasuke answered darkly.
Grim much? I mused with a smirk, the irony of my statement not lost on me.
"Next."
"My name is Haruno Sakura. The thing I like is... ...well the person I like is... and uhm... my dream for the future...uhm..?" She trailed off for a few moments before abruptly resuming.
"Oh yeah! What I dislike is Naruko."
Really? We've barely even met and you already don't like me?
"My hobby is..."
"That's enough Sakura." Kakashi interrupted before he looked to me.
With a roll of my eyes I introduced myself. "My name is Uzumaki Naruko. I like cooking and swords. I dislike fools and my dream for the future...I will become a Hero who will live on in legend after I die."
For the lack of reaction she had had to Sasuke's plans for the future, Sakura's face was an excellent demonstration of disbelief while Sasuke's face was nothing but suspicious. I couldn't make out anything on Kakashi's face thanks to his head band and mask, but that was fine in my opinion as I waited for his next instructions.
"Good enough. Tomorrow we'll start our duties as ninja."
"And what are we going to do Kakashi-sensei?" I asked dubiously.
"Just the four of us are going to have survival training."
"Why is our first duty a training?" Sakura asked, "We've had enough training at the academy."
"This isn't normal training...this time I'm your opponent." Kakashi replied.
"And...?" I prompted in a drawl, earning looks from my teammates.
"Well...of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine will be chosen to become genin, the rest will be sent back to the Academy. This training is a very difficult exam with a failure rate of over sixty-six percent!" He declared.
"But we worked so hard! What was the point of graduating?!" Sakura cried.
"Oh that? Just to select those with a chance to become genin." Kakashi replied dully.
"What?!"
"Anyway, tomorrow you have to show your real skills on the training ground. Bring all the tools you have. Oh...and skip breakfast, you might throw up."
Looking to my Sakura and Sasuke, I noted the grimness of their expressions with a soft, dry chuckle before I decided on what I'd have for breakfast. I'd have enough fights with a full stomach to know how to keep it down.
"The details are on this paper, and don't be late tomorrow."
OoOoOoOoO
The next morning I arrived at the training grounds a few minutes before the five o'clock meeting time Kakashi had set for the team. My tardiness was partly due to a touch of laziness on my part as well as a decision to ignore the order not to eat and instead have some breakfast. Personally I wasn't suffering under the early start, as I was usually up by sunrise, but as I approached the designated meeting place I could see on Sakura and Sasuke's faces that they clearly weren't used to being up at such an early hour.
"Morning you two," I greeted warmly, drawing a scowl from Sasuke at my early morning friendliness. Sakura merely gave a yawn in reply so I chose to disregard them for the time being till Kakashi showed, instead taking a seat on one of three large wooden stumps near the edge of the clearing we were meeting in.
At first, minutes past in silence with none of us bothering to speak to each other. Eventually though, the minutes dragged by into first one hour and then a second one. By the end of the third I could hear growls coming from Sakura's and Sasuke's stomachs. So far mine had been thankfully quiet, but that wasn't too surprising given that I had eaten before coming here. Finally though as the hour reached eight o'clock, the sun providing ample lighting by the time Kakashi finally showed up, leaping down from a nearby tree to land in the middle of the clearing only to be met by Sakura's indignant shout.
"You're late!"
Kakashi for his part, ignored Sakura as he made it over to one of the stumps beside me where upon he pulled an alarm clock from his pockets and set it on the stump. Planting his hand on it with a small ring, he looked to us as he said, "It's set for noon."
We then watched as he carefully removed a pair of bells from another pocket of his vest. "Here are two bells. Your task is to take them from me before time's up. Those who don't have a bell by noon...get no lunch."
That statement drew a slight shiver of fear from my compatriots before Kakashi continued speaking. "I'll not only tie you to one of these stumps, but I'll also eat right in front of you."
"Ah...so that's why he said not to have any breakfast..." I mused with a slight grin.
"You only have to get one bell, and as there's only two, one of you will definitely be tied to the stump...and the person who doesn't take a bell fails. So at least one of you will be going back to the Academy." He said grimly.
I watched as both Sasuke's and Sakura's faces went stony and I let my grin fall from my face. It seemed things had become a great deal more serious.
"If you want, you can use shurikens and kunais. You won't succeed unless you come at me intending to kill."
The clearing suddenly felt quite stifling at that pronouncement. I was quite confident in my abilities, but given that I was in a tear year old's body, I wasn't too sure of my chances against a highly experienced jounin. Of greater importance though, was the purpose of the trial which I was about ninety percent sure wasn't about actually getting the bells. If the test actually had a sixty-six percent failure rate, then there would only be one bell, not two. That meant that the test was meant to foster cooperation and teamwork in the genin.
As my grin returned, I looked to Sasuke and Sakura as and said, "I'll go first if you two want me to, or we could try working together."
Alas it seemed that Sasuke wasn't too big on either idea as he took that moment to advance in silence on Kakashi, who had pulled out some book to read while he waited.
Sakura held back to watch, as did I, more than a little interested in what the last Uchia, the top student of the Academy would accomplish.
Sasuke started by dropping into a low crouch before he hurled forward a series of shurikens from both hands. Kakashi easily dodged the weapons, only to be met an instant later by a literal barrage of knives from his left that dug deep into his flesh for an instant, then he was gone in a cloud of smoke. In his place a log fell to ground, a dozen or so knives sticking out of the log. Kakashi appeared only a few meters away from a matching cloud of smoke in a ready crouch, spinning as he brought up both arms to block a round house kick from Sasuke who had dashed in to just behind the jounin.
Kakashi caught the blow and took ahold of Sasuke's leg to which the boy respond with a punch, using his held leg as an anchor to spin around. Kakashi caught the punch and shifted to block a blow from Sasuke's other leg before suddenly recoiling and putting distance between himself and Sasuke as the boy made a grab for the bells with his free hand. When the two came to a halt a split second later, I took note with a small smile that Kakashi had put away his book to deal with the top student.
I watched as both of them held still for a moment as they evaluated each other before Sasuke started a series of hand signs for a jutsu while Kakashi's visible eye went wide with surprise. Sasuke leaned back for a second, his cheeks puffing out amusingly with air a second before he suddenly leaned forward, one hand coming up to rest ahead of his mouth as he exhaled a large blast of fire at our teacher. For several seconds, a large chunk of the clearing was enveloped in fire before Sasuke ran out of steam for the jutsu and hesitantly looked around as the flames cleared to reveal no Kakashi anywhere.
The uncertainty on Sasuke's face was plain as day before it became surprise as a hand erupted from the ground to grab his ankle. Just a moment later the top student was buried up to his neck as Kakashi loomed over him, offering a small congratulations for doing as well as he had.
And them it was Sakura's turn. My pink haired teammate advanced on Kakashi and then promptly disappeared in a swirl of leaves that his her from view for a second before scattering to reveal an unconscious Sakura laying on the ground on her back, foaming at the mouth, her eyes wide and dilated with fear.
"Ara ara..." I muttered with a sigh as I hopped off my stump, acknowledging that it was now my turn. "It's just us until they get themselves together Kakashi-sensei, so how about we get to it," I offered, extending both of my hands out to the sides as falchions of black and white appeared in my hands.
"Mmmm...I can agree to that, Naruko. I'll admit I've been rather curious to see what your 'chakra constructs' can do since I heard about them," he replied as he looked to me, his one visible eye locking with my own gray-gold ones.
"Then come and test them for yourself."
And like that, the battle was joined.