Chapter 1

4 years later

"Target is two meters to your left and 9 centimeters down. Piercing advised, trees obstruct passage of bolt. No wind interference."

Tatsuki adjusted her crossbow to the required coordinates. The bolt began to glow a light turquoise color. She pulled the trigger and the bolt sprung forward, flying through three trees on its path to the target. It punctured the neck and buried itself in the ground 30 feet behind the target.

"Well?" Tatsuki asked.

"Well what?" I replied, hiding a smile.

"Did I hit the target you idiot!" she yelled. "I don't have those eyes, that's why you're the one giving me instructions on where to shoot!"

I sighed, trying not to laugh. "At a range of 200 feet, you hit the target square through the neck. It was a great shot."

"Thank you. Now, how's Suma doing?"

I scanned the area in the direction that Suma had headed. I picked up four people. Three were unconscious; the other was leaning against a tree. "He did fine," I told her. "He knocked them out, probably long before we hit the target."

"They're gonna be pissed when they wake up."

"Yeah, but I think we can live with that. After all, you already have so many people trying to kill you, that you should hire a body guard." This was a comment on the fact that she got on peoples nerves a lot. I turned on my mike. "Suma, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear," he replied.

"Target dispatched, no interference thanks to you. But why did you knock them out. Now we have to carry them back to base."

"Don't worry, they'll be awake by the time you catch up with me."

"If you say so." I turned to Tatsuki, "Pack your stuff and let's get going." She quickly folded up her crossbow and we were on our way. We reached Suma in under five minutes, and he was right. The others were already waking up.

Jordan began complaining as soon as he could speak. "That was a cheap trick!" he shouted. "Sending him to delay us," he pointed at Suma, "While you guys took down the target. It was unfair and we didn't even stand a chance!"

I sighed. "Jordan, the objective was to be the first team to take down the target. All we did was split up and use our talents where they were best."

Jordan rolled his eyes and grumbled. His team left. And we began to follow. "Well, good work on a job well done. This makes us the top team in the school."

"Yep, after all, we've never lost a match. Thanks to your Byakugan, my shadow bind jutstu, and Tatsuki's long range fighting style, we always get the target long before the opponent gets near it."

"Yeah. Come on, let's head back."

The three of us started up a sprint. We made it back to the base within ten minutes, and we were showering within fifteen. After that we headed to the auditorium. There were nineteen other teams in the room. The symbols of the teams in the room had two distinct types. The first was the symbol of the leaf that represented our village. The second was the hourglass that represented the Village Hidden in the Sand. They were here for a joint training exercise. It was set up tournament style, and we had just made it to the finals.

I walked over to the board. There was a man standing next to it. "Excuse me." I said.

"Oh, Jiriya! How are you doing? Won your match I assume?"

"Yep, we're on to the finals."

"Congrats. I'll mark it down, and you can begin preparing for the final match."

"Thank you sir." I walked back towards Tatsuki and Suma. The people in the room were all Genin. We were the only first year Genin to make it to the semifinals, and now the finals. This was a great day because if we won, I could brag about it to my parents, and to the rest of my graduating class. Of course, a victory would just add to the size of Tatsuki's ego, but there wasn't much I could do about that.

We waited patiently for the final results of the other semi finals match. Tatsuki started up a conversation with one of her friends that I didn't know, Suma was reading, so I decided to go distract myself. "Call me when the results are in," I told Suma. He nodded and I walked off.

I left the building, headed away from the training area. I didn't really know what I wanted to do; I was just walking to distract myself.

"Why are you not at the training grounds? I thought there was a joint training session today?"

I turned around and saw a man with wild brown hair, feral eyes, and what I always assumed was war paint on his face. "Hello Mr. Inuzukza. Yes there is a session today. My squad just finished our semi finals round. They said they'd radio me when the finals were going to begin."

"Oh, well in that case good luck to you. And say hi to your mother for me. I only got back from a mission recently so I haven't gotten to talk to anybody in a while."

"Not a problem."

"See you then." And he walked off. That was Kiba Inuzuka, a friend of my parents, although not really a 'friend' of my dad, they get kind of competitive.

My headset crackled. "Jiriya get over here quick. Results are in, looks like we're going against Sand squad 3."

"That's a shame." I said. I know squad 6's style, I would have preferred to fight them."

"Yeah, but we've got someone else so we're gonna deal with them like we would any other."

"Yep. Be there in a minute."

I started running for the training grounds. It took me two minutes to get there. By the time I did, Tatsuki and Suma were ready to go. "Where's our starting point?" I asked.

"Location 7," Suma said.

"Okay. Usual strategy?"

"Yep."

"Okay, let's go."

We moved out for our starting location. We got there in three minutes. We had two more before the match started. "Byakugan!" I stared at the tree's surrounding us. "I found them. They're at location 2. Suma, the moment the siren blares, head for the intersection of paths 2 and 3. That's their most likely route; I'll redirect you as necessary from there."

"Got it."

"Tatsuki, the target is two miles to the north west from our position. Be ready to move immediately."

"I know, you don't need to tell me."

We waited. The seconds ticked past until, "HOOOOOOOOOOONK!" the siren sounded. We all moved instantly, confident we had this in the bag.