legacy | hatake kakashi

[ three ] the yellow flash.

          TURNS OUT, the shinobi required no back up which was expected given the lack of action this area had seen. They had left the following morning, leisurely making their way towards home. Kazuki was disappointed, complaining that he had wanted a chance to use his 'ninja skills' and kick some enemy-nin butt. Misuo-sensei just sweat-dropped at his antics, knowing the war was not something to be taken lightly.

"Why do you want to be a ninja anyways?" Kiyoko asked the boy, filling the silence. The team had completed their objective and were now trudging back to the village, taking a more leisurely pace than before, given the fact that they had made it to the camp early it allowed for them to cruise back to the village and still be able to make it back before their estimated return time.

Kazuki grinned, "I want to be a great ninja that everyone can look up to and rely on!" Kiyoko found that to be a little vague. She couldn't find a reason to refute it because Kiyoko herself didn't really have a specific motivation in becoming a shinobi.

"That's it?" Natsumi said bluntly, staring at the Kazuki with a raised brow. Kazuki flushed, not realising his reason was lacklustre to other people.

"Well yeah, I have to protect the people I care about and what better way to do that than by being the greatest shinobi in the village!" Kazuki puffed his chest out. Kiyoko thought he looked like the sun, the brightness making Kiyoko want to cover her eyes. Her chest felt warm as she gazed at the energetic boy, knowing that in time he would come to achieve his goal.

Misuo smiled at the boy and ruffled his hair, "you got a long way to go before you're the greatest in the village, so you better train hard."

"What about you, Kiyoko-chan? Why do you want to be a shinobi?" Kazuki asked, spinning the question on Kiyoko. Kiyoko didn't know how to answer and looked down at the road, watching her feet for a brief moment. She felt like her throat closed up as she struggled to find an answer.

"It's all I know," she ended up saying, bringing her gaze up to watch the treeline. Kazuki frowned, finding her answer to be sad. She was so young, fighting in a war without a reason why and with nothing to motivate her to get better and push her to live.

"That's kind of stupid," Natsumi told Kiyoko, now twirling a kunai around her finger as she thought, "even just being in it for money would be a better reason than that, you know." Kiyoko didn't know what to say again, humming thoughtfully as she consider why she was even a shinobi in the first place. Her mother was a shinobi, now being retired and took her days to training her. Her father was once a shinobi, and so were his brothers and cousins. She supposed it was just expected for her to become one too, and considered what she would want to do if she wasn't one. There was nothing that particularly excited her about the citizen life, but Kiyoko couldn't really find anything compelling about shinobi life either, beside her mother and ancestors approval.

"I guess," Kiyoko shrugged at Natsumi's words, "my mother always wanted me to be a shinobi and follow in my clans footsteps, so I'll just do that until I figure it out."

Before Kazuki could response, his eyes widened and he whipped around. He shut his eyes for a brief moment before snapping to Misuo-sensei, his eyes wild and frantic.

"Sensei, I sense a squad approaching our flank rapidly, I don't recognise their chakra signals." Kazuki informed, his voice serious. The squad quickly adapted and jumped into formation: Kazuki at the rear, Natsumi and Kiyoko in the middle and Misuo at the front, ready to confront the enemy squad.

"How many incoming?" Misuo asked, relying on Kazuki as their sensor-nin. Kiyoko and Natsumi pulled out their kunais, standing tense and at the ready.

Kazuki hesitated, "seven." Not good. That was almost double their squad and majority were genin. Fear and doubt started to cloud the genin's minds, questioning if they would be able to make it out of there alive. They had faith in Misuo-sensei's abilities, but he wouldn't be able to compensate that much.