Chapter 2

As I walked down the street back to my home, fiddling with my long brown braid and the purple blade-like ornament, someone's shoulder bumped into mine, causing some of the papers to fall out of the folder.

"Oh, hey, gomen. I didn't see you. Here let me-" I turned and looked to see a boy not much older than me lean down and pick up a picture that had fallen out.

It was his picture.

"What the hell is this?" he growled. Another growl came from behind you. I turned to see a large white dog with brown ears. He was almost twice my size.

"The Hokage-" I started, but were interrupted.

"'The Hokage' what?" his face was close to mine, his black slit eyes glaring at me. His skin was darker than yours, floppy brown hair barely hanging in his eyes, red triangles on his cheeks and long canines sneering at you.

"The Hokage wants me to join your team, baka!" I yell at him, pushing him back a good five feet. The dog jumped to his side and growled in an attack stance. The man followed suit as did I.

I could probably take out the dog, causing the man to want to leave to take care of him. But… I love cats, but dogs were nice too, as long as they weren't too loud, like those stupid mini dogs.

I dropped the fight stance and began flipping through the folder, looking for something that might get me out of this. I came across a note with it addressed to Team 8. I held the letter out and the man warily stepped forward to take it.

I watched him read it, then he glanced back up at me. In a deadpan voice, "This just says to buy her a bottle of saké."

I anime dropped to the floor. Stupid old hag!

I turned to the man as he sighed and held out his hand to me, still on the ground. "But if you have a note like that from the Hokage, then I guess that means it's true. I'm Inuzuka Kiba. Nanika atta?" (What's up?)

I stared at the hand for a minute, then brought my hand up and after he pulled me up, we both shook. Inuzuka-san gestured with his head to the dog. "Then this here is Akamaru. Combat dog."

Then I remembered what I had heard of the Inuzuka clan. They were masters of the canine-beast jutsus. That explained why he and the dog were so in tuned.

"I'm Sasaki Umeko. Please call me Ume. I'm a Taijutsu-ist." I bowed respectfully, but shot up as I heard him snicker.

"You? You're a Taijutsu'-ist? But you're tiny! Maybe a medical-nin but-"

I growled and snapped. "What the fuck makes you so special, mutt? You help your dog morph into a clone of you? Yeah, what do you and him do in your spare time then?"

He growled at me and picked me up by my collar, feet dangling. "What the fuck are you talking about? You wanna fight with me, midget?"

"Hell no! Two against one? What the hell kinda fight is that? Cheating bakayaro!" (Stupid bastard)

"Kiba, what are you doing?" A calm voice said to my left. Inuzuka and me turned to the voice at the same time to see a man with a green coat, his hood up and barely showing his forehead protector underneath. He wore sunglasses even this early in the morning, and his lower face was covered by a tall collared shirt that was buttoned.

Taking the chance while Inuzuka was distracted, I grabbed the end of my braid and held the crystal to Inuzuka's neck.