White Rabbit

seven !

I don't have a beta, I only have me, myself and I. I try to get to mistakes but it is what it is, besides, once the book is done I'll definitely comb through it and edit it uwu.

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"D-rank missions have always been considered tedious work," Aina mused as she weeded the garden with Kiba and Sasuke tied to her by the ankle, "But it's surprisingly peaceful."

"Kaa-San says that D-ranks are used to help with teamwork," Kiba drawled as he sat back on his haunches and wiped his brow, "Says if you can't work together on weeds then you can't work together beyond the walls."

"Have either of you ever been outside the walls?" Aina asked as she pushed up her goggles until they sat on her headband so she could rub at her eyes, "I was never allowed because of the number of enemies my clan has." 

"I was beyond the walls for my coming of age ceremony," Kiba shrugged, "All the Inuzuka kids who turn eight get to have a pup choose them and then they go hunting in the forest beyond. We have older members of the clan watching us obviously. Kaa-San said it's symbolic or something? Our first hunt together happens in an area unknown to both of us and so we gain a deeper understanding of one another."

"I left the village a couple of times with my older cousin and my brother," Sasuke said, hesitating as he referred to Itachi as his brother. "We didn't go far, just to Nekobaa's so we could do the mission most Uchiha's do when they're ten," Sasuke smirked as he tossed a weed behind him, "I did it when I was five." 

"Did you finish it?" Aina asked, standing up and pulling the boys up with her.

"No," He sighed, "The mission was to collect the paw-prints of all the different cat summons, my brother and Shisui thought that the boss summons would be too much to handle because he's apparently got a bad temper and doesn't hold back against the children."

"Why would that matter?" Kiba asked, confusion lacing his tone as they rounded the corner.

"For a cat," Kakashi drawled as he appeared behind of the three genins, causing them to trip over each other in a rush to turn around, "Getting your paw print taken is akin to a human being stripped naked and photographed. It's uncomfortable for them though some have no cares when it comes to such a thing." 

"Oh, well I'd be prideful too if some kid tried to take a picture of me naked," Kiba huffed, crossing his arms across his chest. Very much pretending that he hadn't nearly tripped over the rope that was tying them together.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about, Kiba," Aina snickered as she bumped her hip against his, "No kid want's anything to do with that."

Kiba whacked her on the back of the head and Aina laughed, shuffling away only to trip over the rope tying her to Sasuke and falling into him. Sasuke grimaced and looped his arms around the small girl's body and held her up as she laughed. Kiba had stumbled closer to them, a pout on his face.

"We finished weeding and we've done all the other D-ranks you assigned us," Sasuke said, pushing Aina onto her own feet. "What are we doing now?"

"Now, we head to the Uchiha Clan!" Kakashi smiled fakely, "But first! Lunch! Wouldn't want to go on an empty stomach! Untie yourselves and meet me at Baratie. Don't be too late, I've got a reservation for oh, three hours ago?"

The three genin stared at their teacher with varying degrees of disappointment as he gave them a peace sign and disappeared. Aina bent down and untied the ropes holding her to the two boys and shoving them into her weapons pouch.

"The Baratie is a seafood restaurant right?" She asked as she looped her arms with the boys, dragging them down the path to the village proper.

"Yeah, they opened a couple of years ago and are apparently pretty good, if you like fish. They get most of their produce from the Land of Waves but recently they've been getting fewer and fewer shipments of stuff," Kiba shrugged, "Kaa-san goes there often so she knows most of the gossip. No one really knows what's happening in Wave but it's totally putting a damper on the quality of fish."