Title: Rin

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Warning: Unbeta and horrible grammar. Language.

Chapter 7

I stared at the paper in my hand with horror expression. While I would really hoped that no Hyuga boy or Uchiha girl as my opponent I believed that my pray was being answered differently. It seemed that my bad luck was still lingering around as I get the third least choice ever! I saw Iruka slowly walked at my direction since I stayed still after reading the paper. He stopped in front of me and eyed my displeasured expression.

"Rin? Are you okay?" He asked carefully.

I averted my gaze away and sighed. "I don't know."

He tilted his head slightly so that he could read the paper in my hand. I quickly crushed the paper in my palm. He sulked.

"At least let me know who your opponent is," He paused and looked at our sensei's assistant. "Apparently they let the girls pick up the draw first."

"Or your name already has been picked." I placed the crushed paper in my jacket pocket. We both noticed that there were boys circling Ren-sensei assistant.

Iruka shrugged and scanned the surrounding. "I wish that I know who my opponent is then."

"Don't worry, you'll know soon."

"Then tell me yours?"

"Not a chance."

"Tch…I'll put a dye in your shampoo later."

"That'll be nice. What colour you're going to use? Pink? Orange? Ah, blue also nice. Put blue in mine then." I smirked.

"You're going to regret this," Iruka said while his eyes twitched slightly. "I mean it." He added making me laughed softly while the brunet groaned slightly.

We both walked to the group of our classmates. I eyed Uchiha Suzu who was leaning at one tree. She looked tensed. I walked to her leaving Iruka with Mizuki and patted her shoulder.

"Hey, you look tense." I started our conversation. Suzu was really a nice girl once you knew her. She had nice short black hair with messy bangs. Anyone might get wrong at first impression since she really looked like a boy and her outfit also didn't really helped showing her true gender. Suzu had beautiful eyes and even that still didn't help much in her already tomboyish appearance. I also made same mistake by believing that Suzu was a boy. Until we went for kunoichi class, I nearly made some ruckus about a boy in all girls classroom. That was really embarrassing moment.

"Ah, Rin…" She greeted me and stared at the ground. Sighing she looked up. "Do I look really obvious?"

I nodded and she shrugged. "What's wrong?"

"Um, my opponent."

"Who?"

She pulled out a paper from her trouser pocket and showed it to me. I stared at the paper and hummed. "At least that was better than mine and it'll be a good experience for him to fight an Uchiha."

"But I don't want to fight him."

"Why not?"

"He is nice…I don't want to hurt him."

"Uh…"

"He also cute and I don't think I want to bruise up his cute face."

"Um…"

"I don't think I can do this to him."

"Uh, Suzu?"

"Yes?"

"You like him very much huh?"

The raven haired girl stiffened and glared to the fullest at me. Ignoring her sharp gaze, I stared at the pink hue on her cheeks. "What! No! No way! There is no way that I like him!" Suzu yelled softly so that only we two heard it.

"Deny while you can but he is still your opponent in this test. Fight for his sake then?" I patted her shoulder. "He is a boy after all and you're an Uchiha. You're the second best after that Hyuuga Hanan. This will be a good experience to him."

Suzu stopped her denying and shrugged. She then had a look of determination and made a fist. "He is a boy and boy must strong. I'll fight him for his sake. I can do that."

I smiled at her and Suzu smiled back.

"So who is your opponent?"

I pointed my finger at certain direction. Suzu stared at the figure before turning at me. "Kick his ass Rin. I'll cheer you up. All of us are going to cheer you."

"Thanks, I really need that Suzu."

Taijutsu test even at pre genin level was brutal in my opinion. Fighting physically without using any weapons like kunai and shuriken and the real weapon in taijutsu was only your own body. Ninjutsu also wasn't allowed in this test in order to give fairness among the student. Uchiha clan members mostly at this age already managed a few fire jutsu by their clan training and so was Nara clan too. Those shadow jutsu was pretty unique and awesome. Back to the taijutsu test, since your weapon was your own body, the one who with proper training and practices had upper hand in this. In this case, Hyuuga clan was having a real upper hand. I glanced at Hanan. His shoulder length dark brown hair as mine looked silky and beautiful even though he was a boy. It might be the Hyuuga's tradition since I also noticed that his twin, Haru also had similar fashion and their other members too which I noticed sometimes during my walk to the shop or library. While Hanan was the strongest in our class, Haru was more subtle and average in everything unlike her genius brother.

I looked at the fighting ground and noticed that Haru and a boy in our class had done with their fighting and from the air around them the latter lost in it. I felt pity for the boy since he had to fight a Hyuuga. Ren-sensei gave some instruction and advice to both of them and once he finished both Haru and that boy made a unison sign or reconciliation seal with their hands. For me the unison sign was kind of scared ritual around here especially after training and spar. It made all bad feeling during the fighting vanished and both occupants shared a mutual understanding. Of course in real field out there the unison seal wouldn't work well with your enemy.

"Rin and Mizuki, come forward." Ren-sensei called me and my opponent making I sobered up from my wandering mind.

Iruka looked at me with worry in his eyes. I shrugged.

"Hey, good luck." He muttered softly as I stood up.

"Thanks." I simply nodded at him.

"I don't know who I should cheer on…" Iruka mumbled and looked at Mizuki who also stood up and did some stretching. I kind of understood his situation. While we were friends during our class days and outside, Mizuki was far more way ahead than me. They had known each other before entering the academy.

"I got them," I said casually and point to the group of girls in our class. Iruka relaxed.

"Rin, kick hiss ass! Show him our girl's power!" Suzu grinned at me and quickly looked away once she noticed Iruka. Hah! I told her already deny while she could but her action was totally not with her mind. I chuckled softly ignoring Iruka confused look.

The girls in our class stayed together and cheered when I walked to Ren-sensei. Mizuki and 1 stopped in front of him and looked up. We stared at each other.

Mizuki snorted. "Got cheerleader girl?"

"At least I got some moral support." Honestly I was scared. While I really did some training with Iruka and sometime his mother helped us but my movement was still suck! I just enrolled into the academy about few months ago and my skill was really nothing. Struggling with every movements and training did help but at this point it wasn't enough. Only good part I gained was accuracy. With my knowledge on what I learned during middle and high school, I managed to throw shuriken and kunai in proper way.

Ren-sensei looked at each of us boringly and deemed that we were both ready. "Okay you two, the rule as I stated earlier. Taijutsu mock test, start!"

Mizuki quickly dashed forward to me and aimed for my stomach. He raised his fist slightly and thrusted it in front of me making a low blow but I quickly stopped it by lowering my body and crossing my arms using it as shield. I felt my feet moved slightly. His punch was strong! I could feel bruise are coming on my arms. He might add some chakra in order to strengthening it and it was working.

"Guh!" Wincing, I quickly jumped back and tried for a kick to his side. He blocked with his leg and pushed me away making me skidded on the ground. I glared at him.

"What a kick? So weak!" Mizuki spat and jumped as high as he could, preparing himself for a dive kick.

I stepped away to other side and let him landed harshly on the ground making the dust flying around. I didn't wait for him to stand up; aiming for his side I prepared a punch with my dominant hand.

"Go Rin!" I heard Haru's voice. That was unforeseeable. I thought she only cared about her own being and her brother instead being with us girls.

Surprisingly Mizuki caught my hand, moving it to his right so that my body followed the movement and next thing I know, I was laying on the ground my arms covered my head with Mizuki hovering over me. We stared at each other.

The girls gasped loudly. I could hear Iruka's voice too.

Noticing that Mizuki didn't do any movement and there was an opening, I hastily kneed his stomach and quickly stood up. Turning around, I found him was groaning and rolling on the ground.

"This's my chance," I said with pants. I ran to still on the ground Mizuki, quickly pulled his right hand on his back and held it then pinned him down by sitting on his back.

"Oof! You're heavy!"

"Oh shut up!"

Mizuki tried to make some movements but I quickly halted it by pressing my leg on his back and my hand tightened the hold on his arm. Eventually he stopped himself and stayed limply on the ground. Ren-sensei came to us and noted the position we were in.

"Rin manage to pin Mizuki down and he unable to move. Rin win!" His assistant announced once he received a signal from our sensei.

A loud cheer emitted from the group of girls and I shrugged. That was I don't really know what else to say. It was too fast and suddenly Mizuki was beneath me.

I slowly regained my breath and my pant became light. Standing up, I slowly removed my self from Mizuki who still lying face first on the ground. After a moment, he stood up and patted his trouser and shirt.

Ren-sensei sighed and called both of us. He smiled and raised his hand with the clipboard. "Okay, listen now," He said while eyeing us before focusing at Mizuki.

"Mizuki, you're pretty strong as your kick and punch showed power with it but you need to work more on your speed and you hesitated a lot as well as underestimate her since you're fighting a girl and that's bring to your lost. But remember this, when you're out there gender was not considered at all. Everything is fair and equal in battle field."

Ren-sensei turned to me. "And for you Rin. It seems that most of your movements are for defense. Your win mostly came from your fast thinking and action while you barely made any attack on Mizuki and even your movements also look pretty weak and clumsy. You need more practice and good diet will help you in your muscle mass."

"Anyway, both of you showed your best, while there's weakness there also strongest points. Keep up practicing and do your best next time."

We both nodded at our sensei's encouragement words.

Mizuki glanced at me and held out his two fingers. I did the same and we made the unison sign.

"You fight well," Mizuki said.

"You too," I replied and paused. "You're strong."

"Thanks, Rin."

I raised my eyebrows. Mizuki called my name? Okay that was new.

Ren-sensei nodded after eyeing our hands. "Both of you can go back to your seat."

We released our fingers and walked to our group of classmates. Suzu and other girls cheered happily at my win and they grinned at Mizuki. The silver haired boy snorted and ignored the girls.

"Suzu and Iruka, your turn now." Ren-sensei called Suzu and her opponent. I smiled at both of them while they stood up and walked to our sensei. Iruka looked at me with disbelieved expression as we passed each other.

"You know about this huh, Rin? Don't think that I saw you talk to her earlier." Iruka sighed.

I simply shrugged and smiled encouragingly at him. "Good luck, Iruka."

Rubbing my sore arms, I looked at the fighting ground. Suzu looked angry and she nearly made Iruka as her punching bag and their fight was quickly halted by our sensei. I frowned and asked the nearest person.

"What had happened?"

"Iruka-kun said something to Suzu-chan and suddenly it became like that." Nara Shizu lazily answered my question before sighing and continued with irritated tone. "Can they be honest with each other about their feeling?"

"Uh…" I laughed softly and focused at the field. Iruka and Suzu made the unison sign and I could spot blush on their cheeks. Oh, young love.

"Okay, all fine now," Shiro said as he done treating my arms. That Mizuki, his punch was really hard making my arms sore and bruised. I hardly can move it or hold something thus lead me seeking Shiro for treatment.

I smiled at him. "Thank you very much Shiro-san."

"I would suggest you do more training and eat proper diet." The medical nin spoke as he flipped a folder. "I can help with arranging your diet program but you need to ask someone for a proper training."

"Yeah, I really need to do something about it." I sighed and stared at the floor.

I closed Shiro's door when someone called me.

"Hey, Rin-chan!"

I turned around and shuddered. "Uh, hey Gai-san." I waved my hand at him.

Gai stopped in front of me and grinned brightly. I nearly closed my eyes at the sight.

"What're you doing here?" He asked.

"Uh, I'm seeking treatment." I answered casually and looked at him. He eyed me warily. "What about you? I don't see any injury around."

"Ah, I'm visiting my eternal rival!"

"Kakashi-san?" I tilted my head slightly. Kakashi was here in hospital?

"Ah, there was a casualty during his mission." Gai looked away and he looked solemn.

I nodded. "Oh, I hope he's getting well soon."

"He is! Kakashi is strong. Don't worry much about him." Gai grinned and showed his thumb up. He changed his mood quite easy.

"I'm not worry, just showing my concern." I frowned and crossing my arm. "Anyway, it's pleasant to meet you. Bye Gai-san."

"Sure, bye Rin-chan and be careful out there."

I bowed slightly and my mind flashed some idea. I looked up at Gai who already left the hospital hallway.

He was a taijutsu user, I noted from my observation and our previous encounters.

I grinned.

I really don't know how to write some action scene or something like that and here is the best I can manage. Sorry for the lack of everything. Anyway, thank you for reading.