Chapter 7

I woke up in a bed, which was new. Next to me on either sides were my parents, both of them already awake and watching me.

"Rise and shine, pup. Academy's waiting." Dad said. I rose up and checked my connection to Shiromaru to see if he was in the area. I found him lying on an enormous dog bed at the side probably meant for Hanako and Aomaru, my dad's partner.

"Bathroom's in the left side of the hallway going out." Mom said, before she rose out of bed and out the door, dad following her. I wonder why there's a bed in a house this traditional. Well I can't deny it's comfy, so that's a plus.

I turned to Shiromaru and linked telepathically to him.

'Know. Awake.'

'Need?'

'Yes need.'

'But Bed comfy.'

'But responsibility.'

'?'

'Need because society.'

'Ugh.'

'Know.'

'Shizuka become when?'

'When responsibility. Now up!'

'Fine.'

Shiromaru lazily lifted himself up, eyes closed the whole time and sauntered over to me who was already out the door. We went through a quick bathing routine (by which I mean I washed him cause he was too lazy to himself) and went down to join my parents and their partners for breakfast.

Breakfast was a quiet but amiable affair. After cleaning up they told me they would bring me to the kennel to walk to the Academy with the rest. I assured them it wasn't needed. If Shizuka wasn't walking us I generally didn't come along as a general thing, so they solemnly agreed to just let me saunter over myself. I did notice their scent following me most of the way to the Academy, which means they most likely weren't hiding it. Honestly those two...

Arriving at the school I took a glance at the rankings that recently came out. They're nothing really concrete, especially this early on, but you can already see lines forming, especially regarding last names. In my year I'm 9th, which is near the top. My physical scores were nothing special for an Inuzuka but my written scores were way higher than anticipated on the last test we took. Turns out a lot of the questions weren't meant to be correctly answered by five-year olds. Woops.

"Cheh. Don't know why you're bothering to look in the first place. They don't really mean anything anyway." An annoyingly familiar voice said from behind me. It was Tomoe with her white haired partner, Mariko.

"Right. And that doesn't have anything to do with your ranking right." There was a notable absence of the Inuzuka name in the top 15 compared to the rest of the big clans. The only other name there at 7th is Inuzuka Masato.

"Hmph. Of course not. I'm better than you. And everyone knows that already so what's written there is clearly a lie." Wow. So childish.

"On account of whom? Your parents? Poor kid. Feeding you all these lies."

Her partner next to her started growling. Mine was on my head, probably asleep. "N-No! My parents are the best in the world! They gave me my own kunai set when I got Mariko!" What, parents a sensitive topic?

"Oh. Very impressive. If we're done here.." With that I briskly walked away from the rankings board. I am totally not sorry for that.

"Yeah right!" She dashed back in front of me, insolent face mirrored by her ninken next to her. "Just because you have some stupid ranking doesn't mean you're better than me!"

I crossed my arms. "Oh yeah? Then prove it. If you can show me a way in which you are by some miracle 'better' than me then say it now. Class is starting soon and you're in the way."

She stayed quiet, head down.

"Well? I'm waiting." More quiet.

I gave it up as a lost cause and walked away. Just when I got to her shoulder I heard her voice utter one. Single. Word.

"Hunt." I stopped dead.

"... Two years from now. You and me face off."

"You're crazy."

The Hunt is an annual age old Inuzuka tradition that's sort of like a rite of passage. Put simply, you're dropped in a deadly forest worse than Training ground 44 where you're meant to catch one single worthy prey and bring it back to the clan. Without your partner. Problem is that most 'worthy prey' is usually a predator. One much bigger, stronger and faster than you. The Hunt is taken as a sort of placement test to see what your position in the clan will be. If you succeed you gain the famous red markings on your cheeks. If you don't, and you didn't die, then you get foisted off into the non-ninja areas of the clan like the Farming Sector. Naturally those who aren't fit to be ninja are generally discouraged from trying and because of the risks most children opt to take part just before they turn genin.

The thing is, what Tomoe is suggesting is that we take it minimum two years earlier than usual. It's the equivalent of a latter stage Academy student taking the chuunin exams. Although not impossible it's a stupid idea nonetheless. Not only that she's suggesting we compete against each other. While there aren't real winners and losers depending on the prey you bring back it can affect the size and thickness of your markings, which is of course a huge status symbol. Tsume for example is sort of a celebrity within the clan for having the largest markings in almost a century.

The problem is that taking it earlier won't grant you significant boosts to size or thickness so it just ends up making it harder on yourself for meager returns. Still, it is a massive statement of intent to take it early.

"And why would I agree to such a thing?" I asked, dimly aware that the minute bell just rang.

"Are you afraid of me showing you up?"

"Far from. I just don't feel like attending your funeral." She clicked her tongue.

"I don't care. I'm going to do it—and when everyone sees my fangs way before you they'll realize they were looking at the wrong person all along." The heck's that supposed to mean?

She walked away not looking at me. Mariko stayed for a while to give me one last stink eye, then followed her.

Alright then.

I sat down in my usual seat at the back just before the bell rang. Honestly what is the girl thinking? Her last sentence would imply that there's people in the clan that don't look at me like unwashed laundry. But that's basically impossible with Shiromaru's eyes thrown into the mix. I sat there contemplating, paying just enough attention for attendance and aisatsu.

Once we got to math I completely stopped paying attention. Not that I needed to.

"Hey, can I borrow a pencil?" Your typical aspiring village boy next to me asked. Bright brown eyes with simple short brown hair, mostly covered by the fishing hat he wore. He looked a little like Inari if I was being honest.

"Why? Did you forget yours?" I whispered back, sending him a strong look. Ikkaku-sensei, while not as strict as Chizuru-sensei is still a stickler for rules.

He rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish expression. "Sorry. My friends and I were playing ninja and I had my pencil but it was in my pocket and then it broke." He half-whispered half-talked back. Oh children.

"Guys. Stop talking. You're distracting me from my work." The boy on the other side of me murmured. This one was practically the opposite of aspiring village boy. Black hair tied up in a small ponytail with striking black eyes to match it. He had Uchiha symbols plastered on every part of his clothing, and to finish it off, a small red and white earring attached to his right ear.

"Hey! Screw you! I just needed a pencil!" Village boy said in his half-whisper.

Uchiha boy clicked his tongue. "Cheh. Here." He flicked his wrist, and suddenly there was a pencil stuck in the middle of village boy's part of the desk. Uchiha boy smirked smugly at village boy's baffled look.

I held in a snort. "Good job. You can throw things. Very impressive." He sent me a supposed warning look, but it didn't have a real impact coming from a five or six year old.

"You should know that I'm Genin level at bukijitsu! Nee-san told me so. She knows everything."

"And we care because...?" He sent me another ineffective warning look, but went back to his 'work.'

Class went on as normal after that. Being stumped out of my train of thought about Tomoe instead led me to my new classmates. We don't really have assigned seating but people naturally form groups and cliques anyway, leaving guys like me alone. What's strange was that they were here sitting next to me and not off with groups they clearly belonged to.

After we got released for lunch I stalked off to my usual spot when village boy came up to me.

"Hey! What's your name?" Alright then.

"...Inuzuka Arata." I stared at him for a while. The silence stretched.

"Oh! My name's Kouta. I don't have a fancy last name like yours though. I wish! Could you see it? Hyuurou Kouta! Fourth Hokage!" I smiled. He filled his stereotype so well.

"We'll see about that, Hyuurou."

He sent me a challenging look. "You think you're going to be Fourth Hokage?! Not a chance!" Well no duh. Although the name Yellow Flash hasn't really appeared yet there's plenty of rumors about Jiraiya's yellow haired student out there. Some already suspect him to eventually surpass the Sannin.

"We'll see, Hyuurou. For all we know it'll be Chizuru-sensei." We both shivered. I didn't even want to imagine what the Leaf would look like under Chizuru-sensei.

"Anyway I just wanted to thank you for standing up for me against that jerk Tetsuo." I did?

"You're welcome?" He seemed satisfied with that, flashing me a grin so big you could barely see his eyes.

"Well see you later, Arata! I gotta go meet up with my friends." He ran off after that, leaving me to stumble over to my usual spot. Hayama was already there, sending me confused looks.

"You can talk?!" I sat down and opened up my lunch.

"Well yeah. You've seen me do it before, no?" Sending him his same look back.

"NO!?" He got annoyingly loud this time, people were staring.

"Look. Why don't you just go back to talking about kunai trajectories. You were mentioning the Crow's Manoeuvre last time?"

He stood up abruptly, dropping his food onto the ground. "YOU WERE LISTENING!?" Yup, people were definitely staring now.

"Yeah. Yeah I was. Can you quiet down now?" He, just as abruptly as he stood up, sat back down. There was almost no transition. Just a flop to the ground.

"Why didn't you say anything?" He said, trying to salvage some food from the ground.

"Talking while eating is hard. And you seemed to enjoy talking on your own so.." I shrugged.

"So-you just-but-aaaaaaaaaagh!" He took his bokken off his back and swung it around a little. Almost cartoon-like. No exactly like a cartoon.

"Look, if I share my food with you are you gonna calm down?"

He looked back at me mid swing, big doe eyes pleading. "Will you talk to me then?"

"Sure?" I agreed. He instantly cheered up and went to normal again. After that we ate and discussed some more about bukijutsu. It seemed to be the day for it. He seemed to ramble even more heavily now that I was actually responding, which shouldn't be possible. But hey, this is the Naruto universe. Technically anything's possible.

Honestly, children are such a hassle.

When I got back to the compound (five minutes before the others) I noticed Shizuka at the gate, probably waiting for me.

"Hey. I just wanted to tell you I'm going on a vacation starting today. So you'll be on your own at the kennel for a while." I frowned. Ninja don't really get much in the way of vacation. Instead they have 'down time' between missions, which really isn't much if you want to stay afloat economically. The fact that she got a vacation is most likely because she's not on the village mission roster, or that she's going to do something she just doesn't want to tell me about. Could be both. It's probably both.

"How long will you be gone?" She seemed to be very interested in the tree behind me all of a sudden.

"Two-three weeks? A month maybe?" I tried hard to keep my mouth from dropping.

"How am I gonna survive for that long?!" She winced, then ducked down to be at eye-level with me.

"Look. I know you can do it already. You're five years old now. Plus, I asked Tsume-sama to train you while I'm gone. So you'll be having both your parents and your big sister there. Is that good enough?"

I bit on my cheek. "Fine. But only if you bring me takoyaki from wherever you're going."

She smiled fondly at me. "Good. Now give me my sappy hug." She said, holding out her arms.

I rolled my eyes and just sort of deposited myself on her and folded the arms around me. I got rewarded with twenty seconds of restrained airpipe.

She gave me one last look. This one filled with emotions I couldn't even try to guess, then Body-Flickered away. Should I prepare something for when she gets back? That seemed significant. Maybe I should leave some food for her too. Or a first-aid kit. A food first-aid kit. Perfect!

Everything sucks. It's barely been a day and they've already forgotten to give me dinner. You know how awkward it is to approach your caretakers and kindly ask if they would mind giving me some as well. I mean, come on.

There's also no one but Shiromaru to talk to now. Everyone avoids me. Even the recently born ninken. Shiromaru also isn't the greatest partner in that regard, as he's sitting through the kennel classes. I've considered just going out but they probably wouldn't remember to keep the gate open if I did.

Finally, around four Tsume casually barged in and took me out of the place. She picked me up by my shirt and Body-Flickered to a nearby empty training ground.

"Oh thank Kami. Thank you so much." She put me down rather roughly. By which I mean she dropped me.

"What's wrong, kid? Can't handle the kennels without Shizuka in it?" I gave her a serious stare. Face pressed into hard lines.

"They served taiyaki as dessert. And didn't give me any." Tsume looked like I'd tased her.

"I understand. Now what we do about it?" Good question. There are several ways I could go about this. One, cause a political shitstorm through dad. He knows there is some bias towards me but Shizuka and I haven't exactly told him towards what extent yet, fearing the reaction. Two, I could just live at the clan head's house. Not like many would want to notice. Then again, that could cause another political shitstorm. Three.. Fucking shit. Do I really have to do this? Was this planned? There is no way this wasn't planned. Fuck it. Might as well. It's the fastest non-political one.

"Tsume, I need you to train me for the Hunt in two years." She opened her mouth, then closed it in her offended expression.

"I need to what? Kid, you can barely hold a Four Legs for two minutes, let alone two hours. You're crazy."

"My reaction exactly. Now you see.." I told her about Tomoe and her challenge, with the suspicious departure of Shizuka right after.

"You think you're being forced out of the kennels?" She asked incredulously.

"Or worse." There was a moment of silence, both of us deciding not to think of that as a possibility. "Please don't tell dad."

"Alright fine. I'll train you. But you owe me massively." I grinned.

"Then let's get started."

Honestly, people are just... Then again, some of them aren't that bad. Some of them.

Yeah it's been a while. I am also ashamed at how long this took to come out. The writer's block, especially on Tomoe just killed me with this. At least she's a better character for it, with all the thought I put into her. Also, AP scores were released, like a while ago. I got a 2 on my AP Japanese exam, if you must know. Which can say whatever you want as to my authenticity for writing this story. I feel like I should have some kind of end card for these. Like a QOTD type thing, or just some random fact. Anyone interested? Can be literally anything.

Revised 4/24/2020