Gimme The Loot

Just as he'd suspected, the following morning Suzaku was awoken by loud and forceful knocking from his front door. Sure enough it was the inspector arriving to conduct a thorough search for what he called precious items that were stolen from the Kazekage's Office last night. Knowing full well that there wasn't anything in his apartment, Suzaku stepped outside and allowed them to conduct their search. After fifteen minutes the inspector walked outside and cleared Suzaku's name although did mention they'd be conducting more searches until the items were located. Not reacting to his warning, Suzaku reentered his apartment to clean up the mess the inspector created during his search.

Aware that he shouldn't be too anxious to retrieve his loot, Suzaku went through his regular life as a student for the next two weeks. During which he was subjected to three surprise searches from three other inspectors. Of course he was cleared all three times and after several days without any searches being conducted decided to retrieve the stolen items.

After his lessons at the academy were over and done with, Suzaku stayed behind with the excuse of practicing his Shuriken throwing. At first his instructor was surprised by his request to stay for practice but ultimately allowed him to do so. Later that afternoon when he was absolutely positive he was the only person left at the academy, Suzaku made his way to the garden located behind the main building.

The garden was an ongoing science project from some of the younger children at the academy. However, for Suzaku it was where X marked the spot for it was in this little garden that he hid the loot.

After coming out of the Kazekage's Office, he racked his brain trying to figure out where he could stash the loot. His answer was the nearby Academy, more specifically the garden tended by small children. This was also where he actually got rid of his shirt and jacket, wrapping the items with his clothing to protect them from the elements.

After digging up the spot where he'd stashed the loot, he transplanted some random flowers to mask the recent disturbance.

After collecting everything and placing it inside a large bag he headed home. The walk there was the most anxiety-inducing walk he'd ever had, made that much worse by his extreme paranoia. Well deserved since he was currently walking around while carrying extremely illegal items.

Luckily, he reached his apartment without any complications or incidents. Once home, he made sure to lock the door and close all of the windows as well as the curtains. Only then did he empty out his bag and lay out his entire haul on his dining table. From just a quick glance of everything on said table he managed to recognize a few items. Such as a Bingo Book, a stack of Chakra Induction Papers, and a handful of Explosive Tags. With everything else being a different colored scroll, the contents of which he wasn't certain.

Of course those were also the first things he got his hands on and immediately undid its seal.

" Release!"

When doing so his expectations were sky high, which only made his disappointment that much more severe when he read its contents. The first of the scrolls was a deep red color, as for its contents it was a long report on the acquisition and distribution of missions.

Although disappointed that it wasn't a secret technique or powerful Jutsu, Suzaku's curiosity was slightly peaked. So he skimmed through the report, only to throw it away in frustration a few seconds later. The reason for his frustration was due to the report detailing the recent lack of missions available to the village. Along with evidence pointing to the Wind Daimyo cutting funding to Suna while simultaneously hiring Shinobi from Konohagakure. While still young, Suzaku was quite bright for his age and quickly managed to recognize what exactly that meant.

" In short, not enough missions are available leading to a growing portion of Suna Shinobi forced to undertake mercenary work. It also proposes to offer available missions to those loyal to the Kazekage and Suna Council. What that means for people like me is that we won't receive any of the actual rewarding missions and be forced to sit around and wait for lucky opportunities."

Reading that report really affected Suzaku, since it made him realize just how unfair life really was. After putting that scroll to the side he decided to grab another scroll, this time a blue colored one.

" Release!"

Almost immediately after opening said scroll, he leapt up in excitement as the scroll actually contained a Jutsu.

" Wind Style: Wind Blades Jutsu"

Unable to control his excitement, he ran around his cramped apartment until he heard his next door neighbor shouting at him.

" Keep it down in there!"

" Sorry!"

After calming himself he had the idea to open the remaining five blue colored scrolls. Sure enough his hunch was right, with all five containing a wind style Jutsu.

" I hit the jackpot! With these six Jutsus I'll easily surpass most Genin, probably even some chūnin. I always wished for a miracle and it appears to have finally been granted. Now let's see what else is in here…"

______

A few days later, Suzaku was awoken in the middle of a lesson by an infuriated instructor. For his part he kept it somewhat cool, until he asked for ten more minutes of sleep. That resulted in him being called to their office at the end of the day for a 'talk'.

Suzaku knew how this 'talk' would go, predicting the instructor to scold him for sleeping before spewing some motivating words at him. Sure enough his prediction played out exactly as he thought, even bringing up his deceased parents in an attempt to motivate him to work harder. During all of this, Suzaku's mind was on the training he's done and the training he still needs to do when he gets home.

After the talk with the academy instructor, he went home and like everyday these last two weeks locked himself in his room.

' There were a total of six jutsu scrolls, unfortunately being confined to my apartment I've only been able to practice two, the Phasing Technique and the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Both of which are extremely versatile supplementary skills, although they aren't as impressive as the others. Speaking of which, I haven't utilized the Chakra Induction Papers. Depending on the results I may need to acquire a variety of Jutsus pertaining to other natures.'

Recalling the stack of glossy paper he'd unconsciously stuffed in his pockets back then. He grabbed one and held it up in front of him while circulating his Chakra. The paper seemingly reacted to his Chakra by splitting in thirds, then one of those thirds wrinkling, another igniting and the third crumbling. While he wasn't entirely certain on how the paper worked he made sure to write down his results. He would then investigate their corresponding natures either through research or asking around.

( MONTHS LATER)

Even though his performance dipped following his secret training, Suzaku ended up graduating top of his class. A feat he didn't actually care for, knowing that it meant nothing since it didn't better him in any tangible way. He just wanted for the entire thing to end, go home and continue his training. More so due to the recent discovery he'd come across in regards to Shadow Clones. One sure to make things considerably easier for him moving forward.

However, he had to remain at least to hear the seemingly empty congratulatory words from his parents' acquaintances. He of course thanked them all and vowed to carry on their memory as well as to make them proud. After several rounds of these sorts of conversations, he was finally able to pick up his Suna forehead protector. Going for a more traditional route with it, he opted to wrap it around his left arm.

On his way home, he heard some of his former classmates ask their parents to be taken out to a fancy dinner or for expensive graduation gifts. This sparked some sense of longing inside Suzaku but he quickly dispelled that notion by moving on ahead. A hot topic amongst those who'd graduated was the composition of the upcoming genin teams. The majority wanted to be in the same team as their friends while others wanted to avoid certain others. As for how exactly they were formed, many of the younger generation weren't aware. Suzaku being one such person who was completely in the dark in regards to such details. All he knew was that a jōnin would be in charge of three genin which he'd then take on missions.

The latter of which Suzaku highly doubted would actually occur with the Village's deteriorating state of affairs. That said he was still somewhat curious as to the identities of his two future team mates.

' It won't matter either way, it's not like we'll actually go out on a mission. It's better to just focus on improving on myself rather than worrying about that sort of stuff.'

Arriving home he immediately summoned a clone of himself before sitting down and circling his Chakra. His current goal was to improve his Chakra control as much as possible before going out on missions.

A few days later, Suzaku made his way to a familiar site that of the plaza he visited prior to Shukaku's rampage all those months ago. It actually turned out to be the meeting spot for his newly composed team. Although from the looks of it he was rather early, or his team mates along with his instructor were running late.

While he waited for them to arrive, Suzaku sat down on the same bench he did back then and contemplated. How far he'd come from that lost boy to someone with an actual goal in mind and possessing some semblance on how to achieve it.

' I will make something of myself, someone worth all the suffering I've endured, someone powerful.'

Shortly thereafter a pair of girls approached him walking side by side, but failed to recognize them at first glance. The one on the left had long, light violet hair, tied up in a braid with two green hair-bands, and gray eyes. She wore a lime green and blue kimono with a brown corset and fishnet pants. On her wrists were black waistbands while both of her lower legs were covered in white bandages. Her forehead protector is attached to the right sleeve of her outfit.

The girl on the right hand side, had extremely long light blue hair that was separated into two equally long pony-tails with bangs framing both of her cheeks and slightly covering her yellow eyes. She wore a red and purple kimono with the hem shredded, a light gray corset, and a pair of separate, furisode-like sleeves in the same color. She also wore her forehead protector backwards opting to tie it up as a ribbon to make a makeshift bow pointing straight up. What made her stand out from the other girl were her flashy polished black nails, the crimson eyeshadow around her eyes and glossy violet lipstick.

Seeing them walk towards him, Suzaku looked at them for a brief moment before someone appeared right behind them. Entirely contradictory to the girls, especially the one with crazy long hair, the man was extremely ordinary. Everything about him was ordinary, from his face down to his Shinobi attire. Almost to the point where Suzaku struggled to pay attention to what he was saying.

" Hello everyone, I am Eiji Takeuchi, your Jōnin instructor and team leader. To start things off let's go around and introduce yourselves. It doesn't have to be anything long, just state your name and a fact about yourself."

The first to speak was surprisingly enough the girl on the right hand side, who appeared to be quite energetic.

" I'm Saya Han but you two can address me as Ojō-sama. As for a fact about myself, I'm extremely talented and beautiful."

Hearing what she had to say, Suzaku decided to also ignore her and was the next to speak up.

" I'm Suzaku Ryuga, and I want to become strong."

Saya glared at Suzaku for ignoring her but before she could say anything was cut off by her other team mate.

" Name's Sana Higashiuchi. I dislike weak people."

With the introductions over with, Instructor Eiji asked them to gather at a designated training area for some voluntary training exercises. After that he vanished leaving the three newly acquainted genin to mingle for a while. However, not interested in anything 'voluntary' Suzaku decided to go home and continue his training.

" Hey, where do you think you're going? The training area is that way."

Saya mentioned as she stepped in front of Suzaku who ignored her as he continued on his way.

" You! You! You big idiot! Don't blame us when you're left behind!"

After shouting that line at the retreating Suzaku, Saya spoke to Sana who contemplated her answer before agreeing to go with Saya.

For his part Suzaku casually waved them off before eventually disappearing amongst the crowd.