Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Aiko ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Aiko was waiting for Iruka to announce the genin teams. She was sitting next to Hinata and trying to get the eternally shy girl to speak, even a little. It seemed that Hinata had an iron will about something; that something just happened to be not talking. Eventually Iruka walked into the room followed shortly there after by Mizuki and began a long winded speech about this new step in their lives, and what it meant to be a Konoha shinobi or kunoichi. Everyone in the room had the same dead expression on their face, the one that was in between asleep and zombie. Even Mizuki wasn't holding up too well.

Iruka wrapped up his speech and moved onto the business of the day, proceeding through the teams by number until he reached team seven.

“Team Seven is Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke…” At this, Sakura leapt from her seat and began to yell at Ino. Aiko wasn't paying attention, it was something about how `true love wins out' or something.

“Your third teammate is Aiko.” Iruka's voice broke up the victory dance that Sakura was currently doing, and made the blonde want to smash her head against the desk.

`Why? What did I do to deserve that girl on my team? I suppose I can stand Sasuke, he at least takes the job seriously, but come on! Sakura barely has enough chakra to get home at night, let alone fight.' She wasn't paying attention until Hinata got placed on team eight with Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba.

Aiko liked Shino, he was quiet, but she knew he was strong and intelligent. Plus there was always the dark, mysterious thing he had going. Kiba…she didn't hate him, but he was just too loud and quick to judge for her tastes.

Once more she drifted off into her own little world and missed the announcement of the final two teams of genin, before Iruka announced that their jounin instructors would meet them after lunch. She was going to eat with Hinata, but the shy girl insisted that she eat with her team and Aiko grudgingly agreed that it would help them in the long run. So dejectedly, angrily, and possibly most of all, hungry, Aiko walked away from her only friend in an attempt to find her own team members and try and salvage a bad situation.

She found Sasuke eating his lunch in a secluded room a little ways from the academy and approached from the open window.

“Sasuke-san, would you mind if I ate lunch here? Since we're on the same team, I thought I should get to know you and Sakura better.”

The Uchiha's knee jerk reaction was to say no, but then again, Aiko was a mystery to him, so he probably shouldn't brush her off like he would Sakura. After all, she did beat him on the graduation exam.

“If you wanted to learn about the team, why didn't you go talk with Haruno?” He asked, taking another bite.

“Mainly because she gives kunoichi a bad name…well, that and I kinda figured she be stalking you…you know, kill two birds with one stone.”

Sasuke just nodded his head in agreement. For the most part, the two just sat in silence eating their food, except for the rare times when one of the two would break the silence to ask a question. When they finished there was just enough time to get back to the academy before they were supposed to meet their sensei. They made it to the classroom before Sakura found the two and tried to latch onto Sasuke like some kind of leech. She missed, as Sasuke side stepped and she flew past him, right into Ino, who had tried almost the same thing, at the same time.

The collision of the two biggest fan girls brought a laugh to the throats of every person in the room, as well as a blush of embarrassment to the faces of the girls in question. The class quickly settled down as the first of the jounins entered the room. The room emptied out surprisingly quick, until it was just team seven left. They waited…and waited…halfway through their third round of waiting, Sakura surpassed her own record by asking Sasuke out on a date for the sixteenth time that day. True to form, the stoic boy set a new record for turning down the pink haired menace. Over an hour passed and there was still no sign of their teacher. The time continued to tick by, until after another forty minutes, the door opened, and in stepped their teacher.

He wore the standard uniform of a Konoha jounin, dark blue with the green jacket symbolizing his rank. He had grey hair that spiked upwards and leaned to his left. The peculiar thing was that his forehead protector was slanted over his left eye, completely obscuring it from view, as well as a mask that covered the lower portion of his face. Sakura went banshee and tried to scream the late man's head off, but he just ignored her and proceeded to eye each of the remaining genin.

“My first impression of you guy's…I don't like you…at all.” The last bit was said while his eyes were locked with Aiko's, but she just ignored the glare. “Meet me on the roof.” With that, the masked man disappeared.

When the team reached the roof top they saw that their sensei was sitting on the rail, reading a well worn orange book. The sat down and waited for their teacher to speak, but he just sat there and read until he reached an acceptable stopping point and snapped the book shut.

“Well, I guess we should introduce ourselves, why don't you go first Pinky.”

“My name is Sakura!” The girl spoke through clenched teeth at the insult. “What do you mean introduce ourselves?”

“You know, likes, dislikes, dreams for the futures, stuff like that. I'll go first, my name is Hatake Kakashi, and my likes aren't any of you're business, my dislikes are…well, actually you don't need to know those and my goal for the future…maybe you'll find out later.”

“Well, my name is Haruno Sakura, my likes are…” She blushed and looked over at Sasuke. “My dislikes are Ino pig, my dreams for the future…” Once again she blushed and looked at Sasuke who just stared at Kakashi to avoid the gaze of the girl.

“All right, the one that's staring at me like I'm a steak, you're up.” Kakashi wouldn't admit it, but the stare from Sasuke was giving him a creepy feeling. It was like Sasuke disliked him, but then there was this spark of something more akin to love than respect. Overall, it made the Uchiha look like a fangi- fanboy.

“My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I don't like anything, and I dislike a number of things. My goal in life isn't so much a goal, but an ambition…to resurrect my clan and to kill a certain man.” He hadn't moved his body at all while talking, and his hands had covered his mouth, so it honestly looked like he was a puppet, or a ventriloquist's dummy. Sakura was looking at him like he was a piece of cake, while Aiko thought the boy was too serious, even if his family had been murdered.

`Seriously, just take some time off and go…I don't know fish or something, just do something fun. Then again, he probably considerers training until he passes out fun, so someone else should make a list of activities.' She shook her head, saddened that the reports she had read weren't wrong. He seemed too focused on his `revenge' to care about anything else, this team included.

“Alright, the short one, you're up.”

“My name is Aiko; my likes are my parents and sister, plus some other stuff I guess. My dislikes are people who are late, people who hold grudges and those who can't see past those grudges. My dream for the future is to find out some stuff…maybe become Hokage or something.” She shrugged at the end of her little speech. Her dreams for the future weren't set yet and mostly revolved around traveling with her parents again, a task that seemed less likely now that she was a ninja.

“Well I guess that it for today, tomorrow you will take the actual genin test, here are some instructions that I expect you to follow. Oh, and don't eat breakfast, you'll just throw up.” He was turning around to walk off, when Sakura interrupted his escape.

“Wait! What do you mean by `actual test'? I thought we already took the genin test?”

“Actually, what we took was a test that was designed to see if we had the potential to become genin, not to test if we had the skills to be genin.” It was the blonde who spoke up, making Sakura's jaw drop as the new girl seemed to know more about Konoha's shinobi than she did. “My only question is what kind of test are you talking about?”

“A survival exercise.” Kakashi's answer was intentionally short, but Aiko just nodded her head in understanding.

“But we already did survival exercises in the academy!” Sakura wailed, as her teacher disappeared before her eyes. Her two teammates just began to walk away, Sasuke towards his home for some training, and Aiko to hers for dinner. Realizing that she was being ignored, Sakura quickly regrouped and began to chase after Sasuke.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The next day was nice, it was too early to tell how warm it would be, but there wasn't a rain cloud in the sky, so it would probably be pretty nice. Sakura had arrived at the training grounds first and sat beneath a tree to wait for the rest of her team. She was so happy to have Sasuke on her team that she hadn't really gotten to think about the rest of the components. Kakashi was late yesterday, and seemed really cryptic, but she didn't want to make a judgment about the man just yet. The new girl was a whole other story. Her introduction wasn't any help and was nearly as cryptic as Kakashi's, so she couldn't really figure out what this girl was about. She didn't know who her parents were, but they were obviously ninja, since they had been training her and she passed the exam without any trouble at all. The girl was a complete mystery to Sakura, and what was worse, she couldn't figure out if Aiko was trying to steal Sasuke away from her! The pink haired girl spent the twenty minutes until Sasuke arrived, just thinking about her fellow kunoichi.

When Sasuke walked onto the training ground, he noticed that Sakura was actually being quiet, a truly remarkable feat and one he hoped she didn't stop anytime soon. He took a seat on the opposite side of the tree from Sakura, trying to hide himself for as long as possible.

It wasn't for a while longer that Aiko showed up, munching on a breakfast bar. She seemed to be well rested for how early it was in the morning. She walked over to her teammates and was about to greet them when Sakura broke her silence.

“Hey! Kakashi-sensei's note said that we shouldn't eat anything! He'll be mad if he catches you disobeying him.”

“Relax; I've got enough for both of you, besides what kind of idiot goes into a test without a good breakfast?” Sakura had the decency to blush as she realized that the blonde had a point and silently accepted the food that was offered.

“Aren't you worried about Kakashi? He did say that we shouldn't eat anything and we should obey his instructions, shouldn't we?” She asked, looking at the blonde who was trying to get Sasuke to take some food. “One of the basic rules of being a shinobi is to follow any order given by a superior officer, so why did you disobey Kakashi-sensei's order?”

“Man, I can't believe they still feed you that crap, no wonder Kaa-chan and Tou-san wanted me out of here before I got to the academy. Look; that is just some crappy idea that the council is feeding you so that you'll take orders from them. The reality is that since the end of the last great war, each ninja is to be held responsible for their actions, weather they were `following orders' or not and there's not a thing that the council will or could do to save you.”

Sakura was in shock. Was there really a provision that held ninja responsible for their actions?

“But…but…”

“Look, you're going to have to read the treaty yourself to see the exact wording, but if it makes you feel any better, it wasn't Konoha that proposed the idea.”

This time it was Sasuke that spoke up, it was a good thing, because Sakura was busy impersonating a fish…or maybe she was practicing blowing spit bubbles.

“If Konoha didn't suggest the idea, who did?”

“Well, I don't know the name of the guy, but it was one of the negotiators from Iwa.” Aiko picked out another breakfast bar and began to chew it while she leaned back against the rough bark and closed her eyes.

“Iwa? But…they wouldn't suggest something like that! They're the ones responsible for the majority of the massacres during the war.” Sakura spoke up again, surprised at what she didn't know.

“The thing you've got to remember is that everything you've learned has a bias to it. Konoha has intentionally painted itself in a positive light, to make themselves look like the good guys in the war. Iwa suggested it because they were angry that the `KÄ«roi SenkÅ' was going to get away without being punished.” Aiko's speech left the remaining genin stunned and by the time they regained their voices, the blonde had fallen asleep.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Roughly half an hour later, the relative calm of the situation was broken by a loud yell and then a crash. Sakura jumped up and ran to inspect the newly formed crater. Sasuke remained as stationary as ever and just looked over at what had caught the girl's attention. Aiko woke up, but didn't seem as interested in the recent action. She was still rubbing her eyes when Sakura returned with a very frazzled Kakashi who still seemed out of it judging by the leafs still stuck in his hair.

“I guess I should have warned you that Kaa-chan doesn't take well to people being tardy.” Aiko made a few hand seals before they were surrounded by a light blue glow and she moved her hands over Kakashi's head, taking care of the small concussion he had received from her mom.

Kakashi just nodded his thanks once he regained his mental bearings.

“Well, since we're all here we might as well get on with the test.” He pulled two silver bells out of his pocket and tied them to his waist. “The object of this test is to get one of these bells from me. You can use any tricks or techniques you know, but you won't stand a chance of getting one of these, if you don't come at me with the intent to kill. You'll have until noon, which is about…three hours from now, so I suggest you try and get one quickly. Those of you who don't get one get tied to those posts over there and have to watch as I eat lunch and then you'll have to go back to the academy.”

“But there are only two bells!” Sakura pointed out.

“Yep, well I guess at least one of you is going to fail. You know, your time is ticking.”

Sakura realized that she was the only one still standing in front of the jounin and quickly ran into the forest to hide herself. While she was hiding herself, Sasuke was positioning himself so he could set some traps in an attempt to corner the jounin. He was very determined to get one of those bells and nothing would stop him.

Aiko had disappeared and immediately sat down to think the test over. Not what the meaning of it was, she already knew it was about teamwork, but how she could get her teammates to work together. Sakura would be easy enough, just wait until Sasuke attacked and the pink lemming would follow easily enough. The problem was getting Sasuke to work in anything that resembled a team. Giving up for the time being, she stealthily began to search for either of her teammates, before Kakashi could pick them off.

She found Sakura, some twenty feet from Kakashi, passed out and under the effects of a genjutsu, which she quickly dispelled. Though it was expected, Aiko still was a bit miffed when the girls first words started with an `S' and ended with a `asuke-kun!' Aiko quickly slapped her hand over Sakura's mouth before she filled her in on the plan.

“Will you please shut up!” The blonde hissed. “Look, he's too strong for any one of us to take on, so we'll need to work together if we want to get the bells.”

“But there are only two bells,” Sakura whined.

“I know that! Just listen to me. I'm going to move over that way to get behind Kakashi-sensei. You move the other way and when I attack, you run in and grab the bells.” Sakura thought the plan through a bit, it might work, if Aiko was strong enough than Sakura would have ample time to get the bells…and when she did, she'd make sure that Sasuke-kun would be all hers when she gave him the bell, and Aiko was sent back to the academy! She nodded her head, giving Aiko her unspoken word to help out in her attack and the two split up to get into position.

What Sakura didn't know was that Aiko took a small detour to find and talk with Sasuke. She found the Uchiha with his head barely above ground and his mouth spewing a string of obscenities. She reached down and pulled out the Uchiha, but not before kicking some dirt in his hair for telling her to leave him alone.

“You teme, is that how you treat the person who just pulled your ass out of the ground?”

Sasuke had the humility to mumble an apology before he tried to pull away and go after Kakashi again, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

“Look, you're a better fighter than Sakura, so I know that you've realized that we'll need to work together to get those bells.” She was interrupted almost immediately by the boy.

“I don't need any help; teamwork would only slow me down.” He once again tried walking away, expecting Aiko to try and stop him. To his immense surprise she only gave a half hearted attempt.

“Fine, but I'm warning you right now, Sakura and I have already agreed to work together and I'll guarantee you that we'll get the bells. That leaves you as the odd man out going back to the academy and then how strong will you look?”

Sasuke froze; a tantalizing idea had just struck him. If he were to take advantage of the fight between Aiko and Kakashi, than he could get the bells and keep both of them, that way he wouldn't need to work as a team! It was perfect, that way he would have all the time he needed to get training and avenge his clan!

“Fine, but it's your job to distract him, while I get the bells.” Expecting nothing less from the Uchiha, Aiko moved on with her task, secure in knowing that she would pass now.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Kakashi was reading his book, waiting for his final student to come out of the woodwork. He knew that since she was the daughter of two sannin that she wouldn't be a push over, but that was about all he could rule out in her case. There was no indication of how strong she might be, if she would have her mother's insane strength or weather she was more tactical like Jiraiya. Sensing an incoming attack, the grey haired pervert ducked under the pair of shuriken that had been aimed at his head.

“You know Sasuke tried something like that…didn't work too well.” He admonished, still reading his book, though he knew he couldn't afford to do that much longer.

“Yeah, well, I'm not Sasuke.” Aiko's reply came from behind him, though the throwing stars had come from in front. It was a shock that someone had been able to sneak up on him, let alone get him confused as to their location. He quickly snapped his book closed and put it away, concentrating solely on the situation.

The blonde's first attack was swift, and she showed a definite superiority in her taijutsu to Sasuke. He had nearly been hit in the stomach, but had twisted out of the way quickly enough as to avoid the blow. The tree behind him hadn't been so lucky and was nearly vaporized by the sudden expulsion of chakra from the girl's hand.

Having sufficiently tested his now most promising pupil, Kakashi decided to step up things a bit. He formed a few hand seals and began to spin a very rudimentary illusion, slightly stronger than what he had trapped Sakura with, but still not above high genin level. To her credit, Aiko just shrugged the attempt off and continued to push the jounin back, though still not landing a hit.

Kakashi used a substitution to avoid the next attack, and used the extra time to perform another technique. He disappeared into the ground and attempted to repeat his performance against Sasuke, but was stopped suddenly.

To Sakura and Sasuke, it appeared that Aiko had just wasted a lot of chakra. She had run through some hand seals once she lost sight of Kakashi, but after she finished the signs, she just stood there, waiting for something to happen. Very suddenly, the answer to their silent questions erupted from the ground. There was Kakashi, bound by tree branches and held with his hand behind his back, so as to prevent him from using any techniques.

Realizing that this was their chance, Sasuke and Sakura both raced towards the captive jounin trying to get the bells first. Sasuke had been farther away than Sakura and even with his superior speed; he was only able to tie her to the silver prizes. Each genin held a bell in their hand and looked extremely pleased with themselves. Sakura was beaming now that she would be with Sasuke and Aiko or anyone else couldn't steal him away from her. Sasuke mistook the situation as a justification of his skills and felt that he was now back on the path of revenge, though he would have to work with Sakura now. No matter, he could always order her to give him the bell and she couldn't resist him.

“Hey, watch out!” Aiko tried to warn her teammates, but was too late. Had they been paying attention to their surroundings, they might have noticed that `Kakashi' had turned into a log and the bells had started the fuse on an exploding note. The resulting explosion rendered both preteens unconscious and brought Kakashi out from his hiding place.

“I can't believe you actually got them to work together. How'd you do it?” He asked, once again perusing his well worn book.

“Well, I figured that Sakura would give the second bell to Sasuke, no matter what I did, and I knew that Sasuke would want to have both bells, so that he wouldn't have to work with anyone else. Of course, this could have easily been avoided if they had realized that the test was about teamwork, right Kakashi-sensei.”

The pervert smiled at his newest charge.

“That's right, I guess from now on the three of you are a team…so, do you want to tell them now, or leave them and let them wake up first.”

“It's too peaceful now that they've stopped talking. I say we leave them.” Aiko had plopped down by the nearest tree and closed her eyes. “I'm going to take a nap; weather this nice always puts me in a sleepy mood.”

“Great, I've got a fangirl, an antisocial avenger and now the laziest kunoichi in Konoha.” The jounin murmured to himself as he turned a page.

“Hey! I heard that!” Aiko's yell was only partially in anger and she more or less just ignored the comment and drifted off to sleep.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA