Don't Fear The Reaper
~Chapter 3~
Getting to know you~!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Think of that song from 'The King and I'.
Kyoia Satoshai was always punctual.
She has never been late once. In fact, she is ALWAYS fifteen minutes early. So while our heroine, Kumiko Hanadeka, was just receiving this news of a new team, Kyoia was already lounging around in a booth at an extremely fancy restaurant known as 'Kaori's'. It was so full of rich snobs, even at this early hour, that Kyoia felt ready to puke. She sighed and slumped down in her seat, not really caring if the rich bastards disapproved or not.
She spent her whole life trying to impress her guardian's council member buddies and now that they aren't here she doesn't have to put on a show for anybody. She huffed out some air and watched the door hopefully for her sensei…then realized that she had know idea what her new sensei looked like. Ten minutes passed and finally an interesting individual walked through the door.
She was from Kirigakure and a genin so Kyoia assumed that she was one of her knew teammates. The girl's cat pupil eyes seemed to scan the restaurant carefully and they grew wider with intrigue when they landed on Kyoia. Kyoia waved subtly, only a slight flick of the hand, but the girl got the message and walked over, her heavy boots surprisingly silent on the fancy wood flooring.
Obviously a skilled kunoichi.
"You are Kyoia Satoshai I assume." The girl said coming up to sit beside her.
"Remember girly, Assume makes an Ass out of you and me." Seeing the girl's confused look she sighed and replied properly. "Yeah, I'm Kyoia. Who're you?" Kyoia's sensei had not given her the knowledge of who her team was, only a quick summary of the night before, its events and an address all scribbled down on a piece of paper.
Hell, her sensei and team were probably half way to Kiri by the time she woke up.
"My apologies. That was rude of me. I am Kumiko Hanadeka and I believe you are one of my new teammates."
XXX
She stood outside the fancy looking restaurant, her eyes looking from the address on the paper to the building. Sure enough, the address of the restaurant and the address on the piece of paper matched. When she entered the restaurant she scanned it carefully, expecting to find a booth with 3 other people in it.
Instead her eyes met those of another girl her age who was sitting alone in a booth.
The girl also had a Kirigakure headband around her neck, though it was tied tight enough to be a noose. She had brilliant knee length black hair and two shoulder length dark purple bangs that framed her face. Her skin was ghostly pale like a delicate porcelain doll, but were features are rough and hard. She was wearing a black belly length halter top, baggy black cargo pants, black fingerless fishnet gloves, black standard issue ninja sandals and two dark purple belts with spiked studs that criss-crossed over her stomach like an X. She had what appeared to be a folded fan, about 2 ft long strapped to her left leg, the visible edges glinting subtly like metal.
The other girl waved subtly and Kumiko silently made her way over and sat down carefully. "You are Kyoia Satoshai I assume." The girl gave a light chuckle and then replied, her voice husky.
"Remember girly, Assume makes an Ass out of you and me." Kumiko raised an eyebrow in confusion. What the hell was this girl talking about? "Yeah. Who're you?" The girl finally replied. Kumiko smiled, she might just end up enjoying this new team if this girl was on it. She wasn't like anyone she'd ever met before.
"My apologies. That was rude of me. I am Kumiko Hanadeka and I believe you are one of my new teammates." The girls sat for a few more minutes, making little conversation but conversation none the less. They talked about their families and Kumiko even convinced Kyoia to talk about crushes.
Kumiko's first impression of the other girl was correct; she was rough around the edges, a sadist and a little bit cold. But Kumiko believed that if someone worked hard enough you could bring out a little good in her.
Eventually a boy, about 14 years old, approached them while they weren't looking; the two looked up then at the tall, adult sized boy.
But then again it is actually very common to see adult sized teen boys in Kirigakure. The shortest adult man from the mist that Kumiko ever met was 6.2. They get almost seven feet tall around there.
He was wearing a Kirigakure headband tied firmly over his eyes like a blindfold, which the two girls thought odd. He had short, untameable, silver hair, with two longer strips of hair that hung over his headband and into his face, stopping at his chin. He was dressed in knee length black pants with bandages that covered the remainder of his legs; loose high collared light blue t-shirt that showed off a nice bit of his already sculpted chest. He was wearing black military boots that if you looked hard enough were equipped with weapons and a thick black belt that had his kunai pouch hanging off of it. A string necklace which had what appeared to have a rock carved in the shape of an oval hung down from his neck and you could clearly see a black dragon tattoo that wound up his right well built arm.
"You are?" Kyoia asked rudely, causing Kumiko to give her a disapproving look.
"Toshi Nekonasai." The strange boy answered in a complete monotone as he sat down on the Kumiko's other side.
"So you're the guy Takeo hates so much?" Toshi turned his head to face her for a moment and she got the brief upturn at the corners of his mouth though his voice was still a monotone.
"Yeah." They sat in a bit of an awkward silence, each of them hoping someone would break it. Finally Kyoia sighed and switched her position so she was leaning back against the booth, hands behind her head and eyes closed. Then she opened one eye and threw a sidelong glance in Toshi's direction.
"Doesn't having your eyes blindfolded affect your sight?" She felt him tense beside her and she understood immediately, but she waited to see what he would say.
"No. It doesn't. I'm already blind so it doesn't matter." The black haired girl raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth but Kumiko cut her off.
"You're blind and yet you are still a skilled shinobi. I'm impressed."
"Thank-you." Kyoia 'hmmed' for a moment and went to say something but stopped, her eyes pointed in the direction of the door, Kumiko followed her gaze. Toshi swivelled his head and his mouth parted slightly; Kumiko would ask him about that later as she noticed him do it frequently.
A man quickly walked to their table, the Kirigakure headband tied around his left thigh. He was tall, 6.6 ft., had short, blood red hair with a single black streak running through it. His eye were a warm hazel colour, though there was something cold and off about them, sort of like they were fake. His skin was pale like Kyoia's and his expression hard, almost cruel. He wore a plain long sleeved mesh shirt under an Anbu vest, signature Kirigakure gray camouflage pants and heavy mid-calf black boots. He wore black arm covers that had retractable blades in them and wore black metal plated gloves. Like Kojuro-sensei, his body was also littered with scars and tattoos.
"I'm your new sensei, Hiro Yerinozuka. But it's Hiro-sensei to you." He stated briskly sitting down and handing each of them two sheets of paper and a pen. The first was the registration form for the exam that each of them had already filled out but had to be redone because of the team change. The second was a blank sheet of paper.
"You're going to fill in the registry form again with your new team information. Then we're going to try and get to know each other as well as possible within the remaining 45 minutes we have until the exam starts. We'll do the normal introductory game you played with your team when you were just made genin, if you remember, except we'll add your previous team and sensei." The three nodded.
"What's the second sheet for?" Toshi asked with just the slightest hint of curiosity.
"You're going to write down all your jutsu and summaries of this jutsu, including kekkei genaki and then we'll clone the sheets so on the way to the exam you can study your new teammates' abilities." The three teens nodded again and set about filling out both sheets of paper. About 5 minutes later they were done and ready to begin the tough process of getting to know each other.
"I'll start." Hiro-sensei told them after cloning the sheets and taking the originals for himself. "My name, as you know, is Hiro Yerinozuka. My likes are training, my three daughters and onigiri. My dislikes are anything too sweet, reading and dull kunai. My hobbies are snowboarding and crafting unique weapons. No previous team or sensei obviously…" He looked around for the next person his gaze landing on Kyoia.
"Black haired girl." He called on her and she glared.
"Kyoia Satoshai. I like storms, reading and blood. I dislike vegetables and when my enemy just doesn't know when to die. My hobby is…" She paused and blushed a little "promise you wont laugh!" she tried to threaten but it was hard to believe. They nodded. "Well, um…my hobby is gardening…" The rest of the group smirked at the thought of the rough and tough girl on her hands and knees taking care of flowers. She ignored them and continued. "My previous team was Nao Kinsaki and Yasuchika Onami. My previous sensei was Ryo Jinkotsu."
"Okay. You pick who goes next." Hiro-sensei told her.
"Toshi." She said, a smirk beginning to grow on her face.
"Toshi Nekonasai. I like poisons, citrus fruits, and cold weather. I dislike waiting in line at the grocery store and cleaning. My hobby is cooking." Everyone tried to imagine the stoic boy in a frilly apron and oven mits. "My previous teammates were Rins Dekomata and Kyoya Mitsname. My previous sensei was Zenaku Hiuuki."
"Okay, brunette girl."
"My name is Kumiko Hanadeka. My likes are pretty things, apples, shopping and felines. My dislikes are bitter things, dogs and people who hide their faces. My hobby is painting. My previous team was Mitsu Kinsaki and Takeo Yagura. My sensei was Anbu captain Kojuro Onami." She stated without looking up from where she was scribbling down her jutsu.
They spent the rest of the time eating quietly and filling out their papers, making sure they had their passports before it was time to leave. The walk to Konohagakure's Academy, the site of the first exam was filled with comfortable silence as they looked over the papers that held their new teammates jutsu's and specialties, every now and then one of them would comment or compliment on a jutsu.
She learned that the reason Toshi parted his mouth frequently was because his clan trait was echo location and because he was blind it was obvious that he used it to see.
Finally they reached the academy, never looking up from the papers they were reading until they heard Hiro-sensei's voice. "I wish you the best of luck. Here's the number to our new hotel room in which we will be sharing. Don't fail. Don't die." Then he was gone. As usual Kyoia decided it was her job to break the silence.
"Well he's a pleasant fellow."