Chapter 5 - Growing Up
In the time that passed after that incident, Kaida and Iruka became good friends with Kakashi and Hana, the four were always together. When Toshi had found her that night, covered in blood, he thought her to be dead for a moment, thankfully proved wrong. The Hokage had also turned up that night, he had been in one of the search teams hunting the old man.
Upon a short examination of the body he confirmed that the man was indeed the S-ranked criminal, Shigetaka, who took children from their families, saying that he would train them to become ninja, when all he did was take them to a slave market. The family never heard of the child again.
Kaida was taken to the hospital, where she slept for two days straight… Iruka never left her side, his parents started to worry about him, but when she awoke, relief flooded through them all.
Another choice had to be made. Would Kaida go back to her mother now that it was safe to? Or would she stay in the village?
She decided to stay, the man had told her mother that she would be trained as a ninja, so why shouldn't she?
Toshi was so happy with her decision, he threw a small party to celebrate her staying. Everyone in the neighbourhood was invited. Iruka sat with Kaida on her bed playing computer games the whole time.
A year passed, and time at the Academy gradually got better. Kaida became an accomplished swords-woman, and she also became very constructive. An umbrella was on the cards, but no ordinary umbrella. Having seen a woman protect herself from falling rocks on a rugged hillside one day, Kaida started making plans to create one that could withstand kunai attacks.
She folded metal into lightweight, but strong, triangles. Hooking them together with tight mesh wires. The umbrella still functioned as an everyday umbrella, only it also acted as a shield. And if she ran out of other weapons she could always whack her enemy over the head with it!
Iruka worked with Kaida on this project and suggested making it a useable weapon too. He helped to fit a large sharp spike on the end, and developed a mechanism that could fire darts or wires from each of the spindles holding up the umbrella. Eight lines of fire… they had to put it to practice as soon as it was ready.
Covered with white and purple cloth, it looked just like any other umbrella, with an explosive difference.
Walking into the training grounds one day, with just her umbrella, three boys laughed at her, pointing with huge grins on their lips. Their teacher did smile, but it was a different sort of smile, an expectant one.
Iruka took up his position on one side of the grounds, and Kaida on the other. She stood with her back to him, her umbrella at her side, the point in the dirt. Iruka took out his kunai, waited for a moment and threw as many of them as he could. Kaida swung the umbrella up, opening it in less than a second, the cascading barrage of sharp metal was sent off in all sorts of directions, none getting near the girl.
It worked.
The three boys stopped laughing, the teacher smirked at them before leaving. Iruka and Kaida practiced with the umbrella's defence for the whole day. It was flawless.
Once home Toshi was informed of the new development, by Kaida's teacher. He was very impressed with her progress, and thought that she would be ready for the Genin exam in no time, Iruka too. And the pair were told upon their arrival home, that they were ready to become real ninja's.
It took a short while to prepare for the exam, with older and younger students taking it, but in only three weeks they were ready to grow up.
With the exam only the next day, Kaida started to get nervous, she was top in her class, but she still feared that she would fail. Iruka tried to give support, but felt the pressure too.
Walking into the class the next morning and taking their seats, all the children felt worried about if they would pass, and not their teacher, but another from the school, came to test them.
They waited as the teacher introduced himself, writing his name on the board. Shouta Inoue. He was a young man, new to the teaching lark, and enjoyed making things simple. He wrote out the way the exam was going to work, what would happen, and how they would be assessed.
With it all laid out in front of them, Kaida thought, how could she fail?
The first of three tests, was a kunai challenge. Aiming right where they were told, exactly when told. She passed that.
The second test was transformation, she passed that too.
And the third and final test, was a short battle. It didn't matter if you won or lost, the teacher would decide if you passed.
Kaida was set up against the bullies ringleader, who just about wet himself when he heard about it. She smirked at him knowingly… he was going down. He panicked, and that is why he lost.
However, everyone passed the whole exam, and Kaida decided to play a trick on Toshi. She returned home looking thoroughly miserable, turning on the waterworks as soon as she saw her father. He opened his arms, wondering what had happened. The he noted that she wasn't wearing a headband. Children who passed never took off their headbands… so if she wasn't wearing one… she must have failed.
He held her tight, whispering to her, telling her it would all be alright… he didn't notice when her sobs turned to laughs, until she pulled back from him, her forehead protector in place, gleaming for everyone to see.
He grinned and picked her up, spinning her around. They laughed together, joy spreading through them to great heights.
A ninja knocked on the front door urgently, upon opening it, the man told them there was an emergency, and that every ninja, of all levels, was needed. Kaida and Toshi looked at each other, he put her down and grabbed his weapon bag, she did the same.
They ran to the Hokage's office, what was wrong?
(AN: Toothache sucks when trying to write... anyway, Review please, I need your constructive critical comments! New chapters in the middle of the writing process right now, you can expect them soon.)