Chapter Nine: Growing up
Five Years Later…
"Sasuke!" Naomi yelled down the hall, "Are you ready for class? You don't want to be late for your exam?"
Her brother walked out of his room, fully dressed in a blue shirt – baring their family's emblem – white shorts and blue sandals.
"I'm ready, geez," he said, grabbing an apple from the bowl on the table. Naomi couldn't help but look at how much he had grown up. He was only thirteen, but he was almost taller than her. His eyes didn't carry the innocence they had at the age of eight, but they still reflected some semblance of joy and life. Those emotions were all she had ever hoped to keep alive in him. So far, she felt that she had succeeded.
"I can't believe you're graduating to a Genin today!" Naomi exclaimed with a smile.
Sasuke smiled too, but shrugged.
"It's not that big of a deal, Naomi, You graduated, what? When you were nine or ten?"
Naomi shook her head. "Nine, but it's not a competition kid. Father pushed me until I almost broke down at each stage. You progressed at your own, healthier, rate. Some of the training exercises Father put me through, at such a young age, could have and almost did kill me a few times."
Their parents were finally safe subjects. Any talk about them, for the first year or so, evoked too many emotions. Neither one of them could handle talking about their parents during that time. Finally, they were in a better place. They could talk about memories of the clan and about their pasts. Sasuke had even started wearing the family emblem again. The one exception was their brother. Naomi could stand to hear him mentioned and talk about him. But, around Sasuke, Itachi's name was voodoo. If ever he was brought up, which wasn't often, Sasuke would shut down and go to some dark emotional place. Naomi had tried so hard to thwart that tendency, but that was the one thing she couldn't get him to let go of – Itachi's betrayal.
"I guess my training has been more enjoyable then that," Sasuke gave in.
Naomi laughed lightly, "You definitely had it better."
Punching him in the shoulder, lightly, she walked toward the door. "Come on then. We have to go."
"What do you think will be the jutsu they test us on?" Naomi asked as she and Itachi made their way to the academy. Their Sensei had recommended them both for early graduation. It was almost unheard of for a student to graduate before the age of thirteen, let alone at nine with only a year of academy time. Not to mention the fact that there were two in the same position at the same time.
"I don't know. Maybe some type of cloning jutsu?" Itachi replied over his shoulder, as he was a couple of steps ahead.
Naomi thought about that possibility. She could make a clone out of just about anything: shadow, water, wood, earth – she'd even half developed a way to create a fire clone. Usually a ninja would use a replacement jutsu and use a log, but, for whatever reason, she'd always had a difficult time with the replacement and her improvision was to create a solid clone made of wood instead. Asuma had helped with developing some control over the wood, since it was only mastered by some of the members of the Sarutobi clan.
"Do you think they'd let us choose the element we clone with?"
Itachi laughed, "I don't think they'll have a flame there for you to create a clone with."
She smiled. Itachi could just about read her mind most of the time.
When they got to the academy, there was a large group standing outside. The whole graduating class was outside waiting to be let into the building. Everybody was at least thirteen, with the exception of the Uchiha twins.
Thirty minutes passed before one of the instructors appeared.
Minako Sensei finally walked through the door. The moment that she appeared, the mob of students fell silent.
"Good morning. I apologize for the delay, but there was a change in plans for this year's exam."
A low murmur rippled through the crowd. Naomi looked up at Itachi in confusion. He looked back down at her and just shrugged.
"This year," she continued, "we will be simulating a mission scenario. With all of the threats coming into the village over the past couple of years, the senior council feels that it is best to examine your battle instincts early on."
"Battle instincts? We haven't learned any real combat yet though," Naomi whispered.
"Naomi, we train these things with Father all the time. Those survival exercises? The weapons training? We're more than ready to simulate a mission scenario," Itachi assured her.
"Now," Minako said, trying to be heard over the murmurs still going through the crowd, "If you'll follow me to the new test site."
She didn't wait for any response – just began walking through the crowd, toward the neighboring arena. The group fell silent and followed after their Sensei.
Tall trees loomed over them as they entered the arena. They couldn't see more than five feet into the forest. Everyone came to a halt before they actually passed the tree line.
"You will be split into eleven squads of three. Each squad will be stationed at a designated point around the forest. To begin the exam, a canon will be fired. Each squad will enter the forest, beginning the mission. The objective is to utilize your instincts to battle the other students for their colored bandana that each member of each squad will possess. You must incapacitate your opponent by knocking them unconscious or trapping them enough to obtain their colors. Once a battle site is cleared of the winning squad, an instructor will retrieve the losers. You are NOT aiming to kill!" Minako Sensei's stare grew extremely serious, "Am I clear?"
Everyone echoed, "Yes, Sensei."
"Very well. Now I will assign your squads." She pulled a clipboard from the clip on her belt.
"Squad one will be made up of Tskune Moshimoto, Hotaru Yamanichi, and Itachi Uchiha."
Naomi's shoulders slumped. It was unlikely that they would have been teamed together, but she'd hoped.
Squads two through ten were assigned without Naomi's name being called. She was starting to wonder if it would be called.
"Squad eleven will be Yaten Kino, Raiku Yuudai and Naomi Uchiha," Minako Sensei announced, finally finishing the assignments.
Naomi breathed a quiet sigh of relief as she approached her Sensei to be handed a black bandana alongside her squad-mates.
"Your squad have been chosen at random, therefore we will not reshuffle them for any reason." Minako's voice rang with finality.
"Once you've reached your colored platform, you will have ten minutes to discuss you strategies until you hear the cannon go off. Good luck." And with that, she disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
Nobody dared say a word, even to their own teammates with so many ears around them. Everyone was silent as they disappeared from the gathering area. Naomi followed her teammates to their starting point. Yaten and Raiku's paces were quick and lithe from the 4 years that they had more than Naomi.
The two boys made her nervous. She knew nothing about them. She had only seen them in the training yards a couple of times, briefly. They were a complete mystery to her and she was supposed to work with and rely on these strangers. Naomi didn't even know if they had any prior knowledge of her.
"You're an Uchiha, right?" Yaten said as they all stepped onto their colored platform.
His voice, breaking the silence them had been stretching between them, startled Naomi. She nodded.
"Which means that you can use the Sharingan?"
Before she could answer, Raiku interjected. "She's too young. There's no way she could have accomplished that yet."
Yaten made an exasperated face.
"Raiku, do you really think that her Clan Elders, which included Fugaku – her father – would allow one of their own to test out of the academy if she hadn't gained control of the sharingan already?"
Raiku looked puzzled for a moment and then sighed, "I suppose you're right."
Finally, Naomi found a chance to speak up. She only reached to the middle of their arms, so she had to look up as she raised her chin proudly.
"Of course I've obtained my sharingan. My brother and I are the youngest to obtain it."
"Have you even beaten your brother in combat before?" Raiku asked skeptically, obviously eyeballing her small size.
Naomi bit her lower lip lightly and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well…no," she said, slightly embarrassed, "But, I've come close a few times," she rushed to add.
"Greeeeat," Raiku groaned, while Yaten laughed.
"Well let's hope somebody else incapacitates him first. I have a feeling you Uchihas are full of surprises," Yaten laughed.
Naomi couldn't help but crack a smile. Yaten seemed to be a genuinely joyful person and his laugh and smile were infectious.
"There, now that she's more comfortable," he winked conspiratorially at her, "we can talk strategy," Yaten said.
Raiku just rolled his eyes.
"Earth to Naomi," someone said as they waved their hand in front of her face. Naomi blinked. Yaten and Raiku were gone. She was standing at one of the entrances to the arena that she'd taken her Genin exam in. As she stared at the tree line, she thought she had seen Yaten and Raiku clear as day, but she'd only been daydreaming.
"You okay?" the voice asked.
She glanced sideways at Kakashi, who was looking at her with a knowing, sad smile.
"You were thinking about Raiku and Yaten weren't you?" He asked.
Naomi nodded, still watching the tree line, as if they would just walk out. After another moment of silence, Naomi broke it, giving up on the fantasy that the two boys would appear.
"Aren't you supposed to be meeting with your new squad?" her voice still sounded distracted, but at least she wasn't staring at the trees anymore.
"Yes, but you disappeared pretty quickly after the exams were turned in. I was worried."
Shaking her head, trying to clear it, she laughed solemnly. "It's just hard every year, during the exams, is all." Then she forced a smile and looked her best friend square in the eye. "So which unfortunate souls got you this year?"
Naomi was not on the choosing panel for the Genin squads, so she knew nothing of where they were placed – only that they tried to keep well-rounded teams.
It was Kakashi's turn to laugh. Kakashi did one of the most difficult tests for his new Genin. He held such high standards for him because of the way he was trained in his squad. His Sensei had been the Fourth Hokage and that came with great expectations for the whole squad.
"Well, I got that knucklehead – Naruto Uzamaki. Also I got Sakura Haruna and…" he trailed off for a second before finishing his sentence, "and Sasuke."
Naomi's eyes widened. Her best friend was now her younger brother's Sensei. That gave her a sense of relief for a split second, but then she remembered that no Genin had ever passed Kakashi's preliminary exam, which meant that he'd never had a squad of Genin for more than two days. Because of the high standards Kakashi held his potential teams to, he'd never seen fit to pass anyone. Sasuke's career could be made or broken by Kakashi's first exercise.
"I'm doing the bell exercise. You know that one very well, and you also know that you cannot prep him or hint at anything in advance," he was leveling her with a stern look, "He's a smart kid. He'll figure out what he needs to do," he tried to assure her.
Naomi rolled her eyes though. She already knew she couldn't help him.
"He's just so hard headed though. Teaming up with Naruto, of all people, will be extremely difficult for him. If Naruto thought a little more, they'd have an easier time getting along."
"Have so faith, Naomi. He is the Fourth Hokage's son after all."
He had said the last part in a hushed voice, as if we were being watched. It was a little know secret that Naruto was the Fourth's only son – born the night the village was attacked by the Nine Tailed Beast. The well known fast, though, was that the Fourth has seal part of the Beast into a baby – Naruto. The poor child had been shunned all his life – alone all his life. He'd compensated for it by acting out constantly. It had taken all of Naomi's patients to handle him. She was glad that, at least, Iruka had taken particular interest in looking out for him.
Naomi shrugged. "I suppose you're right. He has the potential to grow into a strong ninja, like his father."
Kakashi nodded. "It's probably time for me to go meet them. For all I know, Naruto's setting up a prank to get me back for being late as we speak."
A real laugh escaped Naomi's lips. Kakashi always had a way of cheering her up.
Once they'd said their goodbyes, Kakashi headed off toward the academy and Naomi found herself heading toward the Hokage's tower.
AN: Thank You for reading this chapter! PLEASE FOLLOW, FAVORITE, and REVIEW! :D