Walking in Sunlight
Summer grass:
of stalwart warriors splendid dreams
the aftermath -Matsuo Basho
Chapter 1: Reed
Kinari came awake suddenly, kunai jumping into his hand even as a half remembered dream escaped him. It was a few seconds before before he remembered why he had a kunai so close in the first place.
Oh, yes. That.
He sighed and examined the weapon he was holding in the pre dawn light coming in from the room's only window. It was a small one, only really good for throwing. Had some midnight assailant really been standing over him, it wouldn't have done much good.
He had fallen asleep the previous day still wearing all of his clothes and weapons, exhausted after a particularly draining exercise at the academy. Hakamatsu-sensei, a man Kinari loathed, thought that dividing his students into two teams and playing a game of tag across the entire village was good for building up reflexes. Except in his version, one team was heavily outnumbered, and instead of just poking someone you hit them with a blunt kunai or shuriken. For some reason, he was always on the team being chased.
What annoyed him the most about the man was that he didn't dislike him for the same reason most people did. He never even brought up the subject. Rather, he just seemed to have decided he would make Kinari"s life miserable from the first time he set eyes on him.
According to the small clock sitting on the floor beside his futon, it was only three in the morning. Kinari knew he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, though.
He stood up and stretched, his shoulders popping softly, and glanced around his small apartment, just to make sure he really had woken up for no reason.
Although there weren't any foreign armies hiding in the corner, there was a pile of unopened mail lying on the floor, overlooked for nearly two days.
Kinari picked it up, leafing through it curiously. Most of it was security reminders designed to make people paranoid ("Report any suspicious activity! If you suspect those around you, do your duty and tell the Hokage!") which he tossed away immediately. If the Hidden Leaf was attacked, and they would be attacked soon, it would be suddenly in the middle of the night, with little or no warning.
The one item he was interested in was a check from academy. Despite the village's numerous woes, they looked after orphans whose parents had been killed in the line of duty. Although interrogation followed by swift execution couldn't really be called 'in the line of duty' by any stretch of the imagination, Kinari still qualified for the welfare payments, until he either quit the academy, became a genin, or turned sixteen, whichever one came first. He still had three years to go before that last one, thankfully.
He opened the envelope, scanned it briefly to make sure they hadn't accidentally given him a fortune (They hadn't) then put it into fridge for safe keeping. No burglar would check the fridge, right?
"Now what?" He muttered.
Tossing and turning in his futon for the next four hours didn't sound too exciting, nor did he feel like studying any scrolls.
Thankfully, the long threatened curfew hadn't been imposed yet, so he decided to go out for a little run across the rooftops.
Ten minutes later he was sailing through the air between two tall buildings, revelling in the solitude of the night. There was no one else around so early in the morning, and the rooftop world that only Shinobi could appreciate belonged solely to him.
It took him completely by surprise, then, when he collided heavily with someone else in mid-air. He gasped as his breath was driven out of his lungs and he and the other person fell seven feet to the ground, landing in a tangled heap on top of someone's house.
Kinari lay still for a few seconds, checking himself for any serious damage. Arms? Still intact. Legs? Sore, but still working fine. He was going to have some painful bruises in a few hours, but apart from that he was fine.
"Oh, crap! Are you okay?" A panicked voice said nearby. Oh yeah, the other guy. He had forgotten about him.
Kinari opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself looking at someone he knew. Well, sort of knew. He was a boy from his class in the academy, one of the more popular and brighter student's. Kinari didn't think they had ever spoken to each other before, and instantly his natural awkwardness set in.
"N-no..... I'm fine." He said, getting up hurriedly. "I'm sorry for hitting into you like that, I'll watch where I'm going next time."
"No, it was my fault, really. I just assumed no one would be around this early." The other boy said, sounding just as embarrassed as Kinari felt.
"You should both have been watching where you were going."
Kinari turned around slowly and found himself staring into the stern eyes of a tall, black haired woman who was very obviously in a bad mood about something.
"You shouldn't be running around so early in the morning. People will get suspicious." She said, casting a meaningful glance at Kinari.
He looked down at his feet, clenching his teeth angrily.
There was an awkward silence for a few minutes, before the kunoichi decided she had bored into them with here eyes for long enough.
"Go home and go to sleep. Your training will suffer if you're tired."
With that, she turned around and leaped down of the roof, disappearing from view.
"Jeez, what a bitch..." The other boy said, staring at the spot she had jumped from.
For the first time, Kinari took a good look at the person he had collided with. He was almost the opposite Kinari in every way. He was tall, Kinari was short. He had light brown hair, Kinari's was black. And he was wearing a wakizashi, a short sword.
"You're Kaoru-san, aren't you?" He asked, suddenly.
"Yep, that's me! Guess the sword gave it away, huh?" Kaoru said, grinning.
Technically, Genin and those still in the academy were only supposed to be trained in shuriken and kunai. Kaoru Ando, however, came from a long line of renowned swordsmen so he was allowed to use the more advanced weapon.
"And you must be Kinari-kun. Nice to meet you." He said, still grinning broadly.
Kinari was unused to being addressed in such a familiar way, especially by a stranger, and he could feel his usual shyness escalate.
"Um...if you're sure you're alright, I should get going. Bye!" Without waiting for an answer, he set off across the rooftops, soon disappearing into the night.
"Huh. What an odd guy." Kaoru said, smiling faintly. He glanced up at the mountain overshadowing Konoha village and was met with the stern stare of the first and second Hokage.
"What are you staring at?" He asked, not expecting an answer, and not getting one.
"You're sure the information is reliable?" The flesh-and-blood version of the second Hokage asked, sounding irritable and tired.
"Yes, Hokage-sama. Our spies have been working to wards this for months now. The Hidden mist are going to attack within two weeks, maybe sooner." The Kunoichi speaking to him was, by huge coincidence, the same woman who had berated Kinari and Kaoru only half an hour earlier.
The Second sighed and rubbed his forehead, fending off a headache. He hadn't slept properly in days, and from the looks of things, he wouldn't get a chance to for some time. The situation with the Hidden Mist was escalating rapidly, new and worrying information was coming to light too fast for him to deal with it.
They're on their own. No, wait, they're allied with the Hidden Sand,
for some reason. And they have spies in the village (God, he hoped that one wasn't true.
Thankfully most of the more alarming reports turned out to be nothing more than rumours or misinformation.
"Thank you for your report. You can send in Maehara now."
The kunoichi snapped a crisp salute and then a more traditional bow before leaving the room. A few seconds later Maehara Kenta, special Jounin of the Hidden Leaf Village came in, and the Hokage had to stop himself from groaning.
On the surface, Kenta was an extremely loyal Jounin who did his utmost to follow his superior's orders. He was an expert in all of the under handed arts of the ninja. Interrogation (Or torture, if he wasn't within earshot.), assassination, infiltration. His incredible affinity for genjutsu made him the perfect spy.
In truth, he had a habit of giving the finger to any authoritative figure in very small ways. This time he wasn't wearing the standard issue flak jacket given to everyone of Chuunin rank or higher. The fact that he, the Hokage, had told all Jounin to wear them at all times earlier that day probably had something to do with it.
He was also taller than the Hokage, although just slightly, and he had very dark red hair and dark skin, a trait gained from his father, who was from the wind country.
Kenta bowed. "I assume you've read my report on my previous mission,
Hokage-sama."
"Yes. It was quite thorough, as usual." The Hokage replied, although in truth someone else had just given him the gist of it. There simply wasn't time to read every document sent to him, the village had too many problems that needed sorting out.
"Maehara, I'm aware of your stance on this matter, but I'm assigning you a team of Genin to train." He held up his hand to stop Kenta's protest before it reached his mouth. "I'm not negotiating on this one, and you're not getting out of it. You're one of the best Jounin in the village, maybe even the best, and you"ve never once trained any Genin."
"That's because I don't see the point, Hokage-sama. We"re in open warfare with the Hidden Mist, and maybe others. My skills can be put to use fighting the enemy, not training children."
The Hokage"s hand slammed down on the wooden table in front of him,
creating a sizeable dent in the thick wood.
"I don't care! You've completed more missions this month than most Jounin undertake in six. Either you agree to this, or I'm suspending you temporarily. You need a break."
Kenta heaved an exaggerated sigh.
"Alright, I'll train some Genin. But can I at least pick them out myself?"
The Hokage rolled his eyes in a very unprofessional gesture.
"Very well. You have a week to choose, otherwise I'll assign three to you. Oh, and before you go, where the hell is Sarutobi? I've been trying to get a hold of him all day."
"He's on a mission, I believe. Something to do with asking the Hidden Sand for help."
"Ah, yes. Alright, that's all."
Kenta bowed again. "Hokage-sama."
"Alright class, today we'll be having a repeat of yesterday's exercise.
Yesterday's performance was terrible, and we'll keep doing it until you start to use some sort of strategy."
There was a collective groan from the students in the room. There wasn't anyone present who wasn't covered in bruises from the previous day,
least of all Kinari.
He wasn't too bothered, though. Kaoru had waved at him on the way to school, and he was beginning to think the boy was trying to be his friend, as crazy as that was.
"If anyone wants to volunteer to be on team two, come to the front of the room." Hakamatsu-sensei said, glancing pointedly at Kinari.
"OOH! Me!" Kaoru said, waving his hand in the air frantically.
Hakamatsu sighed. "Yes, yes, just go stand up front."
On the way up Kaoru grabbed Kinari and practically dragged him to the front of the room with him.
"What are you doing"" Kinari said, horribly embarrassed. Kaoru was one of the more popular students in the class, and more than a few people were staring or pointing.
"I told Miyuki-chan about you and she said you sounded cool, so I"m making sure we"re on the same team." Kaoru said.
Kinari wasn"t sure he had heard right. Miyuki wanted to get to know him.
She had short blond hair and brown eyes, most of the boys in the class practically fainted when she looked there way, and she wanted to hang out with him?
It seemed she did, because she was suddenly at the front of the room with them. Oddly enough, she seemed more shy than he was. Funny, she was usually pretty outspoken.
"Alright, you three go out and make some sort of plan. You have twenty minutes before everyone comes after you, use them wisely. Go!"
Kinari had to admit, being on the same team as Miyuki and Kaoru was a lot better than being on his own. Usually the three most unpopular student"s were "nominated" by everyone else to be the prey (Or "team two" as there teacher insisted on putting it), and that group always included him. His usual tactic was to run like a frightened rabbit and then hide, but his two companions didn't seem too concerned.
"So, Kinari-kun, Kaoru told me you and him met each other last night?"
Miyuki said, after a few minutes of silence.
"What? Oh, yeah. We sort of crashed into each in mid air..... " Kinari said. He glanced at the girl and she looked away, blushing furiously. What the hell was wrong with her?
Kaoru looked between them for a second and then grinned mischievously.
"Aww, come on Miyuki-chan, just confess your love for Kinari-kun and stop keeping us all in suspense."
A second later his face was buried surprisingly deep in a nearby lamp post.
"Idiot! Don"t say things like that!" She yelled, although Kinari noticed she was blushing even more, if that was possible. She did seem to like him, more than the other girls in his class. She never brought up his parents on the rare occasions they spoke, anyway.
"Um.... Kaoru-san, don't you think we should be making some sort of plan? You know, for when everyone else starts chasing us? We only have a few minutes left, you know....."
"Don't be so formal all the time! You can call me Kaoru-kun if you want. And for your information, I do have a plan. Quite an ingenious one, if I do say so myself." "Then shut up and tell us, already." Miyuki said, with the tone of someone who was used to putting up with Kaoru.
"Alright, alright. Okay, you know how usually the people who are being chased run straight into the forest?" "Um.......yeah." Kinari said. The forest always seemed like the safest place to go, since it offered so much cover.
"Well, that's what they'll expect us to do. So we're not going to." Kaoru quickly outlined his plan, and Kinari was surprised at how well thought out it was. Kaoru was a lot smarter than he sounded.
"So. See any hopefuls yet, Maehara-sama?" Hakamatsu asked. The Jounin didn't reply, and Hakamatsu gritted his teeth in annoyance and pushed his glasses higher onto the bridge of his nose. He was painfully aware of the gap in ability and rank between himself and Kenta, and it annoyed him that he didn't have any say in who the man trained from his class.
"I've picked two." The Jounin replied at last. They were standing on the roof of the academy building, watching the students leaping across the village, all trying to be the first to win. Kenta shook his head as they all made a bee line for the forest. "Samagi Miyuki and Ando Kaoru." Hakamatsu nodded. "Of course you would want to train the only current child of the Ando family. And the girl......well, it's quite remarkable. I could hardly believe it." "Yes.....anyway, that just leaves one more....." Kenta murmured, leafing through the large stack of student's files in his hands. "Ah, here we go. Tanaka Kinari." Hakamatsu was silent. "Hm? Something wrong?" Kenta asked, already knowing what the answer would be.
"His parent's were spies working against the Hidden Leaf, Maehara-sama."
"So?"
"It was because of them that the hidden Mist was able to attack us in the first place! Hundreds of people died! You can't seriously want to involve yourself with their son!"
"His grades are excellent. That's why I picked him. Who his parents were has nothing to do with my decision. Of course, if you were to officially protest my choice, I would be forced to reconsider."
Hakamatsu paused for a few seconds, then sighed heavily.
"No, I guess there's no reason why you shouldn't pick him. He'll make Jounin some day, probably."
"That's what I thought as well. Those three are excused from class. Tell them to come meet me after this little game is finished." Kenta instructed, in a tone that left no room for protest.
"Yes, Maehara-sama......"
Kinari couldn't believe how clumsy and disorganized his classmates seemed. Before, when they had been chasing him through the forest, they had seemed like a pack of wolves, deadly and impossible to outrun. But now, he could see gaping holes in their strategy, and they seemed more like the gang of untrained children that they were.
He was hiding on the roof of a ramen place, crouching behind the large air conditioning unit. Miyuki and Kaoru were close by, also well hidden. The group of children appeared on the opposite end of the street, and Kinari was gripped by sudden terror. What if this was all some elaborate plan for Kaoru to trick him into a false sense of security so the others could beat him up? His fears evaporated when a hail of blunt kunai and shuriken hit the unprepared group with what would be lethal accuracy if the weapons were real. Three quarters of them were didn't even have time to react, and were left to swear angrily as the rest ran for cover.
This was the part Kinari had been afraid of. Kaoru had left him the most important job, no doubt in an effort to boost his confidence. He took a deep breath, before running out from his hiding place and charging straight into the remaining children.
Taken completely by surprise once again, three of them fell to his kunai, protesting loudly as they were disqualified. They had been expecting an easy chance to gang up on him and try to drive him out of the academy, but instead they were losing spectacularly. Kinari was giddy with exhilaration, and fear for what they might do to him afterwards.
The last two rouned on him angrily, one of them reaching for an actual kunai. There attack was cut short as Kaoru appeared behind them poking them gently on the head with his own blunt weapons.
"Gotcha."
"Well, class, that was quite......unusual. Wait, that's not the word I'm looking for. Pathetic! Yes, it was quite pathetic. I'm not sure what most of you were doing, but it certainly wasn't fighing!"
Hakamatsu's stern reprimand went largely unnoticed by his class, whose attention was solely fixed on Kenta. The jounin was sitting in one corner of the room, reading a nondescript scroll, apparently oblivious to the awestruck children.
Although, of course, he was well aware of the attention he was receiving, and he had to admit, it was surprising him. In his, a Jounin would have been lucky to command much respect at all among children so young. He always found that those who hadn't experienced real battle yet never understood what it meant to earn the rank of 'Jounin'. It wasn't all that surprising, though. The Konoha's troubles had all started when the Hidden Mist had attacked the village about eight years previously. Waves of shinobi had washed over the village, a tide of death and destruction that was all but unstoppable thanks to the efforts of two spies planted among the Hidden Leaf years earlier. The attack left the village crippled, and very nearly destroyed. Had it not been for the brave efforts of a group of six Jounin, the founders of the ANBU squad, the Hidden Leaf village would have been wiped off the face of the Earth. Afterwards, the two spies were executed publically, something that the Second Hokage didn't exactly endorse, but was basically forced into doing. The people wanted someone to blame for the massive destruction, and he had to give them someone.
This, of course, left the problem of Kinari. In a matter of days he went from being the son of two upstanding, loyal Shinobi to an object of hatred for most of the village, something for people to turn their anger against. Kenta himself had ordered a team of ANBU to protect the boy until things died down. This hadn't made him too popular with the rest of the village, but it was absurd and unimaginably cruel to blame someone for their parent's crimes, especially since Kinari had had no knowledge of what his parents were doing. At the age of six, how could he? And now, Kenta was going to train him as a Genin.
He mulled over all of this while Hakamatsu finished berating his class.
"Understand? Next time think before you do something stupid! Now, before you go, I want Kinari, Miyuki and Kaoru to stay behind." Kenta watched his three students glance at each before walking nervously to the front of the classroom. He waited until everyone had left, including an irked Hakamatsu, before standing up from his chair and walking over to face the three new Genins.
"Now, I'm sure you all have important things to do......well, I do, at least. So I'll keep this short. I was asked to choose three exceptional students from the Academy to train as Genin, me being so great and all. Now, I'm sure you can guess where this is going, but I'll spell it out for you in case I overestimated your intelligence. Effective immediately, you three are graduates from the Ninja Academy, and are Genin under my command. Congratulation." Kenta said, in a bored monotone that didn't fit the news he was delivering at all.
The reaction from the three Genin ranged from elation to stunned disbelief. Kinari in particular looked as if Kenta had just told him the sun was going to be blue from now on.
"If you have no questions, I'll be leaving you. Meet me on top of the Hokage's administrative building at seven tomorrow morning. Don't be late!" And with that, he calmly walked out the door.
Kinari was silent. He was terribly afraid that he might wake up suddenly. Kaoru didn't share his problem, however.
"YES! Did you hear him? We're Genin! And a full four months before we should have graduated, too! Isn't this great, Kinari-kun? Now you won't get picked on any more!" He yelled excitedly.
"Kaoru! Don't be so rude!" Miyuki yelled back, although she found herself unable to stop grinning. "But...he said to meet him on top of the Hokage's building. How are we supposed to get up there?" Kinari said, setting aside his excitement for later.
"Oh, who cares! He'll probably tell the guards to expect us." Kaoru replied, refusing to let his enthusiasm be dampened. "Hmm....I guess. Um, well, I'd better go home. I need to get ready for tomorrow. Bye!"
Twenty minutes later, Miyuki and Kaoru were stroll leisurly along the largest street in Konoha, not really going anywhere or doing anything. They both replayed Kenta's brief speech in their minds over and over again, recalling every word as though it was some priceless treasure.
"You must be pretty relieved, huh?" Miyuki said, suddenly. Kaoru just grunted in reply.
"I mean, it's different for me. If I was just an ordinary genin, that would be enough for my parents. But it must be hard for to be in a famous clan where everyone expects you to excel all the time."
"Well, first of all, you're not really an 'ordinary' Genin." Kaoru retorted, with one of his trademark grins. "And secondly, I don't care if my Uncle is being a bastard about me not graduating last year. I had my own reasons for that."
"But you could have, easily! You're better than anyone else in the class!" "Mmm.....I guess. I'll tell you about it some other time. Let's not ruin the mood."
The two continued to walk aimlessly, sharing a familiar silence that only close friends can appreciate.
A/N: Well, there you have it, the first chapter! I hope you liked it! Reviews are of course welcome, but please, if you take the time to give me one, make it a thorough one! Even "I didn't like so and so." is a lot better than just "I really liked it." And send any flames to my e-mail address, so I can delete them with greater ease. Oh, and just one more thing. If you notice any inverted commas (") where there should be a ' or ? it's a formatting problem that happened when I switched OS. Please point it out and I'll correct it as soon as possible.
Summer grass:
of stalwart warriors splendid dreams
the aftermath -Matsuo Basho
Chapter 1: Reed
Kinari came awake suddenly, kunai jumping into his hand even as a half remembered dream escaped him. It was a few seconds before before he remembered why he had a kunai so close in the first place.
Oh, yes. That.
He sighed and examined the weapon he was holding in the pre dawn light coming in from the room's only window. It was a small one, only really good for throwing. Had some midnight assailant really been standing over him, it wouldn't have done much good.
He had fallen asleep the previous day still wearing all of his clothes and weapons, exhausted after a particularly draining exercise at the academy. Hakamatsu-sensei, a man Kinari loathed, thought that dividing his students into two teams and playing a game of tag across the entire village was good for building up reflexes. Except in his version, one team was heavily outnumbered, and instead of just poking someone you hit them with a blunt kunai or shuriken. For some reason, he was always on the team being chased.
What annoyed him the most about the man was that he didn't dislike him for the same reason most people did. He never even brought up the subject. Rather, he just seemed to have decided he would make Kinari"s life miserable from the first time he set eyes on him.
According to the small clock sitting on the floor beside his futon, it was only three in the morning. Kinari knew he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, though.
He stood up and stretched, his shoulders popping softly, and glanced around his small apartment, just to make sure he really had woken up for no reason.
Although there weren't any foreign armies hiding in the corner, there was a pile of unopened mail lying on the floor, overlooked for nearly two days.
Kinari picked it up, leafing through it curiously. Most of it was security reminders designed to make people paranoid ("Report any suspicious activity! If you suspect those around you, do your duty and tell the Hokage!") which he tossed away immediately. If the Hidden Leaf was attacked, and they would be attacked soon, it would be suddenly in the middle of the night, with little or no warning.
The one item he was interested in was a check from academy. Despite the village's numerous woes, they looked after orphans whose parents had been killed in the line of duty. Although interrogation followed by swift execution couldn't really be called 'in the line of duty' by any stretch of the imagination, Kinari still qualified for the welfare payments, until he either quit the academy, became a genin, or turned sixteen, whichever one came first. He still had three years to go before that last one, thankfully.
He opened the envelope, scanned it briefly to make sure they hadn't accidentally given him a fortune (They hadn't) then put it into fridge for safe keeping. No burglar would check the fridge, right?
"Now what?" He muttered.
Tossing and turning in his futon for the next four hours didn't sound too exciting, nor did he feel like studying any scrolls.
Thankfully, the long threatened curfew hadn't been imposed yet, so he decided to go out for a little run across the rooftops.
Ten minutes later he was sailing through the air between two tall buildings, revelling in the solitude of the night. There was no one else around so early in the morning, and the rooftop world that only Shinobi could appreciate belonged solely to him.
It took him completely by surprise, then, when he collided heavily with someone else in mid-air. He gasped as his breath was driven out of his lungs and he and the other person fell seven feet to the ground, landing in a tangled heap on top of someone's house.
Kinari lay still for a few seconds, checking himself for any serious damage. Arms? Still intact. Legs? Sore, but still working fine. He was going to have some painful bruises in a few hours, but apart from that he was fine.
"Oh, crap! Are you okay?" A panicked voice said nearby. Oh yeah, the other guy. He had forgotten about him.
Kinari opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself looking at someone he knew. Well, sort of knew. He was a boy from his class in the academy, one of the more popular and brighter student's. Kinari didn't think they had ever spoken to each other before, and instantly his natural awkwardness set in.
"N-no..... I'm fine." He said, getting up hurriedly. "I'm sorry for hitting into you like that, I'll watch where I'm going next time."
"No, it was my fault, really. I just assumed no one would be around this early." The other boy said, sounding just as embarrassed as Kinari felt.
"You should both have been watching where you were going."
Kinari turned around slowly and found himself staring into the stern eyes of a tall, black haired woman who was very obviously in a bad mood about something.
"You shouldn't be running around so early in the morning. People will get suspicious." She said, casting a meaningful glance at Kinari.
He looked down at his feet, clenching his teeth angrily.
There was an awkward silence for a few minutes, before the kunoichi decided she had bored into them with here eyes for long enough.
"Go home and go to sleep. Your training will suffer if you're tired."
With that, she turned around and leaped down of the roof, disappearing from view.
"Jeez, what a bitch..." The other boy said, staring at the spot she had jumped from.
For the first time, Kinari took a good look at the person he had collided with. He was almost the opposite Kinari in every way. He was tall, Kinari was short. He had light brown hair, Kinari's was black. And he was wearing a wakizashi, a short sword.
"You're Kaoru-san, aren't you?" He asked, suddenly.
"Yep, that's me! Guess the sword gave it away, huh?" Kaoru said, grinning.
Technically, Genin and those still in the academy were only supposed to be trained in shuriken and kunai. Kaoru Ando, however, came from a long line of renowned swordsmen so he was allowed to use the more advanced weapon.
"And you must be Kinari-kun. Nice to meet you." He said, still grinning broadly.
Kinari was unused to being addressed in such a familiar way, especially by a stranger, and he could feel his usual shyness escalate.
"Um...if you're sure you're alright, I should get going. Bye!" Without waiting for an answer, he set off across the rooftops, soon disappearing into the night.
"Huh. What an odd guy." Kaoru said, smiling faintly. He glanced up at the mountain overshadowing Konoha village and was met with the stern stare of the first and second Hokage.
"What are you staring at?" He asked, not expecting an answer, and not getting one.
"You're sure the information is reliable?" The flesh-and-blood version of the second Hokage asked, sounding irritable and tired.
"Yes, Hokage-sama. Our spies have been working to wards this for months now. The Hidden mist are going to attack within two weeks, maybe sooner." The Kunoichi speaking to him was, by huge coincidence, the same woman who had berated Kinari and Kaoru only half an hour earlier.
The Second sighed and rubbed his forehead, fending off a headache. He hadn't slept properly in days, and from the looks of things, he wouldn't get a chance to for some time. The situation with the Hidden Mist was escalating rapidly, new and worrying information was coming to light too fast for him to deal with it.
They're on their own. No, wait, they're allied with the Hidden Sand,
for some reason. And they have spies in the village (God, he hoped that one wasn't true.
Thankfully most of the more alarming reports turned out to be nothing more than rumours or misinformation.
"Thank you for your report. You can send in Maehara now."
The kunoichi snapped a crisp salute and then a more traditional bow before leaving the room. A few seconds later Maehara Kenta, special Jounin of the Hidden Leaf Village came in, and the Hokage had to stop himself from groaning.
On the surface, Kenta was an extremely loyal Jounin who did his utmost to follow his superior's orders. He was an expert in all of the under handed arts of the ninja. Interrogation (Or torture, if he wasn't within earshot.), assassination, infiltration. His incredible affinity for genjutsu made him the perfect spy.
In truth, he had a habit of giving the finger to any authoritative figure in very small ways. This time he wasn't wearing the standard issue flak jacket given to everyone of Chuunin rank or higher. The fact that he, the Hokage, had told all Jounin to wear them at all times earlier that day probably had something to do with it.
He was also taller than the Hokage, although just slightly, and he had very dark red hair and dark skin, a trait gained from his father, who was from the wind country.
Kenta bowed. "I assume you've read my report on my previous mission,
Hokage-sama."
"Yes. It was quite thorough, as usual." The Hokage replied, although in truth someone else had just given him the gist of it. There simply wasn't time to read every document sent to him, the village had too many problems that needed sorting out.
"Maehara, I'm aware of your stance on this matter, but I'm assigning you a team of Genin to train." He held up his hand to stop Kenta's protest before it reached his mouth. "I'm not negotiating on this one, and you're not getting out of it. You're one of the best Jounin in the village, maybe even the best, and you"ve never once trained any Genin."
"That's because I don't see the point, Hokage-sama. We"re in open warfare with the Hidden Mist, and maybe others. My skills can be put to use fighting the enemy, not training children."
The Hokage"s hand slammed down on the wooden table in front of him,
creating a sizeable dent in the thick wood.
"I don't care! You've completed more missions this month than most Jounin undertake in six. Either you agree to this, or I'm suspending you temporarily. You need a break."
Kenta heaved an exaggerated sigh.
"Alright, I'll train some Genin. But can I at least pick them out myself?"
The Hokage rolled his eyes in a very unprofessional gesture.
"Very well. You have a week to choose, otherwise I'll assign three to you. Oh, and before you go, where the hell is Sarutobi? I've been trying to get a hold of him all day."
"He's on a mission, I believe. Something to do with asking the Hidden Sand for help."
"Ah, yes. Alright, that's all."
Kenta bowed again. "Hokage-sama."
"Alright class, today we'll be having a repeat of yesterday's exercise.
Yesterday's performance was terrible, and we'll keep doing it until you start to use some sort of strategy."
There was a collective groan from the students in the room. There wasn't anyone present who wasn't covered in bruises from the previous day,
least of all Kinari.
He wasn't too bothered, though. Kaoru had waved at him on the way to school, and he was beginning to think the boy was trying to be his friend, as crazy as that was.
"If anyone wants to volunteer to be on team two, come to the front of the room." Hakamatsu-sensei said, glancing pointedly at Kinari.
"OOH! Me!" Kaoru said, waving his hand in the air frantically.
Hakamatsu sighed. "Yes, yes, just go stand up front."
On the way up Kaoru grabbed Kinari and practically dragged him to the front of the room with him.
"What are you doing"" Kinari said, horribly embarrassed. Kaoru was one of the more popular students in the class, and more than a few people were staring or pointing.
"I told Miyuki-chan about you and she said you sounded cool, so I"m making sure we"re on the same team." Kaoru said.
Kinari wasn"t sure he had heard right. Miyuki wanted to get to know him.
She had short blond hair and brown eyes, most of the boys in the class practically fainted when she looked there way, and she wanted to hang out with him?
It seemed she did, because she was suddenly at the front of the room with them. Oddly enough, she seemed more shy than he was. Funny, she was usually pretty outspoken.
"Alright, you three go out and make some sort of plan. You have twenty minutes before everyone comes after you, use them wisely. Go!"
Kinari had to admit, being on the same team as Miyuki and Kaoru was a lot better than being on his own. Usually the three most unpopular student"s were "nominated" by everyone else to be the prey (Or "team two" as there teacher insisted on putting it), and that group always included him. His usual tactic was to run like a frightened rabbit and then hide, but his two companions didn't seem too concerned.
"So, Kinari-kun, Kaoru told me you and him met each other last night?"
Miyuki said, after a few minutes of silence.
"What? Oh, yeah. We sort of crashed into each in mid air..... " Kinari said. He glanced at the girl and she looked away, blushing furiously. What the hell was wrong with her?
Kaoru looked between them for a second and then grinned mischievously.
"Aww, come on Miyuki-chan, just confess your love for Kinari-kun and stop keeping us all in suspense."
A second later his face was buried surprisingly deep in a nearby lamp post.
"Idiot! Don"t say things like that!" She yelled, although Kinari noticed she was blushing even more, if that was possible. She did seem to like him, more than the other girls in his class. She never brought up his parents on the rare occasions they spoke, anyway.
"Um.... Kaoru-san, don't you think we should be making some sort of plan? You know, for when everyone else starts chasing us? We only have a few minutes left, you know....."
"Don't be so formal all the time! You can call me Kaoru-kun if you want. And for your information, I do have a plan. Quite an ingenious one, if I do say so myself." "Then shut up and tell us, already." Miyuki said, with the tone of someone who was used to putting up with Kaoru.
"Alright, alright. Okay, you know how usually the people who are being chased run straight into the forest?" "Um.......yeah." Kinari said. The forest always seemed like the safest place to go, since it offered so much cover.
"Well, that's what they'll expect us to do. So we're not going to." Kaoru quickly outlined his plan, and Kinari was surprised at how well thought out it was. Kaoru was a lot smarter than he sounded.
"So. See any hopefuls yet, Maehara-sama?" Hakamatsu asked. The Jounin didn't reply, and Hakamatsu gritted his teeth in annoyance and pushed his glasses higher onto the bridge of his nose. He was painfully aware of the gap in ability and rank between himself and Kenta, and it annoyed him that he didn't have any say in who the man trained from his class.
"I've picked two." The Jounin replied at last. They were standing on the roof of the academy building, watching the students leaping across the village, all trying to be the first to win. Kenta shook his head as they all made a bee line for the forest. "Samagi Miyuki and Ando Kaoru." Hakamatsu nodded. "Of course you would want to train the only current child of the Ando family. And the girl......well, it's quite remarkable. I could hardly believe it." "Yes.....anyway, that just leaves one more....." Kenta murmured, leafing through the large stack of student's files in his hands. "Ah, here we go. Tanaka Kinari." Hakamatsu was silent. "Hm? Something wrong?" Kenta asked, already knowing what the answer would be.
"His parent's were spies working against the Hidden Leaf, Maehara-sama."
"So?"
"It was because of them that the hidden Mist was able to attack us in the first place! Hundreds of people died! You can't seriously want to involve yourself with their son!"
"His grades are excellent. That's why I picked him. Who his parents were has nothing to do with my decision. Of course, if you were to officially protest my choice, I would be forced to reconsider."
Hakamatsu paused for a few seconds, then sighed heavily.
"No, I guess there's no reason why you shouldn't pick him. He'll make Jounin some day, probably."
"That's what I thought as well. Those three are excused from class. Tell them to come meet me after this little game is finished." Kenta instructed, in a tone that left no room for protest.
"Yes, Maehara-sama......"
Kinari couldn't believe how clumsy and disorganized his classmates seemed. Before, when they had been chasing him through the forest, they had seemed like a pack of wolves, deadly and impossible to outrun. But now, he could see gaping holes in their strategy, and they seemed more like the gang of untrained children that they were.
He was hiding on the roof of a ramen place, crouching behind the large air conditioning unit. Miyuki and Kaoru were close by, also well hidden. The group of children appeared on the opposite end of the street, and Kinari was gripped by sudden terror. What if this was all some elaborate plan for Kaoru to trick him into a false sense of security so the others could beat him up? His fears evaporated when a hail of blunt kunai and shuriken hit the unprepared group with what would be lethal accuracy if the weapons were real. Three quarters of them were didn't even have time to react, and were left to swear angrily as the rest ran for cover.
This was the part Kinari had been afraid of. Kaoru had left him the most important job, no doubt in an effort to boost his confidence. He took a deep breath, before running out from his hiding place and charging straight into the remaining children.
Taken completely by surprise once again, three of them fell to his kunai, protesting loudly as they were disqualified. They had been expecting an easy chance to gang up on him and try to drive him out of the academy, but instead they were losing spectacularly. Kinari was giddy with exhilaration, and fear for what they might do to him afterwards.
The last two rouned on him angrily, one of them reaching for an actual kunai. There attack was cut short as Kaoru appeared behind them poking them gently on the head with his own blunt weapons.
"Gotcha."
"Well, class, that was quite......unusual. Wait, that's not the word I'm looking for. Pathetic! Yes, it was quite pathetic. I'm not sure what most of you were doing, but it certainly wasn't fighing!"
Hakamatsu's stern reprimand went largely unnoticed by his class, whose attention was solely fixed on Kenta. The jounin was sitting in one corner of the room, reading a nondescript scroll, apparently oblivious to the awestruck children.
Although, of course, he was well aware of the attention he was receiving, and he had to admit, it was surprising him. In his, a Jounin would have been lucky to command much respect at all among children so young. He always found that those who hadn't experienced real battle yet never understood what it meant to earn the rank of 'Jounin'. It wasn't all that surprising, though. The Konoha's troubles had all started when the Hidden Mist had attacked the village about eight years previously. Waves of shinobi had washed over the village, a tide of death and destruction that was all but unstoppable thanks to the efforts of two spies planted among the Hidden Leaf years earlier. The attack left the village crippled, and very nearly destroyed. Had it not been for the brave efforts of a group of six Jounin, the founders of the ANBU squad, the Hidden Leaf village would have been wiped off the face of the Earth. Afterwards, the two spies were executed publically, something that the Second Hokage didn't exactly endorse, but was basically forced into doing. The people wanted someone to blame for the massive destruction, and he had to give them someone.
This, of course, left the problem of Kinari. In a matter of days he went from being the son of two upstanding, loyal Shinobi to an object of hatred for most of the village, something for people to turn their anger against. Kenta himself had ordered a team of ANBU to protect the boy until things died down. This hadn't made him too popular with the rest of the village, but it was absurd and unimaginably cruel to blame someone for their parent's crimes, especially since Kinari had had no knowledge of what his parents were doing. At the age of six, how could he? And now, Kenta was going to train him as a Genin.
He mulled over all of this while Hakamatsu finished berating his class.
"Understand? Next time think before you do something stupid! Now, before you go, I want Kinari, Miyuki and Kaoru to stay behind." Kenta watched his three students glance at each before walking nervously to the front of the classroom. He waited until everyone had left, including an irked Hakamatsu, before standing up from his chair and walking over to face the three new Genins.
"Now, I'm sure you all have important things to do......well, I do, at least. So I'll keep this short. I was asked to choose three exceptional students from the Academy to train as Genin, me being so great and all. Now, I'm sure you can guess where this is going, but I'll spell it out for you in case I overestimated your intelligence. Effective immediately, you three are graduates from the Ninja Academy, and are Genin under my command. Congratulation." Kenta said, in a bored monotone that didn't fit the news he was delivering at all.
The reaction from the three Genin ranged from elation to stunned disbelief. Kinari in particular looked as if Kenta had just told him the sun was going to be blue from now on.
"If you have no questions, I'll be leaving you. Meet me on top of the Hokage's administrative building at seven tomorrow morning. Don't be late!" And with that, he calmly walked out the door.
Kinari was silent. He was terribly afraid that he might wake up suddenly. Kaoru didn't share his problem, however.
"YES! Did you hear him? We're Genin! And a full four months before we should have graduated, too! Isn't this great, Kinari-kun? Now you won't get picked on any more!" He yelled excitedly.
"Kaoru! Don't be so rude!" Miyuki yelled back, although she found herself unable to stop grinning. "But...he said to meet him on top of the Hokage's building. How are we supposed to get up there?" Kinari said, setting aside his excitement for later.
"Oh, who cares! He'll probably tell the guards to expect us." Kaoru replied, refusing to let his enthusiasm be dampened. "Hmm....I guess. Um, well, I'd better go home. I need to get ready for tomorrow. Bye!"
Twenty minutes later, Miyuki and Kaoru were stroll leisurly along the largest street in Konoha, not really going anywhere or doing anything. They both replayed Kenta's brief speech in their minds over and over again, recalling every word as though it was some priceless treasure.
"You must be pretty relieved, huh?" Miyuki said, suddenly. Kaoru just grunted in reply.
"I mean, it's different for me. If I was just an ordinary genin, that would be enough for my parents. But it must be hard for to be in a famous clan where everyone expects you to excel all the time."
"Well, first of all, you're not really an 'ordinary' Genin." Kaoru retorted, with one of his trademark grins. "And secondly, I don't care if my Uncle is being a bastard about me not graduating last year. I had my own reasons for that."
"But you could have, easily! You're better than anyone else in the class!" "Mmm.....I guess. I'll tell you about it some other time. Let's not ruin the mood."
The two continued to walk aimlessly, sharing a familiar silence that only close friends can appreciate.
A/N: Well, there you have it, the first chapter! I hope you liked it! Reviews are of course welcome, but please, if you take the time to give me one, make it a thorough one! Even "I didn't like so and so." is a lot better than just "I really liked it." And send any flames to my e-mail address, so I can delete them with greater ease. Oh, and just one more thing. If you notice any inverted commas (") where there should be a ' or ? it's a formatting problem that happened when I switched OS. Please point it out and I'll correct it as soon as possible.