Team 20 Departs!

It was a peaceful and beautiful morning in the village of Konohagakure as normal, the only real difference about the village this particular morning was that all of the ninja and citizens alike were in a rush, many of the ninja getting together with their teams to go out and search the Land of Fire for the disappeared ninth Hokage. Kenshin Koigokoro and the other members of Team 20 were in Konoha's mission reception area where Eijikuu and Eijisei Fuuisaki sat, ready to give them the scopes of their mission.

"Alright Team Kenshin, here is your mission, Kenshin you may find that this job may be a bit over the lines for your Genin students but...it's only applicable because Konoha is short handed as most of our stronger ninja are searching for Lord Kyuudaime." Eijisei explained to Kenshin. Hesei blinked, the young Hyuga Clan heir had the feeling that they would be getting a pretty big mission while Junichi on the other hand was worried, he wasn't all that confident in his abilites so going on a mission such as even a C-rank would shock the boy. Ryoku and Rikimaru were enjoying what Eijisei had to say on this note, they wanted to have the chance to see venture outside of Konohagakure for the first time in their lives.

"Here you are Team 20, this mission is very important to the village by the way. You must journey to Sunagakure or the Hidden Sand Village and give this message to the lord Kazekage." Eijikuu explained to Kenshin and his team, the jaws of both Kenshin and Junichi dropped in surprise of Eijikuu's statement.

"Uh Lord Eijikuu do you think that it is really a good idea to send these kids on a mission such as that?" Kenshin asked the older Konoha ninja. Eijisei nodded his head in reply as he began to smoke on a pipe, right before he let out a hacking cough.

"It is nesscary, a fair amount of the higher-ranking ninja have gone on to join the search parties for Lord Nine, the few Chunin and Jonin we have left must remain in Konoha to protect the village in the incident that we are attacked." Eijikuu declared. Kenshin could not argue with Eijikuu anymore, Team 20 had been assigned a special C-rank mission and they had to live with it.

Chakra Control Training on the way to the Land of Rivers
The quickest way to reach the Wind Country and Sunagakure no sato was to travel through a small country known as the River Country. Hesei, Ryoku, Rikimaru, and Junichi waited outside the gates of Konohagakure for Kenshin to arrive. They had been told to wait for their sensei who had to go round up supplies for the mission ahead. "Team 20!" went the voice of Kenshin, the red-haired Konoha Jonin appeared right before his Genin carrying with him five backpacks full of items.

"Sensei, are those the supplies for the journey ahead?" Hesei questioned right as his Jonin sensei began to throw the backpacks towards his Genin and Rikimaru, keeping one for himself.

"Yup, Hesei, check inside the bags I have something for everyone." Kenshin responded to Hesei's questions, the Hyuga Clan heir as well the other two Genin opened up their backpacks to find inside a radio, some blank scrolls, food rations, and a pocket-sized first aid kit. In Rikimaru's backpack were extra supplies, just for the dog to carry. Kenshin and the Genin strapped the backpacks to their bags and smirked.

"Team 20! Move out!" exclaimed Kenshin who dashed off as fast as possible, the Genin following him. Team 20 leaped up into the trees above them and jumped from treetop to treetop like normal ninja did for transportation. Kenshin was focused solely on getting the team where they needed to go, Hesei as usual was complaining, Ryoku and Rikimaru were enjoying the exprience, whilst Junichi hung in the back...wondering how things would go from here on out.

A few hours passed and Team 20 approached their resting point, still being within the Land of Fire. The team of three Genin, a Jonin, and a dog stopped in the clearing of a small forest within the Land of Fire and began to relax for a little. "Team 20 listen up!" Kenshin announced to the squad, leaning on a nearby tree. "Eijikuu-sama and Eijisei-sama informed me that they would be sending a back up team to support us once we get to the Land of Wind, apparently we are expecting a little bit of trouble." Kenshin recounted to the Genin; as Kenshin spoke, Junichi opened up his backpack and slurped up some of his food raitons, letting out a slight burp afterwards. None of the Genin seemed to be concerned that they may be expecting a battle or two down the road so Kenshin decided to carry on anyway.

"Anyhow Team 20 there are some things we are looking to get accomplished besides the mission at hand, we didn't get to get all that far on our training yesterday and I got some other things that I would like to teach you before anything else." Kenshin stated, the mentioning of the word 'training' got all of the Genin's attention. All kids cared about these days was learning new jutsu and becoming stronger so they could show off to their teammates, friends, and family, it never occured to anybody that the traditional ways of the ninja life didn't matter to children anymore.

"So what sensei are you going to teach us some cool jutsu like the one's they used back during the days of the Godaime?" Junichi asked, anticipation gleaming in his eyes. Kenshin let out a sigh, slapping his forehead right before he began to speak again.

"Kids, the ninja way of life isn't all about jutsu, jutsu, and more jutsu. Ninja got to learn other things and pick up on their other weaknesses before or they will fall behind!" Kenshin spat at the Genin. "Junichi I've noticed that you have the worst chakra control out of anyone on this team...in fact all of you need improvement on your chakra control!" shouted Kenshin, he had observed that the three Genin indeed did have terrible control of their chakra as a whole. Junichi of course was the worst, at his current stage he wasn't even controlling his chakra but rather his chakra was controlling him.

''Why did sensei have to signal me out? ''Junichi thought letting out a sigh, it was always him that was doing bad wasn't it? Kenshin inspected the three Genin and smirked. They were in a forest clearing and there were trees so there was only one thing he could have them do.

"You kids see those trees over there right, well here is the deal, we're going to do something known as the tree climbing exercise." Kenshin began. The Konoha Jonin made a single hand sign and closed his eyes, focusing his chakra to his feet he began to sprint up to the top of a tree without even using his hands but only his feet to run up to the side of the tree. Once on the top of the tree, Kenshin stood on a branch, balancing himself with his chakra. "And that's how it's done kids, focus your chakra evenly to your feet and then run up to the side of the tree. You however have to make it all the way up the tree to be done training." Kenshin said. The tree climbing exercise was a good exercise used by many Jonin instructors, hopefully these kids would be able to get it before the break was over.