I am a Dancer (Naruto fanfiction)

14: Specialized Occupying

"Hirano! Ibiki-san wants you!" Kotetsu called, spotting me as I made my way to the Academy.

"I have--"

"Don't worry, just see him after the Academy is over!" I waved in his direction and continued to the Academy. So, according to Konoha's records and profile, I'm still an Academy student. Thankfully, since Ibiki-san wants me to join his team of interrogation and other duties, Hokage-sama let me become Ibiki-san's team's apprentice until after I complete one school year of the Academy. After that, I can take their specialized exam and be part of their team!

"Hirano! Good to see you!" Iruka Sensei called to me. "Have you been doing your stretches?"

"Of course, Iruka Sensei," I laughed, ducking into the building. "Don't I always?" He patted my back and headed to class, while I went to my own. Sadly, I don't have Iruka Sensei as my teacher this year. I go to class 1-A, but Iruka Sensei teaches at 2-B.

When class ended, I nodded hello to the other Academy girls and escaped to the higher open levels, where my former friends would sometimes eat lunch. I wish I was Team Seven...

After lunch, I returned to the Academy grounds to participate in the training sessions. I smiled back at Iruka Sensei who was still our training teacher. "Hirano! You're up next!"

"Hai!"

Once training was over, I headed straight to the interrogation building. "Hiya Hirano," Izumo called, running up to me. "Going to see Ibiki-san, eh?

"Yeah, Kotetsu-san said he wanted to see me," I answered.

"You've been with us for a couple of weeks now," he said, nodding. "Those Genin teams must be running around doing their rank D missions."

"D rank? Oh! Community work," I exclaimed.

"Well, except they get paid," the Chunin corrected me. "I remember those times." He shook his head as if recalling a bad dream.

"Actually, what exactly are these D rank missions?" I wondered out loud.

"They cover from grocery shopping, pet finding, tending the garden, cleaning the village's natural grounds, and maintaining equipment and work areas," Izumo shuddered. "We didn't get paid a lot of money; I hardly got enough to buy a drink!"

"Awww, you poor thing," I teased, turning down the hallway. "But, you're better off as a Chunin, right?"

"I wonder..." we passed through the doors of the interrogation section and came face to Ibiki-san.

"Sir," we said in unison.

"Hirano, Izumo," he acknowledged. "Come with me." We followed him down a couple of more halls and into the training room.

"Hirano, you'll be working here today," Ibiki-san said curtly, while another Chunin I didn't quite recognize stood beside him. "Cho, show her what to do. Izumo, come with me."

"Hai." Izumo waved to me, and I turned to Cho.

"I'm Cho, one of the decoders under Ibiki-san," the Chunin said briefly. "It's a pleasure to have you with us today, Hirano-san."

"Thank you, Cho-san, I'm honored to work with you and the rest," I responded politely with a bow.

"From my job description title, you can already guess we will be doing codes today," Cho said, taking me deeper in their base. "After all, enemy ninjas have secret messages that we have to be able to decipher quickly."

"Right."

We entered a room where about thirty people were at computers, typing information, reading from books and scrolls, and writing out words at breakneck speed.

"Over here," Cho called to me at an empty computer. I joined him at the computer and watched him type several different characters I didn't recognize in. "Ready? I'm going to teach you several basic ways how to decode something."

I hardened my gaze and glanced at the book in his grip. "I'm ready."