Chapter 1- A Tiny Pebble Still Makes a Wave


A few days after graduation, I soon found myself back in the all too familiar walls of my classroom. I had spent many days here but it suddenly felt so much smaller than it had. Everything was the same, every person, every object, but now it all felt so insignificant. Iruka-Sensei stood at the front of the class once again holding a scroll in his hands, unopened. I scanned the room and saw Naruto Uzumaki sitting a few rows in front of me, his headband proudly displayed on his face. I was shocked but not unhappy that he had managed to pass his test, I never really understood the disdain that people held for him I guess.

"Congratulations to all of you for passing." Iruka said with a smile, his usual warmth still present in his words. "Your careers as shinobi start now, you will be placed into three man teams right now, and you will be placed under the care of a Jounin sensei." I nodded slightly, I had expected that we would be placed under further training as our skills were currently not all that impressive.

"Your teams are as follows." I zoned out as he started calling out the names of various people, none of them were all too important to me anyway. "Team 4." Iruka started, "Kiyama Daichi, Sukehiro Orino, Iwasaki Akira." My ears of course perked at the sound of my own name and I quickly scanned the room to see where they were. Orino had short dark hair and eyes that never seemed to be fully alert - Akira's short blond hair was cropped close to his skin, his headband was hung from his neck lazily. Our gazes all locked and we nodded, forming the bond right then and there.

The other teams were formed as well and we were told simply to wait for our Jounin to arrive. The first was a woman with piercing red eyes pretty much right as Iruka left the room, she called for team 8 and then all stood up and went with her. The Hyuga was in that team, she walked timidly behind her two teammates: Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame.

More teams followed for a while, there were a few left when a larger man with crosses on his cheeks and his hair tied into a ponytail walked into the room. His armor had the kanji for food stamped on the front and I put together that he was a member of the Akimichi clan.

"Team 4." He said with a smile, the three of us had migrated to sit together but now we stood up and bowed to our new teacher. "My name is Shito Akimichi, if you could all follow me." He led us from the room and out of the academy to a well known barbecue restaurant on one of Konoha's high streets.


"I hope you don't mind if we eat, I'm absolutely starving." The man laughed jovially, the three of us were too afraid to argue but I couldn't help but notice that I was starting to feel peckish. "Perfect." He grinned and let us inside, the waiter bowed politely and we did the same before being led to a table in the restaurant, near the back. The smells of the restaurant were fantastic, savoury and sweet scents blended together magically, it made my mouth water just thinking about it. It seemed like the chef knew Shito-Sense as welli because the two waved at one another as we sat down. I guess he came here often.

"Order whatever you want," He boomed, his voice filling the room easily, "It's on me." We spent a couple of minutes scanning through the menu while Shito-Sensei pointed out options that he himself found particularly good. As an Akimichi, I trusted his opinion on food blindly and followed the recommendations that he made for us.

"So, let's do some introductions, right?" He asked with a smile, "I'll start: as I've mentioned my name is Shito Akimichi, a Jounin who as of right now has just become your sensei. I like eating good food, reading a good book and taking night time walks. What about you guys?"

Akira was the first to talk, his eyes had been alert this whole time as he hungrily took in his surroundings. "My name is Akira Iwasaki, I like swimming, I like running and I like climbing trees - I became a ninja because I wanted to do something amazing for myself." His grin was present and it seemed infectious as Shito grinned with him.

"I like the energy! Energy can serve us well!" His eyes quickly turned to myself and Orino - thankfully she spoke first because I was still struggling to find something interesting to say.

"My name is Orino Sukehiro." Her tone was flat, almost uninterested in what was happening, "I like sleeping, painting, and studying kenjutsu." I hadn't really noticed but there was a small sword, a tanto I believe strapped to her back.

"Very interesting." Shito- nodded, quickly dropping his tone to match hers, it seemed like he was an experienced sensei in that regard, able to match his students. "And you?" He asked, turning his attention now fully to me, I had at least managed to figure something out to say now.

"My name is Daichi Kiyama, I like cooking, spending time with my family, and helping out at our bookstore. I'm here because I need a job." I admitted honestly, I guess there wasn't much use hiding it.

"You own a bookstore?" Shito-Sensei asked with a bright look in his eye, completely glossing off my lack of passion for the profession I had just entered.

"Mmm." I nodded, "I can take you round there sometime." I offered offhandedly.

"Yes. I think I would like that." He smiled again, but it was nothing compared to the smile that spread across his face when the food arrived. I had to admit that it looked delicious, and smelled just as good. All four of us looked rather excited as we said our thanks and began to dig in.

We ate for a few minutes in silence, just noises and exclamations of "Wow this is so good." "I could eat this forever." and things of a similar vein peppered our space. I was very conscious of the silence though and particularly of my dining companions - Akira was far too focused on himself to think about others, he ate his food with the same vigor that he spoke, but Orino and Shito-Sensei were observant, one through nature and one for the sake of his job. I knew that he was scoping us out, the potential that we housed to be successful shinobi. Every time I looked up from my food, his eyes seemed to be trained on mine, not aggressive, but curious, probing, like a child who didn't understand something. Except this man was no child, that much I knew, and I doubted I could hide anything from him anyway.

"Some Sensei might try and hide this from you but I'm going to be upfront." Shito-Sensei said once we were nearly finished with our meals, three pairs of eyes shot up to meet his own and I had a sneaking suspicion as to what he was going to say. "Just because you've graduated doesn't mean that you're fully qualified shinobi just yet." He said almost somberly, like he hated having to do this. I wasn't shocked, the rumors were clearly true, but it didn't stop the pit that was quickly forming in my stomach. I wanted to fail this test, really I did, but having been put in this team, with these two people, who I only really vaguely knew, I felt the weight of their dreams on my shoulders too, an immeasurable pressure that I couldn't shrug off.

"I'm going to administer my own test, to see if I feel that you're good enough to actually progress quickly as a ninja, or whether my tuition would actually be of use to you." His tone was matter of fact, I let my eyes wander to the two sat either side of me. Orino continued to be unreadable, her face a solid mask, Akira's jaw was near his plate, dropped in shock. It made sense, thinking you had finally made it to your dream, only to have another wall thrown up right in front of you. "Should you pass, we will continue as a team, and I will train you as best as I can. Should you fail, our time will end and you will continue your careers as a genin. Without a Jounin's guidance it isn't likely you'll progress through the ranks, and you may very well be stuck in a cycle of menial tasks." He spoke like it was a bad thing to enjoy the comfort that a lower rank would provide, I guess from his position it's true, he's tasted the finer parts of life I guess.

Shito-Sensei gave us all a moment to let it all sink in as he waved over the waiter and payed for the meal, I didn't see how much it cost, but judging by the amount of plates we had amassed on our table, I could only assume that it was rather high. Such was the joy of being a Jounin, high ranked missions meant a high fee, and a higher pay for its completion.

"We're going to do it now." He told us as we walked out of the restaurant. He was certainly less jovial than he had been earlier. I guess this weighed heavily on him, responsible for progressing or halting a young child's career right here and now. At the Academy we had been trained to always be alert for a potential threat - through our eyes, our ears, even our noses. Now however, I found that I could barely hear a thing, my ears felt like they were clogged with water and I couldn't get it out. I tried hard to push the feelings of nervousness to the recesses of my mind and succeeded only slightly, but it was enough. I shook my head and continued to follow Shito-Sensei as he led us through the village to a secluded training ground somewhere along the outskirts of the village.


The three of us genin didn't talk together, but we did exchange glances, those glances spoke all of the words that we needed. The training ground was far out, and rather bare for all that we could see, just a large field with some dummies set up at one edge for combat drills and throwing practice. A small pool of water that I guess one could call a pond sat idly near the middle.

"Listen up guys." Shito-Sensei spoke matter of factly once again, he obviously took his position very seriously. "I'm gonna keep it simple, you three are going to come at me as hard as you can, I want you to prove to me that you want to do this." His eyes rested squarely on me as he said it and I felt my chest tighten. I was right about him picking up on everything at least. Point for me Sensei.

"Well we're never going to be able to beat you Sensei." Akira chimed in, the first word someone other than Sensei had spoken for a good while.

"You're right." Shito-Sensei nodded, "But if the Kage sends you to fight, do you turn around because the enemy is stronger than you?"

"No." Orino piped in, her voice low but determined.

"Exactly. Now show me that you want this!" Shito-Sensei quickly sprung into action with surprising agility. I could tell that he was holding back because I could still see him move but that didn't stop it from surprising me. The three of us all took longer than we should have to realise what was happening, and in a real fight, I could say without any doubt, that we would probably have died. That was the reality for a shinobi. But it wasn't the time to ponder such subjects, my legs sprung into action before my brain could and I threw myself to the side, Akira had dived with me, and Orino had gone to the other side. We all looked behind us to see Shito-Sensei now standing in the branches of a tree looking over us.

"You're going to need to be more alert than that." He chided us, "Battle can occur at any time on a mission, particularly behind enemy lines, and you must be ready to meet it at any time." The three of us quickly got into a battle stance, Orino pulled out her Tanto while Akira and I pulled out Kunai that we had in our pouches, taped to our legs. "Much better." Sensei smiled as he dived down from the tree branch at us, again at a pace much slower than I knew he was capable.

He flew at Orino, who held her tanto out confidently. Sensei pulled out a long wooden stick, I recognised it as a Bo, not the most lethal of weapons but very effective at keeping enemies at arms length. Orino swung confidently, a sidewards swipe intended to cut off Sensei's path of movement. The sound of wood against metal was clear as the two weapons clattered together. She followed it up with more strikes, I wasn't an expert but her stance and form seemed solid, powerful and strong. Sensei was clearly playing on the defensive, he made no moves to counter her strikes, only block and parry them away.

Akira and I stood motionless, unsure of what to do as we watched from the sidelines. It was Akira who moved first, he dived over towards the pond and started to form hand signs for a jutsu that I didn't know, it definitely wasn't one taught at the Academy. He placed his hands into the water, looking over at the still fighting duo.

"Orino!" He called and the girl jumped to the side as Akira threw something at Shito-Sensei. "Water Style: Water Shuriken Jutsu!" He called, now he mentioned it, the objects did indeed look like shuriken made of water. Sensei didn't even blink before he started spinning his bo in a fast circle. The shuriken dispersed against it like they were nothing and I could see the disappointment on Akira's face.

"Nicely done!" Shito-Sensei declared, "Good use of your surroundings to your advantage!" Akira soon smiled again as he shot off from where he was standing, kunai knife in hand to engage in combat. Still I stood, stuck in place and unmoving. Watching as both Akira and Orino fought, side by side, I could see that they both wanted this more than anything. Is that how much I wanted this? Was this path the one I wanted to walk down more than anything? I continued to watch as my two teammates gave it their all, even in this activity that held no danger to their life. I made my decision right then and there, I couldn't sit and watch idly as they gave their all, that's not a son that my mother would be proud of.

I ran through the hand signs of the one technique I knew and placed my hand on the floor, I felt the ground rise up with my chakra and form itself around my fist, forming a hardened casing around it. I had read about this once in a book I had found at the store, it seemed easy enough and would allow me to fight naturally, but with extra efficiency. I had run drills of it often after the academy, making sure I improved aspects of my chakra efficiency. I couldn't keep it up long, a minute at most, but that would have to be enough.

I charged towards Shito-Sensei, my fist drawn back already to deliver a punch to his body. I was banking on him being distracted by the others as I flew towards them, attacking from the back. I should have known it wouldn't have been so easy, because as soon as I got almost close, Shito-Sensei quickly made his first attack and batted Orino and Akira away with a wide sweep before turning towards me and holding his hand out in front of him. My hand made immediate contact with his own before a dull shockwave rocketed up my arm. Luckily the rock prevented the actual pain, but I watched as the structure around my arm crumbled away, exposing my arm to the cool breeze.

"Aha! Nice try!" Sensei said with a grin, "With some practice that could actually be quite dangerous!" I could just about see Orino and Akira rallying up for another attack from the corner of my eye, if we all struck at once then it seemed more likely that someone would manage to get a hit.

"Don't count me out just yet." I said, a small smile playing on my lips as I pulled a kunai from my pouch using my other hand. As expected, he managed to block it with an arm. If I could just hold him there for a moment longer. The other two lunged at him, weapons drawn behind the to attack.

Suddenly I was flung back and I watched as Shito-Sensei effortlessly flipped backwards, over the heads of Orino and Akira, landing behind them on his feet, as smoothly as a cat. As the other two couldn't stop themselves in time, they slashed into thin air, exactly where I had been standing. Even though I doubted I was ever in any danger, my heart stopped just a little bit, in a real fight I very well could have been sliced up. If we did make it through this we would definitely need to finetune our teamwork.

Shito-Sensei held up his hand as both Akira and Orino moved to strike again and shook his head.

"I think we've seen enough." He said with a smile, "You guys might just have potential."

I stood up as he spoke, the fall had been painful but not damaging in any way. "You think?" I asked, rubbing the back of my head where it had hit the ground.

"I do think." He nodded, I didn't have to see Akira's face to know that he was beaming right now. I walked up to the two of them and placed an arm around both of their shoulders.

"Good job guys." I smiled.

"You too." Orino said bluntly, putting her tanto back in its sheath against the small of her back.

"We're gonna be so good at this ninja thing!" Akira cried with joy, causing Sensei to laugh again, his happier demeanour now returning full force since the work was finished.

"If you put in the time and the effort, I believe that all three of you could become excellent shinobi." Sensei nodded, putting his own Bo away behind his back. "Let it be known that I, Shito Akimichi, officially pass all three of you. Report to the Mission Assignment Desk

tomorrow morning at 8AM." He nodded before jumping off, likely to go do his own thing.

I don't know what happened but the three of us ended up on the floor together, Akira was laughing and I think I saw Orino smile as we stared up at the sky. The breeze was cool and the moment felt peaceful.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.


Well there we have it! The first chapter! I hope that it's alright as I haven't written in a while and I'm definitely feeling rusty XD I'm also not all that used to writing action so hopefully it didn't feel too clunky! I hope you all have a wonderful day and I hope you enjoy this chapter and the ones to come!