I ambled back across the path, trying to remember where the rest of my so called 'team' would be. I still had the feather, since Kakashi wasn't taking it right away. There had to be a real message to this exercise, but what? I needed to figure it out before the two other items were taken. Teamwork? No that was too easy. Sharing? I doubt Kakashi would do that, it's so academy. Courage? Nah no real danger here. I could think of hundreds of morals, but nothing that fits here. After mindlessly wandering around, I kind of gave up on finding anyone. I sunk down under a tree and gazed off into space. I must've drifted off to sleep for a few minutes because when I woke up, it was nearly 3.
"Well that was a nice nap, but I guess I should actually get going. I think Kakashi expects me to do something"
"Since you're supposed to do something, why don't you help me out with this riddle"
"Sasuke, you're the amazing Uchiha, do it yourself"
"Why can't you be a nice, caring person for once in your life"
"It's not me, you're the only one here who is hard to get along with. You're so narcissistic"
"I don't need your help anyway"
"The answer's fire"
"What…"
"Fire, the answer to your riddle piece, 'No legs have I to dance, No lungs have I to breathe, No life have I to live or die And yet I do all three', it's fire"
"Thanks for your help"
"Don't get the wrong idea, I just figured you really did need my help"
"I'll get on that then, I'll see you later"
Instead of me running off to go and find someone else to help, I stayed right there. If they needed me, they could come and find me. Of course, within the next ten minutes, Naruto needed some guidance as well. I helped him out and waited for what's her face to come along as well. She never showed up, so I guess she was the only competent one. I looked over at a clock in one of the nearby shops, it was 6 in the afternoon. I decided to go find Kakashi, hoping that I could go home in the near future, Mariah would get mad if I stayed out too long.
"Hey Kakashi, are we going to be done anytime soon, I really should be getting back to the house"
"As soon as you can tell me the point of this exercise"
Ha! What an idiot, I've been thinking on that all day.
"It's simple, the point was teamwork and reconnaissance. Not everyone knew the answers to the riddles, so we would have to answer each other's questions, and ask for the help of others, it was your own choice if you wanted to answer or not"
"That's a good answer"
"Really…so is that it…or is there going to be…you know…something else!!!"
"No not at all, I just wanted your opinion on something, and it's funny watching you struggle to figure out simple riddles"
"Does that mean you're…NOT going to cut anyone?"
"That's right"
"What a waste of time…I'm out of here"
"Our first mission's tomorrow"
"Whatever, I don't need this sort of useless challenge. Bring something better for tomorrow"
I got home, skipping dinner, went straight to bed. What an odd day, but at least now I'll know what Mariah goes through every day.
The next morning, we all met up and got a mission. A stupid mission at that, but a mission none the less. We were dog walking, then picking up trash in a river. What a fun day we had in store for us. We were able to choose which dog we wanted. I picked a small terrier or some such, as did all of us besides Naruto. As fun as dog walking was, cleaning up after litterers was probably the highlight of my day. Not only do I hate wading through rivers, friendly conversation was a big no. Poke stick in the water, take out trash, poke stick in the water, take out trash, poke stick in the water, take out trash. See wasn't that really fun? Weeks and weeks went by almost exactly like that, I was really getting sick of this. What's the point of being a ninja if you don't do anything ninja-like!!
"Are you in position?"
"Target in sight, waiting on command"
"Go!"
We jumped from the bushes, b lining straight for our target. Naruto was the one to grab it, I didn't want to touch the stupid cat.
"Positive id"
"Affirmative, ribbon on right ear"
"Alright, head back"
"Why do these missions suck so bad!"
Araya had probably yelled Kakashi's ear off, I know I couldn't hear for a good 30 seconds.
"A little more warning if you're going to yell into the mic!"
"Sorry but these missions suck!"
"You think I'm happy with these crappy missions? But we have to start somewhere, I guess"
"Whatever, let's just get back so we can finish this mission"
So we turned the cat back in to the fat old lady that hired us.
"I can fix this!", Naruto stated, running back up to the Hokage's room, where the missions were dealt.
"This should be good"
"We deserve better missions than this!! Finding cats suck, so do picking weeds and all the other stupid stuff we do!! I want a real mission now!"
"Naruto, you don't know how to do this. I believe that our talents as shinobi are being wasted on such trivial missions that other qualified genin could easily do, so I am purposing that we are able to show our worth as ninja and take on a tougher mission. At your decision though"
"Believe it!"
"You sure have some clever wits in that blue head of yours" , he said, looking through his massive pile of papers, "Alright, I accept your proposal. You will be guarding a man back to his homeland. Here is a C ranked mission for your enjoyment as progressing shinobi"
"You cheater, took my words and just spun it right back at me. C missions aren't much better!"
"Well I have babysitting if you so choose"
"This is good, just fine thank you"
"Oh no it's not!", I said in response, "Next time you better have something better!"
"Send in our guest"
"I totally could've gotten a B ranked mission off of this"
Some guy who looked like he had had a little too much to drink came into the room.
"We have to guard a drunken old guy…wonderful""These little punks are the ones that I'm intrusting with my life! I might as well have gotten toddlers to do it"
"What did you say old man!? I'll show you a thing or two about insulting a Leaf shinobi"
"It's not worth it, just drop it"
We walked the old guy out the village gates and we were on our way to the land of waves.
