Chapter 99: The Stars of Track and Field

Araki woke up the next day in his bed, and for a moment he didn't know where he was. The grey painted walls felt alien, and the posters on his wall were someone else's. At least that's how it felt for a confusing 5 or so seconds. When he came to his senses, he lifted the covers on his bed and went to brush his teeth. When he got out of the shower, he took a look at himself in the mirror and saw his rusty red hair, dark eyes, and overbite and sighed. One day he would be a celebrity in Konoha, and he had landed the teacher who could do that for him; but for now, he had to play cleanup for the important people's war.

He sighed and went to his closet, grabbing his "official" shinobi attire: a tan undersuit, black combat vest and pants, and durable hiking boots. He picked up his forehead protector from his nightstand and meticulously placed it on his forehead, tying it behind his head, careful not to get his hair tangled in the knot.

With that, he went to eat a quick breakfast before leaving his home, making sure to wave goodbye to his dad. Araki ran to the north gate of the village, where the team was supposed to meet, and as the houses and buildings flashed by him, Araki's heartbeat quickened in excitement, thinking about going on his first real mission as a shinobi--the first of many. The Autumn sky blurred and the walls of Konoha came into view. Atop the ramparts a few shinobi could be seen keeping watch, each lazily scanning the horizon for something amiss, though it rarely ever came. 

When Araki finally approached the wall--or to be specific, the prominent break in the wall where he was to meet his team--he saw three figures collected by the right side of the gate. One was a taller, though still young shinobi which Araki recognized as his sensei, Kannin. He wore his usual outfit, which included his strange forehead protector and cream-white cloak, which as it billowed in the brisque wind, displayed the standard of the Uzumaki Clan. He had underneath his cloak blue body armor composed of overlapping ceramic plates, but he had added similarly styled greaves and gauntlets, which Araki guessed was his more "official" combat wear opposed to just the body armor he wore day to day. He also had his trusty blade at his side as usual, and a large scroll was strapped to his back.

Miura looked about the same as ever. They were wearing similar combat gear to Araki, a combat vest and green bodysuit with sandals. Their short grey hair was straining against the breeze, and their forehead protector, which they wore around the neck, was too. Miura had brought their dadao, which dangled at their right hip.

Ozu also looked rather similar to usual. She had tied her oceanic blue hair into a ponytail, and it seemed like she had recently cleaned her goggles. She had chosen to wear a black longsleeve combat jacket with deep red highlights instead of the more popular flak jacket with black pants and sandals.

As Araki approached his team, Kannin, his arms crossed and resting on the hilt of Koseki, turned his head to greet him, "Morning, Araki."

"I'm not late am I?" Araki asked, worried that he was the last one there,

"No," Miura replied dryly, "we were just all early."

Ozu and Kannin laughed at the reply, but Kannin assured Araki that it was still about 5 minutes before the scheduled rendezvous. Araki sighed in relief hearing he wasn't late, and caught his breath.

"Alright," Kannin said, clapping his hands, "looks like we're all ready now. Might as well start heading out. We're head North-Northwest for a few hours and then we'll reach the general area. We'll stay a day up there and return tomorrow. Sound good?"

The genin nodded their heads and steeled their minds as they were about to embark on their first real mission. They each, in their own way, prepared themselves, body and mind, for the journey ahead. Miura was checking the straps on their flak-jacket, Araki was making sure his boots were on airtight, and Ozu zipped up her jacket to a more perfect degree; as Kannin adjusted the straps on his gauntlets, he exclaimed in a confident and jolly tone

"Let's go! Last one there owes me 400 pushups!"

And with that, all three of them vanished in a blur, kicking up the dust behind them. 

They raced through the woods north of Konoha, flashing across the tree branches in mirages, each trying to keep up with the others, as they didn't doubt Kannin would give the last one pushups. So they kept going with determined faces, almost with disregard to their surroundings.

Kannin, on the other hand, was trailing behind them, keeping an eye on their movement and pacing.

'They're not too slow,' He muttered as he leapt to another spindly tree branch, observing Ozu below. 'We've got another 2 or so hours until we reach the spot. I should probably arrange for some foxes to help them.'

Kannin was also keeping an eye out around the group as they traveled. Shisui's accident was still rather fresh in his mind, and so there was a non-zero chance that there were some rogue shinobi around the border, a possibility Kannin didn't relish at all, though he also didn't expect it.

-

They eventually reached the area they were sent to, and set up a small camp. Once they ate lunch and were ready to start the work, Kannin summoned out three small fox spirits, the sight of which seemed to surprise the genin.

"A lot of the things we're supposed to gather today are imbued with chakra and can be rather hazardous," Kannin said, "there are a lot of explosive tags around if I'm not mistaken--so these little guys will help you sniff them out. Team Kannin, meet Ki, Tsu, and Ne." He continued, introducing the foxes. One looked like an arctic fox, the other a maned wolf, and the other a regular red wolf.

"Fox spirits named Ki, Tsu, and Ne?" Miura asked with a raised eyebrow, "Is that a joke?"

"Yes, actually," Kannin replied with a chuckle, "they think it's hilarious."

Saying that, the three foxes began chattering and bouncing around as if they had been told the best joke in the world.

"See," Kannin said with a somewhat disappointed expression, "they love it. But either way, they have good noses so be sure to get acquainted. Operate in the same general area in case you meet any bandits, I'll be close by."

"Wait," Araki asked, "you aren't going to be with us?"

"Well not exactly," Kannin replied, "I'll be doing my share in another area. The pay is partially by pound of material collected, so I'm sure y'all want to get as much stuff as possible, right?"

The three gave it a thought and nodded after a moment, at which Kannin was about to send them off before remembering one thing, "Wait, hold on," the genin turned back to him expectantly, Kannin reached into his cloak and retrieved a kunai and scroll and gave them to Miura. "The scroll is full of, well, other scrolls for sealing away materials; if you want to seal something away, put your hand on the paper after making the rat seal and inject your chakra. Same for opening it. The kunai, on the other hand, is a special item that you shouldn't lose. If you find yourself in trouble, inject your chakra into it and I'll know and be there in a flash"

The three nodded and went on their way, leaving Kannin on his own. Just as he thought he was in the clear, Ozu ran back and in a slightly exasperated voice asked, "Are YOU gonna have a fox help you clear up debris? You should have one of your own!"

Araki facepalmed immediately, seemingly since he knew about Kiyo, but Kannin smiled and said, "Of course I am. I have a very special friend to help me. Everyone, meet Kiyo."

Kannin summoned Kiyo, who majestically appeared ex nihilo, easily larger than any of the kids, a platinum blur flashed around Kannin; the deep green eyes of the leader of the foxes seemed to peer into the souls of the three genin in front of her.

"Food!?" She yapped in excitement.

"Not food, Kiyo," Kannin laughed. "Not everything is food. In fact, they're friends! Meet Ozu, Araki, and Miura."

"Hello!" the fox spirit shouted, "Do you have food!?"

The three burst into laughter at what the unserious fox asked them, content that Kannin himself was in good hands, and bid a slight farewell as the finally went on to do their mission orders. Kannin and Kiyo went on in another direction.

He wasn't sure how good an idea leaving them on their own, but eventually they would need to learn how to operate without him, and it wasn't like he was miles away or anything. Kannin came to a small clearing in the foliage and noted a number of traps, weapons, and tools buried in the earth, and he began to retrieve them.