A few weeks after the teams were formed, the Hokage summoned them to deliver their very first mission. Mitsuki, her companions and their Sensei naturally went to his office. Tomomi was overexcited and imagined a thousand adventures, each one more perilous than the other, making his comrades smile, much more reasonable than him.

"I'm counting on you to carry out this mission, Team Maeda," the Sandaime asked them before giving them their objective, "You will have to go to a small village adjacent to Konoha, in order to bring back a very important plant called Naggilee.

"Wait, Hokage-sama, you mean you're sending us... To pick plants? We've been training hard for weeks just to cut two or three blades of grass? We're not gardeners!" asked Tomomi, dejected.

"No mission should be taken lightly, young Uchimura. And don't expect a few blades to be enough! It's absolutely vital to collect only those specimens that are free of dew on a foggy morning," the Hokage warned him dryly.

"What a waste of time!" the young Genin grumbled with a pout.

"Do either of you have any other comment?" the old man turned away, a sneer on his lips as he rested his chin on his clasped hands.

The two girls shook their heads, and Maeda didn't take long to retrieve the mission order. They immediately left the building and crossed the city through the rooftops to get to their mission site as quickly as possible. In spite of his disappointment, Tomomi could not prevent the excitement to win him. If the objective did not seem to be up to his standards, he would give himself others! He would conclude this mission in a flash, and bring back a lot of this plant! But ...

"What does the Naggilee Sensei look like?" the youngest of the trio cut him off.

It suited him well, he smiled mockingly, as if this question was the most silly, and luckily, the Sensei deigned to answer by himself:
"Well, it's green, thin, grows vertically and is a few inches long..."

"Like ... A blade of grass?" tried Soga, skeptical, under the laughter of the third.

"That's about it." confirmed the man, giving a dark look to the unruly one, without stopping.

"In that case, how can you tell them apart?" worried Mitsuki, thoughtfully.

"Precisely! That's easy! We'll just have to take whatever we find and go back as fast as we can! The old man won't know the difference!" solved Tomomi, proud of himself as the girls took offense at the idea of cheating, "The sooner we get back, the sooner we can do a real mission!"

This time, the Sensei stopped in the middle of a clearing under the trees. Under the questioning eyes of his disciples, he asked Soga:

"Aren't you hungry? You look pale."

Unexpected as it was, the girl nodded shyly, and Madea then ordered:

"Let's take a break. Mitsuki and Tomomi, go look for food in the woods. Soga and I will study the plan to find the fastest way to our destination."

Tomomi wanted to protest, but seeing Mitsuki going into the peaks without flinching, he hurried off to his side so he wouldn't look so bad next to the youngest. They both returned after a few moments, and the boy could boast of bringing a large quantity of food compared to his rival.

Madea quickly looked at the children's loaded arms, and picked up a bent and unappetizing root from Mitsuki's side.

"Choose what pleases you, Soga. Honor to the women." the man invited, wiping the tuber with his gloved hand.

"But these are not even ... " challenged the boy, before being asked to keep quiet with a firm gesture.
Soga looked at the food, hesitating, and finally chose a bright red and juicy looking fruit that Tomomi was obviously coveting, as he grinned when she took it. Mitsuki opened her mouth, but closed it again when she saw Madea put his index finger in front of his mouth. What was he trying to do? The little girl then imitated her friends, followed by Tomomi who fell back on some berries out of spite. But it wasn't hunger that was nagging the youngest girl's stomach at the moment, and soon the knot in her stomach tightened as her partner became livid and wobbly.

"Sensei!" cried Mitsuki as she barely caught her.

But the man didn't seem more worried than that, and slowly stood up, his kunai in hand.

"See, Tomomi Uchimura, what happens when you neglect the powers of plants. Because of your ignorance, Soga will go mad as her temperature rises. She will live her last moments in an illusion where she will think that everything around her will be there only to harm her. Do you know what will happen then? You will die, all of you. Unless..."

"Unless?" the boy repeated, hopeful as Mitsuki held her struggling teammate as best she could.

"Unless you take her out first."

Mitsuki was stunned, there was another way! She would have liked to warn him, but found herself suddenly on the ground when Soga pushed her back with all her weight. Her teammate's fingernails lacerated her face, trying to keep her at bay.

"But Sensei, last time..." recalled Tomomi, bewildered at being forced to take out Soga to save Mitsuki.

"Just think about it. She has very little time left." the man muttered indifferently.

Tomomi wanted to think hard, but his back was against the wall again. How to choose? Why choose!

"Mitsuki!" he shouted as she tried to push Soga's hands away from her neck. 

She already couldn't catch her breath, but in a fit of desperation, tried to say what she should have taught the boy all along:

"Ro ... ot ... "

She tried to repeat it several times, barely able to move her lips, but the boy did not understand, thinking she was simply calling him for help. While a tear was beading at the corner of her eyes, the sensei suddenly put a piece of his root in the mouth of the poison victim. It took only a few seconds before she realized what she was doing, and she immediately released her teammate.

"Lesson #2. Never question the value of a mission," Maeda said as he stood up with the girls, still in shock, "Don't look at me like that. I warned you, you are a team, in good times and in bad. You will do me the pleasure of learning the effects of all the plants in the area before the week is out. The next time something like this happens, don't count on me to step in."

"Because you plan to poison us again?!" cried Soga.

"Beware before you spread such accusations. I didn't poison anyone. Your teammate brought back that poison, and you chose it yourself. It would seem that there is at least one person here who doesn't wait to be chewed out for improvement, but unfortunately none of you could hear her when she whispered the answer. So I repeat my question, does anyone else have a point to make?"

The children all shook their heads sharply, too affected by what they had just experienced.

"Good. So now we can finally move on," the man concluded as he set off again in complete silence.

On the spot, an old woman of strong corpulence welcomed them in the middle of a meadow. In spite of her enthusiasm while she explained to them how to recognize the blades of Naggilee among the grass, the young people did not find their good mood at all. Mitsuki even began to wonder if their Sensei was an impostor, but she didn't mention it to her fellow travelers, fearing that he would hear her. Was it normal to behave so dangerously? Surely there was another way to teach them! 

"Sleep now. We'll have to get up at the crack of dawn, there's no way we're going to take more than a morning to complete this mission. I guess you agree with me for once, Tomomi?" said Madea, once they had reached their bunks after a delicious meal.

The boy nodded without a word, and the three Genin sank onto their makeshift mattress. The cool morning mist caressed their faces, and obviously none of the children had slept a wink all night, too afraid to let their guard down in the vicinity of their teacher. The teacher seemed to let out a hoarse chuckle as he noticed the dark circles under each of their eyes. Without a comment, they all got up without further ado and went in search of the precious herb. Mitsuki applied herself carefully, tasting, and enjoying the moisture of each sprig in the hope of quickly finding as much Naggilee as possible. Soga followed her example, and surprisingly Tomomi was the most efficient of them all.

With the bundles loaded on their backs, the team thanked the old lady for making them feel so welcome, and set off in the direction of Konoha.

"Don't think I mean you any harm, children. You've just come from the Academy, where you were pampered, sitting warmly on a bench between protected walls. The world is unforgiving. Yesterday it was nature, tomorrow it will be Men... I don't intend to give you a gift, for your own good. But I am already... satisfied with the progress you have made. I won't say it twice. And don't you dare rest on your laurels!" Maeda congratulated them in his own way before walking out the front door.

The Genin looked at each other in disbelief. This man was definitely hard to figure out! It took them only a few more minutes to reach the Hokage's office, where they could proudly hand in their harvest.

"Well! If I expected you to bring me so much! Congratulations to you! Now let's see if the quality is up to par..." the old leader congratulated them.

He grabbed a small tuft of grass, rubbed it between his fingers, mumbled a few words while examining it closely, passed it under his imposing nose, and finally, packed it at the bottom of his long pipe before lighting it.

"WHAT?! We did all this for ... for ... BUT IT'S NOT MEDICINAL !!!!" Tomomi screamed as he discovered that they had done all this for the sole purpose of refilling the Hokage's personal tobacco supply.

"Oh, well, that relaxes me anyway!" laughed Hiruzen as he took a drag, "Never neglect the impact of your every action, no matter how small! Today, thanks to you, I could concentrate a little better on this pile of paper that awaits me. That's not so bad!"

Tomomi's jaw seemed to drop as his teammates laughed. No one mentioned the incident before the completion of their mission, obviously, they still had a lot to learn before they could expect to do more missions in the rank! Starting with some discipline! Nevertheless, Mitsuki was not going to let her guard down. The Sensei had pushed her twice, was he trying to awaken the monster in her? It was out of the question that she would give in under pressure, and fortunately, the seal that watched over her had not weakened at all until then. And it is with these prevarications in mind that she returned to her house.

"What happened?" exclaimed Aruna when she saw Mitsuki's scratched face.

"It... It's nothing. I must have picked up some branches on the way here." the girl hesitated, wincing at the touch of her older brother's fingers.

"Don't lie to me. Those aren't tree tracks. Rah... come sit down, I'll fix that for you. It would be a shame to let scars ruin that pretty face! I don't promise you anything, it's been a long time since I used medical Jutsu!", Aruna offered her.

The girl complied and he put his hands on the wounds, emitting a soft green light. Mitsuki felt the warmth and after a few tingles, she quickly felt relief from the pain. The wounds were closing, but he could not remove all the scars.

"Sorry Mitsuki, that's the best I can do, you'll have to apply some cream for a while to remove what's left, but don't worry, your skin will be smooth again in a few weeks!" the man apologized, "Now explain to me what really happened."

"Will you teach me?" dodged Mitsuki.

"Teach you?" repeated Aruna.

"The medical jutsu..."

"Oh...are you interested? You know I only know the basics, I'm not in a good position to teach you... But Mikoto mastered it very well before she gave up her career as a Jônin!" the sensei taught her.

"I thought to myself... since I can't fight effectively, to avoid putting my friends at risk I could try to develop other useful skills...and maybe that will allow me to reach higher ranks in the future..." sighed Mitsuki.

"Only go down this path if you really want to, little sister. I'll talk to Mikoto about your desire, I think she'll be happy to help you. And then you'll see if this ambition suits you" Aruna reassured her, completely forgetting her emotional worries.