"Ohayo!"
"Ohayo yourself, Ryo" said Hinata gloomily. She never was perky in the morning. Thanks to her insomnia.
"My my, aren't we cheerful today, ne?" Ryo kept baiting Hinata.
Himeko remained quiet and this did not escape Ryo's eyes. Focusing on Himeko now, "What? No insults today?" Ryo raised an eyebrow.
" Fuck off," was the reply.
Now that was weird. Himeko is quiet and Hinata is downright mean. Something is not wrong somewhere. As Ryo was busy pondering on possible reasons for his teammates sudden behavioral change, the door to Hokage's office flew open.
" You may come in now." Exclaimed Shizune.
The three of them walked silently into the Hokage's office and waited until the door to be shut. There at the desk, sat Tsunade among the mountains of scrolls and documents. Tsunade looked up from her table and raised an eyebrow. There was gloomy shadow looming over the three of them. Ryo shrugged while the two kunoichis remained silent.
"Have a seat. This might take a while." beckoned the Hokage. Once all of them were seated, only then did the Hokage start their talk. " You do remember about me saying that you will be given time to get used to Konoha while waiting for the jounin test, don't you?" when the three nodded, Tsunade continued, " Well, I am afraid that you will have to carry out a mission for us."
The three were silent for a while.
" What choice do we have?" asked Hinata seriously.
" Frankly, you would have to accept it since you are ninjas of Konoha, but I'll make exceptions for you for now if you refuse." Explained Tsunade. Again there was that long silence.
"What kind of mission is it?" It was Himeko now who spoke.
"An A class mission." Shizune answered Himeko's question.
"Well?" Tsunade asked whilst looking at the three young shinobis.
Ryo suddenly had a smirk on his face as he spoke, " Well, Hokage- sama, a little mission won't hurt us, would it?"
Tsunade secretly sighed in relief seeing the smiles and determination in the three faces. It was bothering her that there was no one else qualified for this mission, since most jounins had already went on other missions. Plus, these three were no ordinary ninjas. She had just found out from the academy that Hinata, Himeko and Ryo were their top students there and had been promoted as Special ANBU captains two years ago. To be able to clinch those posts under the Royal Academy was not something that usually happened. Heck, even Kakashi might not be able to hold that position. Their reputation as ninjas alone were impressive. Hinata Hyuga, the White Falcon, Himeko Uchiha, the Red Lion and Ryosuke Kosunaga, the Black Panther. These three namesakes were quiet famous in the ninja world lately, but not many knew who those ninjas really were. Konoha was indeed honoured to have received such notable ninjas.
"In that case, I'll start briefing you on the mission." Tsunade smiled.
- Somewhere near the borders of fire country-
"Sasaki- san!"
"Hai." replied Sasaki to a young jounin. She was currently at one of the watchtowers placed on the borders of fire country. A week after arriving at Konoha, Tsunade had sought out her help. One of the platoon's ANBU captains had been admitted into hospital for severe injuries and a new captain was urgently needed. It didn't help matters more that most ANBU captains were occupied then. There were rumours of Orochimaru and his sound ninjas were about to attack Konoha.
" One of the ANBU officers found a suspicious looking opening in the woods." Reported the jounin.
"Any idea of what it might be?" Sasaki needed at least any bit of information right now. Even the slightest carelessness might cause an attack on Konoha.
"It looks like some sort of forbidden jutsu. It looked as if it had been burnt down."
"I'll go down and have a look at it." After informing an ANBU officer under her platoon, Sasaki sprinted to the opening. The nearer they got the more chakra she sensed. Black Widow. She muttered to herself.
The jounin officer suddenly stopped at pointed to her the opening. It was as he had explained earlier, it was burnt. There was a slight opening but it wasn't complete yet.
"Akuma- san. Go inform the ANBU officers to keep alert. Things might get sticky now."
"Yes, Sasaki san"
Once the young jounin was out of sight, Sasaki spun around and faced a tree. Without bothering to look up, she spoke, "You do know that the Black Widow Jutsu won't work against me, do you Orochimaru?"
Suddenly there was a handclap behind her. Orochimaru had jumped from the tree she had been facing and was now dangerously standing behind her.
"Who said that the Black Widow Jutsu was to fight you. It was just to lure you out here, so that I can end your life right here right now!" Orochimaru suddenly turned vicious, but Sasaki wasn't fazed the least by it.
Clearly, these two still had unfinished business of theirs. Sasaki merely looked straight into Orochimaru's eyes, silently challenging him to a duel.
"I would advice your ninjas to retreat right now, if I were you. You know very well that I won't spare any of them don't you?" warned Sasaki. She had sensed about nearly 50 ninjas hidden in that very area waiting to ambush on her. "You wouldn't want to lessen your military force now would you?"
Orochimaru gave a creepy laugh out, "These ninjas are one of my finest. Nothing you can do can kill them. At least not all of them anyway."
"You shouldn't underestimate me Orochimaru." Having finished that sentence, she did a few hand seals as well chanting a few mantras. Chakra suddenly surrounded the area. " Time to meet your doom." drawled Sasaki.
Sasaki instantly went into a fury of numerous katas.
Ram, horse, mice, wind, fire, earth, demon, dog…"HELL'S FURY!"
A layer of reddish black aura appeared emanated from Sasaki as it rapidly surrounded her forming a whirlwind like shield. The aura held a hint of bloody scent. The sky was suddenly darkened forming big scary clouds as lightning flashed and wind howled eerily. The forest suddenly looked like a place from hell.
In a sudden movement of her hand, summoned the wind to spin around the area. Wind as invisible as air but as sharp as the tip of a blade slashed away at all the hidden sound ninjas, killing all of them in less than a minute. In a flash, the wind and lightning died and the ground was in its former appearance. The sky was bright again. It was as if the nightmare had suddenly gone away. However on the grounds, badly slashed bodies of ninjas were scattered. It looked as if a blood fest had just taken place minutes ago.
Realizing that he had lost that battle, Orochimaru quickly tried to escape. "Very impressive, Sasaki. Looks like I'll have to reassess your abilities. Until then." And 'poof', he was gone.
Sasaki just let him escape. She just stood there not saying anything nor moving. She had used too much chakra on that jutsu just now. It would be sheer stupidity to attack Orochimaru in that state of hers. Not wanting to think anymore, Sasaki tried to take a step only to realize that she hadn't any chakra left to even walk. Slowly, she felt her body fall. Maybe sleeping doesn't sound so bad. Just as her body was about to hit the ground, someone had caught her.