"And I thought your brother was the only bothersome guy. We managed to subdue the Hyuuga just because he could not activate his doujutsu, now this! Who the hell is this?! He sliced my knee open like he was tearing origami paper in preschool!" Tenten heard the low familiar voice of the perpetrator talking, "Gently Kei! That stings!!" The low-voiced man hissed.
"If you had been paying more attention then this would not have happened, Hideki! First rule of a ninja; never underestimate your opponent no matter which minor clan they may come from!" Kei retorted back. "You got cut by a first year, how embarrassing!"
"Silence. Most of them have gained consciousness." a mysterious but calm voice said firmly, to which put the rest of them in total silence.
Tenten flinched at the pain inflicted on her head. She heard the gentle footsteps that came closer towards her, "Did I hurt you?"
"A worried kidnapper?" Tenten thought incredulously before she slowly opened up her eyes to catch a glimpse of her kidnapper. He seemed to be a senior, he had a calm and composed look, black coal eyes, dark shoulder-length jet hair. He looked somewhat similar to...
"Aniki!!" Sasuke's demanding voice snapped her out of her puzzling thoughts. The senior sighed as he turned towards Sasuke.
"Yes otoutou?" he asked calmly.
"What kind of academy initiation is this?! I thought you seniors are supposed to get us to do stupid things- not knock us cold in our rooms!" Sasuke yelled furiously.
"Hey man, we tried to bring you out gently.." a senior whose voice Tenten recognised, belonged to Hideki.
"Gently?!" Sasuke's voice was now in an octave tone, "The first thing you did when you entered the room was to punch me on my abdomen!"
"You activated your sharingan first!" Hideki muttered quietly.
Sasuke almost replied back to his remark but paused when he realised that Hideki's knee was being healed by Kei. He eyed them both wearily before Itachi spoke.
"This young man here," Itachi pointed his index finger towards Tenten's sitting form on the ground, "Sliced Hideki-Kun's knee in the most elegant manner.."
"Itachi-Kun! Who are you siding here?! I am the victim!" Hideki cried out melodramatically.
A wide smirk was present on Sasuke's face as he reached out a hand towards Tenten, who took it and he pulled her up quickly. He leaned forwards against Tenten's ear and whispered, "Great job, next time, aim slightly higher. I hate that guy."
Tenten felt herself blush at the closeness of her body against Sasuke's but quickly recovered by saying, "No problem. He was making unnecessary comments, so I skinned him on the knee.."
"I heard that brat!!" Hideki screamed across the room.
Tenten looked around to find herself in one of the open space training grounds in the school compound. She wanted to ask Sasuke what was happening before she heard the beautiful sexy voice that she was still not accustomed to.
"Great. Academy rituals. A practice that must have been invented by simple-minded commoners who had nothing better to do with their time." Neji's voice was purposefully loud, he wanted the entire room to hear him out, "and the ones who are religiously following this ritual, are unfortunately bigger idiots than them."
All of the 3rd year seniors were looking at Neji. His eyes glanced around as he mentally calculated the number of opponents he would have to take down.
"Pretty tough talk for a newbie. This is the first dormitory experience for all of us. We need the initiation to take place to show the newbies what to expect..." Hideki started but was interrupted by Neji again.
"Expect? Our expectations during missions are not of what's going to happen here in this insignificant academy, but what the world outside the walls of Konoha has to offer. It is highly foolish for this group to perpetuate and systematically present a threat to the safety and well-being of the academy students. I would strongly recommend you to stop all this preposterous activities, starting with intoxicating an innocent.." before Neji could end his sentence, a loud voice yelled from behind.
"He is out of control!!!"" Naruto's voice screamed.
All of them turned to see Lee who looked like he was- drunk. His eyes were lidded, facial expression unfocused and he was in his fighting stance.
"B-but we haven't even started the initiation yet!" Kei wailed.
"He.." Naruto yelled as he blocked an oncoming hit from Lee, ".. ate one of those Profiterole..." Naruto ducked before Lee could land a kick on him, ".. then he started to get crazy!!!"
Tenten sweat dropped as she asked Hideki, "You spiked a dessert?! And who the hell gives dessert during an academy initiation?!"
"Hey! I was trying to be sophisticated okay?!" Hideki replied before he was knocked down cold by Lee's crazy Konoha whirlwind kick.
The entire fiasco went on for a good 3 hours until Lee was trapped in Sasuke and Itachi's lullaby genjutsu, which fortunately, put him to bed.
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The next morning, all of the male shinobi were summoned to the headmaster's office. The Hokage was the one who greeted them as they entered the room quietly.
The headmaster's office was huge, they could possibly play a good game of football and could even fit in spectators while they were playing the game.
"I heard.. From reliable sources that, there was an illegal initiation taking place last night." The Hokage exclaimed firmly, "I recalled myself saying that bullying in any form whatsoever shall be dealt with severely, that includes; forcing others to join in an activity that had not been approved by the academy council. As such I am going to have to expel; Iwamura Hideki and Sato Kei, from the academy. You instigated the rest to join in this initiation when they have clearly declined. Your last day will be as of now, start packing."
"But~!" Hideki spluttered, "Uchihaa Itachi joined us! Why not take him in as well?!"
The entire room fell into a pregnant silence before it struck Hideki right into his senses as he spoke, "He is your informant, isn't he? He joined us to ensure that we do not hurt anyone."
The Hokage stood up and barked, "Kotetsu and Izumo, kindly escort these two students out of the academy."
The Hokage then addressed the rest of them when the two final year students were escorted reluctantly out of the room, "Now the rest of you are dismissed except for Hyuuga Neji and Takagi Teiji, the two of you stay."
There was an uproar of silly "ooohhh" that came from the rest of the students which earned them a good eye roll from Tenten while Neji looked unperturbed as usual. Lee squeezed Tenten's arm reassuringly while Sasuke, who had taken a liking over Tenten after last night's episode; patted Tenten gently on her right shoulder before exiting the room.
"Now then, may I ask you to sit at the coffee table there?" Hiruzen asked them both as he directed them to a cosy corner of the room, it was filled with brown leather armchairs and a small rounded coffee table. On the table itself laid an assortment of sweet pastries and strong smelling coffee.
The duo abided and sat on the armchairs. Hiruzen invited them to eat, much to Tenten's delight. She grabbed the first thing she saw; a cinnamon roll and ate it hungrily while Neji scoffed at her and took a sip of his coffee. Tenten glared at him before she heard a chuckle coming from Hiruzen.
"The two of you get along well." Hiruzen exclaimed gently.
"No." The two teens replied in unison.
"Well.. In your own way I guess." Hiruzen sweat dropped at their outbursts before he continued, "I heard what happened last night. Teiji-Kun , you managed to inflict injury upon a senior and Neji-Kun, you stood up for the rest of the students. A remarkable and valiant act like this is what makes a good shinobi. I would like to recommend the two of you into a special program, similar to Itachi-Kun's."
"The place and train scholarship program." Neji said abruptly.
"Very good, you are well informed." Hiruzen eyed Neji gently before he explained the nature of the program to Tenten, "Every year, the academy identifies a few young ninjas that portray exceptional skills under real life situations. They will be taken and trained within the academy with extra tutoring lessons by an appointed Jounin after school hours. Upon their success and once they graduated from the academy, they will immediately enter any of the Konoha's governing bodies. Like ANBU, Interrogation Unit, Police force.."
"Police? Isn't that exclusively for the Uchihaa clan?" Tenten asked him curiously.
Hiruzen laughed heartily, "Why child, haven't you been listening to my welcoming speech? I want to change the whole system. No more prioritising of clans or segregation of duties according to what the older traditions believed in- no. I want equal rights for everyone who worked hard to achieve it. It doesn't matter where they were from as Long as the prove to be a dedicated shinobi or kunoichi. I will give you three days to think about this proposal. We will meet in this office at say, 9am sharp to discuss your decision eh?"
Instead of agreeing, Neji questioned further, "Forgive me for my boldness Hokage-Sama, but, from the way you say it, it seems that you were well aware of last night's incident. Then why did you not stop it from happening before some of us got hurt? In fact you did nothing."
Hiruzen gave Neji a twinkling smile, "Exactly. If I have intervened further, I would not know who would be capable of stopping it. But that is not a good enough excuse to get you hurt and I apologise for that. But believe me, apart from Itachi, I had a few academy officials on stand-by last night in case it got out of hand. Interesting Neji-Kun. Do you mind sharing your point of view? I would not hold you onto contempt. Please feel free to speak what is bothering you."
Neji cleared his throat before he spoke, "If you wanted justice to prevail, then you should put a stop to it irregardless. Excuses are the tools of the weak and incompetent. Used to build monuments of nothingness. Those who excel in it seldom excel in anything. Now if you'll excuse us Hokage-Sama, but apparently my roommate and I really need to get going or we will be late for class."
With a final bow, both teens left the office leaving the Hokage smiling to himself.
"I hope he agrees to my preposition." The Hokage said inwardly.
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