a/n I had a fantastic two weeks.
Not.
First I got a fever, then shoulder pains, then back pains, then a cold, then my eczema decided to make a reoccurrence.
It was horrible.
I'm sorry if this seems a little stranger than usual – half of it was written while laid up in bed, the other half while also hurried with trying to catch up with the work I missed… while laid up in bed writing fanfiction.
Though, I did realise something – Shikamaru would great at playing Candy Crush.
Yep.
That's what I contemplated during my fever-induced bedrest.
Okay, I'll stop now.
Last update BrightestOfCrayons won the 100th review oneshot, and it is in the works – I've just been very busy with the aforementioned sickness and then overload of work, which is why it isn't done yet. It'll be done by next update! Probably. I'm sorry.
.
[edit 28/05/2017: well firstly shit because that oneshot kind of;; never got done;; and also general grammar fixes ect.]
.
Light filtered in from the beaming sun, an unfathomable yet present warmth seeping into the air, the faintest of breezes bringing the sweet scents of the market to the window…
While I grumbled and attempted to turn off my alarm clock while half asleep.
Hey, never said I was a morning person. In fact, it was likely the opposite, considering the ridiculous price of coffee meaning that on my pitiful genin wage it was a once-a-week thing. And I'd already drunk my weekly coffee on Monday.
Rolling out of bed, still partially swathed in sheets, I irritably shut the blinds – why I didn't do that last night, I couldn't remember – and grudgingly tugged on my ninja uniform. In my opinion, if the normal waking time were pushed back to 10am, the world would be a happier place.
Well, maybe my old world would. In this one, what with all the mass-murdering psychopaths roaming the countryside (I'm looking at you, Akatsuki) and six year olds taught how to efficiently shut off someone's airways – it's unlikely it'd help much.
Now in a foul mood, having thought about both my new career and my old world – two sure-fire ways to piss me off – I somewhat carelessly made my way across the rooves, twenty minutes late to the designated team meeting time.
Ah well. They're probably used to it by this point.
Now putting all my focus into hiding my chakra, I soundlessly made my way across the branches –
- until a squirrel caught sight of me and immediately skittered away, attracting attention to my movement. Head whipping around, Inoichi somewhat smirked at me glaring at the errant squirrel.
Possibly smirked. It was rather difficult to tell with him.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Not caring if I was swearing, I dropped from the trees, sending one more baleful gaze at the rodent before sitting on my tree stump, not caring if it looked like I was sulking. Might as well make use of this child's appearance for frivolous luxuries like this.
"Language." Absently reminded Inoichi, poker face firmly in place. "Now, today we'll be taking our first mission-"
"Mission?" Jumping up, Shirai was acting like an immature idiot – as usual. Not once did it cross his mind to ask exactly what mission we were taking. "Hell ye-"
"No, Shirai-san, it will not be awesome." Cutting in, my cold gaze was now directed at Inoichi. Just this morning, I'd already woken up late, sun in my eyes, no coffee and a goddamn squirrel giving away my position. There was no need to add '1st D-ranked mission' to that list as well.
"Pfft, how would you know what missions we're going on?" I pinched the bridge of my nose. After repeatedly proving him wrong about his truly idiotic preconceptions, you'd expect him to listen – but of course, he didn't. Of – fucking – course.
Taking advantage of the lull in conversation, Inoichi interjected before I could voice my convoluted explanation as to why we should wait before we do D-ranks. "You'll find out once we get to the Missions Office." Giving us a passing glance, Inoichi stood and turned to leave the grounds, leaving no room for arguments.
Pulling a face and dragging myself up, I dragged my feet the whole way.
Yes, petty and immature. However once you factor in listening to Shirai's ridiculous talk of 'protecting Daimyo' and the imminent cat-chasing, weed-pulling or furniture-moving, it really wasn't that uncalled for.
Tch. They all graduated from the Academy, to be demoted to shopping for some random civilian-!
"Calm it. You'll rip the list." Cut through Satoko, managing to sound both disparaging and authoritative at the same time. Grudgingly, he relaxed his grip, although his face stayed put in its scowl. Why did she always believe she was above him – like they both hadn't graduated with similar-ish marks (he knew she ended up 14th out of the 24 people who passed) – and disregard the fact he had worked damn hard to get to where he was!
Gritting his teeth now, he stalked away from that nin-tailor's house in silent fury, however extremely maturely keeping a lid on it. Next to him, Satoko snorted in that self-important way she had, beckoning him to read out the list. Dammit, who cares about being polite to someone like her?
"I'm not someone for you to order around-" he began hotly, before being stopped by Sensei raising a placating hand.
Scowling, he ended his rant, choosing to send glares at his indifferent teammate.
"Now, what do you think about her accent?" enquired Inoichi, looking at the three of them as they walked towards the market. Huh, what was that about her accent? It was quite similar to that time the family shop had those people from…
"Fire Country, far west, isn't it?" he hummed, recalling those particular shinobi who'd been posted there, on and off, for the previous… 10 years? It'd be 12 by now, wouldn't it? They were kinda nice, he guessed, though they smelled a little like manure. Eurgh.
Now he could remember them clearly.
Perhaps a little too clearly.
"Correct." Giving him a quick, reassuring smile, he gave a slight one back to Sensei, feeling a rush of satisfaction at getting something faster than Satoko for once. "Now, what does this suggest about this particular nin-tailor?"
"Likely from a farming family." Droned Satoko, looking as uninterested as usual. Tch. Why is she here if she isn't even going to pretend she's trying? "And as she came here, presumably has no husband, and still apparently has her original accent…?" She looked doubtfully at him, and he felt the temptation to interrupt her – why did she have to doubt everything he said? He wasn't an idiot! "…It's likely she was from one of the town affected by the Year 68 economic downturn in the region of the Nishiwaga municipality, isn't it?"
Shrugging, she carried on walking.
What in the – well, who cares if she can list off all those facts? They're useless in a fight.
Carefully he disregarded the fact she did better in that spar with Chouji than he did.
"And how can you tell that she has no husband?" Gently prodding them for answers, he thought hard. Why – I mean, she could, she had a house big enough-
"Her shopping list consists of mainly ingredients that could be combined into quick and easy meals, and the portions are small." Giving Shoda a blank look – hey, wasn't he holding the list? He blinked as he noticed his hands were conspicuously empty.
Dammit, he had been robbed again!
Grumbling under his breath, he waited for Satoko's admonishments again. "Good job, Norio-kun." Ah, there it was. "Finally noticed you got robbed from right underneath your nose." Gah, that sarcastic damned drawl just rubbed him wrong in every – single – damn – way!
"Satoko-chan…" In a warning tone, Inoichi defended him, though that did nothing to ease his temper. He didn't need others to fight for him!
"I'm trying to help his situational awareness." Pointed out Satoko, with some sort of sick innocence radiating from her. It was damn obvious she'd been caught red-handed trying to needle him for his reactions.
As she did every day, without fail.
Honestly, it was as if she took some joy in pointing out everything wrong about him, while ignoring his good points! …which were admittedly small in number, but there still were some, and they'd never once been mentioned by her.
Sighing, Inoichi gave a dry look at Satoko. "You knew exactly what you were doing, Satoko-chan." At angelic, wide-eyed expression he got back, Sensei apparently gave up. "Honestly, if anything, you're the person creating the most teamwork problems." Inoichi-sensei finally saw that? And here he thought Jounin were supposed to be perceptive. "So, yes. You can tell through her accent that she is from far West Fire Country, and therefore was almost certainly involved in their economic crisis. How does this reflect on her personality?"
"Since she moved to Konoha likely due to that, she'll be more money-minded, and therefore more likely to be bribed." Glowering now, he started walking faster. Psh, if he'd been given just a little bit more time, he'd see that as well.
Nodding approvingly at Satoko, Inoichi continued. "Correct. She'll also be more frugal in her spending, and so we can predict which stores she favours. We can also assume the amount of time she spends in the market will be shorter and likely during times where prices are lower." Pausing for a moment, he looked over at Shoda, who was looking rather astonished at the list. "Does her shopping match up to our hypothesis?"
Hypo-what? Well, whatever it was, it reflected the list, since Shoda gave a sharp nod.
"We'll be doing more of these kinds of tasks and analysing personality traits." Giving a quick look at all of them, Inoichi's eyes fixed onto him. "It'll also be for identifying where you lack certain information gathering skills." For some reason, he felt they were pointed towards him, and he seethed. He was not that bad! "But, for now, let's buy these items."
Stalking forwards, he shot a dirty glare at Satoko as she gave an almost imperceptible snort at him.
Some day he wouldn't be looked at as if he was a dunce. He swore it. He'd be just as amazing as his brother.
Another piece of paper landed in the bin as I gnawed on my pen distractedly. How to address this? Scowling, I picked up another piece. Why did I care so much about that damned imposter family? I was only writing this because they kept me alive for the first few years of this life.
Now frowning heavily, I put my pen to the paper. I really needed to stop worrying about frivolous things like this – it wasn't as if they cared if it was perfectly written or not.
'Dear Koike Wakana, Koike Takuya and Koike Yoshi-something.
Not that you cared that much in the first place, but I'm still alive, and am now a ninja. I will not be visiting you again, nor should you expect any support from me when you're older. In other words, all relations between us have been severed. I do not expect a response to this letter, and any messages that you send to me will be ignored.
From your ever-loving daughter,
Koike Satoko.'
Looking at the letter with a certain amount of distaste – there was still an underlying feeling that it was poorly written – I carelessly stuffed it into my pocket, intending to bring it to the Fire Country Post thing. Not only was it posted at a minimal cost, however it also was screened by paperwork Chuunin, meaning there would be a record of being separated from my family within Konoha Records.
Somewhere.
The Archives were a huge thing, spanning several buildings and reaching both far over ground and underground, so looking for a single letter would be near impossible if not already an admin ninja for that specific section.
There was also something else that felt like guilt, squatting in my stomach like a bad curry, though I ruthlessly crushed the feeling as soon as I identified it. Why should I feel guilty for their poor parenting?
Besides, I already cut ties with the genin girls because they no longer represented a good investment of time and effort. It'd be foolish not to continue with what I'd already started.
Wandering along the now-familiar Konohan streets (there was no rush, so I might as well relax), I paused on the street corner as I heard the all-too-familiar calls of 'teme' and something sounding suspiciously like 'Sasuke-kun' echoing around the buildings.
So I turned, post-haste, and decided to take the longer route.
No need to be around them any longer than needed.
"What are they doing here?" I had completely fouled up my morning stealth – however, it was with good reason. Because upon arriving there in the morning, Team 7 were standing there.
Not exactly your ordinary Wednesday. And to think, I'd walked for an additional 10 minutes to avoid them yesterday.
"Kakashi-sensei left a note saying to come here." Scowling, Sasuke made it quite clear how he felt about that particular news. Of course, then Sakura took this to be his 'brooding face' or some ridiculous fangirl shit like that and not-so-subtly began squealing.
The headaches. I could feel them coming.
If I get fucking abducted by the Akatsuki, Inoichi would rue the day he allowed them to stay in our training grounds.
"So, I suppose we will integrate them into our training today." Inoichi's poker face was in place, and it really didn't take a genius to work out that he probably wasn't particularly happy with this situation. Though, it really would take a genius to confirm it. That was one mean poker face.
However, now I think about the circumstances closely…
Kakashi blackmailed him, didn't he?
"Morning warm ups – Satoko-chan, you're doing four laps now." Apparently, my distaste showed on my face, as the barest hints of a smirk came through. "You've known since the start that you were capable of more. I was simply humouring you." Now full-out scowling, I began running, followed closely by Sasuke.
"I'll be running with you." Sasuke's cool words shook me out of my thoughts.
"You're doing four laps too?" Outwardly I was politely enquiring, however internally I wished I were capable of outrunning him. There was no way I wanted to have any links between me and soon-to-be nuke-nin Uchiha Sasuke.
Except excessive training would make it all the more likely to be entered into the Chuunin Exams.
Damn.
"Five." Not to be outshone? Hm. If you look closely, there were actually many parallels between him and Naruto, no matter how much the two of them would deny it.
"Overachiever."
"Hn."
It fell into peaceful silence, punctuated by the occasional distant yell from Naruto or Shirai.
"Can you leave your team?" Blinking, I looked over at Sasuke. Well, of course, he'd want to leave – I could count on one hand the number of people who'd willingly spend time Naruto.
That's disregarding any Naruto fangirls from Life 1.
"Yep. But you won't be able to."
At this, his frown became more pronounced. "Why not?"
"Because Hatake Kakashi is the only person in the village who can teach you to use your Sharingan properly."
"Wha- Kakashi-sensei?" After a moment of silence, his eyes widened. "He has the Sharingan under that hitai-ate?"
Sighing, I upped the pace of my running. It was astonishing how ignorant he was about things not pertaining to power training. "It's not my place to say anything." Scowling now, he fell into contemplative silence.
Well, it was silent for a bit, until Naruto came racing past us, closely followed by a heavily sweating and breathless Shirai. "Having fun there, Norio-kun?"
Giving me a glare – it was like a fluffy guinea pig glaring, it really wasn't intimidating at all – he carried on full-out sprinting after Naruto. I was completely happy allowing them all to pass me, and focused on completing my last lap.
Arriving feeling rather refreshed, I was greeted by the sight of Shirai sprawled out on the grass, sweat patches on his clothes, while Naruto looked… about the same as ever. Probably an added boon from Kyuubi – being permanently full to the brim of energy.
"Well, how are you doing, Norio-kun?" Smirking now, he gave an undecipherable grunt and a pointed glare before going back to doing a remarkably accurate impression of a fish out of water – gasping and flopping, namely, were the points of comparison. At this point Shoda turned up, took one look at Shirai and Naruto, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"It was supposed to be a warm-up, not a race!" The pair didn't even have the decency to look slightly sheepish.
"Katsu-kun's right, you know." Of course, Inoichi finally turned up. "You still have the rest of the exercises to get through. Oh, and Satoko-chan?" My face fell as I realised what he was about to do. "You'll be doing one third more than stated, and I will be watching you." Scowling – surely, it was enough that I was far healthier than my previous life – I fell into doing push-ups, dreading how my muscles would feel tomorrow.
Pouting slightly – she wasn't scowling, that would be unbecoming of a lady – she waited under the trees for Team 5's lazy kunoichi to turn up. It was that Satoko girl - wasn't it? The one with yellow eyes that Naruto greeted, and then she had the audacity to not even bother greet Sasuke-kun or herself! And she'd gotten so ugly too – wearing all black, shapeless trousers that all the boys wore, frizzy hair and eye bags…!
"Satoko-chan, you need to get better control over your reaction to surprise." At Inoichi's sudden words, she squeaked a little as Satoko suddenly fell out of one the trees, giving them all a somewhat creepy stare.
"What are they doing here?" At this she bristled – she wasn't even going introduce herself, or…or show any decorum in the slightest? Honestly, it's no wonder Naruto greeted her – they were two of a kind!
"Kakashi-sensei left a note saying to come here." Ah, Sasuke-kun – oh, he had that beautiful and ever-so-handsome thoughtful face! Smothering her squeals, she recorded his features to memory, filing them away in the Sasuke-kun dedicated part of her mind.
"So, I suppose we will integrate them into our training today." Inoichi's bland voice broke through her thoughts, and she blinked at the thought. Training? They'd never done any of that with Kakashi. Besides, what constituted training? Did they learn new jutsu? "Morning warm ups – Satoko-chan, you're doing four laps now." All the blood drained out of her face.
Laps?
But the training grounds – each of them were huge!
However, it appeared Inoichi actually meant laps – just thinking about it made her feel tired - since after a brief, one-sided conversation, Satoko began running around the outskirts of the grounds.
"I'm doing five." Sasuke-kun's tone brooked no argument, and she'd love to follow him, however she doubted she'd get through five laps. So she watched with sad eyes as Sasuke-kun went to follow Satoko, while internally debating how to make herself appear both strong and attractive.
"Well, then." Taking control of the situation again, he gestured towards the two remaining members of Team 5. "You're doing the usual, three laps. Naruto-kun, you can do three too." Turning to him, she felt the urge to squirm under his cold gaze. "Sakura-chan, two. Your body has barely any muscle mass. Do you have any morning exercise regimen?" At her shy denial, he pinched his nose bridge in a move she associated with Ino-pig. "Then make it one lap." Muttering something about 'irresponsible Kakashi blackmailing innocent people', he wandered away, leaving her to do her running.
.
.
Panting on the ground, she looked balefully at the dismissive gaze Satoko gave her. How did she not notice how much of a bitch this girl was in the Academy? 'Gah, what a two-faced, lying brute that girl is!' Inner Sakura raged, calling for her to jump up and clock her over the head as she did to Naruto. However, she really didn't have the energy for that, plus it would make her look bad in front of Sasuke-kun, so she settled with something of a glare at Satoko.
Which apparently made Satoko more amused at her plight.
"Aww, the little bunny is trying to be scary." Even while she was doing push-ups, she still found the breath to mock her, which only served to bruise her pride further. Inoichi had let her off doing them after seeing how tired she was after even just one lap.
"I'm…not…a bunny…" panting, she continued glowering, despite her efforts being in vain.
"Well then, stop fawning over Uchiha-san, put on some weight and get stronger." Bluntly stated Satoko. Coming from her lips, it sounded less like advice and more like a demand. "You're useless, and so you can be a harmless bunny."
"B-but…" Not care about Sasuke-kun? Preposterous! He'd see that she was the perfect girl for him… eventually.
"I don't give a fuck." Apparently having finished her push-ups, she was now doing sit-ups.
"I-I'm-"
"Don't care." Gah! Who cares what Satoko was saying now!
"There's no way I'll give up on Sasuke-kun!" Voice dangerously close to being a growl, she gave the person who dared question her loyalty a black look.
"Good for you." Neutrally commented Satoko, voice finally showing some strain through the intensive exercise. To think, Satoko made her so mad she nearly yelled, and then simply blew her off once she proved herself?
Huffing, she rolled onto her side, facing away from Satoko.
Of course, the exercise session (and therefore the peacefulness and Sasuke watching session) ended too soon for her liking. As they sat on the ground, all panting apart from Naruto (idiot probably didn't know when to be tired), Team 5's sensei addressed them all.
"I'll be taking my team for a mission now-" Inoichi started, however was interrupted by loud refusal.
"Aw, Inoichi-sensei! D-ranks are so boring and pointless!" Oh yeah, Shirai Norio, wasn't it. Just as bad as Naruto – he might not be as loud, orange or ignorant, however he had a flaming temper and spoke at a volume that was just a touch too loud for polite company. And was an idiot, though to a lesser extent than Naruto.
Not that being slightly more intelligent than Naruto meant anything.
"We're doing a D-rank." Team 5's sensei reinforced the point, this time with an edge of steel to his tone that dissuaded Shirai from saying anything stupid. "So, Team 7, you have the rest of the day free. Please refrain from annoying your Sensei so much that he will have to take another break involving… 'saving baby dolphins from drowning'." A cool drawl to his voice made it clear that he really didn't believe a word Kakashi-sensei had said.
"Lazy Kakashi-sensei probably just went to read his porn somewhere." Griped Naruto, and for a moment she agreed with him. Then that notion was immediately banished, because she did not agree with Naruto for anything.
"Nevertheless, whatever drove him to cash in a favour with me – don't do it, because I will not be happy to see you here again." There was some emphasis on 'cashing in a favour'; making her think some less-than-peaceful interactions between the two Sensei had occurred. Nevertheless, she nodded, since Inoichi, despite his poker face, seemed subtly annoyed.
It was just a hunch, but if he really was annoyed…
Well, there was that tale her Kaa-chan liked to tell her about the two angry Jounin who blew up half the market district.
Leaving with Shirai and Sasuke subtly glaring at each other (seemed they'd really rubbed each other the wrong way) she gave in to one last childish instinct and stuck out her tongue at Satoko just as they passed the gated and revelled in her disgusted expression. Only for a second though, because she needed to remind poor Sasuke-kun that she was always there to walk home with him if needed be.
It must be so awful for him, having his family killed like that…
"Yes!" crowed Shirai next to me, practically jumping. "C-rank!"
"What is the C-rank?" Of course, I was happy that I wouldn't have to do yet another old lady's shopping, but for all I knew it was something as boring as the real Team 7's mission of guarding whoever turned up at the gates for bandit protection. That is, before whatever missing-nin it was decided to spice things up.
"It's a small bandit ring in Hanran Hara village, near the border with Waterfall." Explained Inoichi, picking out the different elements from the chicken scratch on the scroll. "We were called in to work out who are the bandits and… eliminate them."
"Eliminate?" Questioned Shoda, with an odd look in his eyes. Well, of course he'd look a little off, since I believe Inoichi was insinuating that…
"Yes, eliminate. So, kill."
At those words, the mood took a turn for the worse.
"It won't be difficult to do so," continued Inoichi, his relative monotone betraying no emotion. "This is more a matter of your first kill." Giving a quick, sweeping gaze, it lingered for a moment longer on Shirai, who'd gone horribly pale. "This was inevitable, and no doubt the Academy instructors mentioned that."
Hmm, I suppose they did. Somewhere in between the happy-go-lucky vibes and blatant indoctrination, of course.
"We'll discuss this later." Inoichi's tone had softened, and if I wasn't mistaken, his posture had adjusted slightly to make us feel more at ease. Well, I suppose I should be thankful for the effort.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, it wondered where my ever-so-cavalier attitude came from, why I wasn't bawling and shaking as my old world self would have done – however, I quickly dismissed it. No need to be worked up – I'd cross that bridge when I reached it.
"Pack enough for one month – Hanran Hara is a few days out, and since this is your first mission, we'll need additional time to explain the intricacies of completing missions to a high standard too." Inoichi stood, and the rest of us followed suit. "You can go now."
Walking away, I could almost feel the strange, questioning gaze of Inoichi on my back – however, I chose to ignore it.
Because whatever questions he had about my behaviour – I was pretty sure I also wouldn't be able to answer them.
a/n Cause this is FILLER, FILLER NIGHT.
I'm sorry, both for the lyric pun and the fact this is the junk I wrote for you guys.
Next chapter will include actual plot with the C-rank and all! Yes, plot! I know, I can't believe it either!
.
.
See you in 15 days/half a month/a fortnight and
press
the
button
and
leave
a
review!
Thank you!
- saya