[last name, first name]
KONOHA WAS losing the war, that much was true. They needed something that would turn the tide of the war and put a stop to their dwindling numbers, which continued to skyrocket as they were forced to send fresh genin into the fray. Konoha was backed into a corner and had no choice but to send young genin into the slaughter house when they were still learning the ropes of how to be a shinobi.
The world was desperate for shinobi, hastily merging together broken shinobi teams to send them out on more missions, with the more mismatched teams being sent to fight in skirmishes and on the front lines. The more established teams with more skill were often sent on more pressing assignments, with higher risk and higher rewards. Each side was desperate to win the war.
It was all about the mission, all about turning the tides of the war into Konoha's favour, no matter the cost. Duty above all else, lest you be disgraced. A legend of the hidden leaf had already suffered the fate of failing his duty and not many wanted a repeat of those events.
Yamada Kiyoko at the age of seven had been a firm believer of this unwavering fact. She believed it was a shinobi's job to lay down their life for the village to complete their mission and if you don't, you're a coward. This had been drilled into them at the academy, and as a recent graduate it was easy for her to embody these ideals. Although, her mother felt differently. But she didn't get it, she was a ex-shinobi that was forced to retire after an injury which took place before the war.
Her new Jonin sensei, Furutani Misuo, stood in front of them at the empty field of training ground 4. After introducing himself, he crossed his arms and gestured for his new team to do the same.
"Misuo-sensei, my name is Yamada Kiyoko," she bowed, alongside her two new teammates who had yet to introduce themselves. Her voice and expression was calm, humility commanding her every action as she lowered her eyes in respect.
To Misuo, she looked like a child pretending to be a grown up. Kiyoko was the youngest of the team, having graduated the academy earlier than her peers.
"Hori Natsumi, sensei," the girl next to her introduced respectfully, her forehead protector dangling around her neck. Natsumi had an irritated expression on her face as she bowed, looking like she believed this to be a waste of time.
The final genin member grinned, "Tomita Kazuki, sensei!" he exclaimed, giving their teacher a thumbs up, "what're we doing waiting around, lets go on a mission already!"
Their new sensei nodded, arms still firmly crossed on his chest as he observed his new team, "we won't be going on a mission until I assess the teams abilities, which will be done with a spare at noon."
"How will we know when the assessment is over?" Kazuki chimes in, scratching his head in thought. His question causes Misuo-sensei to smile slightly.
Their sensei reached into his pocket and pulled out an alarm clock, "the bell will signal the end of the assessment."
Ah, so that's why they were there. A friendly spare to warm the team up, tell him their weakness and what can be improved. It made sense, Kiyoko supposed. It would be crass to send them on a mission when they don't know each other.
Kazuki and Natsumi were the only ones to react; with Kazuki exclaiming how unfair it all was while the latter let out a huff and annoyed "tch".
"I'll allow 5 minutes to let you three prepare before we begin." was all their new sensei said before using a flicker technique and disappearing.
"It goes without saying that we will have to work as a team to go against sensei," Kiyoko starts, bringing a hand to her chin, "my specialties are taijutsu for close quarters and medium-distance ninjutsu, I'm strongest in water and lightning releases,"
"I'm a sensor, so my taijutsu is a bit weak," Kazuki groans, rubbing his hair in frustration, "I guess I'm good at long distance with earth release?"
Natsumi rolls her eyes, acting as if working with the two of them is beneath her, "Ugh, medium distance. Fire and lightning release." Kiyoko wasn't sure what was the cause of the girls attitude and watched her roll her eyes and cross her arms in an irritated fashion.
The information was useful, Kiyoko knew that. Knowing that Nastumi is strongest in fire release, means that Kiyoko wouldn't be able to use her water style jutsu - which sucked, because that's what she was strongest in - due to the conflicting elements. She hadn't learnt as much lightning release jutsus, only vaguely recalling how it can be used to increase speed and can be infused with her weapons.
"I won't be able to use my water release, so I'll stick to lightning when we're both fighting him," Kiyoko told her, beginning to draw a crude map of the training grounds in the dirt with a stick. To her two onlookers, her art skills seemed to reflect the girls young age especially when she added the little stick figures with arrows pointing to their hiding spots.
Despite her sour attitude, Natsumi nodded, "we'll hide along here," she spoke, circling an area in the forestry, "our best chance is to try and take him by surprise and keep a constant flow of attacks to keep him on the defence,"
"Right, Kazuki where we have a gap we'll need to you fill it with your long distance ninjutsu to keep the pressure," Kiyoko continued brainstorming, her calm voice keeping the two steady.
Kazuki gave her a enthusiastic nod, "leave it to me!"
"We should also add traps, which we should mark with something so we don't step on them," Kazuki added, tired of being the only one not contributing much, "I'll set a variety up, here, here and here, and mark them with two leaves on the left side of them," he told them, using the stick to mark the location of his traps.
Kiyoko gave the boy a thumbs up, which he returned with a massive grin. They all shared a nod, before kicking the dirt map and "separating".
They were both lucky and unlucky the training grounds were quite small compared to the rest with hiding spots being few and fair between.
Kiyoko had used her water style and was hiding in a puddle, Kazuki in the earth some distance away which left Natsumi to be the only one physically hiding in shrubbery.
If Kiyoko was hiding in the shrubbery, she knew she would be sweating. Her heart rate fought her as she tried to remain calm, the puddle reflecting her and occasionally showing a disturbance along the waters surface.
Hopefully, their strategy would allow them to hold out a little longer than what their sensei would have expected of them, given he was leagues above them she had hoped that they would reach his standard.
The surface of her puddle tremored slightly, the vibrations from Misuo's steps reverberating and allowing Kiyoko to know he was coming. His steps were leisurely, but cautious as he peered around the training ground in mild curiosity.
He could sense them all of course and was mildly impressed by how well they had hidden themselves. They had positioned themselves so that when he would eventually walk in search of them, they would have him surrounded. Kiyoko was on his left, more in the open field whereas Natsumi was in the shrubbery on his right. He felt Kazuki's presence further away from the pair and could feel him getting twitchy as he approached his teammates.
Natsumi was the first to react, leaping from the trees and attacking with a fire style jutsu, causing him to crouch to avoid it. At her emergence, Kiyoko jumped from the puddle revealed herself as well and throwing shuriken at his crouched figure.
Misuo used a quick substitution appearing behind Kiyoko, who was still descending from her jump and throwing a quick kick at her back. Kiyoko had no choice but to tank the hit, her back aching at she lands on the ground by Natsumi's feet.
"Useless," Natsumi mutters, not even sparing her a look as she pulls herself onto her feet.
Kiyoko laughs lightly, not taking her serious as she arms her left hand with a kunai, "dibs," she speaks quickly, advancing on their sensei. Kiyoko, using her right hand, quickly throws two shuriken at the man which were quickly deflected with his very own kunai.
Kiyoko brought her kunai down on Misuo-sensei with her attack following the path of her shuriken and being deflected into the air. Her arm was now above her head, Kiyoko quickly dropped her kunai behind her back which quickly fell into her right hand. Not wasting a second she she brought her kunai forward in an attempt to pierce him again.
"GO KIYOKO-CHAN!" she heard Kazuki's cheerful voice exclaim from the other side of the field, causing her lips to twitch slightly.
The cut barely reached the fabric before it was knocked out of her hands, clattering on the ground uselessly. Kiyoko quickly swiped at Misuo-sensei's leg, Natsumi wasting no time in jumping in as she swings a punch at Misuo-sensei.
He blocks them both with ease, pushing them five metres away in opposite directions, with the girls skidding on the dirt as they attempt to stop. Kazuki attacked with an earth jutsu, sending a controlled wave through the earth to knock their sensei off balance, which succeeded and allowed the two to have a opening.
"Nice, Kazuki-kun!" Kiyoko encouraged, this time sending a high kick to their sensei's head while Natsumi threw a punch to his stomach. Unfortunately their blows were blocked, Kiyoko twisted her body in the air and threw another kick to Misuo-sensei's other hand, forcing him to free it to block her again and knock her down into the dirt.
Natsumi let out another "tch" before quickly adapted and aiming high as spikes of earth shot from the ground to trap Misuo-sensei, who quickly broke away and created some distance from the pair.
Kiyoko acted first as she had been the first to recover and quickly did the seals for lightning storm, watching her chakra expand bolts of lightning from her fingers towards Misuo-sensei, giving Natsumi to close the gap further by throwing flame-coated kunai.
The ground around Misuo-sensei tremored once more and Kiyoko rushed forward, seeing a opening. Tossing a kunai straight up into the air, Kiyoko covers her leg in lightning chakra and feels her foot be stopped yet again by her sensei's palm and quickly outstretches her hand, catching the falling kunai and spinning on her foot and bringing the kunai around swiftly.
Before the exchange is able to continue, the sound of the bell signals the end of the assessment, eliciting a loud groan from the other side of the field.
"That's it?! I barely got to do anything!" she could hear Kazuki complain loudly in the distance, causing Kiyoko to bite back a smile as she dusts herself off.
The three genin gather in front of Misuo-sensei, waiting to hear the results of his assessment. Kiyoko felt dejected, they had barely managed to land any blows on their sensei and they were expected to go to war. She had felt her shortcomings more than ever after that fight and knew she had to work harder to be able to protect the village.
"Kiyoko, you seem to forget you have the use of ninjutsu on your side and rush in with half-baked plans to overpower me with taijutsu, which needs work but you have a good grasp of the basics."
Oof. He was right, of course. Kiyoko had rushed in after calling, "dibs" even after they had agreed to attack together. In her excitement and eagerness to prove herself, she had left her team behind and went in recklessly. Despite being the fastest out of the three, her movements were slow and sloppy, giving her enemy multiple chances over overwhelming her. Her clan, or her mother rather, would be disappointed in her. Kiyoko shivered at the thought of more training.
"Natsumi, you fight like you're waiting for someone else to punch a hole in the defence, you relied too much on Kiyoko to do the heavy hitting when you should be doing so as well."
Kazuki was basically shaking in fear when it got to his turn, he knew he hadn't been much use in the fight. Kiyoko placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him the most reassuring smile she could muster, helping in calming the energetic boy.
"And Kazuki, you were too passive in your attacks and while you did good at providing an opening for your team, your presence was not really felt," Misuo-sensei finished, before a lightbulb clicked over his head, "oh and your trap placement needs work."
0-0
I slid open the doors to the main house, feeling like I had failed before I had even had a chance to begin. The lights were on, the warmth from the kitchen hugging me as I stepped into the house.
"I'm home," I called, taking my shoes off and stacking them neatly on the shelf. My body was aching and I had wanted nothing more than to shower and lay down.
I could hear my mother humming to herself in the kitchen as I made my way through the house, "welcome home! How was your first day?"
I felt my cheeks tinge red as I remembered todays training. After the assessments sensei spoke of chakra control and honing this technique though tree climbing, it was difficult at first but I had been the first member to master it... and the only one to almost break their neck falling down.
"It was... good, we sparred and climbed some trees using chakra control," I told her as I walked into the kitchen, mouth watering as I laid my eyes on the Oyakodon that was waiting for me, "I mastered it pretty quickly until Misuo-sensei made me do it on water."
She hummed in response, "that explains the wet trail you're dragging though the house."
Looking down, I felt hot as I saw the water rhythmically dripping onto the floor. I wasn't sure how I hadn't noticed beforehand, but being as tired as I was I didn't feel surprised.
"I'll clean it up," I told her dejectedly, moping away to the wardrobe to get a towel. Before I could grab one, she plucked it from me with a light laugh and pushed me to towards the bathroom.
"How about you clean yourself up first while the bath is still warm?" she laughed with a raised brow, dumping the towel over my head and ruffling my wet hair. I let out a giggle, swatting her hands away playfully as I got the hint and trudging towards the bathroom.
My body felt like it melted into the bath when I finally sunk into it, what little muscles I had finally relaxing as I submerged myself in its heat. My brain mulled over today's training, feeling defeated rather than motivated for the future. My duty to Konoha made me happy to lay down my life for it, but that didn't mean that I wanted to die so early and with the way my shortcomings were laid bare to me today, I knew that the risk was high. Misuo-sensei said that we wouldn't be on the front lines, but would act as messengers between outposts when we were ready, which was reassuring I supposed.
Enemy-nin had been beginning to target the messenger hawks therefore the messages had to be delivered by other means, which is where the new genin squads came in. The missions themselves were simple and relatively safe, because while the Hokage was forced to send fresh academy graduates - even allowing the graduation age to be flexible, depending on your skill-level - into the war, he was not so keen to allow them to die.
I was one of the genin that graduated early, one of the "prodigies" but I didn't feel like one. This might have been why Natsumi was annoyed by me, she was almost six years my senior and on the same team as me and I had the nerve to hold self-doubt about my abilities.
Kazuki had no problem with my age which showed me he either didn't know who didn't use that as a basis to judge me. I like Kazuki, his energy was infectious and it was hard not to smile and laugh around him; Natsumi on the other hand was like his opposite, she was quick to anger and prideful. It was fun to annoy her and see her get all riled up, but I think Kazuki would have me beat on that front.
Regardless of how I felt being labelled a "prodigy" I felt proud to have graduated early as it was the strength of my mother who trained me that got me where I am. Mother said we were only scratching the tip of the iceberg of my training and that I would start my sage training at age 12.
Our clan is, or as least was a long line of sage masters. I'm hoping to continue my clans teachings given it's just me and mother now, I feel obligated to work the hardest I can so our clan doesn't die out.
When a clan member would reach twelve, they would be sent to the land of our summons where we would spend the next two years training to master sage mode and other ninjutsu types. Mother failed to master it as she had trouble balancing the two chakra modes. She loved the meditation though. It was a calming practice she enforced on me before we would train together so that I was focused and clear headed.
I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard a knock on the door, "are you almost done? Your dinner is getting cold!"
At her words, my stomach rumbled violently causing vibrations in the water. Kami, food sounds too good to be true right now!
"Sorry mama, I completely forgot!" I shouted back, hastily getting out of the bath and grabbing my towel. In my rush I had forgot about the puddles I walked into the house and slipped, face planting onto the floor with a 'slap' sound echoing throughout the house.
I could hear her laughing loudly from the kitchen. My ears began to burn in embarrassment as I picked myself off the floor.
^•^
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter of my impromptu Kakashi fic. This chapter didn't cover a lot of the characters personalities, but as we progress it's gonna change :)
Kiyoko = 清子, meaning "pure child"
Yamada = 山田 "mountain rice paddy"
I'm aiming for this book to be long, so it might feel a little slow & I won't be introducing Kakashi until a bit later so I hope you all can stick by me until then.
Thank you for reading!