A few days had past since the last full moon, and Amara had gone back to her normal attitude. Currently, she was rushing down the streets of Konoha, dodging vilagers and concession stands.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M LATE AGAIN!!" She cried, narrowly dodging another person.
"Hey, Amara?" She blinked, pauseing in her sprinting.
"Shikamaru?" The lazy Nara casually leaned against a cart, blinking at her.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Amara scowled.
"I'm late to meet with my team. What about you?" Skikamaru yawned.
"Oh...We had the day off."
"Aw! Lucky! We haven't had a day off since we officially became Team 7!!" She whined, crossing her arms in a pout.
"That sucks. How late are you?" AMara sheepishly chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Um... Now I'm five hours late...hehe." Shikamaru sweatdropped.
"Go figures. And right when we believed you had finally started arriving to thing on time."
"I'm not late that often Shikamaru!" He smirked.
"Really? By my count, you arrived late to class every day of the school year except on the weeks we had exams. So, you were only ever on time for a total of three weeks."
"...Jerk." She muttered, pouting. Shikamaru's smirk only grew bigger, as he waved her off.
"Don't want to be anymore late than you already are, do you?" She flicked his forehead, before once again sprinting through the streets of Konoha.
"That girl...What a drag."
~~~~~~
"YOU'RE-"
"Late. Ya, ya. I know. But technically, I'm not late since Kakashi-sensei ain't here yet. And besides, I've been late everyday since we we're assigned teams. You should know by now I'm never going to show up on time."
Naruto sweatdropped, while Sakura gained an irk mark. The bubblegum was about to shout something, but luckily Kakashi arrived before she could make her grave any deeper with Amara.
"Sup." He said casually, his nose buried in his orange book. Amara rolled her eye at him, casually placing her hands behind her head.
"Okay, so today, for our first mission, Team 7 has to..."
~~~~~~
"Sasuke, I'm at point B."
"Sakura, I'm at point C."
"..."
"Naruto, I'm at point A, believe it."
"So slow Naruto. Okay, Team 7-Hm? The target has moved!" A shadow burst through the trees, leaves rustling behind it. It jumped into a bush, which shook slightly.
"Over there."
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura quickly darted closer to the bush, ducking behind trees.
"What's your distance from the target?"
"Five meters. I'm ready, just give the signal."
"I'm ready."
"So am I!"
"Okay... Now!"
The three genin lunged out of the trees, only to blanch at the sight.
Amara was playing with a brown cat, a look of utter adoration on her face. The cat purred happily as Amara played with it's paws, pushing itself closer to her.
"Eh? Amara?" Naruto asked, his voice tinged with confusion. Amara glanced up at them, her orange eye only focusing in them for a moment, before going back to the cat.
"Uh...Sensei? What's going on?" Kakashi flashed in front of them, observing the scene with a rather bored look.
"Well, it seems we've discovered the reason Amara was not responfing. She encountered the target first. And... decided to play with it."
He sweatdropped at the end, watching as Amara released the cats paws, only for the cat to crawl into her lap, purring louder. She finally focused on her team, gently running her hand down the cats back, which resulted in the cat arching again it.
"Hm? Oh hey guys. I found the target." She watched as they all anime fell, tilting her head in confusion.
"Was it something I said?"
~~~~~~
Amara buried her face in the back of Kakashi's jonin vest, refusing to watch as poor Tora was smothered by it's owner.
"ha! Stupid cat, that kitty deserves to be squashed!" Amara finally pulled away from her sensei, giving Naruto a murderous look. He took a small step back, chuckling nervously.
"Uh...hehe." Sakura winced slightly.
"No wonder it ran away..."
Amara sighed, glancing up momentarily as Kakashi placed a hand on her head, but didn't react, instead turning to face the Hokage as he began to speak.
"Now, for Team 7's next mission, babysitting the chief's three-year old, helping his wife with shopping, digging potatoes, and-"
Naruto crossed his arms in a X shape, shouting. "No! I wanna go on a real mission! something challenging and exciting, not these stupid chores!! C'mon old man!!"
Amara nodded slightly in agreement, Kakashi removing his hand. She jumped slightly when Iruka slammed his hands on the Hokage's desk, shouting.
"How dare you!!" She hissed quietly, glaring at Iruka, who chuckled sheepishly.
"Baka..." she muttered. She zoned out as Iruka continued yelling.
'One of these days, you're going to miss some really important information because of your lack of attention.'
'And I'll suffer when that day happens. Hey Tenshi? Did we ever go over why cat's like me so much?'
'Well, they can sense me inside you. That's also why dogs hate you, and rodents fear you. Any other questions?' Tenshi asked sarcastically.
'Hm...Nope~!" She smirked slightly, hearing Tenshi's exasperated sigh.
"-assassinations." She perked up, snapping back to attention. Kakashi sweatdropped.
"Of course you pay attention to that..." He muttered, causing Amara to subtly kick his shin. He winced, and she smirked.
The two directed their attention back to the conversation, only to sweatdrop when they realized the other three weren't even paying attention.
"Pay attention!" the Hokage barked, both Amara and Kakashi turning towards him.
"Sorry." They apologized in sync, Amara casually kicking Naruto's head to grab his attention.
"Itai!!" She smiled apologetically at him. He turned back towards the Hokage.
"You always lecture me like I'm some kid old man! But I'm not, not anymore! Believe it!!"
Amara smirked slightly. "You tell em' Naruto..." She whispered proudly.
"So, Naruto want us to realize that he's not a brat, but a former brat? Heh, so be it."
Sasuke and Sakura looked up surprised, while Amara's smirk only grew.
"Team 7 will be assigned a C-Rank mission. You'll be bodyguards on a journey.
"Really? yes!" Naruto cheered excitedly.
"Who? Who? Are we going to be guarding a princess ? Or some counselor? "
"Don't be so impatient, I will bring him in right now. Send in our visitor."
Team 7 turned to face the door as it creaked open, revealing a scraggly old man.
"What the-? A bunch of snot nosed brats?!" He put a brown bottle to his lips, tilting his head back as he took a big gulp. Amara hissed under her breath, the strong scent of alcohol burning her sensitive nose.
Once he put the bottle down, he looked at Naruto. "And you, the little one with idiotic look on your face. You really expect me to believe your a ninja?"
Amara's body went rigid, and she growled slightly. The old drunkard's attention switched to her.
"And what about you? You look about as harmless as a kitten!" Kakashi, Iruka, and Lord Hokage all froze, waiting for her reaction.
Amara smirked, crossing her arms as shifted her weight. "Sir, if I may. Even kittens have claws, and kitten grow up to be cats."
With that, she casually pulled out her nunchucks, twirling them round.
Suddenly, the nunchucks came flying towards the drunkard, tying his hands together. He stared at her in shock.
I didn't even see her hands move! How-!?
"Oops~ My hand slipped!" She said calmly, and with a flick of her wrist, the nunchucks unbound themselves from his hands, and flew into her own, as if controlled by invisible strings.
Amara turned to Kakashi. "I'll meet you guys at the gates."
And with that, she turned and walked out of the room.
~~~~~~
Amara packed her things, shoving them into a satchel. She packed medical supplies, clothes, extra weapons, and three extra large bags if pocky.
Tenshi huffed. 'Eat the pocky now!'
"Why?"
'Because! I taste what you taste! I WANT POCKY!!!'
Amara smirked. If anyone ever wondered why she was so obsessed with pocky, they would have to blame Tenshi. Given the fact that Amara grew up without a mother, Tenshi filled that role. And the first thing Tenshi ever taught Amara about the world was that pocky was the best thing in it.
Second to cats.
Amar plopped a vanilla pocky in her mouth, glancing around her room. Her nunchucks were once again tied to her waist, so she didn't think she would need anything else to pack.
Suddenly, there was a rather loud knocking at her apartment door. She rolled her eyes.
She ignored it, but the knocking only grew louder.
"OH MY KAMI!! I'M COMING!! SHUT UP!!" She shouted, trudging towards the door. She opened it, only for her eye to twitch in major annoyance.
There was no one there.
"FOR FUCKS SAKE!!"
"Arf!"
Amara blinked, glancing down.
At her feet, was one of the most adorable creatures on the planet. It was a white fox cub, it's fur soft and shiny. It wagged it's fluffy tail, looking up at her with round black eyes. It barked again, tilting it's head.
"Um..." It reared up, placing it's paws on her legs. It nuzzled into her leggings, and she looked away, rubbing her neck.
Damn this thing.. Why is it so cute!! It whined, nuzzling itself closer to her leg.
And that's when she noticed the note attached to it's neck. She blinked, reaching down, ignoring the cub's attempts to lick her face.
She took the note, folding it open.
A sharp inhale was heard, before the note fell t the floor.
Congrats on your first C-Rank, Hope to see you soon!! ~T
Amara sat there, frozen in shock. "H-How did he know..?"
The cub whined, pressing himself closer. Amara snapped out of her fearful daze, swallowing the bile that threatened to come up.
"Okay buddy... Let's get you some food, ne?"
~~~~~~
Amara leaned against the couch, watching the cub eat his fill out of the food she had set out for him.
Apparently, whoever had lived in the apartment before her had a dog, and luckily they left a bag of kibble behind.
After the most embarrassing moment of her life, she had determined that the cub was male, and got to work coming up with a name for him.
Tenshi wasn't very happy with the fact Amara had decided to keep the fox. After all, foxes were in the canine family.
But, after a bit of coaxing from Amara (mostly her saying that foxes were related to both dogs and cats, even though they were more closely related to dogs) Tenshi allowed her to keep the cub.
"How about... Yuki?" Amara asked. The cub halted in his eating, giving her an expression akin to horror.
"Okay, that's out of the question. Probably to feminine...Um....Kori?" He gave her a glare.
"Fine Mr. Picky, why don't you tell me what you want to be called?!"
The cub paused, and she smirked. "That's right Mr, you can't. So hush! How about... Shimo?" He barked happily, abandoning his food. Instead, he ran over to her, and began racing around her feet, making her laugh.
"Okay! Shimo it is." She picked the cub up, also grabbing her satchel. Shimo burrowed himself into her shirt, cuddling against her chest.
"Let's get going, shall we?"
~~~~~~
"Well would you look at that, they're both on time!! Believe it!!" Naruto shouted in disbelief. Amara rolled her eye, as did their sensei.
"Tch, it's not that surprising, is it Naruto?!" She asked, catching the blonde in a headlock, giving him a rather fierce noogie.
"Itai! Itai! No, it isn't!!"
Amara released him, smirking. Shimo then decided now would be a good time to show himself, poking his head out from her shirt.
He tilted his head, making a cute squeaking sound. Her teammates stared at him in confusion, but she merely walked past them, her hands behind her head.
"C'mon!! Let's get going, this old man ain't gunna guard himself!!'
"WHO YOU CALLING OLD?!"