Two weeks of extensive conditioning. Fourteen days of working until the cartilage in her joints were grated down into a thin film. An entire fortnight of intense focus and following the orders of her superior. Putting on a great show of her abilities as a good shinobi.
Yet! The title of team captain was given to Chusei.
The trio of chunin had the misfortune of reading Chusei's written reports. They got to see him hide behind everyone else during their spars. Saw his poor decision making on display when practicing their drills. Then seemingly without reason. They decided that he would be better fit to lead three other minors and protect a delegate from the capital. She could not believe that someone who was prince in all, but name would be guarded by Chusei.
The most impressive thing he could do was spit a ball of fire. And if he missed with that attack, he was back to being useless again.
Anyone else on the team was a better option. Nagisa would rather take orders from the client, and she never met them prior. Such was her lack of faith in the orange haired menace.
She wrongfully assumed that everyone knew the boy could not be trusted with any form of responsibility. It wasn't hard to see that he was unfit for any leadership role. This was something she realized the moment he introduced himself. On every written exam at the academy there was a recurring question.
"What piece of information is Konoha-nin never to forget?"
Yet on the first day of the reserves Chusei went about forgetting his. Sure, they only had the ID for about a week, but there was no reason he could not cramp six digits into his head. It just showed the little effort he put into his career.
This mishap alone should've been enough to disqualify him from ever leading a troop. But here they were on a three-day journey of what could be her first and last time outside the village. Thanks to mediocre chunin who agreed to have three minors follow the lesser minor across the border and back. No number of four-leaf clovers would provide the luck necessary to make it halfway.
She was more than prepared to die on the trip. Not that they would be the first genin to hit the dirt on their first out of village mission. If she remembered correctly an entire graduating class kicked the bucket during the war. It was an ending she already came to terms with.
Kobaru's fantastical dreams of living to old age wasn't realistic. He was essentially begging for a wakeup call. Hopefully that wakeup call would be on another mission. When she was as far away as possible.
Before they started travelling. Nagisa spent a great deal of time coming up with a reason as to why she was not selected. A difficult task it proved to be. As she was, in her humble opinion, the best shinobi on her team. If she could split herself into three like her younger friend. She would be a better team than her actual team.
Nagisa was more mature than the others. She displayed greater problem solving and had a higher level of awareness. Anyone could see that. No special eyes necessary.
With every other factor ruled out. It all boiled down to the one thing that he was her superior in.
His age.
There were only a few things that she knew about her two friends. Even then she knew a lot less about the last Nakamura than his cat eyed surrogate. And the surrogate said a lot less. She knew that he had some sensory capability. As he found her and Kobaru wherever they were. She knew he was either living above his means or had a severe gambling addiction. That he hated the serenity that came with deep silences. Lastly, he failed the academy graduation exam at least once.
So that would confirm he was older than her by a minimum of two years. Age shouldn't be enough reason to select him as team leader over her, but that is what it appeared to be. What made Nagisa even more furious, was that those Chunin didn't appear to give their decision a second thought. Almost as though the talkative teen was their obvious choice.
That alone was enough reason to make her go rogue. Once they arrived at the outpost some innocent tree would suffer a relentless beating. Or maybe if she tried. She could Kobaru to a spar and continue her endless streak. He would innocently agree, and she also caught wind of rumors that he had masochist tendencies.
Her plans were quickly derailed and forgotten. As much to her surprise. The loudmouth dummy was actually doing a great job. She made attempts to turn a blind eye to his inexplicable out of the blue focus, but it was hard to miss.
Going into the mission. Nagisa was set on treating him as she would treat any other commanding officer that she came across. Observe and wait for them to have the most obscure slip up. Then she would ignore every command they gave after that. Chusei would be no different.
Or so she thought.
Timekeeping was a honed skill. The ability to track time subconsciously was useful in many situations. One of them being for missions where not one of the travelers owned a watch. In the reserves barely anyone had enough money for food. So, a timer was out of the question. Some of them eventually picked up on the useful skill, but Chusei was not a part of this population. He never showed any signs of being able to focus. His convoluted methods of storytelling provided enough evidence.
The older boy never appeared to be aware of the concept of time. His tendency to lag behind, even when late, proved that much. So, she would track the tight schedule without telling him. Then when he missed the windows. She would silently ridicule his incompetence. Yet somehow as soon as it came across the two-hour mark. He called for their first break and rallied the group to rest.
The orange haired menace found it in himself to time their journey. While keeping his mouth work to a minimum. It was inconceivable. He even goaded their client into talking about his books. Knowing that it would get them to calm down. Which came at the right time. A few minutes later and they'd accidentally turn Mr. Hayazuki into a walking kunai holster.
Killing your first client was another thing that was ridiculed by Konoha-nin. She could not afford to be the punchline of a joke in shinobi circles.
Before this Nagisa was not aware that Chusei could keep track of anything. For one she heard him tell stories about the days when he lived at the orphanage. Everything he said flowed in all directions at once. Disorganized and even incomprehensible at times. So, with good reason, she was expecting a lot less than the surprising ability he had on display. Proving that, if needed, he was actually reliable.
Then to make their mission better. She got a book directly from the source.
All of this had her contemplating why Chusei paraded Konoha as their generations' village idiot. Maybe he couldn't be bothered to act like this all the time. But it would make his idiocy more bearable if it came in short intervals. So far, he remained the only person she knew that would freely share his insecurities without restraints. Not even strangers were safe from recanting of his most embarrassing moments.
Maybe.
Just maybe.
He was actually a genius hiding out for years. Effectively avoiding the genin drafts that took place during the war. The fact that he learned a fire-based technique was enough proof of that. No matter how much he downplayed his knowledge. Learning such an offensive technique was at the very least worth noticing.
Chusei, even if she didn't want to admit it, was doing a good job as captain... So far.
"Waterfall has to be the worst name for a natural landform."
Normal Chusei was alive and kicking. And in one sentence. He managed to wash away a day of gained respect.
"Statements like these convince me that you're suffering mentally," Nagisa communicated her shame through a long sigh.
The group had already crossed the tenth hour on the dirt road. They were fresh from their fourth break and had made a silent agreement that speaking was limited to when they weren't moving. For some reason the team leader sought to share his unwanted opinion.
They were close to the outpost. A sudden spike in the population of tress usually meant the same for Konoha-nin. Their relationship with the Land of Fire's flora was something they were renowned for. Hiding in the forest canopy was a lesson every academy student needed to perfect before the end of their second year. It didn't matter if you could throw a punch or a kunai correctly. Tree hiding was far more important to their livelihood.
More trees meant more places to hide. So, without a doubt they were already being monitored by the genin and chunin of the outpost. She couldn't see them, but in her current calm state. She could tell that there were several pairs of eyes observing from the branches.
"Who came up with Waterfall anyway?" the idiot continued when no one said anything in response, "try describing a canyon to someone who has never seen or heard about a canyon. Then compare that to describing a Waterfall."
"It's exactly what the name suggests," Mr. Hayazuki foolishly got himself involved in the pointless drabble. Leading Nagisa to realize that all males share one brain and entertained by the same useless things.
"Which is why it disappoints me," Chusei replied.
"For the love of the sage!" Kobaru also joined in but with far less enthusiasm, "what would you name it then?"
"Hm," Chusei put a hand on his chin and hummed in thought.
"Just so you know Kobaru," Nagisa turned to her youngest friend. Greeting him with an unimpressed stare, "you are an enabler of his strange behavior."