The promise was simple- she wouldn’t get hurt this time. She wouldn’t do something that he’d taught her brought pain.

'Simple.'

How was it that only moments after they’d found the thieves she ended up breaking that promise? They’d been told that this was a C Rank mission. Perhaps their information was off.

The kunai that embedded itself in her thigh was the first sign that the promise was broken. The second sign, however, was when she’d managed to conceal herself from the thieves and get a good look at where she’d felt the weapon hit. After all, without checking the impact she had no way of knowing if she was hurt. Pursing her lips in annoyance, she grabbed the kunai by sticking her finger through the hole and swiftly drew it out before gripping it lightly in her hands.

Her teammate had left to let their team leader know that they’d found the thieves. Perhaps if she took care of them before he and the others had returned then she’d be able to prove that she didn’t need to make promises like that, she could handle herself fine enough.

“Where’d the brat go?”

She bit her lip to keep from laughing in response to the question that reached her ears from the forest floor below. They were smart enough to know they were being followed, but not smart enough to discover where a simple genin had hidden herself? Perhaps she’d given them too much credit when they’d located her the first time. She must have given something away, or perhaps something had fallen when Noriaki had left her.

Closing her eyes, she quietly focused on the sounds coming from where she’d heard the voice. It wasn’t hard to catch the next hint of their location- it was as if the thieves weren’t even trying to conceal their movements. The crunch of their footsteps on the ground made them as obvious to her as if she had been looking straight at them. She twirled the kunai around her finger one time before catching it with her hand once again and sending it flying towards where she’d heard the movement. The second that the kunai had left her she changed positions, leaping from the branch she was on to one up higher that she was certain would give her a better view.

The moment her feet landed on the branch, however, she almost fell off of it in surprise. One of the thieves was already there, eyeing her with something close to contempt. A sigh escaped his mouth a second later.

“Honestly, what were those morons thinking sending kids like you after us?” he questioned, raising one hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. “It’s insulting.”

She didn’t respond right away, swiftly trying to put more distance between her and him in the trees. She doubted that there was actually much danger in this position, there wasn’t really a chance that he’d know how to fight someone like her, but it was better safe than sorry. If she got anymore blood on her Noriaki would scold her when he got back.

“Hey, kid, how old are you anyways?” the man asked without dropping his hand.

She blinked, tilting her head thoughtfully. Perhaps he had a problem fighting someone her age? He had said it was insulting.

“Thirteen.”

“Damn.”

A bit of irritation began forming in the back of her mind. From the sound of it he felt more than just insulted, it was as if someone had burdened him by putting her in front of him.

“That doesn’t mean you should lower your guard,” she grumbled. “Just cause I’m a kid.”

The man shrugged, dropping his hand this time and turning his attention to the forest floor.

“Hey, Ai, it’s just a kid. You shouldn’t get so worked up. What would you have done if you’d killed her?”

That bit of irritation that had begun to form became full blown annoyance.

“Well, how was I supposed to know?” the man below them demanded. “‘sides, what makes you think you can afford to be going soft on kids! She could be a shinobi you know! She threw my kunai back at me!”

The one in front of her blinked as if this had just occurred to him. His eyes returned to the irritated girl with curiosity before widening in surprise. He must have spotted her forehead protector.

“Well, I’ll be damned.”

It was her turn to sigh.

“If you’re not going to fight,” she began, laying one hand on her hip. “Then just give me the necklace so I can leave. I’m already going to get in trouble for getting blood on my clothes.”

“Look, kid, I never said I wasn’t going to fight. If you’re a shinobi then I guess it wouldn’t really be a simple job of telling you to leave us alone,” he retorted. “It’s just a matter of hurting you but not killing you.”

She shrugged, allowing her left hand to slowly fall towards her weapons pouch.

“Well, it was worth a shot.”

“Kazue!”

Tearing her eyes away from her opponent for just a moment, she caught sight of Noriaki reappearing, their other two teammates at his side. In that split second she barely caught sight of movement out of the corner of her eye and felt something impact her shoulder this time. Noriaki’s eyes widened and their team leader began performing handsigns. Recognizing them within an instant, Kazue dropped from the tree to the forest floor.

“Earth Release: Earth Style Wall!”

Just as Kazue’s feet hit the ground a wall shot up between her and where the man had been standing. Within minutes she could hear Miki release yet another attack.

'Damn, they got here before I did anything,' Kazue realized. 'Wait, perhaps I could take care of the o-'

Noriaki dropped down in front of her, cutting off any thoughts of her getting involved in the fight. She sighed, crossing her arms as he studied her with a frown. The second she looked away from him she caught sight of where the other man had gone, as well as the fact that their third teammate was already facing off against him, a rather ecstatic look on the boy’s face. She could only imagine hell that man was seeing at that moment with their teammates talent for genjutsu.

“Kazue,” Noriaki groaned. “Look at you.”

Flickering her eyes towards the shoulder where she’d felt the impact, she rose a brow as she realized exactly what had happened. Within a second she was pulling the kunai free just as she’d done the one that had ended up in her thigh earlier and dropped it to the ground. As soon as that was taken care of, she began picking the fishnet out of the bleeding gash that had been left behind. Seconds after it was clear the skin began reforming and she raised her eyes back to Noriaki’s.

“No harm done,” she informed him as a body fell to the ground a short distance away.

Noriaki tensed and had his hand over his shoulder and on the hilt of his katana within a second earning him what Kazue deemed a well deserved eyeroll. Instead of reaching for a weapon as he had done, she picked her way through the undergrowth to where the thief had fallen. One look at the fear in his expression told her who had already finished their fight. The same person dropped to the ground next to her, not even glancing at the thief.

“You’ve got blood on you again,” he mused. “To think that someone promised Nori-kun that she wouldn’t get as much as a splinter this time.”

“Shut up, Jun,” Kazue retorted, turning her attention to the trees above them. “Where’d Miki-sensei go?”

“Dunno, it’s possible she forgot where she left us,” he replied.

“That would mean that we have to go find her, wouldn't it?” she asked with a sigh.

He shrugged again and peered up into the trees like she had done.

“Probably, you’d think that being a jounin she’d at least know that losing her team is a bad idea,” he added as Noriaki walked over to examine the thief.

“You’d think,” Kazue agreed. “Nori, you find it?”

He didn’t reply at first, then straightened up, holding a leather pouch for them to see. Jun clasped his hands together, a cheeky smile on his face.

“And Nori-kun saves the day.”

“Is that the necklace?” she asked, hoping to defuse the situation.

Noriaki had already reached for the hilt of his katana with his free hand, glaring daggers in Jun’s direction. He slowly dropped his hand back down and nodded in her direction. The motion cast a strand of his dirty-blonde hair into his face which he didn’t bother to fix as he silently tucked the pouch away to the one strapped around his waist. Jun peered past him at the still unconscious thief with a thoughtful expression on his face. A second later he grinned and glanced back at Kazue.

“I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we just leave him here? Maybe something will eat him. It will save us the trouble of dragging him all the way back to the temple, instead we’d just have to take the necklace.”

Kazue stared at him, amazed as usual about how casually those words came out of the boy’s mouth. He honestly didn’t have the features to match his cold words, with his tiny, unthreatening frame, and his slender, girlish looking face. Seeming not to notice her expression, Jun tucked his hands behind his back in a habit he’d picked up from their sensei. Kazue sighed, turning her attention to Noriaki for the answer. He was the only one out of the three of them with a big enough frame to even hope being able to carry the thief. He might have been a whole inch shorter than her, but he was stronger and bigger than Jun.

Noriaki caught onto her questioning glance and turned around, reaching down to attempt and pick up the man. He dropped him a second later and shook his head. Apparently they weren’t carrying the guy. Her eyes flickered back to Jun, and she hesitated.

“Jun-kun…” Kazue began. “We can’t just leave him, so if you wouldn’t mind…”

“Sure thing,” he replied cheerily. “I’ll wake him up.”

A second later the man’s hands were tied behind his back with a small bit of rope that Noriaki had brought along for that purpose. Not waiting to see how Jun intended to wake the thief, Kazue turned her attention to Noriaki, who was eyeing her with disapproval. Remembering a passing thought from earlier, she raised one hand to brush her bottom lip and found it crusted with blood. She must have broken skin when she bit it earlier. It was easy for her to do and was another habit of hers that seemed to annoy Noriaki to no end.

“Sorry, Nori,” she mumbled sheepishly.

His only response was to glance in the direction that Jun and the thief were before giving her a look that said they would discuss this later. Kazue once again diverted her attention from Jun and the thief and within a second the man had begun shouting, which let her know it was time to go. With their luck they’d have to search the whole forest to find where their forgetful sensei had wandered off to. It wasn’t that uncommon of a task for their group, but it was an annoying one none-the-less.

Miki, a jounin that if Kazue had to guess she would probably place in her early twenties, seemed to be one of the most absent-minded shinobi she had ever met. By the time that they had finally located her, she was sitting on top of the other thief’s back, a book clasped in her hands. Miki’s blood-red hair was pulled into a short, messy braid that was tied securely over her shoulder. Her dark brown eyes were focused on the page as she flipped it to the other side, not seeming to care she was in the middle of a mission.

All-in-all, if it wasn’t for the katana on her back and the fore-head protector displayed openly on her head, the picture was one that no one would have guessed to be a shinobi.

Seeming to realize her team had arrived, Miki raised her eyes from the book and gave them a bright smile.

“Did you find the necklace?” she questioned.

“Yep!” Jun replied cheerily. “And we also brought the man with us!”

Miki cocked her head and leaned to the side so to peer past the three genin where the probably traumatized thief was standing. He hadn’t said anything since they’d started searching for Miki beyond begging that he be kept as far away from Jun as possible. The request hadn’t come as a surprise to any of them- except perhaps the disturbing twelve-year-old himself.

“Good, let’s go wrap this up then. We’ve been away from home for far too long. I miss it.”

“Miki-sensei…” Noriaki began, annoyance building in his features. “You’ve been rushing us this entire time. You just want to get back so that you can annoy Kakashi-sensei, don’t you? I assume that book is probably one you bought just because he was reading it.”

An innocent look that none of them believed appeared on the jounin’s face.

“Of course not! I just miss home, and this is a good book.”

Kazue studied the cover with a doubtful expression. Nothing about the book said good- perverted definitely- but not good.

“Sensei, we’ve only been gone for two days,” she reminded Miki, deciding not to comment on the book itself.

“Which is why I miss home. Two days is a long time. Don’t you miss Hiso-nii?” their sensei retorted.

“So, in short,” Jun butted in. “You miss Kakashi-sensei and want to rush home to annoy him!”

“I told you that’s not it!”

A/N: Hello everyone! Do to AnimeFanToTheDeath, this story got out faster than it might have. I also had an offer from SweetNightmare1o1, but I decided to use the one that I have, at least for now. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the first chapter in Painless, the first book in the Senseless series! This is a chapter mainly to test the waters, I'm not quite certain how long it will take for chapters to start coming out at a regular pace, just so you're aware. 

Also, as with all my stories, I love feedback! Feel free to make comments about things you think are out of place, grammar junk, ships, all that fun! I'll do my best to reply! 

<3 Y'all. Hope to post again soon!