Akari Uchiha

Ch. 3 Hunting Scarecrow Sensei

Akari was sure Kakashi's hostility had little to do with him entering the classroom while she had her legs hoisted in the air as she was lying down on the bench.

Maybe the man was genuinely a jerk.

Or maybe it was one of those twisted jonin things. Because as far as she had observed, no jonin she had met recently seemed normal.

She was also sure that him being late was a one-time-thing. But apparently now she couldn't be sure about anything anymore. Because her sensei, yes, the very man who was the reason for her waking up at 5 am to get ready, hadn't showed up even after it was 8 am in the morning. And Akari was sure he had asked her to meet him there at 6 am.

...Right?

"Ohayo~" she heard the familiar voice and turned towards the silver-haired nin.

"I thought you asked me to meet you hear at six a.m..." Akari grumbled under her breath.

"Well you see, today, I got lost on the road of life."

Akari sweat-dropped at the excuse. Some jonin.

"Liar," she grumbled. "Anyways, do we start training now!?" she asked all fired up.

Kakashi sighed exasperatedly.

Well that's some serious lack of enthusiasm for the first day of training your apprentice.

"Where's your headband?" he questioned, his eye looking her over.

"....."

"Well?"

"....hehe," she chuckled her usual nervous It's-something-you're-not-gonna-like laugh.

Kakashi sensei narrowed his eyes at that. 

"I... maybe kind of sort of.... lost it?"

Kakashi blinked. "You what?"

It wasn't her fault she misplaced it somewhere in her house! She was sure Ohana, her roommate, took it away as compensation for not doing the laundry or something.

When she didn't answer, Kakashi shot her an unimpressed look.

"So it isn't even your first official day as a shinobi and you have already lost your headband?" he asked slowly.

"I didn't lose it... the headband got... lost..."

She didn't know what she was expecting to achieve by that statement. She really didn't.

"Now I see why the village elders are so unimpressed with this year's graduates. In both skill and numbers." Kakashi drawled.

Yep. That man was really annoyed with her.

"Hey! I just misplaced a headband. That doesn't prove anything-"

"A shinobi headband signifies loyalty of a shinobi to his village, and equality among comrades. So you treating your headband like trash does prove a lot," he replied calmly, making Akari wince.

She felt the need to defend herself. "I didn't mean to disrespect its significance or something! I'll find it by tomorrow-"

"Find it by whenever you want, chibi. I'll wait," he shrugged.

"...Did you just call me chibi- wait... what does 'I'll wait' mean here?" Akari blinked confused.

"Here, 'I'll wait' means I'll wait to start your training until you can represent yourself like a proper genin. Later."

And he disappeared.

He.

Disappeared. 

Just.