Chapter 6

You found yourself in a small little ramen shop with your teammates. Apparently Kushina was of the belief that you needed to bond with your other teammates. Strengthen your friendships.

It was more than a tad awkward. Mostly considering that the three of you had just met each other recently. Which meant any amount of talking or establishing relationships would just come off as super forced.

So the three of you simply ate ramen in awkward silence. At least it was on Kushina's tab. How she got one for a ramen shop you didn't know. You noticed the salt shaker was closer to Megumi than it was to you. Which caused you to speak up.

"Do you mind passing the salt?"

Megumi gave you a look before rolling her eyes.

"Get it yourself."

Your eyes narrowed in response. If she wanted to play this game, you could most certainly play.

"Let me try this again, can you pass the salt as well as stop being a bitch?"

That was enough to get her attention. The man running the ramen place seemed to be slightly taken aback while his assistant simply shot glances towards the pair of you from the back. Probably working on noodles you imagined.

Your staring contest with Megumi was interrupted by Rin.

"H-hey guys, let's just focus on eating our food, alright?"

Megumi turned her attention onto her.

"Who the hell asked you? As a matter of fact, why are you even here? You're obviously older than us, and i don't remember ever seeing you in the academy."

Rin cringed back in surprise. She started to speak up, but then seemed to think better about it, slowly going back to her food. You shook your head in response.

"You can't let someone like her walk all over you, Rin. They won't ever stop that way."

Megumi then slammed her hand on the counter. Something that definitely got a look from the ramen shop's owner.

"What the hell do you mean 'someone like her', huh!?"

Your eyes narrowed as she started to become increasingly volatile.

"Isn't it obvious?"

She simply gave you a look. A look that had much less energy than her previous actions, but one that burned with just as much anger. If not more so.

"Spell it out for me."

You'd be right happy to. Before you could though, Rin appeared between the two of you. Taking a seat in the empty seat that had served as a divider between you and Megumi. Rin seemed rather nervous, but continued to eat in silence. Megumi shot you another look which you returned, before ignoring her and going back to your food.

…fuck, you still needed the salt.




*~o~*
Kushina's reaction to you telling her about the Mikoto visit was mild interest. Before gaining interest in something else. So you hadn't really expected much of anything really to come of it.

That was until today, where you were forced to dress up in your nice clothes to visit the Uchiha compound. Kushina seemed to have reached out to Mikoto and was going to visit her. Traveling into the Uchiha compound with Kushina at your side was an altogether different affair than usual.

There were more Uchiha guards for one. A lot more members about the place as well as more respect. The guards not saying so much as a word as she simply strode up to the compound and went in. Was this the power of connections, or just raw strength?

This time around you met not only Mikoto, but her husband. A rather serious looking man named Fugaku. Despite his quiet nature, he seemed to be an alright guy. Though it was obvious he wasn't interested in Kushina's and Mikoto's talk. His eyes taking on a thousand yard stare.

Which of course meant that it was time for you to leave before Mikoto and Kushina got completely absorbed into their conversation. Naruko's hand attempted to grasp you as you walked away, but she was quickly drawn back into Kushina's lap. Naruko's pleading eyes attempted to meet yours but you already made your escape.

Which lead to you traveling around their hallways in their house. You half expected to suddenly be ambushed due to how quiet it had gotten. Your paranoia caused you to constantly start looking around, until finally you caught someone looking at you from the end of the hallway.

Instead of charging them you calmly walked down the end of the hallway, turned the corner and waited. When they finally poked their head over the corner their eyes widened due to be face to face with you.

"Hi."

You decided to speak up first. Bending down on your knees to be more on her height. She seemed almost ready to run away at any second, but was able to work up the courage to stay where she was.

"H-hi…"

Mmm. Well it was a start.

"Satsuki, right? I'm Aoki."

She gave a slight nod, and looked down before looking back up at your eyes. Seemingly having found more courage, probably out of curiosity if you had to guess. You waited for her to ask you something.

"Um, do you want to play a game? Or practice outside?"

Hmm. Now that was a thought. You hadn't really thought of what to do to relieve your boredom…

Eh, you had just practiced earlier, so the only one who would gain anything would be Satsuki herself. Besides you were here to take a break and establish connections with the Uchiha clan. All for the good of your own clan.

"Sure, what games do you have?"

Satsuki's eyes lit up as she pulled you towards her own room. You blinked and looked around as she fished something underneath her bed, her back turned towards you. You glanced the room, taking in the sight of the first girls room you've entered. Naruko's didn't count of course.

It was…underwhelming. Rather plain in all regards. It was also pretty clean. It wasn't long before Satsuki pulled out her board game for you to play. Such things were rather novel to you.

Your mom had given you a light explanation of a game called shogi that was played on boards. You assumed this would be something similar. There were white and black stones. You had assumed Satsuki would choose the black stones but instead she wanted white.

You shrugged and choose black. You learned throughout the game that apparently if your pieces get surrounded that they get taken away. An unexpected surprise.

The game lasted about ten to fifteen minutes before Satsuki won. For some reason she seemed intent on counting the board and the amount of stones she's taken repeatedly before it sunk in that she won.

Something that made her really happy, it seems. Afterwards she gave a more detailed explanation of the game and how to win. You nodded at her words but in truth you weren't exactly that invested in the game itself. Or at least not nearly as invested as she was.

Which was how Kushina and Mikoto found Satsuki in your lap instructing you how to play a game. They made a strange cooing sound before whispering to each other. Giving the two of you strange glances.

Satsuki seemed to sense the same amount of danger you did and clung to you tightly. Something that seemed to only make the two adults whisper even louder. Even so, you didn't know what they were saying.

Even if you did you got the impression you were better off knowing.

Before leaving the Uchiha compound, Satsuki asked you to promise that you'd come back and spend more time with her. You waved your hand and said something noncommittal, which she didn't seem to take as a real answer.

Which meant she wouldn't allow you to leave until you promised to return. Forcing you to stick out your pinky and make a promise so you could go back home. Mikoto made an 'aww' noise that disturbed you, Kushina simply smirked, and Naruko seemed too shell-shocked to notice anything around her. No doubt caused by whatever it was Kushina had done.

Fugaku…well, he seemed fine himself, but he was still in the exact same position he was in when you had walked into the house…

He'd be okay, right?



*~o~*
It was time for your first actual C Rank Mission. Your team reacted in different ways, but all of them positive. You were to investigate the local disappearances in a village near the land of fire border. Disappearances that were widely reported to be bandits.

After confirming this, you were to deal with them. An easy enough mission you suppose. The only thing that would be tough about this was the trip towards the north of the land of fire. The road not exactly being streamlined and taking a few days to get to.

A few days that meant you were surrounded by your teammates. Rin was alright enough, but Megumi seemed intent on attempting to ignore your very presence. To the point of actual annoyance.

And for some reason Kushina seemed intent on punishing the both of you whenever you got into arguments. As if you had done anything wrong.

At the very least she seemed to understand putting aside her grievances when it came to the mission. The villagers were rather forward with their information, even so you decided to henge into a normal civilian in a bar to see if their information would change. It didn't, which meant you continued.

Investigating the areas of the kidnappings you were surprised to not find much in the way of an actual trail. To the point where even Kushina had to step in to help track the bandits down.

Kushina tracked them to a cave that was actually pretty far out of the way. About a few hours a walk for a ninja, which meant it was…well a lot more for normal people. You considered asking Megumi her opinion on it, but decided against it.

The entrance was also a bit obscure to find. The natural environment helping it to hide from sight. Unfortunately it wasn't enough for ninjas.

Which meant you had ease of access getting inside. After a bit of walking, you found torches lining the walls of the cave. Not only that, but the cave started to smooth out into an almost building like structure. Kushina frowned but continued on.

After awhile you felt a certain click under your foot. Kushina was quick to snag the three of you and push you guys behind her. Right afterwards a large gate slammed down between the three of you and Kushina. In the next second a large dent smashed into the wall.

"Stay safe! I'll be on the other side in a second."

Kushina assured you and your teammates. But your attention was directed behind you. A slithering sound seemed to echo from the walls. Rin seemed to be attacking the wall on this side while Megumi seemed slightly panicked.

Which is when a weird looking monster dropped down from the ceiling. An opening that wasn't there before closing up after it. The monster was…disgusting. It looked vaguely humanoid in appearance, with a long body like a worm. It coiled around itself as it approached.

"We got company guys."

You took a few steps back in order to be closer to your teammates than the monster in front of you. A long pronged tongue came out of its mouth as it seemed to lick the air before turning it's head towards you. Megumi quickly turned only to pause in shock. Rin on the hand was quick to turn back and run towards the monster.

You both ran and took different directions to it's sides. You took the left while she went right. It's body coiled as it looked back at the two of you having passed it's head. Due to the split it had to choose one of you to attack.

And that person was you. It's head quickly dived towards you. It's mouth unhinging in order to snap you up into it's maw. You substituted out of the way, and threw a few kunais onto it's side. They found purchase but didn't go as deep as you wanted them to.

So instead you used the opportunity they gave you, and used them as a stair case to get on its back. Rin seemed to have a similar idea as she landed quickly on it's back before you did.

You both gave a small nod to each other as you ran forward. You threw out kunai to stab into it's back. The pain causing it's head to rise up again only for Rin to go through hand seals.

She seemed to take in a breath before releasing it, a fireball being materialized in the cave on a direct course to it's head. The monster attempted to dive out of the way but Megumi who had somehow had appeared on the cave ceiling dropped down, slamming her foot into the back of it's head. Forcing it to meet the attack head on.

It hissed and thrashed in pain. The smoke obscured most of it's face, but you felt confident that you could at least predict it's movements. Which lead to you throwing a few kunai and shuriken. Moments later the worm monster stopped squirming and fell over dead.

The wall that had been barring you from Kushina also was knocked off it's hinges. Chains appeared at Kushina's side, and for a split second you had thought you had seen some sort of red aura around her. She broke out in a smile as she quickly noted you were all unharmed.

"Good work guys! Guess you didn't need me after all. But…"

She grimaced as she looked back past the gate. From where you were you could see what looked to be more of those worm things, but these weren't moving. Had she already dealt with them?

"…This doesn't seem to be a rank C mission. We should go back to the village and-"

You frowned.

"And call it a failure? No way!"

Megumi spoke up, stepping up to deny Kushina's idea. You were quick to offer your support. You didn't want to see your first actual mission a failure either. Rin sighed before stepping up, showing her support for her team.

Kushina sighed, but a smile seemed to be trying to break itself onto her face.

"Alright, but I have to warn you guys. If it gets too dangerous I'm forcing all of you out. Who knows what else Orochimaru has down here?"

Rin blinked, you frowned, and Megumi squeaked.

"Orochimaru, huh?"

That was one of the legendary sannin if you recall. The one who betrayed the leaf village. Well, didn't this mission get more interesting?

Who knows what else you could find down here?

The team continued down the path of the tunnel. Deep within the bowels of the earth the walls started to turn to a more metallic sheen. There were quite a few more worm like monsters but Kushina quickly dispatched them with her chains. They were commonly killed by the chains dragging them onto either the ground or the wall and then squeezed.

It was…gory.

You think Megumi had puked the first time it happened. Even you weren't exactly a fan of it. Rin on the other hand didn't seem very fazed. Perhaps having a stronger stomach than either of you.

When you had finally gotten to the main area of what Kushina called the 'lab' the three of you stuck to together but searched different areas. Kushina on the other hand would stay vigilant and on the look out.

While your teammates didn't seem to find much, you on the other hand found a series of documents in a table. You were quite sure what the documents were about, but they seemed to be…a dissection of some sort? What exactly was important about this you didn't really understand.

You gave it over to Kushina who flickered through it with mild levels of disgust before pocketing in. The three of you continuing searching but nothing else of much note was discovered. Except a few more monsters.

Which meant that it was time for all of you to travel back to Konoha on a job well done. As you left the cave though you couldn't help but feel as though someone had been watching you, even if only for a split second.
You told your worries to Kushina who seemed to focus on that direction before telling you that you were just paranoid. That such things were common feelings on the end of missions.

Perhaps she was right. Even still, you had your doubts. For some reason you felt like you just knew someone was in the forest. The feeling just wouldn't leave you.

You celebrated the moment you got home with your team. The mission had been given by the village, but Konoha bumped the pay up to a Rank B mission due to it being tied to Orochimaru's involvement. Apparently the village feels a bit responsible for him. Interesting.

Oh right, and the documents you had found probably helped contribute as well. What they were going to do with them wasn't your concern. What was your concern was where you were planning to eat.

It took about half an hour, but you were finally able to convince Kushina to get Barbeque instead of that Ramen place. Something the rest of your teammates were relived by. As you ate with them you felt conversation flow rather naturally. Much more than before.

And Megumi even passed you the salt!

Progress.