I don't really like this chapter. It seems to lack substance or something...I dunno. At any rate, I still had to write through it. Hope you enjoy.
I don't own Naruto
Hei had ceased thinking long ago. He floated blindly through absolutely nothing at all, never seeing, never feeling, never hearing. Everything he had once known was completely erased.
Quite suddenly, as if through the memory of a hazy dream, a bird chirped somewhere nearby. At first, the sound didn't register. If there was nothing, how could there be a bird in the general area? Slowly, his mind began to come back to work. There was something. He was alive. The bird was singing a song because it was morning. He had been asleep all night. He was just fine. All he would have to do would be to open his eyes to the sun and stand up. Somewhere in the back of his head, a voice screamed at him to wake up.
GET UP! SEE THE SUN! MOVE YOUR LIMBS! COMMAND YOUR BODY TO WORK! STAND ON YOUR OWN TWO FEET AND LIVE AGAIN!
At that second precisely, Hei's eyes snapped open quickly, taking in the light rather violently because his pupils hadn't adjusted enough yet. He jumped to his feet, moving all of his muscles in perfect harmony with each other. I quick intake of breath revitalized his senses and everything hit him suddenly. Taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound were all a symphony playing out of tune with each other, but steadily falling into a rhythm that was distinct but beautiful.
From out of nowhere, Hei found himself tackled into the ground by some laughing being. As he was spun around in the air, he recognized the laugher as Yumi's and looked down to see her smiling and laughing in delight while forcing him into a leaping dance in a field of tall yellow grasses.
"You passed!" She yelled happily as they spun around "You did so much better than I expected! You can't possibly understand how proud I am of you!"
"Y-Yumi sensei!" Hei exclaimed, getting his bearings finally and seeing her crying tears of happiness in front of him. Then he started to remember what she was saying "What do you mean I passed!"
"It's just like I said, you and your team pass the test!" Yumi shrieked in delight, dancing gaily back to the girls, who were just now coming around.
They all fell into a great pile of people who were either laughing happily or waking up from the deepest sleep imaginable. Yumi hugged them all tightly to her, happily crying while she spurted out random sentences proclaiming how proud she was of all of them.
"Yumi sensei, how could we pass, we didn't complete the mission?" Hitomi asked groggily as she realized what was going on.
"It wasn't about all of those stupid orders! It was about seeing if you all were worth teaching or not!" Yumi yelled happily as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "I put you through one of the toughest tests imaginable and you just breezed through it!"
"But what about the flowers and the maze and the story about the gods and the death threats!" Katsuki cried, barely able to finish her sentence in one breath.
"I set all that up." Yumi said, still smiling happily "I was testing your teamwork, your strength, your willpower, your bravery, and your personalities all at the same time. The test was designed for you to fail from the beginning. There was only one flower in the maze. Most of the other teams I put through the test all fought over the flower selfishly to try and extend their own pathetic lives, but you all did so much better!"
"Well why didn't we die then?" Hitomi asked curiously, the point of the exercise finally coming to her "You said you would kill us if we failed."
"Ah, I was just goofin on you!" Yumi said playfully "What kind of evil person would I be if I mercilessly slaughtered a bunch of helpless genin? Besides that, you had to summon enough will to wake yourselves up didn't you? That's good enough for me right there."
"So this means we're actually a real team now?" Hei asked excitedly as he looked at his teammates.
"That's right!" Yumi said, tackling them all again to the ground while laughing "We are officially team D of the village hidden in the grass!"
For the rest of the day, the four of them laughed together in the fields, not having a care in the world. Yumi's very caring personality had already gotten her attached to the three of them, including Hei, who looked like this was the happiest day of his life. For a second, her happiness vanished while she watched him. Her orders were still going to have to be carried out in as timely a manner possible. Quickly, she put a smile back on her face to mask her uncertainty about her mission concerning Hei.
"Okay, for our thirteenth mission, we'll be doing some garden work for a sweet old lady across town." Yumi said happily as she read the scroll aloud to her less than eager charges.
It had been almost two weeks since team D had passed Yumi's incredibly hard test. The colder weather was quickly moving upon them, a surefire sign that winter was quick on its way. Each day they met at the same koi pond in one of the larger gardens in the village to watch the fish, relax, and assess their mission.
"Yumisensei, I mean no disrespect, but are these missions we are doing really worth any real merit?" Hitomi asked rather seriously, like always. In the past two weeks, Hitomi had been declared the team strategist, always thinking ahead for the good of the team.
"Yeah, I mean these missions are nice, but they're not exactly a challenge. Shouldn't we be testing our skills already?" Hei asked, tacking his question on to Hitomi's question. Hei was the muscle of the group. He and Hitomi were usually the ones who would do any serious fighting, and even then, Hei would usually be the front man while Hitomi went in for the quick strikes while the opponent wasn't looking.
"Oh come on guys! These missions aren't bad. We're providing a valuable service to the community!" Katsuki said hyperactively as she picked up her garden trowel. Katsuki wasn't really suited for combat. She was training as a medic nin, but it took a long time to get to be very good with that. Right now she could only heal minor cuts and bruises. All the same, she would make a very useful addition to the team with proper training.
"You know, I think all of you are right, except for Katsuki. She's wrong." Yumi said, stretching herself out in the sunlight by the pond, basking in the gentle rays that accompanied a light breeze. "I'm ready for a change of pace. I'd like to get out of here for a little while and go somewhere different."
"You know, as our sensei, you're supposed to tell us 'You should be happy for the missions you can get!' and things like that." Hitomi said in her same calm and mostly monotone voice.
"I know, but I don't like these missions either! They're boring!" Yumi said, rolling over onto her stomach with a pout on her face.
"At least the missions here don't involve killing people! EEK!" Katsuki said, squealing in disgust at the thought of hurting people.
"You know, it's not that bad once you get good at it." Yumi said teasingly to Katsuki "I think you're just a chicken is what it is."
"I'm not a chicken!" Katsuki yelled in fake anger "You take it back this instant you big meanie head!"
"Okay now children, it's time to settle down." Hitomi chided sarcastically "Seriously, you'd think I'm the only adult here."
"You might be, just like I'm the only guy here." Hei complained. This type of banter went on a lot and he really didn't like listening to it. He wished for all the world he knew how to sleep with his eyes open.
"Don't complain too much now Hei san. At least we're not all ugly sweaty guys." Yumi said with a smile as she got up and stretched her arms playfully like a cat "I'll go and talk to the Kusakage about giving us some different missions. I'm sure we'll be out of the country in the next two days."
Hei waved goodbye to everyone as he followed the white cobblestone path out of the garden and back into the main city. It was odd that people who lived in such a beautiful village would ever want to leave. What on earth drove them to wish for something other than the perfection they already had?
As he walked on through the people who gave him plenty of leeway Hei mused about human curiosity. It was almost as if human beings could never be truly content with themselves or their surroundings. Why was the need to change all of the gods' creations so drastically?
After being lost in thought for what seemed like a few seconds, he found that his feet had carried him directly in front of his apartment door. Reaching into his pocket he turned took out the key and turned it in the knob. As soon as the door opened, he went inside and slept, dreaming of the mission he had been all but promised the next day.