it's been 3 years since I started training with hashirama and the team, mikku and i are friends now and jeiku mostly keeps to himself but he's cool, hashirama treats us like his kids which is weird at times. i haven't seen my parents in 3 years which is weird to think about, i wish i improved more strength wise over this training but i haven't, i have matured a lot. mikku and jeiku have made huge progress and are significantly stronger than before, well maybe not mikku but his buster cannon is deadly. theres also 2 other teams that we've met, team 4 which is kazuya, fuya, and jin. and then theres team 8 which is akira, ibuki, and mayumi, or i guess that was team 8 because Akira went missing about a month ago and then was found murdered and cannibalized in the mist village, tensions have been high between us and the hidden mist.
"hey ro you done training for today?" i turn around, its mayumi, shes been pretty quiet ever since akira was killed but shes cool
"yeah i dont have much to work on with graduation coming up and everything" i stop for a second to give her time to catch up "so how have you been? i haven't seen you much recently"
"oh im ok" she says. i know its a lie but i wont push for a different answer.
"well if you need anything let me know" she nods, we reach the pseudo barracks that us ninjas in training stay at, outside meditating is kazuya, hes 2 years older than all of the other trainees, he started later than us because he just never showed up for his genin test until he was forced to, hes smoking a cigarette and a cloud of smoke surrounds him.
"kazuya dont let your sensei catch you smoking again" i say and he jolts back to reality.
"theyre all at some meeting in the sand village, apparently some other shinobi have been found in similar states as akira was"
"maybe dont mention him, at least not when" i gesture to mayumi "shes around"
"no its ok you can talk about him" mayumi whispers
"the thing is most of the victims have had the word butcher written in blood somewhere at the scene of the crime." he coughs and takes another puff of his cigarette, "but there have been a few killings with no writing which doesn't add up, it cant be because the butcher didnt have time because the corpses have all been severely mutilated. i think theres a copycat killer out there"