Chapter 3: Meeting Hinata Hyuuga

The sun shone brightly on Cori's face, waking up the green haired kunoichi instantly. Yawning, Cori slipped out of her bed, putting on her glasses as she tiptoed passed the beds containing her sisters's sleeping figures, out of the room. At the same time, Jubei too woke up just as her mistress passed her basket were she slept with her own sisters. Yawning and stretching, the little white kitten jumped out of the basket and followed Cori down the Inuzuka hallways to the bathroom.

After freshening up and changing into her usual attire, Cori and Jubei walked downstairs into the kitchen to find Hana Inuzuka preparing breakfast.

"Ohayo, Hana-oneesan/sama!" greeted two at the same time, cheerfully smiling happily.

Hana smiled back. " Ohayo, Cori-san, Jubei-san."

It was then Jubei noticed the uniform Hana had on. " Hana-neesama, are you going to work?" Hana nodded as she finished setting the table.

" Hana-oneesan, you're a medic-nin right?" asked Cori curiously.

Hana nodded again. " That's right, I'm a vetenarian to be exact."

Cori and Jubei's eyes grew wide and sparkling in interest. " Really! I've always wanted to be a vet-nin!" piped up Cori, whose eyes sparkled even more in admiration.

Hana smiled at the sparkly, happy pair in front of her. ' Now if only Kiba could be as adorable…' "Maybe one of these days, you could help me at the animal hospital, Cori-san."

Cori and Jubei's eyes grew even brighter. " Really!"

" Really, but right now I've gotta scoot, I'm gonna be late for work, see'ya!" said Hana, patting Cori's head and stroking Jubei before she left the house. Cori and Jubei smiled happily.

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After eating breakfast (and leaving a note, of course), Cori and Jubei left the house to explore Konoha for a place to train. As they walked away from the Inuzuka compound, Jubei transformed into her Winged Beast form while walking next to her mistress. On cue, Jubei stretched her wings and took into the skies with Cori riding sidesaddle on her back.

As the two soared through the air (A/N: Well, Jubei's really doing the soaring, but you get what I mean…), Cori and Jubei breathed in the fresh scent of morning air. " Ah, I have to admit, it's actually more refreshing flying here than back at Suna, don't you agree Jubei?" asked Cori as she pushed a strand of bright green hair behind her ear.

Jubei flapped her wings once more, bringing them higher. " Well, we are in Konoha, Cori-sama, so the air here is a lot more moist thanks to the greenery scattered all over the area."

Cori placed a finger on her cheek and looked upwards. "Hmm, I guess you do have a point there Jubei."

Suddenly, Cori and Jubei's extremely sharp ears heard a series of loud thumping and hard panting just below them. Upon looking down, they both could see someone beating the hell out a stump of wood. Curious, the two flew down for a closer look, landing not too far from the person. Cori quickly slid off Jubei's back and walked towards the location of the person. Jubei caught up to her after transforming back to her normal form. Hidden up a tree, Cori managed to get a good look of the practioner.

It was a girl with short navy-blue hair and pearl white eyes and looked just around Cori's age. Her dirty clothes and minor injuries covering her whole body were a telltale sign that she has been training herself hard. The girl breathed slow and steady as she kept thrusting her palms on a wooden training stump. Finally, the girl stopped and looked at the spot where she kept pounding. Her head was hung down but from where Cori and Jubei were sitting, they were very unsure of the reason. Suddenly, the girl turned and slumped against the stump, slowly lowering herself into a sitting position. The girl appeared extremely unhappy as she tucked her knees underneath her chin. Small teardrops formed at her eyes and ran down her face as she look at her bruised and bloodstained palms covered in splinters.

As Cori and Jubei sat in the trees, watching the sad girl, both of them heard a large cracking sound beneath them. Both of them looked down at the branch they were sitting on before looking at each other. "Uh-oh," they both said as the branch they were sitting on suddenly gave way. They both screamed as they started falling towards the ground. Quickly, both of them twisted in mid-air, and ended up landing on their feet.

"Fyuu that was close!" said Cori.

"Wh-whose there?!" called the girl, quickly wiping away he tears.

" Uh-oh, busted…" muttered Jubei. Seeing as they were discovered, Cori stood up with Jubei on her shoulder. They both sweat dropped as they scratched their cheeks, grinning.

The girl quirked an eyebrow at them in curiosity.

" Uh, sorry about the surprise, I'm Cori Nekojiwa and this is Suiton no Jubei (A/N: I'm changing the cats titles into Japanese.), we're new here, please to meet you!" greeted Cori cheerfully, as she and Jubei beamed.

The girl smiled back at them. "O-ohayo, I'm Hinata Hyuuga," she said, blushing a little in shyness.

Cori smiled in amusement. But she quickly dropped her smile when she saw a drop of blood trail down from Hinata's hands. Quickly, she appeared in front of Hinata, holding up the girl's hands to inspect them. "Oh dear, your hands are injured quite badly, Hinata-chan," Cori said in concern.

Jubei peeked over Cori's shoulder. " Yeah, your hands are pretty beat up Hinata-san."

Hinata quickly pulled her hands free. "N-no, i-it's n-nothing!" she stuttered in protest as she forced a smile. She flinched in pain as she clenched her fists.

" Don't be silly, your hands are suffering from multiple bruising and bleeding and they are covered in splinters," said Cori.

Hinata kept silent, she definitely couldn't deny that.

Cori smiled softly. "It's okay, I'm a medic-nin-in-training, I could heal you up with a special style of medical ninjutsu I and Jubei developed myself. You would be the first to see my technique, Hinata-chan."

Seeing that Cori was determined to help, Hinata agreed. Smiling, Cori signaled to Jubei to bring her some leaves from the nearby bushes. Carrying a bunch in her mouth, Jubei set the leaves down next to Cori. Hinata watched with curiosity as Jubei closed her eyes and sat down while placing a paw on the leaves. Suddenly, Jubei began glowing blue with chakra. At the same time, Cori was performing a few hand seals. In amazement, Hinata watched, as the leaves under Jubei's paw grew dry and crinkled as Jubei lifted her paw to reveal a blob of water circulating underneath her paw. Cori hands also began glowing with chakra as she held her hands out in front of Jubei, who placed the blob of water on one hand. Immediately, the blob of water grew as it began covering Cori's hand like a glove. Cori touched her other hand and immediately, the same thing happened.

"Hold out your hands, Hinata-chan," instructed Cori with her ever-present smile.

Obediently, Hinata did what she was told. Cori placed her two water-covered hands on Hinata's palms. Hinata's eyes widened, as she saw the splinters embedded in her palms get absorbed into the water. Cori lifted her hands once so that the splinters fell to the ground. She then placed her hands back onto Hinata's. Quickly, the cuts and bruises disappeared. Cori then let the water drop from her hands onto the ground.

Hinata inspected her hands. "S-sugoi…, not even a scar is left…"

"You like it? I call the Water Healing Jutsu. I created it by using a mix of my water chakra and my medic techniques."

Before Hinata could respond, she was interrupted by someone calling her.

" Yo! Hinata-chan!!"called a familiar voice. A series of yapping followed after that.

" Kiba, wait up will'ya, you nut!!" " Wait up, Kiba-san!"

Hinata, Cori and Jubei (Jubei: Hey, why am I always mentioned last?)(R.F: Because you're the cat, and I'm in charge of this.), turned their heads to find Kiba, Akamaru, Hikari, Akane, Kaori and Yue running towards them.

"Kiba-kun!" exclaimed Cori and Hinata at the same time.

"Eh? You know each other?" they asked each other at the same time again.

" Of course we know each other."

" Jinx!"

"Double Jinx! " giggles (A/N: I know it's lame, but I've always wanted to that.)

By that time, the group had reached them. " I knew I'd find you here Hinata. I see you've met Cori-chan and Jubei," said Kiba, smiling.

" Ohayo, Kiba-kun," greeted Cori and Jubei, giving Kiba their warmest smile.

Hinata looked back and forth curiously. "Kiba-kun, Cori-chan, you two know each other?"

Cori and Jubei nodded. " Me and the rest of my family moved in with the Inuzuka family just yesterday afternoon," explained Cori.

"Oi! Don't leave me, Akane, Kaori and Yue out of this…" interrupted Hikari irritably, folding her arms.

Cori and Jubei sweat dropped as she waved a hand over her face. " Oh dear, how silly of me. Hinata-chan, meet my sisters. This is my first sister, Hikari Nekojiwa and Katon no Akane." Upon the intro, Hikari and Akane gave Hinata a large cat-like grin and waved.

"And my second sister, Kaori Nekojiwa and Kage no Yue," finished Cori. Kaori and Yue gave Hinata a small smile of greeting.

Hinata tilted her head to the side a little. " Eh? You're triplets?"

The three sisters (and cats) nodded at the same time.

" Anywho, have you forgotten that we were supposed to meet at the Hokage's Tower, Hinata-chan? The Godaime said that she was going to introduce the triplets as the new Genin Team 11 to the rest of the Konoha 11 today," said Kiba all of a sudden.

" The Konoha 11?" asked the triplets and cats at the same time with big question marks appearing above their heads.

" I'll explain on the way, c -"

" Hold it, squirts!" called a woman's voice from above.

Everyone looked up to see Zakuro and Tsuchi in beast form coming in for a landing. Zakuro slipped off Tsuchi's back as Tsuchi transformed back to her original form.

The triplets blinked in surprise. "Onee-chan?"

" Looks like we caught you guys just in time," said Tsuchi in relief.

" A-ano…" stuttered Hinata, who caught Zakuro's attention.

" Oh hello, who're you?"

In the background, the rest of the people sweat dropped. "Zakuro- oneechan is too straightforward…."they all muttered.

" H-hinata Hyuuga…"

" Hyuuga? Oh, so you're on the teammates Kiba-san mentioned yesterday."

Kiba quirked an eyebrow in confusion. " But I don't remember …."

"My room is near yours, I heard you tell Hana-chan about meeting with your teammates today while she was passing by your room," explained Zakuro. Tsuchi nodded in agreement.

Kaori started clearing her throat. " Ne, onee-chan, didn't you have something important to tell us? "

"Yes, I agree with Kaori-sama," said Yue in her ever-misty voice.

Zakuro placed a hand on her hip, rolled her eyes and sighed. " How could I forget…?" she muttered sarcastically. " There's been a change of plans, Tsunade-sama has ordered you guys to bring along two extra people for the 'thing'."

"Two extra people?" asked the triplet group to each other. Suddenly, they slowly turned their heads until their gaze rested on a certain boy, dog and girl.

"Why are you looking at us like that?" asked Kiba sweat dropping.

Suddenly, Hikari, Kaori, Akane and Yue started smiling evilly. As for Cori and Jubei, their smile appeared unchanged but Jubei's eyes suddenly took on a creepy twist while Cori's glasses shone over until you couldn't see her eyes. (A/n: Like Kabuto when he pushes up his glasses sometimes or when he has his scheming, evil moments.)

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Raven's Familiar: Another chapter done, NYA!

Hikari and Akane: Stay tuned everyone!

Kaori and Yue: To the next chapter of…

Cori and Jubei: The Power of Triplets!

Zakuro and Tsuchi: waves tiny flags and yawns