Chapter 2

I woke up early and quickly took a bath. I cooked breakfast and ate. I teleported to school and I didn't mind the waste of chakra because I'll be sleeping there anyway. That's why school is our second home, right?

Last week, Iruka already assigned us with our own teams. The rest have a trio while I have a partner. I don't really know why so don't ask. Then Iruka gave out some instructions and all the dada whatever he wanted to say. By the way, my partner is a girl! Her name is Akane Daisuke. I guess we were really meant to be as partners because she is the youngest kid in class (She's 11) while I'm the oldest. Plus, I find her quite nice and shy too. We are alike in some ways that's why we get along well together. I got to know more about her when I became her teammate. I learned that she was the only child and her parents owned some business here in Konoha, just like ours too. She has a skinny body and pale skin. She has brown hair and her eyes are hazel in color. She laughed at the idea that we were meant to be partners because of that idea. Oh well, we usually hang out together now. From eating lunch and going home. She was too innocent before, now she learned how to sleep in class and not to listen to boring teachers if you already know the stuff he's discussing. I corrupted her mind in just a little amount of time, hehehe… evil me! But as an older dude, well I should teach her some values too. I taught her when and when not to do those things, so peace people. I come to like her too the same way she likes me. She often said that she wished that I was her true sister and I told her that she doesn't know what she's talking about. Then she just laughed. And I laughed too. I think that she really always helped in brightening my once gloomy days.

As I walked in the classroom, Akane was ready with her big bearhug and very cute GOOD MORNING stuff. I felt my throat being squished of air. Good thing she let go before I fainted. "Good morning nee-chan!" she greeted. I smiled and ruffled her hair, "Good morning too Akane-chan." I sat in my own chair at the back while she trotted along. "Hey nee-chan, do you have assignment in Algebra?" she asked. I smirked. "Of course I do. Want to copy?" I asked. "Yeah, thanks nee-chan!" she squealed. "Anytime" I muttered.

The classes went on and on and on and on and on and on… Then it was afternoon. Training again. This time, with our team. I practiced with Akane. I did fine the same with Akane too. But sometimes, she misses the target or misplaces her hands when doing a jutsu so I help her do it correctly. "Okay Akane, aim for it with great focus then throw" I said. She did what I said but she still missed the perfect bull's eye, we're aiming the bull's eye here. I sighed, "Okay, imagine that red spot was your hatest being on earth. Focus your anger and rage then throw the kunai to kill it" I said. She nodded and closed her eyes, maybe imagining her hatest being on earth. She opened her eyes and threw the kunai. It perfectly landed on the central red dot. She jumped in joy while I sighed in relief. Seems like it worked.

Soon, dismissal time came. I walked home with Akane. "Hey, Mariko nee-chan" she said. I glanced at her. "Hm?" "Tomorrow, we'll be meeting our team captain, what he might be?" she asked. I thought for awhile, "Hitomi-sensei? I bet he'll be good," I answered. Our sensei is Jiro Hitomi. I saw him before, I hope we'll have a good time with him. I need to learn as much as possible, I need to pas the chunnin exams. I just have to wait for 5 months for the exam. We continued to walk down the road until we needed to separate in our own ways. We said bye to each other. I sighed, "I'm tired" I reached my home. I turned the lights and went straight to the kitchen to eat. I always eat too much that's why I'm chubby, ha ha ha!! With my talent as a good cook, who could blame me? After that, I brushed my teeth and took a nice bath. After bathing, guess what. I went to sleep. Easy huh? Yawn, good night.

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I woke up earlier than usual. I got myself ready for today and quickly scrambled out of my house. This time, I walked the school. After years of walking, I finally got to school. I ran through the wide, wide oval because or classroom is across it. As soon as I reached the room, Akane did her usual stuff again. I sat on my chair while Akane is clinging on my back like a monkey. Sigh, she had changed sob. It was English time and the teacher was Kakashi-sensei. While he speaks, his eyes are glued to his porno book. And the author was the toad sannin, Jiraiya. That pervert even encouraged me to write with him and be known throughout the world because he accidentally read one of my lemon stories. Yes, I do write but that's the past, not anymore. Sigh, I feel like sleeping. My eyelids are slowly fluttering close… I… I "Miss Mariko, this is not Science class" Kakashi-sensei suddenly said, making my eyes shot open. I quickly sit up straight. I heard a few snickers from my classmates. I looked at him and I can tell that he is smirking to finally catching me off guard. "Sorry sensei, I was imagining things" I lied. "And what could those things be?" he asked. Laughter was heard in the whole class. God, this was embarrassing. "Okay, since you were imagining things, we would want you to just… uh… share a song in front of the class so that they won't feel sleepy and imagine things." I was shocked at his words but my bored face didn't change. Sing? Me? He got to be kidding. "Sir, please-" "Now, go in front young lady" I sighed. I stood up in front and face the class while the damned sensei was seated on his desk. I could see the Hyuuga prodigy paying attention and Shikamaru was not asleep anymore and Naruto was grinning excitedly. Shit. The most horrifying of all, Uchiha Sasuke, the uncaring emo, paid attention. I sighed pathetically. The whole class was staring at me, is sleeping that wrong?! "Come on Miss Mariko" Kakashi-sensei pushed on. 'You're gonna regret this, sensei' I thought. I took a deep (not so deep breath) and began to sing.

Thank God I found you
I was lost without you
My every wish and every dream
Somehow became reality
When you brought the sunlight
Completed my whole life
I'm overwhelmed with gratitude
Cause baby I'm so thankful
I found you

After the song, everyone was surprised. What did I do again? Darn. I looked at my damn sensei and he was bit surprised too. What the hell. "What?" I asked pissed. "Oh, you didn't tell me you have a wonderful voice" he said. "Eh?" I asked. I just shook my shoulders and muttered "whatever". I returned to my seat rather pissed on what the hell did just happen. Suddenly, Tenten poked me, "Hey why didn't you tell us?" she asked. "What?" I asked. "That you're good in singing?" I just raised an eyebrow, "Oh, really? Thanks" I muttered. She smiled at me and me to her.

Afternoon came and we met our sensei, Jiro Hitomi. He's got blonde hair. I think he looks like the yondaime in the pictures. He introduced his self and we did ours too. He is quite kind. He thought us basic steps in chakra control in order for us to access into doing complex jutsus. Since today, we're going to train with our sensei and not with Iruka anymore. "Okay girls, now focus chakra on your limbs and feel it energized" he said and we did what we're told.

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=TIME SKIP=

It's been months since we met our sensei. It's been months since he thought us so many different ninja techniques in ninja fighting. I remember when he gave us a leaf and we should cut it in half (cleanly) using our chakra. I remember cheering for myself because we successfully did it. I remembered our first mission! It was retrieving the lost stupid cat. Akane said it was so kawaii but when we faced the beast, her overall views on cats changed, totally. Then our next missions were exciting too but it became tiring mission by mission. Akane is great and she's not so shy anymore. Sensei is very kind and often treats us like her daughters or younger sisters. Training and practice are really necessary along with determination, patience and perseverance, that's what Jiro sensei said. I learned how to apply it on my daily life. It's also been months when we became chunnins. Jiro sensei was really proud of us. Oh! I remember when Akane was bitten by a duck because she tried to pet it, Jiro-sensei could only sigh while I laughed at her. I remember when Jiro-sensei got drunk because we put alcohol in his food, drinks and water because we tried to get back at him for having us train hard till night. In the end, the whole problem was on us because we have to carry him all the way to his house. We didn't tell him, until now. It was me who planned everything, after all. I remembered when we had a picnic, only the three of us. We were so happy and full of bliss. I remembered how we laughed, we cried, and care for each other. Everyone was there for each other, everyone was helping one another. Why am I recalling these beautiful memories? Because we are on a mission right now. It's an S-class one and I think something's going to happen. True, we have been on an S-class mission before, but I didn't have this weird feeling.

Right now, were trailing through the forest. Were after the secret spy working for a notorious organization, the so-called Akatsuki. Anyway, I know Akane also have the same feeling too. Jiro-sensei was with us. We had killed plenty of enemies along the way. I never thought Akatsuki has many subordinates because according to my researches, Akatsuki consisted of 10 members. Each are all s-class missing ninjas, they are all criminals and banished from their respective villages. Their goal was to collect and extract all the tailed beasts in order to gain power. I therefore conclude that their motive is to strike fear in the shinobi world and control the five nations. I researched that each member has different extraordinary skills and is led by a leader. I also researched that the legendary snake sannin Orochimaru is an ex-member of Akatsuki. All this knowledge came from a trusted source, of course he's paid. I'm not even sure if what he's babbling about is true or not.

It has been hours since we've been running after that damn spy. It's getting irritating not only that I'm growing tired and hungry but also he fucking set plenty of traps on our path. "Damn that man, I promise I'll kill him once I laid my hands on him," I growled. Akane looked at me in worry, maybe the weird feeling is really bugging her. Jiro-sensei looked at me in concern. He knew I'm tired and I we haven't took proper sleep. And I hate being tired and hungry, and he knew that very well. "Should we take a rest for awhile? I'm sure we'll catch up to him later" Jiro sensei said. "No, we can't stop," I answered, not now."He'll get away, very far away," Akane said. I looked at her warmly. We increased our speed as we jumped from tree to tree. After awhile, I saw a silhouette of a man. I quickened my pace. I need to catch him, then extract information then torture him then mission accomplished. "You won't get away this time," I thought. He might escape from me so it might be better to split up. "Sensei, let's split up" I said. He nodded, "Take care, the both of you" he said as we split up in different directions.

I can see him now clearly. I quickened my pace to corner him. I threw a set of kunai to him and he faced me too block all the attacks. Suddenly, I threw a kunai with an exploding tag. He didn't expect it so he wasn't able to dodge the explosion. A bang was heard and smoke filled the air. Darn, I hit him. I really hit him. He can't be dead! We need some information from him! Shit. I went closer despite the clouds of smoke. When the smoke cleared, I saw the spy dead. Dead coz he's not moving anymore. I mentally cursed myself. I waited for them to come here. "How long is it gonna take them?" I thought as I put the excess kunai back to my pouch. I sat first on a rock nearby. I waited for 5 minutes. No sign of them. Sigh, they might have gone too far away. I grew pissed so I stood up and shouted: "HEY! WILL YOU GUYS COME OVER HERE? HAVEN'T YOU HEARD THE EXPLOSIONS??? HEY! ANSWER ME!!" I grunted no response. Slight noises from behind made me turn around defensively. I came face to face with a cloaked man; his face was concealed under a stringed straw hat. I grabbed my katana from my back and pointed it towards him. "Who are you?" I asked in a dangerous voice. He chuckled and took off his hat, revealing a… Woman?! A blonde with her bangs covering her left side of face. She has a visible sapphire eye. I backed away from her. She's not answering me, she's just smirking! "Fuck" I muttered. She chuckled once more, her voice was unusually deep. "A girl should not utter such words," she said playfully. Wait! She's not a she! She's a HE! He saw the surprise in my reaction and said, "I'm a male, un." Holy shit! I slowly backed away from him, "This might be one of the akatsuki," I thought as I examined his cloak. Black cloak with red clouds… Positive, he's an Akatsuki! My heart began to race as I felt sweat trickle down my forehead. "Damn," I thought. This is a very difficult situation. Then suddenly, Akane jumped between the two of us. I was surprised but the blonde was so calm. Oh great, just what I needed to worsen my problem. "What the hell are you doing here?!" I screamed. "Jiro-sensei was fighting with the enemies," she answered while facing the guy opposingly. "W-what are y-you doing Akane?" I asked while eyeing her position. "D-don't tell m-me you're facing that man…" She looked at me with great fighting spirit in her eyes. "I will protect you" she answered. My eyes widened in shock then I got pissed short after, "Get out of here!!!" I screamed out loud. She cocked her head to my direction and asked, "Why? Who is this man?" she asked. Argh, kids. "He's an Akatsuki member, damnit!!" I yelled out her angrily. Her face went blank, "Huh?" Suddenly, the blonde spoke, "Well, what do we have here, un?" I glared at him at the same time eyeing Akane. She just stood there frozen and I know that she's scared too. In such a speed that surpassed Rock Lee, I immediately grabbed her away from the akatsuki member. I held her in my arms as she gripped on me. "Aw, isn't that touching? The big sister protects her baby sister? Too bad, un" he said. "Akane, get out of here and get Jiro-sensei, I'll handle him," I whispered to her ear. "But what about you?! I can't just leave you here" she whispered back. "I'll be fine. Just get to sensei quick," I said in a low voice. She gulped and nodded. I released her. Before she left, I pulled her into a tight hug then I let her go. He smirked at my sentimental moment. "What are you going to do now?" he asked. I glared dangerously at him and walked forward, slowly. I stopped when I was already 4-5 meters away from him. I put my sword back into my back, making him confused. He eyed me carefully, watching what I'm going to do. He prepared something in his pocket. Suddenly, I dropped my glare and smiled nervously at him; I put my hand up defensively. He was taken in my surprise when I said," Hi! Uhm… how are you! Yeah… uhm… Is there something I can do for you?" I stuttered nervously. He cocked an eyebrow. "???" was his only expression. "You killed my spy, un," he said. I quickly did a fake confused expression. "Y-Your spy… Your…. Uhm let me think… Ah! That man? That's your spy? Oh, ahahaha!! Oh my god! I'm very sorry mister, I didn't mean to… you know, blow him up?" I laughed nervously. He just raised an eyebrow at me and crossed his arms across his chest. He probably never saw a ninja who is as jackass as me. "Your trick isn't gonna work kid, un," he said. "Trick? What do you mean?" "I'm not stupid, un," he muttered as he get something in his pocket. I started to tense. "Wait!!!" he looked at me in surprise. "We can discuss this matter in peace right?" I asked. "Heh… As long as you're coming with me, Mariko Yukumo, un."He said with a smirk.