"It's not fair; I want to go on missions and be a great ninja too," Kushina complained.
"But you barely passed the written exam; that's the bare minimum you should pass; your theoretical knowledge is practically nonexistent; the only thing that saves you is your knowledge of the seals," I retorted.
"SHUT UP!" Kushina yelled as she lunged at me.
While we were both struggling, my mother came and grabbed us by the collars and lifted us up, just like we were puppies.
"Calm down, both of you. We came to see Granny Mito, not to listen to your arguments."
That's right, we were with Granny Mito. Now she's lying in bed, unable to move much, as her body is failing more and more.
In three more days, the sealing of the Nine-Tails will take place, and with that, Kushina will become the new jinchuriki, and, by default, Granny Mito will die.
"Now apologize to Granny Mito," Tsunade demanded.
"Sorry, Granny Mito," we both said.
"Haha, it's nothing; watching this kind of thing entertains me a little more on my miserable deathbed," she said.
"Don't say that, Granny Mito," Tsunade said.
"But it's true," she replied; at that moment she looked at me. "Didn't you have training with your team soon?"
"That's right," I said, realizing the time.
With that, I said goodbye to everyone and went to the training field.
...
I was practicing with the Thunder God sword when Jiraiya finally deigned to appear.
"Sorry for the delay, but something happened that…" His speech trailed off as he saw what was happening.
"HELP ME, SENSEI! THIS WOMAN IS CRAZY! GET ME OUT OF HERE! SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME!" Kosuke's screams echoed through the air.
Kosuke had several wounds on his body and tears in his clothing, indicating that some injuries had been healed.
Jiraiya looked elsewhere and saw Minato hiding in a bush, his eyes and hair barely visible, staring fearfully at the training grounds.
He had Kosuke tied to a large tree trunk, very securely fastened. He was practicing sword throwing, and for that, he needed a live target. That was necessary, wasn't it? But I realized my mistakes stemmed from not dealing with reality, like the fact that I only fought Kawaki, my mother, Kushina, and the others in my academy year, which limited me.
Now, enough with my excuses. Before Jiraiya arrived, he had planned me out with his "crazy eyes," which I won, and as punishment, I'm using him as a target in my training.
"Miyu, you can let him go. There's something important I want to tell you," he said, sounding both serious and frustrated.
Reluctantly, I did as he asked.
...
"First of all, we have a C-rank mission tomorrow," Jiraiya said, everyone now seated and focused on him. "It's still very early for newly graduated genin to handle something like this, but right now we're in a somewhat complicated situation."
"What's this complicated situation about, Jiraiya-sensei?" Minato asked.
"That's right, you don't know much about it yet," said his uncle, closing his eyes and crossing his arms. "Currently, there are tensions between the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth, so the jonin and some chunin are deployed along the borders and in strategic locations in case there's a conflict of interest there; there are also some platoons that went to the Land of Rain to spy and potentially invade there, so if there's a conflict, it's very likely that most of the fighting will take place there."
"Why would they fight in the Land of Rain and not in the countries they want to conquer?" Kosuke asked, puzzled.
"If you were fighting over a piece of glass, would you fight above it or near it?" I asked Kosuke.
"No," he replied.
"You see, it's the same case, but with a country."
"It's exactly as Miyu says; if those apis were destroyed, their value and the reason they fight over them would lose their worth," Jiraiya said. "Well, we've been training in combat, but now that we're leaving the village, we'll train in stealth and different ways to slip past your enemies."
...
The next day, I had breakfast and grabbed all the scrolls I had prepared the day before and headed to the village gates, where Uncle Toad, Ladybug, and Crazy Eyes would be waiting for me.
I said goodbye to Granny Mito, since she wouldn't be there for the sealing ceremony, so it would be the last time I saw her alive.
When I arrived at the gate, everyone was there except Jiraiya.
And just as I was about to complain, he appeared in a Body Flicker.
"Looks like I'm the last one, but it doesn't matter," I said, holding a stack of scrolls. "These are the tasks we have: ammunition, food, medicine, and other things. The worst we can do is run into bandits, so it'll all be pretty simple." And with that, he divided the scrolls among the four of us, and we set off.
Right now we're heading to the Tanzaku barracks, and from there we'll depart for the borders of Tierra del Fuego with Amegakure.
The journey went smoothly; it took us a day to reach the barracks, where we rested and took inventory of our supplies. From there, it was less than a day to reach the border.
During the journey, Crazy Eyes, Ladybug, Uncle Toad, and I practiced and discussed ninja techniques and ninjutsu.
As we moved through the trees, we focused on being as stealthy as possible. A ninja shouldn't be detected and should be able to kill their enemy without being seen. Something some people seem to forget. In that sense, they're more like warriors than shinobi, but knowing that there are techniques that can destroy entire villages and Megazords that can obliterate landscapes with simple movements, I understand why that point is often overlooked.
Technically, assassination teams are exclusive to ANBU, but it's worth noting that we're quite similar. We just lack experience and some more lethal techniques.
For example, I don't have any technique that can instantly kill my opponent, something like the Chidori. But to be honest, neither Minato nor Kosuke has any, at least not yet.
When we arrived at the border outpost, everything was in chaos.
Wounded people everywhere, dead bodies scattered about, people running in every direction.
Jiraiya's demeanor shifted from calm to serious.
"Miyu, go help the wounded. Minato and Kosuke, you two help move them around. I'll deliver the supplies and find out what happened."
No one said a word, as this was a serious situation; there was no room for jokes or nonsense.
I quickly moved to the tent where the wounded were being treated. The place smelled of sweat, blood, and despair.
I quickly introduced myself to the person in charge, who immediately thanked me for my help, as there weren't enough doctors for the number of wounded.
While I was treating the injured, Minato and Kosuke were moving the wounded and also had to relocate the deceased; it wasn't a pleasant task, but everyone was busy, so someone had to do it.
I saw the two of them covered in blood that wasn't theirs, with uncomfortable expressions, but there was nothing that could be done.
While I was treating the wounded, I learned what had happened.
In Amegakure, there was a secret base where our logistics team was located, responsible for intelligence gathering, but it had suddenly been attacked by ninja from the Earth Village.
They weren't prepared for this type of situation, so their defense was very weak, and they ended up losing the fight.
There was no way to know where they were, since they were protected by seals, and if anyone approached, they would have been detected beforehand. Therefore, it's suspected that there was an Iwagakure infiltrator at that base.
After about 40 minutes, the situation calmed down, so the others and I were able to leave that place. We left quickly, as the atmosphere was very tense and we needed some air.
At that moment, Jiraiya arrived, eager to find out what would happen next.
...
"It's almost the same as what I heard from the wounded here," I said after hearing Jiraiya's account of what had happened. The difference is that here the betrayal is confirmed, since they managed to identify and kill him.
Using techniques from a member of the Yamanaka clan, they were able to access his memories and see how he reached the enemy through a place the seals couldn't detect. It should be noted that the one who took the shortcut was the traitor himself, since he manipulated the seals to do so.
"So what now, Jiraiya-sensei?" Kosuke asked.
"We have another mission right now," he said simply. "The enemy managed to capture some of our comrades, so if we can go rescue them, we have to try, and we need all the help we can get, because we're short-staffed right now, so we'll go too."
"So we're going to rescue the kidnapped ninjas?" I asked.
"Yes and no," Jiraiya said. "We're going on the mission, but you won't be rescuing anything. You'll be in the rear, watching our backs."
And so he began to explain the plan.
The plan consisted of two parts. The first part was tracking and pursuit, where the vanguard team would be in charge of searching for enemy ninjas and/or Leaf ninjas, while the rearguard ensured they weren't attacked. The second part began once they reached the enemy's location, where a main group would form to attack the enemy; other groups would be responsible for rescuing the hostages, and the last group would keep watch. We were on the watch team during this stage.
...
"Who would have thought we'd go from a C-rank mission to an A-rank one?" I said, crossing my arms.
"Hahaha, it's quite something, really," laughed a ninja from the Akimichi clan who was standing near us.
We were in formation, ready to depart. There were 38 of us in the rearguard and 26 in the vanguard.
Currently, it was a three-base formation: those on the front line, those fit to fight at the attacked base, and reinforcements from other locations; we fit into that last group.
I saw that some ninja were still bandaged, showing that the lack of personnel was obvious if they had to carry the wounded into battle. But it was important to rescue the kidnapped ninja to prevent them from gathering information about Konoha and its movements.
Jiraiya was part of the vanguard and attack section, so in this battle we would be without our jonin sensei, but we would be surrounded by other genin, chunin, and jonin.
Our sensei had to be at the front to face the strongest enemies in his ranks, to defeat them or distract them.
"We're about to leave," said an Inuzuka ninja who was on top of his dog, immediately returning to the front.
Kosuke, Minato, and I looked at each other, sensing each other and preparing to leave.
...
As we ran through the trees, a ninja—I couldn't tell if he belonged to any clan—approached me; judging by his vest, I could tell he was a high-ranking jonin up there.
"It's a shame that children like you have to do these kinds of missions; how old are you even?" he said.
"I'm 11, Kosuke is 10, and Miyu is 7," Minato said, since he was closer to the ninja.
"I was still playing at being a ninja at the academy when I was 7; you must be a prodigy to graduate at that age, little girl," another one nearby said.
"Show some respect; she is Senju Miyu-himesama, Princess Senju, daughter of Senju Tsunade and Kato Dan," another one nearby said.
A shiver ran down my spine when I heard the expression "himesama," since it had been a long time since anyone had called me that; I'm used to it thanks to my isolation.
"Excuse me, it's been a while since I've been back to the village, so I didn't know Princess Senju had already graduated from the academy, but if it's her, it must make sense."
"CAN YOU STOP LICKING MY FEET? THAT WON'T SAVE YOU FROM AN AMBUSH, SO SHUT UP AND BE ALERT IF THERE'S AN ENEMY NEARBY, YOU IDIOTS!" I yelled at them both.
"A thousand apologies," they both said, looking embarrassed.
It irritated me when they called me by those titles, mostly because I felt I hadn't earned them; titles given at birth are nothing more than empty titles.
At that moment, a guy arrived from the front lines, gesturing for us to stop. Upon closer inspection, I realized he was a member of the Nara clan.
"What's going on?" asked our squad leader, a clanless jonin named Nakamura.
"We've found them. They have a rest camp a few kilometers from here, so I've come here to have you meet up with the other team, and we'll begin the second phase." The Nara clan member gave the orders, his tone devoid of annoyance, implying that this was serious.
And so we rejoined the others to continue with the plan. This marked one of the first battles of the Second Great Ninja War.
(A/N: They're not in Amegakure, but in Kusagakure, which is right next to it.)