Impossible to Forget

Prologue

I played around with the forehead protector tied tightly around my head. The Chunin Exams were coming soon, and the rest of my team still hadn't arrived yet for training. Granted, I was there twenty minutes early, but I felt that everyone else should be just as eager as I was. My reasons for being eager were not that noble, however. I couldn't wait to become a chunin because I was done dealing with my genin team.

Benjirou-sensei showed up first only five minutes early. He sighed as he saw me clicking my tongue in annoyance at his perceived tardiness. His light orange hair was pulled back into a ponytail as was the Yamanaka way, and his bright, blue eyes looked dead tired. I think that he was just as done with the team as I was.

Sadao Kamizuki was the next to arrive, exactly on time. I did not like him very much. He waved his nose in the air like he was better than a "weak girl" like me. I had given him two black eyes for that one. He looked like a panda for several weeks, and I couldn't have been prouder. When I had been asked why I had injured my own teammate, I told Benjirou-sensei, "The sexist bastard deserved it." He looked a little surprised by the language that his eleven-year-old student had used, but he didn't doubt that what I had said was true.

Sadao's light green eyes looked at me in distain before plopping down on the grass, his brown hair falling over his eyes. You could almost feel the dislike between the two of us.

Ten minutes late and panting like the dog running next to him, Jukouro Inuzuka showed up. I didn't like him either. He was as smelly and loud as his faithful companion, Yokoito. He even shared food with his dog, gross. Yokoito yipped around his heels as Jukouro gave a wolfish grin, his canines all fang-like and the red triangles on his cheeks curving outwards.

"Sorry I'm late, guys."

I stomped up to him, "Do you want to stay a genin forever? The Chunin Exams are in a month. A month."

"Sorry, I guess. My mom made me feed the dogs this morning, and I got here as fast as I could."

"Quickly."

"Huh?"

"You got here as quickly as you could."

Sadao blew a stream of air out of his nose, "Leave to a girl to get all angry over something as silly as grammar."

I rounded on him, "Want to say that again, Pandao?"

He cringed as he remembered the horrendous black eyes that I had given him two months ago. I may have been a year younger than them because I graduated at eight and them at nine, but I could still pack a mean punch.

"Yeah, I will. Only girls get angry over something like grammar, Catyo." That was it. That stupid nickname for me was the last straw.

"Yokoito is the one who scared away that cat, not me!"

Sadao rolled his eyes, "Sure. It wasn't because you failed at a simple, D-rank, cat finding mission."

"And I would have been successful if you two were helping me like teammates should instead of trying to spy on the women's hot spring!"

Jukouro made a bark like sound in anger, "We weren't spying! We thought that the cat might be around there! It was all part of the mission."

"Yeah, sure it was. Were the nose bleeds you got part of the mission too? Were you trying to lure in the cat with the smell of blood?" I scoffed at them while crossing my arms.

"We-we ran into the fence," Sadao tried to lie extremely unsuccessfully. "That's what the nose bleeds were from, of course."

Benjirou-sensei ran his hand down his face, "That was your first mission three years ago. Can we ever stop arguing about this?"