(A/N): …Alas and woe is me…school...
(mindlessly hums)….hmmmm…both Obito and Rin graduated at nine…lookie there…Kakashi must have had a previous team then… o.o
-Weirdness is good! - The world needs more weird people! Heehee.
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Night Rain
III: Thief : Spy : Punk
…Fate must have some strange sense of humor…
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"Did you get lost huh? You better return that hitae-ate to the lost and found." A couple more snickered along with leering boy. The child did not let the height difference faze him and merely stared up coolly with an apathetic look. He started to walk around the group when a finger jabbed into his forehead. The older one continued with a scorning tone as the others whooped encouragingly. "Hey kid, the pweeschoolers are in thwat woom. Or you can just go home and cwy to your moooommy. "
ooo
Amaya nearly tripped over the three, people out cold on the floor near the doorway. She carefully wormed her way out of the various dislocated arms and legs and took a seat in the room. She lowered her head self-consciously, looking around at the others who were scooting away and looking completely petrified at the sight of another five year old.
"Amaya! Down here please!"
Still looking around curiously, the girl slowly walked down to the front of the classroom to where the adult kunoichi had called her. With her were a hooded Kakashi and another boy looking their age with startling dark olive eyes. The woman leaned down to the group with a large smile and lively voice.
"Now you guys get to be grouped early, your sensei is already waiting on the roof 'kay?"
Kakashi was crossing his arms and fixing the woman with an intent look, the other boy creased his brows confusingly, while Amaya was hardly paying attention and continuing to gaze around at the wide eyed stares directed at them, more so at the masked boy.
"…Ano…Aren't genin teams…separated according to skill levels..and not age group?"
Observant the mouse-like boy was, the kunoichi blanked for a while before nervously laughing.
"Of course, of course Kiyoshi, we had decided the three of you balanced each other perfectly."
"—Meaning: 'we had decided it was best to place you freakishly young ones together as it would be more convenient then with other somewhat normal 9-12 year olds." Kakashi was still in quite a sour mood.
"Uh-oh, I think someone's a wittle bit too cranky. Does that somebody need a biiig wowwipop?" Here the leaning woman flourished out a large, spiraling lolli—wowwipop..from behind her back. From under the hood, an eye began to twitch while those cowering behind the desks violently shook their heads trying to warn the unsuspecting woman.
"Ooo! Ooo! I'll take it!"
Snatch.
The wowwipop was promptly snared out of the adult's hand that it took some time before the woman, staring at her outstretched hand, realized it was empty.
"Ohhhh…rats…" Amaya pouted at not having been quick enough.
"Hmph…" Kakashi held the candy safely away inside his crossed arms; he turned and mumbled quietly to himself. "…its my wowwipop…"
"Now, now, don't worry, I have wowwipops for both of you too!" The other two were unquestionably happier at this and took to licking merrily while they were driven towards the door.
While walking in the hallways, understanding finally reached the girl and she immediately complained.
"…Sigh..why do you always have to be in my life somehow…"
"I can ask the same question."
"And why do you have a hoodie on? Hehe..you look gangsta-ish."
He grumbled under his breath something about voodoo and hair plucking. Alas, Amaya heard bits of his grumbles and remarked resignedly.
"Wear your hitae-ate as a bandana or a doo-rag then, its more stable then a hood."
Kakashi then distantly grumbled something about poofy hair.
"..Neh..Kiyoshi right? Exactly how old are you?" Amaya curiously eyed the chocolate haired boy who was curiously smaller and shorter then her.
"…Um..s..seven…" He softly answered.
"Eeeh? Really? Okay then. Hi!" She gave a welcoming grin with smiling, arched eyes.
"…H..hi…" It was hard for the quiet boy to believe the girl was the one in the stories floating around the school. Strange stories. He knew they were greatly exaggerated, but even myths had some basis of truth for it to even exist.
Upon reaching their destination, the three looked around the empty rooftop oddly.
"..Not even punctual…what kind of Jounin is this…" Kakashi muttered disapprovingly.
They all jumped at the sudden interruption of explosions.
"WELCOME! WELCOME! CONGRADULATIONS! YOU THREE HAVE THE GREAT HONOR OF BEING MY POTENTIALLY, VERY FIRST GENIN TEAM!" The young man had made an incredibly glitzy entrance, as he stood in front of them with a great, beaming grin while confetti descended from the air and mini fireworks went off around him.
Kiyoshi was still shocked and wide eyed, Amaya was delighted with the fun display, and Kakashi had his head skewed, twitching with an unbelieving look.
"..Hmm?" The man peered closer, speculation in his sky blue eyes. Squinting and focusing chakra, he realized there was no cast illusion of any sort to make them appear like toddlers..but maybe so..
"…Uh..Hahahaha…" He scratched the back of his head while still smiling. "…real funny, cute. You guys can release the henge now."
All three then fixed him with serious stares. Kakashi spoke up.
"…These…are our real forms."
Awkward pause. A lone cricket chirped in the background.
"…But of course!" '…The academy…sent me…little…toddlers………?'
"Well, anyway, lets all introduce one another! Hobbies, likes, dislikes, dreams, and so on, things like that. Starting with the left." The eccentric grin was back on his face.
"Hatake Kakashi. These 'hobbies' you speak of, are of rubbish pastimes in which more training can be done. I do not like anything in particular. However, I dislike people who are annoying, rash, idiotic, rude, and sneaky in a bad way."
The spiky blonde raised an eyebrow at the last comment, but remained silent for the boy to finish.
"I aspire to become as great as a shinobi as my father, Hatake Sakumo, and bring honor to my family name."
"Me next! Me next! Hihihi! I'm Amaya! Mmm…I like lots of stuff, like candy, and sugar, and climbing trees, and chasing raccoons, and digging, and playing, and candy, and catching frogs, and exploring, and coloring, and giving wedgies, and…" She continued to list off one by one on her fingers, much to the rising frustration of the hooded child and the slight sweat drops of the others.
"—Ah, Amaya, as much as we'd like to hear your many hobbies and likes—" Here Kakashi snorted loudly. "We have to give your other team mate a turn too."
"Oh okay. Hmmm…well…I don't really dislike anything…" She stated while scrunching her face in thought. "Except for dog-breath here, he can just go to hell." She concluded so with a most normal, cheerful voice and an ingenuous giggle and grin.
'…Kids these days…' Mentally sighing, the Jounin nevertheless gave an interested smile.
"And my dream is to make my onii-chan proud!"
A sniff. "Too late."
"What was that…"
"Do you require a hearing aid?"
"—Moving. On. Now. Lit-tle. Chil-dren."
They both huffed heatedly and looked the opposite way.
"….Umm…I'm Kiyoshi. I like playing shoji a lot…my favorite color is blue…and I guess I don't like…arguing much. My dream is to…live..happily…?"
The man gave an encouraging nod. Ah..one normal kid.
"…But...ano…sensei…what did you mean by 'potentially'?" Kiyoshi hesitantly asked.
The man smiled and noted the boy's keen observation skills.
"Ah, well, before that let me congratulate all of you for making it this far and successfully graduating!" The three did not brighten but only grew uneasy at the man's use of 'this far'.
"And now there's just one more test before you guys can officially become genin!"
WUMP!
"W..w..whaaaaa? I thought we were already genin!" The girl horrifyingly cried out, miserably staring out. Kakashi equally looked shocked, but more outraged, irritated with himself for not suspecting that earlier glint in his father's eyes. Kiyoshi was twiddling his thumbs fretfully, though seeming to have half-expected such a surprise twist.
"Yes, well, 66 percent of failure rate, etc, etc, only nine get to pass and other technicalities…the details are all in these papers, see you guys tomorrow at 3 am sharp!" With another grin, he held up a hand in farewell and turned. "By the way, make sure not to eat anything if you don't want to throw up!" He stated this casually with the grin still on his face. The group blinked and rubbed their eyes at the vacant spot in which their sensei had seemingly flickered out of.
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They soon learned how early three in the morning exactly was, or night..it was still quite dark. Even Kakashi, who was used to arising early for daily training, could not hide his weariness. Underneath the carefree smile, they all agreed their sensei was a cruel and evil being.
"…Sooo…huuungrrrry…" Amaya was lifelessly lying on her belly, hollow and growling belly. "Aaaand… 'yawn'…sleeeepy…" She crawled zombie like, only using her arms, to a patch of grass she deemed suitable enough as a pillow and tried to doze. Kiyoshi was sitting and leaning against his large pack filled with all his shinobi equipment as instructed by the orders on the paper. He equally sighed with exhaustion as he hung his head, his tongue limply drooped out. Only Kakashi remained standing, remindful that a ninja must always be alert. From time to time he jerked his sagging head to attention, before nodding off again.
"GOOOOOD MOOOOORNIIIING EVERYOOOONE!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
All three were wildly standing frigid, sharply gasping for breaths while clutching their chests. The Jounin thoughtfully stood back and allowed the group to recover from their heart attacks. Fortunately, they at last stabilized, letting out a collective recuperating puff of relief.
"STOP-DOING-THAT!…. please." They all shouted, the politeness added on as a prudent afterthought by Kiyoshi.
"What, you mean this?"
"EEEEEE!"
Two heart attacks in a row couldn't possibly be any good for one's health. Heart attacks on empty stomachs couldn't be good either. Their sensei stood behind them, cheerfully waiting for them to recover from their second shock.
"All right then, lets get started shall we?"
Three curious faces blinked alongside each other at the two bells held out in front of them.
"Get a bell, become a genin. Don't get one, and fail. And as an extra incentive, those, if any, who manage to get a bell will be treated by me at Ichiraku's." The man's bright and wide smile was in stark contrast against the children's slit eyed stares. The slow, angry grinding of sets of teeth could be heard. As if to emphasize the situation, their empty stomachs loudly growled simultaneously.
"…Wait…but..there's only two…"
"Bravo. You can count."
"No dur, I'm asking why there isn't three."
"Its called two. T-w-o. Don't you get it?"
"Obviously not, why else would I point it out?"
"Because it's a mistake you graduated from preschool in the first place."
"…Umm..hehe…c'mon guys…can't we get along..?"
"—ANYWAYS." He eyed the two sternly as a warning before continuing. "There are only two bells. Meaning at least one of you will be sent back to the academy. Who knows, I might just be in the mood to tie up the loser or losers to those log posts over there and just eat something right in front of you guys."
At this the three grimaced, taking hold of their aching tummies and mentally agreeing that their sensei was indeed cruel.
Amaya weakly raised her hand. "Can I call upon my rights as a human being entitled to exemption from cruel and unusual punishment?"
"No."
"As a growing girl in need of food?"
"You have plenty of time to grow."
"Child labor laws?"
"…Labor?"
"…Child abuse?"
"…." He fixed her with a funny look.
"..Hehe…worth a shot…"
"…Okay then…well, you have until high noon." The young man set the alarm clock atop a post and tied the bells off to the side on his belt before turning to face the team with a beaming smile that made the children wonder if he was a mechanical robot that required no sleep or some fanatical coffee addict.
"BEGIN!"
There would have been three 'whooshing' sounds leaving three void spots. If, it had not been three in the morning. Instead, the sudden shout of commencement spooked the kids out of their half-asleep state, causing them to hectically leap away uncontrollably.
To the fault of this as well as the dimness of light, the Jounin winced at the sound of skulls smacking into each other resoundingly in the air. As such, three thuds soon followed.
"…Uuughhh…."
"….Eeeeegghhh…."
"…Loook at all the pweeety staaars…"
"…Sigh…all right, hang on for a second."
Three icepacks later, the trio set out again. This time bounding away with adequate 'whooshing' sounds.
ooo
'This is frustrating…'
Kakashi tightened his abdomen muscles once again to keep the rumbles of his pleading stomach contained as to not give away his position in the tree branches, though he greatly suspected the Jounin likely knew of all their whereabouts anyway.
Darkness, fatigue, hunger: the odds were stacked against them. Fresh out of the academy with such disadvantages against a highly seasoned-well, his sensei looked pretty young, late teens really…-Jounin equaled d-e-a-t-h-h-h-h-h. Okay not death, but all the same it ensured ultimate doom. Then again, he reminded himself that all his objectives were to acquire one bell out of the two. Perhaps the purpose of the test was to use take any shortcomings and use them to one's advantage. Either way, the Jounin would dearly pay.
ooo
'…Huuuungrry…'
He looked quite appetizing. In fact, the man was a standing entrée. And no, that prior, little bonk on the head had certainly not damaged the child's brain. The picture would appear quite comical if one was simply looking in, unknowing of its context: a small girl hunched over and prowling around on her fours in the shrubberies and bushes with a large bag of ice tied atop her head that tipped her balance off while she lurked about.
The girl wore an insane grin showing off her gleaming teeth, light drool dribbling down. Her eyes were wide and glowed eerily with an animalistic, feral sheen. Rather then a dutiful kunoichi set on a mission, Amaya resembled more of a ravenous predator stalking its prey. Where there were hands, she saw dumplings; where there was hair, she saw a scrumptious fried egg yolk. It was only a matter of when to strike.
ooo
'…Mm…sleep…good…' He COULD, he reasoned, he COULD attempt to obtain a bell. He could always plan out what strategies might work and such. He could always try to locate the other two members of his teammates, inform them the true objective of the bell test, and then develop tactics.
The traditional genin test for academy graduates designed as a trial of teamwork and cooperation. But the particular tree branch he lied on was unusually comfy and snug. It was nicely peaceful too. A pleasant change of pace. Hmm…how did that song go? The one with the rocking cradle…and the bough…and the…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
ooo
'..Hmm…interesting..' Indeed, the Jounin knew of all three whereabouts and acknowledged their satisfactory skills in stealth and concealment. Although, he disturbingly mulled over why slight..snoring sounds could be heard from above, why the girl was lowly growling while encircling the perimeter around him, and why the man could make out a clear, spiteful death aura radiating out from the young Hatake.
And then some things happened at once.
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1.) A wet drop of…something that was hopefully not saliva…dripped down from above onto the bridge of his nose.
2.) "Seeeenseei…" The boy tugged the side of the man's pants and looked up with large eyes and started, much to the Jounin's frightened shock and alarm, sniffling and crying. "My head still hurts..reeeeaally baaad…" All of which was said, while the death aura could still distinctly be made out. The kid had a good chance to make it big as a child actor.
3.) "BAAAANZAAAAI!" Tearing through the bushes was the pouncing girl, mouth open wide with clawed hands. The crazed look in her eyes added on to the shock of the man, hence, she met her target and managed to bite then gnaw the top of his head while muttering nonsense involving fried eggs.
4.)"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" The wind had blown, and the bough had broken. And down came baby, flapping arms and all.
--
One large dust cloud arose from the various thuds. There were four sets of swirling eyes: Amaya was still biting into the golden fluff of fried egg goodness, Kakashi was still at his sensei's leg spread eagled face up, Kiyoshi had his tongue out in Dooly fashion with his chin propped up on the man's side. And the Jounin in question laid out sea star style his tongue also out, but flopping out limply to the side.
Kakashi, though, still had some sense left and saw the perfect opportunity to attain a bell. With deliberate caution and slowness, he reached across his sensei to the bells; his heart pumped faster as sweat started to trickle down. And finally, his fingers brushed against the cool metal and encircled around both of the bells-heck, why not get them both-he smirked in confidence and at the thought of the girl tied to a log post.
The bells were now safely in the boy's possession, Kakashi stared at them almost unbelievingly in his hand; it had been too easy. With the others still dazed on the ground, he backed away a distance, still in some shock over the ease of passing the test.
"Eeewww…AAACK! PTOOEY!" Amaya had also regained herself and had seemed to been purged of her predatory trance, though her mouth tasted oddly of herbal essences and tree bark. Of course the latter was likely due to the tree log that was previously in her mouth.
'Subsitution!' Kakashi then looked down to see two acorns in his hand. Cursing, he angrily cast away the useless 'bells' to the ground.
Jingle, jingle.
"I must say, none of the teams really did figure it out. You guys just might really have the great honor of being my first potentially genin team." The grinning man walked towards the children, the bells jingling with each step.
'…Figure—'
'—it out..?'
Amaya and Kakashi stood and tilted their heads to the side while Kiyoshi sighed knowingly.
He smiled and pointed a thumb to himself while patting the bells at his side."But you guys are going to have to work together even harder to get the bells from me."
"…Work together…?—Uumph!" She was elbowed in the side by the dark haired boy before she then enlarged her eyes in understanding. "Oh...ooooooohh…hehehe…of course…work together…"
The three nervously laughed together at their sensei, who was now regretting his words and giving them a dubious stare.
They started sweat dropping even more and proceeded to step closer in a side group hug, arms draped across shoulders, and gave even bigger, psychotic smiles that only gave the man the creeps.
"…Hehe..right, soooo…we have to go and work..on team stuff and all…" The boys nodded along with the girl and together they disappeared from the spot. The Jounin amusingly noted how they had vanished even quicker then him.
ooo
"…Ano…what are you doing?"
"What does it look like."
"Eating ice chips…?"
"Noooo…" Amaya leaned in closer to Kiyoshi waving the piece of ice as if holding the greatest secret in the world. "Eating a piece of sembai…" She held the ice chip majestically high in the air, gazing at it adoringly with feverish eyes. "…A delicious bite of sembai…"
Kiyoshi groaned with a hand to his face. "She's losing it."
"She's been losing it." Kakashi stood off to the side, leaning against a tree and mindlessly fiddling with a kunai with a hand. "Kid, she's mental. Best not to get involved with her."
"No really, I think she's coming down with something, her forehead is too hot." Kakashi looked to observe, as a matter of fact, a pinkish tinge to the girl's face and the clear dizziness in her eyes.
Kiyoshi took off his ice bag and reached inside. "I am a bit thirsty…"
"..Heehee…mmm…yummy sembai…."
Kakashi's stomach growled for seemingly the hundredth time.
Call it the mad delusion of overwhelming hunger, fatigue, and numbness of the brain from the coldness; but she was actually onto something right there...
ooo
He was actually starting to become worried as more time passed by. The sun was already out: 10:00 am. Just where were those kids? The Jounin leaped among the topmost canopies of the trees in the forest, finally catching sight of the group. They were all sprawled out and appeared to be napping; yet they were breathing heavily, a dash of redness on their faces.
Held ice chips were melting in their hands, in accordance to their bags, which were suspiciously open and devoid of any ice. He silently jumped down and lightly pressed a hand against each of their heads.
…Maybe it should had been 5 or 6 in the morning… He frowned uneasily at the thought of the monstrous wrath he would have to face from the medic nins, oi…and the paperwork…even more paperwork…
Yeesh, they were even heavier then they looked. The man made a makeshift sling out of an empty ice bag and cradled the other two in the crook of each arm then took off. Imagine his surprise when all three 'poofed', leaving behind small logs, and reappearing on top of the log posts below.
When the Jounin landed, Kakashi slid off and held out two bells. "We pass."
Amaya tilted forward and harrumphed gleefully while pointing a triumphant finger. "Yeah! Take that Mr. Fried Egg!" Kiyoshi merely looked the other way and smiled in agreement.
"Okay, okay, you guys win." The man waved his hands in front him defensively in a friendly manner.
"If I can only ask how you managed to get the bells though?"
Here Amaya let out a mischievous giggle and grinned slyly. "I'm the number one ninja in sneakiness! …Mmm...and here's your wallet…I thought I smelled mints in it…oh well…and I guess you'll need your shiny house keys too…" The objects were tossed back to the hoodwinked man who could only guess how the girl had got to them.
"Kiyoshi had medic knowledge, and I had the needed power to execute the jutsu of temporary illness, not an illusion; we melted the ice save a few with a katon." Kakashi finished.
"Hmm…I see, quite clever indeed. I commend you all...for an admirable try!" He grinned widely and twirled two chiming bells around a finger, pitching them up once then catching them.
"!"
Their eyes popped out, white and round as plates; their jaws dropping and digging into the soil. Kakashi unsteadily shook while gawking at the familiar sight of two acorns in his hand.
'NOT. AGAIN. …'
He crumbled the pair of acorns into fine dust tightly in a shaking fist, head veins popping out angrily.
"Ah, ah, hey." He nervously sweat dropped and waved his hands in front of him again. Don't worry so much, you guys already pass." It took a while for the three to comprehend the man's words what with large, angry marks popping out at a dangerous rate amongst Kakashi's drawn in head, looking one, tiny poke away from about to strangle something; Amaya kneeling on the ground staring up at the sky with rivers streaming from her eyes as contorted hands asking 'why?' shook at her sides; and Kiyoshi, who had somehow teleported far away from the others, crouching down and dragging a finger in the dirt back and forth in a sulking way as gloomy lines descended upon his head.
"What?-Really?" All three suddenly zipped to stand before their sensei with fervent attention and interest.
"Yes, yes, you guys are the first to truly read 'underneath the underneath'. Teamwork. Working together. While individual advancement is important, teamwork is more significant." They gazed with hesitant and curious consideration of the man's words. Seeing this, the Jounin perceptively closed his eyes and smiled. A cool breeze started blowing and slowly grew stronger, whirling and dancing with their locks of hair. Out of automatic impulse as shinobis, they instinctively caught the falling objects; each opened their hand to reveal an acorn.
"Like acorns, you have yet to be planted and grow into great trees of Konoha. Sunlight, water, earth, and air. Work together as a team, protect each other, and help each other grow." The young intellects fingered their own acorn, reflecting quietly.
—'GRRRRUUUUMBLLE'—
"…Ahahaha…yeah…you guys would be really hungry by now…well, I did promise a treat at Ichiraku's—"
"—YAAAATAAA! FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! YEEEEEESSS! GLORIOUS FOOOOD! SQUEEEEEE!" The girl started prancing around madly and once again had rivers flowing down her face, this time in joy.
"Hahaha, yosh! Then lets go!" The man started off happily and took a few steps before stopping at the sound of crashes. Looking back it seemed that his little genin team had took off only too eagerly before collapsing, the day's exhaustion finally settling in.
"…Ah c'mon" He goaded. "…Oh well..." He sighed in feign. "…looks like I'll just have to eat all of your shares then…" Placing his hands behind his head, the Jounin turned to walk away and was immediately halted by three very serious stares.
" 'eeeeeeeell no."
"What she said."
"…Er…please?..hehe.."
ooo
Holes. He swore those three had black holes in the pits of their stomachs that simply devoured everything that went in.
--
"...Oh...sorry guys...I really would...but sadly I don't have any money left."
"Baloney. You have exactly 15 dollars and 76 cents left. I've been counting." Amaya didn't look up once while saying so.
"..No..really, see...aaaall empty."
"You hid the bills inside your vest pocket on the left side in the far lower corner behind the second inner layer of loose cloth." Kiyoshi quietly slurped his seventh bowl down.
"..."
"Even so. You always have your credit cards." Kakashi ordered another bowl.
--
A thief, a spy, a punk.
Damn kids.
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-(closely rereads acorn bit) Hahahahahahahahaaaa…. (wipes tear) me trying to be all mystically wise and sage like (grows long beard and strokes it sagely)…hmm…yes…hoh-hoh…
-Err yeah…you would kind of notice how I'm skipping over the sensei's name, wow, huh, if you don't who he is by now…(heh, I don't blame ya, I can be pre-tty dense at times, go slow people!)…well, I just don't want to label him with a fanon name. :-P
-For those who are going 'huh?' over "Dooly fashion": GASP, you do not know of Dooly? Hehe. n-n Dooly is a cartoon dinosaur whose trademark is a stuck-out tongue. Image google him or something...
-Sembai: rice cakes
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