• The next day I strode to the academy, reaching up constantly to feel the soft, weathered fabric of Iruka's headband. I might have to tie it on my head, I thought, not as a necklace. Even though i like it better this way.
    When I strode through the door Iruka handed me a note. "You're on Team Eight, Matsuo," he said. "Led by Kurenai Yuhi. She wants to meet her team at the park. Oh, and Matsuo..." Iruka set his clipboard down and circled around the desk. "I got you a surprise. Consider it a...graduation present."
    "Well, you didn't have to get me anything," I grinned. "But if you insist..."
    "This is a lot of responsibility," Iruka said, crouching. Something rattled. "But I think you can handle it." With this he stood, and in his arms was an exasperated looking tankui, its fur gleaming a light gold. A green bow was tied on its forehead.
    i gasped. "Uncle Iruka! She's so cute!"
    he blushed. "It's a he."
    'he's so cute!! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!" I practically leapt over the desk to hug him tightly. I took the tanuki gently. "I'll name him Momoko." I said then, pressing my cheek to his furry one. "because...well...it sounds cute."
    Iruka nodded and, looking flustered, came around the desk and ushered me out the door. "Go! Before you're late!"
    "Okay! Bye!!"
    I hurried out the door, and when i was far enough away from the Academy, set Momoko on my shoulder and undid the bow on his head. "Sorry about that," I sighed. "He thinks i'm a girly girl."
    Momoko squeaked irritably.
    When I reached the park my other two teammates were there, along with Kurenai. She was wearing a red dress with white bandages over it, and she had long black hair and crimson eyes. "You're late." She said bluntly. My face flushed.
    "i'm sorry. It won't happen again."
    Suddenly a white dog plowed into me, and I crashed into the ground. Momoko leapt off my shoulder and scittered to a safe distance. As I sat up, the puppy began to lick my face. "Aw," I laughed. "Hey there little guy."
    "Akamaru!" My teammate, a boy in a gray jacket with fur lining, jumped up , face flushed. Two red markings on his face stood out brightly. "Sorry," he said, tugging the dog away and offering a hand. "You must be nice. Akamaru doesn't really greet a lot of people like that."
    "If you're quite ready," Kurenai said irritably. "May we begin?"


    I had finally made my way back to my house while it had become dark out. Unlocking it both Miki, and Sho jumped off my shoulders to go find their little pillows they'd slept on. I made myself a little dinner of salad, since I had some ramen earlier. I made my bed from what I found stored in the apartment. I started thinking back to what my brother had told me to do to become a great ninja.
    Flashback

    "Okay Akane, you want to know how to become a good ninja right?" My brother, Juro (I'll go with that for his name), said in a sweet way, since I was about five. I nodded in response to my shy disposition. "Well you got to know how to fight well, and use jutsu's that's obvious," he continued. "But what I find important is that you need to know your enemy," He said. " You study them, and know their fighting styles," He said picking me up, and carrying me back to our apartment
    in the Sand.

    End Flashback

    The last part of my memory echoed. I already studied most of the ways ninja fought, and the major clans in the Leaf. I knew how Hyuuga fought so that was to my advantage. I flopped on my bed, and starred at the ceiling till, I fell asleep.

    Next day

    I had gotten to the area half and hour earlier that what expected so Gai, could see I was serious about this. By the time everyone got here I was just sitting around playing with my ferrets. I looked up to see Neji. "Good afternoon, everyone," I greeted, not taking my eyes of my opponent.



    I sat down on the bench between the boy with the white puppy and a stoic looking boy with a high collared white shirt and dark sunglasses, drawing Momoko into my lap. Kurenai set her hands on her hips. "Now. My name is Kurenai Yuhi. I'm a Jonin who likes candy and dislikes stuck up ninja. I specialize in Genjutsu and my goal for the future is to successfully train you three Genin." she locked her crimson eyes on the sunglasses kid. "Let's go in order now. Name, likes, dislikes, specialty, goal."
    The boy didn't even move. "Shino Aburame," he said, voice dark and gravelly. "I like...bugs. I dislike...people, in general. I specialize in my Clan's Hidden Technique. My goal is to right someone powerful."
    The dog - boy elbowed me and leaned close. "Kinda creepy, isn't he?" he whispered.
    I didn't answer, for Kurenai looked at me. "Your turn."
    I cleared my throat. "My name is Matsuo Arata. I like reading and writing, and I dislike people who are self-centered."
    "She's not going to get along with you, then, Kiba." Shino said, voice monotone.
    "Hey, what is that supposed to mean?" Dog - boy yowled.
    ""You two, hush." Kurenai snapped. "Matsuo. Go on."
    I tugged at my headband anxiously for reassurance, for some attempt at getting Iruka's confidence. "I specialize in Genjutsu - " Kurenai rose her eyebrow curiously at this. "And my goal is to join the Anbu Blackops."
    Dog- boy looked doubtful, arms folded protectively at his chest. He didn't even wait for Kurenai to urge him to speak. "Kiba Inuzuka. I like playing with Akamaru here-" he stroked the puppy's head. "And I dislike people who wear sunglasses and like bugs," he added loudly. Shino didn't even move. "I specialize in dual attacks with Akamaru, and my goal is to beat Naruto. At whatever."
    Akamaru leaned forward, snuddling at Momoko, who let out a little chittering noise. In unison Kiba and I tugged back our pets. Momoko turned and glared at me with deep brown eyes. "I just got him," i said in explanation to a wary looking Kiba.
    "Oh." Kiba grinned. "Maybe he can train with Akamaru later."
    "Cool!" I chirped. "Sounds good."
    "Back to business, then!" A cheerier Kurenai said, clapping her hands. "Now, a quick team building activity." her eyes flashed. Kiba and I leaned forward eagerly. "I hid a headband in the forest. You have until nightfall to find it, as a team, with no assistance from me. Good luck."
    and suddenly, she was gone.


    "Okay everyone's pumped up and ready to go! Just so I get everything right, I want everyone to introduce themselves, once again!" Gai sensei seemed to be beaming with enthusiasm while he said this. Rock Lee began jumping up and down.
    "Oh, oh me Gai sensei! I want to go first!" Lee said, still jumping with his hand raised.
    "Alright, my youthful student, go!" Gai ordered.
    "My name is Rock Lee, and my goal is to be a ninja who doesn't have to use Gen, or Nin jutsu!" Lee said happily. Tenten went on with herself next.
    "My name's Tenten, and my specialty is weapons," She said smiling with the sweetest smile ever. I'd never think of her as a weapons specialist, but who am I to say, not to judge a book by it's cover.
    "My name is Neji Hyuuga," That all my opponent said. Finally it was my turn, so I started off with my name like the others.
    "My name is Akane Makoto, I moved from the Sand to live here in the Leaf, and become a ninja. My goal," I paused not sure if I should say it since it was about my family, but I continued after swallowing the lump in my throat. "My goal is to find the person that kidnapped my brother, and bring that person to justice, and that my parents will come home from their mission someday," When I was finished I noticed that I was looking at the ground. I could feel my eyes well up with tears but before they spilled I wiped them out making it look like I had something my eyes.
    "Now that that is over and down with, everyone I want to see what you can do, and once someone wins their group is done with training. Akane, Neji I want you two over here," He pointed to our area. "Tenten, and Lee on the opposite side," he motioned in the same way he did with us. " Now once I say begin you can start!" Gai sensei announced. I got into my stance, and waited. I felt Miki and Sho tense ready for battle. It's been awhile since I had fought so this should be interesting.
    "Begin!" Gai announced. I heard the excited clamor of Lee and Tenten fighting. Looking up, there was something different with Neji's eyes. The charka vessels around his eyes had grew. 'So this is what the Byakugan looks like,' I thought.
    "Now lets see what your past was like," I said allowed to him. He was very studious of what I was doing, so I let him watch. "Activate," I said to myself making my ocular jutsu activate. I starred at Neji, my eye's grew even redder as the jutsu went on. I saw a little boy he was so happy, unlike the Neji now, but then it turned to grief when his father died. I felt hatred next when I saw what he was from the branch side of his family. That's when I stopped the jutsu, in turn to only find a hand in front of my face about to strike, when I bent back, and dodged it. "Miki! Sho!" I yelled at my ferrets they ran down my arms, when they were close to my hands, I said, "Transform!" With that both Miki and Sho transformed into one white, and one black blade with long chains connected to the ends of them, for me to hold onto. "Now that was a sneaky move," I said to Neji my eye's narrowing on him. I whipped one of the blades at him to see how he would do with an attack.


    "Um..." I stared at the space where Kurenai had been a second ago. "Well. Let's get to the woods, then."
    "We should stay," Shino objected. "Let's plan out a strategy before we go running off on a wild goose chase."
    Kiba hopped up. "I agree with Matsuo." he said. "Let's get to the woods."
    Shino stood and the two stood apart, glowering at eachother. Akamaru stood tense, fur on end. I hopped up, setting Momoko down. "How about we get to the forest and then we'll plan a strategy," I offered. "Or plan on one the way."
    Kiba growled. "Fine. Come on, Akamaru, let's beat these slow-pokes there." And suddenly he was sprinting ahead. Shino turned to watch him leave.
    "Come on," i said warily, calling both Shino and Momoko. The two started after me and soon, we were all running - Momoko now bouncing on my shoulder. I couldn't believe how well the tanuki was behaving for me just getting it. I tried to keep my pace even with Shino. "Do you have any ideas for finding the headband?"
    Shino didn't speak for a long moment. Just when I thought he hadn't heard me, he said - "Usually I would suggest either you or kiba use your companions to track the scent. But we don't have a scent to go by. Kurenai made sure of that."
    I nodded, trying to locate Kiba as we neared the forest's edge. "If we had a way to communicate, we could split up. but I'm afraid we won't be able to find eachother again."
    "Not to mention that our sensei added specifically that this was a team building activity." Shino remarked.
    "Yeah," I sighed.
    We slowed down, walking over to an impatient Kiba. "Took you guys long enough," he snapped, arms folded. "you took so long that I thought of a strategy. See, I'll just have Akamaru track the scent - "
    "There's no scent to track it by," i interrupted. "We thought of that." I added, knowing it sounded smug but not meaning to to be so. "We need to think of something else."
    "Psh." Kiba glanced around. "either of you have any hidden jutsu that could be useful?"
    "Uh-" I raised a hand warily. "I can control plants. Kind of - it's not a very advanced kekkei genkei. But I don't know how that can help."
    shino slid his hands into his pockets. "I wonder if the headband is on the ground or in a branch."
    "That's not really helpful," Kiba snapped. "We still cant do anything to find it."
    I sighed, knowing he was right. This was going to be a lot harder then I had originally thought.


    Neji didn't even move from the spot I was aiming for, he must've had something up his sleeve. He crouched down, putting his arms outstretched in front and behind himself. "Rotation," He yelled. I watched as my blade bounced of the chakra shield he made. He them came running at me and started pushing me backwards with blasts of chakra coming from his fists. I had gotten an idea while this had been happening. Letting him keep pushing me back I glanced to find a tree. Focusing chakra into my feet I began to run up the tree backwards, and then pushed off to, get away.
    "Now it's time to get serious," I announced to him. Neji gave me a quizzical look as to what I was going to do now. I made my hand signs, while still dodging his attacks. After I finished I let my jutsu activate. "Magma style! Molten Rock jutsu!" I said as the rocks around Neji's feet began to melt away into burning flames, and liquefied rock. He looked surprised at this, to which I told him, "Oh yeah I know I full of surprises," With that I made another hand sign that caused the rock below Neji to give way into a hole. He jump onto a boulder near by for safety. He made another stance ready to fight. I got into a defensive one myself.
    "Sixty-four palm," he came at me , and he got a shot right on my abdomen.


    "You like bugs," Kiba snapped at Shino. "Bend them to your will. Make them find the headband while we kick back with lemonade."
    "You truly are an idiot." Shino said quietly.
    I sighed and glanced around. It was noon. we had at least eight hours. Usually that would be deemed an appropriate time, but now...meh. What would the Hokage do? I asked myself, fingering Iruka's headband. What would an Anbu Blackops do? Get their worthless teammates moving, Idecided. "Come on, you two!"I snapped. "We need to figure something out. There must be some kind of hidden message that goes with this - she can't expect us to comb through the whole forest in eight hours. We need to think."
    The other two folded their arms. Akamaru shook his head, ears flopping limply.
    "Konohagakure," Shino observed. "Village Hidden in the Leaves. It could be tied in to the forest."
    "In what way, oh wise one?" Kiba growled.
    "Kiba," I scowled, jutting a finger at him angrily. "Stop being immature. Shut up and try to act like you're part of a team."
    he blinked, awed. I wasn't usually so straightforward, but come on. It was irritating.
    "Uh..." Kiba glanced around, thinking about what Shino had said. "So maybe that means the headband is in a branch, and not on the ground. Leaves?"
    "Good." I nodded. "Should we start looking?"
    Shino was silent. Kiba shrugged. "There's not much to go by-"
    "Come on. We just cut the forest in half," i said, trying to sound optimistic. "Let's each make a shadow clone and go through the branches. If we spread out, we won't get seperated, and then we have a better chance of finding it."
    kiba growled. "Who made you leader?"
    I locked eyes with him and made a few quick handsigns. When my clone appeared, KIba begrudgingly made his own, along with a much more agreeable Shino. Eight hours to go and a whole forest to go through. oh, fun.


    The blow to my stomach knocked the wind out of me, I couldn't breathe. Just as another fist was about to hit, I tripped and it missed. Maybe being a bit of a clumsy ninja wasn't as bad? I stood up back into a stance, and starting swinging my chained weapon at him. It caught a shear cut on his face, but only a scratch. My weapon being similar to kusarigama (chained sickle), it could be used in closed combat and long ranged. I moved in for another attack. Knowing Neji probably hae more defense power than me, I turned Sho back into her normal form during our fight, and told her to sneak up on Neji, and bite his ear, to distract him. I watched closey as she made her way towards Neji, but I had forgotten about his byakugan. I threw shuriken at him, but he turned, and through Sho right back at me. I caught her shocked at what he did, throwing her like that. "Nobody throws my pets, around like that, not even if they're going to be a teammate!" I yelled discouraged! I made hand signs quickly then said my jutsu allowed. "Magma style : Volcanic Eruption Jutsu!" Everything began to turn into liquid rock again where I focused chakra, but instead of being a calm lava flow it began to bubble and spurt. I gave Neji no where to hide.



    "Find anything?"
    "No, Nothing." I called, standing still on a sturdy branch and scanning the tree tops, shielding my eyes with one hand. Momoko was sniffing about curiously, as if hoping to find the headband. Or breakfast. Whichever came first, depending on whether or not Iruka decided to feed him. "What if we don't find it in time?"
    "It's not over until it's over." I whirled around to see Shino, crouched on my branch. "Come on. If you worry you won't be any help to us." With this he resumed leaping through the branches. Pursing my lips and scooping up Momoko I followed, scanning through the branches. I didn't see anything - and the nagging fear of failure still clawed at the back of my mind. I had just landed aside of Shino when suddenly came a yowl from Kiba.
    "akamaru's gone!"
    I hurried to catch up to him. "Where was he?"
    "He was looking for the headband over here - now he's gone!" Kiba glared. "If something happened to him, I swear..."
    i set down momoko. "Whistle."
    "i tried that! Do you think I'm stupid or something?" Kiba asked, jutting a finger angrily at me. "I've had Akamaru longer then you've had that rat-" Momoko hissed at this. "So don't you dare act like you're the authority here!"
    "Shut up!" I snapped, fed up. "I'm trying to help. You don't have to be a jerk about it."
    "you don't have to act like you're so perfect all the time! You're just as bad as that bug-guy!"
    Shino glanced up. "Under normal circumstances I would throttle you. But...Matsuo. Where's your tanuki?"
    "What? Right here." I turned, and pointed at the spot where I had left him. Nowhere to be found. "Oh no!" I cried. "Iruka's going to murder me!" I whirled around and glared at Kiba. "If you hadn't started a fight, then Momoko wouldn't be gone!"
    "Who cares about your dumb Tanuki?? I need to find my dog!" Kiba snarled.
    Shino stepped smoothly inbetween us. "Kiba. You're being unnessascarily rude for two people just trying to help you. Matsuo. You're instigating. If we're going to find this headband, a dog, and a tanuki, we cannot be divided at this point. Kurenai stated this was a team building activity. We need to act like a team."
    Kiba folded his arms and I set my hands on my hips begrudgingly. We both knew he was right. Shino turned, now as silent as he usually was, and led us deeper into the woods.


    Neji started hopping around on anything thing that was solid, as he became closer to me as he moved. I just stood where I was waiting for him to come while I thought up a plan.
    "You think a little lava's going to stop me?" Neji questioned.
    "A bit, yes." I said back, seeing as he was sweating a bit from the heat. He had finally gotten up close enough, instead of swinging my weapon, I grabbed the blunt part of the fan like blade, and used it like a kunai. It almost seemed like it actually pierced Neji when I hit him, I felt hopeful, till there was a poof of smoke, and a log hanging from my weapon. panicking I threw the log to burn up into the lava. Beginning to look around he was nowhere.
    "Behind me!" I thought allowed when I felt a sharp jab in both my arms to only find that I couldn't use jutsu anymore when he did that.
    "What'd you do?" I questioned.
    "I stopped the chakra flow by pressing you chakra points. Now you can't use any jutsu's, for know," He explained with a smug smirk. He said that, and I thought, 'Hmm, then he should be more careful then.' I began to smile. His byakugan was now gone, and same with the smirk, now I was just waiting for a comment to come again so he could get a taste of how I fought. "You just going to be a failure like the rest of them," With that a shadow clone popped out of the trees, and hit him in the face. "Why didn't I see that clone be made?"
    "Because I created it before you guys had gotten here, as well I gave myself more chakra than the clone keeping it hidden from your eyesight," I knew the fight was over now since my chakra had been paralyzed, but I always like getting the last hit in.
    "Excellent work you two!!" We heard the joyful shout of Guy sensei yell. Looking over we both saw Lee and Tenten standing there with mouth wide open. I wonder why?



    I shoved some leaves aside, balancing precariously on the branch. Nothing. i turned to Shino, who examined the forest floor from his position on the end of the branch. Kiba was scouring the trunk. "So if the Village Hidden in the Leaves points to the headband being in the leaves, does the headband mean anything else?" I asked hopefully. "Is there some other hidden message?"
    'maybe the black cloth means we;re dead," Kiba moaned, sitting down on the branch.
    "Okay. Five minute break," I sighed, setting my hands on my hips. I turned back to Shino - the more agreeable of the two. "Any ideas?"
    Shino was silent, hands in pockets. He seemed to be staring at nothingness - but he had sunglasses on, so I couldn't tell. after a long minute he turned towards me. "Do you remember what the Hokage is always talking about?"
    "Uh...I don't really speak with him that often."
    "He mentions a Will of Fire a lot."
    my heart skipped a beat at the phrase. Iruka said it a lot...whenever I felt like giving up at something he reminded me of it, saying that it was the force that dwelled inside every Konohagakure ninja. It mentioned something about a tree, a great tree where all the ninja of Konoha were born as buds and, with the Will of Fire, bloomed into gorgeous flowers.
    "Is there a large tree in the middle of the woods?" I asked, turning to Kiba. He shrugged.
    "I dunno." When I kept staring at him, he sighed. "want me to climb and find out?"
    "Please."
    he nodded and obliged, too dispirited to argue. I waited with Shino, standing awkwardly. I turned to him. "Is that what you were suggesting?" I asked. He nodded slightly. Kiba hopped down a few moments later, grinning up at me.
    "There's a huge weeping willow not far from here! If we find the headband now, we can have more time to find Akamaru! Come on!" He took off, hopping through branches. Shino followed quickly and i struggled to keep up, nearly twisting my ankle on a branch. "Yahoo!" kiba yowled, invigorated. "Man, I hope this works!!"
    I smiled, and wondered if Iruka was panicking yet. He tended to panic when I was out of his sight. But he was just going to have to get used to that.


    "Thanks," I said back rubbing my neck, as I sat on the harden lava. I began to feel a bit dizzy as I was sitting down on the ground. A hand popped in front of my face, and it turned out to be Lee.
    "Great fight, Akane! " He told me, and I grabbed his hand, to which he helped me up. "Not everybody does so well against Neji on their first fight," Lee explained as I began walking with him over to the rest of the team. Everybody was so silent when Lee and I made it over to they were. Tenten was starring over my shoulder, and Guy just looked at me.
    "Uh, what's the problem?" I question.
    "Akane, the training ground is covered in lava! How are other team's going to train?" Tenten exclaimed and questioned. I turned my head to look at my handy work. 'Oops,' I thought.
    "Oh don't worry," I reassured her. "It'll give them a new environment to train in, and plus it's good fertilizer for the ground, don't worry," After saying that I began to think that was one of the most lamest excuses I've thought of. I looked to Guy still seeming as he was starring at me. "Did I do something wrong?" I asked sounding a bit sensitive about it seeing as everybody was surprised by what I could do.
    "No, no! Nothings wrong it's just," He paused thinking of what he was going to say next. "When I looked at your papers it said you had special jutsu's, I never thought it'd be like this," Guy said exasperated, motioning to the field, to where everything was cover in cooling lava.



    We reached the weeping willow in a half hour, and immedietly started scouring the premises. Kiba searched around the roots and trunk and shino and I both checked the branches. I was practically in a daze when I saw the Leaf Village headband danging from a branch, gleaming in the light. "I found it!" I cheered, grabbing it. "I really found it!" I tugged it off of the branch, and a small string snapped. with a series of soft thuds, twelve ninja clad in black were in the clearing. Hopping back down to the ground, I strapped the headband around my forehead.
    "Way to go, Matsuo." Kiba growled, dropping into a crouch. shino didn't move as I got into a defensive stance.
    "We each get four," Shino said quietly. Suddenly the ninja attacked.
    Dodging a punch at my head, I ducked and rammed my shoulder into the ninja's stomach. He stumbled back, and as he did, I tried to high-kick him in the jaw. he caught my foot and threw my leg upwards, making me crash into the ground. He made a few quick handsigns, and suddenly in a puff of smoke, he was holding a windmill shuriken. Struggling to a stand, I made five consecutive hand signs, before whipping out two green fans from my belt. "Earth Control Jutsu!" I boomed. I rose my right arm and a chunk of earth rose beneath the ninja's left foot, sending him off balance in the middle of his throw. He tumbled backwards. I threw my left arm up and another chunk of earth rose. Ducking an enemy kunai I snapped my fans shut and stabbed outwards. A sheet of earth appeared and slammed into the ninja, sliding backwards until it pinned the ninja to a tree. "Watch out, Matsuo!" Kiba suddenly yowled.
    i turned, just to catch a fist to the jaw. I stumbled backwards, losing control of the jutsu. my three ninja loomed closer. As the one who had punched me struck out again with his fist I caught it and pulled him to the side, right in the way of another ninja's roundhouse kick. The ninja fell with a moan. Rubbing my throbbing jaw, I backed up, eyeing the two ninja warily. I glanced back. Bugs were swarming the ground around Shino, enveloping the attacking ninja. KIba was clawing at his opponents in a animal like taijutsu.
    One of the two ninja made a few handsigns. "Summoning Jutsu!' he boomed. I ddin't catch the name as suddenly a looming red wolf appeared. it lunged at me and I barely threw up my arm in time as its jaws closed down around it. I cried out in pain and with my free hand, made the neccesscary signs for a subsitution. Suddenly my arm was free and I was behind the two ninja, who looked around in confusion as the wolf clawed at a branch. I took the left ninja out with a sharp hit to the neck, and then snapped open my fan for the other one. "Earth Control Jutsu!" I twisted the fan and lifted upwards. Four sheets of rock rose up around the ninja, closing around him tightly. And the fight was over.