Chapter 2 - First Interaction
She had set her alarm to go off at precisely a quarter past the sixth hour. That was, however, not to say that she particularly appreciated being roused from her slumber and being subjected to the chill of the early morning. It was the time of day where the sunlight that glanced off dew-glistened buildings was young and the birds were too occupied hunting down early prey to be bothered avoiding the short-tempered shopkeepers setting up their stalls.
She made her own breakfast that morning. Her parents were still asleep and she took care not to wake them. There would be another unnecessary discussion if she did.
The previous night, when she had tromped home, fatigued and with patches of dirt caking her outfit where Kurenai-sensei had knocked her to the ground, her parents had immediately proceeded to fuss over her. When she had finally convinced them that their 'poor pink baby' was fine and highly annoyed, they backed off to shake their heads and telling her that she 'need not take down this path' and that although they were 'proud of her achievement, determination and willingness to be unique', it was time to 'realise that some things were not necessary', which basically translated into: 'We don't like the idea of our daughter becoming a ninja'.
They had gone through this many, many times before.
So she was the first ninja in her family line; so she wasn't accustomed to being thrown around like the first day of training had presented her; so she was not a boy; so she had pink hair that she had grown out to ridiculous lengths for the attention of a boy who looked upon her as 'ignorant' – so what?
Sakura irritably knocked aside some dishes to reach the wooden spoon, promptly erupting into a dominoes effect which she dived forward to halt. Holding her breath and several pieces of chinaware from their impending doom, the pink-haired girl listened intently for signs that her parents had been woken by the ruckus.
When Sakura did not hear the usual creak of the fifth step on the staircase creak with her father's anxious steps, she gingerly replaced the dishes that she had disturbed and leaned over the steaming pot to stir at the miso soup. She poured it into a preheated thermos and started to prepare her bento, sticking in some dried seaweed and last night's fish.
Sighing with regret that she knew would come back to haunt her when she got back after training, she left her parents a note on the kitchen counter to tell her that she would be home late. Once that was done, she shouldered her backpack and walked to the door.
Be it surprise, annoyance or suspicion, Sakura, to her credit, managed not to come to blows when she found a certain blonde sitting on her doorstep, his head ducking with sleep.
She wisely closed the door behind her before sucking in a huge breath.
"NARUTO!"
The blonde yelped and shot to his feet. He instantly became wide awake. "Ohayo, Sakura! I was wondering when you'd wake up."
A vein in Sakura's temple twitched. Is he boldly accusing me of sleeping in?
"Save it," she said shortly, stepping out onto the street. "Don't you have better things to do than sit outside my house? Kurenai-sensei is expecting us."
By this point, Naruto had hurriedly relieved her of her pack and had shouldered it himself. He grinned widely. "That's why I'm here, actually – I'm gonna take you to her."
One eyebrow arched up. Sakura studied the annoying pest beside her, grinning like the complete idiot he had to be. Was it possible that Naruto had indeed woken earlier than she had and located their sensei during the time she had used to catch up on some well-needed sleep? It was a rather unlikely and offending prospect. Admittedly, Sakura had no particular great plan of action herself, but to think that Naruto was actually standing before her, claiming he would be charioting her away to a destination she had not even figured out yet…
Naturally, Sakura narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "How would you know?" she demanded.
He seemed pleased that she had asked. "Easy! I just sent out a whole batch of shadow clones. Whoever found Sensei first came back and reported to me. And then I thought that you might need some help, so I came to pick you up." They turned into one of the main roads. Many shopkeepers loitered by the front of their stores, preparing for yet another day of business and common mischief.
"Hmm." Sakura refused to say more, having become absorbed in her thoughts. So Naruto had come to the conclusion that she had no notable jutsu or abilities suited for tracking – boldly, it meant she sucked at it. She grimaced upon realising that it was the truth.
She let Naruto lead the way, mainly because she had nothing to lose if she followed him. A small ball of gratitude curled into her conscience, and Sakura found strange comfort in the knowledge that Naruto had come to her aid. He did not qualify as a knight in shining armour that the pink-haired girl would much rather be Sasuke, but the short boy was admittedly her teammate now, and it would not hurt to perhaps give him a little acknowledgment.
She lowered her head, and her tone. "Thanks," she mumbled.
He turned to her, ceasing the humming she had not noticed until just now. "Eh? What'd you say, Sakura?"
Faint annoyance glowed in her being but Sakura forced it down. She was trying to be nice. "I said, thank you."
"Oh." He shrugged. "That's good to hear, but you should say it to my face later."
She snapped. The one time she tried to be nice and understanding - and he blew it. He was practically asking for it. She brandished a well-practiced fist. "IT'S 'YOU'RE WELCOME'!"
Naruto saw the danger and immediately backed away, frantically waving his arms before him. "No! Don't hit me! I'm a-" Too late. Sakura's blow, strengthened by morning irritation, blindsided him.
She knew something was wrong the moment she staggered to regain her balance after the frightening momentum she had put behind her assault. She had fallen right through her teammate.
"Don't hit me! I'm a-"
A shadow clone.
The clone dissipated into thin air with an audible 'pop' and her backpack dropped to the ground. Sakura blinked for a short moment, and then stooped to pick it up.
"Idiot," she murmured, though she could not suppress the sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.
She eventually came to the dismaying realisation that she had just jeopardised her one chance of reaching the meeting place on time.
"… I did not just do that."
"C'mon, Akamaru!" Kiba shouted from the door. He jogged lightly on the spot to warm up. "Let's get going already!"
There was a little over half an hour left before eight o'clock and the Inuzuka admitted that he was perhaps cutting the deadline a little closely. It had seemed like a good idea to sleep in – ignoring his sister's cool prediction that it would turn out the way it had. Kiba was not known for his punctuality.
The small puppy leapt the last metre and landed on his partner's shoulder. He yipped as Kiba fumbled for the keys to lock the door: "Betcha I'll smell her before you do."
"Braggart," the boy accused. "Fine! Get sniffing!"
Barely a minute later Akamaru barked excitedly and took off. Kiba 'hmph'ed and darted off after his dog. He swore to himself, as he had so many times before, that he would one day best his furry friend. It was not like he resented his companion for his well-tuned tracking skills; no, Kiba respected that, but it did little to assure his deflated ego.
It became clear after several minutes of bounding over rooftops that Kurenai-sensei's scent was accompanied by that of fauna that Kiba and Akamaru had only smelled at one place before – the public park by the eastern border of the village that was home to a ridiculously long staircase.
"She sure knows how to pick 'em," Kiba remarked, ignoring the flash of a breeze that swept back his hood. It was nice to feel the wind rush through his tousled hair, messing it more than his sister would have felt comfortable sharing company with. "There's, like, two thousands steps on that thing!"
Akamaru yipped in agreement: "Yeah… race?"
"Now you're talking!" The pair shot forward at a speed that disturbed several breakfasters. It appeared that they might even have some time to spare after all.
Kiba miscalculated his next jump and ended up flailing his limbs for balance. Noticing his master's apparent difficulty in remaining on their perch, Akamaru darted back and snared the boy by the trouser leg. The small dog lowered himself onto his haunches and pulled furiously, stalling the descent long enough for Kiba to wrap his arms around the chimney that conveniently happened to be within his reach.
"I wish you'd wash your pants," Akamaru complained. "And you're clumsier than Naruto."
The genin got to his feet. "Oh, shut up. Don't you smell him? Naruto's already there!"
As the dark-haired boy gathered a trickle of chakra in his legs in preparation to take off again, a slight breeze rustled in from the south, carrying with it a familiar scent. "Hey! That's Sakura!" Kiba realised. "She's a bit off mark, don't you think? Doesn't seem like she's figured out where to go yet."
Akamaru eyed him pointedly. "Probably because she doesn't have a loyal, intelligent nin-dog to guide her along."
"So? Naruto doesn't and he made it." Kiba sniffed the air again. "Think she needs help?" He gathered Akamaru and bundled the dog inside his jacket. "Probably does. We're running out of time and it'll be faster if you hop in with me – don't give me that look, boy. If you'd actually bothered training with Nee-chan's Haimaru triplets, we wouldn't be in this stick." That said – and an indignant puppy silenced – he hurried off, finding quick and easy purchase on the weather-worn surfaces he leapt off.
Sakura cursed her idiocy for the twenty-second time in an hour. If she'd had the common sense to have asked Naruto – his clone, she reminded herself – she would not be circling around like a sightless vulture. She dug for reasons to force the blame onto Naruto, but it was impossible to pin anything against him. His intentions had been good and it was kind of her fault for punching him.
Giving up, she approached a nearby grocer. "Um…excuse me."
The grocer glanced up without any particular interest. "What is it, girlie? Some of us have business to get to, you know."
She gave the grocer a weak smile, deciding that it was not wise to attempt to strike up a conversation while the man was not in his best mood. "I was just… going to get some fruit. Any, um… good recommendations?"
The man eyed her. He might be known as a slacker by his family and associates, but he was not dim by any chance. There was nothing that prevented him from glancing up and noticing the forehead protector bound on the girl's head, holding back her ridiculously coloured hair. Ninja these days just could not be trusted. Sure, they held back the wars a good deal and gave the countries a good reason to trade with the businesses, but their sneaky ways were just too suspicious to blend among normal folk.
The fact that Tanaka Noboru had, a good ten or so years ago, been a well known jounin ironically contradicted his misgivings regarding the shinobi ranks. Of course, having lived through the life of living in the shadows and acquired a sharp eye for small details, Tanaka was more than aware that some of the more arrogant chuunin eyed his fresh batches of apples more commonly than he would like.
"Hmph. Bananas?" he offered, putting away the magazine he had been reading and craning himself forward to tap at the nearest bundles. "Just came in from the Vegetable Country last night." Tanaka allowed himself a chuckle. "Dunno why they call that place a veggie – their green stuff tastes like crap."
Sakura's eyes widened and she nodded quickly. "Yes, bananas will be fine, thank you."
As the grocer grumbled and juggled a bundle of bananas into a plastic bag, she decided that the man was still not in the best of moods, and she was intimidated by the thought of asking him for a favour of some sort. "How do you know the Vegetable Country's food tastes bad?"
Tanaka scratched the stubble on his chin as he leaned over to hand the bag to his first customer of the day. "Back years ago when I could still take missions I went there to escort their daimyo to meet our daimyo for a renewal of their treaty. Fed me this ugly green soup while I was there and it tasted worse than my sister's - and she works with poison. Fruits are okay, though," he added, seeing the girl's expression.
Sakura nodded slowly. "You were a ninja?"
"Well, yeah. Jounin." Reminiscence of his prime days had Tanaka leaning back and staring at the eaves of his shop with a slightly glazed over look in his eyes. "About to join ANBU, too." He glanced sharply at the girl. "Pay up, by the way. Read the sign and work it out yourself."
"O-Oh. Right. Sorry." Sakura fumbled in her pack for her purse and handed over the money. "Are you still a ninja?"
"No. D'you think I'd be sitting here if I was?"
She frowned in confusion. "But you were good enough for ANBU."
Tanaka let out a booming laugh that had the nearby bookstore's owner swivelling his head to regard his neighbour with suspicion. This girl was hilarious. "You ever seen a wooden peg leg, eh?" When she unthinkingly shook her head, he chuckled and lifted his legs to rest them on the crate before him. "See that? Sorta hard to jump around roofs when you're always tripping up, heh? Fix that jaw up, that's a good lass."
Sakura tore her gaze away from the severed leg, replaced by a block of heavy wood that narrowed to a small rounded point. "S-Sorry," she stammered. This was a bad idea. Big bad idea. I should have asked someone else – someone who doesn't have a wooden leg to show off!
The laugh returned. "Nah – don't worry about it. My sister got into ANBU, though. Damn proud of her, I am! Eh… why are you still standing around for, girl?"
That certainly snapped Sakura back to her senses, and reminded her why she had approached the man in the first place. "Have you seen a woman this tall-" She indicated by raising her arm, "-with long dark hair, red eyes and wraps-"
Tanaka raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't be talking about Yuuhi Kurenai, would you?"
Sakura allowed her hopes to rise. "Do you know Kurenai-sensei? Have you seen her?"
"I've known her since she was a genin. Her sensei was a friend of mine." The grocer peered at his customer. "You on her genin team now, are you? You'd better watch that temper of hers. She was a force to be reckoned with back when I used to take her for a spot of training. And no, I haven't seen your sensei."
Hopes fell. "Oh." So she had wasted fifteen ryou for nothing. "Thank you anyway." Conversing with the man had been interesting but she had spent too much time loitering. She certainly was not any closer to finding Kurenai-sensei. She bowed quickly to the grocer. "I'll be leaving now. Thank you, sir-"
"No sirs," the man said in a lazy tone. "Name's Tanaka Noboru."
Sakura hesitated, and the bowed hastily again. "Thank you, Ta – Tanaka-san."
She missed the man's roll of his eyes as she turned away – and promptly bumped into Kiba.
"Oh hey, it's you," her teammate exclaimed, as Akamaru barked a greeting. "Thought you were somewhere around here."
"Kiba?" Sakura asked, confused. "I thought you would've found Kurenai-sensei by now."
He rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "Slept in," he admitted. "Me and Akamaru were just passing and we smelt you-" Smelt me, Sakura repeated in her mind. Comforting. "-and we thought you might need some help."
At this, Sakura took back whatever misgivings she'd held toward Kiba at his last comment. "Yeah, I do," she said slowly. "Naruto sent a shadow clone to help me but I… shooed him away."
Kiba stared and laughed. "Just as long as you don't 'shoo' me off too." He glanced up at the sky. "Oh damn – we don't have much time."
He turned his gaze to Sakura, gauging her. From what he had figured from yesterday's training session, his new teammate did not have the world's most commendable speed and stamina. Having to adjust his speed to match hers would slow them down considerably and judging by the rate the sun was rising toward midday, they wouldn't make it in time.
But hell, Kiba would be damned if he was leaving one of his new pack behind.
He slipped a pill from an inner pocket in his coat and fed it to Akamaru. "Alright, boy. Let's get this done."
Just Kiba was about to perform the Beast Human Clone jutsu, Tanaka's voice cut in to interrupt.
"Hey you – doggie kid."
Sakura turned, not altogether uninterested in what Tanaka might have to say. He had a distinct personality that made her associate him to a distant uncle of hers, who happened to have the same rogue qualities – minus the wooden leg and the ninja-turned-grocer career.
Kiba frowned. "What?"
"You Tsume's kid?"
"Hey – you know my mom?"
Tanaka grinned. "And that stinking mutt, Kuromaru. Tell her Tanaka Noboru says hello."
"Huh?"
"She'll know who I am."
Kiba raised an eyebrow and gave Sakura a look that said: Hey, you know this guy? She shrugged helplessly. "Eh… sure, stranger. I'll tell her that." It did not take much for the boy to push the strange grocer to the back of his mind and work on the task at hand. Wisps of chakra rose from his clothing, forming around Akamaru. The puppy bared his teeth and transformed into a clone of his master.
"Hop on, Sakura," Kiba said, as he and Akamaru hunched over, side by side. "It'll be faster if we carry you."
She hesitated. "Are you sure?" Becoming a literal burden was not what she'd had in mind when she pictured herself as a kunoichi.
"Sure. We practiced this loads of times. Promise we won't drop you."
That happened to have been the last concern Sakura had in mind. Hesitantly, she climbed onto the Kibas, treading carefully in case she hurt either of them. "Sure this is okay?" she asked again, dubiously.
One of the Kibas gave a bark, and Sakura took the one on her right to be Akamaru. "Akamaru says you worry more than my sister," Kiba grinned from her left. "Just hold on tight, okay?"
At this, Sakura squeezed both shoulders she happened to have been gripping.
"Hey, girlie," Tanaka said, just as her carriers were gathering chakra for a bounding leap.
She turned toward him. "Yes?"
"It's not fair if you know my name and I don't know yours."
She flushed. "Oh! Sorry - m-my name's Sakura. Haruno Sakura. I don't come from a clan," she added, upon seeing the brows pull together in thought.
Tanaka nodded, chuckling. "First in line. Well, good luck with Kurenai."
Sakura was about to bade the man goodbye, but Kiba and Akamaru chose that moment to leap upward. Their synchronized movement startled her for a short moment; they moved as if they were one being. Their bodies never parted more than an inch, never opening up a crevice for her to fall through.
"Weird guy," Kiba shouted over the wind that raced up to meet them.
"Probably," Sakura agreed. Her hair whipped around her face. "But he doesn't seem too bad." Strange acquaintances were somewhat interesting, if not intimidating. For some reason, the pink-haired girl foresaw a great number of future trips to that particular store.
"Uh, Sensei?"
Kurenai lifted her gaze from the children on the play equipment nearby to regard her student – the only one present for the time being, she noted. "Yes, Naruto?"
The blonde's finger trailed in the dirt as he squatted in a crouch. "When can we eat? I'm hungry."
The jounin's gaze lingered on him. "Naruto, what do you have for breakfast?"
He looked up. "Me?" he asked. She nodded. "I drink milk and go down to Ichiraku's if I get up early. If I don't have time I pack instant ramen for lunch. I skipped breakfast today because I wanted to get here early."
At this, Kurenai frowned. The boy was not receiving nearly enough nutrition to support a growing body. She noted his stature, his build; he was not notably tall, but his bone structure appeared to be quite healthy. If he could effectively utilize taijutsu, his own limbs could become lethal weapons. Naruto was lacking in height, but she had already noticed that he had endurance and speed.
On the matter of Naruto's taijutsu training, Kurenai had yet to seek out a tutor for him. As it was, she in truth had a suitable instructor in mind… she just doubted that she would agree.
Kurenai was easily absorbed into thoughts and sidetracked, as Kouta-sensei had informed her enough times. She barely noticed Naruto jump to his feet until he started hollering at the top of his voice: "Yo! Guys, over here!"
The rest of Team Eight had arrived.
The jounin followed her energetic pupil to meet the newcomers. Two Kibas were crouched over to allow a windswept Sakura to clamber off their backs. Naruto, grinning, went over and offered her his hand, which she accepted with a slight scowl. Akamaru reverted to his true form and sank to the grass.
"What happened to the clone I sent to pick you up?" Naruto asked Sakura. He did not understand why his teammate's expression dissolved into one of discomfort.
"Next time, Naruto," she said, searching carefully for the right way to phrase her next words, "you should make your clones wear big signs that say 'I am a shadow clone…don't hit me or I will disappear and leave you in the middle of nowhere'."
Naruto blinked. "Huh?"
Sakura flushed with slight embarrassment and lowered her head. Naruto cocked his head and frowned in confusion; Kurenai found herself reluctant to break his contemplation. After all, he did need to learn to stop and think in situations where such would be useful in a life or death situation. Kiba's eyes flickered from one teammate to the other, all the while hunched over with his hands pressed against his knees as he gasped for breath, undoubtedly winded from the challenging hike up the impressive staircase. From what Kurenai had gathered, Naruto had summoned a trio of shadow clones to ferry him up the stone steps.
She had to hand it to him; the boy had creativity.
Kurenai was, however, impressed that both Naruto and Kiba had thought to think for Sakura's disadvantage and had willingly pitched in their efforts to assist her. This was a side to the exercise that Kurenai had been most interested in seeing. Teamwork was a fickle thing.
"Very good, all of you," she said. The boys perked up, but Sakura was not one to bask in praise that she had not earned.
"Sensei," she began, but Kurenai cut in with a prepared response to the unspoken confession.
"Each of you is unique and possess your own qualities and abilities. No one expects you to do well in every task that is assigned to you. That is why, from your Academy years, you have been monitored and partnered with those that can compensate for your faults. These teams have been carefully discussed and chosen to suit each squad. Sakura," she said, looking at the girl, "your teammates are there to do what you can't. Likewise, you will have to help them when they need it.
"Hai, Kurenai-sensei."
Naruto, predictably, had only spared half an ear to listen in. He groaned and flopped to the ground, sending a small cloud of dust wafting into the air. "Can we eat now? I'm hungry!"
Kurenai sighed to herself. "How many of you haven't had breakfast?" Silence met her. "I suppose that's all of you, then." She spared them the lecture that breakfast was as vital to a genin as their forehead protector. She would save that for later, knowing that such a sermon would most likely fall on deaf ears. "I was going to run through a few points before we had morning tea, but I presume none of you are going to concentrate with your appetite unsatisfied. We'll get takeaway."
Kiba frowned. "But Sakura has food." He could smell the aroma wafting off her backpack.
The jounin raised an eyebrow and turned to the pink-haired girl. "Sakura?"
The young kunoichi's eyes widened. "Ah! Sorry! I forgot!" She berated herself for her idiocy and produced the bundle of bananas she had purchased earlier. "I have these."
Immediately, Naruto jumped to his feet with a bright twinkle in his eyes. Sakura found herself in a tight embrace that she had not been expecting. "I love you, Sakura!"
Deciding that she did not care if she offended another possible shadow clone, Sakura delivered an uppercut to the blonde's jaw, satisfied when no 'pop' followed afterward. Naruto landed unimpressively at Kiba's feet. Akamaru trotted over and licked his bruised jawline.
"Smart," Kiba said sarcastically. He hauled the shorter boy to his feet. "I think you should stick to just a 'thank you' next time."
Kurenai crossed her arms and stepped back. Her charges barely noticed her retreating to lean by a tree, slipping into the half-shadows. She watched them as they interacted, and noticed for the first time just how childish her team was.
As any other experienced jounin could make out, Naruto was most prone to laughter above the average volume, and most of the time the cheerful grins were exaggerated. He was a cheerful being, yet the pain of years of exclusion did not bode well with him. That, however, did not stop him from pelting Kiba with banana peels.
The Inuzuka did not take well to being bombarded with fruit sheddings, and he quickly retaliated. Akamaru sat by the side, opting to accompany Sakura on the more quiet experiences of life over aiding his master. Kiba's laugh was mocking and generously loud. He had no trouble socialising and it was highly doubtful that he ever would experience difficulties.
Kurenai's attention shifted to the last of her genins. Sakura was the most difficult to understand. From what the jounin understood, Sakura had been subjected to bullying during her childhood, the causes of which being her curiously coloured hair and somewhat generously spaced forehead. She had apparently been befriended by the Yamanaka girl. However, somewhere between that space of time and graduation from the Academy, Sakura had dropped her friendship with Ino and developed an infatuation with Uchiha Sasuke.
However, watching the girl tip a small portion of her prepared breakfast for Akamaru, and smile when the small dog uncharacteristically purred, Kurenai could see the intelligent, withdrawn child that Haruno Sakura must have been in her earlier years at the Academy. It was not hard to picture Sakura as a caring girl, but her somewhat violent treatment toward Naruto's antics belied the quiet nature.
Kurenai gave them a few more moments, and then put her foot down. Her students sheepishly cleaned up their mess and followed her to a walkway path that circled around the park. The winding trail eventually winded back to the village's centre, and Kurenai planned to take her team the whole way around. The males of the team immediately considered the stroll a mundane task and took to their unfinished squabble.
"Oi! Get off me!" Kiba guffawed as Naruto pounced on his back and, grinning, tugged at the Inuzuka's jacket hood.
"No!"
"Grr… Akamaru!"
But the puppy was innocently riding in Sakura's arms, who scowled slightly at her teammates' embarrassing behaviour. Minutes later, the boys calmed down – and then started off again. The ruckus reached the point where Kurenai was forced to intervene.
She stopped and turned around – Kiba had grabbed Naruto in a headlock and neither of them were watching where they were going. Sakura gave Kurenai a pleading look and the jounin nodded her consent. The pink-haired genin cracked her knuckles.
Two concussions later, Kiba's and Naruto's attention span lengthened and Kurenai relived every moment of silence they were blessed with.
"As a shinobi, your most powerful weapon is silence and stealth." She looked down at them. "What makes you think the behaviour you just displayed qualifies as that of genin?"
She received simultaneous mumbles of "Sorry, Sensei".
The jounin sighed. The boys cracked open an eye to peer at their mentor. Kurenai raised an eyebrow at them and they quickly diverted their gazes. Perhaps she could use their temporary fear of her wrath to drill a lesson into their minds.
She raised a hand to flick back her long hair, her fingers blurring in a well-practiced hand sign. "What do I look like at the moment to you?" she asked in a softer tone.
"Kurenai-sensei," Kiba said hesitantly.
"Is that your final answer? Naruto?" The blonde had been staring at her with his eyes wide and mouth slightly open.
He blinked. "Sensei… are you on fire?"
Sakura had very little patience, especially when it came to Naruto. A vein popped and she stomped over to the short blonde. "Naruto! What kind of question is that?" she scowled.
"An observant one," Kurenai replied, in time to rescue Naruto from his female teammate's wrath. When Sakura stared, the jounin smiled. "Do you see it too, Sakura?"
Haruno Sakura was not one to believe anything with a deficiency of evidence – but she had to believe this one. Their sensei's eyes, naturally a curious shade of crimson, had small flames flickering in their reflection. Be it an illusion or the mind's tricks, Sakura could have sworn that Kurenai had seemed to tower over them with a gushing torrent of fire backing her.
She blinked. "This is a genjutsu, isn't it?"
Kurenai smiled; the girl was as knowledgeable as her file had suggested. "That's right," she agreed, and the frightening image of an looming, erupting sensei faded. "It was a simple genjutsu."
Naruto's head cocked to one side. "Erm… Sensei?"
"Yes, Naruto?"
"What exactly does a genjutsu do?" His cheeks had flushed a slight shade of pink and he was staring at the ground, as if embarrassed that he had to ask such a simple question. For the umpteenth time since meeting the boy, Kurenai had to wonder what the Academy instructors had been teaching him.
They continued walking. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Naruto's shoulders fall when he realised that she had not answered his question. The jounin kept a steady eye on the blonde, finally deciding that it was time she confronted him. "Kiba, Sakura and Akamaru," she said, and the trio jogged ahead of her to regard her. "I would like you to take a short run back to the park and then turn around and catch up with us."
As expected, the lack of mention of Naruto did not slip by. "Hey," Kiba protested. "What about Naruto?"
"He will be doing a similar exercise."
Sakura visibly winced at physical training, but she obeyed without question. Kiba grumbled and took off after her with Akamaru. Kurenai kept walking, Naruto trailing half a step behind her.
"What will I be doing, Kurenai-sensei?" the boy asked.
"Walk with me, Naruto," she said simply.
His smile faltered. "O-Okay."
He fell into step beside her, head lowered and hands shoved into his pockets. Naruto was not a big thinker; he was of the kind that thought only of consequences after he had caused trouble. Yet Kurenai was really pressing on his brain cells. She had seemed quite nice and friendly the day before, but today she appeared to be either ignoring him or giving him special treatment. It reminded Naruto horribly of the more unforgiving Academy teachers – and now that he knew why they hated him so much, he began to dread the next moments with his new sensei.
"Naruto," Kurenai's quiet voice broke into his musings.
He looked up. "Yeah?"
"What have you learned at the Academy?"
This knocked him off guard for a short moment. He hadn't really thought about that. "Well… the basic ninjutsu and stuff, I suppose. You know – the Rope Escape Technique, which I suck at, and the Transfo-"
She raised a hand to stop him. "Let me rephrase my question: how do they treat you at the Academy?" She watched him from the corner of her eye as they continued to walk.
Naruto stared up at her in shock. "What d'you mean?"
"I think you know."
He lowered his head and bit his lip. He didn't know if he should feel grateful that she cared, or if he should be experiencing a darker emotion. Kurenai sounded a lot like Sandaime. It was always a difficult decision between spilling the truth and colouring his response to match the opposite.
Without looking up, he told her about his years in the Academy; how, in his first year, he had been shunned from the groups the other students had formed and how he had spent more time sitting on the creaking swing in the courtyard than playing 'ninja' with the other kids; how his second year instructor had refused to acknowledge his presence and his questions and how his following teachers had followed suit; how, by the fourth year, he had picked up Shikamaru's habits of slacking off in class and had been punished by having his face sprayed with spittle and then cleaned in the toilet bowl.
His voice was bitter, and at times Kurenai could see and feel his shoulders trembling with fury. After she felt a warm trickle of blood trickling down her palm where her nails had carved crescent-shaped lacerations against her skin, she decided that her composure was probably not much better off than her student's.
"But then I got Iruka-sensei," Naruto said, piercing through her darker thoughts with a triumphant tone in his voice. "He was always picking on me and stuff, making me stay back and clean up the pranks I pulled – but he was the only one who would bother answering my questions. And sometimes, he'd treat me to ramen when I do stuff right – like hit targets with shuriken and that kinda thing. And, and he…" His voice trailed off there and he pondered if he should reveal the events of that night with Mizuki's betrayal.
Yuuhi Kurenai could not say that she was particularly fond of the Nine-Tailed Fox. It had taken away the lives of many people. She hated it for committing such terrible acts and no one could blame her for thinking so… but at the moment she loathed it for being the cause of grief to the youth walking alongside her. Naruto had been alone for so long that the slightest motions of kindness had him rethinking his impressions of a person in seconds. It most likely resulted in false pretences and betrayal of his affections, which would explain why he was so careful to conceal his emotions.
"Naruto…" she said, her voice faltering with uncharacteristic hesitation. "Tell me, do you feel… lonely?"
He stiffened.
"Hey, kid, quit staring at my dango like that. You want one, you pay for it… no wait – it's you? Change of mind; just shoo. Shoo or I'll get the broom!" – And most of the time he would linger to inhale the aroma for a moment longer until his presence irritated the adult and he would flee, sticking his tongue out during the process.
"No, sweetheart, don't play with him. He's… a bad boy. Yes, a bad boy…" – He would grin and tell his would-have-been friend that it was fine and that he would see him the next day, and he would wave while the other kid stared curiously back at him. When the 'next day' came, they would ignore his greeting, and when forced to respond they would do so with an unfriendly comment.
Yes, he supposed he was lonely.
"Hey Naruto. If you get this done by nightfall… I'll buy you dinner."
"Sometimes, Naruto, it is natural to despise those who express the same feelings toward you. But you have to understand that, to become a good Hokage, you have to accept their resentment toward your existence… and understand that no matter what illusion plays among your mind, you will never be truly alone."
He noticed that Kurenai was still awaiting his reply. He shrugged and smiled. "Not anymore."
She nodded and went on to explain the basics of genjutsu. Naruto did not inquire upon her sudden change of subject and listened intently to the explanation, shooting off questions that bounced back at strange angles to another inquiry, which was often followed by a scenario conjured from his imagination. Kurenai nodded and did her best to fill in the years of knowledge he had been denied.
Sakura, Kiba and Akamaru caught up with them just when she had been about to explain the process of cancelling a genjutsu. Sakura, the jounin noted, was definitely in dire need of taijutsu training; the girl was putting an asthmatic to shame. Kiba, though winded, was grinning.
"Told you it wasn't impossible," he said to Sakura, who was clutching her ribs as she sucked in a difficult breath.
"Not everyone," she gasped out, glaring, "runs crazy… laps around the village… everyday!"
Kiba's grinned widened and he slipped his hands behind his head. "Hey, you're welcome to join me."
"F-Forget it!"
Kurenai stopped and turned around. "That actually is not a bad idea. It would do well to improve your stamina and fitness, Sakura. Naruto, I suggest you join them." She commended herself on her quick thinking. To allow the three genin time to socialize among themselves without her influencing their behaviour would certainly prove to be a shortcut to teamwork and friendship.
In response, the genins just stared at her, then at each other. Naruto eventually picked up the discussion. "I don't really mind, I guess. What time do you get up, Kiba?"
"Eh? Well…" Kiba rubbed the back of his neck, seemingly uncomfortable. "My sister's actually the one who drags me up for stuff like that. The time changes sometimes, but we usually get out at around seven. I missed my run today and she was gonna grill me." He laughed uneasily and looked expectantly at his teammates.
"That's… cool," Naruto said slowly. "I'll, um… be there tomorrow…"
Kiba cracked a smile and turned to Sakura. "So… you coming too?"
Sakura cringed. She was still catching her breath from the previous run, which in truth had not been all that long. They hadn't gotten far into the walk and the distance had not been great. It had been hard keeping pace with Kiba – she even suspected that he had been holding back to wait for her. Reluctant to fall behind, she nodded uncertainly. "I'll come."
The rest of the village had woken while Team Eight had been absent from it. Kurenai dismissed her students for breakfast while she attended to her own business. She dropped them directions to a restaurant she frequented, though Sakura was perhaps the only one who listened. Naruto and Kiba had already gone ahead.
"Place it under my tab," Kurenai called after them. "I will join you when I have finished."
Yamane Takara woke to the chirping of bothersome birds. She found herself sprawled across her sagging couch, and she almost slipped back down again when her feet felt around for her sandals, tripping against two empty saké jugs that could be found rolling against the scratched floorboards of her apartment.
Swearing, she hauled herself to a technically upright pose and stumbled to her bathroom to splash her face with water. She became aware of a certain presence when her mind cleared a little. A chuckle escaped her lips, muffled slightly by the cloth she had pressed against her face.
"What wind blows you here, Kurenai?"
The towel in her hands flicked out to snatch the bottle that had been thrown through her window. She eased open the cork and inhaled a scent of the Rice Country's finest. "Not half bad - you're getting better at picking this stuff."
Her former teammate stepped out from behind the cracked walls of the dwelling and joined Takara at the wooden table where the latter had begun pouring two cups.
"You haven't been taking care of yourself, have you?" Kurenai brushed her gaze lightly over the woman that had been a close friend and confidant. She was disappointed to discover that Takara's brown hair was as long, lank and unkempt as ever, deprived of the natural attention a woman would force upon her appearance. The slight dark circles under her eyes told Kurenai that her old teammate had been doing nothing the previous night but drink to the hope of losing her consciousness for as long as she could.
Takara did not forget, but she often attempted to escape reality.
She had attempted to escape her physical environment as well. She was the only tenant in her apartment, which was situated on the outskirts of the village. Takara could only take her conscience that far, a place where she retain memories of the happier days, of the oath she had committed herself to over a decade ago. She drowned out reminiscence of the darker days whenever she could, and they happened to disturb her on more accounts than she could care to count.
"Skip the formalities, Kurenai," she sighed, nudging a cup toward her friend. "This hangover of mine makes it hard to process stuff like that. Oh yeah – congratulations on making jounin. Heard you got a bunch of brats to babysit. How are they?"
Never having found the tolerance to alcohol, Kurenai declined the drink. "They could do with some sharpening," she replied truthfully. "But they are not the worst."
"Kids these days are always rambling on about how they want to be great ninja when they grow up… good thing they had no war to deal with, huh?" Kurenai did not say anything. She waited until Takara had downed a cup of saké and started pouring another. "How badly does your team suck?"
"Two of them could benefit from additional taijutsu tutoring."
Takara glanced sharply at Kurenai. "Is that why you're here? And here I was thinking you were actually missing me."
Kurenai pursed her lips. On second thoughts, that saké might not be so bad after all… "I do miss you, Takara… the old you, anyway."
"Dead."
"Takara-"
"I'm not going to get involved in anything to do with the likes of you shinobi. I'm done with it. You go ahead and pursue whatever crazy dream you still have, Kurenai – I didn't stop you from continuing down that cursed road and I hope you respect my right to stay away from it."
"Must you be so difficult?" Kurenai sighed exasperatedly. She had known this would not be easy.
Takara laughed. "Remember how Kouta-sensei always used to say that? He'd give me this disapproving look and then say it with a grin. Do you remember, Kurenai?"
"Takara, this is-"
"Do you remember, Kurenai?" Takara persisted in a harder tone.
Kurenai winced. "Yes," she whispered, knowing what was going to follow and bracing herself for it.
The glint that had been in Takara's eyes dulled. "And do you remember how he died, Kurenai? Do you remember how we were going to charge into battle like the good ninja we were supposed to be? Do you remember how Masuru's bones cracked like twigs? Do you remember what Sensei's flesh smelt?"
She did. Of course she did. "Takara, this has to stop. You have to stop living in the past."
"I'm not living in it," the other woman hissed. Both had risen to their feet, facing each other over the ancient table that creaked under the weight of their palms slamming onto its surface. "I'm running away from it! You really think putting up that smile over all else will work, Kurenai? It doesn't. Trust me, I've tried and it doesn't goddamn work."
She heaved in a deep breath and sat down, shakily emptying the saké gourd into her mouth. "I'm done with being a kunoichi, Kurenai," she said in a softer tone after she had wiped her mouth. "I'm done. I'm not going to teach your students. Go find someone else – get Gai; he'll do it if you ask."
"Gai has his own genin team to consider. As you are constantly reminding me, Takara, you don't."
Takara raised an eyebrow and a smile that reminded Kurenai of its mischievous counterpart touched her lips. "One reason? Is that all you can come up with these days, Kurenai?"
Kurenai turned away so that her friend could not see her own smile. "Yes."
"Really?" her teammate pressed.
"Yes."
"Do you swear on Masuru and Sensei's graves?"
The red-eyed woman regarded her friend. "That was cruel, Takara." Their passed on comrades had no grave, no resting place to speak of…there had been nothing left to bury. "I'm not going to ask Gai and you know perfectly why."
The other woman shrugged. "Just checking that he hasn't shaved off those brows of his. Haven't seen him for ages – he still yelling about his age?"
"No. He's pronouncing the 'immortality of youth'." Kurenai whispered a silent apology to the green clad jounin with the orange leg warmers.
Takara threw her head back and let out a short bark of laughter. "Sounds just like him," she commented, grinning. Kurenai knew that if she squinted, as she had so many times before, she would be able to see the younger Takara Yamane that had been an official tomboy and had enjoyed pestering their sensei for missions.
But then, when Kurenai noticed her friend rubbing her forearm, all projections of the past vanished. The red-eyed jounin knew what was hidden under the long-sleeved shirts that Takara refused to replace even in the midst of summer, tucked carefully away from the notice of others – and more importantly, herself. There was a scar, one that appeared to have been drawn with a ruler and one that would mark her forever. Thankfully, none others joined its company since the first time Kurenai had caught her teammate purposefully harming herself. But it was still there, still visible, and the same could be said for Takara's unrelenting memories and her inability to accept them.
"I have a student," Kurenai began quietly, and she gestured toward the offending forearm when her teammate glanced up at her. "He has scars as well. I find that emotional scars hurt more than physical ones. Less than a week ago, he found out exactly why the villagers hate him so much."
She noticed that Takara's eyes had widened, but she went on grimly. "He has determination like no other. His taijutsu is crippled and the same goes for his reputation, but he still finds strength to smile for his friends. That boy, this student of mine… his dream is to become Hokage. And I intend to help him accomplish that. So for the sake of that student and another who also has her own dreams, I need you to help me teach them."
Takara frowned. "Don't tell me you have-"
The fragile moment was interrupted by a bellow of "KURENAI-SENSEI!"
Kurenai herself winced. "What are they doing here?" she muttered to herself, and rose to investigate. Takara suspiciously followed her out.
"I thought I told you to wait at the restaurant," Kurenai frowned at her genins. She was nothing if not observant, and she saw Naruto's smile falter, for reasons unknown other than her disapproving tone. Her eyes narrowed.
Seeing that neither of her teammates had the decency to explain, Sakura took up the task. "We went to that restaurant you instructed, but the owner didn't want to serve Naruto for some reason. So we left and Naruto got us ramen. We were worried that you couldn't find us so Kiba and Akamaru tracked you here." The girl displayed an uncharacteristic fiddling with her fingers. "Sorry we disobeyed you, Kurenai-sensei."
Kurenai was too absorbed in anger to hear the second half of Sakura's explanation. How dare they refuse to serve her student! She glanced at her genins, saw that they were curiously staring at her face, and fought to keep her composure. She and that restaurant owner would have a nice chat.
"How much did you spend on ramen, Naruto?" she asked. "I'll pay you back; it was supposed to be my treat."
The boy blinked as if he had never heard of having someone 'pay him back' before. He lowered his head and gave her a wobbly grin. "It's fine, Sensei. It doesn't matter; you can treat us next time." He smiled. "But it's gotta be something good!"
She didn't know how her hand had found its way into Naruto's tousled hair and started ruffling it, but it seemed to stun the blonde. "Something good," she agreed. "After the mission."
The sacred word was enough to send Naruto into an excited fever. Kiba's was second only to the blonde. "Mission?" they both exclaimed. Sakura scowled at them, but her the corner of her mouth kept twitching into a smile.
"Do you think we're ready, Kurenai-sensei?" she asked dubiously.
The jounin could see where the girl's uncertainty was coming from. "We'll have to find out, won't we?" Kurenai replied.
Naruto was beyond himself with joy. At this rate, they would probably be the first genin team to receive an official assignment. This very much satisfied the blonde. Take that, Sasuke! He was grateful that Kurenai-sensei was giving them the chance so early on; Naruto found himself looking at his mentor with reverence that had also been triggered by the morning's earlier events.
Then he noticed the woman standing behind their sensei. "Eh? Sensei, who's the hag?"
Kurenai stiffened. Takara held no specific loathing toward Naruto. She hated the Nine-Tailed Fox but she did not hold much against its jailor. It was the memories of that fateful day that prevented her from completely accepting the boy. But she did not take well to being christened with uncouthly nicknames.
"Who're you calling 'hag', you brat?" she spat. In a flickering motion that informed Kurenai that her teammate's taijutsu had not regressed at all, she was standing behind Naruto with a hand pressed firmly on his head, forcing him to duck his head forward. "Show some respect!"
The sudden movement startled Sakura enough that she let out half a scream, stumbling backward and away from the newcomer until she bumped into Kiba. The Inuzuka boy caught her by the shoulders, his emotions swaying between amusement and dignity. He wondered if he should be standing and watching while Naruto was being openly abused. Akamaru's whine told him that it was perhaps wiser to stay put. The small dog slipped into his master's jacket.
"What's wrong with Akamaru?" Sakura asked, having felt the warm bundle wiggle its way up Kiba's front. She had taken a liking to the puppy and she scratched Akamaru's chin in an attempt to offer him comfort.
"Chakra?" Kiba questioned quietly.
Akamaru whimpered. "No… but she's strong… stronger than Kurenai-sensei."
"Eh?" Kiba stared at the woman, who was currently holding off Naruto's struggle to freedom with ease. The Inuzuka shifted his gaze to Kurenai. "Hey, Sensei, just who is that woman?"
Kurenai glanced at her charges. She much as she knew Takara did not agree, it would be for the best if the genins associated with her. "This is Yamane Takara. She was my teammate in our genin and chuunin years."
Naruto, at long last, wrestled himself from the woman's surprisingly strong grip. "Oh, okay." He stepped back two steps and bowed to the woman. "Pleased to meet you, hag."
Kurenai cleared her throat. It would perhaps be better if she was not responsible for the slaughtering of a new genin. "You three go ahead first; I will catch up to you later."
"Yes, Kurenai-sensei," Sakura answered, and she went off, dragging Naruto by the ear.
"You want me to leave Akamaru, Sensei?" Kiba asked, pausing.
She raised an eyebrow. "Are you doubting my abilities as a jounin, Kiba?"
"No! Of course not!" Kiba grinned sheepishly and waved once before running off to join his teammates.
Takara watched the kids leave, her attention focused particularly on the blondie. She knew that the kid was the demon container – hardly any adults these days did not. His appearance and behaviour belied his status as the Kyuubi's jailor. He was a natural troublemaker, which gave Takara the impression that she could get to know this kid… too bad his presence alone seemed to trigger sharper pain than a kunai plunging into her slitted wrists.
"Him and the girl need the taijutsu training, right?" she asked without looking at whom she was addressing.
"You still have a sharp eye, Takara. Yes, they are the ones I want you to teach."
"Hmph. I told you; I'm not going to teach them nought. I'm not going to have anything to do with being a ninja anymore, especially not helping someone else be Hokage." She turned and sauntered toward her apartment. "You'd better get going – kids do stupid things when they're excited."
Kurenai did not look back. She knew that she had outstayed her welcome. "Takara?" she asked quietly.
"What?"
"You may not have realised… but you and Naruto are the same."
A chuckle. "Oh trust me – I've realised."
"Naruto."
"Oh – hi, Sensei."
Kurenai smiled down at her young charge. She had drawn alongside her genins to discover that Naruto had been lagging behind his teammates. Kiba and Sakura were not spared curiosity and the slight tinge of concern. However, when they turned their heads for the last time to check on their solitary teammate and saw that Kurenai was accompanying him, they did not look back again, placing confidence in their mentor to put right whatever had bogged down the usually cheerful Naruto.
It was to be expected. Kurenai had noticed that Naruto's smile had been of the forced kind. He was quietly upset about the turnouts of the morning. Undoubtedly the boy had been through abuse of this sort before. However, the hardest blow must have been dealt with the fact that he had been insulted in the face of his teammates. It was embarrassing and more than a little upsetting.
"If I remember correctly, you want to become Hokage, don't you?"
The grin returned, and it was less artificial than it had been at first. "Yup. Then I'll get some respect!"
"Don't you consider yourself respected?"
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"How did your teammates react to the restaurant owner's rejection to serve you?"
"Eh? Well, I dunno… just stood there, I suppose. Then we left together."
"And you do not consider their willingness to stand by you a show of respect?"
Naruto was momentarily stunned into silence. "I… I don't know."
Kurenai smiled. "Perhaps you should look closer to home then."
"Get it, get it, get it!"
"Hah… gotcha! OW! That was my face!"
"Idiot! Don't let go of it!"
"Meow!"
"It's getting away again!"
"Akamaru! Pin it down from the other side!"
Kurenai grudgingly acknowledged that her team needed lessons in stealth.
After reporting to the Tower, Team Eight had been tasked with the retrieval of a runaway cat, which coincidentally belonged to the daimyo's wife. Kurenai had been amused; she'd had a similar mission involving the subject's mother, and if she was correct, the ferocious genes tended to pass straight down from mother to offspring.
She was, unfortunately, correct.
It was amusing to watch her charges storm the forest in search of a feline. Akamaru had cut the search short but capturing the target proved to be a greater obstacle than they were prepared for. Looking down at her team while they slipped through the muddier aspects of the unknown, Kurenai wondered if the occasional laughter that echoed among the trees meant that her students were somehow enjoying themselves. Even Sakura seemed wholeheartedly committed to the mission. She did not hesitate to leap off Kiba's back when the offer arose to launch herself at the unsuspecting cat. She ended up slipping into a muddy ditch but quickly picked herself up and rejoined the chase.
"Are you sure you don't want help?" Kurenai called down. She had to squint to discern the grimy genins from the surroundings.
"Yes!" the three genins chorused.
Kiba hated the scent of cat, but it often enticed him to pursue it. He shook his head from side to side in an attempt to get the sludge out of his hair. They were going to bring the entire marsh home if they continued on like this. "Naruto!" the Inuzuka barked. "Give us some clones here!"
This forced a grimy smile on Naruto's face. Flinging dirt from his hands, he formed the hand seal. "Coming right up!"
Five solid copies materialised by his side and they charged forward. Kiba launched himself into the fray, and they piled onto the cat. His triumph was short-lived. The cat struggled insistently and managed to open an escape route by piercing two clones. Alarmed, it fled from its human prison – and darted straight toward Sakura. Startled, the girl could only stumble backward. The cat snarled and raised a claw.
Akamaru leaped off the bank of the marsh and growled gutturally at the other animal. Deterred, the cat changed its course and landed on a small island of dried mud. The two exchanged territorial barks and hisses.
Shaking herself, Sakura drew up a plan in her mind and called to her teammates to prepare themselves.
Kurenai watched with a more interested eye. The cat went frantic as a low-level genjutsu enveloped the area. Where Akamaru had been standing was a menacing bulldog five times his size. It snapped at the cat and it screeched in fear. Recoiling, it turned tail and raced in the opposite direction.
A dozen Narutos came out from the trees, arms outstretched. The shaken cat skidded in the face of the obstruction and frantically looked for another way out. With a yell that made the small animal jump in its skin, Kiba dove forward and caught it in his jacket. "Hah! Not so cocky now, are you?"
Naruto whooped loudly and punched the air, flinging a large chunk of mud skyward.
Dirt matted, filthy and sweaty, the three genins and their sensei trudged back to the Tower to report their mission. Kurenai had wisely volunteered to carry the shell-shocked feline, predicting several more complaints if she referred the duty to one of her charges.
"How did your first mission feel like?" she asked innocently.
The baleful stares told her exactly what her students thought of the mission.
"It sucked," Naruto declared belligerently. "How's catching a cat gonna get me up to Hokage?"
Kurenai sighed; she had been expecting this question. "In addition to acting as the army for their country, a ninja village also acts as a business," she explained. "Clients will come to the village to pay for the services of a ninja. These are jobs that the clients cannot accomplish by themselves."
"More like can't be bothered to chase their cats themselves," Kiba scoffed.
Kurenai smiled. "That too. Have you studied mission ranks before?"
"Yes," Sakura said before Naruto could even consider the question. "There are S, A, B, C and D ranks, in order from deadliest to easiest."
Her answer earned her a nod of warm approval. "That's right. The mission you just undertook was a D-rank." As if in protest to being undermined, the cat squirmed and meowed in her arms, and Kurenai made sure she kept a gentle but firm grip on the furry disaster. "D-rank missions involve close to no combat, so the pay is generally low. These missions are usually given to the new Academy graduates to foster teamwork among the members." She could not resist a grin. "As you three have discovered."
"Getting dirty," Naruto deadpanned. "Getting stuck in mud. That's teamwork?"
"Well, imagine how things would have turned out you didn't have Akamaru to track the target, Naruto's clones to do the dirty work and Sakura to pull everything together."
The genins did, and they came up with simultaneous agreements to "Nightmare," and all three of them sent uneasy glances at the cat in Kurenai's arms.
The jounin chuckled and held the double doors to the Tower open for her charges as they slopped into the foyer and mortified the receptionist with the muddy prints they left on the polished floor.
A/N: I wanted to change their first mission into something more original, but then I had no ideas that particularly stood out, so I stuck to the cat mission. I'm rather fond of Tora anyway.