That's right! A steaming fresh new chapter! All for you guys! Many thanks to our three reviewers Lady Rini, Marjolein222 and maudlinthemad. Please, keep on reviewing, it's what gets us through the weeks and write another chapter.
Reniko walked into the acadamy as he had for the past couple of months. Tired, and extremely bored. In only a couple of months (not even) he would be graduating and be an honest to goodness genin. The only ones who really needed to come anymore were the morons and idiots who wouldn't know genjutsu from ninjutsu.
Reniko stopped at the entrance when he saw someone sitting down in the way back. It was that kid! What was his name? Nar… Nor…Ner….Nare…Naro! That had to be it…
But, what was HE doing here? Tsunade-sama had told them specifically that the mission was top secret and they weren't allowed to breathe a word of it to anyone. Koru and Haruna hadn't shown up yet, so it was up to him.
He made a beeline for the mysterious orange clad kid and slammed his hands on his desk.
"What the heck are you doing here Naro?" He whispered murderously.
"Well, since you beat me in the last mission, you gain a new classmate Funny how that works out huh?" The Naro kid said fluidly without missing a beat.
Reniko opened his mouth to reply with some smart and witty comment, but it never came, and he ended up looking like a disturbed fish. Curse his brain for failing him at such an important moment. He folded his arms and slunk away with what little dignity he had managed to uphold in the event.
He headed to his seat and settled next to the sleeping Sarunte. Poor Sarunte, his parents had him up at the crack of dawn to work on jutsus and katas and who knew what else.
Sarunte was oddly tan for an Uchiha. Renikos dad, Shikamaru, had mentioned quite a few times that the previous Uchihas of Konoha were actually quite pale. However, living in much warmer climates and interbreeding with some of natives who were quite dark had eventually introduced a much darker pigment to the Uchiha clan.
Reniko saw Haruna and Koru come into class along with the regular gaggle of students. The teacher entered shortly after and Reniko shut off his brain and prepared for some review of some jutsu that he had already mastered a couple of months ago.
xXx
This was going to be interesting, Nara thought dryly. She had never been in a class before. It would be interesting to match up her skills with the rest of Konoha. She thought momentarily to the bet that she and Tsunade had made.
She just had to make through the acadamy and fail the genin test and she would be free. There was also the possibility of leaving at a chuunin level, but Nara was not planning on sticking around for that long. She would only have to spend a minimal of a month or two here. Hopefully…
"Greetings everyone, as some of you might have noticed we have a new student! Would you care to introduce yourself?" Said the teacher.
Nara made no movement to show that she had heard the teacher.
The teacher looked down at his list. "Errmmm…Nara…! Could you please introduce yourself!"
Nara stood up for a moment. "Er…hi…Im pretty sure you've got my name wrong. Nara, is his family name." She said, gesturing to Reniko. "Right?" A giggle went throughout the class.
If she was going to have to endure a month of this class she was going to make sure they knew as little about her as possible and that it was a living hell for her teacher.
"My name is…" Struck by the inspiration of Reniko, Nara smiled widely. "Naro. My name is Naro." She immediately sat down.
"Well, thank you. I am Jirono-sensei." The teacher said, a bit flustered he had gotten the name wrong. "Now we will be starting back on the clone jutsu."
A collective groan sounded off as if on cue, and Nara sat up a bit straighter, finally interested in the class.
Reniko moaned painfully. "Again? C'mon! That jutsu is so freaking basic I could that in my sleep!" He said in a hoarse voice.
If Jirono-sensei heard Reniko, he gave no indication of it. "Now who can tell me the advantages of this jutsu?"
Harunas' hand shot up as if it was on fire. She was incredibly eager to answer the question and seemed to be the only one.
One snort and grunt later, the drooling Uchiha sprang to life. "huh? Wha? Whad happened? 42!"
Jirono-sensei narrowed his eyes. "Uchiha Sarunte! If you are so content on sleeping in class, why don't you answer the question?"
Nara blinked in astonishment. No…oh no way…she must have heard wrong. There was simply no way that an Uchiha was in this very class. The only Uchiha left was Itachi. The rest had been killed by that very same Uchiha! What was going on here?
"Ummm, yeah, yeah, sure! Uh, what was the question 'gain?" Sarunte asked groggily.
The teacher sighed in annoyance, but gave the question again. "The advantages of the clone jutsu."
Sarunte smiled brightly and waved his hands in the air. "You make clones" He said excitedly. "So yeah! The dude'll get confused and all, an' you can kill him and stuff!"
The teacher sweat dropped and turned back to Haruna. "Haruna…would you like to clarify?"
Haruna giggled in triumph. "When you use clone jutsu an illusion of more than one of you will appear. This can confuse an enemy for a sneak attack and it's also useful if he is using a deadly jutsu." She flashed an arrogant smirk at Sarunte, who replied with a steely grin that showed his oddly sharp teeth.
Nara nodded in agreement with Harunas' definition. It was a perfect textbook answer. Or at least, she assumed it was, since she hadn't gotten around to checking out the textbooks of this school.
Jirono-sensei nodded and turned back to the rest of the class. "Very good class, now each of you will perform the clone jutsu. Get in line!"
Reniko and Haruna jumped up simultaneously to try to get to the front first. They were both beaten by Mitsu who flashed them both the peace sign. Nara, alternatively, was in the way back.
"Go Mitsu"
Mitsu smiled as he proceeded to make eight other clones exactly like him.
"Reniko"
Reniko made six clones successfully.
"Haruna"
Haruna gulped nervously. She gave a small smile, and her eyes turned a violent shade of purple. "Zajigan" She muttered under her breath.
"Ten clones? Great improvement Haruna!"
Reniko paled slightly and hissed some rude words at Haruna as she retreated back to her seat. Sarunte would have helped Reniko but at the moment he was making six clones appear.
"Er, Naro." Jirono-sensei said as every other last student performed the jutsu with varied results.
Nara sighed reluctantly and made her shadow clone jutsus hand signs. She had honestly never learned to do normal clone jutsu. There was no need to stand out. She summoned four clones.
Jirono-sensei frowned slightly. "In order to pass, you need to have a minimum of five clones. Work on that will you?"
"Sure" Nara said dully, and she returned to her seat.
Sarunte frowned. "Hey, wazzn't that the wrong hand signs?"
Reniko sighed and nodded. "Yes. Yes they were. Lousy clone jutsus…somehow solid clones… He can make ten of those things!"
Sarunte raised an eyebrow and looked at him suspiciously. "An' you know this HOW?!?"
Reniko groaned and sat back. "Never mind."
Class let out for lunch, and the students hurried outside to eat some much needed food. A couple of students noticed the absent of a certain Naro, but no one paid too much attention, and the majority assumed he was having a chat with Jirono-sensei.
Haruna ate her lunch quietly on the swing, when to figures confronted her.
"S'up runt?" Sarunte asked cheerfully.
Haruna turned away. "Go away idiots." She said, clearly annoyed.
Reniko scoffed. "Fine. Under one condition."
Sarunte nodded in agreement. "Ya hafta do a clone jutsu!"
"And don't even think of cheating runt!" Reniko said quickly, almost flinching, as if Haruna just activated her Zajigan.
Haruna stared at them and stood up. "Leave me alone." She said simply. "Just leave me alone."
"C'mon runt! All Reni here and I wanna see is a lousy little clone jutsu! You can do that right? Course, you're only nine so maybe ya can't." Sarunte said back in practically a sing song voice.
"I can so do a clone jutsu!" Haruna shouted back. "I can!"
"Then prove it!" Reniko said angrily, pushing her back lightly.
"You know, bullying a fellow ninja is certainly not very shinobi like."
Reniko and Sarunte whipped around in surprise. Who had said that?
Reniko saw out of the corner of his eye, Naro, leaning against the tree. "Oh. You. Look, this is none of your business."
Naro laughed slightly and took a step forward and shrugged. "I'm just saying."
Sarunte frowned and waved his arms around again. "We're not bullying her! So there!"
If they could see past the hood, they would have seen Nara raise an eyebrow. "Really now? So then what were you doing hmm?
Reniko stared at Sarunte awkwardly. How to explain this…
Unfortunately, Haruna was next to speak. "They always pick on me because I have a kekkai genkai and they don't."
Sarunte hit her on the head. "OI!! Watch it ya little liar!"
Naro crossed her arms and frowned deeply. "If she was lying, why don't you explain?"
"Reni..?" Sarunte asked Reniko pleadingly.
Reniko sputtered for a moment before composing himself. "We're helping her out if anything!"
Haruna jabbed him sharply in the chest and stared at him furiously. "No you're not! You're just being mean!" She cried out. Oddly enough, no one else seemed to be paying attention to the incident at all. Even the chaperones seemed to find something intensely interesting with the dirt on the ground.
Nara was beginning to regret ever to coming to Harunas' rescue in the first place.
Reniko smirked at Haruna and jabbed her just as hard in her chest. "Ever heard of tough love runt?"
Sarunte nodded in agreement. " 'Sides, me an' the neko-baka here 'll leave once she does the clone jutsu!"
Reniko grimaced at Sarunte for the nickname. Couldn't Sarunte not call him that in public? It was embarrassing.
"Your forcing her to do something she doesn't want to do. Where I come from, that's bullying. Well, unless your enemy ninja, then it's ok…" Naro trailed off.
"Well you're not there anymore!" Reniko cried out indignantly
Sarunte brightened suddenly. " 'Sides, if what we're doin' is so horrible, 'ow come no one else is sayin' anything huh?"
Naro sighed in annoyance. "look, all I know is that she doesn't like it. So lay off."
Sarunte gawked at Naro for a moment. "Lay off??!?!?!?! You sicko!!!!"
There was an awkward silence. Followed by an annoyed groan form Reniko.
"That's not what he meant Sarunte. You've been spending too much time with that Gyaro kid." He said in aggravation. Only Sarunte…
"So?" Sarunte cried out in horror. "Now I have permanent mental images! IMAGES!!!" His voice raised a couple of octaves with the last emphasis.
Naro tilted her head to one side. "What is he talking about."
Reniko opened his mouth to say exactly what he was talking about, but decided against it. "Nothing." He said lamely. "He's just a perverted freak who needs to stop talking to Mitsu."
"HEY!!!" Sarunte cried out angrily.
Reniko felt a tugging on his arm, and found himself being dragged to the side by Naro. Once theye were out of earshot, Naro began to talk.
"Look," Naro began "Either you leave Haruna alone, or I tell your buddy over there you had your neck saved by that 'runt'."
"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"Reniko yelled in a whisper voice. "We…we were ordered to not say anything!"
Naro smirked. "Correction. You were ordered to keep your mouth shut. I received no such order."
Reniko opened his mouth to argue, but shut it again. "Fine." He grumbled, and he stalked back to Sarunte. "Le's go…it's not even worth it" he hissed and he grabbed him by his sleeve and dragged him away to the farthest spot away from Haruna and proceeded to ignore them.
Haruna beamed at Naro. "Thanks a lot!"
Naro smiled back at her. "Anytime…but whose that Sarunte kid, exactly?" She asked, hoping that His last name merely sounded like Uchiha and it was not in fact the family name of Itachi.
Haruna wrinkled her nose in disgust. "That's Sarunte Uchiha. He's an idiot and he does whatever Reniko wants him to do."
"So…he really IS an Uchiha?" Naro asked, hoping she was simply having an off day and she had a lot of wax in her ears.
"Yeah, it's the fire clan. Not that I've ever seen him perform a fire jutsu or anything, but he claims he can do them. But I bet he's lying." Haruna said in a matter of fact voice.
Naro gritted her teeth in annoyance. Great, the Uchihas were back. Of course, that wouldn't mean they were all necessarily evil, but it was going to be horrible to see those horrid red orbs again after being so used from running away from them."
"Does…does Sarunte have the sharingan?" She asked nervously.
"No. 'course not. Why would he? The sharingan's extinct!" Haruna said in a tone that made it quite clear that Nara might as well have asked if Sarunte had a pet flying unicorn as well.
"Oh…right, never mind, brain freeze," Nara lied hastily. "So, you have a really cool kekkai genkai, what is it?" She asked abruptly changing the subject.
Haruna brightened suddenly, and was evidently quite happy to talk about her clan heritage. "It's the Catakis' clan trait. The Zajigan!"
Naro raised an eyebrow obscured by her hood and frowned. "So, what does it do exactly?" She asked curiously.
"Well, it creates an advanced form of Genjutsu. If you get really good, you can control peoples' minds!" Haruna said in a dreamy voice. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Haruna was fantasizing at the moment. Nara had a sneaking suspicion it involved Reniko…
"Well, ah, are you doing anything after school?" Naro asked conversationally.
Haruna bit her lip. "I have chores and homework, but I can meet you later or something!" She seemed incredibly eager for some odd reason.
Naro smiled hesitantly back. "Sure. I'll drop by or something."
"LUNCH IS OVER!! COME BACK IN!" Jirono-sensei yelled at the top of his lungs.
"You know? It's funny Naro" Haruna said gleefully, when I first met you, I thought you were a girl!" With a small giggle, Haruna retreated back to the classroom.
"yeah…ha…funny…" Naro said awkwardly, and she retreated back into the classroom. If only Haruna…knew, Nara mused amusedly to herself.
xXx
Konohamaru looked at the mission sheet. "It's a B ranked mission to guard some girl, who won't even leave Konoha?" He shifted his weight to one hip and looked back at his team of Moegi and Udon.
"You're kidding right?"
Tsunade sighed. "Nope. I wish I was, but I'm not. I don't kid."
Udon sniffled slightly and pushed up his glasses. "So, what is this girl exactly? Diplomats daughter? Undercover princess? Discovered spy?"
"No. We just need to keep an eye on her. She is however, the Hyuuga who caused all that chaos the other day" Tsunade said swiftly. She considered telling Konohamaru that she was the daughter of 'Naruto-sensei' but she held her tongue. This was going to be an aggravating two or three months and she was going to need her entertainment.
"Just make sure she doesn't leave the village, and she doesn't skip school" Tsunade said with an air of finality.
"It shouldn't be too hard if the chuunins keep an eye on her most of the day anyway." Moegi pointed out.
Konohamaru nodded stiffly and slunk out of the office. He was a jounin for crying out loud! Since when was the demoted to babysitting some Hyuuga orphan brat? Especially when he could be investigating the recent string of murders and robberies that had been happening in Konoha…
"Fine. Let's go guys." He said, and Udon and Moegi followed his lead.
"That was incredibly cruel of you Lady Tsunade" Shizune said once Konohamaru and his team left.
"Yes. Yes it was." Tsunade said with a satisfied smile. "But think of it as me doing him a favor. He will be able to be reunited with Naruto…ah…indirectly."
Shizune sighed. "Oh very well, but it won't end well."
To Be Continued