Sehnsucht [Naruto Fanfiction]

Chapter 1 - Inception

Chapter 1 - Inception

"Sokkenai Hitori. You have been summoned." the ANBU operative spoke in their usual commanding tone, showing no emotion. They disappeared in a whirl of leaves immediately after she nodded in understanding.

Hitori stood up from her small table, where she had been reading a book and enjoying a cup of her favourite tea. So far, today had been uneventful, until now. She had returned from a month-long, arduous mission that took her to the far north of Cloud Country, escorting a Fire Country noble to their in-laws' house. It wouldn't have taken so damn long if they didn't want to stay in hotels and inns every single night. If the weather was too hot or too humid or if it was raining, they had to wait until it cleared. Since Cloud had a much colder climate, she tore her hair out when they got further up north and could only travel in the middle of the day when it was warmer. But unfortunately, that choice was removed from her hands. She also got fed very well, but the lack of exercise bored her very fast.

Luckily, she compensated by scouting ahead, doubling back once or twice daily, and going through all her memorised kata before she went to bed at night. Yet, it had been a boring mission, and the fact that it was a month-long made it worse. Tsunade had forced her into a week of time off since that was usually standard practice after missions that reached a month in duration. Typically, it was two weeks, but she argued that she hadn't done enough to warrant the extra week's rest.

The young woman took her chances to train while she could, but having few friends to train with didn't help. Sometimes, she would approach some of the other people she knew or the Jonin, but she didn't know any of them well enough to ask. Usually, they were nice enough to spar with her occasionally, but most of the time, they were out of the village on missions.

Since the Fourth Great Shinobi War was over, all five villages were trying to rebuild, which luckily had kept them all in each other's good books. When they met each other in the field, they didn't try to kill each other any more. There were even reports of some Kumo ninja who healed a Konoha team who had run into bounty hunters and Konoha sharing supplies with Kiri ninja. There had been more peace talks and more diplomats being sent to Taki, and even Ame was growing in size. Luckily, Konan was in charge of the village, and her friendship with Naruto meant that Ame would always be a strong ally.

Even though plenty of people were trying to make a difference, there were always those who still wanted to tear down those above them. The Daimyo of each nation still had yet to hear the concerns of the shinobi, who wanted to be treated like people, not weapons of war. They would still send them into missions, meaning certain death, and respected them about as much as a rock. Hitori knew that Tsunade had been tearing her hair out over the meetings with the Fire Daimyo, who was notorious for not listening to her. They still had a ways to go to change the shinobi world.

Changing into a tidier shirt, she put her shoes on before she headed to the Hokage Tower. While she was on her way, she pulled her mid-back length black hair into a more comfortable ponytail and stretched this way and that as she strolled there. This was more than likely a mission assignment meeting, so she wasn't too worried about rushing. The Hokage was quite busy dealing with a thousand other things and rarely noticed if you were late anyway. Either that, or she didn't care enough to yell at you for it. She was still trying to convince The Copy Nin, Hatake Kakashi, to take over her role and become the Rokudaime Hokage so she could retire, but she hadn't seen to wear him down enough yet.

Hitori pushed the door open lazily with her shoulder, keeping her hands in her pockets, and headed up to the top floor. Shizune was seated at her desk outside the Hokage's office and gave her a smile when she approached.

"Hey Shizune. How are you?" Hitori asked politely, returning the older woman's smile.

"Good, thank you. And yourself? I hear your last mission was rather...boring," she chuckled softly, and Hitori rolled her eyes.