Chapter Three
"Monkies, Trackers and Dumplings"
As they walked down the quad, Mikuni pointed out the various buildings in the student sector. As they walked, male jonin and some genin called out to her. Typical male catcalls, which she was used to, but one took her by surprise. From a group of three boy genin playing Shinobi Soccer © came "Hey Mikuni Sensi! Who's the new girl?" Mikuni replied over her shoulder, "Her name is Hitomi!" Hitomi smiled and then a boy replied, "She's a cutie! Can she be in my squad?" followed by "Boy, she's as hot as you probably were Mikuni sensi at her age." Hitomi blushed as Mikuni wheeled around and pulled up the sleeve of her shirt "Probably ?!?! PROBABLY?!?! Want to see a forbidden jutsu boys?!" as she shook her fist in the air. The boys grabbed the ball and apologized as they ran for their short lives. Hitomi giggled as Mikuni looked at her, broke a smile, and winked. As they walked, Hitomi took the rubber band that held the letter to the book of names, and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. Hitomi looked up to Mikuni and asked, "So, are you my new sensi Mikuni?" Mikuni smiled and replied, "Don't know. It all depends on how you do in what we call The First Interview. I'm looking after you right now in these days before school starts not only as a favor for Masashi but also because I see a little of my youth in you." Hitomi stood a bit taller as they approached a large building. It was one story tall, had a Japanese Shinto shrine arch in front and some graffiti that said "Abandon all gastronomic hope all ye who eat here!" Mikuni turned to Hitomi and began "Ok, so you go in here, get some food, maybe meet some people and later when you're done, go check out the campus. There's nothing on your schedule for today so get a good look around if you can. Lights out at 2100 hours and I'll be by around 7am tomorrow morning for your first days of Administrative Red Tape Headaches!" Hitomi raised an eyebrow as Mikuni realized she made a heroic-like pose. "So, you wont be around then this afternoon?" Hitomi asked. Mikuni shook her head and replied "I have some business to attend, but don't worry. I'll see you tomorrow." Mikuni then opened the door and said, "Now go meet some of your fellow trackers." and accented the statement with a gentle slap on Hitomi's rear to get her going. She took a step forward, stopped, and said "Mikuni?" The jonin turned and looked at the young tracker and before replying Hitomi gave her a deep, respectful bow that even the Hokagi herself would be proud of. No words were exchanged and none were needed as Mikuni acknowledged the bow with a bow of the head and a smile. Clouds of smoke came up from nowhere as the jonin disappeared.
The cafeteria was set up buffet style with various foods from around the regions. A sign reminded students that they could eat free and guests had to pay ¥3000. She took a tray and got into line. The first area was set up as a sushi bar but Hitomi didn't feel like having any at the time. As she began to look at the next area, a hand thrust itself in front of her, palm open in a friendly manner. "Hiyas! My name's Chuan. You new?" Hitomi turned her head and saw a boy her age with a toothy grin looking back.
His hair was brown and spiky in various directions. Along his cheeks though, his sideburns were busy and grew down along his jawline. He had on a tan gi jacket with the tracker logo as a patch on the upper right front of his shoulder. Under the jacket was a short-sleeved t-shirt with the kanji for "Monkey" on it. The jacket, though mostly open, was tied off with a black obi. He wore khaki BDU pants underneath to about his shins. His calves were wrapped up and went down to some slip on sneakers that had the same sole as tabi do, but were mostly worn in eastern countries. She smiled and shook his hand and replied, "I'm Hitomi, and yes, I'm new." Chuan smiled and said "So Hitomi, any more cute girls like you at your village?" Before she could even think of an answer, a loud "Bad Boy Behaves Jutsu!" came from behind Chuan followed by an open handed slap that sent him to the floor. Hitomi looked up from Chuan's sprawled out body and saw a girl her age with sandy blonde hair to her shoulder. Behind her left ear, a small french brain hung with small beads affixed to the end. She wore a red gi jacket and shinobi mesh underneath. Two black leather, spiked belts tied the jacket off. She also wore a skirt like Ino wore, but in a deep red color. Under that, black biker shorts peeked out that ran down to just above her knees. White socks poked out down below on the bottom half of her calves and were met by black leather boots that were closed with straps, much like military tanker boots, but with a better gripping sole. She smiled at Hitomi and said, "Don't worry about him, that's the third time today he's gotten that." From the floor came a weak "Umm..more like fifth." The girl rolled her eyes and then giggled. "He's a letch, but he's also an ok guy. Hi, I'm Akari Shima." Hitomi smiled and replied "Nice jutsu you have there. I'm Hitomi by the way." Chuan had already stoop up and apologized to Hitomi.
They perused the buffet line; Akari and Chuan acted the food critics since they had been there already for three days. At Chuan's insistance, Hitomi picked the pork stuffed steamed dumplings; spring rolls and the bear claw Danish. The three found a table and began to chat and eat.
"So, who recruited you Hitomi?"
"Masashi sensi."
"Oooer...he's a cutie." Akari swooned.
"We both got recruited by Akito sensi. Seems we both lived a few miles away from each other." Chuan stated. As Hitomi later her dumplings, she realized she had never had these before and they were quite good. She also pondered if she'd become a dumpling fan like Naruto was a fan of ramen. "Anyone sitting here?" came from behind Chuan in a mature and somewhat Sauske-like manner. For a brief moment, Hitomi thought it might be him.
The three saw the new boy was about their age who had, what could be called, a grown out flat top haircut. It was fuzzy short on the sides and back, but growing out long enough to cover his eyes in front and as black in color as could be. He wore a black hoodie with the sleeves cut off and shinobi mesh underneath. On his legs, we wore tiger-striped cammo BDU pants that ended in shinobi hightops. Before anyone could do anything Hitomi piped up with "Sure, you can sit here." As he did, Chuan got a serious look on his face and leaned closer to the new boy. "So...what's your name new guy?" The boy ate some fried rice and simply said "Yamma." Chuan got closer and replied "Well Yamma, seems you must be a tough guy." Yamma raised an eyebrow as Akina quickly looked in a small book titled A Female Shinobi's Jutsu Guide to Correcting Boys. Yamma ate more rice and asked, "Oh, how did you come to that conclusion?" Chuan got closer and said "Because...you're actually eating that fried rice." He leaned back and smiled as Yamma stopped in mid bite, Akina rolled her eyes up from the book to Yamma and Hitomi just smiled. "Yea, I hear even the okashira wont even touch that stuff." Chuan added with humor in his voice. Yamma paused, and finished his bite. "Well, that which doesn't kill you..." Chuan broke out in laughter and patted Yamma on the back "Hey man, I like you. Didn't mean to make you think I was about to throw down or anything." Yamma cracked a smile and responded "Interesting style though of asking questions."
The four ate and talked of who was recruited by who, where what building was where, and general teenager stuff like favorite pop band, anime, etc. They later walked around and got to know each other and met other genin and watched a game of Shinobi Soccer © where four girls beat a team of boys with a score of 6 to 1. Evening meal came and Hitomi ate light. The group parted with exchanges of seeing each other in class and "nice meeting you" statements. Hitomi smiled big as she entered her room. She had made some friends, at least she hoped, but it was still better than her first day at the Shinobi School at the Hidden Leaf Village. She saw some nightclothes were put out and she knew it was Mikuni. She slipped on a nightshirt and crawled into bed and for the first time in years, she didn't cry herself to sleep.