"Even in the academy, she was the super popular clan girl while I was just a random orphan with no talent in anything. But for some reason, I couldn't ignore Akane. There was something different about her, as if she was keeping a secret from everyone else.
This was before I learned about you and your mother so I couldn't figure out what it was. Anyways, I kept challenging her at fights and stuff and I realized that I had a particular skill for taijutsu. Although my ninjutstu skills were subpar.
But another two years later, the Uchiha massacre happened. And Akane changed. She became cold and quiet, and didn't talk to anyone. She was completely alone.
Well technically there was that Sasuke kid but his brother was the one that slaughtered the Uchiha clan so I guess Akane didn't want to be close to him. Not to mention Sasuke was even more withdrawn from everyone.
And while Sasuke started gaining fans and stuff thanks to his inherent talent, Akane's results began becoming worse. She was always distraught, and gloomy. Everyone started avoiding her, even the ones that seemed to be really good friends with her.
So one day during lunchtime when she was sitting on the academy's rooftop all alone, I went to her to talk. But she didn't want to talk. And while a part of me just wanted to walk away, another part of me couldn't do so. She was alone, just like me. But while I had my little brother, she had nothing, absolutely nothing.
So after much effort, she started to open up to me. And it was the first time I saw her cry. I hugged her while she cried her heart out and I couldn't hold back my own tears. So we cried together until lunchtime was over and the sensei came looking for us.
After that, Akane started to talk to me more and more often. Although she was still mostly withdrawn from most of our classmates except for a select few, we grew very close.
That was when I learned about you and your mother, how her father would visit her outside the hidden rain in the guise of a mission. And how he was told that you two were killed during an attack. This was a few months after she enrolled in the academy.
And then time went on, and the day of our graduation came. Thanks to training with Akane, my ninjutstu skills became passable, although it was still below average." Maki said with an awkward smile in the end.
"I understand that. But isn't that why you're so good at taijutsu? I mean even I couldn't land a decent hit on you." Kenshin said, leaning forward with a curious expression. "And then? What happened after?"
"The teams were announced. We were in team 7. It was me, Akane, and a member of the yamanaka clan. His name was Daichi Yamanaka. He was my.... you know. Well, he died a few months ago." A single tear formed in the corner of Maki's eye as she mentioned Daichi, making it clear that their relationship was deep.
Maki took a deep breath and cleared her throat before continuing. "So anyways, we waited for our sensei together but one by one, all the other teams were picked up by their respective Jonin sensei while ours didn't show any signs of showing up.
Daichi didn't talk to us much since he didn't know us beforehand, and he seemed like a calm and smart guy. But when we were getting restless as it was almost lunchtime, our sensei appeared.
It was Kakashi-sensei. While neither me nor Akane recognized him, Daichi did. "You're Kakashi Hatake?! The famous copy ninja, Kakashi of the sharingan? I'm a huge fan of you!" Daichi said as he shook Kakashi's hand excitedly.
For some reason, he seemed interesting to me. And the next day, we had the bell test. Oh right, you shouldn't know about it. Kakashi-sensei would have two bells hanging from his waist and the three of us had to get a bell. But since there were only two bells for three people, we figured it would come down to which two of us could get a bell first.
Akane was the first to go at him, and with her sharingan, she seemed to be evenly matched with him. But Kakashi-sensei eventually got the upper hand using his experience.
I went next, and sure enough, he wiped the floor with me. Same happened with Daichi. But while Daichi was fighting sensei, me and Akane hid in a tree to make a plan. Because we realized that working together was the only option for us.
We had to leave Daichi out because since we didn't know him, it would've been difficult for us to cooperate. So me and Akane launched a surprise attack on sensei.
Akane went first since she was the only one among us that came close to keeping us with him and then I attacked from his blind spot. But it didn't work. And then, Akane cast genjutsu on sensei, barely enough to buy us a single moment before he broke through it.
But that moment was enough. I was barely able to take one bell from him before he knocked us both away.
"Okay this test is over now. You all fail." Kakashi-sensei told us after me and Akane got back up.
"In case you guys still don't understand, the point of this test was teamwork. And you guys didn't show proper teamwork. For example Akane and Maki, you two have probably known each other for a long time I suppose. That's why you two were able to cooperate. But instead of including Daichi, you chose to forsake your teammate simply because you didn't know him.
That's not the right way. In a battle situation, what if Akane gets captured, and the only option you have is to either give the enemy the important information you're carrying or kill Daichi. What will you do, Maki? Will you kill your comrade to complete the mission and adhere to the rules, or will you break it to save your comrade?
Those who break the rules are considered scum in the shinobi world, I think you know that. But the ones that forsake a comrade, regardless of their personal relationship with said comrade, is in my opinion, scum worse than that.
But I won't send you guys back to the academy. Since you still showed some semblance of teamwork, I will train you until the upcoming chunin exams. And then you will participate. After that, team 7 will be disbanded and I won't train you anymore. You can find someone else after that. That will be all. You're dismissed for today."
After saying all that, Kakashi-sensei left. Daichi sat on the ground, clearly disappointed at our defeat.
"You girls could've included me in your plan. I'm from the yamanaka clan remember? I could've restrained him momentarily. But I need time to cast my jutsu. Well anyways, it's no use dwelling over what's happened. Whatever the reason, we get to train under the famous copy ninja. Let's make the most of it. How about we get to know each other over lunch?" Daichi suggested, and got up.
We agreed to it and then we had lunch together." Maki was interrupted as their food came.
"So basically you guys had a pretty normal beginning. Nothing really surprising. But somehow I'm surprised that Kakashi used his sharingan against someone who had just graduated from the academy." Kenshin said as he began eating. "Oh delicious!"
"Yeah well he didn't really have an option. Not using the sharingan against a sharingan user is plain stupid." Maki said as she began eating as well.
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Everyone, thanks for your continued support and power stones. As always, please give me your power stones and comment your opinions. They make a big difference and motivate me to write more. I'm going to be with Mary so I won't upload tomorrow. But maybe I'll upload again in a couple of days.