Chasing After You || Itachi

Ch. 4 - Missions and Encounters

Fundamentals came easy to them, partly because they had just graduated from the Academy and partly because they had advanced scores from their graduation tests. Hayama Shirakumo thought to himself as he watched his genin do their training exercises. Koji and Izumi, he could understand since their class grades were above average, but Tora, her overall grades were baseline average. Maybe she was just a good test taker? It had been a few days since they first began training, and the kids had already mastered the beginner's stuff such as walking on water and walking up trees. Teamwork takes time so he wasn't in a rush to work on that, but he was going to start thinking of individualized training plans for them. If they developed skills that were best suited for them, they could use them cooperatively and gain more trust in each other.

"Okay, I'm letting you go early today. We have a mission tomorrow so you need to be prepared and have adequate rest. You all need to pack for a week. Meeting time is 10AM at the front entrance. You're dismissed." Hayama told them. The three genin nodded and thanked him before the jonin disappeared.

"Our first mission!" Izumi grinned. She turned and grabbed a hold of Tora's hands. "I'm so excited!"

Tora was surprised at the sudden physical contact, but smiled nonetheless. "Yeah. I didn't expect to get one so soon." She couldn't wait to tell Hana.

"You two are such babies, getting excited over a mission." Koji crossed his arms in feigned annoyance, however the slight smile on his face gave him away.

Tora rolled her eyes and walked over to Koji with a knowing smile. "You're a terrible liar, Koji-senpai. Seems like our senior is excited too, Izumi. He gets to spend a week with two cute girls."

The male scoffed and turned his head away from Tora. "Shut up. If you mess up, I'm not helping you."

"Look, he's blushing!" Tora laughed, eyeing Koji's neck, which was getting redder by the second from embarrassment.

Izumi giggled. "Stop teasing him, Tora. Let's go get ready for tomorrow."

The trio left the training grounds and headed down the streets of Konoha together. It was only three in the afternoon, so there were plenty of villagers out and about.

"Do you have a good amount of tools? My dad says you need a variety of tools you're good with and some other supplies too when going on a mission." Koji explained. "My older brother used to show me all the things he would get for his missions." His voice started to trail off during the last sentence, which caused Tora to frown for a moment.

Izumi smiled. "Let's go shopping together then. I think that would be great."

Tora nodded in agreeance as she checked her pockets. Blinking in confusion, she checked again and looked in her pouch as well. Where was it? She spun around, searching the ground around them before sprinting off. "You two go ahead! I'll catch up!"

The female ran back to the training grounds with a heavy sigh. She couldn't believe that she had lost her wallet. It was small, so maybe it had fallen out while she was practicing her weapon throwing skills. Once she made it back to the training grounds they were at, she looked around the target area before searching in the more forested area. A small flash of metal caught her eye and she tilted her head in curiosity before heading over. As she approached the place she saw the glare from, her hand brushed over a slightly worn, painted target.

The sound of metal cutting the air alerted Tora's ears and she immediately crouched down defensively, ready to strike. Looking behind her at the target, she noticed a kunai sticking out slightly above the center and a couple spots of blood. Narrowing her eyes, she stood up and inspected the kunai before her adrenaline died down and she felt a painful stinging sensation from her back of her left hand. There was a long cut across her skin that wasn't too deep, but it was bleeding profusely. She was too slow to dodge that kunai?