Chapter One
Shitty radios deserve to be thrown into the darkest pits of hell for failing behind enemy lines.
– First Lieutenant Haruno
“From today Lieutenant Haruno will be joining Hound to assist in recovering the operatives lost in operation ‘cloaked dagger’.”
New General of the Army Tsunade had ended my life with those words, and as I march into the barracks of Team Hound to join my new team, I find myself oddly detached from my present reality as the proverbial walls close in.
Anbu teams are known for their exclusivity and Team Hound are as renowned as they come. Elite of the elite, the only other team close to their mission numbers is Team Spider and the rivalry runs deep between us. I am knowingly walking into an ambush and hostile environment but there is not a single ounce of a care in my entire body at the hell these assholes are about to put me through because all the care I have is being spared for my team.
I stop at my new Captain’s office and knock sharply, after a moment there is a deep baritone calling for me to come in and I push the heavy door open. My new Captain, Kakashi Hatake, is a mystery. Granted, in our line of work notoriety is not something you want but even for Black Ops he is a veritable ghost. The only thing I really know about him is that my previous captain Genma had hinted at his ruthfulness before the disastrous cloaked dagger mission that put us in this mess now.
Captain Hatake is seated at his desk as I enter, and I note the lower face mask covering his mouth and long scar over his left eye. He eyes me with visible disdain as I walk to stand before his desk, and I don’t miss the fact that he does not offer me one of the seats.
“Captain Hatake, I am First Lieutenant Haruno from the former Team Spider-”
“I know who you are, I don’t need the spiel or the ass kissing you have planned” Captain Hatake cuts me off as he stands and walks over to a small desk with expensive looking whiskey and glass tumblers. “What do you want? Training will commence in twenty so if it was just to make some useless introduction you can leave.”
“Apologies, Sir, I was told to see you for room assignments?” I explain, biting my tongue against the sarcastic response I wanted to give at his hostility.
Captain Hatake scoffs as he pours a small amount of whiskey into a tumbler and looks at me over his shoulder, “I trust a First Lieutenant is smart enough to figure that out on her own, go dump your crap and report to the training room with the rest of the team.”
I don’t bother giving him a response and turn on my heel to exit but he calls me back with a pointed clearing of his throat.
“Oh, First Lieutenant before you go, I do want to make something clear to you. Nobody wants you here, you don’t deserve your promotion, and you don’t deserve a spot on my team. If you don’t want to die then you will help my team bring home the person who does deserve those things and not get in our way, is that understood?”
I half turn back to him meeting his piercing gaze as my mouth runs away from my better judgement, “Understood, Sir. For the record, I don’t think I deserve my promotion either and I know the brass is just trying to offer their form of condolences for sending my team into a shit show. Just know I will do whatever it takes to bring my team home, and I hope we can manage to work together to make that as easy a process as possible.”
Captain Hatake doesn’t give me a response besides draining his glass and I exit before it gets any uglier. Following the corridor down I can see a large open kitchen and dining area to my left and to my right is a hallway of five doors. Team Spiders barracks were laid out very similarly to this and it doesn’t take a genius to work out this is the team’s sleeping quarters. The placards on the doors also help and I note the names on the dull brass signs.
Second Lieutenant’s Uzumaki, Uchiha and Nara’s rooms are all on the left of the corridor and to my right is Captain Hatake’s. Down the end I can see one more door, and I make my way over to it. Someone has scratched out my name on the brass plate and in sharpie has scrawled First Lieutenant Uchiha underneath it. Team Hound’s second in command Itachi Uchiha was another of the victims in the botched ‘Cloaked Dagger’ mission and I am the lucky person who is filling his role. Fighting an annoyed sigh, I try the handle to the door and unsurprisingly find it locked.
“Does our newest recruit not know how to read?” A male voice drawls behind me, and I turn slowly.
I had been given personnel files on my new teammates, so I recognise Sasuke Uchiha as he leans against his own door and eyes me with cold fury.
“Lieutenant Uchiha, right?” I ask trying for an olive branch in vain.
“Want me to show you to your room, Private?” Sasuke asks mockingly and I don’t rise to the bait of him using the wrong title.
“How nice of you, is this the part where you show me a filthy piece of ground you want me to sleep on?” I ask sarcastically and he smirks at me before gesturing for me to follow him.
I humour him and follow knowing it would be pointless to argue back, and he leads me back the way I came and over to a small supply cupboard across from the captain’s office.
“Here you go! We got it all special just for you” Sasuke jokes as he swings the door open and reveals the dusty and cramped room to me.
“Wow, you shouldn’t have” I deadpan back, and just to show this asshole he was not going to intimidate me that easily, I throw my bag inside and walk over towards the entrance to the training grounds.
Sasuke follows me and we enter the arena that has been made to look like a small village with actual roads, buildings and a sprawling forest outside. Lieutenants Uzumaki and Nara are reclining against a parked beat-up car talking quietly when we enter, and they both silently measure me up as I approach.
“You must be Private Haruno?” Lieutenant Nara asks with a smile, and I don’t return it.
“The very one, Shikamaru Nara, I suppose?” I ask and he loses the smile at the use of his first name and no rank.
“Lieutenant Nara to you, actually” he snipes back threateningly and it’s my turn to smile serenely at him.
“Right, my bad, and you must be Lieutenant Uzumaki?” I ask the tan blonde who had been chortling at mine and Shikamaru’s interaction.
“Yep” Naruto replies, popping his P and giving me a suggestive look up and down.
“All of you stop yapping and change, we are hitting the circuits” Captain Hatake barks as he enters the training grounds and the others all groan quietly under their breaths.
“This is your weak ass fault Haruno” Sasuke accuses as the four of us move over to the weapons store and lockers.
We change into standard issue Anbu sleeveless black tanks, black form fitting pants and boots before joining Captain Hatake outside. There is a circuit amongst the trees of climbing ropes, barbed wire crawls, tyre runs and weighted sacks. It is all basic endurance training, and I am very familiar with the hurt I am about to be in.
“We are doing the four hundred metre obstacle circuit for warm up, if you fail to complete it in fifteen minutes you will be sent to the pit until you can complete it in fifteen minutes” Captain Hatake explains in a bored tone. “If one of you fails, you all fail so don’t let your team down.”
Captain Hatake says this last part with a pointed look my way and I feel three other sets of eye’s shooting daggers my way. Lucky for me, my previous Captain Genma loved to also torture his team with endurance training and my best time is nine minutes and thirty seconds. Seems I would need to beat that today to show these assholes that I wasn’t some random they have picked from the line up.
“Your time starts now!” Captain Hatake calls and all four of us shoot off towards the first obstacle - the tire runs.
I am smaller than the other three and I fight a grin when I hear their muttered curses as I fly through the tires on light feet and take the lead. Throwing myself into the mud, I drag myself through the yards of freezing mud using my feet as leverage as much as possible. I am almost out of the wires when a hand grips my ankle and roughly yanks me backwards. My shoulder snags on a bit of the wire and I feel the teeth of it dig into my exposed skin.
Kicking out at whoever has my foot, I feel it connect and scramble the last few feet to make it out. Not wasting time to turn and see who had tried to sabotage me, I sprint towards the ropes course, pulling myself up the first one that stretches high into the towering trees. The next one I must swing and grab onto to then shimmy across to the last one, but Sasuke is close behind me, with Naruto right on his tail. I leap before I let myself overthink it and my hands burn as they find purchase on the rough rope. I try to get my legs up so I can crawl across, but the rope violently shakes as Sasuke joins me and he uses his size to muscle me off and I am free falling to the ground below.
I roll to limit my impact as I hit the hard earth, but it does not stop the air rushing out of my lungs in a violent thrust or the sharp stabbing pain that erupts in my ribs and elbow from my hard landing. I don’t have time to assess injuries, or spare energy being mad about the fact my own teammates are trying to kill me, so I clamber to my feet and start the ropes again. The others are just reaching the end of the ropes course, and I double time it trying to catch up.
The next part is the final two hundred metre run with a hundred kilo sack and the others are flying through it. I grit my teeth at the sharp protest my elbow and side give as I heave the sack onto my shoulders, and I force short breaths out as I run as fast as I can after them.
“That’s eight minutes!” Captain Hatake calls, watching the small stopwatch in his hand.
I am still fifty metres from the finish line when a sharp stab in my ribs has me falling to one knee. I try to draw a breath and regain my feet but it’s like swallowing glass and I fight a wave of black as my vision narrows. Screwing my eyes shut against the pain, I force myself to my feet and blindly hobble the last fifty metres on pure adrenaline and will power, that when I finally cross and drop the bag, I am surprised to hear Kakashi note my time of nine minutes and eighteen seconds.
A whole twelve seconds off, not bad.
The others barely look puffed and Sasuke glares at me with a slightly swelling red cheek.
“Go grab vests and tactical gear, we are going to run formation drills now” Captain Hatake barks and we all head for the weapons store again.
As I trudge after my so called “team”, I can’t help thinking that if I am not careful, I won’t even make it through the first day of training at this rate.