"So son," A blonde spikey haired male called out to the boy across the table from him. They were both waiting for the table to finish being set before they could eat. The older blonde's stomach growled loudly and he frowned. "How was your day today, do you like your team members?" He noticed that the boy was rather quiet when he arrived home earlier that day and that wasn't like him. Usually he would be over excited to share his day with his parents.
Hanzi stared down at the table, fiddling with his thumbs in deep thought. Ever since he'd left the academy earlier that day, his mind was still focused on that boy he tried to talk to in class that day. Though the boy had angrily lashed out at him, he saw right through him. He was upset and hurting. From what? Hanzi didn't know but he wanted to find out.
'Why do you wanna talk to me? I'm invisible to everyone. So I don't need your pity if that's what you're trying to do…I'm fine being by myself!'
The boy's words rang loudly in his ears, and a frown appeared upon his face. How could he want to be alone? No one deserved to be alone. He remembered the stories his father told him about Ninja like him. And he said that with people like that, just want to be accepted, and noticed. But he tried that today on the boy and it just made him mad. "Yea, Otou-san, I like my teammates.." He said with a half-smile.
"Alright you two." A woman with long dark hair and white eyes said as she placed a bowl of mixed vegetables on the table, alongside a plate of steamed fish and a bowl of rice. "We can now eat." The blonde haired male stood up and walked behind the woman where he pulled her chair out. As the woman sat down the blonde haired male placed a hand over her pudgy stomach and gently rubbed it. "Any day now.." He said and kissed her forehead. The black haired woman's cheeks turned a dark shade of crimson as the male returned to his seat. Even the after the many years they'd been together he still was able to make her blush.
"Let's eat!" The older male yelled out and immediately reached for the ramen at the center of the table just as his son was doing the same. The two exchanged dark glares at one another and argued over who's chopsticks were in the bowl first. "Otou-san…" Hanzi growled at his father who was blowing steam from the top of his head by now. "Hanzi…"
"Now, now you two, there is plenty of ramen in the kitchen, no need to argue over one bowl.." The soft spoken woman said but her soft voice didn't seem to reach their ears for they were still glaring at each other like it was the last bowl of raman on earth.
Hanzi reached out and grabbed the whole bowl for himself and his father did the same. "It's mine!" Hanzi yelled and pulled the bowl in his direction. "No it's not your mother specially made this bowl for me!" the older blonde argued and pulled the bowl back in his direction. "Nuh-uh! I didn't hear her say that give me the ramen!" He gave one final pull and snatched the bowl from his father's hand. "Haha victory!" The boy said, as his eyes twinkled with success. "He dipped his chop sticks in the noodles and quickly started devouring them like he had not eaten in days. "Mmmm mmm mmmm mm!" he hummed a gleeful smile on his face.
"Hey Hanzi.."
"Yea, otou-san!" The sound of cracking knuckles caught his attention but before he could move it was too late, his father connected his fist with the top of his head, leaving behind a big knot. The boy fell over on the floor with his hands rubbing the top of his head. "Ouch! Ow!" He sniffed and looked over at his father who was now eating his bowl of ramen. His lip quivered and he looked over at his mother. "Okka-san.." He sniffled as a stream of tears rolled down his cheeks. "Okka-san!" He whined "Otou-san hit me and stole my ramen!"
"Naruto!" The woman yelled though it came out softly. But it was enough to catch the older blonde's attention. The two went through this every night. She never under stood what the big deal was. There was always plenty of food on the table but they always brawled over the bowl of Ramen. "Let him have it."
"But Hinata, he.."
THWAP!
"Alright here, you can have it!" He said and slid the bowl across the table as he rubbed the top of his head after being hit by the one woman he thought wouldn't hurt a fly.
"Ahhh!" The boy happily began eating his ramen again then stuck his tongue out teasingly at his father. "I win!"
After all the hype about the Raman had calmed down, Hanzi went back to the subject about his teammates, one in particular. "Otou-san, why would someone say that they are invisible to everyone when clearly they are not invisible..?"
Naruto was quiet for a moment before he could answer his son's question. He picked up a piece of fish between his chop sticks and bought it to his lips. "Well son, it could be a number of things. It all depends on the type of life the person has lead." He stated, remembering the way things were when he was younger. Having the nine tailed fox demon within him was not easy, people looked down on him and discriminated him. But that hate only made him stronger and made him want to prove himself. And it did. He's Hokage after all. "Why do you ask?"
"There is this kid on my team, Eriya Jiro. And well I thought that I'd go talk to him since he was all by himself, but he yelled at me and said he was invisible and would rather be alone. I thought it might have been because of how I approached him but when I looked at him I could see nothing but sadness.."
Again, Naruto was silent. There was much about that boy his son didn't know about he would tell him but he'd rather him find out for himself. He knew in time that he would. Eriya was no ordinary kid he was special. He'd arrived in Konoha several years ago along with his sister after a terrible slaughter in their village. Since, the boy has had much difficulty making friends because of what he was. "Just do your best to try and be his friend Hanzi. He may not show it but it's what he really wants. That's why I placed you within his group, because of your kind nature. If anyone, I know that you can bring out the best in him."
Hanzi smiled and nodded his head. His father's words were enough to boost his confidence. It wasn't going to be easy but he'd do his best. "Okay Otou-san, I won't let you down!"
:::
Eriya staggered into his home and closed the door behind him. He carefully laid his back against the wall and closed his eyes. After he'd met his teammates he went into the woods and trained himself until his muscles were sore to the touch and it hurt to breath. "G-guess I over did it.." He said as he pushed off the wall and staggered towards the kitchen. "Onee-san. Onee-san I'm home." He called out but received no answer. The boy made his way into the kitchen but there was no one there. Now that he actually took the time to notice, no one was there. The lights in every room of the home was off, only the glow from the moon peeked through the windows. He sighed and looked over to the table where a piece of paper laid. He blinked and picked it and quickly read over the contents. He pressed his lips into a straight line and let the note fall onto the ground. By now he thought he would be used to this type of thing, his sister disappearing for an "x" amount of days and not knowing when she would return home. But he wasn't, all it did was make him worry about her. He never knew if she would come home alive or dead. She always told me she'd be fine, he knew that but if he ever lost her he don't know what I'd do. She was all he had in his small world of people he could trust.
Eriya staggered out of the kitchen and into his room where he took a quick shower and hopped into bed. He let out a loud yawn and rubbed my eyes as he fluffed his pillow until it was to my comfort. Tomorrow was going to be a very long day so he needed to get a good night's rest if he wanted to be able to function correctly. Tomorrow was when they met their sensei since he didn't show up earlier that day. Konohamaru told him that on the way back from the forest. A sensei that didn't appear on time, that was a terrible first impression. The boy yawned again and turned over in his bed, soon closing his eyes and slipping into a deep sleep.
The three squad members sat on a field three or so miles outside the village of Konoha waiting for their sensei to arrive. The Uchiha girl stood under a tree with her eyes closed and arms crossed with a rather impatient look on her face and Hanzi sat next to her, staring at the girl with a ring of hearts circling his head. It was obvious that he was one of the many fan boys of Konoha with some sickening crush on the girl but she didn't seem to acknowledge it in the least.
Eriya sat in a tree across from the one Hanzi and Setsuko were under and just studied the both of them. Setsuko mostly. Unlike Hanzi who appeared to be a total ding-bat, this girl was different. Quiet and to herself. He'd heard many things about the Uchiha clan and how strong they are from over-hearing the guys of the "Setsuko Fan Club" as well as other students speak about it. Was she really all that great? Maybe he should test the one to test the waters and find out.
Hanzi pulled himself from his admiration of the Uchiha girl and glanced over at his other teammate up in the tree. "Hey!" The boy shouted, waving both hands in the air. "Eriya, what'cha doing up there by yourself!" The boy ran over to the tree and jumped through every branch until he made it to the one the boy was settled on. By the time he made it there, Eriya was gone. "Man he's fast.." The blonde boy looked to his right to the boy was standing in front of Setsuko. He smiled and quickly hopped through the branches until he made it back to the ground safetly. "Well now that we are all here,"
"I challenge you to a fight.." Eriya said morosely, interrupting anything Hanzi was about to say.
Setsuko smirked and looked up at the boy. She knew this was coming, she'd felt someone watching her since they had arrived her and had a hunch it was him. "You sure about that..?" She said smugly "You're just asking for yourself to get seriously hurt.."
"Hmph.." She was a cocky one, he knew already that this was going to be a rather interesting fight. "Someone has a lot of confidence in themselves. I don't think you're that strong at all."
The girl glared and the winds around them began to pick up. How dare he stand here and bad mouth her. No one does that. "Prepare yourself!"
Eriya celebrated silently as he walked to his spot on the field. He turned around and faced the girl, smirking more to mock her than anything else.
"Hey, hey guys now you guys!" Hanzi said, flailing his arms about in the air. Don't fight, why not just talk it-"
"SHUT UP!"
The two said in unison making the boy freeze up in fear. "Okay, I'll just..stay over here..of "
Setsuko and Eriya traded gazes once more then dashed off in the direction of each other. The two thrusted their fists out to land a punch on one another when a giant white cloud of smoke appeared. When the smoke vanished standing between the two was a figure dressed in all black and a green vest. A Jonin. The figure also had a black cloth that covered the bottom half of their face and bandages wrapped around the top part. All that could be seen were the person's eyes which were a misty grey color and their long black hair that stopped at the base of their back. Their left arm was also held up in a sling that was tied around ther neck. Both Setsuko and Eriya blinked at the figure between them then looked at each other. The figure squeezed both of their fists in the palm of their hand and twisted it, making the two Genin winch and groan from the pain. "I don't care what the two of you do on your own time but this is my time. And on my time you're going to follow my rules and those rules include no fighting unless necessary!" The person twisted both their hands then kicked them both backwards across the field.
Hanzi stood up and happily ran to the figure's side. "Sensei!?"
Eriya and Setsuko picked themselves up from the ground and began walking back towards the figure and Hanzi. Both were holding their wrist from the awful pain that was running through it. "This isn't over.." Setsuko warned and gave the boy a dark glare. "Oh, I'm well aware, be prepared cause next time there will be no interruptions.." Eriya said then ran ahead of the girl.
Eriya and Setsuko finally made it back to the figure and Hanzi. The two just continued to exchange evil glares with one another.
"Guys! This is our sensei!" the blonde boy shouted to pull their attention from each other and focus on the figure in front of them.
The unknown person cleared their throat and started to speak. "I hope I got your attention.." She glared but the three could hardly tell because the bandages. The person had the voice of an adolescent girl. "as your friend here has said, I am your sensei. I go by the name Indo."
Eriya gasped while the others just continued to listen on to what their instructor had to say. Indo sat down and crossed her legs over one another and the other two followed in suit. Eriya just stood there glaring at the woman with the bandages over her face. Really he didn't know why she was wearing them. Was there something wrong with her face? The boy sat down, never taking his eyes off the woman.
"So, why don't you tell me a little bit about yourselves, starting with you." She pointed a finger out at Eriya. The boy huffed and turned his head to the side like a spoiled child that couldn't have his way. "Why don't you tell me!" he grumbled.
"Oh oh me I'll go first!" Hanzi yelled out while throwing his hands up in the air.
"Alright, since this one doesn't want to co-operate you may go." Indo said fueling the boy's anger.
"Well! My name is Hanzi Uzumaki. I'm thirteen years old and I love Raman. My father is the Hokage of the village. I'm going to following his footsteps and become the next Hokage, believe it!"
"Mmm-hmm, and how about you?" She said referring to the Uchiha girl.
Setsuko opened her eyes and folded her hands under her chin. She looked the bandaged woman in the eyes and sighed. "I am Setsuko Uchiha. I desire to become the next strongest shinobi in my family. And be able to take down weak so called ninja that stand in my way." She cut her eyes at the boy sitting next to her. Eriya growled and scowled at the girl "Who you calling weak!" He shouted.
Setsuko just smirked and looked back towards the sensei. She enjoyed the fact that she could get under the boy's skin so well.
"Alright," Indo said and stood to her feet. "You sure you don't want to tell us about yourself, I'm sure your teammates would be interested."
The boy grumbled at how the girl was acting so... "Fine, I'm Eriya. 13 years old. All I care for is ending the life of the person that has caused me so much pain…" He said whispering the last part of his sentence.
"Alright..." Indo replied. "Well as you already know, I am Indo.
My hobbies include reading and gathering information." She said
"That's it!?" Hanzi blurted out. "What are your dreams your future goals, things of that nature."
"My dreams and goals are nothing I wish to brag about." She said quietly then quickly changed the subject. "As you all may know, today is the day you receive your first task."
All their eyes lit up with excitement about their first task as ninja. Indo reached into her pocket and pulled out a blue scroll, which she handed over to the blonde haired boy. "Alright this is going to be awesome!"
:::
"Ninja Art: Shadow Multipy." Eriya said to himself. About ten replications of his shadow pulled themselves out from the ground, appearing to be that of solid figures and began helping with the trash pick-up.
Man this really sucks.." Hanzi grumbled as he and the other two did community work around the village. The boy stuck his stick in the can on the ground and threw it in the basket on his back. Why did they have to do this boring crap while all the other ninja get to run around and do all the cool stuff. He stopped his work shortly and looked up at his sensei who was comfortably lying across a roof top reading a book. Their sensei was a strange one. He wondered if any of the other Genin had a mysterious sensei like they did. Why did she were that cloth and mask over her face. Did she have something to hide?
"You're not going to get done any faster by looking at me all day. "The woman said as she flipped through the pages of her book. She turned her head in the direction of the boy and he quickly went back to work.
Hanzi reached down with his stick and picked up another piece of trash and tossed it in the basket. Eriya stepped at his side and picked up a small piece of paper. Hanzi looked over at him and remembered what his father asked him the night before. "Hey Eriya?"
The boy picked up another piece of trash and tossed it in his basket. "What Blondie, can't you see I'm trying to get to get this job done, go bug someone else will ya?"
"I wanted to ask you, about what you said earlier, what did that person do to you?"
"Whatever it is I don't feel like discussing it with you because it's none of your concern. So why don't you try minding your own business and stop sticking your nose in mine!"
'Ouch..this is going to be harder than I thought.'
He shook his head and held his fist up in the air.
'But I won't give up, I promised otou-san that I would become close with Eriya and that's what I'll do!'
"Uhm, you're starting to become more of a head case every time I see you, you're freaking me out.." Eriya said and picked up another piece of trash.
'Guess I'll try again later..'
The whole day had gone by and the sun was now starting to set behind the trees. Still the three Genin was nowhere near finished with their assignment for that day. Their sensei had gone through a total of eight books within the time they first began all the way until now. She looked down at the three of them and shook her head. She remembered when she was in their position and her and her team mates had to go through the same thing. But unlike these three, they used teamwork without someone having to tell them they had too.
"Man, this is a drag.." Hanzi complained
"Wow, you actually said something that we both agree on." Setsuko said. "This is a waste of time why are we even doing this, I thought ninja were trained to fight not to do chores and hard labor!"
"Yea!" Hanzi exclaimed throwing down his stick.
"It's to build trust.." Indo said as she closed her book and sat up. She looked down at the three Genin who were just standing around and fussing about the things they'd rather be doing. "The first thing you need to have when you're a ninja is someone's trust. Be it doing chores or something much more drastic. If you three were sent on a mission right now and it involved infiltration you'd all die." She said snarling the last part of the sentence. She hopped off the room and walked towards the tree of them. "You know why, because the first thing you'd need to do on an infiltration mission is to gain one's trust.."
The Uchiha girl clenched her hand into a fist as the woman continued to disrespect her. First she tried to break her wrist now she's talking down on her like she was something low. "You know nothing about me.." Setsuko grumbled out of pure frustration.
Indo smirked out of pure amusement though it was unseen by any of the three Genin since her face was covered up. "You're wrong there, I do know one thing about you, all three of you actually. You're selfish." She stated simply.
Setsuko swiftly threw a fist towards her sensei out of anger but the woman caught it. "Another thing, you have a bad temper!" Indo twisted the girl's wrist and kicked her back.
"Being a ninja requires more than just the ability to fight. And the three of you lack them all."
"Who are you to say that to us!" Hanzi and Setsuko shouted together.
"Your sensei, and you know how I'm feeling right now, I feel that all three of you fail, and none of you deserve the title of ninja!" She said before turning her back to the three. "Do what you wish, finish up here or go home, but remember, your actions will determine your position in the morning." Indo took off into the village and vanished from sight, leaving the three to think with what they needed to do.
Setsuko unstrapped the basket from her back and let it drop against the ground. "I think we should ask for a new sensei."
Hanzi agreed with a nod of his head. "I agree, we deserve better missions then this petty stuff. I can complain to my father, he is the Hokage after all."
"The two of you complain too much…" Eriya said to the two. "Crying liked spoiled children, can't you see when we are being tested." He picked up another piece of trash and put it in his basket. "We have to work together. Besides, she was just saying all those things to get under our skin. I know for sure."
Setsuko looked at the both of them then dropped her stick on the ground. "Well I refuse to take part in this any longer. I'm out of here!"
Hanzi looked at Eriya who just rolled his eyes and went back to what he was doing. Of all people he wished that it was Setsuko that stayed behind, she would have been less of a nuisance than this guy here. Then again, what did it matter, they were going to fail anyway.
:::
"Lord Hokage." Indo stepped into the Kage's office and stood in front of his desk. The blonde man turned in his seat to face the woman, already knowing exactly why she was there. "Yes, Indo what is it?"
Indo took another step forward and rested her hands along the cool wooden surface of the desktop. It was obvious that she was annoyed by something. "The group you've place me with, they're not fit to be ninja." She said catching the man's full attention now.
"And what makes you say that?" He blinked and leaned forward on the desk, folding his hands under his chin.
"I'm sure you've seen it for yourself already, so I'll spare you the details."
Naruto smiled and turned towards the window and stared outside. He remembered when he was younger and he much desired the same thing those three did and the Hokage gave them their wish. It was a tough mission but working together, they completed the mission made new friends and returned to Konoha in one piece. "You're right Indo, I've seen everything and I say we give them what they are asking for. I assign your group to an "A" ranked mission."
"What!? That's insane. They're just Genin, sending them on missions above their rank is asinine. They'll be killed!" She argued and slammed her hand against the desk. It was absurd.
"Perhaps you're underestimating them. We'll put them to the test. Besides, I'm sending one of Konoha's best Jonin slash Anbu with them. If push comes to shove I'm sure you'll protect them especially the one you know best."
"Hokage please I-"
"That is my final word." Naruto cut in. "Inform them as soon as possible to report to my office in the morning."
Indo left the office with a sense of worry clawing at the pit of her stomach. An "A" ranked mission? What was the Hokage thinking!? Sure she wasn't too keen about the three but the last thing she wanted was to see them get slaughtered in a mission they had no chance at. But it was sealed and Naruto wasn't changing his mind. She knew already that this was going to be a very dangerous mission.