First Encounter

Kana walked up to the place where she was supposed to meet her new sensei. Her arms hung by her side, one hand holding a kunai. She never really knew what to do with her hands when she wasn't fighting, so one was always flitting around with a weapon. She was a few minutes early to what the meeting time was supposed to be, and there was already a boy and girl sitting and talking to each other. She wondered just how they could casually sit on the forest floor with their sensei on the way.

The little boy look up as he heard movement, giving the girl who walked up a smile. "Hi there," he said. The kid seemed friendly enough, but Kana only leaned against a tree and crossed her arms, ignoring them both. Ryuu thought she looked a little bit scary. She had this look on her face that said 'talk to me and I'll hurt you'. Well, at least there was one person on this team that he liked. He hoped that maybe the blond haired girl would loosen up a little during training. He noticed she even had a kunai in her hand. He looked back to the girl he had learned to be Rachel.

Felix Kuriyama was dressed in a black shirt and white pants with a long white jacket that hung open. On his neck was his headband that was hanging ever so loosely around his neck. Today he'd be meeting his new squad. He didn't understand why his higher ups even bothered giving him squads anymore. Almost all of his students would come on the first day and leave crying, never to return. Worthless mortals. They had no will to live. Felix tucked his hands into his pockets and headed out.

When he arrived at the designated training grounds that he'd assigned his students, he gave each of them the once over. This group wouldn't last long. His blue eyes hidden behind his hair, Felix looked at the two sitting on the ground. "Get up." His voice was low and even, but it held a hint of something along the lines of annoyance at how unprepared they were. "Ninja do not sit. If you want to sit, then go home and sit with your mothers and your fathers." He looked to Kana. "And holding your weapon out so openly will get you killed on the spot. You look like you're posing an amateur threat."

Kana stopped leaning against the tree as she heard someone walking towards the area, unfolding her arms. She looked the man over once, noting several things about him. One, his unusual silver hair. She'd never seen anything like it before. Two, he wore his headband around his neck. Showed he was confident that he wouldn't get a headwound in battle, at least not on his forehead. And three, he looked positively menacing. His gaze was cold, and his voice was low and uncaring when he spoke. She looked towards her new teammates as he addressed them, her attention snapping back to him when he addressed her. "Tch. At least I pose a threat," she retorted, glancing at her two teammates who were quickly scampering to their feet. She didn't let go of her kunai, however.

Ryuu looked at their sensei as he came up, standing up quickly when he told them that ninja didn't sit. He swallowed and looked over the older man. He was scary too. The younger boy looked at Kana as she spoke out against him and Rachel. They were supposed to be on a team, not putting down one another! "S-sorry sensei," he apologized quickly.

Felix didn't even turn his head at Kana's comment, instead, he returned her comment with a swift disarming of her kunai. "That's funny, I didn't think you were a threat in the least, but since you know every thing little girl, then you might as well run along home. There's no need for you to be here." He planted her kunai into the tree and looked at the other two. "As for you two, it's time to get training, you should have a new teammate by tomorrow." He walked away from Kana and started towards the forest. "Come along children."

Rachel had been drawing in the dirt as Ryuu spoke with her. When Kana had arrived, she'd looked up to greet the other girl, but stopped as she shot them both down without a word. Rachel simply shrugged and went back to doodling in the dirt when there sensei had arrived. He was odd looking. When he said that ninja did not sit, she too scrambled to her feet, dusting off her shorts. Her expression saddened at Kana's comment. The girl was not very nice at all. "Sorry sensei." When the man in the jacket moved, Rachel blinked. How did he do that? When Felix said they'd have a new teammate, Rachel was momentarily relieved. She quickly followed after Felix as she tied her hair into a ponytail.

Kana's eyes widened when, in an instant, she found that her kunai was out of her hand, and planted into a tree. She was speechless. How had he done that? She blinked a couple times before realizing that her sensei was walking away from her, with the two others behind her. Her expression immediately turned to one of anger, and she swiped a shuriken at the silver haired guy as he walked away. "You can't just dismiss me like I'm nothing! I'm not going anywhere!" she called angrily after him.

Ryuu watched in shock at the speed with which their sensei moved. By the time the kunai was in the tree, his mouth was hanging. This was their sensei? He really was scary! The young boy closed his mouth and swallowed, but followed after his sensei when the older man started walking away. He had to jump back when he realized that a shuriken had sped past him, nearly losing his footing in the process. His gaze shot to the blond haired girl. Had she just attacked him? After seeing how fast he was? Was she insane!

Felix dropped his jacket when he heard the shuriken. He didn't need it being torn because of this girl and her temper. When the shuriken hit him, he kept walking, folding his jacket as he went. "On the contrary, I can dismiss you like you are nothing, because you are nothing. And you can stand there as long as you like, I really don't care. Then again, I think you should take a seat." Felix's jacket was folded nice and neat and placed on the ground. And with little care, made his way back over to Kana, where he landed a kick to her midsection. "I don't need brats on my squad. I need ninja. You're a waste of time and space. So go home." Again, he turned away from the girl. Pulling the shuriken out of his shoulder he tossed it to her. "That couldn't even hurt a fly." Picking up his jacket, he slipped it back on. "Let's keep moving you two. If she continues to waste any more of our time, you all might now get a chance to prove yourselves."

Rachel had just finished putting her hair up when the shuriken came flying past her. She too moved out of the way, turning her attention to her sensei and then to Kana. When she saw Felix's jacket on the ground, she shook her head in disbelief. Was this guy really a Crested ninja? Crested ninja didn't move that fast. He had to be from the Stealth, only a stealth ninja could move that fast....no, not even a Stealth ninja. She was curious as to where he was from. Rachel physically flinched when Felix belittled Kana after kicking her. Where sensei's allowed to do that?

Kana stared in disbelief when the guy didn't even flinch from being hit by the shuriken. She watched him fold up his jacket, and the next thing she knew, he was in front of her. Her eyes wide, Kana dropped to her knees, her arms over her stomach, as she coughed because the air had been knocked right out of her. When she finally took a breath, she raised her gaze to find that he was walking away again, and the shuriken was on the ground in front of her. Her face turned red with embarrassment, she suddenly found herself fuming. While she couldn't use jutsu, and wasn't even that great a ninja yet, she wasn't just going to sit around and let him kick her off the squad for nothing! She brought herself back to her feet, her hands clenched. Her stomach hurt like hell, but she refused to let it slow her down. "I'm not going anywhere," she said angrily. And instead of attacking him again, Kana merely started following behind them, her gaze on the ground in embarrassment and anger. She'd learn how to fight from this guy, so one day she could get back at him for this.

Ryuu watched in near horror as his sensei got hit with the shuriken, and then proceeded to lay his jacket down and attack the girl. He thought it was pretty fair, getting kicked for having hit someone with a shuriken, but it made him start thinking that this sensei was downright brutal. Would he actually be able to handle this guy's training?

Felix simply ignored Kana's whining. Walking to an isolated clearing in the forest, he looked at Rachel and Ryuu. "Alright, here's how today's going to go. I want names, specialty, such as Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, or Genjutsu. If you don't know what those are, please feel free to walk away now. Next I want to know why you're perusing the life of a ninja." He looked to Rachel. "You first, then you." He said nodding to Ryuu. "Get a move on."

Rachel suddenly didn't want to be a ninja anymore. This guy was just mean. At least he wasn't attacking her though, so she'd suck it up for now, but boy would she tell her mother about this. When they got to the clearing, she had wanted to take a seat, but didn't want to be called out. She lightly drug her foot through the sand with a nervous expression on her face when Felix asked her...no, told her to go first. "My name is Rachel Karianno," she whispered. "I'm not sure what my specialty is," she whispered even quieter. "And I want to be a ninja so that I can travel and maybe be on an intelligence squad."

Ryuu stood still when they got to the clearing, looking around. He noticed that the blond haired girl was still following them, even though their sensei had ignored her completely. It would be a lie if he said that he wasn't relieved she'd be gone soon. But he wondered if their sensei would be mean to him or Rachel instead. He listened to Rachel quietly speak, looking to their sensei after she'd finished speaking. "My name's Ryuu Tomigashi. My specialty is taijutsu, and I became a ninja so that I could protect the Crested," he said.

Kana stood off to the side of the three, noting angrily how the guy had completely ignored her. Immediately after Ryuu finished speaking, she spoke up without bothering to let the teacher speak again. He was going to know her name, and he was going to know that she was going to be part of this squad whether he liked it or not. "I'm Kana Kianashi, I'm only good at taijutsu right now, but I'm going to be a master of all three types of jutsu. I'm going to be a great ninja like my parents, and I don't give a damn about what everybody tells me I can't do. I'm going to be a part of this squad," she said adamantly, her gaze never leaving their silver haired teacher.

Felix let Kana had her three words and then spoke. He didn't need her interrupting him. He didn't feel like repeating himself twice. "Alright. Let's see, who shall I criticize first. Oh, yes, Karianno, you're wanting to be a ninja for all the wrong reasons. I know you graduated at the top of your class, but if you want to be a ninja to travel the world, you're wasting everyone's time, especially mine. You want to travel, become a traveler and drop the life of a ninja." He looked at Ryuu. "Tomigashi, you're reason for wanting to be a ninja is very unoriginal. You could at least put some effort into your reason." Felix shook his head as he mentally tried to figure out where they would go from there. "How about a goal, or a dream. Let's keep this ninja related."

Rachel's eyes watered when Felix told her she was in the wrong career. No she wasn't. She was going to be a ninja. He was just too mean to understand. She looked at Felix when he asked about goal and dreams. She took a moment to think of something that was worth listening to. "I'm going to be an Informative of the 92th Squadron." Rachel had learned all about the 92th Squadron at the academy. They spent a majority of their time working in the Intelligence Field, both receiving and deciphering all information obtained. Yeah, that was a good dream/goal.

Ryuu looked at Kana, slightly surprised as she suddenly spoke out. He was surprised too, when their sensei didn't say anything about it. Was he going to let her stay? It seemed the answer to that was apparent, when he continued only addressing him and Rachel. "I want to be a jonin in second level infantry, Tenth Division," he said after a few moments. He knew that infantry of the tenth division were the ninja that got up front and personal when it came to wars and assaults and things like that, but he could handle it...hopefully.

Kana looked to the side when Felix kept ignoring her. She almost wanted to cry. All the work she'd done to get here, to get this far, and this man wouldn't even acknowledge her. Yeah, almost wanted to cry. She wouldn't allow anyone to see a weakness like that. Her hands were still clenched and her gaze was down, her face hard as she tried to keep from yelling at her sensei. "I want to rise up to be a member of ANBU Black Ops," she said, almost quietly. She wasn't going to give up on this, but she was starting to feel pretty shitty about being here.

"Finally, something I can work with," Felix said with relief. He grinned at the two children, still ignoring Kana's presence. "Time to get training then. First, I'm going to get you two into shape. Which means we're going for a little run." Felix started at a jogging pace onto a path, leading away from the clearing. "Try to keep up." Felix was by no means taking them on some kiddy trail where they wouldn't have to work to get to the next part, nor was he taking some short cut through the woods. This would be a long run with no breaks. Someone was going to be throwing up by the time it was over with.

Rachel looked at Kana when she seemed like she didn't want to be there anymore. The brown haired girl felt kind of bad, but she decided not to let that get in her way of becoming a good ninja. Following after her sensei, she smiled when he said he could work with their goals. That was nice to know.

Kana didn't even look up at Felix when he spoke. She already knew he was going to ignore her. He probably didn't even look at her. Her eyes were narrow on the ground, but when he said they were going for a run, she looked up. If there was one thing she was good at, it was running. And not in a retreating kinda way. When he started at a jog, Kana was the first one to start after him. She glanced behind to look which order they were gonna be going in.

Ryuu followed after Rachel went, running behind the rest of them. Not because he didn't like running, but simply because if he took up the rear, there was no one to bump into him if he tripped. He was rather clumsy. And not great at running. He didn't dislike it, but he wasn't very good with stamina.

(oh God, if Felix knew how clumsy Ryuu was....)

Felix knew Kana was following along, but he didn't care. He had no interest in training her. Felix drew a kunai. Without bothering to look up, he threw it upwards into the trees. It caused most of the birds above to scatter. Not even seconds after, a large log came swooshing down. Felix was no longer in the lead of the group, in fact, he was no where to be seen until a second later he appeared at the top of the hill. He didn't bother stopping though. He kept moving forward.

Rachel wondered why Kana even bothered to continue. It was obvious she was off the team. Shaking her head, she kept running. The pace seemed to be nice and steady. When the birds overheard scattered, she paused momentarily before gasping and turning the other way as log came swooshing down. The brown haired girl jumped down the hill and hit the dirt. "What was that? Where did it come from? And why???"

Kana kept following until their sensei threw a kunai up into the trees. She wasn't sure why he'd done it, but something was telling her he might have been testing them. Well, the other two, anyways. When she saw the log coming down, she quickly jumped on top of it, only making it barely, before jumping off it and continuing forward. She looked back to see that her squadmates were having trouble keeping up now. "Who cares what where and why, it happened, and clearly he's not gonna stop for you. Keep moving," she called back to them.

Ryuu's eyes widened when he saw a log swinging down, and jumped off to the side, the log just barely missing him. He quickly got up and looked around, to Rachel when she spoke. "I-I don't know." He too was wondering where it had came from. He hadn't seen their sensei throw the kunai. He then looked to Kana, the girl who wasn't even on their squad, making her way up the hill like nothing had happened. It was like she was just trying to be better than them to make their sensei acknowledge her. Ryuu wasn't sure that it would work. Disregarding what Kana said (for she was turning out to be as mean as their sensei), he started up the hill, kindly helping Rachel up along the way.

Felix was sitting on top of a tree branch, not facing the kids as they struggled with the log. He could here that one girl barking orders like she was the leader or something. Felix frowned. Damn, he needed a squad leader. Right now he couldn't choose because they had a new member coming in tomorrow. Felix leaned back until he was hanging upside down. He wondered if Kana knew that log was going to come back up.

Rachel was glad that Ryuu had helped her up. She too ignored Kana. She figured that she could do the same thing as Sensei and ignore the one that didn't belong. Looking at Ryuu, she pointed to the log that was coming back up the hill, and then to Kana. Moving out of the logs way, she watched it go back up the hill, almost as fast as it had come down.

Kana was hoping to get as far ahead as she could before the log would come back down. Looking behind her, and seeing that the log had just turned around, Kana stopped and started a jutsu, and while it wasn't terribly fast, it wasn't slow either. A shadow clone appeared a ways in front of her, and she ran towards it, boosting herself onto the log as it swung forward and took out the shadow clone. Moving quickly, before the log could swing down again, she stood in the middle of the log, and threw two shuriken at each of the ropes on the ends of the log, causing it to keep going forward instead of swinging back. But since they were on a hill, it only went up so much. So instead, Kana jumped off it, pushing herself forward, before stopping and turning for a moment to watch the log roll down the hill. She gave a light huff. Those two hadn't even bothered warning her. Looked like no one wanted her there, it wasn't just the teacher. Narrowing her eyes, Kana simply turned and continued running forward. She wasn't sure where their sensei was, but she was sure she'd find him eventually.

Ryuu nodded at Rachel's signalling, moving out of the log's way as well. He watched it go up, his mouth dropping as he saw what Kana did. How was she only a genin?? His mouth shut though, and he swallowed, when he realized the log would be rolling back down their way. He wasn't fast enough to jump over it, so he once again dove out of the way, pulling Rachel with him. They were a team, and they had to stick together, after all.

Rachel frowned. Kana was such a show off. She gasped when the log rolled back towards them, thankful that Ryuu had pulled her away. "Thanks," she breathed. She looked up the hill at Kana who was leaving them behind. "I bet she did that on purpose," she said as she got to her feet. She held her hand out to Ryuu. "There's no 'I' in team." She shook her head. "Maybe sensei would let her back on the team if she would just realize that. Why does she think she's above us? We're all genin."

Felix appeared next to the two genin. "Very nicely done," he told them. "Glad to see you have reflexes," he said. "And teamwork skills. Let's get to the real training, shall we?" Rachel blinked she saw their sensei. Where had he come from? Was he a ghost or something? Felix waved the two in the opposite direction, leading them towards town.

Ryuu blinked as Felix appeared next to them, looking up the hill, then back at Felix, then to Rachel. He was thinking the same thing she was. How the heck was this guy so fast? Ryuu smiled at Rachel though, when the two were praised for their teamwork skills. He nodded eagerly in response to the question. He followed behind Felix, but looked back towards the hill. He wondered if she'd figure out that she was running by herself. Giving a shrug, he continued next to Rachel.

Felix took the kids to a restaurant in the center of the village. "Get what you want, it's on me." Felix picked up his own menu as he began to speak. "Tomorrow we'll be doing combat training, as well as finding a specific weapon that each of you can become a master at. This will be full contact combat and weaponry, so expect to get hurt, because I am not going easy on either of you." Felix lowered his menu to see if they had any questions. "Oh, and after this, we're going back to running."

Rachel wanted to give a small giggle when she noticed Kana was running all alone. She wasn't so great anymore, now was she? The shy girl followed her sensei quietly. When the got to the restarant, she glanced at Ryuu cautiously. Was there sensei seriously treating them to lunch? What if it's poison? She quietly flipped through the menu as Felix spoke until he said weapon training with no mercy. Of course that wasn't his exact words, but that's what she interpreted. "Um, sensei....has anyone ever...you know...died during your trainings." She gave a small swallowed when Felix's eyes glowed behind his silver hair. "Er...um...nevermind, that was a stupid question."

Ryuu blinked when they approached a restaurant, looking to their sensei curiously, then to Rachel, who also seemed suspicious. Sensei's didn't usually take their students to lunch, did they? At least not on the first day, right? He swallowed when their sensei told them that tomorrow was going to be a day of training with weapons. He was good with weapons, but were they going to be going up against him? Ryuu looked at Rachel at her question, and suddenly started wondering the same thing. "We're going to be getting our new squadmate tomorrow, right?" he asked. He didn't want it to be just him and Rachel training with their sensei, especially if the guy wasn't going to be easy on them.

Felix couldn't stop the grin that formed across his face as Rachel asked her question. Had anyone died while training with him. The way she's worded the question was to ask about his training in specific. He could only sit there with that grin until Ryuu asked his question. "Yeah, your new teammate will be here tomorrow. Don't worry, it'll be somewhat fair." He gave another grin and then lifted his menu up so he could figure out what he wanted. Oh these children would be fun to train.

Rachel had made it up in her mind that she was quitting this team. She didn't know if that meant quitting as a ninja, but she was not going to be on this team. Whether this guy was trying to scare her or not, he was doing a good job and she wanted to leave before she ended up dead somewhere.

Ryuu was nervous about this as well. He didn't like this guy. He hadn't even answered Rachel's question. Did that mean people really did die in his training? Suddenly Ryuu found himself fearing for his life. And it was only the first day of training! What would the rest be like?? Ryuu too had made up his mind to quit the team after today. He wasn't sure he'd be able to handle this guy as a teacher. What if he couldn't even handle today's training? He swallowed. How was he going to tell the guy he didn't want him as a teacher? The thought almost made him shiver. Maybe he should just go to the Academy and tell them instead...

It wasn't long after Kana had run off that she realized she was alone. She stopped running and leaned against a tree, her gaze down. Her hands were clenched lightly, and once again she felt like crying. So it hadn't only been the Academy that hadn't wanted her. Before she'd become a genin, she'd requested from one of her teachers that she be placed with the hardest teacher they had. And now not even the teacher would take her. She felt heartbroken. She didn't have any family, and no one in the Crested wanted her. If this guy wouldn't take her as a student, what if she couldn't become a ninja? Her head bowed, Kana's body lightly shook as she tried to keep from crying. Being a ninja was the only thing she could do. She wouldn't be good at anything else! Shaking her head, Kana pushed herself off the tree. She would make sure this guy trained her. She couldn't have it any other way. How would she know if she could or could not do something if she didn't even try? If she wasn't even given a chance to try? Walking towards the village, she kept an ear and eye out for anyone who might have been in the forest. She'd die before she gave up! That was her motto, and she was sticking to it!

Felix waved the waiter over as he found what he was going to eat. Something light, so it wouldn't slow him down as he ran. He hoped the kids would do the same. As said before, this would be no light run. Felix ordered some onigiri with pickled plum and some water. When he was finished, he looked at the kids. "Ready?" Rachel sighed, she might as well enjoy this meal, for it would probably be here last. "May I get a fruit bowl and some rice please?" Even to Felix that sounded like an odd combination.

Ryuu tilted his head at their sensei's order. Pickled plum? Wasn't that supposed to be sweet? Ryuu hadn't really pegged the guy for a sweets person...Looking to Rachel as she spoke her order, he looked at the menu for a minute. They'd be running again afterwards. He didn't want anything that would slow him down. "Um...just a bowl of rice please," he said. "Oh, and salmon furikake on the side please."

Kana walked through town, her head down. She hadn't found her sensei or the other two in the forest. As she walked, her shoulders were a bit slumped. Those s.o.b.s had totally left her behind. Why wouldn't he train her? What was wrong with her? She was a good ninja, even her teachers at the Academy would say so. Of course, they'd also say that she'd developed a major attitude problem. Maybe that was it. But she hadn't even done anything wrong! This was infuriating! Clenching her hands by her sides, Kana kicked a small rock as hard as she could, not caring where it ended up.