Not A Shinobi

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Forty years ago...

Sarah Nakamura was only five years old, but she knew one thing already.  She was never going to be a good Shinobi.  She only had to look at the head of her class to know that fact.  Kakashi Hatake was amazing, and the other kids were saying that he was going to graduate this year as a Genin even!  She just couldn't imagine herself ever going off to war as he would at their age.  Of course, he was all alone now.  His daddy having killed himself.  She didn't understand that at all and probably wouldn't have even known about it except for her parent's whispers the night Sakumo Hatake had done it.  She frowned thinking about them.  They were the ones that wanted her to be a Shinobi.  Since they were Shinobi, it was expected that she would be one too.

She hunkered down against the stone wall behind her, pulling her book up in front of her face as the other kids battled one another on the practice field.  She would much rather read... or write.  She looked over the top of her book, watching as Kakashi took out Obito.  She winced.  Those two were never going to get along.  She actually liked Obito a lot.  He was really sweet and even helped her carry her stuff home one time.  He would also play with her every so often... well, kinda.  One of her two best friends was Rin Nohara and Obito obviously thought she was something special.  Since the two of them were always together, she saw him a lot.

She set her book down for a moment when she saw her other best friend, Melissa Yamanaka, preparing to face down Rin.  Oh, this should be good.  The two were friends but they both irritated the other and she found herself often getting pulled into a tug of war between them both.  She could already hear Obito cheering Rin on, and she rolled her eyes.  She then shifted her eyes over and almost rolled her eyes again.  Of course, Kakashi had all his fan girls surrounding him.  She smirked slightly as the expression on his face was a pained one.  They were obviously annoying him.  He motioned for them to pay attention to the fight that was about to start and like obedient little girls, they all did as instructed.  Sheep.

She almost started laughing as he slunk away from them when they focused on the fight.  Sarah watched the fight with almost a grimace.  The two girls were obviously going at each other with everything they had while their teacher watched them closely.  Unfortunately for Rin, Melissa's abilities were a bit better, and she found herself caught not that far into the fight by her mind control technique.  Sarah flinched as she had Rin doing cartwheels all over the place before she punched her hard enough to knock her flat on her back.

Melissa was a bit savage sometimes.

Sarah grabbed her book again and raised it up as she lost interest in the activity.  That was at least until the teacher was yelling at her for hiding and telling her she was next.  She frowned over the top of her book at the instructor.

"I'm good, sir," she called back.

"Sarah Nakamura, front and center now!"

She scowled before shoving her book into her pack and walking over.  She hated being in the center of attention and hated even more fighting.  It wasn't that she couldn't fight, she just didn't like to do it.  The instructor loomed over her with his hands on his hips.

"You have the worst attitude of the class.  How are you ever going to be a Shinobi with that attitude?"

Snickers from the other kids followed and she felt her face turn red from embarrassment.  She couldn't very well say that she didn't want to be a Shinobi.  She wanted to sink into the dirt and disappear forever and bit her lower lip to keep from snapping back at him.

"I don't like fighting," she whispered.  "I just want to read."

She flinched as he smacked her on the back of the head.  "Nonsense.  Your parents are two of the finest Shinobi's I know."  He turned his attention to group, ignoring that big tears were now going over her cheeks. "Kurenai, you're up with her and don't go easy on her like you did last time."

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