Chapter 9
It was another month of painful recovery before Haruko was able to leave the hospital. She was walking around town when she ran, literally, into Tsunade.
"Oh, Haruko. Just the person I needed to talk to."
"Me?"
"Yes. Since you weren't brought up here, I'm going to put you onto a three man team with two of our recently graduated Genin."
"Sounds…Fun…" She said, quietly.
"Look, I just want to make sure that you get this experience, it's good for you." She paused for a moment to look at a piece of paper she was holding, "Now, you're to meet with your team in ten minutes at the east end of the training grounds. Don't be late; your Sensei doesn't appreciate lateness."
"Yes Ma'am…"
"Good, I'll check on your progress later. Good luck." She walked quickly away.
"Ugh, how dull…" She said as she slowly made her way to the training grounds.
- - - -
When she got there the eastern gate was locked up. So she crawled through a small opening in the fence near the gate. It seemed to be completely silent and empty there, "Something's not right…" She said, looking around.
A loud whirring sound suddenly filled the air. She jumped up and clung to the underside of a low lying tree branch. Thirty or so kunai kit the ground where she had just been standing. She jumped up to the top of the branch as some more hit the tree, "Hey!" She yelled, getting impatient with all of this, "What the hells going on here?"
A guy jumped down onto her branch. He was a rather tall Jounin. His hair was black with a streak of silver in the front, styled a bit like Kakashi's. He wore his headband over his eyes.
"Hello there."
"I take it…you're my Sensei?"
"Good guess." He snapped and two girls jumped down to the ground from surrounding trees, "I'm Jaku," He pointed to the first girl, "This is Kaoki…and her bear Bei Bei."
She bowed. She had long seafoam green hair partially pulled into pigtails; the rest fell over her shoulders, her eyes were a watery blue. She wore a pink tank top with an orange skirt (Like Sakura's) with pink shorts underneath. Her shoes matched her unique hair color. She also held a teddy bear with a mask (Like Kakashi's), one eye, and a headband of its own.
"And Tomaru."
The second girl nodded. She wore a short sleeved tan jacket with a very high collar and black Capri pants. Her black hair was shoulder length and her eyes were covered by rectangular black sunglasses.
"Everyone sit down," Jaku instructed, "We're gonna have a chat."
- - - -
They were soon situated. Haruko sat on the tree branch while the other two took places on the ground, "Alright," Jaku started, "You are my team. You were all chosen to be put with me specifically. Our missions will be tougher than regular missions a Genin would go on, so more will be expected of you. Do you all understand?"
"Yes, Sensei." They all answered.
"Wonderful, then prepare. The Hokage has given us a special mission. We'll be apprehending a small group of Mist Ninja spies that have been spotted near the Konoha border. We'll be leaving at sunrise so that we can get the jump on them. You're dismissed for today. I'll see you all tomorrow." Haruko was happy to have a mission finally, but something about this seemed awfully strange.