Top of the Tree

IX

The classroom was the epitome of silence.

Too nervous to utter a sound, the soon-to-be ninjas sat anxiously waiting for their names to be called by the instructor—waiting their turn. If anything, it seemed as if their were waiting on their execution, however unlucky for me, my last meal was not lobster bisque soup. Ironically enough, perhaps unintentionally, they were being sent to their deaths. But thankfully they were still on the 'F's, so I still had time to have a major meltdown and recover before my name was called.

From what I'd experienced, there were three exams. Two of them were practical, and one was written. The first practical was the weapon and fighting exam, though there was probably a more specific name to it. The purpose was to evaluate our abilities in battle—fighting, throwing weapons, stealth—in which there wasn't an exact grading system, though if you sucked I'm sure they wouldn't let you become a ninja. Depending on how well you did, from what I've come to understand, they'd assess your skills to put you in a team with contrasting abilities to balance out the overall strength. I did relatively well in this part—granted, I wasn't above hitting "below the belt", which I think might have raise a few eyebrows, but I defeated my opponents (classmates who were on a similar physical level as my own). I hit all the targets with my weapons (thanks to Hiro), fought the kinds and defeated them, and finally when it came to testing my stealth, I hid expertly. For an academy student, anyway.

The second practical was to test how in tune with your chakra you are. The instructor would ask you to preform an E-rank jutsu (which was really fascinating to learn). Depending on the year, they ask for a different jutsu—Bunshin no Jutsu, Kawarimi no Jutsu, or Henge no Jutsu. Though if you failed this test, there was no becoming a ninja, even if you went well on the other two exams. I hadn't taken that exam yet.

The written part of the exam was rather easy, with hypothetical 'what would you do' questions—I half expected one of them to ask me who I would bring with me if I were stranded on a deserted island. It was kind of pathetic, and there wasn't an ounce of the subject that we learned in classes on the paper. All they wanted to know was what would you do if this or that happened, and by the time I was done with the written exam, I couldn't stand to hear a sentence start with 'what would you do', even if it was all in my head.

I had come home that night with a tiny ball of satisfaction rolling in my gut, knowing that I had passed, but I couldn't for the life of me understand why—I was against my becoming a ninja, so why did I feel relief to have gotten so far, to have stepped closed to the ultimate goal? Dinner was served, and for some reason, the clattering of the eating utensils seemed louder than normal. Hiruzen was running late, and Hiro was away on a mission, so the only ones sitting at the table were Asuma, Mom and I—and both of them knew that the subject of 'ninja' was a touchy one, so neither spoke, leaving a very uncomfortable silence hanging in the air.

Soon enough, Hiruzen arrived, so the indisputable question was asked, "How did you do on your exam?"

Half of me was tempted to blatantly ignore him, and continue eating, but I was afraid of what he would do to get an answer out of me.

The other half wanted to say 'don't ask questions you already know the answer to', but instead I swallowed a mouthful of rice, and said casually "you tell me".

"I beg your pardon?" He asked testily, and Mom shot me a warning look.

"You're the Hokage, Dad. You already know if I did well or not on the exam, so you tell me," I knew I shouldn't push him, but there was a part of me that wanted to get a reaction out of him, one that I'd never seen before.

Almost glaring at me, he said dryly, "You passed with flying colors,"

"Why do you sound so disappointed?" I asked with a mocking smile stretching across my face.

"I'm not," straitening himself on his seat, his spine meeting the back of the chair.

It seemed that I had made him uncomfortable.

I bowed my head to take another bite, during which my hair concealed my face, and I whispered, "Could've fooled me".

I'm positive no one heard me.

The silence in the classroom was starting to annoy me—maybe it was because it made me restless, or maybe I was just used to the chatter of kids all the time. The quietness was unsettling, and I didn't like it.

I spent most of my time waiting looking out the window. The day was overcast and had a particular gloominess to it, which was just fitting for the day's event. The wind was short on up-rooting the trees in the academy's courtyard, and half way through the practice exam, it started raining; such only managed to put the to-be ninjas on an even steeper edge.

There were about five more students in the classroom when my name was called.

For a split second, time stopped.

I got up from my seat in the back of the room, and slowly approached the exit, which was in the front of the classroom. Taking each step, there was only one thought running through my head, over and over again.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

I stepped into the neighboring classroom, where three instructors were sitting behind a desk, evaluation papers in front of them; there were a couple of forehead protectors on a side table, too many for the remaining five students in the other classroom. A couple of people probably didn't pass—good for them, they will probably live longer.

The teachers greeted me, and examined the evaluation papers for a couple of minutes, probably comparing how I did in the last two tests. The instructor in the middle, with green floppy hair hanging over his forehead protector looked up with an unreadable expression on his face. I had a feeling that I'd done well on the previous tests, but the fact that I look pretty harmless can't exactly be ignored. No one would believe that a four-foot wide-eyed little girl could hold a weapon in her hand and use it, let alone kill someone.

"When you're ready, we'd like you to preform the Kawarimi no Jutsu," he spoke as the other two instructors on his side returned their attentions to me.

I concentrated my chakra into a thin layer around my body like an armor, where I imagined a string reaching out to an object with similar body mass. The string snapped like a rubber band and I muttered, "Kawarimi no Jutsu." In a second, I was no longer standing in front of the instructors—I was far off to the left where I had replaced my body with the desk that held all the forehead protectors. The only sound in the room was a 'pop' and a loud clatter of metal falling to the ground.

There was a pause.

"You pass," the instructor to the left said, and I returned to my place in front of them. One of the other instructors grabbed on of the plates with the leaf symbol on it and handed it to me.

"Please return to class tomorrow at nine in the morning to be assigned a team. And don't forget to turn in your ninja-registration forms at the Hokage tower by the end of today,"

I stood there stunned, still trying to take in the man's words.

"Thank you," I said, though I wasn't sure if I was thanking them for the forehead protector; thanking them for teaching me; thanking them for letting me pass the exam; or thanking them for sending me to my death.

Walking out of the academy in a daze, I was about to reach the school's entrance when I turned around. I stared at the building for what felt like hours, committing every little detail to memory. The overly large oak-tree with the swing that no one used—the cracked windows—the once white walls were now an aged grayish brown. I had no intention of returning there.

I turned around and headed to the city center. The examination had gone through the entire morning, and I really needed a bite to eat, not to mention I had to hand in my ninja registration form.

On an empty road, I reached into my pocket and grabbed my new forehead protector. I stared, at loss of what to do with it—no quite wanting to give up apprehensiveness towards being a ninja; I slipped it back into my pouch, and continued walking.

Approaching Ichiraku's, I peeked under the curtains and noticed that it wasn't empty as usual. I sighed and took a stool, not really looking at anyone—I felt out of it, like I'd been defeated, humiliated.

Teuchi came to get my order enthusiastically, commenting how I'd been absent for the last few months. I just shrugged and said that I'd been busy, which wasn't a lie—the last couple of weeks leading to graduation had been more hellish than usual. They basically tested us every day in every subject—there was even one day that one of the instructors threw a mass of kunai at the students, luckily I was paying attention instead of dozing off like usual, otherwise I would've been impaled by the insanely sharp objects. Hell, it was a rarity in itself if I could just stop for a second and breath.

"Well, I'll be damned! If it isn't little Kozue-chan," I heard a boisterous voice from my right.

Like a deer caught in headlights, I startled looked around to find the origin on the voice. Sitting at the far side of the ramen stand was Jiraiya and Minato grinning at me. I'm not quite sure how I managed to miss them; they were so… bright, my future as a ninja was looking very bleak. Minato was now standing at full height at the age of seventeen, with his blond hair almost brushing past his shoulders, Jiraiya, however, hadn't changed at all.

"Oh," I muttered, still a little surprised, "Hi".

"Well, haven't you grown up," Jiraiya said with a huge grin that occupied most of his face, "Get any prettier than that, and you'll be breaking hearts left and right,"

Blushing slightly, I didn't say anything. I couldn't get over the fact that I wasn't a baby anymore, and I could actually answer to what he said. Hell, I just found it wrong that he was trying to flatter a seven-year-old.

"Pervert," I said without thinking, and looked into my bowl of ramen.

I heard Minato bark with laughter and Jiraiya start to whine pathetically. I ignored them and continue to eat my pork ramen.

"I heard from you dad you were graduating from the academy soon," Jiraiya continues.

"Excited?" Minato asked.

I pulled out the forehead protector out of my pouch and dropped it on the table.

With a bored look on my face, and the enthusiasm of a Nara, I answered, "Ecstatic".

A little stunned, the two burst out in laughter, leaving a quiet me, trying to figure out what exactly was so funny.

"Well aren't you chipper," said Minato after almost chocking on his food.

"No more than father," I said dryly, sending him a peeved glance.

"How's the old man taking it, anyway?" asked Jiraiya.

Surprised he didn't already know, I answered, "He's just happy he'll have a new soldier to add to his ranks,"

"You can't really believe that," he countered.

I didn't know what to believe anymore.

"You'd be surprised," I answered.

There was a pregnant silence, which was broken with the slurping of noodles.

"You weren't this pessimistic when you were younger," commented Jiraiya.

"Please, I was a baby. Now I'm old enough to have an opinion on things," I fired back, annoyed that he just wouldn't leave me alone to sulk for a little.

"How come you're not wearing your forehead protector?" interrupted Minato.

I was silent for a while, not quite sure what to say.

"I'm not a ninja," I spoke slowly, "Not yet, anyway,"

"Of course you are!" responded Jiraiya.

"I won't be a ninja until I meet my team and go through a genin test with them," and then as an afterthought I added, "I won't be a ninja until I've looked at death in the face,"

"It's the teacher's choice to give the test or not, and you don't have to go through something life-threatening to be a ninja,"

"Seeing that I'm the Hokage's daughter, I'll definitely have to go through it. Can you imagine my Father being biased to me? Besides, at my current state, I'm no more harmless than fly,"

"The old man wants the best for you. And you can only get the best if you're pushed a little," Jiraiya tried to reason, "And looking at death in the face isn't something to look forward to,"

"Well, I'm pushing back," I said finishing my bowl of ramen, "And believe me, I'm not looking forward to it,"

Leaving some money on the counter to pay for the food, I pocketed my forehead protector and left the stand. I walked through the busy streets of the restaurant row at the end of lunchtime. There were all kinds of people short, tall, chubby, skinny, old, new, and all of them looked satisfied with their stomachs filled from their lunch. But every now and then I'd spot an orphaned child with the look of starvation, and tried comparing the two.

I knew I'd arrived to the tower when the amount of civilians decreased, and all you could really see were people with forehead protectors tied around random places.

I entered the building and approached the front desk; it only took one glance for the secretary to recognize me.

"Sarutobi-san, how can I help you?" asked the soft-spoken secretary. She'd been working at this post for a better part of my life, yet I didn't know her name; it bothered me that I didn't really care.

"I'm here to fill out my ninja registration forms," I said, as she glanced at me.

"Did you graduate?" she asked randomly.

I said yes and she continued to look for something on my body. Then it hit me, my forehead protector. I took it out of my pocked and showed it to her, she then nodded and gave me the forms, saying that I could take my picture with their on-call photographer. I quickly filled in the form and headed towards the second floor, where I knew I'd find the photographer. He took a quick headshot, and I thanked him, before going to the fifth floor to hand in the forms. Much like the secretary, he was suspicious of me until I flashed him my forehead protector.

Before my father could even notice that I was in the building, I left.

I wandered to a familiar red-wooden bridge that connected the land where a flowing river stood in-between. I looked down at the water, and just watched it drift.

My hands fished the metal plate from my pocket that now symbolized my status.

I took a minute to study it.

The forehead protector reflected the setting sun's light. The symbol of a leaf was etched in a swirl.

I hesitated, but sighed in defeat.

Reaching towards my head I placed the protector on my forehead and reached behind to tie the knot.

I glared at my reflection in the water.

I was a ninja now.

That was so fun to write!

I'm sorry that I can't really write more that 3000 words, because I get restless, and feel the need to update the soonest possible. I might, and I emphasize 'might', update the tenth chapter still this month, though I'll ask you guys not to get your hopes up.

I'm glad you guys like how I'm portraying Hiruzen! It was a risky move, on my part, but I feel that it's playing out nicely.

Thanks so much for the follows, favorites and reviews! They always make my day so much brighter.

Next chapter we'll meet Kozue's new team!

Cheers,

CupcakeLoopy