Drabble series written for Genma Week 2016.

Day one: Body Guard

In all the years Genma had been a ninja he had done a lot of things in the name of his village. His hands were stained red with the blood of Konoha's enemies. His body scarred from that damn cat and cuts from the endless paperwork this business seemed to produce. Assassinations, deliveries, retrievals, and rescue missions; he had done it all. There was no faucet of the shinobi life he didn't at least occasionally have a hand in. Gate Duty, proctoring exams, interrogations, mission desk and even checking the ANBU equipment in and out. But there was one thing he liked to do the most, one duty he would go out of his way to be assigned.

Bodyguard.

There was something about being responsible for the life and safety of another that made it all worth it. The pain of each new injury and the scars they left behind; the long stretches of mind numbing boredom when on gate duty or the mission desk; the toll each life he ends takes on his soul even as he knows it's for the greater good; They all feel more worth it when he can physically see the person he is protecting, the person whose life would be forfeit without him.

It gave him a satisfaction with his job that he hadn't known he needed until his team, freshly promoted to Chunin, had taken on their first escort mission. They were protecting a merchant's daughter, and the wagon containing her hefty dowry, who was being sent to Tsuchigumo, on the far side of the Land of Fire, to live with her future husband's family. Along the way, in the dead of night, a group of bandits attacked them. Genma had honestly forgotten to keep an eye on the young woman until he heard her shriek. He was used to his travel companions all being fellow ninja, capable of protecting themselves. A rushed senbon throw deflected a kunai that would have otherwise ended her life, buying him time to slide into place before her. The mixture of relief in her voice when she exclaimed "Genma-kun!" and another feeling in his own gut, harder to name but no less strong, brought a smile to his face. Later, when the mission was over, the reports turned in and he was facing another round of catch the cat he realized what that feeling was. Purpose. It was one thing to know that everything he did benefited the village. It was another to be able to see with his own two eyes the contribution he made. To be able to see the life he had saved.

That emotion, that purpose, that he only found when directly protecting someone is why he applied when the 4th Hokage announced he wanted three personally trained bodyguards. Genma would have happily protected the Yodamine for the rest of his life and never felt restless, unless of course any would be assassins were too scared to try anything.

He was a full time body guard for one year and a handful of months.

It was three before he could bring himself to accept another bodyguard mission. And even then he only agreed because the Hokage personally asked him to take it.

That and the client name was oddly familiar.

He didn't make the connection between this mission and his first stint as a bodyguard until he was in Tsuchigumo, looking at the woman whose life he saved that one night so many years ago. Watching her daughter, a beautiful child of 3 or 4 years, looking up at him like he was a hero as her mother relayed the story of how he saved her life, of how he would protect them for their journey to Kisaragi Village, stirred something in him. Something he hadn't felt since the 4th's death.

Purpose.

There was a reason he was here. A reason he had the skills he did. A reason that was staring up at him with bright green eyes, dark hair pulled into pigtails and a smudge of dirt on her nose. While it wasn't a guarantee, it was entirely possible that without him, this child who was now calling him "Oniisan" and begging him to show her a "magic" trick might not exist.

And well, as far as Genma was concerned, that was unacceptable.