Saiai: Chapter two! Yatta![Yay!/Alright!]
Michiko: Took you long enough...
Saiai: No it didn't! It took me five minutes!
Michiko: But it took you forever to write!
Saiai: ...True... Disclaimer?
Michiko: Fine... Saiai-sama does not own Naruto. However creepy it sounds, she does own me, Rurou Michiko and this plot. Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi-dono.
Chapter Two: First Official Team
"You're all qualified ninja now," boomed Iruka to his class the next day. "But remember, you're still only genin. From now on, your jounin leader will guide you and the rest of your squad." Before he started reading from the long lists of names, he paused, as if remembering something. "Ah, yes. Since there's more people in the class than before, one of the squads will have four members," he told everyone, then started to call out names.
Michiko was sitting at the back of the class again beside Shino, and was waiting for Iruka to say her name. He was already on Squad Six, and her name still hadn't been called out.
"Squad Seven…," someone's name, "Rurou, Michiko…" He said the names of her other teammates, but Michiko had zoned out, only caring that she was on Squad Seven. Many hours later, it was only Michiko, the pink haired girl, the raven and the blonde left. The blonde had fallen asleep, the pink haired girl was bored and angry, and the raven was silently fuming. Michiko was listening to her I-pod and tapping her foot to the beet, while laying on her desk with her head hanging off. They were all waiting for their assigned jounin to show up.
"Well! Guess they forgot about us!", the girl shouted, waking up the blonde.
"Wh-what's going on?", he asked groggily.
"The other squads left a long time ago," she started, "our guy hasn't even shown up."
"That stinks!", he griped. He got up and looked around the room. He noticed a chalk eraser…
"Hey! What are you doing?", the girl demanded.
"Just punishing a tardy teacher." He wedged the eraser at the top of the slider door and skipped back to his seat.
"Well, I'm not bailing you out when you get busted," she sniveled, but didn't remove the eraser.
"You guys are incredibly stupid," the raven sneered. "He'd never fall for a trick like that."
Suddenly the door cracked open. The eraser bounced off of the silver head of a tall thin jounin. Their jounin.
Aw, great. Why'd we have to get this jounin?, Michiko thought. Oh yes, she knew who this jounin was. She also knew that, he had never once let any of his students become genin.
"He fell for it! He fell for it!", the blonde cheered.
"I'm so sorry sensei!", the girl said in a rush. "I tried to stop him! Honest!"
Their new leader stared at them for a while. Then he spoke in a dull voice, as if he'd rather be anywhere but there.
"Well. You wanna know what I think of you four?"
Except for Michiko, the brand-new ninja looked nervous. The silver haired jounin cut right to the chase.
"I don't like your kind."
Up on the roof of the academy, the jounin said, "Well, how about we all introduce ourselves? You first." He said, pointing to the blonde boy.
"Wait, sensei," started the pink haired girl. "Shouldn't you go first?", she asked.
All they got out of him was his name: Hatake, Kakashi.
"My name is Uzumaki, Naruto…" Michiko didn't hear the rest of his speech, lost in her thoughts. She vaguely heard the names, but all she kept thinking was, I'm on the same team as the jinchuuriki and Itachi's younger brother?
She was pulled from her thoughts as a gloved hand waved in front of her face. Immediately, with no readable expression on her face, she said, "My name is Rurou, Michiko. My dream is none of your concern; I like about only four or five things; and I have few hobbies."
All of her teammates thought, She gave the same introduction as Kakashi-sensei!
"…," the jounin opened his mouth but nothing came out. Interesting, He thought. But she seems familiar… Where have I seen her before?
"You were going to tell us about our survival training tomorrow?", Michiko guessed, trying to break the silence.
Again, Kakashi could say nothing, although the reason for it this time was different. How did she know that?
"Survival training?", both Naruto and Sakura asked.
This snapped the jounin out of his shock.
As Michiko walked home that night, she thought about how she had the Copy-Cat Ninja as her sensei. She thought it was insanely cool, sure, but she was also worried about her teammates. His tests were to make sure his students knew how to use teamwork. The blonde highly doubted any of them would work together. She sighed heavily.
That was when she realized she was going the wrong way. Oops. Oh well, maybe Shikamaru's here?, she thought. She had ended up walking to the hill where she had met the Nara boy yesterday. She looked down and, sure enough, there he was, laying in the grass, staring up at the disappearing clouds.
As she walked down the hill, she asked, "How long are you going to stay down here?"
He looked at her as she laid down and said, "I was thinking of staying for some star gazing for a while…"
"Oh? I hope you do, because tonight's supposed to be a clear sky. No clouds at all. It's also a New Moon, so the moon's light won't block out any stars. I was going to lay on my roof and gaze from there," Michiko explained.
"Interesting," he said, still looking at her. She didn't notice, she was looking at the few clouds there was in the sky. He didn't know why, but he kept thinking about Michiko yesterday, after she left.
"How long 'till sunset?", she asked in a distracted way.
"Hm … Not long," was his equally distracted response. "Why?"
"…Well, I was thinking, maybe you'd like to star gaze with me at my house…?", she asked, still in a faraway voice.
"I don't know…," he said.
She shrugged her shoulders. "How do you like your sensei, is he alright?", she asked, changing the subject.
"He's troublesome, but I guess he's alright. How about yours?"
"…I got Hatake, Kakashi… Everyone who's taken his test to become genin, failed. He's never passed one student," she explained with a sigh.
"How do you know that?", he asked curiously.
"Parents," was her simple answer.
The sun was setting and they sat up to look at it over the trees. It was beautiful. The light from the sun shattered into all kinds of pinks, purples, oranges, and reds. Before it was completely gone, Michiko asked again, "Are you going to star gaze with me later?"
He looked over at her and thought, Well, I'll have to ask mom before we go to her house but… "Fine, I'll come. But I have to ask my mother first, alright?", he asked.
Michiko nodded her head and they stood up. "Lead the way," she said. He did as told, not before muttering how troublesome it was. It turns out, that his house was a few blocks away from the Academy. About ten minutes passed before they got there.
He opened the door and immediately a yell was heard, "Shikamaru! Where have you been?!", from somewhere inside.
"Troublesome…," he muttered and walked in, motioning for Michiko to follow. "Mom, stop yelling already," he said, loud enough for her to hear over her yelling. She stopped when she saw Michiko standing in front of the door behind Shikamaru. She ran over to her son, pulled him away from her and whispered in his ear,
"Is that your girlfriend? What's her name?", he blushed immensely and looked over his shoulder at Michiko, who stood there awkwardly.
"Mom! It's not like that. Be quiet," he said, only to be scolded for telling her mom to be quiet. Troublesome woman… "Mom, I just wanted to know if I could stay out longer tonight," he said.
"A date?", she smirked.
"No!"
"I just wanted to know if Shikamaru-san would like to star gaze with me, since I always find him cloud watching," Michiko explained for him.
"Oh, I see. Well, I'm sorry, but I told Shikamaru to be home in time for supper, which he wasn't. So my answer is no," she said to the blonde.
Michiko nodded in understanding and mouthed, "Some other time," to Shikamaru. "Well, I'll see you later then, Shikamaru-san," she said out loud.
"Yeah…," he said back. She opened the door, closed it behind her and sighed.
As she made her way home, across the rooftops of course, she said to herself, "Well, I guess I'll be spending another night alone…." She stopped on a tall building near the training grounds. She gazed over the field for a few moments before deciding, "Well… It'd be better than going home to an empty house," she spoke aloud. With that, she jumped down, jumped over the fence and began some light training.
When Sasuke arrived at the training fields early, they were told to be there at 5 o'clock, he was surprised to see Michiko there sitting in the grass, not looking tired at all. He wasn't tired either, but he wondered how long she'd been there. Sakura and Naruto arrived shortly after him. He wasn't surprised to see them half asleep.
"Ohayo minna-san," Michiko said before laying on the ground to listen to her I-pod, knowing full well that Kakashi wouldn't show up for a while.[Good morning]
Of course she was right. Kakashi didn't show up for a long time. When he did, he explained what they were supposed to do. Before he could say go, Naruto tried to attack. Kakashi appeared behind him, holding him back.
After he did say go, Sakura and Sasuke disappeared, leaving Michiko and Naruto standing in the field.
"Listen, Uzumaki-san," she whispered to him. "I have a secret. Want to hear?" He perked up at the mention of a secret. Michiko glanced at the jounin before saying, "This is a test. You need to know what the answer is to pass, okay?"
He frowned and she continued, "You have to figure out why we were placed in squads," she hinted.
"Why we're in squads?", he repeated, thinking.
"Hey, you two. Why aren't you hiding?", Kakashi asked them.
Before Naruto could yell at him, Michiko said, "We don't need to. We can take you on together," she hinted to Naruto again, who unfortunately still didn't get it. She sighed. She knew the whole thing was about teamwork, too bad none of the others did.
"Uzumaki-san, to beat Kakashi-sama we have to work together, okay?", she told him. He nodded. "I have a plan. Can you use genjutsu?", he shook his head shamefully. "It's okay. What we'll do is…," she leaned over and whispered her plan in his ear.
He shouted out in agreement and pulled out a kunai. He then proceeded to charge at the jounin, only to be attacked from behind, as Michiko expected to happen. She took advantage of Kakashi's turned back and made the correct hand signs for her genjutsu, then used a certain ninjutsu to make herself appear invisible.
The genjutsu made everyone in the area see her fighting hand-to-hand with Kakashi, neither of them landing hits. While Michiko was actually picking up three small stones and using another genjutsu to make them look identical to the three bells hanging on the jounin's hip.
Michiko cautiously made her way over to Kakashi and, ducking under his swinging arm, switched the rocks with the bells on Kakashi. She then made the bells look like rocks and placed them in her kunai pouch, so they wouldn't jingle and give her away.
After she was done, she jumped into the position 'Michiko' was currently in and released her genjutsu. She saw Naruto going after a fake bell near a tree, only to be snagged by a rope around the ankle. Deciding she should help him, she made a false attempt for the fake bells, knowing she'd be kicked away.
"And you were doing so well…," said Kakashi unconvincingly.
That was when the girl laying sprawled out on the ground disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a wooden log. Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly.
The real Michiko was walking calmly over to Naruto, who was hanging up-side-down from the tree. She made to pick up the fake bell and flipped back onto her right hand before a second rope could catch her ankle. She was glad she was wearing shorts underneath her skirt. She used a chakra string with her left index finger and made it fly toward her hand.
Just before it got there, Kakashi snatched it away, breaking the chakra string.
The smirked that played across her lips as Michiko looked up at him, clearly said, 'I know something you don't,'.
What is she up to…?, He thought. Her smirk grew wider before she disappeared again. That shocked him. Then he was hit with multiple shuriken, thrown by Sasuke. Smoke surrounded him, revealing a wooden log with shuriken and kunais embedded into it when it cleared.
Michiko sat now, in the branch that Naruto was tied to. She pulled out a kunai, took hold of the robe and cut above her hand so that Naruto wouldn't fall on his face. After it was cut, she pulled Naruto up and onto the branch. She cut the tie around his ankle as he asked,
"So, did the plan work?"
"Hell yeah," she answered, smirking. She pulled out a 'rock' from her holster and gave it to Naruto.
"That's it? Seriously?", he asked her skeptically.
"I would prove it to you but Kakashi-sama might notice. Gomen," she apologized.[Sorry]
"Iie, iie. It's fine." Just then, they heard an ear piercing scream.
Michiko just rolled her eyes. "Haruno," she sighed. "Come on. Let's go help her, Uzumaki-san." He nodded and they leapt out of the tree and ran towards where the scream had come from.
Before they could find Sakura, they'd heard her scream again. When they had found her, they couldn't care less that she was on the ground, unconscious. For the sight they were observing was completely hilarious. So funny, that even Michiko had to cover her mouth to keep from chuckling softly, while Naruto lay on the ground, holding his sides in laughter.
Michiko walked over to the extremely-pissed-off,-buried-in-the-ground-to-the-neck Uchiha and asked, with an impassive face, "Want any help?"
The raven was slightly shocked that she didn't ask, 'Need help,'. He would have glared at the blonde and said, 'No,'. Most would ask what the difference was, but to Sasuke, it made all the difference.
He looked away and said quietly, "Yes."
She did some hand seals and whispered inaudibly, then suck into the ground like Sasuke had and pulled him out. Unnoticeably, while she pulled the stoic boy out of the ground, she slipped one of the 'rocks' into his pocket.
When they were both out, Michiko looked around. Where had Naruto gone? She also noticed that Sakura hadn't woken up yet. She sighed again and picked her up, throwing her over her right shoulder, while slipping a 'rock' into her pocket. While they ran through the trees to the training grounds, they both heard the ring of the alarm saying time was up.
Michiko smirked while Kakashi talked to everyone.
"You mean…?", Sakura and Naruto tried.
"Yea…you all," Kakashi began in a disturbingly cheerful voice, "should quit being ninja!", he ended in a tone that almost sounded angry.
"What?!", Sakura and Naruto shouted. Sasuke pulled out a kunai angrily and attacked Kakashi. The jounin easily apprehended him and forced him to the ground before sitting on his back.
"The only one who deserves to pass here is Michiko-san."
Just then, Michiko stopped her genjutsu on the fake and real bells, so they all burst in a puff of smoke. Sakura put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a bell. Kakashi looked down at his hip and the three rocks hanging there.
"Aw, how come I didn't get one?", the blonde pretended to pout, while Sakura and Sasuke were completely shocked to discover the bells hidden in their pockets. "If I pass, they pass with me. If not, then I won't be a ninja either," she declared.
"All the more reason for you to pass, Michiko-san. But, before I tell everyone why, I have to ask: when did you switch the bells?", the silver-haired jounin asked, completely miffed.
She smirked the same knowing smirk as before. Naruto smirked as well. Although you couldn't really tell, Kakashi's jaw fell open. "Th… That long ago?"
"What? When?!", Sakura yelled.
"Michiko-chan never threw one punch or kick at Kakashi-sensei during the whole survival training," Naruto tried to explain, only earning himself a glare from Sasuke and Sakura.
"Dobe, are you that stupid? She was fighting Kakashi for nearly ten minutes," said the Uchiha.
"Yeah!", Sakura agreed, nodding her head vigorously.
"Maybe you're the stupid one, Uchiha. If you couldn't see through my genjutsu, then don't call Uzumaki-san stupid!", Michiko said emotionlessly.
I couldn't even see through it…, Thought the jounin.
"So, as Kakashi-sama was going to say, you guys fail because you-"
"-Failed to see what this was all about. Sakura! You ignored Naruto when he was right in front of you, and instead went to look for Sasuke, when you didn't even know where he was! Sasuke, you decided straight away that your teammates were going to slow you down. And Naruto, you fought head on without thinking, doing everything by yourself!
"The reason you're all put into teams is so you work together. Individual play can put one of your comrades in unnecessary danger. And even get them killed. For example," Kakashi, who was still sitting on Sasuke, pulled out a kunai and put it up to his throat. "Sakura! Kill Naruto or Sasuke-"
He cut himself off when he felt the cold touch of metal against his own throat.
Michiko had used the Shunshin no Jutsu and was standing behind the caught-off-guard jounin, holding a kunai at his throat with one hand and had her other arm wrapped around his arms to keep them still.
"Now, now, Kakashi-sama. You wouldn't kill your own student, would you?", she threatened menacingly, so the others could hear. She released him and said to her teammates, "A ninja always puts their life of the line. Make one mistake and someone could end up dieing."
That's exactly what I was going to say… Who is this girl?, He thought, but shook it off and walked over to the memorial stone.
"Look at this. The numerous names carved in this stone. These are ninjas who are recognized as heroes in this village," he explained.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!! I've decided to get my name carved on that stone too!", Naruto shouted loudly. "Hero! Hero! That's what I'll become!"
"But…they aren't just normal heroes…," Kakashi began, and though he looked aloof, Michiko could see an old sadness burning deep within his eyes. She walked over to the memorial stone, head down with her bangs covering her eyes in shadow.
"Oh yeah?! Then what kind are they?", Naruto shouted again.
"Uzumaki-san…," Michiko began quietly. "Promise me you won't get your name carved on here…," Michiko begged quietly, but loud enough for everyone to hear her as she stared at two particular names on the memorial stone with pained eyes.
Naruto looked like he was about to ask why, hearing the pain in her voice, but Kakashi explained, "They are all heroes who died in the line of duty." Michiko clenched her fist, trying to stop her tears before they had a chance to fall. "This is a memorial. My best friend's name is also carved here…" Her head snapped up and she looked at him with wide eyes. She understood, now, why he was always so late.
Kakashi looked over his shoulder and said, "You guys… I'll give you one last chance."
Although, he also said to not let Naruto eat. After he had disappeared, Sasuke offered Naruto part of his lunch, saying that he didn't feel Kakashi's presence anywhere and that he needed his energy. Kakashi had appeared then, clouds forming in the sky making the atmosphere thicker. He scolded them, before Sakura had shouted out that he said they needed to use teamwork. The rest of the genin agreed and Kakashi smiled, saying:
"You all pass!"
Saiai: So, minna-san, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Michiko: I totally could've pwned Kakashi's ass if I had tried!
Saiai: But it was a teamwork thing, baka!
Michiko: I mean, under different circumstances!
Saiai: Michiko-chan, why did you say that to Naru-chan? 'Please don't get your name carved on here.'?
Michiko: You should all review so Saiai-sama will tell you!
Saiai: I agree! Review! I'll give you cookies!