The Fourth Hokage handed the file over to Shiro. "Your mission is to take maps for some proposed expansions of the village to a contractor in the Daimyo's estate. This is will be your first C-rank mission."

All three genins' eyes lit up.

Shiro nodded at Minato when Iruka and Mizuki wanted to take off immediately, giving his thanks to the Leaf's leader and then followed after the rambunctious preteens.

Minato fell back into his chair exhausted, running his hand under the headdress. He barely had the chance to go home long enough to sleep, often crashing at his desk and leaving Kushina alone with Kakashi. The stress of having a child on the way was compounded with the concern classified files on his desk. People were worried over the jinchuriki. People were worried that the war wasn't really over. And recently, more and more intel was trickling in about an Uchiha coup d'état.

Momentarily, his thoughts wandered to the team he had just sent away; how intensively Shiro had been training his students the last few months? Very few teams were now making the cut for genin. Another source of stress: the curriculum needed an overhaul. The war was over; churning out every child into the field was pointless and dangerous. What Minato wanted was a strong village built of people who were knowledgeable and ready for whatever would come their way. If he was lucky, one of three that left would become a shinobi with the will do whatever it would take to make their village survive. He didn't want to be prejudice, but his own bet was on Kotone; her file (also among the classified on his desk), however, haunted him. His body was set in a seemingly permanent position of tension, and it was all he could do keep from screaming. The clans of the Leaf felt more troublesome than they were worth. The Uchiha happened to be the more pressing, but he was well aware of issues surrounding the others.

He didn't move when he sensed the chakra enter the vicinity. Rather he welcomed the interruption of his thoughts. "Any news?"

"Lady Kushina sent you a meal." Kakashi seemed sheepish carrying the lunch box.

"She should be resting." He exasperated, but couldn't hide the smile that followed the reprimand.

The ANBU handed the food over. "She insisted."

"I'm sure." Minato opened the box and inhaled. "Jiraiya should be returning for a visit soon."

"The Sannin?"

"And my jounin-sensei." Minato laughed. "He's an author right now, wandering and doing whatever it is he does. We're naming our son after the character in his book. Though… it seems it's going to be the only book of that genre. His other ideas are interesting." Minato let out a bark of a laugh. "You'd probably really enjoy them in a year or two."

Kakashi said nothing else. It wasn't his place to openly show interest or affection as ANBU, but he listened to the Hokage out of respect. Secretly, his curiosity was piqued. What kind of book did the legendary ninja want write that could cause Minato to look so scandalized?

"Is your subordinate watching Kushina?"

"Yes."

"Then take a seat. We can talk for a minute."

Doing as instructed, Kakashi sat. Minato tried to gauge his reactions without seeing the face behind the dog mask. The Hokage knew Kakashi's current position prevented him from talking about much, but he asked anyway. "How are you?"

"Fine."

'He's tired…. And not just because of Kushina.' Minato thought.

"That's good. Are you enjoying your new apartment?"

"Yes. It's nice."

'He likes the solitude more than I had hoped he would.'

Minato nodded slowly. "Thank you again for watching over my family. You can go."

Kakashi bowed before vanishing.

.

The trees threw long shadows through the canopies, streams of golden light filtering down letting them know it was evening. It was their second day into the journey and last before they would reach their destination, so Shiro came to a stop. He let out a grunt when Iruka slammed into his back. The other two landed gracefully on the branch next to him.

Iruka rubbed his face, glanced to his friends and then looked away embarrassed.

"Sorry, Sensei."

"You need to be paying attention, Iruka." Shiro stated.

"I know." He sulked.

The jounin turned back around. "We're going to make camp here and leave in the morning."

His squad was entirely made up of contradictions. Iruka was a clown, he wanted to make people smile and had a heart that would normally seem totally inept for a shinobi, but he showed a great strategic mind and quick reflexes. Of course that last part only applied when he was focused and not trying to impress his teammates.

Their star kunoichi didn't know what she wanted in life as far as Shiro could gather. She was dedicated and blended well with the boys, but part of her held back whether it be in battle or in relationships. Shiro could guess well enough seeing her mother's death caused some issues. Like Iruka's clumsiness, the jounin hoped it would pass with time.

And then there was Mizuki. Shiro's eyes narrowed in on the white haired boy who was unrolling his sleeping bag to the side of him. He was power hungry. He wanted to prove himself better than Iruka and Kotone, better than anyone really. Between the subtle jabs towards his friends and trying a little too hard during sparring, Shiro was on edge whenever Mizuki become over excited.

"Iruka, come on, dude." Mizuki rolled his eyes. Following the action, he smiled, acutely aware their sensei was watching.

Struggling to untangle the rope for a hammock, Iruka sputtered. "I don't know how this happened!"

Kotone let out a quiet laugh and went to assist the flailing boy. She grabbed the knot and yanked, sending Iruka face first into the ground. Dirt covered his cheeks, thankfully, as he felt them heat up immensely. No matter what he did he made a fool of himself in front of his team.

"Sorry, you alright?" Kotone offered her hand.

Iruka took it and brushed himself off bolstering. "No big deal."

"Geez, what kind of a shinobi are you?" Mizuki questioned.

Kotone collapsed to her sleeping bag exhausted from the day. "Mizuki, just shut up, would ya?"

At her sudden retort, Mizuki's shoulders fell. He opened his mouth, but closed it quickly realizing he was about to say something he would regret. His eyes glanced back and forth from Iruka and Kotone.

"Yeah… sorry."

Shiro took to leaning against one of the trees to watch over his students. As sundown came and the shadows grew, he felt a smile twitch across his normally stoic face. Kotone and Mizuki moved their bag to the branches where Iruka's small hammock was hung up.

Mizuki opened up a snack pack, offering it his teammates who gladly accepted. They ate quickly. Iruka shifted to lean over and face the others. He bit his lip, wondering if the question he wanted to ask would go over well.

Before he thought to reword it, the words tumbled out. "Hey… you know, do you think our parents are ever worried?"

"I mean why wouldn't they be?" Mizuki sat up. "We're shinobi like them, we could get hurt. Parents don't want that."

Both boys stopped and looked to Kotone. Iruka's eyes widened. "Oh, um, what about yours, Kotone?"

It was hard to see in the fading light, but Iruka swore he saw a tear run down her face. She smiled. "Ah, I never met my dad. My mom died about the month before the war ended."

"I'm sorry." The two spoke simultaneously.

"It's fine."

Iruka suddenly felt horrible. Her voice had cracked.

"Kotone, it's okay." Mizuki said.

"Yeah. When we get home you can come meet my parents and Mizuki's dad. My mom's been pestering me about meeting you, she already knows Mizuki, but that's okay. You'll have to tell her when your birthday is though, they make a big deal about those. One time she cooked this huge meal for Mizuki and made an awesome cake, her cakes are the best, you can ask anyone on our street." Iruka rambled, but stopped when Mizuki hit him.

Kotone had brought her knees to her chest and started to cry.

"Kotone? Shit, I'm sorry. I just wanted to-"

"Iruka. Stop." Mizuki muttered.

"No." Her expression wasn't unhappy. "Thank you guys, I… Haven't been offered anything like that before."

She had felt so alone for so long that it was easier to go through the motions of happiness. It never occurred to Kotone that Iruka and Mizuki wanted her to be a part of their lives beyond a team or acquaintances. Her mom had told her when she was little that the only thing more important than loyalty to a village was loyalty to family.

"You aren't upset?"

"No, no." She laughed softly. As her sniffling subsided, they fell into quiet chatter. The autumn air was sharp against their skin and quickly the dusk turned into night. Iruka curled deeper into the sleeping bag on the hammock, Mizuki felt his eyes growing heavy. Kotone and Iruka's murmurs could still be heard.

Shiro's voice from the other side of camp ended the conversations.

"Enough. You need to be ready for tomorrow."

.

Iruka woke up groggy. He raised his arm over his face to block the sun which seemed to have become intense out of nowhere. With a groan he hopped out of the hammock and felt his breath hitch. The camp was cleared out. No Mizuki, no Kotone, no Shiro.

His heart beat hard against his ribs. The trees around enclosed around as if they were trying to swallow him alive.

The terror he should have felt subsided, there was no reason for this to be happening. The looming branches that were getting closer even as his breathing evened out proved his thought.

It was a newly learned gesture making his hands look awkward as he spoke. "Release."

In the blink of an eye Iruka jumped backward. Everything around him cleared up and he found himself nearly face to face with a Rock shinobi. The young man's face was a hardened stare.

"I'm impressed a genin like you managed to break the genjustsu."

"Where's my squad!"

"Two on patrol, should be about beat up by now, and the one little albino runt they left watching you is being held captive."

"Unprovoked attacks are an act of war!" He growled reaching for a kunai.

"We just want your documents, kid."

"Documents?"

"Yeah and I ain't leaving without them."

Iruka let out a yelp as he leapt further away from his attacker. For the first time he felt fear for his life. Every instinct and moment of training raced through his mind until nothing but instinct was left. He dodged through the branches looking for signs of where Mizuki was.

The shinobi flashed in front of him, causing Iruka to come to a screeching halt and dropping straight down from the trees. If he didn't win he was going to die. Mizuki could die.

Sweat was beginning to drip down his brow and he was unsure if the salty sting in his eyes was from that or tears. The shinobi was a chunin, recent, by Iruka's guess. He was older, maybe closer to seventeen or nineteen, but nowhere skilled enough to be jounin. If he was, Iruka would have been caught by speed alone. He needed a plan regardless and needed it now.

Iruka sensed the chakra before he ever saw the shinobi reappear from the wall of leaves that blew from his drop down.

Faster than he thought possible for himself, Iruka's hands changed positions. "Shadow clone jutsu!"

A second Iruka appeared and both grabbed hold of new kunai. On a quick exhale of breath, they slashed forward and hard. The copy vanished on impact and the Iruka let out a cry cut short as he was thrown back.

When the dust settled, Iruka found his head pounded. Everything on the trail became blurry as he scrambled away from the sight in front him. His feet tripped over a log sending him back onto his butt and with trembling fingers dropped the kunai. He stared down at his hand then back to the body a few feet away that lay twitching. Iruka fought the urge to hurl at the ragged gasps of the other person choking on their own blood.

The color red tinted his vision.

Nothing in the Academy could have prepared Iruka for seeing death like this, for causing death in this way. His hands had done this. He felt it happen, he felt the blade drag across the enemy's throat.

The voices shouting his name seemed distant.

Shiro was sprinting to Iruka with Kotone and Mizuki hot on his trail.

"Shit." Shiro swore, his eyes furrowing. "Iruka!"

Iruka flinched at the shaking of his shoulders and with wide eyes stared at Shiro. "I… it was an accident… I didn't mean to…"

"Listen to me, Iruka." Shiro gripped his student tight. "I'd rather it be him than you. You did what you had to in order to survive."

Despite the front, Shiro felt sick himself. He thought a few minutes away wouldn't hurt. He wanted to see Kotone's progression one-on-one and by the time he sensed there had been an ambush, it was too late. How they concealed their chakra signatures so well was beyond Shiro; it was too advanced for the skill level they possessed. To him, however, it didn't matter, his carelessness as a leader, as a jounin, brought his students danger.

Shiro knew they would have to face their first kill, but he never thought it would have happened like this.

"I don't understand they were just blueprints." Mizuki said.

"Apparently the expansion was for another weapon manufacturing building. They wanted to know how many weapons could be produced by the Leaf and what kind." Shiro asked. "Kotone, can you sew this up if I do the chakra healing?"

She brought her attention away from the body and gasped realizing the blood streaming down Iruka's face came from a slash across his nose instead of the enemy's injury. "Yeah."

"Then get the suturing needle from your pack, we'll do this now and head out."

Iruka was given a cloth to bit down on as the needle went through his skin. A stinging sensation pricked his face while Shiro hovered chakra over the skin; Mizuki stood by watching the event with a strange awe. Kotone's hand work seemed delicate, but exact, like she had been doing it all her life.

Kotone tried to work fast so Iruka wouldn't have to deal with the pain longer than necessary. She stared hard at his face, feeling an ache in her chest knowing what is was like to see a human life end right before her. She recognized the deadened glaze over his eyes as the adrenaline wore off, it was a face she wore what felt like an eternity ago. Death was no longer a stranger to Kotone. As Shiro said, it was kill or be killed.

She agreed to continue following the path this life offered them for the sake of the greater good. She could only pray he squad would do the same after this.

Once she tied the knot on the end with tweezers, Kotone gave his hand a squeeze and stepped away.

Shiro nodded. "I know you're tired, but we have to get to the estate. You can rest there. You did well."

Iruka managed a weak smile. "Guess I'm a real shinobi now."

The group buried the body with a grave marker made from a picture hidden inside the Rock ninja's flak jacket. As they headed out, Kotone turned to look at it once more and curled her hand into a fist. This was all they would ever have. A grave. If they were lucky, maybe a nice headstone, people to drop off flowers and cry, but in the end, everyone wound up in the same place. The greater good was all she could live for. It was what, in that moment, she would be willing to die for.

Her resolve to find the man who killed her mother heightened. Like this Rock nin, there was reason behind the attack, but not one good enough for Kotone's satisfaction. She wanted answers as to why and if she learned one thing today it was that the only way to get answers was to steal and kill for them. So she would. Anyone outside her home was the enemy. They stole precious lives from her village. It would be for the village that Kotone would go after them.

The Hidden Mist shinobi who took her mother's life had a spoke of a lot things with Kotomi that Kotone didn't understand, but what she would never forget were his final words before leaving her alone with the body of her mother.

"Life is only fair to those who can stay alive."

.

lol this ended up being a much longer chapter than I intended it to be... like a lot longer.