Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and I probably never, ever will.
It's come to my attention that my section dividers didn't show up last time. They were a lot of those little squiggly line thingies, but they didn't work. So I'm trying Astericks this time.
Chapter 2
Enter Team 6: Meet the Competition!
He was watching the clouds during watch duty again. Kotetsu and Izumo said he did it way too much, and he almost agreed with them. It wasn't as if he could lay on his back in his secret place and watch the clouds in complete peace- no, he had to stand up, and glance at the road every now and then to make sure nobody was coming. It wasn't really that relaxing at all.
"Umm, Shikamaru, you may want to-" Kotetsu started, but didn't get to finish because a roaring gust of wind in a controlled cyclone suddenly caught Shikamaru and hurled him off the gate rampart. He fell to the street below, landing with a thud. Not all unlike when Naruto pushed him into the arena during the last Chuunin Exam… To think it had been a year since he had seen him last.
"It's all right, open the gate." he called back up to the two as he sat up. Maybe he should just lay there awhile and pretend he was dead. It certainly was troublesome to stand and walk over to the gate…
He was halfway on his feet when a female voice rang out.
"Come on, stand up, we don't have all day! Weren't you supposed to welcome us?"
"Troublesome woman…" Shikamaru groaned as he stood. Temari stood in front of him and Gaara and Kankuro were hurrying to catch up.
"Mr. Crybaby." she said with a smirk.
"Hey, I didn't blast you off a fifty foot gate did I?" Shikamaru retorted.
Kankuro and Gaara caught up to her, both panting.
"Hey, Kotetsu! Izumo! You two manage without me for a bit!" he called up to the gate.
"All right!" Izumo called down.
Shikamaru turned and started leading them towards the Hokage's building. Temari stepped up beside him, leaving Gaara and Kankuro behind them.
"You seem surprised." she said.
"You two weren't supposed to arrive for at least another day. Why shouldn't I be?" Shikamaru asked.
"Yeah, Temari suddenly decided that it would be a good time to break a world record." Gaara said.
"She's like a slave driver when she gets like that…" Kankuro grumbled.
Temari shot them a glare and pretended not to have heard their comments.
"That's not what I meant." She said.
Shikamaru shrugged and yawned.
A ninja with a giant shuriken on his back with the hilts of four katanas sticking out of each point suddenly leapt over their head.
"TAMARU! GET BACK HERE!" another boy shouted, following right on the first's heels, with apparently nothing to distinguish him from any other normal ninja.
Finally, a brown-haired girl followed behind them, sighing and shaking her head.
"Who're they? The new village idiots?" Temari asked.
"No… they're… well, they're Team 6… the cursed team…" he replied.
Tamaru leapt over the houses, frantically trying to escape Raigar. He didn't even know what he did this time. Sometimes he seemed to just randomly get mad at him for no reason at all; it was very frustrating.
"What'd I do this time?" he called over his shoulder.
But Raigar wasn't back there.
A hand suddenly floated up in front of Tamaru. He stopped abruptly, trying to reverse directions. When he turned around, another hand was there.
The two hands started forming hand signs as if they were still joined.
"Wind Burst!" came Raigar's voice.
Blasts of wind issued out of both hands, colliding on Tamaru, mercilessly whipping him with harsh winds.
Raigar leapt onto the roof, his two hands coming back to his arms and reconnecting seamlessly. He walked up to Tamaru…
And found a katana. It had a silver hilt and the symbol for "Wind" on it.
Tamaru must have been using his Katana Clone Jutsu the whole time while the real one got away…
"TAMARU!" Raigar yelled at the sky.
Cursed… cursed… cursed… the word echoed in Tamaru's head, a curse in itself.
To our Sensei, who will never pass from our memories. read the engraving on the flower vase in front of the gravestone. Tamaru had made it himself.
Hayate Gekkou
The gravestone was so simple, and yet it was so important to all of them. However else they may act the rest of the time, the three of them all had holes in the hearts that could never be healed.
He remembered the day of graduation… Hayate had met with them on the roof of some building, asked them a few things about themselves. At the time, Tamaru had been practically ignored- he did not belong to any clan so he didn't have any Kekkai Genkai or clan Jutsus to make him stand out. Both Raigar and Rasha had Kekkai Genkai, so he felt that he would soon be left behind , but he would try hard to keep up, he told himself.
At the time, Raigar had joked that since they were Team 6 and 6 was an evil number, they were cursed. They all laughed at it then.
Nobody was laughing about it now.
"I thought I'd find you here." Rasha said, walking up.
Tamaru said nothing.
"You know about the Chuunin Exam, right?" she asked.
He nodded.
"Tsunade's letting us enter even though we don't have a Jounin leader." Rasha said.
Tamaru bit his tongue.
"She is?" he was surprised.
Rasha nodded.
"Well, she better get used to it, because we'll never have a Jounin leader." he said simply.
"Don't say things like that." Rasha said.
"Who would want us? Signing on as head of the 'Cursed Team 6' is like signing your own death warrant." Tamaru scoffed.
"Genma offered." Rasha pointed out.
"He knew Tsunade wouldn't actually let him. Besides, he wouldn't be able to bear leaving Shizune's team I bet." Tamaru shot back.
"There you are, finally!" came Raigar's voice as he landed in front of Tamaru, setting down a Katana, "I thought you'd want it back after that stunt you pulled on me."
"You read my mind." Tamaru said sarcastically, reaching for the katana and sheathing it on his back beneath his giant shuriken with the other three.
"No, that would be Rasha." Raigar said.
Rasha looked stunned.
"I don't even have my Kekkai Genkai turned on! And I wouldn't use it on you guys anyway!" she protested.
"Riiight…" Raigar said skeptically.
"So… anyway… I guess we should start training then, if the Chuunin Exam is soon, eh?" Tamaru said.
"Believe it or not, that's what I was trying to tell you about!" Raigar protested.
"And how does that have to do with Wind Bursting me to death?" Tamaru shot back.
"It's practice. For my training." said Raigar smugly.
Tamaru reached out and smacked Raigar on the backside of the head.
"OW! What was that for?" Raigar asked.
"It's practice. For my training." said Tamaru mockingly.
"Oh boy…" Rasha grumbled as they shot off again, Raigar chasing Tamaru.
The Tamaru stopped abruptly as a shining ball of light shot down from above their heads, crashing through several branches in front of them, streaking downwards at high speeds. A crash was heard.
"What the heck? Was that a lightning bolt? It's not even cloudly!" Raigar exclaimed, pulling up behind Tamaru.
"There's a life form…" Rasha pointed out.
Tamaru leapt down from the tree and walked tentatively up to the area. There was a small crater with dust rising from it, and out of the smoke came…
A man.
The man was halfway masked, with his mask covering his left eye. His grayish hair stood straight up and to one side, and he held a book by his side.
"Hello, you are Team 6, I presume?" the man asked.
Tamaru looked at him suspiciously.
"Yes…" he replied slowly.
"Why the… well, whatever it was?" Raigar asked.
"Oh, the Rakiri? I thought it would get your attention." the man said.
Tamaru still looked at him suspiciously.
"Tamaru, it's all right. This man is Hatake Kakashi, and he's hear to help us train for the Chuunin Exam." Rasha said.
The other two looked at Rasha briefly, long enough to see her normally brown eyes turning a greenish blue. They had learned to trust whatever she said while using her Seigan, so they relaxed and faced Kakashi.
"And I see the mind reader exceeds all expectations I could have had." Kakashi nodded towards Rasha, "It is as she says."
"Don't you have your own team?" Tamaru asked.
Kakashi sighed.
"Not anymore, which is why I was assigned to you, because you don't have a Jounin leader." he said.
Rasha looked at Tamaru as if to say, See? I told you.
"But you do know about our… well… our…" Tamaru didn't know how to put it.
Kakashi laughed, which was the last thing Tamaru expected him to do.
"Your curse? I've been through a lot worse than that, and I'm still here, aren't I?"
Tamaru looked warily at the others.
"Don't underestimate the curse." Tamaru said finally, "We know it to bring down a very powerful man. We laughed about it to, until…" Tamaru didn't finish the thought.
"Relax, all right?" Kakashi said, "I could have refused it if I wanted to. But like I said, I've been through worse so-called curses than this. It's as if from the day I was born the world plotted to kill me, but I'm still alive. So don't worry about it, eh? We got to start your training."
Tamaru looked at Rasha and Raigar. Raigar looked unsure still, but Rasha's eyes flashed with a message something like, this is one Sensei I could get used to.
Tamaru trusted Rasha, since she was the one who had already been inside Kakashi's brain and out as soon as she had laid eyes on him, but he disagreed with her on one point. To him, nobody could ever replace Hayate-sensei. Nobody.