A strange new life

2.4

I was still cheering and dancing when Sasuke approached. He had a funny look on his face. Naruto approached as well, a huge smile, hands behind his head. I bowed to both boys. They played their part perfectly. Sasuke threw one of the bells at me. I caught it, he kept the other. What a jerk. I thought my speech would guilty trip him into being nice.

Naruto looked at the exchange. I Walked over. Handed the bell to Naruto. He looked really conflicted. Pushed my hand away. “You can have it Hinata-chan, even if I have to repeat academy ten times, I’ll still be a Hokage!” The brat yelled.

I gotta give it to him. Naruto made it difficult to dislike him. I grabbed his cheeks. Abused them until I was satisfied.

“Hi-hinata-chan?” The brat stuttered. His ears were red. Dammit. I forgot I was still a teen. To me was like an older sister pinching a sibling’s cheeks. To him, it was probably a cute gal flirting.

I took my board. Better nip this on the bud. “It’s like pinching my idiot brother’s cheek. You have the bell future Hokage-sama, if the worst happen. Medic-nin.”

“That’s touching.” Kakashi-sensei said from behind us. I hadn’t been paying attention to him. I hadn’t noticed him approaching. “Follow me.” He said. Turned around. Led us away from the devastated area.

We were back at the starting clearing, with the three wooden pillars, the stone memorial behind it. Kakashi-sensei looked at us for a moment. “Who will keep the bells?” He asked.

Naruto tried to give me his once more. I slapped the back of his head. Now wasn’t the time to be a brat. Sasuke just looked away. Damn emo. Not even Kakashi could guilty trip him into being a decent human being. What had happened? Why was he behaving like that?

Kakashi nodded. “What have you learned about this exercise?”

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“That we can beat you!” Naruto hollered. I face palmed. Sasuke huffed.

“What else?” He asked. He stared at me. Wealp, I guess he wanted me to speak. I popped my board out. Thought about what to say. “Explosion’s are a girl’s best friend!” I showed the board to the boys. This time Sasuke face-palmed. Naruto laughed. Kakashi-sensei stare dug into my soul. I sighed.

I wrote some more. “The mission takes priority. But sacrifices might be needed. We are a team, and should support one another, even if the mission result contradicts it.”

Kakashi-sensei smiled. Eyes turned into a crescent. “A ninja must see underneath the underneath.” He repeated what I had wrote. “The mission is important, but caring about your comrades is more important. Those who don’t care about their comrades are lower than trash.”

Hum, I thought his speech back in the story was because of breaking the rules or something like that. Had I remembered it wrong?

Sasuke looked uncomfortable, Naruto looked smitten. I’m pretty sure if Kakashi-sensei was a girl, Naruto would have just fallen in love right here, right now.

“That ends the training.” Sensei said with a thumbs up. “You all pass! Starting tomorrow team seven will begin it’s duties!”

“I did it, I did it! Ninja!! Ninja!! Ninja!!” Naruto hollered. Danced, celebrated. I smiled at his exuberance. He was loud, obnoxious, rude, but it was hard not to like the brat. I joined his celebration. We have passed after all.

The boys turned to leave. I poked sensei’s elbow. Showed him another message. “Can we talk, in private, please?”

Kakashi-sensei turned to the others. “You go ahead boys. Meet me a the mission center tomorrow at eight. I have to work out a few details with Hinata-chan.”

Naruto waved. Sasuke looked suspicious, but both left. Kakashi-sensei turned to me. His gaze was calm, curious.

I took a deep breath. One of the reasons I never pushed too hard in the academy was because I didn’t want to graduate early. Arrogance aside, I’m pretty sure I could have done it. By the fourth year, I already knew the whole curriculum, even if my marks were not a perfect score. Staying in the academy gave me much needed time to train. To get stronger, to prepare without being trust into life and death missions. But now?

Now I needed Kakashi-sensei to know what I could do. He was my sensei. I wanted him to train me. Why would I hide what I could do from him? He didn’t press. Waited until I formulated my thoughts.

“Can we spar? I’ll stop holding back.”

Kakashi-sensei looked at me. His eyes crinkled. “Will you now?”

I nodded, serious. Crouched down. Dug inside my backpack. Took a roll of my seals. Spread it open to show the miniature seal at work. Triggered a few. Took a kunai with one of my special exploding tags, handed it to sensei.

The man took it. Inspected closely. “Oh my. That’s dangerous. Did you made it yourself?”

I nodded. Finished unrolling the seal scroll. Kakashi-sensei eyes bugged out. I mean, I wasn’t kidding when I said explosions are a girl’s best friend. And I had been stuck at sealing for years. This was just one of the many storage scrolls I had. All filled to the brim with all manner of delicious explosives. And maybe cupcakes. And exploding cupcakes. Can’t blame me. The idea just begged to be released into the world.

“Right.” Kakashi-sensei said.

I took off my boots, removed the ankle seals, put my boots again. I removed the arms seals. Opened my shirt a smidgen, removed the necklace seal. Handed them over so Kakashi could inspect them.

He took them. He was silent for a while. “How heavy are they?”

I shrugged. I had no idea. I had stopped keeping track. I got up, unlimbered. Didn’t remember when it was last time I removed those. Years ago? I felt so light. I felt like a could fly. I stretched. My back popped pleasantly. Kakashi-sensei watched all that with interest.

I placed a few shuriken in the waistband of my skirt, like all ninja stuff, it was full of hidden pockets. I strapped a few kunai to my thigh, hidden beneath my skirt. Moved away from my backpack, settled on a stance.

“I better take this serious.” Sensei said. Pulled his forehead protector up. Red eye with three circling tomoe stared at me.

I nodded at him. Sensei nodded back. I attacked.