Once again, hello! I told you I was going to work on releasing more!
These are just bits about Karin, Rin and Nanami's team.
"...And team thirteen is Hyuuga Rin, Hatake Karin, and Haruka Nanami." The teacher called out. The two girls who knew each other from the times they had played at Kori's house shared a smiling look, though they both glanced back at their third teammate with less than a little excitement. They had never really talked to her, no one had. She always sat in the back corner of the room alone, sometimes talking to herself, and no matter how many times the teacher took them away from her she seemed to always be playing with matches.
It was a bit concerning.
After all of the other teams filed out the girls sat in the classroom waiting for a good twenty minutes before the door finally slid open to reveal their teacher.
He was on the smaller side of average and had dark blonde hair that was sticking up as if he had just gotten out of bed. He stood tall with his shoulders back as if trying to look more menacing and intimidating, though the effect was ruined when he tripped over the doorway and landed right on his face.
"Ow..." He muttered as two of the girls jumped up and hurried over to his side to see if he was okay, though Nanami came over to his side in a more leisurely stroll.
He looked up at the three and quickly glanced over them before his eyes quickly filled with tears, forcing the girls to share a concerned look.
"Ah... Sensei? Are you okay?" Rin cautiously asked, to which he quickly shook his head.
"No! They told me it would be like this but I had hoped..." Seeing the way they were looking at him he could only wail, "You're all girls!" Before burying his face into his hands.
"All the other Jonin are going to make fun of me and ask me about girl talk and if our periods have synched and all about fashions, and I'll never live it down!" He groaned, and Rin and Karin could only share a look that was caught between insulted and amused. But Nanami moved past them and started petting the man's head soothingly.
"There, there." She cooed, "We could talk about guy things, if it will help."
The man looked up at them hopefully, but Karin snorted and managed to dash his feeble hopes.
"Really? Well, what do guys talk about?"
Rin thought it over for a moment before kindly and uncertainly suggesting, "Something they all have in common?"
Nanami nodded resolutely before saying in a perfectly level and almost reasonable tone, "Testicles." Seeing the disbelieving looks on the other three's faces, she shrugged and added, "Or turtles. Who doesn't like turtles? They are very amusing."
The laughter that poured from the other two girls' mouths was uncontrollable and nearly hysterical, and their new sensei could only hang his head in defeat.
Jin-sensei was clumsy and over-dramatic, something that Nanami found amazingly amusing, poor maternal Rin found concerning, and Karin just found herself caught between a mix of the two. But they liked him, and other than the fact that they were all girls, he seemed to like having them as students.
"Today," He announced grandly as they stood in front of some trees in one of the training grounds, "You are going to learn how to walk up trees with your chakra." And he stood there with his hands on his hips and a big grin on his face, waiting for the oohs and ahhs that were expected with this lesson.
Instead, they just looked at him and destroyed his happiness far too easily for twelve and thirteen year old girls.
"My dad taught me how to do this when I was a kid." Seeing her teacher's look she just shrugged. "When he had to watch me and didn't want to play tea party, he taught me ninja stuff. I can water walk too, though not as well."
His attention shifted to Rin, who just smiled at him sympathetically. "My mom likes messing around with my dad or surprise attacking him, so she got me to help and taught me then. But I don't know how to water walk."
And lastly there was Nanami, who was just staring at the tree intently.
"Do you know?" He asked with a sigh, though he perked up when she shook her head.
"No. But I'd much rather learn how walk up on my hands. Can you teach me to do that?" She asked, and they all could only blink at her, still not quite used to her and her... Nanami-ness.
"Why?" He finally asked with a sigh, and she just shrugged.
"Why not?"
He could only slump in on himself with a depressed sigh as Rin patted his shoulder and tried to console him.
"Hey Rin!" Karin said happily as she walked happily to the booth her friend and teammate sat in, waving off the waitress as she slid in since she saw that her drink had already been ordered, along with an order of fries Rin had that she would just mooch off of.
"Hey." The darker haired girl sighed, rolling her eyes at the way Karin just naturally assumed that she'd be allowed to take her food. Rin had ordered it to share, of course, but still, it was about the principle of the thing.
Well, it wasn't like she was going to say anything.
"So where's Nanami? We need all of the team here for the team meeting to start." Karin said as she dragged one of the fries through the melted cheese. Rin's lips twitched into a wry smile as she pointed to under the table, and the pale haired girl could only blink at her for a moment before leaning around the table and looking in to see her dear loopy friend sitting back against the wall hidden in the shadows, curled up with her knees to her chest and her chin resting on her knees as she flicked a match to life, holding it up to her face as she intently watched it burn and die.
"Ahh..." Karin's eyes flicked up to meet Rin's before coming back to the other girl. "Hey Nanami. Um... Whatcha' doin'?"
"The lights were glaring at me, so I sought solace away from their hate. It is quite nice down here, though I did find some crumbs and a stray spoon. Do you wish to join me?" She asked sweetly as she waved the flame away just as it bit into her finger tips, allowing the corpse of the match to fall onto the floor and on top of the pile of its brethren where they lay in an ashtray.
"Ah... No. Thank you for the offer though." She said with a smile before setting up and sharing a concerned and somewhat amused look with Rin. "Didn't the waitress or anyone say something?"
Rin opened her mouth to answer, but Nanami spoke up from her spot under the table. "She told me that playing with matches was dangerous and that I don't understand what I'm doing, but I told her that I did. I explained to her that I knew perfectly well that I'd be able to set this entire establishment up to burn uncontrollably within thirty seconds, sending every person in here into a fiery and painful grave, and she ran away. I think she's afraid I might do it, but I wouldn't. I like the banana smoothies here and the way they give you three cherries instead of just one, though I don't like cherries. It's the thought that counts, though."
Karin could only sigh wearily, burying her face into her hands. "Oh God." She half moaned, half chuckled just before she peeked through her fingers at her friend sitting across from her. "That waitress probably thinks we're going to blow up the place. Are you sure she didn't spit into your fries?"
"Oh yes, I got them before Nanami came, though we will have to worry about Jin-sensei when he gets here. He won't even know whats going on or why his food tastes funny." She murmured sympathetically, wondering when the man would be able to make the meeting. Hopefully he hadn't fallen into a hole, the poor thing.
"Weeeell..." Karin drawled, fidgeting in her seat anxiously, "I wanted to wait until we were all together, but I guess I can just show Jin-sensei later." She took a breath and dug into her pocket as Nanami peeked over the edge of the table.
"My dad decided to let me onto the summoning contract, so..." With a grin she pulled her hand out of her pocket and showed her teammates the ball of white fluff in her hand. "This is my first summon, Pochiri."
The small pup preened for the two girls who studied her, waiting for them to say something, though the poor thing found herself disapointed.
"Your father signed you onto a summoning contract with rats? That's regrettable." Nanami sighed as she slipped back up into the booth, sending her white haired friend a sympathetic look.
"No! Pochiri is not a rat! No no no no! Pochiri is a dog! Dog!" The small animal squeaked, bouncing off of Karin's hand and down to the table, jumping around as she growled angrily.
"Hmm..." Nanami squinted at the summon, tilting her head a bit in thought. "Well... I guess you could use it as a duster, though there isn't much use to her otherwise." Pochiri growled at this, to which Nanami only growled back.
"Well, this went well." Karin said cheerfully as she forced the still growling and hopping summon back into her jacket pocket. "Really well. And as much as I want to stay here, I have to go and separate you two before we're never allowed to come back here again." She glanced over and saw the waitress glaring across the room at them, "Though I doubt we'll actually get any uncontaminated food here again."
She stood up with a wave and called over her shoulder that she'd see them at training the next day, keeping her hand over her jerking pocket so that Pochiri wouldn't jump out and attempt to attack Nanami.
They were racing away, hurrying between the trees as they avoided their pursuers. They had managed to intercept the coded letter about the planning of the assassination of the Daimyo successfully in accordance to their mission, but they hadn't expected the hidden enemy to come out so suddenly, intent on destroying them and the note.
But they weren't going to let that happen.
"Karin." Jin hissed, and the girl looked over just in time to catch the tightly rolled up note he tossed her. Seeing in the hard look he sent her what he wanted, she nodded.
"Right." She said mostly to herself before they all stopped as one unitl. Rin drew her sword and Jin got out his kunai while Nanami continued to jump erratically from tree to tree from where she had lagged behind a bit, and doing the necessary hand signs Karin bit her thumb and slammed her hands into the ground.
A puff of smoke that was there and then gone, revealing the small white ball of fluff.
"Yes? Pochiri heard you call for Pochiri, so Pochiri has came out." The summon squeaked, and Karin nodded and held out the note.
"Take this to the village to get decoded, and don't stop for anyone, got it?"
"Yes! Pochiri will do it and will be super fast!" She squeaked, grabbing the note firmly but gently between her sharp teeth. She took a moment to gather the strength into her small legs, and then with a growl she launched herself off of the ground to jump from tree to tree faster than even the most well trained eyes could see.
Karin pulled her kunai out and turned just in time to see Nanami land and to see her smile as she whispered, "Boom." And the entire forest behind them exploded.
When the enemies that survived it came out of the chaos, they were coughing and singed and they were met with the people they had been chasing only moments ago. Only now, they would be the ones doing the chasing.
Thank you for your kind words and college wishes and most importantly just for your comments!
Hello to my new sweet baby DreadCraft, and here's to hoping I'll be seeing all of you this soon again!
Toodle-loo, my little Scootaloos!