Chapter 3 : Time before the Summoning

Tenshi looked at Nomaru. Then she smiled again and nodded.
Sure, I don't have anything else to do and it will be nice to be with more than one! And Kouhi-chan, congratulations. I'm sure you blast them from their chairs the way you know how to handle your Jutsu.

Hyuuga sighed a little anoyed as the girl got all hyper again. "Well yes, I did. But if you two will excuse me, I need to help someone pass" he said as he looked at Hayate-kun who was already walking away. "Congratulation you two" he said and gave them a kind smile before following the Masamune into the academy and up to Classroom 30.

'Allright, let's go.' Nomaru didn't really care if Sarutobi Kouhi would join them. She just wanted to enjoy her free time as much as possible. She walked to her house. A very warm family house with a little garden. Loads of flowers everywhere. Her mom just loved flowers more than anything. The moment she walked to the front lane she noticed her dad hide behind some of the flowers in front of the window, looking at every move she made.
Oh god... why? She raised an eyebrow and opened the door. In just a second her dad had moved from the window to the door in some weird time-travel speed. Her dad was a short man with brown-ish hair and beard. A dog came barking to the door.
'Daughter, did you make me proud?' he asked with a tense tone.
She couldn't help noticing the weird, focused look on her dads face. 'Urgh... ' She just pet the dog. 'I made a naked impression of one of our teachers.'
'You did WHAT?!' he yelled. 'YOU DID WHAT?!'
'Please quit shouting. Are you blind?' she just pointed at the forehead protector around her neck and lit a cigarette.
Tears appeared in his eyes and he just hugged Nomaru. 'I AM SOOOO PROUD OF YOU NOMARU-KUN!!!' he yelled, so pretty much everyone in the village could hear it.
'Ugh, dad. You're embarrassing me.' Nomaru pushed her dad away. 'So uhm... This is my dad...' Nomaru said in a slightly embarrassed way.

Time was ticking as Ryochoku ran all over the place. The first place he went was the Tenshu house. He avoided most of the people since it would be bad if they knew he didn't pass and just quickly went for the database to see who pass and who not. It was more of a gamble really since he wasn't sure if the database would be updated that fast or not but it did. Scanning through the list, he decided to go for...Uchiha Torame. Unlikely the best choice whatsoever but he thought it would be easier for him to ask him to come than other students.

For a little preparation, he went into his little brother's room as he knew that boy hardly lock his door and picked off a kunai from the drawer, keeping it in the inner garment of his kimono. Well, it's time to pay the Uchiha a visit. Running toward the Uchiha clan house, he was stopped by the doorstep as expected.

"I am here to see Uchiha Torame, the Hokage requested for him to be in classroom 30 right now for some extra activities. Also, there's not a lot of time for this since the Hokage is busy enough as it is so ask him to make haste if possible." He ain't going to play it straight, lying and deceiving seemed easy for him and it's likely the Uchiha boy would come since he tend to be paranoid at times. Still, he would wait on the gate just to make sure the boy would appear and if he wasn't going to, he needs to find an alternative target.

Tenshi looked surprised at what played before her. Then she smiled and enjoyed the view. Atleast the man loved his daughter, even if she didn't agree with his methods of showing it.

Kouhi grinned happily her hands behind the back of her head as her cheeks were red and her eyes closed. The little girl clearly beamed with excitement and happiness hearing her two classmates praise her skills. It was the drug she lived for anyway, much like Nomaru had her smokes, Kouhi had her desire to be appreciated, praised and at the center of everyone's attention.

Laughing she would nod "Yeah I showed them who's the best. he he he." She boasted proudly and then het eyes lit up even more when the girls decided to invite her along with them.

The little Sarutobi would lean forward giving them her cute puppy eyes and nodding.
"Ohw Awesome! Let's hang out yeah!" She said as she would then grab a hand from each of the two girls walking between them holding one of each of their hands. She would do this playfully swinging between them every now and then unless they would stop her from doing so or holding their hands.
If they would however do try and stop her she would pout, give them puppy eyes and cry crocodile tears unless they'd let her do so again. She was still only 10 and quite spoiled for the age too.

As the trio of girls arrived at Nomaru's place and see her father the reactions of the man made the Sarutobi girl giggle and snicker into her own palm before she would bow politely to greet her parents.
"Greetings, I am Sarutobi Kouhi. Heiress to the Sarutobi Clan and former classmate of your daughter."
She would say and then glance over to Nomaru who would be lighting up a cigarette.
"Wh...waaaaah! You can do that in front of your parents and they don't say anything?!" The girl seemed very surprised at this.

Tenshi looked Kouhi and then blushed, almost forgetting her manners.
Haruno Tenshi, also former classmate of Nomaru-chan.
She bowed and blushed. Then she was surprised again by Kouhi her comment about the sigaret.

It took Koui Hazure a few seconds to process the fact that his daughter had friends over. Nomaru usually didn't bring people. 'Karen! We have guests!' He walked towards Tenshi and Sarutobi and bowed. 'Koui Hazure. Welcome to our house.' Her parents didn't even seem to notice Nomaru was smoking. Or didn't really care. Koui Hazure himself smoked a lot (mostly due to stress for his daughter's behavior) and pretty much gave up on everything except for her education.
Nomaru's mom, a good looking woman walked towards Nomaru, Tenshi, Suratobi and her husband. 'Guests, how lovely. Congratulations to all of you! I'll start making a celebration meal!'
'Don't bother. We're leaving soon. I just came to tell dad he should make that appointment for the tattoo-thing.' Nomaru rolled with her eyes. My parents are freaks.
'Don't be silly dear, you just got here!' Koui Karin replied, making it pretty clear she wouldn't allow the girls to leave. Nomaru just lit another cigarette and walked inside.
'Fine.'

Tenshi bowed to Nomaru her mother and blushed.

Arigato. I would be delighted to spend the meal with such sweet people.

As Ryochoku would enter the Uchiha District at the corner of the Village he would notice that there were more Uchiha on guard duty than usual but most of them slacking off a bit due to the temperature and the overall mood in the Village today.
As he would approach the main house where most of the Clan members seem to have assembled the guard nodded to the other one standing next to him. "Go inform them, please." He said as the other guard would go inside.
The one Ryochoku approached would remain outside with the Tenshu boy. "Just a brief moment please, the Clan is currently celebrating Uchiha Torame's graduation at such a young age. He might just be Uchiha Sora's second coming as many seem to refer to him already which is...auw!" The guard would begin to speak exited but then would stop pained as a rock would hit the top of his head coming flying from the roof but as the guard would look he wouldn't be able to see anyone, neither would Ryochoku.
"What the???!" The guard exclaimed surprised and then shook his head and growled softly thinking it was just some bird probably.

Inside the guard would approach Sasuke whispering the information to the Clan head which would cause him to chuckle softly and glance back at Torame.
"Torame-kun....it seems you have one more challenge to face today. A battle is waiting for you. A boy is standing outside on the doorstep that wishes to challenge your ability. He doesn't know that you are aware of his plan yet. But this battle fits into the interests of the Clan as well as your personal interests. " He began as the room fell still listening intrigued.
"I hope you're ready to make your Clan proud once more young Uchiha." Sasuke would say as he would take out a kunai and toss it to the Uchiha boy. "There.....you might need this. Just in case." The Uchiha would give Torame a confirming nod while Torame's mother would gasp shocked and worried. "Aaaah! A kunai?! What kind of battle is this, he's still a chi..." At this Sasuke would shoot his mother a somewhat angry glance making her fall silent. "No...he is not. Uchiha Torame has achieved the rank of Genin and he is capable of performing Goukakyuu no Jutsu which officially makes him both an adult and a soldier. I know you are worried, but you need to trust in his abilities. I know I do." The Clan leader nodded to Torame approving "Go now! Hurry. Before your mother stops us all." He said adding a bit of a joke at the end.

Torame looked confused, a battle? what? why? 'But what if...', but seeing the encouraging faces of everybody he silenced himself and said instead. no problem, i'll do what i can to make my clan proud.


but what ifi lose the battle and then the Hokage will be displeased with me and i will be undone of the title of gennin, and then i will come back and provide double bad news and my clan will be ashamed of me. or what if i get killed in battle? i am only 9 years old, i am way to young to die. i dont wanna die, there are still so much things in life i would have accomplished. And so many questions i still want to have an answer to... and what if...

he got his shoes on and went outside, 'Ryochoku??' the boy was nearly 2 times his age. 'never mind, was just surpirced to see you over here, havent youuoooooowwww?.' Torame only now saw that Ryochoku did not have a forehead protector so he silenced himself before he would be able to hurt feelings. 'anyway i am ready let's go!'

The Sarutobi girl grinned exited and waved to the father and then bowed once again to the mother.
"Sarutobi Kouhi, heiress to the Sarutobi Clan, Grand-daughter of the Third Hokage. At your service miss."
She would say and then as she heard about a celebration meal the little girl's eyes lit up as her mind began to race with various imaginations of food.

"Ohw ohw ohw! A celebration meal! How amazing!!! Yes yes yes....Thank you very much for the invite." The little girl would say as she smiled gleefully walking inside by Nomaru's side as she would lightly nudge the smoking girl and nod.
"Your parents seem really nice. Your father seemed a little stressed though, but he seems very kind as well. " She gave her quick first impression opinion on Nomaru's parants to the Koui girl.

Nomaru smiled to the little girl. 'They're allright I guess. My dad's a bit of a mental case though.' Nomaru's eyes followed her mother, who ran into the kitchen and started cooking. Within minutes the house would smell like delicious flavors and several kinds food. She sat down at the table and invited het friends to sit with her. Nomaru smiled at the girls, grabbed the remotecontrol and put on her favorite televisionshow.

Tenshi sat down next to Nomaru.
Your dad may be a bit strange. But he is a good man and your mother is a very sweet woman. You should be proud to have them even if they have their unique way of doing things. It's worse to have no parents at all.

After that, Tenshi her mind became distracted.

Ryochoku didn't really show much of anything or say anything since the boy has already said what he wanted to say. He just turned and started moving, not too fast but not too slow either, "We need to hurry though, the summoning will come in 90 minutes and we needs to get this done before that."

'If you say so.' Koui Nomari threw the package of cigarettes on the table next to Saritobi and watched her dad sitting down as wel.
'So girls, what did you do to pass?' he stroke his beard and looked at Nomaru. His daugter just ignored him and lauged at her tv show. 'NOMARU!?'
'What?'
'How did you pass?'
'Geez, does it matter? I got the damn forehead protector right?' anoyance was obviously somewere in her voice.
Hazure koughed and looked at Saritobi. 'What did you do? You seem quite young. You must be really talented!' Hazure had quit the enthousiasm in his voice.

Houtarou walked home thinking about the exam. ''Hokage-sama complimented me! This is my first step towards achieving my dream. My dream of contributing to creating a peaceful world! I'll keep getting stronger, an-''
WOAH!
He tripped over a loose brick in the ground. Of course that had to happen to him...
I'm so clumpsy... He said smiling. He didn't even mind, he was happy.

He'd told his parents that if he didn't come home he had passed the test, and would go to the summoning. ''I'll see them tonight'' he thought.

It was a beautiful day, and Houtarou went to lay down in the grass, peeling his eyes because of the sun's bright light.
He was thinking about taking a nap, but he remembered the previous morning, and wasn't going to take any chances this time...
He proceeded to just lay down in the grass, waiting for and thinking about what'd happen at the summoning.

Kouhi would drop down on the couch next to Nomaru and would blink at the TV a little the girl didn't really watch a lot of television, mostly just a few cartoons in the weekend, but that's about it, really.
When her father called out the Sarutobi girl glanced over to the Koui girl to see her reaction.
The young girl's face almost turned pale when she heard the girl reply to her father.

What if I tried this at my house?


The girl imagined herself sitting on the couch in her own home watching TV and like Nomaru smoking a cigarette.
Her dad walking up behind her cheerfully likewise smoking asking her with a happy grin on his face.
"So Kouhi-chan....how did your graduation go?"
The Sarutobi girl remains silent.
"Kouhi?!" Asuma yells now a bit.
"What?!" The Sarutobi heir spat back at her father.
"How did you pass?!" Asuma would repeat his question still in a raised tone.
"Geez, does it matter? I got the damn forehead protector right?" The girl would reply annoyed and nonchalant.
Asuma's eyes would begin to burn up. Next A Katon Jutsu fills the room burning the TV, her cigarette and for a large part leaving the girl charcoal black aside from her big eyes before her form would fall apart into a pile of ashes. Afterwards Asuma would push his hand into the pile and pull the girl, mostly unharmed and just burned out of the Ashems and smack her multiple times on the face.
"Don't you give me that attitude you little monkey-girl! You are grounded for 5 months, no questions asked! And no more training for you for a month!"


The Sarutobi girl shivered at the thought forming in her own head including the imagery it gave her mind.
She gulped and only later realized she had missed her father's question too. But her mind had still picked up on it.
"Uhm....ummm...m...me?" She stammered a bit shyly and out of her element glancing back at Nomaru's father.
She would then shake her head and return to her senses before jumping up on the couch and extending her index finger upwards giving the Koui father a confident smirk.
"Naturally I am talented, I am Sarutobi Kouhi! The Heiress to the Sarutobi Clan, Granddaughter of the Third Hokage and Daughter of Sarutobi Asuma. I am a child prodigy as they call it able to handle 2 elements and having mastered almost everything there is to master at the Ninja Academy despite my young age."
She would close her eyes flaunting over herself now a bit cocky but with such cute little girl grace that it actually seemed acceptable. It even seemed a bit sarcastic with how she did it, and perhaps she was joking. Though actually she wasn't.
"So needless to say I am by far the best of my generation." She would take a slight bow to Nomaru's father then as if an artist bowing to his crowd after a good performance.

Kenshi would walk outside towards the tree he was in earlier. He used chakra walk to get up in his tree and sat down on a branch. He didn't really know how much time he had before the summoning so he wouldn't risk going home to tell his parent. If he did and he missed the summoning then that would be bad.

Koui Hazure seemed really amused by the answer he got from Sarutobi and kept wishing his own child would be more like this. Hazure gave a glance at Nomaru, who was actually picking her nose and grinned at the tv show. Some silly show about a man in a bear-suit who got himself into a lot op painful situations.
'You are such a good girl Sarutobi-chan. Unlike others in this room! Nomaru-kun would have been able to master all of her three elements by now if she would have put some effort in it.' He gave Nomaru 'the face,' something he did when he disapproved of something and only heard Nomaru laugh at the television program. Frustrated he grabbed Nomaru's package of cigarettes (which he most likely payed for) and lit one himself.


In the meantime people could smell the great amount of food that was made in the kitchen. At some point Koui Karin came walking to the living room and looked at Tenshi.
'You're Haruno-chan right?' she grabbed the hand of the girl and smiled. To her and her mother-instinct it seemed like the girl had some troubled thoughts. 'You know what my mother used to say? Whenever I had troubled thoughts or felt sad about something she just told me that whatever happened in the past it doesn't matter, because it's the past. We should learn from it and respect it, but not try to keep it alive in the present. Now is the only reality and we should enjoy it to the fullest.' Nomaru's mom smiled a big, warm and motherly smile at the Haruno girl. 'I could use some help in the kitchen. Would you like to help me? We need to make the plates look pretty!'
Nomaru suddenly heard the word food and totally forgot her television show.'I'll set the table!' and then whispered Sarutobi: 'My mom is the best cook in the world!' Nomaru stood up, lit a cigarette and walked towards a cabinet in the back of the room, starting to put all the plates and bowls on the table.

Shikarato nodded at Yorukasa. It would be goodwill tot walk around the village . It would allowhim tot daydream about all the cool gear hem would have as a genin t

Tenshi looked speechless at Koui Karin. Nobody had ever asked her something this simple, but it meant a lot to her.
She smiled and nodded, following the woman into the kitchen.
Lots of food stood everywhere, ready to be served on shining plates. But the mother was right. It looked a bit dull for a celebration.
She cut some vegetables small and for the Sarutobi child, she made small shapes giving the food a playful look and finished with some dressings Nomaru her mother handed her.
Together they would bring it to the dining room.

Nomaru's face was describable when she saw the food entering the room, she was already sitting at the dinnertable with her chopsticks ready to attack the food. Nomaru just loved food, especially the food her mom made. She absolutely loved her mom. A big bowl of ramen was placed in the middle of the table. Also there was a bowl of Soba noodles, yakitori, slices of raw salmon and tuna, fried vegetables, beef with garlic and mushrooms, uncooked greens, and most definitely more than enough to feed an entire army. Most people could last a week with the amount of food Koui Karin had made in such a small amount of time.
'Looking goooood!' Nomaru almost started drooling over the food. Her father sat down as well and smiled warm at his wife. Her food was one of the many reasons he had fallen for her.
He looked proud at Nomaru and the two other girls. 'I am really glad you are all here. My daughter is such a dimwit at times, I just can't describe how I feel having her be a Genin. This is probably the best day of my life and I-'
'Dad, don't overreact. I just graduated, that's all. Nothing to go full retard emotional about.' Nomaru really hated it when her parents were acting this way. She felt a bit ashamed of her parents and just didn't want them to make it look like she was a complete fool.
'I know, but I still want you to know I'm very very proud of you Nomaru-kun. And I'm proud of your friends too!'