I threw a kunai into the tree, as I'd been doing for the past two hours. I jumped up into a tree, flipped over, and threw twenty shurikens in different locations. I landed on the ground, whipping the sweat off of my face. I think it's sad, I have to spend my ninth birthday here instead of with my twin.
I was prepared to spend my day wallowing in my self-pity, but a hawk flew above me. A summon from Lord Fourth. I collected my weapons and sprinted to his office.
I ran through the building and knocked on his office door. "Come in," he responded.
"You needed me, Lord Fourth?" I asked the old man.
"Yes, I have assigned you to a new team."
"Again?"
"Yes Hitomi, you need a team to complete the chūnin exams with." He handed me a folder with their files. "You will be the fourth member of Team Kushina, with your jōnin sensei being Kushina Uzumaki and fellow genin being Kyo Sumida and Masaki Hyūga." I nodded, handing him the folder and leaving to meet the team on the training grounds.
I walked toward the training grounds, the one closest to the KIA stone right outside of the village walls. I saw the group, an adult woman and two teenage boys. Kushina, the woman, turned around as she heard me approaching, and began to speak.
"Great, now that we're all here we should introduce ourselves, ya know?" I blinked at the vocal tick, but I guess the Uchiha have one too, so I couldn't judge. "My name is Kushina Uzumaki, I like Dango and my loved ones, I don't dislike anything, and my hobbies are cooking and training." I nodded and waited for the others.
"My name is Masaki Hyūga, I like traveling, I don't like my brother, and my hobby is painting."
"I'm Kyo Sumida, I like training, I don't like people who think I can't do anything because I'm from a civilian family, and my hobby is training."
I nodded at the boys and began my introduction. "Hn, My name is Hitomi Uchiha, I like going on walks around the village, I don't like the way my twin acts around me, and my hobbies are reading and training."
"That's great, ya know?!" Kushina gushed. She grabbed me from around the shoulders, pushing me into their group more. "All right, we're going to be doing a teamwork exercise here." She paused to grab two bells from her flak jacket's pocket. "You're job is to get these bells." I nodded, having done a similar test when I was younger. She dismissed us, and we all split into separate trees.
I sat on a tree, but I didn't know the positions of the others. I closed my eyes, working on locating their chakra. I sensed a green figure, most likely Kyo, as the signature was different from any Hyūga I'd ever seen. Further away, I sensed the lightning, the signature of a Hyūga.
I reopened my eyes, Kushina-sensei was close. I jumped as a kunai was flown my way, and it exploded as soon as I left the tree. I took out my shuriken, throwing them in the direction of Kushina-sensei. She dodged them, but then I pulled the strings. As I was moving the shuriken, the rest of the team showed up. Two shuriken hit her as she was distracted by the team, but she dispelled, she was a clone.
"We need a plan." Masaki began.
"No shit dingus," Kyo replied.
Masaki glared at the other boy, before turning to me. "She'll be going after you since you are the youngest. How many jutsu do you know?"
"A couple of fire, a couple of water, one wind."
"Perfect."
We split off after planning. I jumped back into the trees, making a snake hand sign. Kushina appeared again, but so did Kyo. I completed my hand signs, finishing with a tiger.
"Fire style, Fireball Jutsu!" I shouted while Kyo used a wind-style jutsu to fan the flames, making them larger and more difficult to deal with.
"Water style, Raging Waves!" Kushina yelled, releasing a large amount of water from her mouth, dousing the flames. However, this created a large amount of steam, where Masaki hid in.
"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!" He shouted. "Two Palms! Four Palms! Eight Palms! Sixteen Palms! Thirty-Two Palms! Sixty-Four Palms!" He exited the steam, holding the two bells.
When the steam dissipated, Kushina was standing there, no bells on her belt. "All right, you guys pass, ya know!" She yelled, running up to us and giving us a group hug. "And to celebrate, I'm taking us out to ramen!" I smiled, I think this team will work.
I jumped up, avoiding the sword swinging at me. The Iwa Ninja took out some knives and through them passed me. To the heiress. Masaki used a technique, Rotation. He deflected all the knives, throwing a signal at me, attack. I formed hand signs, throwing shuriken as well.
"Fire Style, Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" I yelled, sending the flaming shuriken at the man. They struck him and he didn't disappear. I closed my eyes, trying to see if there were any others. I didn't sense any, so I sat down.
"Oh, thank you!" She yelled. We were on a B-Rank mission, to protect the heiress of the Country of Peaches while on her way home. We were currently on an unowned island off the coast of the Land of Lightning. The heiress threw herself at me. She was surprised when we picked her up, a nine-year-old girl was going to be protecting her, she couldn't believe it. But this was the Fifth attack we had gotten since we started traveling.
Once we made it to the Land of Peaches, we were granted a small basket of peaches each, as well as 120,000 ryo each. Once we left the Land of Peaches, we disappeared into a cloud of smoke. I have gotten used to this over the past two months. It was a reverse summons from Minato Namikaze, Kushina-sensei's boyfriend. I still have no idea how his timing is so good, but at least we didn't have to walk back.
"How was the mission?" He asked once we recovered from the sudden movement.
"Successful, ya know!" Kushina said pulling out her camera. I then realized that Minato's team was there as well. Obito was practically glaring at me, I still have no idea why. Kushina set the camera up on a timer, pulling the teams in, and taking a picture. She pulled the film out and shook it to develop it. She turned back to us and handed us some sheets. "Here are the sheets to apply for the chūnin exams, fill them out and give them back to me in five days." She then jumped away, going to report the mission to Lord Fourth.
I left almost immediately after as well. I only stayed a bit to talk to Rin Nohara, one of the girls I went to the academy with, to talk about the chūnin exams. Their squad had only become genin recently and Kakashi was already a chūnin, so they weren't taking them. I filled out my sheet, answering all the questions, before leaving until nighttime.
I walked through the streets of the Uchiha Clan Grounds, smiling at the older members of my clan. I the bank of the Naka River, sitting over the edge. I had checked out some more scrolls from the Uchiha section of the Library, ready to learn more about our clan's techniques. Most of them I couldn't learn, as I didn't have my sharingan yet, but if I knew them before I could use them in battle.
I handed Kushina-sensei my sheet. I was the last one of my squad to arrive, but I wasn't late. We were sent into the academy, going past a section of genin standing on the second floor. We reached the third floor, resting for a moment.
Ibiki Morino entered, passing out sheets of paper onto the desks. We were separated across the room. I looked around while Ibiki explained the test. I saw a familiar-looking shinobi in front of me. I closed my eyes and sensed the intense chirping of his chakra. It was Kakashi Hatake. I realized the point of this test, was to gather information. That would be the only reason a current chūnin would be sitting in front of me. I tried to think of a way I could get my answers but only could think of glances to my sides. I finished my questions without being caught. After the time was up, Ibiki revealed the tenth question rules. People left, but our team didn't. We stayed and passed.
A Jōnin entered the room, introduced himself, and sent us to a training ground. I recognized it, the Forest of Death. We were entered into our teams, getting a scroll labeled 'heaven'. Masaki hid it in his pouch. We entered the training ground, hearing screaming almost immediately from our left.
We ran through the trees, noticing a team of Iwa ninjas messing around. We stopped, entering our attack formation.
"Water style, Water Dragon Jutsu!" The three of us shouted at once. We sent the dragons to the group. The Iwagakure sent up Earth Walls, blocking our dragons. They dispelled, sending a large wave of water back through the forest. The wave knocked down trees, forcing us to move away. I jumped into the smaller one, he looked like the leader. Masaki jumped toward the larger male and blocked his chakra points. Kyo jumped toward the girl, cutting off blood flow to her muscles using chakra scalpel techniques. I weaved hand signs, before announcing.
"Wind Style, Gale Palm!" I sent it to the man, sending a large blade of wind at him. He dodged it, sweeping my legs out from underneath me. I fell back, pushing myself back up with my right hand. I sent a kick at his head, which he grabbed. I pulled a paper bomb from my pouch, placing it in his hand. He didn't let me go, so it went off, and everything went black.
I woke up inside of a building, which I assumed was the tower. We had made it and I didn't die from the paper bomb. A couple of days later, we were entered into the final round. It was in a month, so I had to train.
I sat on the face of Lady Third. I was taking a break from my training. I had just finished practicing a technique I learned from Minato. I was exhausted and I still hadn't completed it once.
"You Okay?" A man asked from behind me. I jumped, almost falling off of the Hokage faces. I turned around, seeing Minato behind me with his team.
"Hn, I'm fine," I responded, clutching my heart. "Just taking a break, Minato-sensei." He nodded, sending one of his students to watch me. He sent Kakashi, as he was the student he didn't have to teach much.
"How's it going?" He asked, after sitting in silence for a couple of minutes.
"It's good, it would be better if I had my Sharingan." He chuckled slightly.
"You and Obito talk about that the same way."
"Hn," I hummed. That left the conversation for a while. "Do you want to spar?" I asked him. Kakashi agreed, jumping into position.
I stood across him, forming a hand sign. He ran at me, brandishing his tanto. I finished my hand signs, before shouting, "Wind Style, Gale Palm!" while ducking underneath his sword. I touched his chest, sending him backward ten meters. I jumped back, forming another jutsu. "Water Style, Raging Waves!" I sent a wave at him, sending him flying backward more. I landed, waiting for him to come back toward me. I didn't notice him at all until I was stuck under the ground.
"Gotcha!" He yelled, glee echoing in his voice. He seemed to be smiling through his mask. That was the first time I'd ever seen him like that. I smiled back up at him, forcing my chakra through the ground, allowing it to fracture. I made some clones, surrounding him with them. He destroyed them all, sending me flying backward this time. I formed a hand sign, waiting for another earth-style jutsu. It came, a wall was made, being pushed toward me.
"Lightning style, Spider web!" I sent the web through the ground, underneath the wall. It hit him, knocking down his wall. He was sitting on the ground, in defeat.
It was the day of the finals, I had to fight a Nara. I entered the arena at my time, it was getting close to noon, the best time to fight a Nara. When we were permitted to fight, I took to the offensive. She should know, that she isn't at an advantage when fighting me. The sun is directly above us and she didn't have as many techniques up her sleeves. I started weaving hand signs, throwing a large wave of water at her. She was caught in it but managed to grab onto the wall using her chakra. The water disappeared, while the Nara girl ran around on the wall of the arena toward me. I jumped away, trying to remain out of her short range.
We kept that routine for a while, me throwing an elemental jutsu, her trying to capture me in her Shadow. She smirked, running at me full force, keeping her hands at her sides. I allowed her to, throwing a punch at her face. I was almost out of chakra at this point and she was running out as well. She fell to the ground, getting up and running toward me again. I kept throwing more and more at her until I couldn't anymore. I was caught in her shadow. I looked behind me and saw a clone keeping me in place. She raised our hands, and I resigned from the battle.
I sat down in my seat, unable to look at the rest of the fights. I lost in the first round. Masaki won the tournament and the results were going to be announced tomorrow, but I knew what was going to happen. I wasn't going to make it.
I was given a summons by Lord Fourth. I met in his office, along with Kyo, Masaki, and the Nara girl I fought. He gifted us chūnin flak jackets and assigned us to different jobs. Kyo was stationed at the hospital, to help out and do medical-based missions. Masaki was stationed in the Interrogation department. Kai, the Nara girl, was stationed in cryptanalysis. I was stationed in Internal Affairs with the Konoha Police. We were also known that we would be put on missions and be asked to lead teams whenever necessary, as tensions have been increasing between some villages.
I am grateful to everyone who has read and appreciated 'The Strongest Uchiha'. Your positive feedback is extremely valuable to me as a writer. Thank you for your support, and I hope you continue to enjoy this story.
-Lacey <3