My mission gear is very similar to what I wore to the academy, except for the fact that I have a mesh shirt underneath my black t-shirt for additional armor and my kunai pouch attached onto the back of my belt. I pack some extra kunai just in case.

My team meets at the gates. "Alright, Hana you get the scroll because you're the fastest." Ryu-Sensei gives Hana the scroll.

"But Sensei shouldn't you carry the scroll? You are the strongest," Hana asks.

I shake my head, "On the off chance we run into an enemy nin, they'll go after the biggest threat first, which is Sensei."

Ryu-Sensei nods at me, "Itachi, you're taking point, Yoruka, left, Hana, right, and I'll bring up the rear," he assigns.

Ryu-Sensei says the trip should take two weeks round trip at our current speed, and boy, am I glad Mom made me run all of those laps when she was first teaching me taijutsu. But still, a whole two weeks of running sounds like a special type of hell.

After a full day of monotonous scenery of blurred trees passing by at ninja speeds, we made camp by a river. My legs were trembling as I sat down to go through my stretches. A quick look to either side is all it took to realize Hana and Itachi were in similar states of exhaustion. Ryu-Sensei was infuriatingly unruffled.

We set up camp and I take first watch. Running distracted me from the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach I had before we left, but now that I'm alone with my thoughts, I worry. I know for a fact that C-ranks can and will go wrong. Wave arc, anyone? Most people in my situation would chalk it up to protagonist luck, but still, they go wrong for other people too.

Also, would I count as a protagonist? It's not like Naruto will be the same. He still has his dad. I'm not sure about Kushina, I haven't seen her anywhere. And I'm the one who changed all of that. Wait, I ran into Obito very easily. Does that mean I have protagonist luck? Oh, I've doomed my entire team to a screwed up C-rank. I'm so sorry.

My thoughts circle uselessly like this until I go wake Itachi for his watch. As active as my mind was on watch, it's silent now. I fall asleep as soon as my head touches the pillow.

The morning comes, bright and entirely to early. I don't want to get up. I want to become one with the trees and never move. I tell Ryu-Sensei as much. He snorts and nudges my bed roll with his foot. I grumble.

We eat ration bars for breakfast. They're disgusting and I'm never going to be able to untaste them. And then we're off. Yay, more running.

Spending days on end doing nothing but running leaves me too much time to think. Things that I've been repressing for 11 years decide mid-mission is the best time to come up. I start thinking about my life before my death.

My death doesn't really upset me. The fact that I still can't remember the circumstances behind it irritates me, though. I like knowing all the facts, both in my past life and now.

I do remember that I was ridiculously stressed at the time of my death, but I was stressed since I entered high school in that life. I believe that my parents in this life were much better than my parents in my past. Though I knew them for a far shorter time. So yeah, I'm not really upset.

I guess repressing the memories doesn't really do anything, if the memories don't effect me.

We are uncomfortably close to the border with Lighting five days in. I know something is going to go wrong, and when something goes wrong on C-rank missions, it's usually near a border. Or in Wave. C-ranks in Wave just go wrong. It's not protagonist luck or anything.

We set up camp that night without a fire. My watch is uneventful, but apparently Sensei's is not. I'm asleep when he puts his hand over my mouth to keep me quiet and wakes me up. He has the last watch, so the air is gray with dawn. Ryu-Sensei motions for me to stay silent as he wakes Hana and Itachi.

As we sneak through the underbrush, Sensei decides we should take advantage of our familiarity with the environment and take to the branches. The ninja the Ryu-Sensei sensed, were uh, not very ninja like which either meant they were very good or very bad. They moved very loudly through the foliage.

Then there was a flash of light and a high powered lighting jutsu traveling straight toward Itachi. Shit, he's not going to get out of the way in time. Well, I guess it's now or never, I think as I jump in front of the jutsu. I extend one hand toward the jutsu, opening my chakra networks as wide as they'll go, and extend the other toward the tree to catch and ground myself with.

The lighting hits my hand, and all I can feel is hot, searing pain coursing through my body as I redirect the lighting out of my other hand and into the tree. I've become a living lighting rod, I think somewhat hysterically.

Then it's over, my hand I caught the lighting with covered with electrical burns, and I sway slightly in relief. I cough, "Well, I might need to make some slight adjustments to the technique."

Everyone is staring at me, including the enemy nin, Kumo I vaguely observe. "Yoruka, what-" Sensei starts.

"I'll explain later," I interrupt staring at the Kumo nin in concentration. All three of them look somewhat familiar.

The dark skinned, blond (they're all blond) man grins, "Hey little girl, that was cool. But you see, you made Cee look the fool." I pale.

"Shit," I whisper. Itachi looks at me in askance. "That's Killer Bee, an S rank shinobi from Kumo, I think that one is Cee," I gesture to the pale, blond man and woman, "An A rank shinobi, and she might be Nii Yugito, another S rank." Both Hana and Itachi grimace. Oh I knew this mission was going to go all kinds of sideways.

Yugito gives me an odd look, "One of your brats is oddly well informed," she addresses Ryu-Sensei.

"I like to be prepared, besides all three of you are in the Bingo Book," I shrug, "Doesn't take much effort to read one."

Ryu-Sensei ignores me, "What I want to know is why there are Kumo nin in the Land of Fire and throwing around powerful lightning jutsus at that," he glares at the Kumo shinobi.

Cee shrugs, "I suppose I can tell you, considering you're not making it out of this situation alive," I bristle and Hana's ninkin growl, "We need to intercept a specific scroll being sent to the Konoha border station, and well, your team got in our way."

I carefully avoid looking at Hana, they don't know we have a scroll. Ryu-Sensei has the same thought I do. "Hana," he growls, "get to the border station, complete the mission, and get help."

She nods and I see Killer Bee with his swords drawn going to stop her. He's fast, faster than me, but I have a shorter distance to travel. I block his blades with my Shadow Blade, summoned in the short time it took to intercept him. The force behind his blow almost instantly overwhelms me, but I lock him in place with my shadow possession jutsu. I dig my nails into my already damaged right hand, he does the same. I grin at him as a puff of smoke announces Arashi's presence above his head.

Arashi flails around and scratches the unsuspecting Killer Bee down the face as the time runs out on my shadow possession jutsu. I jump back during the distraction and take stock of the situation. Itachi is currently locked in a ninjutsu battle with Cee, Sharingan blazing. Ryu-Sensei is fighting Yugito, probably trying to rupture an organ with gentle fist. That man is an actual demon.

Arashi is at my side, analyzing the situation. Killer Bee grins ferociously, "Yugito! The brat has a cat!" I watch him warily. Like hell am I going to make the first move.

I can feel Yugito's exasperation from here. "A little busy, Bee!" She calls back. Ryu-Sensei presses his advantage and manages to get a glancing blow in to her abdomen. She cries out in pain.

Killer Bee scowls in anger. I look at him apprehensively. He runs at me and it's all I can do to resummon my Shadow Blade in time.

Arashi does what he can, weaving in and out between his legs trying to trip him. Unfortunately, he still gets a fairly good slice in down my back as he back flips over me. I stumble forward, a scream of pain ripping out of my throat. I fall to the ground and land on my burned right hand, a sob following. My Shadow Blade fades as I lose concentration.

I brace myself, waiting for the killing blow, but it never comes. Instead, the sound of clashing metal appears. I gasp and turn around to see Kakashi fending off Killer Bee and Obito defending Itachi.

Kamui, I hysterically giggle. Kamui is such bullshit. My vision starts to go black, and oh, my back is bleeding a lot. Then I remember nothing more.