Chapter Four

As I lay floating in my tank my vision still completely black and body unable to move it left me nothing to do but listening to the bubbles form and then float to the surface from my respirator my mind drifted back to the beginning of my time on team 6.

Sakumo Sensei turned out to be a rather impressive Jonin Sensei.

He took his role incredibly seriously.

After a quick examination similar to the bell test where we had to retrieve a scroll from his person he made sure he divided his time equally between us.

He found out our skill level's and abilities then did his best to improve our training regime based on his experience and what he thought we were lacking.

For that I was rather thankful, after all he could have been like his son who only ever had any time for Sasuke.

For me he leaned heavily towards Genjutsu as he agreed my skills with Taijutsu and Ninjutsu were more than adequate.

As such he would randomly place me in a Genjutsu while we were doing our D-rank missions and it would be up to me to detect this and break free of them.

While it was an annoying method I can't deny that the results were impressive to say the least.

Rugosa as a Hyuga was already rather skilled with Taijutsu due to her clans Gentle Fist style and combined with her Byakugan was probably the most deadly hand to hand combatant of the three of us.

However she was severely lacking in Ninjutsu and unpredictability.

That was the weakness of the Hyuga who were so regimented in their training methods.

It was compounded even further for the Branch family such as Rugosa who weren't taught all of the clans techniques.

It made predicting their next move relatively simple and as Sakuma Sensei proved if the opponent could move fast enough not even the Byakugan's perception would allow one to react fast enough to an attack.

As such Rugosa would also be forced to wear heavy weights that would improve her speed a training method Sakumo picked up from his friend Might Duy.

And if that wasn't enough he taught her how to augment her speed with Lightning Release.

I have to admit the thought of Rugosa's potential speed was already giving me a headache.

She was definitely going to become a ninja I would definitely not want to come across.

And then there was Macaca.

He was easily the weak link of our group.

What's worse he had delusions of grandeur because he believed being a member of the Sarutobi clan instantly put him against the rest of us due to them producing the Third Hokage.

Not even me arguing that as a Senju and producing the previous two Hokage's got through to the moron.

Honestly each day being around him was a test of my patience.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I found myself wondering if I could get rid of him and hide the body without being detected from time to time.

What's more given the looks he gained from Rugosa and Sakumo Sensei I doubt I'm the only one who had such thoughts.

Macaca would constantly half ass whatever mission we were given and gave the same if not less effort in Sakumo Sensei's training.

I also heard he was kept behind at the village while Rugosa and I were sent to the end of the previous war, something which no doubt didn't help him thinking the village thought more of him than the rest of us.

Fortunately Sakumo Sensei soon discovered the key to motivating the dumbass and that was through fear.

Sadly Sakumo Sensei wouldn't tell me or Rugosa what it was Macaca feared as such we couldn't use whatever it was to our advantage too.

Oh well not that it mattered as he was finally putting in an acceptable amount of effort just in time for us to finish up the boring D-rank missions.

Our first C-rank mission as a team was to track down and eliminate a Bandit group that was formed within the Land Of Fire.

They were quickly becoming a menace and disrupting trade routes between the land Of Fire and Wind that were established by the respective Daimyo's themselves.

Due to this we promptly organised to meet the following morning at the Gates after making sure we were fully equipped and prepared the night before.

Once we met up and went through the exit protocols we quickly made our way through the forests that surround Konoha as we rushed towards our destination.

Our travel speed was rather fast even if we were slowed down by our most annoying team member and his constant whining.

I would take abridged Nappa's "Are we there yet?" Anytime.

I soon lost my temper with him and would often ask Rugosa and Sakumo Sensei if we could just ditch him but sadly the two were very serious and responsible and constantly denied my suggestion.

Fortunately we eventually reached our destination.

We began scoping out the length and breadth of the Daimyo's trade route.

A task made much easier thanks to Rugosa's Byakugan.

As such it only took us a few days after our arrival to track down the Bandit's and their hideout.

Unfortunately we soon discovered they weren't any ordinary bandits but rather enemy ninja's posing as bandits.

We soon discovered they were from the land of Stone and it was obvious they intended to destabilise the economy of the two lands.

I sighed as this was definitely a very Onoki type move.

I also had to admit the midget has balls of steel to attempt something like this not long after the end of the Second Shinobi World War.

We were just planning to return to Konoha to inform the Hokage of this and of the increase of the Missions ranking when the worst thing could have possibly happened.

The moron actually went and got himself captured.