Chapter 3: Teammates 1/2

Toru's team is made of two others: Shou Shimizu and Kiku Kurama. They wait together in the classroom for a few minutes, and Toru lets his gaze move around as they wait for their sensei.

"Team Five," a voice calls out and Toru looks up. There's a short woman standing at the door, she sighs impatiently and repeats herself, "Team Five, follow me."

Toru gets up and walks out the door, dropping a pace behind his two other teammates. His team so far seems to be average in every way; he also appears to be the only male member of the team. Their sensei comes to a stop and sits down on a bench. She pauses long enough for them to sit down before she speaks.

"My name is Natsumi Hayashi," she begins. "I identify as female and enjoy long walks in the forests surrounding Konoha. I dislike people wasting my time. A hobby of mine is catching up with friends. Go around and introduce yourself."

When no one speaks, Natsumi gives another frustrated sigh and points at Toru. "I'm Toru Uchiha," he starts, "I identify as male. I like spending time with Sasuke and dislike… ignorant people. A hobby of mine is… um, reading?"

The girl next to Toru starts without prompting. "I am Kiku Kurama, and female. I pass the time by working in my family's shop and hate stupid questions being asked. I enjoy dango."

"I'm Shou Shimizu and I identify as male, currently. However, that can change. Sometimes I have no gender while other times I'm female," the boy looks around his team, but no one speaks; Natsumi raises an eyebrow to prompt him to continue. "A hobby of mine is working on my taijutsu katas. I like spending time with friends and dislike people who don't use the correct pronouns."

Their sensei claps her hands, "Now that introductions are over, I'll move onto our next topic for conversation. You are graduated academy students, which means your instructors thought you might be capable of becoming genins. There's another test you have to pass first, before you can become genins."

The tanned woman looks up at the sky, "We have three hours of daylight left, so we can complete the test now. The mission is to find me; I won't move from my original position, but I can use anything to hide myself. Those who fail the mission will go back to the academy." She claps her hands once more, and stops speaking.

Toru blinks as he finds himself staring into her grey eyes. "One rule of being a ninja is that you need to look up. The ground can be an enemy but it isn't the only one. Sometimes from behind is the greatest ally. Upon four people, waiting. Two brothers, a predecessor and a successor, and a hero who was bright. The rain trickles and it storms, the tree remains strong."

Toru zones out as his sensei continues talking, wondering when she was going to go. A moment later, he realises something wasn't adding up. He looks down, and realises he's standing in a meadow of flowers. He raises his hands, "Kai," he says softly.

His perception snaps back to normal, and he realises he's back on the roof where his teammates and he were before. He frowns, wondering why he had been put into a genjutsu with a teacher rambling. He looks around, but realises that his teammates are already gone. Not that they are a team, as if one of them fails they get pushed back into the academy.

He hums to himself as he thinks over what just happened. Sure, Natsumi might have put him in a genjutsu so she had more time, but he also needs a chance, so she probably put a message into the genjutsu as well.

What she had said is plain weird as well, but maybe not all of it is relevant. The tree, at a guess, could refer to Konoha, and it standing strong is showing that Konoha is strong. The ground being an enemy made no sense, the line about looking up makes some sense, but none in the context he has. The odd sentence regarding the four people and the brothers… Something wasn't clicking.

Toru slinks down back into Konoha's streets, deciding to just walk around for now. He knows Sasuke is training somewhere, but he isn't sure where. He sighs, running a hand through his reddish-brown hair. It was starting to reach his neck now; he'd been trying to grow it out.

Something runs into his legs, and he looks down at the small blonde-haired child; it was Naruto. "Hey Naruto-san," Toru says.

"Hiya Toru-san!" Naruto says with a bright grin. "Whatcha doin'?"

"I'm completing a test for my sensei, but it's very hard," Toru tells the younger boy.

Naruto looks up at him in awe, "Are you a genin, Toru-san?"

"Ahh, I hope I'm going to be one. I have to pass a test first, but I can't think of the answer for the, well, riddle she gave me," Toru responds.

Naruto's expression flattens before becoming happy once again, "Y'know, when I can't think good, I go to the Hokage rock and sit up there for a while. It helps me… most of the time."

Toru pauses, and stares up at the four rock heads. "Naruto-san, you are a genius!" He says with a bright grin, he ruffles the boy's hair without thinking. "I'll buy you ramen sometime, but right now I need to complete this test!" As he runs off, he doesn't see Naruto's awed expression as he runs a hand through his blonde hair. Naruto grins and runs off, planning his next prank.

Meanwhile, Toru runs his way up to the top of the Hokage rock. He gets there and grins to himself. Four people waiting indeed, and two brothers – the Shodaime and the Nidaime – and a hero who was bright, that was the Yondaime who had brightly coloured hair and was smart as well. There was also the predecessor and successor, which was the Sandaime, as he had left the Hokage office and taken the mantle up again.

Toru looks around, searching for Natsumi but not seeing anyone. He scowls, and paces around the small area, wondering what he is meant to do now. He kicks one of the rocks, and it bounces off a tree. Toru scowls at the tree, before wondering if Natsumi had been talking about the tree in the genjutsu. He hesitates, before climbing the tree.

Upon reaching the first fork, he finds a scroll nestled tightly between two branches. He grabs it and leaps out of the tree, unrolling it the moment he touches the ground.

TO GO forward, sometimes one must return first.

Aloud, Toru groans. "What does that even mean?" He asks the sky before he heads down the stairs once more. "There has got to be more information," he mutters to himself. "I need a team of people to help me."

Toru comes to an abrupt stop, causing someone to run into him from behind. He mindlessly steps out of the way, ignoring the swearing going on behind him. His mind runs over what he had just thought. He takes off into a sprint; he needs to find his team.

Surprisingly, Shou is easy to find, and he stumbles into him as he's walking down the street. "Shou-san!" Toru says, gently pulling him out of the way of others. "Did you get put in a genjutsu when Natsumi-sensei left? Did she give you any information?"

Shou nods slightly, "It sounded like a lot of rubbish, though."

Toru grins ruefully, "Yeah, mine did too. I got there, though, and I found a note. I think we need to work together to find her."

Shou frowns, "Natsumi-sensei mentioned to me that 'allies are necessary', do you think she was talking about you and Kiku-san?"

Toru chews his lip as he thinks, "That makes sense, doesn't it? We need to work together to find her. I mean, it'd help. We all have different skills and if she gave us different messages, maybe we need to put the messages together before we do anything. I don't know how to find Kiku-san, though…"

"I might be able to help," Shou murmurs softly. "We left at the same time, and he muttered something about going to the Naka River to think."

"Lead the way, then," Toru says and Shou takes off at a light jog. The pair eventually reaches the big bridge that goes over the Naka, and sitting on one of the benches is Kiku.

"Kiku-san what message did Natsumi-sensei give you? We need to collate our messages in order to figure out what they mean," Shou explains quickly. "I was told that we need allies while Toru-san found a note that doesn't make sense by itself."

Kiku shrugs, "I doubt you could figure out what mine means. She told me two things. The first was that 'strength is not only found in one's physical body'; the other was 'great and mighty, it stands tall. Through rain, storm, and sun it shall still remain. For ninjas and civilians, its doors are open'; I don't know what either mean."

The trio fall quiet, each pondering the meaning to what they've been told. "I've got no clue," Kiku says with a pout. "The only thing I can think of is it can't be taijutsu."

Shou nods in agreement with a frown on his face, "I didn't even get that far. Toru-san, have you figured anything out?"

Toru's mind is whirling a mile a minute. "Chakra is physical and spiritual," he murmurs quietly to himself. "Physical and mental… theory can be related to mental strength. We're looking for a building that's open to ninjas and civilians, doesn't close down for any weather, and has been around for a while." He looks up at the other two, who look surprised. He blushes faintly, "Do you guys have any ideas?"

"Konoha has a library, right?" Shou says hesitantly.

"That's it!" Kiku says, sprinting off without a second glance. He pauses briefly, "C'mon you two! I think we have two hours left."

Toru takes off after his teammate, Shou a pace ahead of him. "That's not a lot of time," Shou mutters to Toru when they draw even. Toru grunts in agreement, and they manage to make it to the library in roughly ten minutes.

Team Five stares up at the library before turning to each other in unison, "What do we do now?" Shou asks, glancing at Toru.

"Alright, Shou-san your message was about allies, right? Do you think it could be referring to asking people for help?" Toru asks, looking at his teammate. Shou nods, dark brown hair bobbing with the movement.

"Could be," he responds, "There are a lot of people we need to ask, though."

"Toru-kun, could your message help us here?" Kiku asks, and Toru refrains from making a face at the informal honorific; they barely knew each other.

"My message said 'to go forward, sometimes one must return first' – the first two words were capitalised, but that doesn't help us at all," Toru says, pulling out the note to show the others.

"Can we ask for Natsumi-sensei's latest return?" Shou asks thoughtfully after a moment or two of silence.

"Worth a try," Kiku says, leading the group into the library where they are instantly surrounded by silence. She walks right up to the desk and creates a conversation with the man there. Toru scowls, recalling his rather useless conversation skills when the person was a stranger or someone he didn't need to actually know about.

Five minutes later, Kiku returns with a note. The possible-genin team go to a table and lay out the two notes side by side. "It doesn't make sense," Kiku pouts after a few moments of silent thinking.

"It could be a code with the words to, go, and ground, but it isn't much of a code; we appear to be missing a part… It could be Shou-san's message?" Toru says, chewing on his lip. He narrows his eyes at the two messages and lets his senses fade until all his concentration is taken up by the messages.

"Shou-san, what messages did you get from Natsumi-san?" Toru asks suddenly, cutting the other two's conversation in half. He looks up, aware of the sudden silence, "Sorry," he mutters.

"Its fine Toru-san," Shou responds. "I was told 'allies are necessary' and 'mind-walkers and flowers, shopping and selling'."

"Yamanaka Flowers," Kiku said instantly. "I have a friend from that clan; we had to drop off some flowers one time."

"That makes sense," Toru says. "Kiku-san's message says that 'a good customer talks with the manager at ground height', with ground in capitals. I think the capitals relate to my message more than anything else does, so we have three words of another secret message. However, the rest of it – it's like a riddle, isn't it? – the rest of it could have something to do with the shop itself."

"Another ally?" Shou immediately asks, quickly following Toru's line of thoughts.

"Let's go!" Kiku says loudly, grabbing the other two and tugging them through the doors. "I looked at the clock just before we left; we have just over half an hour."

"Think that's enough time?" Shou asks worriedly.

"It has to be," Toru says grimly as they break out into a run once more.

Kiku and Shou reach Yamanaka Flowers a few minutes before Toru, who had been forced to walk the rest of the way when he started wheezing as his chest twinged in pain, reminding himself that he had only been injured a few weeks ago.

When the Uchiha reaches his teammates, they are pacing and muttering to each other. Kiku grabs her blonde hair and pulls it out of a bun in aggravation. "I don't understand this! It's not even a written message!"

"What?" Toru asks, gaining the others' attention.

"Yeah," Kiku said with a wry grin, "I hope you can figure something out, because I don't understand any of it. I'm not really a thinking person, though."

"I don't suppose you want to try making sense of it, Toru-san? The message is 'Training is important. Training requires work, at least twice a day for two hours'. Does that make any sense to you?"

Toru hums, working out the words and writing it down mentally. "The first thing that stands out to me is the doubling up of the word 'training'. Not a single word has thus far been used twice. Secondly, twice and two are used, which are quite similar and could be another double up."

"We were each given two bits of information as well," Shou adds. "I don't see how that makes a secret message, though."

"Well, we do have three words so far: to, go, and ground. Let's say the other word is training, right? The first message I can think of is 'go to ground training', but that's not a place…" Toru says, trailing off.

"Go to training ground two?" Kiku pipes up suddenly, her teammates turn to stare at her. "That makes sense, doesn't it?"

"Brilliant!" Shou says loudly, brown eyes alight as he laughed. "C'mon, we have to make it across Konoha in twenty minutes, possibly less."

Toru takes off, "I'm not waiting!" He calls over his shoulder, and quickly his teammates catch up to him. Instead of rushing ahead, they keep pace with him despite his slower running. "You can go," Toru puffs out, "I don't want to make you fail."

"We couldn't have worked it out without you," Shou says in a low voice.

"We can't leave you behind when we make it because of your work," Kiku says with a roll of her eyes, "That's just dumb."

The three make it to the training ground with a few seconds to spare, and instantly Toru leans over with his hands on knees, wheezing. He waves the other two off when they ask if he's alright, instead he straightens himself up and stands. "Check for Sensei," he says as he works on regaining his breath.

"No need," comes a voice from behind them. Kiku whirls around, instantly going into a defensive position, whereas Toru turns slightly slower, hand going for a kunai; meanwhile, Shou takes a step back to watch Kiku's back. "I'm already here," Natsumi says coolly. "You took your time and… you worked together."

Toru grits his teeth together, hearing the distaste in Natsumi's voice. "We couldn't have done it otherwise," he says. "I take responsibility for getting us to work together, so if you think that's a reason to refuse promoting us, take it out on me."

"No," Shou says firmly, the loudest he's been all day. "You can't take it on Toru-san. He's the only reason we got here. If he doesn't pass, I'm going back to the academy as well; it's unfair otherwise."

Natsumi raises an eyebrow, "That's too bad. It looks like it's you and me, Kiku-chan."

Kiku shakes her head, hair flying everywhere. "That isn't fair, either! I'm sorry Natsumi-sensei, I really want to graduate, but I can't do it alone when I didn't do much work. I need Toru-kun and Shou-kun's help!"

Natsumi gazes at them all and turns around, "Follow me," she calls. "I will show you something before you all go."

The three failed students follow their sensei dejectedly. She comes to a stop a few metres away from a restaurant, where there are two jōnins sitting at a three-seated table. Another jōnin is quick to join them, and all three immediately start talking.

"They were on a genin team together," Natsumi reveals. "The one that joined last is my brother. They're all celebrating the kunoichi's engagement. It occurred last week."

She turns to face her students, "Genins are always put in teams of three with a jōnin-sensei. They pass or fail together, with very few exceptions. I have not passed a genin team yet, but I have tested many over the years with slightly different tests that all require the same things."

She makes them walk back to the training ground and has them all sit down. "Shou-kun can you tell me one thing that you could do and one thing you couldn't do?"

Shou nods, "I figured out that we needed to go to the library. However, I never would have realised that we needed to work together if it hadn't been for Toru-san."

"Nicely done Shou-kun," Natsumi compliments. "Now, Toru-kun, what's one thing you couldn't do?"

"I wouldn't have managed to gain the information that involved talking with a stranger," Toru says promptly. "It's always been a weakness of mine."

"Acknowledging weaknesses is important, but you can't over or underestimate them Toru-kun, keep that in mind." Toru nods, and Natsumi turns to face the last student, Kiku. "Kiku-chan, can you tell me what are some of the things that I tested during my test?"

"Information gathering," Kiku replies, thinking carefully. "I suppose you tested teamwork, and maybe leadership skills? Um, you tested how well we knew ourselves and our strengths and weaknesses, also if we would rely on our teammates."

Natsumi nods, "Correct. Now, I want each of you to give me a strength, a weakness, something you need to train in, and something new you want to learn. Toru-kun, you can start."

"A strength of mine is my intelligence, I would say," Toru answers. "A weakness is my current physical condition, but also my genjutsu skills. I need to train in taijutsu, with focus on stamina and strength. I would like to learn more ninjutsu."

"Shou-kun?" Natsumi calls and the twelve-year-old looks up at her.

"I don't really have a strength; if anything I would say traps. A weakness of mine is my low stamina, so I would like to work on that. Something new I would like to learn is more genjutsu."

Kiku doesn't wait for Natsumi to call on her; she just starts. "My strength is easy, taijutsu. A weakness is going to be ninjutsu as I ignored that to concentrate on taijutsu. Due to that, it's probably going to need more training. I would like to work with a sword of taijutsu – kenjutsu."

Natsumi surveys her team. They're meant to all be completely average, but their understanding of their strengths and weaknesses is surprisingly good, especially as they are new graduates from the academy. She can see the start of a taijutsu specialist in Kiku. Shou looks like he can shape up to be a tracker. Meanwhile, Toru is harder to get a read on, but there are startling bursts of intelligence, as if everything has been a mask thus far.

"Shou-san, Toru-kun, and Kiku-chan, you have all been officially promoted to genin status. You will make up Team Five, along with myself as your sensei. Congratulations," she says with a smile, "You've clearly earned your position." Kiku immediately whoops loudly, and pulls Shou into a hug, while Toru offers the pair a smile.

"Team training will be on every weekday from eight in the morning until twelve in the afternoon. You will have an hour for lunch and to cool down, and then we will take a D-ranked mission or two until it's four. After that, we will spend another two hours on personal training. Saturday will be a rotation for one-on-one training in the afternoon, while mornings will be for missions, D-rank unless specified otherwise. Sundays will be your free day. Do you have any complaints?"

The trio of genins shake their heads, "Do we need to bring anything?" Shou asks.

"Your normal weapons; if you need anything else, I will tell you the day before," Natsumi decides. With that said, the jōnin body flickers away without another word.

"We made it," Kiku says, seeming unable to truly get her head around it.

"Mainly thanks to Toru-san," Shou points out, and Toru colours slightly.

"We're a team," he responds, "and call me Toru; there's no need for honorifics if we're going to be together for a while."

"Same goes for me," Kiku adds. "I'm not really a formal person."

"Wow," Shou deadpans, "I hadn't noticed. You can both call me Shou, though," he says after a brief pause.

"Congratulations," Sasuke mutters when Toru reach the Hokage residence.

"Thanks," the older Uchiha replies, messing up Sasuke's hair in response. "What did you spend your afternoon doing?"

Sasuke pulls a face, "Naruto kept following me… he mentioned something about you buying him ramen?"

"Jealous?" Toru asks, he notices as Sasuke stiffens and immediately crouches down so they're on eye level. "I won't ever replace you Sasuke," he says, "You know that. However, he did help me out with my genin test when we ran into each other on the streets and he suggested a place to think; it turned out to be the answer to my riddle." Toru hesitates for a moment before continuing, "You can come with us, if you want."

"Naruto's so loud," he complains, but Toru notes it isn't exactly a no. "And he keeps calling me names and he doesn't even try in class." He hesitates for a moment, "However, I did noticed what he said before… almost no one treats him right. Nasu-sensei constantly sends him out of the room for passing notes while Tamura-sensei makes him go in the back corner and face the wall so he can't see what she's writing."

"What about the other teachers?" Toru asks with a hidden undercurrent of anger beneath his placid tone.

"Iruka-sensei is really strict with him, but he's constantly pushing Naruto to be better. Mizuki-sensei is a bit… weird, like sometimes he treats Naruto as his best friend but other times he shows Naruto the wrong way to hold a kunai," Sasuke says.

Toru feels a growl building up in his throat and clamps down on it, "I guess you're going to have to help him, aren't you?"

"What?" Sasuke says sounding utterly confused, "Toru, no! That's not what I meant," he yelps as Toru turns around and heads back towards the centre of Konoha. "Toru, where are you going?" He races so he can keep pace with his older cousin.

"We are going to go find Naruto and go get ramen," Toru replies.

"He'll be at the ramen restaurant," Sasuke mumbles and Toru swiftly changes direction.

"Thank you. Now, what do you think we need in an apartment? My team will start doing small missions soon, so I think we can finally move out of the Hokage residence."

"Good," Sasuke states, "She tried to get me to move back to my own room again." Toru barks out a laugh, instantly knowing whom Sasuke was referring to. The Hokage residence was home to the Hokage, his grandnephew, and his daughter-in-law. As the only woman in the house, she seemed entitled to take care of the two Uchiha by mothering them constantly. Of course, she also tried to get Sasuke and Toru to sleep in separate rooms, so Toru is normally annoyed at her instead of appreciating her efforts to help.

"Well, we can get an apartment with a bedroom and two beds," Toru replies. "What does one even need in an apartment? How many rooms do we want? I was thinking a guest bedroom and an actual bedroom for the pair of us. A bathroom, naturally, and a kitchen. Is that all we need?"

"Lounge," Sasuke suggests, "and possibly another room to have our shinobi gear, otherwise big wardrobes."

"Right, of course," Toru nods, making a mental note of what Sasuke had said, just as they arrived at the ramen place where they had eaten with Naruto.

"It's Iruka-sensei and Naruto," Sasuke says suddenly.

Toru blinks upon seeing Iruka and Naruto there, "We could just go back," he says awkwardly a few metres away from the restaurant. Sasuke rolls his eyes and marches right in and Toru grins at the younger boy's determination. Toru runs a hand through his reddish-brown hair before entering. It's admiring to see that Sasuke isn't pulling away from social meetings, although, he seems to hold everyone at a wary distance, and Toru is still working on getting through.

Toru plants himself down in the seat next to Iruka as Sasuke's squashes himself between the wall and Naruto. Toru feels himself tense slightly upon realising that he can't see behind him and feels his breathing rate quicken. The chūnin taps a finger on the wooden bench and Toru's attention is drawn to the distort reflection of Konoha in a glass. He relaxes; glad to be able to see what's behind him, even if it was a warped reflection.

"Thanks," Toru mumbles, feeling annoyed at his paranoia and panic.

"Its fine," the chūnin says and Toru shifts, and looks at his companions face. He's instantly surprised by how young the teacher looks, maybe eighteen-years-old. "I'm Iruka Umino."

Toru offers the shinobi a small smile, "I'm Toru Uchiha," he says, glad that Iruka is treating him like a normal human being. "I've heard about you from Sasuke." The teenager's eyes widen. "Good things only," Toru hastens to add.

The chūnin colours slightly, "Ah, thanks," he says.

"Toru-san!" Naruto suddenly cheers, "You're here! Did you pass your test?"

"I did Naruto-san, but only thanks to your help," Toru replies, giving a smile to the boy. "I was thinking that we could have a meal together now, but it seems Iruka-san has beaten me to it."

Naruto's eyes go wide and his grin increases, "Yeah! Iruka-sensei is the best! He's taken me out for ramen because I passed my test today!" He quickly turns to Sasuke and starts up a conversation.

"I wasn't even aware they had a test today," Toru mumbles softly. He probably should've expected it; it wasn't as if he was closely related to Sasuke in anyway.

"Give him time," Iruka advises. "How did you meet Naruto-kun?"

"We were here, actually," Toru says as the conversation moves onto a lighter topic. "He ran out of money to get another bowl so I paid. We've met up a few times since. He and Sasuke have kind of formed a friendship."

"You idiot, you can't say things like that without backing them up!" Sasuke suddenly shouts.

"What's it to you bastard?" Naruto retorts.

"Friendship indeed," Iruka says with a chuckle. "It's good to see another person looking out for Naruto-kun; he has a hard time."