Regarding the updates, I've added two extra scenes to the end of this chapter!! Enjoy Kari and Sasuke's first interaction!

Naruto had told me so many things about the village last night, and about being a Shinobi. I'd regretted having to say goodbye to him, but he'd promised me we could walk in together at the Academy. It's finally my first day today, so I'm a little nervous about things. Something new like this, and so many other new things that I've had to deal with...

The Academy is located right at the base of the Hokage Monument. Naruto explained that only the strongest Shinobi could become Hokage. And today, Naruto said I'd be able to see his skills for my own eyes! He must be incredibly talented if he has such an ambition.

But I surely hope that tardiness won't be an obstacle for him; he's very late...

The Academy is actually really big. There are several other buildings that it's connected to, including the Lord Hokage's mansion, and just like his mansion, the kanji for "FIRE" is there, hanging above the entrance— "Morning!"

I must've spaced out, because when Naruto arrives, we end up scaring each other. His eyes are wide with surprise, but then it turns into amusement, as he starts to laugh.

"Sorry about that!" he says, a sheepish grin crossing his lips.

"No, I-I'm sorry," I say, and I smile, letting out a laugh of my own. "I wasn't really paying attention; I guess... I'm a little nervous."

A little? I repeat in my thoughts. That must be the greatest understatement of them all. I'm extremely nervous. Something strange floats inside my stomach; I've never felt anything like it before, so I take a deep breath, hoping it'll help it go away, but the exhale comes out shakily.

"Don't worry," Naruto says, losing his carefree smile and replacing it with one of reassurance. Almost instantly, I feel very weak, almost empty-like. But at least my pulse has slowed down. "You'll be fine! Well, as long as Iruka-sensei doesn't get mad like he always does..."

"Iruka-sensei... is our teacher, right?" I ask, thinking back to when Lord Hokage mentioned the name.

"Yeah, and he can be a real jerk sometimes, too!" he adds, and with this, he grabs my hand and pulls me up the stairs to the large doors, where he forces them open and runs inside with me in tow.

With each door we pass, my curiousity only grows less dormant. What are they learning about? This is the question that runs through my head after I've peered through several windows on my way our own classroom. And all of them were full of students, just like Naruto, and now, just like me.

"Here it is, Kari," he announces, letting go of my hand. To my surprise, the door suddenly slides open, and we are suddenly blinded by a bright light. Covering my eyes with my hands, I peek through my fingers at the same moment it disappears. Blinking, I find that Naruto is no longer beside me, but inside the room, on the floor, tied up and glaring at a man in a vest that stands over him.

"I'm at the end of my rope, Naruto," he says, and it seems like he's having trouble controlling the volume of his voice. "You failed the graduation test last time, and the time before that! In a couple months, you'll get another chance, but you're messing up again!"

I don't need anyone to tell me that this is Iruka-sensei.

"I was just bringing the new kid to class!" Naruto huffs.

"Did anyone ask you to?" Iruka-sensei asks him. Naruto turns away from him, looking extremely sour. Iruka-sensei clenches his fist and turns back to the rest of the class, who had been watching the scene with mild intent and interest.

"Fine!" he says. "Because you missed it, Naruto, everyone will review the Transformation Jutsu!" Groans, shouts of protests, and threats are passed around the classroom toward both Naruto and Iruka-sensei.

Is reviewing a Jutsu so bad? I wonder. What is a Jutsu, anyway?

Pushing themselves up from their seats, they all line up on the floor in front of the first row of desks. Iruka-sensei, who had been glaring at Naruto the entire time, finally, properly, notices me, and waves me inside. After jumping nearly a foot in the air, I quickly enter the room.

"You must the new student Lord Hokage told me all about," he says, staring down at me. Instantly, his cold expression disappears, and a warmer, softer one takes its place. "Kari, right?"

"Y-Yes, sir," I say, my eyes flickering anxiously toward the others. I have no idea what a Jutsu is, other than Taijutsu? Does Iruka-sensei expect me to review one, too?"

"Ah, don't worry about that," he says, waving me down with a chuckle. Setting a slightly heavy hand on my shoulder, he leads me to his desk and sits me down in his seat. I set my lunch sac on his desk. "Lord Hokage also told me you haven't been trained the same as these guys. That just means I'll have to teach you the basics, myself!" He smiles, looking for my consent. "Is... that alright with you?"

"That sounds wonderful," I reply happily, earning several stares from the others. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei."

"Great! Just give me one minute to get these guys going and then we'll get started," he says. I nod.

After grabbing a clipboard from the top of his desk, Iruka-sensei turns away and looks to the others. A girl with pink hair who stands at the front of the line steps forward. She then brings her hands together, pulling her middle and index fingers up from each hand, and wraps her remaining left hands' fingers around her rights' remaining fingers.

"Alright," she says, putting on a look of concentration. "Sakura, here—let's do it! Transform!" A large smoke cloud suddenly fills the air where she stands, and my eyes go wide with confusion and concern.

"I-Is she okay?!" I anxiously ask Iruka-sensei.

"Give it a second," he replies, chuckling at my worry. When the cloud of smoke disappears, I gape at what I see. It's... a perfect copy of Iruka-sensei. A perfect copy. Iruka-sensei looks as though he agrees. "Transformed into me," he says absentmindedly, awhile looking down at his clipboard with a smile and writing something down on it. "Good!" And she turns away, wearing a triumphant grin on her face.

"Yes!" she cheers, and she punches her fist into the air. "I did it!" She turns around once more to look at a boy with dark hair. "Sasuke, did you see that?!" The boy says nothing, and Sakura walks to the end of the line, crestfallen.

"Next— Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka-sensei says. The same dark-haired boy steps forward and makes the same sign with his own hands. Another cloud of smoke appears, and so does another copy of Iruka-sensei. "Good." Sasuke turns back into himself, stuffs his hands into his pockets, and walks back to the end of the line.

"Next— Naruto Uzumaki." I fidget in the chair and smile over at Naruto through the space between Iruka-sensei's arm and side.

"This is a total waste of time, Naruto," a boy with spiky black hair says, frustrated. The blonde-haired girl on Naruto's other side nods in agreement.

"We always pay for your screw-ups!" she adds.

"Like I care," he grumbles, before placing his hands on his hips and taking the same position on the floor as Sakura and Sasuke. Smirking, Naruto places his hands together.

"Transform!"

Instead of being surrounded by the same smoke cloud as the other two before him, there is what looks like streaks of wind. The smoke finally makes an appearance, and instead of a copy of Iruka-sensei, there is a nearly naked woman with blonde hair pulled into two ponytails, blowing a kiss toward him with a wink.

Iruka-sensei's jaw drops, his face turns white, and he flies backwards, blood streaming out of his one nostril. It happens almost all at once, which makes the situation a whole lot funnier than it had to be. Naruto, who has turned back into himself, laughs and points at a slow-recovering Iruka-sensei, who pushes himself up from the floor, red-faced.

"Ha, gotcha!" Naruto jeers. "That's my Sexy Jutsu!" Sexy... Jutsu?

"Cut the stupid tricks!" Iruka-sensei snaps at him, saliva flying from his mouth. "This is your last warning!!"

"You say that, but it's obvious you enjoyed it," I mumble as quietly as possible, sniggering at my own words. Naruto begins laughing even harder, and I gasp. Iruka-sensei spins around, his hands on his hips.

"It's your first day here, so I was gonna go easy on you," he tells me, "but because of that comment, I'm gonna work you just as hard as the others!" I frown and cover my mouth to force myself to stop laughing.

"B-But, Iruka-sensei—""No way, kid," he cuts in. It scares me how quickly he'd gone from kind to caring to terrifyingly brutal with his words. "From this moment, you'll be taught everything from Genjutsu to Ninjutsu at double the pace!! You got that?!"

"Y-Y-Yes, sir!" I say, nodding furiously.

"And as for the rest of you," he continues, rounding on the others, "I want you to work in partners practicing the same technique while I start Kari's private lessons. Shikamaru, you're in charge." The same boy with spiky hair groans.

"Man, what a drag."

"We'll start with Hand Seals, alright? That's pretty basic."

Iruka-sensei... Naruto had been only half-right about him. He is more bipolar than a jerk, switching personalities in less than a second. But I like the Sensei. He reminds me of Makara-sensei a lot.

"What are Hand Seals used for?" I ask him, sitting down in the chair opposite his. He slouches forward, as if to get comfortable. Somehow, it's easy for me to anticipate a lecture coming, so I take the book filled with blank paper I'd been given, and a thin lead-like writing piece and prepare to write. They called it a "pencil". Makara-sensei always used quills and brushes.

"Here in the Academy, there are three basic techniques that a Shinobi is taught: Ninjutsu, which are Ninja Techniques; Genjutsu, which are Illusionary Techniques; and Taijutsu, which are Body Techniques."

"Ooh, I know that last one!" I interrupt, hand raised. "My grandmother taught me." Iruka-sensei's eyebrows stretch away from his eyes, and he folds his arms over his chest and leans back against the chair.

"Really?" he says, attempting to hide his disbelief. Internally, I sigh. People like him and Makara-sensei just like to be right about things. But hadn't the Lord Hokage told him that? "I'd like to confirm your level just to be sure, but this would make my job and the focus time on the other two a lot easier."

I nod. "Iruka-sensei, what about Ninjutsu and Genjutsu? What do they do?"

"Well, unlike Taijutsu, Ninjutsu and Genjutsu require you to use something called chakra. The only way to use these two techniques is by using Hand Signs to help you manipulate and mould your chakra. Chakra is a kind of life energy that almost all people have. It circulates throughout the body from the three-hundred and sixty-one pressure points in your body—The Chakra Pathway System."

"So, it's kind of like the Circulatory System?" I ask.

"Yeah," he says, sounding relieved that I'm able to understand what he means. "Mhm, it's just like that, but instead of blood, it's chakra. Not a whole lot of people are able to control their chakra, or use it in the way they're supposed to so they don't fail the exam and have to take it a third time—""U-Um, Sensei..."

He laughs apologetically. "Right, sorry."

"But what is chakra?" I ask, thinking back to when Naruto had used his Sexy Jutsu. It had looked like wind, but I still don't understand. So I tell Iruka-sensei about what I had seen.

"Oh, that's called a Nature Transformation," he explains. "Though since it's only Naruto we're talking about, it's far from perfect. What you saw only suggests the possibility of a Nature Transformation, but that's normal for someone at his level. He isn't a Genin, or a Chūnin, just like the other students. Nature Transformation is an advanced form of chakra control. The type of Jutsu a Ninja uses depends on what kind of chakra they have."

"There are kinds of chakra?" Iruka-sensei nods.

"Some people have a certain elemental affinity. The main elements are Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, and Earth," he says. "There are cases where Ninja don't have an element and are only able to perform regular kinds of Jutsu, like transforming into something, or someone else. People can even use more than one Nature Transformation. And, there are people who are able to combine their multiple Nature Transformations into a combined element— like Fire and Earth can turn into a Lava Release."

"What kind are you?" I ask, becoming more and more eager by the second.

Iruka-sensei chuckles again before saying, "I'm Fire and Water."

"So cool," I breathe. "Is that a good thing, though?"

"Sure. It just means that a Shinobi can use more techniques. You'll find out yours later on as a Shinobi. So, how about we actually start the lesson?

I'm confident that my Taijutsu skills will come in handy for me in the near future. I'm already an expert; I don't need to study at all for this. I have two months until the next graduation exam period. It's now my goal to graduate at this time. I know I'm not nearly – not even close ­– as educated on things like the others are; they have a few years on me. I wonder if maybe if I can just study and work hard for the next two months, I can catch up? It wouldn't be the first time I've been worked like a horse; essentially, that's what my Taijutsu training was like, so this shouldn't be too much more different?

I have no doubt that Makara-sensei's teaching methods were flawless; I'd feel myself getting strong each day. But there were still so many things she didn't teach me about on the outside world, which still doesn't make sense to me, but...

"Yes, please, Iruka-sensei!"

I can't wait to be able to wear one of those headbands! Just the thought of having one like everyone else fills me up with pride and anticipation. I'm going to be a Shinobi, no matter what!

I'm going to learn everything there possibly is to learn, starting now!

"Waah," I sigh, my voice echoing down the hall. Clutching my notebook tightly under my one arm to keep from letting it slip, I've finally made it back to the lunchroom, where apparently, they've just started having lunch.

Iruka-sensei wasn't kidding when he'd said he'd work me as hard as everyone else. It had only been an hour, but I've exhausted myself in my struggle to physically manifest some amount of chakra. I mean, I-I'd managed to do it, albeit only very minimally, but at least it was something. Iruka-sensei is a very patient teacher, and that's unlike Makara-sensei who had a stricter method of education that had me in a constant state of panic whenever she'd watch over me. Iruka-sensei is very encouraging, and rather than just show me what to do, like Makara-sensei always did, he explains it, too, although maybe it's necessary to do both considering it's not just Taijutsu anymore, and not just a teaching method— he's just really good at teaching.

He'd let me go at the sound of a quiet bell, coincidentally at the same time I'd managed the feat of showing him I could manifest my chakra. However, I'd quickly gotten lost on my way to finding the classroom again, until I'd seen that blonde girl from earlier on leaving it with a couple of others.

Carefully, I peer inside the room to see it still three-quarters full. Iruka-sensei hasn't returned yet, but my lunch sac still sits on his desk where I'd left it. Trying not to draw too much attention to myself as I enter the room, I try to stick to staying along the furthest wall on my way to retrieve it. But I can understand why the others were so curious. They eventually voice this to me, too.

"Hey!" one of them call from behind me. I jump, surprised that it'd happened so soon. Three boys – one with red triangles on his cheeks, the other spiky-haired boy from earlier, Shikamaru, and another boy with red swirls on his cheeks and a bag of potato chips in his hand (what are potato chips?) – have approached me, stopping just a few feet away from me. "You're that new girl from before, right?"

"Y-Yes, that was me," I say, my heart pounding. "I-I— my name's Kari! Kari Yamada. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Chōji," the boy with the red swirls says. He then points to the spiky-haired boy. "This is Shikamaru."

"Yo," Shikamaru says. Hands in his pockets, he simply nods.

"I'm Kiba!" the boy with the red triangles says; he gestures to himself with his thumb. I hear a small, animal-like yip coming from somewhere nearby, and from within Kiba's sweater, a small white dog pops out, and yips again. "And this is Akamaru."

"You have a dog?" I breathe, my heart now pounding for a different reason. "I-I've never seen a dog before," I tell them. "Could I... pet him?"

"You've never seen a dog before?" Kiba repeats, incredulous. "Seriously?"

"She's obviously not from here, Kiba," Shikamaru says, and having taken one of his hands out from his short pockets, he points to me. "Look at what she's wearing."

"Yeah, aren't you warm?" Chōji asks. "Your sweater's thicker than Kiba's."

"Well, yes," I say, "but I only got here yesterday, so I haven't had much time to buy any new clothing. Actually, it is really hot in here..."

"Where'd you live before?" Kiba asks. There's shuffling within Kiba's sweater, and the little white dog drops out from inside it, landing on the floor at Kiba's feet. My eyes instantly start watering, and I drop into a cross-legged sit in front of them, my hand extended to Akamaru.

"The Hidden Snow," I tell them, my eyes trained solely on the little dog in front of me. He sniffs my fingertips before yipping softly and allowing me to touch the top of his head. "Ohh, you're so soft," I exclaim quietly. "Hi. Hi."

"How come you moved here?" Chōji asks.

"Probably because it's so cold out there," Kiba says, chuckling at his joke. I smile softly, now tickling Akamaru under his chin.

"Well, um... something bad happened to me and my grandmother and she sent me here," I explain. "We were attacked; I think she might've been a Shinobi too, so she wanted me to become one, as well. She did this really strange thing with her eyes, and I think she killed some people... It was kind of scary."

"Are you alright, though?" Shikamaru asks, crouching down in front of me. He takes a finger and swirls it around on Akamaru's head. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"

"I-I don't think so," I say. "Quite honestly, my adrenaline has been pretty high this whole time, a-and I didn't even check..."

I don't think I got hurt. I'm trying to remember the events of that night, but a lot of it exists in such a guarded part of my memory, it's become difficult to recall anything other than the hood and mask of that one man...

"You joined the class kind of late, you know," Kiba points out. "You think you're gonna be able to graduate with us?"

"The next exam is two months away," Shikamaru adds.

"I mean, you said your grandmother was a Ninja, right?" Chōji says. "Did she teach you anything?"

"Actually, she did teach me Taijutsu," I tell them. "She was kind of a master at it."

"You should show us sometime!" Kiba says. "Or even right now? It's still lunchtime."

"R-Really? You'd want to?" I say, genuinely surprised.

"We've never had a transfer student, so it'd be pretty cool to see what someone else from another village knows," Chōji says.

"How much longer is our break?" I ask them, all the while eyeing my lunch. For fear of being late – which I'd ended up being, thanks to Naruto – I'd skipped breakfast. I'm starving.

"About another twenty-five minutes?" Shikamaru says, having looked at a clock on the wall behind me.

"Could I, um, eat first? I-I'd be happy to, I'm just really hungry," I say.

Chōji smiles. "Sure thing! Just let us know when you're ready," he says.

"Okay!" I say, and watch the three of them, Akamaru, too, walk away and up the steps to their seats. Looking around the room, I spot the blonde girl from before, as well as several other girls, crowded nearby a single desk, where the one boy from earlier on, Sasuke, sits, indifferent to them, and focused solely on his lunch. I spot a small red tomato between his fingers; he eats it. While indifferent to those girls, his previously closed eyes suddenly have opened, and I've been caught staring at him.

"Kari!" Once more, I'm startled by a new voice; however, it belongs to Naruto, who'd just walked in the doors to the classroom, hands behind his head. At least this was a good excuse to break that awkward eye contact.

"Hi, Naruto," I say. I take my lunch from Iruka-sensei's desk and set it on the ground. Naruto flops down on the floor in front of me, his hands resting on his knees. "Where did you go?"

"Eh, Iruka-sensei wanted to yell at me some more," he says, sighing.

"He didn't seem as awful as you said, you know," I say, unwrapping my boxed lunch. I'd bought it on my way here today, since I still don't have any groceries.

"Not all the time, but he can be a real jerk sometimes."

"You might want to be careful; he could show up at any second and hear that," I say in a whisper. I dip my rice in the sauce it came with and use my fingers to pick up a steamed vegetable before putting it all into my mouth at once.

He laughs nervously. "So, what were you and those guys talking about?" he asks.

"Oh, I guess they were just introducing themselves," I tell him. "They want me to show them my Taijutsu, too."

"You know Taijutsu?" Naruto says excitedly.

"My grandmother taught me."

"Can you teach me sometime??"

"Sure, I'd love to," I say. "But I have to really focus on these Ninjutsu and Genjutsu lessons Iruka-sensei is giving me. I'd really like to graduate with you and the others. So, you have to work hard, too! Please don't fail again."

"... we could work together?" Naruto offers carefully, as if testing the waters.

"That would be fun!" I place another bite into my mouth. "Oh, do you want some?" I ask him, gesturing to the food. "I probably won't eat it all."

"Yeah!"

The next ten minutes pass quickly with Naruto helping me finish off my lunch. I never eat that much, anyway; I get bloated too easily. Because I'd gotten so swept up in conversation with Naruto, I'd almost forgotten about my promise to show the others Taijutsu, so I hunt down Kiba, Shikamaru and Chōji, and together with Naruto, we all travel outside and into an enclosed sandlot.

"We usually have sparring practice here," Shikamaru tells me. "Our next one is tomorrow."

"Is there a class schedule we follow?" I ask him.

"Not really," he says. "Sometimes it's the same; the general classes like math and language are almost always held in the same pattern. Iruka-sensei likes to keep a schedule, but he's always changing things up."

"Good to know," I mumble. "But class starts at the same time every day?"

"Yep." Finally, we've reached the middle of the sandlot.

"S-So, how do you guys want me to do this?" I ask them. "Do you want a demonstration? O-Or a sparring match? Although I have to warn you, a-and I'm not trying to sound cocky or anything, but you will hurt if you spar with me. My Sensei was very strong."

The four of them all glance around at each other nervously.

"I-I can just demonstrate, then," I say, laughing lightly at their reactions.

"N-Nah, I'll take you on!" Kiba says. I catch him swallow.

"Are you sure, Kiba? I'm okay with—""I'll be fine!" he insists, moving more toward the middle of the sandlot. Akamaru drops from the top of Kiba's head and scampers back toward the others, yipping once at him. "Thanks, buddy!" He then turns to me, fists raised before him. "Don't hold back, okay?"

I sigh shakily and raise my own hands. "Ready?" I ask.

"Yeah!" In my two steps it took me to reach Kiba, and with three strikes to his shoulder, side and thigh, I have him kneeling in the dirt, groaning. "Ugh... no..."

"I'm sorry!" I say, cringing into my hands. "I'm so sorry."

"I know I said not to hold back, but, come on," he huffs, pushing himself up onto his knees.

"Honestly... I'm not sure how to do that," I tell him. "My Sensei was extremely powerful, and she never taught me how to pull my punches, or how to hold back at all. If I wanted to win, I couldn't relent." I quickly approach Kiba and offer him a hand up, but he waves it off.

"I'm gonna need another second," he says, still clutching his side. Akamaru comes running over to sit in his lap.

"Eh heh, heh..." I turn to the others. Chōji and Shikamaru have completely backed off, and Naruto just seems rooted to the spot. "A-Anyone else...?"

"I'll fight you," a new voice says. I look over to the left to find the dark-haired boy from earlier, Sasuke, walking over our way, hands in the pockets of his shorts.

"Oh, hello," I say as he approaches us. I decide to stick out my hand in greeting. "I'm Kari Yamada— we haven't officially met yet." I frown when he refuses my hand. "Um... alright."

I lead Sasuke into the middle of the sandlot. I'd just barely noticed, but behind Naruto and the other boys, it would appear that the rest of the class has congregated outside, a majority of them female. I see the blonde girl and the girl named Sakura with the pink hair standing at the front of the line.

I'm suddenly wracked with nerves. I've yet to be around this many people on purpose yet. I've only been here for a short amount of time, and I'm trying to get used to the fact that it's no longer me and Makara-sensei anymore, but me and a whole entire village of people, and no Makara-sensei.

"You've got this, Kari!" Naruto shouts, over the sudden cheers for Sasuke. Smiling, I look back to Sasuke, and my heart stops. I can feel myself becoming lightheaded the longer I look at him. The color of his hair; the intensity of his dark eyes, even the way he walks?

"You... you look so much like her," I say, my breathing shallow. Sasuke raises an eyebrow at me, confused.

"What?" I shake my head.

"N-Never mind," I say. Quickly, I unzip my coat and toss it toward the crowd; it lands near Naruto's feet. I tuck my long-sleeved shirt into the waist of my pants. "Okay, I'm ready."

With no hesitation, Sasuke has raised his own hands. I charge him quickly, and with only a few steps to reach him, I use my last step to propel my other leg toward his side. I'm surprised that he's able to dodge it; his speed is easily comparable to my own. He counters with a right-handed jab to my face, which I catch and allow his momentum to carry my arm back behind my head. Once more, I lift my leg, and manage to land a hit directly into his stomach. He slides backwards, regaining his own hand back in his possession.

"You even kind of fight like her, too," I note quietly.

The next two minutes proceed almost too quickly. I'd like to say we were even, but there was no way this was the case. I easily had the upper hand here. It was obvious that Sasuke was trying extremely hard to match me, punch-for-punch, kick-for-kick, but there was just no way for him to catch me by the end of the sparring match, especially when I finally pin him down on his own hands, my knee hovering just above his chest.

"Call it," I pant. "You lose." I catch Sasuke's jaw set, his lip raised slightly in a scowl.

"... fine, I give," he grumbles, equally as breathless. I smile, easily push away from him, before extending my hand to him again. After a moment, he takes it, and allows me to pull him to his feet.

"You're really good!" I say to him. "That was a lot of fun. Hey, if you ever want to spar again—"

He tears his hand out of my grasp, turns on his heel, and starts stalking back to the Academy.

I frown. "Someone's a sore loser...?"

Updated September 9th, 2020
5,024 words