Ralph stared at the clock. It had been a hour since the Training teacher had announced the team formations with their instructor. The Training teacher already left the room. He glanced around the room and noticed majority of the teams were still waiting for their teacher to show up. He turned his gaze to the nearby window.
Black smoke rose in the distant, coming from the edge of the village. Ralph frowned. He thought he spotted a stream of flames shooting up into the sky. The flames twirled into a twister. He let out a whistle as another classmate, Klaus, uttered, “Whoa!”
Klaus’ statement echoed around the room and Ralph knew the rest of the class attention was drawn to the window.
“It looks like some sort of fight,” someone commented. Ralph glanced to the speaker. It was that Enzo Smith fellow he was supposed to have on his team. Enzo narrowed his brown eyes as he studied the twister. “It might be in the Draco District.”
The Draco District? Ralph thought it would be closer to the Urameshi Compound. However, the Draco District butted up against the Urameshi Compound. He glanced around for Curt Urameshi, but he remembered Curt already left with his team. He frowned, wondering if Curt and his team was anywhere close by that area. From the limited interaction with Curt, he knew the another teen was close to his family, praising a member of the Urameshi Clan for something.
Ralph was sure the other day, Curt was telling everyone who would listen that his one of his older cousins, Clover, had given birth to her 9th child and spent more time yelling at her husband, William, to stop getting her pregnant every time he came back from a long term mission. Curt also commented there was a bet going around to see how many kids Clover would have before she cut William off.
There was another Urameshi in the class, Ralph remembered. He turned to find the dark haired teen boy, but a soft breeze informed him that Zack Urameshi already left the classroom. One of Zack’s teammates, Sakda, cursed and ran out of the room with their female teammate, Elvria, hot on his heels.
“Apparently, it is closer to the Urameshi Compound then we thought,” another classmate commented as a loud boom echoed from the direction of the Urameshi Compound.
“Well,” someone - a girl from the sound of her voice - started, “It may mean we will get stuck cleaning up after the Urameshi Clan.”
“I heard my brother complaining about the amount of missions involving that Clan,” Kiba of the Inu Clan commented, “They were always getting into a fight with one another or challenging another clan to fight over stupidest things.”
“We could look at it this way,” Ralph spoke up, “It could be easy money.”
“True,” Kiba admitted, “My brother said that, too, but it got repetitive when he got assigned the clean up mission for the 18th time in a month, even though he should be doing the Rank C missions instead of the E or D missions.”
Ralph nodded in understanding. His graduating class was the largest in 14 years. The Village Leader, basically, ordered after the last war when their numbers were their lowest, every woman above the age of 18 and was able to bare children would get a nice sum of money to have at least 3 kids, get paid maternity leave for 1 year, and a bunch of other benefits for them. As a result, the village had been experiencing a huge baby boom for the last 11 years. Next year, the graduating class was going to be bigger by 20 then the following year, almost double the class size. The next problem would be the amount of teachers able to take on the graduating students. It could possible mean before he was 20, he would be required to take students. He sighed.
He watched the fight in the distant, half-interested. It could be a simple fight between the members of the Urameshi clan or an Urameshi started it with anther Clan and it just got out of hand. Of course, there were three cousins who enjoy fighting each other. Hopefully, it wasn’t them. If it was the Urameshi devils, they would bring half of the ninja force to them in order to stop them.
A familiar sensation of bee buzzing right beneath his skin, around his shoulder blades. Someone was watching him or at least the group. He half turned, trying to act like he was going to engage the classmate right to next to him in a conversation, but he turned his gaze to the doorway through the corner of his vision.
In the doorway, there were three ninja - a red headed Kunoichi stood between two male ninjas. One of them was familiar to him. The other two was not. It was the same gentleman who came to the restaurant this morning to order food, the breakfast specials. If Ralph remembered correctly, it was 4 of the breakfast specials. The gentleman had long blond hair, flowing down his back into a thick braid. He had a yellow and brown head band holding back his bangs, out of his face. He was dressed in the traditionally ninja attire as a Hidden Bark Village Ninja with the vest of a full trained ninja.
“Alright,” he stepped into the classroom. Majority of the class jumped as a result. “First of all, all of you should have been aware we entered this room. We have killed every one of you before you could have stopped us.” He glared at the class.
“But,” one of Ralph’s classmate protested, raising a hand toward the huge dust cloud in the distant.
“No butts,” the Kunoichi barked, “Raizen was right.” She ran a glare over the class.
Ralph blinked when the Kunoichi named the blond as Raizen. He should have known. Raizen was a customer at the restaurant at least once a week since his wife announced she was pregnant, asking for the same thing, depending on what time of day. Ralph felt giddy as he remembered some of the stories Raizen told Boss man when he had the extra time to stop and chat about a few things. He, personally, couldn’t believe what Raizen had experienced on missions. Of course, the full trained ninja couldn’t tell all of the details, but he was able to gloss over some of the minor. It fueled Ralph’s dreams and desires of being a full trained ninja.
“We are here to collect our teams,” the third Ninja stated, “Team 19, I’m David and you are with me.” He turned on his heel and walked out of the classroom. Ralph was shoved to the side as Team 19 hurried after their teacher.
“I’m Gwen, the Instructor of Team 14,” the red head Kunoichi announced, “Please, follow me.”
“As for me,” Raizen said, “I will be training Team 17. Could you please come here?”
Ralph moved forward as Lilian stepped away from the crowd and Enzo brought up the rear. They stopped in front. Ralph glanced at Lilian who stopped on his right. She tried to hide her excitement, but her lips twitched uncontrollable. He glanced to his left where Enzo stood. He looked nervous, but it was the excited nervousness. They were ready to start their training to become ninja.
“Thank you,” Raizen acknowledged the team, “I will be taking Team 13 with me as well. I will escorting you three to your teacher. He is currently…” he paused, glancing toward the window. Ralph felt a piece of led land in his stomach. “Trying to stop a fight between his cousins.”
Stolen novel; please report.
“He’s an Urameshi?” Klaus almost shouted.
“Yes, he is,” Raizen smirked, “I hope you can survive the fighting nature of the Urameshi Clan.” Silence spread across the classroom. “Come on, Team 13, you are burning daylight.”
Ralph sensed Team 13 joined them. Raizen turned on his heel and walked out of the room. The former restaurant worker glanced at Team 13. They looked like death had came early.
Ralph was glad he was not assigned to the Urameshi Teacher. Team 13 and 17, led by Raizen, arrived on the edge of the Urameshi district. He tried to see what was happening, but he couldn’t. There was a large dust cloud covering the district. He could hear some insults being shouted. He wasn’t able to make them out.
“RAIZEN!” Ralph heard someone yelled his teacher’s name. The blond spun on his heel, his braid nearly hitting Ralph in the head, but the younger ninja ducked in time. “Why didn’t anyone come and get me?” An orange haired Kunoichi stopped in front of Raizen with her hands on her hips, giving Raizen a glare.
“I wish I could tell you, Aqua,” Raizen commented, “But I don’t know why.”
“Didn’t you hear about this fight?” Aqua shot back, “Those idiots are going to destroy the district if they are not stop.” She turned to the dust cloud.
“Fireball Jutsu!” a large fireball flew up out of the dust cloud. The heat washed over the two team of ninjas. Lilian took a step back. Enzo cocked his head to the side. Ralph tilted his head back to watch the fireball soar into the sky. He heard Hiei, a member of Team 13, whistled, impressed. Jasmine looked like she was re-thinking her decision of walking the Ninja path. Klaus was pale and stared wide eyed at the large fireball as it disappeared into the sky.
“Wind Twister!” the dust cloud twisted around, forming a twister. Ralph’s jaw dropped as he watched and felt the wind tried to pull him forward. The two Kunoichi grabbed a hold of one of the ninja. Klaus stumbled forward. Enzo grabbed him to hold him up as they fought against the increasingly strong pull of the wind. The loose debris was sucked up by the swirling winds and spun around the twister. Ralph stared as the twister tightened up, revealing three figures at the base of the swirling winds. The wind grew stronger. Ralph felt his feet slid and grabbed Raizen’s arm.
“Stop using ninja magic ticks and fight like a real man!” someone roared from the base of the dust cloud.
“If you are going to do something, Aqua, I would suggest you do it, now, before they destroy this part of the village and move on to the rest of the village,” Raizen said. He moved his hands in a series of hand signs and went to one knee as he slammed his hands onto the ground, “Earthen Wall Jutsu!”
An earthen wall rose from the ground, stopping around Raizen’s shoulder height. Ralph fell into it, feeling the suction of the wind stop. He sat down with his back to the wall. The other junior ninja joined him. They looked at each other.
“What can she do?” Jasmine asked.
“A lot,” Raizen said, watching the fight. Suddenly, he ducked behind the wall, “Don’t get up!”
“Why?” Hiei asked, looking up at Raizen. He glanced over the wall. His eyes widened and dropped down, curling up in a small ball.
“Ice Wonderland Jutsu,” Aqua’s voice rang out. There was a loud burst of icy air. Ralph shivered at the huge temperature drop. There was silence before there was sounds of items dropping to the ground.
Ralph glanced at Raizen. His teacher took a sigh before he slowly raised on his knees and peered over the wall. Ralph waited to see what Raizen would do. Raizen held up his hand in front of his chest and the wall crumbled. Ralph let out a small cry of surprise and fell backwards, landing on his back. He stared up into the sky.
Grey clouds drifted through the air. The air was crisp like a winter morning. Ralph could have sworn he saw a snowflake or two floating in the air. He sat up and twisted around, crossing his legs, turning his attention to what Aqua did. His jaw dropped and eyes widened before he shook his head in amazement and slowly stood up.
Aqua had turned the Urameshi district into a icy wonderland. Sunlight reflected off the ice in a blinding away. Ralph saw three ice statues standing in the middle of the chaos and he spotted a dozen more statues standing around. He glanced at Aqua.
The Kunoichi with the orange and black hair stood with a bo staff resting on her right shoulder, her left hand on her hip. She stormed to the three statues in the middle and glared at them. She raised her voice as she addressed, “You morons! Are you trying to destroy the Village? Save that kind of fight on your mission!” she slammed the bo staff against the statue on her right. The ice broke and a black hair man with a straw hat fell to the ground. She turned her attention to the statue in front of her. “I’m disappointed in you! You three know better then to start fighting like that within the village.” The bo staff slapped the statue causing the ice to break. The black and blond man landed on his knees, looking up at Aqua with a loving look on his face. “I swear you three are more trouble then what you are worth.” She twisted her bo and slapped the staff in the mid-section of the last statue. The black haired with a light green tint man scoffed, glaring at Aqua before he turned on his heel and walked away.
The straw hat ninja stood up and placed the straw hat on his head as he grinned, “That was a good fight.”
Aqua buried her face in her hands. Ralph shook his head. That was the power of the Urameshi Clan. They loved a good fight.
“Well,” Raizen spoke, “Now, that is taken care of. Aqua!” the orange and black haired woman turned to him, “Thaw out the rest of the statues. One of them is Kakashi. He needs to teaching his team today.”
“Yes, Master Raizen,” Aqua chirped.
Raizen turned to Team 13, addressing them, “Team 13, your teacher is around here somewhere. Tell Aqua I ordered her to help you.” Hiei opened his mouth to protest, but Raizen glared at him. The newest adult ninja deflected and nodded with a soft, ‘Yes, Sir.’
Raizen turned to Team 17 and stated, “Follow me. We are heading to Training Field 15.”
Ralph’s jaw dropped. Training Field 15? That was reserved for the fully trained ninja. He knew the teachers used that in the mornings before school started. The reason why he knew that one - he followed them one morning instead of going to work. Granted he called off the night before due to the amount of homework he had gotten that week, staying up majority of the night to do it then he had finals the next week. Luckily, the boss understood the reason he gave and didn’t complain about the work Ralph missed. Of course, it was a rare occasion that Ralph did call off.
He had watched the teachers go through training he wasn’t taught at school. When he asked about it later, he was given an answer he didn’t like. His Teacher he would be assigned to would teach him more. After all the school teaching was just basic training, teaching the next generation just the basics over the years, building on what they learned in the first year until they reached the third year.
He glanced at Enzo who looked confused. Enzo asked, “What is Training field 15?”
“Training Field 15 was where the teachers warmed up before school started,” Ralph answered, almost bouncing on his feet, before Raizen could. He glanced up at his new teacher. He winced. “Sorry, sir.”
“Na, don’t worry about it,” Raizen rolled his eyes. “It is refreshing to see someone excited about training.”
“What will you teach us today?” Ralph asked, almost bouncing on his toes, nearly running into Enzo.
“Whoa, chill, dude,” Enzo stepped to the side, “There is no need to be this excited over some training field.”
“I for one, agree with Mr. Smith,” Lilian said, formally, “the Sakura Training field will be much more suited for my training. I have been to training field 15 and it is nothing special about them.”
Ralph stopped and looked Lilian with a raised eyebrow.
She needs to loosen up.
“Still,” Ralph argued, “It is our first day as ninja, out of basic training!”
Raizen laughed, throwing his head back. Ralph looked at him, puzzled. Raizen looked at the trio, commenting, “If you feel that way, I will see you at Training Field 15. If you are not there, within the next 30 minutes, I will send you back to the Academy for more basic training.” Raizen vanished from sight.
“WHAT!” Ralph yelped. He glanced at Lilian and Enzo. They stared at the spot Raizen just stood with wide eyes. “I’m not going back there!” Ralph dashed off, heading to Training Field 15.
“Wait for me!” Enzo called out.
“I’m not going back to the Academy!” Lilian cried out, “My family would kill me if he did that!”
Ralph glanced over his right shoulder to see Lilian running to catch up. He saw Enzo keeping pace with him when he glanced in the other direction. He looked ahead. His eyes widened and he was forced to jump over a cart full of cabbages. Lilian flipped over the cart and landed in a crunch. However, Enzo didn’t have the reaction time necessary to dodge the cart. Ralph cracked a grin when he heard, “MY CABBAGES!!!!” as the cart full cabbages thudded to the ground.