Chapter One: Team Thirteen

Mana Aomori was, perhaps, the prettiest girl Hitomi had ever seen. With her pretty, long curly pink hair and eyelashes that seemed to go on forever, Hitomi couldn’t help but to feel stuck somewhere in between jealously and awe. And Kin Sasaki seemed to, more or less, feel the same. Although the plain, brown-headed boy seemed to be leaning more towards awe. And Hitomi was forgotten. Because, pretty little Mana Aomori was too busy soaking up the attention from their teammate Kin Sasaki and he was all too willing to give it to her. Hitomi knotted her fingers through the material of her shirt, drawing it as far down her legs as it would stretch in a nervous habit to hide herself. “I’m Hitomi Taki,” she squeaked. Mana looked at her, a small, doll-like smile gracing her features. And Hitomi was almost convinced that she was just that: a doll. Kin stared blankly.

She cleared her throat, trying to get her introduction out of the way. Kazue Narita, their sensei, had insisted that she go first. “I’m twelve years old. Sometimes I draw. I aspire to be a great ninja one day.” Kin rolled his eyes.

“We all aspire to be great ninjas. We wouldn’t be here if we wanted to be bad ninjas.” Mana elbowed him in his side. Kazue sighed.

“Since you’re so eager, why don’t you go ahead and go next?” She didn’t seem too ecstatic to be here with them. Kin rolled his eyes, again.

“I’m Kin Sasaki, thirteen years old. I know three different languages and am working on my fourth.” Kin smirked at Hitomi. “And I, as well, aspire to be a great ninja one day.” Hitomi blushed, looking away from his crude green eyes. Mana huffed beside him.

“My name is Mana Aomori. I’ll be thirteen in five days. I like to sing and dance. And one day, I’d like to be a great medic nin and heal people.” She smiled at Kazue, pinching her eyes at the corners and scrunching her nose. Hitomi was still unsure if she hated her or not.

The woman that sat opposite of them leaned back. Her blonde hair was pulled back tightly into a neat bun and her cool, grey eyes stared up at the sky. “I’m Kazue Narita, I’m thirty-two years old and I’m a jounin. Someday I hope you all will be old and skilled enough on your own that I will no longer have to babysit you.” She let her eyes drift between the three of them. “Any questions?” Hitomi did not remind her that she didn’t tell them her hobbies. “Good. Now, as a trust exercise we will be going on a little excursion outside the village walls so that you can get to know and trust each other. I do not care for bickering, so don’t do it. These are your teammates: learn to like each other.” She stood up, dusting the dirt from her backside. “Any questions? No? Good. Meet me back here in an hour.”

Mana Aomori was perhaps the clumsiest person she knew. Hitomi had caught her at least three times since they stepped outside of the village gates, the former having tripped over holes in the road she did not see, rocks, and sometimes her own feet. Hitomi was always just close enough where she could dart forward before she could hit the ground and save her from a bruise or two. And each time Mana was blush profusely and apologize, thanking Hitomi abundantly. Hitomi was a little less jealous of her.

It took them around two hours to arrive at their campsite—far, far away from civilization. That also meant that Hitomi had spent the last two hours listening to Kin rambling on about things that meant very little to her. Mana sometimes joined into his conversation, talking about things that was far over Hitomi’s head. And it was then that she deduced that hey, maybe these two were a lot smarter than she originally thought. And maybe she had a reason to be jealous, after all. Not so much Kin as Mana, but the feeling was definitely still there.

But Mana still tripped. And Kin was still plain and kind of boring, if not egotistical.

Kazue was quiet the entire way there. She lead on fearlessly, walking six paces ahead of them and never once checking back to see if they were still following her. Hitomi wondered what would happen if they had lost sight of her and couldn’t find their way back. Would Kazue even notice?

Hitomi was very unsure how she felt about Team Thirteen.

Kin Sasaki was perhaps the loudest person she knew. As they sat around the camp fire that night, he boasted loudly about his past achievements and all the things he was good at. And when Hitomi and Mana made a joke, he never laughed. But he always did laugh at his own. No one else ever got what they were about or what was even funny about them at all, but they always had the boy in tears and it made Hitomi a little less intimidated by him. Someone who laughed that much couldn’t possibly be that bad.

Mana hummed, smiling at him. “You’re happier than I would have guessed you would be.” Kin frowned at her.

“What does that mean?”

“Well, earlier when we introduced ourselves you were kind of rude. It’s nice to see you smile, instead. That’s all.” Mana twirled a pink lock around her finger. Hitomi thought that it was just dark enough to remind her of the cross between pink and red in the sky when the sun set. Hitomi mused at the thought of their hair colors mixing together to gather around the sun as it was sinking behind the horizon. “You were rude, earlier.”

Kin shot Hitomi a pointed look. “I’m sorry,” he grumbled. Hitomi beamed at him.

“Just don’t let it happen, again,” she warned, over her momentary shyness. Kin nodded.

Kin Sasaki was perhaps the dorkiest person she knew. When they were rolling out there sleeping bags, she noticed a small brown teddy bear tucked underneath the blanket, its beady black eyes and brown round ears the only thing sticking out. She was sure no one else noticed as Mana had already settled in her own sleeping bag and was turned the opposite was from them and Kazue was sitting in a tree, doing whatever it was that she did. Kin noticed her staring at it.

“It’s dumb, I know,” he sighed, walking over and nudging it with his finger. “But it’s a comfort and, I dunno, this is all new and I thought it might help me sleep, y’know? I’ll grow out of it as I get used to you guys and being a ninja but…” his eyes were wary as he stared up at her. Hitomi noticed the uneasiness flash in his eyes, the nervous frown on his face. Kin’s green eyes weren’t as sharp as she remembered. “You can make fun of me if you want.”

Hitomi rolled her eyes, nudging his shoulder with her fist. “It doesn’t matter—yeah?” Kin smiled at her, although a bit shakily.

“Can you do me a favor and not tell Mana?” he whispered. Hitomi looked over at her.

“Do you like her?”

“Wha—no! No! It’s e-embarrassing that you know, as it is. I don’t want everyone to!” Hitomi’s smile turned sly.

“So you like her?”

Kin sighed deeply, biting his lip as he nodded. “Yeah, okay. Maybe a little.”

“I can hear you!” Mana groaned making Kin’s slight blush bruise his entire face red. She sat up on her elbows to stare at them. “And for the record, Kin, darling, if you’re going to confess to a girl, maybe you should tell her, privately, instead of the entire team.” Kin gulped, nodding. She smiled sweetly at them. “Goodnight, you two.”

“Night!” Kin yelped back.

Hitomi giggled, climbing into her own sleeping bag and trying her damnedest to sleep.

And in the morning, when she awoke, Hitomi realized that Kazue Narita wasn’t as cold as she sometimes seemed to be. She was still perched in the tree she had taken place to the night prior, hair a bit looser than perhaps the day before, no longer in the tight, head-ache inducing bun it had been in before, but hanging in loose strands around her face. The hair that was still bunched together in the back of her head hung barely contained by the rubber band, just at the back of her neck. Her hair was short, the blonde reaching just below her chin. And Hitomi couldn’t help the overwhelming affection that arose in her chest. Because Kazue Narita was not some super human being who did things and did not tire from them. Her mouth was parted as she snored.

“She’s kind of cute,” Mana giggled, nudging Hitomi as she sat down. “Like, if I wasn’t totally terrified by her, of course. But like this she’s almost vulnerable.” Mana looked at Hitomi, her wide, pink irises peeking up at her through thick eyelashes. “Is that weird to say?” Hitomi shrugged, leaning back on her sleeping bag.

“She doesn’t talk much.” The things about mornings were that, no matter who you were, there was a high probability that you didn’t look like a goddess descending from the heavens above. The thing about Mana Aomori, however, was that she was still cute with messy hair and a red cheek, from where she had slept. Hitomi was positive she looked more like a demon ascending from hell. Not the kind that lured men away from their wives, either. Hitomi was pretty positive, actually, that she looked like something children had nightmares about. “Did she say whether or not we would actually do something while we were here?” Mana did as Hitomi before her and shrugged.

“Do you think she’d pretend to sleep and is actually listening to us right now?”

“Like you did with Kin?” Hitomi teased, smiling as she playfully pushed her arm. Mana beamed at her.

“It’s not my fault!” She didn’t seem guilty, however, not even when defending herself. “I was trying to sleep—it’s not like I was eavesdropping!”

“Well, now you know he has a crush on you.”

Mana rolled her eyes. “He’s had one conversation with me. He just thinks I’m cute.” Hitomi wasn’t sure, but she was sure she noticed contempt laced behind Mana’s words. She didn’t say anything more on the subject.

When Kazue woke up, Hitomi and Mana had already been up for about an hour, waking Kin up with their giggling—their jokes centering around the aforementioned. He had not been pleased, of course. Hitomi, however, was. Because the more comfortable she got around her teammates, the more she discovered how fun it was to tease them. Mana laughed with her. Kin angrily defended himself, a feat that made her tease him more.

Kazue gracily jumped from her tree—almost as if she had been floating—quickly brushing through her platinum colored hair with her fingers before tightening back into a tight bun. Her cool grey eyes cut across them, speaking nothing as she made her way to the remnants of their fire. Hitomi found Kazue Narita really wasn’t that bad.

She made them breakfast.

Kazue Narita wasn’t so much as cold as she was awkward. She had, for the better part of the afternoon, tried (with little to no prevail) teaching them proper chakra control; first demonstrating how to walk on water, and then how to do it, themselves. And, although Hitomi had always been more than comfortable in the presence of water, perhaps a little more comfortable than she should have been, she could not seem to get it as quickly as the other two.

Mana was not just a pretty face. Albeit her intelligence, she also seemed to have quite the control over her own body. Obtaining chakra control was something she picked up a lot easier than the other two—leaving Kin and Hitomi to compete. As soon as Mana had demonstrated her graceful walk across the pond to the three of them, it was as if Hitomi and Kin had immediately began competing with each other, needing no words to sanctify their battle. Kazue sat idly by the water, watching them with disinterested grey eyes and a cool semblance. Her finger circled along the surface of the pond, creating a paradox of ripples every time she made another circle.

Hitomi got distracted by the little circles she made, losing concentration and falling into the water before she had even begun to walk across the surface. She could stand, but much after that seemed perpetually impossible. “Hitomi,” she heard just as she surfaced from the water. “Come here.” Kazue’s eyes were the color of the water when it was storming outside and her finger beckoned for her. Hitomi waded awkwardly to the woman.

She sat with her legs to her chest and when Hitomi sat beside her, she did not mind that the little genin was wet. But she did not make eye contact with her. “You seem to be doing fine until you have to walk across the water, is that correct?”

Hitomi mumbled a quick, “Yes, sensei!” her cheeks burning red.

Kazue looked at her then, her storm-grey eyes melting into something less violent. She had a scar that split her bottom lip into two. “Concentrate. Try not to think about what I’m doing or Kin’s loud, obnoxious chattering—which is mostly to himself, anyways. Try to imagine the flow of chakra through your veins, instead, and focus on the equilibrium in your body. Before you know it, you won’t even have to think about it. “

Hitomi was the second to master chakra control. Kin kicked water at her.

Kazue’s hand was unsure on her shoulder and her smile a bit unused, but it could not have made Hitomi happier.

Team thirteen, perhaps, wasn’t as bad as she thought it to be.