Author Note: Here it is! On time, even (^^). Feedback is not only appreciated it is very intensely desired. Need to knows of the week, are as followed: I am currently looking for a "beta reader" or an editor, whatever you want to call it. I do already have one but people have commented on the errors still in here. So if anyone is up to the task email me or send me a private message, and we'll work something out. That's all for this week as far as need-to-knows go.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of it's characters

I do own Hakari, her classmates (excluding the Sand Siblings) and her teacher.

Arc One: The Legacy of the Beginning

Episode Two: Courage of the Storms (Part Two)

He was tall, and very lanky. On his head was a mob of black hair, neatly trimmed, but it had several strands sticking up and curled in odd ways. Obviously this man was no good when it came to his hair. (Even though it's obvious he tries.) "Class, your attention please..." He rattled out in a disinterested voice. His name was Mamoru Okamoto; and he was way over qualified for the position.

Hakari was curious why he had this position, with his big brains he could have any job that he wanted, and it he obviously was not happy with this job. He spent most researching rather than actually teaching, not that Hakari was complaining...

"Today is your genin exam," Mamoru-sensei began, "it will be three parts. First, a written exam, and then you will demonstrate the three ninjutsu techniques that are required of all academy students, then there will be a physical test."

Hakari bit her lip, "Ohhhh not good," she thought, "I hate written tests!" She shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Mamoru passed at the tests. He looked at her with his piercing dark blue eyes. "Didn't study Asai?" he asked her. She couldn't help but wonder why she was the only one he referred to by their last name. Hakari turned multiple shades of red, trying to hide her embarrassment she muttered back, "It'll be a piece of cake…" What a lie.

Mamoru-sensei raised an eyebrow and walked on, clearly not believing her. Hakari didn't even believe herself.

Her eyes drifted down to the questions, and froze there, 'If Ninja A is in a fifteen foot tree and Enemy Ninja B is 10 feet away from the tree. How much force will it take to throw a standard sized kunai into his head which is approximately-' She read silently and quickly gave up on understanding the questions. Her eyes widened, "Well how the hell am I supposed to know if I can't even read the question?" she exclaimed mentally. Letting her head sag slightly she mournfully added onto that, "I'm soooooo screwed…."

A cough caught her attention. Gaara, next to her, had let his paper out from under his arm, answers clearly visible, written in thick, bold writing. She pondered for a split second. She shook her head and looked away back at her paper. She was not a cheater.

Though she had to wonder, what possessed Gaara to help her? Was it merely an accident or was it intentional? Gaara never helped anyone because he did not care about anyone but himself. Hakari accepted this as fact, if he showed her anything that looked like kindness it was merely the kindness a child showed his toy, and only because it was his. Gaara had changed so much so fast... She wondered if she did something wrong, or if something had happened. She shrugged it off.

"No fair," she thought, trying not to glare at her friend, "how is he already done?" she muttered flipping ahead in the pamphlet for an answer she could actually answer. Out of the fifty-some questions Hakari was able to answer at least 20 correctly, and five that she may have gotten right but was in no way sure on. Hakari racked her brain for the answers to the rest but kept coming up blank.

Instead of coughing to get her attention, Gaara tried a more direct approach this time. Hakari nearly squealed as sand shot up her back and wrapped around her arms. She found herself writing down the answers to the test slowly as she resisted.

"This is cheating! If I'm caught I'm dead meat!" She thought frantically, but she was unable to struggle too much or inform Gaara in any way to stop. That would alert Mamoru-sensei to what was going on. Not only did Hakari not want to get herself or Gaara into trouble, she was pretty sure that Gaara would kill her if she did, friend or not.

Her eyes, which she still had control over, darted over to Gaara. He appeared to be lazily sitting in his chair, glaring at some poor unsuspecting thing. If he looked like anything, he did not look like he was controlling his friend's body to write down the answers to the genin exams. How could he have such control over his sand and not look like he was doing anything? Hakari found herself brimming with jealousy and slight anger over her situation.

"Eyes on your own paper Asai!" scolded Mamoru-sensei. Hakari would have started if she had control over anything but her head and legs. Gaara, however, did start. Hakari felt sand slitter up at her back so fast it burned and snap her head back on the paper. Now she was unable to even move her own head. She sighed and stared at her paper as she continued to write against her will. Her eyes wandered the page, and the answers she saw made little sense to her. It was strange, Hakari could do the math in her head when she actually had to do the task but writing it on paper was impossible for her. The sand did not hurt her surprisingly, it was rough against her skin but it also had a silky like feel. It was strange and not unpleasant, except when she resisted and it tightened its hold around her body.

Just as she finished writing the last answer the paper was pulled from her hands. At the same time the sand that had been restricting her movements slowly pulled off of her and sneakily returned into Gaara's gourd. Instead of moving on, Mamoru-sensei was looking at her paper. Hakari turned her head from Gaara, whom she had been staring at the moment she had control over her head, to look at him curiously.

"Well, it looks like you did study," Mamoru-sensei remarked in a tone that suggested he knew what had happened. Luckily for Hakari he moved on, not requiring any remark or comment from herself.

Waiting till he was out of hearing range, Hakari then turned her head to Gaara, "What was that?" she hissed in a low tone.

Knowing what she meant, Gaara returned with, "You were going to fail."

Hakari blinked, momentarily stunned, "So…" she stuttered, "You helped me?" It was not in Gaara's nature to actually help people, and even though Hakari was his friend, she had a hard time believing that he would help her for that reason alone. Though Hakari wanted to believe it, she found herself unable to. So stunned was she that she forgot to be insulted at the affront to her intelligence. No matter how true it might be.

If Gaara could laugh, he would have at her expression, "I want you on my team." He remarked. "You're useful, and you listen. Plus I don't thirst for your blood as much as the others."

Hakari blinked, "Um…. I feel insulted for some reason, but I'm going to ignore it…."

Gaara was ignoring her at this point, so her comment fell on deaf ears. Hakari turned her eyes to Mamoru-Sensei.

He was sitting at his desk in the front corner of the class, "Now we begin part two…" he remarked looking up, and he began calling students up.

It was very simple what they were supposed to do. Once the student's name was called they would stand in front of him and perform the three techniques that we were required to pass: Henge no Jutsu, Kawarimi no Jutsu, and Bunshi no Jutsu.

Hakari was one of the first one called up. Unlike the test, Hakari was actually skilled with ninjutsu, "Okay Asai, transform yourself into… Gaara,"

She giggled this would be easy, any other form might have posed a challenge but she knew Gaara like the back of her hand. Making the required sign she transformed in a puff of smoke.

Mamoru-sensei nodded, "Very good…" he said slowly. Then suddenly he hurled an eraser at Hakari. It clocked her in the head and she fell back landing on her, or rather Gaaras' butt.

"What the- why'd you hit me!" Hakari exclaimed. Mamoru-sensei shrugged, "You pass that."

"Huh?"

"You kept your form," Mamoru-sensei exclaimed. Hakari raised an eyebrow wondering if it was necessary to chuck an eraser at her. It must have been comical to see Gaara so animated for the rest of the class; Hakari resumed her real form and got to her feet.

Next was Kawarimi, and Hakari was feeling tense. This jutsu was used to escape near death situations, and her sensei had chucked an eraser at her to test her Henge.

"Ready?" asked Mamoru-sensei. Hakari nodded hesitantly. Before she could blink there was five kunai heading towards her head. She screamed, and then heard the crowd "Aw". Poking her head up from behind the desk she saw an impaled desk chair. Her eyes widened, "You could have killed me!" she screamed comically, pointing her finger accusingly at Mamoru-sensei accusingly.

"But I didn't. And you passed that too," Mamoru-sensei responded with a smirk. Hakari raised her eyebrow again, "He's crazy.." she thought. One of her male class-mates helped her up and Hakari took her spot in front of Mamoru-sensei again.

Next was Bunshi, this one did not require putting her life in danger. It was very easy, Hakari created two other versions of her. After hearing that she passed, and her Sensei grudgingly giving her extra credit for multiple clones, Hakari resumed her seat and waited for her pulse to return to normal.

She watched without really paying attention to the others perform their own tests, dodging stray weapons, performing meanial jutsu, etcetera. Only when Kana, and Gaara and his siblings performed did she really pay attention.

Kana passed easily and without breaking a sweat. Well, Kana made it look easy, whether or not she found it easy, was something that would never be betrayed by her face.

Kankuro passed, but a little more comically then Kana. Temari looked badass even doing the "easy" techniques, she always looked badass- unless she smashing Hakari's head against a desk with her excitement.

Gaara was next and Hakari wondered how Mamoru-sensei would get him to actually do the techniques. With Gaara's sand shield it would be hard for Mamoru-sensei to do his usual, evil tricks.

"Hakari, would come up here?" Mamoru-sensei asked slyly. Unsuspecting of Mamoru-sensei's evil plan, Hakari rose and tromped over. She took her place at his side confused at what his attentions were.

Gaara was starring, with narrowed eyes at Mamoru. Hakari had the strangest feeling that to everyone else she had "Property of Gaara" printed on her forehead.

"Ah!- What the fuck?" Hakari shrieked and kunai being thrust between the fingers of her hand that she had been resting against the table. Gaara's eyes widened ever the slightest.

"I assume this is an incentive?" Mamoru-sensei asked, grinning slightly.

".insane," Hakari stated retracting her hand nervously. Luckily, for Hakari, Gaara performed his jutsus, letting- as much as he could- Mamoru-sensei test him.

The moment Gaara's test was over, sand shot out of his gourd, wrapping itself around her waist pulling her swiftly to her seat. Gaara was already sitting next to her. Hakari felt slightly like a rag doll, developing a sincere regret for how she treated her dolls as a child.

"You know I can wal-" Gaara silenced her with a particularly shriveling glare. Hakari laughed nervously and waited for Gaara to calm down as the last of the students preformed.

Next would be the physical exam, since there were exactly 24 students there would be only one round, and from the evil look on Mamoru-sensei's face he had already drawn up the names.

Hakari, who hated having A as the first letter of her name was the first one called up. Even though she knew Mamoru-sensei would never let her have an easy opponent she was feeling cocky, she had always been the best hand-to-hand fighter in her class.

However her air of arrogance quickly disappeared with a mammoth of a boy approached her, "That's my sparring partner?" Hakari screamed, "Oh of course," she thought, "Even though I'm the smallest kid in class, I'm going to be partnered up with the cave-man! My life sucks."

Hakari found herself just outside the classroom windows, it a ring of ground that had been cleared of sand as much as possible.

"Begin!" Mamoru-sensei declared.

"Why does he hate me?"

The mammoth kid charged her blindly, "Okay good, he's stupid," Hakari determined. She fluidly side stepped him at the last possible moment. Her arms shot out and latched on to his large, muscular arms.

Bending her knees and thrusting with her hip she managed to lift the boy and swing him, mostly using his own momentum. Quickly she released, sending him flying forward, but fly that boy did not. He went more like stumbling forward; looking like he might fall on his knees, but it was enough for Hakari.

Not missing an opportunity to attack the boy, she had the strange feeling his name was Ichi. Ichi, if that was his name, managed to stop his half-fly-half-fall and was recovering his balance, about to whip around and attack her. Hakari, however, took advantage of this momentarily fight with gravity to charge him. At the last second she put her weight on her back leg and snapped her foot up, front kicking him in the chin. Ichi's head snapped up.

Hakari's body kept going back, her hands hit the ground and her second foot crashed into his face sending him flying up. She flipped fully to her feet, her back to Ichi. When Ichi fell back down to earth Hakari kicked again, this time in more of a push-kick.

Ichi hit the ground with a thud. Producing a kunai from her case hanging from her hip Hakari pounced on him, pinning him with her kunai to his neck.

"That was surprisingly easy…" Hakari muttered as the youth glared up at her. She had expected more of a challenge from such a tough looking boy, however, Hakari was small, strong, and fast giving her the upper hand.

"Asai wins." Mamoru-sensei announced, was that disappointment in his voice? Hakari got to her feet and ran to Kana ignoring the twinge in Mamoru-sensei's voice.

"Does that mean I passed?" She asked her friend in hushed tones as the next fight had already started.

"Since you passed all three tests- to my knowledge- I guess so," Kana responded, her eyes trained on the fight.

"Yes!" Hakari squealed and turned to watch the next fight to see who her potential team-mates would be.

Kana was one of the next to go. She was fighting some girl who was bragging about how easy Kana would be to fight. Hakari shrugged. Maybe the old Kana would have been easy, but this Kana did not just roll over to the first person who tried to discourage her.

Kana glared at the girl before her and said in a low voice, "All talk no action… as usual Wren."

The girl's jaw dropped in shock. Hakari knew that she had never been talked to in that tone and did not expect to ever be talked to in that tone. Her eyes hardened even more against the girl, "Kick her ass Kana!" she screamed, pumping a fist in the air, not realizing that her outburst brought all eyes to her petite form.

Kana began by throwing four kunai at Wren. Wren countered perfectly with four of her own, smirking superiorly at Kana. A glare hardened on Kana's reddish eyes. Kana charged making a series of signs and splitting into three. The real Kana crossed over so she was to the right, then middle, then left, then middle again confusing Wren who was preparing to block the attack from the real one.

Her first crashed painfully into Wren's jaw. Wren was knocked off balance by the assault. Kana took advantage of this to send her foot into Wren's stomach. Unfortunately, Wren had the awareness of mind to catch hold of Kana's foot. Wren wrenched Kana's foot to the side and Kana flipped through the air landing on her hands and knees.

Instead of taking advantage of her position over Kana, Wren smiled victoriously and opened her mouth to make a smart remark. Kana stopped that comment right in Wren's throat by digging a kunai into Wren's leg. Wren toppled over cradling her leg in pain, "You bitch!" she screamed as Kana got to her feet.

Kana smirked down at the girl and snap kicked her foot into Wren's face. Wren's upper half went flying back, crashing into the earth, where she seemed to stay her light brown hair masking her face. She seemed to be out cold, but Kana was cautious as always.

Carefully Kana approached the girl, her eyes on her face and hands. As usual, Kana's suspicions were accurate. Wren, in fact, had been faking. This realization came about when Wren suddenly and with lightning speed jerked up attempting to slash Kana's leg. Kana blocked with a kunai of her, with her spare hand she reached into her bag and tossed three shuriken at Wren. Quickly, Wren disengaged to roll out of the way of the assault and onto her feet. Just as she got to her feet, Kana's foot was connecting with her neck. Wren found herself flung back to the ground, Kana's foot guiding the way. There Kana's foot stayed threateningly against Wren's neck. Wren glared up at her with such a burning hate that Kana blinked in surprise. However, it did not matter because…

"Kana wins." Mamoru-sensei announced as Kana resumed her place to Hakari's side.

"WHOOT!" Hakari cheered, jumping up and down for her friend. Kana smiled slightly, covering said smile with her hand.

"You were awesome!"

Eventually Temari and Kankuro went, each defeating their opponent with flying colors. Next up was a blond boy; in fact, it was the boy who had made the tragic mistake of ticking Kana off earlier that day. Hakari could have burst out laughing at the expression on Kana's face. She could not help but pity the poor sucker who would be fighting this boy whom Kana had decided she hated. If he managed to lose against this idiot, Kana would maim him for not "avenging" her honor- or something to that effect. Worse yet, if this perverted boy did happen to win, then there was a chance he could be on one of their teams. Hakari did not like the idea of having this boy on her team, but she would feel very sorry for him if he got on Kana's team- she would kill him the moment their sensei's back was turned.

"Minoru, your opponent will be Jai," Mamoru-sensei said. The boy, Jai, stepped into the "ring".

Minoru, or the pervert as Hakari liked to call him, was the first to attack. He quickly made use the third jutsu they had to learn to become genin and split into three, two of them illusions. These illusions were not well done, you could not see the grass being moved when they walked, just little things like that were obvious to the naked eye. However, Minoru had gotten lucky with a stupid opponent who was easily fooled. Minoru, and his illusions, charged interweaving their movements so Jai lost track of who was who. Each Minoru produced three shuriken and tossed them at Jai while they continued their charge. Jai, utterly confused over which was which simply dived out of the way.

Minoru made a sharp turn and kicked Jai, in the butt, to Hakari's amusement. Jai went flying head of heels and landed on his back, his head to Minoru. Either he was dizzy or stunned because Jai did not get up, not that Minoru waited for it to happen. Minoru raised three more shuriken and threw them at Jai's head. Hakari screamed and covered her eyes, Minoru turned his head to see who was screaming and why, not recognizing her voice. Before Minoru could turn his head back to Jai he found Jai's fist- smashed into his face. Minoru went sprawling onto the ground, Jai hovering over him with a kunai.

Minoru frowned and quickly tripped the boy, tackling him almost comically to the ground. He grabbed Jai's hands and held them above his head, "Surrender or I'll… bite your nose off!" Minoru threatened clumsily.

There was a long awkward silence before Mamoru-sensei announced. "Well… I guess Minoru passes…"

Minoru took his place triumphantly among his peers, while Jai sulked to his spot. The next fight would be a little scarier and hopefully less embarrassing. Gaara was up, and anyone could tell just from glancing at Hakari that even she was uneasy. All eyes were on Mamoru-sensei, to see what child he had doomed to this cruel fate. Mamoru-sensei picked a boy of average height and average weight, nobody special. The boy's name was Akume, and though he was not special, he was not stupid. He took his place in the center of the ring and announced, "I forfeit!" Then ran for his life.

No one blamed him, but they were all curious to see if Gaara would chase after him to get his blood. A quick look from Hakari caused Gaara to take his spot with his uneasy siblings and keep quiet there, not that he was ever unquiet

Besides that minor issue the rest of the sparring went on without a hitch. When it was finished twelve students were left. Mamoru-sensei ordered anyone who lost the sparing match home. It did not seem to matter if you failed any of the other tests as long as you won. Hakari frowned, wondering what the point of the other two tests was.

Everyone went inside and took their seats. Hakari's dark purple eyes scanned the room to see who was left. "The Sand Siblings" had all passed, there was no surprise there. Kana, herself, and that pervert passed as well. Hakari could not help but pity the team that had Minoru on it, his victory had been less then well achieved. Akahana Konoe, whom Hakari spied close to the front of the class her hands folded on top of her desk as she patiently waited to get a team, had also passed.

Akahana was one of the more serious students in the class. She was more mentally mature then more of the students, and was a slight kiss-up and brown-noser. Because of the three glaring facts she was not really friends with anyone in the group. All the girls stuck together of course, excluding Kana and Hakari who stayed on the fringes, but Akahana did not have an particular friends. Two boys, who had also passed, by the names of Bishamon and Chokichi seemed to follow her around, not because they liked her but because she was fun to play tricks on. Hakari knew this first hand.

Bishamon and Chokichi were fast friends. They were the class' clowns, though notorious cowards, they cowered and caved under the stern eyes of anyone and ran at the first sign of trouble. Hakari changed her mind, she would gladly have Minoru on her team over these two jokes.

The only other girl who passed was Hamako. Hakari was not a particular friend of hers, but she did enjoy spending time with her. Hamako was an average student, she paid attention did her work on time and to the average standard. She excelled only with weapons. The girl was cute, sweet, and an overall good person though she could be a loud mouth.

The last two boys that were left of the "passing" class were Danno and Hiroshi. Though not blood related they could have been brothers. Both in appearance and personality they matched perfectly, and they had been joined at the hip (not literally) for as long as Hakari could remember. These boys were not trouble makers, and they were only slightly above average.

Hakari blinked, "We have a very nondescript, unimportant passing class this year," she thought, and she was right. Outside of the sand siblings none of them seemed to bring any attention to themselves.

Mamoru-sensei spoke, breaking Hakari's thoughts, "Team Three will be-"

Merry Thursday,

A.T.C