Hello, this is my first fic so I hope all of you would help me with the fic. Especially since English isn't my daily language. I do not own Naruto or anything related to it. I only own my original characters and my story. Thanks.
Therefore I want to thank Kohaku-san and Rythmic who kept following the only fic of mine, making me very honored that both of you think that this story is worth to be read. For Chibi-NarutoKawaii who answered my plea to review, can you become my beta then? I'm waiting for the next chapter of Sand, Foxes, and Slugs and last but not the least Y. Mitsuki who has just read my fic (from where I wonder) and left review for each chapter. Oh, I do have Ayame and Shinji pictures, the only problem is, I don't know how to use CorelDraw XDD. Thank you very much, everybody! If there are other people who read my story but not leaving a review, please leave one as long as it won't bite me or burn me into ashes of course XDD. Have a nice reading!
Ayame
First Mission-Continued
It was late when she arrived at the inn. She quickly headed to their room only to find her teammates and sensei had arrived before her. Arashi sat with her back to the wall, Itachi sat close to the door and Shinji sat near the window. Their attention was on the newly arrived girl.
"Sumimasen, I'm late," she bowed down apologetically.
"Did you have any trouble?" Arashi asked, she noticed there was a hint of concern in her voice.
"No, not at all," Ayame placed herself between Shinji and Itachi, it had been a habit for her. Just in case they didn't harm each other, either literally or not.
"Alright then, I want to know what you found out, started from the boys"
"Well, I found out that this Kaneshiro person can't be called clean or good person. It seems he did his business not in a good way. Bribe, violence, terror, you name it, included kidnapping. Many people hate him, but they fear him for what he can do to them. He could be the one," he shrugged as he added the last sentence.
"I noticed in his working place was rather heavily guarded and there were suspicious activities. I've checked to their warehouse close to the border. There are some certain people who seem to have a high position and they look more like a hit man but I also notice there are some of them who have higher chakra than average people, but I'm not really sure if they are ordinary people or shinobi. The possibility of him as the cause of Daichi's disappearance is high but I didn't find a perfect place to hide person in Ekimaru, since there aren't many private places here"
"Kaneshiro's house isn't included?" suddenly Ayame asked, that took their attention.
"It seems you have gained pretty much information, what did you find?" Arashi was pretty interested.
"Not much. It is true that Kaneshiro isn't liked around especially how he used dirty ways to make his business successful. He hired hit men and he didn't afraid to crush the people he didn't like, by making them bankrupt or kidnapping them. Not to forget that he also works in the same business with Daichi. His house is at the eastern border of the city, it is far from the crowd and the distance from other houses is pretty far. It is a big house, a Japanese-style house with high walls, with guards and surrounded by bamboo forest. It's the best hiding place. Though I believe we can get through the guards but we can't do it"
"Why not?" Shinji who had moved closer to hear Ayame's report asked.
"Because we would be charged of trespassing, Kaneshiro has wide influence, which means he has a lot of important connections. It's the main reason why he can be a candidate. Even though we probably have good reason, it could be backfired to us, to Konoha" (A/n: oh ok, sorry if it's too complicated. I dunno other way to write it)
Arashi was impressed, the girl truly had deep observation and vast knowledge. She could see her talent in diplomacy. It would be a problem indeed, every observation led to Kaneshiro's involvement in Daichi's disappearance. Even Arashi had reached that conclusion.
If they were about to continue their mission, they needed to get through this problem carefully or it would be a problem for Konoha.
"Is it true Sensei?" Itachi asked, he noticed that Arashi's face was serious. He realized the matter couldn't be taken lightly. Being the heir of Uchiha clan, Itachi had learnt about diplomacy matters. Not much, but enough to know how important influence was and that there were times where shinobi were at disadvantage because of it.
"Yes, Ayame is true. Kaneshiro could report his objections to the daimyo and put pressure to Konoha. It'll be a big problem. We must make careful measures," Arashi had a plan in mind.
I can use some help from them.
But first, there were some things that needed to make sure.
"First we need evidence strong enough for us to confirm Daichi is indeed in the house. I entrust you that job. Be careful, remember the consequences. You're going to do it tomorrow." Her students were surprised that they had been entrusted with an important job already, but they accepted the job in a nod of determination.
-o-O-o-
The next day, the children woke up only to find their sensei had left. In a short conversation, agreed to check on Kaneshiro's house tonight while all day they would try to gather more information. They went on separate ways, and when the sun was setting they met at their decided meeting point. To Ayame's surprise, her teammates had already arrived before her. Obviously they were anxious to do –at last- real mission. When she landed on their meeting point –on tree branches at the side of a small road that enabled them to have a good look at Kaneshiro's house-, Shinji looked at her while Itachi merely nodded to confirm her arrival.
"How's the situation?" Ayame spoke softly, loud enough to be heard by her teammates.
"There's going to be a shift soon. That time we're going to get in through the bamboo forest," Shinji was the one who explained. Ayame simply nodded, she understood now why their sensei entrusted the job. The house was surrounded by bamboo forest and an adult shinobi could barely pass the forest unnoticed. With their small body it would be easier for them to get in without attracting attention. When they saw the guards were about to change shift, they knew they need to act. Swiftly, they launched themselves from the tree and slipped into the darkness of the forest. With extreme precaution, they jumped over the walls and once they got in, they quickly hid themselves in the shadows. They were lucky enough that Kaneshiro was overly confident that no shinobi would dare to break into his house so the security was easy enough to be breached by shinobi.
Ayame scanned the area and saw it was fully deserted. One of the reasons why they picked the time because they knew that Kaneshiro wouldn't be at home until midnight. The house was large, so they decided to spread to look for Daichi or anything that confirmed his presence. Their search ended at a small storehouse in the corner of the backyard. It was the most possible to hide anything or anyone there. They stopped into a halt when they sensed someone was coming and hid themselves in the shadows. Two people were walking towards the storehouse. One was about average height while the other was a bit taller. They couldn't really see their faces because of the darkness. The taller one walked before the other, he unlocked the door and opened it for him. When they walked into the storehouse, the children quickly moved under a small window with bars to have better audible range.
"Well, well, I hope you're comfortable enough here…," a man voice could be heard, followed by a pleased chuckle.
"Daichi-san…" The name alerted the children.
Afterwards, they could hear someone shifted.
"What's your purpose?" another voice spoke, the voice seemed hoarse and tired.
"Oh, just a little business. I just need you to be out of the picture," the man before answered, Ayame thought she saw him smirking.
"Don't worry, you'll be free… soon." Ayame didn't like the sound of it. Then the two left the storehouse, leaving the tall to lock the door once again. The three stood still, they didn't move an inch from their crouching position under the window until their footsteps faded away. Shinji thought of releasing Daichi especially it seemed the door of the storehouse was only locked.
Shinji was about to move when a hand stopped him.
"What are you going to do?" Itachi asked him, his eyes strained on him.
"I'm going to save him," he answered, giving him an annoyed look.
"That's not our job. We are ordered to make sure of Daichi's presence only," Itachi emphasized the last word.
"But we can do it now, there's no guard around the storehouse and it's only locked. It wouldn't be too hard," he hissed.
"Remember the consequences, Shinji!" he reminded, keeping his voice low.
"Since when you're the leader!" Shinji's impatience appeared, his voice was louder then he intended. Ayame noticed an eerie silence surrounding them. From the corner of her eyes, she thought she'd seen a flicker of movement. Instead stopping her teammates, she quickly made hand seals, activating a genjutsu to conceal their presence. Itachi and Shinji had stopped arguing when they saw Ayame performing a genjutsu. She closed her eyes to focus her concentration in order to maintain the illusion she made. She felt someone else's presence, moving toward their place. Shinji and Itachi had shifted to fighting position, prepared for any attacks. Then, a man appeared, he was a tall man, his body was well-built and slender, his posture was steady and full aware of his surroundings. His eyes examined his surroundings carefully, he walked slowly towards the wall and stopped right beside their hiding place. He looked at their place but it seemed the genjutsu was working well, he didn't notice their presence nor moved further to their place. The man seemed to relax and his posture returned to normal.
"What's wrong?" the voice who had threatened Daichi before spoke.
"Nothing. I suppose it's just my imagination," the man walked toward to the voice.
"That's what you're hired for"
"I'm fully aware of it," the man answered.
"Now let's go, I have an important meeting to attend." The man who seemed to be a hired bodyguard only nodded and followed the shorter one.
Ayame heard the footsteps getting further from her position, but she couldn't afford to be mistaken, so she asked softly,
"Have they gone, Shinji?" knowing well Shinji's ability. Shinji sharpened his senses especially his hearing and smell, after a while he heard those two left the house,
"They've gone," he confirmed. Ayame trusted him, so she made a simple hand seal,
"Kai!" releasing her genjutsu. She let out a relieved sigh and turned to her teammates,
"We need to leave this place." Surprisingly, both of her stubborn teammates –yep, Itachi included- agreed with her and without any words spoken, they left the house and passed the guards as easily as they got in.
Not long afterwards, the children had returned to their room in the inn from the window. Ayame was the last to enter the room and she was about to close the window again when Shinji started.
"Who do you think you are, huh? Ordering me around like that!" he yelled at Itachi.
"I only remind you our job," Itachi answered calmly.
"Oh yeah, but it doesn't mean you can order me around," he replied sarcastically.
"We're only going to endanger the mission if I let you did so," Itachi started to lose his patience, Ayame noticed. They went to a glaring contest. It seemed Itachi had reached his limits, he usually stayed calm every time Shinji spoke harsh words to him.
So had Ayame.
It seemed those two were too preoccupied with their glaring so they didn't notice Ayame had moved closer to them and without a warning, Ayame stomped on their feet, each one of theirs, HARD. (A/n: why feet? Do you remember how tall she was?)
"Ouch! What was that for!" it was Shinji who reacted first. Even Itachi flinched, thanks to all the strength she put to stomp on their feet.
"Could both of you stop acting like little kids?" Itachi and Shinji were taken aback with her outburst. The usually calm and patient Ayame was angry to them that was totally new to them.
"We're a shinobi, and we're in a mission. We could've been dead back then! Luckily the man wasn't a shinobi, if he was, we could be easily discovered and we're going to endanger the mission, and Konoha. We're a team, remember? Where does all of our teamwork go? There's no time to be selfish! Unless if you think you can handle everything by yourself of course. How arrogant of you," she added sarcastically, her patience was running low.
"Shinji!" she looked at him,
"I don't know why you act like this but please learn when put aside your feelings and Itachi! Don't get carried away by Shinji. I know both of you can do better than that. I'm tired to see both of you like this!" Ayame finished her scolding with uneven breath, it seemed she had vented all of her bottled emotions at last. She could see the look of surprise and dumbfound in her teammates' faces. She didn't really regret losing her temper for once, but unfortunately, their sensei arrived,
"What's this?" her eyes strained on her students. Still angry with her teammates, Ayame avoided them and managed to mutter an answer,
"Nothing, Sensei." Arashi only twitched an eyebrow, questioning her attitude instead of what had happened. The truth was, Arashi had heard everything, she had arrived before the children and she was just outside the door when she heard Shinji and Itachi argued once again, and surprised that Ayame who usually kept quiet scolded them. She didn't miss the looks on the boys' faces and a still fuming Ayame.
"How is it?" she directed the question to the boys purposely. They had sat down politely.
"Daichi's presence is confirmed in Kaneshiro's house, it seems he is locked inside a small storehouse," it was Itachi who recovered first. Shinji forced himself to wake up from his daze and added,
"It seemed he isn't treated pretty well too." Shinji glanced to Ayame's direction and saw that she avoided their gaze, and for the first time, Ayame didn't speak her thoughts. She remained quiet, and most of all she sat not in between him and Itachi. He didn't have a good feeling about it. When he knew his teammate was Ayame, he had asked to his brother more about Ayame and he remembered well he had questioned if Ayame was never angry. His brother simply answered,
'Only one piece of advice, my little brother. Never anger people who seldom show their anger. Ayame may be one of the most patient person you've ever met, but everyone's patience has limits, Ayame is not an exception. You're gonna be surprised what she's capable of'
And he admitted for once, how right his brother was.
-o-O-o-
They decided to rescue Daichi the following day, Arashi told them that she had taken preventive measures so they could worry less but not letting their guard down. So the whole day instead trying to gather more information, they were training. They trained in a clearing Arashi found near the borders in the forest.
Arashi watched Shinji and Itachi sparred, yes for the first time, they actually sparred. She was probably not the most sensitive person to start with but she could notice uneasiness and discomfort that surrounded them since the morning. She glanced to the only girl in her team, Ayame had been quiet whole day. She barely spoke, she only spoke to her, completely ignoring her teammates. It surprised her how much the atmosphere changed with one girl's change of attitude, how much Ayame affected the team.
Is this what you meant, Sarutobi-sama? She quietly examined Ayame.
At last, the awaited moment came, slowly the sun was setting and replaced by a beautiful shimmering pale moon. Team 4 had taken their position, they were watching closely Kaneshiro's house. They were fully geared and to avoid the worst, they didn't wear their Konoha head protector. When Arashi noticed the shift had started, she gave them a signal to move. She let the children ahead of her. Taking the same path they took before, they managed to get in to the house. After checking the area was safe, they moved to the storehouse, Shinji reached out for a pair of short steel wire and expertly unlocked the door using it. Ayame silently wondered where he learned it, she couldn't imagine Shuichi taught him that, but after all, he was the rebellious Nakayama. In seconds the door opened, Arashi signaled the children to stay outside, it was better only her who got inside. She walked stealthily inside the storehouse, it was dark inside, the only light came from the window. At the end of far side of the storehouse she could see a figure slumped, his hands were behind him as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. When she was close enough, she whispered to him,
"Daichi Tetsuo?"
Slowly the man's eyes opened showing dull and tired grey eyes. He blinked few times and managed to look to the source of the voice, Arashi.
"Who are you?" he furrowed, trying to recognize her. Arashi soon realized he was the person they were looking for.
"I'm Konoha shinobi that is hired by your wife to look for you"
"Really? Kaoru is alright?" his eyes glimmered with hope and relief. Arashi nodded and examined Daichi carefully, he seemed to be treated poorly. He lost weight and she noticed few bruises on his skin. Without any warning, Arashi cut the ropes that tied his hands and legs swiftly and helped him up.
"Can you walk?"
"I-I'll try to…," Daichi moved his feet, or tried to, since he wasn't able to stand properly on his feet. Arashi took his arm and helped him to walk. She nodded to her students, telling them the objective of the mission was accomplished, the only problem now was leaving the house without raising suspicion to shinobi. Shinji had locked the door again as if nothing had happened and soon joined his team to jump over the walls and landed on the other side of the walls. Arashi didn't seem to be bothered with the extra weight, as she landed within the bamboo forest she felt that the guards were more than usual,
"Shinji, how many guards are there?"
Shinji noticed it too, instead of two guards, there were more guards tonight and the fact made things harder. Arashi thought the situation over, from their chakra signatures the guards weren't a problem for her team but they needed to leave unnoticed, which meant, they needed to knock the guards unconscious before they knew what happened.
"Ayame…" the girl looked at her sensei,
"Take along Daichi to the safest route, don't be noticed. The others would take care of the guards swiftly." Arashi glanced to the boys and saw they caught what she meant. She handed Daichi to Ayame who tried hard to keep him steady since she was smaller than him. In an instant, her teammates and sensei disappeared from sight. She adjusted Daichi position so she could carry him easier,
"Let's go Daichi-san," she told him softly and saw he replied in a weak nod. So in the fastest speed she could manage, she took the safest route to escape from the guards.
Arashi sped through the forest with ease and she felt the boys were following her close behind. When they reached the end of forest they quickly hid themselves, Arashi narrowed her eyes, four guards… which meant she needed to take two and the boys one each to make it over fast. She used her fingers to tell them what to do and they obeyed it. As Arashi moved, in a blink of eye, two of the guards were down. The other two who barely registered in their mind what had happened, before they did, ended the same with the others. Shinji gave the guard several good punches while Itachi picked to tap the guard's neck, making him unconscious. Somehow Arashi felt it wasn't over yet, there was another person.
Ayame carried Daichi pretty fast, probably because Daichi was pretty light or the rough training she had. She sensed someone's presence and she carefully laid Daichi down so he couldn't be noticed. While she stayed low a bit further from Daichi and her hand on the kunai pouch strapped on her leg. Slowly she could see who it was, it was the same person who nearly caught them last night. She could see his eyes traveled to the darkness of the forest warily. She didn't have a good feeling about it, and before she knew it, a knife had been thrown and embedded on the forest floor not far from her. She knew he was just an ordinary person, so it only meant that he had excellent eyesight and a single movement would be discovered. There was no other option but to fight, however, she was supposed to be unnoticed and she wasn't good in taijutsu besides, if she used any jutsu it would reveal a presence of a shinobi. Ayame was in a dilemma when knives were thrown towards where Daichi was lying! She had no choice, she moved in front of Daichi and deflected the knives. It was enough to confirm their presence, she saw him smirked. The man ran to their place agilely and quickly for an ordinary person, his hands were full of sharp knives. Some of them were thrown to Ayame that were deflected easily. She nearly didn't notice his knee was about to kick her, she barely evaded it. Using the momentum, she sent a kick to his gut and hurled several kunai. To Ayame's surprise he was able to duck from the attack and caught her leg. She tried to release her leg only to felt his grip tightened. Before she could do more, a figure appeared and sent a powerful kick to the man's head, forcing him to release his grip on Ayame. Then a set of kunai and shuriken were hurled toward the man from the other side. The new figure stood by Ayame's side and it appeared to be Shinji.
"Are you alright Ayame?" he asked, obviously concerned for his youngest teammate.
"H-hai," Ayame was a bit surprised and relieved. Another figure appeared and stood on the other side of her,
"How is Daichi?" the calm voice that belonged to Itachi asked.
Ayame moved to Daichi who didn't move during the fight and checked his pulse and breathing. She looked at her teammates,
"He's fine, he's just unconscious from exhaustion"
Both Itachi and Shinji nodded and returned their gaze to their opponent. The man was still able to stand after all of those attacks, Ayame could see some the kunai and shuriken hit. They knew their opponent couldn't be taken lightly, especially they couldn't expose themselves as shinobi, leaving them to fight only with their ningu and taijutsu skills. Now with her teammates by her side, her mind quickly formulated a plan, it was best to leave the fighting to Shinji and… She looked at Itachi and directed her gaze to his utility pouch, she relied on Itachi's sharpness to understand what she meant. In a blur, she made hand seals and whispered,
"Shuriken no jutsu!" (A/n: it's a jutsu that shows multiple shuriken illusions). Suddenly a lot of shuriken appeared, and headed towards the man's direction. The man was surprised to see the amount of shuriken and instinctively he tried to run from the flying shuriken. But before he could, he felt pain from his feet and saw shuriken embedded on his thighs, making him stumble forward. From the corner of his eyes, he saw a flicker of movement but he was reacting too slowly. Shinji gave him a series of deadly punches and kicks that hit his vital points. Soon afterwards, the shuriken dispersed and left no trace of it anywhere. The man at last gave up, they could see his eyes were dazed and he fell unconscious after Shinji's furious attacks. Shinji checked the man just in case he was still a threat and saw he was no more. He nodded to confirm his teammates that it was over.
When Arashi felt the other chakra signature, she noticed that it was close to Ayame. Both Shinji and Itachi realized that and they sped to help their teammate. Arashi was pretty surprised to see their fast reaction. During the whole fight, Arashi remained hidden in the shadows, observing her students. She watched how they worked together, with Ayame as the strategist, Itachi as the backup and Shinji as the lead fighter. She saw how effectively they worked and amazed how they barely exchanged words. Ayame used shuriken no jutsu to distract the opponent, making him thought that he was fighting more than two people, thanks to the darkness. Itachi used his distraction to paralyze him for a moment, which was enough for Shinji to knock the air out of him. The corner of her mouth twitched in amusement but it disappeared as she revealed her presence to her students.
"Is everybody alright?" when she saw everybody nodded, she took Daichi once again and with a last glance to the fallen man, her team left the scene.
The next day was a chaos in Kaneshiro's house, because of an infuriated Kaneshiro Naoki. He was furious to find his captive had escaped, taken by mysterious people. He was sure they were shinobi even though there was no strong evidence except some kunai and shuriken that could be bought easily by anyone and used with enough training. Especially his expensive and strong bodyguards were beaten up pretty easily. He released his anger to everything in his room until a soft voice called him from the outside.
"What!" he looked at his servant who cowered when she was given his glare.
"There are guests waiting for you, milord"
"Who are they?" Naoki slowly calmed himself.
"One of them said that he is Sasaki Kaito"
Naoki's eyes widened in disbelief,
"You say, Sasaki Kaito!"
"H-hai," his servant was surprised with her master's sudden change of heart.
It couldn't be THAT Sasaki Kaito, he was one the most influential person in Fire Country, and he was trusted by the leader of Fire Country. That person was coming to his house! Maybe he heard of his success and came here to support him. Yes, probably that's why, then he would win the election easily. So he wore his finest clothes and walked arrogantly to where his guests were waiting.
Back in the inn, Daichi was recovering well. Color was returning to his face and now he seemed much better than before. Ayame was the one who was given responsibility to take care of him. Currently she was accompanying Daichi who finished eating his breakfast.
"Thank you very much for your kindness, child," the man smiled to Ayame. It appeared that the man was about his forties yet he seemed young and energetic, somehow reminded her of a certain old man who sometimes acted inappropriate for someone for his age. (Somewhere else, on the Hokage tower a sneezing sound could be heard) She could see how he was able to get through all of those days when he was held captive by Kaneshiro. Soon, she and Daichi were getting along pretty well. As usual his first reaction was,
"You're really a shinobi?" when he saw the team was consisted of children.
Then the door slid, revealing her teammates, Itachi and Shinji.
"Yo!" he greeted and Itachi simply nodded. Things had returned to normal, Ayame at last forgave them for their childish behavior and warned them if she saw them doing it again, she wouldn't guarantee that she wouldn't only give them a silence treatment and the threat seemed working… a bit. At least Shinji knew when and how to express his dislike better while Itachi well, probably to be more patient in handling Shinji's antics.
"So, we're going to return today?" Ayame asked.
"Yes, we're going to leave as soon as you're ready, Daichi-san," Itachi answered politely.
"I'm ready! I can't wait to see my wife again," he grinned good-naturedly.
"Not so fast, Daichi-san. Let's see if you can walk properly now," Ayame told him and after she said that Daichi stood up and walked on his feet, even though a little giddy, the children noticed.
"I suppose you are, Daichi-san," Arashi appeared from the door,
"We've prepared a transport for us."
The children were a little glad that they didn't need to return on foot anymore. Besides it was easier to protect Daichi that way. Their transport was an open cart that was pulled by a horse. Arashi sat beside the coachman, Ayame sat close to her with her back to the front, Daichi sat in the middle, while Itachi and Shinji sat near the end, trying to be as far as possible from each other. Slowly they moved pass the border of Ekimaru and greeted by the green forests around them. Soon they felt themselves relax, especially after the tiring C-class mission. Slowly, Daichi dazed off, Ayame just watched him, knowing how much he needed it. But she couldn't forget what Kaneshiro had done, not only to Daichi but to other people. She realized that Daichi wasn't the only one who suffered because of Kaneshiro's cruel actions.
"…Sensei…" she glanced at her sensei, when she knew she had her attention she continued,
"Would Kaneshiro get away with this? I mean… Daichi-san isn't the only one… and we can't let that kind of person to win the election."
"… Don't worry, it's been taken care of," Arashi replied without looking toward her student. Ayame blinked,
What was that supposed to mean?
Meanwhile, Kaneshiro greeted his honorable guests, and saw that the person was truly Sasaki Kaito. His heart was thumping madly in anxiousness, but he was able not to show it. He sat in the opposite of his guests, directly face to face with Sasaki. Sasaki was a man in his late forties, his brown moustache and beard framed his face well, emphasizing his position as an important man. He was emanating an aura of authority that would make people shrink, Kaneshiro wasn't an exception. Kaneshiro didn't recognize other two people who sat behind Sasaki, but it seemed they were his trusted aides.
"What brings the Sasaki Kaito to my humble home?" he spoke as politely as possible.
"Thank you for accepting us in your house. I'm here for some business"
"What kind of business?" anxiousness could be slightly heard in his voice. Sasaki glanced to one of his aide who gave him a thick map of documents.
"I come here for this, you may look inside the documents," he handed the map to a confused Kaneshiro. He opened the map and surprised to see the documents within, his eyes widened in horror and flipped the pages only to find more of it.
"Those are the people who have been reported missing, terrorized or bankrupt after they had some problems with you along with the witnesses and evidences. I also found out that the latest case was Daichi Tetsuo and the evidence still remains in your storehouse. Now, I want to hear your explanation in this, Daichi." Sasaki gave him a glare that made him pale and gulped in fear, he knew he couldn't lie to Sasaki. Things couldn't have been better for Kaneshiro Naoki.
-o-O-o-
"So you asked for Sasaki's help?" Sandaime chuckled as he heard Arashi's report on the mission team 4 had just accomplished.
"Kaneshiro has done more crime that it seems, and we can't let a person like him to become governor. Unless you think otherwise," Arashi twitched her eyebrow at Sandaime.
"No, what you've done is right nonetheless. It's just the fact that you ask the help of Sasaki Kaito was… well can't you pick another person who more… average?"
"I would have if I had one," she told him,
"Besides, we both each other pretty well"
Sandaime only shook his head in amazement, Arashi was indeed Konoha's best in diplomatic missions. She had gained the trust of a plenty of influential people throughout the continent, even though a plenty would be underestimating. It was too bad that her diplomatic ability wasn't balanced with her ability in socializing with people.
"How are the children?" he stamped the accomplishment paper.
"They've returned to their houses. They are free for several days. They did pretty well in their first C-class mission"
"So… what do you think? Do you find what you're looking for?" Sandaime rested his chin on his hand, his eyes gleamed with interest. Usually genin teams needed to have 15 D-class missions or less under the jounin instructor's recommendation but no jounin instructor dared to ask for higher class mission after 3 D-class missions, which Arashi did. Arashi thought over it for a while, her mind recalling previous events. From the children's ability in gathering and deciphering information, their teamwork… and Ayame's influence to the team.
"…Yes. I see why you form this team and why you put Ayame together with Itachi and Shinji"
"Really?"
"She's the one who brings the team together and she's able to understand her teammates well. They fill each other well, Ayame with her ability to strategize, Itachi with his accurate and efficient moves and Shinji with his offense ability, each with their own fighting style. They have a lot of potential not only as an individual but also as a team"
Sandaime smiled that at last Arashi fully realized her students' potential was more than what it seemed.
"… And you're the only one who's able to seize it out," Sandaime smiled encouragingly to Arashi who was contemplating on his words.
"You're dismissed. Rest well, we probably need you for solo missions," he waved his hand. Arashi excused herself and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sandaime leaned on his chair, he thought Arashi had taken the first step to understand her students. He was looking forward for team 4's progress, he smiled inwardly.
But Arashi missed one thing though, Ayame not only understood her teammates, but also her sensei, Arashi herself.
Author's Note: At laaaaaast, I updated! Geez, I always stuck at making fighting scenes and missions . Haha, at last Ayame lost her patience! What pink-kitty predicted was right, oh where is she I wonder? So Ayame's position was very crucial to the team, not only as a peacemaker but also as strategist, younger and older sister (you gotta wonder how she could play both parts), as the glue that stick the team together. How tiring to be Ayame. Aaaand! Another omake!
Character Profile
.:Uchiha Itachi:.
Birth: 9 June
Age: 7
Blood type: AB
Family:
Uchiha Fugaku(father)
Uchiha Mikoto (mother)
Uchiha Sasuke(brother)
Physical appearance
Hair color: Black
Eye color: Black
Height: 142 cm
Ability
Ninjutsu: excellent
Genjutsu: excellent
Taijutsu: excellent
Ningu: excellent
Chi (Bloodline limit): not awaken
Knowledge: excellent
Team
Team 4
Jounin instructor: Kishuu Arashi
Teammates:
Nakayama Shinji
Hikari Ayame