I woke up the next morning, starving! I left my room and walked into the kitchen. Baki-sensei was there, with a cup of tea in his hand.
"Good morning, sensei." I said.
Baki nodded in my direction, "If you go and wake up your teammates, I have breakfast ready."
I could feel my eyes widen in shock, but I hurried to the door to wake up my teammates. Turns out they didn't lock their door with the traditional lock, but they did have a small chakra seal to keep people out. I took a risk and found that my chakra was keyed to the seal. I walked in and called out, "Amagi! Hideo! Wake up, Baki-sensei has breakfast for us!"
"I'm up!" Amagi called from my right.
"Just let me get dressed," Hideo yelled from my left.
"Okay, I'm going to get dressed. Meet over in my room." I walked out, making sure to lock the door behind me, walk into the apartment I was sharing with Baki-sensei.
I poured myself a small cup of tea, took it with me as I went to go and get dressed. I pulled my mesh shirt on and frowned as the mesh pulled at the healing scabs on my arms. If I kept the shirt on, I ran the risk of having my scabs pulled off and I could start bleeding again. But if I took the armor off, then I could get hurt if something were to happen. I debated for a few seconds before I took the mesh armor off and pulled on my tunic. I would rather not have another shirt with blood on it.
Speaking of, I went into the bathroom and saw that I did in fact soak my ruined tunic in the sink. I took it out and looked over the shirt, the blood stains were gone, so I hung it up. Maybe I could just hem the shirt, and it would no longer be a tunic, but just a regular shirt. Besides, Matsuri and her aunt were still trying to get me to wear the more adult looking clothes I ordered before graduation. Maybe this was the world's way of telling me that I should look into that. Or maybe just to wear something different.
I walked out of the bathroom and into the living area when I heard Hideo and Amagi greet Baki-sensei. Baki was dishing out some miso soup with tofu and some greens from one of the greenhouses. There was also some gilled salamander and some pickled vegetables, along with rice. I smiled, my whole team was together eating breakfast. This was the first time and while I knew it probably wouldn't be the last, I was happy because this was what I thought being part of a team would be like.
"Today the Konoha shinobi will be in meetings all day, so you three should get as many D-ranks as you can. We will be training later this afternoon. The Konoha shinobi have asked for a space to train, so we will be sharing a training ground."
"Yes, Baki-sensei."
"Make sure you eat well. Tsukio, Hideo brought you some more ointment, make sure you use it, especially on your chest and upper arms. You will need to wear your mesh armor for training."
How did he know I wasn't wearing my armor because of the cuts? Well he is a Jōnin shinobi and the sensei of the Kazekage, so he is observant at least. "Yes Baki-sensei."
"Good, I will be gone most of the day. If you need me, I'll be in Lord Kazekage's office helping him."
The three of us nodded and Baki walked out the door without a single backwards glance.
"Hideo, could you help me put the ointment on my back?" I asked.
"Sure," Hideo said, "After we finish eating?"
I nod.
"Did you notice that Baki-sensei didn't tell us what sort of disguise we were supposed to use today?" Amagi asked.
I shook my head.
"I did, but I think it is because we are already disguised or at least acting," Hideo said.
"True enough," Amagi said.
When I finished my breakfast, I took the dishes over to the sink and started to wash them. Amagi came over and started to dry the dishes I washed, while Hideo put any leftover food away in the refrigerator. I smiled, we were dividing up the chores like I did with my brothers. We must be learning to anticipate each other's moves and needs already.
When I was finished, I sat on the stool and leaned on top of the counter. Hideo took the ointment that was on the counter and opened the top. I pulled the back of my shirt up, making sure my front was still covered. I could hear Grandmother yelling at me right now. I was a lady, and I had to keep myself pure until I was married. Then I remembered the lectures at the Academy, that I was a shinobi, a kunoichi and modesty was not as important as completing the mission at any cost.
I jumped as a cold finger touched my back.
"Sorry," Hideo said.
"It is just cold," I said. I turn my head and see Hideo is bright red, and his lips are turned down.
"Are the cuts bad?"
"You have a couple that are still bleeding," Hideo replied.
"Oh," I whisper, then louder, "Just finish it, Hideo. I still need to do my hair."
Amagi laughed, "Just do it, don't think."
Hideo frowned, "You try doing this without blushing!"
I rolled my eyes, "Would you just finish already? I'm getting chilled from keeping my shirt up like this."
"Alright, alright," Hideo said.
I again focus on keeping my breathing even as I feel the cold ointment. I ignore the slight shiver from Hideo's finger and I also ignore the blush that has appeared on Amagi's cheeks.
"Done," Hideo said a minute later and I sat up, pulled my shirt down and took the ointment.
"Thanks, Hideo."
"No problem."
"I'm going to finish my hair and put some of this on and then we can go." I took the small jar of ointment and walked into my bathroom. I slathered the healing ointment onto the cuts on my stomach and around my arms, I even put some on a deeper cut on my face and one on my leg. Putting the ointment into my hip pouch, I turned my attention to my hair.
Dividing my hair down the center, I braided each part, starting at just above my ears and working towards the center of the back of my head. Then I took both sides and pulled the braids over my shoulders. I looked much younger than I was with this hairstyle, but it would keep my hair out of my face while we trained today and I didn't have to worry about my hair getting caught on any of the scabs and pulling it off.
Once I was satisfied with my hair, I walked into the bedroom and pulled out the jacket type robe and shrugged it on. I left the laces across the chest unlaced, to make it easier for me to put on or take off and walked back into the living area to see that Amagi and Hideo had also put their robes on.
Walking into the reception area, I saw Mother behind the counter again. I returned the smile she gave me, ignoring the raised eyebrow as she took in the cuts and scabs on my face.
"Here are the robes for your teammates, Tsukio."
"Thank you," I took the robes Mother placed on the counter and held them out to the boys, "These should fit you."
"Thank you," both Hideo and Amagi said, grabbing the robes and quickly taking them into their room.
"What happened to your face, my daughter?"
"I went outside in a sand storm to help a child who was trying to save his father's fruit cart," I replied.
"Did you save the child?"
"And the Lord Kazekage saved the cart," I said.
"Are you hurt?"
I know she is asking if I got more than just some cuts, "No, just what you see."
"Very well. Have you heard if you need dressier clothing or not?"
"Not yet, but I doubt we will. We are supposed to be babysitting, not pretending to be guests."
"So you will be wearing your shinobi clothes?"
"More than likely. Speaking of my shinobi clothing, in my bathroom, I tore another shirt. This time is was because I needed to put something around the child's face to protect it."
Mother sighed and rolled her eyes, "How many shirts are you going to ruin, Tsukio?"
I shrug, "All of them, at some point I would assume."
Mother laughed, "Cheeky child. I will go an order you another shirt. Masa has been bugging me about changing your clothes."
I rolled my eyes, "You too? Matsuri has been saying the same thing. I am holding firm. I won't change my clothes until I make chūnin, that way I just have to modify a small part of the uniform."
"That sounds like a good plan, saves money in the long run anyway."
I smiled as my teammates walked out of their room and the three of us walked over to the missions desk to go and get as many missions as we could.
We ended up doing three messenger missions and one painting a fence while also hanging a new sign on the same business. I was happy to paint, it allowed me to work my muscles without having to strain them. Thankfully most of my shallow cuts had healed over and the scabs were falling off. The couple cuts that were deeper still have scabs, but it wasn't too bad.
When we were finished, we walked back to the apartments, stopping to pick up some food stuff to make meals for the next couple days. I put on my mesh armor shirt and wrapped my legs to help protect myself during our training session today. At the appointed time, the three of us made sure to bring our water canteens and I sealed more water into a scroll. We walked over to the Kage training grounds, or the one that is furthest away from all the other training grounds, with the exception of the Intel training ground outside the walls.
When we arrived, Lord Kankuro and Baki-sensei were sparring. Lord Kankuro had three puppets out, while Baki-sensei was using his wind katana technique to fend off the puppets.
"Faster Kankuro! You can control Black Ant and Crow with little thought, now you have to learn how to do the same with three puppets!" Baki-sensei yelled as he jumped away from Black Ant.
"I'm trying!" Lord Kankuro yelled back, "Why do you think I asked you to spar?"
"Tsukio, Hideo, Amagi, do katas to warm up," Baki called out as he used his wind katana to slice at Crow.
"Yes Baki-sensei," we called back, moving to a part of the training ground that would hopefully be out of the way. We took off our robes, folded them and placed them in a place that would be out of the way, hopefully.
A half an hour later, the Konoha shinobi arrived with Lady Temari. By this time, my teammates and I were finishing our katas and getting ready to move into whatever Baki-sensei called out next. Lady Temari moved to the edge of the training ground and watched as Lord Kankuro worked with Baki to gain better control of his three puppets.
I look at both Amagi and Hideo and tilt my head to the Konoha shinobi who were watching with mouths hanging open. Yamanaka-san was also busy fanning herself and complaining about the heat.
"Throwing and dodging," Baki-sensei called out as he again leapt into the air to avoid one of the puppets, "after you get some water."
"Yes Baki-sensei," we called as we uncapped our canteens and took a drink.
I opened a scroll and unsealed a chest of throwing weapons, "Did you want to work on kunai, shuriken, senbon or all of the above," I asked, opening the lid and pulling out the different layers, each layer nestled securely inside the chest. The layers all had different weapons on them, plain and poisoned senbons, kunai, three, four and five pointed shuriken and the long handled knife that Amagi preferred.
"Four point shuriken and kunai," Hideo replied.
I nodded, since shuriken and kunai were the most common throwing weapons, it would be best to start with those. "Who goes first?" I asked, putting the weapons away that we were not going to use right now and moving the chest away from the training grounds and setting my canteen in the shadow it created. I then take my hair and take both braids and wrap them into a bun at the back of my head. I stick two of the non-poisoned senbons into it to keep my hair in place. Once finished I looked over to see Amagi and Hideo grinning with arms across their chests. I have been around them long enough to know that those grins were not good for me.
"I'll go first," Amagi called. Then before I could do more than register what he said, his arm shooting out in front of him. I had a moment to see that shuriken were coming at me and to leap out of the way.
I ignored the gasp from the Konoha shinobi because Hideo threw the kunai he hid behind his crossed arms. I leapt out of the way, only to see more shuriken coming at me. My hand flew through the hand signs and I used wind currents to push the shuriken away from me. As soon as my feet touched the sand, another set of kunai was thrown at me. I jumped out of the way again.
This continued, I would jump away from the weapons thrown at me and once I recovered, I would have something else thrown at me. Soon, Baki-sensei joined and it became harder to dodge three sets of weapons being thrown at me. I stumbled once and felt the kunai cut through my upper arm. I hissed in pain. Only to drop to the ground to avoid the shuriken thrown at me.
"Switch," Baki-sensei called. I grabbed the kunai that cut me and threw it at Hideo with some added chakra to make it go faster.
Hideo grinned before leaping out of the way. Hideo was able to keep from bleeding, but his pants had a small slice in them from where Amagi's knife caught him.
When Baki-sensei called switch, I grabbed all the weapons I could and started to launch them at Amagi while running around the training ground to collect more. Hideo and I coordinated our attacks, ensuring that Amagi was being attacked from different sides all the time.
Finally, Baki-sensei called an end to our throw and dodge training. The three of us walked over to our water canteens and took long swallows of the cool, wet liquid. The three of us brought our canteens with us as we walked around the training ground to collect the weapons we were using. My legs were tired, all of the jumping, dodging, squatting and running had exhausted my muscles. I wasn't complaining though, because I had lasted much longer than I have in the past. Once we finished collecting all of the throwing weapons, we put them back into the chest and I sealed the chest away.
I love those seals, thank kami I was able to use them and now I could create my own seals.
Baki grinned at us and nodded, "Taijutsu, Hideo and Tsukio. Amagi, come at me."
Without even batting an eye at the order, I dropped into a defensive stance. Hideo was taller than me and had a longer reach. I learned quickly that I had only two options, be faster than him, or to wait for him to make the first move. I was tired and Hideo was grinning at me with that grin, so I waited for him to make the first move. I could hear the grunts and slaps of flesh meeting flesh.
Hideo ran at me, his arm shooting out. I block the arm and jump over the kick. The punch was just a distraction. He was close enough that I darted in for a kick of my own, he blocked it, but I was able to connect to his stomach with a solid punch. He grabbed the arm I punch him with and threw me. Rolling as I hit the ground, I leapt to my feet and hit the ground again, I could feel the breeze left behind Hideo's kick.
Our spar took on a rhythm, dart in, hit as fast as I could, jump back, avoid being hit in return. I grunted as Hideo's fist connected with my mouth, the coppery taste of blood filled my mouth. Hideo and I separated and I spit the blood onto the sand. I leapt forward, my arms moving as I returned the hit with a few of my own. The grunts of pain became normal, I ignored the pain. I learned early as an Academy student, if taking the hit gives you an advantage, then learn to take the hit and deal with it.
"Halt!" Baki-sensei's call had Hideo and I stopped immediately.
I turned to face Baki. I saw why Baki-sensei called a halt.
Amagi was kneeling on the sand holding his nose. Blood was leaking through the fingers holding his nose.
"Tsukio!" Baki called out.
"On it," I called back, running over to my teammate and opening my scroll. I found the correct seal and with a puff of smoke the first aid kit Ameno made for me popped onto the paper. I quickly opened it and pulled out some cotton and some clean cloths. "Here," I hand the cloths to Amagi and he pressed them to his nose. I took the cotton balls and started to compress them and held those out to him, "Once the bleeding stops, you need to put these up your nose."
"Amagi, is your nose broken?" Baki-sensei asked.
Amagi shook his head, "I don'd fink so."
"Go sit in the shade and keep the pressure on your nose. If the bleeding doesn't stop in ten minutes, tell me."
"Yesh, Baki-shensei." Amagi answered getting up with some help from me and Hideo.
I felt bad for Amagi. A blow to the nose was bad, it hurt like nothing I could describe. It was just awful.
"Tsukio, go sit with him and practice the dust cloud technique while I spar with Hideo."
"Yes Baki-sensei," I call as I go and stand near Amagi. What Baki doesn't say is that I'm supposed to keep an eye on Amagi to make sure his nose stops bleeding or he doesn't pass out of something worse.
Creating a dust cloud is much harder than it looks, simply because the knowledge of how to manipulate air currents without creating the wind currents, with say a fan, is hard. But I was determined to not use a fan and Baki-sensei seemed to agree with my thoughts. Or at least he hadn't discouraged me in my pursuit.
Eventually Amagi's nose stops bleeding and Baki-sensei sends us to the hospital to get our injuries healed because "you are on duty tonight and you can't look like you got into a fight." I didn't see Ameno, but that didn't mean anything, so I just told the medic to pass on a hello message for me. My teammates and I walked back to our apartment and found Mother standing there with three boxes in front of her on the desk.
"Tsukio, you want to tell me what these are?"
"I don't know, Mother. We were just training."
"Don't get cheeky with me, young lady."
I grin at her, "Sorry, Mother."
Mother sighs.
Baki-sensei walks out of the apartment he is sharing with me and nods, "Oh good, they arrived."
"These are yours?" I asked.
"No, they are yours for tonight. Tonight you three are guards, so you three will dress in uniform," Baki-sensei told us. "I am forced to wear my elder council robes, so you three will have to wear your vests. Your entire uniform should be in there. You have one hour to arrive at the rooftop garden restaurant, bring the Konoha shinobi with you."
"Yes Baki-sensei," we said as he turned and walked out of the building.
"I need a shower," I said before grabbing the box with my name on it and walked into my room. Opening the box I found the standard brown vest with the high neck. My vest didn't have the standard shoulder pads, but that could be simply because I small or I didn't need the protection. Under the vest was a black long sleeved, high neck shit and a pair of standard issue black pants. Under the pants were the white bandages that I would need to wrap around the bottom of my legs and a pair of fingerless gloves. I grabbed the shirt and pants and walked into the bathroom to take a shower, I needed to clean the blood and sand off of me.
After my shower, I quickly got dressed, and wrapped my hair in a towel to keep the wet hair from dripping onto my uniform. I took the bandages out of the box and quickly wrapped my legs, making sure to catch the bottom of my pants. The bandages ended halfway up my calves adding extra padding to my shins. I then pulled the towel from my hair and quickly braided it and pulling it into a bun at the back of my head. I wrapped my forehead protector around my forehead, making sure to not touch the bun. This was also in the event I needed to put the headwrap on, my hair would not get in the way.
I shrugged my new vest on and moved my arms. The vest was a little stiff, but that was to be expected, because it was new. I then wrapped some bandages around my right thigh and secured my kunai pouch on top of the bandages. I filled the pouch with four kunai and a bundle of senbon. I then put my hip pouch on and made sure there were plenty of shuriken in there, along with my first aid kit. I also put the scroll with all of my extra gear into the pocket of my vest.
One last glance in the full length mirror confirmed that I looked like the Suna shinobi I was and I walked out of my room and over to the boys' apartment.
"Come in!" Amagi yelled when I identified myself.
I walked in and saw Amagi standing there in his shirt and pants but he was looking around confused.
"What are you looking for?" I asked.
"My sandals," he replied.
I helped him look around the apartment. I found one under the eat at counter, holding it up Amagi sighed and looked around the kitchen and pulled out the second sandal.
"Why are you wearing boots?" he asked.
I glanced down at the ankle boots I had put on instead of my normal sandals, "I wanted some height that the boots give me."
Hideo chose that moment to walk out of his room and he laughed, "Tired of being the shortest person on the team?"
"Well sort of, but mostly, when people look at me, and see how short I am, they see a kid. I can't look like a kid and be a bodyguard," I explained.
Hideo nodded, "Good idea," he then looks over what I am wearing with a critical eye, "Good call with having your hair up, it makes you look older."
I smile, "Thank you! How much time do we have?"
"Thirty minutes," Amagi answered.
"Do you want some food?" I asked.
"I could use something, we probably won't be able to eat while on duty." Hideo said.
I nod and walk into the kitchen to see what was available for dinner when a knock came from the door. Amagi goes and answers the door, Mother was there with a number of take out boxes.
"Your sensei sent over some dinner for you since he wasn't sure you would know to eat before you had to go tonight."
I smile as Mother brought in the boxes and set them onto the counter. "You three eat well."
"Yes Mother." I said, picking up a set of chopsticks and grabbing a box. Inside was a collection of tempura meats and vegetables and some rice.
Mother turned around and left, closing the door behind her, after watching each of us take a bite of food. We ate our food quickly, we only had thirty minutes before we needed to be at the restaurant, after all. Hideo was the first one done and he started to go over a checklist with us.
"Shuriken?"
"Yes."
"Kunai?"
"Yes."
"Senbon?"
"Yes."
"First aid kit?"
"Yes."
"Let's go, we still need to walk with the Konoha shinobi."
I dropped my empty takeout container into the trash and made sure my hands and face were cleaned, "Let's go then."
Amagi drops his container into the trash and follows Hideo out the door. I take up the end of the line.
"Tsukio, go upstairs and collect the Konoha shinobi, Amagi and I will stay down here and make sure everything is safe."
"Yes Hideo." I run up the stairs and knock on the doors. Sarutobi is the first to open his door, "Sarutobi-san, it is time to head over to the restaurant."
"Yes, of course," he answers. "I'll just go and make sure the boys are ready."
I nod and walk to the top of the stairs and wait. After listening to Sarutobi explain to Nara, again, that they needed to go, the boys finally walked out of their room. A raised voice in the direction of Yamanaka's room had the girl opening her door and walking out. Everyone was wearing the same looking clothes that they wore earlier today, but noticeably less dirty.
We walked down the stairs and I continued to walk out the door with Hideo and Amagi drawing up next to Nara and Akimichi and talking. A word or phrase would catch my ear, but I focused on walking straight towards the restaurant.
"Tsukio?" Yamanaka called from right behind me.
I smiled and slowed my walk just a bit, "Yes, Yamanaka-san?"
"Are you fully healed from this afternoon?"
I nod, "I am. Baki-sensei had all of us go to the hospital to ensure our injuries were fully healed before we went on duty for tonight."
From behind me, Amagi said, "I forgot to ask, was the medic able to get the sand out of your lungs?"
I nod, "Of course, I was able to cough most of it out anyway."
"Why did you have sand in your lungs?" Sarutobi asked.
"Tsukio went out into the sand storm yesterday to help a young man," Amagi said, "while she was out there, she wasn't wearing any protective gear and she breathed in some of the sand and dust that was flying around. It is pretty common in Suna, but it can be dangerous if not dealt with."
"I didn't know sand could be so dangerous," Yamanaka said.
I shrug again, "No more dangerous than other things."
"Well I'm glad you are not hurt anymore. But you know you didn't have to put on a show for us like that. You can just train like you normally do."
"What do you mean?"
"The sparing and throwing stuff at each other, that is necessary."
My eyebrows draw together in confusion, "We always train like that. In fact, I would say this was a light training session. Normally on a hard session, I can't move for at least an hour."
"That was light?" Yamanaka squealed.
I forced myself not to cringe at the high pitched noise that came out of her mouth.
"Yes," Hideo said.
"You got cut on the arm, a busted lip and who knows what else and that was a light training session?"
"I got the cut because I didn't move fast enough and I got the busted lip because it allowed me to get in close and kick Hideo's leg."
"Our training days are not that serious," Akimichi proclaimed.
"Oh, well we are shinobi and must learn how to endure the pain and move on to complete the mission." I said from memory, "I am sure it is different in all of the Hidden Villages."
I walked up to a large building and opened the door, "Here we are, I am sure there is someone to greet you."
Hideo walked in first, followed by the Konoha shinobi, with Amagi and myself bringing up the rear. Our group was led to the top of the building, which had a large glass enclosure on the roof that could be used as a greenhouse if the need arose.
Lady Temari came over as soon as we walked through the door and took the Konoha shinobi along with her to introduce them to some people. We walked over to Baki-sensei and waited for him to finish his conversation.
"I want you three to station yourselves at three of the four corners of the room. Shift your positions every hour or so and make sure to adapt if the crowd dynamics change," Baki told us.
"What do you mean?" Amagi asked.
"If the crowd heads over to one side of the room, make sure there are at least two of you on the same side as the crowd. If the crowd is thinning out, then you can just focus on the areas were the people are. Also if any of the Konoha shinobi leave, you will stay with them."
The three of us salute him and we walk to different corners to watch the dinner.
Turns out, it is difficult to just watch, especially since I knew most of the civilians that had come to the dinner. They wanted to speak to me or ask about my father. I kept my answers to a minimum, but decided that I would use a henge next time to keep people from talking to me.
At the end of the evening, we escorted the Konoha shinobi back to the apartments and we all went to bed. I was tired, my whole body hurt. Even with the medic healing my arm and my lip, I still had many small cuts and bruises that hadn't healed all the way. I put some more ointment on as best as I could, then I fell into bed and fell asleep.
AN: Ah progress. I feel so bad for my poor genin, they are getting beat up left and right. But they are still genin, so I try to keep things realistic. Genin must grow stronger or they don't come back from a mission. After all, not every team can have a Kakashi, Nine Tails, or Uchiha save them when they are over their heads.
Hello to all you new readers. I appreciate every view, save and comment/dm. If you have questions, please ask. I know I'm making up most of the Sand stuff, but there is a method to my madness.
New chapter in 2 weeks. Until then :)
