Painless [A Naruto Fan-fiction]

Painless: Chapter 3

Freya's face hit the dirt, her mouth closing quickly to avoid another round of delicious earth and worms. Rin stood above her, her foot planted firmly on the curve of Freya's back, glaring at Emi and Raiden angrily.

"I must have done something horrible in my former life," Rin spat, "because I've been stuck with the most incompetent group of children in this village."

"We just started training," Emi objected, flinching away as Rin threw her a vicious stare.

"You attended the academy for years, and now you're telling me you 'just started training'?" Rin mocked, releasing her hold on Freya. "We're done for today. You better bring something of value to the table quick – or you three have no hope of becoming full-fledged ninjas." With that, Rin turned, giving Emi one last hostile look before she disappeared into the tree-line.

"Are you alright?" Freya looked up, meeting the black orbs of Emi's gaze, her worried expression fading as she looked over Freya's face. "Oh, you look ridiculous." Freya stood up straight, giving her feet a quick tap in turn, feeling for any disfigurement in them.

"At least get the worm out of her hair, Emi," Raiden called from his position to the south, but despite the distance between them, Freya could hear his laugh.

"Freya there's a worm in your hair," Emi held back a laugh, pointing to the creepy-crawly that had begun it's decent from her head. Freya grabbed it, tossing it in Emi's direction, taking the opportunity to test out how her arms moved as Emi screamed. "Don't do that!"

"I took the brunt of the beating today," Freya joked, looking over her fingers and stretching them one-by-one, "the least you could do is hold my dear friend Mr. Earth Worm."

"So you're making friends with the worms now, huh?" Raiden teased, giving the tree-line where Rin had disappeared to a hard stare. "At least the worms don't call you worthless."

"Oh come on, Raiden," Emi placed her hands on her hips, her long black hair drooping over her shoulders. "She didn't say we were worthless," with a heavy sigh, her eyes dropped to the ground. "Though it was heavily implied we were," she muttered quietly.

"She's just trying to toughen us up," Freya comforted, giving her face a quick pat to release the dirt digging into her pores. "We can't blame her for doing her job," Emi gave a half-hearted nod, while Raiden continued to glare at the tree-line.

"No, but we can blame her for being a bit-"

"Raiden!" Emi scolded.

"What? You were thinking it, too..."

"Thinking it and saying it are two different things," Emi sighed, giving herself and her team a quick look up and down. "We're all filthy," she concluded, receiving stares from her two teammates. "How about we all go get cleaned up, and then we meet at my house for dinner?"

"Sounds good to me – Freya?" Raiden questioned, interrupting Freya's thorough investigation of her arms. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing, and sounds good. See you in a bit," with that, Freya turned, feeling herself relying heavily on her left leg. She gave a sigh, forcing her right side to put in some effort to insure she didn't look lopsided to her team.

Now, a safe distance away from Emi and Raiden, she could sit and fully investigate the cause of her lop-sidedness. She removed her shoe, feeling around for any jutting objects, feeling none, but realizing it might be time to soak her feet. The dirt was caked on the underside of her foot, the few minutes she spent barefoot during training setting her back a week in foot-care.

"Aha," she felt her hand latch onto a small object imbedded in the sole of her foot. With a grunt, she tugged it out, seeing a small trickle of blood follow it out.

"That must have hurt," the voice behind her made her hair stand on edge, and goosebumps formed down her arm.

"N-not really," she responded, giving her foot a rub to make it look like she had felt it. "It wasn't that deep in my foot."

"I would think a piece of glass would get pretty deep in there," looking down, Freya noticed it had been a piece of glass imbedded in her foot, and that the shard was the size of a rice ball.

"Well, it wasn't," she snapped, placing the glass on the ground next to her and drawing her shoe over her, still, bleeding foot. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Me?" She turned to face the voice, taking note of the raven-colored hair the boy sported, and the jet-black eyes to match. "Sasuke Uchiha," he looked at Freya expectantly.

"Freya Shoomi," she returned, returning his gaze without hesitation.

"Freya," he repeated, "get that cleaned out, or it'll get infected." With that, he turned, disappearing into the fading dawn. Taking his advice into consideration, Freya resumed her trot through the forest, trying to forget the curiosity she saw in Sasuke's eyes.

-

Emi had set the table, the wonderful smell of soup and fresh-baked bread filling the air. Raiden had already shown, but they were still waiting on Freya, who was known for her tardiness anyway.

"Should we go look for her?" Emi asked absentmindedly, watching Raiden shake his head.

"She'll show eventually, no need to starve me while we wait," he half-joked, feeling his stomach yowl in protest.

"I'm hungry, too..." Emi looked from the fluffy bread to the steamy soup, feeling herself gulp in anticipation. "But we should wait," Emi's stomach joined Raiden's in its plight, the sound of their stomachs yowling together making her uncomfortable.

"Emi?" She felt herself relax at the sound of Freya's voice; the scratch noise had become a comfort to her as of late. "Something smells good," she commented, giving a chuckle as her stomach joined the chorus of hunger.

"Finally," Raiden sighed, grabbing the ladle eagerly, "time to eat!"