"-Ruto, wake up."
I roll over, cracking an eye open and peeking blearily at the alarm clock on my nightstand. The blocky red numbers read half past seven. Like hell. My eye closes.
"Naruto."
"Get outta my apartment," I mumble. A firm hand claps my ear, snapping my head to the side. I open my eyes and fix my intruder with a dangerous look.
The black haired, black eyed intruder stares right back, unfazed. He holds out a steaming cup of ramen.
"Tomatoes are under the sink," I grunt, sitting up and snatching the ramen from his hands and gulping it down in one go. I toss the woefully empty cup amongst its brethren in the trash can beside my bed and scrub at the gunk in my eyes.
"You hid them there last time." Sasuke's tone is carefully blank, but I've dealt with him long enough to detect the subtle annoyance hidden therein. I throw the covers off me and stretch, smirking.
"Yup." I head for the bathroom, grabbing a towel from off the floor along the way. A quick shower and a bit of dental upkeep later I walk out, throw on my baggy orange pants and black konoha-emblazoned t-shirt, and leave for the kitchen.
Sasuke's there sitting at the table, dressed in the same plain white shorts and high-collared blue t-shirt as yesterday, Konoha headband practically shining on his head, plowing through my produce like a man possessed. I grab the pot of pre-prepared ramen off the stove and grab myself a bowl and some chopsticks.
"So what is it this time?" I ask, leaning against the counter and twirling up some noodles.
Sasuke swallows, hitting me with his clan's patented smirk. "Felt like stopping by."
One of these days, Uchiha. One of these days.
"You're pushing it." I shovel some ramen in my mouth, absently grabbing my weapons pouch from off the top of the fridge and dumping its contents on the counter beside me.
Ten shuriken, five kunai, and about fifteen senbon. I'll have to stop by Kaji's soon. Taking one last gulp of broth, I place the bowl in the sink and pack up my gear. Nabbing my sandals from the living room along with my apartment keys, I head for the door.
"Let's go. I don't trust you alone with my groceries." Sasuke slinks out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on his shirt. "Might as well get this done sooner rather than later," I mumble.
Sasuke doesn't even wait for me to lock the door before he disappears in aBody Flicker, leaving me to make the walk myself. What a guy.
I make a quick stop along the way, buying some sweet rolls from a vendor. I've gone through two of the three by the time the Academy finally comes into view in all its stony glory. I toss my final roll to the chunin keeping guard at the gates, prompting him to crack them open for me despite the early hour. I head in, idly wondering what Sasuke bribed him with.
Or maybe he just snuck by. Wouldn't surprise me.
The Academy hallways are as familiar to me as my apartment at this point, more so even, and I navigate them with practised ease. I bypass Iruka-sensei's classroom entirely in favor of the bulletin board kept next to the instructors' office, where Sasuke just so happens to be waiting for me, a smug look on his face.
"I beat you."
I'm not quite sure if the cracking sound comes from my heart or my dreams.
"What." I shove past him and search frantically through the various fliers. Finally I alight on the seven documents that had been haunting my dreams for the past month. Academy Graduate Class Rankings.
I bypass the Ninjutsu sheet entirely, instead focusing on the stealth sheet.
First in class: Uzumaki Naruto. Second in class: Uchiha Sasuke.
Taijutsu. First in class: Uzumaki Naruto. Second in class: Uchiha Sasuke.
A lead weight settles in my stomach. Somehow, I'm not surprised that Kenjutsu was what tripped me up in the end. I can barely hit the bullseye consistently and Sasuke has been flaunting those fancy deflection tricks since third year. I scan up the Kenjutsu sheet, morbidly curious as to how close I came.
Second in class: Uchiha Sasuke. First in class: Uzumaki Naruto.
… Wait.
Behind me, Sasuke snorts. "I was talking about the Rookie of the Year spot. You came in second."
"Well of course you beat me overall," I say incredulously. I gesture wildly at the three sheets labeled Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Fuuinjutsu. "I can't even do three of the six arts we were graded on! I was never in the running in the first place." I slump against the wall, sighing shakily. "Don't scare me like that."
"Want a hug?"
"I'll cut you."
Sasuke beckons. "Come on, let's go find out who our third teammate is." I raise an eyebrow.
"What makes you so sure they'll put us on the same team? Why not split up the top two and make the teams more balanced?" I ask, pushing off the wall and following after my kinda sorta rival-friend.
"We have the best teamwork out of any other pairing in our class. Even the InoShikaCho group can't touch us during team drills. The Hokage would have to be an idiot not to put us together." Sasuke explains blithely.
"So who do you think our third teammate is going to be, then?" I ask, half sarcastic and half curious. Sasuke shrugs.
"Probably a kunoichi of some sort. Maybe that Hyuuga girl."
We're the first to arrive in the classroom, to be expected considering the god awful hour I was woken up at, and Sasuke takes his customary seat by the window while I rummage through Iruka-sensei's desk. Finally, I yank free a worn blue textbook with a triumphant cry. Hopping up the tables, I collapse onto the bench beside Sasuke, cracking the book open.
"Why do you always do that?" I look up from my page flipping, startled.
"Huh?"
Sasuke waves a hand at the book. "Every day before class for the last two months. You grab the third year textbook from Iruka's desk and read it until class starts, sometimes after if the material is dull enough. Why not just read it on your own time?" My eyes flicker down to said book and the large illustration of a wispy purple cat I'd just turned to.
"I lost my own copy a while ago, and this edition has the most info on the Bijuu and the Yokai Corps and stuff." I shrug. "It's interesting."
Sasuke hums, turning towards the window. Rolling my eyes, I turn back to the chapter I'd flipped to on the Nibi, Bijuu of Spirit.
The rest of our classmates start filing in not long after, and soon enough everyone is here but Iruka-sensei. I do my best to read through the chaos, flicking back to the start of the chapter for another read through. There's something about this particular entry that keeps eating at me, something important. My stomach burns.
The Nibi no Nekomata is the most mysterious of the nine Bijuu, even more so than the Gobi, whose paranoia is legendary. It is so because of its element- or what is assumed to be its element.
Spirits, while not fitting the traditional term, work well enough in the series of patterns the Bijuu seem to follow. It is not known how the Nibi's control over spirits works, which makes it potentially even more dangerous than a Bijuu such as the Hachibi.
There are almost no firsthand sightings of the Nibi in action because of this obscure, nearly always fatal power.
What we have been able to glean from this, however, is that the Nibi possesses the ability to literally rip the life out of a person if it makes physical contact, no matter how brief. It is said that it can also reanimate the bodies of the dead with spirits of its choice, turning a once great shinobi into little more than a snarling animal in the blink of an eye.
Many have speculated over possible connections between the Nibi and the Shinigami, but it is not clear...
"Good morning class!" Iruka-sensei calls, striding through the door at the ground level with a few papers clutched in his hands, as per usual. I discretely close my- his textbook and slip it under the desk, to be returned later, as he shuffles some papers on his desk. Then he looks up, right at me, and gestures for me to come over. Well crap.
I hop down the steps and approach the desk, smiling brightly.
"What's up, Iruka-sensei?"
"The Hokage wants to see you, Naruto," Iruka says quietly. My innocent smile vanishes. "Don't worry, I'll grab my book after class. Good luck." He reaches out and clasps my shoulder. I nod slowly.
As I'm leaving I can hear the change in his tone, hear the pride leaking through.
"Well, this is it! As of this day you're all Konoha shinobi, and every single one of you has earned it-"
I shut the door forcefully behind me, exhaling slowly. I set off at a brisk walk, surveying everything around me carefully, imprinting it into my memory. This is probably going to be the last time I walk these halls for a long, long time.
One way or another.
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