• I didn't see much, except for a blur of red and orange, and hearing the screams of Sound Ninja. Finally the blur of action faded away and I opened my eyes to see Akane standing with folded arms, staring at the collapsed Sound Ninja. She turned to me. "You okay?" I straightened and nodded, setting Momoko up on my shoulders.
    "Was that the last of the Sound?"
    "Yeah." Akane nodded at me. "come on. Let's get back to the Elder and get back to the village."
    I nodded and followed her, and we gathered around the Elder, who was unscathed but cussing about one thing or another. guy took a roll call, congratulated us happily on our "awesome techniques" and "youthful vigor", before herding us back to the village. On the way there I ignored the painful ache in my shoulder from the kunai, thinking back on the battle and beating myself up for it. I had never fought so crappily in my life! Only an academy student would be tricked up by a Genjutsu like that, and only an academy student would let themselves get surrounded so easily. I walked in gloomy silence alongside of Shino until he pointed to my shoulder.
    "You're bleeding," he remarked.
    Pursing my lips angrily, I grabbed a handful of bandages and pressed it to my shoulder, not speaking.
    When we reached the village, Guy took the Elder up to the Hokage's tower, and sent the rest of us home. I shoved open the door to Iruka's, and he looked up from where he was eating ramen at the counter. "Matsuo!" He exclaimed happily. "You're back! How'd it go? why are you bleeding?"
    I shut the door quietly behind me. "The mission went well, even though Sound Ninjas ambushed us on the way back." I shrugged off my backpack and set it on the chair, before heading to the bathroom. Iruka stood up and followed me, standing in the doorway as I turned on the tap.
    "Ambushed?" He frowned. "Well, are you alright?"
    "Perfectly okay," I said. I glanced at him. "You can go now."
    Iruka nodded slightly and left the room. I closed the door and took a long, hot shower, before bandaging my wounds and dressing up casually in black sweatpants and a pink tshirt with long white sleeves. I tied up my hair and dumped my clothes in the laundry room, before walking out to where Iruka had resumed eating. "Where does Kakashi live?" I asked.
    He raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
    I sighed. "I want to get stronger."



    I groaned as I opened the door to my apartment. Being so tired as I was, I flopped back on my bed, skipping dinner in the process. My face was in my pillow, causing everything to go black. Almost falling asleep to my relief, till there were little tiny squeaks coming from the top of my head. "What now?" I asked Miki knowing it was her speaking. The squeaking continued as I listened to the complaining. "Well I'm sorry that the kibbles, or whatever are out. Go dig through the cupboards, or something. Can't you see that I'm too tired to stand right now," Saying that, there was skittering sounds, and then nothing. Ah, piece and quiet. That till I heard a sound next door that made me fall of my bed. "I'm going to kill the person who woke me!" There was a slam from where I yanked the door to hard. Following the sound, I ended up at another apartment. Knocking on the door ferociously, I waited for the loud person to open up.
    "Coming!" I heard a squeaky voice say. The door opened to my surprise, of the blonde headed boy I had made friends with. "Akane, what are you doing here?" Naruto questioned.
    "The banging sound you're making is keeping me up. What are you doing in there?" I gave him a bit of a death glare considering it was about 12:00 p.m. and I wanted sleep.
    "I can't find any ramen! I always keep it in stock, and it's just gone poof!" Whiling saying poof he did hand gestures, while running around his kitchen. Running back to my apartment I grabbed a packet of ramen, and threw it in his house. "Thank you Akane!" I heard him say for my ramen I gave him.
    I plopped back on my bed once again to fall asleep, with no nightmares for once.


    It was almost sundown when I knocked on Kakashi Sensei's door. He tugged it open, looking sleepy. He was still in his Jonin outfit, though the vest was unzipped. "Matsuo?" He leaned aganist the doorway. "What are you doing here?"
    "Hi, Kakashi-Sensei." I said nervously. "I was wondering if...well, if you could help me train. Not right now," i added quickly.
    He shrugged. "I suppose I could." he paused for a moment, thinking. "Meet me in the training field at noon tomorrow."
    ***
    I was at the park at noon, stiff and bored as I waited for him. And waited. And waited. Eventually it was one o'clock PM and he was still a no-show. I sighed and stood, and I was just about to leave when I heard a cheerful, "Afternoon, Matsuo!" I turned to see Kakashi stride up.
    "You're late," I said irritably. Momoko chittered from the bench nearby. Kakashi shrugged.
    "I got lost on the road of life."
    Now, that was the cheesiest thing I had ever heard. But i ignored him. "So are we going to train now?" I asked. "Are we going to work on Ninjutsu or Taijutsu? I think I need more work on Taijutsu, it's not my strong suit, and then Genjutsu, I'm good at it but when I'm in a rush it's hard for me to think enough-"
    "Matuso."
    I looked up at Kakashi eagerly. "Yeah?"
    "baby steps." He sat down on the bench, and gestured for me to join him. "Let's start simple. Why do you want me to train you in the first place?"
    I leaned against my knees. "We had a mission yesterday, where we got ambushed by Sound Ninja."
    "I heard."
    "Yeah. And they used this dumb Genjutsu, so that everyone looked like my dad." I kicked at a rock angrily. "I completely zoned out of the fight. Shino and Akane were the ones who snapped me out of it. And then I got surrounded, and I was the only one who got hurt. I'm the weakest one on my team, Kakashi-Sensei. I don't want to be."
    Kakashi leaned on his knees the same way I did. "Well. It's good that you want to work on things. But it's easy to get surrounded in a fight, especially if its your first battle as a Genin. And Genjutsu can trick up anyone - even Jonin."
    Crap, I thought. He wasn't going to train me.



    The brightness of the sun had woken me up the next morning. Flipping my legs over the side of my bed, I went to go take a shower. The hot water would most likely get rid of all the kinks from the mission from the day before. Once finished I felt way better, and ready for a new day. I stretched putting on my regular clothing, of a red sweater vest, and black shorts. Today was a time for me to travel around the village, and see more sights, during the day. I opened the door, to see the familiar color of orange streak by. "Hey Naruto what're doing?" I questioned.
    He just kept running, while he answered. "Going to train sorry can't talk. Got to go!" He disappeared with the usual big grin of his that he always had glued on.
    It was really nice today, so I decided to go to the park, and sit around there to relax. Miki and Sho took their places on my shoulders, and I began to walk. There were only a couple of sakura blossoms, left on the trees, but it was still a great sight to look at. Taking a seat on a bench next to one, and I sighed at how nice they looked. Beginning to think that'd I'd never see these in the Sand village, I just sat, and stared, and started to observe the people walking around.


    "I would rather that you wait a while and let Kurenai Sensei train you," Kakashi finally said. My head began to spin dizzily, and I sighed, looking out at the town. There was a silent moment or so, before Kakashi spoke again. "But let's spar a bit. My students aren't due to be here for another two hours or so. And then I'll see if you really need my help."
    I hopped up eagerly. "Okay!'
    Kakashi and I moved to stand in a large open area in the park, and backed away so we were at least thirty feet apart. "Okay." Kakashi folded his arms. "Show me what you got."
    "Um...do you want me to attack you?"
    "Yeah. Come on, this is the one time you get this opportunity." He said, tone teasing.
    I laughed, and then let my smile fade, readying myself, feeling the chakra rise up inside me. "Earth Control Jutsu!" i whipped out my fans then and snapped them open. The two trees behind kakashi creaked and began to curl, branches reaching for him. He scittered out of the way. I jabbed at him with my fan and a nearby bush shot out at him, branches stretching out far to try and grab him. He did a backflip to evade them, sliding to a stop and pulling out a kunai to hack at the branches. I jerked my left fan to the right, and roots shot up from the ground, wrapping around his ankles. he looked down as they rose up around his waist, and suddenly, he had vanished in a cloud of smoke, and the roots were only clutching at a log. I felt a cold blade against the back of my neck. "You're dead," he said.
    I closed my fans and tucked them away, turning back to him. "So?"
    He cocked his head at my curiously. "You could use some work," he remarked.
    "Does this mean you'll train me?"
    He nodded. "Yep."
    Marveling at the speed at which he had "killed" me, I followed him back to the bench.


    Everyone that walked around seemed happy and carefree just like the sand village. Even the children playing balls, and acting like ninja were having a good time. Smiling I was just enjoying the feeling of the happiness that radiated from everything. Getting up from the bench I scurried my way up a tree to sit on it's branch. I looked up to see Miki, and Sho enjoying themselves at the top of the branches, and cherry blossoms falling from the tree. Ah, everything was great here. I went to lye backwards thinking I was down on the ground, and ended up falling to the ground. Hitting the ground hard, I gasped. The air left my lungs quickly, feeling a sharp pain. I knew nothing serious had happened, except that the air had been blown out of me. Still on my knees, I looked like a fish gasping for air. Hearing faint foot thuds, and then some bodies face in front of me appeared.
    "Are you okay?" The boy wasn't exactly fit, but he had a ninja headband, so he must be a ninja.
    "I'm fine," I said standing up, holding my sides. "Thanks for the concern. May I ask what you name is? I'm Akane Makoto," I put one hand out to him.
    I noticed he took out a bag of chips, and started eating. "Yeah, I'm Choji Akamichi. Aren't you the girl who like transferred here or something?" I smiled shyly seeing as I didn't really know him well yet.
    "Yeah, I came from the Sand Village. Ya know the place in the desert," By the time I finished the sentence my hand was at the back of my neck.
    "That’s' neat. So are you really okay, you kind of looked like you got hurt pretty badly, when you fell?" Choji asked once again.
    "Yeah just the wind knocked out of me, nothing serious," I waved a hand off in front of my face.
    "Well okay then," He said pausing. "Just checked since my team was meeting up over here anyways," He mentioned his team. I wonder who's on it?
    "So who'd you get teamed up with?" I questioned seeing as he was quite nice.
    "Ino Yamanaka," He said that name, and I started ranting.
    "Why that little blonde haired girl, I'm not even going to talk to her, she comes near me...... Oh!" I said walking around in small circles.
    "What's the matter with her?" he asked surprised.
    "She said I didn't belong here, on my first day at the academy! Man I hold a grudge against her!" I yelled quietly.


    "Okay," I said, plopping down on the bench. "What did you see, Kakashi-Sensei?"
    Kakashi leaned on his knees as he turned to look at me. "You put a lot of faith in that Earth Control Jutsu."
    "Well...yeah, it is my kekkei genkei." I said warily.
    "But it's only for plants," he said, tapping his nose. "Think logically. You're not going to be fighting next to a forest all of the time. You could be in a desert, or on a boat, or in a place covered in snow. You can't rely on that Earth Control Jutsu to bail you out all the time." he raised an eyebrow at me. "What's your best subject?"
    "Genjutsu."
    "What's your worst?"
    "Taijutsu."
    "And what's your favorite?"
    "Well, Ninjutsu." I opened a fan and began tapping the metal absently. "Why?"
    Kakashi turned to look at a tree in the distance. I looked as well, to see Akane tumble out, right in front of Choji. When I saw her get back up I turned to Kakashi. He looked at me sleepily. "I'll help you, but not with Genjutsu. I don't want to step on Kurenai's toes with that," he added quickly. "But the Ninjutsu and Taijutsu I can help you with. Not to mention a few other things."
    "Like what?"
    "Oh, you'll find out." Kakashi stood. "I'll train you every day, around two o'clock. That way Kurenai and I will both be done training."
    i hopped up. "Thank you, Kakashi Sensei!" I said, hugging him tightly. He patted my back awkwardly until I pulled away. "Now I'm going to be an Anbu for sure!" I started running off back to Iruka's house. Kurenai was still ill so training had been cancelled. "Bye!!"
    he waved halfheartedly. "Bye?"


    "Uhm okay well.........." Choji stopped trying to stall for something. "I'll see you sometime else, okay. My teams here, bye!" I waved while he ran away. Clickung my tongue twice, both Miki and Sho came down hooping of the branches, and onto my head, and shoulder.
    "You guys have fun?" I asked in a sweet voice. They squeaked happily not to my surprise, since they haven't been able to climb in a nice tree for a while. The Sands got a bit dreary looking once in a while, since there was barely any vegetation, but it was still a beautiful sight.
    "Akane!" I heard a singy voice. Turning I found the green jumpsuit in front of me. "What a coincidence seeing you here," Lee said.
    "Yep such a coincidence we live in the same village I stated.


    I was hurrying to Iruka's house when I remembered he would be at the academy, teaching. I stopped for a minute. Our team was the only one without training today. There was no one to hang out with!! I grabbed my key and slipped into the house, going upstairs to grab a notepad and pencil before leaving, heading to the woods. I could at least practise my drawing a little bit.
    I cut a wide berth through the park, to avoid Kakashi's team as they trained, with him reading a book nearby. Ducking under some low tree branches, I entered a small glade, to see Shino crouching, peering at a violet butterfly.
    "Hi Shino," I whispered, halting nearby to not freak out the butterfly.
    Shino turned slightly. "Did you follow me?"
    "No. I came here to draw." I said, watching the butterfly flit away. "But I can leave, if you're busy. Um....studying bugs?"
    "My clan specializes in bugs," he said dryly. "So yes, as wierd as it seems, I am studying them. I was going to collect that one, but since you came-"
    "Hey, you were the one who scared it off," I objected. "I stayed back here."
    He stood, and I could practically see his eye twitch behind his sunglasses. "I'm going to go study elsewhere," he said, walking away.
    "Fine, grumpy." I muttered. He paused, turning slightly.
    "You were the one who froze up in the middle of that fight," he said, before walking away.
    My stomach lurched. I wanted to shout something back, anything - but nothing would be as effective as what he had said to me. I glared at his retreating form before flopping down on the ground. Momoko clambered down from my shoulder as I leaned against a tree, flipping open my notebook. He chittered angrily at Shino's back.
    "Calm down, Momoko." I said. "Kakashi-Sensei's going to train me now. I won't freeze up anymore."
    The tanuki settled down and let himself, begrudginly, be sketched.