The Fourth Dojutsu

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Anyone trying to accuse me of owning Naruto shall be handed over to Orochimaru who shall then use the moron in his Summoning Jutsu: Resurrection to an Impure World.

Rei Higurashi was currently walking home from the Ninja academy with her thoughts constantly going back to her first team meeting. One thing that Rei was very pleased about was the fact that her teammates didn't seem to be the hormonal idiots that she had had to deal with for the past two years. When Rei had first reported to her old classroom for her team placement Rei had resigned herself to having to put up with the antics of two of her admirers. Hearing that she would be place on a team composed of genin from other classes had filled her with a good deal of hope. Since the various classes in the academy tended to be isolated from each other there was almost no chance of her two teammates being in her fan club. So it had been with hope that Rei had gone up the stairs to meet her new teammates.

When she considered her teammates Rei figured that she had lucked out very well considering what she had been expecting. Naruto was rather friendly and seemed to have a sort of cheerful air about him that Rei found refreshing. Iori was gruff and his attitude reminded Rei of a bear; friendly if left alone or shown respect but nasty if angered. To Rei's surprise, she had found that she was able to open up a little bit and be herself with those two boys. Actually, when Rei thought about how Naruto and Iori acted compared to her classmates, it would be easier to describe the two as young men instead of boys. Whatever the case, Rei had found out in that hour talk that the three of them had had that Naruto and Iori were two people that she could trust to have at her back and that was enough for now in that department.

Finding out that Chouza Akimichi was her new sensei had been a bit of a surprise for Rei but yet again it was a pleasant surprise. The Akimichi were one of several clans in Konoha that her grandfather had spoken very highly of to her. Rei knew that this was because the Akimichi were one of the few Clans to regularly come to the shrine that the Higurashi family tended in order to offer offerings of thanks to the kami. Unlike several other clans, the Hyuga and the almost destroyed Uchiha quickly came to Rei's mind, the Akimichi were a very humble in nature clan and were known among the shrine tenders for their habit of offering prayers for those ninjas that had departed without exception even if the ninja was an enemy.

While Rei had a general respect for the Akimichi as a whole, she had been curious as to how Chouza was as in individual. Chouza was rather friendly and had sat down to talk with them all. The man's simple speech to the team showed Rei that Chouza would be a good sensei for them. "Hello you guys and lady, I'm Chouza Akimichi and I will be your sensei from here on out. If you ever have a question on something or need some help I am right here for you. It doesn't matter it the thing you need help on is ninja related or something from your personal lives; I'll be there to help you just the same. Should I not be able to help you for any reason in whatever you need I will do my best to either find out what you need to know or find someone who can help you."

Once Chouza had said his introduction he had gone on to outline what Team Chouza would be doing for the first two weeks. For the first week the team would be doing nothing but drills and training. Chouza had stated very emphatically that jumping into doing missions, even if they were as harmless and boring as D-rank missions were, without any training in working with each other was a big mistake. He had then gone on to say that D-rank missions didn't really teach teambuilding like a lot of Jonin seemed to subscribe to. Most D-rank missions, Chouza told them, were basically chores and that just because you can do a chore together doesn't mean you're able to work together out on the field where it all counts. The second week would still have a lot of drills and team building exercises but Team Chouza would start to do missions.

As Rei approached the gate to the shrine her family lived at she stopped and thought about what had happened at the very end of the team meeting. When Chouza had dismissed the team Rei had found Naruto following her down the halls of the academy. She had immediately turned to face Naruto and demanded to know why he was following her. Afraid that she might have been wrong about him, Rei was ready to summon her naginata for use in the 1000 years of pain jutsu if Naruto was trying to get a date. Rei was surprised that Naruto did not in fact try to get a date from her but had come to talk on an issue that he had felt he should bring to her attention. Naruto then went on to say that there was a seal that had been placed on him a long time ago and he wanted to notify her about it.