Evolve
"I don't mind this game, I don't know what to say"
The next day was bright with the potential for adventure... or something like that. We were going to take our very first mission today. No matter what the rumors were surrounding D-ranks, it was hard not to be just a little bit excited.
Asuma, Shisui, and I were lounging at a tree two blocks away from the Academy, killing some time. Sakumo-sensei had told us to meet at nine, so naturally we had all gotten here around 8:40 out of shear excitement.
"Two weeks," Asuma was telling us, rather loudly. "That's how long it's going to take for Dad to start giving us some real missions!"
"Isamu's spent his first month as a ninja sponge cleaning the Academy floors," I commented, with an easy smile.
Asuma had been talking like this ever since Sakumo-sensei dismissed us the day prior. I think he was just mentally prepping himself for the month of mandatory chores that lay ahead.
"Well maybe if he'd done it faster, he would've gotten better missions sooner," Asuma said. He had a stubborn look on his face.
"I don't think that's how it works, but sure," I commented, snorting when he rolled his eyes at me.
Personally, I didn't really mind the idea of D-ranks at the moment. More than anything, I wanted to start capitalizing on my time with Sakumo-sensei, and D-ranks left a lot of room in our schedules for training. Plus, Asuma's idea of a 'real mission' probably involved more violence than I was emotionally ready for at the moment. I wanted to be stronger before the village tossed my team into the fire pit.
"My sister said that a good ninja can turn a D-rank into something fun," Shisui said.
"Fun? D-ranks are like chores. They just give them to us because it's kids stuff," Asuma blinked at him incredulously.
"You want to bet on it?" Shisui asked, a mischievous glint in his eye.
I raised my eyebrows up at him in surprise. The past few days, he'd been the picture of polite. I wouldn't have pegged him as the type to tease or gamble. Maybe he was starting to feel more comfortable around us? I wasn't sure if that thought was pleasant or disturbing.
Of course, Asuma was never one to pass up a good challenge.
"What are your terms?" he asked.
"Um, once we get our mission assignment, I'll think of a game or something to make it fun, and you have to play along or else its cheating," Shisui said.
"Winner treats the whole team to lunch some time," I suggested.
"You're not even doing anything Nat," Asuma deadpanned.
"I'll be the judge," I said. "That way you can't just say you didn't have any fun today to win."
"Sounds good to me," Shisui nodded.
"Alright fine, you're on," Asuma said, sticking his hand out towards Shisui. The boys shook on it, making it official.
They started chatting about different games they might be able to tailor to a D-rank. Sensei arrived a few minutes later.
"Morning," he greeted us with a smile.
"Morning Sensei," we chorused.
"Ready for your first mission?" he asked. We nodded, and the four of us started the short trip over to the mission desk.
It took Asuma all of thirty seconds to tell Sakumo-sensei about the bet he'd made with Shisui. Sensei seemed rather amused by it. He probably thought this was a good sign of bonding.
"You could turn the mission today into a training exercise," he suggested as we walked into the Academy. I glanced sideways at Shisui, who clearly considered this an excellent idea. Back home, no kid would've thought that work-practice was fun. Here though, us ninja children practically lived for opportunities to get a little training in.
"Don't cheat for him Sensei," I reprimanded lightly. "Shisui is supposed to figure this out on his own. Otherwise its not a fair bet"
"Oh, sorry," Sensei raised his hands in mock surrender.
The three of us were all in a fairly good mood. That is, until we walked into the mission desk room.
Maybe it was because the new genin teams were starting to work today. Maybe it was just because Konoha was a busy place. Whatever the reason, the mission desk room was crowded. We stepped in, happy smiles on our faces, and there seemed to be two other teams grabbing mission assignments, in addition to the ten or so people that were working the desk. People were talking and papers were flying. The general buzz of daily business was everywhere.
Then, as soon as people seemed to realize we were present, the entire room fell silent and stared.
I was confused for a moment. What in the world was so special about my new genin team that caused a whole room of ninja to startle?
Then it hit me that they were all staring specifically at Sakumo-sensei.
Immediately, I felt a strong mix of angry and awkward fill my chest.
Hiruzen was the one to break the moment. He cleared his throat, very loudly, and said "Team Four, you can get your mission from me." He wasn't making any attempt to hide his annoyance, and just like that the room was back in motion. No matter what these people seemed to think of Sakumo, I guess it wasn't worth picking a fight with the Hokage over.
Sensei put one hand on Asuma's shoulder and the other on Shisui's and guided us towards Hiruzen. I fell into step robotically beside them.
It was hard to tell what Sensei was thinking. His face was completely blank, like the entire thing had absolutely no effect on him. I imagined that was what was expected of a Shinobi like him though. Whatever thoughts he had about those other people, he wasn't supposed to show them.
The boys, of course, both looked equal parts confused and shocked. Asuma, for sure, would probably try to bring this up later.
"Hm, I think maybe garden weeding will be good for today," Hiruzen said aloud, handing Sakumo a folder. "You'll be meeting Teien-san in the west district to start your mission"
"Yes sir," Sakumo-san said. The three of us all nodded politely as well.
Half of me expected Asuma to protest. I knew he felt more comfortable than most standing in front of the Hokage. He didn't though - probably because he was still thrown from the silence and the staring.
Then with that, we made a quick and quiet exit, heading towards the west district to do our mission.
Once we stepped outside, I felt like I could breath easy again. All of the prying eyes were gone. Of course, now that we were away from the crowd, my teammates were feeling more comfortable as well.
"What was their problem!" Asuma blurted out hotly.
I shot him a pained look, and Sakumo-sensei let out a deep shuddering sigh.
"I warned you yesterday after your test - some of the other ninja here don't think I should be teaching a genin team," he said, voice calm and level. Even now that we'd gotten away from the crowd, he really didn't seem upset by that entire fiasco, not even in the slightest. If anything, he was more concerned about how it effected our feelings rather than his own. Again I found myself wondering how much of this was a facade, and how much was legitimate.
"We're going to prove them wrong for you Sensei," Shisui spoke up, with sudden vigor. I glanced at him, surprised. Shisui's hand was clenched in an angry fist. The usual happy-go-lucky temperament was completely gone, and there was a stoic determination in his eyes. "They're going to see what a great team we are, and then they won't be able to say anything anymore."
Sensei blinked at him, before his lips twitched into a small smile.
"I hope that's a promise," he said crossing his arms.
"It is," Shisui said.
Asuma nodded vigorously beside him, and I smiled at them.
"Let's go pull some weeds," I said, breaking the tension, and with that, we were off to complete our mission.
The walk took thirty minutes at civilian pace. That meant Shisui had thirty minutes to figure out how he was going to win his bet with Asuma. When we arrived, we found that Teien-san, our customer, ran a fairly expansive radish farm towards the edge of the village. The moment I saw it, I was a little astonished that Hiruzen had dared call it a 'garden'.
Teien-san told us it'd been about two weeks since he'd last hired a team of genin to pull weeds from his garden, and that the recent rains had made little foreign green seedlings start spawning all over the place.
Basically, we had our work cut out for us.
Sakumo-sensei didn't seem like he would be much help. Teien-san mentioned off-handedly that he was having trouble moving some equipment around his yard, and our good natured Sensei volunteered very quickly to help him out.
Walking around to the fields, we readied ourselves for some good-ole manual labor.
"Alright, Shisui, let's hear it," Asuma said, already looking a little smug. After Teien-san's long rambling complaint about the weeds, Asuma seemed absolutely positive that Shisui was going to loose the bet.
"We're going to make it a competition," Shisui said cheerily. "I'll take the left radish field, Natsuki-chan can take the middle field, and then you'll take the last one Asuma. Whoever cleans their area of weeds first wins. But, you're not allowed to touch the dirt with your feet. Every time you do, you'll have to run a lap around the field before you can keep weeding."
Asuma frowned, probably trying to figure out how this was going to work for him.
"Ready?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Yeah, let's go," Asuma nodded, determined.
Shisui reacted almost immediately. He leapt backwards into the air, drawing a kunai out from his pocket and throwing it towards his first row of radishes. It imbedded itself in the dirt, and he landed deftly on top of it.
All in all, it was a very Uchiha thing to do.
"Show off," Asuma groaned. Then he was off, copying Shisui's technique. He was bigger though, so he used two kunai to stand above the ground instead of one.
Really though, I think both of them were making things difficult for themselves. Every time they wanted to cover a new area, they were going to have to throw a new kunai and jump to it. All it'd take is a small slip and they'd be running laps.
I gave both of them a smug look and did a hand stand. Then I hand-walked forward easily into my section of the field to start pulling weeds.
"Have you ever tried a one-handed hand-stand push up contest with Guy?" I asked the boys as we started to race.
Asuma grumbled something under his breath, and I laughed.
Shisui couldn't have picked a competition more suited to my talents. After regularly training with Guy for well over a year, I was particularly good at hand stand races. In the end though, they did put up a fairly good fight. Shisui's kunai trick was pretty clever after all. Asuma ended up falling off his footholds two or three times and had to run laps.
I won the competition by a fifteen minute margin, in the end. As a prize for my victory, I got to sprawl out in the grass for a minute to catch my breath while the boys sweat through the last of their dirt patches.
Sensei appeared just as we were wrapping up.
"So who won the bet?" he asked.
"Natsuki-chan hasn't picked a winner yet," Shisui said.
Then there was suddenly, three pairs of eyes on me, all looking expectantly.
"Sorry Asuma, I think this one has to go to Shisui," I announced.
Shisui beamed, and Asuma let out a defeated sigh. He probably knew he'd lost about half way through the mission.
"Yeah yeah. I guess I'll treat you guys to lunch some time," he mumbled.
"Maybe tomorrow," I said. Off beyond the tree line, the sun was starting to dip in the sky. We were due for dinner soon, not lunch. Biwako and Hiruzen would be out working tonight, but Sakumo-sensei and Shisui had families that'd be expecting them home soon.
"Actually, I was wondering if you guys would want to come over my house for dinner tonight?" Shisui asked.
I resisted a frown, feeling my good mood falter for the first time today.
My guard had come down a little bit, I realized. I'd let myself joke around with Shisui and been generally pretty friendly. And maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. This was a little bit different though. It was one thing to be work friends and another to go over the Uchiha compound, to meet his mom and his sister, and see them be happy together.
The entire idea left a sour taste in my mouth.
This was unavoidable though, wasn't it? Shisui had invited us over twice now this week. He was clearly the kind of person who valued family, and I had a feeling he was going to find some way for us to meet them whether I wanted to or not.
I might as well get this over with now really before Asuma noticed I was being evasive.
"Sure, sounds like fun," I forced myself to say with the smallest of smiles.
"Yeah, we can show Nat your training yard," Asuma grinned.
Then we were off again.
The Uchiha District wasn't too far a walk from the radish fields. We already were pretty far out from the village center after all, and the Uchiha really were on the outskirts of town. Soon we found ourselves in front of a red-wood archway that marked the entrance to the compound.
Just beyond the gate seemed to be their main shopping area. Several civilians were walking around selling everything from food to cats to ninja gear. I think it was the busiest time of the day for the shop keepers because the air had a lively business to it, similar to the atmosphere you'd find on Konoha's main street mid-day.
It was easy to tell that we'd wandered into Uchiha territory. Basically everybody we passed - ninja and civilian - had dark hair and was wearing a red and white fan somewhere on their body. I felt a little bit out of place actually, with my wild white locks and the Senju Vajra on my sleeve.
Still, everybody we passed seemed to be friendly enough. Shisui gave basically every passerby a friendly smile and wave. Sometimes a few would shout happy greetings to him as he passed, and we were even introduced to one or two.
"That's my cousin, he owns a kunai shop," Shisui would say as we turned a corner. Or "Miss Kosai makes the best miso soup, maybe I can get her to make you guys some!"
Every time he opened his mouth, the pit in my stomach grew just a little bit bigger. Every new face I saw was another that I knew for certain would be dead in a few years.
After what felt like an eternity, we did finally make it to Shisui's house. It was really more of a flat though than a house. They seemed to be living in some sort of branch family compound.
"How many people live with you, Shisui?" I asked, opening my mouth for the first time since entering Uchiha territory.
"This is a branch family house," Shisui explained. "Everybody's got their own like, apartment, sort of, with a kitchen and bedrooms and stuff. But we all share the same yards, patios, gardens, and training spaces outside. Some families have their own houses further back in the compound. We're here 'cause my Dad died when I was really young. Mom thought it'd be good to be closer to everybody."
I nodded, because that made sense. The Sarutobi clan did something similar - giving others the option to stay in a communal building or in their own houses elsewhere. I just didn't see as much of the branch family dynamics because the Sarutobi's were smaller, less traditional, and I lived with the main family.
"Actually," Shisui went on. "Obito-kun lives right over there, just a few doors down. You're freinds with him right?"
"Oh yeah," Asuma nodded absently. "Maybe we'll say hi later."
I inwardly cringed at the thought of that. Shisui just kind of shrugged.
Then the three of us walked up the patio and into Shisui's house.
"Mom! Kaiteki! I'm home!" Shisui shouted as we entered.
"Shisui-kun! Good to see you survived your first mission," a warm voice answered. A woman with short chestnut brown hair was standing in the kitchen with her back to us. The air inside was thick with the scent of ginger and dashi. My stomach growled the minute it hit my nose. She seemed to be expecting us, I noted. The stovetop was filled to the brim with all sorts of pots and pans. I think she must've been preparing to feed half the Uchiha clan or something.
"We just weeded some gardens," Shisui said. "I brought my teammates home for dinner too."
His mom looked over her shoulder briefly to smile at us before returning to whatever she was cooking.
"Asuma and Natsuki right? It's good to meet you two, Shisui's been telling me all about your team the past few days," she said.
"It's nice to meet you too Uchiha-san," Asuma said, giving a slight bow. I guess some of Biwako's lecturing about manners must've stuck somewhere.
Well, I couldn't be out-mannered by Asuma, so I quickly gave an identical bow and said, "Thanks for having us over."
Shisui's mom let out an airy chuckle. "Call me Umi-san, please. There's too many Uchiha running around here to use everyone's surname," she said.
"You got that right," a voice quipped from just behind us. I jumped, spinning around to see who had snuck up on us. A girl was standing in the doorway wearing a smirk on her face. My first impression of her was that she looked almost exactly like Shisui. The long eyelashes, the curly dark hair, the wide nose - all of it was almost identical. Of course, she was taller, and her curly hair was longer and wild, but the resemblance was striking.
"You know, if I have to see another Uchiha today, I might throw something at somebody," she finished her thought, stepping into the room.
"I'm sure police force training can't have been that bad today dear," Umi-san replied.
"Kaiteki-nee! This is Natsuki-chan, the teammate you didn't meet the other day," Shisui grinned up at the girl in greeting.
Kaiteki glanced down at Shisui, flopping her hand down on top of his head and messing his hair. She gave Asuma a fist bump with her other hand. "Guess you all survived your first mission, huh?" she said. Then she nodded to me. "I'm Shisui's big sister and Konoha Military Police Officer in training," she said. True to her word, there was a blue star with the Uchiha fan in the center stitched onto her sleeve.
"Natsuki Senju," I nodded back. Ah, that probably had come off too stiff.
Kaiteki looked down at me for a moment before her smirk deepened just a little bit. Something about the glint in her eye made me feel even more uncomfortable than I had before. Amused ninja were rarely up to any good.
"Why don't you all sit down, dinner will be ready in just a minute," Umi-san said, breaking up our pow-wow by the doorway. We all took our shoes off and filed over to the dinner table to eat.
Dinner was... nice. Kaiteki was the life of the party, taking charge of most of the conversation. She managed to find a way to include all of us. Shisui clearly hero-worshiped her, and I could tell that Asuma liked her too. She had a way about her that was just warm.
Umi-san meanwhile, seemed content to just listen to the rest of us chatter. She smiled when we talked about the boy's bet, and poked a little fun at Kaiteki when she started to complain about her police training. Really, she was very different from Biwako-san, but not in a bad way. She was softer and more open. I wondered vaguely if she was a civilian.
When we were sufficiently stuffed, Umi-san released us to play in the yard for a little bit. Asuma was hell bent on showing me their target range. Admittedly, it was pretty impressive, as far as target ranges went. We took turns showing off our throwing styles for a little while before starting to wear out.
"I think we should head home Asuma-kun," I said wearily. It had been a long tiring day, and tomorrow would likely be another one.
"Ung yeah, Sakumo-sensei's going to want to meet us early again tomorrow," he agreed.
"Do you guys want to take home any leftovers?" Shisui stretched his arms out over his head. "Mom would kill me if I didn't ask."
"Nah, tell her we said thanks though," Asuma shook his head.
"Okay, well, see you tomorrow then," Shisui grinned at us.
"See you tomorrow," I nodded back.
Asuma and I departed together from the Uchiha compound. I felt my shoulders sag the minute we were finally away.
"They were nice," he commented with a yawn.
"Yeah," I agreed. "Yeah they were."
Arc Title and Chapter Quote from the song Evolve by Phoria
