A/N: Things keep popping into my head. Here I was, writing the fourth chapter of Ghost in the past, when suddenly I had the weird urge to immerse myself a bit more into the not so important lives of a random team of ninja from Konoha. Thus, I present to you, my dear readers, an Introduction to Team Cannon Fodder – the ninja team you never hear anything about but still take part of the daily chaos that is Konoha. Story starts off a little bit before the start of Shipuuden, just like with Ghosts in the Past. Enjoy, read and review :)
Prologue
A curious introduction into the lives of Team Cannon Fodder
or
as Kuro-sensei would put it
A journey into the daily lives of Team Hideyoshi
Hideyoshi Kuro was a 27 year old Jounin of Konohagakure. He was practically what one would call a veteran in his job, considering the fact that the average lifespan of a ninja on active duty in any one village was around 25 years. Most ninja opted to get to rank Chuunin or Tokubetsu Jounin which secured them more often than not with guarding, escorting and messenger type of missions. While the rank of Jounin brought a lot of prestige to those who had earned it, it also brought upon the nasties, like the A-ranks, S-ranks and the occasional SS-ranks that were more often than not left unmentioned in one's dossier.
Kuro was a seventh generation ninja, even though he wasn't from a specific clan or anything. He considered himself one of those cannon fodder folk that just happened to get the lucky pass and snatch the jounin rank. During the Jounin Exam he happened to land upon the only handicapped ninja and even then he barely scraped a win. It had been a bloody battle of wits, cunning and playing dirty. Three years later, he found himself saddled with his first Gennin Team, who he just knew were going to be as cannon fodder as he was. Only certain, elite type of ninja managed to get the creme de la creme – the clan children. People like Hatake Kakashi, who had gotten the Jinchuuriki, the Uchiha and that Haruno girl who was nowadays a well accomplished medic. Even though the Uchiha had opted to 'leave' Konoha, his performance at those Chuunin exams had been a riot. These certain type of ninja were the public face of Konohagakure. And ninja like himself did the dirty work like assassinations, spying, saboutages and what not.
Nowadays, two years after he had gotten his first Gennin team, he was doing what was considered a standard guard post duty. Not usually something a Jounin would do, but a Jounin-sensei with three Genin was a desirable combination. It was a C-rank and his brats were well enough prepared to handle the job. Hell, he was even considering letting them have a go at the up comming Chuunin exams. His girl was certainly ready for it. She had the most potential – an unusual combination of good chakra control and close range weapons expertise. The boys were a whole other matter all together. Sora was aspiring to become a medic nin, despite his difficulties with chakra control excersizes and Maburo was as genjutsu oriented as they got. All three were first generation ninja, from civilian families. Kohime, his girl, was the third child of a wealthy merchant family of low nobility. Seeing as she had two older brothers, her parents had decided she would be better off...well, Kohime had opted for the Shinobi career in stead of that option. Sora's parents were both civilian medics and his desire to become a medic himself had stemmed from the Sound-Sand Invasion. He had been a rare case for the Ninja Academy. For only a year he had managed to absorb to an acceptable level what was desired of him to qualify for Gennin. While in many ways lacking, such as in Taijutsu, he had proven to be his most dedicated brat of the bunch. Maburo was... hm, artistic. Born to a family of Blacksmiths, he was well versed in how to take good care of his equipment. It had been him who had gotten Kohime into close range weapons. But aside from that, Maburo was best suited for Genjutsu and that would be all he would ever say about the boy. The brat had some very deep personal problems, resolving around how he perceived himself.
'Another three hours and we can go back to our hotel.' Kohime sighed, ruffling her spiky short hair. Her chocolate eyes looked at Kuro. ' Can I do the report, Kuro-sensei? I've been practicing like you said and I think I've finally got it down.'
'There will be time for that, Kohime-hime.' he grinned at the girl who pouted and grumbled. For being such a beautiful girl it was odd to strive to be as masculine as possible. She hated being called hime, but every single person on her team called her that. 'If all goes to plan we will all be wolfing down barbeque at the Skipping Doe tomorrow night – my treat, of course.'
His brats cheered. Barbeque happened to be the one thing they had in common. That and the one time he had been mistaken for a single father with triplets. Kuro mentally sighed and chuckled at the memory. That old lady hadn't been too far off the truth. All three of his brats had just about enough problems with their families that more often than not spend their time at his house. Not that he found that to be a bad thing. Who doesn't like to wake up to the wonderful smell of Kohime's cooking? Or to find all of his weaponry completely spotless and given the royal treatment by a bored Maburo? And Sora was usually the person responsible for his house, a much too obvious 'Get a wife and start a family' gift from his parents, to smell like fresh laundry. He'd even finally gotten a competent medical cabinet in his bathroom.
All things considered, life was good when you were the Jounin-sensei of a bunch of teens that just happened to click amazingly well together. Who cared if they were Cannon Fodder? They were loyal shinobi of Konoha, they did their duty and in the end of the day, it was all that mattered. Kuro looked at his watch. Two and a half hours to go untill their shift was finally over.