I do not own Naruto, etc.
Welcome back. This Chapter begins the VERY short Arc that I like to call the Awaking the Demon Arc.
Please read and enjoy, and don't forget to review. I like criticism, but no FLAMES!
It had been six months since I had graduated with Kai and Osamu and we had become a real Genin squad. Over the course of that time, we had been training or doing small time D-Ranked missions as we worked on the basics and improved our teamwork. And that was what we were doing right now.
I was kneeling in the cover of a bush; peering through the leaves, I could make out our target. It had taken us quite a few hours to track it even this far –for some reason, the mark was as fast as lightning. But it had stopped for now –this was our best chance to capture it.
I pressed the mike on my wireless radio.
"I'm in position," I say. Moments later, my team-mates have reported in as well. The trap is sprung as Osamu and Kai spring from the bushes ahead, to my right and left. The mark is startled and makes a bee-line for the only escape route left open –right at me, and exactly as I had planned. At the last moment, as it is about to leap over my head, my hands shoot out and grabbed it.
The tabby cat meows loudly before settling for sulking in my arms.
"Tabby cat with a red ribbon on her right ear," Osamu said. "That's definitely Tora."
"Hayama-sensei, we have Tora in custody," I said into the radio.
"Good work –now bring her in," Hayama-sensei said over the radio.
We had been chasing the tabby cat for over an hour –it was almost as though the cat had run off before. It was as though she had experience of running from ninja. We took the cat back to the Hokage building where Hayama-sensei was waiting for us. He was expecting us to be able to handle this on our own –as though tracking down a lost cat was that simple when you considered the size of the village.
When we got back, we found the client waiting for us. The Fire Lord's wife began to squeeze the life out of Tora as soon as we handed the cat over. Watching, I could understand why Tora had run away in the first place.
"Alright, for your next assignment, we have several requests," the Third Hokage said from where he was sitting at the long table with other elders of the village. He was puffing on his pipe while he read through the list of missions that had come into the village. "Let's see... babysitting the First Minister's two-year-old, helping with the harvest in a neighbouring farm, walking the dogs of..."
"Time out!" Kai said. I looked at my team-mate –out of the three of us, I had learnt that Kai was the more hot-headed of us. He wasn't as bad as Naruto could be, but he still had an annoying habit of leaping before looking. "All we've been doing is D-Rank! They're not even real missions! Why can't you give us something more challenging?"
He had a point –I was getting tired of routinely doing missions that a trained monkey would be able to do. OK, I got the point that D-Ranks were there to build up our experience, but it had been nothing but D-Ranked missions for six whole months.
"Well, Hayame? Are they ready?" the Hogake asked our sensei for his opinion. Kai was looking pleadingly at him –if he made his eyes any bigger, then he would be making puppy-eyes at our sensei.
"I wouldn't say no," Hayame-sensei said. "They are further ahead in their training than I had envisioned at this point. Maybe a little risk would be a good test for them."
"Very well," the Hogake said, putting the D-Rank scroll to one side and pulling open one that had C written around the middle. "Let's see... we've been meaning to send a squad to patrol the north-eastern borders of the Land of Fire."
"Patrol duty?" Kai asked, sounding a little disappointed. I elbowed him. "Ow... Hazuki was that for?"
"Patrol duty ensures that our borders are safe and demonstrates that the Hidden Leaf is still powerful," I told him. "It's pretty important work."
"How long will this mission take? Osamu asked as we left the room and Hayama-sensei opened to scroll to check the details.
"Probably a couple of weeks –most of that will be travelling. Our route will start at the Valley of the End and we will meet up with the relief team at the coast a couple of weeks later," Hayama-sensei told us. "There will be dozen of chances to continue your training. So are there any other questions?"
We all shook our heads.
"Good. Now go and pack. I'll expect to see you at the gates at six tomorrow morning, ready to leave."
With that, we left the room and headed towards our separate family homes. I began packing immediately after dinner, gathering together supplies that I would need. I packed dried and canned foodstuffs along with ninja tools and scrolls of jutsu that I was currently studying.
As I closed my knapsack, content that I had everything that I needed for survival and travelling as well as combat tools, there was a rap on my bedroom door. "Hazuki, are you there?" It was Etsuya.
"Yeah –come in," I responded. Etsuya entered the room, holding something that was wrapped in a white cloth. I noticed that he was wearing the work-clothes of someone who had been in the Takeda forge all day. He looked around and saw my prepared knapsack and ninja toolkit.
"Do you have a mission?" he commented.
"Yeah –we're going to patrol the northern borders," I responded. "We should only be gone for a couple of weeks."
"Well, it seems like an appropriate time to give you this," he commented, holding out the cloth. I took it, pulling the cloth apart. Within the wrappings was a sheathed katana, the name Takeda emblazoned in gold lettering upon the black sheath. I knew what it was even though I had never had held one before. It was the secret of our clan, the weapons that we forged. And I was holding the end product within my hands. "It's a blade from the forge. You just have to channel your chakra into it."
"Thanks," I responded. I would be taking two katana –this one and my regular one.
"Good luck on your mission," Etsuya told me as he left the room. "Be careful."
After a few hours of sleep, it was five in the morning. I clambered out of bed and pulled on my mesh armour and cropped trousers. Then I pulled on the cropped top emblazoned with the Takeda hawk emblem on the back and wound bandages around my legs, wrists and upper arms. I secured my swords at my back in an X-style sheath that held two swords before shrugging on my backpack and the kit full of ninja tools. Then I slipped out of my bedroom, padding across the wooden floors towards the door and gate that led out to the street, wanting to leave without attracting attention from my still-sleeping family.
"Hazuki, I hope you're not trying to sneak out without breakfast!" I heard Tenten's voice. What was she doing up so early? She was in the kitchen, standing at the door. "Estuya told me that you have a mission."
"I don't have time to stop and eat," I commented. It was half-five, and we were due to leave at six. That left me only a half-hour to get some light exercise before we left the village. Tenten tossed me a sausage wrapped in a roll, the meat piping hot.
"I was about to head out on my own mission," Tenten said. As she said it, I noticed that she had a pack sitting nearby the door. She picked it up, holding a similar sausage roll in her hands. "We're about to go on an escort run! I'm so excited!"
So her team was doing a C-Rank as well.
"Sounds like we'll have to exchange stories when we get back," I responded as we left the house together, munching on the food as we headed in the same direction. As we approached, I noticed that my sensei was exchanging words with Guy-sensei who headed Tenten's team. Great... we just had to be at the same gate as Neji.
Guy-sensei's team left ahead of ours –Kai was running a little late. A few minutes later, Kai appeared at a run. And we set out. This was a simple C-Rank mission. It shouldn't be difficult –we were just heading out there to make a show of military strength.