Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Sorry for the short chapter again :(
Chapter 4
As Tenten made her way into the mess hall with her new friends, she reflected on all that had just recently happened to her.
After the exuberant blond had revealed the pale blond's name, he had proceeded to give her his own name – Naruto. Then, he started to introduce Tenten to Koshira's other friends without prompting from Koshira himself. First, there had been a dark haired, dark eyed boy with a permanent moody expression. His name was Uchiha Sasuke. Then, there was a boy called Nara Shikamaru who looked bored by the world and had his hair tied up into a high ponytail. Finally, there was a last boy – Hyuuga Neji – that had pale grey eyes and extremely long hair. Naruto had then announced that there were more, of course, but these were the ones closer to Koshira and that he would have time to introduce some other people to her that he was sure she would like to meet. Privately, Tenten thought that she had already been introduced to a plethora of people, but she wisely kept this to herself.
After being introduced to the Koshira group thanks to Naruto, Koshira himself had spoken up.
"I like how you make enemies on you first day here."
Tenten coughed and started turning red, but she refused to be embarrassed. "Why, thank you. It's just one of my many skills."
To her surprise, Kohira had actually laughed and from that point on, he had opened up considerably. They had talked some more, and each of Kohira's friends had introduced themselves a little bit more and told her about the ninja school.
Naruto told her that he was an orphan, and he had been picked up by the Academy and raised by the teachers ever since he was a baby. He told her that he had a penchant for all things ramen related (which he could never get enough of). His favorite animals were the fox, whose cunning and swiftness he respected, and the toad, which he hoped to learn to summon whenever the teachers would finally decide to teach it to them.
Sasuke didn't tell her much about himself except that he liked snakes, introspective boy that he was. However, as he was telling her this, she noticed Naruto behind him imitating his slouch, complete with his arms crossed and a frown on his face, mouthing the words Sasuke uttered. Tenten stifled a giggle at his antics, but the other boys smirked. At that point, Sasuke had caught on and immediately whipped around, bopping Naruto on his head, then turning back and finished his short address as if nothing had happened.
Neji had looked at her curiously before telling her a bit about himself. "I belong to to Hyuuga Clan, wielders of the Byakugan. I might tell, or rather show, you more about it one day if we have a chance to spar." He had then actually smiled. Tenten was taken by his amiability, for at first glance, Tenten had thought he would be an arrogant bastard, but then again, looks could be deceiving, she supposed.
Then Shikamaru had gone, at first simply saying, "This academy is bothersome." After a prod (or several) from Naruto, who had recovered amazingly quickly, he told Tenten, "Alright, looks like I'm delegated to inform you about what goes on here." He sighed and scratched head, muttering, "How troublesome." He paused.
Tenten waited. The seconds ticked by. Naruto, tapping his foot impatiently, as if Shikamaru was telling all this to him, got fed up and yelled, "Shikamaru! Hello? Continue or else I'll tell Chouji who really took his ch-mmph-" Naruto was promptly stopped mid-speech by Sasuke, who motioned for Shikamaru to hurry up.
"Okay, okay. So, there are classes of two types. One is book learning, where everyone has to learn about ninja rules, ninja sayings, ninja math problems, ninja politics and etiquette, ninja situations, ninja history, ninja science, which is learning about various plants and animals and how they can help and harm us, and you get the point."
He yawned and continued, "The second is physical learning. There, you will learn about how to perform the various ninja arts such as taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and using ninja weapons. Every week, members of a special clan, namely those who have special techniques that are not taught at the academy, are allowed to visit the closest relative with whom they can learn these techniques from for half a day, coming back to the academy to practice." At this he nodded at Neji. "Once every other week, there will be a day in which your ninja abilities will be put to the test. Instead of going to physical education classes, everyone will congregate at the training grounds, and there people can choose between one-on-one sparring, team sparring, or trap detection and set up."
Shikamaru sighed again and grumbled, "As much as I hate to admit it, these are actually somewhat fun. But still troublesome," he quickly added. "The different types of one-on-one are taijutsu and ninja weapons only or the 'everything goes,' meaning jutsus are allowed. As for team sparring, you can choose how many people per team, but otherwise everything goes in team sparring. However, a special type of team sparring is reconnaissance, or recon for short, where one group has something they have to protect while the other team tries to get it from them.
"Finally, there's trap detection and set up, where people set up their own traps and then draw lots to see whose trap they have to make it through. Obviously the goal is to get through and not set off any traps at all, though some people do set them off just for the fun of it. There is always a way through, back and forth, because once you set a trap you have to be able to get through it without setting off your own traps. Evidently, if you set off your own trap, this shows that you aren't ready to try to get through anyone else's set up.
"There's also a combination of all three types, where six people start at opposite ends of a trap filled area, three to each side. There's a prize that they both have to try to get somewhere in the middle, and they have to get the prize and come out the other end to essentially 'win.'"
Tenten was impressed at all the information Shikamaru had just told her. Then, to her utter amazement and surprise, Kohira had invited her to join one of their team spars. At least, when she was here for a little longer and had improved her skills. "We can assess your abilities and help you become stronger so that you can later help our team out. As you might have guessed, for group sparring, we usually work together." Then, he had asked, "Which one of you will sponsor Tenrai for his first week here at the academy?" to which Neji had soon volunteered.
Then the dinner bell had rung.
"So, do you eat your vegetables, Saki?" Kohira asked, as if the whole Ice Prince thing was just a façade (which it probably was). Kohira's question broke Tenten out of her reverie, and she shook her head, asking, "What was that? Sorry, I was a bit distracted."
"Vegetables – you don't eat them much, do you?" Kohira repeated amusedly.
"What makes you think I don't?" Tenten retorted.
"Only the fact that you're so short and skinny." This put Tenten into a series of protests, which ended with the final shot, "You're not so big yourself, Yoshikuni!"
"Sama." Kohira added.
"What?" Tenten sputtered at the random comment.
"My name's Kohira, Yoshikuni Kohira, but that's Kohira-sama to you, Saki." He grinned cheerily as the others laughed at his mimicry of Taheki.
"You-you-" Then Tenten realized he was joking, and she calmed down and even laughed with the other boys. "I'll have you know, Yoshikuni-sama, that I go by Tenrai."
"What was that, Saki-kun?" Kohira smirked.
Tenten narrowed her eyes. "My name is Tenrai."
"Oh, but it's just so fun to annoy you, Saki-kun. Chibi," he added afterthought.
"Whatever," Tenten muttered, half-wanting to flip the pale blond off. But she resisted the urge. "Food is more important than attempting to hold an intelligent conversation with you."