19 Lucky Kaname

"We are getting close to the frontlines," Maki reported.

It was the middle of the night, with the moon high upon the starry sky.

"How do you know? I don't see a thing in this dark forest." Takeshi questioned her.

"I smell fear, blood, and death. This stench is everywhere in front of us."

"Okay, let's stay close to each other, I don't want us divided when someone ambushes us so close to the target," Kaname requested.

Half an hour later, Kaname, with her friends, got surrounded by at least ten other ninjas. Most of them hidden all around them with their weapons ready for combat.

"*Growl* You and your luck Kana-chan…"

"*Shh* I hope they're on our side," Kaname whispered, "We're not enemies! We come from Konoha, as recruits!" she loudly proclaimed.

"Show yourselves!" said a female's voice.

Kaname signaled her friends to stay hidden and walked into the open field between the trees. There she was met with a black-haired woman in a mask and a standard Konoha shinobi outfit.

"Eh? Kana-chan?" the masked woman inquired uncertainly, just to hug the young teen a second later, "What the fuck are you doing here?! You are too young to join the war!" she said.

"Sorry for asking, but who are you?"

"Ah, right, the mask!" the woman pulled the mask off. Without it, Kaname instantly recognized this fair-skinned young woman, she had long black untamed hair reaching her upper back, and red eyes similar to the Sharingan.

"Damn Kurenai-senpai, why are you wearing makeup when it is hidden behind the mask?" Kaname hugged her in a greeting.

"We females always have to look her best. It doesn't matter, why are you here?!"

"I'm sorry, Daimyo's orders, most likely in the nearest future, you will see a lot of young genins coming here."

"Ehh… when old men play politics, the young die. Okay, to which division are you assigned to, and please don't say to the noble guard, or I will take you back to Konoha myself."

"We are on Jiraya's-san division, do you know where is my mom and Aniki?" she made a hand sign to her teammates, showing them that everything is okay.

"Sachi-san is the head medic of our corps and a close aide to Jiraya-san. Your brother made a name for himself on the battlefield, maybe you will meet him as now he is the right-hand man of Jiraya-san. We will meet later, go to the west side of the camp and ask for Tsume Inuzuka, she takes care of all recruits in our division."

"Thanks, senpai. See you later." Kaname joined her team, and three of them headed to the camp.

"Leave the matter to me, Tsume-san is my mother's friend," They found the wild-looking woman rather fast.

"Hey, aunty!" Maki called.

"What the fuck are you doing here, pup? Wait a moment, you and your friends are the new recruits?! I got an update that we will get a big bunch of new blood, but… I didn't expect those fuckers to send us fresh genins *Sigh*. Ah fuck this, orders are orders, you are the first people that will join a newly formed platoon, the former one was massacred last week when we tried to push on enemy's stronghold, there was only one survivor. Do you see this massive green tent to the north? It's for you and people that will join you later. Meet me here at midday for further instructions. Go rest, for now, pups." Tsume brashly explained.

Kaname with her friends moved to their tent, above its entry, there was a sign with a number thirteen. Inside the first compartment, Kaname saw a couple of couches, a dining table, and a kitchen stove - most likely, it was the dining slash kitchen slash living room. Further inside, she saw the tent divided into two sides with signs for females and males. Three friends went inside only to be stopped by loud snoring coming from one of the couches.

On the couch slept a young man with brown, shoulder-length hair. His forehead protector was worn like a bandanna, he had a standard Chūnin uniform and a senbon needle in his mouth.

"*Shh* It's important, Maki-chan!" Kaname whispered.

"What?"

"Give me a marker!"

"Oh come on, you troublesome duo! If it's the survivor I think he had enough on his plate" Takeshi interrupted them, he came closer to the Chūnin and lightly woke him up by shaking his arm. "Hi, we're the recruits and were assigned to this platoon."

"Ugh, hi, my name is Genma Shiranui. It seems our forces are dwindling if they sent us young genins..." Genma lazily opened his brown eyes. [AN: Kaname is 10, Maki/Takeshi 11; Genma is ~16].

"Hello, Genma-san, I'm Kaname Uchiha, the one to wake you up was Takeshi Nara, and this is Maki Inuzuka. Yes, we're fresh genins, with only a month of experience." Kaname replied.

"Okay, stop with the 'san' and call me Genma, I don't care. Now for the rules, follow the cleaning schedule, respect each other space, don't borrow without asking, and survive for as long as possible. The tent is divided by gender, so girls - no peeking at boys!"

"Pfft, yeah, right. You guys can go to bed. I want to talk with Genma for a moment,"

"Okay, Kana-chan, I will reserve one bed for you, good night." Maki yawned.

"At last, some sleep, so much running was tiresome. See you soon."

"I'm sorry, but I need to ask, why did the previous platoon got decimated?"

"*Sigh* Second son of Daimyo got too cocky, he took an entire noble guard with him, with this stupid idea that once he is here the war is theoretically won, he went to demand enemy's surrender. Long-story-short, the enemy did not agree with him, he was captured, his guards slaughtered, platoon 13th was ordered to recapture a VIP, the extreme losses happened as we tried to extract this loud S.o.B."

"Wow, that sucks. I'm sorry for the loss of your friends, any of them were from your old Konoha team?"

"Luckily, they were sent to fight with Iwa in the west."

Three new genins showed themselves inside the tent, two scared almost identical boys and one girl with a sword on her back. The twins both had dark green hair, the identical body builds, and faces, Kaname saw that only one of them had a small mole under his right eye. The girl was approximately Kaname's age, she had straight purple hair reaching her waist, and warm brown eyes. After a brief introduction, Kaname got to know their names, the mole-boy was Tiki, his brother Taki, and the girl's name was Yugao, all of them were ninjas with a civilian background.

"So Yugao-chan, are you good with the sword? I couldn't train my swordsmanship with anybody, can we spar a little tomorrow morning?"

"Sure, Kaname-chan. But for now, I need to get some sleep. Bye!" Yugao replied lightly, waving her hand.

"Bye-bye, sleep well."

In another hour, twenty more genins from all over the age-spectrum showed up, filling up all the empty beds in the tent. As it was 3 a.m. Kaname said her goodbyes to Genma and went to her bed.

She woke up half-rested four hours later and started her morning jogging. Breakfast and a spar against Yugao later - which she would lose if not for Sharingan, and a spar against Genma, in which she did get completely obliterated, Kaname with Genma in tow marched out to meet with Tsume.

"Platoon 13, we have new grave orders. The entire army starts the push on the enemy stronghold this midnight. After I pulled some favors from Jiraya-san and told him about our newest untested team, he let your platoon take part in the third-wave instead of the first one. I'm sorry for making your first day on the frontlines a bloodbath - someone told the fucking Daimyo, that the enemy caught and held his idiot son captive, he ordered our Hokage for a full-frontal assault. *Sigh* Take care of them, Genma-kun."

"*Sigh* Fuck…"

"Me and my luck..." Kaname smirked.