Chapter 2 – Take Back
It was quiet walking with the three mist ninjas, the total opposite of the others. Tazuna sighed for the millionth time that day. The girl named Kasumi stopped and stared him in the eye. "What do you want?!" she said shortly. Tazuna startled by the sudden gesture stared wide eyed at her. "Be nice to the man Kasumi," Hana said as she started walking again. Kasumi turned with a final glare at Tazuna. "But he has sighed about a million times today. I swear if we don't get to sensei soon I will do some damage!" The boy named Katsu just smiled at the girls. "Don't mind her, she is usually quite calm." Katsu said to Tazuna as they walked. "She's just on edge because of the mission." Tazuna eager for conversation asked, "How long have you all known each other?" Katsu looked a little shocked at this question but recovered quickly. "Well, Kasumi and I have known each other ever since we were born. And Hana, well she just kind of showed up when we were all 8 years old. So we all became fast friends." Tazuna listened and said quietly. "Wow, that's quite a relationship." He paused. "It's amazing you were all put in the same group-" "Well," Katsu interrupted, "We get to choose our groups. You see in the Land of the Mist our 'graduation exam' you could say is a sort of preliminaries between students." Tazuna looked confused. "About 10 years ago they had to change the graduation exam because it was considered 'barbaric'. They had a kind of 'killing spree' between classmates. Now they just have fights between two and they fight it off, the winner goes to the next round. They do that until they have two teams or six students left. Then they are the graduating teams." Katsu finished with a smile. Tazuna looked appalled. "So, um… you fight to the… um… death?" he asked shakily. Katsu nodded "Pretty much, sometimes they stop the fight before that happens, but you know," Katsu smiled "Accidents do happen." "So, did you-" Tazuna was cut off by the looks on the ninjas faces. They had all stopped walking and were looking in the same direction. He was about to ask what it was when he heard a rustling in the bushes to his left. He saw the three mist ninjas tense. Katsu stepped in front of him. Tazuna was getting frightened. Then all of a sudden Kakashi appeared out of the bushes. The mist ninjas didn't relax their stances. The three Konoha genin followed their sensei and saw the mist ninjas with Tazuna. "Lost?" Kasumi said coldly. Kakashi shook his head. "No, but it seems you are-" Kasumi, Hana and Katsu exchanged quick glances. "You are not going in the direction of Tazuna's village." Kakashi looked at the mist ninjas in turn. "You don't with to take Tazuna safely home-" "Then what are we doing if you're so smart?" Hana said slightly laughing. Kasumi and Katsu smiled at this. Kakashi didn't react. "I don't know, but it can't be good, I feel a lot of evil charka in this forest and you are headed for its source. I am sure of it. Now if you would be so kind as to hand Tazuna over so we can finish our job." "What have you been doing, following us for two days?!" Kasumi asked with anger. Kakashi smiled under his mask. "Yes" he said simply. The mist ninjas made a wall between the Konoha ninjas and Tazuna. "Suit yourselves" Kakashi moved with lightening speed. He jumped behind the ninjas and knocked them out by hitting a nerve at the back of their necks. The last thing they saw was Tazuna leaving with Kakashi and his genin.