Sayonara, Konohagakure

Sayonara, Konohagakure

A story by: Urube

Chapter Three: Graduation

Rin sat beside Jirou, wearing a red loose blouse, tightening around the waist and wrists by elastic, with a brown fishnet shirt over it, tightening it around her small body. Black trousers, with red lines indicating the pockets and going down the sides, hang loosely around her legs. Her red hair were made in a French braid going down to her mid back, a single bang covering her left eye. She had her legs crossed on the table and her hands behind her head. Her lilac eyes looked in boredom around the room, waiting for something to happen.

Jirou sat in the middle, wearing a black shirt there revealed the stomach, but because of the regular fishnet shirt underneath it, it was nearly invisible. His long sleeves covered his hands. He had on black pants reaching below the knees and it had a single hole above the knee from a fall there happened not too long ago. His wild black hair hang low, down to his cheeks, shadowing his black eyes there slightly glared at the air in front of him and covered a part of his purple swirling marks there were painted on his cheeks. He had his feet solid planted on the floor and his arms were crossed, his back slightly bent.

Ichirou sat on the other side, wearing a white blouse with a dark blue obi as a belt tied around his waist. The blouse had black edges on all of them. He had dark blue pants, the one side reaching down to the middle of his shin, the other reaching to his knee. His medium length blue hair were tied in a high ponytail, some loose bangs framing his face. He had on a gentle smile, his blue eyes looking at Rin sometimes and blushing, the second after looking away again. He sat with his elbows on the table, tumbling with his thumbs, his legs slightly parted and his feet tapping every now and then.

“I wonder what we are gonna do to graduate.” Rin thought out loud, scratching her chin. Jirou gave her a side glance, closing his eyes the second after and shrugged with his shoulders, showing that he could careless.

“I bet it's something simple.” Ichirou answered, leaning forward so that he could look at both of his friends. “Like the kawarami no jutsu or the henge no jutsu. Or maybe it's something more difficult, like the bunshin no jutsu.”

“I think they'll take the more difficult part.” Rin said. “They always do that, no matter the situation.” Rin said, getting half-lidded eyes to show her annoyance. “Sometimes I wish these adults would take it slow or easy. You don't have to work hard all the time.” Rin frowned, looking at the black board. “I'm starting to sound like Shikamaru...” she muttered to herself.

“Listen, everyone.” their teacher, Toshi, said all of a sudden. He was a middle aged man with white short hair, wearing the standard chunin outfit considering of the dark green vest with pockets in front and the black sweater underneath it. Also the black pants there followed with it and his blue headband were tied around his forehead.

“Where did he came from?” Rin asked terrified, eyes twitching from fear. She had put down her legs and her arms were in midair, her lilac eyes looking at their teacher there showed up from no where.

“That man is even more terrifying than an army of ninjas.” Ichirou muttered, hiding half of his face under his arms. Even the ever stoic Jirou seemed shocked by this.

“I didn't even see him enter this room.” Jirou whispered so quietly no one almost didn't heard it, but Rin and Ichirou did.

“Today, we're going to have the graduation.” Toshi told them with a gentle smile. That only creep out the class even more. Not the graduation part, but the fact that Toshi appeared out of no where and then smile to the class like nothing happened.

“Each of your names will be called and you'll go into this room where you'll perform the bunshin no jutsu.” Toshi explained, turning to grab his list from the desk and then faced the class, standing with the paper in hand.

He called up the first name and he went into the room. Some minutes went by and then the kid went out again with a shining new headband. Next kid were called up.

“So we did have to do the hard part, just like Rin-chan told us.” Ichirou said when the kid went into the room. He looked at the closed door as if it could give him answers on universe's biggest secret.

“Of course.” Rin said. “They always do that. How can we call ourselves ninjas if we take the easy way out?” she asked, sliding back to the position she had before their teacher came in.

“You're right!” Ichirou announced, his eyes widening in awe. “She's right.” he said, talking to his twin brother. Nudging him on the shoulder, Ichirou locked eyes with the younger one of them, but Jirou seemed to careless. Jirou closed his black eyes and crossed his arms, leaning back at the wall behind him.

The rest of the time went with watching the students going in and out of the room, each of them walking out with a shiny new headband. Maybe except for a few, but that was to be expected.

Both Rin, Ichirou and Jirou graduated, along with all the others in the class. Two didn't made it.

Rin had tied her headband around her forehead, shifting it to the side so it could be seen for her hair. Jirou had also tied his around his forehead, the material holding his wild hair away from his face. Ichirou too had tied his around his forehead, making sure that the material was in place.

“Each of you will be put in groups of three, meaning you'll work in teams from now on.” Toshi explained, standing with a new piece of paper in his hands. “I've already signed each of you within a group, the strongest with the weakest. Team One...”

Each team were announced one by one. So far, Rin nor Jirou or Ichirou had been put in a team cell.

“Do you think we'll get on the same team, Rin, Jirou?” Ichirou asked his partners uncertain.

“Who knows?” Rin shrugged. “Everything can happen.”

Ichirou looked at Jirou. He just simple shrugged.

“I sure hope we get on the same team.” Ichirou muttered.

“Team Four,” Toshi read up from the paper. “Nakamura Shinju,” A girl with blond hair, electric blue eyes and light colored clothes lifted her head up, but showed no other signs of having heard the teacher. “Suzuki Aki,” A boy with dark brown hair and black eyes, wearing a loose black suit looked up with a look of interest. “And Ohayashi Yuuki.” A boy with brown medium length hair, brown eyes and sand colored clothes smiled and looked over to his new team-mates.

“What an interesting mix.” Rin said. Ichirou nodded and Jirou just sat still.

“Team Five,” Toshi says. “Hatake Rin.” Rin hummed in confusion and looked at the teacher with a look of interest. “Mori Ichirou.” Ichirou looked too. “And Mori Jirou.”

“Woohoo!” Ichirou exclaimed, jumping up and shot his arms into the air in triumph. “We all came on the same team!”

“The jonins, the high leveled ninjas, who are going to be your teachers from now on are coming here this afternoon first.” Toshi explained once the class had settled down from the excitement of giving the headbands, meaning they were full-fleshed ninjas. “Until then, you are free.” Toshi then left the room, the students starting to chatter amongst themselves and their new team-mates.

“Hey, guys!” Ichirou called from the door, waving at his brother and long time friend. “Let's go outside! It's such a nice weather!” Rin and Jirou looked at each other, silently arguing whether or not they should do as Ichirou suggested.

They ended up following Ichirou outside anyways, Jirou and Rin slumping a bag over their shoulder.

They made their way toward a large oak tree, sitting underneath it, Jirou and Ichirou making sure that Rin sat in the middle of them. Jirou put the bag beside him, zipping it open and took a object from inside it.

“Here.” Jirou said, handing the object, which appeared to be a gift since it was wrapped up. Rin accepted it and gave it a curious look.

“What's this?” Rin asked, looking in between the boys there were beside her.

“It's a birthday gift, since it's your birthday today. We thought-” Ichirou started, but were interrupted.

“And with 'we' he means 'him'.” Jirou commented, crossing his arms and looked away in annoyance.

“Well, anyway, we thought we would gave a special gift this year since you're turning eleven.” Ichirou continued.

Rin grinned. “I wonder what it could be.” she said excited, unwrapping the gift in her hands. She stopped once she could see a part of the object inside. “What's this?” she asked herself, unwrapping it even further. “It's a...”

“It's a special made hand weapon that can be tied to your wrist. We ordered two of them, so that you can use them on both your wrists.” Ichirou explained with a smile on his face.

Rin looked at the weapon in her hand with keen curiosity. It had, like Ichirou explained, some sort of a wide bracelet so that it could tie itself around someone's wrists. On the bracelet was the knife itself. It was angled so that it was above Rin's forearm, if she were to take it on.

“Wow...” she said amazed. “It looks beautiful. But how do I use it?” she asked, looking between the brothers.

“Like this.” Ichirou said, taking one of the weapons in his hands and tied it on Rin's wrist, making sure it was tight, but not too tight. When he was done, the weapon's bracelet reached from Rin's wrist to the middle of her forearm. The knife was angled so that if someone where to attack her with a kunai, she could easily deflect it with a lift on her arm. Also, the knife was wide enough to reach over her hand, so she could easily cut someone, is she were to attack.

Rin admired the weapon tied to her arm. “Amazing. How did you get this idea?” she asked, her lilac eyes wide with amusement.

“We know that you like weapons and that you're a close-combat as well. But since a kunai can fall off your hand, if your opponent is too strong, we then thought of how to design a weapon that could stay on you, even if you were knocked down, but we made sure that it couldn't accidentally cut you while in combat.” Ichirou explained, sounding rather proud of himself.

“Amazing...” she whispered. She then stood up and clenched her hand, swinging a few times with her arm. The weapon whistled silently, cutting through the air. “And it fits perfectly.” Rin turned and smiled down to the young boys sitting under the tree. “Thanks, guys.”

“So you like it?” Ichirou asked excited, smiling with hope.

“Yes, of course I do!” Rin exclaimed, taking off the weapon and carefully put it on the ground, out of harms way. “It's the best gift ever!” she told them with a smile, arms out in midair as if she were to hug someone.

“Great! I'm glad you liked it, Rin-chan.” Ichirou responded, smiling the biggest smile ever.

“Say, let's eat lunch now, okay? I'm starving...” Rin complained and as if on cue, her stomach started to growl. She put her hand on her stomach, her face twisted into a look of misery. She quickly took her gift, put it aside and out of harms way and then sat down in between the brothers, grabbing her lunch bag and unwrapped it, revealing her lunch.

Ichirou and Jirou did the same, taking out their lunch, unwrapping the fold their kept it inside and then start eating it.

X X X

Kakashi stood in Naruto's apartment, in the living room, holding a carton of milk.

“And here lives Naruto then.” Kakashi mumbled, shaking the carton in his hand. It sounded slippery of such and also too old.

“M-hm...” the Hokage hummed in agreement, nodding his head. His pipe swayed gently by the movement.

This one is too old... One slurp from this and you'll have stomach problems all day. Kakashi thought, putting the carton down on the table again.

“There's gonna need someone like you to handle that kid.” the Hokage comments, a smoke gathering around him as he inhaled and exhaled the pipe in his mouth. “And the young Uchiha is also in your group. Good luck!” the Hokage told Kakashi with a light teasing in his voice.

This will be funny... Kakashi thought sarcastically. “Thanks, Hokage-sama.” he then said, about to walk out of the apartment, but were stopped by the Hokage's voice.

“There's one thing I would like to talk about, Kakashi.”

“Hm?” Kakashi turned and faced the old man sitting by the table. “What is it, Hokage-sama?”

“It's about Rin. Have you told her that she's adopted yet? I've heard that you've told the jonins and chunins to not talk about it. Why is that?” the Hokage asked, looking at Kakashi from beneath his hat.

“No, I haven't told her that she's adopted. She believes she's mine by blood and that her mother may have died.” Kakashi told him, turning halfway so that he didn't have to look at the old man in the eyes. Or eye, in his case.

“And why is that?” the Hokage encouraged.

There was a long silence in which Kakashi thought of how to answer that question properly. He looked around in the room, searching for answers there weren't there. Finally, he spoke.

“I'm not sure. I believe that it's because I don't want her to know the truth yet. She's still young and there's a possibility that she'll...” Kakashi wasn't sure what to say now. What was it that he thought she would do if she were to find out? He didn't know, but he knew it wasn't good either.

“That she'll what?” the Hokage encouraged, waiting patiently for an answer.

Kakashi shrugged. “I don't know. I just know that now isn't the time to tell her.”

“Then when?”

Kakashi didn't had an answer for that.

X X X

“Good afternoon, everyone. I'm here for Team Five?”

Rin, Jirou and Ichirou looked up at the new arrival, analyzing him.

He seemed to be in his mid twenties, about six foot high and had blond hair with green eyes and wore the standard chunin outfit, with the exception for the long sleeved dark sweater underneath the green vest. Instead, he had a short sleeved dark colored shirt. His headband was tied around his forehead.

Team Five stood up and followed their new sensei outside, Rin carrying her new gift in a small bag there were sat above her other bag, much like a traveling bag.

Their new sensei lead them the way toward an empty park, leaning up against a tree and gestured for the younger ones to sit down on the bench nearby. Rin, Jirou and Ichirou did as told, putting their backs on the ground beside them. Ichirou leaned back in his seat, Jirou sat still and crossed his arm, closing his eyes while Rin sat with crossed ankles, giving their sensei a curious look.

“Hello, I'm pleased to meet you all. My name is Kouno Masa. What's your names?” the man spoke, giving his new students a gentle smile, putting his hands in his pockets.

“Uh! Uh! Me! Me! Pick me!” Ichirou said excited, raising his hand in the air.

Their sensei, Masa, chuckled. He nodded, giving permission to continue.

“I'm Mori Ichirou. I'm the oldest of us.” he said, pointing at himself and then his twin brother.

“Alright.” Masa said. “And what name does your brother have then?” Masa smiled.

“Mori Jirou.” came the stoic response. Jirou looked like he would rather be somewhere else.

“Since I'm last, I can tell you my name. I'm Hatake Rin.” Rin said smiling, putting her hands on her knees and leaned forward in her seat.

The adoptive daughter of Hatake Kakashi. Masa thought, looking at the girl with a thoughtful look. I've heard she doesn't even know that she's adopted and that Kakashi would fight against those who ever reveal the secret to her.

“I'm pleased to meet you all.” Masa said smiling, hoping he wasn't caught in his thinking. “Tonight, we'll do a little training exercise.” he said, leaving it at that.

“Training exercise? What training exercise?” Ichirou asked curious. Rin nodded her head, agreeing with Ichirou's question. Jirou opened his eyes, looking at the man, but giving no other signs of wanting to hear about the exercise.

“In your class, there are 27 students whereas only nine of you can graduate. The rest of you will go back to the Academy. So to find those nine students who can graduate, we have to do a training exercise or a test for shorter words.” Masa explained, pushing himself away from the tree and turned his back against his students. All three children widened their eyes by this new information.

“But if we have to do a training exercise to see who becomes genins, why did we take the test back in the Academy?” Rin asked. “It was completely useless then!” she exclaimed.

“No, it was to see who might be capable of success. Now we just have to sort out in the losers and the winners.” Masa said, beginning to walk away. “We will meet at the training grounds at seven pm. Don't eat dinner.” Masa ordered, turning the corner and disappeared.

“What?” Ichirou said confused. “Sorting through the losers and the winners? And what did he mean by not eating dinner? We'll starve if we don't eat anything!” he said terrified, pulling at his hair in despair.

“So what? It's not like he's going to find out, so we can eat dinner anyway.” Rin said, sounding all high and mighty. She put her hands behind her head, crossed her legs and leaned back in her seat, smirking.

“Yeah, but what if he does find out? What then? Do you think he'll punish us?” Ichirou asked worried, chewing at one of his nails.

“I for one don't want to go there with an empty stomach!” Rin proclaimed, standing up and walked away from the brothers. “I'll see you guys tonight.” she said, lifting a hand to wave at them before she turned the corner and was out of sight.

“Jirou?” Ichirou asked his brother. “Do you think we should eat dinner?”

Jirou gave Ichirou a side glance and then looked away, closing his eyes and sighed. “It's best if we don't. Rin can have all the blame for all I care.” he shrugged.

“Okay, so we don't eat dinner. But what if Rin eats dinner and sensei finds out? What do you think will happen?” Ichirou asked, toying with the rem of his shirt.

“Like I said, I don't care. Come on, let's go before mom gets worried.” Jirou demanded, standing up and left the place.

“Right.” Ichirou said, following his brother.

X X X

At 6:45 pm, Rin was walking toward the training grounds, having ate her dinner and was clearly satisfied with herself on that choice.

She ended up in the training grounds five minutes early, the brothers appearing minutes after her with growling stomachs. Rin smirked triumphantly at them as they approached her.

“Rin-chan,” Ichirou said worried. “Have you eating dinner?”

“Yes, of course. I told you I didn't want to go here on an empty stomach, now, didn't I?” she answered in a knowing tone. She had her hands on her hips and her face was turned to the ground, her eyes closed as she talked to her new team-mate.

“But what if sensei finds out?”

“He wont, okay?” Rin said, opened her lilac eyes and turned her head side ways so that she could look at Ichirou.

“O-Okay.” Ichirou mumbled, looking down at the ground in defeat.

“Hello, everyone.” said a voice, interrupting their talk. “I assume everyone is here?” Masa talked, stepping up beside the little group.

“No,” Rin said sarcastically. She turned to face her sensei, placed her hands on her hips and leaned forward. “We miss our invisible friend, Mister Hat-and-Claw!” She then closed her eyes and turned her face. “What does it look like?”

Masa chuckled. “I like your humor, Rin-chan.” he spoke, looking at all of the kids. “Have any of you eaten dinner?”

“N-No,” Ichirou lied, avoiding the gaze of their sensei.

“Alright.” Masa said, seemingly to accept the lie, but was actually just pretending. “I only know your names, so I would like to each of you tell a little about yourself before we start our training exercise, okay?” he said, sitting down in Indian style and gestured for the others to do the same. “Ichirou-kun, why don't you start?” Masa said after everyone had sat down.

“Alright, sensei,” Ichirou answered, looking down on the ground as he thought thinks over. “But I'm not sure where to start.”

“Then let me begin.” Masa said, shifting on his spot so that he were more comfortable. “I'm Masa, as you already know, and I like waterfalls, specially in sunlight. I also like doing my hobbies, which are reading a good book while eating some snacks and I like to run. Now you start.” he said, pointing at Ichirou again.

“O-Okay,” he said uncertainty. “I'm Ichirou and I like sunsets and my hobbies... well, I like to train, I guess and I also like to draw, though I'm not that good yet. I practice thought!” he exclaimed, raising a finger to emphasize his point.

Masa nodded while humming, encouraging Ichirou to continue.

“And I also like reading in books, though I don't have so much time to it because I'm training most of the time.” he said, avoiding all of the others gazes and scratched his neck in embarrassment. He wasn't sure as to why he was embarrassed, he just were.

“Alright. That sounds good. Jirou-kun, would you be next?” Masa asked kindly and softly.

“Seems I don't have much choice.” Jirou responded, crossed his arms and closed his eyes. “I like beef, medium fried. I like explosives and some weapons. That's about it.”

“Alright. It's at least better than nothing.” Masa shrugged, turning his attention to the only female there. “Rin-chan, will you continue?”

“Right! I like the color red, dogs, taking walks, sweets and training!” Rin said, smiling with closed eyes.

“Wow. That's a lot of stuff.” Masa noticed, blinked in surprise.

“Nah,” Rin said dismissively. “I'm just more open than these two here.” she smiled, pointing at the two boys beside her.

“Okay.” Masa nodded, looking at the boys before he stood up. He went over to a stop watch on a small log, which the others didn't notice before now, and just stood there. “Now, listen carefully,” Masa warned, lifting a finger up to get the attention of his students, which he did. “You have three hours to defeat me in battle. If you manage to defeat within that spam of time, you'll all graduate. However, there are some rules you have to be aware of.”

“What are those?” Ichirou asked curiously. Rin nodded in agreement and Jirou just stayed in his position, didn't care about what happened around him.

“Rule number one: You're not allowed to work together. If you do, you'll fail and get sent straight to the Academy. Rule num-”

“What? What do you mean by that?!” Ichirou interrupted, sounding very terrified.

“Exactly what it sounds like and don't interrupt me when I'm talking!” Masa snaps, Ichirou crunching by the sudden raise of his voice. “Rule number two: You may use all of your weapons and jutsus. However, paper bombs are not allowed.”

Jirou widened his eyes. No paper bombs? But that's the thing I'm best at! And what kind of rule is that? Jirou thought, looking up to the sensei and glared at him.

“Rule number three: If any of you cheat, you'll fail and get sent straight back to the Academy. Any questions?”

“Yeah!” Jirou said, earning confused glances from his team-mates. “Why aren't we allowed to use paper bombs?”

“Because those are too dangerous and cannot only harm me, but your team-mates as well and we wouldn't want anyone in the hospital yet, right?” Masa explained, putting his hand on the clock. “Any more questions?” When he didn't received an answer, Masa pushed on the button and the stop watch were activated. “You got three hours from now on. Begin!” he said, disappearing into the woods. Rin, Ichirou and Jirou stood up from the ground, each of them taking their own direction into the forest.

The game has begun.