❝Speak❞ - A Memoir (Book 1)

05 - Team 7

Chapter 5

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Five years later and I was still with Kakashi. My trust issues were getting better, but I could still only trust Kakashi.

Throughout the years Kakashi had been assigned missions in which I had to stay by myself or with one of his friends who would most likely scare me, especially Gai, his 'youthful rival'.

After I was caught hiding out in my room after Gai stayed with me for an hour, Kakashi decided to let me stay by myself.

Unfortunately that was a good and bad thing; more bad than good at first. The only good was that I wouldn't be scared, but that wouldn't last long.

I often almost starved because of Kakashi's lack of food in the house and the fact that I was scared of going outside.

I would also get very bored and as a result I once played with matches which almost burnt down Kakashi's house. It was a good thing he came right on time to put out the fire.

As I grew older I became better at staying by myself; I knew what not to play with and found that practicing my reading was also good entertainment, though I don't think Kakashi's books were the way to start.

Kakashi became better at providing food and I actually learned how to cook from many tries, failed attempts and burned/wasted food.

Meanwhile, Kakashi became responsible for many kids; he told me they were Genin. Each new group had to do a test in order to be a part of Kakashi's team and be trained by him. And for some reason, all of them failed.

I had always wondered why. Of course I know now, but then I had no idea why they failed Kakashi's test. I wanted to know what the test was and why it was soo hard to pass.

When I told Kakashi, he said that the test couldn't be that hard and that they just weren't thinking it through, but when I wasn't convinced he told me that one day, I'd get to watch one of his tests and hopefully that team would pass.

That day came when I turned 11. Don't get me wrong, I didn't know my birthday, so I just counted from the first day I met Kakashi. I'd been with him for 5 years and I was 6 when I met him so I knew that I must've been 11.

Anyway, it was a regular day, though somewhat louder. But it only became loud towards the night. Word came that some boy named Naruto stole a big important scroll.

I had no idea what the importance of the scroll was but before I knew it there were many people in green vests searching everywhere.

I couldn't bring myself to sleep because I didn't want to be off-guard if and when they came to search Kakashi's house.

Eventually, towards midnight, I found myself dozing and before I knew it, morning came. The people had stopped searching sometime while I was asleep.

The next morning I woke to bright sunlight and absolute silence so I walked out to get something to eat and found Kakashi reading a book with weird looking food in front of him.

I looked at him curiously, and he looks up before looking back down at his food. He smiles and offers me some, saying that it was Pancakes. But I had no idea what pancakes was. Though I had been with Kakashi for a long time now, I still didn’t completely trust his cooking, I mean, he wasn’t exactly good at it.

I quickly shake my head and head to the kitchen to make something for myself instead. Throughout the years, I’ve learned to cook, mostly by cookbooks that Kakashi bought for me. I’ve even tried mixing things by myself often.

“I have to go meet my new team today” said Kakashi as I came out with my breakfast. He paused before turning to me again; “Maybe you’ll get to meet them sometime”

I smiled and continued with my breakfast. At that time, I honestly never thought that sometime would mean the very next day.

Weirdly enough, I woke up like I would normally and went to do my morning routine that had quickly become a habit. I even cooked my breakfast as I normally would, which obviously made me think that I wouldn’t get to meet his team just yet; as you probably know by now, I was wrong.

He told me as I was eating, that the day had finally come; of course I added that part. He just said that if I wanted, I could come with him to meet his new students. I had been a mix of things at moment, one I was shocked, then I was excited, then I was scared. I didn’t know these people; who knew what could do to me.

The fear went about halfway, mainly because I knew that I’d have Kakashi, but of course, the fear never really went away. Whether I was scared or not, I decided to go with him. I had no idea that decision would change my life forever.

It didn’t take long to reach the meeting point, but something told me that we were supposed to be there a while ago. That was clarified by the reaction that his students gave. Apparently, he was more than several hours late.

Meanwhile, I hid halfway behind Kakashi, under the somewhat intense stare of a black haired boy who looked a little older than me. I assumed he was also one of Kakashi’s students. It didn’t take long before the others noticed him staring at me and followed suit. I hid behind Kakashi even more.

“Who’s that Kakashi-sensei??” my attention was immediately on a pink haired girl with green eyes, who happened to have an abnormally large forehead; not that I would know that then. At that time, I thought she looked pretty and that I would like to have such colorful hair.

Before Kakashi could answer, her eyes widened as she continued to stare at me; “Is she your daughter?!” I thought Kakashi looked a bit shocked as I looked up at him, awaiting an answer.

He just shook his head and said; “No, Sakura, she’s not my daughter” And for some unknown reason, I felt a sudden spark of sadness. Of course I had no idea what the role of a daughter was, but I had heard of them and seemed nice to be one.

The blonde boy beside her looked disappointed, and so did she. “Yo! I’m Uzumaki Naruto!!” completely startled, I hid further behind Kakashi. I gripped tightly to Kakashi’s puffy jacket for protection as the blonde boy edged closer; “Why isn’t she talking?!”

I could’ve sworn Kakashi rolled his eyes; or at least the one you could see. “She can’t, she’s mute” immediately after Kakashi said that, Naruto’s face change completely, from goofy to something completely unreadable.

“Anyway, this is Ririn; Ririn, this is Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto” he said pointing then out accordingly, from the pink haired girl, to the black haired boy and finally to the blonde boy. Sakura smiled at me, Naruto grinned, but there was something weird about it, now that I think about it, and Sasuke simply nodded keeping his distance. I smiled at him; we would get along best. I just hoped I could survive the others first.