Today was an exciting day, today we were going to leave the village. We would start working on our training for real. Baki-sensei said that we had fulfilled the requirements to start doing C-Rank missions, which were usually patrol missions or simple escort missions. But for us, it would be mainly patrol missions, in remote areas so we could practice and Baki could train us. This was when we would start to focus on our ninjutsu, where I could start working on learning genjutsu and together we could work on a new team technique.

I was currently packing my scrolls for a week. I had one whole scroll dedicated to weapons, food pills and some camping supplies we might need. I had another scroll, a much smaller scroll that had three changes of clothes, extra underwear and bras and some extra shoes. I also had a small chest full of my toiletry items, in the event we came across an outpost that had working baths.

I attached the scrolls to my belt and made sure my weapons pouches were ready for me just grab whatever I would need from them and secured one to my right leg and the other onto my belt on my left hip. I picked up my cowl, to protect me from the sun and I was ready to go. I had an extra cowl in my scroll in case something happened to this one. I also had an extra robe in case I needed to cover up being a shinobi. Since this was my first trip as a shinobi out of the village, I was a little concerned I wouldn't have enough stuff. Having everything sealed into scrolls made packing so much easier, however if something were to happen to my scroll, I would be in trouble since I didn't have backups for my backup.

I walked downstairs, to find Mother and Father sitting at the table.

"Good morning, Father," I said, leaning down to give him a kiss on the cheek while he drank his coffee at the table. "Good morning, Mother," I said, giving her a quick hug before moving to the counter to help chop vegetables for breakfast.

"Don't worry about that, I have your breakfast all ready," Mother said, pointing to the food on the table, "Some soup and rice porridge with egg. It should be filling enough until you can get some lunch."

"Thank you, Mother," I said as I pick up my spoon and dig into my food.

"Do you think you are ready for this?" Father asked, taking a sip of coffee.

"For my mission?" I asked.

"Yes."

"I am as ready as I'll ever be. Besides, they wouldn't send a genin team on a dangerous patrol, this should be a simple patrol in one of the safest borders."

"But something could happen," Mother said from behind me.

"Something could happen while I am inside the village walls, Mother. Look at what happened to Ameno, she was in the hospital when one of the injured shinobi attacked her. She was in one of the safest places in the whole village and she was still hurt," I said.

"But still, Ameno was in a place where she could be treated quickly. You will not."

I suppressed a sigh, "Mother, I have been training for this for years. At least this is an easy patrol and not an escort mission. I will be fine. I have my teammates with me and Baki-sensei will be right with us. Remember, he is the sensei of Lord Kazekage and his siblings. He is very strong and can protect us all if he needs too."

"She is right, dear," Father said. "She will probably be safer on this patrol than when we would go with the caravans, simply because she isn't going to have money or goods for bandits to steal."

"No, instead of letting the bandits come to her, she is going to go looking for them," Mother replied bitterly.

Father stood up and wrapped his arms around Mother and started to whisper in her ear. I focused on my food and tried not to hear what he was saying, but my enhanced hearing was not letting me do that.

"She will be fine. You have to let her grow up soon. It is better if she learns now how to behave when danger approaches. Don't worry too much."

"But what if something happens?" Mother whispered back.

"Then we will figure it out from there," Father whispered back.

I finished my soup and moved onto my porridge and ate that quickly too. I really didn't want to worry Mother, but I was a kunoichi, I had to do my job. I had to learn. I put my dishes into the sink and stood next to my parents. "I'll see you in nine days. I will do my best to be safe. Don't worry."

Mother wrapped her arm around my shoulders, "We will see you in nine days."

I took one last look at my parents, walked to the door, slipped on my sandals and walked out the door. I could hear Mother crying quietly as I jumped onto a nearby roof and ran to the gate where we were meeting.

Amagi and Hideo were waiting at the main gate when I arrived. I made my way over to them, "Good morning!" I called out when I was standing near them.

"It is morning," Hideo said, "I have no idea why it is a good one."

I smile, "And how about you, Amagi? Are you also grumpy this morning?"

Amagi frowned at me, "Are you always this cheerful in the morning?"

I shrugged, "Not really. You have seen me in the morning when we train. I am pretty sure that I am just excited about today."

Amagi sighed, "I don't know why this mission is so exciting, it is just a five day patrol, that will take us two days to get there."

"It is the beginning of our training!" I said. "We will be able to train the heavier hitting jutsus and work on our teamwork. You can look at this as just a simple patrol, but I'm going to look at this as the first major step in our growing into the next Sand Siblings."

Hideo stared at me, "I can get on board with that thinking, however it is still too early in the morning to do anything other than sleep."

It was then that Baki-sensei walked out of the guard station with his head cover firmly over half of his face, "Are you three ready?"

"Yes, sensei," I said.

"Let's go." With that, Baki-sensei turned and started a slow jog heading east.

I looked at Hideo and Amagi and quickly followed. We traveled at a jog for almost four hours before we stopped to take a break for food and water.

"This is going to be a fast break, the faster we get to our meeting point, the more time you three will have for training before we start our mission," Baki-sensei said, "I have started us out slow, but be prepared to move faster. Our meeting point is a two-day run at slightly faster than civilian speed, but if we move fast we can easily be there in one and a half days."

"Yes sensei," I said before I quickly shoved another piece of dried meat into my mouth to chew.

Amagi and Hideo were alternately drinking and eating a ration bar.

I wrinkled my nose at the ration bar, they were gross and I couldn't stand to eat them. I knew they were good for me and were perfectly balanced to give me all the nutrients required to keep my body in top shape. But it tasted like dirt. Which is why in my trip to the supply building, I took food pills and packed extra jerky. I would not eat a ration bar.

After twenty minutes, Baki-sensei stood up and said, "Let's go. I know you three can move fast, so let's see how fast you have been able to get."

Amagi, Hideo and I stood up and put our canteens back into our bags. I glanced around to make sure we didn't leave anything. I met Baki-sensei's eyes and nodded.

Baki-sensei started to run, moving quickly across the sand dunes, his feet barely making a dent in the sand under him. I didn't have time to marvel at the lack of foot prints because I had to follow. Hideo took the left, Amagi took the rear and I was on the right with Baki- sensei taking point.

We ran for two hours before we stopped briefly for a quick water break, the sun was up, indicating it was close to mid-morning. The day was just going to get hotter, so our water breaks would get closer and closer together, at least until we found some shade and maybe had our lunch.

After our break, Baki-sensei started running again, this time faster than before. We followed behind him quietly. I don't know about Amagi or Hideo, but I was already feeling the effects run. I focused on putting more chakra into my leg muscles to keep moving.

The rest of the day became a cycle of running and stopping to drink water. We took a slightly longer stop for lunch and again around mid-afternoon. We didn't stop for dinner until the moon was high overhead and the stars hung in the black sky.

"We will take a short rest here and continue to our destination. We are only a few hours away at top speed," Baki-sensei said. "We can light a fire, we are safely within our borders and we are heading towards our own people. However there will be times where you will not be able to light a fire and you will have to just deal with a cold meal."

"Yes, sensei," I said.

"For now, Amagi, go and see if you can find some meat for us to cook, Hideo, collect what we need for a fire, then start it, Tsukio, prepare camp, make sure our area is clear of brush, traps or anything else that could inhibit our rest. If it was winter, you would need to put up a tent, but for now, we should be fine."

"Yes, Baki-sensei," the three of us said before rushing off to complete our assignments.

After checking out the area, not finding anything that could prevent us from sleeping, and evening out the sand a little, I pulled out my sleeping bag and set it up on one side of the fire, Hideo had already claimed a side. I then pulled out a small pot and added water to it, then I hung it over the fire from the hook on the stand that Hideo constructed.

"I have some noodles and a few dried vegetables, with the meat Amagi brings, we can either have a soup or some ramen," I said.

"Do you have enough vegetables for a week?" Baki-sensei asked.

"I should have enough, if we limit it to one meal a day. I also have rice to help round out a meal."

"Very good. Let's start with some ramen with your vegetables. That way we can eat and lay down to rest quicker."

"Yes, sensei."

I took out the noodles and set it aside and add a small handful of vegetables into the water. As I watch the pot to make sure nothing burns or it doesn't boil over, I stretch my legs, rubbing my muscles to help promote healing and to ensure that I will be able to walk in the morning. A lesson I learned back in the Academy after a single day of working out. Most of the time I could take a hot shower to help loosen the tight muscles, but I don't have that luxury while we are out, so it is back to the tried and true, stretches and massages.

Amagi came back with a couple lizards, he sat down and quickly cleaned them and stuck them on a long stick over the fire to cook. He then pulled out his sleeping roll and spread out on a different side of the fire. Baki-sensei claimed the final side.

Desert survival class taught us that it gets cold in the desert once the sun goes down. When there is a fire, you sleep as close to it as possible and make sure that no one is left in the cold. It is something that is learned on the first trek through the desert. So is hunting and finding edible foods along the way, but thankfully we don't have to try and harvest cacti to eat. Cacti are not my favorite food either.

It didn't take long for the water to boil and the vegetables to reconstitute, once that happened, I added the noodles, some spices I had and I stirred the pot to mix everything together.

"I will take first watch," Baki-sensei said, sitting down on his bedroll.

"I can take the last watch," I said quickly. First or last watch meant not having to have broken sleep.

"How many watches will we have?" Hideo asked.

"Three I think," Baki-sensei said. "We will only be resting for about six hours, less if we are all rested. We are just resting to recharge our chakra and rest our muscles."

"Then I will take second watch," Hideo said.

"Very good. Amagi will have first watch tomorrow, if we need it," Baki-sensei said as he took the bowl of noodles I offered him.

I handed Amagi and Hideo their bowls and dished up the last of the noodles for myself. Amagi divided the two lizards in half and each of us got a half. I cut my lizard up and mixed it into my noodles and quietly ate my dinner.

"Once you have finished eating and stretching your muscles, get right to sleep. We are almost at the meeting point and I want all three of you well rested because we will start training as soon as we arrive."

"Yes, Baki-sensei," we said.

I finished first, but that could also be because I took a smaller portion of food, not that much smaller, but still smaller. I justified it by saying that I am actually smaller than the three males on my team, but Amagi also gave me a larger portion of lizard, so I am sure he noticed.

I put a little more water into the cooking pot and let it heat up over the fire. When the water was hot, I washed my bowl and set it near the fire to dry, the rest of my team did the same. Once everyone was done washing their bowls, I quickly washed the pot out and set it near the bowls to dry.

Once that was finished, I sat on my sleeping bag and started to stretch again. I could feel the muscles protest the movement. I was suddenly very happy that a large part of our training was running. Either running for endurance or just running to get faster, we did a lot of running.

"Amagi? Hideo? Would you like me to help with your stretches?" I asked, watching my teammates have trouble bending over to achieve the proper stretch. This wasn't anything new, I was more flexible than the two of them and often would offer to help with stretches.

"Sure," Amagi said and he moved to lay on his back and lifted his left leg up. I moved over to where he was and grasped his left ankle and gently pushed it towards his head. I held the stretch until I could feel the muscles loosen, then I pushed just a little harder. We repeated the stretch on the right side. I helped Amagi go through the full set of stretches to help loosen his leg muscles, pausing to help Hideo with one as he needed it.

"Go to sleep," Baki-sensei ordered less than an hour later.

I moved over to my sleeping bag, made sure there wasn't any sand inside my sleeping bag, I slipped off my shoes and slipped into my sleeping bag. Turning my back to the fire, I closed my eyes and swiftly fell asleep.

I woke up to Hideo shaking my shoulder. I sat up, rubbing my eyes. Once I was awake enough to focus, I smiled at Hideo.

"I've got it," I whispered.

Hideo nodded and wandered over to his sleeping bag, pulled the bag over his head and quickly fell back asleep.

I pulled my shoes on, and pulling my sleeping bag around my shoulders like a cloak, I moved a small distance away from the fire to a small hill where I could see further and let my eyes adjust to the dim light. I yawned and moved my head side to side, waking myself up further.

My watch was boring, nothing happened. However I did see a large rabbit stop and look around. I slowly pulled out a kunai and threw it at the rabbit. I then walked over and picked it up. I moved further away from the camp and cleaned it, leaving the skin on for now. I took the rabbit with me back to my spot and continued to keep watch.

Baki-sensei woke up first and moved to wake the boys up. Once everyone was awake, I moved from my spot on the small hill and back into camp. Hideo grinned when he saw the rabbit I had and added more wood to the fire.

I took the pot and put some water in it, and set it over the fire to boil. I then measured out the correct amount of rice to add to the water. Hideo took the rabbit and skinned it and set it over the fire to cook. Then we put away our sleeping bags and rolls. Leaving the woven rugs we placed between our sleeping bags and the sand. I sat on the rug, which was supposed to keep the sand away from us, as much as possible. I unbraided my hair, brushed it and put it back into a braid, this time it was a long rope braid from a high ponytail. This way my hair was out of my way and my cowls would fit snugly over my head when I needed it.

Our breakfast of roasted rabbit and rice was eaten quickly. We finished cleaning up our camp and took off at a slower than yesterday speed. I think this was because we were all still waking up, but I could be wrong, maybe Baki-sensei was being nice.

We ran for a few hours, our pace increasing every once in a while, before Baki-sensei called us to a halt. In front of us was a very large, if slightly rundown outpost. It was made of stone, there was a square building with large towers on each corner. Each tower was at least twice as tall as the building, tall narrow windows were scattered around the towers. I could see that the roofs of the towers were flat, with a wall to prevent the person on the roof from falling, and to offer some protection from enemies or the elements.

A shinobi walked out from the front door of the building towards us. He was wearing the standard uniform of a Sand shinobi, the brown long sleeved shirt, brown pants and black sandals. He was wearing the brown vest and his head cover was held in place by his forehead protector. Amagi, Hideo and I stood behind Baki-sensei watching as the shinobi walked towards us.

"You are just normal genin, on your first mission outside the village walls. You should be nervous, hyper aware of your surroundings and very excited," Baki-sensei said in a low voice.

"Do we disguise ourselves?" Hideo asked.

Baki-sensei only had time to shake his head before the shinobi was in front of us. I understood the orders, no disguises, just our behavior, so I kept glancing around, taking in everything.

Hideo kept fidgeting with his kunai pouch attached to his leg. Amagi kept shifting his weight from foot to foot. Not enough for a civilian to notice, but it was obvious to a shinobi.

"First time away from the village?" the shinobi asked.

Baki-sensei laughed as he shook his head, "Can you tell?"

The shinobi laughed with Baki-sensei before bowing slightly to him, "Baki-san, you arrived earlier than expected. However your rooms are ready for you. The rest of my team should be here before nightfall," He turned to look at us, "We patrol in two man teams for twelve hours each. One team patrols the surrounding area, investigating anything that looks suspicious, while the other two keep watch from the towers. Your sensei can help you with the schedule. Each team had their own way of doing this. The most popular is the one I use, however if the weather is exceptionally good or really bad, then we will just trade off watches from the tower."

"Can you show us to our rooms?" Baki interrupted.

"Of course, right now we are using only two of the rooms available, so the other two rooms have been prepared for you. Once we leave, you are welcome to take all four rooms if you want."

"Two rooms is fine," Baki replied.

We followed Baki-sensei and the other shinobi into the building. Inside was as simple as I thought it would be. There was a combined living area with a large table and a kitchen. Between these two rooms was a hallway that led to the back of the building. This was where the sleeping quarters were located. There were two rooms on each side of the hallway and a bathroom between the two rooms. The shinobi directed us to the two rooms closest to the front of the building.

In the right corner of the building was a door. The shinobi caught me looking at the door.

"That goes to the towers. This is the only entrance to all four of the towers, which makes it easy to defend, however it does make it difficult to come down if there is an emergency. Most of us just jump off the top of the tower."

"How does that work? The only entrance, I mean." I asked.

"This door leads to a set of spiral stairs that lead to the roof of this building. Along the top of the building is a hallway that connects all four towers. Each tower has it's own spiral staircase that takes you to the top, but you have to go through that narrow hallway to get there."

I nod understanding.

I followed my teammates to the rooms we were assigned.

"Tsukio and myself in one room, Amagi and Hideo in another," Baki-sensei said.

Amagi and Hideo picked the room they were closest too and started to unpack some of their belongings. We were scheduled for a five-day rotation, but since we were here a day earlier than expected, we would have an extra day here. Not that it was a problem, because Baki-sensei already informed us that our extra day would be spent training.

I pulled my sleeping bag out and set it on the cot and set my extra clothes scroll on the bed and removed the pouch on my back. I set that at the foot of the cot. I walked back to the kitchen area and filled my canteen with water and took a small sip.

"We have lunch ready," the shinobi said, waving his hand at the table that was covered in food.

My surprise must have shown on my face because the shinobi laughed, "We get a delivery every ten days of fresh food and other supplies we might need."

"That's nice," I said politely.

"You look too pretty to be a kunoichi," he said as he leaned against the counter. His eyes darting between my face and my chest.

"Umm, thanks."

"So are you fresh from the Academy?"

I keep glancing around, trying to will my teammates to come out. "I graduated recently," I said vaguely.

"So this is your first time outside the Village walls? I will have to show you the sunsets, there is nothing like them this far away from the village."

"Actually, I have been outside the walls often, so this wouldn't be my first time seeing the sunset or sunrise over the desert," I reply, still looking around for my teammates. I have met people like this before, Mother was very clear about people like this. They wanted something from me and they would try to take advantage of my youth and they would use their strength and height to get what they wanted. Now, this shinobi could have been friendly or socially awkward, but he was still giving me the creeps. It was time to move on.

I move towards Amagi and Hideo's room, "I need to make sure I gave my teammates all of their stuff, since I had extra space on my storage scrolls," I walked slowly towards their room because I was not running away!

A quick knock on the door and I was inside the boy's room.

"Did you forget something?" Amagi asked.

Another knock on the door, I opened the door and saw Baki-sensei on the other side of it. I held the door open wider to let him in.

"I have taken care of that little problem you were having, Tsukio, he shouldn't bother you again. But you have to understand, that for a very long time, pretty kunoichi have been used for seduction missions only. Most of the older shinobi will assume that is what you are being trained for, while your teammates are being trained as your handlers or to also be part of the seduction squad as they are known."

Hideo gasped.

"What?" Amagi asked, also shocked.

"You are not being trained for that, you know what the goal is with this team. But that doesn't mean that Tsukio will not meet these types of assumptions from other shinobi, both in the Sand and in other places. She is a pretty girl and will grow up to be a very lovely woman, if her mother is any indication. Tsukio?" Baki-sensei waited until I looked at him, "You handled yourself very well. You walked away from the situation and no one would think you were running scared. This is a good thing. It is also a very good tactic when you are on a mission and you find yourself in a similar situation. I am sure they taught you this in kunoichi classes."

I nodded.

"Very good. Just continue with what you are doing and all will be well. Like I said, I have made it very clear that you are not here for that type of training and he will leave you alone."

"Thank you, Baki-sensei."

"Now that we have taken care of that, fill your canteens up with water and let's start on your training."

"Yes, sensei," we called out. Scrambling around to grab our canteens and to get them attached to our belts.

"Make sure you bring your cowls, the sun is harsh this time of year," Baki said as he walked out the door, leaving the door open behind him.

I pat my neck to confirm that my cowl was still there and moved forward to the leave the room, "The water here is cool, so fill up as many canteens as we can and I will seal them away for us."

Hideo grinned, "Thanks, Tsukio, it will be nice to have cool water."

Less than thirty minutes later, we found ourselves in an isolated part of the desert, a good twenty minute hard run from the outpost. The area had a few large rocks that gave some shade in the sand. The rocks helped to form a natural barrier to the wind, because the sand was flat.

"Now, it is time for the three of you to really start working on your specialties. We will continue to work on your teamwork and your team jutsus, but for today at least we will work on the areas you want to advance individually," Baki-sensei said, standing in the sun while we stood in the shade of one of the rocks. We glanced at each other and nodded.

"Tsukio, here is a scroll full of genjutsus for you to work on, they are all C-rank and above, start with one and work your way into the rest," Baki threw a scroll in my direction, which I was able to catch. "Hideo, here are some fire jutsus, a few are from the Hidden Leaf Village, just be careful when learning them," he then threw another scroll at Hideo, "Amagi, I know you want to be a weapons specialist, however just throwing your weapons is not good enough," Baki threw yet another scroll at Amagi, "So after talking it over with Lord Kankuro, we have decided that it would be best for you to learn how to control your weapons. You can either use ninja wire or Lord Kankuro suggested you try and use chakra threads. He sent that scroll to give you the basics on how to create the threads and how to control them."

I glanced at my teammates and saw they were both staring at the scrolls in their hands. I glanced back at the scroll in my hand. It is a normal looking scroll with a dark red edge and a golden square pattern along the edges. I broke the small wax seal and opened the scroll. I glanced up one more time and Baki-sensei had moved into the shade of another rock.

I let my legs bend as I sat on the sand and leaned my back against the rock. I opened the scroll and spread it across my lap. It took a few minutes, but I was able to focus on the small script written inside the scroll. It was much smaller than scripts normally are, but after a glance at the rest of the scroll, it was filled with lots and lots of words. I settled myself into a more comfortable position and read the scroll across my legs.

A few hours later, I emerged from my reading. Doing genjutsu was much harder than I thought, instead of focusing chakra to work with the elements, I had to use chakra to trick humans. Humans that were trained to not be tricked. It will be a difficult subject to master, but worth it for my chosen path I think. I stood up and focused my chakra, I focused on the idea that I wasn't noticed. I felt my chakra expand around me and hover in a small cloud just under my skin.

According to the scroll, once the chakra cloud has condensed around me, I should use something to be my way into their chakra network. Vision was the simplest, because if a person were to look at me, all I had to do was focus my chakra and use it to make my vision become their reality. There are other methods of casting a genjutsu, according to the scroll, and I would have to investigate the other methods more, but for now, this seemed like a good place to start. I wasn't forcing the victim to do anything, just not notice me.

I rebuilt my surrounding, excluding myself. Using the cloud of chakra to ensure that I was making the scene correctly. Eventually I could just build it all up in my mind and cast the genjutsu, but for now, the chakra cloud would work. It would also help me see the holes in my illusion.

Baki walked over to me, "Very good, Tsukio. I can't see you, however I can still hear you breathing and smell you." I watch as Baki-sensei walks right up to me, "Good first try though. It is more than most genin can do. This is a chūnin level jutsu, so be proud of yourself for accomplishing this much."

I smile and let me chakra cloud dispel. Suddenly I can breathe better and the sun is just a touch brighter than it had been before.

Baki nodded at me as he noticed what I was doing, "You have figured it out. Your illusion wasn't as bright as reality, you will have to work on that, but for now, it was a good job. Now you should drink more water and make sure you get something to eat. Your teammates have a little bit to go."

I grin, "Hai, Baki-sensei." I walk back to the rock I was reading against. I pulled out my food scroll and unsealed a canteen of water and a small box of jerky my mother made for us. I picked up the scroll and reread the instructions on how to create this genjutsu. After a while, I felt Amagi's chakra build up then a yelp of pain. My gaze shot up just in time to see Amagi shaking his hand.

"Try just a single thread first Amagi," Baki-sensei called out from his spot in the shade.

I watched as Amagi focused on his hand, and slowly a small line of chakra began to grow from his finger. Just as quickly as it grew the line snapped and Amagi hissed in pain.

"Amagi, would you like some jerky?" I asked holding the box towards him.

Amagi leaned forward and grabbed a few strips of jerky, "Thanks, Tsukio."

"No problem, my mother gave me lots, so feel free to grab as much as you want."

A sudden blast came from behind the rock I was leaning on, both Amagi and I glanced upwards towards the top of the rock, to see the flame shooting out from behind it.

I sighed, "It seems like Hideo is the only one to actually get his jutsu today."

Amagi let out a frustrated breath, "Yeah, but only because it is just more fire jutsu, he is used to working on those. I am trying something completely new."

I nod, "Me too."

"Then we shouldn't feel bad about not being able to blow up a freaking rock!" Amagi replied, his voice getting louder and louder until he was yelling, making sure Hideo could hear him.

A low laugh was the only reply we got.

"Focus on your jutsus," Baki-sensei called out, "You won't have another opportunity like this for the rest of the week."

"Hai, Baki-sensei," Amagi and I called out.

Amagi moved back to his area of shade and continued to focus on concentrating his chakra to his fingers, while I tried to focus on creating a better illusion in my mind. If I couldn't sell it to myself, then I wouldn't be able to sell it to anyone else.

Time crawled forward until the sun was low on the horizon. Baki clapped his hands to get our attention.

"Time to head back. Be on the lookout for something to bring back for dinner, fresh meat will help you all."

We fell into formation, with Baki-sensei in the lead, I was to his right, Amagi was to his left and Hideo was behind all of us. On our way back, we didn't see any lizards or snakes for fresh meat, but it turns out, that was just fine. We slowed to a jog when the outpost came into view. The smell of roasting meat met our noses as soon as we walked into the building.

"Good, you are just in time for dinner. It isn't fancy, but it is filling," the man at the stove said. "I'm not the best cook, but even I can't mess up roasted lizard and rice."

I shared a glance with Amagi and Hideo before turning to Baki-sensei, "Sensei? I would like to clean up a bit before dinner."

"Of course, boys you clean up also. Dinner isn't formal here," Baki answered before heading over to help the man with dinner, "I'm also not the best cook, but I can help."

Quickly my teammates and I went to our rooms to clean up. I took a washcloth and got it wet and wiped down my face and any other exposed skin that had gotten dirty. Out here, water wasn't as prevalent as it was at home. Full showers would have to wait, but that didn't mean I had to stay dirty. I also changed into a clean shirt and made sure my pants were free of sand.

Sitting down for dinner was an interesting experience. While my team and I had eaten together on many occasions, the shinobi we were supposed to relieve were a different story. They were interested in telling us the most outrageous stories. I smiled and nodded in the appropriate places, but really, I didn't care about how big of a lizard they fought. Or where the worst fight they ever had was, or even the common game of 'where did I get this scar'. I was told these types of stories when I traveled with Father. They really haven't changed much. Although these shinobi talked about the battle in Konoha, which would have been interesting, if they had been there. From the stories, it sounds as if they were in the back, waiting to be told to move forward.

As soon as I could, without seeming rude, I slipped out of my seat, washed up my plate and muttered "good-night" to everyone. I went back to my room, slipped into more comfortable pants and drifted to sleep. I couldn't believe how tired I felt once my head hit the bed. I surfaced when Baki-sensei walked into the room but fell back into a deep sleep.

AN: I'm so excited for my little team, they are making progress! They are growing strong and are growing comfortable with each other.