Me and Haruo followed closely behind Fugaku and Itachi through the streets of Konohagakure. As we were both walking behind them, we couldn't help but notice the symbol on both their backs.
"er... Kugaku-Sepia?" Haruo spoke, which caused the older man to look back slightly with an "hm?" escaping his lips.
"Well... I wanted to ask you about the symbol on your backs... if I'm mistaken, I'd say it were a fan of some sorts?"
Fugaku smirked slightly "you have sharp eyes young one. Yes the symbol on our backs is indeed a fan; it's actually an Uchiwa fan. Because the fan is a tool to help create fire, or in this case... make it bigger is a perfect symbolisation of what the Uchiha clan is."
"So... fire and the Uchiha clan are somewhat linked?"
"Yes" Fugaku answered "many members of our clan are fire jutsu users... both myself and Itachi can use it."
We both looked at Itachi in utter shock... he barely look over the age of nine yet he can already use a fire justu!
"Right here we are!" Fugaku suddenly announced. In front of us now was a large archway with the Uchiha symbol showing proudly. But that's not all that was in front of us. Standing in the archway, was a woman with long black hair, onyx eyes and a kind smile, with a little boy who looked just like her. Only he had short, spiky hair, and long bangs on either side of his head.
"Children..." Fuguaku spoke as we finally approached the entrance, "this is my wife Mikoto and my youngest son Sasuke".
Mikoto kneeled down to mine and Haruo's level which caused me to hide behind my brother slightly. "Hello there... you have nothing to fear little one" she told me with a gentle expression.
This somewhat made me feel reassured, so I came out from behind my brother, but still clinged to his arm.
"I'm Haruo!" my brother chimed "and this is Tomoko, I'm afraid she isn't talking at the moment".
"I see..." muttered Mikoto she looked behind at her youngest son "Sasuke, come and say hello".
Tomoko studied the boy as he stepped forward shyly, he had a very innocent look to him and to any grown woman... he'd be a cutie pie. But if anything, he would grow to be a very handsome young man, like his older brother was beginning to turn into. It seemed good looks also ran within the Uchiha family.
"Er... hi?" he slowly let escape his lips. I stared at him blankly.
"Oh right you're not talking..." he mumbled more to himself "is this better?" he asked whilst holding his hand out to me.
I was a little surprised at his gesture, but kinda happy. He was really the only one who was making an effort to talk to me (apart from his brother of course), where as the grownups either talked to me as if I was stupid, or not talk to me at all!
At first a hesitated... but when I saw that little smile on his face, I couldn't help but smile back, grab his hand and shake it. Haruo looked at me a little stunned that I was suddenly interacting with this boy, who I just met.
"Sasuke, why don't take Tomoko to play somewhere?" his mother suggested.
Sasuke smiled up at her and then back at me "Yeah sure! You wanna come play Tomoko-Chan?"
I looked at my brother silently asking for his permission, to which he told me to go have fun.
"Great! Come on Tomoko-Chan!" Sasuke yelled in excitement and dragged me through the Uchiha quarter of the village.
The sound of my alarm clock echoed through my room and woke me from my slumber. Groggily, I wacked the alarm to switch it off and sat up. Whilst yawning, I stretched my arms as far as they would go then slowly got out of bed to get ready.
It was finally the day the newly announced Genin, would be put into teams of three and meet their Jonin sensei.
After showering and putting on my clothes, I sat down at my dresser, and began to quickly brush my hair. Whilst doing this I began to wonder who would be in my team. It could be anyone in my class. A part of me just wished that I wouldn't teamed up with Sakura or Ino... or Sasuke.
My ideal team would probably be Hinata and Naruto funnily enough, cause then it would give her the chance to get to know him a little better, rather than just watching him from a distance. But that can't happen because he didn't graduate.
As I put my hair brush down, my gaze shifted to the vanbraces that were given to me three days ago. Would it be practical to wear them today? I highly doubted I would be going on any missions.
But a part of me wanted to show them off, they did look pretty cool on my arms. Giving in, I started to tie them on. Looking one last time in the mirror, I headed downstairs, and walked out of my bedroom door.
"Ah wait a minute!" I yelled rushing back into my room. I rushed over to my dresser, scolding myself forgetting it. In my hands I cradled my new shinobi headband. For a moment I contemplated on wear to tie it, ideally, you tie it around you forehead. But the headband was pretty heavy, and I didn't exactly want to deal with that on my head. So I decided to tie it around my waistline like I did before.
"There we go!" I gazed at myself in the mirror, the headband just fitted around my waist. I was now ready to take on the world as a Genin!
I walked into the classroom and immediately saw Hinata "Hey Hina... what are you staring at?"
Hinata turned round to face me "oh good morning Tomoko... I w-was e-er... I was..." since I was getting nowhere with her stuttering, I looked into the direction where she was staring and noticed a certain yellow-haired boy talking to Skikamaru...
"No way..." I whispered then smiled "Naruto graduated!"
"It seems so..." Hinata mumbled cheerfully.
"I'm gonna go talk to him... you coming?"
Hinata gave me a look of death take vigorously shook her head back and forth.
"Hinata... he isn't going to bite you know. I'll let you off this time, but I will get you to talk to him" I told her before walking to the other side of the room.
"How should I say this..." I heard him say "This looks really good on me eh?"
"Well look who showed up" I called walking towards him and Skikamaru.
Naruto looked up and grinned "Oh Tomoko-Chan! Look! Look! Iruka-Sensei gave me a second chance!"
I couldn't help but chuckle at him, "I knew you could do it! Oh hey Skikamaru". Skikamarua replied with a very lazy wave and went to sit in a seat.
"Hey, hey Tomoko-Chan? Can I ask for your opinion?" Naruto asked nearly jumping out of his seat.
"Er... yeah okay go ahead".
"Do you think wearing this headband, makes me look more hansom? Do you think Sakura-Chan will like it?"
I raised my eyebrow at him, I wasn't sure whether to be honest and say he looked no different, or lie to make him feel better, but remember that this was Naruto.
"Well..."
But I was suddenly cut off my Sakura and Ino barging into the classroom yelling Goal.
"I win again, Sakura" puffed Ino.
Sakura glared at her "what are you talking about? My toe entered the class before yours by a centimetre!"
'Weren't they best friends once?' I asked myself and notice Naruto practically drool from the mouth at the sight of the pink-haired Kunoichi. Then speaking of devil she looked over into mine and Naruto direction and pulled a face of excitement.
For a split second I (like Naruto), thought she was staring at him, so he got up and waved at her, But then that theory flew out the window, when she charged over and practically knocked poor Naruto out of his seat.
"Good morning Sasuke-Kun..." she spoke softly trying to be cute, which made me roll my eyes.
Of course it was Sasuke she was looking at.
Sasuke glanced at her from the corner of his eyes but said nothing, as usual.
"May I sit next to you?" she asked him sweetly.
Honestly I don't know why she tries, he couldn't care less what she did. The fact that he even glanced at her was probably a vast improvement.
"Hey!" Ino snapped whilst grabbing Sakura's arm "I'm going to sit next to him!"
This cause Sakura to throw her the dirtiest look she could muster "first comes first served!"
"I came in the classroom before you!" Ino shrieked.
"No I did!"
Suddenly a girl with massive pig tails walked past me, "I was here before both of you so I'm sitting next to Sasuke-Kun!".
"NO I AM!" another girl yelled.
'You've got to be kidding me...' was the only thought that rang in my head. I went to go back to my seat, only to be met by a herd of girls, bickering amongst each other giving me no way out!
"Can you please get out of my way!" I yelled, but the other girls were so loud I was drowned out.
Suddenly Naruto was on the desk that Sasuke was sitting at, and glared him right in the face, which caused Sasuke to glare right back.
'something bad is going to happen' I Thought.
"NARUTO!" Sakura screeched "Stop staring at Sasuke-Kun!"
But Naruto blatantly ignored her and I swear, if looks could kill both boys would be rotting corpses.
The girls barked orders at Sasuke to beat him up, as they both continued to glare draggers at each other, till a boy in front stood up and knocked Naruto forward.
All the girls were rendered speechless... as they witness Naruto and Sasuke in an accidental lip lock.
'uh-oh...'
Both boys immediately pulled away and started spluttering.
"Naruto..." Sasuke choked "I'm going to kill you!"
"urgh... I think I need a dental wash!" Naruto cried but then stopped and muttered something about sensing danger.
Following Naruto's gaze, every single girl looked like they wanted to slaughter him.
"I-It was an accident!"
"Your annoying!" Sakura growled and like a pack of wild animals, they began to beat him to a bloody pulp. Admitedly, it was kind of funny to watch at first, but it was starting to get a bit out of hand.
'Okay that's it!' I told myself. As Sakura was going to give Naruto a right hook, I managed to step in front and catch her fist firmly in my hand.
"What the?" she then tried to yank of hand away, but I was stronger than her by miles.
"I think he gets the point" I told her calmly, whilst still holding her fist tightly, "it was accident, get over it!" I then released her hand which caused her to stumble back slightly.
It was then one of the girls pointed out my vambrace, which funnily enough (without me realizing) caught Sasuke's attention.
I ignored the stares I was getting and walked back to where Hinata was.
"Tomoko-chan, er..."
"I'm okay Hinata, don't worry" I reassured her, sitting down on her left.
"That was so cool!" I heard a boy from behind me, which in turn, caused a wet drop to form, and hang my head low.
"I can't wait to get out of here" I grumbled, causing Hinata to giggle quietly.
And as if on cue, Iruka-Sensei walked in and told everyone to take their seats. It seems in the end Sakura did get to sit next to Sasuke, but also Naruto. I was sat two rows above them, on the right of the second middle row.
Iruka cleared his throat "Starting today, you are all officially ninjas, but you are all still new Genins. It's going to get harder from here. Now usually you all would be in a group of three, where you complete missions under the command of a Jounin teacher. However... due to the slight uneven number of graduates, one group will be a four."
I wasn't surprised that Genin level ninja worked in groups of three, Haruo told me all about it. But not once have I heard four Genin man cell.
"We've arranged the groups such as that overall abilities are equivalent" Iruka continued "I will now announce them!"
At this point I sorta switched off and started admiring my vambraces again. I must of been out of it for ages, because Iruka-Sensei already reached number seven.
"Seventh group!" he announced "Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura..." at this Naruto stood up with his fists in the air and started cheering. Sakura on the other hand had her head hung low.
"Uchiha Sasuke..." with that being said, Naruto and Sakura's roles seemed to reverse, so now she was cheering and he had his head low.
"and Mori Tomoko!"
My head snapped up "what?"
"WHAT!" Sakura scream.
Iruka stopped reading for a moment "Sakura, is there a problem?"
"YES! Why is she in our team!"
'jeez... thanks for that Sakura...'
"Yeah and why am I on Sasuke's team!" Naruto spat.
Iurka gave a loud sigh "you four stay briefly behind at the end and I'll tell you".
As the announcing went on, it turns out Hinata was teamed with Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino. I felt kinda sorry for her since she didn't really talk to them. And much to Ino's annoyance, she was teamed with this year's laziest student, Nara Skikamaru and this year's fattest student, Akimichi Chouji.
After everyone one left, myself, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke stayed behind. The three of them stayed in their seats, whilst I walked down and was standing on Naruto's side.
"Iruka-Sensei! Why is a top student like me in a group with this guy!" Naruto bellowed.
Iruka sighed "Sasuke graduated with the highest scores. And you, Naruto, had the low scores. This happens because we want to evenly divide abilities between the groups."
"Try and keep up dunce!" Sasuke shot in aiming it at the orange clothed ninja, which cause him to nearly throw a fit.
"But what about Tomoko?" Sakura asked.
"Out of the females, both you and Tomoko were the highest and the lowest in the class. So basically, out of the two of you, Sakura, you came out with the highest scores in the written exam, showing that you are the smartest in the class. Tomoko however, struggled because initially, she and her brother were late beginners at the academy". But Sakura was still confused.
"I couldn't read when I started here, and I'm still not a hundred percent perfect, I struggle occasionally" I told her with a sigh.
Immediately she shut up, "However" Iruka continued, "Sakura, you lack in physical abilities and have bad endurance. Whilst Tomoko, could very easily give Sasuke a run for his money, as they both have the same Charka level and she passed all physical tests."
It wasn't till then I realized that Sasuke, had been glancing at me since he started to talk about Sakura's mental skill, every time his eyes would dart from my face and... you guessed it, my vanbrace. Afterwards we were dismissed for lunch and the four of us walked out the classroom.
"You... You really couldn't read Tomoko-Chan?" Naruto asked me.
I turned to face him and noticed that Sakura was too waiting for answer. Sasuke... well he already knew this...
"Well, I could read, I just couldn't the lanuage" I said simply.
"The language? What do you mean?" He pressed.
"You mean you don't know?" I asked him. Naruto looked at me completely clueless, so explained to him how I was not originally from the Konohagakure and was born from the Mountain Country, Yamakure.
"hmmm" mused Naruto "I've never heard of it."
I shrugged "not many people have, anyway, back to my point, we are taught to read our own language, lets call it... Yamkureism for the more modern tongue".
"So, can you say something in Yamakureism then?" He asked shyly.
I smiled "dægræd Naruto-cnihtcild, hū ræd ēower hælp? That was 'morning Naruo-kun, how is you health'. It really formal, and nowadays kind of rare to speak, due to the fact that modern tongue is now the norm".
Naruto seemed in awe, telling me I sound completely different.
"So... why aren't you still there then? If you're from Yamakure, shouldn't you be with your people" Sakura asked rather snobbishly. This caused me to narrow my eyes slightly, but as I was about to snap at her, someone beat me to it.
"Quit being nosy Sakura! It's annoying" Sasuke told her coldly. Both Naruto and Saukra had shocked faces, hell even I was stunned.
Sasuke then started walking off, with Sakura chasing after him and Naruto not far behind her. I wasn't really in the mood to play cat and mouse, so I went the other direction to find somewhere to eat.