The Huntress

Chapter 4

The day after dinner at the Inuzuka's, Ilya decided to see the hokage, and asked Kiba along. He agreed nearly immediately of course and she had smiled gratefully at him. They were set to meet in front of the building to her hotel/apartment by 7:45, so she went out to wait by 7:40. She waved to the blond boy as he passed and he said a cheery hello to her.

7:45 on the dot and Kiba and Akamaru showed up. They all said hello and set off for the Hokage tower. Kiba chattered away, arms behind his head as walked and Akamaru on his head. They got to the tower by 7:58 and Ilya was surprised at how close it was. They walked up the ungodly amount of stairs and Kiba walked right up to hokage's door and knocked then let himself in. Ilya walked in behind the boy and looked curiously at the old man dressed in white robes and smoking a pipe. She frowned, was that even safe to smoke around children?

"Ah, Kiba-kun," the old man said, his voice gravelly but kind. Kiba said a respectful hello and introduced Ilya to him. Ilya bowed, a little shallowly, "it's nice to meet you Ilya," the old man said, "but what brings you two here?" He asked.

Ilya stood out of her bow, her arms crossed in front of her chest. "I've come to ask for a residency certificate. Or citizenship or whatever it is," Ilya said, tapping a finger against her forearm. Kiba glanced at her the turned back to the hokage.

Lord Third hummed in response, taking a puff of his pipe. "I see," another puff, "and what would you be able to offer my village?" Ilya startled. She wasn't prepared for such a question. Kiba baffled as well, wondering what kinda questioning this was.

"Well I'm a good hunter," Ilya trailed, talking slow while she thought.

"We have plenty of hunters and livestock farmers," The Hokage said, another puff.

Ilya frowned. "I could probably guard your gates better than the two dunces you've got there now," she said, her eyebrows creased.

The hokage gave a secret smile to hidden anbu, "well that sounds promising," he replied, another puff. "Do you have any experience with weapons?"

The girl looked straight in his eyes with her startlingly purple ones, "I know how to use a long bow, a cross bow, and short bow. As well as knives of most sizes. However something the length of a sword is a bit much for me," Kiba looked at her almost in shock. No wonder she was often at the butchers, she was bringing the guy the animals she hunted for some living money.

The hokage hummed thoughtfully, another puff. "That also sounds pretty promising," he said. He pulled some papers out of a desk drawer and handed them across his messy desk to the girl. "Well then, just sign these papers and you'll officially be a resident of Konohagakure." He said, a smile on his face.

She took the papers, almost in amazement, and smiled at the man. She opened her mouth to say thank you but he beat her to saying something, "I think you might like the ninja academy, I think you'd suit it," and she was flabbergasted. And so was Kiba.

"What's a ninja academy?" She asked and Kiba anime fell.

~~~~~

As it turned out, she totally would love the ninja academy. And she was glad she was being placed with people her age, but she had to take a crash course in everything ninja. Which would happen over this week and then in the next she would start her first classes.

She was pretty excited, but also a little unsure. The old man said she could quit at any time she liked, and there are ninjas who stay at certain ranks, either unable to rank up or because they want to. Or so she's told. And apparently Kiba and his family are all ninja, and no one said a thing.

Also, the existence of ninja explains a few things from the last year. Like that one person she saw basically disappear in a puff of smoke. And someone she saw turn into another person before her eyes.

Anyways, this ninja thing seems really cool. And she was totally ready to infiltrate places and garner secrets untold, assassinations she wasn't quite ready for but who is truly ever ready. Unless you're a psychopath.

She was to meet a jonin at training field 6, by 7:30 am, and it was currently 7:25. (Btw it's the next day, after the hokage gave her the registration papers)

She stepped onto the field, which was really more of an area of dirt. There were a lot of trees surrounding the clearing, as is in all of Konoha. She looked around almost restlessly, figuring whomever would be teaching her would just appear in a puff of smoke.

And she was correct, the man appeared in a puff of smoke at the edge of the clearing right at 7:30am on the dot.

The smoke cleared and out stepped a man. Why was it always a man? This man was nearly about 6' in height, brown hair down to his jawline, a bandana covered most of his hair though, and a senbon in his mouth. His eyes were brown, and he wore a dull green vest over a black turtleneck shirt.

He looked over at her and walked over, "I'm Genma Shiranui, I take it that you're Ilya?" The girl nodded at him and waited on the centre of the clearing. When he made it to her he inspected her musculature; her tight fitting turtleneck exposed toned arms and stomach, most likely from learning how to draw a bow, and the sleeves ran all the way down her arms and turned into fingerless gloves. A zip-up sweater with a hood was laying across her arms, she also wore brown sweatpants tucked into a pair of boots. She had a knife strapped to her thigh, in the perfect place for her to reach it from nearly any angle; and there were nearly hidden clips on her boots, probably to hold and hide little throwing knives or something similar.

He nodded at her, "alright, then first we'll start with taijutsu," he said, getting into a basic stance.

~~~~

Her muscles gave out as she entered her apartment, barely locking the door as she slid to the ground in exhaustion. She practically dragged herself to her bedroom, and almost decided to give up on the rug, despite how dirty she thought it was. She did end up dragging herself onto her bed, feet overhanging and so drained she fell asleep instantly.

Or so she'd like, there was a knock on her door not soon after and she groaned in frustration. She stood up, shedding her hoodie and tossing it in the corner with her dirty laundry.

She walked down the short hall and opened the door, surprised at who appeared. "Hi," the visitor greeted, "I grabbed you something to eat, you seemed exhausted."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And scene!

A cliffy!

1200 words :) (I'm only counting the ones before the long squiggles)

Sorry it's short y'all, kinda lost motivation

Next chapter in about a week :)