Chapter 5

I was sitting on my bed with my clay pouch in front of me, checking how much I had. I made some more the previous night, so I was prepared. Checking the time, I noticed I had 10 minutes to get there. I jumped up and walked to the mirror, fixing my hair. I attached my pouch before heading out the front door.  I headed towards the training grounds. With my hand in my pouch, I started making little explosives ready to go, instead of making them during the test.

When I arrived, I saw Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura walking towards the grounds, too. When we all reached the middle, we greeted each other. Well, Sakura greeted Sasuke, Naruto greeted Sakura and I, Sasuke did not say a thing (stupid duck head), and I said ‘hello everyone’ with a wave.

Naruto and I sat down with our backs leaning against each other, holding each other up. I stretched out my arms. “You’ve got your art ready, Emi?” Naruto asked, and I nodded my head. I opened my pouch, allowing a clay bird to fly out and around us.

“Ready to go, Naruto,” I told him. I made the proper hand sign for the tiny explosion to go off. It was too tiny to even do anything.

Sasuke huffed. “You think that will do something?” he asked me, and I rolled my eyes.

“I will C1 your butt soon, duck!” I snapped, crossing my arms. “You have no appreciation of my art, un!” I looked away from him and towards the sky. I am going to use my clay bird to fly if I want. Ha! I’ll show that stupid Sasuke.

I had not flown since I was with my brother. I miss it badly. I would always go up to high places, because when I closed my eyes, I could picture flying with my brother.

We waited for hours. Naruto fell asleep in my lap, and I played with his hair, a fond smile on my face.

I noticed Sakura looking at us. “Is there something going on with you two?” she asked me, and I chuckled quietly.

“No, Sakura, he likes you.” She frowned. “Plus, he reminds me too much of my big brother. That’d be gross. Naruto and I have no one here, no family. So, I take up the big sister, or even sometimes the mother, role. Naruto takes up the little brother or big brother role. We’ll have each other’s backs. I make sure he eats right, he makes sure I’m not too sad about my brother. I don’t think I’d have it any other way.” I smiled down at him then glared at Sakura. “Mess with him or my art, you’ll become my art, got it?”

She smiled at me. “It’s so cute!” she squealed. I laughed, waking Naruto up.

“Emi…,” Naruto muttered, looking up at me.

“Get up. I think Kakashi will be here soon.” I told him as I smiled down at him. He got up, helping me up as well. I saw Sakura smiling at us, still cooing in the cuteness of our relationship.

Naruto looked between Sakura and I in confusion. “Why are you looking at us like that, Sakura?”

“You and Emi. You’re like a family to each other. It’s cute,” she answered, and he beamed at me.

“She’s my mother figure. Even threatens me like one too,” Naruto muttered.

I hit him over the head. “Oi! Careful boy, I’ll explode your ramen,” I threatened. Naruto pointed at me and yelled ‘see?’. I laughed and ruffled his hair.

“Hi fellows. Good morning.” Kakashi greeted us after poofing up out of nowhere. Sakura and Naruto jumped at his sudden appearance. Sasuke’s eyes watched him with a little bit of shock held in them, as did my own.

Naruto, Sakura, and I pointed at him and yelled, “You’re late!”

Kakashi waved it off. “A black cat crossed my path, so…” He pointed back to the way he came from. I snickered at the reason why he was late. He noticed I was the only one who laughed, and it was not even a full laugh. He coughed awkwardly into his hand.

“Let’s move on.” He walked to the training stump and set a timer on it, adjusting the timer. “The alarm is set at 12 PM.” He then reached into his pocket and pulled out three bells, jingling them together. “Today’s topic is to get one of these bells from me. Whoever can’t will have no lunch.”

My stomach whined. So that was why he said we couldn’t eat!

“What?!” Naruto and I said at the same time.

“I’m going to tie you there,” he pointed to the stumps, “and eat lunch in front of you.”

All of our faces fell as our stomachs growled. Naruto was freaking out more than I was. Sakura looked sick. Sasuke actually showed emotion. Good duck.

“Double what?!” I screamed, and he chuckled at my words.

Then Sakura realized something. “But wait, why are there only three bells?” she asked our sensei. I furrowed my eyebrows. Why was that?

Kakashi smiled with his eyes closed. “Since there’s only three, at least one of you will have to be tied to the log. That person will fail since he failed to complete the mission and go back to the Academy.” He jingled the bells yet again. “It might be just one or all three.” We all glared at Kakashi, becoming serious. “You can use your shuriken. You won’t be able to get a bell unless you have the will to kill me.”

I put my hand up before someone could talk. He glanced at me. “And my art?” He chuckled and nodded his head. I smirked. “Yes!”

Sakura gasped in shock and put her arms out. “But that’s too dangerous, sensei!” Sakura pointed out. I did not really care because I was going to be able to use my art!

Naruto started to laugh, his arms behind his head. “Yeah! You couldn’t even dodge that chalk eraser! You think you’re going to be able to dodge Emi’s explosives? Good luck with that.”

Kakashi faced everyone but Naruto. “In society, those who don’t have many abilities tend to complain more. Just ignore the guy with the lowest score. Deadlast. We’re going to start after I say ‘ready, start’.”

I sighed. “Now you’ve done it.”

Naruto removed his arms from behind his head and glared at Kakashi, anger marks appearing. I quickly opened my pouch and made one of my smaller, but stronger, explosives come out. I set it on Naruto. My chance was now!

Naruto swung out a kunai and ran towards Kakashi with the intent to kill. Kakashi moved quickly, too fast for any of us to follow, and forced Naruto’s own kunai to point towards the blonde’s head.

“Don’t get so hasty.” I saw my clay spider jump onto our sensei and climb into his jacket. Ready to go, ha! Thank you, Naruto. “I didn’t say start yet.”

Sasuke, Sakura, and I stepped back as he let go of Naruto. Naruto put his kunai away and rubbed his wrist a little.

“But, it looks like you have the will to kill me now. How do I say this…? I think I’m starting to like you guys now.” I braced myself for the word ‘go’. “We’re going to start.” The others did what I did. “Ready, start!” We jumped away.

I jumped away from them, running away from the starting area for about half an hour. As I ran, I thought over my plan of attack. I froze when I thought about his words. Crap, did he mean for us to work together as a team? I sighed and shook my head. I would think about it after. I did not have the time.

When I was far enough away, I put a hand into my pouch and started to mold it with my chakra. Explosive, but not fatal. E1.

I pulled my hand out and threw the clay. It grew with chakra into a giant bird. (AN: The same bird Deidara flies on). I slipped on my scope, ready to go. I jumped on its back and smiled as we took off. When I reached the training grounds, I saw Naruto tied up and heard Sakura scream. I quickly dropped a little explosive to cut the rope for Naruto.

Pulling the bird to the direction of the scream, I noticed Sakura passed out. I furrowed my eyebrows. What happened to her? I jumped off of the bird and fell down. My bird remained in the air, acting birdlike.

Fusing chakra into my legs, I softened the blow of my landing next to Sakura. Looking around, I saw nothing. I opened her eyes to see the look of someone in a genjutsu. Ouch, I hated genjutsu.

I placed a minor explosive near her and formed the familiar hand sign. “Katsu!” A tiny boom went off, enough to make Sakura shoot up straight. She looked around saying something about Sasuke before her eyes finally landed on me.

“Emiko, something happened to Sasuke!” she screamed. I jumped back, covering my ears. It must have been the genjutsu.

“Pinky, it was a genjutsu! Genjutsu!” I told her while shaking her lightly. She still looked panicked, and I sighed. “Alright, you look for him on the ground. I’ll look in the sky, okay?”

She looked confused. “How are you going to look in the sky?” she asked. I snickered and pointed into the air. She followed my finger and saw my bird. “All I see is a bird.”

I sighed. “It’s like those birds I made in class, just a hell of a lot bigger.” Sakura’s jaw dropped, and I laughed. I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Be careful, and don’t get caught in another genjutsu.”

I then jumped into the air and onto a tree. I jumped as high as I could. Using my scope, I tried to locate Kakashi or sense the presence of my chakra-infused explosive. It seemed he and Sasuke were in combat due to the sudden movements of my explosive.

I whistled for my giant bird. It flew close enough for me to jump back onto its back. I headed straight towards Sasuke and Kakashi and reached them in time to see Kakashi pull Sasuke into the ground. I could not hear what they were talking about from my distance, sadly.

When Kakashi disappeared, I saw Sakura run onto the scene. I jumped down and landed beside her, stopping her from screaming when Sasuke talked. She looked at me. I could hear her heart racing and rolled my eyes. “Sakura, I saw Kakashi-sensei pull him into the ground,” I stated. She took deep breaths and then nodded her head.

“Right,” she said.

I looked Sakura in the eyes. “Can I trust you to help duckbutt out?” I asked, and she nodded her head and smiled. “Sasuke, you listen up. You, too, Sakura. I’ll be fighting Kakashi next. I want you two to find Naruto. If you get a chance to while watching my fight, get a bell. He might be concentrating on me too much for you to get one, understand?” I ordered them. I saw Sakura’s eyes widen.

“But why would you do that? You hate us!” She exclaimed.

I rolled my visible eye. “So? Who cares why I do things. I’m as unpredictable as my art, yah!” I whistled, my bird flying down to me. It landed right in front of us, and I jumped onto it. Sasuke and Sakura’s eyes widened when they saw the bird up close.

“I told you not to underestimate my art!” I called out.

Just as I was about to go airborne, Sasuke spoke up. “How are you going to find him?”

I chuckled and pointed to my scope. “This, and something else I’m not saying,” I stated and then took off into the air, my long hair rushing behind me.

I tracked my chakra-infused explosive. When I had a lock on it, I glanced in that direction and found Kakashi just standing there, reading his book. It was a clone, though, and the real one was behind a tree with the explosive still on him, making it very obvious.

I flew around the area until I saw Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto together looking at the fake Kakashi. I smirked. I flew above the tree Kakashi was hiding behind and dropped five clay spiders. He gave them an odd glance. I formed my hand sign. “Katsu!” Then, BOOM! The explosives destroyed the trees around him, leaving a crater behind.

Third Person!

Sasuke and Sakura’s eyes widened at the sheer destruction of the explosive.

Naruto chuckled. “She warned you, didn’t she?” the little blonde told his teammates.

“But, but, but… Sensei wasn’t there!” Sakura yelled out. They saw the substitution poof, leaving behind a log. “How did she know?”

Naruto smirked as he saw the confused faces on his rival and crush as they tried to figure out how she did it. Naruto sighed when they looked at him. “With Emi, you won’t know anything unless she wants you to know. Hell, she drops hints, makes you think it was a coincidence, and brushes it off.” He smiled proudly at the thought of his best friend. “She’s awesome.”

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed. She knew more than she was letting on. She had been dropping hints about Itachi yesterday. How did the girl know his brother? Are her brother and his friends? Was she friends with his brother? So many questions and possibilities. It was pissing the Uchiha off.

Sakura felt a bit bad by not believing in Emiko when she told them not to underestimate her jutsu nor her art. She was good, better than Sakura. She sighed, realizing she was not going to be the better girl.

Kakashi barely got away from the explosion in time. It had to be Emiko and her ‘art’. He pocketed his book and scanned the area. She had known it was not the real Kakashi before, and she had the will to kill him if she needed to. Of course, from what had been said about her, she was raised by an S-rank criminal. The Copy Cat Ninja would not be surprised if she had killed someone before.

He could not see her in the area and furrowed his brows. How could she have moved away from him that fast? He could see the rest of the team standing together, staring at the explosion’s destruction, but Emiko was not among them.

Alright, she was not to the side, down, nor up. The only thing that was in that air was a bird that seemed to be flying towards him, getting bigger by the second… wait, was that blonde hair? His eye widened as he saw Emiko. The girl was leaned over the bird. He tensed, ready for impact, but let himself relax as he realized something. She would not smash straight into him, as it would hurt herself as well. She was not that stupid, was she?

When she was almost on top of him, his eye widened again. Maybe she was! She quickly swerved up and flew over him. Emiko caught Kakashi off guard when she jumped off the bird in a back flip once she was behind him, landing a kick in his face.

Kakashi flew back a few metres and steadied himself. This was not good. The girl was at a different level than the others. Why was she not a ninja already? Her grades were not even that good! Sakura’s marks had been higher. Or… Kakashi’s eye landed on Naruto. Maybe she had been holding back to be with the much hated boy. He understood now.

Even though her skills showed that she was smart, strong, and quick thinking, Naruto was not at her level and she knew it. She did not want to lose him because of her skills. Emiko was the opposite of Sasuke, but the same in many ways. They were both strong, but fought for a different cause. He was fighting against his brother to kill, with hatred in his heart. She was fighting for her brother, to be together again out of the love in her heart. Two different things, yet so close. Kakashi wondered what would happen if they were to ever have a heart to heart. Would it end in bloodshed or something else…?

Kakashi was pulled out of his thoughts as Emiko chuckled. “Sensei, you shouldn’t be so deep in thought during a battle,” she scolded him.

Kakashi smiled beneath his mask. “Let’s see what else you can do,” Kakashi told the explosion happy girl.

She smirked at him. “Bring it on!”

**********

SORRY!!!!!!!! I've been really busy!!! School, and then an excursion to Sydney!! I had soooo much fun. I love NIDA!!!!! I also saw State of Origin, for those who don't know what that is, it's a big football thing in Australia!! NSW's won!! WHOOP! I don't really know anything about footy, but it was awesome to be there.

OKAY! Question time!!

What is the first thing you think of when you think of Sydney?? Don't know what Sydney is?? It's a big city in Australia NSW (New South Wales) yes, I know. I am talking about Sydney a lot, but I was just there, like... this time last week! Wow, weird thought. Anyway, back to the big question! The first one to answer it will get a chapter dedicated to them!!

Alright, back to the story!!

I know, CLIFFY!!!!!!!!!! Hahahaha. Had to do it! I will be uploading again in like six days or something close to that. TEN FANS NOW!!! WOW. Thank you all for reading it, and fanning so far, I've dedicated this chapter to Led5545 as she is my 10th fan!!! A E1 for her!!

If any of you are confused by what's going on it the story, don't feel bad to ask me a question about it. I am not a great writer, and my spelling isn't good at all. As my editing is mediocre at best.

You all know what to do!!! Fan, Vote, comment, and answer my question! hahaha