I woke up to the sound of my cat meowing at my door the next morning. 

Who needs alarm clocks when you have cats?

I got up groggily and got in the shower since I would be gone for three days. 

But of course, my brother was in the bathroom.

"Yushiro! Hurry up!" 

"I got in here first so you're gonna have to wait!" He retorted.

I rolled my eyes and stood impatiently by the door. He was taking forever and I had to leave right away so I wouldn't be late.

"Any minute now, Yushiro," I said loudly.

The door opened and he gave me a mischievous smirk as he walked back to his room. I rose an eyebrow and walked inside, but immediately regretted it when I got a whiff of it. No wonder why he was in there for so long.

"Damnit Yushiro," I muttered and walked back out to grab some air freshening spray and some candles.

Once the bathroom was normal again, I took my shower. It helped me wake up some more, but I still felt like I needed some form of caffeine. As I finished getting ready, I was secretly hoping my mom wasn't awake so I wasn't forced to talk to her. I was still angry about yesterday.

I walked down the stairs when I grabbed the last-minute things I'd need. She was already in the kitchen. 

"Where are you going?"

I sighed with annoyance. "My sensei wanted us to do a test. We'll be back in three days,"

She nodded. "Well, alright. Be safe,"

Just as I was about to leave, she hands me a small bento box. 

"I packed it with protein-based foods so you feel more energized and full," She said. "I know we had a bad argument yesterday, but it's not good to leave the house on bad terms. Tomorrow is never promised,"

I nodded at her and took the box, mumbling an awkward "thanks" as I left the house. I guess she was right about that. She may frustrate me to no end sometimes, but she's still my mom.

The sun was barely starting to rise and I passed by a training ground to get to the gate. I heard Naruto's voice.

"Kaori?"

I looked over and saw Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke. Sasuke looked like he was bored out of his mind and annoyed, Sakura looked tired, and Naruto was pacing around.

I smile and walk over to them. Sakura was kind of giving me the side-eye and moved closer to Sasuke. I hated how she assumed I liked Sasuke just because of Ino's crush on him. I've barely even talked to him.

"What are you guys up to?" I ask, pretending I didn't notice.

"Kakashi-Sensei told us to meet him here at five in the morning and we've been waiting for two hours!" Naruto exclaimed. 

"Two hours?" I asked. 

Naruto nodded. "Mhm, and he even told us not to eat any breakfast so we're starving,"

I thought about giving him my bento box, but I knew I was going to need it.

"Anyway," He said, changing the subject. "What are you up to right now?"

"Miyako-Sensei told my team to meet her in like ten minutes. We're camping outside the village because we have to deliver something to a friend of hers," I answered.

"You're already getting missions?" He didn't hide his enviousness very well. 

"No, it's just a test. I don't get why she couldn't deliver the scroll herself if it's that important," I shrug. "She even told us to prepare in case we have to defend ourselves,"

I couldn't deny that I was slightly nervous about someone attacking us. I realized I needed to hurry in case they were all already there.

"I'll see you around, Naruto," 

I waved and started speed walking to the gate while eating my bento. I saw that they were all standing by the gate and I hoped that they weren't waiting on me. 

"Uh, you guys weren't waiting that long on me, right?" I ask.

Ginji shook his head. "No, we just got here,"

"Now that we're all here," Miyako spoke. "I'll hand you guys the only supplies you're going to need,"

She gave us a backpack with a tent, some medicinal items, small portions of food, and some weapons. Then she reached into her pocket and took out the scroll, looking over all of us.

"Before I give this to you three," She said. "Just know that you can't open it, or it will self-destruct. If that happens, that's an instant fail too,"

We exchanged nervous glances. 

"But...what if it accidentally opens somehow?" Ginji asked.

"Then you fail," Miyako replied.

Her sharp green eyes scanned over us, but then stopped on me.

"Kaori,"

"Yeah?"

"Your job will be to secure the scroll. Make sure nothing happens to it and never open it," She said. "And do not let anyone steal it from you. Otherwise, you'll fail if anything happens to it,"

I took the scroll nervously and slipped it into my ninja pouch that was wrapped around my hips. Ginji was giving me a look as if he was telling me to be extra careful.

Of course, I had to end up being in a team with a strict sensei. 

She took a map out of her pocket and then unrolled it, pointing to a spot that was circled with a red sharpie. "Remember, you guys will have three days to get to this spot. Once it's delivered, my friend will let me know, and then they'll give you the okay to leave,"

"And one last thing," She said before we could leave. "Be safe out there and good luck."

The gates opened and we nervously looked at each other. 

"Well, I guess the countdown starts now," I said as we walked outside the gate.

Kazuki looked down at the map as we walked away from the gate. 

"This way," He said, guiding us through the forest.

It felt like hours trying to find our way around this forest. It was a maze.

"Guys?" Ginji asked, looking around. "I hear something,"

I put my hand on the pouch and grabbed my kunai with my other hand, looking around. 

Suddenly it sounded like a stampede and we were confused until Ginji saw what was running toward us.

"Guys! It's a wild boar! Run!" Ginji pointed.

A large boar came running towards us, looking aggressive. We bolted trying to lose it, but it was getting closer and closer.

"Jump on the tree!" I shouted at them.

We climbed a tree and the boar was headbutting the tree as if it was trying to knock it down. My heart pounded when the tree shook with each headbutt.

"How do we lose it?" Kazuki asked.

"Didn't Miyako-Sensei give us anything to get rid of it? I don't want to hurt it," I said.

Kazuki climbed up on the tree until he reached a branch to dig through the backpack. "There's nothing in here we could use!"

"Wait, Kazuki," Ginji said, clinging to the tree with each headbutt. "Don't you know water style? Isn't there something you could use without killing it?"

He started thinking and then nodded, weaving some signs. "Water style, water gun!"

A stream of water shot toward the boar. 

"This will knock it back and-" He cut himself off when the boar stood still for a second, then angrily headbutted the tree even harder than it was before. "Never mind,"

"Just how much does this thing weigh?" Ginji groaned. "If we can't figure something out soon, the tree is going to break. We might have to actually injure it,"

"But it's an animal. I don't want to hurt an animal," I protested.

"We don't have much choice, do we?" He retorted. "I don't want to hurt it either, but it's going to kill us if we don't do something about it,"

The tree started to snap. The three of us widened our eyes.

"Well, I guess you're right," I said. "But I don't want to kill it. It doesn't deserve to die,"

An idea then popped into my head. "Kazuki, pull me up there!" 

He held his hand out and helped me climb up on the branch with him. The tree started snapping some more.

"Wind style, gale surge!"

I aimed the large burst of air toward the boar to see if that would knock it back some more. The boar was caught off guard when it blew back away from the tree. It angrily came running back to the tree again.

"Change of plans," I sighed. "Looks like we may have to use a clone, or a substitution to distract it,"

"Okay, how do we go about that?" Kazuki asked.

"I'm going to use gale surge again, but someone needs to climb down right after I use it. Then, use substitution and we find a new place to lay low while it's distracted," I explained.

They both looked at me as if I had two heads.

"What? Do you guys have any better ideas?"

"No, but what if it doesn't work? One of us will be injured, or even killed," Kazuki replied.

"That would work better if we had a way to hide," Ginji added.

"Do you guys know any techniques to hide our appearance?" I ask.

Kazuki spoke up immediately. "Wait, I do! My dad taught me a technique that he learned from a Mist ninja. It creates mist and it'll hide our presence!"

"Great, then you use the technique as soon as I use gale surge," I said. 

The sound of snapping got us into focus. Kazuki and I nodded at each other, then weaved signs again.

 "Wind style, gale surge!"

Mist started to form in the air and Ginji climbed down when the boar went flying back. Kazuki and I jumped down right after and the boar came running back toward us. Ginji switched out just in time with a log and we ran as fast as we could away from the scene.

I turned my head and saw that the boar headbutted the tree so hard that the tree fell down. I winced at the thought of what would've happened if we didn't form a plan as quickly as we did.

I turned my head back and we panted as we found a bush to hide in. 

"Now what?" Kazuki panted.

"We have to set up camp and try to go back on track tomorrow morning. I would say we could go right now, but with the mist in the air, we could get lost," I replied.

We walked out of the bush to look around. 

"This is a good spot," Kazuki said, looking around. "It's quiet and there are bushes to hide in."

So Ginji took the tent out of the bag and the stakes to set it up. I sweat dropped when he set it up all lopsided. He laughed sheepishly. "Uh, I've never actually had to set up a tent before. This is my first time."

"Well, it's better than nothing," I sighed, not feeling like redoing the tent. I just wanted rest and to get started right back up.

We all went inside the lopsided tent and took out the food portions. Miyako only gave us three days worth of food. After we got done eating, we agreed on getting up at 5 to get a headstart on our day and went to bed.