A LITTLE BIT OF PIRACY
Chapter Two
HIKARU WAS THE BOY IN CLASS WHO WOULD GET OUT OF RUNNING LAPS BY TELLING Iruka that he had bad gas. Misaki was the girl in class who would let everyone know that he had chronic diarrhea by the time the laps were over and make sure everyone believed it. Shion, never one for skipping on training or gossip, felt rather cheated when it was announced they would be on team 3 together.
"It seems like an easy 'mission'," Hikaru said as he glanced at the Uchiha compound from over the walls.
"You are as stupid as you are ugly," Shion retorted from next to him.
"What did you just say to me?" Hikaru hissed in return and Shion's eyes narrowed as she turned her head and met his stare. His face was so close she could smell the ramen he ate that morning.
"So you're deaf too? I'll make note of that and learn how to communicate with deaf idiots," she retorted and Misaki sighed from next to them.
"Can you two stop. We are in the Uchiha compound and you know they hate outsiders," she hissed and both of them backed away from each other. They also simultaneously muttered 'he/she started it.'
"I hate you Shion," Hikaru said in a hushed whisper.
"Crap, and I was so hoping we could be best friends," she commented in return with a scoff.
"Let's just focus. Itachi Uchiha is a legend," Misaki warned, and Shion rolled her eyes in response.
"He's just one man," she retorted, and for a moment she heard the wooden box she stood on start to creak. Her height was never one of her greatest factors, so she had been using it to see over the fence and even then she was just barely able to see.
"Regardless, a single person can do a lot and if you remember, he also graduated to Jounin at 13," Misaki retaliated, and Hikaru's sigh broke into their argument.
"Let's just make the plan," Shion announced.
"And you think you can do that. You're like five years too young to order us around," Misaki teased Shion's smaller age with a smirk.
"I'm sorry, what were you doing at nine years old? Braiding hair and dreaming of being a ninja?" Shion had been tossed into the academy early on, as for orphans, it was much easier to enroll. The orphanage didn't have toys or many games so all she ever did with her free time was work out, train, and play shogi and mahjong.
So of course, she developed a keen mind and sense of awareness for her surroundings. It did help that the only books the orphanage had besides picture books on some stupid bunny that liked to sing the alphabet, was the 'Art of War' by Yamamoto Takahashi and the 'Secrets of Ninjutsu' by Sekimono Gigi.
That was probably the reason she wanted to be a ninja.
"Okay. Starting off, Misaki you can't be the infiltrator," Shion stated right away. The girl, who likely never wanted to go in at all, frowned as if Shion just said something offensive.
"Why not? Why do you get to decide? You're not the leader, and neither are you the oldest," Misaki retorted and Shion shook her head.
"There's a slight tear in your sandals and every time you walk your skin slaps against the material," Shion said, none too nicely, but also not coldly. "Also, you chose pink for your outfit choice, and it is covered with flower designs. While pretty looking, it will also draw eyes to us, and the last thing we want is unwanted attention. That being said, you simply look like a foreigner in this part of town where everyone has black hair and dark eyes. Your hair is blond and your eyes are bright blue. Even if you wanted to hinge into a disguise, I happen to know that you can't hinge for more than five minutes."
"How do you know that?" Misaki asked, offended and annoyed.
"I paid attention in class. So unless you've had some extra training this last couple weeks, nothing I said was incorrect. We need someone who is nimble, quick on their feet, and can get in and out without being detected," Shion announced, and Hikaru let out a coughing sound in order to draw attention.
"I know what you mean. With my superior Byakugan and ability to hinge for an entire seven minutes, I am the ideal choice," Hikaru held his hand near his chin, letting out a puff of arrogance that made Shion roll her eyes.
"Under normal circumstances, that would be true, but since I did see your Taijutsu skills during our practicals, I know your abilities and quite frankly they are unimpressive. Even more so, since you mentioned, your Byakugan doesn't give you the advantage for the mission," Shion gave him a sad smile. The unapologetic look made him grow more angry and he looked ready to push her off her box. "I think it would be better if you stay behind and be the lookout. Your eyes are better than mine so it would be beneficial for all of us."
"So what, you're all powerful and deserve to be the one who goes alone?" Misaki asked and Shion sighed. "Also, you are in full pink, right down to your hair."
"Yes but I'm tiny and I can hold a transformation Jutsu for long periods of time. Obviously pink hair and bright eyes will stick out to the Uchiha, hence the hinge that I can actually hold. I know how to be sneaky," she didn't chime in that the reason she was so good was because of hours of hide and seek every week. "Isn't the first thing we should do as a team is trust one another?"
"That's rich considering how you just treated me," Hikaru muttered, causing Misaki to nod.
"I said trust, not trust blindly," she commented in return. "Misaki, I know your special skills involve you Chakra control and your medical abilities."
Misaki scratched her head sheepishly, "well I don't wanna toot my own horn but-"
"Unfortunately, your medical prowess is useless right now and regardless of your control, you haven't trained your Chakra effectively to have large storage," Shion continued as if she had never been interrupted. "However, good Chakra control can come in handy if you know more Jutsu."
"Well, yeah, but," Misaki muttered in a dejected tone.
Shion pulled out some walkie talkies from her bag and handed one to each of them, in the mean time putting a headset on her ear.
"Where did you get those?" Hikaru asked.
"I stole them from Iruka-sensei last year," she said, not mentioning that she stashed one in his floorboards so she could make random animal noises at night.
"I'm going to pretend I never heard that," Misaki said, twisting the device in her hand.
"Now, Misaki, we need to keep Itachi out of his house. The moment he enters, we can assume this mission becomes impossible," Shion announced. "And I for one would sooner die than go back to the academy."
"So would we," Hikaru and Misaki agreed.
"No one cares about you. Everyone already made their bets how long you two will last. I'm a prodigy and being sent back would be just embarrassing," Shion retorted.
"You don't have any friends, do you?" Hikaru asked, holding back Misaki from punching the eight year old.
"Shut up, it's mutual," Shion said flatly, leaning over the fence. "Okay, if your ready say 'I' in the receiver."
"You're the most arrogant brat I have ever met, but fine," Hikaru muttered.
"If Hikaru trusts you, I guess I will to," Misaki muttered.
"None of you said 'I'..."
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"Alpha in place, over," Shion announced.
"Why are you Alpha?" Hikaru whined.
"Cause you pulled the short end of the stick, now be quiet," Shion retorted, before adding a slow, "over."
"You don't have to say 'over'...we get the point when you stop talking," Misaki announced.
"You don't have to be annoying, we get the point when you start talking," Shion retorted like the nine year old she was, causing both of her teammates to sigh.
"What are you going to steal anyway?" Misaki asked with a grunt of annoyance. Shion didn't answer causing Misaki to send Hikaru a look that scream 'can I kill her?'. "...over..."
"Kasa-sensei said to take something of great value to him, which means that we'd have to observe him for long periods of time," Hikaru whispered in the walkie. "...over."
"That would risk being caught by him, so fuck that, over," Shion jumped onto the roof of his house.
"That's part of the mission," Misaki said, getting no response. "Oh my god, over."
"What's he doing Hikaru, over?" Shion asked, and Hikaru hissed.
"He's heading back to the house, abort mission, abort," Hikaru said quickly.
"Don't worry. Distraction away, over," Misaki turned to Hikaru. "I'll show her who can keep up a transformation."
Misaki did a quick hand sign, turning into Tsukasa. Hikaru whistles lowly, "cut back on the attitude. Kasa-sensei looks more chill."
"Grumpy and mean," Misaki whispered with a nod before she said, "got it." She raised the walkie to her lips. "I'll show you Shion."
"Whatever," Shion said in return. "Over."
Misaki jumped down, hiding behind a house before walking out casually to catch up with the Itachi Uchiha. She knew it was stupid to feel so elevated, especially since he was only two years older than her, but he was also the youngest to ever reach Jounin in the history of Konoha so she was two seconds from a nose bleed.
"Itachi," it felt so weird to not use a honorific on a man she had never spoken to before, but she did her best as Tsukasa didn't seem like the type to use it. He turned around and his eyes stared her up and down. In that moment she thought she was found out (which would be embarrassing considering her earlier bout of arrogance only three minutes ago).
"You're unusually cheery," he commented, and she wanted to bash her brains in that he picked up a discrepancy when all she said was his name.
"I'm supposed to be meeting my team and they ran off this way," she commented, trying to put as little feeling into her words as possible. Sound bored with life, Misaki.
"Is this a joke, Kasa?" he asked, looking her up and down.
"Is what a joke?" she asked and his lips slightly quirked into a smile.
"Who are you?" he asked, and Misaki felt her heart stop.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"You never let anyone call you 'Kasa'," he replied and she gulped, remembering Tsukasa-sensei's introduction.
"I've been working on it?" she said, hating herself that it sound more like a question.
"You're being weird so I'm going home," he turned on his heel and started walking away. Misaki heard Hikaru's voice through the receiver.
"Nice. You distracted him for a whole two minutes," he chuckled, causing Misaki's face to ignite red.
"Who figures out an imposter after just one word?" Misaki decided to take her frustrations out on her pillow, covering her screams later.
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Shion felt her heart race at her henge, finding it weird to be so tall and so obviously a boy. She took off her shoes at the front door placing them in her weapon's bag seeing as she wasn't going to come back for them. She walked further into the house, finding Itachi's mom in the kitchen making food. "Itachi," the woman sounded so kind as she turned towards her, and Shion wondered if this was what her own mother would be like if she got the chance to really know her. "Are you hungry?"
Now it was only a matter of finding out how Itachi spoke to his mom, and perhaps she would have known if she observed more. Of course, that would also be a huge risk considering the properties of the clan's Kekkei Genkai, mixed with the fact that Itachi Uchiha was a legend of Shinobi.
"I ate before coming here," Shion said with a smile as she walked towards the hallway, finding, much to her annoyance that she didn't know which room was hers.
"Oh, I wish you would stop doing that," the mother scolded, and Shion silently agreed. If she had a mother waiting for her like this, she would never eat out.
"Sorry mom, next time," she whispered, trying to keep her voice level even though seeing her was difficult. "Well, I have to get some things packed."
"Another mission?" the woman frowned, and Shion, not wanted to agree or disagree, didn't answer. "Alright, please come down and try to eat when you're done. It would make Sasuke very happy."
"Yep," she said, walking to one of the room in the hallway. Shion made sure that the woman couldn't see, just in case it was a random room. It was dark, with nothing more than a picture of a man with candles surround it. It looked very much like a shrine and a curious part of Shion almost wanted to see more, but she decided that curiosity had no place in a mission, even if it was a fake one.
The next room she opened was that of a kid, she could tell since the kid in question sat at his desk reading a book. Shion cursed in her head as Sasuke's head snapped towards her. "Brother, are we going to train this time?" Shion frowned, not knowing what to say.
"No, I was just checking on you, mom wanted you to come down to eat," she said, pulling the excuse out of her ass.
"So we're not going to train?" Sasuke asked, and he looked so dejected that Shion almost felt bad.
"Maybe next time, Sasuke," she said with a smile and he flinched as if he were expected her to hit him or something. Shion furrowed her brows, closing the door.
What a freak, she thought, finding the last room and smiling.
"This has to be it," she whispered, finding the room had a very Itachi vibe to it. It had weapons hung on the walls and was neat and organized. It didn't look like the type of room that a mother would have, and obviously it wasn't Sasuke's room. She noticed that everything was well dusted, as if he were afraid of the very lint. She felt like an intruder and that was unnerving since it was Itachi Uchiha. "Now what to steal..."
"I'll show you, Shion," she heard Misaki say through the receiver and Shion rolled her eyes.
"Whatever, over" she said in return, walking over to Itachi's drawer and opening the first one. "Hey Hikaru, would you feel lost if someone took all your underwear, over?" Shion asked in the mic.
"Shion, what the fuck," he commented back.
"I'm going to take that as a yes, over," Shion said, putting back on her shoes and filling her bag with all of Itachi's underwear that was neatly folded in the drawer.
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"What is this?" Tsukasa commented, pulling out some of Itachi's unquestionables from her bag. It was odd to see such a scary person so puzzled and for a moment, Shion found that her sensei looked her age.
"His underwear," Shion said, finding Hikaru and Misaki were covering their faces with their hands.
"We are so sorry sensei," Misaki mumbled, her face red.
"Look, you said to grab something precious of his," Shion commented.
"Yes...I did," Tsukasa agreed.
"So...did we pass?" Hikaru asked, raising his head.
Tsukasa's lips twitched, and her one eye blinked a couple times. "This wasn't what I had in mind...but a deal is a deal," Tsukasa said, putting the clothes back into the bag with a sigh. "You three showed great teamwork today."
"You were watching us?" Misaki asked, her eyes widening.
"Of course," Tsukasa replied. "I heard every word. You three actually worked well together, and built off each other's strengths. I was impressed at the formulation of an actual plan. Many would get nervous and attempt to spy for a lot longer. That is a good plan, had the person you were to spy not been Uchiha Itachi. It was a good idea to make this as quick as possible. I was...I guess you can say, proud."
"Really?" Misaki asked, happy for the praise.
"Sure," Tsukasa said in a monotone. "I mean, it showed me at the very least what we need to work on. All the weaknesses that Shion named on you two were apparent in your scores." The two teammates scowled at the girl in question. "Still, Shion, you're not perfect either, so do us all a favor and stop pretending you are. Arrogance is not a way to become the best Shinobi. Confidence, yes, but learn your weaknesses on your own. Don't make me have to draw you a diagram."
Hikaru and Misaki felt better once Shion got put in her place, but they decided not to voice their amusement, since Tsukasa made it clear she didn't like that either.
"Now, which one of you called me 'Kasa-sensei', I believe they have a promised beating."
The three student's tried to run away, but that was hard as a net suddenly sprung up around their feet. Shion was annoyed to be so high from the ground even though she had never misspoke her teacher's name.
"Welcome to team 3," Tsukasa said. "We're going to have so much fun together."