— TWO : GENIN TEAM —
Haruno Sakura graduates from Ninja School, chakra disability or not. Placed within a standard ninja squad, she finds herself having to make friends with children that are little better than strangers. To make matters worse, their assigned commander requires them to complete a special test to continue as ninjas!
Which stunk, might I add.
There I was, my expectations already dashed from the double combo of troubled teenage boys in my team, and this sleepy-looking jounin starts with that. We managed, in the end, and sensei wasn't so bad, but what a painful journey it was.
I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, and sensei only because I know Gai would never be friends with someone bad!
— Introducing Team Orphan, I mean Seven! —
And on the sixth day she rested. (It did turn out I had a light case of poisoning.)
I met up with Ino, and her guys, and we celebrated graduating. A nice lunch at a restaurant, the last paid for by their parents. We were about to start becoming financially independent. Lee and his team were out of the village for a couple of days, but I knew I would be aggressively congratulated as soon as they returned.
I was a bit short on money, on account of pouring all my reserves into as many pulls as I could for the past few months. Graduation deserved something special so I treated myself to a proper 'ninja outfit'. Like Lee and Gai-sensei had their thing. Well, parts of one. I'd been thinking about adding an emblem to my clothes for ages, as an homage to pokemon itself. The uncolored version of the pokeball logo. So I ordered a shirt with it, Rayquaza green with the yellow sigil. Rayquaza was my favorite, and his shiny form was just plain awesome. My clothes were all going to be patterned after it.
Black with yellow patterns, green and-or pink as tertiary accents.
Well, when my income improved. I went to Lee's house so his mother could help me turn my forehead protector into a belt like his. But pink to match my hair, which I now wore short like a guy because it became such a pain to maintain it on my own. Black pants, for now unadorned, and a dark green sleeveless hoodie completed the look.
I went to the Academy to take a picture for registration at the time I was told to, and then spent the rest of the day finishing up with my clients. I wasn't going to be able to do small jobs anymore, as a genin. I had quite a few people to say farewell to.
Monday rose bright and early. It was weird to not have to do a newspaper run. It was just like any other day, except we all had our headbands and we all knew this was the last day.
One single surprise: Naruto, who had failed the final graduation test, had somehow managed to pass… somehow.
Iruka-sensei was definitely doing the fond fatherly-brotherly smile, so I stopped wondering about it too much. Instead, I asked Hinata. If anybody knew the tea on Naruto-related news, it was her. Unfortunately for my curiosity, she had no clue either. But she was undeniably happy.
Good for them? Hm, I wondered if Hinata would survive being on the same team as her crush.
"Alright, pay attention!" Iruka-sensei yelled from the blackboard. "I will be announcing the teams, and I won't repeat myself!"
A gaggle of twelve years old, and me, leaned forward in anticipation.
"Team Seven: Haruno Sakura–" So I was lucky number seven, nice. "–Uzumaki Naruto–" I retracted that statement. "–and Uchiha Sasuke." Oh, come on!
I dragged a hand over my face and peeked between my fingers at my new teammates. Several seats ahead, both were too busy glaring murder at each other. Had I offended the Hokage somehow that night? Was that it? Did he have something against me? Who had thought this combo was a good idea?
Two random orphans and Uchiha Sasuke, who was –a lightbulb went off in my head– also an orphan.
"Are you kidding me?" I whispered to the gods. "Team Orphan, really?"
Nobody answered.
I used my lunch time to get mentally prepared. Uchiha, Sasuke I supposed, would be easy enough to work with. Probably. He was a quiet but intense person. Naturally. It was just super awkward to be on a team with the guy whose defining life moment, and tragedy, had been the thing that made me take life seriously. Not that I was ever going to tell him that. Now Uzumaki Naruto… I was probably going to snap at him within the week. I could handle joking and cheerful people. I could even handle loud people in a world where earbuds were the height of technology, and thus too expensive for me. I could not handle the jokester archetype. There was a limit of seriousness, and Naruto better hit it quick.
I returned to our old classroom, steeled for anything.
And I waited. And waited. And waited some more.
Actually, we three schmucks waited for… several hours.
Everybody had already been picked up by adult ninjas that looked cool or professional. At least, none of them looked as eccentric as Gai-sensei. Which was a worry in and of itself.
Five minutes in Naruto was fidgeting. Sasuke was brooding. And I had not brought any books to entertain myself. The only thing that kept us from leaving was Iruka-sensei's assurances that no, somebody would come for us, sooner or later. Much later.
Doodling in my pocket notebook it was. This sort of doodling in organized patches had had a name in my past life. Triangle something? Should I start doing push-ups? Not training or working or doing anything was getting to my head.
We weren't talking with each other either. If I talked to Naruto first, it would feel like leaving the emo in the corner too alone. If I talked to Sasuke first, well Naruto would get jealous or rowdy. Plus, I was female, I was not going to initiate a conversation with the king of preteen crushes. Pass. And addressing them both… yeah, I wasn't that bored yet. To be frank, I wasn't hopeful about the guys, so I wanted to see who our teacher would be first.
"Why is our teacher so damn late!" Naruto exploded. Like he had every five minutes since Iruka-sensei had left.
"Naruto, I will pay you to shut up." "You can't buy me!" "Urgh."
"I know…" He snickered to himself and started rummaging around. Sasuke and I followed him with our eyes as he giggled to himself and started setting up the most basic of door traps. If a regular door had water bucket pranks, then sliding doors had wedged erasers.
"Like a jounin would fall for that." Sasuke rolled his eyes, but I noticed he was smiling behind his brooding and planning pose. Did the kid actually have a sense of humor?
"You should probably take that down." I said. "We might get in trouble." Not all jounin were Gai-sensei, after all. Only Lee was like Gai, but my point stood.
"No way, he deserves it!" Naruto raised his chin, hands behind his head in his classic confident pose.
The noise of footsteps stopping in front of our door quelled us. I hadn't been paying attention, shit. I got up from my seat but it was too late. The door opened and the eraser fell on the ground, missing the ninja by scant millimeters. No, from the tiny plume of chalk dust, it had brushed his hair on the way down.
Naruto was pouting, Sasuke was cringing and I… I was probably pale. The man let an eye rove over us in the silence. "How do I put this… I don't like you."
— Let's all get to know each other! —
"Follow me." And just like that the jounin left.
We scrambled for the door but the man was lazily walking down the hallway. He was nothing like Gai-sensei. The energy was simply not the same. Not even there for this man. He looked absolutely done with life. Done with us, I couldn't help but think. This was very much not a good start.
Did Naruto chatter and try to ask why he was so late? Did Sasuke snipe back at him? Rhetorical. They did. All my mental preparation was fraying. I was going to open my mouth and get weird and sarcastic. It was such a headache-inducing struggle.
We got taken to the rooftop, a nice little area that followed Konoha's motto of 'there is always space for more trees' by having an entire miniature park on top.
Finally there, the jounin did something rational and had us sit down. "Let's start with some introductions, hm?"
"Who the f-heck are you? You haven't even told us your name yet." I immediately blurted out. That had been bothering me.
My teammates assented, Naruto demanding. "Yeah, introduce yourself first."
"Oh, me? My name is Hatake Kakashi." He leaned against the railing. "I don't particularly care to tell you about my likes or dislikes. My dream for the future's… hm, well, I have a lot of hobbies."
Almost every word in those sentences sounded a bit like a question and an affirmation at the same time. I examined the lazy-looking dude. He wore a basic uniform, the sort that you could buy several of at a discount, but it looked like the high quality stuff. A jounin vest and a leg holster that had usage marks but looked well-stocked. Equipment wise, he looked the part. Now his face… I'd like to describe it but I could only see one ear, one eye, the respective eyebrow and half a nose. He had shaggy gray hair. Instead of using his headband on his forehead, he had it tilted over one eye. He also used a half-face mask that covered everything below the bridge of his nose. Maybe he was heavily scarred.
Still, something about his name sounded vaguely familiar. I was certain I'd heard it somewhere before. But where?
"Alright, now it's your turn. Let's go clockwise." Hatake pointed at Naruto.
"Ahah! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" The blonde jumped in. He was dressed, as always, in a rough orange jumpsuit. He'd traded his goggles for a forehead protector but he was still the same as ever. Short, loud. "I like ramen! Cup ramen but even better, Ichiraku's! And I love it even more when Iruka-sensei's the one to pay! I dislike… the time it takes for ramen to be done."
I liked ramen too but wasn't this…
"My dream is to be the greatest Hokage ever! Everybody is going to acknowledge me!" He boasted, tapping his forehead protector. "Believe it or not! My hobby is pranks, I guess."
Odds were against him but at least he was consistent. I was sitting in the middle, somewhere between keeping the boys separated and keeping an eye on the situation. I was next.
"My name is Haruno Sakura." Tho, if that was who I was, was up for debate. "I like dragons, ninjas and girls. Get any and all hopes out of your head because I'm competition. If I ever marry I want a beautiful wife." These sort of things were best said right out of the gate. "I dislike asinine bullshit and gambling." Yes, the gacha was why. "My hobbies are photography and self-improvement. My dream…"
Maybe children thought about things like dreams. Or wanting to be astronauts or volcanologists or circus performers. But my soul was old. In the end, what I wished for, at the end of my life…
"My dream is to face death without regrets."
On a bed or in the battlefield, I wanted to be able to die without panic, without fear. Without a last moment of agony where all one can think of is why me why me why is this happening I still had so much things I wanted to do–
"Whoa, that's kinda…" "Hmm." My teammates were looking at me askance.
"Whatever, Uchiha's next." I pointed with my thumb to the person with an actual tragic backstory.
Uchiha Sasuke dressed in blue. A dark blue shirt with a high collar he could hide his face into, contrasting nicely with a light pair of shorts. All his accessories, arm and leg guards, were of those colors too. I'd say he did have a pretty face, but the way he kept it neutral or neutral-displeased all the time ruined it for me. I was not, a, straight, b, an actual preteen girl.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike many things and I don't like a lot of things." He didn't have to imitate Hatake. "I wouldn't call it a dream, but my ambition is the revival of my clan. And to kill one man."
I suppressed a sigh. If you knew, you could almost see the ghost of Konoha's most infamous missing-nin hovering over his shoulders. That was something I wasn't willing to touch with a twenty-foot pole.
"Ok, that's enough." Said Hatake. "We will start properly tomorrow."
I supposed, since the sun was already starting to set. January days were short and this guy had been three hours late!
"First we are going to do a little something just the four of us." He nodded to himself. I had the distinct impression he was smiling. At Naruto's hurried questions, he continued. "Survival training."
— The very fishy survival exercise commences! —
The morning of the sixteenth of January, my first proper day as a genin, dawned in increments. It was stupidly early. I was munching on a light breakfast as I stared at the printout Hatake had given us yesterday. According to him, this could also be my last day as a genin.
"... Yeah, something is very fishy about this."
There were a myriad of issues with what we'd been told yesterday. I wasn't discounting the possibility entirely, because this was sort of the military and Hatake was effectively our commanding officer. He sure could make things unpleasant for us. But.
Anyway, I hadn't had time to consult with Ino yesterday. It wasn't a coincidence. We were instructed to be at Training Ground Three at five-thirty. (An interesting choice of where to train.) We had to scramble home to get good enough sleep. There were two possibilities, either Hatake was going to be as late as yesterday, or that had been a feint and he would be on time today. Or, if he was a bastard, he'd be watching who was late and who wasn't and adjust his strategy. Mind games.
Well, I could play the game too. He said to bring all of our tools, but that was stupid because everybody had way too many tools. Couldn't disobey an order like that… or a person could be like me and not have that many tools. Ahah, I'd gotten him there. The breakfast thing sounded like plain intimidation and, product of my active lifestyle, I needed to eat a fair amount. I would honestly rather vomit than have my stomach hurting me, so I ate something light.
Sasuke was there at the same time as me, right on time. Naruto was five minutes late.
And then… we waited. Yeah, no, screw that.
The meeting spot was open and fairly wide. I started with a warm-up jog, then moved on to stretches. At some point Sasuke started meditating and Naruto was running through some katas, being loud and obnoxious. Possibly on purpose. And still, warm-up done, time spent… Hatake wasn't there.
"I'm going to take a nap while I can." I told the boys. "Would one of you stand watch and wake me up when he finally appears?"
"You're going to sleep?" "It's called efficient time management." Naruto and I argued. Sasuke grunted. "Go ahead, I'm not lowering my guard."
Shamelessly, I did. I had a very nice nap in the morning sun, like a cat. Did it matter? No. Because it was ten in the morning when Hatake appeared, calmly walking.
"Hey guys, good morning." I suppressed the urge to curse him out. Almost five fucking hours. "You're late!" Naruto didn't.
The jounin brushed him off and started setting up our exercise. He took out an alarm clock and set it for noon, then showed off two bells like the ones people tied to cats. "Your objective is to take these two bells from me before noon." He continued. "If you can't get a bell before the clock rings, you get no lunch. I'll tie you to those posts and eat it in front of you." He pointed at three stumps at the edge of the training grounds.
"So that's why he told us to eat no breakfast." Naruto was cringing and clutching his stomach. I'd eaten, sure, but it had been over five hours. I was hungry too.
"You only need to get one bell. There are only two, so one of you will definitely go hungry. And the one that doesn't get a bell… fails. So at least one of you will get sent back to the Academy." Hatake shrugged. "You can use your weapons freely. You won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill."
No, we wouldn't succeed anyway. A jounin was a completely different beast from the chunnin teachers we had at the Academy. Naruto and Sasuke might not know, but I had trained with Gai-sensei… A genin defeating a jounin was impossible. Not if he took us seriously… unless… I felt my eyes narrowing in concentration. No, something was definitely fishy about this.
"Ah!" Naruto scoffed. "Easy then! You barely dodged my trap yesterday!"
Hatake blinked once. "The talentless bark the loudest. I'm going to ignore Mr. Dead Last over there and–"
Naruto growled and launched himself at him, kunai in hand. He got one step in. Then Hatake was there, holding him by the head, arm twisted so his own kunai was pointed at his nape. I hadn't seen him move, was barely even able to react to his sudden appearance by getting into a fighting stance.
"–start when I say start. Calm down." His voice was as still and calm as ever. "The initiative is good, so I guess you aren't entirely hopeless. Ready?"
Absolutely not.
"Start!"
— A jounin predictably kicks my first teammate's butt! —
I didn't travel far. We scrammed from the jounin's immediate vicinity but I knew that he could catch up to us in a matter of instants. As I circled his position from the trees, I pondered my strategy.
Brute force wouldn't do it. Weakening him with status moves was an option, but I wasn't confident that it would bring him down to a manageable level. Hatake was going to hold back. He was testing us somehow. I wasn't sure what he wanted to see.
There was a lot of emphasis placed on there being one failure no matter what.
Well, Naruto had decided not to hide at all and was instead challenging him head on, so I stopped on a tree branch. I would wait and see for a bit, to get a measure of what Hatake would do. If Naruto distracted him enough, I would even nail him with some of my weakening moves.
And in response to Naruto's challenge, Hatake took out from his pouch a book. And started reading it nonchalantly. A taunt and a showing of his skill, as he effortlessly dodge any and all of Naruto's attacks. Nothing for it, I supposed. I moved my hands to prepare a focussed version of Growl that wouldn't also catch Naruto in its area of effect.
" Nômaru-ton: Nakigoe no Waza ." {Normal Release: Growl Move} And I yelped, power in my voice. Both of the combatants' eyes moved in my direction. I was already moving, and cursing Naruto for getting distracted.
"Looks like you had some help there." The jounin loomed over Naruto, who'd turned his head away. "But a ninja should never get caught from behind." And thus Naruto was sent flying into the lake.
Ah, my bad, Naruto… There'd been no way I could warn him, anyway.
I prepared another Nakigoe no Waza , my second and last use of it for an hour. Naruto was attacking from underwater so I was free to strike without hitting him. Hatake didn't even turn his eye towards my position this time. Still no sign of Sasuke either. Suddenly, several Narutos attacked from the water. Not just the regular Bushin either. When had that clown learnt something like that? I struck Hatake with Nakigoe , seemingly without effect again.
Hatake replaced himself with one of the clones and Naruto's clones began… fighting among each other. …maybe they were a bit too independent?
The problem is that I had lost track of the jounin. I did not curse out loud.
"A bell!" Naruto cried and got caught in the most predictable trap ever. I got the feeling that it was retaliation for yesterday's attempts.
Hatake returned to taunt him and that was when Sasuke struck. Blood spurted… genjutsu, of course. This was a jounin we were up against. But if I'd gotten a handle on his general position, so had Hatake. Our position had been reversed and now we were the hunted. I jumped out of the shrubs and approached Naruto's position, eyes carefully watching out for an attack.
"Sakura! Hey! Scary Pink Demon! Get me down!" A blond midget yelled as he contorted himself.
Why did Naruto have to remember that embarrassing nickname? "Ugh, keep your voice down." I told him and pulled out a kunai. "And don't move around so fucking much."
A pinch at my ankle. Fuck. He'd boobytrapped the ground around Naruto. Two mint fresh genin hung from a tree.
"Nice job, weirdo." "See the kunai in my hand? Shut up."
I cut us both down. This confirmed Hatake had to be holding out on us. This sort of trap was too simple and easy to get out of.
Naruto patted himself down. "Alright. I could've gotten out myself, but thanks for the save!"
"You were the one who asked for my help…" I muttered. Our foe was probably chasing Sasuke right now. "We need to come up with a plan– Hey!"
Naruto was facing away from me, squinting at the distance. "Our lunches are still over there." He grinned. "Kakashi-sensei said that a ninja is supposed to look underneath the underneath, ehe. So I'm looking underneath this survival exercise!"
How did that make any sense? "I'm fairly sure that's not how you're supposed to interpret that saying. No."
He stuck his tongue out. "Suit yourself scary weirdo, I'm hungry!"
"Did you really not eat anything before coming?" "You did?" "Something light just after waking up, yes." "Bah, I can't fight when I'm this hungry, so I'm going!"
I crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm telling you it's a bad idea!" I thought to tell him we should find Sasuke instead, but he was already on his way. As if on cue, a distant rumbling was heard. Ninjutsu being used. "Ah, screw it." I bounded over into the trees.
If I could find Sasuke and support him like I had Naruto before, we might have a chance.
— My second teammate watches me fight neck-deep in the dirt! —
I found Sasuke's head. There is a saying about ostriches burying their heads in sand. Uchiha Sasuke was currently a very grumpy-looking reverse ostrich.
"What the heck happened to you?" I said as I knelt down.
"He came from the ground. Ninjutsu." Indeed the earth around him was disturbed and not packed tight. Good, he could have suffocated if it hadn't. He could dig himself out eventually, but I started taking a kunai to the ground to help him out. Jounin were scary. What if Hatake was swimming beneath the earth right now. Sasuke flinched. "Look out!"
" Mamoru !" {Protect} I had just enough time to make a handseal. A green barrier sprung into existence inches away from my skin, deflecting away the kick aimed at my back. Opportunity missed, I tumbled away, setting into a fighting stance a distance away from Sasuke's head.
"Oho. That's an interesting jutsu." Hatake retracted his leg, only briefly looking away from his book.
"You can use ninjutsu?" Sasuke was boggling at me from the ground, a fact I'd find amusing and vindictive, if Hatake hadn't put his foot on his head like it was a football.
"That's a misconception." I told them, hands held in front of me ready to move. "I can't use regular j– Hinoko no Waza! " I spat a blast of fire, forcing him to dodge back. {Ember Move}
"Fire as well… not on the level of Sasuke's Gôkakyû ." Bitch I don't care! "What about taijutsu?"
Hatake jumped towards me and I found myself in a familiar position, facing a superior opponent ready to plummet me. Thankfully, I'd had the forethought of raising my toughness with as many Hardens and Defense Curls as I could. He was going at it stronger than Lee did, but nothing like Gai-sensei, I could withstand that. Every blow that looked like it would matter, he would skillfully deflect, taking no actual damage.
I was being tested.
If he wanted killing intent, I could give him that. I herded him away from Sasuke's struggling form so it wouldn't hit him. Point-blank, I screeched. Nômaru-ton: Iya na Oto no Waza ! {Normal Release: Screech Move} I rarely used this one because it required too many handseals to focus on a single target, but this should be far away enough. Hatake actually winced at that and I took the opportunity to grab his wrist, do a half Electric seal and unleash a shock, or rather, a thunderwave. " Denki-ton: Denjiha no Waza !" {Electric Release: Thunderwave Move}
My body sparked up, before shooting a weak but paralyzing shock in the area around me. Hatake was no longer in my grasp. In the blink of an eye, he'd twisted his arm away and substituted. I'd lost him again.
"Sakura!" Sasuke's voice came from– My legs were swept away and I slammed into the ground, breath leaving my body. I rolled, crouching and glaring at the jounin carefully opening up his book again. He was immaculate and I was panting harshly.
"Is that it?" He asked.
"Well… I have one more trick." I had no idea if this was going to work. I didn't bother with handseals. I just pushed my power to act in its most natural form, chakra flaring around me.
Niramitsukeru . Nenriki . Four Leers hit him in the space of a second, my eyes glowing dementedly, before my mind rushed forward as an invisible, intangible hand. It grabbed the bells, ringing sound echoing, the threads holding them snapped.
Hatake grabbed them, disrupting my weak Confusion. He sighed. "That's twice now. Maybe I should be taking you more seriously too." His hands flashed. " Magen: Nara– " {Demonic Illusion: –}
The ground rumbled. Not thunder, something else, something more dangerous– I had to get to cover, a wall, a doorstep, a table– Away from the trees– I tripped, covered my head and waited for the worst to pass. Whatever came, it was too late!
"-kura! Sakura! SAKURA!" A hand shook me.
I gasped, eyes opening. Half into the ground, Uchiha Sasuke was holding onto my shoulder. "What–"
"You got caught in a genjutsu." He let go of me and made quick work of releasing the rest of his body from the ground as I caught my breath. Of course it had been a genjutsu. Konoha didn't have earthquakes. "Are you okay?"
I nodded, still on the ground. I didn't feel like my legs were steady yet. "Y-yeah. Just, never been caught in a genjutsu like that."
The dark-haired boy frowned. "You should have been able to release yourself. Your grades were good in that area."
I chuckled. "Kind of. My chakra flow makes it that regular genjutsu are less effective on me. The things they had us break in the Academy only ever half-worked on me." What Hatake had hit me with had been the real deal. Had he overpowered the thing because of my resistance? That was a jounin for you.
"I thought you couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu." There was a question there.
I pushed myself up and tested my limbs. "Like I said, that's a misconception. My chakra pathways are distorted, so the handseals and jutsus everybody can use just don't… work for me. But it's not like I can't use chakra. I just had to find my own way of doing it."
Now Sasuke was looking at me somewhat contemplative. Probably. He had a good poker face. "I see. I'm going to try again. Are you coming?"
"Let's go. Hey," I remembered, "Naruto decided to go for the lunches. If Hatake hasn't taken care of him yet, we should get him on board."
Sasuke scoffed. "That idiot. What do we need him for? We have a better chance with the two of us." He didn't say what we were both thinking. One of us three was going to fail… so Naruto…
Something was really bothering me. "Look. Don't you think there's something suspicious about this–"
The clear sound of an alarm clock rang in the distance. I checked the sun's position. We had run out of time. Sasuke cursed.
— I, the third teammate, am forced to explain things! —
Ten minutes later, our stomachs rumbled as we sat, awaiting Hatake's judgment. Well, Sasuke and I sat down. Naruto was tied to the post. Moron. We were at the very edge of the training ground, and several meters in front of us, the stone monument
I wondered again why this training ground in particular. Was it because we were Team Orphan?
"Maa~, you guys look really hungry." He smiled beneath his mask. None of us deigned to give him an answer. "So, about this exercise. Sakura, get up." He beckoned me closer.
Crap. Whatever trick there was to this, it looked like time had run out. Still, me? What had I done wrong? I'd fought no worse than Naruto. Had I not been proactive enough? No, something about this was still niggling at me. What was he trying to do? Nevertheless, I got up, ignoring the guys' looks and walked to the jounin chin up.
Let's say he did fail me… somehow. I'd get an apprenticeship with Gai-sensei or something, a job, whatever. This was not the end of the world.
Hatake looked somber as he patted my shoulder. "Of you three, Sakura is the one who will have to go back to the Academy."
I ignored the cries of joy as Naruto celebrated behind me, shushed by Sasuke. My own eyes narrowed and my mouth opened to retort, but I stopped myself. It was still bothering me… how…
Hatake met my eyes, something I couldn't read in his face. "The two of you," he addressed the boys behind me, "must quit trying to be ninjas."
What? "What!?" Behind me I heard Naruto yell. "Quit being ninjas? We didn't get a bell but isn't that– why do we have to quit!?"
The jounin put a hand on my shoulder. He was looking over my head, speaking to them directly. I didn't dare take my eyes off him. "Because you're both little punks who don't deserve to be ninjas. Nothing more than bratty little children." He was calm as he said it.
I could believe Naruto was a punk but Sasuke–? "Ghk!" The hand on my shoulder tightened unexpectedly and suddenly Hatake had turned me around. The cold, sharp edge of a blade dug into my neck. I stopped myself from swallowing. Over my carotid. He was serious. Now in front of me, Sasuke had stopped several steps into charging at us.
"And that's what I mean." Hatake sighed behind me. "Try not to relax too much."
I blinked, still stunned. That last part had been subvocalized, said only to me. The kunai dug in with a dull pain and a warm drop of blood started beading on my skin.
"Sasuke. Back off or Sakura will get hurt." His tone was so cold that I had to repress a shiver. Theoretically I had a way out of this but… no, I had no choice but to trust a Konoha jounin wouldn't just kill a genin in front of two witnesses.
Sasuke held his hands to the sides. His face was twisted in a grimace and our eyes met. He backed off. I let out a breath, slowly. I knew he would back down. Totally. Neither of them is stupid.
The kunai moved away from my skin, but Hatake scoffed. "You're all underestimating what ninjas are. You think this is a game. Did you ever even think about why you were all split into teams and are doing this exercise?" That was when it all clicked together. I sucked in a breath. "Did you think about what this exercise was all about?"
"What… it was all about? Wha'ddya mean?" Naruto was almost meek as he asked.
"Sakura." I glanced up to see the jounin looking at me. "Why don't you tell your teammates what the answer is?"
I wasn't entirely sure, but… I licked my lips and steadied myself not to make it into a question. "It's about working together."
He nodded. "That's right. Teamwork. Sakura was the only one who showed even an ounce of teamwork, assisting Naruto and coming to Sasuke's help. That's why, at least, she deserves to go back to the Academy. She understood that only by working together you might be able to get the bells."
Doubtful. But I could see the outline of Hatake's thoughts now. What he wanted us to show him in this test.
A beat later, Naruto's thoughts completed whatever trajectory they did in there and he restarted his struggle. "Wait, wait! But you said one of us would fail! There are only two bells!"
"Of course. This exercise was designed to make you fight among yourselves. Its objective is to see if you can overcome your own self-interest and work together even in these circumstances." His voice was derisive. "Yet Naruto, you just did everything on your own, like a fool. And Sasuke, you assumed from the start your teammates would get in your way. Arrogant. That sort of mindset is unacceptable in a mission and can even get you killed."
The kunai he'd pressed to my neck was waved around for emphasis. Finally, he let go of my shoulder and patted me on the back before pushing me gently towards the boys. I looked over my shoulder but he just told me to get back to my place with his chin. My legs were still a bit shaky as I sat back down next to the stumps. Sasuke joined me on the other side of Naruto. Both kids were frowning and quiet, but Sasuke in particular seemed to be biting the inside of his cheek.
"While individual skills are important, teamwork is even more important. Missions are done by squads. That's why the Academy teaches you formations and group tactics. An individualistic mindset can and will disrupt the team and put your comrades in danger." Hatake continued speaking. He'd straightened up, shoulders less slouched than when he'd been fighting us, and was looking out at the memorial monument.
He set a careful hand on the monument and my imagination started making all sorts of inferences before I forcefully shut it down.
"The many names carved in this stone… are all heroes to this village."
I couldn't help the sardonic twitch of my lips. If to be a hero you only had to die…
"Alright! Hey hey!" Naruto started yelling again and I glared at him. Ineffectively. "I'm going to get my name on that stone too! I want to be a hero too! That's what I'll be!"
Somebody choked and made a high-pitched noise somewhere between a whine and a deflating balloon. Then I realized that was me, face frozen in a rictus and eyes bug-wide as I glared at Naruto. I just… He couldn't… Just…
"Oh? These aren't just any kind of heroes. Sakura, you know this stone, don't you? Would you like to explain it to Naruto?"
I whipped my head back to Hatake. Why was I the exposition girl?! He met my eyes over his shoulder. This one time, what I could see of his face was softer.
"What is it? What is it? Just tell me already!" The blonde fucking ignoramus was wriggling against the ropes.
I took one deep breath. Why not? I was about to ruin Naruto's day. I turned to him with a fake smile. "I know this memorial very well. My parents' names are engraved there."
Sasuke flinched a little bit, where he sat behind Naruto. Smart kid, I thought as he averted his gaze. Naruto did not connect the dots. "Whoa, your parents were heroes? How come I never heard of it!"
"Well, they're dead." I stated simply. "That's the memorial stone for shinobi killed in the line of duty."
Dead silence. Naruto paled slowly as he processed my words.
"Sakura's parents, members of the Uchiha clan, even the Fourth Hokage… My best friend's name… they are all carved into this stone." Hatake spoke softly, looking at the stone. "They understood what teamwork was and how important it was." He turned back to us. "I'll give you three one last chance."
— Team Seven's first exercise concludes! —
I opened the lid of the bento box. Simple but nutritious. Also, I was ravenous. Om-nhom-nhom!
"Ah, I needed that." A stomach rumbled. "You hungry Naruto?"
"Urgh. No! Ahaha, I can totally handle it!" He was sweating, trying to speak over the sounds coming from his middle. "... I'm fine."
"I see. I see." I picked at the rest of my rice. I glanced at Sasuke, who was looking uncomfortable. Not yet, I see…
Then. "Hm, Sakura… I, uh, sorry." Naruto mumbled. "About your parents."
I blinked. Uh, guess the kid wasn't so bad. "It's fine." I'd been more pissed off that I'd been the one put on the spot. Also, how didn't he know about the memorial? He was an orphan too, right? "They're only there on a technicality anyway."
"A technicality?"
"You know the Nine-Tails attack when we were babies right?" At least that, please. "Every ninja that died last night got their names added to the memorial, even if they were off duty." There had been too many casualties to determine what exactly had happened. Who'd run, who'd fought. During a village-wide emergency like that, a catastrophe, a ninja had the universal mission to preserve the village, no matter who they were or what they were doing before. I guess my father was there legitimately. My mother, well, she'd been on maternity leave. She had only saved one single life…
"Oh." I looked back at Naruto, who had hung his head, biting his lips. That had hit him hard… were his parents maybe here too?
Well… I wasn't going to pry. "Don't stress it. Really. It's not like I remember them or anything."
Still, an uncomfortable silence hovered over us now. Surprisingly, Sasuke was the one who broke it.
"Hey." He addressed me. I only knew because he was actually looking at me. "How did you figure out the goal of the exercise?"
I snorted. I could tell him, but well… wouldn't that be undermining this exercise? Well, on second thought… "Well, have you figured out what this afternoon's exercise will be about?"
"Wait, it's not going to be about teamwork?" Naruto cried out. His stomach rumbled louder with his sudden movement. "Urgh!"
"Hn." The Uchiha grunted, looking away. "Here." His bento was thrust under Naruto's nose. "You'll just be a liability if you don't eat. So, eat."
"Wait, but–" Naruto was dumbstruck. There was a hint of a blush on his cheeks. "Sensei said…" "I can't sense him. We should be safe." "Eh. Thanks."
I pulled out a kunai and started sawing at his ropes. The kid couldn't feed himself without his hands. And I wasn't going to feed him either. "I sorta knew something was fishy about this exercise from the beginning." Two-thirds of all graduates failed back to the Academy and we, Academy students, never saw a hint of them? Fishy. "But it was the way Hatake worded the exercise that made me think teamwork was the answer. He put too much emphasis on there only being two bells and somebody always failing."
Something exploded. Scrambling, yelling, we reached for our weapons only for the voice of the devil itself to boom. "YOU–!"
Hatake Kakashi loomed over three twelve year old genins. I prayed I was right.
"Pass." You could hear the unspoken 'Tee-hee' in his expression.
I heaved a huge sigh. Tension that had accumulated in my limbs drained away and I plopped down. I'd been right. All the posturing and instructions he'd given us about following the rules, that he was the law, to not feed Naruto… this exercise had been about whether or not we were capable of breaking the rules to help each other out.
"You guys are the first." He said, confirming my hypothesis. "All the others were morons who couldn't look underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules are trash… but those who leave their friends behind are worse than trash." He smiled down at us. "Today's training is over. You all pass. Tomorrow Team Seven will begin their duties, officially."
"Yeah!" "Fuck yeah!" "Ah!" This trio celebrated. We were ninjas, stamped and certified. "Team Orphan is a go!"
Three and a half pairs of eyes stared at me. I lowered my arms, then crossed them. "What, it's true." I pointed at myself. "Orphan." At Naruto. "Orphan." And Sasuke. "Also an orphan."
Hatake Kakashi sighed. "I'm not going to comment on that. Off you guys go, dismissed." He shoo-ed us. "One moment Sakura."
I paused, the boys paused. They looked over at me, suspicious, but Hatake waved them off. I didn't blame them for being suspicious. Hatake shot a look at the trees after they were gone, and then they were really gone. He huffed. "Took the lesson to heart." I told him.
He nodded, and to me it seemed fond, or happy. "We need to treat that." My neck, that was. It was already scabbing, but several droplets of blood had run down into my new shirt. "May I?"
Well, he looked… contrite? Responsible? "Hm, yeah, sure." But I was still being asked to present my neck to him after he'd put a knife there.
"I apologize for the deception back there." He told me as he opened up a field first aid kit. "I didn't intend to hurt you, but I scared you."
I nodded. It was true. "I'll get over it. Soon-ish. We got into worse scrapes at the Academy." None of them with knives so close to my carotid.
"Still. I won't do it again." And I appreciated that, and that he'd apologized. After he was done disinfecting the little cut, he asked me to elaborate how my thought processes during the exercise. "Sasuke might be the overall better ninja, but you display an outlook that's uncommonly mature for your age." He said at the end.
So I'd been told before. I shrugged. "'Tis who I am. Are you concerned that I didn't really… hm, pass the teamwork exercise?" The trick to the exercise fell apart if the people under scrutiny knew about it. If you knew you had to work together and that you might not get failed, the pressure that made the exercise so effective was lost.
He made a thinking pose. I was starting to learn that Hatake liked to take things leisurely… on the surface at least. "Aah, that's hard to tell, right? Mm, alright. Why don't you evaluate yourself, give me your own perspective of your suitability to work with Naruto and Sasuke?"
"Well…" I thought about everything I knew from before, and had learnt today. "I can work with them. Naruto is very disruptive, but he'll probably grow up with a bit of guidance. Hopefully. It's not my favorite dynamic, but I'm… kinda used to a similar person already. I just need to establish some boundaries and let him run roughshod otherwise. Sasuke's a bit of an incognito, but he is professional most of the time. Just being competent around him will probably be enough."
"I'm more worried that he and Naruto will clash. They're… like complete opposites, and on top of that they're preteen boys." I grimaced. Good thing I'd made it clear I was not into guys. "I don't think I can do anything about it. I don't think I should. I'm not their babysitter." That was Hatake. "I'm not going to sacrifice my own well-being to play peacekeeper between two brats." I met his eye, aware of the importance he apparently gave to being there for your comrades. "Not if they aren't making at least the tiniest bit of effort. If a team is three people, one single person can't be making all the effort to keep it together."
To my relief, he nodded. "No, you are correct."
"Right. Of course, all of this… I mean…" I stopped my hand from coming to rub at my neck. "This is all for normal situations. We're ninjas, like you said. We're going to face life or death sooner or later and to be honest: I don't know how I'll react. I wanna say I'll… live up to my dream and do the right thing, but I also don't like lying. I don't know."
A hand ruffled my short hair. "Maa~ You're a very dependable kid, aren't you?" Hatake Kakashi told me then. "Don't worry so much. I have faith in you."
— Introducing the important parts of being a ninja! —
Hatake, well, Kakashi-sensei's stamp of approval meant that Team 7 was cleared to take on missions. It didn't mean that the man learnt what punctuality was. Once was normal, twice was a coincidence. Thrice was enemy action.
I wasn't going to give a grown man brownie points for only being an hour and a half late. My professional senses were tingling, my piggy bank was raging at the wasted time. I wasn't even spending the couple of hours I waited for him having fun! I was having to endure an awkward silence with two kids with whom I had very little in common. Not helped by the fact that Naruto was the ADHD kid that didn't like reading, so I couldn't even give him a book so he wouldn't be terminally bored.
Bored Naruto attrited at Naruto's base concepts of personal space, boundaries and ability to read the mood.
Kakashi was probably the sort to know and let us have it if we were the ones late. Urgh.
"Independent training while we wait for lazy-sensei tomorrow?" "He's always so late!" "Might as well."
Regardless, "Yo." "You're late!" ""..."" he eventually showed up.
As an introduction to actually being a genin, Kakashi-sensei took us on a small tour of places we were now authorized to be in. Some we'd already seen as part of the later Academy curriculum, but others were new. Like where we would have to file some paperwork or where we could collect our payments, or an expanded library. Most of this was in the facilities attached to the Hokage tower that the Ninja Academy was behind.
We got fitted with a set of short-range communicators. The secure, expensive kind. How nice to see that Konoha too was improving in its technology. Maybe one day we would actually have TVs!
Then we took a picture.
This I liked. Another picture to add to my wall. We put Naruto in the middle, because he was the midget among us, and he looked adorable raging at the camera. Kakashi was leaning down to our height, each hand ruffling mine and Sasuke's hair. The difference was I was smiling and he was scowling. The boys looked so much like kids, I was going to hang this one in a place of honor.
The morning done, we headed to the Mission Desk.
A mission! A paycheck!
I was almost skipping. I hadn't worked a day since before my registration as a ninja. Five days. I was getting twitchy about not getting any money. It was probably a bad sign considering my mentality. The gacha was a slow, strangling struggle. I wasn't on the edge of poverty or anything. Although I would stop receiving village funds in three months, a period of grace after my graduation, I still had my parents' money. Unfettered access to it at last too. I was going to keep withdrawing only enough for basic expenses the rest of the year, because I didn't know how my costs were going to evolve.
On the one hand, I would now be getting paid a fair amount. On the other, I needed to get my equipment to genin standards, I would need to replace it more often, to improve it and finally, I was going to need to eat more as my body and chakra grew.
A not-inconsiderable portion of a ninja's income was spent on food. The highly-caloric, nutrient packed meals we could buy and that the restaurants in Konoha specialized in were expensive. Or maybe that was just for taijutsu-based fighters like me. The rest was weapons, weaponry and weapon-like tools.
Anyway, the Hokage, to us presented that day… a D-rank mission: trash collecting in a sector of Konoha.
Did you know that trash cans in Konoha were collected and cleaned by genin? No? Well, it explained a few things. Who handled sanitation concerns, for one. We were just going to pick up free trash in the streets. The cans were handled by night-shift ninjas.
A thought occurred to me. "Do trash ninjas have to check the trash for bodies or explosive tags?" I asked Kakashi.
Naruto yelped. Sasuke made a weird face. Kakashi blinked. "Yep."
"Hm, that makes sense. Ok, that was all the questions I had. Let's go!" I pumped my fists in excitement.
"Scary Sakura, you want to go pick up trash?" Naruto was baffled.
"Kakashi-sensei already explained the rationale behind low-level missions. And, fellow orphan of mine," I grabbed him by the shoulders and imposed on him the gravity of our mission, "they're paying us each a fat one thousand and five hundred ryou. For a single afternoon of hard work."
"Ack, Kakashi-sensei, save me from the Greedy Demon!" "Get your butt in gear Orange Orphan. You move too Blue Orphan. We have money to earn." "... don't call me that."
Naruto in a headlock and Sasuke following us sedately, we headed out for our first paycheck!
I paused suddenly. My team looked at me. "I need to review Konoha tax laws."
— The eternal rivalry! —
Lee and Gai-sensei returned to Konoha two days after my team's first mission. I knew because my morning run was interrupted by a green blur.
"Sakura-chan!" Lee hugged me.
"Lee! You're back!" I hugged back.
If Ino was my best girl friend, Hinata was my reliable possibly-neuter friend, and Lee was my little brother friend. Last year he'd apparently asked Ino for help asking me out… yeah. But he bounced back from that heartbreak like a champ. I'd offered his crying face a hug, because he looked like he needed it.
I had not noticed how touch-starved I was until then. Funny fact.
It was different with Ino because I was starting to notice girls again and I did not want those feelings about my best friend. I could hug Hinata, if the environment was quiet. Hinata was a shy animal. Possibly just as touch-starved as me, but that was a topic I hadn't wanted to barrel in. I just made sure I was always there, available for a hug.
Lee was a great hugger. So was Gai-sensei but common sense was about the only thing I'd ever give Gai-sensei a bad grade on.
"You have graduated! I believed in you! Tell me everything!" He jumped in excitement.
"I'm in Team Seven with Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. They're… well they're okay." "Sakura-chan, do not let your world-weariness keep you from forming bonds with your comrades! Neji has become my most dear rival despite our first impressions!" "Fairly sure that's not reciprocated. Anyway, our jounin sensei is Hatake Kakashi–"
Then Lee gasped. "Gasp!" His eyes shone, sparkled even. He was getting to the squeeing point. "Sakura-chan, you're in a team with Gai-sensei's best rival!?"
I blinked. Was there where I had recognized Kakashi-sensei's name from? "Gai-sensei knows him?"
But Lee wasn't really listening anymore. He had a dangerous look on his face. A look that said he was happy, full of energy, and ready to drag whoever off into shenanigans. "We must tell Gai-sensei!"
His hand closed over my wrist and then all thoughts flew from my head. I needed all my brain and muscle power to keep up with Lee as we bounded across the village.
"Lee-kun! Sakura-kun! Good morning!" "Gai-sensei! Sakura-chan is on a team with Kakashi-san!" "Gasp! Sakura-kun, Kakashi passed your genin team?"
I took a breath, wheezed. "Gimme a moment." My lungs! "Yeah, he did. You know Kakashi-sensei, Gai-sensei?"
The flames of youth and passion let up behind Gai-sensei. I immediately regretted opening my mouth. "Yes, Kakashi and I entered the Academy together. We have been eternal rivals ever since, and competed against each other in many contests! To think that Kakashi would become your sensei…" His eyes teared up. "Kakashi! Your heart has finally opened up to the passion I knew resided in you!" Whoa. Was I getting the sordid but heart-warming backstory of my lazy and mysterious teacher?
Suddenly, Gai-sensei was by my side and picking me up like a bag of rice. Or less. He struck a pose, pointing at the horizon, and I was slung under his other arm. Wait, wait, wait–
"Let's go! We must find Kakashi!" "Yosh, Gai-sensei!"
The landscape blurred into indistinct shapes as we accelerated. I just gave up. In record time, we were back at Training Ground Three and heading towards the memorial stone. Hmm?
"Kakashi!" The Blue Beast of Konoha greeted my teacher enthusiastically. "You too have decided to foster the flames of youth in the next generation!"
From where he'd been paying his respects to the fallen, my teacher turned with a sigh. "Gai…" He blinked, eye wide, as he took in our party of three, which was about as much of an about-face as I'd ever seen him make. "... Why do you have one of my students?"
I lifted one palm in close imitation of his customary greeting. "Yo."
Gai-sensei dumped me on the ground, letting me land in a crouch. He approached Kakashi-sensei and threw an arm over his shoulders. "Sakura-kun is a good friend of Lee's and I have given her some guidance on taijutsu while she was still in the Academy. I had no idea she was going to be in your squad this year. What a coincidence!"
"Ah." Said Kakashi-sensei.
"Kakashi, I was teaching Sakura-kun some basics, but I will leave her in your capable hands." He clapped my new teacher on the back. "Hokage-sama is truly wise! The man who knows a thousand jutsu", whoa, what, "is the perfect teacher for Sakura-kun!"
I looked at the gray-haired man in the unforgiving grasp of Gai-sensei's friendship. Kakashi-sensei looked right back at me. I'd say… curious?
"How so, Gai?" He asked his friend.
"You haven't told him, Sakura-kun?" The noble beast of Konoha gasped!
I shrugged. "I've known Kakashi-san for less than a week. You're the only other person I've told aside from my friends."
"Told what?"
I looked at Gai-sensei. He gave me a wink and a thumbs-up. Well, I supposed if he was truly friends with Kakashi-sensei, then my teacher couldn't be a bad person. Actually, he looked… a lot more human and soft in Gai-sensei's arms. Uh. I'd subconsciously relaxed just now.
"Okay." I nodded. "How my chakra system and jutsus actually work. Well, the term that applies the best is hidden technique."
My power wasn't quite a kekkei genkai , a bloodline limit like Hinata's Byakugan, because I had no clue whether or not it would be inheritable. I also had no desire to have kids, so that point was moot. It was definitely something closer to the secret techniques passed down within certain clans like Ino's Yamanaka Clan. Those hidden techniques might or might not have a genetic component, I didn't know what was the real difference between that and bloodline limits.
"My," said Kakashi-sensei, "that's interesting."
He had no clue. I was going to break this man's worldview so bad.
— I wish I could make a power point presentation! —
If I made a chart, I would be able to track Kakashi-sensei's punctuality improving. Amazing. He was only… regularly between fifteen to twenty-five minutes late by the end of our first week.
After Gai-sensei had, thankfully unsuccessfully, badgered Kakashi-sensei about a team competition, our teacher had taken one of us at the time for a talk. Getting a good idea of our complete strengths, he said. Naruto complained a lot that he had gotten a quiz of all things, and ambushed, but I thought he was just salty that he only had the Kage Bushin to show off. Sasuke was happy that our training was being given some consideration, but it was hard to tell with him.
I knew what it was really about. Not to be a narcissist, but it was because of me.
My day arriving, I followed our jounin to a training ground, armed with a pen, a notebook, and two-thousand ryou I had saved up from the missions we'd done this week.
"Alright, this should do." Kakashi-sensei sat down on a log in a corner of a wide clearing.
It didn't have water for my fish transformations, but otherwise it was ok. I nodded. "So, do you want me to explain what's going on with me?"
"That would be helpful." He pulled out his orange book but kept it folded on his knee. "Your files say your chakra pathways are displaced and so you are incapable of learning 'standard jutsu'. But you had good ninjutsu and genjutsu scores in your last years of the Academy."
I could work with that.
"Okay, so the problem is twofold and connected." I started sketching on my notebook. "But I'll start with the obvious one. My chakra pathways are not standard. And I don't mean the natural variation of tenketsu positioning between individuals. I mean, my Eight Gates aren't in the right places."
He blinked. I knew that blink. It was the 'that's impossible' blink and the 'how are you still alive' blink.
"Ask a Hyuuga. Lee can't use ninjutsu and genjutsu because his output and modulation are screwed." Apparently? It was more medical theory than I'd ever needed to learn. "I can't use 'standard jutsu' because all jutsu in the modern era were developed from the teachings of the Great Sage, and all of those are based on humans having regular chakra pathways. Handseals change the way our chakra flows and surges in and from those pathways. Different pathways equals known handseals useless." I circled that in my presentation sheet. "More deeply, focus and control exercises like the forehead-sticky-leaf were optimized based on the tenketsu position of normal people. I have a different structure, so I have more trouble or more ease focussing chakra in different places. Questions?"
"Yes, Sakura-sensei!" He raised a hand, cheeky bastard. "So you can use jutsu. You just can't be taught jutsu."
He'd grasped that fast, as expected. "Correct. All my jutsu are… well, I'd say I figured them out myself but that connects to the second point."
"Your secret techniques." He was interested.
I reminded myself that Gai-sensei wouldn't be friends with a bad person. It was hard to trust people with this. Especially adult ninjas. Gai had been the only person I'd told about the gacha part of my powers. I'd eventually had to tell Lee, but that was it. Even Ino thought I just figured out my transformations somehow by experimenting around.
"Right. So. You're going to think it's cheating." I prefaced. "It's not. Not anymore than bloodline limits are. And I worked hard for it, yeah?"
He nodded. I couldn't get much from his body language.
Deep breath. I started drawing a grid on my notebook, and a button. "As long as I can remember, I've had this in the back of my head. I can't explain the feeling more than a ninja can explain the feeling of chakra to a civilian, or colors to a blind man. I just, have these two things up here." I tapped my forehead, at the corner of my scar. "There's a storage grid, and there's a lever."
"I use the lever and it gives me the power of a monster. Randomly. The power then is stored in the grid. I can use that power to transform into the monster, or to use any of the jutsu, the moves, that the monster knows. Doing it drains the power temporarily and I can't use it anymore for a period of time. Finally, using the lever means I have to pay for it. That's the basics. Should I elaborate or do you have questions about this part? I'll demonstrate later."
Kakashi-sensei was staring at me. I stared back.
"Monsters?" "Best name I got for them." "You pay." "With money." "To whom?" "I assume the gods because it just vanishes from my hands." "I thought you didn't like gambling." "Yeah, might be the fact that my personal development is dependent on a gambling mechanic." "I think you should elaborate now."
So I did. The proportions, the levels, the rarities, my experiments, why I trained my custom handseals, how my chakra interacted with everything. And I showed him. Not just all of my moves. I demonstrated all of my transformations. He saw tiny Natu, physics defiant Solrock, scary Shuppet, regal Absol, massive Snorlax, creepy Mr. Mime, gigantic Onix, and all the others. I flopped on the ground as Goldeen, trying to breathe, I set the grass on fire as Slugma. It was the most intensive session I'd ever done. I'd never deprived myself of all of my daily transformations before. I discussed my forms with him, tactics I wanted to use, ways I wanted to use my power to its maximum efficiency.
Finally, I pulled on the gacha. Once with my money and once with a couple of bills provided by Kakashi-sensei. Just like I'd expected, the money vanished from my hands like a greedy god and come down and snapped its fingers, leaving no trace it had ever existed.
I got Feebas again.
And then, then, then! "OOOOOOOHHHHH!" I pulled a five-star, ultra-rare pokemon. A Legendary. My first. Regirock. I needed to use other people's money more often!
And Kakashi-sensei? From the way he was dragging his hand over his face, he was grasping very well what my secret techniques meant.
— We are Genin! —
"Hey, Sakura, over here!" Ino called out to me. I raised my arm back in greeting and squeezed between tables to reach them. "Hello people."
Most of teams Seven, Eight and Ten were here. Kiba hadn't made it, he had something with his family, apparently, and Naruto had tried to convince Sasuke to come as well. Thankfully, he hadn't succeeded, so I could spend time with my good friend, Ino. She was the one who had decided we were owed a graduation party lunch as the teams that had not only graduated but also kept their senseis.
I'd been right. It was hard to un-genin a genin. Jounin, however, were freer to determine which students actually deserved to learn directly from them full-time. It made sense. All the time they were spending baby-sitting genin was time they weren't spending on better paid, more exciting missions. I suspected genin baby-sitting got paid, but I wasn't sure. Kakashi-sensei took a cut from our missions and, well, he spent them reading his little adult books.
"You're in a good mood." Chouji greeted me.
"I have a well-paying job." I grinned.
"""Ah."""
You guys could say whatever you wanted! I'd gone from pulling once every two weeks to pulling twice a week! And that was because I was slowly replacing my weapons and getting a good set of armored clothing! One day, I was going to renovate my house! Or maybe even move into a better place!
"We're having boring missions every day." Naruto complained. "It's all clean this, babysit, clean that, urgh!"
"These are the sort of missions we genin start with." Said Shikamaru, slumped on the table. He hadn't changed a bit. "They're easy."
"Well, I want to get to the exciting missions now, not later!"
"Your sensei having you do missions every day is strange. Why? Because our team has days allocated solely to training." Aburame Shino interjected. He seemed more lively than usual.
"It's because our team is really not good at teamwork." I explained. "The boys keep getting into trouble during our D-rank missions, fighting each other, the clients, random animals…" Naruto shrank under my observations. "It's pointless to train together if we can't even do chores correctly as a team."
"Hey–" "Shadow Clones. Fence. Paint." "Urk!" Critical hit.
Next to me, Hinata tried, and I mean tried, to encourage Naruto. The words wouldn't leave her mouth. But hey, she hadn't checked out yet, so she was improving. Get him girl, at least you like a guy for his personality, even if it's a completely incomprehensible choice to me!
"Sasuke-kun's not coming?" Ino pouted.
I resisted the urge to sigh. "Nope, he had stuff to do, apparently. Hey, tell us about your sensei, he looked cool. Ours was five hours late, five hours." Please Ino, take the bait.
"Eh!?" "Gods." "That is unprofessional. Why?" "Kuren-nai-sensei wouldn't ev-ver do that."
I was vindicated, vindicated I say!
Ino rolled her eyes. "Asume-sensei smokes like a chimney, it's disgusting. Did you know he's the Hokage's son?"
No, I had not known. I had not known the Hokage had children. I vaguely remembered he was married, because he had told me so himself, but kids? Then Naruto revealed he knew Konohamaru, which was… a name, who was the Hokage's grandson. A vast conspiracy of gossip unraveled as we tried to determine if Konohamaru was Asuma's kid from a previous marriage because apparently the Team Ten jounin had the hots for Team Eight's jounin… Who was a very pretty lady that I had not girl-crushed on, no sir.
At the end of lunch we were almost kicked out for being too loud, see Naruto, and had to split an enormous bill. I was trying not to blame Chouji here. And we also got laughed out of trying to split more than one single beer between us. That had been Ino's idea but Shino's execution.
"That was nice!" Naruto was smiling widely as we walked home. We lived more or less in the same direction, although my house was much closer than his. "We should meet up more often!"
"It's only going to get harder to get all of us together." I told him, thinking of my friendship with Lee. "The moment we start taking out of village missions, even just a farming D-rank, we're going to keep missing each other."
"Man, that sucks." He put his hands in his pockets. "Hey, do you think that bastard is never going to come?"
"Don't call Sasuke a bastard." I reminded him again. "I hope not, but you can't make people like to hang out. Some people just like their alone time."
"That's so weird." "Not everybody's an extrovert like you, Orange. If I don't get my daily dose of peace and quiet I get real cranky too, ya know." "Ok, ok, I get it! Why do you have to be so scary like that?" "Gotta keep you boys on your toes."
Life was good. I was getting stronger, my friends were growing up, the village was at peace. Sooner or later, we were going to get into the hard part of being a ninja, but for now, I was going to enjoy the sun.
— Notes:
Me, being original? not today I will not be expending too many of my brain cells trying to be original for a self indulgent fic.
Team Orphan will be the joke of the arc, I'm telling you. It's even funnier if you consider Kakashi also counts but will never tell them.
Also wanted to have the bell test go a little different towards the end, because this is not the same Haruno Sakura, and her experience and maturity will have an impact on the team dynamics. Really wanted Sakura to not figure it out until the last moment. The scene in which Naruto declares his wish was a lot more hostile and Kakashi was pushier, but I felt this flowed better. I think it's better than people immediately knowing what the exercise is about. Sakura does adequate helping out her teammates, but never is put in a situation where she has to choose among them, so Kakashi tests her resolve a little bit. Wanted to get a bit of Sakura's overall thought process here, also some Kakashi bonding (and a responsible Kakashi). As an adult, she's going to be more likely to feel comfortable talking as an equal to him over Naruto and Sasuke. For his part, Kakashi is getting that his 'clever kunoichi' is a breed apart although he'll only really understand how much until later.
Really need to get the Kakashi perspective finished because it's hard to convey Sakura's wack fighting skills from her own perspective. Fortunately, Sasuke didn't see the Leers she used, but Kakashi is inwardly a) intrigued, b) confused, c) having a nagging feeling of familiarity. This is more to set up the Kakashi POV of whatever the fuck a transmigrator's power looks like from out of context.
If Kakashi wasn't ace, he'd probably be doing (and being done by) Gai, tbh. Men be platonically married for seven years, yo. This be the point where Kakashi be: oh, oh that makes sense, of course my weird genin knows Gai, that's why the taijutsu felt familiar.
In the tiny epilogue to the second arc, I wanted a friendship moment between these kids who all know each other from years together and are now separated while they start their new job.