Summer sunlight basked my room in warmth as I got ready to start my day. I ran my hands town my thighs over the thick fabric of my long shorts. The dark material clung to my body, exposing my muscles. For what felt like the hundredth time, I smoothed out my pale pink colored top. Excitement was bubbling in me at the thought of starting my career as an up and coming kunoichi. I, Haruko Kururugi, was officially a genin.
"Haruko!" my mother called to me from downstairs. "You better hurry up or your breakfast will be cold! You can't leave on an empty stomach!"
"I'm coming!" I shouted back and grabbed my new headband and tied it around my forehead as I left my bedroom and bounded down the stairs. I couldn't help but shovel down my food and bolt out the door to run to the academy where just yesterday I was studying chakra control and all about the diffent types of jutsu.
Upon arriving, I saw few more of my old classmates. My old friend Ino Yamanaka was already in. I gave her a small wave when our eyes met. She smiled politely and waved back before turning her gaze back towards the opposite side of the room. Ino and I were once fairly close when we were younger. It wasn't until she took Sakura Haruno under her wing that she and I started to spend less and less time together until finally, we would just exchange passing glances, smile and occasionally ask how the other was doing. I never resented her or Sakura for us going our separate ways. I was still friends with Ino, and I even had begun to hang out with Sakura on occasion as well. It just wasn't as often as when we were younger.
I made my way to an open seat towards the front of the class and quietly sat down. It didn't take long, however, for the excited titter of new genin to turn into hooping and hollering. I turned in my seat to see an orange clad boy crouched on top of the desk and facing someone.
"Naruto, just leave Sasuke alone, would ya?" the young Haruno snapped, her brows were drawn together in anger.
"Yeah!" Ino joined in. "What did Saskue ever do to you?"
"Shut up!" the blonde, knuckled head ninja yelled back. His gaze didn't leave Sasuke. Not being able to contain my curiousity, I got out of my seat and crept up to get a better look. More girls were begining to crowd around Sasuke and Naruto, none looked too happy to see the Uzumaki boy harrassing the raven haired youth. Hell, the two boys didn't look too excited either. Naruto's face was screwed up in frustration as he squinted down at the Uchiha. Sasuke stayed calm with his hands folded in front of his face, but his stare stayed even with Naruto's. Tension was thick between the two, and the only thing that disturbed it was the boy in the row below Naruto bumping into him and causing the two genin behind him to land in the most embarassing lip lock of their lives. The room errupted in high pitched screams as every girl tried to scramble towards the blonde to strangle him.
"That's enough!" camed Iruka's booming voice causing all of us to stop in our tracks. "Everyone, get in your seats and we will assign the new teams!" Everyone scrambled to get to their seats, and Iruka calmed himself and went ahead with the team assignments. They were three man squads, two guys and one girl. We got all the way up to Team 6 without issue. Once Iruka started to assign Team 7 though...
"Alright, Team 7 will consist of: Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha." Naruto huffed and stood up pointing at Sasuke.
"Iruka-sensei, why does a great ninja like me have to be teamed up with a slug like Sasuke?" The pink haired kunoichi shot an icy glare towards the blonde. Other girls also had looks that could kill aimed at Naruto. Iruka let out an agrivated sigh before addressing the young Uzumaki.
"We try to keep a balance amongst the teams by pairing the good students with the bad. Sasuke had the best scores of the class. Naruto, you had the worst scores." Snickers were heard throughtout the class before everyone settled down again and Iruka kept on with the team assignments. Team 8 had been anounced, and I felt my heart flutter and sink a little. Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame and the guy I couldn't help but admire, Kiba Inuzuka. I forgot when exactly I started to notice him, but once I did, he held my attention captive. I liked how carefree he was. I admired the strong bond he had with his dog. I enjoyed watching him trained. I couldn't help but think he was funny when he started to goof off with Shikamaru, Naruto and Choji. I liked the sound of his laugh. I was loud and harsh, and came out more like a bark of laughter. I liked that mischevious sparkle in his dark eyes. I liked Kiba.
"Now to announce Team 9," I heard Iruka say, pulling me from my thoughts of Kiba. "Team 9 with have Daisuke Yamada, Haruko Kururugi and Satoshi Mitsuchi." Hearing those names, I had remembered them both when I was younger and saw them on the playground a lot. I never really got to know them, but I knew they two were very close. Daisuke was the type to always be looking for an adventure. He almost always had small cuts and scrapes and bandaids covering his arms and legs. He wore a huge grin on his face and usually had Satishi roped into whatever his next adventure was. He had shaggy black hair back then, and now it was a little longer and pulled back into a small pony tail. His lean body was covered in as many bandaids as he used to be, and instead of adventures he went out training, but he still seemed to have that same sense of wonder about him and that same goofy grin.
Satoshi, on the other hand, was quite a bit different from Daisuke. While Daisuke was more outgoing, Saatoshi was soft spoken and quiet. He was also a bit of a perfectionist. His pale blonde hair was cropped short and combed perfectly. His mastery of jutsu was close to rivaling that of Sasuke even. He was very slender, and his body was almost feminine, but it helped him have a great deal of speed and fluidity in his movements. It was something he adapted to as he got older. He was humble and kind in comparison to Daisuke's cocky and sometimes blunt personality. I suppose that's why they wereso close though. Their personalities kind of complimented each other.
I noticed Daisuke lean over his desk from the top of the room and shot me a thumbs up. I smiled and returned the gesture. Iruka continued on assigning the teams, with Ino winding up on a team with Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi. Another team was assigned and finally Iruka let us head out after letting us know that our teams would meet our designated jonin senseis the following day. Everyone filed out of the room, and as I was walking out, I managed to trip over my own feet and slam into a soft body.
"Arf arf!"
"Oh my god, I am so sorry!" I stammered as I collected myself and looked straight into the face of Kiba Inuzuka. "I didn't hurt your dog, did I?"
"Oh, Akamaru?" He said while jabbing his thumb towards the pup sitting atop his head. "He's fine, but you might wanna be careful. I don't know how long a clumsy ninja would survive on a mission." I awkwardly laughed at his slight teasing.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." I said. "Maybe with all the training I'll be doing, I'll be able to do better."
"Heh, yeah maybe." he gave a toothy grin. "Well, I gotta get going. I'll see ya around, Haruko." And with that, Kiba turned on his heel and walked out. I kept waving as he left, and there was only one thing that resonated in my mind. Kiba definitely knew who I was...but he was going to think ofme as Haruko, the clumsy ninja!
The next day, I was walking along towards the academy to meet my new sensei. I was lost in my own thoughts and thinking about what he or she was going to be like, and I didn't notice at first that were people in front of me. It wasn't until I heard a bark of laughter did I look up to see a trio in front of me. In the middle of this trio was none other than Kiba. My heart began to race as I hear his jovial voice carrying on the wind, and I can't help but wonder what he's saying. What is he laughing about? Hopefully he's not talking about some weird gening who super clumsy and trips over her own feet. Still, whatever it is he's talking about, laughing about, I wanted to know. I wanted to be part of that conversation and laugh as easily as he does. I see Hinata looking over at him every now and again, and I can catch a glimpse of a smile on her face.
"It must be nice." I say aloud as I continue to walk, and I suddenly feel a weight slump onto me.
"What must be nice?" Daisuke had his face pretty close to mine, and one of his arms were slung around my shoulders. I felt my cheeks warm up slightly as I tried to look away from mt teammate.
"Daisuke, leave her alone." came Satoshi's voice from behind us.
"Aw, c'mon 'Toshi! I'm just being friendly with Haru." Daisuke whined as he removed his arm from me and turned to face his friend. Both the boys had slightly playful smiles on their faces. Satoshi was shaking his head slightly.
"Don't call me by my old nickname, Daisuke." He said sternly. "We're genin now. We have to grow up at some point."
"But, I've always used that nickname with you! And besides, Haru likes her nickname," The dark haired boy then turned to me. "don't you Haru?"
"Uh, sure." I nervously laugh.
"Don't mind him. My name is Satoshi. Let's do our best on this team, okay?" Satoshi extended his hand to me, and I took it in a friendly shake.
"My name is Haruko."
"And I'm Daisuke Yamada. Now, do either of you know where we are supposed to meet our sensei?"
"I think we have to head back to the academy." Satoshi said.
"Alright, then let's get going! I bet we get a super awesome jonin who has been on all sorts of missions and call us all about his battle scars!" Daisuke mused excitedly, and Satoshi walked up placing a hand on Daisuke's back and started to herd him in the direction of the academy. I stole a glance towards where I last saw Kiba and his team and saw that they were no longer in sight. They must have already gotten to where they were to meet their sensei. With a sigh, I followed after Daisuke and Satoshi and just quietly listened to their chatter.
It didn't take long for the jonin assigned to our team to show up. He slid open the door and silently walked in. He positioned himself at the front of the room and quickly looked us over before introducing himself.
"My name is Kenji Harada. I enjoy pork barbeque, staying in shape and tending to my small bonzai tree. I do not like repeating myself, wasting my time or those who can't use teamwork. My dream is to continue teaching the future ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village." We sat there staring at the man before us not sure of what to say. He was a little odd, and he looked fairly strange too. He wasn't the tallest jonin I had ever seen, he looked to be about 5'6". His auburn hair had been shaved down on one side and grown out on the other, and it was styled to stand in an upward slant. He was stocky, but he wasn't fat. He had thick muscles. His eyes were a rich forest green, and he had a fairly thin scar that began at the outer corner of his right eye and came down to his chin. He was definitely interesting. "Well, come on." He said in his gruff voice. "Tell me about yourself."
"Okay then...my name is Daisuke Yamada. I like exploring new places, hanging out with friends and my best friend. I don't like liars, stuck up people, or spinach. OH! And my dream is to be able to be good enough to join the ANBU ranks! I want to be an amazing ninja!" Kenji-sensei nodded his head and looked over at Satoshi.
"My name is Satoshi Mitsuchi. I like taking time to perfect my justu, and of course making sure Daisuke here stays in line. I don't like people who feel they need to take a shortcut in order to get to the top, and my dream is to eventually become a medical ninja. I like helping people, and I think that becoming a medical ninja will be a great way to do so." Finally, Kenji-sensei's eyes rested on me.
"Um, I'm Haruko Kururugi and I like...well...I haven't really thought too much about it. I like my friends. I don't like...well...dishonesty. Or for people to know me as a clumsy ninja. I guess my dream is just to be the best kunoichi I can be." I felt pretty lame saying it. Daisuke and Satoshi both had great dreams and were so sure in their answers, and I just spit out the first stupid thing that came to mind.
"Good." Kenji-sensei said. "Well, now we all have an idea of who we are. The first part in building a good team is getting to know one another. The better we know each other, the better we can develop as a team, and part of getting to know each other will be learning about our strengths and weaknesses. Now, let's head to the training hall and do some basic training to learn some more."
It took us several hours before Kenji-sensei was satisfied with watching us train before he let us head home. He did a lot of basic jutsu's that we learned in the academy, and then had us work on our taijutsu. It was all very basic, but it did make me realize that my taijustu needed some work.
I tried to carry my sore body down the street towards home when I heard that familiar voice again.
"See ya tomorrow Hinata!" Kiba called to the Hyuga girl, and she smiled and waved at him before disappearing behind the gate that lead into the Hyuga compound. He turned and saw me looking at him. "Oh, hey there Clumsy! What's up?"
"That's not funny, Kiba." I huffed without even thinking. Kiba just laughed.
"Relax, would ya?" he said. "I'm only kidding. Right, Akamaru?"
"Aruff!" the pup yipped.
"Oh, sorry."
"Eh, don't worry about it." Kiba said as he started walking again. "I won't call you 'clumsy' anymore if it makes ya feel better." I began to head towards home as well, and as it turns out, it was in the same direction Kiba was walking. We ended up walking side by side in silence until I decided to say something.
"So," I started. "what was your new sensei like?"
"Kurenai-sensei? She was pretty cool, I guess. Turns out she's really good at genjutsu." I couldn't help but giggle.
"She sounds cooler than my sensei. All he did was make us redo the basics." Kiba let out a laugh.
"Wow, that sounds boring. We just got out of the academy, we don't need more of the same!"
For a while we talked casually about our teams, our sensei's and just kept it light. It was nice. I was actually holding a conversation with Kiba Inuzuka! He was really easy to talk to too! He was really laid back, but slightly cocky. He put me at ease.
"Well, this is me." He said abruptly, and I saw that we were standing in front of the gates to the Inuzuka compound. "Maybe I'll see you around. We can talk more about our teams, heh."
"Yeah, that could be cool." I said, and couldn't help like feeling as if I sounded too desparate. We said our good-byes and I kept on walking towards home. When I got inside, I headed up to my room and fell into my bed. My eyes felt heavy. I didn't realize I was so tired, but I almost couldn't stay awake. I shut my eyes and could feel the sting of fatigue in them, and it wasn't long before I finally drifted off to sleep.