Hihi! Here again with another chapter. Ugh, I still need to get my permit….-sigh-
I'd like to thank NoCareChakra again for reviewing! Thanks sooooo much. I'll try to use those pairings, but keep in mind that Naruto isn't in Konoha; he's training with Jirayia (I really screwed up on that spelling), so he may turn up later. And Shikamaru seems really hard to write. But no more excuses! I will be sure to include them!
Disclaimer: No. I don't own Naruto, or any of the characters from the series. But le plot is mine, along with quite a few of the characters that appear this chapter. So don't steal 'em! However, a few of the names belong to Girl Got Game and Fruits Basket.
Chapter 3: What a team…
Setting: same as last chapter
Time: same as last chapter
Kabuto smiled pleasantly. "Yes, that should suffice. Thank you very much, Shizune-san." At that, Kabuto heard footsteps approaching the room, and he stood to meet his future teammates.
The door creaked open to reveal Tsunade standing with two males. One had a large smile on his face, with his light brown hair pulled back in a low ponytail and sparkling brown eyes. The other had a scowl on his face, his dark eyes glittering angrily. Kabuto sighed internally and thought, "What's his problem?"
Tsunade introduced the former as Hisashi Imai and the latter as Uotani Hiro. Imai immediately said, "Welcome to the team, call me Imai, okies? It's much shorter. I'm sure that we'll work fine together."
Uotani Hiro growled, "Uotani. Don't call me anything else. No –sans or anything either." He then turned to Tsunade and said as politely as a growl can sound, "May I go back to sleep now? We met, I said hello. Now lemme leave."
Tsunade smirked. "No, you guys go train with Shigure-san. He's been waiting for another team member to join. Now the team is complete. Scoot."
Imai smiled at Kabuto as he jogged to catch up to the two genin. "So…how old are you anyway? What's your name again? Where'd you come from? Are you really a silver haired guy? Or did you dye it? Tsunade says you're a really good medic…how'd you learn? Who are your parents?" Imai continued to ask questions as he led the group to the training grounds. Uotani just glowered at the ground because he was so tired. Staying up reading and watching TV tends to do that to a person.
Kabuto just smiled at the questions and quietly answered, "20 years old. Yakushi Kabuto. Konoha. Yes. No. My father. A Jonin member of the Konoha Medical Unit Squad."
Imai stopped, looked at Kabuto and said with a grin, "You know, I wasn't actually expecting any answers. I was only asking to fill the silence."
Kabuto laughed softly. He thought, "I thought he was part of the interrogation squad…Jeez."
Uotani looked back over his shoulder at Kabuto and Imai. "Could you guys hurry up? I want to go to the store after training, and Shigure-san takes forever to train us."
Kabuto and Imai replied in unison, "Sure. Sorry about that." Imai glanced at Kabuto, and laughed at the surround sound speaking (A/N I mean when they talked in unison. I'm always told that it sounds like surround sound). As Imai and Uotani strolled ahead of Kabuto, he thought, "It was never like this with Orochimaru. I suppose I was more his devoted subordinate, not like with these guys. I kind of think we could be…well…friends."
A/N I should totally stop here and leave it. But…I won't. You guys deserve to meet Shigure, their Jonin trainer, and the other teams, right?
Once Kabuto, Imai, and Uotani arrived at the training grounds, Kabuto looked around for their Jonin leader. "Where is he? I can't sense anybody anywhere, except us."
Uotani looked over and grumbled, "He likes us to find him in the training ground. He completely covers over anything we could sense him with, and then we have to find him. I guess it's like an intro to the day." Uotani sighed heavily, as if he was already weary from training. "He is so weird."
Suddenly a body fell from the tree above the trio. Kabuto twisted around as a brown haired man landed behind them. He grinned widely and said, "Heeeeey! Here's our new member! It's very nice to meet you! Bet you didn't expect that!" When he noticed Kabuto's mouth hanging open, and the blank stare of Uotani and the returned grin from Imai, the man officially introduced himself. "I am the great Shigure. You may call me 'Fearless Leader,' The Wonderful Shigure,' or just plain Shigure-san. Whichever you like. Now, let's see…I assume you are Yakushi Kabuto?"
And then our Fearless Leader stuck out his hand to Kabuto. As Kabuto slowly reached out to shake his hand, Imai grabbed his hand, shouting, "No! Don't fall for his trap!"
Kabuto in turn stared at Imai. "Huh?"
Uotani sighed breathily and muttered "how troublesome" under his breath. "This 'Fearless Leader' was going to throw you. He likes to play jokes like that."
Shigure faked pain when his students said this. "Oh, you guys are such…such…you ruin my fun." And then, turning his back to the team, he said enthusiastically, "Now! We are going to practice our chakra control techniques, along with constant attacks on your backs! Hop to it!"
Uotani made for one of the trees surrounding the grounds, obviously about to start the tree climbing exercise. As he walked he blocked the kunai and shuriken of the bunshin that Shigure had made. Imai turned to Kabuto and explained, "Uotani always uses that tree to practice. I use the one over there. I'm guessing you can pick whichever tree you like, just as long as you are able to block Shigure-bunshin's attacks."
As Imai strolled away, Kabuto thought, "Is this the strength of Konoha ninja? No wonder Tsunade-sama wanted me to go elsewhere. This is pathetic. Though they're nice, this exercise won't teach me anything I don't already know."
Then, as Kabuto chose a tree and began to make his way over, he heard Shigure yell out a greeting. "Now who could it be?" Kabuto thought as he turned to the entrance of the clearing.
When Kabuto turned around, he saw a group of three people coming towards Team 10. (A/N That's Kabuto, Imai, and Uotani. They're Team 10.) Two boys and a girl were slowly walking towards the training grounds. One boy had auburn brown hair that was pulled into a low ponytail and green eyes. He was taller than the other two, and obviously strong. The other boy was only slightly shorter, and he had cropped red hair and brown eyes. The girl had long black hair, but her face wasn't visible under the mask she wore. It covered almost her entire face (A/N her nose and down, like a veil) but her eyes were hidden under her long bangs (fringe, whatever you call it). She was much shorter than the boys, only about 5 feet 2 inches (A/N hey…that's my height!) and was dressed in a Chinese style long-sleeved shirt with puffy black pants and black shoes. (A/N think Tenten's clothes before Part II, but a long-sleeved blue shirt)
When the trio heard Shigure's call, they looked up and, from what Kabuto could see, grinned at Team 10. Imai and Uotani immediately ran over to talk with the three, and Shigure lagged behind, waiting for Kabuto so he could brief him and answer any questions Kabuto had. Kabuto asked, "Who are they? They're old enough to be Chuunin, but none of them wear the vest. And why is she wearing a veil?"
Shigure responded, "They're Team Koenma, and they're still genin. The boys are 20 years old and the girl is 18. The brown-haired boy is Nasu Toboe. The red head is Koizumi Jin and the girl is Tabanachi Kira. She wears a veil because, well I think it's because she wants to. And it hides her age slightly, which was important to her as a child."
Kabuto glanced over at the group of teens, who were exchanging hugs and news. "Why was it important?"
Shigure sighed. "She passed the academy exam by the age of 6, when she'd been going to the school for maybe three months at most. She then pretty much disappeared, and when she was 10, she joined her team with two boys who are two years older than her. She knew then that she looked about 8 years old, so she wore a mask to look older. Trust me, it worked. I suppose its just habit now."
Kabuto wondered aloud, "10 years old, now 18, that's 8 years of being a genin. Were they that bad?"
Shigure laughed. "Hell no. The first year they were training, second year away on mission after mission, and then they come and go with their teacher as they are assigned new missions. I assume they came back in time now to take the Chuunin exam. But in actuality, they're a lot stringer then most genin. They've done, let's see, 13 D rank missions, 10 C rank missions, 3 B rank missions that took about 6 months each, and 2 A rank missions, one of which took about a year, the other was also supposed to take that long but they finished in maybe four, five days. And came back unscathed. Not a single dirt mark on them."
Kabuto filed away this information for later use, and nodded to Shigure that he was ready to meet this Team.
Shigure led Kabuto over to the group. "Come come now, kids, let's introduce our new member! Toboe, Jin, Kira, this is Kabuto. He is now officially part of Team 10!"
Kira looked over at them. Kabuto noticed she had steel blue eyes. Then she nudged Toboe, who turned to Kabuto and smiled. "It's very nice to meet you! I'm Toboe. The girl is Kira and that redhead is Jin."
Both Kira and Jin nodded to Kabuto. Jin stuck out his hand in greeting and Kabuto jokingly said, "Don't tell me you're into throwing the new people too!"
Jin smirked and laughed, "So, the old man tried that on you too, huh. And here I thought he only did it on us gullible people."
This brought on more laughter as Shigure pretended to try to defend himself from the verbal onslaught. The boys laughed heartily and Kira seemed to smile slightly. She looked from face to face, and Kabuto could see that her eyes crinkled slightly at the corners, showing that beneath the veil she was grinning with the group. Kabuto felt himself relax slightly. He had found friends in Konoha who had immediately accepted him into their group. He wasn't forced to do what they said, even his sensei Shigure seemed laidback and more of a friend than a teacher. Kabuto didn't know what Orochimaru had in store for him, what obstacles he would have to get around, or what fights he would participate in, but for now, he was content.
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Muhahahaha! I have now introduced the second main team! I love you Team Koenma! Oh yes, the name Koenma is from YYH. I haven't really had anything to do with YYH recently, but I needed a name.
So there you have it. Chapter 3. The last character, Koizumi Jin, was the one I needed help on, but TamX2 assisted me. I hope you like the chappie!
Have a happy Fourth of July! Whoot! Go fireworks! Reviews please! Very important!
MWAHs to y'all. And thanks again, NoCareChakra, for reviewing!
