Finding Myself [Rewrite]

Ch. 18: Survival Training

The day of their mock test, two people were very late for their meeting.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke all arrived before the agreed upon time, but both Kakashi and Mina were nowhere to be found.

"Hm... Maybe I should've picked her up, Mina is never this late for anything..." Naruto stared in the general direction of his friend's house, becoming more and more worried by the second. All kinds of horrible scenarios ran through his mind, the worst of which being the girl having a relapse after all this time.

Sasuke sighed, "If you're so worried, go get her now."

Sakura nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you know how sick she gets... Maybe I should go check on her. I mean, what if she fainted while changing- ah..." She covered her mouth when Naruto was starting to fully panic, pacing back and forth while staring in the direction of his friend's home.

Luckily, he didn't have to stress for much longer because Mina soon arrived at their meeting spot. Ren was carrying her by the back of her shirt. She kind of looked like a ragdoll being carried around like that.

After setting his master down, Ren sighed, "She got lost. Again."

Mina turned her face away, muttering, "I did not...."

Ren stared blankly at her. "Yeah. Sure."

Naruto let out a breath of relief and helped his friend off the ground, brushing the dirt off her clothes. "Are you okay? I knew I should've went and got you."

The girl nodded, naturally holding her friend's hand. "Yeah, I'm good... Am I too late?"

"No, our sensei isn't even here yet." Sakura groaned. "And now he's even more late than you."

Naruto lightly squeezed the girl's hand. "Don't listen to her, Mina. You're just in time."

"You were worried about me again, weren't you." Mina poked his arm, watching Naruto's smile brighten.

"You got me! How could I not worry, though? You're such a handful!" He laughed, gently patting her head. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

Mina leaned towards his hand, the smile on his face warming her heart like it always had. "I'm sorry."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "What did we talk about?"

The girl audibly whined, back tracking fast. "Uh, thank you for waiting?"

"Better! You're doing great!" He gave her a hug, which she greatly appreciated and was getting used to. She liked his hugs the most, but in general, she just liked being physically close to people she enjoyed being around.

"Okay, enough treating her like a little kid, I doubt she likes it." Sakura spoke up, her arms folded over her chest.

"Mind your own business." Sasuke said without looking in their direction at all.

Everyone was just waiting for the teacher who had been more than an hour behind. It was only after the third hour that Kakashi walked twords them with a smile.

"Good morning, guys!"

His greeting was met with a very loud shout from the four young ninja, "You're late!"

One ninja was particularly fuming, because to her, Kakashi was a rather diligent and reliable individual.

"Minaki, come here." The teacher requested, and the girl went from fuming, completely relaxed in record time. She sauntered towards him, leaving her friends behind and grabbing onto the side of the teacher's vest.

Kakashi smiled, setting a timer down on log that had long been cut down. "This is set for noon. Mina, do you remember the exercise we did back when Asuma was trying to teach you how to use kunai?"