“Sounds like me!” I exclaimed.

“Hah! Keep dreaming kid.” Anko replied.

“I do. Every night, sensei.” I answered with a sly smile.

“That smart mouth of yours will get you in trouble someday, little perv.” She said.

“Surprising it hasn’t already.” Chimed in Akari.

“Hmm, so if you like a strong guy sensei. Can I get a kiss if I beat you in sparring?” I asked.

“Hahaha, sure kid.” Anko said with a laugh.

“It’s a date, sensei.” I said.

It was nightfall by the time we arrived at the village gates. Gatekeeper Chuunin took the initiative to approach us.

“Team 1? Mitarashi-sama and your team have been summoned to the Hokage tower immediately.” He spoke loud and clear.

“Urghh. What the hell?” Asked Anko. “This usually means, there is no time to rest. Let’s go kids.” She declared. Shortly after we found ourselves in the Hokage’s office.

“I’ve got a shadow escort mission for you guys.” Said the third Hokage, Sarutobi. The old man’s voice was gentle but commanding.

“With all due respect Hokage-sama. I don’t think my team can handle such a mission.” Said Anko. Thankfully no one in my team was dumb enough to embarrass herself by protesting.

“I am aware. That is why your team will take a week long training session, before this mission. ANBU Hound and Fox will assist you.” As he finished, the two ANBU members dropped into the room, surprising the young Genin. Anko just sighed in a defeated manner, there was no room for argument. I could barely make it out but she seemed a bit sad at the new assignment. I examined the ANBU members, and it was easy to tell that one of them was Kakashi, wearing the hound mask. The fox, though, was also surprisingly familiar. Tall and slender build with a brilliant blonde ponytail reaching her waist, it was Yuki nee.

“Listen up.” The Hokage spoke again, drawing the distracted Genin's attention back to himself.

“A shadow escort mission, means that you will safely escort cargo or personnel, much like a normal escort mission, but your primary objective will be to remain hidden at all times. This is because the cargo you are escorting is a bait for your real target. These missions are rather time sensitive and we cannot afford a team next week, so you will have to do, hence the need to do extra training. Make no mistake, the training starting tomorrow, will be gruelling and unforgiving, so rest well. Dismissed.” Sarutobi concluded with a finality, effectively kicking us out of his office. I could not see through any walls in the office, it seems the privacy seals are… extensive as expected.

Once we were outside Anko stopped us from separating.

“Okay, lemme say, I’ve been through the training mentioned, and it sucked. So rest very well, you will need it. People have come out with grievous injuries and some have quit being shinobi before.” The girl tensed and paled at their sensei’s words. Understandably so we were all twelve at this point, pre teen children.

“I wanted you to learn a bit more before you went through this, but I guess the old man has a plan. You will learn or you will suffer. Anyway you will be picked up early in the morning so go home and rest now.” Anko said as she walked away, with bitter thoughtfulness. I was confident I could take abuse mentally or physically, but the girls… I shook my head, nothing I could do now.

“I don’t like this.” I said to my team. I felt like a naive child being led around. My team was also quiet.

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“I agree.” Said Yui. So she felt something was off as well.

“Wanna go to my place? To stick together tonight.” I asked the girls and they nodded in response as we travelled to my hovel in the woods.

“If the mission is important enough they would have sent the ANBU that are meant to train us.” Yui explained further, when we were in my house. I looked around and noticed the seals as I could not peer through the outer walls of the place. Orochimaru had come around at some point during my mission.

“And we are too weak right now to be considered capable enough. So we are forced into a trial by fire situation.” I thought out loud.

“So what you are saying is. The mission isn’t important enough to send capable people like ANBU, but it is important enough to force Genin like us into a trial by fire situation.” Explained Akari. The crimson haired girl’s eyes were contemplative.

“No, I think, they don’t consider ‘us’ to be important enough.” Ino said, calmly. Her gaze was harsh with wisps of purple around her eyes. Brows furrowed in a severe expression.

“The training is probably just a front to convince the Hokage that we would be good enough. Problem is a week’s worth of training… I don’t think it will make a big enough difference to complete a mission that we currently would not be able to.” Ino explained further.

“So the next question is. Does anyone here have enemies in high places?” Yui asked, her melodious voice crisp in the small room and her tone sombre. Her emerald eyes looked around at each of her teammates.

“I doubt it’s me. My parents are normal civilians.“ Said Akari, her voice lower than usual and her crimson eyes sharp, also looking around at her teammates.

“It could be me, but I wasn’t told about enemies of the clan yet.” Ino said softly, as she leaned on me.

“I am also a possibility, but very unlikely.” I answered truthfully.

“That’s not much to go on is it?” Asked Yui. She slanted her brows in defeat.

“We have as much power as a pawn under the whims of the players.” I noted solemnly.

“We better get some rest and do all we can to survive.” I said.

We were rudely woken up by strangers in my house of course. Fox and Hound tossed some cloaks at us and called us outside.

“Starting now we will play a game of tag of which the rules will keep changing, so you have to pay attention.” Said Kakashi behind his hound mask.

“Rule one is to keep quiet.” Said Yuki-nee behind her fox mask. It had been a while since I visited her, this ANBU version of her seemed so stern. I hope she isn’t too mad at me.

“You will get one ration per day and an extra if you manage to tag me or Hound.” She continued. We were still putting on our cloaks when they dispersed. So our game of tag started.

I knew it was going to suck when I couldn’t see them with my Byakugan and we got punished for any noise we made. By the end of day one everyone was tired, hungry and thirsty. The bruising was the worst as everything ached and made keeping rule one more difficult. The ration was a bar of compressed nutritions necessary for a human to function. It was disgusting. This seemed impossible as I looked at my team's expressions and I realised they thought the same. We could not rest as we would be punished if we stayed in one place for too long. We could not even catch a glimpse of the two ANBU. Fox was definitely mad, I would have to make it up to her after this. As we jumped through the trees I managed to catch a glimpse of an attack. Noticing the chakra control made me realise why we sucked at this. They were controlling their chakra to stay hidden. We on the other hand were probably glowing like a torch in the middle of the night to any kind of chakra sensing. So yet again it was an exercise in my weakness. I got the attention of my team and mouthed ‘chakra control’ at them hoping they would get what was wrong.

Knowing though was not enough. We did not have enough chakra control to hide ourselves like the ANBU. Hell even with my Byakugan I could barely discern the controlled chakra from the not controlled if both people were in front of me. The difference was the controlled one would disappear much quicker from my vision as the distance between us grew. The girls got the message and Akari and Ino got punished less that day. Yui and I on the other hand didn’t manage to grasp the technique. So day two passed and we got our rations of the day, not that we were given time to consume them, there never was any break time. You could only rest if you managed to hide yourself well enough, until you were found.

Day three we had all managed to gain a basic understanding of the technique they used to hide, not that it helped us much. Fox and Hound were just so much better than us. Just by looking I could see that the girls were not doing well at all. Starvation, thirst and sleep deprivation was getting to them much more than me. Sunken hollow eyes with bags under them looked back at me, as we ran, chased and were chased trying hard to hide and rest for a minute only to be pushed awake. By the end of day three we got no closer to tagging them and the girls suffering got worse. Ino and Akari were somewhat lucky given they haven’t been through their growth spurt yet and the rations were meant for adults, so it sustained them much better than Yui, who seemed to be on the verge of collapse. I was also fine, but I knew it was because of Shukaku.

Day four my tired and confused mind came up with the idea that a trap would be nice to catch the ANBU members. I used the basic Konoha sign language taught at the academy to signal my teammates. At first they just looked hollowly at my hands, uncomprehending. Clearly sleep deprivation combined with physical exhaustion and starvation had rid them of their mental faculties, until Yui’s eyes brightened in understanding. Right after an attack I did my best to tie some ninja wires around quickly and then moved away with my team. We circled back and my idea was I would make some noise to bait them into the trap and tag whoever got trapped.

It worked as I predicted, the problem was the Hound I tried to tag just vanished into a puff of smoke. Fucking garbage ninja magic I cursed as I tried to back away into cover. Not successfully. It had been at least 86 hours since the start. Everyone had droopy eyes and slouched posture barely holding on, staying awake even if we all swayed like a leaf in the wind as we traversed the forest. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kakashi was at home reading Icha Icha paradise or something as he just sent four or five clones to deal with us. Day five was the worst of them all. We were barely awake, barely responded to any attacks and got further and further away from actually tagging them for an extra ration. We somehow stayed upright until the morning of the sixth day, on which we were told the training was over. We were given an extra ration and we all slithered towards my house as we ate as it was the closest. Managed to get to the main room where we had the meeting and we all collapsed nearly on top of each other and passed out. We woke up on the seventh day’s morning to an annoying birdsong.