A/N Hi! Just so you know it's officially slipping into the Naruto timeline. Btw I'm not going to be exteremly acurate so sorry if that annoys you.

Ch7

"I beat you again" Sasuke stated standing over me. "You need to get better." I rolled my eyes and stood up. The sun was just starting to rise as Sasuke and I finished training.

"I'm going to go home and sleep before class." I began to wander off towards my house.

"I don't think you'll have time to do that." Sasuke told me. I stopped walking and looked at him.

"Why?"

"Because look at the time." He pointed at the sun. "It's time to go to the Academy." My face fell. We had been training all night. I dropped my head and groaned. Sasuke walked off towards the Academy leaving me to trudge after him. It's not my fault I can't tell the time with the sun, I thought.

"Thanks Sasuke" I called after him. "Thanks for helping." He made a noise of recognition but otherwise just kept walking.

When Sasuke and I arrived at the Academy everyone else was already there.

"Oh man, late as well" I mumbled. Sasuke walked in front of me as we entered the classroom. I yawned loudly, Iruka looked mildly displeased.

"Right we can get started he said relieved. Sakura suddenly stood up closely followed by Ino.

"Oh man, seriously... Now?" I muttered under my breath. Luckily both of them started the usual rivalry bickering. I knew throughout the lesson I would receive evil looks from both of them, I would probably be asleep though. I looked around for a seat that would not be next to Sasuke, but the only two seats left were in-between Choji and Sakura. So I resigned myself to being an enemy of the fan girls forever, and sat next to Sakura in Sasuke's stead. Said Uchiha gave me a nod as thanks and I just rolled my eyes.

"I'm not doing this for nothing. You owe me another favour." I whispered as he sat down. He just grunted. I attempted to concentrate on Iruka but failed miserably...

"Emily... Emily!... Sasuke, wake her up."

"Wake up baka." I felt a fist hit my head, hard, and immediately retaliated with a sloppy punch in the Uchiha's general direction. He caught it easily but I heard a gasp escape from his fan girls, with the odd 'How dare she hit our Sasuke'. I scowled as I looked up.

"What?" I snapped before remembering I was talking to my sensei just after falling asleep in his class. I sheepishly rubbed the back of my neck. Iruka was glaring at me.

"Oops. Sorry Sensei." I apologized. Iruka sighed.

"It's your turn to take the exam." He told me. I blinked. "Ah! Yes, what do I need to do?" "Go to the next room and do the clone jutsu." Sasuke told me. "Thank you Sasuke." Iruka said and I nodded in agreement as I stood up. I'm lucky, the clone jutsu is my best jutsu. It's the same as making ghost clones only you use chakra, and they aren't solid. Though, because they're the same I find it easier to do it without the hand signs. Speaking of ghost clones, I forgot to tell the Hokage about that power, didn't I.

"Emily?" I blinked twice and turned to Iruka. "If you're back on earth can you come with me please. We still have other people to test." Iruka stated in an annoyed tone. I chuckled nervously.

"Sorry." I apologized. I let Iruka lead me out of the room. When I entered the room next door, there was another Sensei, that I hadn't seen before, and he ticked my name off a list.

"Hello Emily. I don't think we've met before. My name is Mizuki. Nice to meet you." He introduced himself. I bowed slightly, as was a custom which I had easily picked up.

"Nice to meet you." I replied.

"Right Emily, please begin." Iruka said. I nodded and closed my eyes momentarily, summoning my chakra the same way I summoned my ectoplasm. I heard a puff and opened my eyes, next to me four healthy looking clones emerged from smoke. Good, because I have always been better at clones than Danny and I don't want that to have changed when we next meet.

I looked at Iruka and Mizuki and smiled, both of them had expressions of surprise on their faces. Iruka blinked then smiled back, despite the fact that I had fallen asleep in his class. I guess he was shocked that I didn't use hand signs.

"Emily Fenton, I'm glad to tell you that you passed. You can take a leaf forehead protector and be excused. There are no other classes today." Iruka said, as Mizuki wrote down stuff in a book. Don't ask me what. Probably a report on my test. I grabbed the closest forehead protector and left the room.

As I walked down the hall I rubbed my thumb across the leaf symbol, wishing I could tell Danny. At least I was one step closer to finding him and defeating Em.

I sighed and began to run. I was itching to use my ghost powers and go flying. Normally if something was on my mind I'd tell Danny then we would go flying to take my mind off things. Of course not only could I not tell Danny, but now that I couldn't take off the necklace I couldn't go flying. I saw an open window and slowed to a stop.

Outside, all the students who had already taken the test were talking with their families. I felt a rush of grief as I remembered my own parents. It was so sudden. One moment they were there, the next they were gone. I bit my lip and held my breath in an attempt to squash the mountain of emotions inside. I had to think about something else. So I deliberately thought about the exam. Having past it I'll be put into a team next week. The only person I might want on my team would be Naruto, and I guess Sasuke because he would be helpful, though Naruto would be furious if he was put on the same team as him.

As my thoughts drifted over to Naruto I remembered he didn't have a family to wait for him either, and I sighed. I jumped onto the window sill then used my chakra to launch myself out of the window and into a tree that was outside. Then I dropped out of the tree and sat on a swing that was tied to it.

Naruto you'd better not be too long, I thought. I yawned and stretched before falling backwards accidently. I winced when my back hit the ground but couldn't make myself be bothered enough to get up. So I just lay there, with my feet still on the swing, and dozed off.

"Emily? What are you doing?" I vaguely heard Naruto say and I forced my eyes open.

"Sleeping, what does it look like?" I replied as I lifted my feet off the swing and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Naruto chuckled, but it didn't sound right.

"How late did you stay up last night?" He asked. I opened my eyes and looked at him, his tone made me concerned. He looked upset.

"How did your exam go?" I asked cautiously. He threw his leg over the swing and sat on it sideways. It felt like he was avoiding my gaze.

"I failed." He said quietly. I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say other than 'there's always next time.' but he certainly didn't want to hear that right now.

"I really wanted to pass this time." He said and I nodded.

"I know." We sat there for a moment, then I heard two women talking about Naruto

"Hey, that kid. He's 'that' kid."

"Yes. It seems he's the only one who failed."

"Good thing too. Imagine what would happen if he became a ninja."

"Yeah. Especially because he's-"

"Shh. We're not allowed to talk about that." I glanced at Naruto, as much as the last two sentences piqued my curiosity, staying here is not a good idea for him. Sighing quietly I stood up.

"Let's go Naruto." I said. Naruto pulled his goggles down over his face then followed me out of the school grounds.

"You know, Naruto, this doesn't mean you won't become Hokage." I said in a lame attempt to cheer him up. He nodded.

"Yeah but, amongst other things, I wanted to become a ninja with you because you are my only friend." I stuffed my hands into my pockets uncomfortably.

"You know we will still be friends, right? I mean, admittedly, I didn't want friends at first and the only reason I called you my friend in the beginning was because I was told to make a friend-"

"You had to tell me this now?" Naruto complained sadly.

"Let me finish. As much as I didn't want friends you managed to force your extremely annoying self into my heart. You are most definitely my best friend." He finally smiled a little.

"'forced my way into your heart'?" He asked.

"For lack of better wording." I stated, slightly embarrassed. He chuckled and I smiled at him. "Be careful though Naruto." I said more seriously. "You being my friend means I'm giving everyone else a second chance, if you betray me, chances are I'll go insane and...well... prepare to die if that happens." Naruto obviously wasn't enough of an idiot to miss the seriousness as he gulped and nodded. I laughed.

"Not to put pressure on you or anything." I said.

"Naruto!" I heard a voice from behind us and turned to see who was calling him. It was Mizuki-sensei.

"Can I talk with you?" He asked. Naruto looked at me, and I shrugged.

"If you're feeling ok then go ahead." I stated. He nodded and walked off with Mizuki.

"Haaaaaah... Now what?" I asked myself. Ever since I got separated from Danny I began to realize just how little time I had spent alone. Now I spend most of my time on my own. I sighed, I had slept the afternoon away whilst waiting for Naruto, so I wasn't tired. I decided to train. Sending my Chakra to my feet, I ninja jumped towards training grounds that Sasuke and I had used last night, in Konoha's woods.

"Alright! Let's train!" I said, louder than I wanted, when I reached the small clearing Sasuke and I had used previously. OK what to do first, I thought. After a moment I decided on a sequence of taijutsu techniques Sasuke had shown me this morning. I squared up to a tree and decided to use it as my opponent... "Well, it's better than nothing." I muttered and struck at it. The sequence's purpose was to help me get faster so I could strike my opponent twice not just once when there was an opening. And so that moving from one move to another was as natural as walking. I was doing well, if I could say so myself, but I suddenly found myself on the floor. What? I thought puzzled. I had obviously moved wrong resulting in a very bad landing. I stood, shook my head, and tried again. I attempted to pay special attention to when I fell down but the same thing happened and I was still at a loss of what I had done wrong. "Urrrgh! Why can't I get this right!" I kicked a stone out of frustration. I sighed, then tried again... and again... Come on!... Agaaaaain... Twenty minutes later and I'm still not getting better in any way whatsoever.

"Graaaaah!" I yelled, pulling at my hair in frustration after hitting the ground once again. "Why can't I do it!?" Completely exasperated now, I threw a chakra filled punch at the tree, intending to destroy it. Unfortunately, despite having the advantage of my ghost powers that anyone else learning to use chakra obviously didn't have, I had to seriously concentrate. So as I was blinded by my annoyance I accidently used way too much chakra.

There was a mini explosion that threw me to the floor again, and it was then that I became aware of someone else's presence... because he burst out laughing. I glared in the direction the laugh, to see a familiar man standing there.

"How long have you been there, Kakashi?" I asked, still glaring him. He grinned at me through his mask.

"Long enough to see you repeatedly failing such a simple skill, every 14 year old ninja should be able to do that." He said. I stood up and brushed myself down.

"If it's "such a simple skill" then you should have no problem giving me constructive criticism and some help." I said scowling, though I did want the help. Kakashi chuckled.

"Ok then." He said in that care free tone of his. "The reason you keep tripping is because your overall stance is too low for that speed. It's throwing you off balance. Also in my personal opinion jeans don't give enough room for the movements in taijutsu. Most Chunnin or higher rank ninja don't wear jeans, either because of this or because of a uniform... though they are comfortable." I scowled again.

"Are you going to complain about my fashion choice, or are you actually going to help me?" I asked. Kakashi held his hands up in mock submission.

"I'll help." He said. "Though you might want to be nicer to me, Because I saved you and because I have no real reason to help you." I sighed.

"Ok. I'm sorry, but still laughing at me was not necessary. I only started training to be a ninja a week ago." I stated. For a moment I thought I saw a look of surprise flicker across the visible part of Kakashi's face, but I wrote it off as my imagination. Kakashi smiled before walking over to me.

"Right. Show me your stance." He instructed. I complied and for the next couple of hours he helped me train. By the time the sun had set I had no problem moving at Sasuke's speed, though if we fought he would still beat me in two seconds flat, and I could see his point about the jeans... though I would never admit it.

"You should take a break now." Kakashi suggested.

"About time." I grumbled before sitting down. I groaned then flopped down onto my back and looked the sky.

I decided I would find something more comfortable than jeans to wear, but no way would I show, tell or admit the reason for the change to Kakashi.

"Ah! The first star!" I noticed quietly.

"Hm?" Kakashi followed my gaze into the sky. "Oh yeah." He smiled down at me. "Make a wish. Then we can start training again." He said. I chuckled and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Make a wish?" I asked. He shrugged,

"We could just start now?" he stated. I nodded and stood up. Suddenly Kakashi turned and looked into the trees.

"Someone's coming." He said. Not two seconds later and Iruka-Sensei landed in front of us.

"Kakashi? Emily? What are you doing?" He asked.

"Training" Kakashi answered. Iruka nodded,

"Ok but Kakashi needs to help find Naruto first." Iruka stated. "Naruto?" Kakashi asked. "What did he do this time?"

"He stole the scroll of sealing!" Iruka replied. Kakashi's visible eye widened.

"I see." He said. "If you search that way I'll take the other." Iruka nodded and the two ninja leapt away. Leaving me completely alone.

The scroll of sealing? It must be important if Hokage made all the nearby ninja search for him. I thought. I looked around at the two directions Iruka and Kakashi had taken. Iruka, I decided and, using chakra to speed up, I leapt into the trees and followed my sensei...Ah! He's not my sensei anymore, I'll be someone else's student soon. I wonder who it will be... Wait! Naruto is more important right now!