A/N: So... happy first day of Febuary! Meh. This chapter was annoying to write.
"Get him!"
Bam! There was a thudding sound, then some screeching, shouting, and yowling.
"Got him!"
"I think he's a her."
"Whatever." Niimaru said, squeezing the tawny cat with a pink bow in it's fur. "Who cares? The thing is, we've got the... ahem, parden my grammer... dang, stupid, idiotic cat and we've completed our tenth D-rank mission!"
There was a few minutes of cheering from Team Aoto, before there was a yelp and a cry of "ow! You stupid cat!" from Niimaru as the tawny scratched the Nara on the face. A small trickle of blood went down his face and Niimaru looked like he was about to turn the tawny cat into tawny-cat-shish-ko-bob, if only he had know the proper jutsu for it, which, thankfully, he didn't. If he had done so the entire team would have done much, much more than shish-ko-bob him, that was for sure.
"Don't insult the cat." Aoto said sternly.
"There's no use for that sort of language." Erika said sharply, smiling at the cat.
"Hmph." Niimaru said. "Then you hold it."
"Fine."
"Fine!"
"She's intolerable, isn't she?" Kitari asked, smirking.
"Yes, she is." Niimaru agreed, handing Erika the annoying cat.
The tawny hissed at Erika, who hissed back. The cat blinked it's wide, golden yellow eyes and then smiled (that is, if cats can smile) at the dark eyed Uchiha. "Meow." The cat said.
Niimaru looked stunned. "How?" He whispered. "How did you get that cursed cat to like you!?"
Erika shrugged.
"Amazing." Kitari said, shaking his head in disbelief. "The cat hissed at her, then Erika hissed at the cat!"
"Let's just get this stupid cat to the mission center then we can get on to our first C-rank mission and be done with these incredibly annoying and stupid D-rank missions." Erika said.
"Yes ma'am." Kitari agreed. Niimaru mock saluted, and Erika shot him a very dirty look. The Nara went very red in the face, feeling embarrassed for some reason. Perhaps it was the look in Erika's eyes. The three trudged along the path to the mission center and they all walked in.
"Lord Hokage." Aoto said with a slight nod of acknowledgement. The three young genin had stopped bowing to the Hokage, but for some reason that the genin did not really get why their Jounin sensei had insisted on continuing to bow... or at least dipping his head that sort of counted as bowing.
"KITTY!" A fat, extremely plump woman with rosy red cheeks, a red bow in her blondish hair wearing a fat pink colored dress that definitely did not go well with her skin tone. She hugged the cat so tight that Erika was shocked the cat could still breath, and the cat yowled and tried to free itself.
"No wonder the cat ran away. I would run away too if I had to be treated like that." Erika whispered to Niimaru and Kitari, who both snickered, but quickly covered it up with coughing when the fat lady glanced at them through teary eyes.
"Oh." She said, swooning with a smile on her fat lips. "My dear little kitty! Thank you, thank you ever so much!" She handed Aoto sensei the cat, whereas the Aburame held the squirming kitty at an arm's length, looking slightly uncomfortable with his nose wrinkled up in disgust.
Then, even worse, the fat lady jumped forwards with a slow step, her chubby little arms outstretched. Oh no. Kitari thought. No, no, no. SHE'S GOING TO HUG US! No way was the Hyuga going to let that happen! But it was too late. She squashed him in a big, fat hug filled with blubber. It was obvious that Niimaru and Erika were trying hard not to giggle, and were, very unfortunately, failing... well, for Niimaru at least. Erika looked like she could contain any emotion at all in her stony face.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the woman finally stopped hugging him and Kitari gasped for breath. "Can't... breath..." He gasped as the trying woman went towards Erika, who looked stiff as though she knew what was coming to her.
"I'd prefer if you don't hug me." She said.
"Oh, but dearie, after bringing back my dear little kittie, it's the least that I can do..."
"I said." Erika said, her voice hardening a bit. "That I don't want to be hugged."
"But..."
"In my culture, we simply shake hands." Erika said in a soft, gentle voice.
"Why's she always so nice to the clients, huh?" Kitari murmured to Niimaru. "I mean, she's the rudest person I've ever met..."
"Well... sort of..." Niimaru whispered back.
"What do you mean, sort of?" Kitari whispered back in the most shocked voice that he could while whispering.
"Well, you know, she's always, well, emotionless, but she is sort of scary, if you know what I mean."
Kitari grinned, "Fine, fine. If that's your logic then okay."
The fat woman smiled, then nodded. "Okay then!" She said cheerfully, taking Erika's hand into her own.
"It was nice meeting you." Erika said pleasantly. "I hope to see you again."
Niimaru was a little surprised that she didn't add a little: not at the end of her sentence. He could tell that she was probably just as annoyed at the woman, maybe even more, but she didn't show it.
"Such a polite little girl!" The woman said with a smile. Niimaru could tell by the way his teammate's eyes flashed that she was incredibly annoyed by this single sentence, but she simply nodded, stone faced. "Isn't she a nice wittle girl wittle kitty?" She then took the hissing and protesting cat away from Aoto, who looked greatly relieved that the cat was now out of his hands. "Thank you again!" She said, waving to them and sauntering out as tough she thought that she was some sort of movie star.
"Phew, she's finally gone!" Kitari said, wiping his forehead of sweat.
"Don't talk that way." Erika scolded, her voice icy cold. "She's a client, and pretty much the reason that you and I get to have a C-rank mission now. So you could really afford to be more polite."
"Why are you so nice to clients, and only clients?" Kitari grumbled.
"Because they're our clients, duh." Niimaru said, bopping him on the head.
Erika smirked. "Okay, Lord Hokage, we're ready for the C-rank mission."
"Good." A voice said, over to the right.
The three genin turned in shock to see a red haired woman with grape green eyes tilting her head up.
"Then, can I have them already, Lord Hokage?" She asked, smirking. "They look like rubbish, but it's not like I have that much enemies anyways." She said, smiling.
"We're escorting her!?" Kitari exclaimed.
"Yes." The Hokage said calmly.
"Greetings, ma'am." Erika said with a slight nod.
"Greetings." The woman replied pleasantly. "It's nice to know that at least one of my escorts is going to be polite to me, unlike some others who will possibly use coth language."
"Hmph." Kitari said.
"So, what's the mission?" Niimaru asked curiously.
"Ah, yes. I will explain that." The Hokage said, drawing himself up as though making his posture better was to earn him more respect or something stupid like that. "You see, this is Hona, a messenger between countries. The only thing is, that unlike most messengers, Hona is not a Shinobi, as there is no true home for her. But I want her to deliver an ally request to the Hidden Village of Cloud, Kumogakure. But she does need some ninjas to escort her."
"So, are we leaving or what?" Hona asked, rolling her eyes. "I know that ninja are fast, but still, I'd prefer to get a move on, if you know what I mean."
"Right." Aoto said with a nod. "Then let's get going."
Hona nodded. "Good." She said, then turned. "So, are we going or what?"
The Hokage smiled at them. "You've got five minutes to pack."
"Five minutes, okay, wait... FIVE MINUTES!? WHAT DO YOU MEAN FIVE MINUTES...!?"
Erika leaned against the stone wall surrounding Konoha to protect the village from intruders.
"You're late." Hona said crisply in an annoyed voice as Niimaru approached them, his hand shoved in his pockets, his body slumped.
"This is such a drag." Niimaru moaned. "You're just lucky that I came only a minute late. This is such a drag that I even considered ditching this whole stupid thing."
"Hmph. Yeah right." Kitari snorted. "Your pride would get in the way of that."
Erika nodded. "You bet that Niimaru's to prideful. Not as much as me, mind you, but still, he's got some pride."
"Let's just get going already." Aoto said, squinting up at the sun, his hand shielding his eyes from the sun.
"That's right." Hona said, with a slight nod. "I don't want to be waiting here at the gates of Konoha forever just waiting for you three genin to stop bickering this entire time, you know."
Kitari went very red in the face, and started spluttering a little. Just a little, mind you.
"Let's just get going." Erika said with a sigh. "Don't try to make excuses for what we try or actually do, okay Kitari?" She asked.
Kitari just sighed angrily, but also in a very annoyed way. "Okay, okay, whatever." He muttered, then stalked off.
Hona just looked at the Jounin and other two genin, then followed the ticked off Hyuuga. With a shrug, the others followed, and it was this way for a moment, them all just walking in silence. Step, step, step. Their shoes made a crunching sound against the gravel dirt road as they walked quietly to Kumo.
"So..." Niimaru said, finally breaking in to the silence. "Do you expect any trouble on this trip, Hona?"
Hona laughed. "Of course I do." She replied sweetly, smiling oh so innocently. "I expect tons of trouble on this trip."
"You're just being sarcastic." Kitari said, feeling his face burn a bright red, and was pretty sure that he was blushing. "That's annoying."
"No, she's not being sarcastic, actually." Aoto said in that deep voice of his. "On any mission you should expect to die, or be killed, or assassinated. Especially on escort missions."
"Yeah right." Kitari snorted. "Like on a stupid D-rank mission, we're supposed to expect to die any moment?"
"Well, other than that." Aoto said, shrugging. "Besides, those... uh... stupid D-rank missions can hardly count as missions."
Erika nodded in agreement. "That's for sure." She said.
"So, were you really being sarcastic or not?" Niimaru asked Hona curiously, seeming to be actually interested in the fact.
"No." Hona replied, shaking her head no.
Suddenly a few kunai whipped in front of Hona's nose, missing by barely a hair, as though somehow them talking about it had made enemy come out of nowhere.
"Nice to see that you were expecting us." A voice said from off to the right. The speaker was a dark haired man, with beady black eyes and wearing a long black jacket. "After all, having a fight without having a good enemy is hardly something that can be called a fight, right boys?" There were about seven or so men behind the dark haired man, all crossing their arms and losing.
"An assassin. Really?" Aoto asked with an exasperated sigh. "How unorigional."
The man laughed. "Wow. Five people, four ninja. There's nine of us, including me. Three of you guys take the Jounin and the target, and two each to a genin, got it?"
"Got it." The men agreed.
"Oh yeah." The man said, smiling. "And also, don't be afraid to kill any of those stupid ninja. Actually, try to kill the ninja as soon as possible."
The men now smiled, and two of the missing nin rushed over to Erika, arms back to gain speed. One of the men hopped behind Erika and the other in front. "Killing her will be easy enough." The ashen faced man said, smirking.
"That's for sure." The man with hair colored like golden sand said.
Erika laughed coldly. "Yeah right." She said, then fingered her necklace, then the Uchiha quickly got into position. "In fact." She said. "I bet that you can't get a single scratch on me."
"Don't be so full of yourself." The blond snarled, rushing forwards.
Erika held up her hand to block his kick, then lashed out a kick to sweep the feet off of the other man. Her hands quickly flew into familiar singles. Serpant. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger. "Katon! Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" A burst of fire flew from her mouth towards the men, who quickly scattered.
The brown haired man smirked. "Well, well." He said, smiling. "A jutsu. Bet your sensei didn't teach you that one. No matter, it will just make your death slower, and perhaps a little bit more painful that it would have been." With that he launched a kick at her but Erika grabbed it and twisted. Hard. The brown haired man gritted his teeth.
"Come on, Katon, what are you waiting for?" The blond asked, then the brown haired man's hands flew into signals. "Earth Release: Shaky Earthquake!" Cracks ran along the ground and there it began to rumble.
Erika held back a scream. Earth! She thought in shock. I have earth and lightening type chakra! Lightening is strong against earth! But oh... I didn't learn any lightening jutus. AARGGHHHH! Stupid battle. Erika jumped up, then pulled out a kunai and shot it at the man, who gasped out as the kunai hit him.
"You dirty little..." Katon said, swearing under his breath.
He never finished his sentence. Erika yanked out a kunai and stabbed him in the neck. She had been behind him. The Uchiha felt a wave of guilt wash over her as the man crumpled to the ground, dead. She shouldn't have done that... if you hadn't done that, you just might be dead right now. Erika reminded herself. Now for the other one. She pulled out a shuriken and threw it at the blond.
He pulled out a kunai and deflected them with graceful ease. "You're going to pay for what you did to Katon, little genin." He said, gritting his teeth.
"Hmph, I'd like to see you try." Erika replied, her voice ice cold.
Then suddenly there was a flash and there was a swirling ball of chakra and flame in the blond's hand.
He didn't use any hand seals! Erika thought in alarm. No way... but... how? Impossible! Wait... no... there is such thing. Aahhh! The swirling flame shot towards her, and Erika was too slow, she was unable to dodge. The Uchiha had forgotten about the sand. Swirling golden sand shot up in the air and the flame fought against it but it finally broke down and lost.
"Sand?" The blond choked. "Unbreakable sand? What kind of jutsu is this!?"
Erika laughed coldly. "Oh, it's a jutsu that even if you can beat me unconscious (which I highly doubt you can, by the way) it still won't stop."
The man growled, then dispersed. A clone! Erika whipped around, but he kicked her with such speed that Erika would have thought it impossible, and the dark haired girl was sent flying back to the tree. Luckily, the sand caught her and she wasn't injured, but his speed... Then the man's hands flew into seals. "Fire Release: Mini Dragon Bullets!"
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Erika repeated to counter the attack, then she brushed her hair from her face. "I see now that I can't beat you." She said. No way, this guy was waay too powerful. Then, the Uchiha smirked. "At least." She said. "Not without help." And there it was, in her eyes, her blood red eyes. Sharingan.
"Uh!" Kitari said, getting into the Hyuuga fighting stance, then he shot chakra to his hands, gently fighting his opponents using taijutu. "Gentle fist!" The opponent dodged, and smirked, but Kitari knew better. Sending out shots of chakra from his hands, he was able to damage his opponent's vital organs, possible even without his opponent knowing in the first place. How on earth am I going to win? Kitari thought desperately This is bad. This is really, really bad.
"Taijutsu? Really, I'm the best at taijutsu in our group. So don't even think that you can be me." One of the men, with dirty blond hair said, smirking.
"Bring it on." Kitari challenged, and the man flew at him. "Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!" Kitari's fists shot out with such speed that they were barely a blur. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five..." And it continued like so until the man flew back. Actually, Kitari technically wasn't supposed to learn that, but his father (who was apparently related to the head of the house) had taught him how to do it.
The dirty blond shot Kitari such a dirty look, and narrowed his eyes. "So, you're a main taijutsu user too, eh?" He asked, snarling. "Doesn't matter. You're going to die anyways."
"Oh Jayon, cut the kid some slack." The other man said. "Let him struggle a little, then we'll take him down." He smiled, running his finger along the sharp edge of his long bladed sword.
"Thanks." Kitari growled in a voice layered with sarcasm, rolling his eyes. "I feel soo much better now. Yeah right."
"Well, well." Jayon said, scowling at the other man who had been (at least in Kitari's opinion) incredibly annoying. "Looks like we should cut your stupid little tongue off before we get a real fight going."
"Like you could get that close, you little amateur?" Kitari asked in a taunting voice.
"Ooh, so that's it you little so-called ninja? You're witty retort?" The blade holding man asked, narrowing his eyes. "That's it. I've lost all the pity I've had for you and your sharp little tongue." With that he raced forwards, and he swung his sword at Kitari with such speed and ferocity that he could barely see anything but a quick little blur.
The blank eyed Hyuga leaped up, but the sword ripped off a bit of his pants. Kitari gritted his teeth. Okay, one practically Jounin opponent was enough, but two? Great. He thought. I'm going to get killed on my first C-class mission. How incredibly stupid. Why did I want a C-rank mission anyways!? I wonder how Niimaru and Erika are doing... Aoto-sensei would probably be fine, he's most likely had missions way harder than this, but Niimaru and Erika...
He just hoped they wouldn't get injured, even annoying Erika. And Hona... no, Aoto-sensei was watching her, no way would she get killed... right? But he didn't have any more time to think, Jayon flew at him and kicked him in the stomach. Kitari doubled over, clutching at his stomach, and while he was down the blade wielder swung the sword at his head. Luckily Kitari had dropped to his knees from the pain and the blade just barely missed him, cutting off a couple of hairs from his head.
Kitari swallowed. I'm going to have to work my hardest and best if I'm going to even just survive against these guys, let alone fight them. He thought as he dodged another swing of the sword wielder's blade. Well, at least I have a kekkei genkai. Kitari thought. "Byakugun!"
Kitari fought harder, speeding behind Jayon and hitting him with his Gentle Fist. Jayon spun around after he had just barely hit him and then his fist smashed and connected with Kitari's cheek. The blank eyed boy spun backwards and his head connected on the wood with a sickening thwack. Kitari reached up and rubbed the back of his throbbing head, then stood up on shaky legs, only to fall to the ground again. This is it. The blank eyed boy thought as he saw then glinting silver blade swing towards him. I'm going to die. How pathetic.
And suddenly, barely an inch from him, the blade stopped. He saw a wide eyed, shocked look on the blade user's expression. Then, the blade user sank to his knees, his eyes rolling back in his sockets as they closed, and he fell to the ground, his hands still grasping the hilt of his sword.
Behind him, was Hona, in all her green eyed glory. "Hey little genin." She said, looking slightly worried. "You okay?"
"I'm fine." Kitari said, standing up. Hona grabbed his arm to help him stabilize himself.
"I told you that my genin would be okay." A deep voice behind Hona said. It was Aoto-sensei, his hands shoved into his pockets.
"Hmph. Sorry excuse for ninja." Hona said, looking grim. "You can't turn off that little trick of yours just yet, little genin." It took Kitari a moment to realize that she meant his Byakugun. "We've got to help those friends of yours. I'm just hoping that they're still alive."
Aoto and Hona's battle had actually been quite simple and quick. Aoto had only fought for a couple of minutes, using his bugs, sorry, insects, and dispatched of the enemy, then had set over to the nearest genin, who just happened to be Kitari.
Unfortunately, Niimaru's battle had not actually been so. "Shadow Imitation Jutsu!" The then stream of shadows shot out towards his enemies, but they dodged easily, just as they had the first time. Niimaru gritted his teeth. "This is such a drag." He said, glaring at his enemy. "I wish that you would stop wasting my time."
The dark haired ninja who Niimaru recognized as the leader (why the heck did they have to send the leader after him, pray tell?) laughed. It was that annoying, amused, are-you-serious? kind of laugh. "Funny." He drawled in a lazy voice. "I was about to say the same thing."
"Nice to know that we agree." Niimaru said, his hands flying into seals and the shadow once again snaked out, but the missing-nin easily dodged his pathetic attacks.
"Yes, it is nice to know." The dark haired nin replied, pulling out a couple of kunai and pressing them in between his fingers. "Then we can just kill you and get it over with."
"Kiron- sir- are you sure it is- well, wise, to kill the boy?" The other man, a young red headed man with a long, pale reddish scar over his cheek asked hesitantly.
"Are you questioning my ability to judge things?" The leader, Kiron, asked coldly.
"N-n-no..." The redhead stuttered, his eyes wide.
"Shadow Imitation Jutsu." Niimaru whispered and the thin stream of shadow shot out from him. The Nara had noticed that the other's had already finished their battles. He had better finish his up too... I hope that this works. He thought. While the enemy's still distracted, attack. Basic ninja law. But unfortunately his enemy knew this rule as well, and also the rule to always be alert.
"You really don't think that you can get me with that lame jutsu, do you?" Kiron asked, a hand on his hip, laughing. "You think we weren't paying attention to you as well?"
Niimaru felt the feel of cold, hard metal against his neck. A kunai!
"Drop your weapons and give us the messenger right now." The red headed man said, pressing the kunai against Niimaru's throat. "Or I kill him."
A/N: I felt kind of stupid writing this chapter. Fight scenes aren't (... and never will be...) my strong point in writing. Do you feel like I'm stupid while you're reading this? Because it's okay if you do. :D By the way, this chapter is actually really, really important. Sort of.
