Venatori
Summary: Kankuro was a few minutes too late, and Kiba died. Now, Shino and Hinata work to ensure that no more traitors get away alive. Divergence from chapter 212.
The Laughing Phoenix does not own Naruto and makes no profit from this work, other than her sense of accomplishment.
WARNING: Massive spoilers in future chapters. Character death. Blood, gore, and questionable use of medical knowledge and techniques. Some OOC-ness.
Apprenticeship
The day after their recruitment into the hunter-nin, Hinata and Shino went to visit the Inuzuka. By unspoken arrangement, they met up just outside of the section of neighborhood dominated by the canid-loving clan before heading in together. Unsurprisingly, they hadn't gotten far when Inuzuka Ichirou and Hiroto appeared on either side, companions in tow.
"Hey Hina, Shino!" one of them called out cheerfully. "How're our favorite itoko doing?"
"Very well, Ichirou-san," Shino answered, dryly. "But don't let Hana-san hear you say that."
"What, that you two're our favorites?" the other asked, falling into step with the two chuunin. "Nah, she won't care. And I'm Ichirou, that's Hiroto."
Ichirou and Hiroto were brothers, and many were under the mistaken impression they were twins, an impression the two encouraged. In point of fact, the two were eighteen months apart, Ichirou being the older, but they looked practically identical, especially now that they were done growing. They both stood at a stocky 175cm, sporting tousled brown hair with a cowlick, laughing brown eyes, and the Inuzuka clan tattoos. As if that wasn't enough, their companions were nearly identical as well, two great brown wolf-like dogs whose shoulders came up nearly to the hip.
"So, what brings you by our stretch of the village?" Hiroto asked, walking backwards ahead of them. "We haven't seen you in a couple of weeks now."
"Missions," Hinata explained softly. "We just got back two days ago and sensei wasn't happy with us."
"Wasn't happy with you?" Hiroto repeated, eyebrow raising. "Wait, don't tell me…"
"You did!" Ichirou snickered. "You went on a mission without your sensei!"
"Oooh boy." Hiroto whistled through his teeth. "That'd tick her off alright."
"So what's she got lined up for you two?" Ichirou asked.
"Genjutsu training," Hinata and Shino said in unison. The brothers winced.
"Anyway," Ichirou said, stretching, "If you're looking for Tsume-obasan, she's out on a mission."
"Hana's here though," Hiroto added, turning around. "She's in the main kennels – two litters were born last night and another's supposed to come today."
Hinata turned towards the kennels, unable to resist the urge to go see the brand new puppies. Shino, meanwhile, was hailed by an older man with a cane. Before long the two were immersed in the daily happenings of the clan, Hinata watching Hana gently examine the youngest members of the Inuzuka pack and keeping the younger children out of the veterinarian's way, Shino exchanging pleasantries and catching up with some of the adults while patiently answering the questions of the children in the Academy.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
While her students visited with the Inuzuka, Yuuhi Kurenai was in the Hokage's office, listening as the older woman gave her a much-edited version of the previous night's events. Despite the gaps, however, Kurenai was able to put together the whole picture. Hinata and Shino had succeeded. The hunter-nin had taken them on.
She was proud of them, of course, but she was also a little depressed by this turn of events. Yes, she'd known that once they made chuunin they'd start to be placed on other teams and sent out on missions without her, but she hadn't expected the change to come so soon. She'd only had them a little over a year, after all.
Tsunade seemed to pick up on the younger woman's train of thought, smiling at her across the desk. "It's not like you'll never see them again, Kurenai. You'll still be able to train with them and go on the odd mission together."
"I know, Tsunade-sama. It just happened so fast…"
"That's true, it did. However, it's probably the best thing we can do for them at this point."
Kurenai nodded. "I understand and agree, Tsunade-sama. Is there anything else you need me for?"
The blonde shook her head. "Not today, Kurenai. If you can keep working with the two of them on a regular basis, you should do so. I'll let you have them back for longer missions every few weeks, and you'll probably get sent out with them every so often for missions requiring larger cells." She paused for a minute, then went on. "Oh, and Kurenai?" a smirk crept across Tsunade's lips. "I hear you've been keeping an eye out for an apartment for Hinata. Let me know if you find something, and we'll see what we can do about simplifying the lease."
Kurenai blinked in surprise. That was tantamount to saying the Hokage's office would be negotiating Hinata's rent, ensuring that the girl would have no trouble paying her bills on her stipend. "As you say, Hokage-sama." Bowing briefly, she left the office and headed downstairs, in search of her team.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Shino and Hinata managed to extricate themselves from the Inuzuka clan in time to meet Kurenai for training. Their sensei seemed to have calmed down a little since they'd seen her last, as their training session was relatively less grueling. Once they'd finished for the day, Kurenai called them to her.
"The Hokage called me in this morning," she told them, voice even. "I hear congratulations are in order."
Hinata and Shino glanced warily at each other. They were wildly happy to have made it into the hunter-nin, but neither was terribly pleased by the thought of leaving their sensei. Whatever worries they might have had were laid to rest when Kurenai smiled at them.
"I am so proud of you both," she said softly, laying a gentle hand on each of her student's shoulders. There was a moment of companionable silence, before the genjutsu mistress began to lead them into town. "I think we should celebrate," she declared. "We'll have dinner at my place and invite Anko. She's been eager to hear how her kohai have been doing."
Once they entered the village proper, Shino was sent to find Anko, while Hinata accompanied their sensei back to her apartment. After sorting through her kitchen for a few minutes, Kurenai discovered that she was out of a few necessary ingredients (and a number of not-immediately-necessary-but-recommended ones as well), and, tossing over a purse and a list, sent Hinata to collect them.
As it was a warm, clear afternoon, the market was full of people, mostly shinobi who had just come off duty – civilians tended to do their shopping in the morning. As Hinata finished with her purchases, she turned around to find herself facing her teammate. He took one of the bags of food, and they headed out of the market together.
"Senpai will be meeting us there," Shino told Hinata. "She was in the middle of something when I saw her, but she said she'd be done in the next forty minutes or so, counting in cleanup."
Hinata nodded, deciding that asking for details about the 'something' was probably a bad idea. The pair walked along in companionable quiet, and were about to turn down one of the quieter side streets when someone in the market hailed them.
"Hinata-san, Shino-san!"
Turning around, they found themselves faced with Team 10, Ino towing Chouji behind her. Several steps behind them came Shikamaru, hands in his pockets and wearing his perpetually tired expression.
"Good afternoon Ino-san, Chouji-san," Hinata said softly, bowing her head in greeting. "Shikamaru-san".
"We haven't seen you two in forever!" Ino said, almost petulantly. "How're we supposed to congratulate you on becoming chuunin if we can't even find you?"
Shino bowed his head, hiding the slight smirk behind his collar. "That would present difficulties, yes."
"So…congratulations!" Ino chirped. "What's it like? Any different?"
"Why are you asking us, Ino-san?" Hinata asked, "when your teammate is chuunin as well?"
Ino made a dismissive gesture with the hand not holding Chouji's sleeve. "Getting anything out of that lazybones is more trouble than it's worth. Really, though, what's it like? There's got to be some differences – more interesting missions, for one thing, none of this D-rank stuff."
"There is still a limit on what we are allowed to take," Shino reminded her. "We're still green chuunin. Not to mention that many of the more highly-ranked missions have an age limit."
"Fine," Ino sighed dramatically, "Just tear down my dreams, why don't you?"
"Ino, really," Chouji told his teammate, "If you're that curious about what being chuunin is like, we can ask Asuma-sensei about testing in Iwa in a few months."
"Hmmm…" The blonde girl pondered that a moment. "I suppose so, but I still would like to know!" She turned to Kurenai's two students. "Come on, you can tell us what your last mission was like, can't you?"
Shino and Hinata exchanged a look. "Ah, yes, Ino-san, I think so," Hinata said slowly.
"It would be easiest if you were willing to walk with us," Shino cut in, lifting the bag in his hand. "We need to get these back to Kurenai-sensei."
"You're going shopping for your sensei?"
"Sensei's decided that we're having a team dinner tonight. She's cooking."
"Huh." Ino considered that for a moment. "We can walk along with you for a bit, I think."
"Don't forget we're supposed to meet Asuma-sensei," Shikamaru said softly. It was the first time he'd spoken since the teams met.
Ino shrugged. "So we're a little late. It's no big deal." She moved up next to Hinata and Shino, linking arms with the younger girl. "So, spill."
The group moved down the road to Kurenai's apartment building, Team 10 listening as Shino and Hinata gave a brief rundown of their last mission. Once they'd finished, closing with their delivery of Nobu to the outpost, the group separated, Team 10 turning down a sidestreet on their way to the barbecue restaurant they frequented.
Once they got to Kurenai's apartment, their sensei set Shino to setting the table while Hinata helped her cook. Anko arrived about five minutes before the meal was ready, knocking at the living room window. Shino let her in, then was forced to duck as she tossed a kunai his way in greeting. "Shino my kohai! Where's Sunny 'n 'Nai-chan?"
"In here, Anko," Kurenai called.
Anko bounced into the kitchen, bestowing a hug on Kurenai and a flung kunai on Hinata in the same moment. Hinata dodged the kunai, but was unable to escape the hug that followed it. "Sunny! You've been growing your hair out."
Startled by the non sequitur, Hinata reached up and touched her hair, now hanging to just below her shoulders. "I – I just haven't had time to cut it, senpai, that's all."
"Hmm." The volatile special jounin pulled back, examining it critically. "I think it suits you. Makes you look far more badass than your original haircut did, anyway."
"Anko, are you evaluating my student's haircuts based on how 'badass' they look?"
"Oh come on 'Nai-chan! How better?"
The two older women bickered good-naturedly as the food was set on the table, and the meal was eaten with lighthearted conversation, Anko and Kurenai taking turns to tell stories picked up from the mishaps of the other jounin while the other interjected their own commentary. Shino and Hinata listened quietly, occasionally making their own comments. Once the dishes had been cleared away, Anko sat back in her chair, crossing her arms in front of her, and regarded the two chuunin seriously.
"There's a whisper of new recruits going around."
Hinata ducked her head, looking at her hands. Shino, more willing to take a gamble, nodded almost imperceptibly.
Anko's face softened, her lips turning up in a smile very different from her usual sadistic grin. "You should be proud of yourselves. You've come a long, long way in the past six months."
"Thank you, senpai," Hinata whispered.
"For what, telling the truth?" Leaning forward, Anko mussed the younger girl's hair. "Hope you two are ready for this," she continued. "If you ever thought training with me 'n Nai-chan was bad, then you'd best watch out. Basic ANBU training's bad enough, but I've heard the hunter-nin are brutal."
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Anko had not been exaggerating. Early the next morning, Shino and Hinata met Jakkaru out in one of the training grounds farthest from the village proper, where they were less likely to be noticed. He was accompanied by a man and a woman, who he introduced as Koumori and Fukurou respectively. The three of them put the two recruits through their paces over the next three days, drilling them mercilessly.
To Hinata and Shino's very great surprise, they found the pressure to be good for their performance, as the constant drive to be faster, sharper, smarter forced them to delve deeply into their knowledge of techniques, bringing up tricks that they had thought undeveloped or half-forgotten. Shino worked more closely in concert with his hive than he'd ever done before, and Hinata managed to pull off a near-complete version of what she was coming to call her Shugohakke Rokujuyon Sho , an accurate Hakke Rokujuyon Sho, and a nearly-complete Kaiten, although the latter left her dizzy.
On the fourth day, Jakkaru commandeered a training ground next to a sandy bank of the river, and gave them a breakdown of the assessment results, making lists in the loose dirt with a stick.
"Firstly, I'm going to come right out and tell you now that you are both excellent trackers for your age and experience level. That does not change the fact that any of the division could hunt circles around you, though. So you'll be spending time learning how to track in all conditions and through as many environments as we can manage. We want you good enough to track a mouse through a thunderstorm, but I think you're good enough that we might just manage that in six months." Jakkaru wrote Skills to develop across the dirt, drew a line underneath it, and added Tracking below.
"Next, combat. As you're probably aware, hunter-nin don't engage in the usual type of shinobi battles. The hunter-nin operates with ambushes, and the most commonly used techniques in our arsenals are kill strikes. Once again, you're both pretty good for your age and level of experience, but you're going to need to fine-tune what you know."
Koumori took up the discussion, turning to Hinata. "I've worked with Jyuuken users before, and I know that the form was designed for combat, specifically against multiple opponents, not assassinations. You're pretty good with the forms, but you're not fast enough for our purposes yet. I'd suggest you up your speed and concentrate on the fastest techniques – don't neglect the longer ones, but remember that any extra second you give your mark is an extra second they can use against you. Furthermore, and don't take this the wrong way pup, but you're probably never going to be as proficient with the Jyuuken as a lot of your relatives, you simply have a different body type and naturally move differently than they do. That you recognize this and have started to compensate for it is promising. Keep that up, and I'd suggest that you train with another Jyuuken user whenever you get the chance."
Fukurou pointed at Shino. "You're more compatible with your hive than most Aburame your age, which is a good thing, but you're still operating a little too big. Economize your movements. Right now you're using a carving knife – let's see you using a scalpel. You also need to improve your taijutsu. Like little White, here," she pointed to Hinata, "You mainly need to get faster."
Jakkaru listened to his subordinate's descriptions, writing Taijutsu on the Skills to develop list, adding notes on general advice. That done, he spoke up again. "Kurenai's shown you how to hide in a forest and to render yourself unnoticeable. You've apparently also figured out how to render yourself largely forgettable in crowds or large groups, though I don't know if you did that consciously or not. We'll help you learn to do that without the genjutsu, how to hide in the shadows, and, something you haven't covered, we'll teach you how to hide in plain sight. Disguises," he added at the confusion on his trainee's faces. "Persona work. Stuff like that." Shadows went on the Skills to develop list, while a new list titled Skills to acquire was created and Disguise/Persona written down.
Koumori spoke up again. "One thing we didn't test you on was body disposal. A lot of the people we go after have a wealth of information on them. Sometimes you'll be requested to return the body to the village so the scientists and researchers can get information out of it, sometimes you'll need to make it look like animals got to it, sometimes you'll have to destroy it on site so no traces are left."
"The Black pup has an advantage – his hive can do some of that already and he can use them to find local scavengers. However, you both are going to have to learn most of this from scratch. There's some summoning involved, a fair amount of learning how to read your environment, a handful of jutsu we use and a number of ways to apply others, and sometimes it just amounts to literally cutting up the body, which is pretty messy."
Hinata and Shino nodded as Body disposal went on the Skills to acquire list. Jakkaru added Basic seals below that. "Often, the best way to get a body back here is to seal it in a scroll. We'll show you how to do that."
Fukurou took up the assessment. "I've heard good things about your skill with poisons and antidotes, little White, and Black showed us the medical jutsu he's learning. They're technically not necessary skills for a hunter-nin to have, but they're pretty useful. No matter how fast you move, it's impossible to avoid injury completely, and there are often times when you have to get out of the kill zone fast, especially if your mark has backup. Being able to patch yourself up is always a good thing. In fact," her voice turned mischievous, "you can train with Kobura for that. He only had basic first aid field training, and since he got himself hospitalized after his last mission he was going on about learning a few medical jutsu so he can avoid the place."
Poisons and antidotes and Medical went on the Skills to develop list. "Anything else?" Jakkaru asked, regarding the two lists in the dirt. Fukurou and Koumori glanced at each other, then shook their heads.
"Not that I can think of," Fukurou said, stretching.
Koumori shrugged. "There'll probably be some things that need fine-tuning as they go along, but this is a good start."
Jakkaru nodded. "Alright, you two puppies go ahead and clear out. I'll figure out who's available and what we can start with now. We'll pick up with this again tomorrow."
Hinata and Shino did not need to be told twice. With a quick bow and goodbye to the three hunter-nin, they returned to the village.
The next day saw Hinata and Shino plunged into a never ending cycle of brutal training and 18-hour days. Jakkaru was a near-constant in those first three weeks, although the rest of the hunter-nin were a more sporadic presence. Fukurou went out on a mission two days after the end of the assessment period, and Kobura came to join them. He and Koumori turned up every so often – true to Fukurou's prediction, Kobura began co-opting the two for the lessons on medical techniques he'd talked a medic into giving him. While Hinata was capable of doing the most basic healing techniques, largely thanks to her excellent chakra control, Shino picked up the discipline quickly, putting his extensive knowledge of anatomy to use.
After the first three weeks or so, Jakkaru handed the pair off to Teria, who'd come back in just after Fukurou left and had only just been cleared for duty again. Even by the standards of the hunter-nin they'd met thus far, she was a little strange.
Teria made no bones about the fact that she was Inuzuka, and seemed largely unconcerned by the possibility of her identity being compromised. Her two companions – some sort of large terrier – followed her everywhere, and beyond the traces of dyes in their fur left over from their undercover mission there was nothing to disguise them. Teria would take them deep into the forest, showing them how to use the traces of wild animals to track, teaching them how to recognize when the local animals had changed their habits in response to the presence of humans. She seemed more at ease among the wildlife than in the presence of people, even other hunter-nin.
It did not take the pair long to realize that the reason Teria was so casual about her identity was that she spent little time in the village – she simply wasn't around often enough for people to put the pieces together. When asked, Jakkaru confirmed that the woman had spent a grand total of three months out of the past two years in the village. She'd been on missions for the other 21.
Another two weeks continued primarily under Teria's tutelage until the woman simply vanished one day, having gone out on another mission, this one projected to take at least six months. Jakkaru was unconcerned, and gave the two the day off. Shino spent it with his father, catching up after weeks of sixteen to eighteen hour days. Hinata spent half the day in the Hyuuga compound, replenishing the stores of ointments, before going over to Kurenai's.
After about five weeks as apprentices to the hunter-nin, Hinata and Shino had begun to understand that being one of the elite group required more than a simple set of skills. It required a specific mindset. To be a hunter-nin, you needed to be willing to blend into the background, a rarity in a village like Konoha, where children aspired to be like the Yondaime, or the Copy-Cat, whose best-known techniques tended to be flashy. You also needed to be something of a loner. Hunter-nin tended to work alone or in pairs, and could be away from the village for weeks or even months at a time. By the standards of the hunter-nin, Hinata and Shino were positively garrulous.
As their understanding grew, so did their skill set. Their tracking skills improved dramatically, as did their ability to hide. Taijutsu spars got ever more deadly, pace speeding up as they got faster and learned new forms. Shino got a multitude of chances to practice his medical jutsu, patching the two of them up after spars. Jakkaru talked sometimes about sending Hinata to Shizune for an advanced education in poisons, but kept putting it off, deciding that he wanted her to be better-grounded first.
The end of the fifth and the start of the sixth week ended up being something of a respite. From what Hinata and Shino managed to put together, one of the operatives in the field had managed to successfully infiltrate a non-shinobi criminal organization that routinely employed a cadre of missing-nin, and had called for backup. This mission had been in the works for over a year, and none of the division members wanted to let the chance slip past them – they rarely got a chance to take out so many missing-nin at once. Just about every hunter-nin not already on a mission was called out and a couple hunting marks in the area were diverted for the operation. The highest-ranked hunter-nin in Konoha proper was Saru, a field operative whose specialty was hunting down Iwa missing-nin who believed Hi no Kuni a good place to roam. Saru was currently on medical leave for a broken arm. While the medic-nin had repaired the fracture, the new bone was still weak and they had yet to clear him for duty.
The week was split between catching up on sleep lost during the previous month and working on their family techniques. For Shino, this meant spending long days with his father, learning the finer nuances of both hive care and combat. Hinata had a slightly trickier time. Since her father had decided to stop training her years before, she'd taught herself everything she knew about the Jyuuken, using scrolls and observing other shinobi to learn new techniques. So she dove into the clan records, ensconcing herself in a corner of the clan archives that contained training and technique scrolls dating back to the clan's days in Kaminari no Kuni. When not in the archives, she could be found either practicing in one of the outer training grounds or working in her lab in the Aburame household.
Their rest, such as it was, was brought to a screeching halt by the return of a half-dozen members of the hunter-nin and the worst rainstorm the village had dealt with in years. Hinata and Shino were woken up at four in the morning by hunter-nin knocking on their windows and called out to meet Jakkaru at one of the distant training grounds. They were soaked to the skin by the time they made it to the designated location. Jakkaru met them accompanied by a hunter-nin he introduced as Kawauso.
"This is the best opportunity for you to practice tracking through bad weather that we could possibly ask for." Jakkaru informed them, sounding far too chipper for the hour and weather. "Kawauso will take a five minute head start and then you two will track her. You'll get three days or until the storm ends, whichever comes first."
Hinata and Shino exchanged a glance. It was still dark, and cold rain was pouring from the sky. To make matters worse, a wind had sprung up, dropping the temperature by several degrees. These were going to be a miserable three days. Kawauso leaped into the trees and vanished. Five minutes later, Jakkaru released Hinata and Shino with a "good luck!" and they tore off after her.
What followed would later be remembered as one of the most miserable experiences of their time as trainees. Kawauso led them a merry chase through the woods surrounding Konoha, keeping them on the move and constantly guessing. The rain inhibited their usual abilities, largely grounding Shino's hive and reducing Hinata's range with the Byakugan, dampening their senses, forcing them to rely on every trick they'd ever learned about tracking. On top of that, the rain continued to fall for hours, sometimes lightening to a light drizzle, sometimes pounding down on their heads, so they couldn't dry off.
Back in Konoha proper, the village battened down the hatches to weather out the storm. For three days straight the rain-swept streets remained bare and the wind rattled and whined around corners. Civilians almost universally stayed indoors, and only a handful of shinobi ventured outside, either to train or run errands.
Lee was one of the rare few who actually attempted to train during the storm. While doing kata at Team Gai's usual training ground, he noticed a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning to get a better look, he noticed two figures crouched at the base of a tree, examining something. Suddenly they stood and took off, but not before Lee recognized them as his Eternal Rival's cousin and her teammate. Cheering their dedication to their training and resolving to take them as an example, Lee returned to his kata and didn't think about it for a while.
The rain finally began to let up on the third day, and it had changed to a light drizzle by the time Jakkaru called a halt to the exercise. Hinata, Shino, Jakkaru, Kawauso, and Ryouken-taicho sat in a clearing on the edge of the village while the three hunter-nin gave their assessment. Kawauso was matter-of-fact, if a little thoughtless.
"For your age, experience, and level of training you did pretty well. I was going easy on you, but you managed to keep up most of the time. You only fell for a handful of the false trails I laid and usually figured it out pretty quickly, so that's something."
Jakkaru was more upbeat, scratching yet another set of lists in the dirt as he went over what they'd done well, what needed work, and what they still needed to learn.
Ryouken-taicho went last, talking over Jakkaru as he muttered to himself. "When I first settled on a six-month training period for you two, that was my best-case scenario. I fully expected we'd need to extend it by a couple of months before you came in as full members. You're about a quarter of the way through that period – if you can keep up the rate you've been advancing at, then I would not be surprised if you got your masks at the end of the six months."
Startled, Hinata and Shino thanked him, Hinata bowing slightly. Chuckling softly, the commander of Konoha's hunter-nin left, tapping Jakkaru once on the shoulder as he did so. Looking up from his notes, Jakkaru looked a little startled to see his trainees still in front of him. "Right, take eighteen hours, get yourself cleaned up, fed, warm, and get some sleep. I'll see you back here at 0700 tomorrow."
They did not need to be told twice. Bowing to Jakkaru and Kawauso, the pair made their way back to the village and all the amenities of civilization.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
As Hinata and Shino became warm and full for the first time in days, Team Gai was in Lee's apartment. Training in the rain had given the enthusiastic boy a terrible head cold, and Gai had insisted that the rest of the team "go visit our youthful comrade in his illness." While Gai made a Healthful Soup in Lee's kitchen, Neji and Tenten kept Lee company.
"Really, Lee," Tenten said, exasperated. "If you're going to train at your usual pace in the rain, then of course you're going to get a cold."
"But Tenten," Lee protested, "how could I not train, when I had such a wonderful example to follow?"
"Example?"
"Why yes! I had been training for two hours when I saw Hinata-san and Shino-san. They looked to be practicing and improving themselves. Once I had seen them, I could not help but do the same!"
"You saw Hinata-sama?" Neji asked, frowning slightly.
"That is correct, my Eternal Rival!"
"Huh."
"Neji?" Tenten was looking at her other teammate now.
"It's nothing," the Hyuuga brushed her concerns aside.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Jakkaru reviewed his lists with a certain sense of satisfaction. He'd made something of a gamble going for these two, since they were so young, but they were proving to be worth it. The two days after the mad hunt in the rain had been used for tutorials – he'd shown them some of the signs Kawauso had left behind that they'd missed and had them study as many as he could think of.
"Jakkaru."
He looked up to find his captain standing in front of him. "Ryouken-taicho. Can I help you with something?"
Ryouken placed a scroll down on the desk between them. "This just came in. Hokage-sama wants to see how our trainees do in the field and make a statement while she's at it. I think this should serve as a good assessment mission. Your trainees have done well in stimulations, it's high time we saw how they did in the field."
Jakkaru picked up the scroll and read through it. Once he'd finished, he barked out a laugh and handed it back to his captain. "They should blow this mission right out of the water."
It was impossible to tell with the mask, but he got the very distinct impression that Ryouken was smiling. "Excellent."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Shino pushed open the door to the Hokage's office to find Hinata, Kurenai, and Tsunade waiting inside. Closing the door behind him, he walked over to the desk, prepared to apologize for his tardiness.
Tsunade waved a hand, cutting him off. "Great, you're all here. I've got a mission that needs the three of you."
"Suna has finally chosen a Godaime Kazekage, and it seems the boy wants to begin his reign by cleaning up the missing-nin harassing villages within his borders and strengthening ties with Konoha. To that end, he has requested a squad of shinobi skilled in tracking for a joint mission. It's a low A-rank, but I think the three of you are capable."
Kurenai blinked in confusion. Joint missions between villages were incredibly rare. Villages hated them because they could be seen as demonstrating weakness or become an opportunity for ambush. The ranking would make it attractive to Konoha, but to send a pair of chuunin and a relatively new jounin?
"According to the request, Suna's border villages are being harassed by a group of bandits, and this has apparently been going on for at least a year now. They're led by a missing-nin, and it's thought that there may be as many as five in the group. The rest seem to be ex-soldiers or civilians. The reason that nobody's hunted them down before is complicated, but it basically boils down to a lack of manpower and some clever use of politics on the part of the bandits. Every time anyone's tried to go after them, they keep crossing back and forth along the border between Kaze no Kuni and Hi no Kuni. Since relations between Konoha and Suna have been strained, nobody's wanted to cross the borders after them."
The Hokage placed a mission scroll on the table in front of her. "I've had our intelligence teams look this over and it seems legitimate. The three of you will meet up with three Suna-nin near the border and go from there. It'll be a joint command between Kurenai and their commanding officer – it's generally understood that he'll defer to you in Hi no Kuni and you'll defer to him in Kaze no Kuni."
Tsunade eyed them seriously. "I do not want to hear that this mission failed. If you think something is wrong, get out. I'm sending you three because you've got the skills and are fairly valuable to the village. I want this alliance to work, and you'll be showing that. However, if they betray you or try anything funny, kick as much ass as you have to and get back here as quickly as you can. I'm somewhat familiar with two of the names the Kazekage gave me, and they seem trustworthy, but be careful. You leave tomorrow."
Kurenai and her squad bowed and left the Hokage's office, making plans to meet at the village gates at 0800 the next morning. Once they exited the tower, they split up, heading to collect their gear.
Hinata and Shino each found a slip of paper on their beds, five words written on it. This is your first assessment.
A/N:
Again, I am late. I do, however, have a valid excuse this time. I'd forgotten that I was going into my second round of exams/essays/etc when I made my fortnight prediction last chapter. Since my last posting, I've had: 8 essays (including two rewrites), 4 presentations (3 formal, 1 informal), and 2 exams. Not to mention reams of Medical, Visa, and Housing paperwork, extra rehearsals, and concerts. Ah, the joys of being a college student.
I am also sorry to say that I don't know when I'll be updating next. The next two weeks are chock-full of term papers and final exams, so I'll be working exclusively on those. Many apologies, but I need those grades to be as good as I can manage!
Thanks as usual to my nutcase of a little sister, Pyrozia, for beta-reading this for me.
Anonymous or PM-disabled reviewers:
CityLightsFallingLeaves – I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, and a little stunned that it made you giddy. You're not the only one to see a reference to Terrier, but I swear it was unintentional. The hunter-nin are a lot of fun. Haku is the only hunter-nin we see in action, although Ao (one of the Mizukage's guards) wears the hunter-nin uniform. Basically, that means I get to take what amounts to a footnote in Naruto canon and mess with it however I see fit.
Koumori – A hunter-nin who generally operates in the wilderness. His codename means 'bat'.
Fukurou – Like Koumori, she generally stays in the wilds. Her codename means 'owl'.
Kobura – Unusual among the hunter-nin for his preference for urban hunts. His name means 'cobra'.
Teria – Known to be a member of the Inuzuka clan, she stays in the wilds as much as possible and avoids people when she can. Her name means 'terrier'.
Kawauso – Usually operates near Mizu no Kuni. Her codename means 'otter'.
Saru – Usually targets Iwa nin. His codename means 'monkey' and is a reference to the Japanese Macaque and the Yonbi's presence in Iwa.
Next Chapter: Of Assessments and Politics
