New Hearts

Akane Hyuuga, like the other Genin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, dreamed of becoming a ninja. However, others expectations of her were a bit higher than others because she was descended from not one, but two of its most famous ninjas: Tenten and Neji. Determined, not only to live up to her family name and her grandparents, but to carve her own path and be known for something that was uniquely hers. Easier said than done I'm sure...
_______________________________________________________________________

Akane sat on the roof of the academy and fiddled with the zipper of her bright red hoodie. Up and down, up and down; the little zipping sound changing frequencies with each varied speed of her hand. She looked down at the ground as her two teammates, Hayato Haruno and Kiyoshi Akimichi, paced in front of her. Their sensei, Hoshi, was the last to show up.

“Where is she? Sensei should've been here by now. I mean what could be more important than teaching me to be a ninja?!” Hayato paced impatiently and kicked at an empty can of soda.

Kiyoshi opened up another can of soda, his third that day, as he stopped pacing and sat down by Akane on the ledge that lead to the door back into the attick of the ninja academy. “Pacing and complaining won't get Hoshi-sensei here any faster.” He took a big gulp of soda and pulled a box of pocky out of his backpack. Somehow he could eat anything and everything he wanted, no matter how much, and never gain any weight. A baffling trait for an Akimichi, most likely inherited from his mother.

Akane scooted as far away from him as possible, being near people she didn't know made her uncomfortable.

Kiyoshi breathed onto his hand and sniffed. “Do I offend?” He looked at her with his head tilted to the side.

“N-no...” She glanced away and continued to mess with her zipper.

Suddenly there was a poof of smoke in front of the trio. As the smoke cleared they began to make out the figure of a woman, they quickly identified the light haired woman as their “missing” sensei.

“Sorry I'm late. I was up late last night and so I decided to take a five minute nap this morning...when I woke up I was half an hour late. Ha ha! Oops!” There was a big cheesy grin on Hoshi's face as she laughed and waved the incident off like it were nothing. The three Genin simply stared at her with mixtures of anger, annoyance, and disbelief on their faces. This was who was teaching them, this is what they're stuck with for goodness knows how long, this was Hoshi-sensei.

“Kill me now...” Akane mumbled under her breath as she stared at her new teacher, praying she was normally more professional than this.

“So, tell me about yourselves.” She leaned against the railing of the roof and caught a leaf as it flew past in the wind. “You go first.” She pointed to Hayato, his green eyes flashed with the glory of being called first.

“My name is Hayato Haruno, I'm sixteen years old, and I plan on becoming the greatest ninja in all of the Leaf Village!” A cocky grin spread across his face.

Akane and Kiyoshi both rolled their eyes. He was, by far, the most conceited person in the whole village. Neither of them could wrap their mind around why so many girls had crushes on him.

Hoshi simply laughed. “Well, I think you've got some competition with that ambition. Good luck though.” She pointed at Kiyoshi. “You next.”

“Huh? Oh! I'm Kiyoshi Akimichi, and I'm sixteen too! Uh...I don't really have too many goals...sorry.” He scratched the back of his head and scrunched his eyebrows together as he thought of something else to say. “And my favorite food is pot stickers!” He smiled big and closed his eyes as he said it, some pocky was still sticking out of his mouth and he still held the can of soda.

Hoshi smiled just as big as he had. “You sound like my kind of student! Hopefully you'll get some goals before long though. And lastly, you.” She pointed to Akane.

Akane's whole face turned red and she glanced around nervously. “I'm, uh, A-akane Hyuuga.” She let go of her zipper. “I'm sixteen, I want to, uh...live up to my family name and stuff like that I guess. Y'know, be a really good ninja...probably become Jonin. And I like, uh...”

“Me!” Hayato threw his arms up into the air and smiled confidently.

“Yes Hayato. I like you.” Sarcasm dripped from every word as she rolled her eyes and smirked.

Hoshi laughed even harder. “Good to know. Now, with my help and training you will be able to accomplish you goals and much more. It will be hard, you'll want to quit, you'll probably hate me when all your training is done...but it will be worth it in the long run.” Her once joking face had turned deathly serious in a matter of seconds. This was the Hoshi-sensei they had been expecting.

“Yes ma'am.” They all nodded.

“You're training begins tomorrow. Eat a good supper tonight and be well rested in the morning. Meet me at the third training ground at six am sharp. Don't be late.” And with that she disappeared in her little poof of smoke.

“That's it? We waited here for thirty minutes and she was only going to be here for ten!? That's so stupid.” Hayato stalked off to the door and went inside, the whole time he grumbled about 'a colossal waist of his time'.

Kiyoshi stood up and held out a hand for Akane. She took it and he helped her up.

“Hey, you don't really like Haruno do ya?”

She giggled a little. “No. He likes himself enough for both of us.” She smiled a bit as she began to slowly warm up to Kiyoshi.

“Good. I don't think I could've stood being on a squad with him and some love struck girl.” He held out the half empty box of candy. “Want some?”

She tentatively took one of the sticks from the box and stuck it in her mouth. “Thanks.” She leaned against the door back inside and held it open for him. Akane was still a little red from when she'd had to talk in front of her team.

“Hey, its just now four. Wanna hang out or something?”

“Uh...s-sure. Thank could be fun.” She followed him back inside the large building where the trio, as team two, had started the first chapter their respective journeys as ninjas. The formation of team two marked the second chapter in their long, and now intertwined, stories.