Start of Chapter One –
Sandaime's POV
Sigh…they'd better be thankful that I did that for them. I thought looking at the letter placed in front of me.
Dear Sandaime-sama,
Here are my recommendations for this years graduating class:
Team 7
Genin – Iretai Akira, Naia Hana, Jinta Kyōru
Sensei – Shiranui Genma
Team 8
Genin – Aburame Yura, Iyanabi Riku, Naita Yoroi
Sensei – Hatake Kakashi
Team 9
Genin – Hyuuga Neji, Higurashi Tenten, Rock Lee
Sensei – Maito Gai
All others in this graduating class had failed the original Genin exam
Regards,
Umino Iruka
And on top of team 7 and 8 I'd put a big red FAIL on top, but on top of Gai's team, there was a smaller, cursive, green pass. I thought back to when Gai had come in to report if his team had passed or failed, it was quite amusing in some ways, but annoying in others, namely paperwork-wise.
"Might Gai, will you please report how your team did on your test." The Sandaime said.
"Of course, Hokage-sama. I Might Gai of Team 9 have officially passed Team 9."
I raised a single eyebrow and stared "Really, but I heard that your team's teamwork had been an utter failure?" I said, obviously skeptical as I remembered what Neji had told me after his test. "Sandaime-sama, my team had displayed horrendous teamwork, It is highly unlikely that we have passed."
"Well it was but, I also believe that their skills complement each other a lot, all three have very promising futures as ninjas." Then his voice suddenly low and barely comprehensible, he said "However there was a very bad ninja who couldn't throw a kunai."
"I'm sorry if I am wrong, but I heard that one certain Neji Hyuuga failed in every attempt to be cooperative with his team mates and went after the bells all by himself." Mentally smirking as I imagined The Neji Hyuuga playing the idiot of the team. "He even managed to drop a kunai while trying to throw it! This does not qualify him to even have passed the origin pre-test."
His face warping into shock, Gai immediately tried to defend the team. "But Hokage-sama! You can't simply fail the whole team just because of one student, Lee and Tenten did extremely well, cooperating well using their close range taijutsu and ranged weaponry abilities worked very well, they even managed to force me into a corner…"
"I'm sorry Gai but I simply cannot allow that to happen, the most I could do is allow Lee and Tenten to be free lance Genins for the time being. You can't be their official teacher but you can teach them in your spare time, but you will have to be put back on active roster."
What a hectic start to my day. As much as I wanted to outright refuse Gai, Tenten and Lee did show promising talents that would definitely improve Konoha's military power in the long run… sigh, what I wouldn't give for an extra-large bottle of sake right now. I thought eyeing the ever growing piles of paper work on my desk.
"Mataku, Inu!" He shouted as an ANBU poofed into the room " Get Shikamaru' team here immediately."
Hinata's POV
"…Shika, what do you think we can do in this last year of the academy? I mean with Neji and the people who failed in the class above there as well…"I said staring at the clouds above us, we were on Shikamaru's favorite cloud gazing spot. It was on a small hill in the west side of Konoha, there were no trees around and the lush grass always gave off a soothing sensation, it always calmed the three of us down.
"Hina, I was just going to leave a shadow clone there now that we don't have to spy on Naruto anymore, do you really want make more trouble for yourself and spend time at sch-ANBU-san, what do you want?" Shikamaru said.
"HEBI-CHAN!" Hinata squealed "We haven't seen you in ages!"
"Hina, I'm on duty." The one dubbed Hebi-chan said, quite exasperatingly.
"Hehe Gomen…"
"I miss the stutter blush and faint version of you that you put on in public…" Hebi said, hands working quickly as she pried Hinata off of her body.
"Anko, you know very well that I hate that façade even more than I hate them." Hinata announced, her face almost immediately changing into that of disgust, as she remembered her first solo mission which took her to a large black market of slaves.
"…I know Hina, well…back to the matter at hand. Inu has already gone to get Neji-san, Hokage-sama wants to see your team, something about team arrangements."
"Mataku, we'll go now… Arigatou…Anko-chan" Shikamaru said, sinking into his shadow. Hinata sighed then turned to face Hebi, only to feel an intense amount of concentrated chakra slowly leaking out of her friend. Briskly run through a set of seals she promptly flashed herself out through a vortex of white wisps of chakra.
"SHIKAMARUUU! I TOLD YOU NEVER TO CALL ME THAT. ESPECIALLY WHEN I'M ON DUTY!"She screamed her anger almost visible in the morning light.
Shikamaru's POV
Hehe. Mataku, Anko always gets like that when I call her Anko-chan…come to think of it why is it only me that she gets mad at, everyone else can call her Anko-chan. Well Hatake can't call her that but he's a pervert, that's understandable, does she think that I'm a pervert? But I don't openly gawk at her, so why… maybe I just annoy her, sigh Oh well I guess it's good entertainment, it's always amusing to rile her up, it's truly amazing the amount of damage she can do to the human psyche whenever she's mad...Mataku, since when have I ever thought that suffering people were amusing…Mataku, Anko's rubbing off on me…
I looked around my shadow realm, it was like a personal pocket dimension I could disappear into when I use certain kinds of Kage type jutsu, but most of the time it's just where Nara clan members would come to practice and perfect their shadow affinity, your control could be easily practiced by molding the shadows in the realm. If you had no control over your shadow chakra then it would have splashes of bright colours dotted around, the better your control the darker or less colours are seen, mine is covered with colours like black, grey and brown. I haven't gotten around to getting the grey to turn darker yet, but I'm proud…there was a lot of bright pink *shivers before I started practicing chakra control. As you can probably guess the time in shadow realm is a bit longer than the original world, one minute in the shadow realm equals half a second in our world and the kage shunshin takes about one second, so I should be coming up into the Hokage's office right…about…now. I felt a push as shadows started pushing me towards a small hole showing the Sandaimes desk, it got closer and closer until my head poked through the top, the rest of my body followed quickly.
"Hiruzen-sama, I trust that the team arrangements are as we predicted?" I said just as a panicked Hinata flashed in, her white chakra moving erratically around her.
"SHIKAMARUUU! I TOLD YOU NEVER TO CALL ME THAT. ESPECIALLY WHEN I'M ON DUTY!"
"ahhh, Shika-kun! Onegai…Never leave me with her like that ever again!" Hinata said in a quivering, quiet voice.
"Shikamaru, you think you'd learn after she told you not to call her that for, I dunno, over seventy times."
"Relax Neji, it's not like she'd hurt me…badly…let's just say that she won't kill me…anyway, you have to admit that it's amusing" I said.
"Team Kage, despite the amount of effort Neji used to be a completely unskilled, naive and unprepared child, Gai still somehow thought the team would work out."
"What? What kind of jounin would knowingly suggest passing a team with one absolutely useless member, no offense Neji." Hinata voiced.
I looked over to my left, trying to see how Neji would take this, uh oh, I wouldn't want to be in the Sandaimes place right now…Mataku
Nejis whole body was quivering, his hair, now slightly loose dangled over his forehead and covered his eyes. But despite his appearance, that wasn't the scariest thing, more concentrated and controlled killing intent that I'd thought Neji could control was leaking and rushing straight at the Sandaime Hokage.
"You mean to tell me that I'd had to push my pride aside and act stupid for NOTHING!"
"Of course not. If I did then you would react like this and actually kill me." Hiruzen said
~Insert period of confused silence~
"What do you mean Sarutobi, you can't have just made a two man cell? It's against the law…but then again you can override the law. Mataku. This would've been so much easier if Hinata and I were a year older or Neji was a year younger"
"No, I didn't do that but come to think of it that may have been a better idea… Anyway I opted to just make Tenten and Lee freelance Genins, Gai won't be their official teacher so they can look for other teachers but I believe that Gai will try his best to teach them anyways. However since Gai is no longer an official teacher he can no longer be on the support roster, so I had to put him back on active. However when comes the time when there is a free Genin that can join them to form a full cell, Gai will be the one to take on their team and officially become their teacher. But until that happens they won't be able to do any missions that specifically need a three man cell, they can however do D-ranked missions."
"Mataku, then why did you call us here then…I'm sure it's not just to tell us that part of my plan didn't work." I said.
"Correct Shikamaru, I've assembled you to tell you that since you have completed your mission I would like to know how you plan to spend your last year in the Academy?"
"Aa. Ok then, Hiruzen" Hinata asked as she leant forward, a smug smirk teasing her lips. "I would like to formally request our removal from the academy or for us to take the Genin exam immediately and return to our usual missions."
"Hinata-sama is right, we really shouldn't spend a useless year cooped up in the academy, Sandaime-sama" Neji droned in that monotone voice of his.
"I agree, team kage, but what would people say when they found out that Neji passed with flying colours in another exam right after his initial failure with Gai's team."
I fought the urge to roll my eyes as I voiced the obvious routes we could take to avoid questioning "Hokage-sama, with all due respect, that is an easy aspect to be rid of… the easiest route we could take would be to just tell everyone of our mission and get it over with, but because of our own terms… we could just send a kage bunshin to take our place during school time. We could use a chakra seal so the bunshin would support itself." Just like how you could use kage Bunshin to do you paperwork for you.
"Sigh, I guess there is no way of keeping you together with your peers is there."
"Hai, Hokage-sama, we would very much prefer not to continue training in things we already know about. Especially along with…novices in our trade." Neji said, a sneer creeping into his voice.
"I agree with Neji, Hokage-sama, our... classmates have no experience and they are too naïve, it is very difficult to pretend to be like them, we are not what you would say as normal students in our class." Hinata said.
"So it's settled, you will resume your duties as team kage, your names will be returned to the active roster and you will be liable to take solo and / or team missions. If the three of you would like to hand in your mission reports. If the three of you would like to hand in your mission reports tomorrow, then everything should be set. Neji, Hinata. Dismissed." Hiruzen said
Pressing the tips of his fingers onto his temple, the Sandaime waited for a while, just to make sure that my two teammates were out of hearing range, he then sighed and flicked his right wrist. The ANBU stationed in the room, disappearing at the order. He then turned to me.
I stood awaiting the order that was bound to come, and come it did when the Sandaime stared levelly at my eyes and said one word. "Report."
At his word I immediately put on a mask of professionalism and recounted any useful information regarding my mission. "There has not been any significant progress to the current amount of information that we have gathered, but the next meeting is scheduled for the next fifteenth of this month. It was only yesterday that I'd received fifteen pulses from her through the seal." I said, my left hand sub-consciously reaching towards my right bicep, only stopping when I'd realised that I'd almost stopped my report. I continued, hoping that the Hokage didn't notice my slip. "And since the next meeting place is just in Waterfall, it shouldn't take more than a day to get there and back. Also, since we have just received information from him, I doubt that he will have anything more for a while."
"Good, the fifteenth is next Tuesday so you can leave on the fourteenth." The Hokage said.
"Yes, Hokage-sama"
The tension that had unknowingly built up over the course of just several minutes, completely dissipated as the need for secrecy faded, I sighed as I wondered once again at the way that my present teammates could have nothing to do with the mission.
The Hokage, as if knowing what I'd been thinking, sighed along with me and asked me how my team was coping.
I replied with a stare of disbelief, he had been the one that ordered that they couldn't know anything about it. He was the one that could allow me to tell them.
The Sandaime sighed again and said "Shikamaru, however much you want to tell them, what could they do? I want as little people as possible to know about this mission of yours, that is why it's classed as and S-Class secret."
"But they could help me, in the village of course and they wouldn't tell a single soul. Hokage-sama, you of all people should know that!" I cried.
"Of course I know, but they aren't need, you alone are fulfilling the job very well. And must I remind you, there will always be someone more skilled than you, what would happen if someone overheard you and leaked the information? It could make the village panic, it could put your teammates in danger, it could put them in danger Shikamaru. Think. Control your emotions. You already know this." The Hokage said, standing up and slamming his hands onto his desk just to emphasize his point.
I stared at him, thinking once again. Kuso, I did it again. What must I do to stop these pointless and illogical bouts of emotional instability! I'm supposed to be intelligent, yet I can't even keep hold of reasoning whilst in the middle of mental turmoil. Mataku, now Hiruzen probably having another headache...again.
"You're right Sarutobi, I'm sorry for my insubordination, I can assure you that it won't happen again." I said solemnly, my head bowed to show respect, something that I'd rarely had to do anymore.
"It's fine Shikamaru." Sarutobi said, sitting back down and his hand automatically returning to his temple. "I can only imagine how hard it must be for you to have been keeping this secret from your friends for, what is it, two years now. Even though it isn't much, you became so close, them being your only real friends in Konoha, it must be tough."
"Hai, even though they completely understand that I can't tell them, it still hurts for me to think that they know that I have to keep such a big secret from them." I smiled wistfully. If only it was that simple Sarutobi.
The Hokage smiled back, only for his expression to quickly change from realization to panic. The Sandaime let out a groan as he reached for a brush propped neatly next to a small ink grinder. "Shikamaru. Dismissed" He said, without even looking at me and grabbing a piece of paper from the top of the ever growing pile of forms and mission reports.
" Yes sir" I said walking my usual, lazy pace to the door. Chuckling as I hear Sarutobi mumble about how 'the stupid paper-work keeps piling up without him noticing'
Once outside I stared up at the clouds. That was too close for comfort, Mataku, all this stress is getting to me. I can't break down again, or else my reputation to think rationally could be ruined and I be brought out of my position.
