Not Having It

A brunette genin with a scar across his nose was laughing along with a branch Hyuga genin and a raven civilian genin. They were walking toward a small ramen stand, celebrating their recent graduation to genin.

"I can't believe Haisha made such a scene, I would have thought he would be happy to be on a team with an Uchiha." The brunette, Iruka, said through slight chuckling.

"I thought I was gonna die holding in my laughter when his voice cracked." The raven, Mukankei, chuckled, scratching his nose.

"I thought he was going to hit you, Kei', he kept glaring at you." The Hyuga, Sukunai, giggled at the raven.

Iruka was smiling along with his new team, he was happy that he was put on a team with his friends, although he felt a bit bad that his friend Mizuki wasn't on his team. Before he knew it they reached Ichiraku's ramen shop, sitting down on the bar stools and waiting to be served while talking animatedly. Iruka, however, couldn't shake off a sense that something was wrong, but he didn't mention it.

They got their ramen and Suku and Kei continued talking to each other while Iruka chose to talk to Ayame, the late teenage girl who worked the shop with his father. Something Ayame said caught Iruka's attention.

"Yesterday dad and I found this tiny boy sneaking around our shop, he couldn't have been more than four but he was just wandering the streets, the poor thing." This bugged Iruka, being an orphan he held a part of his heart to the young and starving, not that his foster dad let him starve. He continued listening intently. "Dad gave him some ramen to help him warm up, he was drenched from the downpour and covered in bruises. We tried to take him inside and warm him up more but he disappeared." She said, she seemed bugged by the matter and kept turning her gaze to the streets to see if she could see him. Her attempts were in vain though and she sighed and helped her father clean the dishes.

Iruka was silent now, staring at his own reflection in the broth at the bottom of his bowl. He was somewhat worried for the boy, even without meeting him. His kunoichi teammate, seeing his worry with her 360 vision, spoke up.

"Hey, what's on your mind?" She asked, turning to face her brunette teammate.

"Well Ayame was just telling me about a starving kid she found, it makes me kind of worried." He said, still looking down at his almost finished ramen.

"Hey!" The raven spoke up. "We're ninja now, this can be our first mission!" He said, getting up. Iruka's eyes widened but then he got up too, a sudden motivation bubbling in his chest. "Ayame, what did the boy look like?" He said, quickly paying for the meal.

"Well, he had bright blonde hair, big blue eyes, he was short and scrawny and had whisker scars on his cheeks." She gave the description quickly, happy that she could get some ninja on the case. Iruka looked to his teammates and they nodded at the same time, a silent order.

They all ran off in different directions, Iruka going the direction that Ayame kept glancing at. His running turned to a walk as he looked around the streets of Konoha. He was walking for about half an hour when he smelled something that didn't seem to affect the civilians around him. He found this odd, seeing as he didn't have a particularly good nose, so he was sure that at least some of the other villagers smelled the strong scent.

Blood.

He hurried into the dark alleyway where he was sure it was coming from, but he was engulfed in dark silence. The tall buildings blocked the sunlight so he went off feelings. He walked forward, his shinobi sandals making crisp taps as he walked further until he froze at a sudden 'splat'. The puddle was warm and as Iruka's eyes adjusted, he gasped in horror at the deep red that covered the pavement. He looked around to see what he only hoped would be a dead animal. Instead he found a scrawny child, quietly whimpering and trying desperately to stop a deep gash in his side.