"Speaking"

Thoughts

Thoughts in dreams

Chapter 5

"You can do it, Akina!"

I concentrated as hard as I could as I heard my brother and sister root for me. I wasn't going to give up until I got this down just right so I could prove everyone wrong about me.

Focusing my chakra, I gather it from my center to my feet and prepare for the signal.

Mother was standing there with a flag prepared to be our signal. I could see her smirk that she shared with someone behind us and I just knew that it was Father staring at us all with amusement in his expression. I didn't dare look his way though, I had to focus. Focus…

"When you are all ready, we will begin!"

I was so ready for this…

"On your mark…"

Just focus…

"Get set…"

And RUN!

"GO!"

WAKE UUUPP!

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What?

"Come on, Akina! GET UP!"

Bouncing on my bed was an annoying little nuisance who kept knocking the wind out of me every time he missed the bed and landed on me. Regardless of my ability to breathe, Naruto kept spring-boarding off of my bed in order to rouse me from my dreams. I can hardly explain how aggravating I can be when I wake up: it's a nightmare.

"Get OFF!"

Bursting from under my covers, I threw Naruto off of my bed and to the nearest wall, creating a Naruto-sized dent that I would have to fix later. After sliding to the floor with spasms of pain circulating through his body, Naruto turned around and tried to become a part of the wall itself as he looked on in terror at me. I could feel the tendrils of smoke and a sadistic atmosphere surround me as I unconsciously created a genjutsu to make me look sinister to Naruto. I have to admit that I would be afraid of myself if I was in Naruto's shoes, but he can deal with it.

In a sickly sweet voice, I called out to my friend, "Naruto… what was so important… that I had to be woken up… at this… UNGODLY HOUR!?" By the end of my question, I was definitely screeching at him.

Lesson of the day: Never, ever wake up Akina before she is ready to get up.

"I-i-i-it's t-t-team p-placements t-today… I-I t-t-thought that y-you would w-want… to get to the A-academy e-e-early…"

Deflating slightly, I sighed as I remembered that Naruto and I had agreed that we would go to our meeting for team placements early. We wanted to be early just to watch everyone's reactions at Naruto passing without anyone else knowing about it. We both thought it would be hilarious.

With this memory in mind, I held back my anger a little bit as I replied. "Fine! But you need to get out!"

As I said this, I had stomped over to Naruto's wall. When I got to him, I grasped him by the lapels of his jacket and proceeded to throw him out of my room to the wall on the far end of my "living room" area. That ought to scare him from waking me up again without asking me first. Wait… nevermind…

It was precisely ten minutes later that I finished taking a shower, blow drying my long hair, and stood in front of my closet to decide on what would become my new official ninja wear for my Genin career. I had picked a few things out yesterday, but now I faced the dilemma of my final decision. Taking a deep breath, I picked out a combination of the different ideas and threw them together.

When I was done wrapping and putting on what I needed, I showcased myself in front of my full mirror to see if it was okay. I must say though that I looked pretty badass (not to sound vain about myself).

My snowy locks now cascaded down to my lower back in its silky softness, and around my face were sideswept bangs which helped to frame my fair face. Centered in my face were two light cerulean jewels which sparkled in the light of my room. I realized with slight shock that I looked so much like my Mom, the only difference being my eyes.

I also had a slip-on shirt dress which was a light sky blue with dark azure accents down the front and at the edges of the material. There was a large slit on the right side of the dress which allowed maneuverability in the mid-thigh length clothing. Under this I had charcoal blue tights that came down to just under my knees with the standard ninja sandals on my feet. My Leaf headband was used as a belt with the symbol for my nation on my right hip. To complete my outfit, I had tight navy colored arm-warmers that extended to cover my hand without restricting my fingers and reached to just before the crease of my elbow.

This entire outfit looked very ninja-like to me, and it was perfect for blending into the shadows along with showcasing that my affinity was for water. I did think that one thing was missing though, so I went to my dresser and found just what I needed. Taking the bulk of my hair and leaving some long strands to frame my face, I put the rest of my hair in a high ponytail so that it wouldn't easily get caught on things. With that done, I was ready to go.

Flying down the stairs of my apartment building, I see Naruto impatiently waiting for me as he sports that pouty face he wears when things don't go his way. I giggle internally as a make myself known to my best friend with a quick greeting.

"Bout time, ya'know!"

"Keep your pants on, I'm here, so let's go," I smile and start to lead us to the ever-so-wonderful Academy.

As we continued to walk in companionable silence, my mind drifted to think about my friendship with Naruto. I was so happy at this moment, knowing that everything that has happened between us the past couple of days hasn't changed the way we see each other, no matter how crazy it is. I knew that I would never see Naruto as anything but Naruto Uzumaki, my best friend and the future Hokage. I was just glad that Naruto saw me the same way after the things that I told him. Most others would lock me up and sell me to the highest bidder or use me as bait to find my family. While I knew that Naruto wasn't like that, I still had that doubt in the back corner of my mind wondering if he would see me as a monster since I had been raised by what most people would deem to be monsters.

Little did I know that Naruto would blow that idea out of the water.

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Flashback…

It was the next morning after the incident with Mizuki, and both Naruto and I were still reeling from the knowledge we had gained last night. Naruto finally knew the reason behind all of the hate-filled stares, mutterings about a monster, and the reason why people avoided him all together. And I finally remembered that Naruto had the Nine-Tailed Fox locked away inside of him, something that I should have already known from my previous life.

Knock, knock, knock…

Knowing exactly who this would be, I hurried to the door and braced myself for the conversation to come. Twisting the knob, I opened the door to see my friend, Naruto.

He wasn't looking at me but at the ground instead as he fidgeted with his foot in the dirt outside of my apartment room. I wanted to just hug him tightly, he looked so nervous. Finally, he brought his head up, and looked to me with an anxious smile.

"So…"

I gave him my most encouraging smile. "Get your butt in here, doofus."

His smile brightened up as he came into my home, and I was glad that my little bit of sarcasm can bring a smile to his face. We both settled on my couch to talk about everything, everything that was bothering us, everything that we wanted to talk about, and everything we didn't.

I was still so indecisive about whether or not I wanted to tell Naruto about where I originally came from. Would he look at me differently, or say that I wasn't natural, or that I was a creep for knowing the things that I may or may not remember about him. I was so unsure about everything dealing with that topic.

"About last night," Naruto began, "how do you feel?"

Did Naruto Uzumaki just ask about someone's feelings?

"If you're asking how I feel about your roommate, then I don't see a problem with it at all. He is just a prisoner inside of you, you are NOT him. You are Naruto Uzumaki, the best friend of Akina Morimoto."

"Why not 'Naruto Uzumaki, the future Hokage'?"

"You need to count your eggs before they hatch, buddy. You still have a long ways to go before you're Hokage material," I playfully joked with him. We did get distracted by our own silliness for a moment, but then it was back to the awkward silence that we had started this conversation with.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did, ya'know."

I looked at Naruto, gob-smacked. Was I rubbing off on him?

Never mind the victory dance I was doing in my head, back to business.

"What if I told you something that changed the way you see me? A secret that I'm not supposed to share with anyone? Would you see me as anything other than your friend? Or I guess I should ask if you would still want to be my friend?"

I waited for his answers with baited breath, hoping for something good to come out of my own secret. Well, three secrets, but one at a time here.

"Of course I would still want to be your friend, ya'know! How could I not be your friend after everything you've done for me? You're the one person who saw me before anyone else, you're the person who acknowledged me when no one else would, you're the person who helps me with pranks, who laughs at my jokes, who stays by my side, and is the best friend I could have ever asked for. I would never see you any differently."

I could cry right now, I'm so happy. Something wet flows down my cheek, and it isn't until Naruto wipes it away that I realize that I really was crying. Naruto had moved me to tears with his little speech. I didn't think that Naruto would be this sensitive until the Shippuden era, but I was glad that in this moment, he was the friend that I needed.

"Thank you. So much…"

We both hugged it out, both starved for some companionship from everything that had happened in the last 24 hours alone. I knew that I could tell him at least one secret right now, and it would be enough for now.

Taking a deep breath, I started my tale. "I was born in the village, just like I told everyone. What I didn't say was that I was raised outside of the village by something that wasn't human."

"What was it?" Naruto wanted to know.

"They were dragons." I waited for a response, but all I received were Naruto's bug eyes, so I decided to continue. "They were the Summoning Creatures of my Mom, Tsubasa Morimoto, who was a kunoichi of Konoha. She died the night of the Kyuubi's attack, leaving me in the care of her summons should anything happen to her. I was left with Sora, who is the wife of the Dragon King, Ryuujin. Their two children, Ichigo and Nami, became my new brother and sister. I lived in the secret land of dragons known as Mount Ryuumoto."

On and on, I continued my tale. I told Naruto everything about my childhood. I told him about how I was raised as the daughter of a king, but I was never spoiled. Dragons had no use for expensive things, or treasures. I told him how I trained relentlessly with my two siblings to learn all I could about dragon transformations, healing, fire, and water. He brightened when I told him about how the Morimoto clan had once been prosperous during the Warring States Period. My clan had been so in sync with our dragon partners that we even were able to transform into dragons ourselves.

"Can you do that too? You did something with your face last night against Mizuki-sensei," Naruto recalled.

I scrunched my nose at him. "You don't need to call him sensei, he was trying to kill us, remember? And sort of. I'm just a beginner so the best that I can do right now is gaining some sensory skills of dragons and partially transform my face and hands, but that's it."

Continuing on with my story, I explained how I was given permission via messenger dragon (in human disguise) to become a ninja of Konoha when I reached Academy age. Before my guardians would let me leave though, I had to learn to perform the Summoning Jutsu. It was hard, I had to learn how to perfect my chakra control (which was necessary for healing too, so two birds, one stone), and then build up how much chakra I used at once with my large stores so that I could summon someone like Ichigo or Nami. I would work my way up to summoning someone like Sora and Ryuujin when I was older.

All in all, I told Naruto about my childhood and how I had gotten to where I was with him in this moment in time. I knew that I would need to eventually tell him the other secrets that I have: about this being my second chance and about the life I stole. I also knew that I wasn't ready to tell him this yet. It wasn't that I didn't trust him now, but I just couldn't handle how he might see me differently. I knew I would still be his friend now, but I didn't want him to change how he acted around me, and I especially didn't want him to pity me and my death.

But that would all have to wait another day.

"Who wants to go get some ramen with me?"

We both looked over to my window to see Iruka smiling at the two of us encouragingly, willing to buy dinner for the two of us before the big day tomorrow.

Naruto and I smiled identical smiles of joy and excitement as we both exclaimed, "I do!"

End Flashback

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After I finished walking down memory lane, we had finally made it to the Academy where we would find out what the rest of our futures looked like based on who would be on our Genin teams. This was the one day I had been waiting for so anxiously. I was hoping that I had not messed with things so thoroughly that the teams who were meant to be together would be separated. But I also did want to change things for the better as well. My very existence was already changing things. As things changed, I kept remembering how things were meant to be without my interference. I remember that Naruto had no friends until Iruka came along. I remember that Naruto was hopeless in his studies, and I also remember that Naruto was always getting in trouble around the village as well without me there. I hoped to continue remembering things about this world that showed I had a positive impact. Not that I thought so highly of myself that I would have a huge impact on the world like Naruto will, but I wanted something good to come from my presence in this world.

"What are you doing here, Naruto? This isn't for dropouts, you can't be here unless you graduate," a voice drawled.

I turned from my spot by Naruto to see that Shikamaru had been strolling by when he took notice of the orange garbed knucklehead. I smirked as I listened to Naruto retort back about how he had graduated and just how good he looked with his new headband. From the corner of my eye, I could see Hinata looking my way, giving me an encouraging smile, knowing that my childhood friend had graduated. I smiled back as well, I was so happy that I would be equals with Naruto.

Suddenly though, there was a noise similar to a raging stampede. With a swipe of the sliding door, two girls barged into the room as they tried to push the other out of the way. This resulted in the two of them getting into the room at the same time. It wasn't until they stopped bickering about who was here first that I realized it was Ami and Ino, two of the biggest Sasuke fangirls I had ever seen.

When Ino felt that she was being watched, she glanced my way and then looked to see someone beside me. She barreled over to my row and knocked Naruto out of the way and stared longingly at the person behind me: Sasuke.

"Good morning, Sasuke. Mind if I sit next to you?" she winked at him for extra effect.

God, can't these girls think of something besides boys? And I'm not invisible, I'm already sitting in this seat!

I completely ignored the ensuing argument that took place in the aisle beside my row and sighed to myself. "What idiots."

"No kidding."

I glanced at Sasuke and saw a miniature smirk coming from his face, one that you would only be able to spot if you knew him very well. To everyone else, my brother looked like he was doing his usual brooding. In response I gave him an eye smile back and chuckled softly at the expense of the fangirls.

My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed someone in front of Sasuke. I just about face palmed myself when I saw that Naruto was squatting on the desk to get a good look at Sasuke, probably wondering what was so great about him to gain the attentions of so many girls in our class. I closed my eyes and felt a blush coming to my cheeks as the awkward silence continued and Naruto continued to glare at Sasuke.

This is embarrassing! Get down, Naruto!

In the background, I took notice that the girls were all griping at Naruto to get away from their precious Sasuke. This only caused him to glance their way before his glare intensified at Sasuke and you could see sparks of war flying between the two newly appointed Genin.

This quickly changed when the boy behind Naruto stood up suddenly, bumping Naruto by mistake. "Sorry, did I bump you?"

Oh, my…

Hold it in, hold it in, hold it in…

Nope!

BWAHAHAHA!

I couldn't contain my boisterous laughter as I was practically rolling in my seat. Tears collected at the corners of my eyes as I continued laughing at the scene in front of me as Naruto and Sasuke darted away from the lip lock they had just been in due to the unlucky bump of an unsuspecting bystander. They were spitting out the after taste of their "makeout session" and clutching their throats and trying to contain their blushes from the embarrassment of it all (well Naruto was anyways).

Unaware of my surroundings due to my continued laughter, I now noticed that Naruto was getting beaten by the rabid fangirls. My anger spiked as I launched myself into action.

"GET OFF OF NARUTO, YOU HARPIES!"

It was a few minutes later now that everyone was finally settled in. Iruka was at the front of the classroom with a clipboard that would decide our fates in terms of who our teammates would be, and who our Jonin instructors would be.

"As of today, you are all ninjas. To get here, you've faced difficult trials and hardships, but that's nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult. Now you're only Genin, first level ninjas. All the Genin will be grouped into three man squads. Each squad will be led by a Jonin, an elite ninja."

With that being said, it seems many of the fangirls perked up at the possibility of being on Sasuke's team. I chose to ignore those wishy-washy girls in favor of paying attention to what Iruka was saying, but I was distracted by the looks on the faces of both Sasuke and Naruto. One had a face that looked like he ate a bad oyster, and the other looked like he was thinking of the worst person in the world. Sighing to myself, I bonked both boys on the head with a third of my strength. Didn't matter, because both boys looked at me with tears in their eyes and both were sporting identical bumps on their heads now.

Oh, yeah! Forgot to mention that thanks to the dragon blood running through my veins courtesy of the Morimoto clan, I have higher than normal strength when compared to a regular ninja; but I wasn't anowhere close to Tsunade's strength… yet!

"We want each squad to have a balance of strength and abilities, so that's how we set them up." Iruka raised the papers in front of his face as he now said, "I will now announce the squads."

He proceeded then to list off each of the squads. I internally cheered when Ami was so crestfallen that she was placed on a team with two boys who she disliked greatly, knowing that they would gang up on her now. Sucks to be you!

Now that Iruka had finished announcing Team 6's lineup, it was the moment of truth.

"Squad 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha…"

I giggled when Naruto looked down in disappointment at getting Sasuke on his team. I could even hear him mutter, "I'm doomed…"

"And Akina Morimoto!"

At this, both Naruto and I did a victory pose as we both stood up. We would be on the same squad together! As Iruka continued to read out the rest of the squads, I could see a smirk coming from Sasuke now that he knew that I was on the same team as him.

Ha! He's just glad his teammate isn't a fangirl!

"Iruka-sensei! Why does a great ninja like me have to be in the same group with a slug like Sasuke?!"

Oh, geez.

Iruka gave a "hmm" as he looked at Naruto with a disapproving glare. "Sasuke had the best scores of all the graduating students. Naruto, you had one of the worst scores."

Well, at least he wasn't THE worst.

Students laughed at this, which grated on my nerves a bit. Too many people loved to poke fun at Naruto. "To create a balanced group, we put one the best students with one of the worst students."

Naruto didn't like this idea one bit, and made it known through a growl before he heard another comment coming from his left. "Just make sure you don't get in my way, loser."

Before this could escalate, I quickly gave them a second helping of my punches on their heads. Now they had two matching bumps on their heads. "Cut it out! We're going to be a team from now on, so I don't want to hear any complaints about it. Got it?!"

Oh, boy. I feel like the teenage mother to these two bozos…

"I got it, ya'know…"

"Whatever…"

"After lunch, you'll meet your new Jonin teachers. Until then, class dismissed."

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"He's late!"

We had been waiting now for over two hours after lunch was over, and still no Jonin teacher for Team 7 yet… This was boring as hell!

"How come our new teacher's the only one that's late? I'm ready to roll, ya'know! The other groups already met their new teachers and took off on some adventure, or something. And Iruka-sensei's gone too!"

"Yeah, I know that. I'm standing here waiting too." I really didn't like waiting for hours on end for someone to arrive. If this becomes routine, I just might scream.

But right then, I had payback on my mind for our teacher's tardiness.

"Hey, I've got an idea," I exclaimed to Naruto. Looking into each other's eyes for a brief moment, we both smirked and got to work. I grabbed a stool and Naruto grabbed the chalk eraser from the board. Together, we placed the eraser in between the door and the wall so that when our instructor opened the door, he would get a face full of chalk dust.

A scoff came from behind us. "Our teacher's a Jonin, an elite ninja. You think he'd fall for that?"

"Oh, come on, Sasuke. Live a little, and enjoy the moment."

Just as I finished saying this, a hand appeared at the door. This was it! The hand slid the door ever so slightly before the eraser was dropping from its hiding spot at the top. It then bounced on the Jonin's head, resulting in a puff of chalky smoke and a stain appearing on top of his silvery head. The room was quiet for a moment, and then…

"Hahahahaha! We got him! He totally fell for it!" Naruto continued to laugh at the expense of our new teacher. Sasuke looked on at the situation unbelieving of what just happened, and I was trying to contain my laughter at how ridiculous our new sensei looked for falling for such a simple prank.

As the guy picked up the lonely eraser off of the floor, we all quieted down to see what he would say in retaliation to our joke.

"Hmmm. How can I put this?" our new teacher drawled lazily. "My first impression of this group… You're a bunch of idiots."

We all deflated at hearing this from the person who would help shape our future as ninja in Konoha. This wasn't looking good.

"Meet me on the roof in five minutes," our teacher demanded as he then poofed out of existence.

I grabbed a hold of both Naruto and Sasuke before I flared my chakra and then we flashed out of there until we were on the roof. We looked around and saw our new teacher across the way at the other end of the roof.

As we walked over to him, I started to carefully gauge what kind of a ninja our new sensei was. Gravity defying hair leaned heavily to the left side of his head, making him appear to be lopsided. It didn't help that he wore his headband in a strange way, at a slant so that it covered the left side of his face. He was wearing the typical Jonin uniform of a navy jumpsuit and the green flak jacket. What wasn't standard about him was that he also wore a mask over the bottom half of his face. That combined with his headband only gave us a small portion of his face that we could actually see (which would only be his right eye).

All around, he was a lazy looking guy, no matter how I looked at him. He was even slouching on the railing as he continued reading an orange book as he waited for us to come over to him.

By the time we had settled down by the steps near the railing, our new teacher put away his book and began to tell us what to do. "Alright, why don't you introduce yourselves one at a time?"

I was really getting tired of his lazy attitude. "I'm supposing that would include names, hobbies, likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future right? But why don't you introduce yourself first, sensei?"

"Who, me?"

Well, duh! You're the only sensei here.

"I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate… I don't feel like telling you that."

I was really starting to get annoyed. But also as we waited for him to continue, I began getting flashes of memories involving him. Bells, tragedy, protective instincts, camaraderie with him, and lightning. Those were things I began to associate with him. I think I was more surprised these flashes didn't involve tardiness, annoyance with his attitude, among other things like not giving us enough information.

"My dreams for the future… never really thought about it… As for my hobbies… I have lots of hobbies."

So all we learned was your name… Great!

I hadn't realized that I said this out loud until I heard a tone of agreement from Naruto which made my cheeks burn in embarrassment.

"Okay, your turn. You on the right, you first," he indicated to Naruto.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, ya'know! I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiraku Noodle shop. Oh! I also like my friend Akina, she's the greatest. But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobby is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them with Akina. And my future dream is… To be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody, somebody important!"

I had to smile at his long-winded introduction. While ramen was super important to him, I was glad he thought to put me in there as well. I was also happy over how he has grown in his dream, but I knew he had a ways to go before reaching it. But I was determined to help him get all the way to the top.

"Alright, next."

Taking this as my cue to go ahead, I introduced myself. Even if it was unnecessary since Naruto and Sasuke both knew me, and I am sure that Kakashi went through my file as well.

"I'm Akina Morimoto. I like learning about medical ninjutsu, reading, and being around these two knuckleheads. What I don't like are fangirls, mornings, and these two when they bicker about nothing. My hobbies are spending time with friends, learning about new healing techniques, and swimming. My dream for the future is to be the greatest kunoichi I can be so that I can protect my precious people."

Satisfied with my introduction, I watched as the others' thoughts became easy to read on their faces. Naruto was looking at me like as if I was the coolest person in the world, Sasuke looked smug about something (probably the "mornings" thing, he loves to wake me up in imaginative ways), and Kakashi… Well it was difficult to tell with him, but I think he was just happy that I wasn't obsessed with boys like most girls my age.

"Last one."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, especially fangirls, but I do like to train with my sister, tomatoes, and taking walks. What I have is not a dream because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, protect my sister for as long as I live, and bring a certain someone to justice."

As Sasuke was introducing himself, I could see something. It was like there was an afterimage of him as he talked, but the other one was saying something darker. He was not the Sasuke I had grown up with, he wasn't my brother. I looked to Kakashi, and he also looked surprised that Sasuke wasn't laser-focused on revenge as well. Naruto just looked wary of Sasuke, but he didn't look as creeped out as I think he would have been if he heard what the "other" Sasuke was saying.

"Good," Kakashi gathered our attention again. "You're each unique and you have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow."

Naruto perked up at the idea of a mission. "What kind of mission are we going to have?"

"It's a task that the four of us will do together."

"What, what, what, whaaat?" I rolled my eyes good-naturedly at Naruto's antics.

"A survival exercise."

Everyone else looked confused, and Naruto voiced as much, but I was growing suspicious of what Kakashi was up to. It did seem too easy to me that all of the students from our class were able to pass. I don't see a lot of Genin teams around Konoha, so there can't be that many that pass every year, right? So there's something else.

Naruto must have said something while I was having my mental debate because Kakashi was responding. "This is not like your previous training."

"So what kind of training is it then?"

A low rumbling chuckle resounded on the rooftop as Kakashi seemed to find something funny about this situation. I narrowed my eyes at him, as did Sasuke. "That's a normal question, so what's with the laughter?"

"Well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it," Kakashi practically sang to us in his cheerful attitude. Why is it that when I want him to not have a lazy attitude, and he replaces it with a cheery one, it still manages to annoy me a little.

"Of the 27 graduates who just came here only 9 will actually be accepted as Genin. The other 18 will be weeded out and sent back to the Academy. In other words, this is a make it or break it, pass fail test, and the chance that you will fail is at least 66 percent."

W-what?!

"See? Didn't I tell you 'you wouldn't like it'?"

"That's crazy, ya'know!" I would definitely agree with Naruto. "What was that graduation test for anyway?!"

Kakashi was getting too much joy out of our misery. "Oh, that! That was just to select candidates who might become Genin… or not."

"What?!" both Naruto and I were astonished at how this Genin thing was turning out. I had suspected, but that doesn't mean that I was okay with being right about it.

"That's how it is. I decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at 5 AM, and bring your ninja gear."

Oh, don't worry about that! I really want to poke you with a few kunai right now with your smug attitude you have.

I could tell the boys were psyching themselves up as well, both were so focused on their own thoughts that they didn't even concern themselves with me or Kakashi as he got up to leave.

"That's it, you're dismissed." Suddenly, Kakashi turned around as he remembered something. "Oh! Tomorrow you better skip breakfast or else… you'll puke."

Ninjas are crazy!

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Author's Note

I hope everyone had a good Christmas! I'm hoping you enjoyed this chapter since you get a peek at Akina's childhood. Thanks again to all of the people who left reviews and favorited/followed me or my story. I really appreciate it, and you all just motivate me to write more.

With that in mind, please favorite/follow if you are not already, and please leave a review to let me know what you think of this latest chapter.

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year in the next couple of days. Here we come 2017!