Disclaimer: All NARUTO related materials are Copyrighted and belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not me.
Chapter 5
Graduation
The next few months flew by like a cherry blossom tree's pink petals blown by the mild spring breeze. Miyako attended the academy from Monday to Friday, hung out with the boys and Hinata on weekends and received lessons from Sakura and training from Sasuke each and every day. She was advancing little by little towards her classmate's level of strength and skill while secretly having a little bit more knowledge about their world.
Miyako was having slight difficulty in playing dumb during Sakura's lessons. She already knew most of the things the pinkette was teaching her but since it would be suspicious if she revealed that knowledge, she had to act like everything was new to her. The real pain in the ass were those damn General Studies and Science subjects, but memorizing all the ninja laws and learning how to draw chakra was also a pain. Miyako understood the concept but she lacked practice in developing and mixing her spiritual and physical energy. Luckily, by the end of the first month, she had successfully concentrated a small amount of chakra in the palms of her hands, making them glow a in a feint blue light. Then Sakura started teaching her Academy jutsu like Transformation and Replacement. Miyako felt like she really sucked at ninjutsu but she tried her very best to learn them.
During those learning sessions Sasuke was having a really hard time coping with the fact that the final bit of space in Miyako's closet, which was supposed to hold some horrendous secret, turned out to be filled with art supplies. He didn't even know she could draw. Which wasn't important, mind you, he had more serious business, spies and the like, he reminded himself to focus. He had inspected every other part of Miyako's apartment as well, unknowingly missing an entire sealed room completely, and after he found nothing, he was beginning to feel cheated somehow, his anger towards the girl accumulating with each passing day. Luckily, there was a convenient outlet for that anger – the times when he could order her around.
The two hours of training by Sasuke were really becoming royal agony. Miyako was now supposed to wear weights both on her arms and legs at all times, even when sleeping. She had once tried to take them off, but unfortunately Sasuke had taken the liberty to attach small exploding tags which would go "boom" if she tried to remove anything. That same night Miyako had to spend in the bathroom trying to gingerly rub off the charcoal burn marks from her skin. On another note, at the training grounds the brunette was now able to run at twice her normal speed and jump twice her height with the weights. It was all thanks to the revelation that Sakura dawned upon Miyako one time when she gave into pity, that she was supposed to carefully channel chakra into the muscle groups that needed the extra boost. This new exciting knowledge proved useful when Sasuke had made her run backwards, walk on her hands and do front and back flips that she would never be able to do with those horrendous weights if not for her newfound ability to use chakra.
Half a month later, Miyako was having no more problems with her training. She was even getting better at throwing and avoiding projectiles. She was also getting as much hits with rocks at Sasuke as she was receiving. The best part was, that he had "acknowledged" her enough to let her fight him to teach her basic taijutsu. He sometimes even made some almost inaudible comments on the alien moves she already knew, thanks to all the spars with Shun at school and her dad's dojo which turned out to be physical training Okada-san had forced onto her back in real world. Miyako's happiness didn't last long however, since she got pummeled every time she fought him. She had a long way to go if she ever hoped to match the Uchiha prodigy himself, that much was obvious enough.
A week ago, Sakura had found out Sasuke's favorite foods, with a little help from Miyako, and each day after training she had been giving him a home made boxed lunch. For example, Okaka rice balls and chopped up tomatoes. Each time the quiet boy would glare at her as to say "This doesn't mean anything!" before accepting the offered food, convincing himself that it wouldn't be bad to eat actual cooked food once in a while. This one time however, he had unconsciously thanked Sakura, making her flush and stare at him wide-eyed in disbelief. Realizing that he had accidentally said it out loud, a barely noticeable pinkish hue made its way to his pale nose and ears. After a few moments of awkward silence, Sakura staring at Sasuke and him looking away to hide and suppress an oncoming embarrassment, Miyako had burst into laughter, which had however resulted in her groaning in pain. It wasn't such a good idea to laugh so hard with sore muscles aching from training. Sakura was getting ready to thank the other girl for ruining the moment by pounding some sense into her, but decided against it, since the other girl was in enough pain as it was.
As for the others, Naruto had been getting in a lot of trouble lately. Apparently, he had been making progress with his attention-seeking pranks, which, despite successfully making him more noticeable, were also worsening his already horrible reputation among the adult villagers. To say he was a thorn in their eyes would be an understatement.
Ever since she had started hanging out with the guys and Miyako, Hinata was now only stuttering in front of Naruto and in other uncomfortable situations. She was still meek and soft-spoken but it made a huge difference that she was getting used to being in a crowd of friends.
A month ago, Kiba and Akamaru had come to the academy in bandages. Kiba explained that his mother was teaching him and Akamaru a clan jutsu. Three weeks later he was bragging that the two of them had mastered it. When Shikamaru asked him to show it, Kiba muttered that his mom didn't let him use it until he became a full-fledged ninja. Kiba didn't mention anything about it since.
Ino, Shikamaru and Choji didn't do anything more interesting than the usual. Ino was getting more hours of work at the flower shop because her mom thought she could handle more responsibility. Shikamaru kept sleeping in class and sometimes he, Ino and Choji had to drag their pathetically drunken clan head dads back home from the bar. Two weeks ago, Choji had to go to the hospital for indigestion but he was up and eating junk food again just after a day.
Shino was being his usual impassive and quiet self. Well, until one day Miyako got bored and decided to poke him with a stick just to see if he would react. After about five minutes of silence and poking, the stick had started to disappear by itself with a strange noise. Upon closer inspection, Miyako saw numerous tiny termites eating away at the wood at breakneck speed. Sighing in defeat, she threw the stick away and glared at Shino saying "You... You're good, you. You're very good." She could've sworn she saw the ends of his mouth twitch in an attempt of a smile.
As those few months passed, Miyako couldn't help but stop and wonder what lay behind the sealed door in her apartment. To her, it was obvious that it was something connected to her parents but why would the Hokage want to keep it a secret from her? It was just a room, right? That must have meant it had something to do with her father's legacy – the inter-dimensional tunnel or whatever it was. And why couldn't anyone else but her see the door? That much was evident, since neither Sakura nor Sasuke seemed to notice it. Was it concealed by an illusion? Each time she told herself she would go ask the old man later, she eventually forgot all about it in the excitement of the day.
- xxx -
It was a sunny Sunday and Miyako woke up, determined to confront the Sandaime about the sealed door in her parents' apartment. She was wearing the weights and casual clothes consisting of a worn out light blue t-shirt, brown shorts and her hair in a long high ponytail with a couple of shorter bangs of dark brown hair falling down the sides of her face. She was walking down the main street towards the Hokage Tower with a determined expression, thinking really hard about what could be behind that door.
While her mind was busy, Miyako failed to notice two other girls running around the corner. The three eventually collided and fell in a pile on top of each other.
"Forehead, look what you did! It's all your fault!" yelled the blond one with an orange t-shirt and dark brown shorts to the pinkette lying over her and struggled to squeeze out. "And get off of me, you fat cow!"
"Shut up, Ino-pig, it was so your fault!" the pink haired girl stood up to throw back at Ino. She had a red ribbon in her hair, a pink tank top, a red skirt with the Haruno symbol and short green leggings under the skirt.
"Oh, yeah, billboard-brow? Then who was the one who didn't watch where she was going and pushed me!" Ino protested while getting off of Miyako.
"What?! That was you, PIG!" Sakura tightened her fists.
"FOREHEAD!" Ino shouted back as the two glared harder at each other.
While watching the "raging battle of wits", Miyako calmly stood up and dusted herself off. She stared at them for a bit, pondering if she should also yell her head off at them for toppling her over or do the more sensible thing and try to calm them down instead.
"Uh... Hey, guys. It's no big deal. Really. I'm okay," the brunette chose the latter as it held less consequences. Her muscles were aching non-stop from training even without Ino and Sakura beating her up and adding their share to that ever-present pain.
"Who said this was about you?!" the two rivals chorused, crossing their arms childishly.
Miyako sweatdropped. Those two were as considerate and as nice as ever.
"Then what is it about? You bumped into someone while you were having a little race, big deal," Miyako said, shrugging. She was trying really hard to be nice.
That seemed to remind the girls of something. They both became depressed.
"Oh no..." Sakura hung her head.
Miyako raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"We lost him..." Ino mumbled.
Miyako immediately understood who they were talking about. They were angry at each other and looked like they were competing for something, which meant Sasuke was bound to be near.
"Guys, what makes you think that stalking– uh, I mean, following someone might make him like you better?" Miyako dully asked.
The two girls seemed to almost consider thinking about it, but decided against it and crossed their arms, holding their heads high.
"Even if he ignores us, we're still spending quality time together and it might help us learn something about his private life, you never know," Ino mumbled, although she probably didn't believe that herself.
Miyako resisted the urge to palm her forehead. "Do what you want, it's your life to live." She gave up trying to reason with them and continued down the street.
"Hey, where are you going?" Sakura hurried next to Miyako and Ino mirrored on the other side.
"Huh? Uh, nowhere. Just taking a walk. Sore muscles and whatnot," Miyako lied with a false smile. She thought it might not be a good idea to tell them there was a sealed and probably genjutsu-hidden door in her apartment. It might turn out to hide something others shouldn't know about.
"Hmm? Are you suure?" Ino eyed her suspiciously.
Miyako tried very hard to keep her cool. As a wanna-be ninja she was learning to be a damn good liar. Lying to hide that she was from another world was probably helping that skill develop quite a bit.
"Yeeah, whyy?" Miyako was now the one looking at Ino distrustfully.
"Why are you taking a walk around the general area where Sasuke-kun is taking his?" Sakura caught on what Ino was implying and narrowed her eyes at Miyako.
"Huh?" The brunette eyed Sakura and Ino dully. "You guys still think I must like him, don't you?" She sighed. "I swear, everyone acts like it's mandatory!" She groaned, remembering her conversation with the guys and Hinata.
"You're just in denial! Who wouldn't like him! It's impossible not to fall for him!" Ino stated, looking away with a dreamy look in her eyes.
"Hinata, for instance," Miyako said crossing her arms to make a point, "and I for another."
"Hinata doesn't count!" Sakura said as a-matter-of-factly.
"Why not?" Miyako protested.
"Because she likes Naruto," Ino stated the obvious.
"And he's the only one who doesn't see it," Sakura added as the three girls shared a tired sigh.
"I still don't get why I must like Sasuke?" Miyako brought them back to the subject at hand. "Actually, nevermind, don't tell me." Noticing how the two obsessive girls got a distant look in their sparkly eyes, Miyako stopped them from going into a rant about "oh, how cool and dreamy" Sasuke was. "Aren't you two supposed to prevent me from liking him instead of forcing me to have feelings for him?"
"Well, then who do you like?" Ino retorted.
"Why should I necessarily have anyone to like?" Miyako deadpanned, even though a certain otherworldly Yamamori Haru popped up in her mind, making her feel the suppressed guilt of abandoning him.
"Oh, come on, you have to have someone you like! Who do you feel nervous around? Who causes butterflies in your stomach? Around who does your face heat up and your heart start to beat faster? Who do you find yourself staring at?" Sakura almost sang as she and Ino looked away dreamily with their hands joined in front of their chests.
"No one." Miyako just stubbornly kept her dull look, trying not to think of Haru back in real world and how long they've been apart, because it stung quite a bit. "And who was the genius who decided that having mutated flying caterpillars in the stomach should be used as a metaphor for a pleasant feeling signalling love?! Isn't it just a small anxiety attack where your abdominal muscles clench under the stress and adrenaline of struggling to cope with the fear and surprise of not knowing how to act?" she muttered under her nose in deep thought.
"Eeh?! No way!" The two girls shouted, ignoring her last comment. "No one?!"
"None that I'm aware of," Miyako confirmed.
"Not even Sasuke?!" Ino asked, wide-eyed.
"I believe we already established that numerous times," Miyako insisted.
"Does that mean... Naruto?!" Sakura asked, unbelieving.
"What?! No."
"Then, Shikamaru?!" Ino tried.
"Why him?! No."
"How about Kiba?!" Sakura suggested.
"Uh, no."
"O-or... Choji?!" Ino approached.
"Guys, no."
"Wait! Don't tell me it's Shino?!" They were getting desperate with the way they were leaning over into her comfort space.
"Guys, please! I told you! It's no one! None of the above!" Miyako finally boiled, "Maan, what's wrong with you two? Get a life, why don'cha!" She walked faster, stomping past them and further ahead, muttering "Ugh, fangirls" bitterly under her nose.
"It must be lonely and boring without someone to like," Ino voiced, looking at Miyako's retreating back, "So sad."
"I don't know, Ino, maybe it's easier when you don't have to worry about love," Sakura wondered out loud.
At this, Ino stared at her former friend in disbelief. What the heck was Sakura babbling about?
- The Hokage Tower, Hokage's office -
It was a beautiful morning in the Village Hidden in the Leaves, thought the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. It would have been even better if it weren't for the four large piles of paperwork, his worst enemy and rival, towering over the sides of his desk.
"Hokage-sama, an academy student, Nagahoshi Miyako, wishes to see you. You don't have any appointments for this morning. Shall I let her in?" a voice came from the now open door in his office.
Hiruzen smiled warmly. This was his chance for a little distraction from his foulest rival– ehem, from all the paperwork.
"Yes, Kimura, thank you," he stated and a moment later the chuunin let a dark-haired girl with big brown eyes pass trough.
"Morning, Hokage-sama!" she said, walking into the room as the secretary closed the door behind her.
"Why, good morning, Miyako! Sit down, please. What troubles you? Have you settled in yet?" Hiruzen began as Miyako nervously sat in the chair in front of his desk.
"Uuh, right, yeah, yeah..." She felt it wise not to beat around the bush. "More importantly, there's a this room in my apartment... you know, the sealed one?"
"Oh, that..." The Sandaime sighed. He knew the girl would want to talk to him about that sooner or later. And there it came.
"Yeah, I thought you might know something about it and why I can't seem to open it. I think it might be hidden with a genjutsu or something like that, because no one else can see it, but I can..." Miyako told him, feeling pretty nervous under his calculating gaze. For some reason she had the pretty accurate feeling that he wasn't going to tell her.
"Well..." the old man started. He wasn't sure if he should straight out refuse to answer or distract her with a fragment of the truth... for now. "Your father was an inquisitive man. After he found out who your mother was, what people dwell here, he wanted to know everything there is to know about the Tunnel, ninja and the Elemental Lands. Eventually he learned a thing or two himself and started working on new jutsu. That room contains his life's work."
"Whoa..." Miyako's eyes started to sparkle in outright hero-worship for her father.
"...but I believe that you are still far too inexperienced for that knowledge. It's dangerous," the Sandaime blew the wind out of her sails.
"Wait, what? That again?! Aw, come on! Why?" Miyako tried to protest but Hiruzen's face was stern. The girl pouted, crossing her arms. Then she got a glint in her eyes. "Hey, Hokage-sama, when one graduates from the Ninja Academy, he becomes a full-fledged ninja, which means he has become an adult, right?"
"No, it has nothing to do with becoming an adult, you'll still be underage and far too young to be responsible enough for inheriting delicate research documentation," Sarutobi warned as Miyako's smirk faded. "And when you graduate, you will still be just a novice ninja, a mere genin. You will be inexperienced in both battle and reasoning."
"Then when I become thirteen I'll be a teenager–" Miyako tried to suggest.
"Still far too young," Hiruzen interrupted.
"But my father's legacy is mine to–" the girl tried again, leaning forward in the chair.
"No, Miyako, it will happen when you've earned it," the Third Hokage said a bit louder, making Miyako tense up and sit up in her chair properly. She took that as a signal that she was pushing her luck too far. He then smiled warmly. "I've confided in you once already that this is classified S-rank information which very few know of. When you come of age and reach the appropriate rank, in a time of my choosing, I'll take care for the seal on that door to be removed, giving you full access. Now then, is there something else that troubles you, not concerning this self-appointed legacy of yours?"
"No... thanks anyway..." Miyako murmured quietly.
"Well, you're free to go then." Sarutobi motioned towards the exit with his worn out hand.
Miyako stood up and bowed her head slightly. "Excuse me," she spoke and left through the door.
Hiruzen closed his eyelids and sighed again. He didn't really wish to raise his voice against the girl but there really was no other way to remind her of her standing. The third took a moment to rethink if he should have done or said anything different in this situation. Allowing the girl to find out anything more about her parents later on was perhaps the best choice and he didn't regret it.
The third opened the first drawer on his desk, took out a smoking pipe and lit it with a match. He took in a generous breath of the rich fumes and exhaled a thick gust of smoke. Grimacing a little, he looked again at the four piles of paper which lay next to his oak desk.
This will prove to be a painstakingly long day.
- xxx -
Later that day, Miyako, Sakura and Sasuke were resting by the practice dummies after "Duck-butt's two hour hell training" as Miyako had dubbed it a month ago. Said girl was lying on the ground with several bandaged by Sakura wounds. She was panting and cursing under her breath, courtesy of the same person she was offending. Sasuke was trying his best to isolate himself from the noise and simply enjoy the eggrolls from the bento his "number one fan" had made for him. The warm weather insisted that he had to wear a thin black t-shirt and leave the arm-warmers behind. Sakura was mesmerized by the boy and was glad that he liked her cooking, even if he didn't admit it openly.
"Teme-sensei..." Miyako voiced yet another offence between deep breaths and struggled to pull herself up on her elbows. "What was that?"
Sakura and Sasuke turned their attention to the battered girl.
"How... what... why..." Miyako struggled to formulate her question. "Were you holding back all this time? Today you were so... strong!" she was reluctant to admit. Up until now, she could almost keep up with Sasuke's speed and strength and even managed to land a hit once in a while. But this time around he seemed faster, stronger, better. She couldn't avoid any of his attacks and hers barely grazed him. She felt weak, worthless... like at the start of this training.
"Hn," Sasuke smirked, gulping his last bite. "You're right, I was holding back. If I hadn't, you wouldn't have been able to keep up with me and wouldn't have learnt anything." He handed the empty bento back to Sakura who was drowning in his coolness.
"Makes sense, I guess..." Miyako pouted. "But why bother? You could've continued at that tempo."
"You don't remember, do you?" It was hardly a question."Tests are in two weeks and a month from now is the final exam."
"A month?!" Miyako's eyes widened in shock. There was so little time... She quickly recovered. "So... today you fought me at your fullest?"
"Almost," Sasuke retorted impassively.
Miyako snickered with her eyes closed.
"What's so funny?"
"And here I thought you would be faster." She opened her eyes to give him a challenging look. "My body was too slow to respond but my eyes were clearly able to see your attacks coming."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. Sakura widened hers and looked back and forth from him to Miyako, observing their interaction with anticipation.
"I wasn't at full speed," Sasuke stated, "Otherwise you'd barely be able to notice my shadow."
"Good! Fight me with all you've got tomorrow!" Miyako stood up and yelled in a Naruto-like manner.
"Ha! Like you could keep up with Sasuke-kun!" Sakura spat out. Miyako was trying to help her in the "befriend the loner" department, but Sakura still couldn't overcome the urge to defend Sasuke. No matter if he was able to do it himself or not.
"I want to improve faster so I can't have you holding back!" Miyako ignored Sakura to challenge the overy calm Sasuke.
"Whatever..." he monotoned and turned to leave.
Miyako smiled, taking his attitude as an unsaid agreement. She was gonna get her ass kicked badly tomorrow but it didn't matter. She had already gotten used to the non-stop pain from her sore aching muscles. What she wanted now was a faster and better way to improve.
A month, huh? I took care of my physical improvement and I'm more than ready for the tests, Miyako thought and turned to Sakura, who was saying goodbye to Sasuke. Now for that Clone Technique test on the graduation exam... I know I'm cheating but what can I do? I just happen to accidentally know the subject of the exam so might as well put that to good use.
"Hey, Sakura-nee~" Miyako smiled sweetly at the pinkette who turned with a questioning gaze.
"I told you to stop calling me that. What do you want?"
"Can you please help me with the Clone jutsu tomorrow? Pleeease! Pretty please!" She found it impossible to learn it without her help. The chakra control involved was too annoying for her.
"Eh? Didn't I teach you that last week?" Sakura groaned. "I thought you would've gotten it down by now!"
"Well, yeah, but..." Miyako sweatdropped. "I kinda suck at chakra control and can't get it quite right."
"How can you suck at chakra control? Don't you practice like I told you to?" Sakura pointed an accusatory finger in Miyako's face.
"Eheheh." Miyako scratched the back of her head. "Sometimes I'm too tired and I forget..." or I fall dead asleep the moment I try meditation because of how tired my muscles feel.
"Miyako..." Sakura sighed palming her slightly larger forehead.
"Please~?" Miyako returned to smiling sweetly and subconsciously gave her the puppy dog look.
Sakura however stared at her with a bothered expression, trying very hard to rid herself from the disturbing image of Miyako thinking she could do a non-sickeningly cute puppy dog look.
"Fine, fine! Just... just stop doing whatever you think you're doing."
Sakura grunted as Miyako hugged her repeating "thank you", making her have to peal her off of her forcibly.
- A month later -
With the final exam near, Sasuke and Sakura were eager to finally have Miyako off their backs. That day was the last she would work with them. Miyako was a little saddened that from the next day onward there was going to be no Sakura to play dumb with and no Sasuke to make her feel like a limp dead animal. She was even missing the weights she had to wear all the time. Sasuke had her take them off the day before to give them back to Iruka.
Even with her training almost over, Miyako was still weaker than most. With all this free time, she planned to start reading a bit from the bookcase in the living room, like Sakura was telling her to all this time, and also continue the same training regime Sasuke always made her do, this time by herself. It would prove useful for the test their new instructors were going to give them after they became genin. She had to get at least a bit closer to average strength by then.
That made Miyako think. Which team would she be assigned to? Who would her teammates be? Who was going to be their sensei? She thought of the possibility of being on team seven but shot down the idea completely. There was no such thing as a fourth team member, beside the sensei. And anyway, what was the chance of that happening in anything besides a crappy OC fanfic? Zilch. Although what had happened to her in the last few months and that whole cross-dimensional portal thing did sound like her life had become some crappy OC fanfic.
Miyako sighed and tried to get used to the thought that she would most probably be assigned to some unknown sensei in some unknown team as the lone girl member. Then after that, she would have to try her best to prove the 66% failure rate wrong and pass whatever unknown test the unknown sensei throws at her and her unknown male teammates. She decided that, unknown team or not, she would still follow Kakashi's lesson to value her teammates. She swore to herself to get to know her unknown teammates and unknown sensei, to listen to them, to befriend them, to care for them and, most of all, to protect them with her life, because "In the world of ninja those who violate the rules and laws are called trash. However, those who don't take care of their comrades are worse than trash."
- xxx -
"Maan, I'm hot!" Miyako whined while fanning her sweaty face with a notebook. She was alone at her usual seat in the right row at the back of the classroom.
She had already passed last month's both physical and written skill assessment tests with acceptable scores, putting her somewhere a bit below the absolute average of the whole class' performance. She really thought she wasn't going to pass those tests so she was in an overall great mood for actually succeeding to do so at all. It was the day before the graduation exam and she figured Naruto was probably giving the Hokage faces "a makeover". The bell for last period had rung a while ago but Iruka-sensei was out to get Naruto and punish him for skipping classes. That was why everyone in the room were talking freely.
"You can always sit over there where the sun's not shining, it's your call," Kiba offered, pointing to the empty seat between Sakura and Ino who were currently glaring daggers at each other, in the midst of another verbal brawl in the name of their sullen dark-haired dream boy.
"If you want me to get myself killed then just say so," Miyako joked as she and Kiba sweatdropped when the two fangirls pointed at Sasuke on the desk behind, their tones getting angrier. "I like it here better, way better."
"Naruto-kun seems to be late..." Miyako barely heard Hinata point out from the front. She still wasn't able to hide her embarrassment when she was openly seeking out the boy in front of a group of people.
"Yeah, what's he doing *munch* that's more important than *munch* attending class?" Choji asked in between chip-bites.
For the last couple of months Miyako had been the one to always have a pretty decent idea of what Naruto could be doing or where he could be found. This was all thanks to Naruto's routine visits to her apartment in order to hide, which became a habit after three of his more "severe" elaborate pranks:
Shaving the third's head while he slept – the old man had to hide that fact that he was successfully made bald by a lower ranking academy student under the Hokage hat for a week before he could start lying that he had just gotten a haircut.
Drawing his face and "Vote Naruto for Hokage" with a field line marker on the academy's training grounds – Miyako was more than happy to run her usual laps during "Duck-butt's two hours of hell training" on the same field.
And painting the largest tree in front of the Ninja Academy entirely bright pink overnight – there were still rumors going around but no one really knew exactly how he was able to do it. Also, Miyako was pretty sure it was a self-expressed confession for his infatuation with Sakura and her hair color.
Anyway, Miyako was the only person living alone who agreed to hide him when there was a pursuit. In exchange for that, Naruto told Miyako funny stories about how he had escaped from the chuunin chasing him, how he had executed those brilliant pranks and what or who he planned to prank in the near future.
"What's he doing, you ask?" Miyako snickered. "Art, probably."
"Art?" Shikamaru repeated boringly, taking slight interest in the conversation.
BAM! The classroom became silent when Iruka stormed in dragging a tied up Naruto.
"Listen, Naruto," Iruka-sensei spoke firmly, obviously continuing a lecture he was giving Naruto on the way here. "You failed the last final exam and the exam before that. You shouldn't be fooling around like that."
"Hmph!" Naruto turned away sharply, pouting like he didn't deserve this public humiliation.
Iruka-sensei snapped. "We're going to have a review test for the Transformation Technique!" He stomped his foot, facing the class and pointed angrily to his left. "Those who already passed have to line up as well!"
"WHAA?" The whole class exploded.
The whole scene seemed like a déjà-vu to Miyako who recognized the conversation from the first episode of Naruto. She expected that, from now on, she was gonna feel this way a lot.
Everyone lined up in front of Iruka as Sakura went first.
"Haruno Sakura going! Transform!" she said with a ram hand sign, chakra morphing around her into the vision of Iruka-sensei.
"Okay!" Iruka said and Sakura changed back into herself.
"I did it!" she squealed happily as Inner Sakura was yelling in triumph. "Sasuke-kun, did you see that?" Sakura turned happily to the disinterested boy, begging for his approval.
"Next, Uchiha Sasuke!" Iruka called out while marking in his notepad as Sakura went to the back to make room for Sasuke.
"Yeah," Sasuke voiced, standing in front. He just made a seal and transformed into a perfect version of Iruka without saying anything else.
"O-okay." Iruka dismissed, a bit startled that it was like looking into a mirror, and Sasuke transformed back with a "hn". He pocketed his hands and went to the back of the line. "Next, Uzumaki Naruto."
"This sucks," Shikamaru whined from behind Naruto.
"This is all your fault." Standing next to Shikamaru, Ino grimaced at the other blond.
"Like I care," Naruto grumbled, walking in front.
"Transformation!" Naruto yelled with his hand sign and pumped so much chakra that it leaked, swirling around him. As the smoke appeared, Miyako put a hand over her mouth trying to suppress laughter for what was coming next. Several people looked at her like she was insane, before returning their gazes to Naruto's dissipating smoke.
And there she was – the "highly gifted" twintailed blond Naruko in all her nude glory. She was bent over with one hand on her knee and the other blowing a kiss at Iruka while moaning a sexy moan with a wink. Everyone in the room froze, with the exception of Miyako who was still trying to suppress the oncoming fit of laughter. Iruka gaped wide-eyed and then finally cracked, flying backwards from the force of a severe nosebleed. Miyako couldn't take no more and burst out in uncontrollable laughter.
Poof! Naruto transformed back and laughed along, holding his stomach. "How was that? I call it the Sexy jutsu!" he yelled, pointing at Iruka.
"You idiot! Don't invent such a dumb jutsu!" Iruka quickly recovered and bellowed at the boy. You could almost feel the immense force with which he was yelling. "Dismissed!" he yelled back at the class and then dragged Naruto out by the collar while shouting at him something about cleaning a vandalized Hokage Monument.
"What?! He actually painted over the Hokage faces?!" Sakura shouted in disbelief.
"Like I said... art!" Miyako laughed earning the "she's touched in the head" looks again.
- Next Day -
"We will now start the final exam," Iruka announced, standing in front of the class with a sheet of paper in his hand. "If your name is called, come to the classroom next door. The subject will be the Cloning Technique."
In the back, next to Miyako, Naruto let out a grunt, putting his hands over his goggle-less head. He had left the green goggles at home, hoping to earn himself a ninja headband this time. Miyako felt a little sorry for him. A week ago she was really close to telling him he should work more on his clone making because it would be on the exam. But after thinking it over, she figured it was the worst idea ever. If Naruto did take her advice and learned it properly, he would pass but he wouldn't learn get his hands on the Forbidden Scroll and learn his signature move the Shadow Clone, find out Kyuubi was inside him or that Iruka cared for him all along. So she mentally slapped herself and decided not to disturb the development of cannon events. Besides, the reason he couldn't learn it was that he had so much chakra in him that he couldn't bring up the control for such a simple jutsu and poured too much chakra into his clones for them to not turn out all messed up.
Since Iruka was calling people in alphabetical order, Miyako had to go before Naruto. She stood up and told the orange clad boy to take care and received a "good luck" from him. She entered the empty classroom nextdoor one and was greeted by Iruka and Mizuki sitting at a desk. In front of them there were about twenty or so Konoha headbands.
"You have to produce at least two clones to pass," on the left, Iruka explained with folded arms.
"Well, Nagahoshi Miyako, when you're ready," on the right, Mizuki politely said. Miyako would've bought the act if she didn't know what a backstabbing bastard he was.
She narrowed her eyes and made the seals while concentrating on building her chakra. She wasn't planning on letting Sakura's destroyed nerves from teaching her go to waste no matter how hard this jutsu was for a novice like her.
"Clone Technique!" Miyako half-yelled with determination as two clouds of smoke appeared to her sides. A moment later the smoke lifted, revealing three of her grinning at their accomplishment. The three simultaneously lifted their hands giving each other high-fives.
The two chuunin in front smiled at the girl's antics.
"Congratulations! You pass!" Iruka held out one of the headbands to the girl.
"Woah!" The Miyako in the middle jumped and rushed forward to take the item. She was so happy, so overjoyed that she had passed. She was also glad that her nightmare from last night about royally screwing up didn't come true.
"Here, this will explain where you can get your photo taken and where you should turn in a filled out Registration Form. There's an explanatory meeting on October 15th at 9 AM, that's also written there." Mizuki handed her a paper and explained as the real Miyako listened as best as she could while nodding.
"Thanks." She turned to leave while tying the headband around her left arm in an imitation to Shikamaru, since it seemed the most comfortable. She smiled, feeling the happiest she'd been since first waking up in this world.
"Why aren't they disappearing?" Miyako heard Iruka ask and turned to him. He was pointing to her two clones who had decided to stay rooted in the middle of the room. One was glaring intently at Mizuki, making him feel uneasy, while the other was looking around the room humming happily.
"Ah... that..." Miyako nervously went to her clones' side. "They're a little peculiar and refuse to go away without a pounding," she explained and bonked the other two Miyakos on their heads who disappeared almost immediately.
Iruka and Mizuki sweatdropped.
"I think the problem is that I feed them just a tad bit more chakra than needed so they're a little stubborn, like they kinda have a mind of their own." She smiled sweetly, hoping that this wouldn't cost her a newly obtained headband. "Please don't fail me?"
"Well, actually, you should note that a shortcoming of this sort may prove to be more of a disadvantage than otherwise," Iruka pondered out loud. "You still pass, Miyako, but do try to improve your chakra control," he finished as Miyako once again yelled happily and made a run for door before the decision could be changed.
- xxx -
Outside she was met with a mass of adults congratulating their kids on graduating. Miyako felt a lump stuck in her throat when she saw that view. She looked around and stopped her gaze on a seemingly young dark-haired couple looking lovingly at their graduated dark-haired daughter. The lump in her throat got bigger and her happiness from passing the exam seemed to wither. Miyako felt her eyes water and instinctively shook her head to stop the tears. She didn't remember ever crying over this kind of thing and she was definitely not to going to start now, either. She told herself to suck it up and go home.
A hand rested itself on Miyako's left shoulder. She turned and widened her eyes to see Sarutobi Hiruzen there.
"Miyako," his old but comforting tone reached her, conveying she could be at ease with him. "Congratulations on passing the exam. You have grown so much in time so little. I am sure your parents would be proud of you." As Sarutobi said that, Miyako struggled not to let the tears come back again. "You may not have a family but you do have friends. They are the closest to a family for you, do not forget that," Hiruzen added in attempt to cheer the girl up.
"I know that, thank you," Miyako said as the Hokage removed his hand and smiled warmly at her.
Not so far away, a girl with a shiny new headband instead of the usual red ribbon in her unusually pink hair turned around and upon seeing Miyako, beamed and waved at her with a bright smile.
"And may that be one of your friends perhaps?" Sarutobi asked.
"Yes, I guess she is," Miyako answered. She also smiled widely and ran to congratulate Sakura. "Sakura-nee! Congratulats!" she sang as she neared her.
"Thanks! Congratulations to you too! And, hey! Stop calling me that! From now on we're equals, okay, so stop with that," Sakura retorted. "My parents are busy and we won't be celebrating until tonight so I'm waiting for the others to come out. I bet we all graduated."
"Yeah..." Miyako looked at one of the windows of the academy sadly and barely heard Iruka-sensei yell "you fail" to some poor soul. Most probably Naruto, since he had been said to be the only one from his entire class to fail.
"Have you seen Sasuke-kun? He should've come out by now..." Sakura snatched Miyako away from her thoughts.
"Huh? Oh! No, I haven't." Miyako looked up in thought again.
Sakura realized Miyako didn't comment on her Sasuke obsession. The pinkette didn't like it when she did that but it was strange for Miyako to miss a chance like this.
"Is everything alright, Miyako?" Sakura sounded genuinely concerned.
Miyako turned to her in mild confusion but then fake-smiled.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I was just so excited that I'm a little tired now. I even had a bit of trouble sleeping last night." She quickly put together a lie and a truth. "I should probably go back home now. See ya!" Miyako waved and turned to leave.
Sakura followed her back as the girl disappeared and then moved her gaze to the academy entrance, just in time to see Ino with the new addition of a headband around her waist. Sakura narrowed her emerald eyes at the blond kunoichi.
"Today, we settle this," she said to herself and tightened her grip on the red ribbon in her right hand.
- The same night -
Miyako was in her room getting ready for bed when she noticed two chuunin jumping down on her balcony, using it as a stepping stone to propell themselves away, seemingly in some kind of hurry. A few other shadowy figures could barely be noticed hopping around rooftops in the distance from time to time as well. Miyako figured Mizuki had already manipulated Naruto into stealing the Scroll of Sealing. And now Sarutobi must've sent a handful of ninja throughout town in search of the orange clad boy. Miyako sighed, putting on a slightly too big for her black band t-shirt and turned the lights off before slipping into bed. Restless, she turned over several times before settling to look out the window. It was a clear night and the stars twinkled dimly but there was an eerie stillness in the air. Miyako started thinking about Naruto and what shock he was probably going through at the moment. When another chuunin used her balcony for passage yet again, waking her up just when she had dozed off, it also crossed her mind that she should probably start practicing her Monkey Leaps properly, afraid of heights or otherwise.
- xxx -
For the week before orientation day Miyako had made a schedule. In the morning she would get up, eat and run laps at the academy grounds. Since she didn't have weights on, she did some extra laps until she felt fatigue leer in. By noon she would go home, have lunch and maybe read a page or two from a book or scroll from the bookcase in the living room. In the afternoon she would have target practice and literally try to destroy her limbs by beating up a tree until the bark fell off. The first time she tried that she almost broke her knuckles. It would take time for her bones and skin to harden. In the evening she'd take a bath, have dinner, attempt to meditate and end up watching "Of Shuriken and Love" on TV, which had recently had a change of cast, since the previous actors had gotten a bit old. At the end of the day she would, of course, go to sleep, the dirty dishes in the sink remaining that way until she didn't have anything clean to eat from. From time to time Miyako entertained the thought that she could ignore her conscience and get Kiba to be her maid, but the whole situation seemed cruel and tasteless now that she knew how honest a person he actually was.
Miyako was a little disappointed that no one ever visited her during that time. It had been a while since she hung out with the guys and Hinata and there were no more Sakura and Sasuke to bug her every day. Miyako visited Shikamaru, since his mom was always happy to welcome anyone who could get his lazy ass to get up and do anything besides lazying around the Nara compound or cloud gazing while actively avoiding clan jutsu training whenever his father brought up the issue. After getting over his irritation at Miyako for bugging him, Shikamaru told her that everyone else was busy. Their parents were personally teaching them various techniques to get them ready for the harsh ninja profession, now that their kids had a little break from the academy. Shikamaru and his dad, Hinata and hers, Choji and his, Ino and hers, Kiba and his mother, everyone except Miyako, Naruto and Sasuke. Oh, and Sakura – her parents seemed to either be civilians or off duty ninja with no special abilities to teach. Naruto had a schedule of his own – overworking his body to exhaustion. And Sasuke? He was nowhere to be seen. Miyako assumed he was probably just training in secret at the dark of night so he wouldn't draw any attention to himself.
The only time that Miyako went out of her way to break up the repetitiveness of her days was the time she had to take care of her Ninja Registration Form for the Official Registry.
- xxx -
It was noon as Miyako, not used to being photographed, was trying her best to keep a steady smile on the top of the Hokage Tower with her back to the Hokage Monument. She wore her usual attire – the olive t-shirt with ash blue sleeves, fishnet undershirt, dark brown shorts, blue sandals and a dazzling brand new Konoha headband tied to her left arm.
"You know you're not supposed to try so hard for official documents, right kid? Your eyes are starting to look like slits. You need to look more serious." An old man with glasses grunted, trying to take the girl's photo for her Ninja Registration Form.
"Oh, sorry," she apologized, even though she wasn't sure if it was needed.
"Don't worry about it. This is nothing. You wouldn't believe the freaky kids that come here to get their pictures taken! They're getting weirder and weirder with each passing year, I tell ya!" The old man sighed, shaking his head in disapproval. "Like that punk I took a shot of just yesterday, Narita-something-or-other. That kid had his whole face painted white and red and wore an orange jumpsuit, almost as obnoxious as his bright blond hair. He looked like a complete retard! I mean, what kind of a ninja makes himself look so flashy?! It would be impossible not to notice him! That's like the complete opposite of ninja, from what I've heard!"
Miyako snorted, guessing who the old man was babbling about.
"I bet they're gonna send him back for a takeover. Then I'm gonna have'ta deal with him again," he grumbled, "So uncooperative."
"Yeah, good luck with that," Miyako said, taking off.
"Good luck my old ass. I'm seriously starting to get sick of dealing with self-centered brats..." the old man muttered after the girl was out of sight.
Out of nowhere a shuriken swished inches away from his face.
"What the–?!" The old man tensed. "Freaky ninja kid!" he yelled angrily, shaking a fist in the air.
- A few days later -
Mid-afternoon, Miyako was restlessly sitting in a chair in the middle of a room in the Administration part of the Hokage Tower, facing a desk with the Third and an unknown chuunin with a funny hat. The Hokage was smoking his pipe as he examined her Ninja Registration Form which showed a picture of her on the top left corner where she was unnecessarily and awkwardly attempting a half-smile.
NINJA REGISTRATION FORM
Name: Nagahoshi Miyako
Rank: Genin
Ninja Registration No: 012603
DOB: April 3rd, 12 yrs old, Aries
Height: 4' 10'' (147.3 cm)
Weight: 78 lbs. (35.4 kg)
Blood type: A
Profile: Fast learner. Photographic memory. Accurate projectile aim.
It then listed some skill level stats gathered from her final results in the Ninja Academy and a short assessment by Iruka-sensei.
"Umm..." Miyako drew Sarutobi's attention away from the form. "I wasn't sure what to write under "profile". I hope I didn't put anything strange, since I don't have anyone else to do it for me. Eheheh." She grinned scratching the back of her head sheepishly.
"No, it's... acceptable." Hiruzen took his pipe in his hand and exhaled a cloud of smoke as he remembered Naruto's photo from two days ago that served as a reminder that things could be worse. This genin's profile had some useless information but most of it was obvious, given her stats and her academy teacher's assessment.
"Hey, old fart! Prepare yourself!" A small boy with a shuriken in his hand stormed in, sliding the door so fast that he didn't notice his long blue scarf get stuck on a loose nail sticking out of the floorboards. "Today I, Konohamaru, am going to take away the title of Hokage–ACK!" he yelped and stumbled backwards, almost strangling himself with his own scarf. "Owowow...!" the boy whined as Miyako started snickering from her chair.
The Third Hokage tipped his hat down slightly to hide his face, mumbling something about his grandson and "the tenth time today". He seemed to be keeping count.
"Oh!" A jounin with dark sunglasses in standard Konoha blues without the green flak jacket appeared at the door. He had his headband tied like a bandana over his head.
"Ah! Is this a new trap?!" Konohamaru asked as he got up and started pulling to set his scarf free of the small nail's clutches. It came off when his "elite" teacher pulled on it lightly in the other direction, accidentally sending Konohamaru falling on his butt since he was putting too much effort in ridding himself of his capture.
"Are you alright, young master?" Ebisu nudged his round shades up the bridge of his nose. "There are no traps here, I told you!"
Konohamaru ignored him and looked at Miyako who was still snickering at the scene.
"You! You did something, didn't you?" The little kid stood up pointing a finger at Miyako's amused face. It didn't help her much, it just made her burst into full-out laughter. "What's so funny? Are you laughing at me?!"
"Konohamaru-kun, is it?" Miyako asked when she calmed down and tried on a polite smile. "That's a cool name, it suits you."
"Eh?" Konohamaru awkwardly retreated his pointing finger and widened his eyes as his cheeks reddened innocently. He crossed his arms with a pout and looked away hurriednly. "Yeah, my old man named me after the village. So?"
"I didn't set any traps, actually, I'm not that good at that..." Miyako mumbled the last part, making a mental note that it might not be such a bad idea to try to change that and take up some trap making to make up for the rest of her shortcomings. "It was just an accident. Happens to everyone now and then, even ninja." She patted his head.
"No!" He slapped her hand away, rather rudely. "I'm going to become Hokage and I can't have these stupid accidents happening to me! I don't need to be looked down upon by uncute flat-chested girls like you!" he declared rebelliously.
Miyako's eye twitched. I can deal with being called uncute, but what's with everyone and pointing out the size of my chest?! Did Kiba tell the whole village?! If he did, that bastard is going to die a painful death by a certain flat-chested kunoichi that's presumably weaker than him!
"Excuse me?! And you think making childish attempts to assassinate your grandad is getting you anywhere?" Miyako pointed out while crossing her own arms.
The two of them glared at each other for a moment before Ebisu interrupted.
"That will certainly get him nowhere, indeed." He pushed his glasses up again. "He is the grandson of the great Third Hokage. If he wishes to take his grandfather's position, I, the elite teacher Ebisu, will teach him ninja techniques so it will be easy to gain that title," he said it like he had been rehearsing it for an infomercial, "Yes, the quickest path to becoming a Hokage is to learn from me."
Konohamaru turned around to look dully at Ebisu.
"Do you understand, young master?"
"No! Naruto-nii-chan is my only mentor!" Konohamaru cried out and fled through the door.
"Wait, young master!" Ebisu ran out to chase after him.
The chuunin with the funny hat on the desk in front sighed, proving that this probably happened more often than he would have liked. Sarutobi muttered to himself something about Naruto teaching his grandson useless jutsu. Miyako giggled at how funny this all was, forgetting all about being angry at the little kid.
"Your Ninja Registration Form is accepted. You're free to go, Miyako." Sarutobi lifted and let go of his hat to place the smoking pipe back in his mouth.
"Thank you." Miyako said, taking her leave.
On the way home, she couldn't help but smile. Somewhere in the Konoha forest there was an orange-clad ninja teaching perverted jutsu to a little kid. And pretty soon, an elite closet pervert jounin was going to get his ass owned by an advanced version of that technique.
- To be continued -
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