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Nara filed into the class room for what would most likely -definitely- be the last time. She had put her headband around her waist, in the style of a belt. She didn't want to have to take off her hood just to prove she was wearing Konohas symbol. Besides, she wouldn't be wearing it for much longer anyway.
Haruna was already there, naturally, and had decided to wear her headband bandana style. It looked a bit odd, since Nara was so used to not seeing Haruna wearing any type of headwear in general, but she assumed she would get used to it-
No. No she wouldn't. She was LEAVING remember? Leaving. Because of Itachi. Unless she wanted Haruna, and Konohamaru, and Mitsu to die because of her, she would be leaving. As soon as she failed the genin test.
Reniko and Sarunte were also already there, with Sarunte wearing his headband around his forehead in the traditional matter, and Reniko wearing it around his neck.
Koru was wearing her headband around her arm, and Mitsu was wearing it on his forehead as well. Other then the indicators of graduating from the acadamy, they looked exactly the same. Nara tried to picture any of them as actual genin. Fighting, killing, going on missions. It was almost impossible to fathom, especially with Haruna, who looked more likely to be the one getting killed then do any of the actual killing.
But she really shouldn't be thinking of that. After all, it's not like they would be going on any A-ranked missions right off the bat.
Like her father did…
No. No! There would be no need to worry. They would not be facing off of missing nin and Itachi. They would be rescuing cats, and cleaning up trash. Normal genin work. Yup. Normal. Genin. Work.
Oh gosh, when she did leave, would she ever be able to stop thinking about them? She already constantly worried, it could get only worse from this point, especially since life spans of ninjas weren't exactly long.
Well, they will live much, much longer, if she went away. No need to have one of them die an early death because of Itachi. It was for the best, in the end.
Jirono-sensei walked in and, took out the list for the teams. Some people were surprised that they would be teamed up in groups of three. But anyone who had older siblings or parents, or just a general knowledge of shinobi education were less then surprised.
"Reniko…Reniko…Reniko…" Sarunte muttered under his breath with his fingers crossed. He already knew the typical formation. It was usually two guys and a girl, but not necessarily. Usually since there was a higher male to female ratio of shinobi, it made sense. As for a girl…Koru would be pretty cool. She was kind of cute, even with those freakazoid glasses, and she had an awesome clan trait.
"And for team 3…we have Reniko Nara."
Saruntes ears perked up. Come on…say his name…say his name. SAYHISNAME.
"Koru Aburame…"
Yes. Yes. YESSS!
"And Mitsu Gyaro under Ketsuki Gyaro"
"NOO!" Sarunte yelled suddenly. A normal person would have blushed and sat down sheepishly. Sarunte, unfortunately, had no such sensibilities. He instead flipped off Jirono and sat down muttering obscenities.
Reniko shot Sarunte a sympathetic glance. He had been hoping to have Sarunte on his team as well. Especially with the revelation of the sharingan, Sarunte would need a friend in training. He glanced at his two new teammates.
Koru was a creep, but she wasn't to annoying. Unlike a certain pink haired midget.
Mitsu... well, Mitsu was a perverted coot who needed to learn that plants did not have brains. Soon.
"And for team nine, we have Haruna Cataki"
Haruna grinned eagerly.
"Naro Uzumaki"
Naras head hit the desk. Oh. Crap. Haruna, on the other hand, had a completely opposite reaction. She punched the air and grinned triumphantly.
"And Sarunte Uchiha."
"WHAT?"
The cried unison of Sarunte, Haruna, and Reniko perfectly exhibited the disgust at such an idea of this trio.
Sarunte stood up. "Why do I hafta be with the runt and the guy who can't see?"
Naro looked up at this. "I can see." He grumbled.
Sarunte nodded. "Uh-huh. Yeah. Suuuurrreee. No one could see past that hood."
"You have black eyes, black hair, and dark brown skin. And you're wearing your headband on your forehead."
"MY HAIR IS BLUE!!! HAHA!" Sarunte shouted triumphantly.
"It's dark enough to be black." Naro said simply.
Haruna frowned. "There is no way your hair is blue. It's definitely black."
Sarunte frowned, and held up four fingers.
"Oh yeah? How many fingers am I holding up HUH?"
"Four. The thumb, the pointer, the index and the pinky."
Sarunte narrowed his eyes. "Oh yeah well-"
"SARUNTE!" Jirono roared. "HARUNA! Sit. Down."
Haruna and Sarunte reluctantly sat down, and resorted to giving each other death glares.
"Now, as I was saying," Jirono continued exasperatedly, "and Sarunte Uchiha under Sakura Haruno. On to team ten!"
Sakura. Sakura Haruno. Nara knew that name. Lady Tsunades' apprentice. Her fathers' other team mate. There had to be a god. And he hated her. Oh right, there was no god, just a very evil hokage. Extremely evil. Evil enough to put Haruna, and Uchiha, and her fathers' old team mate all on the same team as her.
Now what was she going to do? She needed to fail to get her freedom. But…she couldn't do that to Haruna. Haruna had her heart set out on passing and making a name for herself as one of the youngest chuunins…
And she couldn't take that away from Haruna. No. She had to. She simply had to. Another year at the acadamy beat being killed by the Mangyekou sharingan. This was going to be extremely painful.
Not to mention Sarunte. From the few conversations Nara had heard from Sarunte, it was clear that Sarunte had very…aggressive parents. They wanted Sarunte to achieve perfection. And failing the genin test would not help.
And she would meet Sakura Haruno. The kunoichi that her father had loved for a good three years, before moving on to a brotherly sisterly love. She had so many questions for her. What was Naruto like when he was young? Did he really get the bridge named after him in the land of the waves? Did he really defeat the Akatsuki leader single handedly?
…Did Sakura ever like Naruto back at one point?
…Did she ever like Lee back at one point? Dad had said they would have made a good couple, but she had been involved (or as involved as one could get) with Sasuke up until his death, and her father had never stuck around to see who her next love interest was.
No. She would not ask any questions. She would not talk to Sakura at all. Especially about her father. If she did, she might never have the guts to leave.
xXx
Lunch came and went, and the worst of it was Haruna and Sarunte giving each other glares of pure hatred. Reniko joined about half way, and Mitsu joined in as well, just for the fun of it. Naro attempted to talk to Koru, but it was pretty clear neither of them were interested in talking to the other.
Class ended, and one by one, the new senseis came to pick up their three man teams.
The first one to walk in was a pink haired jounin. "Team nine." She said slowly.
Haruna was the first one to jump up, and walked over to Sakura-sensei eagerly. Sarunte was quick to follow, and Naro followed at a snails pace.
Sakura lead them out without a single word. She lead them to down one road and up another. She stopped-
At Ichirakus Ramen stand.
Nara felt her heart stop. Why was her new –temporary- sensei, giving them the genin talk HERE?
"Eat up, my treat." She said stiffly. Ayame shook her head. "Oh, no need to worry about the one in the orange hood. He get's free meals."
Naro looked down at his feet. "Didn't that end?"
Ayame shook her head. "You have three days left. I may be a business woman, but I keep my word."
Sarunte immediately ordered ramen with as much pork as possible. Naro ordered a small seafood ramen, Sakura ordered a miso ramen (which, if Nara remembered correctly, was Narutos favorite type of ramen) and Haruna abstained, claiming to not like ramen.
…
Freak…
…
Sakura paused, "So, why don't we start off with everyone telling me their likes and dislikes, and their dreams."
Haruna immediately brightened and instinctively raised her hand, as if it was still class. "Ok, my name is Haruna Cataki, I love…uhhh…winning, miso soup…and uhhh…puppets I guess. I hate morons, stupid people, and people who make fun of me."(here she glared at Sarunte) "And my dream is to make it on chuunin on my first try and become a jounin before age thirteen."
Sakura said nothing, and just nodded. "and you? The Uchiha?"
Sarunte grinned widely. "My name is Sarunte Uchiha, I like Bar-B-que, ramen, dango, udon, donburi, chicken dumplings, sashimi, botamochi…uhh…tako soup…yeah…oh yeah! And playing go with Reniko! I don't like diets, arrogant brats" (here he glared at Haruna) "and evil people I guess. My dream is to be an ANBU and beat my cousin Daisuke in a fair fight."
Sakura nodded. "That's very nice. And you, Nara?"
Nara paused and sighed. Sarunte frowned. "Dude, it's Naro. N-A-R-O"
Sakura looked at Sarunte and smiled. "Funny, the report spelled it with an A."
Sarunte mulled this over for a moment. "Nara…aha…ahahaha…THAT'S RENI-KUNS LAST NAME!"
Nara just groaned. "My name is Nara Uzumaki, I like ramen, helping people, and I guess orange. I dislike bullies. And people convinced that I am blind. My goal…"
"But y'are blind!" Sarunte hissed.
Nara took another slurp of ramen. "Sarunte, I followed you here didn't I?"
"Well...yeah…bu'…Haruna helped you!"
"Haruna was walking in front of you Sarunte."
Sakura took another breath. "Well, I guess I should introduce myself then. I'm Sakura Haruno, I like being a shinobi, my dislikes are none of your business, and any goals I might have, are either achieved or discard, and thus irrelevant."
Kakashi-sensei. That had to have been an at least slightly mirrored speech.
"And, I take it, due to your families, you know that there is only a 30 percent chance of passing."
Haruna and Sarunte nodded, both obviously having been lectured in such knowledge before. Nara didn't nod, but she gave no indication of not knowing. She just continued to slurp down her seafood ramen.
"Well then, your test will be tomorrow in the morning. Don't eat any breakfast. At all. You will just throw up, and trust me, if you throw up, you will be cleaning it up. Bare handed." Sakura said, paying for the ramen, and getting up to leave. "Meet me at the bridge, and be early. I'm talking six here."
With that, she left without a word. Sarunte finished his ramen, shelled out some yen for some more ramen, and continued to eat. Haruna began to head home for some non ramen related food, and Nara headed back to her apartment.
"Wow. Talk about a reunion." Udon mentioned conversationally.
"Shut up Udon." Nara mumbled.
"I couldn't have cut through that tension with a knife." Udon said undaunted. "What are you gonna do with the test huh? You gonna fail your best friend?"
"Just shut u- wait, how did you know it was a reunion." Nara asked suspiciously.
"Gee Uzumaki, there are only so many people related to Naruto with that surname, we were going to figure it out eventually. Or at least, I did. Just told Moegi, but I'm thinking of not telling Kono-kun."
Nara shrugged as she fished for her key to her door. "That's great, but unless you are here to tell me that I can leave the village, for an hour or two so I can get some material for my chakra balls, can you just leave me alone?"
"Nara, I'm here to say goodbye." Udon said solemnly.
Nara blinked in confusion. "Why?"
"Sakura is being put in charge of keeping you in line. She's your jounin teacher after all. Moegi and Konohamaru and I are going to be reassigned. Most likely as body guards to the —well, it's classified." Udon said quickly, stopping himself from dropping the name 'Uchiha'.
For some reason, Tsunade had ordered them to keep a close eye on them. Specifically Saruntes parents and Sarunte. The difference being that Saruntes' parents were well aware and had asked for it. Why was beyond Udon, but it wasn't his place to ask. No matter, he would find out eventually.
"Oh…" Nara paused. "Sorry, I didn't know. Why aren't Moegi and Konohamaru here to tell me goodbye?"
"Technically, you were never supposed to know in the first place, so Moegi thought it would be best to try and not cause a huge fuss. And Kono…well, you know Kono."
Nara smiled. "Ok, I'll miss you guys, make sure you tell Moegi and Konohamaru I said I'll miss them. And make sure you tell Konohamaru who my father was ok?"
Udon smiled back, pushed up his glasses and sniffled. "You can count on me."
Nara didn't know why she was so sad about this. After all, she was planning to leave them all anyway. She shouldn't be sad about this. There was nothing to be sad about. After all, the last time she had a home, there was fire and mass murder involved.
There was absolutely nothing to be sad about.
xXx
It was early in the morning, and Haruna, Sarunte, and Nara were all at the bridge on time. And at exactly six am, Sakura walked up to them.
"Well, glad to see all of you came on time." She said coolly. "Follow me, the test is not going to be here."
The three genins did as they were told and followed Haruno without a word. They walked to a clearing, where there were three stumps.
Nara was legitimately interested in what the test was. She had never been interested in her fathers' genin test, except that he got tied to a stump. She had always been much more interested in her mothers' genin test, which involved the three genin having to track down Kurenai-sensei while being attacked by animated trees. It had taken them two hours and it was only after a combination of Hinata using the Byakugan and the extreme precision of Kiba and Shino did they manage to catch her.
Sakura took out two bells. "Two bells. You get a bell from me, you pass. You don't get a bell, you fail. You have a time limit of five hours. No eating. You eat, you fail. Not only that, but you'll get tied to a stump."
Eating. That must have been the reason her father had been tied to a stump. Something wasn't right though. How had all three of them passed with only two bells? Well, Sakura had been on time and clearly was not Kakashi, most likely, she had changed the test to fit her own beliefs.
"Ready…set…now." Sakura said, and she pressed the time, and she latched the bells on her belts. "If you want to get the bells, you better come at me with the intention to kill, or you will never get a bell."
This was perfect. All too perfect. Haruna and Sarunte could pass without her. And she could fail. A two man team seemed a bit odd, but she had heard a couple of stories of people with one student or two. Maybe they would get someone from the ANBU, like that guy who could draw that her father occasionally mentioned…
Sarunte charged. Haruna disappeared, and Nara stood there like an idiot before realizing that the other two acadamy students were fully prepared to get the bells at any means possible.
Sarunte attacked Sakura with a bunch of complicated taijutsu moves that Nara had to admit was very impressive. But Sakura blocked the moves at ease, and a side step had Sarunte trip and fall.
Cursing under his breath, Sarunte made a flurry of hand seals. "Katon!" He roared. Sakura took a step back and looked at him with a mixture of surprise and laughter.
Sarunte took a deap breath, and released a huge fireball. Nara gawked in surprise. It was huge. For a split second Nara worried that there was no way to escape that. How could Sakura possibly escape that? But the flames cleared up and no Sakura was to be found. Or bells for that matter.
Sarunte panted. "Cra-ap. Where'd she go?"
All of a sudden, his eyes widened. He took a step back. "Wha—what the-?"
"You're pretty good at taijutsu Sarunte," Sakura said as she appeared behind him.
"But it appears you need to learn the difference between reality and genjutsu."
Sarunte screamed hoarsely before falling unconscious. Sakura turned to Nara. "Well, what are you going to do?"
Nara rushed over to Sarunte. "Save my teammate."
She kneeled next to Sarunte. "Kai" She muttered. Nothing happen. She tried it again. "Release damn it!"
It didn't work.
"So you know how to release genjutsu huh? Pretty good for a genin. But you're just as stupid as the Uchiha over here." Sakura said quietly.
Nara blinked. "What do you mean by that?"
Sakura said nothing. She didn't have to. She was just an illusion after all. Genjutsu had a tendency to do that to a person.
Nara collapsed, and that was that.
Haruna was all that was left. She had been waiting quietly, watching Sakura fight the other two. This was her element right here. She might not be the physical strongest, or the oldest, but she knew how to handle a situation like this.
She saw Sarunte collapse, then Nara was quick to follow. Time for her to shine. She would get both bells. She would then give on to Nara, and then Sarunte would FAIL.
She took out some shuriken. She released them at Sakura, before quickly moving to another location, so as not to let Sakura know of her position.
Sakura saw the shuriken, and took a single step backwards to avoid it.
Haruna ran to a bunch of trees on the opposite side of the clearing. Hopefully, that would lose any trai-
Nope. Sakura was right behind her. Activating her Zajigan Haruna turned to Sakura-
Only to fly fifty feet in the air.
Haruna stumbled and stood up. Sakura stared at Haruna. Haruna stared back, attempting to hypnotize Sakura.
It didn't work
Haruna widened her eyes in horror. Why wasn't it working? Sakura-sensei should have been keeling over by now. All she was doing was standing there, as if they were engaging in a blinking contest.
"You lack chakra control." Sakura said conversationally. "Without it, any chuunin with proper training can throw off your feeble attempt at hypnosis."
Haruna gulped, and cursed to the extent a ten year old could possibly say.
"Here, let me show you what REAL chakra control can do." Sakura said cheerfully.
She then proceeded to punch the ground.
xXx
Nara sat up. She couldn't believe it. She had fallen for simple genjutsu. Why? Because she was too busy being worried about that blockhead Sarunte. Where was he anyway? He must have already recovered. She was going to murder him. This was his entire fault.
She activated her byakugan. Sakura was currently sitting on the three stumps clearly occupied. Haruna and Sarunte…were roughly fifty meters to the left of this. Together. What were they doing?
She raced over to them. Haruna noticed her and brightened. "Nara!" She whispered. "You're finally awake!"
Nara frowned. "How long was I asleep."
Sarunte and Haruna exchanged mixed glances. "Long 'nuff for us to get our asses kicked a bamillion times from here to Suna."
"Two and a half hours. Judging by the sun." Haruna said bluntly.
Sarunte nodded. "Jah. Now we're jus' tryin' to figure out the bes' way to do this. I mean, none of us are strong enough to take that psychotic jounin."
Just like her dad described after all. "Why don't we try working together?" Nara asked finally. "All three of us?"
Sarunte snorted. "Kay, I nominate 'aruna for not takin' the bell."
Haruna narrowed her eyes and clenched her fist. "I nominate the baka who eats too much." She hissed.
Nara waved her hands around frantically. "Whoah, whoah guys. It'll be fine. Look, I'LL not take the bell."
Sarunte and Haruna stared at Nara in dumbfounded awe.
"But…Nara, you're giving up an entire year of being a shinobi! You would have to go back to the acadamy! And you HATE it there!" Haruna sputtered.
Sarunte nodded. "You know Neko-kun will give you hell and back for it. Pro'lly worse than 'aruna too, cuz you can actually do clone jutsu. Or somethin' like it."
Nara shook her head. "It's fine. Besides, you guys have had more formal training then I have had. It's only fair."
Sarunte looked at Haruna. "Sounds good to me." Sarunte finally said.
Haruna looked at Nara, with her eyes wide. "Thanks…" She mumbled.
"So Nara the not blind suicidal genin of Konoha, do ya gotsa' plan?"
Nara nodded, and removed her hood, revealing her blond hair and clearly feminine features. "Just one."
To Be Continued