I opened my apartment door and closed it behind me with a 'click' that resonated throughout the quiet apartment. I slowly trudged into my living room and laid my mother's katanas on my sofa, which I bought not too long ago with my inheritance, along with the bag that I had received from Hokage-sama that held my clan's scrolls. 'It really has been 7 years since that night.' I thought as I stood there staring at what was left of my clan, my family.
Flashback
Hokage-sama's office (No one's POV)
The Hokage was sitting at his desk, the day's piles of paperwork finally completed; his eyes were closed as he puffed on his pipe. He looked as though he was in deep thought as he was surrounded by lit candles, since the sun was beginning to set. A soft knocking caused the Hokage to open his eyes and remove his pipe so he could answer.
"Come in."
The door opened and Akina walked into the room as she closed the door behind her.
"Hello Hokage-sama." Akina said with a small bow before sitting in the chair that was in front of the Hokage's desk.
"Hello Akina, I heard that you and your team passed Kakashi's test. That is quite amazing since all of the other teams given to him failed so congratulations to you." The Hokage said as a small smile graced his old face.
"Thank you Hokage-sama I admit Kakashi's test was a little bit difficult but we put our heads together and beat it."
"That is good, I'm glad to hear that. Now follow me for a minute so we can go get what you came here for, shall we." The Hokage stood up and walked towards the door as Akina did the same and followed behind him. They silently walked down a couple of hallways and down a few flights of stairs until Akina was sure that they were somewhere in the bottom half of the Hokage's mansion, near the basement. They walked down one hallway and the Hokage stopped at a door that had a sign that said 'Records Depository'.
"We must keep this door locked at all times because it contains some documents that cannot get into the wrong hands." The Hokage said as he made a hand sign that made the door open. Akina simply nodded her head in understanding as she followed him into the room. When they entered the room candles were already lit as they were placed evenly throughout the room on the walls. The room was very wide so it could hold the very large bookcases in it. On these bookcases Akina could see so many different scrolls that she could barely count the ones on a lower shelf. They both walked down what looked like to be the main aisle, since it had a wide amount of walking space, until they stopped at one bookcase. On this bookcase there were wooden boxes on it instead of scrolls and they were aligned neatly next to each other and some were on top of others. As she looked closer see could see that there was a lock on each of the boxes but there wasn't a keyhole or anything to open them with. As her eyes traveled farther up she saw a little sign that made her eyes widen a bit, 'The Yukito Family'.
"Some of the bookcases in here are assigned to each of the clan that we have in our village; the Uchiha, Inuzuka, Yamanaka, Akimichi, Nara, Hyuuga, and the Nara clan. Usually what are contained here are family histories, documents, and whatever else they wish to have stored here. Even though your clan was not a part of this village it was decided that it would be best that we store your clan's documents here, although there were some things that your family kept to themselves. Just in case that if you would need them one day then you could come here and retrieve them." Akina was silent as she processed all of this information while still staring at the boxes. The Hokage could see that she needed a moment to process this so he went to one of the middle shelves and grabbed a large bag. Akina returned to the present when she noticed the Hokage had moved, and when he pulled the bag from the shelf that she realized she never noticed it among the many boxes.
"In this bag are some scrolls that your mother prepared for you if something ever happened to her and/or your family. I do not know what they say since, as I said earlier, only one with Yukito blood can read them." Akina looked at the Hokage with sadness but appreciation in her eyes.
"Thank you for everything Hokage-sama, this truly does mean everything to me."
"It is no problem Akina, just train hard and fulfill your dream. I believe that will make your mother happy."
"I think so too."
The End
I was still standing there, looking at my family's belongings, when I brought my mind back to the present. I sighed as I walked away from my couch and into my kitchen to grab something to drink before going to sleep. After getting my glass, filled with fruit punch, I walked into my bedroom and placed the glass on my nightstand. I started to take my clothes off, not really caring where they ended up since I would just pick them up in the morning. Grabbing my towel, I opened the door that connected my bedroom to my bathroom and turned the water on in my shower so that it was very hot. As I stepped into the burning water it immediately relaxed my muscles and cleared my mind of any emotion that I was feeling. This why I love taking hot showers. It allows me to reflect on my day and remember everything that happened. Right now my mind drifted mack to today's earlier events when we found out that we passed.
Flashback
Training Grounds (Akina's POV)
It was dead silent as Kakashi stood there looking at us while we all tried to comprehend the words he just said to us.
"Wait a minute Kakashi-sensei, how did we pass if we broke your rule?" Sakura asked for all of us.
"I told you guys not to feed Naruto on purpose because I wanted to see if you all would put the team above anything else. Also every squad that was given to me failed because none of them could think for themselves so they fell into every single trap. A ninja must be able to see through deception. In the ninja world those who break the rules are scum but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." Suddenly Naruto started to giggle behind me and when I turned around he yelled, "YEAH! Akina we did it! We passed, HAHAHA!" My ears were ringing and my head was pounding as I replied sarcastically, "Really 'cause I couldn't hear him the first time and now I can't hear anything at all."
"Congratulations, you are now officially Squad 7. You start your first mission tomorrow." Kakashi said proudly. From the corner of my eye I could see Sakura smiling with happiness and excitement and Sasuke actually had a mix between a smile and smirk, if that's possible. I could feel my smile grow as my excitement towards the future grew.
"How about we all go get something to eat, my treat?" Kakashi asked as he motioned for all of us to follow him. We all got up to follow him and when we were almost out of the clearing someone yelled my name, "AKINA! You guys forgot to untie me."
"Oops, I really did forget that he was tied to the post." I said sheepishly as I ran back to him while Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura shook their heads in amusement.
The End
The funny memory ended and I didn't realize how out of it I was because I was already out of the shower putting my pajamas on, which consisted of a black tank top and black basketball shorts. I walked back to my bed and let myself fall onto my back so that I ended staring up at my ceiling. Without the comfort of the warm water to suppress my emotions, they came back at full force and I could feel myself start to tear up. Images of my home flashed before my eyes; my mom making me breakfast, playing hide-and-seek with Nakia, playing with some of the other kids in the forest, and letting Nanu rock me sleep because he was the only one who could do it when my mom wasn't home.
'I love you all and I miss you so much mom.'
I let the tears slide down my cheeks, not bothering to try and wipe them away; I just laid there on my bed crying in silence. I looked out of my window and saw how big the moon was and how, even though it was so beautiful and comforting, it looked so lonely.
'Looks like we're the same you and I, we're both trying to find a place where we belong and where we're loved.'
My tears disappeared as I laid there smiling at the moon until my eyes closed and my mind drifted into darkness.
The forest was quiet as the wind lightly caressed the trees and the birds sang their song into the air. The bright sun was beaming onto the earth, lighting the world with the natural colors of its children. The peace of the broken by a small dark blur running through the trees followed by four more larger blurs.
"This is Sasuke I'm at Point A the target is 20 meters ahead."
"This is Sakura I'm at Point B."
"Akina here at Point C."
"….."
"Naruto here at Point D! Believe it!"
"Naruto you're too slow. Alright everyone get ready to move in. Ready…NOW!"
"ALRIGHT I'M GOING FOR IT! BELIEVE IT!" Everyone immediately removed the headset from their ear when Naruto started yelling. Naruto jumped from his place behind a tree and lunged at the cat, and he caught the cat in his arms but regretted it when the cat started to attack his face. I immediately moved towards him and tried to pry the cat away from Naruto's face while Sasuke confirmed to Kakashi-sensei that we had the cat Tora.
"Is that the cat Tora? Check to see if it has the red bow on its left ear." Kakashi-sensei asked. Looking down at the cat there was indeed a red bow on its left ear.
"That's affirmative Kakashi. It's Tora." Sasuke answered in his normal bored/unemotional voice.
"Good job Team 7 report back in for your next mission."
"WHY DID WE GET SUCH A STUPID MISSION! I HATE CATS!"
(No one's POV)
"OHHH! My beloved Tora is finally back. I am never letting you out of my sight again!" yelled the excited women as she smothered the poor cat with her chest. The large woman than gave the Hokage the money and dragged the poor cat with her while it meowed in pain the entire time.
'Poor thing.' Akina thought as she watched the cat look at her with pleading eyes to help her.
"Ha that's what the stupid cat deserves." Naruto said as he watched with a smile on his face.
"The poor cat, no wonder it ran away." Sakura said, voicing our thoughts out loud.
"Alright Team 7 here are your choices for missions; you can babysit the councilman's son, help his wife with the groceries, dig up potatos, or-"
"No way gramps I'm sick of these baby missions! I want a real mission or something that actually challenges us! These are all chores!" Naruto demanded as he put his ams in an 'X' sign across his chest.
'I actually agree with Naruto for once.' Sasuke thought as he stood there with his usual bored expression on.
'Would you just shut up for once Naruto.' Sakura thought as she looked at Naruto with annoyance.
Kakashi sighed as he mumbled, "I knew this would happen sooner than later." Iruka, who was sitting next Hokage-sama, stood up fast and slammed his hands on the desk and started yelling, "How dare you! You are all brand new genin that have no experience. Like everybody else you will all start with simple missions so you can enhance your skills."
"You have got to be kidding me! How is babysitting a mission, it's just a stupid-Ouch!" Naruto face first on the floor since Kakashi punched him on top of his head before he could say anything else.
"Naruto, would you please put a lid on it?" Kakashi pleaded while Naruto rubbed the bruise on his head. Akina watched with a little smile on her face as she could see that Naruto was in for a lecture from Hokage-sama.
"Naruto, it seems that you don't understand the tasks that you are given. We get all kinds of requests from people every day that range from babysitting to assassinations. Each of these requests are recorded and analyzed so that they may be ranked A, B, C, or D; depending on the level of difficulty. It's the same way ninja are ranked based on their abilities; Hokage at the top then Jounin, Chunin, and then Genin at the bottom. Each request is given to ninja who have the abilities and the experience to complete the request. In return, if the mission is successful, we are given a fee that supports our village and our ninja. As new Genin you will be given low ranking missions since you barely have any experience." The Hokage gasped when he realized no one was paying attention to him because Naruto was talking to everyone about what kind of ramen he should eat.
"Silence!" yelled the annoyed Hokage, which caused everyone pay attention to him again.
"Sorry about that." Kakashi said as he rubbed his head sheepishly.
"Why are you always lecturing me as if you're my grandfather? I'm not the brat who used to pull all of those pranks. I am a ninja now and I want a ninja mission." It was silent for a minute except when Kakashi mumbled about "How he was going to hear about this later." Iruka chuckled a little bit and the Hokage gained a smile on his face as if he had something planned.
"So Naruto wants us to know that he's not a brat anymore but a former brat and he wants a ninja mission. So be it then." Everyone had a surprised look on their face since no one thought that the Hokage would give in to Naruto.
"Since you seem so determined I will give you a C-rank mission. You will be bodyguards for a journey."
"Really? For who? A princess or a really important councilman!" Naruto asked with excitement in his voice.
"You will meet him in a minute. Send in the client." Soon the door opened up revealing an old man who was holding a beer bottle in his hand. The blush on his cheeks would tell anyone that he was slightly drunk. His hair was already completely gray and he wore a long brown shirt that had a purple sash wrapped around his hip area and khaki pants. A white rope was tied around his forehead and he wore glasses that sat on the end of his nose.
"What is this? These snot-nosed kids are supposed to protect me? Just look at the little one with the stupid look on his face, is he really a ninja?" Suddenly Naruto started as he asked "Which one has the stupid look in his-Huh?" Everyone came together so that he could see that Sasuke and Akina were about the same height, Sakura was only an inch or two shorter, which left Naruto being the shortest. Akina held Naruto back when he started to lunge at the old man yelling, "I'll demolish you! Just wait until I get my hands on you!"
"Naruto you can't demolish the client, it's not how this works." Kakashi said with a sigh as he helped to calm Naruto down.
"My name is Tazuna, I am a Master Bridge Builder and I need to get back to my country. I am building a bridge there that will change our world so I expect you all to get me home safely, even if it means giving up your life."
The end for right now! Now that AP tests are over and I have my SAT scores I can finally get back into the swing of things on fanfiction. Tune in for the next chapter! Please review me and tell me if I made any mistakes or if you have any constructive criticism.
Also I am still looking for beta reader message me to see if you're interested!