Deafening - Shikamaru Nara

9

The first think I do in the morning is grab the scroll and spread it across my kitchen counter. The first section is titled, Chakra Control. That seems simple enough, I can already lace chakra in my voice.

The scroll wants me to use chakra to break something, so I place a glass about two meters away and focus on my chakra. I close my eyes and manipulate my chakra through my lips, letting out a low whistle. I gasp, I had broken a mirror several meters away from the glass. I suppose distance wasn't my issue, rather precision was.

I figure I should go outside to practice before I accidentally break my windows too. I grab a few more dishes and walk to the forest, placing a bowl on a tree stump and a plate a medium distance behind it.

After a few hours of failing over and over, I am finally able to control where I want to direct my chakra. It makes me wonder if I had ever injured my teammates in the past with my imprecise chakra control.

"Hey Rei! What have you been up to?" Sakura asks, walking up to me.

"Just working on some chakra control. How have you been? I haven't seen you in a while."

She smiles. "Oh, good," she says. "I've asked Lady Tsunade to put me under her wing as a medical ninja."

I gasp. "That's great, Sakura!"

She grins happily. "Thanks, Rei. Anyways, Lady Tsunade sent me here to come get you. She said she has word on the Sound."

My heart starts racing as soon as my brain registers Sakura's message. I only wonder what it could be. "Walk back with me?" I ask her. She smiles and nods, walking next to my side.

Sakura and I exchange in some small talk on the way to the Hokage's office. But I could barely pay attention to our conversation, I was too focused on what Tsunade's message could be.

"Lady Tsunade, you said you wanted to see me?" I ask.

She nods. Naruto was already in her office, as well as Kakashi.

"I wanted all four of you here before I went into detail of the mission."

"About time," Naruto mumbles, earning him a hard glare from me and Sakura.

"There's rumors that Orochimaru has a laboratory in the Hidden Waterfalls Village. Rumor has it that he's keeping residents of the Sound their for experimentation."

"What if it's a trap?" I ask.

"It is a very real possibility. But Kakashi brought up a good point earlier—we can't turn a blind eye on these people."

I turn to look at Kakashi. His face does not react from what Lady Tsunade revealed, but he gives me a wink. He listened to what I said the other day, about how a nation like the Leaf needs to help others, and he told Tsunade!

"Your mission is to check out the Village and see what's really going on, but be careful. They may be after Rei," Tsunade says.

"What about Sasuke?" I ask.

"Oh yeah! I bet Sasuke could be at the laboratory too!" Naruto exclaims.

Tsunade sighs. "I'm not sure where Sasuke is. If you find any leads, let me know, but don't do anything rash."

"I won't let that happen," Kakashi says.

Tsunade nods. "The four of you may leave early tomorrow morning."

I grin as I exit her office along with the rest of my team. "This is so exciting!" I say joyfully.

"Why are you so excited, Rei?" Naruto asks.