Chapter 13: The Unlikely Trio

"I hate you both." I said glaring towards Hayner and Reno seeing a smirk on both of their faces as they walked out of the gates.

They were being sent on a mission to a Hot Springs village nestled in a rich forest to act as bodyguards for a singer. I on the other hand was waiting for a mission to surface but still had no luck yet so I was stuck training. This had been what felt like the hundredth mission they'd been on while I practically begged Tsunade to send me on something.

"Hey Yuna!" I heard above me seeing Naruto jump down smiling at me as I smiled back saying, "Hello Naruto."

"Where is Reno and Hayner?" he asked making me limp to the ground saying, "Off on another mission… I swear it's like Tsunade hates me… I just want to go on a mission."

Naruto looked at me waving his hands saying, "Hey come on cheer up she doesn't hate you… besides most of the missions I've been on were lame."

"I just want to get out of the village… I don't care if it's "lame"." I said air quoting lame while he rubbed the back of his head saying, "Jeeze and I thought my life was bad."

"Yuna. Naruto." I heard right behind me making me jump besides Naruto seeing Shino staring at us while Naruto flailed his arms saying, "Why do you have to be creepy and sneak up on people like that?"

Ignoring Naruto's comment he said simply, "The Hokage wishes to speak with us."

"Us… three?" I said seeing him just staring in my direction making me feel uncomfortable turning away from him saying, "Well if it's for a mission then I'm in."

I felt Shino stand to my left with Naruto looking wearily towards Shino on my right as he whispered to me, "At least you're finally getting a mission."

Nodding we walked to Tsunade's office as Shino took the initiative knocking on her door as she beckoned us all in.

Opening the door Anko looked towards us all surprised while Naruto pointed at her saying, "You're that psycho proctor from the Chunin exams!"

She gave him a smirk saying, "Yea good times, feels like it was only yesterday doesn't it."

"Her name is Anko Mitarashi." I said nonchalantly while she flashed me a smile saying, "See she knows who I am."

Suddenly Tsunade's voice got our attention, "Listen up your mission is as follows, Shino Aburame, Yuna Ketsueki, Naruto Uzumaki you three will be working as a team under Anko's guidance. Whatever she says goes each of you possess skills compatible with one another on the mission, I handpicked you all myself."

Feeling pumped to finally go on a mission I didn't even care if Shino was there too, I just wanted to get out saying, "We won't let you down."

She nodded towards me looking at all of us saying, "Now go make our village proud."

All of us stood up straight saying, "Right!"

"Something about this smells fishy… since when would you hand pick us?" Naruto said as Anko turned around grabbing his ear saying, "Hey you got your orders now go pack and meet me at the front gate."

Shino and I nodded while Naruto walked between us saying, "That really hurt… I'll see you guys at the gate."

We all went our separate ways as I quickly got everything packed with what I needed before sprinting to the gate seeing Shino was already there. Standing a bit away from him I felt his gaze on me, but I pretended to ignore him until I heard light buzzing. Jumping out of the way I ended up next to him making me turn red in embarrassment.

"You should pay closer attention to your surroundings, don't want to get trapped again." he said in a monotone voice while I went to speak but Anko appeared and not far behind her Naruto.

"Here is the information on the mission from eyewitness accounts." she said handing it to me as I started looking at it saying, "A demon hunting down ships on the ocean… has both human and fish physical traits… this doesn't make any sense."

"Yea nothing like this exists." Naruto said but Shino cut him off saying, "Not necessarily, this could be a ninja resorting to piracy and using a Genjutsu."

"It's possible." I said seeing him look at me but Anko shrugged saying, "Whatever it is it's up to us to figure it out and stop it from attacking ships. Mother Island is the center to the Land of Sea islands, so we'll head to the nearest port town and charter a boat."

"Alright let's go to the Land of the Sea!" Naruto said jumping off ahead shaking my head, this was going to be an interesting trip.

We began jumping through the trees at a fast pace, Anko was a no-nonsense kind of gal who wanted us to reach the port before sunset. I could tell why Ren admired her she was very pretty and spunky easily making Naruto uncomfortable. I turned my eyes towards Shino, at least I wouldn't be the only one uncomfortable on this mission.

We finally stopped reaching the port town as Anko said, "This is it the Land of the Sea."

"Is that the Mother's Island in the middle… it looks the biggest." I said looking towards it only seeing a lush forest.

Anko was quiet as I looked towards her seeing she was beginning to sweat as her hand covered her mouth. She seemed to recover quickly looking towards all of us putting on a smirk making me frown, what happened?

"Alright you guys go ahead of me and try to rustle up a boat I'll catch up with you later." she said quickly jumping off before any of us could protest.

"Oh whatever… let's go." Naruto said starting to walk but I stayed still for a moment beside Shino slightly worried from the look she had.

"Hey come on I'll leave you guys behind." Naruto yelled as I shook it off nodding following him down towards the port town with Shino unfortunately right beside me.

"We should look around while we wait for Anko to get back." I said seeing Naruto nod while Shino quietly followed behind us.

While looking at some of the pretty sea glass jewelry I turned to see a girl with a large box on her back trying to sell some fish. The man handed her little to nothing in exchange making me frown as I saw the distress look in her face.

I began walking towards her barely hearing Naruto call my name as I said, "Hey that's a pretty low exchange, that's some high-quality fish."

The man looked at me rubbing back of his head saying, "Hey look I'm not underpaying her it's just with all this gossip over the demon of the ocean customers have been scarce for a while."

He looked at the girl saying, "Sorry that's the going price these days."

Not liking that answer I crossed my arms saying, "That won't do I've been fishing before, and that fish goes fo-"

Before I could finish the girl ran off clearly distressed as Naruto and Shino walked up beside me hearing Naruto say, "That's a lot of bandages… did she injure herself or something?"

"No, but there is something wrong with her for sure, she's actually a diver. Lives in a small town over on Mother Island." the man said as I watched her walk away looking at her sadly saying, "Well if she's an islander then why does she bother coming to the mainland?"

He looked at us grimly saying, "That's because the other people on the island won't do business with her."

Turning my eyes to him I said, "Why not?"

He leaned down saying in a hushed tone, "Long ago she was taken away by spirits."

"By spirits?" Naruto said making me wave my hand saying, "She disappeared you don't know by spirits."

He looked at me saying, "Well I do know that one day a bunch of islanders just up and vanished, and out of all those people she's the only one who came back."

I saw a bunch of kids run away from her calling her a monster as he said, "It's a small village and she makes everyone nervous, they say she lives outside the village now alone."

I saw her trying to comfort one of the kids that ran into her frowning, there was no reason to treat this girl so poorly she didn't do anything wrong. All that story told us was she was a survivor who probably lived through a great tragedy and got blamed for it.

Turning to look at my teammates I noticed one was missing, "Hey where did Naruto go?"

"He's probably just looking around, come on we need to get a boat before it gets too late." Shino said walking towards the docks as I nodded following behind him hoping Naruto would find us.