A/N: I do not own Naruto. I am not Masashi Kishimoto.

The rating is for cursing and blood, so please be aware of this.

Thank you and enjoy!

1

Scowling slightly, Riku Tomoko deftly packed a messenger bag full of supplies. She fumbled for a moment with a zipper before realizing it was caught on the fabric of one of her shirts. She mouthed a few choice curses, yanking on it a couple of times in frustration, hoping it would come undone by itself. When no such thing occurred, she hurled it across the room, running a hand through her messy black hair and seething quietly.

"Tomoko? Is something wrong?" The voice echoed from across the hall and through her half-opened door.

Tomoko sprawled across her bed face-first, burying her face in the quilt.

"Tomoko?" The voice's owner poked her head into Tomoko's room, pushing light blue hair out of her face. "Why are you trying to suffocate yourself?"

Tomoko groaned, rolling over. "My bag is dead," she answered.

Spotting the bag in a corner, Tomoko's companion walked over to it and began to fiddle with the zipper. A few moments later, the zipper was free and working perfectly.

"Your bag is alive," the zipper-fixer declared, tossing the bag onto the bed.

Tomoko wheezed when it landed heavily on her stomach, hugging the pack to herself childishly.

"Gah. Curse you, Nanami Mayumi," she huffed without any real intent behind her words.

Nanami Mayumi, better known as 'Yumi' to her friends, sat down next to Tomoko on the bed.

"So," she said softly, "this is it. This is really it."

Tomoko sat up and leaned against Yumi's shoulder, nudging her slightly with her elbow.

"Yeah. Are you nervous?"

At that, Yumi snorted. "Nervous? Fuck no. Just—nostalgic, is all. I'm just not sure if I'll ever see this place again."

Tomoko scoffed. "What, you think you're gonna die?"

Yumi snickered. "Not likely. But if we do advance, we may be required to leave all this behind and start fresh if we get recruited to different sectors."

"And then we'd be split up," Tomoko added, voicing aloud Yumi's worry.

"Yeah."

They sat in somber stillness for a few minutes, until Yumi yelped shrilly, abruptly breaking the silence.

"What was that for?" she hissed, guarding her sensitive sides from Tomoko's sharp elbow.

"You were being depressing and weird."

Yumi stared at her friend before breaking into laughter.

"Finish packing your bag," she commanded.

"Yes ma'am!" Tomoko replied with a mock salute.

Yumi left the room, shaking her head. She went down the hallway to the next doorway, peeking in and coming face to face with the room's occupant, who had been about to exit.

She stared owlishly at the boy's uncomfortably close face until the situation completely registered, then she jumped back with a shriek, face aflame.

The boy was in no better state as he leapt away, sputtering.

"Cat got your tongue, Warami?" a blond-haired boy remarked coolly, passing through the hallway.

"Deki," Tomoko called warningly from down the hallway.

"Fuck you, Shimi," Warami Washi spat.

"Not interested," Shimi Hideki replied.

"Next time, you should try 'go fuck yourself,'" another teammate suggested, approaching the room.

"Shut up, Kaida," Washi grumbled, tossing a knapsack at her.

"Ooh, is it let's-chuck-stuff-at-Kaida time?" Kaida remarked, carelessly dropping the bag on the floor.

"Sou Kaida, you better not drop this," Yumi warned, handing her friend a large bag.

Deki nodded his appreciation as his pack changed hands.

Tomoko brought her backpack with her as she came down the hall and thanked Kaida as the bag was put at the blonde's feet with the others.

"Where's Kazu?" Tomoko wondered aloud.

Deki shrugged.

"How should I know?" Yumi muttered, crossing her arms.

Tomoko groaned.

Nisi Kazuyuki was having a wonderful dream. He had just discovered an ancient artifact that would give him an endless supply of power, and he had brought it home and was being worshipped by throngs of pretty girls.

"Kazu," one of them crooned. "Wake up," she enticed.

Another one caressed his shoulder insistently. "Now," she purred.

The first female smiled in adoration. "Seriously, before I disembowel you."

Her words and tone of voice were befit that of a scowl, and the incongruity launched Kazu straight out of his wonderful dream and back into the world of the awake.

"Nice to see that you're awake, Sleeping Beauty," Tomoko greeted, voice laden with sarcasm.

"Oops," Kazu answered sheepishly.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Why aren't you up yet?"

"Huh?"

Yumi then entered and grabbed Kazu roughly by the collor of his shirt, quite literally dragging him out of bed and down the hall before he could properly react in his sleep-muddled confusion.

Tomoko eyed the glass sitting innocently on his bedside table with suspicion. She ran a finger along the inside and set it briefly on her tongue before her eyes widened with realization.

"Washi?" she called sweetly.

"Yeah?"

"You get to carry the scroll for as long as Kaida sees fit."

"What? Why?" Washi protested.

"For lacing Kazu's water with sedative."

"Oh," Washi said.

After a rather caustic dressing-down from Yumi, Washi shouldered the large scroll that Kaida had sealed all of their supplies into.

The group of six exited their house and gathered around the gates of their village, listening intently to last-minute instructions on their mission objectives.

Tomoko chanced a glance back at her home in the seconds before departure, gravitating towards Kazu and Deki and away from the other three.

Then as the gatekeepers pulled apart the gates, she exited through the arch with the same symbol as the metal strip on the band around her waist.

Racing through the treetops alongside her cohorts, Tomoko left behind her home under the cover of the thick mist her village was named for.