"Run!" A voice shouted. I couldn't tell who it was; the smoke was too thick and it was burning my eyes. I did what the voice told me to do though. I ran as fast as I could, away from everything.
From behind, I heard an enormous growl that shook the ground, knocking me off my feet. What was it? What was going on? One moment I'm playing in the field with a few friends and the next moment, I'm running for my life. My mind was blurred, my vision infected. My breath was shallow. It was hard to breath in all the smoke and covering my mouth and nose with my shirt did little to help, but I ran.
I turned corners here and there until I reached a dead end in the village. I turned around to go back, but it was already too late. Something, I don't know what, but something came to attack me. It almost hit me until—
"Ah!" I gasped and found myself panting heavily when I woke up. Beads of sweat formed at my hairline. What was that about? I thought while rubbing my eyes with the back of my hands. I've never had a dream like that before, but I didn't have time to think about it. I looked at my clock to see that I woke up just in time, so I rushed through breakfast and dressing to get out of my condo fast.
My outfit was simple and quick to put together; a red T-shirt with a short-sleeved black jacket, dark blue pants that hung down to the middle of my shins, and a standard pair of sandals. I attached my shuriken holster around my right leg as usual and after slipping my belt on, attached two pouches that held other weapons and items around the back on the right side. Finally, I tied my headband around my forehead and my mask around my face. It was a bit of a unique mask that had a long zipper sewn across it. That way, I could just unzip half of it to show just the right side of my mouth. It let me eat and drink without having to take the entire mask off.
As for the condo, it's pretty small; so small that it's just one big rectangle, really. Well, except for the closet and the bathroom. My bed was pushed up under the only window in the room. I had a small dresser next to it and on top of that, there was a lamp and a clock. Literally five feet away is the kitchen. It had tiles instead of hardwood floor and was lined with cupboards, a fridge, and an oven. Next to the fridge was the microwave. In the middle of the room, over the line where the kitchen tiles to the hardwood meet, was my table with two chairs, though I really only need one. Next to the kitchen is the door to my bathroom and across from that is the closet, where I keep spare change, weapons, clothes, and all that good stuff. I don't have a lot of stuff, so the condo is cozy. I really like it.
The three genin had already arrived at the Hokage's palace, but the jounin was nowhere to be seen. I looked around with a questioning look in my eyes before Naruto explained. "Kakashi-sensei's always late." He huffed with a childish pout. "When will he be on time for once?!"
"Shut up, Dobe." Sasuke muttered, looking rather impatient. He's such a sweetheart, so I've learned. Naruto glared at the raven-head and raised a fist in frustration, but Kakashi-sensei appeared before the blond could say anything. I sensed some rivalry between those two, or something along those lines.
"Sorry about that; I got lost on the road of life." The jounin excused himself with a meek smile before leading us to the Mission Room. I tilted my head to the side a bit and scratched the back of my head. Lost on the road of life? Now there's a new excuse for the books.
We entered the room to see a long table with a few chuunin behind it, handling the payment transactions and the assignment of missions. The room wasn't very busy, but I noticed another team of genin in the room. They looked a bit older than us though. I guess the jounin of that team knew Kakashi-sensei because when he saw the masked jounin, he shouted out his name and pointed a finger at him.
"Aha! Hatake Kakashi, my arch rival!" He cried, causing his and Kakashi-sensei's genin to sigh in unison. I had no idea what was going on, really. All I knew is that the jounin calling out Kakashi-sensei had some weird fashion sense, as well as that miniature version of himself that was standing next to him. Seeing one persons in that kind of green suit was bizarre enough, let alone two at the of them, and one of them was an adult nonetheless. "Bringing your team for missions at the same time as my team, eh? Perhaps it is a challenge-!"
"Cut it out, Gai-san." Kakashi-sensei interrupted with a disinterested look. I never knew a grown man could look so disappointed until I saw the other jounin sulking. He looked far too much like a puppy trying to get its master's attention and admittedly got me curious about the history between those two, though I wasn't sure if that was "We're just here to give our newcomer some experience with missions."
That was when all eyes turned to me. I blinked a few times before side-stepping behind Sakura, who proceeded to ruin my cover by pulling me back out and giving me a slight shove forward. "Uhh…" I started, not sure what I was supposed to do. "…Hi."
What happened next could have scarred me for life. The jounin in the green spandex – his name was Gai-sensei, I believe – jumped towards me and grabbed my shoulders. My eyes widened from the surprise 'attack' and I immediately took a step back. "What a youthful young kunoichi!" He exclaimed while violently turning towards Kakashi-sensei. I gave him a look that asked him what the Hell was wrong with this guy. The jounin simply looked back at me and shook his head with a shrug. "Kakashi-san, train her well!"
"Y…Yeah." Kakashi-sensei responded with an unimpressed look. Before we knew it, that team had left the room. Before the door closed, however, the kunoichi of that team leaned back and whispered 'Sorry about that, our Sensei is crazy!' before disappearing.
For I moment, I simply stared at the door before looking back at the others. "Who…?"
"Sorry you had to see that so soon, Riku." Sakura apologized with a sheepish smile. "Gai-sensei's really energetic. The miniature version of him is Rock Lee. He was the similar case that Tsunade-sama mentioned when you first arrived, since he can only use taijutsu."
"He's Bushy Brows!" Naruto added. I felt although there were no questions that needed to be answered in the rest of the world at that moment when I connected the nickname to Lee-san's face. I pulled myself back to the point at hand before I started wondering if it was even humanly possible for eyebrows to be so thick.
"Just taijutsu?" I repeated, and received nod in return.
"Hyuuga Neji was the other boy, and the female was Tenten-chan. At least those two seem to balance out Gai-sensei and Lee-san's energy. To some extent, anyway." She finished with a slight laugh. Now that I thought about it, Neji did seem to be a little uptight.
Soon after the explanation, the jounin led us to the long mission table on the other side of the room.
"I see you're taking good care of your team, Kakashi-senpai." The chuunin behind the desk noted. He had a rather long scar across his now and his hair was in a ponytail, I noted. "Hopefully Naruto is behaving and isn't doing anything stupid." He then gave a stern look to the blond, though they weren't nearly as harsh as Tsunade-sama's.
Naruto huffed and was about to yell at the chuunin until Kakashi-sensei laughed and covered the blonde's mouth. "Don't worry about him." He reassured and got to business. I merely assumed that the chuunin was Naruto's sensei at the Academy, and presumably Sakura's and Sasuke's, too. I saw no other reason for them to be so familiar with each other, anyway. "You wouldn't happen to have any easy missions, would you? I figured I'd show Riku how the missions work around here."
The chuunin looked over to me for a moment before looked back with a smile. "Of course we do. There's dog walking, weed pulling, leaf raking, harvesting…" He read out loud from the scroll. After each mission possibility he listed, my head sunk lower and lower. You have got to be kidding me.
"No offence Kakashi-sensei," I started while wiping the sweat off my forehead, "but these missions sort of reek." The jounin laughed at my comment as I stuck the shovel into the pile of manure and tossed it into the wheelbarrow before sticking it into the ground and leaning on it. "Seriously, this is bullshit. No pun intended."
Cleaning up the feces of bulls was only one of the several chores I had to do that day. Weeding infested gardens and harvesting ten acres of crops by hand were at the top of the list for Worst Missions Ever. With another sigh, I started with the shoveling again. The other three Genin seemed used to this kind of stuff, but I didn't fail to notice how annoyed Naruto looked with every scoop of feces he had to toss into the wheelbarrow. The man who owned the bulls said that he was a good friend of the farmers near the outskirts of the town. He often sent over the feces for them to use as natural fertilizer. It made sense, but that doesn't mean I wanted to do it.
"Finally!" Naruto shouted while falling to the ground. "I never want to see bull crap ever again."
"Good work. Now just bring the wheelbarrow to the farmers and we're done for the day." Kakashi-sensei instructed blatantly. The four of us sighed in unison. It wasn't so much the missions that bothered me now; it was mostly the fact that the jounin would just tell us what to do and then sit there reading from that little orange book of his. What was it called... Icha Icha Paradise?
After half an hour of pushing and pulling the wheelbarrow of manure, we were stink-free. I sighed and stretched out my arms and back. It was a long day of hard labor. The jounin dismissed the other three genin, but told me to come with him back to the Mission Room. I sighed and waved goodbye to the others before going along with him. "What, you've got a separate mission for me?" I asked with a dull look. I smelled like dirt and feces, so I really just wanted to go home and wash myself off before the stench stuck to me.
"No, I just to show you how handing in a report works." He answered with that one-eyed smiled and hurried me along. I was showed how the report is filled out and how the transaction works, as well as some other small details like how much each mission normally costs and stuff like that. It wasn't too complicated. As soon as we were done, I rushed back home to clean myself off. If I waited any longer, I was afraid that the stench would never get out.
When I fell asleep that night, I had the same dream…or more accurately, a nightmare.
Thanks for reading!