Gender Bender Naruto: The Series
By: KioKat
Summary: We all know Naruto, the #1 knucklehead, loudmouth ninja, right? Well, what if He had been a She? What if the whole Naruto world had been flipped around? The kunoichi now shinobi and vice versa? Join us on the adventure of a lifetime with Uzumaki Nariko, Konoha's #1, knuckleheaded Kunoichi!
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Chapter 10: Bell Test – Part 2
(Completed: 12-28-09)
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RECAP:
"...You shouldn't underestimate me," Sakaye said, sliding into a battle stance. "I won't be that easy."
"Oh, really now?" Kairi replied, glancing up with a smile. "That's what your blonde friend said."
The dark-haired girl immediately tensed, fists clenching as she glared. "...Don't compare me to her."
Then, she made her move.
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Kairi observed the incapacitated Uchiha before her.
The girl had indeed proven to be a challenge, but she had still been no match for the older jounin's skill and years of experience, and Kairi had managed to top her in the end.
The silver-haired woman shook her head lightly in disbelief. She would have never expected the girl to pull out something like the Grand Fireball Jutsu. Of course, she knew that fire jutsu had been a specialty of the Uchiha clan, and the girl was most certainly an Uchiha, but...
Kairi shook her head once more, sighing softly. The girl had actually become so troublesome that she'd had to knock her unconscious. The young Uchiha had struggled and struggled hard, even when completely immobilized by Kairi's shinobi wire and coated in dirt.
The jounin couldn't help but grin in memory. During the battle, she had ended up introducing the girl to one of her earth jutsu, and needless to say, the preteen had not been thrilled at having a wave of the dark soil dumped upon her.
Though Kairi was surprised by her skill, it still wasn't good enough, she thought. The girl would have to work a lot harder if she wanted to complete that second "ambition" of hers.
The woman stared at the girl for a moment before closing her eyes with a sigh. She stood from the crouched position she had taken by the female Uchiha's body, planning on heading off to read her book, but took pause and glanced back at the young girl.
She observed the genin's bound form and already developed curves, suddenly reminded that there was a preteen boy wandering about. Even if she didn't plan on him waking anytime soon, there was always the chance...
She sighed again and bent down to untie the girl. It wasn't as if the Uchiha was going to be waking up soon either.
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Seiichi staggered through the underbrush, nursing a headache and working to ignore the disgusting aftertaste his earlier expulsion of his stomach contents had caused. The pinket quickly sobered on recalling the memory of what had caused the nausea to rise within him, and his feet came into view as he lowered his gaze, feeling ill again.
After waking and discovering no sign of Sakaye's body or a single trace of blood, Seiichi had slowly come to the realization that he had fallen for a genjutsu. Even now he flushed with shame, remembering the many lessons within the Academy on the illusionary technique, including the entire chapter based around it.
Yet, even as horrifying as the image had been and even knowing that it had been his own stupid mistake that had allowed him to fall victim to such an illusion in the first place, Seiichi couldn't help but feel immensely relieved. He hadn't killed Sakaye. His rash actions hadn't caused her to be bleeding and dying at his feet or given her reason to hate him. He hadn't caused her harm. He hadn't hurt her...
The idea made him ridiculously happy, and the guilt had thankfully faded. Of course, he did feel a twinge, knowing that had that been real it probably would have been his fault, but it hadn't happened and that was all that mattered. Besides, there was no need to worry. If they passed this test, he would never allow her to be harmed like that. No way!
'If you pass...' his Inner muttered.
Seiichi's shoulders slumped at the pessimistic comment.
'Yeah. If...' he thought miserably.
The boy sighed softly, glancing around in the hopes of finding the river he had spied earlier when they had arrived. The taste of bile still lingered in his mouth and he was desperate to be rid of it.
Suddenly, he stopped short, catching sight of a familiar figure sprawled upon the ground. Seeing the girl so soon after the the terrifying vision of her sent his heart leaping to his throat in relief.
Of course, he had figured she wasn't really bloodied and mangled, but to actually see her?
He dropped to the ground beside the female Uchiha, legs crossed. The pink-haired boy braced his elbows upon his knees as he regarded his crush, weary but glad.
Only then did it occur to him that she was unconscious.
Taking note of that fact, he quickly gave her a nervous once over, registering her dirty, tried form. He frowned lightly at the state she was in, the dirt clumped in her hair, the muddied cheeks, the scrapes upon her face and clothing...
Just what had Sensei done to her?
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Nariko snuck about the trees, grinning broadly to herself and suppressing snickers. Oh, she had really pulled the wool over Sensei's eyes!
'Who does she think she is, snaring me in a stupid little trap like that?' Nariko thought gleefully within her mind. 'I'm Uzumaki Nariko, Prankster Extraordinaire! There's no way one little rope can hold me!'
She carefully ignored the fact that it had taken her at least twenty minutes to escape and then another ten when she had fallen for the same trap that had been hidden beneath the first.
The blonde snickered again, reveling in her victory. Kairi probably thought she was still stuck in that silly, little-
Her stomach rumbled loudly, and the blonde's face transformed pitifully as she sniffed and rubbed the cloth-covered skin.
"So... So hungry..." Nariko whimpered, sniffling again as her stomach growled once more.
The genin's grumbly tummy reminded her precisely what the jounin had done the day before to place it in such a painful state. The orange-clad girl's cheeks puffed up angrily at the memory and her face flushed, though whether it was from embarrassment or rage was hard to tell.
That Kairi lady was full of tricks! First with the "No Breakfast" deal, then switching herself out with one of Nariko's own clones—thwarting the short genin's awesome plan in the process—and finally that bell on the ground and the rope? Twice, for that matter?
Nariko growled. "That sneaky, slippery, sly, snarky, slimy-"
The blonde's lengthy alliteration cut off as she came to a sudden halt. She sniffed lightly, mouth instantly watering and stomach rumbling noisily.
Oh, oh! Was that the sweet scent of food on the wind?
The whiskered girl whipped her head to the left, which seemed to be the source of the smell, and found herself face to face with stone. She blinked once to refocus her vision and, ignoring the words inscribed upon the rock face, sent her gaze upwards where the heavenly scent descended from.
She inhaled deeply and swallowed back the saliva that threatened to flood her mouth, quickly clambering up the stone and using the inscriptions as holds for her fingers. The blonde then grasped the edge and pulled herself up, her eyes darting about eagerly as she desperately sought out the food that had brought about such a mouth-watering scent.
Nariko felt absolutely no disappointment when three bento met her cerulean blue orbs, the boxes sitting innocently upon the dark granite.
Slowly, a grin split the girl's face, her eyes sparkling mischievously.
"Lunch."
So engrossed in the bento as she was, the blonde never even noticed the figure behind her until it was far too late...
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"Well, I have to say, I'm rather disappointed."
Shaking her head with a sigh, Kairi carefully observed the three before her.
Seiichi took no notice of her gaze, seemingly immersed in thoughts of his own. A deep frown tugged as his mouth and he appeared... confused, the silver-haired jounin thought. About what she had no idea, but she noted with some measure of interest that as his eyes drifted to the Uchiha, it only increased.
It was Nariko who surprised her the most, though. She was pouting, of course; that came as no shock. Most certainly though, it was her silence that was the most unusual. Kairi may have only known the girl a day and a half at best, but even she could tell it was an uncommon occurrence.
Sakaye ignored all three of them, characteristically quiet though her eyes seemed darker than usual.
Kari sighed through her nose this time. While she was not in any way astonished to note the Uchiha was displeased, she did not seem quite as angry as the jounin had predicted she would be. The older kunoichi quirked an eyebrow. That seemed a bit unusual in itself. From the way the girl had acted when she had spoken of her ambitions, the silver-haired woman would have expected her to be absolutely enraged, but her anger seemed... muted somewhat. Perhaps she was suppressing it to uphold that unaffected façade of hers?
The older woman shrugged to herself, earning an odd look from Seiichi, but she paid no mind to it and proceeded to speak.
"Well, obviously, you three have failed. I instructed you to get a bell by noon or return to the Academy." She eyed them wryly and jingled the bells before them. "Seeing as I still have them both, none of you succeeded..." She paused for a moment as if expecting one of them to speak. When neither of the three did, she groaned softly to herself. "And your silence tells me that it was in more than one way..."
Seiichi jerked at this, startled by her words. "What?" He frowned, suddenly feeling a little irritated. "What do you mean in more than one way? I know we didn't get the bells, but what other way was there to fail?"
Kairi seemed annoyed by his questions and frowned, her single dark eye hardening. "You three really don't get it, do you? You still haven't figured it out. Something so simple, so basic..."
Sakaye jolted slightly and narrowed her eyes at the jounin, as Nariko whipped up her head, attention suddenly caught as well.
"What are you talking about?" the blonde yelled, breaking her silence. "We went after the bells and failed your stupid test! What else is there?"
"Even an Academy student should have recognized the point to this and having just graduated, you should know it best..." Kairi said tensely, apparently angry with their ignorance.
Seiichi continued to grow more and more frustrated with the jounin, shoulders tensing and jaw clenching. He hated not knowing something, and Sensei seemed intent on dragging this out far more than he liked.
"What is it?" he finally growled.
The masked woman snapped her visible eye towards them and remained silent for a moment. Shortly after, her shoulders slumped slightly, and she sighed with irritation.
"Teamwork," she said tersely. "The point to this exercise was Teamwork."
A hush consumed the clearing at the sudden realization, the trio slowly registering the jounin's words within their startled minds. Seiichi and Nariko gaped at her while Sakaye's eyes grew uncharacteristically wide.
"...What?..." the pinket spoke, breaking the quiet and working to process the new development. "But... how? There's only..." He frowned and eyed her suspiciously. "...two bells..."
"I know," Kairi stated. "You were supposed to work together to try and get them both."
Seiichi gritted his teeth. "But there's only two," he repeated. "One of us would have failed anyway! How does that promote teamwork?"
The jounin sighed in annoyance and spoke as if she were explaining something to a small child. "That was to test, even if the circumstances were out of your favor, if you could still put aside your differences and work together. One of you would have had to sacrifice your chance as a genin so that the other two could succeed and move on," she continued, finally glaring at all three of them. "The shinobi world is riddled with situations such as that. There may come a day when you have to sacrifice one person for the good of the other."
The male preteen jerked back at her words, eyes going wide with shock.
"Furthermore," Kairi said, shutting her eyes, "I was unbelievably disappointed with not only your actions, but your performance throughout the entire test."
She turned sharply towards the blonde before her. "Nariko."
The orange-clad girl instantly went stiff.
"From the very beginning, you charged in to the situation without even bothering with stealth or simply staying back to observe me first, which your teammates did and any decent shinobi would know to do," Kairi said coldly.
Nariko flinched.
"Not only that," the woman continued, "you tried to do everything, and I mean everything, yourself. You constantly fell for my traps, acted on impulse, and then tried to sneak the lunch you found away when that time could have been better spent at least making an attempt to come after me. Considering your goal, I would have thought that passing this test would have been a little more important than satisfying your hunger."
The blonde remained quiet as the silver-haired jounin turned to the sole male member of the squad. "Seiichi."
The boy froze and swallowed hard, terrified of what was to come.
Kairi only briefly recalled that the boy had named being lectured or scolded as one of his dislikes before proceeding without pause.
"During the entire test, you focused solely on Sakaye, despite the fact that you knew she could handle herself. Not once did you bother to help Nariko, though you had several chances and could quite easily see that she needed it. Furthermore, you fell not only for my trap as I lectured Nariko, which I could have forgiven, but for the genjutsu as well, something that should have been drilled into your head back at the Academy and something your intellect led me to believe you could have seen through."
Seiichi shifted uncomfortably and looked away, cheeks flushed with shame.
At last, Kairi turned to Sakaye and paused, expression unreadable. She stared quietly for a moment before finally speaking again, suddenly sounding tired and perhaps a little sad.
"Like Nariko, you also trekked out on your own," the jounin said softly. "You were rather impressive in our brief battle—I'll give you points for that—but while you proved yourself to be more adept than your teammates in that aspect, you were worse than them as well..."
Sakaye kept silent and Kairi looked straight at the Uchiha, locking gazes so that her single dark orb met the preteen's own dark eyes. "...You didn't give either of your teammates a single thought and didn't bother to help them once. You treated them as if they weren't even worth your time, as if they were nuisances, something not to be bothered with..." She paused again. "...You treated them as if they were no better than trash."
The dark-haired girl's nostrils flared, but her face flushed just as Seiichi's had, and she looked away.
The silver-haired jounin glanced over them once more, feeling a little angry again. "Had this been a real live situation, your actions could have gotten you killed or worse." Her voice grew firmer and more furious as she went. "Given the circumstances, none of you are even fit to be shinobi, let alone pass this test. If anything, your best bet is to drop from the program completely!"
It was this that made Sakaye snap. Without warning, she charged the older kunoichi, but Kairi just as quickly kicked her away, sending the dark-haired girl skidding across the ground.
"Sakaye-chan!" Seiichi cried, immediately leaping to her side.
The Uchiha merely wheezed in response as she struggled to breathe, the attack having knocked the wind from her lungs.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" Nariko screamed furiously as she struggled against her bonds.
Kairi merely leveled Sakaye with a blank stare. "A shinobi should know better than to let their emotions get the best of them..." she said calmly, though internally she couldn't help but note that this was the anger she had originally expected, and thus, the girl must have been suppressing it after all.
Sakaye regained her breath and, in humiliated anger, tore herself from Seiichi to slowly return to her place beside Nariko, eyes locked on the ground.
The pink-haired boy followed her lead after a moment's hesitation, sparing Kairi a heated glare, before proceeding to give Sakaye a look of concern.
Kairi shook her head. "This just proves that I was right. None of you are cut out to be ninja. In fact, I should recommend to the Hokage you be completely dropped as potential shinobi..."
Nariko tensed and shook lightly, lips pressed together and face tight with both anger and what looked like an attempt to force back tears. Seiichi dropped his head, hands fisted in the dirt as he struggled with himself against some action or other. Whether it was the urge to hit Kairi or tears as well, the jounin wasn't sure. Sakaye simply stared numbly at the ground, expression blank and body still.
The silence stretched on for what seemed like an eternity and the overwrought, helpless aura about the clearing was almost suffocating.
After a long, long moment though, Kairi finally sighed and crossed her arms. "But... I'm going to give you a second chance."
Three shocked pairs of eyes snapped towards her.
"Wh-What?" Nariko spoke, hope blossoming within her chest. "Really? You mean it?"
The jounin nodded once and the blonde screamed happily, bouncing with unbridled joy. Seiichi looked stunned, his shoulders falling slightly as he tried to process what had happened. Sakaye merely stared off into the distance, eyes surprisingly wide even as a smirk tugged at her lips.
After a quick celebration, Nariko opened her mouth, most likely to thank the woman.
However, Kairi lifted a hand to stop her. "Not so fast." Her single eye flashed. "I need to explain first..."
The whiskered girl's face transformed in confusion, Sakaye's eyes narrowed warily, and Seiichi's stomach turned uneasily.
"Explain?..." the boy muttered nervously.
Kairi merely smiled. "Oh, yes. You see, there's one little catch..."
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Grrrwwlll...
Nariko hunched her shoulders, trying to ignore her growling midsection. Shifting against the ropes that bound her to the training post, the blonde grimaced, helpless to alleviate the hunger that ached within her.
Seiichi glanced at her as he slowly consumed his lunch, something his own stomach greatly thanked him for.
Sensei had informed them that, though she was giving them a second chance and a lunch break, Nariko was not allowed any food since she had tried to sneak a taste of it earlier. Even more so, if either he or Sakaye tried to feed the girl, the second chance would become invalid and they would immediately fail, thus causing all three of them to lose their opportunity to become genin.
The pinket had briefly wondered if she meant this one time or for the rest of their lives, but the jounin had vanished before he'd had a chance to ask.
All the same, it didn't matter either way. Seiichi knew better than to break the rules, especially this one when their career as genin were most likely on the line.
Nariko's stomach growled again, and the pink-haired boy noted that he wasn't the only one eying the blonde. He blinked and frowned at the Uchiha from the edge of his peripheral vision. If he didn't know any better, he'd say the girl almost seemed... troubled. He watched her frown lightly and look down at her bento before darting her gaze towards the short genin again.
Eyes widening slightly, Seiichi stiffened. Was it possible? Could she actually be contemplating... He tightened his grip on his chopsticks. No way, Sakaye had heard what Sensei had said. She knew what would happen if she attempted to do something like that.
But what was he thinking? She would never consider doing such a thing. He knew Sakaye better than that. She wouldn't actually–
"Here."
Seiichi gaped at the dark-haired girl as she jabbed her lunch towards their orange-clad teammate with a sigh.
Nariko's mouth dropped open at the action. "Eh? Eh? Wh-what are you doing?"
Sakaye glared at the blonde, annoyed by the question. "Giving you my lunch. What do you think?" She glanced about the clearing. "I've already eaten half of it and that should be enough to keep up my strength for the second test. Besides, Kairi's nowhere in sight. She'll never have to know."
The sole male genin stared at his crush in disbelief. "But Sakaye-chan... If she catches you..." He paused and let the sentence trail off.
"We may never be able to become genin..."
The unspoken phrase hung within the air.
"...I know that," she said after a moment of silence, "but we're never going to be able to get those bells if one of us runs on an empty stomach. It will affect our teamwork if Nariko is more focused on food than the test."
The blonde flushed at that and went on to declare that she could go without lunch and would be able to concentrate just fine, grumbly tummy or not.
As she spoke, Seiichi remained quiet, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Why was Sakaye doing this? It seemed completely out of character for the dark-haired girl. She knew the consequences of feeding Nariko and he knew how much she wanted to pass, so what could have...?
"...You didn't give either of your teammates a single thought..."
"...You treated them as if they were no better than trash."
Seiichi's eyes grew wide once more as he glanced over at the scowling girl, the blonde still stubbornly protesting her teammate's actions.
Perhaps... Had she taken Kairi's words to heart? He stared mutely at her as the gears in his mind turned.
"Not once did you bother to help Nariko, though you had several chances and could quite easily see that she needed it..."
Seiichi tightened his grip on his bento, hunching his shoulders and grimacing as his face grew red with shame once more. He turned his gaze down to his lunch and hesitated as he thought the matter over within his mind.
He really hadn't had the chance to apologize the day before like he had been planning to and this was a great chance to get it off his chest...
The male genin sighed deeply through his nose and, with all his will power, shoved the lunch at Nariko.
"Here!" he forced out.
The blonde blinked, almost as startled to see him offer his lunch as she had been with Sakaye. However, instead of shouting at him as she had with the Uchiha, she looked up, her eyes gone wide, as if trying to decide whether he really was offering the box to her or not.
Seiichi just held his position, praying she would quickly take it and end the moment as his cheeks flushed lightly for not the first time that day, though for once it was from embarrassment rather than shame.
After a moment, Nariko seemed to decide it was real, and with a hard swallow, she blushed, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes even as she smiled. A warm feeling bubbled up within the blue-eyed preteen as her throat closed up.
"S-Seiichi-kun..." she managed out, sniffling helplessly.
The added wetness and emotional gesture only served to make the boy uncomfortable, and he jabbed the bento at her again.
"Just hurry up and eat it!" Seiichi urged, annoyance merging with the embarrassment as he looked around anxiously. "Sensei's going to be back any minute now! If she catches us, then none of us will have a chance at passing!"
Nariko sniffled once more. "But I can't, Seiichi-kun..." the girl choked.
The pinket turned to give her an irritated look.
"Yes, you can! I don't mind! Really, I'm not that hungry anyway. I had a big dinner last night..." he lied, ignoring the faint rumbling of his stomach in favor of having the girl simply take the box.
The blonde shook her head. "No! I mean, I really can't. My arms are tied, and I can't get them loose to eat!" She squirmed, wiggling the limbs for emphasis, but the ropes held tight and Nariko remained bound to the stump.
Seiichi's shoulders slumped as he gave her a disgruntled look. "Oh..." He glanced down at his lunch before eying his teammate reluctantly. Scanning the training grounds one last time, he moaned softly and stood up.
Nariko blinked at him and tilted her head curiously, wondering what he meant to do. At that same moment, a mouthful of rice shoved itself between her lips, and the preteen choked, coughing at the sudden intrusion.
"Shhhh!" Seiichi hissed, another clump of the white grains held within his chopsticks. "Sensei will hear you and then we'll definitely fail for sure, so just... eat it!" He said this while thrusting the rice cluster into her open mouth.
A little more prepared for the unexpected feeding, Nariko gladly took it and swallowed, her stomach accepting the food happily.
"Seiichi-kun, th-"
The blonde cut off as an umeboshi made its way through her lips and onto her tongue.
"Thank me later!" Seiichi said, voice soft but urgent. His eyes darted about the area nervously. "If you don't hurry up already, then Sensei-!"
Smoke exploded before them and the trio cried out in surprise as the silver-haired jounin burst out from within. "You three!"
Seiichi stared up at her, eyes wide and arms crossed in front of him as sweat dribbled down his brow, face paling drastically.
"How dare you..." the woman growled out, raking her gaze across the genin before her.
Nariko gaped at her, eyes bulging as she frantically struggled against the ropes that bound her, babbling fearfully.
"I gave you explicit instructions..." Kairi said, single dark orb narrowed, bringing back to mind the frightening visage the older kunoichi had introduced them to earlier.
Sakaye crouched on the ground in a defensive stance, eyes mere slits though a trickle of sweat slid down her cheek as the only hint to the fear she truly felt.
"And you completely disregarded them," the silver-haired woman stated. "And for that... you three..."
The genin stared at her; one panicked, one terrified, and one as unreadable as ever.
After a long, tense moment, Kairi suddenly smiled, eye sliding shut cheerfully.
"...Pass~!" she chirped.
A pregnant pause reigned over the clearing as the jounin's words registered within the minds of her students.
"...What?" Seiichi whispered, eyes round with shock and disbelief.
Their teacher's grin widened as she placed her hands on her hips. "Just as I said: you pass."
Nariko gawked at her. "Wait a minute! You're serious? We..."
The woman nodded. "Mm-hm. Congratulations."
The female Uchiha stared at her, eyes having gone wide as well, a strange change from her usual expression, but it swiftly morphed into a light smirk as she closed her eyes and relaxed her stance. "Hn... So, you were testing us..."
Seiichi jerked slightly at the revelation. "Hold on a second! You mean, that whole deal with telling us not to feed Nariko...?"
Kairi nodded again. "Exactly." She straightened and crossed her arms, looking down at the three.
"Shinobi who don't obey the rules are trash," she said softly, "but those who don't help their comrades?... They are even worse than that."
The jounin grew silent for a moment, swept up in memory of the one who had first recited that line.
Kairi sighed quietly within her mind. 'Oh, Okimi, I wish I would've listened...' She smiled wryly. 'You never did cease to amaze me. When did you get so wise?'
Returning to the present, she glanced over her students; from Seiichi, who was suddenly grinning with relief; to Nariko, who on finally catching up with the meaning was grinning just as broadly and practically bouncing with excitement as she cheered; and then to Sakaye, who sat on the ground, eyes shut and smirking, though there was a soft undertone that belay the relief that nearly matched Seiichi's.
'They... remind me so much of us...' she murmured softly within her mind. Smiling gently, she placed a hand upon the dark stone beside her and traced the inscriptions sadly.
Unsurprisingly, the female Uchiha's eyes darkened slightly on recognizing the stone for what it was, but Kairi's eye narrowed slightly on noting the pair of olive green orbs that grew wide on catching sight of the monument, a strange recognition flashing through the male genin's gaze. His grin faded, and for a moment, his expression became unreadable.
Yet before the female jounin could analyze it and determine the emotion, Nariko turned to her new teammate, still babbling excitedly on and on about their success, and the look vanished, his face returning to its original happy state.
The silver-haired woman observed him mutely, tilting her head to one side curiously.
Well, that was interesting.
When reading up on potential students or squad mates—something any good shinobi was sure to do, jounin sensei or not—Kairi always made sure to take note of things such as name, skills, comments made on their strengths and weaknesses, and other such things she deemed important. Sometimes, if she thought it necessary, she would also go over their background, but that was an uncommon occurrence and it did not happen often.
In the case of these three, she certainly hadn't thought to do so. The Uchiha Tragedy was common knowledge among shinobi, most everyone knew the story behind the Kyuubi child, and as far as Kairi knew, the Haruno were not of shinobi descent. Thus, other than Seiichi's intelligence and unusual hair color, there was nothing significantly special about the boy's background...
"And my dreams... Well, I do have this one..."
The jounin frowned lightly at the memory.
"But it's kinda personal..."
She blinked once and gave the boy another inquisitive glance. Perhaps she might give his background a once over or two...
"Kairi, these children... they're special cases, diverse from their classmates in their own way. Each has their own baggage to carry and it's going to be up to you to guide them..."
Her gaze drifted over the trio and a faintly-weary smile tugged at her lips. Make that three backgrounds.
But that thought was for another time, one either far in the future or soon to come. Either way, it didn't matter. Right now she would let them celebrate while she contemplated the fact that the Third had been correct. These three were different. After all...
They had just made her accept her first genin squad.
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Fun Facts:
– Again, I am so creative with chapter titles, and again, it fits, doesn't it?
– The girl had indeed proven to be a challenge, but she had still been no match for the older jounin's skill and years of experience, and Kairi had managed to top her in the end.
This line sounds very wrong when taken out of context.
– This is the second time Nariko has ever been bound up like that with rope. The first had been in Chapter Two when Izumi did the same. Interestingly, though not necessarily surprisingly, both were done by teachers.
– A large portion of this chapter, starting with Seiichi's decision to offer his food to the end was written before the actual chapter had been started.
– I toyed with the idea of Seiichi being tied to the stump instead, but ended up tossing it and sticking with Nariko because I needed Seiichi to address the apology issue, brought up in Chapter 8, in this Arc. The Seiichi being bound idea was inspired by a fanfic called Kunoichi Sacchin, if I recall correctly, in which Sasuke, who is actually female, masquerades as a boy. Naruto is the only one to know of her gender, leading him to make a comment during the bell test, when he is bound to the stump, on Kakashi being sexist, which I briefly considered with Seiichi. Unfortunately, however, the fanfic appears to have been taken down, which disappoints me.
– Okimi, our female Obito, is the third person, after Seiichi and Ikuo, to have her name mentioned in a chapter before and separate from when she is first seen, which will be a very, very long while from now...
– Sakaye reminds Kairi uncomfortably of herself when she was young, explaining why she addresses her last both in the introductions and the recent scoldings.