Chapter 3

Getting Started

Hey, wake up! We're going to be late!

Something started to lick my face, which made the dream I was right in the middle of pretty awkward. However, once I figured out that it was only my dog, I rolled on my side and started to let the hands of sleep lull me back off into dreamland.

Don't you fall back asleep! Come on, get up! We have training with Kakashi, remember?

"He's going to late anyway," I muttered through my pillow.

It's already eight thirty! He said to be there by seven! Even though he's usually two hours late, we still only have less than half an hour!

"Screw Kakashi…if we wait around for two hours for him, he can at least wait half an hour for me…"

I guess I have no choice then…

My warm, fuzzy blanket suddenly left my body, exposing it to the cool breeze that was creeping in from an open window. My body twitched immediately from the unexpected change in temperature and goose bumps jumped to my skin. Opening my eyes, I sleepily looked around my room until a white thing with a tail caught my attention, but only because it had my blanket. And I wanted that blanket back.

"You bitch…" I growled. "Give me that back."

Angel gave a toothy smirk and wagged her tail.

Not even in your dreams, whore.

I sat up, starting to get pissed, "Give it to me now."

Screw you.

"What was that?"

You heard me.

I leapt off my bed on all fours and tackled my dog. The sudden collision sent the two of us rolling, where punching and biting started to take place. I was right in the middle of hitting her nose to make her stop biting my bare foot when I heard someone start to chuckle. We both looked up at the open window simultaneously and found Kakashi sitting on the windowsill, reading.

"Looks like you two are up and fully ready for the day," he flipped a page.

"My ass I'm ready," I scoffed, kicking my dog off of me.

My sensei laughed, "No need to worry, you aren't going to be late. I checked on Lilian as well as Noah and they were both just getting up too."

"A little creepy don't you think?"

He smiled, or so I thought, "Perhaps, but I only do it out of my care towards my students."

I guess the look on my face was humorous to him, for he chuckled again before telling me to really be ready for training in an hour and then proceeded to jump off the windowsill and disappear.

I sighed, dragged my feet over to my bed, and sat down. Grabbing my blanket, I was about to go back to sleep, but I looked at my dog and gave her the in-your-face look.

"Told you we didn't need to get up so early."

~ L ~

I found it surprising that Kakashi was able to get into the Hyuuga neighborhood complex without being detected, but then again, he is Kakashi. I was even more surprised that he showed up at my bedroom window, if not disturbed more than anything else.

I was content, I guess, with starting to train again. It did enhance my senses and make me physically and mentally stronger…it would certainly overall help fine tune my tennis-playing skills.

After taking my time with dressing and eating breakfast, I casually made my way over to said designated clearing to find that everyone else was already there. Madeline was lounging in a tree with her dog, doodling on a scroll rolled out on her lap, Noah was chucking kunai knives at a target, and Kakashi was once again reading his perverted book.

"There you are!" Madeline jumped down from her branch. "Jesus Christ, could you have taken any longer in getting here?"

"Knowing him," I nodded towards our sensei. "I took my time in getting here."

My friend rolled her eyes, earning a chuckle from Kakashi as he stood, eyes still glued to his book.

"I suppose we should get started then," he said, turning a page. "I assume you three all know how to control your chakra, but I bet you'll need a refresher on hands signs for all of your specific jutsus. Therefore, I'm sending all of you out running to get your cardiovascular going where you will then stop, perform some core work, and then practice your jutsus…"

Noah and I groaned while Maddie just grinned, making Kakashi give her a questioning look.

"Running is her thing, remember?" I explained. "She does cross country and track."

Kakashi smirked, "In that case, Lilian and Noah, you two will run three miles out at seven minute mile speed while Maddie, you will run out five miles with a mile tempo every other mile."

"I'm assuming that I'll be starting with the tempo first?" Madeline pulled her hair back into a stubby ponytail. "Meaning three tempos in all?"

"Correct. I would start off with six minutes for now, but your last one should be only ten seconds slower than your fastest mile. After you all have practiced your jutsus, you will meet up and create a strategy together to take these from me."

He held up three silver bells. I rolled my eyes. Could he actually come up with a new way to train for once in his life?

As I was changing into proper shoes, I watched Madeline start her watch and take off with Angel at her heels while Noah did likewise in another direction. After stalling long enough, I sighed and started my assigned workout.

I've never really been much of an athlete, let alone a runner. Sure, I've had my share of recreational soccer and swimming and running in physical education, but never really competitively like Maddie or Noah. Yes, I'm playing Varsity tennis for my high school, but that's only because I'm Asian and all we do half the time is hit balls at one another, which takes no physical effort whatsoever. Our coach does make us run occasionally, but we don't need freaking six packs like cross country and club soccer. I could really care less if I never run again in my life, but I suppose it's good for me.

At the two mile mark, I was dying, and slowed my last mile down to eight minutes, but, bearing in mind that I hadn't run this much in months, I was pretty proud of myself.

I finally reached a nice clearing where a cool stream cut right through the middle. Once I caught my breath, I did a variety of push-ups, sit-ups, planks, and so forth. Next, I sat down and started to go through the hand signs used for my personal jutsus. Considering the fact that I didn't give a shit about what I was doing, I surprisingly still remembered most of them. In fact, it all came back to me so quickly that I was up doing jutsus only an hour after arriving in the clearing.

Suddenly, right in the middle of performing my Fireball Jutsu, I heard a thunk behind me and turned around to come face to face with an explosive tag attached to a kunai knife. I cleverly jumped out of the way and watched from a tree branch as the tag detonated and created a cloud of gray smoke. Once the haze cleared, I realized that not a soul was around and wondered who could have thrown the knife. Then, out of the blue, a hand planted itself onto my back and with shocking force, shoved me off of my perch, where I proceeded to fall to the hard, unforgiving ground. Groaning, I looked above me and found Madeline and her brother on my tree branch busting a gut.

"Sorry!" she snickered. "But you were so wide open that we couldn't help ourselves!"

I jumped to my feet, leapt into the air, and tackled her to the ground, which only made Noah laugh even harder.

"Loser!" he teased. "Shit, she really got you!"

A second shove was the only thing needed to shut him up too.

"What're you guys doing here?" I sighed.

"Um, hello?" Maddie dusted herself off. "We're supposed to meet up after we've finished practicing. We're already done and from the looks of it, so are you! So let's just think of some strategy that'll get this over quickly; I'm freaking starving."

Noah and I exchanged looks and shrugged.

I situated myself on a nice tree branch as quietly as I could and hide myself behind the scratchy trunk and the canopy of emerald leaves. I grabbed eight kunai knives, holding each one in between each of my knuckles. Peaking around the corner, I spotted our sensei still standing in the middle of the same clearing, reading. I looked across the clearing to the other side of trees to see Madeline slip out her drawing scroll and start to paint with her brush, quiet as a mouse. Thirty feet to the right of me, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Noah pull out a makeshift archer's bow and kunai knives. He wanted to try it out, so he just made one on the spot.

I saw Maddie finish drawing and Noah pull back his kunai knife in his bow, so I readied myself to throw the knives. 3…2…1…

"KAKASHI SENSEI!" a loud voice called.

"What the fuck?" I whispered angry.

It was too late. Maddie had already made her drawn wolf come to life and it was silently flying through the air towards Kakashi's skull as well as was Noah's and my kunai knives. An orange flash grabbed our sensei and pushed him out of the way of the incoming weapons…and then Kakashi became a log. I stared in disbelief.

"Are you kidding me?" I heard Madeline scream.

I groaned, slid out of the tree, and made my way over to the orange figure, who turned out to be only Naruto. Maddie leapt out of her hiding spot and angrily socked Uzamaki right in the face.

"Ow!" Naruto rubbed his tender jaw. "The hell was that for?"

"Dude, did you not just see what you just did?" Noah rolled his eyes. "We're right in the middle of training."

Naruto looked at all of us, saw that we were in our training clothing and holding our weapons, realized what he had just done, and grinned sheepishly. Suddenly, Sakura landed right in front of us and slapped Naruto across the face.

"You idiot!" she scolded. "I told you to wait because they were right in the middle of training with Kakashi sensei! But no! You had to run out and pretend to be the hero when you didn't even know what was going on!"

All Naruto did was smile stupidly and rub his now swollen cheek and still throbbing jaw.

"Well, what are you two doing here?" Kakashi called out from a nearby tree.

I looked in the direction of his voice, spotted him perched on a branch, and sighed out of frustration.

"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto called. "Sakura and I are ready to go on our first mission back! Let's go to Grandma Tsunade and get ourselves-"

"Hold it," Madeline interrupted. "Can you not see that he's a little busy with us right now? So why don't you just go-"

"And I'll get both of your teams assigned to a mission," Kakashi stood up on his branch and clapped his book shut. "I think all of you are ready."

…

"WHAT?" Noah and Naruto screamed together.

"Are you kidding me?" Maddie threw her hands in the air. "That's the most retarded mission ever!"

I just stared at Tsunade like she was crazy.

"I swear, you must be high!" Naruto exclaimed.

Tsunade gave us all back a look that suggested she wanted to kill us all.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" she growled. "I could have you shipped out of the village in a casket tonight if I wanted to."

I was just about to make a sarcastic remark, but the door leading out of the Hokage's office burst open and a ninja came storming in.

"Lady Hokage!" he shouted. "The Sand Village is being attacked and the Kazekage has been captured!"

Tsunade remained silent for a while until she finally said, "Alright. Kakashi, I'm sending you and your team to head out to the Sand to assist them. You must hurry, as it sounds we don't have much time."

"Wait!" Noah cried out. "Gaara's the new Kazekage right? Take me with you then! I'm a really good friend of his and I should be able to help him out!"

Tsunade sighed, "Ok…fine. But you must be careful. This is the Akatsuki we're talking about and they're after people like you."

I glanced over at Madeline and she looked like she was going to have a heart attack. Obviously, she wanted to go with him to make sure that he would be safe but she knew too well that it most likely wouldn't work out.

"But…" she started.

Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

"Then it's settled," Tsunade stood up and looked out her window. "Kakashi, I would advise leaving as soon as possible. In the meantime, Maddie, Lilian, I'll give you two some missions to go on with some other ninja."

I sighed.

Could this place get any more predictable and boring?