Another Take (A Naruto Fanfiction) (Complete)

Ch. 7: She Is The Sunlight

~And if all the flowers faded away, and if all the storm clouds decided to stay, then you would find me, each hour the same~

Kiyomi's POV

I was waiting at the training ground the next morning at five am, just like Kakashi said. Sasuke was already here when I arrived, and we exchanged a simple greeting. Sakura came soon after, with Naruto right behind her.

And we all settled in to wait for our sensei.

We waited.

And waited some more.

And a tiny bit more.

Finally Kakashi showed up. By that point, Sakura and Naruto had collapsed onto the ground holding their bags. Sasuke was still standing, but I could see the fatigue in his legs. And I was curled up against a nearby tree, my head asleep on my bag.

'Kid, get up,' Fenrir commanded. 'Your sensei is here.'

'Oh...' I thought sleepily. 'What time is it?' I sat up, rubbing my eyes. It was probably around seven or eight, making Kakashi two or three hours late.

'It's eleven in the morning.'

"What?" I accidentally exclaimed aloud, drawing curious glances from my teammates. I flinched slightly at the attention, but then turned my voice inwards. 'It's that late? Was I asleep for that long?'

'Six hours, and dreaming of your brother through the entirety of it,' The wolf's eyes showed a hint of sorrow. 'You had nightmares, right?'

My shoulders slumped, and I nodded internally. 'Yeah. Did my body show any signs of it?' I was worried, because if my body showed it, then my teammates might ask questions. Which was something I hated with a burning passion. Questions about my past, that it.

"Kiyomi pay attention," Kakashi's voice echoed through my head, and I sent one last look at Fen before returning to the real world. "Thank you. Now let me explain this test."

"Wait, I want to know why you're late." I demanded of my silver-haired sensei.

Kakashi smiled cheekily. "Well, a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way."

"Nice excuse. I'm going to use that," I mumbled to myself, committing the words to memory. I was sometimes late to things, and needed as many excuses as possible.

"Alright, this alarm is set for twelve pm," Kakashi said, placing his hand on an alarm clock resting on a wooden stump nearby. "Your test is to try and get one of these bells from me," he pulled out three silver bells.

I stiffened, remembering where I'd seen those bells before. It was... Kaien. Telling me about his Genin test.

~Flashback~

"Hey Kiya! I'm home!" Kaien's strong voice echoed through our apartment. We had just arrived in Konoha about a month ago, and I was finally settling in.

A former Jonin by the name of Hachi had been appointed as our guardian, and Kaien had been placed on a squad with a few older shinobi. Apparently the Hokage was trying to reform a team that had fallen apart years ago, and Kaien was one of the shinobi chosen to be on this team, along with the last remaining original member.

"Nii-san, you're home!" I said happily, bounding into the living room. "How was your test?"

I was too young to enter the Academy, but dreamed of being a shinobi like my big brother. And Kaien was more than happy to accommodate for that dream, telling me stories of the lessons, and his teachers. And when he told me he was being placed on a squad, I'd gotten the intense desire to learn all about what teams did.