Chapter 5

You had been called back to the academy. Your days of waiting for others to reach the same heights of you was over. The days where you'd watch Naruko leave for her first day at the academy and wait for her to come back. The days where you'd go over and loiter close the to the Uchiha compound to talk to Shisui. The days where Kushina would tease you for not having a team.

They. Were. Over.

It was time for you to rise up as a genin. To start your training away from your clan estate to become your own man. A man who will lead your clan from the brink of death and deliver it into the light. The spotlight of the ninja world.

You'd protect your clan. You'd grow them into warriors, nurturing them into the greatest individuals on earth. To become the greatest clan on earth.

And your first steps was here, in the academy.

…You feel like you've had a similar sort of thought before.

Well regardless, you were getting your team one way or another today. Upon reaching the designated classroom, one that was unfamiliar to you, you realized there were more than a few genin inside. It would seem that a few teams would be created this day.

Gazing around the room you realized you saw more than a few clan markings. Which greatly raised your prospects for a team. The better your partners the better they could make you.

Would be interesting if you got a Nara or a Uchiha clan member. Maybe they were one of those uh…damn, what was the blonde clan called? Yamasaki's? Seeing their clan techniques could be an interesting learning experience. You still had to create your own clan technique to pass down. All good clan leaders are known to do so after all.

You watched as a chunin walked in and called a group to report elsewhere. Sometimes they were directed to another classroom. Sometimes they'd be directed to a street or even a restaurant. But some however…

"Rin Nohara, Aoki Uzumaki, and Megumi. Please report to training field two to meet your jonin instructor."

Your eyes lit up. One of the names didn't have a clan name, but it wasn't all bad news. A 'Nohara' huh? Interesting. You've never heard of them. Which likely meant a small clan. One with little power. A future vassal perhaps?

They didn't seem to immediately stand up like you, so you just decided to leave the room without them. What did it matter if you met them here or in the training field? It was the same either way.

Traveling to the training field wasn't particularly difficult. They were pretty close by to the academy to be easily accessible. Though which number was which was a bit harder to find.

When you finally entered training field two, you had second guessed yourself. Immediately turning back around and double checking whether you were right before continuing. A sinking feeling hitting your gut as you looked back at the training field to see a smiling Kushina looking in your direction.

Well. This wasn't exactly what you had expected. Or wanted, really.

As you approached her, so did two others. Your partners, you'd assume. One was a girl with long hair tied in an almost familiar ponytail and no clan markings. The other was a girl with short brown hair and strange purple markings on her cheeks.

Interesting, you've seen similar markings on the Inuzuka clan. Perhaps the Nohara's are an offshoot clan? Then again it wasn't as if the Inuzuka's were the only ones using face paint or tattoos.

Kushina was the first person to say something while the three of you were examining each other.

"Nice to meet you guys! My name is Kushina Uzumaki, and I'll be your jonin team leader. I'm pleased to meet you guys, you know?"

She gave a small wink towards both the Nohara girl and you. You gave a small frown in return. The clanless girl's lips frowned towards Kushina.

"Wait, but Aoki is an Uzumaki too. Isn't this…unfair?"

Kushina smiled towards the clanless genin while you simply rolled your eyes. Kushina cooed as the genin attempted to flee futility from getting her cheeks pinched.

"Aww, it's cute that you think ninja play fair. As long as it's approved by the hokage anything's legal."

The clanless kid narrowed her eyes and shot you a glare before looking away. Damn, what did you do? The Nohara girl simply offered a wry smile towards both the clanless girl and you. You weren't sure why, you didn't need to be comforted.

"Before we get to the main activity, let's start with some introductions. I'm Kushina Uzumaki-"

She literally just said that.

"-and i like to cook, and be with my family. I dislike people without motivation, and i hope to one day leave a lasting legacy."

She then waved towards the Nohara on her left. She blinked a few times before quickly realizing she was being signaled. With a startled 'oh' sound she quickly jumped into action.

"My name is Rin Nohara, I like strawberries, i dislike people fighting, and I hope…I hope…"

She seemed somber as she attempted to finish her words. Yet for some reason she didn't seem able to. Kushina gave her a sympathetic look as she seemed to tear up slightly.

"I hope to make everyone proud someday."

Hmm. Making everyone proud huh? Not exactly something you would care about personally. It would be nice of course to have everyone have a favorable impression of you, but caring too much about such things leads to someone being easily manipulated. It's simply impossible to please everyone.

But on the topic of making people close to you proud you could at least relate. You would make your mother proud, as well as Kushina and Naruko. They were your…family.

Next was the clanless girl. She was quick and more to the point in her introduction.

"My name is Megumi. I like bettering myself and becoming stronger. I dislike arrogant assholes who think they're so much better than everyone."

You don't know why she was glaring at you while she said that. That didn't even sound like you.

"And my goal is to make enough money to provide for my family. That's it."

If that was it while is she still looking at you?

Ah right, it was your turn. Hmm…

"My name is Aoki Uzumaki. I love my clan, and i dislike threats to my clan. I will be remaking my clan to be stronger than ever."

Kushina clapped her hands.

"Good introductions everyone! Now that that's out of the way, we can get to the real exam. The real test."

…was it you or did Kushina seem almost predatory when she said that?


"Well you see kids, a…friend of mine had a certain test before accepting genin as a team. It's been awhile since it was explained to me, but i got the gist of it. Basically all you guys got to do is retrieve this bell from me, and you pass."

You felt a 'but' coming up. Something your other teammates seemed to also sense. If the narrowing of their eyes and crossing of their arms was any indicator.

"…but if you don't retrieve it, you all will fail and be sent back to the academy."

"What!?"

"Oh no…"

"…"

You said nothing. There was nothing to be said after all. You'd get that bell if it was last thing you ever did. You would NOT go back to the academy.

You immediately went onto the attack. Rushing Kushina as her attention was turned onto Megumi. You threw a kunai, anticipating where she'd turn her body in order to intercept you. Hopefully catching the bell in the process.

Instead your kunai found itself buried in the ground. You hadn't even seen Kushina turned, she was just immediately in your face. A ferocious smirk on her face as she bent her hand in a flicking motion and let loose.

The flick being strong enough to blast you across the clearing. Forcing you to roll and skip on the ground until you finally slowed down. Glancing up you noticed that your teammates seemed to have taken advantage of your distraction.

Or at least attempted to.

You hadn't seen why Megumi was in the air her body flipping, but you assumed she had been attempting to attack. The Nohara threw a series of taijutsu strikes that Kushina deflected with vicious glee. You could see her wince even from here.

You gritted your teeth. This wouldn't be easy.

You flicked a series of shuriken at Kushina. They wouldn't do anything but they'd take her attention away for a few seconds, as well as one of her hands.

You hadn't been expecting her to just slap them out of the air. But that was fine. Rin took a slap upside the head that saw her momentarily dazed. Which meant you needed to step in.

In a burst of speed you went for the back of Kushina. One of your thrown kunai's were picked up as you went to stab. Kushina attempted to swat you off early as you went for a stab. But it was only a feint. The kunai went from your hands and seemed to be about to impact her side.

Once more she quickly turned towards you, the kunai in her hands. As well as the explosion tag set to go off. You felt her kick you in the stomach, pushing you up into the air a few inches before arriving back onto the ground. This time you were able to keep yourself standing under her assault.

The explosion tag was thrown seconds before it went off. Rin went for the bells, but was grabbed by Kushina. Who quickly spun and threw her into the air. For some reason you felt a sense of familiarity with the move.

Megumi helped catch Rin as she fell. A look was shared between the three of you. You'd need to work together to win. The three of you took off once more. This time together.

You watched Kushina in the distance.

…she wouldn't kill you would she?



*~o~*



It took around two and half hours of Kushina beating the three of you non stop before she was satisfied. She said something about teaching you guys the essence of teamwork before throwing the bell at you.

As there was no strength in your limbs you were forced to let it hit your head. Apparently you guys had passed some sort of test to use teamwork. None of you three responded to her praise and evaluation.

Instead you just groaned and squirmed on the ground. Your sores felt sore. Your bruises felt like they had bruises.

After a few minutes she simply left.

It took fifteen minutes before the first person got up. You had expected it to be Rin but in fact it was Megumi. She narrowed her eyes at you before limping away. Hmm. Did Kushina go easy on her or something?

Next was Rin. Before she fully attempted to leave she turned back and offered you a hand up. One you graciously accepted.

With a groan of exertion you found yourself back on your feet. You offered your thanks before leaving in different directions.

Hopefully this wasn't the start of how your team missions or training would go.


*~o~*


The team missions were worse than you had even dreamed about. The first mission being to help plant vegetables in some farm field. …Alright, to be completely honest you kind of enjoyed that, but that wasn't the point! The point was was that it wasn't as expected.

The other missions were much worse. Running paper around the various Konoha offices, finding lost animals, and even cleaning public spaces. What kind of ninja job was cleaning up after litterers?

Hell if you had known things would have been like this you would have just trained on your own and refused to take any missions. To hell with your rank, this wasn't a job for ninjas it was a job for civilians or those without even a modicum of talent.

You were better than this. It wasn't a stretch to say they should've immediately given you rank B missions, maybe even A. Instead they treated you like a jumped up clanless loser pretending to be a ninja.

It was aggravating.

Thankfully not all the missions given were completely hopeless. Some of the more prestigious clans had their own D rank missions for doing this or that around their compound. The chores weren't exactly very strenuous and the pay would be generous. Perhaps this was a certain flex for more prestigious clan compounds?

Even then your teammate Rin seemed to have her own misgivings about doing chores for the Uchiha clan. For what reason you couldn't imagine, but she seemed slightly pained whenever she noticed the Uchiha clan symbol.

The good part of being in the Uchiha compound is that they were rather open with others watching their techniques and such. For what reason you were unsure. Perhaps it was because you were genin and they didn't think much about you. Perhaps it was a certain level of bragging, as if saying that 'this much' is meaningless when compared to the true Uchiha techniques.

Or perhaps it had something to do with their fabled 'sharingan'. The ability to just see techniques and jutsu's and just rip them wholesale. Perhaps with such an ability they grew to simply not care whether or not someone watches them.

There was a lot of general distaste among the villagers about this ability. To learn something in the span of seconds from someone who spent months creating or learning a technique. In truth you didn't very much care. Who cared if they replicated a move from you? The simple answer was just to make that move stronger.

As far as you're concerned if a shinobi plateaued in terms of strength and they weren't at least the kage of their village they were worthless. You should never be content and stay at the level that you were. Always climb up. Always train.

There are few things that power won't get you.

Anyways, that was the reason you were at the Uchiha compound learning from various Uchiha clan members by watching them. Thankfully you got a much more hands on experience after a while.

"Hey, Aoki!"

Shisui appeared out of…nowhere really. You actually had zero idea where he showed up from. He just…popped up. Like out of the ground.

He smirked as you stared dumbfounded at him. It would seem that was the reaction he was hoping for.

"Still doing D-rank missions huh?"

You narrowed your eyes. In response he laughed and patted your back as he pushed you forward with him.

"Don't worry about, they'll let you climb up soon. Before then, what do you say to me introducing you to another friend of mine? He's a Uchiha too."

"It beats doing more menial work."

"That's the spirit!"

Eh, you had pretty much finished up anyway. What was the harm? You followed him to a rather nice looking house near the middle of the compound. It had a lot of space around it compared to others. Which meant the owner was likely someone high up in the clan.

Shisui knocked on the door and you both simply waited for it to open up. Which it did after a while. First was a little girl who seemed…familiar…

Wait a minute, you trained her that one time. You think she was the same girl at least. Uchiha's all looked the same to you. She glanced at Shisui with recognition, but when she looked at you her eyes went wide. Simply looking at you for a couple of seconds before closing the door.

You and Shisui both blinked in surprise.

After a few more minutes, the door opened back up again. This time it was a different person. A grown woman who definitely had the Uchiha look down pat.

"Shisui! Oh, and i see you've brought a friend. Come in, come in."

You both decided to do so. With Shisui going first of course. You didn't want anyone to feel awkward by your presence after all. The house looked…a bit plain in your opinion. Yes there were the family pictures, but there wasn't much else. A very traditional looking household in your opinion. And traditional often meant boring.

"Hello, is Itachi in? I was hoping to introduce him to my friend here."

Shisui pointed to you while looking around. The woman shook her head in the negative.

"No, i believe you just missed him."

Shisui grimaced slightly as you sat down next to a table. He seemed to have not thought this fully through. He rubbed the back of his head before speaking again.

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry to just barge in like this."

She waved her hand at Shisui's words.

"It's fine, it's fine. Please, take a seat. I'll bring out some drinks."

"Oh no, i couldn't possibl-"

You decided to speak up.

"What kind of drinks do you have?"

Both of them turned to you. The woman with a soft smile on her face while Shisui narrowed his eyes at you questioningly. And then with surprise as he noticed you had already taken a seat.

"Oh my, hahaha. Well, I have some green tea currently on the pot."

You gave a nod. It would be enough to satisfy you. The woman gave a light giggle before coming over to you and pinching your cheek lightly. You gave an unamused stare right back at her. Something that seemed to amuse her even more.

"You remind me of what my husband Fugaku was like as a kid, and just as cute! Please, sit down Shisui. I'd love it if you two would give me some company."

You blinked slightly as Shisui attempted to leave once more before making the woman speak up once more.

"Come now, just because I have a great husband and kids doesn't mean i don't get lonely from time to time."

Finally Shisui gave in, sitting across from you. As the woman left the room Shisui filled you in on her. Her name was Mikoto Uchiha. She was the wife of the clan leader, Fugaku Uchiha, and mother to Itachi and Satsuki.

It wasn't long before the woman had come back with the tea. To your surprise it was quite good. Some of the best you've had, in fact. Perhaps these more traditionalist sorts actually were on to something. If having their female clan members attend outdated tea ceremonies lead to stuff like this perhaps you should force Naruko to attend some?

"Do you happen to know a Kushina Uzumaki, Aoki?"

You were brought back to the present with Mikoto's voice. You gave a curt nod.

"She's my current guardian taking care of me."

Mikoto clasped her hands together in realization.

"Oh I should have known that red hair meant Uzumaki. Me and Kushina were friends a long time ago. We've grown a bit apart over the years, but I'd love it if you would ask her to come visit some time."

You gave a nod to her words. She talked about this and that with you before moving onto Shisui. Usually Shisui would be getting grilled over her eldest child Itachi. Asking him about where he had eaten, what he had done on the previous mission, any injuries, etc.

Shisui was obviously feeling the strain after a few hours of questioning. His whole demeanor becoming much more pathetic in appearance. As if the very life had been sucked out of him.

Shisui then pretended to check the time before remarking how late it had gotten. Quickly excusing himself and you to leave. Mikoto offered to have you both back to which you had to ask a following up question.

"Will there be more tea?"

"Yes, of course!"

You gave a nod.

"I'll be back then."

She seemed to find your answer amusing and laughed to herself. Her hand covering up a small part of her mouth. The moment Shisui left the house he immediately seemed to run as quickly as possible with you in tow.

How overdramatic. It hadn't been that bad.