Many thanks to Malix2, Lady Rini, Alternative Angel, ???, Rena the pirate jedi wizard, and jgirl1984 for your awesome reviews. That last chapter hit the 4000 word mark, something we are very proud of. Let's see if we can beat it =D…well, not this chapter. This chapter is only about 2000 words or so. We got lazy.
Reniko felt his world crashing down around him. It was impossible, how could his best friend possibly have the extinct kekkai genkai?
"How…how…?" Reniko sputtered
Sarunte shook his head violently. "I don't KNOW! It…it happened that day I came in late…
I had taken a shortcut behind the Korean BBQ and next thing I know, I was bein' attacked…I…I couldn't even see them; it was like they were invisible or sumthing. I thought I was gonna die, but then, next thing I knew, I could see—everything—I saw their chakra lines, I saw THEM, and it was like everythin' was moving in slow motion.
I tried to hit one of them, but they were still just wind, or…whatever they were…
I saw 'em making hand signs, and I somehow copied them an' next thing I knew…they were all piled on the ground. Dead. Just like that.
An- an now everyone is tryin' to figure out who did it, and how can I explain this crap to the rest of the village? They already hate me cause I'm an Uchiha…if they knew I had the sharingan…
…I just don't know what to do Reni…"
Reniko blinked a couple of times before grasping the full situation. The town had been plagued with paranoia that the Uchihas were going to form another coup de tat. If those paranoid morons found out that the kekkai genkai that caused the massacre to begin with was well alive, all hell would break loose.
"Sarunte…c'mon, you're not evil, if you...you just keep a low profile…" Reniko began shakily.
" s'not just that Reniko. I'm no better than Haruna now." Sarunte said bitterly. "I have a cheat now. I can see your chakra you know. If you did a jutsu right now I could pro'lly copy it. I'll be nutin but a lousy hypocrite. You should hate me for it." He said with a small sniffle.
Reniko felt a sudden surge of annoyance, and gratitude at the same time. Sarunte was more worried about Reniko shunning him and becoming like Haruna then he was about being chased out of the village by an angry mob. That moron, he had no sense of proportion…
"Sarunte. Have you used your sharingan since the incident?" Reniko inquired in a business like tone that he inherited from his father.
Sarunte shook his head. "No, not 'till now anyway…don't even know why it activated, I was jus' so mad I guess…"
"You see?" Reniko said, forcefully jabbing him in his chest. "You're nothing like Haruna. So don't you dare lower yourself to such idiotic midgets like her. Got that?"
Sarunte gave him a watery smile. "Really?"
Reniko nodded. "Yeah"
Saruntes' eyes slowly returned to a dark black, and the Uchiha legacy disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place.
"Thanks Reni-kun. You're the best." He said, and forced himself to stand up. Reniko looked around nervously. Where were those chuunins' that were supposed to be finding Sarunte? You would think they would have found him by now…
As if on cue, three chuunins appeared behind Reniko and Sarunte.
"There you are!" one of them snapped. "You must think you're pretty funny suddenly running out of school like that."
Sarunte gave a half smile. "Hahaha, bad move on my part I guess."
The chuunin motioned for the other two to take Sarunte to class. "I need to talk to Nara here; don't wait up."
The other two nodded and disappeared with Sarunte.
Reniko gulped. "I wasn't skipping class you know. I was trying to help."
The chuunin nodded and lean in closer. "We saw your little sharingan encounter." He mumbled quietly.
"Oh."
The chuunin looked around, almost a bit paranoid, and then looked back at Reniko. "I'm going to have to ask you to report to Tsunade any information you have on Uchiha. Even if he's just an innocent kid, who knows what'll happen if this gets out."
Reniko frowned. This was all way more annoying than it should be. Why couldn't they just accept it and move on. Everything had to be a huge complicated drama. How troublesome.
"Yeah, whatever." He said looking down at the ground in a typical teenager manner.
"I'm serious Nara! You can't tell anyone!" The chuunin hissed.
"Who said I was going to?" Reniko snapped back.
The chuunin paused. "Good. But you still need to report to Lady Tsunade."
Reniko nodded. "Fine." He said, and folded his arms. "I will. Jeez."
xXx
The Hokage office was relatively quiet at the moment. No one had thought to inform her or anyone else of a random child suddenly playing hooky. But when the chuunin burst in with Reniko in tow, there were some bad reactions.
The first being Shikamarus. He had taken one look at the situation, and gave one of his rare 'no one will find your body' glares. But he said nothing, and demanded that whatever his idiot son was in for, was not classified enough for his father to hear.
Reniko found himself standing in front of the Hokage, Shizune, Sakura Haruno, and his dad. Talk about pressure.
The chuunin talked first. "A certain Uchiha from the acadamy had ran out of class for no good reason, we tracked him down, but not before this Nara kid found him first. Normally this would not be cause enough to cause such a disturbance Hokage-sama, but I think it's best you know that the Uchiha was seen with the sharingan."
Tsunade stood up, Shizune sat down, Sakura and Shikamaru stared at the chuunin like he had grown an extra head. The words sunk in. The sharingan was back.
"Oh kami…" Shizune said breathlessly. "This is bad. The Uchihas won't have a quiet moment for the rest of their lives."
The chuunin nudged Reniko to talk.
"He…uhh…he was the one who killed the cloud ninja." Reniko said slowly. "He accidentally activated it in class…he isn't a killer…" He really had no idea what to say.
Shikamaru gave a bit of an apologetic sigh. He almost would have preferred for Reniko to have done something incredibly stupid. It would have been a lot easier to handle.
"Daisuke Uchiha will not take this well." Sakura said suddenly. "He has been raised as the clan prodigy. We don't need another unnecessary rivalry because of this."
Tsunade closed her eyes. "This is something we need to handle very carefully. His parents will be informed of this, but other than that, I do not want this information leaving these walls. Shinji, who else knows?"
Shinji shrugged. "My team knows. And obviously the dead cloud ninja are well aware."
Shikamaru looked directly at the chuunin. "That may have more truth then you think. If any cloud ninja got away from that incident, they most likely told someone."
Sakura looked questioningly at Tsunade. "What about when he graduates and gets a team?"
Tsunade thought for another moment. "They can be informed as well, but not until Sarunte himself feels comfortable to tell them himself. But other than that, I want absolute secrecy. We will tell his parents, but only to explain the behavior. If anyone reveals this secret to anyone else, I'll treat it as an act against the Village."
Shinji nodded. "Understood Lady Tsunade. I will inform the parents of Uchiha right now." He exited out of the door, leaving Reniko at the mercy of the jounins and the Hokage.
Tsunade turned to Shikamaru. "This is your son right?"
Shikamaru shrugged. "Yeah, sometimes, when he's not being troublesome."
"Take him home for now. I think he's earned the day off."
Shikamaru sighed. "Yeah, alright." He walked to the door. "C'mon Reniko, you've been ordered a day off by the Hokage. That's an oxymoron."
Reniko exited the room silently with his dad, leaving the three medical ninja to discuss any more details on the fate of the Uchiha with the sharingan.
xXx
The day of the exams came and everyone was ready (except for poor Yusuke, but this is not about him). Reniko and Sarunte showed up on time and no one would have ever guessed what would have happened the previous night. Sarunte had the same old silly grin he always had, and Reniko would have almost been fooled if it wasn't for the occasionally nervous glance that the Uchiha gave to the mirror, as if to reassure himself his eyes were still black.
Haruna was positively jittering with excitement. It was finally happening she would finally graduate. They called her name, and she entered the room.
It was all fairly basic. Clone jutsu of course, and then some questions and answers. Haruna walked away quite confident, and with good reason. She had passed in one of the highest percentiles. She stepped out of the room triumphantly, brandishing a shiny new headband.
She joined Koru and the others who had graduated, but not before giving a quick 'good luck' to Naro. Naro responded with a thumbs up and a mental congratulations.
Mitsu and Reniko both walked out with their new headbands. Well, Reniko did at least- Mitsu got his old one back.
"Sarunte Uchiha" came the voice of their teacher, and Sarunte went into the room. Unsurprisingly he also walked out with a Konoha headband.
And finally, it was Naros' turn. She walked into the small brown room.
"Ok Naro, clone jutsu." Jirono said without much interest. He mostly wanted to go home and sleep. With all the new genin, he would have a hell of a time with the paper work.
Nara shrugged, and used her shadow clone jutsu, with the result of six clones. Just enough to pass, and not too much to be noticed.
Jirono nodded. "Good Naro, you-"
"Hold it!" cried one of the other teachers. "That was not clone jutsu!"
"True Miyoshi. It was shadow clone jutsu. The sky is also blue. Oh, and you're annoying." Jirono said not bothering to conceal his anger. A person could only explain it so many times before it just redundant.
"We can't pass him if he doesn't do a clone jutsu!" Miyoshi said evenly.
Miyoshi was a huge stickler for the rules. She did everything by the book and refused to let anything deter from that.
Jirono looked at her directly. "Sure, let's fail the genin who knows an A-ranked jutsu versus the Acadamy ranked jutsu. That's not stupid in the slightest."
Miyoshi opened her mouth to protest, but was quickly silenced by the other two chuunins who were also there.
"You pass Naro. Take your headband and scram." Jirono said irritably.
Naro nodded. "Kay!...I mean…uhh…yeah. Sure. Whatever." She said, bringing her voice down an octave.
Jirono said nothing, and Naro took her headband without another word. She could not keep up this boy charade. All she needed to do was fail the genin test and she would be free. How hard could it be to fail a test?
Of course, she would be ruining the hopes and dreams of two other genin students…
Maybe if she was lucky, she would be paired with Reniko and Sarunte…
As she walked out of the room, with her new head band in her hand, she proceeded to be glomped by an excited Haruna.
"YAYAYAYAYAY!" Haruna squealed. "We both passed! This is awesome! Maybe if we're lucky, we'll be on the same teams! How AWESOME would that be?"
"Yeah. Totally awesome" Naro said neutrally. No. It would certainly not be awesome. She would never be able to look herself in the face knowing she let Haruna fail.
Besides, Haruna would most likely be paired with someone who complimented her abilities. Someone without a kekkai genkai. Maybe she would be with Koru or something. That would make sense. Or that kid with the oversized shuriken…or someone. Someone other than her.
Unless…it was like her fathers' team. Where the one with the lowest score was paried with the highest written score and the highest physical score…
…
…
Shit. She should have passed with a better grade.
Relax. Relax. Thirty something students were in this class. The sheer chances of her being partnered with Haruna were next to none. And they would never be stupid enough to partner to people with kekkai genkai right?
…
…
…
…right?
xXx
Team 3:
Ketsuki Gyaro
Reniko Nara
Koru Aburame
Mitsu Gyaro
Team 9:
Sakura Haruno
Haruna Cataki
Nara Uzumaki
Sarunte Uchiha
To Be Continued