The flames danced around, forming an orange prison with no escape. The crackling of the raging fire grew louder. Mayou coughed, her lungs filling with smoke. ‟Papa! Mama! ˮ, she cried out, but she heard no answer. She ran, hoping to escape, but the heat embraced her. ‟I'm sorry! It's my fault! ˮ, she cried out. She collapsed on the ash covered ground, disoriented, and exhausted. Lying there, the light and heat became a comfort, and she gave in to the powerful element. Everything was quiet. Mayou was filled with a sense of serenity. Suddenly, something pulled her away from her peaceful state. She woke abruptly, and her gaze met with a pair of menacing yellow eyes.
Mayou woke up with a gasp. ‟It was just a nightmare ˮ, she said out loud to herself. She looked outside her bedroom window. The sun was just rising, filling Konoha with the light of dawn. I wonder where that came from, she thought. Today was a big day. Ever since she had come to Konoha, her life had been completely changed. After roaming the wilds by herself, going from village to village for years, she finally had a place where she was accepted and she could call home. The concept would be comforting if Mayou didn't fully understand what that implied. She had to train as a ninja and be a functioning member of the village. It wouldn't be easy for the 13 year old girl who had been an orphan with no structured environment ever since she could remember. No one ever had expectations for her. Now, she had friends and superiors who counted on her. The most important person she couldn't let down, she hadn't even met yet.
Kamineko Harune. She doesn't sound too bad, Mayou thought.
Mayou had gotten the message late the night before from the Hokage. Her new sensei was a jonin kunoichi named Harune. Mayou never heard of her before, so she would have to ask around to know what to expect. Even though she accepted to become an official ninja and all of her friends were ninja, that didn't mean that she trusted all ninja. Mayou still had a sour feeling about people who were considered shinobi. When she was trying to survive up until now, they had only been in the way and were not at all helpful. With that last memory of her bad experiences, she headed out to start her investigation.
As she exited her apartment, Mayou was struck by a troubling thought. She actually had no idea where to find her friends in the village. Most of her time spent in the village so far was either in the hospital, training in Lee's dojo, or at her own apartment. She didn't know where her friends lived or even where they went to train.
Mayou tried to remember some places Sakura showed her when she first gave her a brief tour of the village. She saw the academy, where young children began their ninja training. None of her friends would be found near there since they were all already graduated genin. Mayou's train of thought led her to recall another place Sakura showed her, which was Ichiraku Ramen.
It's so early in the morning; there can't possibly be any of my friends at a ramen shop. I have nowhere else to go so it can't hurt to go check it out, she thought.
Mayou reached Ichiraku's and to her surprise, the owner, Teuchi and his daughter Ayame were already hard at work.
‟Ohayou ˮ, Mayou greeted when she got close enough. The two workers turned and smiled at the girl. ‟I'm new in the village and this is the only place I know, sorry if I'm bothering you ˮ.
‟Don't even worry about that ˮ, Ayame replied, ‟Ichiraku Ramen welcomes everyone. ˮ
‟If you don't mind me asking ˮ, Mayou said as she sat on one of the stools by the counter, ‟why are you opening up so early? Ramen isn't a breakfast food ˮ.
Teuchi laughed. ‟That's because we have some very eager customers who love our ramen at any time of day. You'll see, he should be coming shortly ˮ.
Mayou didn't have time to ask who Teuchi was referring to. Right on cue, Uzumaki Naruto sped up to the counter.
‟Give me a large bowl of ramen with extra pork ˮ, he called out. He noticed that he wasn't sitting alone. ‟Mayou? I didn't know you liked to eat ramen for breakfast ˮ.
‟Actually I was just up early and had nowhere else to go. I'm only meeting my new sensei this afternoon ˮ, the new shinobi answered.
‟Nani? So you know who it is? Tell me, tell me! ˮ, the genin insisted excitedly.
‟Some jonin named Harune…ˮ, Mayou said, hoping that would ring a bell. Naruto's reaction surprised her.
‟Are you serious? Nee-chan will be your sensei?! You are one lucky genin! ˮ, he exclaimed.
Ino, who was on an early morning errand, just happened to be walking by when she got distracted by Naruto's frantic yelling. She approached the ramen shop, about to scold the rowdy genin, when she noticed Mayou.
‟Hi Mayou! What are you doing up so early? You should be resting to impress your new sensei when you met them later today ˮ, she called out. The Yamanaka was always on top of village gossip, especially when it came to her girlfriends.
Mayou turned towards the blonde. ‟That's exactly why I'm up so early. I wanted to find out more about my sensei before I met her ˮ.
‟Ooh a kunoichi! ˮ, Ino squealed, ‟So who is it? ˮ
‟Kamineko Harune ˮ, Mayou answered.
When she said the name, Mayou noticed Ino's smile fade.
‟Oh. I'm happy for you! ˮ, Ino answered said with a tone Mayou picked up as exaggeratingly pitchy. ‟Haru-nee-chan is a kunoichi I always looked up to as a little girl. I wish she would've been my jonin sensei… but I guess you're the perfect student for her,ˮ with that she waved goodbye and hurried off.
If every one of my friends who finds out this Harune person will be my sensei reacts like Ino, I won't have any friends left before I can even say ninja. , Mayou thought. The girl decided to leave Ichiraku and head back to her apartment before she crossed anyone else's path. What have I gotten myself into?
"You're going to be late," Kakashi said, peeking over Harune's jet-black head to see if she was awake. It was already noon, and the newly appointed jonin-sensei needed to meet her student in an hour.
"You're one to talk," Harune grumbled lazily, keeping her eyes closed but giggling when she felt Kakashi's stubbled cheek brush against her neck as he kissed it gently. Despite his (rather weak) attempt at getting Harune up and out of bed, Kakashi was in truth incredibly reluctant to actually let her do so. It had been much too long since the two of them had had the chance to spend the night together, and he was deeply enjoying the comforting feeling of having her body tucked safely into him, the sweet and earthy scent of her long hair dominating his senses, and her giggle warming his heart and putting that stupid, goofy grin only she had the privilege of seeing on his face.
"You're right, stay here with me instead, it'll be much more gratifying," Kakashi hummed, abandoning his resolve to push Harune to become a responsible, punctual sensei.
"Than babysitting a genin? That's a pretty tough standard to beat," Harune winked, rolling over to face her silver-haired partner, her sly smirk transforming into a scowl the moment they heard a rather boisterous series of knocks on the front door. Neither jonin needed to actually answer it to know who it was, they could easily sense the overpoweringly lively aura of Maito Gai.
"I swear I am going to kill that man," Kakashi growled as Harune slipped out of the bed and pulled her clothes back on.
"The great thing about wearing this stupid uniform every day is that no one could ever tell that this is the exact same one from yesterday," Harune thought aloud, a hint of satisfaction in her tone, followed by a look of mild disgust. "That's actually kind of gross," she added to herself. Kakashi noticed her eyes light up and followed her gaze as he followed suit and pulled on his own pants. She was looking at the pair of bells he had kept from his days with Team Minato hanging by a pin on his bulletin board.
"Mind if I?..." Harune asked. Kakashi nodded quickly, rushing to answer the door before Gai broke it down and entered uninvited.
"HARUNE-CHAN! I heard you've taken on a student of your own!" the mighty Blue Beast roared as he strode into Kakashi's bedroom to greet her.
"Hey, Gai-kun," the 25-year-old smiled, pocketing the bells and laughing internally at the older jonin's liveliness. He seemed much more excited about the fact that she was now a sensei than she was; why couldn't Tsunade have given him this Mayou kid? After all, she did know—
"Lee has told me all about Mayou, and I've even met her personally myself. She's a wonderful young flower, I just wanted to congratulate you for having been assigned such a remarkable student!" Gai was on the verge of tears now, clearly so deeply moved by the new sensei-student duo that he could no longer keep himself together. Harune glanced over Gai's shoulder to Kakashi, who had the same tired look he always had whenever their best friend got overly-emotional.
"Uhm, thanks, Gai-kun," she laughed lightly, putting a hand on his shoulder to comfort him before he actually started crying. "Well, I should probably get going, I don't want to her to think she got stuck with some chronically late sensei or anything," she said, flashing a playful grin in Kakashi's direction. "Jaa ne," with a wave, Harune shunshined off towards the training grounds.
''Lee would you stop being so agitated, you're making me nervous'', Mayou scolded her friend.
The two genin were waiting at the training ground used by jonin sensei when they first met their team. This testing area had been used for generations in Konoha. Many young ninja had been strapped to the wooden posts after failing to complete their sensei's mission.
''I can't help it. If I have free time, it becomes training time. Those are some precious words Gai sensei taught me'', Lee said as he completed his 50th lap around the area.
I hope my sensei won't be as intense as Gai is. Training is great but a person needs a breather at times, Mayou told herself. She couldn't help but giggle though. Even though her friend's antics were exhausting, Lee always managed to cheer her up.
''You're going to have to leave soon though. I'd rather be alone when I meet Harune'', she told him.
''We've got plenty of time. The springtime of youth is upon us'', Lee exclaimed.
Mayou rolled her eyes, while making sure Lee didn't notice her annoyance.
''Actually, it's 5 minutes to 1, so you really need to go'', Mayou insisted.
Lee stopped running. ''How can you even tell?'', he asked, with surprise in his tone.
''By looking at shadows. The position of the sun in the sky casts different shadows throughout the day. The angle the shadow is going indicates what time it is. When you've lived in the wild for a long time, you pick up on things''., Mayou said smiling, satisfied that she knew something a ninja didn't.
''That's impressive. Did I ever tell you you're the smartest girl I know'', Lee said.
Mayou blushed. ''No but it wouldn't hurt to hear it more often'', she laughed. ''Okay, now you really need to get going! I'll see you later!''
Lee gave her a quick, unexpected hug before he rushed off.
Of all people, it really does seem as though she's connected most with Rock Lee, Harune noted internally, remembering the Godaime's briefing yesterday, along with Gai's mention of how Lee had already told him much about Mayou.. Specially-trained in the art of undercover operations, she couldn't help but do a short, preliminary investigation of her new student, even if Tsunade had sworn that she was trustworthy.
Taijutsu skills only, huh… It seemed beyond odd to the experienced jonin that someone of Mayou's age and alleged chakra potential and skill could not have had any previous shinobi training. What with Sasuke's too-recent defection and Akatsuki's waning, Harune couldn't ignore the possibility that this new girl could very well be a mole for either Orochimaru or the criminal organization; the timing was just too coincidental.
Maybe Tsunade-sama had given the decision to make Harune Mayou's sensei more thought than the jonin had initially given her credit for.
Mayou was waiting patiently against one of the wooden posts when Harune finally decided to make herself visible.
"Yo," the jonin greeted casually, her warm smile only half-genuine as she sized up her new student. Mayou was a girl of average height with a pretty solid build, and despite her age — Harune figured she had to be about 13, maybe 14? years old— she was pretty curvy. Harune grimaced internally, a feeling of mild jealousy welling up in her when she noticed how big Mayou's chest was.
It was difficult to asses the girl's skillset based on her physical appearance alone, so Harune analyzed her chakra signature. Sure enough, Mayou held a sizeable amount of chakra in her system, and just as the Hokage said, it was quite obviously untamed.
"So you want to be a shinobi, huh?" Harune crossed her arms.
''That's why I'm here'',, Mayou answered with a grin. She immediately worried about her response. She didn't want her new sensei to think she was rude. Her association with civilisation was so recent that she often forgot to think before she spoke. The Jonin didn't look like she took offense to Mayou's remark. Now that her sensei was in front of her, she was more self-conscience about how she presented herself. If she had been lined up with other Konoha ninja, she would stick out like a sore thumb. Her attire did not indicate that she was a ninja at all. All of the konoha shinobi had a sack of ninja tools attached to their thigh, Also, they each had their own forehead protector with Konoha's crest. Mayou was wearing the only set of clothes she had owned for the past year. A light blue, short-sleeved shirt with some sand-coloured shorts. The only new article of clothing that she wore was a pair of sandals Gai had offered her. He had said that it would be more suitable to train in than the flat slip-in shoes she had been wearing before coming to the village. Mayou tugged at the bandages wrapped around her arms and hands. At first, she was proud to wear them, and it protected her knuckles from getting split from all the punching. Now she felt silly, without knowing why. A feeling of regret filled her gut with what felt like heavy stones. It was too late to back out, but Mayou didn't feel so confident now that she was put on the spot..
Harune didn't miss the uneasiness written all over her new protogé. Mayou's body language had quickly transformed from confident to uncomfortable in 2 seconds flat, and Harune would have been lying to herself had she said she didn't take a small sense of satisfaction from it.
"Right, well," she began, her usual smirk tugging at the corner of her lips,"you missed out on the basic Academy training every other shinobi in this village is required to take, so your training is going to be much more...intense."
Mayou swallowed hard, not at all liking the way her new sensei looked down at her with an almost - evil - glint in her eye.
"But before we get into any of that, I need to make sure that you've got what it takes. I need you to assure me that I'm not wasting my time on you," Harune continued, pulling Kakashi's bells out of her pockets and holding them out for Mayou to see. "You're going to take these bells from me. It's going to be impossible -" Mayou scowled at her sensei's cockiness, and Harune chuckled, "- unless you come at me with an intent to kill."
"An intent to kill?" Mayou gasped, shocked by what she had just heard. This woman, whom she just met, was telling her to try and kill her, for a set of stupid bells?
"Yup. Think of it as a real-life battle; if you don't try to kill me, you will lose. The shinobi world's a fucked up place, ain't it kiddo?" Harune winked. In truth, the jonin veteran was decidedly trying to dissuade the young teen from going through with her shinobi training, not only for her sake, but for Harune's as well. If Mayou did prove to become a talented kunoichi, Harune would personally be responsible for the weariness and cynicism that would eventually overtake the child, as it did all ninja. Shaking her head internally, the 25 year old pushed the guilty thoughts to the back of her mind.
"You have until sundown to get these bells," Harune watched as Mayou quickly readied herself to attack, "starting now."