a/n okay! so this is yet ANOTHER story by me, I know. oh, and be expecting one more shortly. This one is about the three kids introduced in the fourteenth chapter of Butterfly Prophecy, if any of you read that story. yeah, you should. xD anyway, there is one part in this that is the sensei's POV, but that won't happen often, seeing as she gets her own story. yeah, I'm sure that how they're all connected is confusing but, yeah. I like doing that xD especially since there are characters I like, so it's fun writing their interactions and then having someone else's thoughts on a scene.
also, this is my first Third Person POV Naruto story. heh heh. yeah...I'll probably write the sensei's this way as well...
I can't write summaries.
Chapter One--Team 15
A young boy of just thirteen sat perched on the top of an iron fence. Using a pair of binoculars, he stared through a small window into a classroom of Konoha's Ninja Academy. He had been sitting still like that for so long that his legs were numb to the pain and he had learned to ignore the ends of the fence digging into the arches of his feet, despite the hard bottoms of his shoes.
He didn't understand what he was doing, but his teammates had asked him to, saying that it was the perfect job for him. He couldn't very well disagree--or agree either--since he had no clue what he was doing.
A blonde girl, bored, turned towards the window to stare out. The thirteen-year-old boy noticed the alarmed expression on the girl's face upon spotting him. He lowered the binoculars, grinned, waved, and then jumped off the fence. He landed perfectly on the roof of the Academy and began to run, just as he had been instructed to do.
'Hato. If someone catches you, leave. Got that?'
Those had been the exact words of his sensei, Mutsuko. She had sounded so serious when she had first said them that Hato, the boy, didn't dare disobey. Even after he realized that there was nothing dangerous about what he was doing, he still listened to Mutsuko-sensei.
"Every day, it's the same thing," he mumbled, hopping onto yet another rooftop. "Go spy on the Academy students and then report back to Sensei. Of course the other two can't do it. They get to go off and do...whatever else it is. Probably exciting though. All I get to do is spy on the same old boring people." Hato came to an abrupt stop; instinctively, his hand flew up to his head, pressing his hat down on his head. It was surprising how it stayed in place even through the rushing winds Hato caused as he ran.
"Darn it. Which way?" Hato muttered to himself; he quickly scanned the area before hopping off the roof and landing gracefully on the ground below. He was standing in an alley--a very familiar alley. He was close to where he needed to be. Turning on his heels, he took off again, the binoculars banging against his chest from where they were hung around his neck.
"...Seiko? What are you doing?"
The head of a girl popped out from amidst the pile of hamsters, all of which were two to three feet long. She grinned sheepishly at the boy who stood before her, arms crossed over his chest, eyebrow raised.
"Konichiwa Sakai!" she exclaimed. Somehow she managed to pull an arm away from all the hamsters and she brushed aside the hair that was constantly falling over her dull blue eye.
"No seriously, what are you doing?" The boy ordained as Sakai asked, his voice low. His eyes quickly darted about, taking in the heap of squirming hamsters--all of which were chattering noisily--that had swallowed the girl.
"Well," she began slowly. "I was practicing some techniques. I was trying to master the art of summoning and all, and well...this happened."
The corners of the boys mouth were twitching as he suppressed the laugh that bubbling inside his throat, desperately hoping to get out. "Well, that's... interesting."
Seiko rolled her eyes. "Go ahead, laugh. I don't mind," she said bitterly. She grunted as she released her other arm from the pile of hamsters. Her two hands moved quickly, forming hand seals. Finally, she bit her thumb hard, so that it broke the skin. Quickly, she slammed her hand down on the ground. In an instant, all of the hamsters were gone, and she fell to the hard forest floor with a 'thud'. Despite this, she allowed a sigh of relief to pass her lips.
Sakai watched all of this with amusement. Before he offered the golden-haired girl a hand, however, he brushed his rusty bangs out of his face, revealing eyes the exact same color as Seiko's, and a Konoha forehead protector.
"Come on, get up," Sakai said, dull blue eyes flickering upwards, staring past the canopy of leaves and stared at the sky. "We need to get going."
Seiko grunted as she took the hand Sakai offered her. Once she was standing again, she placed her hands on her hips and also looked upwards.
"Well, let's get going then, hm?" She looked back down to earth, staring the boy opposite her straight in the eye. "We don't want them to wait too long, do we?"
Sakai gave a sigh, pushing hair away from his face again. "I think Hato will do that for us," he said dully; Seiko grinned in agreement, and then the two ran off.
A young woman of barely 24 sat alone at a ramen stand. Her cold hands warmed themselves as she tightly grasped at the mug of once piping hot tea. It was quite cold by now, but that didn't matter to her. She hadn't been planning on drinking it, anyway. The stand she sat at wasn't particularly good at making tea.
"I'm surprised Hato isn't back yet. Usually he gets caught much faster than this," she whispered to herself, eyes staring at the cold brown liquid in the mug that was oddly still so warm. She lifted a single finger and dipped it into the tea; she shuddered after a drop fell onto her tongue, so cold and so bitter. "I suppose the class had a more interesting lesson today than usual."
The woman continued staring down at the tea she had ordered how ever many hours ago. She had barely a moved a muscle since she had stepped through the curtain of beaded strings and ordered her tea.
"She isn't dead, is she?" A boy probably the same age as her three pupils asked the owner of the little stand.
"I don't think so," the owner said unsurely, and then paused. The woman saw him lean down to look at her face and then straighten himself. "No, no she's perfectly alright. Now leave the woman alone, son."
The smallest trace of a smile stole over the young woman's face, and she barely stifled a chuckle. Dead? Oh, no. She just didn't like fidgeting. It was oddly uncomfortable.
"You know, maybe Hato's just getting better at hiding," she told herself quietly. "Yes, I suppose it's a possibility, however unlikely."
She lifted her head and stared at the clock on the wall, ticking away. Her neck was stiff from looking down at the counter for such a long time, but she paid no heed.
Three hours. It had been three hours since Hato had set off to spy on that Academy class. Three hours since she had come to the stand, ordered her tea, and sat there, motionless.
Three hours was a long time.
"Yes, I'm sure he's getting better. After all, Iruka-sensei barely knows how to teach a lesson that will keep people from looking out the window for three hours," the woman told herself and looked back down at her tea.
"Mutsuko-sensei!"
A familiar voice exclaimed. The woman ordained Mutsuko heaved a sigh. It seemed Hato felt like proving her wrong.
"Hai, Hato?" she asked, looking over her shoulder. There stood her student, looking rather disheveled. Probably from the wind. Hato was a very fast runner, Mutsuko had learned on their first meeting. That was when he even bothered to move.
"I'm so tired of spying on the same old class every day! They do nothing but sit there and listen to that class! And I don't even know why I'm doing it!"
"Because I told you to, that's why," Mutsuko said. Her voice was barely above a whisper, as usual. Her bored hazel eyes made contact with the young boy's angry, dark gray ones.
"Yeah, I get that. But why did you tell me to?!"
Mutsuko lifted herself off of the stool, put some money on the counter, and walked over to Hato, draping her arm over his thin shoulders.
"That," she began slowly, pushing through the curtain of beads and stepping out onto the street with her pupil, "I'll tell you some other time. But for now, I request you continue doing it."
Mutsuko looked up and down the dirt road of Konoha, eyes narrowing as she tried to spot two people in the midst of all the others.
"Come along. Let's go find Seiko and Sakai."
"Oh! About that! Mutsuko-sensei, what are those two doing while you have me spy on that class?"
Mutsuko looked down at him. He was up to her shoulder--Actually, even taller than that--and eleven years younger.
"They train," the young woman answered simply.
Hato was enraged. "That's all?! You don't have them do some dumb task for you?!"
Mutsuko shrugged, grabbing his forearm and tugging him after her.
Hato, Hato, Hato. You'll learn soon enough why I'm having you do this 'dumb' task for me.
"She left?!" Seiko angrily exclaimed after pushing through the beads that served as a sort of entrance for the small ramen stand.
"Apparently," Sakai answered.
"But she said to meet her here!"
Sakai shrugged. "Mutsuko-sensei changes her mind a lot," he stated simply. He turned on his heels to step back onto the dirt road of Konoha.
"Well...well she makes it so difficult for us to get to her! That's it! Next time she tells us to wait for her somewhere, I say we leave before she shows and go somewhere else!" Seiko, in an outrage, shouted. There was a hint of triumph in her voice, like it was the most wonderful plan ever.
Sakai rolled his eyes. "Don't be spiteful," he grumbled. His eyes were downcast as he inspected the soft dirt. There were half-footprints, like just the balls of the feet belonging to whoever had been going by had hit the ground. In fact, there was another set of these next to the first.
Sakai recognized the running style. He knew no ninjas other than two who did that as they ran. Those two were none other than his sensei and his other teammate.
"Hato's with her," Sakai said, straightening himself and stretching his back. "And they went this way."
"Ah, so Hato's been caught again, eh?" Seiko said, grinning a little. How typical of Hato. He had no idea how to hide, even when it was essential not to be seen. Which it wasn't with what he was doing.
"Yes. It's either that or he just got tired of sitting there. I wouldn't put either past him."
Seiko took a step forward so that she stood directly beside the rusty-haired boy.
"Let's go," she exclaimed. And then, side by side, the two ran off, glancing down every so often to make sure they were still going the right way. Somehow, they managed to catch glimpses of the footprints at the speed they were going.
Hato stopped running abruptly and just stood there, still. His hand was on top of his head, as it usually was when he stopped after a speedy run. He needed to make sure his hat was still securely on his head.
It took Mutsuko only seconds to realize that her pupil was no longer running with her. She too stopped, and a cloud of dirt flew up around her. She squeezed her eyes shut so that the tiny grains wouldn't get in her eyes, and closed her mouth tight so that it couldn't get in her lungs.
"Hato! Why did you stop?!" she asked after getting out of the cloud of dust and stood before him. She brushed the dirt that had settled on her clothes right off.
"Listen," Hato instructed.
The older of the two did as the young boy commanded. Both of them blocked out all sounds but for the one they were listening for so intently. When they did this, the sound of footsteps, pounding down on the hard earth and coming ever closer, was indeed very loud. There was also something else. The sounds of a voice, distant and somewhat muted. It was a female, screaming many things in an angry way.
"Seiko. Definitely Seiko," Mutsuko said quietly.
"Yup. And I'd say that she's..." Hato paused, straining his ears to hear more. "I'd say that she's angry that you weren't where you said you'd be."
Mutsuko smiled guiltily. "Yes, that sounds about right. But when will she ever learn that I will never be exactly where I say?"
Hato shrugged. "That's Seiko for you. She's hopeful."
Mutsuko smiled slightly. Yes, that was Seiko. "She certainly is a character," Mutsuko told herself aloud and joined Hato who was seated on a stone wall.
It took longer than expected for Seiko and Sakai to catch up to Mutsuko and Hato. When asked about this, Sakai replied with a shrug, "We aren't as fast as you two."
It was hard to believe that that was true, at times, but it was. Hato was indeed a very swift runner, although most of the time he chose to take his time with getting places.
"And it was hard to follow your footsteps while we were running," Seiko added hastily. She didn't like the fact that someone like Hato, so carefree and who seemingly cared almost nothing about being a ninja, was so much faster than she, Seiko, who took it very seriously.
"Also, Seiko was gabbing. It was distracting."
"Sakai!"
"What? You added something, I figured I should have as well."
Seiko slapped a hand to her forehead in frustration, which caused Hato to laugh.
"Hey! Look, Mutsuko-sensei! Seiko's arguing with Sakai once instead of me!" Hato sounded very much like a little kid as he gleefully exclaimed that, pointing at the golden-haired girl.
Mutsuko smiled. "Well, it's about time. Siblings are supposed to argue."
"Not the Twinjas!" Hato argued good naturedly. He stopped pointing at his teammate and instead held his left foot with that hand, like he was doing to his right foot with the other.
Seiko stopped fuming momentarily and laughed. The nickname Hato had assigned her and Sakai obviously amused her. The same couldn't be said about Sakai though. It annoyed him, if only slightly.
Hato smiled, happy to stop Seiko's anger. And with a simple word. Sometimes it wasn't so easy.
The golden-haired girl took a seat on Hato's free side. Sakai took the seat beside her; all three looked over at their sensei expectantly.
Mutsuko stared right back all of them, head cocked to the side so that her short, light brown hair fell away from her jaw and covered half her face.
Well? Why did you want us all to meet. Remember? You said 'After Hato is finished with his spying, we all have to meet up'," Sakai said, staring even harder at the twenty-four-year old woman.
"Oh yes. I suppose I did say that, didn't I?" Mutsuko laughed lightly. "Well, there was no specific reason, which I remember."
Hato lifted on leg so that the bottom of his foot was no longer pressed against the other. The leg dropped off the wall and hung loosely, ground. "Oh," he said, eyes staring at his shoe. He idly drummed his fingers on the metal of his forehead protector, which he wore as a belt, looped through the belt-loops of his shorts.
Soon Seiko joined him. Her fingernails wrapped on the metal of her own forehead protector, which she wore on her wrist. When asked if that was uncomfortable, she shook her head. Sure it didn't exactly fit correctly, and the metal of the forehead protector stuck out a bit, but that was fine with her. She didn't even mind how the powder-blue fabric had to be wrapped around twice before it could be tied, so that it wasn't loose, and it was so tight sometimes it was difficult to move her wrist. She liked it.
Hato smiled over at her, and she immediately stopped tapping at the metal, embarrassed to have been caught doing the same thing that he had been doing.
"Well, I guess you three can all go now," Mutsuko said after a while. Slowly she stood on the dirt road and looked at each of them for a considerable amount of time.
"Meet me in the usual place," she said. Her gaze turned towards Seiko. "I'll try to stay there for once, for your sake."
"Arigato, Mutsuko-sensei," Seiko said. She wasn't at all curious about how her sensei knew that she had been complaining about that to her brother just moments ago.
Just as the woman was about to walk off, she turned back around.
"Oh. And Hato?"
"Yeah?"
"You're doing the same thing again tomorrow. And please, please, hide better."
"But Mutsuko-sensei--" Hato began to protest, but was silenced when the woman raised her hand.
"Hush. Maybe there will be some pretty girls you can it on after class lets out, hm?"
Hato's face lit up at the mere though. He vigorously nodded, and Mutsuko suppressed the smile that was fighting its way onto her face. With one last glance at the three, she hurried away.
"Ugh. You are such a pig Hato! Is all you can think about girls?!" Seiko asked, obviously disgusted.
"Well, if you think it's so gross, be happy that you aren't one of those girls I'm always thinking about," Hato said, not even turning to look at her. And with that, he walked away at a leisurely pace. But neither Seiko nor Sakai bothered to easily catch up with him. Instead, the blonde turned towards her brother, snorted, and ran off in the opposite direction that Hato and Sensei had gone off in.
Sakai looked over at Hato, who had barely gotten anywhere, shook his head, and then ran off after his sister.
a/n how'd you like? yeah, I know. a masterpiece. all credit for Seiko and Sakai goes to Legendary Trio.
