10
Today was the day of the final exam. Apparently, Iruka caught on to what Akari had been doing on the previous tests and called her in before Sasuke. "Akari, in order to pass all you need to create is one successful clone of yourself." Iruka Sensei explained as he and Mizuki watched her closely. Iruka then smiled when she didn't do anything and put his elbows on the table in front of him, resting his chin in his hands. "We both know Sasuke can easily do this jutsu now. Even if you pass you know he won't fail this test." He speaks gently and Akari gives him a nod. Slipping one hand into her pocket, she closes her eyes figuring the odds of how many students who can complete a single simple replica. Adding that with those who would create more as they attempt to be the best. Knowing Sasuke he would weigh the probability of how many can create three so he would shoot for five as a safe number. Nearly nodding to herself, Akari works her chakra through the jutsu, imagining the number of clones she wishes to create ever before engaging the jutsu. Popping sounds erupt around her drawing her to open her eyes and look around. Silently counting her clones if only to make certain she has retained her chakra control over the years ever before releasing the jutsu.
Iruka Sensei smiles as he waits for the smoke to clear. "Well done, Akari. You pass." He needlessly states for her and with a hand, he motions to the forehead protectors laid out on the table. "You may take your forehead protector. Orientation is in one week from today at ten." He informs her nearly causing her to sigh. Over the years she has noticed that Iruka Sensei almost enjoys being nonspecific if only to throw people through loops. Inwardly she was actually glad he had chosen today to not try and mess with her though it did leave her to wonder exactly how long he will be able to keep this up and which student will become his unsuspecting comic relief. Akari gives him a nod before she steps forward and grabs herself a blue forehead protector before walking out of the room.
She was left waiting outside of the academy for Sasuke. Once he steps out, he gives her a curious look as he wonders if she had purposefully failed again. With a single glance towards him Akari nearly sighs and closes her eyes briefly as she pulls her new headband from her pocket and holds it up for him to see. He smirks and closes his eyes a moment before he too pulls his from his pocket as well long enough for her to open her eyes and look back in his direction to see it. Akari manages a small smile as she pushes from the wall and steps up next to him after slipping her headband back into her pocket. "Let's go get some Barbeque, then we can find an actual training ground to train in." He mutters in his 'I don't care if you come along or not tone.' Akari nods to him as she continues to walk beside him, knowing their days in the academy are finally over. Their careers as ninja are only just beginning, meaning now she will finally be able to watch over and protect Sasuke as she had promised Itachi years ago she would.
"I hope we get placed on the same team." Sasuke sighs as they set at one of the tables in the barbeque restaurant. "It would be annoying if I have to deal with two idiots on my team." He continued his thought as he rests his elbows on the table and folds his hands in front of his face. As the waiter sets their plates on the table with beef strips and vegetables Akari picks up her chopsticks and begins to set the food out on the grill. "From watching them this year, I can already tell you who will be on what team. Since the beginning of the year they have steadily been playing with different grouping, weighing the abilities and success rate of each pairing. From knowing this, I can say with certainty that you and I will be on a team."
"I see your point." He grunts watching the food as Akari flips them. "You had pointed out there was a pattern." She nods before picking up the plates and begins dipping out the food for the two of them. "If that is the case there would be four on our team. I can't see them letting that happen." Akari just shrugs in between bites. "It all depends on how many graduated. Either way, what happens, happens correct?" Sasuke grunts in agreement to her words as he begins eating himself, officially accepting her thoughts on the subject they had been discussing.
For the next week, Sasuke and Akari trained every day at six a.m. since they no longer had to deal with going to the academy for school. To Akari's dismay the training grounds he had chosen since it held a significant emotional attachment for him weighed heavily on her heart at first. He had successfully chosen the cliffs on the other side of the trees of the compound. To her, it hadn't changed at all, with a multitude of waterfalls settled on the other side of the ravine that flow down to a river below. Every now and then Akari would find herself pausing as she could feel eyes on them, viewing their training. She couldn't figure out who would be watching them and a small part of her was screaming saying it was one of Danzo's men. That he had figured out who she is. The fact of the matter was, their training sessions were no longer private and this bothered her. When she finally broke down and told Sasuke considering what was happening, he only grunted and smirked. Telling her it was probably jonin or Iruka Sensei trying to see for themselves how they fit together outside of the academy. A true enough fact that Akari couldn't dispute his reasonings. In fact, she couldn't understand why she didn't come to that conclusion herself.
On the day of Orientation, they ended their training early from having chosen to train in their backyard that morning. They readied themselves and even put on their new headbands for the first time since graduation before leaving the house. Orientation is to start at ten so they decided to get there early in order to find places to sit before everyone who passed could take all of the good seats. Good being forcing either Sasuke or Akari to sit next to people they can't tolerate. As expected when they walk into their classroom, only four other kids were already there. Sasuke chose a desk halfway down in the classroom so that they were almost level with one of the windows and he will be able to peer outside when he wishes to ignore everyone, so Akari let him sit on the end and she slipped in behind him to wait for it to start.
Steadily the classroom grew noisier by the second. The thrum of talking echoing against the walls in the room had Akari leaning forward in her seat and resting her head on the table. Seeing this, had Sasuke chuckling a bit before he moved his gaze away from her to watch outside. "Give it up, I had to look back to see you, my toe was at least a tenth of an inch ahead!" and just like that, the worst girls of them all arrived. "Have you always been this delusional?" Already Ino and Sakura were arguing with each other just before Akari could hear someone running in their direction. "Sasuke!" Sakura's voice pitches excitedly and that spurred a newfound fight against the girls in the room, about who would get to sit at the same table as Sasuke just because they were here first. They were getting really loud before Akari's attention was brought to a thump on the desk.
Turning her head she peers in Sasuke's direction to see none other than an orange-outfitted Naruto glaring daggers at him. Their faces are only inches apart from each other as their glares become so intense Akari could envision electricity flying between them. Then the unthinkable happened. The boy in the row ahead of them stood up to greet his friends and bumped against Naruto sending him off balance. The lips of both boys touch each other in a kiss that had Akari choking back a fit of laughter. Unrefined noises leave her as she continues her losing battle watching the two boys manage to pull away from each other choking and sputtering in disgust. Akari raises her hands to her mouth much as Sasuke had done on their first day in the academy. Successfully achieving a glare from Sasuke that only causes her lips to vibrate against each other with another burst of laughter that tried to force its way from her.
"Na. ru. to." Sakura growls in anger as Akari hears her beginning to pop her knuckles nearly automatically sobering the female Uchiha. In seconds, faster than it took the boys to break their abrupt and unplanned kiss Akari pushes from her seat and lands between Naruto and the group of girls. "Akari, out of the way if you don't want some of this!" A girl shouts nearly causing her to frown before she suddenly straightens her shoulders and raises her hand as she slips her right leg behind her a bit. Falling into a fighting stance causes the girls to grunt. For years, they have bullied this girl and picked on her to the point of beating her up. Not once had Akari stood up to them leading them to believe that she was simply scared of them. Yet, here she stands ready to fight as her onyx hues narrow upon them. Reminding them of when they would watch her face off against Sasuke in taijutsu class.
"Akari." Sasuke speaks her name pulling the girls' gazes including Naruto's to him. Akari hesitates only a moment before exhaling a slow breath and dropping her stance. She then leaps back over the desk and takes her place next to him once again. Leaving the girls in utter shock that Sasuke had only needed to speak Akari's name for the girl to back down nearly immediately. "Alright, everyone take your seats." Iruka Sensei's voice breaks the now shock-ridden silence as he enters the room. Pushing the girls to disperse and Naruto to finally stand. When Sakura moves to sit next to her Akari simply raises her hand signaling her to stop before suddenly motioning for Naruto to sit next to her instead. Successfully placing Naruto between her and Sakura. Unsurprisingly Naruto scrambles quickly to sit beside her as Sakura exhales a heavy sigh as if her life was coming to an end.
"We want each squad to have a balance of strength and ability. So that's how we set them up." Iruka Sensei explains pulling a stack of papers out of his ninja pouch calmly before he looks down at them to read what is written. "I will now announce the squads." Akari glances to her right at Naruto seeing he is now a wiggling bundle of nerves. "Calm down Naruto." She utters out quietly causing him to squeak in shock from her actually talking to him for the first time outside of group combat training. "I've already figured out what teams they've set up from watching them this year. We'll be on the same team." She tries to reassure him drawing Sasuke's gaze to her from the corner of his eye now realizing she had been right all year. Even now, the four of them were sitting at the same desk just as they had done for most of the year.
"Huh? Really?!" He shouts both nervously and a bit excitedly as if he has been itching for this chance. Upon hearing this Akari nearly frowns. In the beginning, she never wanted to be in the story she had once known by heart. In all honesty, she had wanted to fall into the background where it wouldn't be so dangerous. However, it seems the cosmos had other plans for her. Not only did she end up living with Sasuke and Itachi but Itachi and Shisui had become her best friends. To save them she was intertwined in their destinies including the night that broke all of them. Now, she will be on... "Squad 7!" Iruka Sensei calls pulling Akari from her thoughts. "Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka Sensei pauses a moment as Naruto gives a nervous grunt. "Sakura Haruno." Naruto shoots from his seat and sends his arms into the air as he cheers for joy nearly catching Akari across the face from his sudden movements. "Sasuke Uchiha..." Now Sakura stands yelling victory with her arms in the air from her excitement as Naruto finally sits down looking as if his birthday was just taken away from him. "And Akari Uchiha." Akari smiles slightly before shooting Sasuke a glance from the corner of her eye seeing him smirk behind his hands. She knew it. From watching them this year, she knew that she would be placed on the main squad.
"Iruka Sensei, why does a great ninja like me have to be in the same group with a slug, like Sasuke!" Naruto's yell had Akari wincing a bit as she closes her eyes again. She can already hear Sakura growling on the other side of her in annoyance. "Sasuke is the student who graduated with the best scores out of all of the graduating class, Naruto you had the worst scores. To create a balanced group we put the best students with the worst students."
"Basically stating, Naruto and Sasuke are on the same team because they balance each other out. I am on the team because I balance out Sakura. They placed the two best in the class on the same team as the two weakest in the class." Akari explains in a way Naruto can understand causing Naruto's eyes to widen. "Whoa, Akari. You're really smart!" Akari gives a shrug not saying anything more. "Just make sure you don't get in my way." Sasuke says a bit condescendingly. "Loser."
"Hey what did you say?!" Naruto growls out in annoyance at him, again like usual. "Hard of hearing?" Sasuke sounds almost bored though from the corner of her eyes, Akari could see him smirking. For some reason, annoying Naruto is one of his favorite pass times. "Knock it off Naruto set down!" Sakura snaps at Naruto as Iruka Sensei clears his throat. "After lunch, you will meet your new Jonin teachers. Until then class dismissed." Iruka Sensei says causing everyone to start getting up to leave.
Akari stands and slips her hands back into her pockets following Sakura out of the room with Naruto behind her and Sasuke behind him. "Hey, Sasuke! How about we, well we go get lunch together?!" Sakura suddenly calls out as she moves quickly to Sasuke's side. The boy however sighs heavily with a groan before he pushes forward and grabs Akari's wrist officially pulling her behind him as he is dead set on leaving the other two members of the team behind. It is only once they were outside that he finally lets go of her and she steps up behind him. "You made lunch last night." He more points out rather than asks drawing a nod from her. "Then we'll head home and eat before we have to come back."
It was during their lunch, Sasuke had decided to eat in his room as he has tended to do periodically over the years. Meaning he wishes for some time alone after having been in a noisy room during Orientation. Akari had just finished her onigiri when she heard bangs and rustling echo through the house. Tilting her head she runs towards Sasuke's room when it didn't stop. By the time she gets his door open her eyes skim over the upset furniture to find him on the floor tied up with white tape over his mouth. He was looking up at her with sheer annoyance in his gaze. As he tries to tell her something his words are muffled by the tape. Akari steps up to him and pulls a kunai from her holster ever before crouching down in front of him with amusement clearly dancing through her eyes.
When she slices the ropes binding him she leaves the tape for him to pull off after he sets up. She continues to watch him as she slips her kunai back into her holster seeing him rip the tape from his mouth with a grunt. "Naruto." He breathes out in anger through clenched teeth. Akari's eyes widen briefly from having forgotten this part of the story due to the fact it has now been twelve years since she last combed through her research. After the momentary shock, she couldn't help but smirk about what had just happened. "Akari, I'll meet you at the academy." He mutters before getting up and running past her out of his room. Standing Akari turns to leave his room as well before she hears the front door slamming shut as Sasuke bolts from the house. Walking back to the kitchen she picks up her water bottle and finishes the contents before throwing it away. Once she washes their plates and tidies up the mess in Sasuke's room she walks out of the house to make her way back toward the academy.
In the Jonin meeting hall of the Hokage tower, Jonin and chunin have gathered. Eight Jonin stand up in front of the group congregating in the center of the hall as others line the walls. The Third Hokage is setting at the top of the short steps looking down at them. "The genin that are assigned to team seven, are Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Akari Uchiha. I'll be placing Kakashi Hatake in charge of this team." Genma smirks and looks to his right at Izumo. "You know what I heard? That Kakashi has never passed a group of genin he's been placed in charge of before." With Genma's words, Izumo looks over towards him as Iruka tries to act like he isn't listening. "Is the Hokage trying to prevent Naruto from advancing or something?" Kotetsu looks at the two talking. "And the two Uchiha too?" Iruka gasps slightly before looking towards the back of Kakashi's head.
"Understood Kakashi?" The Hokage looks up from the papers he's holding in his hands towards the Jonin. "Yes, sir." Kakashi answers quietly thinking about the fact he has not one but both remaining Uchiha on his team. "Team eight will be Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame. Kurenai Yuhi will be in charge of those three." Kurenai grunts with surprise before standing up straight. " , sir." She answers quietly. "Now Kurenai, this is your first time being in charge of genin, isn't it? Keep in mind the Jonin in charge will decide their future." He informs her causing Kurenai to nod. "Right, I'll be careful with them sir."
"Now team ten genin are. Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi. I am placing Asuma Sarutobi in charge of them." The Third no sooner finishes before Asuma speaks up. "Roger." His movements are rather tense as he stands straight with a serious look to his gaze.
Shortly after all the genin were listed and given Jonin, the Hokage stands calling out for Kakashi's attention. "I would like to take you to Naruto's home so you can get an idea of his position." Kakashi nearly sighs but he gives a single short nod. "Right." He utters out before turning. "You should know, Sasuke and Akari have lived together since before that night." The third speaks up as if he was simply talking about the weather. This information though, has Kakashi glancing to him from the corner of his eye. "Is it wise to have them both on the same team Lord Hokage? That would suggest by now they should have a familial bond more than simply clansmen." He counters the third's reasoning causing the old man to grunt in thought.
"I had thought that too. Though from the reconnaissance I had sent to scout them out that doesn't seem to be true." He iterates for the jonin drawing his gaze more fully on the Hokage. "You see, on more than one occasion over their time in the academy Sasuke had claimed Akari is his best friend but according to Iruka, he couldn't see it before these last couple of years. It is as if Akari has shut herself off from her emotions nearly entirely." The Third Hokage explains for Kakashi causing the jonin to sigh heavily. "What happened probably caused this." He speaks more to himself rather than the third next to him. The Hokage hums in thought again as he watches ahead of them while they walk. "Before the tragic incident, it is well known that Itachi and Akari had been close. Perhaps closer than Sasuke had been to his own older brother. I am telling you this, Kakashi. As their Jonin leader, it is your job to aid in her growth both physically and emotionally. Being a ninja now, we cannot have Akari simply following orders just because they were given to her as a mission. If she remains detached from her emotions her growth as a human being is at an end."