Chapter 1
"No, don't do it! Please! The water's too deep! She'll drown!"
"That's the whole point…"
"NO!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!! DADDY!"
"DIE YOU GOD-DAMNED BASTARD!"
"Daddy! Daddy, why is that mean man here? Why is your jacket all red?"
"Run Kaika, run! Don't let him catch you!"
Kaika blinked as sunlight filtered through the white curtains of her apartment's second-floor window. She yawned and stretched, then winced at the blinding whiteness of the walls and ceilings. The hospital had nothing on her apartment. One of the reasons why she hated white with a passion.
She picked out the clothes from closet- a grey hoodie with a dark blue T-shirt under it, zipped up, and dark blue ninja pants, tight but not tight enough to restrict her movement. She slid into a pair of dark blue ninja sandals and tied her newly-acquired headband across her forehead, the best position in her opinion. Around the neck invited a way for the enemy to strangle you; a prospect she shuddered at, and she never really liked the belt option.
She glanced at the mirror, at a flash of shoulder-length black hair and impassive green eyes with no trace of sleepiness. She had nothing against mornings, although she supposed she should have some trouble sleeping, with the dreams. But she could never remember what they were about, just deep water and screaming.
She considered the clan symbol on the arm of her hoodie for a moment- a tilted yellow oval like a halo around a six-pointed shuriken, her clan's signature weapon. The same symbol was on the front of her shirt, and on the side of each of her sandals. She wasn't clan-proud, though, these clothes happened to be the same ones her father wore when he was her age, except for the pants. He had sweatpants. How did she know this? Simple. She had pictures.
Grabbing a quick cup of ramen from the pantry, she waited until it was finished microwaving, then took it out and found a pair of chopsticks. Calmly she walked down the stairs and up the street, ramen in hand.
"HEY YOU! KAIKA-CHAN RIGHT?!" she winced at a loud happy voice behind her and turned to see Naruto,
"GUESS WHAT!? IRUKA GAVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE, AND I PASSED!" he yelled when he caught up, pointing to the hitai-ate around his forehead.
"Calm down. And don't talk so loudly. Ninja are supposed to be quiet and stealthy."
"I CAN'T HELP IT! I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED!" Kaika sighed, "HEY IS THAT RAMEN?! WHAT FLAVOR!? ARE YOU GOING TO FINISH IT?!"
"Yes, chicken, and yes. Now be quiet, please." Naruto calmed down, but Kaika noticed he was skipping. Damn. It would've been amusing if she wasn't a (she admitted to herself) slightly-creepy tomboy, but she was, and to her it was annoying.
'Thank god I live only two blocks away from the Academy.' Kaika thought as she threw the remaining ramen into a trash can inside the school and walked towards Iruka-sensei's classroom. Fortunately Naruto didn't notice the waste of perfectly good ramen, since he was already running down the hall.
Kaika sat in her usual seat, by the window in the third row. Of course that meant she practically had a front-row seat to the drama that was Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. She was watching them, slightly amused, when the guy behind Naruto accidentally pushed him. Then she became VERY amused. Because that's when, lo and behold, Sasuke and Naruto kissed. She would've laughed, but all she did was smirk.
She loved yaoi.
"Is that him? This year's number one rookie?"
"Yes, that's Uchiha Sasuke." The Third Hokage answered as he gazed into the crystal ball.
"He's the last survivor of the Uchiha Clan." A woman with black hair and red eyes commented. Several other men were clustered around the Hokage and his crystal ball. A man with hair that wasn't quite so white or grey as it was silver and a headband that was tilted so that it covered his right eye was a little ways apart from the others. He watched thoughtfully as the scene drifted from Sasuke to Naruto.
"Uzumaki Naruto, eh?" he muttered.
"Yes. He's being the center of attention, as usual…"
"I'm gonna kill you loser!"
"My mouth! It's poisoned!" Then Sasuke noticed Kaika's smirk.
"What're YOU looking at?" Behind him, Naruto was getting beat up by Sakura, Ino, and other assorted Sasuke fangirls.
"Nothing, nothing…say, when were you going to tell your fangirls that you're gay?" He turned red with anger, and seemed to be about to deliver a scathing retort, when Iruka walked in.
"Is that Daibu Kaika, the last Daibu in Konoha?"
"Yes, that's her."
"Have the ANBU managed to figure out why they're being hunted down?
"No. We've searched for twenty years, but there's still nothing."
"Alright, settle down class! As of today, you are all official ninjas. But...
"You are still just genins. It's only going to get harder from here. You will all be in groups of three, where you will complete missions under a Jounin teacher.
'A group of three?'
"I wonder who's going to be in Sasuke's team?" Ino smirked, looking down at Sakura who sat in front of her. Sakura growled inwardly.
"I don't know." 'Me, of course!'
'First, Sakura-chan, then the other will be…um…Kaika-chan? She's sort of nice, I guess…ah, I don't really care, as long as it isn't Sasuke!' Naruto scowled.
"A group of three? That's only going to slow me down." Sasuke muttered. Kaika looked at him curiously out of the corner of her eye, then looked back at Iruka-sensei boredly.
"We've arranged the groups so that the overall abilities are roughly equivalent. I will now announce them." Kaika zoned out as she looked out the window in boredom, until she heard he name.
"Team 7: Daibu Kaika, Naruto Uzumaki, Akari Zuya, and Sasuke Uchiha." Naruto looked confused, while Sasuke and Kaika looked indifferent. Sasuke rested his chin on his hands, while Kaika folded her arms.
"Next, Team 8…"
"I'm the sensei for Team 7, right?" The one-eyed man asked lazily.
"Yes, you are."
"Hah! What a group of misfits you have, Kakashi." A man dressed mostly in green with a bouwl-shaped haircut and huge eyebrows grinned blindingly at him.
"They are a bit strange…" the black-haired woman commented.
"That they may be, Kurenai, but Kakashi's the strongest one among us. He's the best candidate to keep all three of them safe, and keep Sasuke from following his brother's path."
"And the girl? Akari?" Kakashi cut in.
"From the Cloud. An exchange student, the first in decades. We want to keep her safe. If she dies, the Cloud might blame us."
"And then there could be war."
"Yes."
Once the teams were done, Naruto stood up,
"Hey! Why does a genius like me have to be stuck with a loser like Uchiha!" Kaika smirked at the obvious over-exaggeration. Sasuke saw the smirk, and misinterpreted it. He glared at her. She ignored him.
"Naruto…Sasuke was the top student of this class, while you Naruto…were very near the bottom! I already said, the teams were placed so that each member's strengths complimented each others' weaknesses."
"Alright now, class dismissed!" Naruto came up to Kaika.
"Hey! Um, Sasuke's a jerk, and I don't know anyone else on my team, so uh…Can I eat lunch with you?" Kaika looked at him impassively as Naruto rubbed the back of his head.
"I don't eat lunch." Naruto blinked.
"Don't eat lunch!? But ya gotta! I eat ramen every chance I get! C'mon!" With that, Naruto grabbed Kaika's hand and ran towards Ichiraku. Kaika wondered for a moment if they were allowed t at there for lunch, then she wondered if she should try to shake him off, but she shrugged inwardly and allowed him to drag her off.