Dear Little Sister

Chapter 3

« Red Clouds»

Miyuki shoved a tomato into Sasuke's hand.

"Eat it. You need your energy."

Sasuke stared blankly at her, then looked at the fresh tomato in his hand. He had to admit...it did look good..

"Sensei said not to eat."

"He suggested it. It's only a tomato, not a full cooked breakfast. How do you expect to fight an S-Ranked ninja on an empty stomach?"

He decided it couldn't hurt and took a bite, closing the door to his home behind him.

"S-Ranked?" He questioned.

"Mhm. He's one of the first pages in the bingo book."

"...Shit."

"Language," Miyuki replied, watching the rising sun. She frowned. "Does that cloud look familiar to you?"

He followed her gaze to an oddly shaped red cloud in the sky.

"Nope."

"Alright then."

They carried on, the only slight disruption being when Sasuke threw the remains of his tomato in the trash.

"M-Mornin'.." Naruto yawned, waving to them.

"Morning," Miyuki replied, absently fiddling with the goggles around her neck.

Sasuke and Naruto sat under the shade of a tree whilst Miyuki wandered over to an oddly shaped rock with engravings all over it.

"Hey, what's that?" Naruto asked her.

She hummed, looking over it. "This is the memorial stone for KIA Ninja. My older brother is on here."

Sasuke looked up. He didn't know she had an older brother. Why didn't she ever talk about him?

"What's KIA mean?" Naruto yawned again, blinking sleep out of his eyes.

"Killed In Action," she answered bluntly, her fingers tracing over some unknown names.

Naruto stiffened. "Oh."

Miyuki tossed him an apple that she got from her ninja pouch, which somehow fit in there. "Eat that. We can't fight Hatake on an empty stomach. Scratch that, I doubt we'll even stand a chance against him. But we've got to put up a good fight to pass. Judging by his reputation he won't be here for another three hours. He won't find out."

Naruto nodded and took a bite, staring up at the leaves shading him from the burning sun.

::

"Good morning!"

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto screeched, pointing at him accusingly.

"Maa, sorry!" Kakashi halfheartedly apologised. "You see, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way!"

"I could walk around Konoha three times over and I'd still have been earlier than you," Miyuki pointed out. "There's no long way to the training grounds. You woke up late."

Kakashi inwardly sighed. What's with this girl and exposing him?!

"Anyways," he moved on, pulling out two bells. "Your test is simply to get these two bells from me before this timer goes off. The one who doesn't get a bell shows no potential and is sent back to the academy. You have until noon."

"This'll be easy," Naruto grinned. "Especially since you couldn't dodge that eraser."

"Class clowns are usually the weakest links. You can safely ignore them," Kakashi drawled intending on riling Naruto up.

Miyuki grabbed the blond by the collar just as he leapt towards the jounin.

"No. Not easy. He's a jounin for a reason, numbskull. He can kill you within a split second. Don't attack him before he attacks first."

Naruto paled considerably.

"Now, now. I didn't even say start yet," Kakashi said, eyeing the girl. She seemed to know a lot about him, didn't she?

"There are no starting signals in a real battle," Miyuki replied dryly before shunshinning away.

Sasuke followed suit.

"Right! You and me! Right here! Right now! Square up!" Naruto yelled, fists up.

"Compared to the others, aren't you a little bit weird?"

"The only weird thing here is your haircut!" He retorted. "Miyuki's kinda weird anyways."

An acorn hit him in the back of the head and Kakashi heard a whisper of clothes as Miyuki jumped away, masking her chakra.

Masking her chakra. A chunin level skill.

Interesting.

"Ow!" Naruto yelped. "Shadow clone jutsu!"

Suddenly, Kakashi was surrounded by blonds in kill-me orange jumpsuits.

They dispersed almost immediately as the jounin destroyed every single one.

Catching the real Naruto by surprise, he was frozen. Kakashi quickly formed the tiger handsign, pointing it at Naruto's ass.

"Secret Konoha Art! A thousand years of death!"

Miyuki caught Naruto by the collar as he flew through the air, his eyes wide and his jaw dropping. She quickly tossed him into the forest where a clone told him to hide.

"So," she drawled. "You like little boys?"

Kakashi spluttered in surprise. "What?"

"Um, you just sexually assaulted a minor."

Kakashi paled. "Huh?"

She took that moment of surprise to her advantage and substituted herself with the bells on his waist band, the two bells clinking as they fell onto the ground.

Sasuke dashed out from the forest, snatching up the bells.

Miyuki grinned shunshinning to him and high-fiving him. Naruto also emerged, smiling brightly. She high-fived him, too.

She took one bell from Sasuke and tossed it to Naruto, before putting her hands in her pockets.

"There."

"What?" Kakashi questioned.

"We've passed, right? We all got a bell. We pass as a team. I mean, you don't exactly see any two-man genin teams running around."

Kakashi stared, tilting his head. "Good. You pass."

"Awesome!" Naruto cheered.

"Teamwork is essential in the life of a shinobi. Without a sense of teamwork, you can't be a ninja. Those who break the rules and regulations are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum."

"If I'm going to be called scum either way, I'd rather break the rules. And if that's not being a proper shinobi, then I'll destroy that idea," Miyuki murmured, gripping her goggles tightly.

Kakashi stiffened.

"Team 7 starts officially tomorrow. Goodbye!"

Later on, when she watched the sun set, Miyuki's eyes trailed to the cloud she had pointed out earlier that day. It might've been a different one, but the shape was the same.

Then it clicked.

"Oh, it looks like the cloud on nii-san's cloak!"