Chapter Five
" Squad Five Roll Call! "
The room was just a small classroom big enough for about 20 students and a teacher. Hitomi, Yama, and Akina sat around in a happy mood as they had guessed they were chosen to be on the same squad. Akina put her index finger to her chin, looked up, and asked, "I wonder what happened to Chuan?" Yama leaned back in the chair at the student desk and replied, "I'm wondering that too. Did he fail?" Hitomi leaned forward, crossed her arms on the desk, and laid her head on them. "I don't think you fail that test. It's just to see where your skills are. Sort of like an audition." she stated. As they sat there, Hitomi looked at the clock and saw it was 11:30am. She sighed out a "Thirty minutes to go." Yama raised an eyebrow and Akina tapped him on the shoulder. She smiled as she said "Lunch time. Today is a dumpling fest. Eight kinds." Yama smiled and responded with "I forgot Hitomi is becoming the new Dumpling Sensi." A manga abruptly slammed into the side of his head with a thud followed by the thud of him hitting the floor. Akina looked at Hitomi who grinned. Akina held up a stern finger and said "Now now young one. You forgot my teaching. You're supposed to yell the jutsu and then do it." From the floor came a weary "Yea, what she said." Hitomi blushed and said "Ooops. My bad. Sorry." She got up and helped Yama back to his seat as he looked at the manga. It was the latest issue of 'Mirandian Chronicles ™' - an epic saga about the allegedly last soldier of an ancient race, who seeks out the evil army that killed his people and along the way befriends and falls in love with a gnoll female, who happens to be able to fight quite well with weapons. "Ugghh...glad it wasn't the 50th issue. That one is twice as thick." Yama noted as Hitomi giggled.
"Oh Moto?" came from the doorway. All three looked up and saw Chuan looking back smiling. Yama looked at him and said, "No, it's Yama." Chuan walked in, replied, "Like I said, Moto." and grinned. Yama cracked a small grin. Early on, Chuan had began to call Yama 'Moto' because of an inside joke the two shared due to some shared interests. Yama knew he did it for respect, but also to get a humorous rise out of him. Akina stood up and said, almost happily, "So, you're here then?" Chuan nodded, produced a piece of paper. "It says for me to go to this room and meet the other members of Squad Five. So here I am and here you all are as well." Squad Five. They now had at least some recognition instead of just 'student' or 'genin'. Granted, it wasn't much, but as far as all the genin knew, if you got into a squad, it meant you were in for the long haul. Hitomi looked at her teammate and asked, "So, any word on whom our sensi is?" Chuan walked over to a chair, turned it so the back faced them and perched himself on the back of the chair. "Nah. No word. I just hope it isn't Akito Sensi. I hear he's got a thing for explosives and has a personality like Ryokin Sensi." "I wonder if Mikuni Sensi will be ours." Yama quipped. Akina looked at Hitomi for advanced warning of a jutsu but instead got something different. "Well, if she is or does, I wouldn't mind." The boys both looked at her with a look of bewilderment. Sure, Mikuni was good looking, in fact, in a recent unofficial poll, was only second to Hokagi Asuka by two votes (out of 1500 polled...local villagers included), but to hear a girl not make a jealous statement was almost unheard of. "She seems real nice and picked out this outfit for me when I got here, and knows how to keep the boys in line as well." she mused. "She's also very good at disguises and genjutsu." came from the back.
All four turned to look and saw Masashi standing in the back. "Masashi Sensi!" the group said in unison. He was not wearing his crane mask and the class could see his face. For Hitomi, it was the first time she saw him since the day of her 'death'. She noticed he had one ice blue eye and one jade green eye. He had a medical strip along the bridge of his nose and his hair was shaved on the sides, but the front was pulled back to help make the long, just a tad below his shoulders, ponytail. He smiled and asked "So, what's on the agenda for today?" The group blinked and Yama spoke up with "Umm, that's your decision right Sensi?" Masashi looked at him and said "Well, if you want to jump right into training, I guess we could skip going into the village for lunch and going over the various classes ahead of you this year." The squad all reassured him that his idea was far better.
Ten minutes later, they were walking into the village of Gyoza. It was small, about half the size of the Hidden Leaf Village and the main street was abuzz with various street vendors. From roasted chicken on a stick to incense guaranteed to appease the gods to clothing. As small as the village was, on it's Market Street, you could probably find anything. They looked around in awe and pointed out things to one another as Masashi led them to The Happy Yume Grill. They walked in and the staff behind the counter bowed as the owner/head cook yelled out a happy "Masashi my friend! Glad to see you again!" He looked at the squad "Oh, new trackers?" Masashi stopped and pointed to the kids "Yes Hiro, these are my new students." Hiro looked them over and asked, "You will train well yes?" Akina replied "Of course. We have Masashi Sensi as a teacher." Hiro guffawed, looked at Masashi, and said "Ahh..innocence. If they only knew." Chuan gulped at that as Masashi replied, "We'll be out on the deck ok?" Hiro acknowledged and said a server would be out shortly. The group walked through a beaded doorway and outside to a small wooden deck that overlooked a river. On the other side of the river was the main Admin building. They took their seats and Hitomi asked, "What do they serve here sensi?" Masashi looked, smiled, and said "Anything you want. Seems I got Hiro out of some bad trouble years ago and he decided to repay me by letting my students and I eat for free here. Just be sure to tip the waitstaff." "Umm...sensi?" Yama asked. Masashi looked at him, as Yama continued, "Aren't we suppose to be wearing our masks?" Masashi leaned back and said "Good point. Ok, Lesson One. When on a mission, or training outside of campus, not counting this village, you have to wear a mask. In your case, you all will be wearing balaclavas. Second year students and up get actual tracker masks, and on the balaclavas? Nothing tacky or gaudy ok? Nothing says 'Here I am!' as a hot pink balaclava with lime green accents." The squad snickered as the server came out to get their orders. Hitomi shyly looked up at him and asked "Umm, sensi? What about your mask? The crane looking one?" Masashi looked at her, leaned back, and replied, "That my dear, is an answer left for another day."
"And then after our boat crashed ashore, we were found by some locals." Chuan said. He was recanting his tale of how he got to these lands. Two years after his birth, he and his parents used a boat to get here. "Anyhoo...long story short, Hayaku Sensi came to the village, killed a rogue shinobi, found me and learned mother and father had died in the fighting. Years later, he came back and recruited me." Hitomi looked transfixed at the tale as she ate her steamed vegetable dumplings. Akina crossed her arms and said "Well, with all respect Chuan, and not trying to up you, my tale is a bit shorter and I guess you all can hear why or cant they Sensi?" Masashi nodded towards her and she began "Well, simply, it was 2 years ago. A rogue shinobi was fleeing some trackers and got into our village. It was a rainy day and at that time, my father was raising me alone. Mom had died 10 years prior. He fought some trackers, knocked out a few, and was killed by the rogue. The shinobi then turned to Mikuni who was injured ready to kill her." Masashi interrupted with "She was a chunin at the time" Akina nodded and continued. "Mikuni looked into my eyes like if she was saying 'I'm going to die, don't look'. Nevertheless, I got angry and that's when it happened. " The trio leaned closer as Yama asked, "What happened?" "My chakra built up inside and began to come out of my hands like they were electrified. I yelled out in anger and put my hands in the large puddle of water the rogue was in and my hands discharged the chakra." she said.
All three leaned in closer and in unison asked "And???" She leaned back and said, "They only found one of his tabi. The jutsu came to be called Chain Lighting Style Northern Dragon Technique." All leaned back with "ooohhs" and "ahhhhs" Yama looked at Hitomi and asked "And you?" Before Hitomi could answer, Akina piped in with "You saw the jutsu she did at the Interview right? There's your reason why. A tracker with that kind of jutsu that can stop the flow of chakra would be a damn good tracker." "Oh, I see. You're right, that is a valuable jutsu." Yama replied. Hitomi was a bit relieved to not tell her sad tale of betrayal and her dying...almost literally. She had decided the first day, that tale would be buried until the right moment in the distant future. Yama went with his tale. It was simple, nothing flashy. His grandfather was a tracker, so the academy skipped a generation and 'grandfathered' him in. "But I'm still going to train and act like I was really chosen like you all. No special treatment or anything." He stated. All three nodded and understood. After looking at the clock, the three decided it was time to go, so the group made their way up front.
As they approached the door, Yama, Chuan, and Akina, put some yen bills into a tip jar. Hitomi pulled out a small bunny looking coin purse and was about to dump her change into it but Hiro stopped her and softly said, "It's alright. You can get it next time." "But I..." Hitomi started but Hiro interrupted and said, "You're on my Good List. You're one of the few that eat more than one serving of my dumplings." Hitomi smiled and replied, "Well, they were very good, the best I've had." Hiro stood tall and shouted "Hear that you swine?! The cute girl said MY dumplings were the BEST she's ever had!" as he pointed his spatula at the diners inside and ranted more "So if you're going to just sit here and drink all my sake, then get some dumplings too dammit!" Hitomi giggled and winked at Hiro. She waved 'bye' and Hiro just beamed a big smile at her. When she got outside, Yama asked, "What was all the noise about?" Hitomi smiled, put her hands behind her back, closed her eyes, and felt the sun warm her face as she walked away. "Oh, just helping Hiro with some advertising."