casper-perry

After becoming a member of team 8 Sakura’s days have started to follow a routine. Wake up before the sun. Wait in line at the checkpoint between the third and second gate. Wait in the line between the second and first gate. Be the last one to arrive at training.  Do team building training. Complete a D rank mission because that is the only thing genin are allowed to do no matter how much inner yells at Sakura to do something besides trimming trees and picking weeds. Train individual skills while Kisame watches. Go home.

Sakura would be lying if she said she liked all the D rank missions that they’ve been going on not only because that is what inner yelled about the most but because when she was an academy student she imagined getting to do cooler missions as a ninja.

Sakura wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Utakata often mumbled under his breath about how sick he was of these D ranks. Chojuro would never say anything out loud but would deflate whenever they were assigned a new D rank. 

Team 8 was having a normal morning training session when one of the Mizukage’s assistants approached with a mission scroll. “The Mizukage has an urgent assignment for your team Kisame-sama.” the assistant said before turning into a puddle. 

The color on the scroll identified it as a C rank mission and as Kisame read it he got a serious look on his face. “Training is over for today you all need to go home and pack a travel bag and meet me back here in one hour.” Team 8 all disappear before Kisame dismisses them not even knowing what type of mission they are packing for. 

When they all return to the training ground with their bags packed Kisame is finally able to explain what the mission is. A bridge builder hired a group of Konoha nin to protect him from Gato. Team 8's job is to go in and see if they need any help, unofficially they are also trying to build up a good relationship with Konoha nin. 

Sakura hadn’t been outside the village since she came here and she could judge from Utakata and Chojuro shared looks of awe at everything that they have also never been outside the village. They probably have never even been outside of the inner gates. 

“You spent a year at the Konoha academy before coming here right Sakura do you think you’ll know anyone we’ll meet up with.” Kisame asked as team 8 got on a tiny motor boat. “It’s possible Kisame-sensai but the classes in Konoha are a lot smaller than they are here so it's unlikely that anyone I knew would be there.” Sakura looked out at the open sea as she thought “even if the people from my class are there they probably don’t remember me. I was a very shy kid and only ever had one friend in school.” Utakata let out a small chuckle “I remember you were like that the first year you came here you had hair in your face and looked like you were going to faint whenever someone talked to you.” Sakura smiled at the memories of her first year at the Kiri academy. 

She only started to come out of her shell two years after moving because she got tired of being picked on and realized Ino wasn’t going to be able to save her this time.

“Kisame-sensai, why does the Mizukage want us to help out Leaf shinobi so bad?” Chojuro asked as the bride they were supposed to help protect came into view. “That’s a good question kid.” Kisame rubbed his chen as he thought “if I had to guess it would be that she’s trying to get buddy buddy with Konoha before the chunin exams so she can send over a few teams to participate.” 

The mention of the chunin exams had everyone perking up but before they could ask any questions they arrived. 

The bride was easy to find; it was big and easily the loudest place on the island. There were already 4 ninja’s on the bridge, one that was clearly the jonin captain who had messy white hair and most of his face covered. Sakura recognized two of the genin Sauske and Naruto while the last one with paper white skin and black hair she had never seen before.    

“Are you the ninjas from Kirigakure I heard were coming to help us out.”  the white hair jonin asked. “We are, I’m Kisame Hoshigaki and these are my students Utakata, Chojuro and Sakura Haruno.” After Kisame introduced everybody, Naruto's face lit up with a grin as he ran over.

Naruto greeted Sakura by telling her everything that had happened in the village since she left. 

Sakura had only just finished her first year at the ninja academy when her parents decided they wanted to move to Kiri. When her parents told her they had to move for her safety she didn’t understand what was so unsafe about Konoha that they decided they had to move all the way to Kiriakure. She knew from the academy why they were called the blood mist village and wondered how a place with that sort of history could be safer than their home in Konoha. But no matter what Sakura said her parents minds seemed to be made up. She wished goodbye to her best friend Ino and left. Still confused as to why her parents thought this place was so unsafe for her. 

Kids at the Kirigakure academy automatically didn’t like Sakura because of her status as an outsider often picking on her. The teachers weren’t much better ignoring Sakura unless it was to scold her for doing something wrong. The curriculum was also very different from Konoha. Instead of students learning taijutsu they were taught kenjutsu. While Sakura’s previous education had her leagues ahead of her classmates in some places she was very far behind in others.

While her time at the academy wasn’t easy it only made it all the more satisfying when she finally graduated and became a genin.

She was placed on a team with Chojuro, a sweet albeit shy kid and Utakata who was quiet and mysterious. Their jonin sensei was Kisame Hoshigaki who was tall and intimidating even standing next to all the other jonin. 

After all of the teams were announced Kisame had Sakura and her team follow him to a training ground in the middle of the forest with three training dummies standing in the middle. Kisame turned to the newly formed team 8 with an unsettling grin. “I bet you all think that because you passed that little test at the academy that you all get to be ninja’s now right?” “Yes Hoshigaki-sensai isn't that the whole point of the test to determine who can and can’t be a ninja.” Sakura answered after she realized both her teammates weren't going to say anything. “Those tests were to see who was qualified to take the real test you need to become ninja’s.”  Kisame explained as he pulled out a large sword wrapped in bandages from behind his back “Who can tell me what this is?” all of team 8 was too stunned to speak after finding out that they had to take another test to become ninja’s 

‘What do you mean we aren’t real ninja’s yet what was the point of even studying for that stupid test if it wasn’t even the real thing.’ inner screamed at sakura as Kisame went on to describe his sword samehada.

“Your real test is to use this sword to cut one of these dummies in half if you can do that then you can be a real ninja’s.” team 8 watched in unison as Kisame used his sword to cut through a tree like it was nothing. “Is that really it doesn’t seem much harder then what we had to do to graduate from the academy?” Utakata asked while inspecting one of the dummies. “It does seem easy, doesn't it. Why don’t you go first then Utakata.” Kisame said, offering up the handle to the boy. Utakata grabbed the handle and was readying a great swing when he yelled out in pain as sharp spikes came out from the handle and cut through his hand as Utakata threw the sword to the ground. 

“What the hell was that?” Utakata asked as he cradled his bloodied hands to his chest. “Did I forget to mention when samehada doesn’t like whoever its wielder is it shoots out spikes so it can only be held by someone it deems worthy.” “How the hell are we supposed to use it then.” Utakata asked annoyance seeping into his voice. Kisame shoots him a cheeky grin “not as easy as the academy test now is it.” 

Chojuro was the next one to try and before he picked up the sword he used the transformation jutsu to make himself look like Kisame before picking up the sword. Samehada seemed to have no trouble seeing through the transformation jutsu and cut through Chojuro just like it did with Utakata. Kisame stood there and laughed as in a puff of smoke Chojuro turned back into himself. 

“What are you an idiot that would never have worked.” 

“S-sh-shut up Utakata, I'm not an idiot.”  

The last member of team 8 went up to try her luck with Samehada. Sakura calmed herself by controlling her chakra to move slowly around her body. When she picked up the sword she was ready for it to attack and clenched her hands extra hard around the handle so she wouldn’t drop it. The spikes never came out; it seemed the sword liked her. One she realized this Sakura ran towards the training dummy and cut it in half using all the might she had in her tiny genin body. It didn’t look as seamless as when Kisame cut through the tree but she was still able to cut the dummy in half. 

“It seems we have one student who gets to become a real ninja, great job pinkie.”  Kisame declared giving Sakura a pat on the head as he looked at the other students still laying on the ground clutching their hands. ‘Of course I would pass, I'm better than both those losers combined.’ Inner screamed as Sakura jumped up and down from how happy she was.

Utakata got up from the ground with both his hands seeming just fine now and when he picked up the sword he positioned his hands in an unusual way. He noticed both times Samehada had attacked the spikes came out of the same places. The places that a shinobi with any amount of sword training would hold the sword because it was the right place to hold it to get the most power out of your swing. 

It took more than one swing while avoiding the spikes Utakata was able to cut the second training dummy in half. 

Chojuro was the last one up he tried to hold the sword the same way Utakata did with the wrong grip and brute force his through the dummy but no matter how many times he hit it samehada wouldn’t go through. Chojuto soon realized that the only way he could get enough power to cut through the dummy was to hold the sword properly. The blue haired boy took a deep breath and gripped the sword properly which caused his hands to get cut through with the spikes. This time Chojuro didn’t let go and ran at the dummy and was able to cut through it with one clean cut. He then dropped the sword and whipped away the tears that had gathered in his eyes.  

Kisame picked up samehada and placed it on his back before turning to address the group. “I honestly didn’t think you all were going to make it. good job but this is only the beginning for you three. I expect to see you all here bright and early tomorrow morning for your first day of real training.”  

Before any of the genin left, Sakura took a look at Chojuro’s wounds that would need to be treated at a hospital so they wouldn’t get infected. Utakata was the exact opposite, his hands looked completely fine beside a little blood that was easily wiped off. 

Ally was tired, physically tired, mentally tired but most of all tired of waiting. Tired of waiting for Emf to come back so he doesn’t have to be champion any more and tired of waiting for Evbo the god of parkour to finally fucking notice that his choosen chamption is missing. Evbo hasn't been around in a long time. 

He used to come around every few weeks to say hi to everyone and sometimes have practice parkour battles with Emf but weeks turned into months turned into years turned into so long not many people could remember Evbo’s face. Ally could remember his face though there was a time he was very thankful for Evbo for getting him out of fighter level but right now Ally hated Evbo. 

Hates him for not visiting Emf enough. Hates that whenever Evbo visits he doesn’t stick around. Hates him for a million more things he did that hurt Emf. Ally right now needs to put all of the hate aside because Evbo is the only one who can bring his best friend back so he’ll wait on a throne that he doesn’t belong on with boots that feel too heavy and wait. 

Evbo’s last visit was more than ten years ago and Ally doesn’t want to waste however long he’ll be waiting just sitting around so he organizes search parties for every level they don’t result in finding anything useful but everyone is happy to help look for Emf. Ally’s practices using the command blocks for a week adding, removing and moving structures. 

After a week Ally feels comfortable enough using the command blocks to bring Emf back but nothing happens no matter how many times he jumps across the command blocks. Ally finds that the hardest part of being champion isn’t having to deal with crazy people who want to end the world or figuring out the best way to house and feed people; it's dealing with everyone's mundane problems.

 Like the Pro’s wanting different types of housing, the Masters wanting more books in the liberty or the noobs wanting an area where they can practice parkour. (Ally does grant that last one because it seems like a great idea). It's tiring having to deal with people asking for things everyday and Ally can’t imagine how Emf has not gone crazy having done this for so many years. 

The worst part about it though is when people start asking to hold funerals for Emf. He denies every request and tells everyone that Emf will come back and to not get used to him as champion. 

After a week more of waiting Evbo does show up but he doesn’t come so he can return Emf to where he belongs he comes defeated with no clue where his champion is. All he knows is that Emf isn’t dead but nothing more than that. Ally asks Evbo how he knows Emf isn’t dead “it’s a bit hard to explain but I can feel everyone in parkour civilization, everybody’s hopes and dreams I feel them all the time. I feel Emf’s but it's weaker than everyone else. I have to focus really hard to feel him but it's still there” Evbo explains. 

“Do you know where he is?” Ally asks hopefully. Evbo shakes his head “He’s not here” Ally looks into the distance trying to imagine where Emf ended up. Ally hopes it's a nice place where Emf  can practice parkour all day without a care in the world; but Ally knows how cruel the world can be sometimes. 

“How do we get him back?” Ally says it with so much determination that it no longer feels like a question but a declaration. “I’m not sure but I’m sure we can figure it out” logically it doesn’t make sense why that statement fills Ally with confidence. If a god doesn’t know what to do how could anyone but he’s seen Evbo do the impossible before so there is no doubt In his mind that they’ll find Emf and bring him back.