It was very early when I stepped out of the house. I nervously surveyed my equipment again. I tied my bag with the kunais, shuriken, and scrolls around my waist, I hung my food bag next to it and finally I tied the leather strap, like a sash, to my upper body to which my katana was attached.
I looked one last time at the closed front door, then I started walking through the city. Getting faster and faster. It felt good to be able to be useful again at last. However, because of my speed, I had to brake hard so that I stopped just in front of the gate and didn't slip past.
First I took a deep breath and then a quick glance told me that none of my new teammates had been here yet. But that wasn't to be expected either, since the sky was still covered with a dark blue. I stepped in front of the main gate and leaned relaxed against a post. I listened to the surroundings. The noises from the forest, like the chirping of the crickets or the gentle rustling of the leaves, could be heard clearly and I closed my eyes. It was a nice feeling, almost as if you were connected to nature.
I stood there for a while, not moving, just listening to the sound of nature. But my internal clock gave me a sign that it was time to open my eyes again. Indeed, when I lifted my eyelids, the sky was colored a faint orange. My eyes were now focused on the horizon and gradually the orange turned to a red, more and more intense. The birds were already awake and now they began to wake up the rest of the forest dwellers.
The rays of the sun that stretched across the sky tickled my face, they gently touched my cheeks and I felt their warmth. It was comfortably warm. I enjoyed it to the fullest. I let out a relaxed breath.
Suddenly I could hear footsteps on the asphalt, a little further away, but getting closer and closer.I pushed myself off the post and stayed upright in the direction of the steps so that no one else saw me smiling at the sun. A nervous tingling sensation made itself felt in my stomach area. What if those other ninja didn't like me now?
But by then it was already too late for any brooding, because at that moment a boy with black hair that he had tied in a pigtail stepped through the gate. He looked at me briefly with a raised eyebrow, then he recognized my headband that I had attached to the side of my belt and said something sober: "You must be the replacement that the Hokage assigned me." I just nodded. "Um, yes. I'm Sui Yoko." "Well, Sui, I'm Shikamaru Nara, the team leader. As far as I know, I'm supposed to explain the missionary assignment to you, so watch out, because I won't explain it a second time is totally annoying! "I nodded a bit confused. An unmotivated team leader? The way he was talking, you might think he would have preferred to stay at home ... "Well, our team has the task of bringing an item to Sunagakure. And the Hokage doesn't want anyone to see what we're bringing to Suna. Um To protect ourselves from supposed attacks, we need a certain system and this requires exactly nine people. As soon as everyone has arrived here, I'll explain the individual positions to everyone. Sure enough? "I nodded again. Of course it was clear, I just didn't think we would have to go to Sunagakure!
One thing still interested me. "What kind of object is that?"
Suddenly I heard faint footsteps behind me and turned around.
I looked into the face of a black-haired boy who was completely expressionless. However, he looked damn good. He had his hands in his trouser pockets and somehow exuded a nonchalance.
"How long have you been here?", Shikamaru asked him the question, annoyed.This was 'annoyed' but even more annoyed than how he had talked to me, it seemed as if Shikamaru didn't like this boy in front of me.
"On time since sunrise.", He replied with a firm, but almost arrogant voice. I was in shock. What if he saw me leaning against the post and enjoying the sunshine. That would be embarrassing!
Shikamaru gave a low moan and leaned against the post I had leaned against last, he closed his eyes and gave the impression that he didn't want to be disturbed any further.
At that moment, however, I was more concerned about whether I should introduce myself to the boy, on the other hand he would have asked if he had been interested in who I was and so I stayed calm.
In the next moment I winced slightly, because a deafening screeching sounded: "SASUKE !!" Two girls came running out of the gate, head to head and then fell around the neck of the handsome boy, who was obviously called Sasuke. He grimaced in anguish and freed himself from the girls by jumping backwards a little.
"But Sasuke ...", one girl replied, a little disappointed. However, he only crossed his arms and scorn flashed from his eyes. Great, I wasn't the only one who thought this guy was cute ...
Then the girls began to quarrel with each other, it was kind of silly. Until the one girl with pink hair paused in the middle of the squabble and turned to me. “Tell me, who are you?” The other blonde girl turned to me too. I was completely taken by surprise. "Um ... I ... I'm Sui Yoko." "Are you the replacement for Naruto?" "Uh, yes.", I replied a little confused again, but Naruto was obviously the guy I'm standing in for had to. Suddenly the pink-haired girl was in front of me and held out her hand to me."Hey, nice to meet you, I'm Sakura, Sakura Haruno!" She gave me a friendly smile. "And that behind me ..." She pointed to the blonde girl. "... that's Inotussi!" "Arrg, just shut up, you broad-forehead!" she replied, boiling with anger. Sakura couldn't let that sit on her and trudged towards Ino with clenched fists.
At that moment four other people showed up. A somewhat 'strong' boy with a bag of chips in his hand, a strange guy with sunglasses, a girl who was a bit in the background and on top a guy with an absolutely cute dog on his head!
"Hey guys, what's up?" Said the 'strong' boy with his mouth full. However, he got no answer. Instead, Shikamaru pulled himself up again and said annoyed: "Now that you are all finally here, we can now start to talk the plan through."
Everyone was instantly calm and turned to Shikamaru.
"Well, in order to bring the item safely to Sunagakure, we have to maintain our line-up. Kiba, Akamaru and Hinata will proceed first. Kiba can spot opponents beforehand with his sense of smell and Hinata with her Biakugan. In the back are Choji and Shino, they will give us our backing. In the middle are in a circle Sakura, Sasuke, Ino and yours truly. "Then he looked at me. "Since I do not know your strength, I could not assess you. Therefore you will be in the middle of our circle and you will get the item. Your job is to protect the item and to bring it to Sunagakure under all circumstances, understand ? "I was completely blown away. I should take the item, I ?? That was way too much responsibility for me, but I nodded, did I have another choice? He was the team leader, after all. Besides, I still didn't know what kind of object it was. Shikamaru pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to me.It was something angular wrapped in a cloth. Curiously, I wanted to unwind the cloth a little to be able to look at the object, but Shikamaru interrupted me with a serious tone: "Tsunade doesn't want anyone to see what we are transporting to Suna!" As if caught, I winced and looked guilty to the ground. I carefully put the item in my pocket and made sure that it was well stowed away. "Good. The circle around you will protect you. All right people? Then we can finally go!", Said Shikamaru.
Everyone started to take off in the direction of the forest. Still because of the wind, I was a bit behind, but I caught up quickly and jumped from tree to tree between the others.
That was the beginning of the mission. My chance to prove I was a worthy ninja!

We were traveling fast, but the others weren't careless and kept an eye out in all directions. I could feel their tension, they really expected that we could be attacked at any moment. This tension spread to me, I became nervous and also more and more insecure with my kicks on the branches. So I had to concentrate fully on my feet and thus lost track of the surroundings. I could feel the fear germinate in me, my breath went faster and I wanted to have turned around again. Now! Since there was still no enemy Shinobi in sight, what would I do if one, or even several, showed up? I didn't know, but I didn't even want to know ...
I looked nervously back and forth between the people in my circle of protection. My gaze caught on one person - Sasuke. He was the only one who took it all very easily. And somehow he also had a certain strength that certainly made it easy for him to be so cool. This serenity reminded me a lot of Katsuro and Taro.My two teammates. When we got our first missionary assignment, I was totally crazy. The two, however, remained very calm and serene. After my sensei gave us the starting signal, we drove off. A wild hunt through the forest. Neither of us had made the slightest attempt to discuss a plan or system for how to proceed on our mission, and neither of us took it as seriously as these ninjas were doing.
Even when we met strange Shinobi, neither Taro nor Katsuro had a tense body part. On the contrary, Taro made fun of the strangers and Katsuro bragged that they should go, otherwise we would have to make them 'cold'!
I didn't have that calm at all, because my heart had sunk in my pants and that's exactly how I felt at the moment.
Sasuke was still hopping safely from one tree to the next. And when I saw him like that, I realized that only if I could tackle this mission here, I could go on tours with my two team partners again and that spurred me on, because somehow I missed them both, they were a bit Family to me. It gave me new courage and I became more confident again so that I could focus my gaze on the surroundings again. As soon as a new wave of fear