Haruka (春花)

Haru-chan was brimming with excitement. Hinata was just as excited but she was much quieter about it. Haru-chan wasn't normally particularly loud, but Hinata had come to learn, and love, over the years how much louder the redhead gets when she's actually interested or happy. When she's bored the girl is quiet most of the time. Hinata loves both sides of her.

They were currently waiting in the classroom for the exams to begin. Their normal schedule of physical activity in the mornings had been flipped today, to ensure that no one was too injured to take the written exams. The written exams were broken into four tests. Each worth 10 points, except the one covering civilian subjects which is worth five points. Then they would move outside to do the physical portion of the exam where they would be tested on Taijutsu, their agility and their strength. Along with that they would be tested in their use of kunai and shuriken. Taijutsu is worth 12 points and weaponry is worth 10 points while the agility and strength are each worth four. Then they would get an hour long break for lunch before being tested on their ability to use stealth. That would be worth 15 points. Then they would be tested in the use of the leaf sticking exercise, that would be worth 7 points. The final required test would be over the three Jutsu learned in the academy where they could score up to 13 points. After that they could take a bonus test for up to 10 points on their chosen subject.

Haruka was mostly worried about the written test. She's pretty sure her scores will be made false again. And she was a little worried about the Bunshin no Jutsu. She had finished the water walking exercise, but she could only barely make five functioning clones, any less and they all turned out dead looking. She knew the other subjects would be fine, though she found stealth to be hard with her red hair. Hopefully she can get the full 10 points on the bonus with her Genjutsu. She had managed to learn another new one called Nise no Kankaku: Hyaku Saku Hana and so she's pretty confident she'll get the bonus points.

Hinata was confident in all fields, she had started to pull ahead of Sasuke in Taijutsu making her the best at it in class. She was definitely going to be Kunoichi of the Year, and if she can manage to pull ahead during the exams she'll also claim the spot for Rookie of the Year. Hinata could see the worry in Haru-chan and couldn't help but wonder why her girlfriend, thinking that still makes her heart flutter, never told the Hokage or Iruka-sensei she was being sabotaged. Hinata had said she would tell for her but Haru-chan stopped her by saying, "It's okay, it just means people will underestimate me." Hinata thought it was unfair to the redhead but she didn't push the issue, seeing that it would help her in the long run, so long as she doesn't fail because of it.

The two girls had both grown quite a bit since their fourth year at the academy. Haruka now stood at 4'6, still five inches shorter than what's average for a girl her age, but she was happy with it. Hina-chan had grown to be 4'11 tall, the exact average. She kind of wishes she was taller if only because she doesn't like having to stand on her toes to kiss her girlfriend. Hina-chan seemed to enjoy it though. One thing that had changed though was their weight. While Hina-chan had to be lean for her fighting style and that led to her being on the lower end of the weight spectrum, Haruka had only increased her weights giving her a denser muscle mass. Making her heavy. Where Hina-chan weighed 89 pounds, Haruka weighed closer to 95,.

Speaking of her weights Haruka had realized the amount of weight she has strapped to her limbs is apparently pretty abnormal. She found out from a weird green guy that most ninja only use upwards of five pounds on each wrist and leg. Haruka was close to thirty. Even with her weights off Haruka still tends to lose to Hina-chan in sparring. She hopes her Jounin-sensei will teach her a new Taijutsu style. The Academy style, while good for teaching the basics of combat can only go so far (it doesn't help that she can't trust any instruction Mizuki gives her in it, so she's stalled), and it certainly can't match up against the Jyuken or other clan techniques. Haruka only wins those matches with brute force. She had tried to learn one of the other styles in Konoha's public domain but images on scrolls really aren't that helpful. All she really knows is that she'd like it if the style involved a lot of spins. She had grown really fond of spin kicking Kiba out of the ring. She may be short but she's grown very flexible, something Hina-chan laughs weirdly about whenever it's mentioned, because she wants to be well rounded physically. She makes sure to practice stretching every day, doing things like the splits and putting her legs behind her head and other flexibility exercises.

Another change seen in the two girls is that they've both changed their outfits. Hina-chan liked to wear loose navy blue pants that are taped around her ankles, along with an open jacket, it was a lighter shade of black with a few dark red stripes and short sleeves. Haruka had given it to her for her last birthday. Underneath the jacket she wears a light gray shirt with the Hyuuga clan crest on the chest. Hina-chan had also taken to wearing mesh underneath it all that slightly pokes out of the sleeves of the jacket.

Haruka hadn't stopped wearing dresses, but now she ties a sash around her waist to stop it from being too loose. She mainly wears a navy blue dress with a lavender swirl on the back. The swirl is made of vines and the vines expand out across the rest of the dress. The dress went down to her mid thigh, and she had black spats that poked out below it. Underneath the dress she still wore mesh undershirts that visibly covered her collar bone and acted as the sleeves of her outfit. Aside from all that she had finally started cutting her hair, she had decided enough is enough when it reached her feet and she started tripping on it. She still kept it long for Hina-chan but she made sure it didn't grow past her knees.

Speaking of her hair, those two strands that look like ears had started to put up more resistance to being brushed out. She still could brush them down but she had to dedicate a lot more time to it in the mornings.

The last change of note hit Hina-chan harder than it did Haruka. They entered puberty, at least that's what Hina-chan called it. It was most apparent that Hina-chan had started to grow boobs. Haruka did too but hers were pretty small in comparison. She's pretty sure her girlfriend was a C cup. The redhead had started to give her girlfriend shoulder massages because apparently they were heavy and kind of hurt. Haruka didn't really get it. She could only barely be considered a B cup and her shoulders never hurt. Though maybe it's because she's used to walking around with extra weight already. Haruka wasn't the smallest girl in the chest department at least, that honor went to Sakura who was still flat as a board.

Wait no there was one more thing, Haruka had started bleeding out of nowhere and her stomach was cramping a lot. She asked the white eyed girl about it and was told it's something called a period. According to Hina-chan it would happen once a month for the next few decades. That made her wince because the cramps were really painful. Hina-chan was so sweet though, she realized the older girls problem and started to give an herbal remedy she had made. It made her feel a lot better, the cramps were still there but they weren't quite so bad. Hina-chan made her sit and talk with Hikari about something called Sex Ed (Many thought Ninja learn it in academy for the purposes of seduction, but in reality seduction isn't even mentioned until they become chunin or turn 16, whichever comes first). It's not taught in the academy because generally families teach it or the people in charge of the orphanage. Haruka just never got the chance because she was kicked out of the orphanage so young. Though it is taught in the civilian academies. Hikari told her what puberty is and how babies are made.

It was good to know but it also made her a little sad. She wanted to start a family with Hina-chan one day, but apparently she can't. Well they can still adopt, it's not like she has any problems with orphans.

Now that she thinks about it the Hyuuga clan became really weird around her after she started dating Hina-chan, the villagers got meaner but they always get meaner over time. Hikari had started to take pictures of the two girls a lot more, and scolding Hina-chan for not asking sooner. Hiashi simply said he's fine with it but they will have a steep hill to climb in the future. Something about the elders and the caged bird. Hina-chan's little sister, Hanabi seemed weirdly fond of the redhead and at the same time mad at her. Mad because she claimed Haruka was taking her big sister away, but fond because she also seemed to want Haruka to become her big sister in the future. Ko had simply said Iruka owed him fifty ryo for their bet. She didn't know what the bet was for, but good for him.

Haruka had also met Hina-chan's cousin, Neji, he was a year older than them and was currently a genin. He was really mean to Hina-chan and her for some reason. He told Hina-chan when she was being introduced to him. "Dating a failure only proves to me that you're also a failure." Haruka doesn't get how she's a failure, she's plenty strong even if she is the dead last. He also went on about how it's their fate to separate for the good of the Hyuuga clan. Haruka didn't like that. She started to ignore the boy from then on.

They had also let the Ichiraku family know about their relationship. It went as expected, Ayame-nee squealed in excitement and Teuchi-ojisan just looked on proudly before menacingly staring at Hina-chan and saying, "You might be a ninja but you break her heart and I break you." Hina-chan said in response,

"I'd sooner die than hurt her." That made Haruka blush but she scolded Hina-chan for that, she never wants to hear her talk about dying.

Haruka is snapped back to the present as Hina-chan shakes her saying the tests are being passed out. Haruka nods and waits for Iruka-sensei to finish passing out the tests. Once all the tests are passed out she flips hers over and begins. She fills in her name and then looks at the test, oh so the first one is on Chakra Theory, easy enough. The questions were simple, they mostly asked what chakra is, just in different ways. She flies through the test easy enough, even if she misses an answer she's not too concerned her scores will be bad regardless of what she does. Upon walking up to Iruka-sensei sitting at the front she hands in her test and grabs the next one. She repeats this process for the next two tests, noting that she was one of the last students to finish testing. The Ninjutsu Theory test had taken her a while longer than the others, probably because most students chose ninjutsu for their self study.

The class was split into three groups upon heading outside, some kids were sent to the sparring ring, others to the kunai range, and the last group was sent to the empty field where they do strength and agility training. Haruka was in the second group while Hina-chan was put in the first.

The test was easy enough. There were three targets, the one farthest back is worth two points whenever it's hit, the one in the middle is worth 1 whenever it's hit and the closest one is only worth one point if hit in the bullseye. There are no points for missing but the two outer targets award double points for hitting the bullseye. They would stop as soon as they either ran out of kunai or reached ten points. Haruka hit the bullseye on the middle one twice, the outer one once, and the closest one twice. She managed to get ten points by using all five kunai. Once everyone was finished with kunai they moved onto shuriken. The test was the same, just with a different weapon. Once more Haruka scored full points by using all five shuriken.

Her group was rotated to the Taijutsu ring where Hina-chan's group had just finished and were moving to the field. She briefly wondered who is in charge over there, because Iruka-sensei is at the kunai range, and Mizuki is here at the Taijutsu ring. Guess she'll find out soon enough. Today they were sparring against Mizuki for the test. They simply had to last thirty seconds or knock him out of the ring for full points. Failing to do either of those they would be awarded points based on how long they lasted. When it was Haruka's turn to go up she noticed pretty quickly that Mizuki got tense. Oh guess he's going all out. Before he can call for them to begin she asks, "Hey Mizuki-sensei, can I take off my training weights before we begin?" Mizuki allows it, not seeing what losing five or so pounds on each limb would do for her. She removes them quickly and jumps a few times to adjust to the change in weight.

Mizuki, seeing she's ready, calls for them to begin. He rushes forward and tries to kick her in the stomach and out of the ring. She jumps up flipping over his leg while she grabs it with her hands. Landing back on her feet and still holding the extended leg she throws him. He nearly flies out of the ring but manages to flip mid air and land on his feet. He had taken his eyes off her while flipping and landing only to find a foot lodged in his stomach when he looked back at her. The wind is knocked out of him and he falls backwards out of the ring. He stands and forces a smile. "Very good Haruka, you'll receive full points for this test." That's what he gets for underestimating the girl, he'll keep that in mind when he finally gets rid of the demon. He had noticed that wasn't the academy style, it wasn't really a style at all, but the students are only required to last thirty seconds or knock him out of the arena, it doesn't matter what Taijutsu style they use.

A few more kids went after her and most of them managed to pass the test. Her group was moved to the field where she found an older boy, maybe 15 or 16, she didn't recognize waiting, he was wearing the chunin flak jacket. He wore one of the bandanna style forehead protectors, and had a pretty average face. Seeing them arrive he said "Hello, I'm Ryuugen Yatogo, and I will be instructing you all for today's test." He looks around the class before continuing. "I've set up an obstacle course in the field," he said while raising an arm and gesturing behind him, "I'll be timing how long it takes you to get through it, if you can make it through in under a minute then you will get full points, for every 10 seconds over a minute I'll be removing points. Upon completing the course you'll see a circle. It's a gravity array, made with fuinjutsu, when you step in it will activate and the gravity around you will double. It will continue to go up by a factor of one every 10 seconds until you collapse. You'll be graded based on how long you last. You get full points if you last until the second stage and if you can manage to get past it then you will be awarded two bonus points for every stage beyond it." That's interesting, she hadn't realized they would get extra points outside of the bonus test, but she guesses it makes sense.

Haruka realizes she forgot to put her weights back on, oh well at least that means she'll get through the obstacle course faster. She managed to get through the course in under thirty seconds, the fastest of any student in her class. The gravity array was easier than she thought it would be. The first stage, two times gravity, was pretty easy because she's used to walking around with more than double her weight. The second stage was making her sweat but she could tough it out. By the third stage she could only barely stand. By the fourth stage she felt like all her blood was gathering in her legs, she was feeling woozy. She barely made it to the fifth stage using force of will and almost made it to the sixth before falling over. Still most of the kids are looking at her in shock, most had only managed to make it to the second stage before dropping, the only other student to make it to the third stage was Sasuke, who she only just realized was in her group. She wonders how Hina-chan did when she took the test.

They were given their lunch break and Haruka ate with Hina-chan, apparently the other girl had aced all her physical tests as well. The white eyed girl had managed to last longer than Sasuke under the gravity array, she made it to the fourth stage, but she went slower than him during the obstacle course. Hina-chan had also dismantled Mizuki during Taijutsu sparring, without even using chakra (he still had to be capable of testing the other students). Instead she hit pressure points that can be released easier. While they were eating, their written tests had been scored and passed back. Hina-chan got full points in all subjects. Haruka looked at her own test and found she had averaged about half points on all subjects, except the civilian subject test wherein she was given zero points. Her scores were falsified once more. Her total score so far currently puts her at 51 points, she needs to get 19 more to pass and become a ninja. Hina-chan had actually already passed with 71 points.

Lunch ended and they were tested on stealth, it was a surprisingly simple affair where they merely had to avoid being found by the three chunin that tested them earlier for a minute and 30 seconds to get full points. If they were caught early then they would lose points for every five seconds they had failed to hide. They were sent in one at a time and given 20 seconds to find a place to hide. Hina-chan lasted the entire time while Haruka was caught in half a minute, her bright hair betraying her easily. Hina-chan had already locked down her position as a genin while Haruka still needed to earn 16 more.

Luckily the next test was covering the leaf sticking exercise which she had mastered years ago. She was proven right when she was easily able to get full points on it making it so she only needs to earn nine more points to pass. After that they went inside for the next and last phase of testing.

They started the Ninjutsu test, which apparently would also be combined with their self study test. They would be individually entering another room where Iruka-sensei and Mizuki would be evaluating their ninjutsu skills. They were called in alphabetically so Haruka had quite the wait ahead of her. She did excitedly congratulate Hina-chan when she walked out with her headband. When she asked what her score was in the end she said she got 116 points. Haruka hugged her brimming with excitement for the both of them since the considerably calmer girl wasn't expressing it, she seemed more concerned with something else. The two stayed and talked until Haruka got called in.

The Ninjutsu portion was simple according to Iruka-sensei. She would just have to show them the three academy jutsu without the Jutsu failing. "Now first, please perform the Henge." Haruka does so by transforming into an exact copy of Hina-chan. Iruka-sensei nods and continues. "Now do the Kawarimi with that log in the corner, then Kawarimi back after ten seconds." Once more Haruka does as instructed without much effort. Iruka-sensei nods once more and said "Alright now perform the Bunshin no Jutsu and produce three clones."

"Iruka-sensei would it be alright if I produce more clones?"

"Yes you may, but know there is no bonus for the extra clones." Haruka nods and makes six clones that all seem perfectly healthy. Iruka-sensei smiles at her and said, "Congratulations Haruka, come up and take your headband, would you like to take the bonus test?"

"No that's alright, I'm not in the running for the top spot anyways so I don't need it." She had barely passed with 73 points but she still passed, so she doesn't really care to do the bonus test. Haruka tied the headband around her forehead only to stop as she did. It felt weird there, like the world seemed dimmer, but it didn't actually get dimmer. Weird, she chose not to wear the headband for now, she'd ask for Ayame-nee's help later with sewing it into her sash around her waist. She walks out of the room and sees Hina-chan waiting at their seat, she smiles and flashes the headband at her. Hina-chan's almost a blur as she glomps the redhead. Haruka giggles at that, it seemed they were both more excited for the other than they were for themselves.

"Congratulations Haru-chan!" Haruka smiles brightly at the taller girl, before leaning forward and giving her a chaste peck on the lips.

"Thanks Hina-chan!"

They didn't notice how long they spent like that until Iruka-sensei and Mizuki stepped out of the room and looked down at the two girls lying on the floor. Mizuki clicked his teeth in disgust. Haruka looked up at him and glared. Iruka-sensei spoke up, or down at the moment. "Can you two return to your seats so we can give our last lecture before sending you off?" The two girls nod and return to their seats.

Iruka nods his head and looks out at all of them. He speaks, his voice filled with fondness and pride. "It was six years ago that I met you all as a new chunin instructor, assigned to teach you for your entire duration here in class 103 of the first academy. I've seen each and every one of you grow into admirable shinobi that I look forward to working alongside for years to come. You may have your differences but never forget, you're all ninjas of Konoha now and every person in this room is your comrade in arms. We all serve the great tree of Konoha to protect our people and our loved ones. That is what makes this village the greatest in the elemental nations. And I see it in each of your hearts that you possess this passion. This passion we have all come to know as the Will of Fire, passed down to us from the Shodaime Hokage himself. Now I ask you the same question I did six years ago when we first met. Why are you becoming a ninja? Think about this tonight and keep that in your heart when you meet your Jounin-sensei." He finishes his speech and smiles at his class. "I'm also pleased to announce that this year's Rookie of the Year is… Hyuuga Hinata. Uchiha Sasuke is the runner up. Now then You're all dismissed, be sure to be here tomorrow at nine am to meet your new sensei." He pauses and adds as an afterthought, "And if you ever want to talk, you know where to find me."

The classroom is quickly emptied and the two girls head outside to find Hikari, Hanabi (who is currently in her second year at the academy), and the Ichiraku family waiting for them. The two girls are hugged by the two families and congratulations are passed all around. Haruka can't help but ask where Hiashi is.

Hikari responds. "He's currently back at the compound organizing the celebration party." Hanabi pipes up after.

"Otou-sama got you lots of cinnamon buns Nee-chan!" Hinata smiles warmly at her sister and gives her a hug. After a few moments she breaks the hug and said to Haru-chan.

"Anything you'd like to do before we go celebrate?"

"No that's okay, The Ichirakus are going to be giving me a celebration dinner tomorrow, cause they knew I'd want to go to your party." Hinata smiles and takes the redhead's hand on her own.

"Then let's go."

"Yeah!"