Finding her way back to the Academy proved to be a bit of a challenge. Everything looked different in the daylight, and the buildings seemed to be almost identical to one another. Rei hoped that she wouldn't need to ask Niko Sensei for directions back to her own apartment.
She kept her hand over the pocket of her black pants, guarding her key with her life. She'd never had something like that to protect before. She'd have to find a more secure way to carry it around.
She was beyond grateful for her new place, but it definitely made the walk to the Academy uncomfortable. Most homes she passed were ramshackle at best, and plenty of children in rags dotted the streets. When she saw a little boy who couldn't have been older than four digging through an overturned trash can, she had to start running. She would have lost her composure otherwise.
Rei didn't know exactly why the other members of this secret group wanted to change the Mist. She knew about Mangetsu's motivations, but so far, she hadn't even met most of the other members. If Lord Fourth were disposed of somehow, whoever the Fifth Mizukage was would have to be better. They would have to clean up the Mist. They would have to get the children off of the streets and into homes.
Children deserved better. She had deserved better when she had been that small.
She knew she was heading the right way when the buildings started looking a little more put together and wealthy. The Academy was due south of the Headquarters Building, where the Mizukage lived, and she could see the Headquarters Building with no problem now, so she exhaled with relief and took off in that direction. She didn't know what time it was since her apartment didn't have a clock, but she hoped it was before eight.
She noticed keenly the questioning looks that she got as she tore through the streets. She was sure that it wasn't often that children in uniform wandered the neighborhoods. Most didn't wander far from their homes for safety. She hoped that the boy digging through the trash was taken to the orphanage before he was noticed by the wrong person.
The Academy loomed overhead, its gloomy concrete walls filling her with a sense of relief for the very first time. She was no longer an Academy student. She didn't have to endure beatings while her sensei looked on, and she didn't have to dread going to sleep at night anymore. A smile pulled at her lips, and a gust of damp wind threw her hair into her face.
Niko Sensei swirled into existence at her side, crouched low to the ground as if prepared to spring. When he looked up at her, his eyes reminded her of stone. Hard and unforgiving. "You're late."
Rather than explain her lack of a clock, she nodded, pulling her hair back into a ponytail and tying it with a band she kept around her wrist. "Sorry. I got lost."
Niko Sensei stood, towering over her, making her feel small and defenseless. The events of yesterday had convinced her that she didn't need to fear him, but it was a hard habit to break. "Come on. You need to meet your teammates."
He swept his hand out to the side, gesturing for her to walk before him, but she crossed her arms, giving him a pointed look. She was his subordinate, but they apparently needed her. She had at least a little bit of pull with this group of defectors, whoever they were.
With an eye-roll, he led the way, keeping to the right so he could quite obviously keep an eye on her. "We'll be meeting them at a sushi bar in town. I'm assuming you haven't eaten yet?"
She shook her head. "No money." She kept her arms crossed over her chest, only letting them fall when Niko Sensei reached into the weapons pouch at his side and pulled out a small roll of bills.
"I'd forgotten," he murmured, peeling off three and offering them to her. When she didn't immediately reach out to take it from his hand, he made to grab her wrist, but she leapt away instinctually. He sighed in exasperation, but this time, there was understanding in his expression. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "You have every reason to be nervous, but I won't hurt you."
When he held the money out a second time, Rei took it with trembling hands. "I get this much?"
"It's really not that much," he said. "Just enough for three meals a day and maybe a little spending money. You'll get an allowance every week, and you'll get to keep seventy-five percent of what you earn as an active Shinobi." His voice was suddenly pitched to carry no further than the two of them. "The remaining quarter of your earnings will go into the foundation's purse."
"Wow." Rei heard what he said, but it was hard to make sense of the words. She was still holding the three bills in her open hands, unable to look away from them. "This is all for me?"
"For this week. Next week, I'll issue your next allowance. Be sure to make it last all week long."
While they continued on their way around the edge of the village, Rei folded the money and tucked it into her pocket underneath her apartment key. They hadn't had many lessons at the Academy about money and how to spend it, but she knew basic math. One thing that the orphanage did well was teach the children how to read, add, and subtract.
A new breeze that promised an afternoon of rain brushed by, and Rei inhaled deeply, practicing in her head several times before quietly uttering, "Thanks."
Niko Sensei's steps did not stutter, nor did his voice. "Like I said. We take care of our own."
There wasn't an abundance of foliage in the Mist, but a sparse covering of trees spanned the outer ring of the village, separating the buildings from the surrounding mountains. As it was now, Rei could hardly see the silhouettes of the mountains themselves for the thick layer of mist that shrouded them.
A faint overlapping of voices reached them as they left the relative civilization of the buildings for the forest. Rei glanced at Niko Sensei and he seemed to work hard to suppress a sigh before falling into a light run. "Come on."
She followed, suddenly keenly aware that she carried no weapon besides the shiv in her boot. Her fingers twitched toward it, like they did often, but she curled them into fists and focused on where she was placing her feet. Though the wind rushed past her ears and her senses were assaulted with the natural smells and sounds of the forest, the voices became much clearer.
"Say that again!"
"Why? Did your tiny brain fail to process it the first time?"
The two voices were obviously male, and the boys came into sight in a small clearing lit only by the faint shafts of light breaking through the thick clouds above. There was almost a foot difference in their heights, and the shorter one had drawn a kunai and fallen into a predatory crouch. The other was leaning against a tree, arms crossed, completely relaxed. Fury overtook the smaller boy, and he made to leap, but Niko Sensei skillfully maneuvered himself between the two, grabbing the boy's wrist and keeping the kunai well out of striking reach.
"Let me go!" the boy shouted, a lock of his white-blonde hair falling over his headband and onto his forehead. "There's no way I can ever be on a squad with this guy!"
Niko Sensei thrust the boy to the side, keeping the kunai for himself and tucking it into his weapons pouch. "You don't get to pick your squad mates." The boy had regained his balance and huffed. "You learn to work with whoever you get paired with. That's the system. Get used to it." Niko Sensei narrowed his eyes meaningfully. "Especially considering our situation." The boy lowered his eyes and Rei understood. They were part of the foundation as well.
The boy against the tree was smiling faintly, cunningly. His deep brown hair was near the color of her own, and it fell across one of his golden eyes attractively. He had to be an older teenager, several years her senior, and she felt her face color.
Niko Sensei turned to the older boy. "That goes for you, too. Don't rile him up." Shrugging, the boy glanced at Rei, who looked away pointedly to hide her blush. She didn't think she'd ever genuinely blushed in her life.
She noticed immediately that she was the only one among them who was not dressed in the standard Mist uniform: black pants, black shirt, forehead protector, and grey flak jacket. She had the black, but only because that was what the Academy students wore every day. Her forehead protector was cinched around her left bicep, giving her a smattering of satisfaction. She belonged, even if only in appearance.
With a measured glance between the three of them, Niko Sensei said, "So what, you didn't make it to the restaurant?"
"It's not that we didn't make it there," the blonde said.
"It was full of hunter-nin in full garb." The taller boy moved his head a fraction of an inch, encouraging the hair that covered his left eye to reveal it for a fraction of a section. "We thought it would be smarter to get out of their way."
Niko Sensei motioned Rei forward. "Right. Did you two notice anything amidst your bickering?"
The blonde boy looked pointedly at the older one. "You were on sentry duty."
Niko Sensei opened his mouth, probably to scold him, but the brown-haired boy just nodded. "Well, I'm good at my job. Unlike some others." Before anyone could reply, he uncrossed his arms, held his right hand out, palm up, and looked up to the sky. A bubble the size of a baseball floated serenely down to him, landing on his outstretched fingers and exploding with a gentle pop. "There's no one nearer to us in any direction than the Academy students in the cafeteria."
Nodding once, Niko Sensei asked, "And did you search the area for –?"
"Traps, listening devices, et cetera?" The younger boy cut him off, apparently done sulking. "Yeah, that was the first thing we did."
"I'm glad to see that your training has not completely forsaken you," Niko Sensei said. As soon as he turned his back, the boy stuck out his tongue mockingly.
"So we finally have a real squad?" The older boy had pushed away from the tree, but every motion he made was poised and graceful. "It's about time."
Ignoring him, Niko Sensei perched his hands on his hips and smiled widely. "Let's do introductions for our new member's sake. I'm Niko Okuda, and I'll be your squad leader for the foreseeable future. I've been a Jonin for six years, and I've been working at the Academy for the last four. Starting today, I'm officially on leave so I can work with you three. Let's see…"
"Don't forget to mention that you're old," the blonde boy said, snickering.
Aside from a quick glare, he was also ignored. "I live within a few blocks of all three of you, so if you need anything outside of our missions, you should be able to find me easily. So, for you three, state your name, age, and anything you think your teammates need to know about you."
Rei suddenly forgot everything about herself, so she emptied her lungs with relief when Niko Sensei pointed to the blonde boy. The boy stood a little taller, sure of himself as he spoke. "Yeah, I'm Koichi Osaragi. I'm thirteen, I'm a Genin, and I'm pretty great at lightning techniques. Um… my parents are Shinobi, too?" He looked at Niko Sensei for confirmation, who nodded and spoke directly to Rei.
"Koichi's parents are two of the founding members of our organization," he said just above a whisper, casting his eyes about quickly. "You'll likely meet them later."
After a somewhat awkward pause where Rei was unsure if she was supposed to speak, the older boy said, "Utakata Sato. Fourteen." He stopped there, crossing his arms, and Niko Sensei filled in the rest of the information.
"Utakata is a Chunin. He specializes in water techniques, and he's become very adept at working with bubbles as well, as you saw with the reconnaissance technique he used earlier. His parents are nobles of the Land of Water."
They all looked at her expectantly, and she stared down at the scuffed toes of her boots. "I'm Reimi Taira, but please call me Rei. I'm twelve. Um, I really suck at most Jutsu. But I'm pretty good with a sword. Oh, and I just graduated from the Academy."
She didn't even have a second to draw a breath before Utakata said, "You added someone to our squad who sucks at most Jutsu?" It was said matter-of-factly, no malice in it, but Rei still sensed the condemnation. She felt a flash of shame yet again. Headmaster Iwa mentioned that she was special somehow, that her chakra was dangerous to the Mizukage, but she had no idea what she could possibly do as a Shinobi. How was she supposed to help change the Mist when she could only fire off a handful of Jutsu?
Niko Sensei brushed off Utakata's statement. "I have a theory about that, but we'll worry about it later. Today, we're completing our first mission as a true squad."