Chapter 14: Graduation
…
"Seven clones," said Iruka appreciatively. "Well done."
"You truly are an Uchiha," Mizuki agreed.
I dispelled the clones in a puff of smoke and gave them a tremulous smile. After Danzo's appearance, I hadn't been sure that I would make it to the graduation exam, and yet here I was. The official story concerning the genin was that he'd wanted revenge against me for his arrest and subsequent loss of rank. Iruka assured me that the genin would never bother me again, and I suspected that he was right. If Danzo wanted to cover his tracks, he had to get rid of the evidence, and I did not think that the genin would survive the experience.
Of course, I wasn't sure what exactly Danzo was trying to accomplish with the attack. He obviously didn't want me dead. He had many superior options when it came to assassination, and he hadn't seemed upset by the fact that I'd survived. Besides, it probably wasn't a coincidence that I'd been attacked right after I completed my medical leave. So it was some kind of test.
But a test for what?
"Wear your forehead protector with pride, and use your strength for the sake of Konoha," said Iruka.
Iruka and Mizuki stood up to shake my hand and passed me my shiny new forehead protector. It was a symbol of everything I'd worked for and accomplished at the Academy. It was a symbol of my loyalty to the village.
It was also the symbol of what led to the massacre of my entire family.
I passed Naruto in the hall as I left the examination room.
"Do your best," I said.
Naruto grinned, though his expression seemed strained.
"Hey, the next time we talk, I'll be a ninja, dattebayo!" he said.
He spoke with such confidence despite having failed the exam three times. The official exam was taken on a yearly basis, but Naruto had managed to wheedle his way into taking mock exams a few times already. Unfortunately, Naruto's catastrophic failures had little effect on his attitude or study habits.
I caught his hand and gave it a small squeeze.
"I believe in you," I said, silencing my doubts.
I held his hand a moment longer before letting go. Sasuke was waiting for me outside, already wearing his forehead protector. It looked right on him, like he'd been missing something before, and now it had finally fallen into place.
Through unspoken agreement, we waited for Naruto to finish.
It wasn't completely impossible that Naruto could pass. He did sort-of know the clone jutsu. It did sometimes, occasionally, work. At least once. But it usually just failed spectacularly. I wondered if Kurama was the cause, if he was intentionally sabotaging Naruto in an effort to keep Naruto weak. If Naruto thought that he was incompetent, that he simply couldn't do ninja techniques on his own, he would have had to rely on Kurama's chakra.
With that thought, I wasn't entirely surprised to see Naruto shuffling out of the classroom with a broken expression and no forehead protector. I raised my arm in a wave, but when he saw me, he fled. I took one step to follow him, but Sasuke caught my arm.
"Don't," he said. "He was never going to be a ninja."
It might have been cruel, but Sasuke had always viewed my encouragement as giving Naruto false hope. In spite of Naruto's improvements, Sasuke's opinion of him hadn't changed at all over the years. I couldn't even argue against his assessment.
I watched Mizuki follow after Naruto, and I felt a lump of dread settle in my stomach. If I interfered, would he still learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu? Would he still prove his worth to Iruka? Would he still be put on Team 7?
No, he wouldn't.
Without Mizuki, Naruto would never become a ninja. The world needed him to face this danger, to rise up and overcome it.
So I watched them go.
It was all up to Naruto now.
…
Two days later we arrived in class, and Naruto was sitting in his usual place. My eyes snapped to his forehead protector.
Oh good. Everything had worked out.
"Nice forehead protector," I said as I sat down beside him.
"Eheh, yeah…" said Naruto, scratching his head and sounding a little drawn. That gave me pause. It wasn't a normal Naruto reaction. Then again, he'd nearly been murdered by someone he'd trusted and had been told an S-rank secret about his birth. Then he'd been sent back to his empty apartment to deal with it all.
Alone.
"Did you steal it?" Sasuke asked, and I shot him a look.
But, well, that wasn't an impossible option. Naruto had played plenty of pranks in his time, and he hadn't passed the official exam.
Naruto leapt to his feet.
"Hey, no way, dattebayo!" he shouted, waving his arms in protest. Naruto let out a long, rambling story about stealing the scroll and Mizuki's betrayal.
"You learned an A-rank ninjutsu in one night?" I asked.
I knew he would. Of course he would. But after having spent the last few years trying fruitlessly to drill E-rank ninjutsu into his head, I could hardly believe it. I didn't realize until this very moment that I'd been harboring a secret fear that he wasn't as talented or as powerful as he should have been, that I'd somehow stunted his growth by trying to help him. Obviously that wasn't the case.
My relief was enough to make me spring forward, wrapping my arms around him in a hug.
"I knew you could do it!" I said, squeezing him with giddiness. "I'm so proud of you, Naruto!"
Naruto was as stiff as a board in my arms. Oh, I should have asked him for permission before launching into his personal space. But just as I loosened my hold, Naruto's arms wrapped around me, tentative and uncertain at first but then clinging me with surprising fierceness.
"Y-yeah," he said, still holding me tight. "Just wait and see. I'm going to be Hokage, dattebayo!"
He didn't let go for almost a full minute, long after it should have become painfully awkward, but I decided to let him be the one to pull away first. If he needed a minute, then he needed a minute. After everything he'd just experienced, I could give him that at least.
I stroked his back and whispered words of encouragement.
You were very brave.
You're okay now.
I'm so glad you're safe.
Sasuke stood off to one side, scowling in silence.
When Naruto finally let go, his eyes were oddly bright and his cheeks were dusted pink. He scratched his head, grinning.
"So, uh, that's what a hug feels like," he said. "It feels pretty great…"
Wait, had Naruto never been hugged before? Well, probably not, at least not when he was old enough to remember. I made a mental note to hug him more often.
It wasn't long before Iruka walked in looking slightly haggard. He gave a brief explanation of team placements and began reading off the names. It didn't really matter what team I was placed on since only Team 7, 8, and 10 would be accepted by their jounin sensei. Failure was a foregone conclusion, but it wasn't necessarily a bad one. It would give me time to study for the full medic exam and brainstorm ideas for locating Itachi so that I could heal him.
At least, that's what I thought until Iruka announced that Sakura would be placed on Team 5. My brain came to a stuttering halt, completely missing the names for Team 6. Because if Sakura wasn't on Team 7 then…
"Team 7 is Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Kiyo, and Uchiha Sasuke," said Iruka, blithely shattering any and all plans I'd ever had for my entire life.
But…but…there was a rule against siblings being placed on the same team. It was a good rule. A rule that was almost always followed. Doubly so when the siblings were the only living members of a clan with a stupidly overpowered dojutsu. No sane village leader would want to risk losing both of us on one bad mission.
Unless…
Unless that was the point.
I knew things. Secrets the village wanted kept. If it weren't for Itachi, I would be dead already. And Sasuke…
As long as he remained loyal, he was too valuable to kill. But if he should ever learn the truth and turn against the village? We were both as good as dead. As for Naruto, he was the only real friend I'd managed to make at the Academy, our only potential ally. So they'd placed us all together in a neat little package so that if anything went wrong, we could all be dealt with together. They just needed someone to watch us, and Kakashi had plenty of experience spying on the Uchiha already.
If anyone asked about the change in procedure, the Third could justify it by pointing out that Kakashi was the only jounin with a Sharingan, and therefore, Sasuke and I would have to be on the same team regardless of our familial connection.
Could I escape this situation? Maybe I could tell Kakashi that I wanted to join the hospital, and, oh yeah, there's a kunoichi I think would be perfect for his team. But no. I knew what Team 7 would face. Sakura was brilliant, talented, and destined to become one of the most powerful kunoichi in the Elemental Nations. But right now she was just a kid with good test scores and the three Academy ninjutsu. I could not, in good conscience, invite Sakura to endure those dangers while I retreated to the safety of the hospital.
Iruka finished listing off the team assignments and dismissed us until the afternoon meet-and-greet with our new sensei. After lunch, we returned to the classroom. The other teams filtered out, their jounin displaying varying degrees of enthusiasm. Team 5's jounin looked especially disinterested with his students.
It was the situation with the genin all over again. The clan-born were chosen and the civilian-born were left behind. Of course we'd been chosen to fight and die for the village, so perhaps ours was not a fate to be envied. It only seemed that way because the village was currently at peace. Peace that was not destined to last.
I wouldn't be able to run away from the things Team 7 would face, and I wasn't confident that I could stand up to most of their opponents. Sure, casual bandits might not be much of a problem, but Team 7 would face people like Pein, Obito, Madara, and Kaguya.
What was I supposed to do against them?
I wasn't a reborn demigod.
I was just…me.
"Kiyo-chan?" Sasuke asked, eyeing me with a worried frown.
I gave him a weak smile.
"I'm just nervous," I said. "What if our sensei doesn't like us?"
Sasuke shrugged.
Yeah, team compatibility wasn't exactly his greatest concern.
"So what?" Naruto asked as he booby-trapped the door with an eraser.
"We should try to make a good first impression," I objected.
"That's what he gets for being late!" said Naruto with a grin.
Sasuke scoffed.
"Like a jounin would fall for such a stupid trap," he said.
And then I felt it.
In the hall, a chakra signature appeared, seemingly manifesting from nothing. The door slid open, and the unfamiliar chakra spiked in readiness before immediately settling as the eraser began to fall. So he'd noticed it and had chosen to spring the trap?
The eraser smacked against a mop of white hair as the legendary Kakashi of the Sharingan stepped into the room.
Naruto burst out laughing.
"You fell for it!" he shouted. "You fell for it!"
I winced as Kakashi's eye swept over us, assessing. Naruto was still grinning, and Sasuke had a look of pure contempt. I shrank behind Sasuke in second-hand embarrassment but still took a moment to examine our new sensei. His chakra felt…strange. There was an odd knot of other chakra in his hidden eye.
So Obito's chakra still endured even after all these years?
Kakashi gave us an eye-smile.
"Hmm, how can I say this?" he asked, voice light and pleasant. "I don't like you guys."
Yeah, that was…understandable.
Kakashi led us to the roof and we made our introductions.
"Yosh!" Naruto shouted. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen and Kiyo-chan! I dislike waiting for ramen and I dislike that bastard over there." He gestured to Sasuke. "And my dream is to surpass the Hokage and have the whole village acknowledge me! As for hobbies, pranks I guess."
I could detect Kakashi's faint sense of disbelief over Naruto's mostly ramen-based interests, but if he thought it was strange, he didn't let it show.
Then it was Sasuke's turn.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," he said, his normal moodiness only worsened by our long wait and seemingly lackluster sensei. "I dislike a lot of things and don't like very much. And I can't really call it a dream. I have an ambition to protect my little sister and to kill a certain man."
There was no surprise in Kakashi.
He knew.
Naruto just looked nervous.
And then it was my turn.
"Um…hi," I said shyly. "My name is Uchiha Kiyo. I like my Nii-chan and Naruto. My hobbies are reading, especially about medicine. I don't like fighting very much." I gave him an apologetic smile. "And my dream is to…um…" Well, I had several dreams, most of which I couldn't voice here for various reasons. "…to become the world's greatest medic and to protect the people I care about."
Kakashi's expression was hard to read with his mask obscuring 75% of his face, but he gave me an eye-smile, so I supposed that was a minor win.
Then he got to the survival training part and let the bomb drop that it had a 66% failure rate. That wasn't entirely true since there weren't any real quotas around jounin passing or failing students. But I was sure that Kakashi knew about Team 8 and Team 10 already. As for the other teams, I hadn't recognized any of the other jounin. None of them had been in the bingo book. They were likely low-level jounin there to verify what the teachers already knew.
Kakashi gave us a paper with instructions and vanished in a poof of chakra smoke.
Well, that was certainly…something.
Sasuke gave me a speculative look, and Naruto just seemed mildly panicked.
Before dawn the next morning, I packed a generous set of ration bars 'just in case'. Naruto was already at the training field when we arrived, and I sat down, opening up my scrolls on sealing. We would be waiting for a while, but the scroll only held half of my attention. Kakashi arrived around midmorning, hours late, and gave us a rundown of the bell test. It was strange to listen to a speech I already knew. It was like watching a familiar movie but from a different angle.
"Will you give us the bells if I ask?" I asked. Kakashi gave me a bemused look.
"Hmm…you could always try and find out," he offered with an eye-smile.
"Can we have the bells, Kakashi-sensei?" I asked, humoring him.
"No," he said, still eye-smiling. Sasuke was looking at me with disbelief.
"What?" I asked. "It was worth a try."
Sasuke's expression clearly said that no, it wasn't, but I decided to let it go. Naruto jumped right in, which resulted in him getting his own kunai pointed at the back of his head, but at least Kakashi was starting to like us now.
"Naruto, Nii-Chan, before we get started, take these," I said, pulling out the ration bars. "Telling us to not eat breakfast was a trick, and we'll need our strength."
"Are you sure?" Sasuke asked, giving Naruto a sidelong glance.
Kakashi was watching us intently.
He wanted teamwork? I would give him teamwork.
I nodded, dividing the ration bars between Naruto and Sasuke.
"I don't think we can do this alone," I said quietly. "Against a jounin, none of us stand a chance. We should work together to get the bells, and for that we'll all need to be at our best. If we can get both bells, I'll go back to the Academy."
"What, no way!" Naruto shouted. "Make the bastard go back."
"You're the dead last," snapped Sasuke.
"You both have dreams and ambitions," I said, speaking over them. "If we don't work together, we won't get any of the bells. We'll all fail."
We wouldn't be able to get the bells even if we did work together. This was Kakashi of the Sharingan, after all. Teamwork or not, we didn't stand a chance. But thankfully we wouldn't have to. All we needed to do was to play the game. Naruto and Sasuke shared a look, likely thinking of how quickly Naruto had been defeated. Something passed between them, acknowledgement and understanding.
"Fine," they said together.
Kakashi practically radiated pleasure at the word.
Wary of our time limit, we all scarfed down our ration bars quickly.
"Okay, it will need to be a head-on fight," I said between bites. "Concealment won't work against a jounin, and we have a time limit. Naruto, start off with clones. Nii-chan, you're the best with taijutsu, so see if you can find an opening. I'll…uh, do what I can."
Whatever that was.
The boys nodded, ready.
Seeing that our planning session was complete, Kakashi shouted 'Start!' and the game was on.
I activated my Sharingan, but Kakashi deftly avoided eye-contact. Obviously. Naruto darted forward with a half dozen clones, closing the distance in a basic pincer attack.
Sasuke and I took the opportunity to fall back in the confusion.
Kakashi escaped with a simple replacement technique. It was an insultingly basic tactic, something a genin might have used. But against Naruto, it worked perfectly. And of course, Kakashi was gone. I closed my eyes and reached out my senses, scanning my surroundings as Naruto finally realized the ruse. Kakashi wasn't trying to conceal his chakra, so it only took a few moments to find him.
"In the tree!" I called, pointing to his hiding place. He'd conveniently left one of the bells lying on the ground, and Naruto pounced on the glaringly obvious trap before I could shout a warning. Naruto's leg was caught in the snare, and Kakashi reappeared to pick up the bell and taunt him.
But Sasuke had already laid his own traps. They were obvious enough that Kakashi would never be caught off guard by them, but he sprang them anyway, drawing Sasuke out into the open. Sasuke threw a brace of kunai without hesitation. He may as well have been trying to hit the moon for all the good it did him, but still…it was the first time Sasuke had ever thrown a kunai at someone else with the intent to hit them.
Well, except for that night…
I blinked.
Now was not the time for thoughts like that.
While Sasuke engaged Kakashi with a vicious barrage of taijutsu, I went to cut down Naruto. He landed on his feet only to be caught by a second trap, which I also cut. He'd only just gotten to his feet when Kakashi buried Sasuke up to his neck in an earth jutsu.
"Naruto, distract Kakashi-sensei while I help Nii-chan," I said.
Naruto nodded, creating dozens of clones and heading back into the fray while I circled around to Sasuke and clawed frantically at the ground. Sasuke was doing what he could, but neither of us knew any earth techniques, so it was slow going.
"Here's some advice on dealing with an opponent," said Kakashi, right behind me. I leaped back, away from Sasuke, who was still half buried. "Make sure your opponent is occupied before assisting teammates."
Kakashi stared down at me, unleashing a genjutsu meant to stimulate the fear-response part of my brain. But using genjutsu on someone with a Sharingan was doomed to fail. I broke it with barely a thought, distantly noting how he'd done it and reversing it back onto him. I hadn't tried this since sharing genjutsu illusions with Itachi at the hospital, and of course, Kakashi was not a willing participant.
And yet it clicked because Kakashi…wasn't fighting back?
Well, he was, but it was a lazy attempt as he prodded casually at my genjutsu.
"Nii-chan, bells!" I gasped.
Sasuke was suddenly there, having managed to pull himself out of the dirt. He darted to Kakashi and snatched both bells, tossing one back to me.
I caught it, dropping the genjutsu in confusion.
Kakashi was looking at us, and only then did I realize that the training wasn't over.
He'd let us win to test our resolve, to see if my offer of going back to the Academy was a lie to trick Naruto. Speaking of Naruto, he and his clones were busy fighting each other again, apparently having fallen for Kakashi's trick a second time.
"Naruto, we won!" I called with exhilaration and mild disbelief. I held out the bell. "Now you can become a ninja."
"But…what about you?" Naruto asked hesitantly, dispelling the rest of his clones.
"Ah, well…"
Wait…wasn't this the part where Kakashi was supposed to jump in and say that we'd all passed?
But he was silent. Watching. Waiting.
Oh…oh no.
I'd shown that I was a team player by offering to sacrifice myself, but Kakashi didn't want a team that would throw away their teammate for a mission.
The test wasn't over.
"Hn," grunted Sasuke. "She was planning on joining the hospital anyway. So, what's next?"
Oh no.
"Hm, well," said Kakashi with an eye-smile. In the distance we heard the alarm go off. "Since time ran out and none of you got the bells, you'll all be going back to the Academy together."
And…
And Kakashi burst into a cloud of smoke, the bells vanishing in similar mini-bursts right from our hands. Then Kakashi, the real Kakashi, ambled out from behind a tree while reading his book.
A shadow clone?
"But that's not fair!" shouted Naruto. "You tricked us!"
As if that was somehow breaking the rules.
Kakashi gave him a look of disdain.
"You're right, sending you three back to the Academy isn't necessary," he said. Naruto's face broke into a wide, hopeful smile, but I felt a knot of dread. I knew where this was going. "Because you should all quit as ninja."
His words hit like a physical blow, not because I hadn't expected them, but because all my future knowledge had amounted to absolutely nothing.
"Quit as ninjas?" Naruto yelled. "What does that mean? Sure, we didn't get the real bells, but why do we have to quit?"
"Because the three of you are just brats who don't deserve to be ninja," said Kakashi.
Sasuke, predictably angry, darted forward and was pinned to the ground easily.
"That's why you're a brat," he said. "Sasuke. You said that you wanted to protect your little sister, but you were so focused on your own goals that you were the one who needed to be saved. Naruto, your dream is to become the Hokage, the leader who protects the village, and yet you just ran around accomplishing nothing and fell for the same tricks over and over again. And you, Kiyo. What was the point of becoming a ninja if you planned to quit before you even began? I thought your dream was to protect the people you cared about, or do you plan to give up on that too?"
His words stung.
Worse, I had no response.
"Look at this," said Kakashi, letting Sasuke up and brushing his hand against the memorial stone. "The names carved into this stone are recognized as the heroes of this village."
Naruto perked up.
"Hey, hey, hey!" he shouted eagerly. "I've decided to get my name carved onto that stone too! Hero! That's what I want to become!"
"Hn," said Sasuke, standing up and returning to his place beside me.
"But they aren't just normal heroes," said Kakashi, and I felt the weight of his words even if Naruto did not. "They are the heroes who died while on duty. This is a memorial. My best friend's name is carved here."
I just barely registered Kakashi's movements. In an instant I was slammed back against a wooden log and bound in ropes.
Fast!
Almost as fast as Shisui.
Naruto made sounds of objection, and Sasuke went for his kunai.
"You two, I'll give you one more chance," said Kakashi. "After lunch I'll make it even harder to get the bells. If you want to try again, eat. You'll need your strength. But don't give any to Kiyo. There's no point in wasting food on someone who's already given up. Anyone who tries to give her anything fails immediately."
Then he vanished in a puff of smoke.
Well…
At least I knew where we were in the script, though it wasn't entirely what I was expecting. Kakashi hadn't said anything about teamwork, presumably because we'd chosen to work together from the start. Mostly. Naruto and Sasuke might have agreed to it in theory, but in practice it hadn't worked out very well. As for me, Kakashi had posed the same question I'd been turning over in my mind since team assignments.
What was it all for?
I clenched my fists.
"Hey," said Sasuke quietly. He was scanning the training field. "I don't sense him nearby. Do you?"
I blinked and looked up, stretching my senses.
"No…" I said, though I knew full well that he was still watching us.
Sasuke nodded and held out his lunch.
"But won't you fail the test?" Naruto asked.
"Eat before he gets back," said Sasuke. There was no doubt or uncertainty in his eyes. "You're my little sister, and I will protect you."
He spoke as if that explained everything. As if that was enough for him.
"Yeah, and you're my friend," said Naruto, holding up his lunch with the same determination. I looked between them and felt something in my chest.
I nodded and accepted the bit of rice from Sasuke's chopsticks. I'd only taken two bites when I felt the thundercloud of anger bearing down on us which made Sasuke dive in front of me like a living shield.
"You three—," Kakashi growled. "~Pass~! You three are the first. Everyone else would just do whatever I told them. They were all just morons. A ninja must see underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules and codes of ninja are trash. But those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."
He then turned to me.
"If you want to join the hospital, I won't stop you," he said. "But if you truly want to protect others, the best way to do that is by standing beside them."
He folded his arms and waited for me to decide.
"I want—," I faltered.
Life as a ninja was filled with nothing but pain, fear, and death. Soon Team 7 would be fighting A-rank and S-rank opponents. This was my last chance to quit. And if I chose to move forward, it had to be worth my life.
Naruto.
Sasuke.
Itachi.
Would I die for them?
"I want to be a ninja," I said. "I will protect the people I care about no matter what."
…
AN: It took 14 chapters, but Kiyo has finally caught up to the start of the series. I prefer writing new scenes rather than rehashing canon, so there will be changes to the plot, but it will start off fairly similar until the changes start to compound.
