Ai Saikuro

Chapter One

***I do not own Naruto.

*REVAMPED*

My eyes focused off into the distance at a point even I was ignorant of. I knew that to everyone that passed me I seemed utterly oblivious to the world, blank orbs, swinging hands, head cocked only slightly. To a trained eye, this was surely not the case. My hand gave an obvious tell, a slight twitch in my fingers-prepared to grab at a weapon or halt an attack. This was the way of a ninja. Be on guard yet unassuming. Deadly but honorable. Our very nature mocked life with its contradicting existence. Such an existence was one that only few could tolerate and fewer could survive.

To say that I was one of the few that dug their heels in and lived was something that was to be proud of. I would be a fool not to acknowledge this and I never thought myself a fool. My only issue lied in the fact that to get this far in this life implied some not so very admirable actions, actions that had ultimately led me to this very point.

The academy. It was a place I had never thought I would return to. It was a place where I'd broken records. Another place where I was revered. A place I had never wanted to return to.

A frown marred my deceivingly delicate face as I stared at the infamous building. I had no desire to return to its suffocating walls, this was true, but I was also curious. It was a trait I never much cared for, one of my fatal flaws. A voice, its tone altered after the long years of being stuffed away in my memory, reminded me that it was as much a skill as it was a pitfall. I shoved the sentiment aside but continued on my death march all the same, carefully peeling open the door and entering the building with no lack of confidence to be seen. The door closed behind me with a click of finality and I carried on down the hall until I met with a familiar door.

Had I not been exposed to my own fair share of oddness, the scene that met me would seem foreign and perhaps intimidating. The room was in a state of chaos, an overzealous crowd of young girls surrounded particular set of tables where only two boys loomed. One was a blonde whose back was to me wearing an overpoweringly bright, orange jumpsuit and blue sandals. This boy was precariously perched on the tabletop, scowling furiously at the other male, whom had rather eye catching ave-like, black hair and obsidian eyes that only half-glared back.

I blinked only once, deciding it wasn't something I cared to involve myself in. I silently made my way up into a seat in the very back where I could carry on with my very unhealthy but useful habit of observation. My eyes narrowed a fraction at the sitcom occurring in the room, noting with a practically invisible smirk that the boy in front of the colorful boy was shifting in his seat. The amusement was only a bit more difficult to contain when the two boys actually locked lips.

Fortunately for the blond spit-fire, his newly planned execution couldn't be carried out by the other boy's fan club because it was in that instant that the sensei, whom I knew to be one Iruka Umino, entered the room with a brilliant grin and a clip board.

The chunin was eventually able to quell the commotion in the room with what I was sure took years of carefully earned patience and he opened his mouth to give a very generic lecture on being a ninja that I felt like I had heard millions of times in my relatively short life. It was a speech that fit in the same category as the birds and the bees to me at this point, I could just as easily spew one back to Iruka. I knew that that would certainly provide more entertainment for myself but, sadly for me, I had entirely too much respect instilled in me so my mouth remained glued shut during his excruciating monologue.

"You will be placed on teams of three based on ability that will be led by a Jonin leader." He finally spoke and a puff of relieved breath escaped me.

The fact that-excluding me-there were just enough students for perfect teams of three had me only marginally suspicious. The Third had definitely assured me that this would work, he was the one that forced me into this. And I was definitely in the correct classroom. I shook my paranoia off, resolving to trust in the Hokage's plans for the moment and chiding myself for doubting him.