- "Hello! I am Inochi Nohara and I am joining the ANBU from today onwards. Nice to meet you."

These four sentences took only two seconds. Inochi blurted out everything that she thought was necessary for an introduction. After all, dozens of assassins were staring at the two new recruits like meat up for devouring.

- " I am Itachi Uchiha. nice to meet you all. I am starting as an ANBU today too"

Said a guy standing right next to her. Inochi and Itachi went to the same academy but were in different classes. However Inochi knew who Itachi was as he was named "the child prodigy".

Suddenly another guy spoke up. By far he looked the most carefree among all the people present there. However his eyes didn't have any life, but to be fair, if it did then he wouldn't have been chosen for the ANBU.

ANBU only chose people who could weaponise their trauma.

Inochi knew that and that's why was not confused when she got the offer. She wanted to reject it as she was already cramped up with normal missions but she couldn't as the man named Danzo, who brought the offer, was pretty intimidating. So here she was, in the middle of people who looked like they could kill anyone any moment. Not to her surprise, she and Itachi were the youngest there. Everyone looked at them as if they were going to pounce on them any minute.

- "Hey nice to meet you. I am Tenzo. And this is Hatake Kakashi. He is the captain of our team. By team I mean you, me and Itachi."

Inochi internally sighed. "Great, now I will have to face two child progidies at once. And who knows maybe this Tenzo guy is one of them too" . She knew she had always been jealous of people getting termed as "child progidies" but just couldn't shake the feeling off. The inferiority complex always crept into her bones standing next to people who could achieve standards without even trying.

- "Nice to meet you Captain Tenzo" Inochi shook hands with him. After a brief awkward pause she continued " So..I will be going to the girls locker room now. See you soon at the training grounds"
Inochi walked away as soon as she found an opening. One more thing she was highly annoyed of was time waste, which included small talk.

- " Atleast the introduction got over quickly.. I am never doing that ever again" Inochi muttered to herself as she scurried down the corridor.

Quickly getting into similar uniforms as rest of the ANBU members, she entered the training grounds as instructed. In an instant she located Itachi who was also walking with the same gait of "newcomer", which almost made Inochi comfortable.

- "So, Itachi how did you get in here? Did Danzo go and give you an offer?" Inochi tried to strike up a conversation.

-"Inochi, I don't think we are supposed to talk about who gave us this offer." Itachi stated, his eyes darting here and there as if scanning the ground.

-" Is that what they told you? They never said anything to me though. Danzo looked too scary at that time that I just couldn't bring myself to reject the offer." Inochi pouted.

- "You wanted to reject the offer?" Itachi was atlast intrugued.

- "Yes I guess. I live alone with my younger brother Naruto and leaving him for so long can be pretty dangerous."

- "So you too see that child as a threat?" Itachi cut off Inochi, slightly annoyed.

-" Huh? What!? No, of course not. I meant dangerous for him. Everyday he would get cursed and beaten by the villagers. I am not allowed to hit the villagers back that's why it's even more hard to make them stop as I am not good with words. It went to such an extent that now I always accompany him whenever he wants to go outside and play." Inochi blabbered, as the last thing she wanted people to think was that she hated her baby brother.

- "Oh... Sorry for misunderstanding."

-"Why did you even-"

- "Inochi." Itachi whispered, again cutting her off.

- "Yeah I know." Inochi replied, although slightly frustrated after being cut off twice. She and Itachi sensed many kunais coming at them from behind but both of them realised that they weren't exactly aimed at them. So they just kept walking while remaining sharply alert of the kunais. The kunais kept coming until both of them reached the designated spot and Captain Kakashi spoke

- "Hey, what are you guys doing?" Kakashi scolded the ANBU members who were the ones throwing kunais at Itachi and Inochi.

-"We were just testing their skills Sir." Said one of the ANBU

"Testing our skills by throwing kunais that were surely not targeted at us? Huh.. more like trying to scare the newbies on their first day" Inochi thought.

-"Listen, they were chosen by the Hokage and they are only eleven. If they lacked skills they would be participating in the chuunin exams, not joining the ANBU." Kakashi replied, now visibly annoyed.

"Well I don't know about skills but I surely do want to kill these people. WHO THE HELL do they think they are???" Inochi was completely ready to throw a punch or two at the ANBU members.

While she was giving deathly stares at the ANBU members, they retreated after being scolded by Kakashi once more.

- "By the way, we do need to observe your skills so that we can work as a team." Tenzo chimed in. He was a 'stay out of problem as long as possible' type of guy as Inochi jotted down in her mind, trying to figure out whom to ger close to.

- "So what do we need to do." Itachi spoke after being silent during the whole commotion. It was pretty clear that he meant business and did not want to be a part of any extra drama.

- "There are some hidden targets. Try to locate as many as possible and hit them. Inochi you will go first and then Itachi."

Inochi sighed. She hated one more thing; being the center of attention. However shaking off all the negative thoughts, she took her position in the center of the ground. She activated her sharingan, already at 3 tomoe and scanned the area.

-"well well, what could go wrong really. There is obviously a hidden target at the back of the rock, three on the trees and one hanging right above me" Inochi whispered to herself.

Not even wasting another second, she threw five kunais to the the targets hitting all of them. She noticed that the one hanging above her wasn't pierced perfectly because she couldn't see the target clearly in the sun.

-"Here. I got five. How many were there in total?" Inochi headed towards Kakashi holding the five target boards.

-"You will have to wait till Itachi is finished."

-"Wait-- you will not be changing the targets?"

- "No, of course not."

-"So there are more"

- "You really need to have some patience Inochi" Kakashi stated with a slight inflection of annoyance.

"Shit. Got scolded on my first day." She sighed. She knew, Kakashi, who was also her legal guardian would continue the lecture back at home.

-"Here, captain." Itachi completed the assessment by the time Inochi got over her thoughts.

-"Oh nice, it looks like you got all the remaining targets Itachi."

Inochi's eyes darted to Itachi's hand. He was holding three boards, one cut out and painted as a rat, another one as a parrot and the last one as a leaf.

"WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HELL-" Inochi's sentence was cut off my Kakashi's glare. As Inochi pursed her lips close together, Kakashi cleared his throat and said

- "Itachi was obviously able to look at the targets in a better way than Inochi. But you were able to hit the target at the blind spot so I give my applause to you too Inochi"

- "Captain Kakashi, I don't think I would have been able to find the extra targets if Inochi did not take down the first ones" Itachi spoke out as if to not take all the credit to himself.

-"Oh is that so? Then even better I guess. You two from now on would be in the same team so I hope this rapport of yours will continue." Kakashi said while giving both of them an awkward head pat. Inochi was habituated to them as she was Kakashi's student for two years but Itachi looked as if something completely out of world was happening.

"Has he never gotten a head pat? His face is so weird right now." Inochi thought while looking at Itachi's surprised and awkward face.

It had been a while since anyone patted him for performing good. Most people would just presume that he would perform brilliantly and thus had no extra expression when he did so. This head pat thus came as a surprise for Itachi who was too cold from inside to adjust to its warmth.

-"So this is how it used to feel" Itachi muttered.

***************
Sorry short chapter
Its my first fanfiction so I don't know how to start.

I REALLY HOPE YOU CONTINUE READING!! THE NEXT CHAPTERS ARE GOING TO BE BETTER I PROMISE!!