Kyuubi's Calm Chapter 2: Ninja: Academy Student Level, a naruto fanfic

No part of this plot, my own characters, or text can be used without my permission. I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, but the plot and Yasu and Akira are my own and copyrighted.

Chapter 2: Ninja

The next morning the sunlight broke through my window. I blinked at the light and sat up in bed. Akira lifted his head and peered at me, saying how heavily I'd slept.

"It has been a long time since I've been able to sleep securely, you know. When was the last time you got to sleep inside?" The stallion grunted and lifted himself to his feet. "It is weird for you to sleep all night as well. Need to go outside?" I pushed open the door, realizing I'd forgotten to lock it last night. Akira walked out to use the restroom, and I did the same indoors. I pulled out the last of the fruits: two apples and a kiwifruit. Akira heard the rustle of the bag and was soon sticking his head in the window. I passed him both apples and ate the kiwifruit myself, getting juice everywhere. I took the brush off the dresser and ran it over him quickly, making his coat shine. After a quick wash and dress I locked the back door and went out to the living room, noticing a nametag with an elaborate drawing of a horse cantering on water. I smiled and entered the peaceful room.

Two people, a man and a woman, were sitting in two of the five comfy lounge chairs, talking with Hiroko about something or another. When I entered, a hush fell over them and they all smiled.

"Yasu! Welcome, these are the other two boarders here, Kiyoko," the woman bowed playfully, "and Takumi." The man also bowed. Takumi spoke first.

"Yasu, was it? Well, you seem a bit young to be traveling on your own, but I take it you're not alone by that stallion out in the field. I walked out there yesterday to do some jogging and was nearly split in two." I hurriedly tried to apologize, but he stopped me. "Don't worry; I should have been payin' attention. Where are you from? We love hearing stories from far-away travelers."

"I don't have any stories, sorry sir. I have come here to train and learn fire jutsu. Even though I don't have a headband, I'm planning on getting one, this morning in fact. I'm a skilled ninja, I had to be to make it this far. If you don't mind me asking, what do you do for a living?" Takumi answered first again, but Kiyoko and Hiroko didn't seem to mind, so I didn't either.

"I paint!" He exclaimed dramatically, and took off at a jog, declaring he'd bring out a painting he was working on, etc. The women laughed and turned to me.

"You'd better get out of here, when he starts on his paintings, you'll be trapped for a while." Kiyoko giggled.

"Yeah, but they are quite good." – Hiroko

"Yeah, you have a point there. How much free time do you have this morning?" – Kiyoko

"I don't have to be anywhere until noon, although I'd like to get a headband this morning."

"Well, if you want to know what I do for a living, I'm a maid. I work for three different houses, and I clean around here instead of paying the rent. I don't make so much, just enough for what I need, and I'm saving up to go on a world trip. Here comes Takumi, brace yourself." Takumi came in carrying two canvasses, one half-painted and all sketched out: it was of the village.

"I'm making this one from the roof of this building, and I've worked on this one for a few months, finished it yesterday." He turned the other canvas so I could see, and I gasped. It was of a sunset over the mountains in the distance, and the five Hokage's faces were visible on the side of the painting. He passed it to me and I examined all the little strokes of many-colored paints. I passed it back, smiling. Takumi took it back, grinning spectacularly. I remembered the others' warning and acted.

"I have somewhere to go today, but I'd love to see your artwork sometime." Takumi turned to the women and began talking to them, and I laughed to myself as they made excuses and ditched. Outside the door flap, Akira waited for me. "How'd you get out here, boy?" I looked at the fence and saw it was rather low at the gate. I shrugged and swung up onto his back with my purse securely looped to my belt. We were off to the young ninja school, I had directions from Naruto.

We arrived at ten o'clock, and I walked in leading Akira. There was a class full of young students, and the sensei at the front of the room. He paused and the whole class looked at me with Akira in the doorway.

"Iruka-sensei?" I asked, and he nodded. He set down the chalk he'd been drawing with and came over.

"I'm in the middle of a class now, so what is your business?" He glanced at Akira.

"I was referred to you to take a test and receive a ninja headband. Is it right?"

"Yes… are you ready to test now? If you are, could I use you as a lesson for my students?" I glanced around the room.

"Sure." He grinned down at me and turned to the class, clapping his hands together.

"Students, today we have… sorry, what was your name miss? And where are you from?"

"I'm Yasu, from around the water villages. I'm here to take my ninja test, because I haven't lived in a place that had ninja schools." Iruka smiled and passed me a sheet of paper.

"First you have to take the written test, so go sit up in the front row if you would, and when you're done you'll have to take the jutsu test. Also, is the horse… indoor-trained?" I nodded and sat down, and the class giggled as Akira sat in front of me looking odd. Iruka went on teaching as I looked at the first question.

What are the basic ninja skills?

Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu

Kunai, Water jutsu, and fire jutsu

Balance, intelligence, and beauty

I circled A. and continued to number 2…

It was five minutes to noon, and I stood outside the Bamboo hotel, deciding how to wear my new headband. I'd done the jutsu correctly, and got 100 on the written test. Iruka passed me the headband and I tried really hard to contain my joy of having the actual proof of being a ninja. I couldn't keep the ear-to-ear grin off my face, however. Now I stood and pulled it around my forehead, under my bangs. It was a headband, after all. I'd burnt off the majority of the joyful feeling by racing Akira back to the hotel, which was rather fair because I could use the rooftops and he could run faster but only on the ground. Now I waited, and, exactly at noon, the yellow-haired ninja came jogging up the road.

"Sorry if I'm late, training was a little harder today, the old man actually made me work instead of chasing the ladies. He stopped and stood to his full height and his face brightened. "You got your headband! It even has the fire village symbol! Congratulations! Did you see Iruka-sensei? He was my first teacher."

"Yes, he was very kind." Naruto's grin widened.

"Are you ready to go out and see the town? I want to show you my friends and my second teacher, before I got the pervy sage. Come on!" I waved bye to Akira, who I'd put in the field and told to stay.

First, we stopped by a ramen shop and Naruto bought lunch. As he finished his third bowl (and I finished my first) a pink-haired girl walked in.

"Oh, hey Thakura." Naruto said through the last mouthful of ramen. He swallowed and introduced me. "Yasu, this is Sakura. She was on my squad after I'd just become a ninja. Sakura, this is Yasu, a ninja from out-of-town. She's come here to train." Sakura and I regarded each other and shook hands.

"Nice to meet you." –Sakura

"Likewise." Sakura sat and ordered a bowl of ramen as well, and leaned over to me while it was being prepared.

"Watch out for Naruto, he's annoying sometimes." She winked and sat upright, laughing. I joined in, automatically liking her. Naruto looked over with a look on his face that said he was worried we were laughing about him. He put down his bowl on the counter, rather roughly.

"Are you done, Yasu?" I tilted the bowl back and got every last bit of ramen in it, placing it on the counter in a similar fashion. He blinked. Sakura giggled as her ramen was placed before her.

"I'll see you around Sakura."

"Mm-hmm. Bye!" Naruto and I left, and now he took me to a bridge with a ninja standing in the middle, reading a book. He didn't even look up as Naruto ran at him.

"Kakashi-sensei! I'm free from training today! Jiraiya said I could show our village's guest around town today!"

"That's nice."

"Yasu, this is Kakashi. Sorry he's too stuck on his perverted book to introduce himself, especially since he's the first one I'm introducing you to (planned that is)."

"Hello, Yasu. Welcome to the leaf village." Naruto grunted and started shaking Kakashi by the arm.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're not even looking at her!"

"Alright, just stop shaking me; you're going to make me drop my book." Kakashi looked up and froze. I was standing five feet away, and Naruto glanced from Kakashi to me and back.

"Sensei, why'd you get so warm?" Kakashi looked down at his book. I saw him take a deep breath.

"No reason. Go show our beautiful guest the village. Buy her dinner, my treat." Kakashi reached into his pocket and pulled out a 5,000 yen paper. "Make it nice, alright Naruto?" Kakashi grinned at him and nodded towards me without making eye contact, and Naruto stared in wonder at the roughly $50 that had just been handed to him. He shrugged and pocketed it, grinning at me. We continued across the bridge. As I stepped off the last bit of bridge, I looked up, feeling like I was being watched. A red-haired boy sat on a low tree branch about fifty feet away, and he was looking right at me. He had a deep look in his eyes, and it warned me, but I tapped Naruto on the shoulder.

"Who is that?" I pointed at the boy, and he'd shifted in that split second to facing the opposite direction. Naruto grinned.

"That's Gaara." He said, loud enough for the other boy to hear, apparently, because he turned his head ever so slightly and watched us. "We've fought before, when he tried to destroy the village and Sasuke, but I won. Now he hangs out around here. He's had a rough past, like me." I became interested.

"What was your past?" Naruto looked at me like he was a little annoyed, and I got the message. "Alright, then who's Sasuke?" At this, Naruto got just a bit upset.

"Sasuke was my other teammate, Kakashi is his trainer now. Everybody loves Sasuke, cause he's such a skilled ninja and all. Humph." We kept walking, but only a few steps after Naruto had stopped talking, a boy dropped from the sky. As he landed in front of us, I looked up at the sky. I returned my gaze to the boy after I ascertained it was not raining any more people.

"What about me?" A black-haired boy asked, grinning. Naruto swung at him, and he easily dodged. The new boy spotted me, and I guessed he was Sasuke.

"Hi, I'm Sasuke." Yep. So I figured. "Are you new here?"

"Yeah, I came to the village to get my headband," I pointed at my headband, "and to learn some fire jutsu." Sasuke smiled slightly.

"I could teach you more fire-style jutsu than Naruto. He's not that great at it." Naruto shoved Sasuke back away from me.

"What would YOU know about my jutsu?! We haven't trained together in at least a year, and get away from Yasu! She got here yesterday, and I'M showing her around town!" Naruto's shouts were accentuated by punches, which Sasuke blocked or dodged. I folded my hands nervously as the fight was carried away from me, when suddenly Sasuke landed in front of me.

"I could teach you fire-style jutsu sometime. Where are you staying?" I glanced at Naruto, who was looking for his opponent. He found Sasuke and charged. The tackle hit and Sasuke was flipped through the air, but landed on his feet as Naruto did.

"Um, Sasuke?!" I shouted. They both froze, waiting for me to speak. "Could you teach me some jutsu tomorrow?" Naruto's face fell and Sasuke stood, triumphant.

"Sure. I'll meet you outside the ninja academy, sunrise? I have to train later tomorrow, because I need Sunday off. I have plans."

"Alright, no problem. See you there." Sasuke vanished with a smirk. Naruto walked up to me, slouching. I felt a little sorry for showing up my host. "Naruto, I'm sure you have more powerful jutsu. Besides, I'm looking forward to walking on water." He cheered up.

"Ah, it's not that great… hehe…" He kept walking, so I followed. We went to the ninja training field #1, the official area. Naruto grinned and we walked right out into it, dodging some flying Kunai. A group of ninja stopped training and came over. Naruto waved at all of them and introduced me. "Hey, this is the new ninja in town. She's gonna show you her abilities." He leaned towards me. "That is, if you don't mind." I grinned. My ninja abilities were at chunin level, at least equal to anyone training on the field now. I looked at a row of ninja, and started on the right.

"Hi, I'm Yasu; I've come here to train from the water villages. Please accept me humbly; I think I'll be working here a lot in the future." The ninja nodded acceptingly, and I felt a little better, so I became acquainted. The ninja were Hinata, Neji, Rock Lee, Choji, TenTen, Ino, Shikamaru, Kiba and his dog Akamaru. After I'd learned their names, I invited someone to a shurikan battle.

"Show us your skills first, there are targets over there." Kiba pointed at some dummies with circles on them. I took some shurikan and kunai, specially engraved with a small horse head to show they were mine, and threw them from where I was standing. They landed in rings around the targets, and I took out a couple more kunai and they landed on the targets; not necessarily in the center, but close enough to be impressive at this distance. Kiba let out a slow whistle, and they all sent out Neji. "Battle him with kunai."

"If I win, will you teach me your skills?" They nodded.

"If you lose, we'll… I don't know, what should we do?"

"Let's just see how she does against Neji." TenTen said, irritated that they were already trying to go against me. I walked to the open space in the middle of the field, and Neji did as well. TenTen stood in between us, three feet apart. "This will be a three minute battle, all fighting stops at the timer. Standby for assistance." She called to the audience-ninja. Half went to Neji's side, and Hinata, Kiba, Akamaru, Shikamaru, and Naruto stood behind me, fifty feet back. Naruto cheered (Come on Yasu! Go! Yeah! You can beat him!) and I laughed to myself, but felt a weird sort of joy. Neji and I stood with our hands at our sides, waiting for TenTen to call the start. She took out a pocket watch, and I felt the surge of anticipation of battle, the suspense. My blood coursed hot and smoothly, muscles ready to tighten at less than a moment's notice. TenTen waved an arm down, leapt out of the way, and clicked start in a swift movement, and Neji and I bounded back, pulling our kunai out of our weapon pouches.

I threw one to test his skills as he threw one, and we both dodged with speed. As I landed, more weapons were flying at me, and I continued to dodge. When I landed and no weapons flew, I made a hand sign and water came out of the ground, freezing around Neji's feet. I moved in with my Kunai, throwing some and holding on to others. Neji blocked the thrown ones and shoved my arm aside, pressing hard onto a point at the base of my arm. I felt the chakra stop flowing and I pulled back in alarm.

Naruto started shouting at Neji, I could see him out of the corner of my eye. I closed my eyes and sensed the chakra of Akira, and felt him neigh in alarm as he sensed my condition. I laughed it off and borrowed some of his chakra; he was certainly an unusual horse and I'd been lucky to find him. When I opened my eyes I felt the chakra flowing through my renewed arm. I'd watch out for his hands now. I vaguely noticed a few more ninja gathered around, making a clear boundary. Neji had broken the ice around his feet, and was charging, no doubt to use the chakra-stopping ability. I dodged by leaping into the air, but he turned with me, throwing a kunai. I spun, but it made a shallow cut on my side. When I landed, I didn't even examine it, and made another hand sign. Neji leapt clear of the ground, but this time I used the water in the air and froze his hands into fists. The chakra-stopping would be more difficult now, but I wasn't going to take any chances. I made a substitution out of a stick on the ground, unseen, and hid myself by transforming into a small rock, unnoticeable. Neji attacked my substitute, breaking the ice around his hands. My substitute looked surprised and done for, Neji hit many points this time, but my substitution disappeared then, and I appeared behind him, holding a Kunai at his throat when he spun. The timer went off to Neji also holding a kunai at my throat.

"Tie!" TenTen shouted, and a crowd of about thirty ninja began applauding. They slowly drifted off as Neji and I lowered our weapons. I walked over to those who stood behind me, and they welcomed me to their small group, Naruto included, by high-fiving me and patting me on the back. I grinned and took a small bow. Everyone laughed, and one by one they told me what they could teach me. Kiba and Akamaru came first.

"Hey, I could teach you to work with dogs; they come in handy in a lot of battles." I grinned, then Shikamaru cut in.

"I'll teach you some strategy." When I bowed thankfully, the boys left, satisfied. Hinata approached me.

"I'm not that great with weapons, but I know how Neji stopped your chakra. I could teach you the points." This sounded like the best training of all three, so I thanked her. Naruto waited for Hinata to resume training.

"Yasu, sounds like you'll be busy for the whole time you'll be here. Want to enjoy tonight?" He pulled out the paper money Kakashi had given him. I looked at the sun; it was setting.

"Sure, it does sound like it'll be the last time I'll relax in the next few weeks." I held out my hand, feeling very flirty, blushing madly. Naruto stopped still for a moment, then took my hand gracefully, also blushing up a storm. He led me to a small building with a great outdoor setup, and I felt it was protected by jutsu, because there was a breeze, but when Naruto led me onto the first step up to the seating area, it disappeared, although trees rustled around. There were only four other people there, all couples. As Naruto led me to a table (we'd avoided eye contact since he took my hand) a waitress appeared and set two menus out. By the table there was a cool little water fountain with a rounded heart-shaped stone. Water bubbled out of the middle of it and went around it in a nice even pattern. I poked at it while Naruto fidgeted and read his menu. As I glanced at him, I picked up my own menu and found the vegetarian menu, placing it facedown on the table as quickly as I could. I wanted meat after weeks of fruits and vegetables.

"Are you ready to order?" The waitress came by again, placing water on the table. Naruto glanced at me still flipping through the menu.

"Not yet, but can we order drinks now?" The waitress was very polite, even though I was pretty sure neither myself nor Naruto were really skilled in the 'fancy' crud.

"Yes, what will you have?" The waitress asked. I read her name tag. It said 'Ai'. I sighed. Fitting name for a place like this.

"Yasu?" Naruto volunteered me first, out of courtesy. I glanced at the drinks quickly.

"May I have the jasmine blossom tea, with a little wine in it?" The waitress said nothing, but wrote it down, turning to Naruto. He looked at me quizzically, probably about the wine. I'd figured out I could sleep better with a little wine… long story. Anyway, he turned to the waitress. She clicked the pen as if she were impatient, but I could tell otherwise; she was hinting to Naruto to be more… suave about bringing a girl here.

"I'll have the same." He said, and the waitress left. Naruto placed his elbows on the table, which I felt like doing but kept playing in the fountain, and he rested his head on his folded hands, facing me. "So, what do you do for fun?" He asked casually, and I thought for a bit.

"I draw, and I like running. How about you?"

"Nothing much, just training. Sometimes I'll go swimming." I brightened.

"There's a swimming area around here?" He also brightened.

"Yeah, quite a few. There are the hot springs, the waterfall base, and just about anywhere along the river, depending on how public you like to swim; it does run through town." I sighed.

"I'll have to go shopping sometime because I don't have a swimsuit. Ah well." Naruto grinned, then we both looked at our menus again. I decided on a steak with sides of bacon and sausage, plus eggs. Once I'd memorized it, I looked across the table at Naruto. He had one hand on his cheek, and was looking towards the entrance. He started chuckling, and I followed his gaze. Three adult ninja came up the steps. I poked Naruto's arm.

"Acquaintances?" I asked as he lifted his head questioningly. He nodded.

"They are the other squads' trainers. That one, with the black hair and stuff, he's Gai. The girl is Kurenai, and the other one is Asuma. I wonder if they're coming out for a special reason." I watched them for a while; our table was in the corner, so we were unnoticed. They sat a couple tables from us, and Ai set our beverages down. They had cherries, so I ate mine. I told her what I wanted to eat, and when Naruto had ordered and Ai collected the menus, I asked for some paper and a pencil. She nodded, and went to the squad leaders' table, giving them our menus plus a third. She dropped off a pencil and two sheets of paper, and I started sketching. Naruto hardly looked up, he was still watching the teachers, so I sketched him pretty easily. I shoved the paper across the table, and he picked it up.

"Did you just do this?" He asked, and I nodded, blushing; I could tell he was impressed. I'd sorta drawn him how I saw him, not as he looked directly, and it was a rather glorifying picture. He passed it back. "Could you sign it? I want to hang it up in my room." I was easily flattered, so I signed the bottom corner. Naruto took it and carefully rolled it so it wouldn't be bent. "Pass me the pencil, I want to draw you."

I poked at the fountain some more, listening to the pencil scratch across the paper. Our food arrived, and Naruto put aside the sketch. We thanked Ai, and looked at the food hungrily. The other two couples had left, it was just us and the teachers, so we dug in. I didn't bother cutting the steak with anything but my teeth, and Naruto ate with just as much grace, except he didn't use his napkin so often. I felt like getting a spot on his nose for him, but it felt it would be like a movie. A cheesy movie. So I continued eating as much meat as I could.

Soon, my plate was clean and I was smiling just because that's how I felt. Naruto was doing the same thing, but I don't think he'd ever had wine before. I hadn't eaten so much in a very long time, since I was six, in fact. I know a small steak, two bacon strips, a sausage, and a scrambled egg aren't all that much, but I still felt guilty. Ai passed out the receipt.

"How much?" I asked. Naruto picked it up, and his eyes opened a little more. I fidgeted. "It's not over $50, is it?"

"No, but it's a lot for such a small meal. 4,200 yen. I'll leave it all, the extra as a tip." We stood, forgetting the squad leaders. As we looked around, Naruto spotted a fish tank and we went over to examine it. There were a lot of little fish in there, and a really big fish shaped like a knife that was two feet long. As we watched, he ate a couple little fish. We laughed (oh, how cruel, huh? You'd do the same, you know it. XD), and as we walked away our feet suddenly started clicking; it was a dance floor. The loud clicks alerted the teachers to our presence, and they looked over, smirking at Naruto, who had obviously never figured the situation could turn on him.

"Hey, that's Kakashi's old student, Naruto, isn't it?" Gai said loudly. Naruto cringed. "Yeah, Hey Naruto! Who're you with?" I followed Naruto's example. Asuma called us over, and we grudgingly approached. Naruto whispered to me.

"Well, you get to meet them, but now how I planned. It was supposed to be a lot less awkward." I giggled, causing teasing stares from the adults. Naruto noticed. "Hey, don't make fun of me, Kakashi told me to take our town's newest member on a tour around town! He even paid for it…She's not from around here, so yeah…" We were now standing as if on a shooting range before the adult table. Kurenai spoke for the first time.

"Go have fun, you guys, but keep out of trouble." She grinned, and we almost jogged out of there, listening to annoyed whines from the guys saying they weren't done messing with the young people yet.

The sun had gone down, and I had to be up and wide awake by sunrise, and a quarter-mile away, to start learning fire jutsu with Sasuke. He seemed like the kind to have a fan club. I didn't like that so much, but he was good looking. With minimal talk, we arrived at my hotel. We stood awkwardly outside the front door for a few seconds, confused, then quickly hugged. I watched Naruto walk off down the street. He glanced back once, and I smiled, and his pace turned almost to a skip. In fact, after going a few more feet he leapt straight into the air, punching into the night and laughing. I chuckled and turned in. Hiroko had a small fire going as she sat in the chair that was obviously hers. I wondered if she ever slept.

"Have a nice date?" I blushed, about to protest, but wasn't really into it, so I shrugged.

"It was fun." She smiled and I walked back to my room, glancing at the nameplate on the way in. Akira had let himself in, and I walked outside with a couple of buckets. One I filled with water and set outside my room, the other I walked around the field with and cleaned up after Akira in the dark, which was rather easy because he had a restroom spot. When that was done I brushed him again, and went to bed.

I am well aware that my Fanfic is mainly about a character not found in the series. I'm not asking you to like it or whatever, I posted it because I wanted to. To tell you the truth, I'm hardly expecting reviews. It's for my friends to read, and family. If they want to. that's all. I'll post this once more, to be sure it's seen, but yeah, chapter two complete!