Disclaimer: Don't own.

Recap: Jenna and Naruto plan to have Kankuro ask Saiya out. Oddly enough, he agrees. Jenna goes on her first date with Kiba. Although she's a top fighter, she's a bumbling idiot when it comes to boys.

Chapter 12. Team

Saiya and I were called to Tsunade's office the next day. Apparently, she found a third squad member. I didn't really care. I was still thinking about Kiba!

***

Man, Jenna's acting weird. It's like she's on cloud nine or something. She's got this stupid grin on her face. What a dork. What could it be? Oh, yeah.

"So how was your date, Jen?" I asked.

***

Saiya was talking to me. "Huh?" I asked snapping out of my daydreams.

"How. Was. Your. Date?" She repeated slowly.

I blushed, "Good."

"Really?"

"It was better than good! We went…"

***

Blah, blah, blah was all I heard. Jenna was talking so fast that I couldn't understand her. I was happy for her, of course. I just didn't really care right now. It's still really early and I'm a terrible morning person.

We bowed to Tsunade once we entered her office.

"Ready to meet your third teammate?" She asked.

We nodded.

"You can come in now," Tsunade said to the door.

The boy who stepped inside was maybe fifteen or sixteen. He was built pretty well for his age but still a bit scrawny. His hair was black and tilted to the right, covering his eye, in that emo hair style. He wore a mesh shirt and knee length shorts. He also wore black hobo gloves and shin wraps.

"This is Hotori," Tsunade introduced. "He'll be your third teammate for the exams because his teammates did not wish to take them. Shizune will be your instructor. The three of you have an escort mission tomorrow. Unfortunately, Shizune wont be able to go on it. Why don't you get to know each other today. Dismissed."

We all bowed and left. We decided to sit on the roof of the Academy.

There was a really long silence.

***

Okay, this guy's giving me a weird look and Yas is so calm. If Shizune were here, she'd say something…right? "So…." I began.

"Look," Hotori interrupted me, "I don't care about you. I don't care who you are, and quite frankly, I don't care about this team. Stay out of my way and I wont kill you." he scoffed.

What a little punk… I'm gonna smack this kid around.

***

Haha! Jen's pissed.

"What are you smiling about, hag? What are you? Like 30 and you're still a genin. Pretty pathetic."

He's dead. He's so frickin dead.

***

Heehee. Saiya's gonna blow.

"And how old are you? Like 12?" I asked.

"I'm 15, ugly!

That's it! I'm gonna rip his throat out!

***

Jen lunged at him just then. Maybe I should stop her… … … okay, I will. I grabbed her shoulders and held her still.

"Let me go, Yas! Let me go! I'll kill him!" She thrashed around. Ugh! She used that nickname my parents called me when I was little. That was annoying.

"You can't kill a teammate, Jen, it doesn't work like that," I said with just a hint of annoyance in my voice.

"You're just afraid that I'll kick her ass and come after you, chicken shit," Hotori said.

***

I stopped thrashing to look at Saiya. Steam was practically coming out of her ears. Then she let me go and charged at him. Hesitantly, I grabbed her.

"Remember what you said about not killing teammates?"

"I'm not goanna kill 'em," she said while thrashing. "I'll just break his god damn jaw!"

"Let's see you try, losers!" Hotori yelled.

"That's it!" I dropped Yas and stormed up to him. I grabbed his shirt and shook him, "If you don't cut it out…" I didn't get to finish what I was going to say, because a smoke bomb went off in my face. I coughed loudly until the smoke cleared. The little brat was now standing on a pillar.

"Is that a threat, Kait?" He said smugly.

Yas and I looked at each other with cow eyes.

"Which one of us is he talking to?" I asked.

"I don't know," Yas shrugged. "Doesn't he know we're sisters?"

"Beats me," I shrugged back.

"Stop ignoring me! How was I supposed to know that?" Hotori yelled down.

"Oh, come off it!" I yelled more forcefully at him.

"Seriously. The first day I got here, everyone knew me," Yas said.

"And what we could do," I finished.

"What…you can do…?"

"We're the Kait twins," I started.

"With the kekkei genkai," Yas said.

"Aura Manipulation," we finished together.

"What the hell is that?" He asked clearly annoyed with us.

"Let me show you," I said walking to the pillar he stood on.

"Now, Jen, go easy on the brat," Yas warned.

"I know." I put my hand on the pillar and ice spread from my hand. Suddenly, it shattered where my hand had been. Hotori jumped off the falling pillar. I hit him with a weak blast of aura, just strong enough to knock him back a couple feet.

"What the hell just hit me?" He said as he stumbled to land on his feet.

"Aura," I said.

"So next time," Yas said.

"Don't piss us off!" We said.

"Whatever," he scoffed. "Don't be late for our mission tomorrow, got it?"

"Worry about yourself, punk," Yas said. She was really aggravated now.

The next day, we set out on our mission. We escorted some wealthy prick who had tried hitting on both me and Yas. I just ignored it, but Yas really wanted to punch him in the face. I could tell.

Hotori was pretty quiet the whole time. And, of course, we got attacked by bandits more than once.

Hotori seemed to be a decent fighter. He could take on three or four guys at a time. Like most genin, he had a habit of forgetting about his back. He never watched it or seemed even aware that someone might try to come at him from the back.

Then it happened.

A bandit with a sword charged Hotori's back.

I couldn't do anything. I was being overpowered by six guys. All I could do was yell his name. He turned to see the man charge, but it was already too late.

Blood.

Blood splattered Hotori's face, but it wasn't his blood. It was Saiya's.

She stood only inches from Hotori with the sword cutting through her stomach. The blade of the sword barely missed cutting him, too. Yas was holding the sword in front of her. Blood trickled down her fingers.

"YAS!!!" I yelled as I fought to get the group of bandits away. I decided ice daggers would do it. Without paying attention, I shot at them. The man in front of me screamed as a shard of ice cut into his eye and stopped yelling when it hit the brain. Everyone fell, some with daggers in their heads, some in the chest.

I ran to her and stabbed her attacker in the neck with an ice shard. He made an awful gurgling sound and fell limp on the ground.

"Ngh!" Yas began to pull the blade out slowly. Then she stopped, took a deep breath, and yanked it out. A small trickle of blood followed the blade as it left her body. She gasped loudly and collapsed to her knees.

"Yas!"

"I knew…Shizune-sensei should have come…" She said.

"Yas…"

"I'm alright…Just…get me wrapped up.."

I nodded and grabbed my bag hastily to find gauze. When I did, I carefully wrapped the wound.

"Why'd you do that?" Hotori asked.

"We're teammates, whether we want to be or not. I wont let my comrades die, even if that means sacrificing my own life. I'll protect them…to the death." It was a serious statement, but she managed a smile afterward.

Hotori looked sorry, "Are you in any pain?"

"Gee, I was stabbed in the stomach. Of course I'm in pain. I don't think I'll be walking anywhere any time soon."

I moved to her hands and wrapped those in less time than it had taken me to wrap her stomach. She wasn't coughing blood, so her lungs were fine, and she was talking more steady now. Hopefully, nothing too important was hit.

"You two need to finish the mission, so get going. I'll wait right…huh?"

Hotori had picked her up. "You're a lot lighter than you look," he said.

"Are you saying that I look fat, you little punk?!?!?!?!" Yas yelled. Oh yeah, she'd be fine.

He smiled, "If you're yelling, you can't be that hurt."

She settled down, "What are you doing? You're making the wound bleed more…"

"No I'm not," he said. "And what if more bandits show up? You're totally defenseless. So, I'll carry you there."

"Why? It'd be easier to leave me here and get me on your way back to the village."

"You said you'd protect your comrades. Well, I think I'd like to add something to that."

"What?" She asked sounding bored and irritated.

"I'll never leave them behind," and with that, he ignored Yas' protests and walked on.

Eventually, she gave up and smiled at him. I guess the little punk isn't so bad after all.

"At least now we know what you need to practice for the exams, Tori-kun!" I said cheerily.

He stopped, "What. Did you just call me?"

"Tori-kun! It's cute, like you!"

He blushed, "D-don't call me that!"

"Awe, Tori-kun is embarrassed!" Yas teased.

"Sh-shut up!"

"He's so cute!" I yelled.

"And the embarrassed stutter is adorable!" Yas added.

"Shut up or I'll drop you," Tori threatened.

"Shutting up," Yas closed her mouth dramatically.

I started laughing and it wasn't long before Yas and Tori laughed too.