Uzumaki Torunai

I'll try my best to live up to the expectations I promised last time: Team placements, a few useless D's and a higher up.

Chapter 2

After getting registered and giving the Hokage's grandson the slip Torunai went home, anxiously waiting to hear what Anko found out. When she arrived, Anko was standing in front of the door.

"Bad news kid," Anko started as Torunai opened the door for them. "I did some… recon… in Mizuki's home and found some disturbing stuff. The thing is everything I found is circumstantial and won't stand up."

"So what are you going to do?" Torunai asked.

"Me? I can't do shit, we need to catch him in the act." Anko's frustration showed.

"I…" Torunai looked at her hitai-ate. "I can try and trick him into using me for what ever it is."

An hour later

Torunai sat on the swing outside the academy. Her eyes were stinging from the sand she forced into them to make herself cry. The rest she could fake quite easily, just not the crying. A few moments passed when her target made his move.

"Hey there, Torunai was it?" Mizuki said in a soft voice, Torunai nodded. "Why are you crying, you did pass the graduation didn't you?"

"I, I passed the test, but when I went to register. When I went to register the Hokage said… he said…" Torunai broke down in a fit of sobs.

The gears in Mizuki's head started to turn, if the Hokage turned the girl down then she might want to get back at him by proving she had the right stuff.

"He said the same to me when I graduated, it doesn't mean you can't be a ninja, it just means you need to proof yourself. I happen to know how you can do just that." Mizuki said with the glint back in his eyes.

Torunai's eyes stretched as she heard what Mizuki wanted her to do. When she told Anko about the situation Anko went quiet, but after a while she told Torunai to go ahead with the plan.

Torunai waited for the dead of night before she made her move. Getting into the most secure building and getting the scroll was easy enough, although getting out caused a slight problem. The Hokage was having a stroll through the halls and saw the young girl there. One knock out jutsu later, one involving an older, naked, well endowed blonde version of Torunai, the girl made her way to the rendezvous point.

Upon arrival she was still at least an hour early. Sighing to herself Torunai decided to look into the scroll and actually earn her banishment she was sure she would get. The first jutsu that was written down was the kage-buunshin. Torunai's eye fell on the line close to the bottom: 'Whatever your clones learn is transmitted back to you, which can cause mental exhaustion'.

Torunai unrolled the scroll a little more and saw her family name in the jutsu header. Upon reading further she noticed that it wasn't so much a jutsu as it was a list of what the Uzumaki clip was capable of, it read:

The Uzumaki clip is a device that would overflow the chakra and knowledge

to anyone that would try and use it other then an Uzumaki by blood and kill

them. With the set of seals listed below an Uzumaki can recall all the

knowledge stored within the clip along with the summons that reside with

it. The chakra is constantly flowing between the clip and Uzumaki and they

retain any knowledge they had access to and/or stored within the clip.

Torunai studied the long list of seals and made sure to memorize all fifty of them in order for later use. She heard a rustling in a tree signaling Anko's arrival and shortly after that Mizuki walked out of the shadow.

"I see you made it, but the Hokage made quite a scene, seems like he caught you, but you escaped. That's a good thing it means you have resources. Not that it would help you, since you stole the scroll of sealing. Your career in this village is over." Mizuki said adding a maniacal laugh.

"You mean you tricked me? But why? You are a teacher at the academy." Torunai was sobbing at the end showing her 'betrayal'.

"I needed a scapegoat to take the fall while I made my way out of the village with the scroll. For me its win-win." Mizuki laughed not noticing Torunai's expression change.

"Anko, is that enough evidence?" Torunai shouted into the sky.

"What are you…" Mizuki started but was knocked out from behind. Anko stood there smiling, something retracting into her sleeve.

"Sure is kid, now let's go back and clear your name." Anko said then let out a low whistle. Several ANBU dropped into the clearing and took Mizuki into custody.

When Anko and Torunai arrived at the tower, the Hokage was waiting for them, his face was unreadable.

"Just what the hell were you thinking?" he said in a harsh whisper as he closed his office door.

"I came to you, earlier and told you about my suspicion. You said we couldn't do anything without proof. I couldn't find anything in the little shit's house that to build a case, so I improvised." Anko snapped back, "I respect you Hokage-sama, but sometimes your ideals get in the way, the least you could do in this situation was investigate."

"I'll take that, but why did you drag young Torunai into this?" the Hokage finally got to the point he wanted to make.

"Because I told her about Mizuki," Torunai chipped in before Anko could say anything. "I felt something off about him when I did my test, and I came up with the plan to trap him. I know what I did was wrong and I will take any punishment you can give me."

The Hokage was stunned silent for a while before he rummaged through his desk drawer and pulled a book, a scroll and piece of paper out. The scroll was tossed at Anko who instantly recognized it as a reward scroll. The book he threw to Torunai who saw her family name on the cover.

"The money in the scroll is to be split between the two of you." The Hokage said to Anko. "And that book contains detailed descriptions of the techniques used by the two Uzumaki clan members that made Konoha their home." The Hokage sighed before lifting the paper. "Lastly Torunai will sign this contract claiming that she invented a forbidden technique and write it down in the very scroll she took tonight."

Anko looked at Torunai with a raised brow. Torunai for her part thought long and hard about the supposed forbidden technique she created. When it finally hit her one could see the light in her head go on.

"You mean the henge I did that knocked you out?" Torunai asked, the redness of the Hokage's cheeks and the small amount of blood out of his nose was all the answer she needed. "Does this mean the other one is also forbidden?"

"The other one?" the Hokage asked slightly scared.

"The same jutsu but with kage-buunshin added to it." Torunai said innocently.

A week later

Torunai got up early and made her way to the academy, she was wearing her official ninja outfit and deemed herself ready for anything. Just outside the academy a familiar shadow appeared behind her.

"Ready for this kid?" Anko asked sounding like she would rather be anywhere else.

"So this is what the Hokage decided was your punishment? Scarring the gennin into quitting?" Torunai laughed.

"Don't you mean 'scaring'?" Anko asked also laughing.

"With you they are one and the same." Torunai said as they walked into the academy. "Do you want help? I know you don't need it, but it might be interesting."

Anko just smirked and pushed Torunai into the class. Anko made her way to the teacher's desk and sat with her feet up. When the class filled up, she unsealed a generous helping of dango and started munching. Taking it as her cue, Torunai smiled at Hinata next to her and then addressed Anko.

"May I have one Anko-san?" Torunai called in a half scared voice.

Anko opened an eye and smirked, with just a flick the dango went flying and the stick pierced Torunai's shoulder earning an 'eep' from the girl. Half the graduating class got up from that little act, leaving their hitai-ate behind.

Torunai's arm was numb so she took to eating the dango off the stick still stuck in her shoulder. Several others followed the example of the others and left, leaving twenty-nine students. Anko did a once over and cursed silently. She didn't want an uneven class and the Hokage said she shouldn't intimidate the class if there were thirty or less left.

Luckily Iruka came in to safe her from her predicament. He sighed when he saw that most of the class left save for the clan members and a few more promising kids. He scanned the room and saw the two red heads, but couldn't find the other member that should've been with them.

"I see that the Hokage's representative has arrived and scared away most of the class, how unfortunate. I had a good feeling about this class." Iruka said before clearing his throat. "As I said, today we will be assigning you to teams. Each team was selected according to their skills, but will not be limited to them." Iruka stopped as a kunai landed on the table before him. "My colleague wishes to speed this along, so please hold all your questions to the end. Team one will be…"

Iruka listed the teams and their specialty, among the ones he mentioned was the assault team of Haruno Sakura, Sai and Uchiha Sasuke; the tracking team of Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba; and the Capture and interrogation team of Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino. This led to the last team on the list:

"The last team seems to be a member short. Anko will escort them to the Hokage after we adjourn. The team is an infiltration/assassination/medical team. The team is Amaru and Uzumaki Torunai."

In his office with the jounin instructors, the Hokage peered into his crystal ball assessing the situation and trying to come up with a plan. He put it out of his mind for a minute to assign the jounin to their gennin teams. After he dismissed them he called for someone that was just easy to talk to, the bear faced ANBU. This was the scene that met Anko on her arrival. Anko closed the door and the ANBU melted into the shadows.

"So what are we going to do?" Anko asked, "These girls can't go back into the academy or get lost in the system."

"I agree," the Hokage said.

"I mean, according to her file, Amaru is quite a promising eisei-nin. She mastered the shousen-jutsu in two weeks and has an extensive base of first- and second aid, both chakra based and civilian based."

"I know," the Hokage said smiling at Anko's tirade.

"Then we get Torunai, she has outrun ANBU on numerous occasions, and has managed to hide from me. She sniffed out that weasel and came up with a plan to capture him. Not to mention, she has amazing amounts of chakra and her control over it is at least chuunin level."

"That is why their team will continue under the tutelage of several part time teachers. The reason is simple: to assign a full time jounin over them would be a waste of village resources. To deny them the opportunity to continue their training would be criminal." The Hokage lit his pipe, mostly to hide his smirk.

"What are you playing at, Hokage-sama?" Anko asked slowly.

"Simple, I'm going to bypass the gennin test and promote these girls to special-chuunin, the first in the village. They are essentially still gennin, but without the limits that comes with it, like obviously, a single instructor."

"Which leads my to ask, who's going to baby-sit them on their boring missions, will that also be rotated or will it be a chuunin?"

"I'm glad you offered," the Hokage couldn't help but laugh at the face Anko made.

Anko bowed her head without another word and made her way out. She motioned to the girls to follow her and they made their way to the dango café. Once there Anko placed an order of dango for all of them and a bottle of Sake for herself.

"Listen up brats, the Hokage promoted your boney asses to special-chuunin. That basically means that you are just gennin without a fixed jounin instructor. You'll do the same shit the other gennin do, but your training will be handled by mostly specialized chuunin or special-jounin." Anko paused as the orders arrived and downed a warm glassful of Sake.

"During missions, I'm going to baby-sit your asses, so don't test me or I'll issue a bunny-hunt. Now all you need to know about me is my name, the rest you'll learn with time. My name is Mitarashi Anko." She looked at the two girl before snapping "What are you waiting for, introduce yourselves you little shits."

"My name is Amaru." The older red-head said slightly scared. "I come from a town on the edge of fire country. My village was completely destroyed while I was in the care of a eisei-nin. He died saving me from the Reibi that was sealed in me, so I want to honor his memory by becoming the best eisei-nin I can be."

"My name is Uzumaki Torunai." Torunai said slightly less afraid. "My ultimate goal is to be the Hokage, the most respected shinobi in the village. I train hard in every field I can to reach my goal. I really don't want to be in another bunny-hunt because the last few times got me hating everything that has anything to do with it, including the color orange, the color I liked most at one stage."

"Okay so since you're already instated and don't need the true test, finish your dango and meet me in the morning around nine at the mission office. The first mission will be to evaluate your skills, to get you the best trainers later." Anko said taking her dango and Sake and moving to a table with a girl with the Inuzuka clan's markings.

The next morning

Torunai and Amaru showed up at the mission office at the same time, 09h55, and waited for Anko to arrive. When Anko arrived, nearly five minutes later, she ushered the girls inside. After receiving the mission Anko escorted them to the outer limits of Konoha, more accurately the onsen. The mission was to clean the waters by the time the mid day rush arrived.

"The task is simple. Use any skills you have at your disposal to sweep the ground out of the water without mucking it up. You have until 12pm, now mush!" Anko demanded while she took a seat on one of the walls and took mental notes on their strategy.

The girls talked amongst themselves to come up with a plan. Soon after Torunai made a few kage-buunshin, while Amaru got into the large pool and walked towards the centre. The Torunai clones moved around the pool and got in around 5ft from one another. They all made the ram seal and plunged their hands into the water, soon after the water started to move from clone to clone slowly forming a vortex.

Amaru made a series of seals when the vortex reached her in the center. A tube formed around her and as the dirt started to come her way it fell in the dry spot. Soon the vortex was spinning wildly and the dirt pilled into the dry spot. When Amaru picked the dirt from the ground she nodded at Torunai who slowed the vortex down until it stopped and Amaru could walk safely out.

"Good use of what you got. Amaru that was the eisei-jutsu to keep wounds dry wasn't it?" Anko asked to which Amaru shyly nodded. "And Torunai, I know you didn't use a jutsu, you just let your chakra flow through the water making it spin and forming a drain of sorts, a waste of chakra but resourceful."

The girls went on to do the same with the other pools in the onsen using the same basic principle. They were done by 11am and Anko collected the pay to take to the Hokage. When they reached the office there was a scarred man with a bandana waiting by the Hokage's desk.

"Girls, this is Morino Ibiki. He is the head of ANBU. The reason he is here is to test your infiltration and assassination skills." The Hokage said in a flat tone. "He is not here to train you so don't get confused. On his recommendation you will be assigned the appropriate teacher."

"Thank you Hokage-sama," Ibiki said when the Hokage nodded at him. "Follow me girls."

The girls followed the scarred man to a room down the hall from the Hokage. In the room was a large conference table with an imprint of Konoha on it. Ibiki motioned the girls to sit and went to stand at the head of the table.

"This is the war room. As you can see there is an imprint of Konoha on the table and if I do this…" Ibiki transferred some chakra into a seal on the table. Suddenly Konoha rose out of the table. "We have a 3D map. Now for this test you will try and infiltrate this building here." Konoha moved to reveal a building on the outer skirts of Konoha.

"This building is mostly abandoned but I placed a puppet inside it. Your goal is to get the puppet's head and any scrolls I have lying about the place. The place will be guarded by shinobi of at least chuunin level. You have until 6am tomorrow." Ibiki said as he left the girls to plan their strategy.

Torunai looked at the building that still stood tall on the table, examining it from every angle and contemplating the best route to get in and out.

"This is going to be difficult." Torunai said finally.

"What do you mean?" Amaru asked, "From your whispers I think you have a good entrance and escape route."

"The route is perfect, but the variables aren't. We will need to figure out the patterns of the guards in order to pull this of."

Later that night

The girls were dressed in all dark colors as they stalked the building they needed to infiltrate. When the girls went to Torunai's home to gather the needed equipment and to get some rest they got into talks about clothes that lead them to their current situation where all but their eyes were covered.

"Okay I got it," Torunai said in barely more then a breath. "The patrol around the penetration point has a ten second window of opportunity, and from what I can see the inside is less tight but still dangerous." Amaru nodded in agreement.

The girls made their way silently to the starting point and waited for the patrol to disappear. They jumped from the tree line unto the building where they dropped into the air vent just in time to avoid the next patrol. Torunai undid the screws along the top of the air vent and she and Amaru made their way into the roof.

Torunai lead the way through the roof until they reached the darkest corner. There the girls dropped down the wall and made their way through the shadows to their target's room. Peering through the gap in the door Torunai confirmed that no-one but their target was in it.

The girls made their way inside and climbed into the roof to study the scene below. Getting the patrol pattern under wraps the girls made the decision, they would gather all the scrolls and stuff lying around then Amaru will go into the roof while Torunai takes the head and seal it in her belt. And the plan went exactly that way when the next patrol passed them by.

Once again the girls found themselves in the air vents and fastening the screws to hide their presence inside the building. They lay waiting for the outside patrol to pass then quickly made their way into the trees and on to Torunai's home.

Upon reaching the safety of her home, Torunai and Amaru went through the stuff they gathered and sorted them accordingly, after which Torunai took out a scroll and sealed them inside along with the puppet's head, a head resembling Uchiha Sasuke's.

"This isn't over yet. We still need to get all of this to Ibiki-san without being caught." Torunai said in a tired sigh.

"We should rest a bit, and maybe get the dust off of our clothes. It wouldn't do well if we mess this up by being messy." Amaru said and both girls burst out laughing.

"That is a good plan, but it is unnecessary." A male voice spoke from the window.

"Ibiki-san, how long have you been there?" Torunai asked surprised.

"Anko was right," Ibiki smiled, "You are a stealth expert, Torunai, and you shared that with Amaru. I lost sight of you when you went into the trees so I came here to wait. If you two didn't start talking I wouldn't have known you were back."

"We passed the test then?" Amaru asked unsure.

"The test wasn't that type of test, but I would say you did. This means that whoever I recommend as teachers wouldn't have much to teach you, at least not in this field. Now let's see what you girls got for me…"

Three months later

The steady flow of annoying D-ranked missions went by without much trouble, and if you asked Torunai, the money wasn't too bad. The teachers that rotated the girls between them taught them quite a lot. The original Ino-Shika-Chou team trained the girls in the art of infiltration, assassination and chakra control.

The girls worked part time in the hospital where they learned from some of the best medics left in Konoha. When they weren't learning at the hospital they were at the Inuzuka compound learning to treat the wounds on nin-companions.

The missions they had were supervised by Anko who also had some input into their training, mainly working on their speed via dodging sharp and pointy things and only if they survived would Anko show them a jutsu they could try to mimic with the scrolls she gave them.

"Okay brats," Anko said when the girls arrived, "You completed the necessary amount of D-ranks to warrant a C-rank."

"You mean a real mission, not another training mission?" the girls asked in unison. Anko nodded and embraced for the impact of dual red heads hugging her.

They made their way to the mission office in relative silence. The girls were too exited to speak anyway, but little noises could be heard occasionally. Anko took the mission scroll and read it before passing it onto the girls. Torunai's face was scrunched up in confusion but it was Amaru who asked the question:

"What is the chuunin selection exam, Hokage-sama?" the Hokage smiled at the young girl.

"It is an event where the surrounding nations send their gennin to another country to participate in an exam to promote them to chuunin. The event takes place on a neutral ground where the nations wouldn't be threatened. This time the exam is held in Konoha."

"According to this, only teams of three members are permitted to take the exam, does this mean that Amaru and me can't enter?" Torunai asked half deflated.

"We'll see how this mission goes, then make a decision. Inuzuka Hana will accompany you on this mission. Anko you need to prepare for another mission, I'll give you the details tomorrow." The Hokage dismissed the girls.

The girls made their way to the flat they began to share after their first month of taking missions as a way to save money. Once there Torunai took off her belt and threw it on the kitchen table and made her way to the one room while Amaru made her way to the other. They both returned with a few sets of clothes and hygiene products.

After sealing the clothes and hygiene products into four separate scrolls they sealed them into Torunai's belt. Amaru then went to the storage closet to get a few sets of extra weapons while Torunai checked her own stock in her belt.

"Amaru, I'm running low on kunai and haven't gotten time to repair that last batch I salvaged last week, how about you?" Torunai called over her shoulder.

"I'm running low on bandages. Our mission with Tora yesterday bled me out." Amaru shouted back.

"Restock then meet at Hana-sensei's?" Torunai asked/stated and after sealing their supplies the girls went their separate ways.

Although they lived together, Torunai couldn't bring herself to tell Amaru about her secret closet, a painful reminder of her time on the street but it had sentimental value. Dropping down into it Torunai deposited her unfixed tools and started sealing in the fixed ones. Yet she considered herself still short, so she took some of her savings and went to one of the weapon shops.

"Hi, I'm running low on kunai and shuriken…" Torunai greeted the girl at the counter. "Tenten, long time no see."

"Torunai, I didn't think I'll see you in here again, not since you started fixing your own tools." Tenten smiled back.

"Well that's Anko's fault. She taught me to salvage. Anyway I'm going on a month long mission and I only have about a hundred usable kunai and twenty shuriken. Do you know how many people use shuriken? Not a lot."

"How's your senbon?" Tenten asked coming from behind the counter.

"Still got over a thousand, I only use those to neutralize. I'm no good with them yet." Torunai unsealed a kunai and gave it to Tenten, who measured it.

"You can only restore these two more times, before they're unusable." Tenten said before taking four boxes of the shelves, "Four hundred kunai and six hundred shuriken, chuunin quality."

"How much," Torunai asked dreading the loss of her wallet.

"200ryo even, that's 50% off for this week only." Tenten smiled and helped Torunai seal the tools up. "Anything else like maybe a short ranged weapon?"

Both girls laughed knowing the answer: Torunai is too short for the weapons in the shop. Meanwhile Amaru was making her way to the hospital district to stock up on her medical aid. She reached the pharmacy next to the hospital and went inside.

"Good morning Takeuchi-san," Amaru greeted the older brown haired woman.

"Amaru-chan, I told you before to call me Junko." The woman smiled, "How can I help you?"

"Junko-san, I'm running low on medical bandages and we are going on a month long mission today." Amaru said blushing redder than Hinata around a cute boy.

"You're lucky. We just got a shipment in. They have been treated with soothing aloe." Junko said taking a box out from behind the counter. "100ryo for four hundred rolls."

"Takeuchi-san, you can't do that, they normally sell for 800ryo/box!" Amaru exclaimed not wanting to receive special treatment.

"It's not charity, Amaru-san, you and Torunai help out here, so I'm giving it to you at cost." Junko's stern gaze stilled any protest Amaru may have had.

Both girls arrived at the Inuzuka compound slightly deflated from their encounters at their respective shops. The look they shared was all they needed to confirm that the other was given a charity they didn't want. They knocked on the door and waited for whoever answered.

"You're early…" a voice greeted them. It came from a teenage girl with brown hair.

"We're here to see Hana-sensei." Torunai said not able to shake the feeling she knew this girl.

"That's me short-stack, I just washed the Inuzuka war paint of. We're going to countries where clans aren't exactly welcome." The girls were shocked to say the least, both thinking the same thing, a small change could make someone unrecognizable.

"Did you two remember to pack food that wouldn't spoil?" Hana asked from the room she went into to change.

"We actually wanted to know what food to pack, seeing as it's our first time out." Amaru said while Torunai sealed the medical supplies away for Amaru.

"We'll go shopping when I finished packing," she threw a scroll at Torunai, "My delicates…"

Ten minutes later the girls finished buying food for the journey and made their way to the main gate. Once there they got there Torunai handed the guards the scroll. One of them smirked and handed her a book and the clipboard to sign.

The trio took civilian route north to the new village that showed interest in the chuunin exam, Oto. The journey would normally take only a few hours if they traveled via the normal route, but the mission scroll stated they had to walk, extending the journey to two days.

"What do you two know about the other countries?" Hana asked the girls as a way to liven them up. She didn't want to blatantly ask them what was wrong.

"Only what we learned in school, like we're not allowed to go to Iwa or Kumo, because of the war and the failed treaty, and that Kiri is off limits to anyone that doesn't want to die." Amaru started.

"And that we are allied to Suna, Kusa, Taki and Ame." Torunai added.

"We also know that the leaders of the smaller villages aren't allowed to call their leaders 'Kage', they never told us why though."

"We also lost a good ally when Uzu fell and their shinobi had to scatter to the other countries." Torunai barely whispered.

"I didn't know that?!" Amaru exclaimed.

"I did," Hana chose to intervene, "I however didn't think anyone of your generation would know about that."

Torunai stuck out her tongue and rubbed her head.

"I kinda did research on where I came from and found out that my mother came from Uzu when she was young for… well I'm not allowed to say because it's a S-class secret. But anyway I thought back then cool, maybe I still have family, then I found out Uzu was gone."

They continued to talk about trivia and other stuff until they stopped to make camp. Hana sent Torunai to gather wood while Amaru started to prepare the food. After a nice meal Hana assigned the guard duties. The first night went of without any trouble and by the next day they reached the border into Oto. There was someone already waiting for them. The shinobi had a sound symbol on his hitai-ate.

"You are form Konoha?" the shinobi asked. Hana pushed Torunai ahead.

"Yes shinobi-san, we are here to get the number of participants you want to send to the chuunin exams." Torunai said a little bit shy.

"We were expecting you. As Oto is still a relatively new village we don't want to enclose our exact location. I've been informed that we will have one team enter the exam, so in essence, three participants and their jounin instructor."

Torunai made the kanji 音 and drew a sound note and wrote 3 next to it she had a suspicion that she couldn't place, almost like what she had with Mizuki. The shinobi signed next to it as an acknowledgement. And the girls were of to the next location around the land of fire, Taki.

It took them a day to get to the Fire/Waterfall border and four days to get permission to enter the hidden village. The village entered two teams and provided safe passage to their neighboring country grass. It took a whole week for the trio to procure access to the hidden village, who also signed up two teams.

On the border between Rain and Fire, the team had to wait two weeks. To ease their boredom Amaru and Torunai trained in chakra control by doing the tree climbing and water walking exercises. On the third day they were attacked by bandits. The bandits didn't last long though as Torunai swamped them with kage-buunshin while Amaru severed their tendons when they were down.

Ame didn't allow the girls access to their village but instead sent a representative who listed 21 teams and their sensei into the chuunin exam. Knowing they would enter the dessert next, the trio bought water and ice in bulk the ice was wrapped around the water before they sealed it into Torunai's belt.

The trek through the desert took them three days and they were welcomed into Suna with open arms. They were shown around the town by a blonde girl, Temari, while the leaders contemplated how many teams they would send and what teams they will send. It took them a day to decide on 30 teams.

The trek home wasn't eventful in the least. The journey took about two days, one to get out of the desert, and one via the shinobi route back to Konoha. When they reached the gate Torunai handed the gate guards the book, they declined it and told them to take it to the Hokage in the mission office.

When they reached the office they had to wait for another team to be debriefed. Torunai blushed when she saw her crush Sakura, but decided against inviting her for lunch or dinner, instead she settled for a casual greeting. The team left and the Hokage turned to the team that entered.

"Ah, I take it the mission was a success?" the Hokage asked casually.

"Yes Hokage-sama," Hana said, "Torunai, please hand the Hokage the book. Torunai filled in the book and I vouch for the number of participants she wrote down."

"Very good, do you have anything to add?" the Hokage addressed the two girls.

"I got a weird vibe from Oto, but that could just be because they are from another village." Torunai confessed.

The Hokage dismissed the team. When they received the payment their eyes stretched beyond their limits. It was at least ten times that of a D-rank. The girls went home but Hana stayed behind to talk to the Hokage.

"It would be a crime to deny them the opportunity to participate in this exam Hokage-sama. If I could redo my test just to allow them passage, I would." Hana said her eyes as cold as steel. "I've been training them at the vet, and from what I saw on this mission, they are well rounded."

"I've looked over the reserve lists over and over again, but I couldn't find a gennin to fill the third slot. I'm considering the possibility of letting them participate as a two man squad."

"So Hokage-sama, what will you do?"

End of chapter

No predictions for the next chapter but it will be set around the chuunin exams. Thank you for everyone who reviewed-, followed- and marked my story as one of their favorites.