Turn Over A New Leaf

written by monochrome.julia

Chapter 1.

-OoO-

Kagome, Kagome,
when will the bird come out of its cage?

In the end of light,
Turtle and a crane slipped and fell,
Who is the backstabber now?

-OoO-

Every day was the same. The same things happened—not at the same time, but it was the same thing. At least, that's what she thought. Academy held no more secrets for her. There had been a time when she stared at the closed doors with a weird fascination. But at that time she was little, it was only normal to hold the characteristic attributes—to be naïve, curious and childish.

However, now she was all grown-up, mature and respon—

"Kagome, would you kindly continue reading from where your classmate had left off?"

—sible.

Her instructor suddenly brought the said girl back to reality.

"Ehh, what textbook," she fumbled, searching for her backpack, "and what page?" However, there was no backpack and the girl—Kagome—narrowed her eyes. "We weren't reading anything, 'ruka-sensei!" She pointed a finger at him, accusingly.

"That's right—but if you paid attention from the really beginning, you would have known that without having to search for books."

"But I figured out we weren't reading anything, so I must've been paying attention."

The teacher only gave her a look—Kagome had no idea what was supposed to mean. What that look signified was that she needed to grow up and accept the truth. But she was grown up—she gave the word 'grown-up' a whole new definition—and she did accept the truth—but not Iruka's truth.

"The medic-nins had arrived," Iruka said, "Be ready for your psychological tests."

-OoO-

"What do you see?" The lady asked, showing her a card.

Three ninja—the one in the middle killing the other two.

However, the blue-eyed girl remembered what her mother said to her.

"You're not supposed to say what you see, but what they want to hear."

"A pretty butterfly."

-OoO-

"What do you think this is?"

An ink-stained sheet.

The blonde-haired kid squinted his eyes, trying hardly to figure out what the orange, blue and red stains meant.

"Remember, son, you don't have to say the first thing that pops in you head, but the most innocent answer."

"A multi-flavoured candy-floss."

The woman smiled and wrote something on a sheet.

-OoO-

"Tell me what you see."

Blood.

He saw three stains of blood and the rest—the grey things—, they did not matter.

Lie, his brother had said.

"An elephant," the black-haired boy finally said.

-OoO-

The psychological test was over. The written test followed. Kagome thought it to be at a medium level of difficulty, only half being necessary to pass. The tests were to be graded by three different instructors.

The practical test followed. Knowing the basic kata, how to throw a kunai and a shuriken properly were required. In addition, the Clone, Transformation and Body Replacement Jutsu were also needed to graduate and be a genin.

Kagome could do all those things. She was a Higurashi. Of course, she was not a genius when it came to taijutsu—she was mediocre.

-OoO-

She had passed. There was a big list—many children had passed—and if your name wasn't there, you automatically knew that you have failed the exam.

Kagome had seated herself at her desk, for the last time—and she was very grateful, for her desk-mate – Shikamaru – always slept or complained about women being 'troublesome'. He should have stayed with Chōji, not her.

Iruka put them like this after a little incident their class had. It involved fan girls and an old rivalry.

Some people were afraid of Iruka. He had made it clear that their future as a ninja depended on him—on what he wrote about them. Almost everybody wanted to get on his good side. Almost. There were people that didn't even try to be liked, like Shikamaru.

Iruka-sensei arrived a few minutes later, and the class had gone quiet. Some were excited, and some were afraid.

Today was the day.

The day they would be assigned a team.

"Now you will soon get mission to help the village. Today we will create the 3 man teams and each will team have a Jounin sensei. . ."

Most of the children sighed, realising that not even on their last day they wouldn't get rid of Iruka's lessons.

"—et's start with the teams. Team One's members will be—," Iruka continued by saying names of people that Kagome didn't really know, even though they had been her classmates for six years. "—eam Seven: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto and . . ." all the girls held their breaths, "Higurashi Kagome."

After a brief moment of confusion, glances full of hatred were exchanged between the three members before they—

"WHAT?"

And with all that protesting, they didn't realize.

They didn't realize that this was going to change their lives.

Forever.

AN:

There are three academy requirements. According to the first Naruto official fanbook, they are:

And that's why I thought that a psychological test was required for a child to become a genin.

Reviews are highly appreciated, and will make the second chapter came faster.

~monochrome.julia