Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Imouto Trilogy :: Hatake :: Even After All These Years ❯ Chapter 2: The Genin ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: Hey everyone! This chapter has some action in it, so it should be interesting. Oh, and if any of you think that Kyomi appears a little weak for an ANBU in the battle in this chapter, just keep in mind that she's going up against Genin and that she's holding back a lot. It's just a mock battle and she's just playing around with them, teaching them. Please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

 

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

 

(1) - Konoha no Shiroi Kiba literally means White Fang of Konoha. He is Hatake Sakumo, Kakashi and Kyomi's deceased father.

 

Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!

 

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Even After All These Years

 

Chapter 2

The Genin

 

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As Kyomi blinked her eyes open, her mind was mostly blank of what to do. It was Monday morning, and the first day of her "vacation". She didn't really want to have to think right now, especially so early in the morning. Bedsides, she was on orders from the Hokage to rest.

 

She had been working a bit hard for the past several months, Kyomi thought as she rolled over in bed. She had been taking high-ranking mission after high-ranking mission. Now it was in the middle of spring, so at least it would be good weather outside for her break in work.

 

As these thoughts ran through Kyomi's head, her nose started twitching on its own. Her nose seemed more awake then she was. Suddenly, she realized why it was twitching and shot up in bed. It smelt pancakes.

 

Kyomi smiled dreamily and stumbled out of bed. She yanked her door open, not even bothering to close it behind her as she usually did. Shuffling through her apartment and toward the kitchen, she ignored the fact that she was barely even half awake, pancakes were calling her name. Her present state of awake-ness would have to wait. As she reached the kitchen, Kyomi saw a sight that she hadn't seen in a while and hadn't realized how much she had missed it.

 

Her brother was standing there in front of the stove, cooking breakfast.

 

Kyomi immediately began to salivate. A fact that most people didn't know about Kakashi was that he was an incredible cook. Honestly, it wasn't that surprising, considering he had been taking care of Kyomi by himself since she was three years old; you had to know how to cook to be in Kyomi's good graces.

 

As Kyomi slumped into one of the chairs around the small kitchen table in the corner of the room, Kakashi turned to look at her. It was quite obvious that he was grinning, even with his mask covering most of his face.

 

"Ne, when will breakfast be ready, Kakashi-nii-kun?" Kyomi questioned.

 

Kakashi continued to grin, "Maa maa, you're up early," he stated, completely ignoring her question, to her annoyance.

 

Kyomi glared half-heartedly at him. "I smelt pancakes. When will they be ready?" Her tone changed into a demanding one.

 

"Well," Kakashi laughed, making Kyomi glare even harder at him. "I think about now should be right."

 

Kakashi suddenly turned from the stove to fully face her, showing that he had two plates of pancakes ready. The pancakes were cooked to a beautifully perfect golden brown and were already buttered and smothered with syrup. If Kyomi hadn't been salivating before, she certainly was now.

 

As Kakashi set the two plates down, one before his seat and one before Kyomi's, Kyomi reached out toward her food, only to have her hand slapped away by her older brother.

 

"No," Kakashi said, glaring playfully. "Get something to drink first."

 

Kyomi scowled at Kakashi, still not fully awake, and dragged herself out of her chair and to the refrigerator, where she pulled out the milk carton. On the way back to the table she stopped to grabbed a mug off the counter.

 

Kyomi dropped into her seat with a thud and began to pour herself some milk, muttering "Sadistic bastard," under her breath while still scowling at Kakashi. Of course Kakashi just laughed and began to eat his own breakfast. Kyomi quickly followed suit, and soon the both of them were happily eating the delicious breakfast.

 

"So," Kyomi began a few minutes later and half way into her second pancake. "Why are you up so early? I though that you usually liked to sleep in. After all, you're always late for everything." At the last sentence, she glared at him; she wasn't fond of that particular trait he picked up.

 

Kakashi shrugged. "I have to meet my Genin team today."

 

"Oh yeah, you have to teach brats. I forgot about that." Kyomi grinned. "I laugh at you." Kakashi just rolled his eyes. "So, how long have you been their sensei for?"

 

"About two years now, though I can't believe that it's actually been that long. Do you have any idea how boring it is to watch them do D-rank missions all the time? I've come to look forward to C-rank ones, as sad as that sounds."

 

Kyomi laughed. "So that means they're what, 14 years old now? I would've thought that they'd have passed the Chuunin Exam by now."

 

"Not everyone passes through the ranks as quickly as you and I did," Kakashi replied with another roll of his eyes. "And besides, they did participate in the exam as rookies and did make it all the way through to the third exam--before the invasion of course. That's pretty good for a 'bunch of brats', as you put it.

 

"Though their teamwork still needs some work, even after two years. After their first Chuunin Exam one of them tried to run away from Konoha, but fortunately, was brought back by his teammate before he got very far." He continued.

 

Kyomi shook her head sadly. "I guess there's one of those in every year, ne?" Kakashi nodded his head in mutual agreement. "Just one last thing: you said you're up earlier because you have to go meet the brats, but, as I said before, aren't you usually late for everything?"

 

"Oh, I'm not going to meet them straight away," Kakashi said with a happy grin. "I'm going to stop by the Memorial Stone first."

 

Kyomi let out an irritated sigh, "As usual." Kakashi's grin turned a little sad as she continued. "You don't have to always act like Obito used to, you know."

 

"I know." Kakashi sighed sadly. "But it's the least I can do to honor his memory."

 

Kyomi gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Whatever man, it's your choice."

 

"Well," Kakashi said after a few more minutes of silence. "I better get going, so I'll see you later, alright?"

 

"Yeah, Hokage-sama gave me the next two days off with orders to relax, so I'll probably just be hanging around." Kyomi gave Kakashi a little wave as he put his dishes in the sink and walked out of the room. "See you."

 

"Bye."

 

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"Mmm," Kyomi sighed as she stretched her arms behind her head. At the moment she was sitting cross-legged on a wide tree stump on the edge of some training grounds. She had come there just to sit, relax, and think. She might exercise a little bit later, just to keep her muscles loose, but at the moment, she just wanted to sit and maybe meditate a little bit.

 

These thoughts were abruptly, and a bit rudely, broken into by someone yelling. Kyomi grudgingly wrenched one of her closed eyes open to glance across the field. When she saw a green smudge coming towards her, she promptly groaned. Why him? Why now? She depressingly thought.

 

"Yosh! Kyomi-chan!" Gai called as he stopped in front of her. Not a second later, three other shinobi stopped behind him.

 

"Hello Gai," Kyomi sighed, leaving out the use of a suffix, then she turned slightly and looked over the three other shinobi with that were him.

 

The first of them was a Hyuuga, if his pure white pupil-less eyes were anything to go by of course. He had long black hair that looked as if it was well taken care of, and a stoic expression covering his face.

 

The next one was a kunoichi, who was a bit shorter than the Hyuuga next to her. She had chocolate brown eyes and dark brown hair that was held up in twin buns on her head. She was wearing a bright pink shirt - which Kyomi twitched at, being the avid hater of pink that she was - and blue pants. She had a rather sweet and smiling face, to the point that even Kyomi might not have guessed that she was a kunoichi if not for the hitai-ate on her forehead.

 

The third and last shinobi was the one who absolutely terrified Kyomi. He literally looked like a miniature clone of Gai, green jumpsuit, fuzzy eyebrows and all. He even had the same bright eyes and creepy smile that Gai had on at the moment. Though instead of looking at her, like the other shinobi and the kunoichi were, he was staring adoringly up at Gai.

 

All three of them looked to be around fifteen years old and they didn't have Chuunin vests, so Kyomi guessed that they were Genin. Gai's Genin, if her guess was right. And if it was, then Kyomi truly sympathized with the three...Well, expect for the Gai clone. He was still creeping her out.

 

"I didn't know that you were a Jounin sensei," Kyomi commented, wanting to see if her guess was right.

 

"Yosh! Of course I am! I must show the next generation the joy and power of youth!" Gai exclaimed, going into his strange pose and half blinding Kyomi with the flash of sunlight off his teeth.

 

The mini Gai clone smiled up at Gai with disturbing sparkles in his eyes. "Gai-sensei! You're so cool!"

 

"Lee!" Gai called out, turning to hug his young pupil. Kyomi shuddered.

 

"Gai-sensei!"

 

"Lee!"

 

"Gai-sensei!"

 

Kyomi then twitched as she looked on at the two, before turning to the other Genin and giving them a look of sympathy. Whoever had decided to make Gai a sensei must have been either half insane or completely wasted at the time.

 

The Hyuuga raised his eyebrow slightly at her look, while the kunoichi gave an amused smile before bowing slightly to Kyomi.

 

"I apologize for them..." she said.

 

Kyomi just smirked. "Don't worry about it; I should be used to it by now," she said. Kyomi glanced at the two again for a second before adding under her breath, "Emphasis on 'should'." She then turned back to the two Genin and gave a polite bow in reply to the kunoichi's. "I'm Kyomi."

 

"Tenten," the girl replied with a second bow.

 

The Hyuuga hesitated for a moment, before courtesy seemed to win him over and he also bowed to Kyomi. "Hyuuga Neji."

 

Gai, who had just finished his rendezvous with his student, was now watching Kyomi and the other two Genin. He chose that moment to speak up, "And this," he exclaimed. "Is Rock Lee!"

 

"Yosh!" yelled the boy in reply, pumping his fist in the air proudly.

 

Kyomi raised an eyebrow at his actions before turning an accusing glare on Gai. "He reminds me of you when you were younger," she said wryly. "A little too much."

 

"Yes!" Gai yelled. "I must pass on the power of youth!"

 

"Mm-hmm," Kyomi murmured under her breath. "Then get a girl." Out loud however, she simply replied, "Sure."

 

Gai smiled going into his "nice guy" pose, completely unaware of the thoughts going through Kyomi's head or the embarrassment of his other two students.

 

Rolling her eyes slightly, Kyomi then raised her hand in a small little wave, "Well then, I guess I should be go-"

 

"Ah! Kyomi!" Gai bellowed, oblivious to the fact that Kyomi had been speaking. "It's been years since we sparred! In fact, I think the last time was back when you were still a Chuunin...Hmm, that's an idea! Why don't you test my young students?"

 

Kyomi sighed. "Well, I don't know..."

 

"Oh, yes! Yes!" Lee yelled enthusiastically. "That would be awesome!"

 

Looking at Lee's excited face and Tenten's curious-almost-verging-on-eager expression - Neji was still looking like a stoic iceberg -, Kyomi's resolve immediately started breaking down. For some reason she had always had a soft spot for kids, even if these three weren't all that much younger than her.

 

Finally, after another few seconds, Kyomi sighed again. "Alright," she replied. "I don't really have anything else to do right now anyway."

 

"Yes!" Lee shouted, pumping his fist into the air. Tenten's face also broke out into a grin and Neji - despite how he tried to cover it up - also looked a little bit interested. Gai stood off to the side, beaming proudly at his three young pupils.

 

"...But you're an ANBU, correct?" Neji said after a moments pause. "Won't there be an even bigger gap between our skills, then if we were facing a Jounin?"

 

Kyomi nodded thoughtfully, mentally noting that Neji was pretty sharp and more than likely had been one of the top students in his graduating class. "True..." Kyomi said slowly, "Though it is in fact possible for three Genin working together to defeat a Jounin." Kyomi shrugged before suddenly breaking out into a grin. "Then why don't we make this a little bit more interesting, hmm? I'll use only the Ninjutsu that are taught in the academy and only kunai and shuriken in the fight. You three on the other hand, may use any techniques or weapons that you'd like. How does that sound?" Kyomi's eyes were almost twinkling by the time that she finished, excited that this might be a bit of a challenge for her.

 

Lee's and Tenten's eyes widened at the sentence, and Neji started smirking. This would definitely be interesting.

 

"Deal," Neji supplied for his team.

 

Kyomi nodded tersely, a small grin crossing her face. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Gai grinning even more excitedly at his Genin trio - if that was even possible. She was already pretty sure that the majority of the citizens of Konoha would be blinded by his smile.

 

"Well," Kyomi said, abruptly leaping back and pulling out two kunai before sliding into a defensive stance. "Shall we then?" Her grin widened even further as she added, "Oh, and attack as though you mean to kill or you'll never stand a chance!", unknowingly using the same words that her older brother had just a few years prior.

 

The three Genin moved into Taijutsu stances as well and Kyomi quickly analyzed them, to get an idea of their styles. Lee was in a stance that she recognized from the spars she'd had with Gai, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. She'd probably have to watch his speed and strength though. Tenten was in a stance that she didn't recognize, but resembled that of a few of the weapon users she'd encountered. She didn't see any weapons on her at the moment however, so Kyomi was a bit wary. Finally, Neji was in a stance that Kyomi immediately recognized as the Hyuuga's Juuken. She'd have to be a bit careful with him as she didn't know his level of skill or even whether he was a branch or main house member.

 

Before another word could be said, Lee darted forward with a yell, leaving his teammates behind and obviously using all of his strength and speed straight out. Kyomi flipped back from Lee's initial punch, and then proceeded to continue to dodge all of his attacks, which she noted were solely Taijutsu. He must be the boy that she had heard about that had been born without the ability to use chakra. But he had continued to try to become a shinobi and was now a Taijutsu specialist? Interesting.

 

Abruptly, Kyomi pumped some chakra into her hand to reinforce its strength and then reached out and grabbed onto Lee's wrist, stopping his incoming punch. Without pausing for even a moment, she then twisted his arm around behind his back and forced him down onto his knees. Lee cried out in surprise and pain and tried to pull away, but Kyomi held him firmly.

 

Still gripping him tightly, Kyomi then said in a calm voice just loud enough for Tenten and Neji on the other side of the clearing to hear, "Lesson #1: Never charge straight into a fight, especially if you have no idea what potential your enemy has. Also, never reveal your true skills to your enemy until you understand how your opponent moves and whether or not you are up to their level. Never, in any situation, should you underestimate your opponent or overestimate yourself. This has proven to be a deadly mistake for countless shinobi."

 

Then, in a slightly quieter voice Kyomi continued on to Lee, "You overestimated yourself and underestimated me. You assumed that your speed and strength would be equal to or higher than mine and didn't stop to check if this was true. That was your mistake."

 

Kyomi then back flipped away, landing in the center of the clearing once more. Carefully, Lee stood back up, massaging his wrist and watching Kyomi warily. With a spurt of speed, he was suddenly standing by his two teammates again.

 

Kyomi grinned at them, letting her longer than average canines slip over her lower lip. She had often been compared to the Inuzuka for that fact, but it was just something that ran in the family. She was a Hatake after all, and daughter of Konoha no Shiroi Kiba(1).

 

"Well?" Kyomi said, grin widening even more. "Are we just going to stand her all day or what?"

 

That seemed to break the three Genin as they began to run at her. Lee and Tenten were attacking together, Kyomi noted offhandedly, while Neji was attacking on his own. Well then, she'd just have to remedy that, wouldn't she?

 

Lee was once again using only Taijutsu to attack her on her left and Tenten was close behind him, pulling out a scroll, though from where Kyomi had no idea. Neji was on her right side, using his family's traditional style and seemingly trying to avoid associating himself with his teammates in whatever way possible.

 

Kyomi immediately narrowed her eyes at the supposed team. This wasn't some split-up-and-conquer strategy, but rather just the way they acted. And that definitely wasn't good. As the two boys reached her, each on either side, she immediately dodged backwards; narrowly avoiding Neji's chakra enhanced palm and Lee's powerful fist. It was then that she saw Tenten leap above them with her scroll opened up, that cued the two boys to jump backwards. Quickly enough to impress Kyomi, a rain a many different weapons suddenly began their decent to the ground, appearing from Tenten's stretched out scroll.

 

Kyomi quickly started to move away, but soon found that she also needed her kunai to block some of the weapons. When the attack finally stopped, Kyomi had several cuts adorning her body. 'Heh,' Kyomi thought. 'A Hyuuga, a Taijutsu specialist, and a weapons mistress. What an interesting combination.'

 

"Not bad," Kyomi said grudgingly, the compliment was lost on the three Genin, and none of them really knew how hard it was to get a compliment out of Kyomi or how long it had been since she had last given one. She was too hard on herself and others, most people said, but Kyomi mostly ignored that fact. You couldn't get anywhere without a little hard work.

 

Tenten nodded happily in acceptance of Kyomi's words and the three Genin seemed to relax slightly. It was only a small difference, but it was enough to make Kyomi's grin return full force as she eagerly took the opportunity. A few lightning fast hand seals and a quiet murmur of "Bunshin no jutsu (Doppelganger Technique)," later, there were ten Kyomi's standing in front of the Genin.

 

The three fifteen-year-olds immediately tensed up and Neji - who had his Byakuugan activated - scanned all of them, trying to figure out which was the real one. None of them seemed to have any flaws however, so they would have to go at this the old-fashioned way: take them out one at a time.

 

Before any of the Genin could move however, each of the bunshin lifted up a hand and deftly threw a kunai. The Genin easily dodged all of the projectiles and then began their own attacks. They had a little trouble at first, as all of the bunshin seemed to be just as fast and agile as Kyomi herself, but they were eventually beginning to disperse the bunshin one by one. Finally, a few minutes later, there was only a single, deeply breathing, Kyomi left. Neji smirked and Lee and Tenten grinned triumphantly.

 

Just then Neji began his final attack, completely ignoring his teammates and calling out, "You're in the range of--"

 

With a gasp Neji abruptly cut himself off and whirled around at the same time as Lee and Tenten. All three of them had heard the unmistakable sound of metal whizzing through the air. Upon finishing his turn, Neji's eyes immediately widened at the site that greeted them. There were dozens of kunai and shuriken zooming towards them, and there behind the sharp blades, stood a wickedly grinning Kyomi. The real one.

 

The blades rapidly loomed ever near and Neji's brain worked hastily, trying to quickly find out what had happened. The Kyomi that he and his teammates had just been cornering disappeared behind them however, then it all clicked into place and Neji's eyes widen even further in sudden realization of what had occurred.

 

Kyomi had created eleven bunshin instead of the ten that they had originally thought. She had used the cover of the smoke as the bunshin appeared to use a Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique) to change her self into a kunai. She had been one of the kunai that the bunshin had thrown and thus was behind them without him or his teammates noticing. Neji would have seen her with his Byakuugan, but she had been in his blind spot. Whether her being in his blind spot was on purpose or not, he didn't know, but he had a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach that it hadn't been a coincidence. But then, how much could she know about the Byakuugan?

 

All of these thoughts flew through Neji's mind as the projectiles grew ever closer and similar thoughts were going through the minds of the others two Genin as well. All of them knew that there was no time at all to dodge or even to block very well.

 

The kunai and shuriken slammed into the three Genin, only minimally injuring them thanks to Kyomi's excellent aim. Kyomi herself smirked at them for a second before she turned her attention to Neji who was struggling to sit up at the base of the tree he had slammed into.

 

"Lesson #2: When you are alone on missions, then you can only rely on yourself. However, when you have teammates, like now, you must work with them. As a shinobi, you must use all resources available to you. When you have teammates, they are your immediate resources. You must use them, work with them, and rely on them. If you do anything else you will end up in the dust...or worse."

 

Neji glared up at her slightly, but Kyomi only smirked in reply before turning her attention to Tenten and Lee.

 

"Lesson #3: You should never limit yourself to only one area of skill," Kyomi stated and then looked directly at Tenten. "There may be a time when you can't use weapons and must rely on your other shinobi skills. However, if you have focused completely on your weaponry skills, then you are, in short, screwed."

 

Kyomi paused for a second to let that sink in, and then looked to Lee, "There may be a time when you are unable to completely use your Taijutsu, or a time when you face an opponent who is vastly superior to yourself in skills. At this time, you must use your other shinobi skills, which, in your case, would be weapons. However, if you have focused completely on your Taijutsu, then you would be, once again, screwed."

 

With that said, Kyomi leaned back on her heels and crossed her arms in front of her, waiting for the three to get up. After a bit of struggling, they did. The three glanced at each other for a moment before they finally did what they really should have in the beginning and jumped off into the woods.

 

Closing her eyes and expanding her senses, Kyomi tried to see if she could sense any of them and/or their chakra. Surprisingly, she couldn't. Kyomi smirked at this; maybe they would actually stand a chance. Of course, as soon as they got within a certain range of her she would automatically sense them, but this allowed them to gather and come up with a real plan. Perhaps that Hyuuga would even finally get it and work together with his teammates.

 

So Kyomi stood there in once place with her eyes closed for the next few minutes, patiently waiting for the Genin to come out. She had all day after all - two days in fact, but that wasn't the point. However, after nearly ten minutes Kyomi was entertaining the idea to just start to walk off and see how the Genin reacted. It wasn't that she was bored or anything, but the idea had popped into her head and was starting to sound really amusing.

 

Just a small smirk crossed her face at this idea, Kyomi's head suddenly snapped to the side, eyes opening. There! She could sense them just about 20 meters away in a bush on the other side of the clearing.

 

In the large bush, the three Genin abruptly stiffened as Kyomi stared at them, even though she couldn't see them directly. How had she sensed them?! They had put almost all of their stealth training into sneaking close to her without her noticing.

 

'But then again,' Tenten thought, trying to be reasonable. 'She is an ANBU and she's on high alert right now, so it's not really all that much of a surprise.'

 

Neji seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he tensed his body, ready to put their plan into action. The three waited just a few more seconds - as Kyomi continued to bore a whole through the bush with her gaze - before all three shot out on some unheard signal.

 

Tenten took Kyomi's left side, a large mace in hand, while Lee took her right and Neji headed straight for her. They all attacked simultaneously, trying to either lower her guard of get at least a single hit in. Kyomi just dodged them all however, gracefully sliding away from Lee's and Tenten's hits and even jumping over Tenten's mace at one point.

 

Neji on the other hand held back slightly, still helping to drive Kyomi back but not really attacking. He was waiting for the perfect opportunity. And the second he saw it, he dove straight for it.

 

Seeing Neji lunging towards her and the other two backing off slightly, Kyomi's eyes immediately widened. She definitely recognized that attack. Palm open and heading straight toward her Kyomi decided to do the only thing that she could do at such a close range; she shoved as much chakra as she could through her tenketsu, covering her entire body in a thin and only just barely visible layer of chakra.

 

Neji smirked superiorly and completely ignored the chakra, not thinking that it would do anything. However, as soon as his hand hit her upper right shoulder, he was completely shocked...literally. Instead of closing up her tenketsu, the chakra around Kyomi sort of swelled up at that point that Neji's hand was touching her and shoved towards his hand, giving him a small electrical shock and forcefully throwing him back several meters. As Neji recovered, he and his two teammates stared up wide-eyed at Kyomi. That was different.

 

"H-h-how?!" Neji stuttered. "That's not possible! That technique cannot be out right beaten!"

 

Kyomi just rolled her eyes at this statement, before sighing. "Lesson #4: You should never believe that a technique is unbeatable simply because it has never been defeated before," Kyomi calmly stated. "You should always assume that there is some counter technique and prepare a backup plan in case your opponent is the one who knows that counter technique. Arrogance will never get you anywhere in a battle, except maybe six feet under in a nice cold coffin. And always remember that there will be someone stronger than you in the world. It is a simple fact of life."

 

Neji's eyes widened even more for a second before narrowing. Was she calling him arrogant?! He wasn't arrogant, just...confident... Pushing all of those thoughts out of his mind, Neji forced himself up with a growl and got into formation with his teammates.

 

"But still," Neji continued, pushing for answers. "How would you know enough about the Hyuuga to come up with a counter technique?"

 

Kyomi chuckled. "Well," she replied. "Back when I was a Genin one of my teammates was a Hyuuga. I sparred with him often and eventually developed the technique. Unfortunately it takes extreme chakra control and a lot of raw chakra to perform. I guess since I'm getting kind of low on chakra now, I should wrap this up quickly, ne?"

 

Kyomi smirked at them, thoroughly amused, before quickly forming a set of seals and muttering something under her breath. The Genin tensed, not recognizing the seals for the technique and then their eyes widened and they froze. All three were mentally freaking out, Lee even more so than the others. He couldn't see anything, he couldn't feel anything, and he couldn't even feel himself breathing. It was as if, for all purposes, he was unconscious. And yet, he could still think through out it all.

 

Tenten and Neji were experiencing the exact same thing, but both were quickly able to realize that they were in Genjutsu and break out without too much effort, as the technique was pretty low level. However, as soon as they came to their senses, they were quite surprised; Kyomi was standing behind the two of them, a kunai at each of their necks.

 

"I win."

 

Tenten blinked in surprise and Neji scowled, trying to glare a hole in the ground beneath him. Kyomi grinned before turning to Lee and releasing the Genjutsu that was still on him. He fell to the floor before looking around in confusion. When he saw Kyomi standing over his teammates he immediately let his head drop.

 

Kyomi shook her head sadly and said to him, "Lesson #5: You should familiarize yourself with all shinobi fields, whether or not you can perform them. This way you can recognize attacks that your enemies may use, as well as any Genjutsu that they may perform. In your case, you should definitely study up on different types of Genjutsu so that you can recognize them quickly and learn to get out of them as fast as possible."

 

"Bravo! Bravo!" Gai cheered loudly to his pupils as he ran towards them from where he was watching on the other side of the clearing. "You did so well!"

 

Neji growled quietly under his breath, before realization suddenly struck him. "Wait," he said, turning to Kyomi with a smirk. "You said that you would only use the jutsu taught in the academy, but that last technique was definitely not taught to us. No Genjutsu was."

 

"Ah, ah, ah," Kyomi said, shaking her finger at Neji and smirking widely. "What I said was that I would only use the Ninjutsu taught at the academy. I never agreed to anything about Genjutsu."

 

Neji glared at the 19-year-old in front of him, scowling darkly. "Hn."

 

Kyomi's smirk widened a little more and she then turned to Gai. "Well, my assessment of your students is very good," she informed. "I'd say that they are all easily Chuunin level."

 

Gai beamed down at all four of them and suddenly moved forward to hug Kyomi. Kyomi immediately jumped backwards, narrowly dodging a very gruesome fate.

 

"...Yeah..." Kyomi said slowly. "Well, I should get going now. I'll see you around." She waved to the three Genin and the certifiably insane Jounin before shoving her hands into her pockets and beginning to walk off. She didn't get more than a few steps however, before she paused and glanced over her should at Neji. "Oh, and you really should learn some more techniques and styles than those of your clan's. While very skilled, you're too predictable right now."

 

Neji continued to glare darkly at her, but Kyomi just turned back around with a content smirk and continued out of the clearing.

 

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Kyomi sighed as her stomach grumbled for the fifth time. She had been walking around the village for a little while and was staring to get really hungry. It was nearly lunch time anyway. Suddenly smelling ramen, Kyomi grinned; she hadn't had any ramen in quite a while, and right now it sounded pretty appetizing. Following the waft of ramen, Kyomi briskly walked down the street before stopping in front of a nice little ramen stand.

 

"Ichiraku," Kyomi read, looking at the stand's name. Hmm, interesting; Kyomi didn't think that she'd ever been here before. Shrugging, Kyomi made her way into the stand and sat down at one of the stools.

 

Almost immediately, an aging man walked up to her. "What would you like?" he asked politely.

 

"One miso ramen please," Kyomi said, distractedly glancing around the shop. It seemed that she was the only one there at the moment. A few minutes later, her order was sitting in front of her. Kyomi nodded at the older man thankfully and picked up her chopsticks. Just as she started to eat, an orange blur dashed into the small stand and sat a few seats down from her.

 

"Hey old man!" a young voice yelled. "Give me some ramen!" Kyomi twitched slightly at the volume of the voice, but was secretly glad that at least someone was ditching all the formality. Still, she couldn't help but wonder how the older man would react. Surprisingly, he laughed. It seemed as if he was used to such treatment.

 

"The usual, Naruto?" he asked. An eager nod was his reply. Still chuckling, the older man turned around and began to fill out the order, whatever it was.

 

A little curious, Kyomi glanced at the orange figure from the corner of her eye and continued to eat her ramen. The orange thing turned out to be a young-ish boy, perhaps only fourteen years old. He had wild blonde hair, sticking out from under a blue Konoha hitai-ate and bright sapphire blue eyes, sparkling with life and perfectly matching the large smile stretched across his face. His outfit was a pair of the standard blue shinobi sandals, orange pants, and an orange and blue jacket, mostly orange. It was certainly an interesting ensemble, especially for a shinobi. Shrugging it off as none of her business, Kyomi turned back to her meal, ignoring everything else around her.

 

A few minutes later, just as she finished her lunch, Kyomi heard a satisfied sigh to her left. Giving a quick glance to her side, Kyomi saw that it was the blonde boy, Naruto. He was leaning back in his chair with a content grin on his face. The surprising thing, however, was that he had a large pile of bowls in front of him. If Kyomi hadn't seen him come in herself, she would have sworn that it would have taken him all morning to eat that much food.

 

'Meh, boys tend to eat tons,' Kyomi thought, her eye glazing over slightly before she abruptly pulled herself out of memory lane with a mental scowl. That was one place she'd really rather not travel down at the moment.

 

Pulling out her wallet, Kyomi set down enough money for the meal and started to stand up when a groan suddenly echoed through the stand.

 

"Oh man!" the young blonde cried out. The old man looked at him from over the counter and deadpanned when he noticed the boy's devastated stare into his wallet.

 

"You're out of money again, aren't you?" the old man asked sighing.

 

"Erm..." the blonde sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, tensing up to run off.

 

Not wanting there to be a scene, Kyomi rolled her eyes and pulled her wallet back out of her pocket. "How much?" she asked the man with a sigh. Both the blonde and the older man jerked around to stare in surprise. "How much does he owe you?"

 

The blonde, still staring wide-eyed at the older girl, was unable to say a thing, so the older man just mumbled out the price. Kyomi held back wince, knowing that it'll be a hole in her wallet, but paid anyway.

 

As the older man turned around the blond finally stuttered out, "W-why did you do that?"

 

Kyomi shrugged, "You couldn't pay. I had some extra money." Okay, so the last part was a lie, but he didn't need to know that.

 

Naruto stared warily at her for a moment, unsure of her motives, but finally seemed to deem her sincere and grinned widely in gratitude.

 

"Heh heh, thanks!" he said happily. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

 

Kyomi chuckled. "Kyomi," she replied. "...You're a Genin, right?" Kyomi asked after a moment.

 

"...Yeah..." Naruto said, mentally flinching and wondering if she would recognize him and demand her money back. Thus, her next sentence was a complete surprise.

 

"Then shouldn't you be meeting with your team right now?" It was nearly eleven in the morning after all.

 

Naruto blinked, surprised that someone was actually speaking civilly to him, but decided to just be glad that she was in fact talking to him and not glaring at him. So, he replied, "We meet later." Not really a lie since the three of them had decided to take there time and meet just before Kakashi showed up. After all, why waste time waiting around for someone who always shows up several hours late?

 

Kyomi just shrugged before sitting back down on her stool and getting into a conversation with the young shinobi. Besides, she had the time.

 

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Preview of Chapter 3:The Sensei

 

Just as Naruto had said, they were nearly at Team 7's meeting spot. In fact, as they cleared a curve in the path the two were walking down, a little bridge running over a small creek appeared not 10 feet from them. Standing on the bridge were three people, two of them Naruto's age and the third much older; a Jounin by his vest.

 

Kyomi started to study the two Genin, for that was what they obviously were, when she did a double take on the third figure. Letting her mouth fall open in shock, Kyomi just stared for a few seconds before turning to Naruto.

 

"He's your sensei?" she asked incredulously.