- Scroll V -
- Team Scarecrow -
She'd eaten at the canteen many times during break at the academy, occasionally with some of the more talkative girls who invited her, or with the audacious boys who approached her and sometimes begged for her to accompany them. But most of the time she came alone.
Her favorite was the oyakodon, and the toasted rice-husk tea that came free with it.
Koyuki plopped down wearily on the bench, stretching out her limbs and then crossing her arms in front of her chest, cringing at the ache that was working the nerves in her stomach.
Her arms still didn't have the fluidity of normal movement.
That Neji.
"What would you like dear?" the waitress asked.
The girl looked up sideways and saw the waitress with a bright pink bandana tied to her head, a stained white apron laced around her bulging waist. She was staring at Koyuki expectantly. Her beady eyes unnoticeably planted into the scowl that was her face.
"The oyakodon, and the rice-husk tea." She muttered automatically, tucking her small fingers under her chin as she eyed the blades of grass dancing along the distance.
For a few moments, the Mikoto stayed that way, hands twined under the chin, her contrastingly violet eyes observing the surroundings keenly.
A movement to her left distracted her and she glanced sideways to see the waitress hovering near her table. She'd just set down two steaming bowls of rice with barbecued chicken for another couple adjacent to her. The waitresses scowl had disappeared and she had a lingering smile as she tucked the yellowed paper-pad into her apron pocket and moved away.
Koyuki slipped into deep thought.
In fact, the girl didn't bother looking up when her rice-husk tea was served in front of her. With a sigh she lifted the steaming cup of tea into her hands and tilted it to her mouth.
"Here you go dear."
The steamy dish of chicken and rice with eggs was placed in front of Koyuki, and she set down her cup. Koyuki grabbed a pair of chopsticks and began to eat. The warmth of it brought goose bumps to her skin and she mutely studied the swirl of steam that rose from the bowl.
To her surprise, she wasn't that hungry. By afternoon, her appetite was comparable to Naruto's lust for ramen at Ichiraku's.
It occurred to Koyuki that she was still upset, emotionally, about the sharingan situation with Asuma. She forced herself to taper down the distress inside her, felt the familiar retreat of energy that signaled the beginnings of a slight headache.
She ignored the ache and ate the rest of her meal. After drinking the rest of her tea, she slipped a paper bill on the table, along with a small tip, and left the canteen, walking back to the academy.
She turned towards the street that led to the academy and saw the pink-haired kunoichi sitting on a concrete bench, her bento box left uneaten.
"Hmm, Sakura?" Koyuki called her name.
For a while, her face was hidden behind fine, silken strawberry strands. And then she slowly raised her head, eyes big and green.
"Oh, Koyuki, what is it?" She said. Her voice was faint.
"You look upset about something, what's wrong?" Koyuki asked.
"Nothing really, it's just..." Sakura's voice trailed off, and she laced her fingers together.
"Just...?" Koyuki commiserated, still urging the girl to continue. She sat down next to her.
Now, finally Sakura looked up at Koyuki. There was a slight change in her features.
"Do you find me annoying?"
Koyuki said nothing for a moment, and a lock of her hair slid towards her cheek.
"Sakura," She was staring at her now. "What are you talking about?"
"Earlier, before you came... Sasuke passed by, and I said something about Naruto..." Sakura began, and her eyes cradled with hesitance.
Something twisted in Koyuki's gut, and she narrowed her eyes at Sakura. "What about Naruto?" She asked quietly.
"I said he was badly brought up because he never had any parents, that he was completely selfish. I envied him being alone, not having parents to nag at you all the time." Her voice fell away, and she finally found the guts to look at Koyuki.
Koyuki was fuming now.
This almost shattered her containment, and her anger flared for a second. Sakura was pushing all the wrong buttons.
"I see..." Koyuki said slowly. Her hands were balling into fists on her thighs. Her face looked at Sakura's, suddenly as unemotional as ever, betraying the seething temperament that was threatening to take her over.
Sakura's eyes flinched and then slowly traveled towards the floor, a hand moved up to clutch at her arm and she seemed at a loss for words.
"I understand why you would say such things, Sakura." Koyuki started to say, all traces of anger gone.
She continued, "You have a mother and father, a family to love you, to encourage you. Naruto doesn't. He has been completely alone ever since the day he was born. He grew up without his parents, no one in the entire village to care about him, nothing. That's why he pulls pranks, gets into trouble, so people will acknowledge his existence."
Koyuki paused, her amethyst eyes sweeping over her startled deep green eyes.
"In fact, Sakura, you are the only person on the team who still has a family. Sasuke and I, we don't have a family, not anymore."
Sakura appeared unsure for a moment, almost ashamed. "I... I didn't know."
"It's okay Sakura, I'm not angry at you." She said, disarming Sakura with one of her rare, small smiles. "Just promise me to give Naruto a chance, be nicer to him, he'll surprise you."
Sakura gave her a crack of a smile, and nodded. "Okay."
"Good," Koyuki said, lifting herself off the bench. "Shall we?"
Sakura nodded. "Yeah."
And with that, Koyuki and Sakura turned away from the bench and continued walking towards the academy.
"Naruto, will you cut it out?"
Koyuki blinked. Sakura's voice had disturbed her. Her forehead furrowed, and she buried her nose into her folded arm.
One eye peered out from behind her hair. Her eyes gazed to the clock that hung on the wall. Apparently, it has been an hour since the other teams have been selected by their jonin instructors.
Team Seven was the only one left in the classroom.
Naruto stood by the classroom door, protruding his head out, irritatingly searching for their late sensei. Sakura leaned against the first row in front of the classroom, arms folded across her chest.
Sasuke, as usual, sat at a spot furthest away from the noisy blonde and the clingy girl, near the large window. Koyuki chose to sit in the first seat next to the steps the lead to the higher rows behind her.
Naruto plucked his head from the door and turned to face his teammates.
"Why are we the only squad whose sensei hasn't shown up yet!?" Naruto said. He narrowed his blue eyes into tiny slits, and crossed his arms. "All the other teams had already gone off with their teachers. Even Iruka-sensei's gone!"
Sakura sighed, "We know, okay?"
Then, as if an imaginary light bulb flashed on in his mind, Naruto's mouth curled into a mischievous grin. Moving across the room, he dragged a four-legged stool to the shoji doors, blackboad eraser in hand.
Sakura spoke, "Hey, what are you doing?" She pushed herself off the table and walked over to Naruto while he stood on the stool and placed the chalkboard eraser between the shoji door entrance, chortling to himself. He turns around, jumps off the stool and plasters on a wide grin.
"It's what he get's for being late!"
"Naruto..." Beside him, Sakura scowled, placing her hands on her hips. "I want no part of it."
Koyuki smirked as she sat upright and stretched her arms over her head. Koyuki could see through Sakura's facade, she knew the pink-haired kunoichi still held a soft spot for Naruto's childish and even innocent pranks.
To Koyuki's left, she heard Sasuke sneer, "No way could a superior shinobi would fall for a trap as obvious as that."
"Yeah, Sasuke's right! You're so immature Naruto!" Sakura always agreed with him. If he had spoken with conviction that pigs could fly... she wouldn't have hesitated to back him up.
Koyuki's mouth twisted in a slight smirk as she spoke, "Oh, come now Sakura. You don't think it would be hilarious to see a upper class shinobi get pranked by Naruto? I certainly do."
The blonde raised his head and gave a wide, candid grin as he pushed his hands behind his head.
"See? Even Koyuki-chan thinks it's fun!" The fox-whiskered boy said, eyes glinting.
Koyuki just smiled as Sasuke and Sakura sighed under there breath. Then all went silent in anticipation as footsteps were heard outside the door. All eyes were on the entrance as a fingerless black glove gripped the handle. A vertical clump of silver hair is what Koyuki first noticed as the door slid open, and her heart skipped a beat.
No, it couldn't be...
And yet it was. Now, the man was fully exposed to reveal that her permament sensei was, indeed, Hatake Kakashi. He was considered one of the best in Konoha, one of the elite — as they say, and ever since his days as a young boy, his sensei — the Fourth, Konoha's Yellow Flash, had been keeping him at the academy, busy with high-ranking missions and training with highly-skilled shinobi, forever enhancing his ability.
Koyuki let out a breath of discontent.
I should've known... I bet the Hokage and the rest of the council had something to do with this.
Koyuki was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard Naruto's obnoxious laughter, and she realized that the eraser had fallen on top Kakashi's head, leaving a cloud of chalk dust that dissipated just as quickly as it dropped to the floor with an audible clunk!
"Got'cha! He totally fell for it!" Naruto said, pointing and laughing at the gullible sensei.
"I'm sorry, sensei. I tried to stop him, but Naruto..." Sakura's voice faltered. In fact, her forehead was wrinkled in an apologetic manner, and she had her hands defensively curled close to her chest.
A posture, Koyuki thought, that was reserved for whenever she was stressed.
But Koyuki knew on the inside, she was jumping for joy.
Sasuke just looked at Kakashi apathetically, questioning if the gray-haired man's elite status was worth taking seriously, even Koyuki was somewhat baffled. Anyone could've dodged such a simple prank.
Koyuki turned her gaze towards Kakashi and watched as he bent forward to pick up the fallen eraser.
"Hmm, how shall I put this? Based on my first impression, I'd have to say..." Came Kakashi's lazy drawl, before he curled a hand underneath his chin, his visible eye curled into what looked like a smile.
"You're a bunch of idiots."
At this, everyone, including Sasuke, sweat-dropped.
"Oh, except for Koyuki-san, of course." Kakashi corrected, his eye crinkled charmingly as he looked at her. Koyuki formed a small smile on her lips. Typical Kakashi.
The pepper-haired jonin led his newly acquired team up to the terraced roof of the Academy building. Kakashi sat on the short railing, arm-crossed, while the four genin sat on the elongated steps in front of him.
His visible eye swept over the four young children in front of him. To his far left was Haruno Sakura, noted to be an honor student at the Academy, and even to this day, Sakura's scholastic intelligence is hardly rivalled by any of her peers. Despite this, however, she became more interested in her looks as opposed to practising her ninja skills. Thus, comes off as self-centered, and was solely focused on herself and developing a relationship with Sasuke.
Which brings him to the next genin sitting next to the pink-haired girl, was the renowned Uchiha Sasuke. Last of the clan, along with his brother. Scoring second highest in the performance tests and one of the highest in written tests, he easily graduated at the top percentage of his Academy class, coinciding with Koyuki. Sasuke has great knowledge if not proficiency in many of his clan's techniques, despite his lack of formal training by relying solely on his innate talent and determination. Although, he has displayed both a superiority and an inferiority complex. This attitude affected his grades in the Academy after losing his clan, he had the lowest score in cooperation and second lowest in assertiveness.
Next to him, was Mikoto Koyuki. Acquiring both the Uchiha and Mikoto bloodline abilities, Koyuki is hailed as a brilliant kunoichi, even by the battle-adept Mikoto clan's standards, showing an undeniable prodigious talent and keen intellect to excel at all that she does. From this, she found little difficulty in more challenging tasks as seen during her time in the Academy. Koyuki could've easily graduated from a much earlier age, but unfortunately, she has refused the offer many times and neglected to give a reason for staying behind.
Kakashi pondered about this for years, and has come to realize that Koyuki stayed in the Academy for Sasuke and Naruto's sake, she didn't wanted to leave them in their withering solitude and unhappiness. She always wanted to be by their sides.
Lastly, to the left of Koyuki, was Uzumaki Naruto. Current jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. A relatively naive, simple, and slow to understand knuckle-headed child. Despite his age, he held a massive reserve of exceptionally strong chakra, no doubt with the help of the tailed beast inside him. The Hokage specifically gave Kakashi the task of overseeing his progress and keeping the Nail-Tails at bay, if needed.
Kakashi let out a small, unnoticeable sigh underneath his mask. What has he gotten himself into?
He straightened himself, and began speaking, "Now, I'd like you to tell us a little about yourselves."
The pink-haired kunoichi asked, "Like what?"
Kakashi shrugged, and said, "Dreams, ambitions, hobbies. Things like that."
Naruto insisted at the grey-haired sensei, "Help us out here, sensei. You go first, show us how it's done."
Sakura agreed with him, "That's right. After all, you're a complete stranger to us... a mystery."
Kakashi spoke in a disinterested tone to the group, "Oh... me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I'm the kind of person who doesn't feel like talking about his like and dislikes. My dreams for the future are none of your business. As for hobbies? I have lots of hobbies."
Sakura whispered, "He said a lot, but all we really learned was him name."
Koyuki dipped her head in approval. Sakura was right, even the Mikoto barely knew anything about her sensei and longtime friend and mentor.
Kakashi turned his eye to Naruto, and said, "Okay, now it's your turn. Starting with you on the right."
Naruto's eyes glinted as he adjusted his headband, "Me? Yosh! My name is Uzumaki Naruto! What I like is instant cup ramen, what I like even better is when Iruka-sensei treats me to ramen at Ichiraku's! What I hate is the three minute wait after I pour in the boiling water,"
The lazy-looking ninja gave Naruto a blank stare, it appears that he has nothing more on his mind than ramen.
Naruto added with certainty, "And my dream is to one day become the greatest Hokage! Then the villagers will have to acknowledge my existence at last!"
After the brief shock, the jōnin smiled under his mask at whiskered boy's words.
"My hobbies are... pranks and practical jokes, I guess." He finished.
Kakashi scratched his head as he turned one lazy eye to the next genin in line, namely the Mikoto. "Next, Koyuki-san."
Koyuki's gaze flickered up at the call of her name, and she began speaking, "My name is Mikoto Koyuki. There are a few things I like; longs walks, training, those sort of things... and there are many things I dislike, but above all, I despise injustice and solitude. As for my dream..."
The wind whipped through her hair, grazing along her cheek. So looked up towards the sky with certainty in her eyes, and said, "To avenge my clan's massacre, bring justice to man who took my life away, and finally bring peace to my heart."
A hushed, awed silence ensued, and the team focused their attention on the girl with amethyst irises. To her right, Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly as he studied her, fathomed by her response.
"Wow Koyuki, that was deep. I never knew that about you." The orange-clad ninja said suddenly, breaking the tension in the air.
Sasuke looked at Koyuki as her expression changed, and her eyes traveled towards the blonde.
"Yes, well, you never asked." She answered bluntly, crinkling her eyes in a small smile.
Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but Kakashi cleared his throat, cutting him off, "Next!"
The boy tucked his hands in his usual prayer clasp over his mouth, and he looked indifferently as he spoke, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are plenty of things that I hate, but I don't see that it matters, considering there is almost nothing I do like. It seems pointless to talk about "dreams"… that's just a word…"
His indifferent gaze became hard, piercing through the strands of hair falling over his headband, "… but what I do have is determination. I plan to restore my clan, and there's someone I have sworn to kill."
Koyuki already knew this, but hearing it caused her skin, the nerves underneath, to shiver like fine needles.
It was his voice - that suave, solid tenor that reminded Koyuki of powerful sharks gliding sleekly in crystal water.
His quick eyes caught hers, the moment was ephemeral, and instantaneously she knew thoughts were running through his mind.
Sasuke-kun… do not worry. You are suffering just like me, I won't let you endure this pain alone. The girl thought with certainty as she watched the gray depths of his eyes shift as he focused his attention to the trees.
"And finally, the young lady at the end." the gray-haired jonin murmured, breaking the sudden gap of silence.
The girl had a healthy blush that tinged the top of her cheeks, and she appeared almost nervous as she said, "I am Haruno Sakura. My favorite thing is… well, it's not a thing, it's a person. A boy… and that boy is… uh, let's move on to my dream."
The pink-haired girl glanced at the boy beside her, and pressed her lips to her curled fists as she let out a muffled squeal, Kakashi suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.
Then Sakura exclaimed with obvious distaste, "I hate Naruto!"
The crest-fallen look on Naruto's face was unnoticed as she continued lightheartedly, "My hobbies are…"
At this point, Kakashi couldn't help but wonder if Sakura only joined the academy in hopes of developing a relationship with the raved-haired boy.
And before the girl could speak another word, Kakashi butted in with firm authority, "Enough. I believe we all understand one another. Formal training begins tomorrow."
Naruto raised his hand to his forehead while forming a salute, and spoke with excitement, "Yes sir! What will our duties be? Our first real shinobi mission!"
Kakashi continued, "Our first project involves only the members of this squad."
Naruto could barely suppress his enthusiasm, he leaned his body forward and insisted, "Well, what is it?"
"Survival exercises." came Kakashi's lazy drawl.
"Huh? Survival exercises?" The blonde ninja's eyes were narrow once again as he questioned with genuine confusion.
"But why would that be a mission? Our academy days were full of survival training." Sakura also pondered. Koyuki, as well, began to wonder what Kakashi had in store for them.
"But you'll have to survive… against me. It won't be your typical practice." The jonin spoke slowly.
"Well then, what kind of practice will it be?" Naruto urged.
The teacher's eye seemed to close as he stifled a low chuckle.
Koyuki's mouth twitched and her mouth lowered as she gazed at her sensei wordlessly, wondering. What are you planning Kakashi…?
"What are you laughing about, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked with a slight air of annoyance.
Kakashi's eye was curved into its reassuring, cheerfulness as he waved his hand in front of him, "Oh, nothing. It's just that if I told you, you'd chicken out."
"Chicken out? Why!?" Naruto demanded.
Kakashi raised his hand to his face, looking through his parted fingers with a focused gaze, "Out of the twenty-eight members of your graduating class, only ten will actually be accepted as junior-level shinobi. The other eighteen must go back for more training. The test we are about to perform has a sixty-six percent rate of failure."
A bead of sweat collectively trailed down the faces of team seven. Koyuki fought against the bubble of defensive retorts she wanted to give Kakashi.
Kakashi crinkled his eye as he sneered, "Hahaha! See? You're chickening out already!"
Cue, exaggerated outrage from the fox-whiskered blonde.
"That sucks! We have been through it all! What about the graduation test!?"
Kakashi said in a straightforward manner, "Oh, we wanted to eliminate all the hopeless cases from your ranks. The ones who are left are the only students who show true potential, or not."
"Say what!?"
Kakashi continued, "In any case, we'll meet tomorrow morning on the practice field so that I can evaluate each of your skills and weaknesses. Bring all of your ninja tools and weapons, and don't have breakfast beforehand… unless you enjoy throwing up."
Koyuki mutely shook her head as she tried to control the twitch of a smirk that was threatening to surface.
Don't eat breakfast, huh? I'm not falling for that. Koyuki thought to herself, slightly amused.
Kakashi lifted himself off the rail and walked towards his team, handing them a slip of paper, "The details of your assignment are in this handout. Memorize it, and don't be late!"
Koyuki grasped the paper handed to her, quickly looking over the fine penmanship that is her sensei's handwriting. To her right, she heard the sound of paper being crumpled, her eyes darted briefly and saw that Sasuke didn't even bother reading the handout.
She and the rest of the team stood up, ready to departure and go about the rest of their day.
"Koyuki, may I have a word before you leave?" the older shinobi requested.
She didn't reply immediately, instead she studied her teacher. And Kakashi's face took on a gentle, yet serious disposition. There was something in his eyes that seemed to regard her carefully before he spoke, "It's important." He added, focusing a sincere gaze at his cautious student.
"Sure." The young Mikoto answered quietly.
The rest of the team's attention wandered to Koyuki, wondering why her presence with him was urgent. They nonetheless went their own separate ways.
Koyuki pushed her hands into her pockets as Kakashi motioned her to sit back on the steps, resting an arm on his raised leg. For a moment his eyes scanned across the expanse of the clear blue sky.
Kakashi turned his face to hers, looking down at Koyuki, who seemed to have her mind distractedly adrift somewhere else, but she caught him off guard when she began speaking first, "So, Kakashi, tell me, who was it that decided to assign you to keep an eye on me?"
Kakashi hummed in a sigh, "Mah, you're quite perceptive." the pepper-haired jonin pushed a gloved hand through the front of his vest, "Demo… the answer to that is very simple: it was your otō-san… your father, Kosuke."
The answer caught her off-guard, and the hairs on the back of her neck rose in immediate reaction to the mention of her father's name.
The jonin looked into Koyuki's startled stare and his hand landed on the girl's shoulder.
He continued, "Your father was a dear friend of mine, he asked me, pleaded, if anything were to happen to him or your mother, that I would help raise you, nurture your skills, and protect you from uncertain danger as you grow into a fine young kunoichi."
His eyes would soften, "Although… you can recall, that I nearly failed to do even that five years ago…" His voice was quiet, sounding absurdly nostalgic and dreadful.
Koyuki watched as her wizened-looking teacher's visible eye curl into what looked like a weak smile.
"Incidentally, the Hokage-sama, as well as Homura and Koharu of the village council, recommended that I should monitor your progress and keep you safe from that point on, if such a situation were to happen again."
Koyuki said nothing, the expression on her face was unreadable, but he instinctively knew, that she was annoyed at his words.
"I know you don't like the idea," The gray-haired jonin started saying, his face titled forward as his eye curled into a half-moon, "you have proven yourself to be quite capable of protecting yourself from adept-level shinobi, I'm only respecting your father's last request, he loved you very much, it's only natural to want to protect the people you care about until your last dying breath…"
Her face suddenly lost all its sullenness and an air of sincerity changed her features. She took in a breath, her mouth opened, and then she looked away and her hands dropped to her lap, limply, as if the weight of regret pressed down on her.
Kakashi felt his heart reach out to her, because he knew what it was like.
So long ago in the grass village, he had grieved for the loss of his comrade, Obito. It was immensely painful. The kind of agony that stole your breath and choked you till your vision went black and you were falling into the endless pit of loss self-control.
Kakashi crinkled his eye charmingly, as he looked at his student, "Hm. In fact, I can easily see you as a daughter of my own… I guess I've grown on you."
The jonin watched as the curl of her mouth broke out into a beautiful smile, one that he had never seen before and he found his heart equally beginning to swell with adoration for her.
"Kakashi," Koyuki started to say, giving him a smirk, "You really outta read something else besides that smut Icha-Icha Paradise. It's making you all mushy."
The copy-ninja gave her an offensive, blank stare, but was replaced with one of softness when he heard Koyuki's light-hearted laugh, regarding him with one of her rare, amusing grins.
Even though his mouth was concealed underneath the mask, she could tell he was smiling.
He lifted his body off the steps, and Koyuki looked up to find Kakashi holding out one gloved hand. The genin grabbed it firmly and her teacher pulled her up.
The gray-haired jonin put a lazy hand to his peppered-hair and said, "Ido… take care, I'll see you tomorrow, Koyuki."
"Yeah." Koyuki said with a nod, and watched as Kakashi raised his hand in return and with a hand seal the jonin was gone.
Her bright silver and black hair rustled with the sudden depart, and she watched the twirl of leaves and dust dancing along the spot where he had disappeared.
The sun danced lower over the trees, and the girl could tell it was now close to evening.
She dipped her head against the shove of the wind and jumped on the railing surrounding the rooftop, crossing her arms around her chest.
Now, she thought as her amethyst eyes swept the Hidden Leaf village, my life as a genin… finally begins.