A/N: There is a small failure in my idea for story chapters O.o I have the odd chapter planned out and I had the first 6 or so chapters planned but now it's like UUUUUUUUH *scrambling through internet looking for songs* lol. I think half of the time you guys wait for the update is just looking for songs XD Anyway, I hope you like this :) Thanks to Linda Ku, ThePheonixofTears and Alli ate Sora-Sorry Roxas for reviewing.
Special note: Along with my last update I got 385 hits in one day.. I was floored at this number and because of that I thank all of you so much! :D This chapter is extremely long in thanks to that :D (well not really but oh well XD)
Shinobu POV
It had been a good week or so since the exam and unbeknownst to the other genin, both Naruto and Shinobu had passed. Since then Naruto had refused to wear his headband in fear of scratching it. It was probably because of this that Konohamaru, the hokage's grandson, had seen him as more of a rival than a sempai. Naruto had spent several hours teaching Konohamaru his renowned sexy-no-jutsu which Konohamaru had in turn showed his tutor, Ebisu. At first Shinobu rolled her eyes at her friend's influence in the boys training but she soon realized he must have done something right because she often saw him training at the academy now and he was always trying his best.
Now they were both getting ready for some orientation meeting? Or was it an acceptance meeting. She wasn't quite sure. Naruto already had his forehead protector wrapped around his head. Shinobu on the other hand was confused. She tried placing it on her forehead but it just looked.. off. She had seen other ninja wear them in different places but it felt weird on her arm and it was suffocating on her neck. She sighed in frustration, looking at her reflection.
"Oi! What's taking you so long, Shinobu?" Naruto asked, already finished with everything and now waiting for her.
"I can't figure out where I should put this.." She mumbled, gesturing towards the Hitai-ate now laying on her dresser.
"Why not your forehead?" He suggested in confusion, it didn't seem like all that hard of a decision to him.
"It looks off! That's why." She grumbled. Ignoring him as he rolled his eyes. She continued looking in the mirror before she saw Naruto pick up her forehead protector out of the corner of her eye. She looked at him curiously only to feel him behind her, wrapping it around her neck.
"It looks pretty like that.." He mumbled. "And then no one could cut off your head or something." He grinned at her. Looking at the mirror again, it was looser than she had it. It did look better like that.
"Thanks." She smiled, giving him a quick hug before they started towards the academy. This would be the last time they'd be there as students.
When they got their they split up into their arranged seating. Shinobu smirking to herself in the corner while Naruto was laughing to himself beside Sasuke. Of course, their odd peace would never laugh long. Ino and Sakura burst in, wheezing and out of breath.
"I won!" Ino yelled only to be followed up with some comment about Sakura's toe being in the classroom first. Their rivalry was pathetic in Shinobu's opinion. They didn't even use it to become stronger. Sakura was the worst of the two and the couldn't help but grimace as the pink headed girl made her way to Sasuke. Quickly pushing Naruto out of the way to sit next to him. Shinobu inwardly growled. She was quickly distracted though. Somewhere since she had got here Ino had jumped off the Sasuke ship, great right? Wrong. She had joined the "Let's stalk Shinobu" band wagon. She wasn't nearly as bad as Sakura was but she was still pretty awful. Shinobu could imagine them being friends if the girl didn't think she was in love with her. Her rivalry with Sakura turned from who would get Sasuke to who could get the hot guy in the class first. Not that Shinobu classified. They were often seen argueing about which one was the better looking, Sasuke or Shinobu. Shinobu inwardly laughed at the irony every time. They were identical twins, it was a fail if she ever saw one.
"Can I sit next to you?" Ino asked. At least she was polite, unlike some of the other girls. Seriously, what person with any self-respect yells "Have my babies!" to a random guy they don't really know?
"Hm.. I'd say yes but I think we're in assigned seating. That and Shikamaru looks like he misses you." Shinobu grinned at the lazy boy who was silently mouthing for her to accept. She watched as Ino looked at him then back at her.
"I'm sure he doesn't care.. I just.. I like you." She stammered a bit. Shinobu felt honestly guilty. Ino would feel like a fool when she found out.
"I'm fine with you sitting next to me. But assigned seating. Maybe we could hang out later?" Shinobu suggested, she was hoping to make a friend and get Ino off her back for now. She might regret it later.. but who knows.
"Alright! I'll see you later then?" She smiled before running back over to her seat where Shika was. He was pretending to off himself. Shinobu couldn't help but laugh. Shikamaru and Ino had gotten stuck together for seating and many assignments. Shinobu guessed it had something to do with their parents team dynamic and she wouldn't be surprised if the renowned trio's children were put on the same team. She had thought about teaming and figure that Sasuke and Naruto would be on the same team because of the difference in their marks. Maybe Sakura? Ino, Shikamaru and Choji would be together because of their parents. Then Hinata, Kiba and Shino might be together as a tracking team. None of the other people in the class seemed to fit into distinct teams, herself included so she had no clue where she would be placed.
She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard several outraged screams. Whipping her head around to wear the came from she was shocked to see Naruto kissing her brother. She stared wide eyes, most of the guys in the class were laughing while the girls were screaming in anger. What did the idiot do now?
Hokage POV
All of the jonin leaders were looking at the scene through the Hokage's crystal ball. Naruto had just beened bumped into Sasuke causing the two to kiss. The sensei were looking at their teams and their reactions. But all of them noticed the quiet boy sitting in the corner watching in shock. Sakura was getting extremely mad with the rest of the girls and you could see them move in to hurt a disheveled Naruto. It was when the first punch was thrown that they saw the same quiet boy quickly make his way over to where Naruto was.
"Oi! Leave him alone. He got bumped into Sasuke. Neither one of them did it on purpose so stop being fangirls towards some boy that is NEVER going to like you back!" She snapped. The hokage watched the scene as well as the reactions of his jonin shinobi. Some of them looked embarrassed, others impressed. They were all definitely curious.
"That's Shinobu right? Uchiha?" Kurenai asked earning a nod from the Hokage.
"B-but! He kissed Sasuke!" One of the girls stammered. Everyong could see an obvious eye roll from Shinobu.
"By accident? It's not like he grabbed him and kissed him on purpose. What's your damage. It's not like Sasuke is your boyfriend. He doesn't even talk to any of you." She stated, pointing out the obvious but the girls looked appalled.
"You don't get it! I was supposed to be his first kiss! You're a boy.. why would you understand. He violated Sasuke!" Another girl screeched. She was obviously not a Shinobu fan girl though she earned a few glares.
"I repeat.. he hasn't even talked to you. Why would he kiss you?" Shinobu scoffed.
"Because! He's mine." The girl said, she was seriously starting to make Shinobu mad, if the tic mark on her forehead was any indicator.
"I doubt most of these girls will make it as Shinobi.." Asuma grumbled while watching. Shinobu was rather impressive though.
"Oh my god.. are you deaf?" Shinobu shouted. "Even so that's no reason to beat Naruto up just because of an accident!"
"But he violated him! It wasn't an accident I saw!" The girl shot back, Shinobu growled and stomped her way over to where Sasuke was. He looked up at her in mild-interest before he found himself kissing what he thought was his second boy that day.
"There! I kissed him too. Are you going to beat me up too? Or anyone who kisses the guy?" She yelled, then froze on the spot. The girls didn't look mad at her like they were with Naruto. In fact, it was quite the opposite. They were all drooling and you could see the hearts in their eyes.
"I give up.. girls are nutters." She grumbled, rubbing her temple before plopping back down into her seat. Of course all of her friends heard so they were now laghing their rears off. Sasuke looked confused as hell and Naruto was now safe because all the girls had long forgotten him.
"I think that girl has twisted logic.." Kakashi facepalmed. Was she not a girl herself?
Shinobu POV
Shinobu sat back down rubbing her temples. What's wrong with those girls? That makes no sense what so ever? Ugh.. I'm confused. She pushed the incident into the back of her brain in hopes of forgetting it as Iruka walked in. She had just kissed her brother.. that was the first type of any affection she's had with her brother and she was extremely embarrassed.
"Starting today you are all real shinobi.. but you are still genin." Iruka started, quickly grabbing the attention of the rest of the class. "The hard journey that lies ahead has just started." He smiled. Motivational speech?... can't we just find out our teams and leave? Shinobu sighed.
"Now you will soon get missions to help the village. So today we will create the three man teams.. and each team will have a jonin sensei." He continued to explain. "You will follow your sensei's instructions in order to succesfully complete your missions. We've tried to balance each team's strength.. so let's get started." He smiled before starting, the first team or so Shinobu didn't recognize at all. She wasn't paying attention until a name perked her attention.
"Okay, next is team seven. Naruto Uzumaki.. Haruno Sakura." Shinobu inwardly laughed as Naruto cheered, he'd always crushed on the girl. Sakura's head however was hung low, she didn't like Naruto so much. "And Uchiha Sasuke!" The position switched in an instant, Sakura cheered while Naruto hung his head. Shinobu noticed Ino's eyes burning from where she was sitting. Probably her hoping that she didn't lose to Sakura. Shinobu sighed when Naruto started yelling about how he was on the same team as Sasuke. Sure she loved him but he could be a real dunce sometimes. He had the lowest score of all twenty-eight graduates. He had the highest. Of course they'd be on the same team.
"Ok.. on with things! Team eight!" Iruka shouted out. "Hyuuga Hinata.. Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba!" He announced quickly moving on, Naruto had wasted a lot of time apparently. "Last but not least, team ten. Yamanaka Ino.. " Shinobu saw the girl look at her. Shinobu admitted she was worried. She wasn't on a team yet.. and she wouldn't be placed on the Ino-Shika-Cho dynamic would she? It wouldn't work. "Nara Shikamaru.. and Akamichi Choji." He finished and Shinobu sat there in shock. She wasn't on a team? What's going on?
"So as some of you may have noticed we have an odd number of people this year. Because of this there will be one team of four. Shinobu, I'll talk to you in a moment. For the rest of you, you'll need to be here in a few hours for your new sensei picks you up." He said, a lot of the students were talking and whispering while Iruka led Shinobu into the hall.
"Iruka sensei.. what's going on?" Shinobu asked nervously.
"Because of the imbalance you are going to join a team of three as a team of four. It took a lot of thought on the Hokage's part for this. We didn't want a complete power house team. Because of the family rules you can't be on Team seven because of your brother.." he started, Shinobu felt shocked at first but realized that the Hokage probably had to tell all of the teachers.
"I'm sure you know about Ino-Shika-Cho already." Shinobu nodded. "So we've decided to put you on team eight. I know it's mainly tracking but I'm sure you'll be of value to the team. You can go tell them or just tag along if you'd like. Kurenai, your jonin sensei, knows you are on her team." He explained. It did make sense.
"Alright... thanks." She smiled, picking up her genjutsu which she had temporarily dropped. Shinobu made her way back into the classroom smiling to herself. She was friends with Kiba and Hinata was one of the few girls who weren't guy obsessed. She was sure that they'd get along. Shino was quiet.. but they could be friends.
"What team are you on?" Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji and Naruto asked simultaneously. They had all apparently been waiting for her.
"I'm with Kiba on team eight." She grinned, Naruto looked a little disappointed but there was nothing she could do.
"Yes! This is going to be awesome!" Kiba grinned. Shinobu knew she'd have to tell her team she was a girl eventually.. but she'd let them get to know her better first.
Kakashi POV
"So this is where Naruto lives?" Kakashi asked, picking up a carton of milk that was on the kitchen table. This milk went bad a couple days ago..
"Yes. Naruto isn't very smart. But I think giving him to you is the best, you have a nose for these types." Sarutobi explained. "Plus your team will have Sasuke of the Uchiha clan. Good luck!" He said before disappearing.
"Yes sir.." Kakashi sighed looking around. This could be troublesome. He walked into what he had first thought was Naruto's bedroom. He looked around seeing training materials. It wasn't how he had imagined Naruto's bedroom looking. He expected tons of orange, not blue, the training supplies he expected but he had also imagined it being a lot more disorganized. He walked over to the dresser and froze. A training bra? Naruto isn't a girl.. there's someone else living with him?
He looked around the room once more before leaving and going into a different room, causing him to chuckle. It was a mess and there was a lot of orange. This must have been Naruto's room.. but then who was he living with?
Shinobu POV
Shinobu sat in silence along with her new team. There were only three teams left and they were one of them. Kurenai-sensei hadn't shown up yet. Not that she minded. The silence was comfortable.. for everyone except Naruto, Kiba and Sakura. Shino was looking at a bug, Shikamaru was sleeping, Hinata was doodling on a sketchbook Ino was watching Shinobu, Sasuke was staring with killing intent at the chalkboard, Choji was eating and Shinobu was drawing a little set of wings on her wrist.
Suddenly the door opened and Shinobu looked up to see a beautiful woman with red eyes and dark curly hair. She smiled at everyone before walking over to their group.
"I'm your new sensei. If you'd like to follow me I can explain how everything is going to work." She said, motioning for them to follow as she walked out the door. Shinobu waved at her other friends before leaving with her team. They passed a man who was smoking as they left and before they knew it they were at the training field. Kurenai standing as the four genin sat infront of the old stone monument.
"Ok.. for starts let's get to know everyone. My name is Kurenai, and this is my first team. I will do my best to help you grow up to be great Shinobi and a valuable part of our village." She smiled.
"I'm Inuzuka Kiba! This is my ninken Akamaru. He's always with me. I'm friends with Shinobu over here and I'm going to be really kick ass." Kiba grinned while Akamaru yipped in agreement. Kurenai frowned at his language but let it pass for now.
"I'm Shinobu. I'm the unintentional member of this group and I specialize in taijutsu. I need to work on my ninjutsu but I'm decent at genjutsu. I already know Kiba and Akamaru and I hope to get to know you all better." She smiled, trying her best to help the teacher out. It was better to just mention her weakness now so that Kurenai could help her fix it.
"M-my name is H-hyuuga Hinata. I-I hope I c-can be a strong member of t-this team." Hinata smiled, she seemed so shy. Hopefully she would open up and become less nervous after a while.
"Aburame Shino. I like and use bugs. You will get to know me when I start to trust you." He stated matter of factly earning an exaggerated facepalm from Kiba."
"Alright then! Time to explain." Kurenai started, looking slightly nervous. "You first have a test.. you are not actually genin yet. You see, only nine.. or possibly ten," She paused looking at Shinobu. "of the twenty-eight graduates will become genin. Anyone who fails this test will be sent back to the academy. It has a sixty-six percent drop out rate. I like you guys so I hope you'll do well, but take it seriously." She explained, Kiba looked flabbergasted while Shinobu and Hinata just looked nervous. Shino looked like he didn't care either way.
"Sensei.. what was the point of graduating if we are just going to take another test again after?" Kiba yelled.
"The graduation is to see who has the potential to become genin. Unless you can use your skills on the field. You won't be able to complete missions. Which is why we have another test." She explained, Shinobu nodded to herself. It made sense. The graduation was to see if we had the skills. This test is to see if we can use them.
"Most of the other teams will be doing their test tomorrow, some of the other teachers can be rather cruel with them." She paused to grimace. "But I'd rather just do it today. I'd like to know whether or not you will in fact be my team." She said.
"So.. what exactly is the test?" Shinobu asked, she had the feeling it wasn't going to be quite what it seemed. She had talked to Iruka about his genin years and he had told her how important teamwork was. That nothing was as it seemed. The test probably would show that. She hoped anyway. It would be awful if she was trying to look underneath the underneath only to realize that she just had to complete the test.
"It's going to be the obstacle course over there." She said pointing to a gigantic obstacle course running through the entire training grounds. "You have one hour to complete it." She explained. "The moment any one of you starts I will start the timer. Good luck." She smiled as we made our way over. The course looked insane. There was a series of broken monkey bars with giant gaps and it was over a rather large pit. There were jumping stones surrounded by explosive tags. There was a lot there.
She looked over to Shino, he seemed really smart and judging by his expression he already figured it out. Hinata seemed confused at first but also figured it out. There's no way we can make it across half of those gaps alone.. This is about teamwork.
Before she had a chance to tell Kiba or even look at him he had jumped to the first monkey bar, he missed and hit an explosion tag causing him to scream in pain and stumble back to the start. Luckily he just barely missed the pit.
"How the hell are we supposed to do this?" He yelled in frustration.
"Kiba-kun.. I-i think w-we need to work together." Hinata spoke first. I smiled.
"Yup. There's no way any one of us could make it across alone. We need to help each other. Speaking of which, the timer started, anyone have any ideas how to reach the first bar without falling into the pit? The moment we're in there we won't be able to get out easily, it'll waste too much time.
"Shinobu, come here." Shino said, analyzing the course. When she was close enough Shino interlocked his fingers creating a step.
"Knowing your team helps you out.. as much as knowing your enemies. You like dance and gymnastics right? If you jump from me you'll have a height advantage and will be able to grab the bar, from there you just need to catch whoever jumps next. Probably Hinata so she can help you stay on the bar when you catch one of us because we're heavier." Shino explained while getting Shinobu to stand on his shoulders. Kurenai was smiling from behind them, they figured it out really quick, she hadn't expected that. This would definitely be her team.
Shinobu felt Shino brace below her and she jumped as hard as she could hoping to reach the bar. She mentally freaked out when she over-shot and grabbed the second bar, luckily the two were close enough that she could swing back.
"Wooo! Go Shinobu!" Kiba yelled, grinning. Shinobu smiled and swung a couple of times to get her feet up to the second bar while her hands gripped the first, using the second bar as a step she hooked her knees on the first bar and locked her ankles under the second. She didn't want to fall, she cautiously let her hands go and found herself facing her upside down teammates.
"Hinata, I'm good! Jump. All you have to do is make sure your hands are up. I'll catch you." She called over. Hinata looked nervous and Shinobu really hoped she would trust her. She saw her bite her lip for a minute before running towards the edge and jumping. Shinobu's eyebrows knitted a little in concentration before she managed to grab Hinata's forearms. Hinata quickly grabbed her arms in return.
"H-how do I get up?" She asked looking at Shinobu.
"Just swing your feet, see the second bar behind me? If you can get your feet on that you could probably sit on top of the bars." Shinobu explained, she was tempted to point at the bar if it weren't for the fact she'd drop Hinata if she did.
"O-ok." She said before swinging slightly. Shinobu felt the weight on her arms increase a little before decreasing dramatically when Hinata managed. She quickly did a sit up type movement to get Hinata's arms on the bar before swinging back down and preparing for the next person.
She knew carrying Kiba's weight would be a little painful because he was a guy and because he was carrying Akamaru in his sweater but she thought she'd manage. When he jumped she grabbed his arms and felt her arms jolt under the weight.
"You ok?" He asked in concern, already trying to get on the bar to get the weight off her arms as soon as possible.
"Y-yup. Just hurry up." She winced before the weight was free'd. She saw him take the same position she was in.
"I can get Shino, I don't want you getting hurt. We're going to need all of us to get through this." He grinned.
"Alright, thanks Kiba." She said, sitting up before sitting on the second bar with Hinata. She didn't want to put too much weight on one bar incase it collapsed. Shinobu watched in horror as Shino jumped and his finger tips just missed Kiba's. Instead of falling however she saw some black thread or something wrap around both of their wrists pulling him up until they were both on top of the first bar.
"What was that?" Kiba asked, slightly mortified.
"I like bugs.. my clan uses them in the majority of their jutsu's. Those were my bugs." He explained. Shinobu shuddered slightly, she never did like bugs but she'd get used to them.
"Ok.. from here we can probably jump along top of the bars, even if we fall we can probably grab them." She said, trying to reassure herself before she took several leaps until she was several bars ahead. Kiba and Shino followed with Hinata a hair behind them, but something was off about the next bar.
"Hinata.. you have byakugan.. right?" Shinobu asked, trying not to waste time.
"Y-yes.. why?" She answered, not sure of herself.
"Can you look at the next bar and the area around it. It seems off." She explained, Hinata nodded before scanning it. Her eyes looked weird like that.
"It s-seems like they're c-connected.. It's almost a w-weight system. M-my guess is t-that if more than one bar has weight on it at a time or a s-second weight is added t-to a pre-occupied bar it w-will fall." She stammered.
"So we'll go one at a time? Ok.." Shinobu said before jumping to the first bar, when she swung to the second however the first one fell. "Uh oh.."
"How do we do that then?" Kiba asked, annoyance clear in his face. He wasn't very patient now that Shinobu thought about it.
"It seems that each bar can only be used once.. We'll have to move as one.. Who here weighs the most?" Shino asked, taking note of Shinobu's blush at the moment.
"I probably do." She muttered.
"Then you'll have to carry us. We wan't as little weight as possible on the person doing this. Which is probably best since you're already there." He explained and soon Shinobu felt a weight around her waist as Shino gripped it hanging there.
"You ok?" He asked quietly.
"Yup.. just hurry. I'm not really good at endurance strength." She explained, wincing as Kiba joined, hanging on Shino's weight. After that Hinata's weight didn't make much of a difference but her arms were aching.
"Hinata! I need you to swing, the more you guys swing the more momentum I'll have to reach the next bar, I won't be able to reach it unless you guys help."
"W-wait. Would it be easier to a-alternate? What if we all swing a-and I g-grab the next bar? T-then you'll get a break and w-we'll always have someone on a bar." She asked. She was answered when they started swinging until the group were parallel with the ground. Hinata hooked her knees on the next bar just as the last one dropped causing Shinobu to get butterflies as she swung forward just managing to grab the next bar before swinging Hinata towards the next. It felt like a big drop on a rollercoaster. Luckily she wasn't the type to get nauseous at those type of things.
Kurenai watched in amusement as her team swung like a slinky down the stairs except they went from bar to bar. They were definitely creative. She hadn't expected them to be this good or succeed. She was planning on letting them pass for trying their best with team work. But this was only the taijutsu part of the course, to see how well they knew how to use their bodies. They hadn't made it to the other parts and they were already a good eighteen minutes in.
Shinobu was now on the last bar, sighing relief as Shino dropped to the pillar below them. She shimmied over before dropping on the last pillar. There were four and they were now surrounded by explosion tags. The first set of four had an outline of two feet in a glowing blue colour. The next however had an outline of a hand. The pillars ranged in height and width and there was only one at the end. They'd have to take turns. She turned to see Kiba getting ready to jump.
"Kiba! Don't jump!" Shinobu shouted, catching him off guard. "Look at the outlines. You have to land on your hand!" She shouted. Shino groaned quietly beside her. It was her guess that he wasn't good at this. But she wasn't sure if there was a way to help him. She sighed rubbing her temples.
A/N: Will Shino make it across? Why is there only one pillar at the end? What did Kurenai mean when she said they were only through the taijutsu section? Find out next chapter! (I would have stuck it in this chapter but it was already 4,600 something words long XD)
Note: The song is Teamwork from the kids show Lazy town. Yes I know it's childish but when I heard it I just couldn't help myself XD
