Well, I'm not entirely back to writing Slayer, but I thought that by going over my older stories something would come to mind and I would get back to writing while doing college stuff. Instead my English comp class taught me that my older works could do with a rewrite. So this is the first part of Whirlpool re-written(mostly re-worded, they're are more changes in the second part) and the second part is about halfway done. I hope That I can get part two in the next week or two so that the gap isn't huge.I do want to get back to Slayer again, but writing has become more of a hobby now than before, so it may take a very long time to get done with. (I may actually do a comic for it once I learn how to in school) So for now I'm just keeping my skills up and trying out what I learned in school. Thanks for stopping by and checking this out. I appreciate it alot.
Whirlpool
Child Saga
It was a short journey for the shinobi of Konoha, but for the citizens of Whirlpool it felt like a lifetime. Only thirty people were able to escape the initial attack of the village, and six others were taken down by the Iwa while they were on the run. If the legendary white fang and his two squads hadn't shown up in time, the villagers would have been slaughtered. From there Hatake Sakumo and his two teams lead the survivors back to Konoha, which was a week long trek.
The gates of Konoha soon loomed over the horizon, and a sense of relief seemed to pass over everyone there; but the people of Whirlpool would never forget what they lost. Near the edge of the cluster, walking near one of the shinobi guards was a red haired girl. Her short hair was covered was covered in grim, and the clothes she wore were torn and dirtied beyond recognition. Her arms and legs were covered in cuts and burns, and there was a nasty gash that covered her right brow. She hadn't said a word the entire trip to Konoha, and her emerald eyes stared straight ahead, all the life in them sapped away. The Konoha shinobi that traveled along with her would spare her a sympathetic glance every now and then, but she took no notice of it. The young shinobi sighed, knowing what she lost in the last attack. But what saddened him most was to see a child so broken. He had seen the others here. Most of them were elderly and the young couples with their toddlers. She was the oldest child in this group.
'I hope taichou has better luck back there.' He thought to himself. Just as he turned back to look, he could see his captain running towards him, instantly recognizing his silver hair.
"Taichou!" the ragged looking jounin slowed to a walk as he came up to his subordinate. The chuunin could see the downcast look from his superiors eyes; he already knew the answer, but anything could be possible. "Were there any-"
"None. The village is completely wiped out. From the looks of it the jounins of whirlpool destroyed the village themselves in order to protect its secrets." The white fan shook his head in remorse, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "If only we have arrived sooner…" the young chuunin looked away somberly.
"I don't think it would have made a difference taichou…" He said quietly
"Taichou!" A new chuunin landed in front of the two coming from the village; Sakumo straightened up, all signs of his previous grief disappeared.
"Report."
"Hokage-sama wants all of the refugees to be taken to the hospital for treatment and evaluation." Sakumo nodded.
"Tell him that we'll be there shortly." While the two of them were conversing, the red haired girl was clenching her fist tightly; her nails biting into her flesh, drawing blood. The young chuunin noticed this and let out another sigh.
"Poor kid…"
"These are all the survivors?" Sarutobi asked as his medical team busied themselves by helping the whirlpool civilians. Sakumo stood next to him, crossing his arms
"I'm afraid so Hokage-sama." The Hokage let out a slow breath.
"There are barely two dozen people here."
"The village was small to begin with."
"They were still a force to be reckoned with; one of our strongest allies." Sarutobi rubbed his temples tiredly "Iwa struck a mighty blow to both our villages today." The two men remained silent, until Sakumo glanced back at his Hokage.
"What's going to happen to these people Hokage-sama?" Sarutobi took a long dreg from his pipe, exhaling slowly.
"When word came to me about the level of devastation that struck Whirlpool, I knew that any survivors would be relocated here until the time came for them to rebuild. Unfortunately with the amount of people here and none of them being shinobi…I don't think it will be possible for them to rebuild at all."
"Even if they had the numbers to rebuild the village, the power of the jutsu the Whirlpool shinobi used was…well unbelievable. It destroyed the land." Sakumo began looking over the survivors once more. "It was like a typhoon went through and sucked everything up. In all my years as a shinobi I have never seen anything like it." He said that last part quietly, though Sarutobi heard him clearly.
"These people have lost too much already. Therefore I had my assistants bring in citizen registry forms here while the medical staff is examining them." His brows furrowed as he bit down on his pipe. "These people will be looked after; that I promise."
A loud crash sounded throughout the room. Everyone turned their attention to towards the corner, where the red haired girl stood rigid, head downcast. At her feet lay broken shards of several syringes.
"It's not fair! Why didn't sensei let me fight with everybody else! I'm a shinobi too!" she cried out. "I could have helped them! I'm strong enough!" the Whirlpool survivors couldn't look her in the eyes, not knowing what to say to her to calm her down. An elderly woman came up to her, reaching out for the girl's shoulder.
"Oh Kushina-chan…" the girl violently slapped the woman's hand away, raising her head up in the process; the tears she had been holding back flowed freely down her cheeks.
"No! He made me leave while everybody else got to fight! Why couldn't I stay? Why?!" she collapsed to her knees, anguished sobs wracking her body. "Didn't I earn my place? I trained like everybody else, so why couldn't I stay?!" she fell forward, her hands holding her up, as more tears splashed onto the tiled floor. "Why did he send me away?" she choked out softly.
"It's because he wanted you to live."
Kushina looked up to see the Hokage kneeling in front of her. He reached out, giving her shoulders a comforting squeeze. "It wasn't because he didn't believe in your strength child; rather it was his duty to protect you, like everyone else in the village." Kushina stared back with red, puffy eyes into the wizened old face of the Hokage. "The desire to protect others…It gives us strength to fight off those who threaten our loved ones."
"Then why didn't he let me protect him?" She asked desperately "After my parents…He was all I had left!" she fell forward into Sarutobi's embrace, and began sobbing. He gathered her up in his arms, and began rubbing her back in comfort. Her mind wandered back to the beginning of the week's events; when she last saw her sensei.
"Iwa has broken the line at the eastern gate! Takamaru, we need you there now!!" the man known as Takamaru cursed lightly to himself, rubbing away the sweat from his brow. He had been fighting in the war his entire life, but he never thought the Iwa would make a bold enough move so far into enemy territory. He turned back to his comrade, giving him a curt nod.
"Send out the word. We are initiating fall back plan omega." The other shinobi's body stiffened as his eyes widened with shock.
"S-sir? Are you serious?"
"Unfortunately we don't have a choice. Alert the others and evacuate as many civilians as you can." Takamaru's gaze bore into the young mans intently. "If the Iwa think they're going to gain anything from us they can think again. Now go!" quickly regaining his composure, the other shinobi gave a nod of his own before running off in the opposite direction. Takamaru then turned his attention to the only other person there; his twelve year old student Uzumaki Kushina.
Whirlpool had always been a small village. Children who qualified to be genin were given their own jounin instructor to work with until they were promoted to chuunin's. Due to the war, children were often pushed into early service, especially so in Whirlpool. He had been training and teaching Kushina for three years now. Her parents were killed while she was still in the academy, and being a temperamental child, relied little on others. The death of her parents left deep emotional scars, so she often got into a lot of fights, but she was still an exceptional kunoichi. When he first took her in under his care, they argued all the time. He never had a student before, and he never planned to either; but with the increase of graduates at the time, he was forced by the jounin council to take on a genin.
The first month together was rough, almost to the point where he was going to give her to another jounin instructor. But when he found out more about her from her neighbors, he became sympathetic; even more so when he saw that she was living alone at her age. After forcing her to move in with him, and getting her to open up a little, the two of them became closer, and he started treating her as a daughter. Even when they had the occasional fights, he would she a small smile on her face as she turned away. The two continued on missions together, even after he was accepted into the ruling village council.
So the young girl now stood before him, waiting for his orders. Fear flashed in her eyes for an instant when the ground shook from a nearby explosion, but it was quickly replaced with sheer determination. He smiled back at her. In time her skills would have greatly benefited the village. But fate seemed to have other plans for their home; a plan that he would everything in his power to prevent her from sharing.
"I'm ready to go sensei!" she said anxiously. His smile turned into a frown as he bent down to her level.
"Not this time Kushina." her expression quickly changed into confusion "This isn't a battle we are going to win. I want you to head west with the rest of the villagers. Meet up with the Konoha shinobi and go with them." Shocked, she shook her head in disbelief. "No! I'm staying here, we can still fig-"
"That's enough!" He cut her off with a piercing shout, she remained silent, but he could still see the tears beginning to form in her eyes. Letting out a tired sigh, his gaze turned towards the east side of the village, where the majority of the battle was taking place. Kushina couldn't quiet read the expression on his face. Was it anger? Fear or hate? She expected any one of those emotions but none of them seemed to fit the look on his face right now. "This battle is over, we've lost. The village will be destroyed soon." He turned his gaze back at her, his expression letting her know that he was completely serious with her. "But that doesn't mean you have to be destroyed along with it.
"I know you want to fight Kushina. Your fighting spirit is something this village hasn't seen in a long time." He smiled again, ruffling up her hair affectionately. "It's refreshing to see that sort of thing in a war that's lasted this long. You're a good kunoichi Kushina, you're meant to do great things; not die here." He stood up once more, adopting the stone cold look he put up when giving out orders. "Your final mission is to escort the remaining villagers out of the west gate and rendezvous with the Konoha shinobi. Do you understand the task given to you?"
"Sense-"
"Do you understand!?" He shouted fiercely, causing her to flinch. She bowed her head, her shoulders trembling.
"Yes…" Takamaru let out a quiet sigh, but he was relieved that she relented without a fight.
"Good. Now-MOVE!!" acting on instinct, Takamaru's hand shot forward, grabbing Kushina and yanking her into his chest. She could feel the material of her headband being cut away; she turned her head and saw it lying in the rubble. She made a motion to grab it, but Takamaru jumped away as soon as her arm reached out for it. As she saw her headband get smaller and smaller, the area surrounding it was soon crushed by several large boulders. When Takamaru landed on the ground, he jerked his body to the right to try and cover Kushina with his body as much as he could. She heard another explosion, and could hear rocks pelting the ground all around them. A piece of the debris tore across her right brow, causing her wince from the sharp pain. When the area was quiet once more, Takamaru let go of her and pulled out several explosive tags; seeing the potent of the tags he held, Kushina's eyes widened in shock.
"Those are you most powerful tags!" He answered her with a curt nod.
"These are only a distraction for what's to come. I'll hold them off; run. I don't want you within a kilometer of the village in five minutes." He slammed a single explosive tag between them and jumped away from her. "RUN!" he shouted out with every fiber of his being. She stumbled for a moment, before heeding his call. The hot air from the explosion burned her bare arms and legs, even though she was a fair distance away. Biting her lip and holding back her tears, she ran westward at full speed, never looking back.
Calming down, Kushina pushed herself away from the Hokage, her head still facing downwards.
"If I stay here…can you help me get stronger?" she asked. Sarutobi gave her a pointed look.
"That depends. What will you use that strength for?" he replied. She lifted her head, looking around to see the remaining habitants of Whirlpool. They gazed back at her as she scanned the area; eyes full of worry, confusion, and sorrow. A small hiccup escaped her lips but she stared back at Sarutobi eyes, her own filled with determination.
"I don't want what happened to my home to happen again. I want to be strong enough to prevent that." Her bandaged hand formed into tight fists. "I want to be strong enough to protect those precious to me!" she declared fiercely. She could feel her throat tightening up again, and let out another sniff. But she held back her tears; she was done crying.
Sarutobi gazed intently at her for several more moments before he made a hand motion to the medic next to him. She handed him her clipboard; he pulled out the pen behind the clip before holding the board out in front of Kushina.
"Then you will get all the help you need here." He replied, smiling down at her. She looked at the paper on said board, and saw that it was a Konoha citizen registry form. She grabbed both pen and board out of his hands and began filling it out without hesitation. Once she finished she handed back to Sarutobi; he looked it over once, and smiled at her.
"Welcome to Konoha Uzumaki Kushina." She gave a curt nod in reply, and a slow smile crept onto her lips.
'Watch me sensei…'
A week had passed by since the Whirlpool survivors first arrived in Konoha. The Hokage's promise to get them settled in was genuine, and he had some genin teams helping them at the moment. There were several old apartment buildings at the east side of town near the monument and Sarutobi had the genin teams help renovate it for its new tenants. Tired of doing nothing, the citizens of Whirlpool started to pitch in and help out the genin teams as well. They quickly became friends with the shinobi, but as they were getting acquainted Kushina was busy exploring the complex.
When she reached the top floor of the building, she found that there was only one door on the entire floor. Deciding that there was no harm in going inside, she made her way over and turned the knob. The apartment itself was small, but more than enough space for one person; it had an open kitchen that connected with the living room, and a single bedroom down the hall that was separated form the bathroom. The walls were filthy, and the counter tops were in shambles, but that was to be expected of a building that survived this long during times of war.
Walking further into the living she saw another door, she opened that one and found that it lead out to a small patio outside. She walked outside and stood in awe at the sight before her. She knew that Konoha was big, but never expected it to be anything like she would see from here. Her old home seemed like a shack town if you compared the two. And the trees were so massive that they towered over most of the buildings in Konoha. She had seen big trees, but they were nothing like the ones she stared at. After staring slacked-jawed for what seemed like an eternity, she grinned to herself and quickly made her way back to the bottom of the building where everyone else was working. She quickly declared that the top apartment complex was hers, and that anyone took it she would "kick their asses"
The Konoha jounin-sensei's present were taken aback by the girls' declaration, but the Whirlpool residents chuckled, and agreed to the request. Excitement flowing through her veins, she quickly rushed back up with the proper tools and began working on her new home. Several hours passed by, and around noon, an elderly woman walked in, causing Kushina to pause mid work. The woman smiled, holding up a bento box.
"Why don't you come down and eat with the rest of us Kushina-chan?" Grinning enthusiastically, she patted off most of the dust off her clothes and bounded towards the old woman.
"Sure!" she graciously accepted the box from her and the two of them walked back downstairs into the lobby where the rest of the future residents were enjoying their meals. Kushina greeted them with a smile, and then plopped onto the floor unceremoniously and begun eating like a wild woman. She heard everyone in the room starting to chuckle.
"You shouldn't eat like that Kushina-chan. It isn't becoming for a pretty lady such as yourself." One of the men teased. She paused in mid-chew, ignoring the bits of rice on her face to glare at him.
"I'm nothing like those dainty little sissies. Besides, I got things to do." She went back to shoveling more of her lunch into her mouth. More chuckles erupted from the people.
"Ahhh, but you would look so pretty in a cute kimono Kushina-chan!" The same man taunted.
His forehead was suddenly attacked by an empty bento box, causing him to fall backwards in surprise. Laughter erupted from everyone in the room as Kushina let out a low growl.
"Wanna shut your mouth before I kick your ass?" she felt something lightly grip her shoulder, and saw that it was the old woman's hand, and she was giving her a pointed look. After calming down a bit, she let out a quiet apology as the man got back into his seat again. But he just waved her off with a sheepish grin.
"It's alright Kushina. Everyone here is just glad you're acting like your old self again." She blinked owlishly several times, before smiling at everyone.
"Yeah."
"Hey, you should go meet with the other genin that are here. After all you are going to be your new comrades." Another villager piped in.
"Really? There here?" She asked, slightly interested. A woman nodded.
"Yes, they're out eating their lunches in the courtyard." Kushina rubbed her chin in thought, before shrugging.
"Why not? Guess I'll go take a look." She stuck her hands into her pockets, walking towards the courtyard to get a look at Konoha's genin.
As she got closer to the buildings entrance, Kushina started to hear several voices shouting. She crept to the side of the door, peeking around it cautiously trying not to be seen. She saw six genin, in two groups of three sitting across from each other; two boys and a girl in each group, all looked around her age. They were arguing about something, so she remained quiet to find out what.
"Like that ever happened, you're a freaking liar Takushi!"
"Ha! You're just jealous that we got to go out and do a C ranked mission and you guys are still stuck doing kiddy stuff."
"Then what are you guys back here for if you're done with the 'kiddy stuff'?" the one called Takushi and his two teammates turned red with embarrassment, and began looking away sheepishly. The boy who was mocking him laughed, "Looks like you guys screwed up and you're stuck with D ranked missions again. Figures." Takushi's team stopped blushing, and all of them got to their feet to glare down the other team.
"Watch your mouth! You don't know anything about what happened!"
Now that she was fully interested in the conversation, Kushina decided to make herself known to the others. She came out of her cover and walked over to the others.
"What was the mission?" everyone turned their attention towards her, wondering where she had come from. Looking directly at Takushi, she asked him once more. "What was the mission?" Takushi crossed his arms, giving her a suspicious look.
"Why do you want to know?" The boy arguing with Takushi gave her the same look, and waved her off.
"Yeah you're just a civilian. You should stay out of shinobi business. It's too complicated for you to understand." The boy struck a nerve, and Kushina let out a low growl, glaring at the genin.
"It's not that hard to get when I'm a genin as well!" one of the kunoichi crossed her arms, clearly not amused with Kushina's statement.
"Saying you're a genin when you're obviously not will only get you in trouble." Kushina turned her glare to said kunoichi.
"I am a genin!" she said again, with more force in her tone of voice.
"Then where's your head band?" one of the boys asked.
She flinched, remembering the last time she saw her headband.
"It got lost… during the invasion-" she trailed off quietly, but the others only heard the first part of what she said.
"Hah! Liar! What kind of genin loses their headband?" Everyone started laughing at her, missing her clenched fists and her body shaking with anger.
"Honestly, she shouldn't lie to get our attention like that. It's just bad taste."
"Yeah, what a-Wuaaaah!!!! Takushi was caught off guard when Kushina suddenly appeared next to him; grabbing his arm and chucking over to the other genin team. After they all gathered their wits, they stared in disbelief at her. She stood perfectly still, her shoulders hunched and hair covering her eyes.
"I may not have a headband right now…" She said ominously. Her head shot up, and they could all see the anger blazing in her eyes. "But that doesn't mean I need one to kick your asses!!" One of Takushi's teammates charged at her back, but she dodged them with ease, and kicked him into the others. They all got to their feet and into battle stances.
"Who the hell do you think you are?!" Takushi snarled out in anger. A wicked grin grew on her face, as she also got into a stance.
"My name is Uzumaki Kushina! Student to Manako Takamaru! And I'm the newest Konoha genin!" She cracked her knuckles by making a fist. "And you're all gonna pay for calling me a liar!"
"Why did Sarutobi-sensei have to give my team such a boring mission?" The big man complained, scratching his rather thick white hair. he and the three children with him were waking down the older east side of Konoha, heading to one of the renovations sites nearby. He crossed his arms and let out an angry huff. "I've got better things to do than this."
"Maybe if you were on time this morning instead of the women's bath house we would have better missions Jiraiya-sensei!" The girl shouted at him. Her other two teammates decided to stay out of the upcoming argument.
"There's the building. Come on, we're already late as it is." The blond boy piped in, he and the other teammate sped up to get there faster. As they were about to round the corner to the courtyard, a body came flying out in front of them, crashing to the ground a couple feet away from them. They stood staring in confusion at the pitiful site of the moaning boy, until the blonds' teammate recognized him.
"Hey that's Takushi!" Jiraiya grinned widely, feeling the excitement bubble within him.
"Now this just got interesting."
"Come on!" The blond lead his team around the corner, ready for anything that could happen. Only they weren't prepared for the site before them.
Teams three and five were scattered about on the ground, all of them moaning in pain. They all showed sins of broken bones; one of them looked like they had two broken arms. Standing in the center of the chaos was a lone red haired girl, panting heavily. Her green shirt and tan pants where torn and dirtied, but that seemed to be the only damage done to her. The witnesses that were there were laughing or shaking their heads in disbelief, not really caring that there were a bunch of injured children.
Suddenly the girl in the center stomped the ground, raising up an arm and slapped her bicep with her other hand.
"Who else wants some?!" She declared, her eyes blazing with fury. She then kicked the nearest body to her in the stomach "Call me a liar eh?" She mocked the poor boy beneath her.
That was the last straw for Jiraiya, and he collapsed in a fit of laughter. The blond boy rolled his eyes at his sensei, turning to his teammates.
"Looks like we'll have to fix this ourselves since Jiraiya-sensei is incapacitated at the moment. You two help the others, I'll get the girl." They nodded, agreeing with the plan and they rushed in as one. The blond was able to get behind Kushina without any trouble at all, and pulled her arm back into painful hold.
Kushina felt a sharp jolt of pain shoot up and down her arm as it was pulled back forcefully. She let out a small hiss, trying to hide her discomfort.
"That's enough, you don't need to fight anymore." She heard a soft voice whisper to her calmly. Her eyes flashed, and she growled in annoyance that she was caught off guard.
"Like hell I won't!" She cried out, then slammed the back of her head into her captors face. He let go of her arm instantly, falling backwards onto the ground. His hands flew to his nose as blood began to pour out. Kushina turned around, holding her arm but still ready for a fight; though when she got a better look at her opponent, she became confused.
"Hey! You're not one them!" She started to panic, realizing what she had done. "Oh no! I'm so sorry!"
"What the hell is going on here?!" She jumped at the commanding voice, slowly turning her head to the right.
Two jounin stood at the courtyard's opening; one was trying to calm the laughing Jiraiya and the other was glaring right at her. Deciding to take a chance, Kushina glanced at the surrounding scene. All the genin that she fought against were lying on the ground, battered and broken. All were moaning in anguish, some of them attempting to get back to their feet. She noticed two more genin nearby that she didn't recognize, but they were staring in shock at the blond boy next her, and occasionally looked at her in awe for some reason.
She winced in pain as her arm flared up again, causing her to look back at the jounin glaring at her, still waiting for an answer. She gulped to herself, letting a sheepish grin cross on her face. "I can explain?"
"Four broken arms, two broken ankles, a broken leg, a fractured collar bone, and an 'accidental' broken nose. Not to mention all the severe bruising and cuts they have." Tsunade said as she was listing off her injury report. She glanced up from her clipboard, arching a brow at the girl sitting before her. Said girl was glaring at the wall, her arm in a brace. "I understand the rivalry between the genin teams, but you somehow managed to rile up two teams that hated each other and got them to work together in order to come after you. Yet you're the only one who got off with the least amount of injuries.
"A small fracture in your left arm and some cuts and scrapes while taking on six people. And according to witnesses, your taijutsu resembled that of a bar room brawler." Tsunade shook her head "I don't think I've ever seen Jiraiya laugh so hard. You've certainly made a big impression Kushina" The little girl let out a huff.
"Bastards had it coming…" She muttered off to the side. Tsunade let out a snort writing more notes on her sheet.
"You sure get riled up easily. I would work on that temper of yours if you want to make any friends." Kushina's head shot back in Tsunade's direction.
"I was trying too! But then the fat one-"
"None of them are overweight." Tsunade remarked. Kushina glared at her.
"Well he's got a fat head! Anyways he called me a liar when I said I was a genin. He told me to prove it but my headband was…" She trailed off, and went back to glaring at the wall. Tsunade let out tired sigh.
'I see, they opened up fresh wounds. Poor girl' Tsunade knew all about the annihilation of Whirlpool, and knew who the survivors were as it was her team that evaluated them when they arrived. She had to go through all their profiles in order to turn her final report in to Sarutobi.
"From there things just got worse. And somehow that third team got involved…Don't know where the jounins were, but they weren't there when the fight broke out. After a couple of minutes that white haired guy and his team showed up. I didn't mean to break his nose, but I thought he was one of the other's that I was fighting."
"I fixed his nose, but you can go apologize to him yourself. As for the others…I think they're humiliated enough as it is. Six on one and they lost; even their jounin-sensei's are going to be embarrassed about this." Kushina grinned, holding her head up proudly.
"Well, I was trained by the best in my village." She gloated
"Bar room tactics will only get you so far, little lady. I suggest you work on your taijutsu." Kushina flinched, but chuckled in good nature.
"R-right."
"So why didn't you use ninjutsu?" Tsunade asked her as she finished writing up the rest of Kushina's medical sheet. The girl looked up in confusion at the medic.
"Eh?"
"From what I was told by the others, they used ninjutsu and everything else they had on them. Why did you only use taijutsu?"
"I didn't want to hurt them." Tsunade paused in her writings, giving Kushina a disbelieving look.
"You 'didn't want to hurt them'? I think it's already too late for that Kushina."
"Yeah but I could have really hurt them if I used ninjutsu on them." Kushina shook her head "Nah, a beating is good enough for a bunch of pig-headed morons." Tsunade let out a bark of laughter, tucking the clipboard under her arm.
"Alright, that covers everything. You're free to go now Kushina."
Letting out a victorious whoop, she made a get away for the door. "Just make sure to take it easy with that arm. It's healed, but don't do anything that might strain it. And please don't send in anymore genin into my hospital." Tsunade called out. Kushina paused at the door to look back at Tsunade with a grin.
"Not making any promises. Thanks Tsunade-san!" She then took off down the hall at breakneck speed, wanting to get out as soon as possible. She rounded a corner with a slide, maneuvering her body to keep her balance, before speeding up once more.
"Oh man, I can't believe you got a broken nose. You! A broken nose! Aren't you supposed to be a genius Minato?" The blond boy smiled sheepishly, chuckling at his teammate.
"Nobody's perfect Hosobiki." His teammate started laughing at him once more. Hosobiki had a slightly heavier build than his two teammates, but he wasn't overweight. With his hair shaved close to his head and donning simple dark blue robes, he had the appearance similar to the monks at the fire temples all through out the country.
"But nobody can lay a hand on you! Not even Makanai and I can touch you during training. Then you go and try to stop a fight and some girl breaks your nose with a simple head butt." He started cackling again, and their other teammate, Makanai began laughing as well.
"I wasn't really expecting her to use the back of her head to fight back." Minato said, blushing softly.
"Come on guys, let's find Jiraiya-sensei." Makanai said, standing by the door. She had a simple headband tied around forehead, keeping her bangs out of her eyes. She then slipped a clip to the back of her head to tie up her lengthy hair in a bun. She wore a light blue jacket that had a wide collar; metal studs circled all the way around the collar. Tied to her left arm was her leaf head band. She wore simple spandex shorts that had several holsters tied around her leg that could hold kunai and throwing needles.
Hosobiki did a flourished bow at the door towards Minato, holding his arm out at the door. Minato rolled his eyes, but grinned back in good faith. He walked past Makanai and waited for the two out side in the hallway.
"Excuse me!" A girl's shout sounded out through out the hall. He looked up to see the red haired girl from earlier running towards him at an alarming rate. She was able to twist around him with ease, and continued on her way.
"H-hey!" Minato shouted at her, raising a hand in a futile attempt to stop her. Fortunately, she heard him and stopped at the corner to look back.
"Eh? What do you want?" she asked, her face scrunched up in bemusement. By this time, Minato's teammates were in the hall with him, and saw her as well. Hosobiki's face lit up with recognition and he grinned.
"Hey! You're the girl that took out teams three and five!" Kushina walked back to the group, getting face to face with Hosobiki. She squinted trying to recall where she had seen him
"Am I supposed to remember you?" She asked, then moved over to Minato repeating the same action. He pulled his head back from her proximity, trying not to blush. "You don't look like one of the guys I fought…"
"You should at least remember the guy whose nose you broke." Makanai scoffed, crossing her arms. Kushina let out a small shriek, jumping backwards in shock. She bowed to Minato, rubbing the back of her head with her free hand.
"I'm so sorry about that! I thought you were one of those bastards coming at me with a cheap shot." Minato waved his hands, laughing lightly.
"It's alright really. No big deal." He noticed her arm brace and pointed at it. "What about your arm? I didn't break it did I?" He asked with a trace a worry in his voice. She raised her bad arm up, waving it around with a grin.
"This? Naw, just a fracture. Nothing big. But what about your nose? There was a lot of blood."
"Tsunade-hime healed him up. It looks like it was never broken." Hosobiki replied. Kushina let out a sigh of relief, glad that it wasn't worse than it was.
"That's good. Oh yeah!" she held out her good hand to Minato, still grinning widely "My name is Uzumaki Kushina by the way. Again, sorry about your nose." Minato grinned, and took her hand.
"Namikaze Minato. These are my teammate Chekka Makanai, and Hosobiki Bushi."
"Hosobiki is fine, please." Hosobiki blushed from embarrassment.
"Great! Nice to meet 'cha guys." She turned her attention back to Minato, "Hey can you show me that move you did with my arm before I broke your nose? That was a good technique!" Minato chuckled, scratching the back of head sheepishly.
"Sure."
"Great! I'll come and find you guys later. I gotta finish fixing my new apartment." She then did a 180 and ran down the hall once more, stopping before hitting the corner. She waved enthusiastically back at the trio "See you guys later!" she shouted before disappearing from sight.
The members of team nine stood in silence for several moments, not quiet sure what to think of their new eccentric friend.
"Well…she certainly was…lively." Makanai said with a crooked grin.
"She was able to take on six gennin and win?" Hosobiki asked in disbelief. Minato smiled at his teammates.
"If you have the will for it, then you can do anything."
"Heh. Guess you're right. Well come on, let's get out of here."
"He's late again…" Makanai said with a dark tone.
"Well what do you expect? This is Jiraiya sensei we're talking about." Hosobiki replied. He turned his attention to Minato. "What do you think his reasons are going to be this time?" Minato shrugged.
"Does it really matter? In the end he's always at one of the bath houses." Makanai muttered angrily.
"Should we go get him?"
"Yeah, might as well before he gets in trouble with Tsunade-san." Minato remarked. The threes of them made their way off the bridge and back into town. Five minutes into their walk they heard a familiar shout.
"Hey!" turning to the source of the shout they saw Kushina running towards them. Her arm brace was gone, and she looked much better without all the dirt and cuts on her. She wore a forest green long shirt with black pants. When she was caught up to them, she was grinning widely, pointing at the object tied to her arm. "Check it out! Ji-san gave me a headband!" Hosobiki grinned back at her.
"Congratulations! So were you put in a team?" She chuckled lightly, and blushed with embarrassment.
"Ahh, no…As punishment for starting a fight, I have to work with both teams three and five for awhile…As for me being on a team? I don't know…I'm used to going solo with my old sensei."
"I'm sure Hokage-sama will find a team for you. It's just going to take some time with the war going on." Minato chipped in. But Kushina shrugged, not to thrilled with the prospect of being on a team in the first place.
"Hmm… I guess so." She grinned at them once again. "Hey are you guys busy at the moment?"
"Not terribly, why?" Makanai asked.
"You guys want to train with me? The other teams have breaks before they go on their missions, and oji-san is going to have me train with team four tomorrow. I have nothing to do today."
"Hokage-sama gave you the day off and you want to train?" Hosobiki asked, blinking at her. She slapped her bicep with her free hand, her grin getting wider.
"I was given another chance, so I gotta get stronger!" Her grin faded slightly as her eyes shone with determination. "I have to get stronger. For my sensei." She added in a more somber tone.
Minato smiled after hearing her statement. He turned around and motioned for Kushina to follow.
"Come on, we'll take you to our training spot." Kushina grinned, and bounded after the blond.
"Great!"
"Hey! What about Jiraiya-sensei?" Hosobiki asked
"Forget him. I hope Tsunade finds him and teaches him a lesson he never forgets." Makanai replied darkly, and then followed after the two. Hosobiki let out a shutter.
"Scary…Hey wait for me!"
Several hours had passed by, and currently Kushina was lying on the ground, panting heavily. Her clothes were dirty and slightly torn, and she sported some new bruises and scrapes.
"Wow…you guys…are a lot better than the other teams…" She gasped out. Hosobiki was standing a couple feet away, hunched over from exhaustion.
"You're not so bad yourself." He panted. Makanai was leaning against a nearby tree, resting from her earlier bout with Kushina. The red head had insisted on fighting each of them one at a time, wanting to fight them at full strength rather than they split into groups of two. They only agreed to it if the spars were limited fifteen minute bouts; to make things more fair since she was at a disadvantage. But with some light taunting from the fiery girl it lasted to a half an hour.
She was regretting taunting them; but only slightly regretting it. This was the most fun she had had in a long time. Minato walked over to and offered her a hand up.
"No thanks. I think I want to get reacquainted with Mother Nature for a bit." She declined politely. The blond chuckled, and made his way over to Hosobiki to help him up.
"That was awesome though! Your first bout with Minato was amazing! You kept up with him the entire time!" Hosobiki gushed, but Kushina let out a short snort.
"He wasn't even trying…" She lifted up her head to gaze at Minato from her spot. "You should take a fight seriously." Minato grinned sheepishly
"I do. But this was just for fun right? I don't see a reason for anyone to visit the hospital when we're having fun." Kushina grinned wickedly at him.
"Afraid I might break your nose again?" Minato's teammates burst out laughing, making him turn red in embarrassment. Satisfied that the comment struck home, she let her head fall back onto the grass, staring up into the deep blue sky.
"You guys want to get some lunch?" Makanai asked as she was walked over to meet the group.
"Oh yeah…we usually make Jiraiya-sensei get us lunch cause he's always late…where is he anyway? He should have showed up during the first spar…" Hosobiki mused quietly to himself. Makanai shrugged, still angry at their sensei for ditching them yet again.
"You two can go ahead, I already packed a lunch." Minato said, pointing to his pack by three training posts nearby.
"You always pack a lunch. You never take advantage of getting a free one from sensei." Makanai remarked as she walked up to Kushina. "What about you? Want to come with us?"
"No thanks. I had a late breakfast so I'm good for now."
"Alright, we'll grab some food and come back here to eat. You don't have to wait on us if you want to eat Minato." Makanai finished, and began walking off towards town. Hosobiki leaned backwards, cracking his back before he followed Makanai off the training grounds.
"See you guys later!" He shouted back. The duo waved them off, and Minato then sat cross legged next to Kushina.
"I'm curious." She tilted her head towards him, raising a brow.
"Hmmm?"
"How did the fight start between you and teams three and five?" He asked.
"They called me a liar when I said I was a gennin." Now it was Minato's turn to raise a brow
"Why would they say that?"
"I didn't have a headband. But they still didn't have to be such assholes about it."
"Those guys always had an attitude problem… they always egged each other on back at the academy which usually made things worse in class." Kushina propped herself up on her elbows, fully interested when he mentioned the academy.
"How big were your classes at the academy?"
"There were twenty four of us, but only half of us were able to become gennin." Kushina let out a low whistle.
"That's still more than double than what we had…Back at my village there were only five of us, and the next group wouldn't be ready for another five years." Minato's eyes widened in shock.
"That small?!"
"Not all villages are like yours. Though I got to say that having a sensei to myself was nice…"She looked back up to the sky "We may have been a small village, but we were strong…but it wasn't enough…" The boy looked at the ground solemnly.
"I'm sorry…" Kushina raised one of her hands, gazing at her palm with a rather peaceful expression on her face.
"It's alright…It's hard but I have to overcome it sometime." Her palm turned into a tight fist. "Takamaru-sensei would have beat me senseless if he saw me moping around like a loser." She turned to grin at Minato "No offense to Konoha or anything, but you guys are very sore losers. It's been a week since I kicked their asses and they're still mad at me." Minato chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.
"That sounds like them."
"What about you?" He blinked rather stupidly at her question.
"Huh?"
"Have you ever lost a fight and could never get over it." She leaned forward to get a better look at his face. "I heard it from the others…well when they weren't blatantly ignoring me. You were number one in the class, no one could touch you." She said, causing him to blush and scratch the back of his head in embarrassment.
"There are a lot of shinobi in class that were better than me." He said shyly, causing her to grin.
"They also said you weren't one to flaunt it around either. I bet your parents are proud." His look of embarrassment turned into a sad one.
"Ah…my parents died awhile ago." she winced at the quiet reply
"Sorry…Were they shinobi?"
"No. My mother died while I was young, and my father died a couple years ago from pneumonia. He was a carpenter." He sat up, smiling fondly in memory. "He may not have been a shinobi, but he did his best to help the village in anyway." He turned to face her, and she could see his eyes lighting up as he continued on "Konoha was attacked a lot when I was younger, and he would do everything he could to help make people's lives easier by fixing their homes free of charge. He wanted people to be happy." His chest puffed up with pride.
"He's my hero. I want to be like him." He started to laugh to himself, blushing lightly. "But I wasn't really cut out to be a carpenter. So I went where most children around my age ended up; the academy." Kushina snorted
"You can handle deadly weapons but not a hammer and nail? You are definitely a weird guy." She panicked slightly, waving her hands around frantically. "Not that I think you're weird or anything!" When he laughed at her remarks, she calmed down slightly.
"Yeah, I am weird like that. But I don't regret becoming a shinobi. I can still help the village, even if it's in a different way."
Kushina repositioned herself so that she could get a better look at Minato. He started to squirm a bit under her intense stare. "S-something wrong?" he asked
"You…You're too nice." She said out of the blue, making quirk his head in befuddlement.
"Eh?"
"You're too nice to be a tool, but you do it anyway…" Minato's face scrunched up at her comment.
"Well I don't like to think of myself that way."
"Then what do you think of yourself as?" She asked. He grinned widely showing off his white teeth.
"A protector." He answered earnestly. "I want to protect everyone in this village."
Kushina's mouth dropped open as she stare at Minato in shock. But that quickly gave way to a grin, and her eyes sparkled in mirth.
"Is that so?" she asked.
"Yep." He replied with a nod.
"Ok…If you really mean it, then I'm going to hold you to it." She bounced to her feet, getting into a stance. Her sudden movement caused her to jump, and he gave her a strange look for it. "Which also means you have to get stronger! I'm going to sure that you keep up with your training so that you'll accomplish your goal." He blinked several times, going over what she said before he smiled up at her.
"So what are your goals then Kushina?" He asked as he got into a stance as well.
"The same as yours." She said with a smile. As she was about to make the move to attack, a loud, growling rumble pierced the air, causing her to stumble forward. She grabbed her stomach, trying to keep it quiet, but it was far too late. Minato broke from his stance, laughing without restraint. She turned away trying to hid her embarrassment. When she felt her shoulder being tapped, she slowly turned around, still blushing madly. Minato was holding out his lunch to her with a cheeky grin.
"If we have the same goals, then I feel obligated to help you as well. Strength is important, but so is taking care of yourself."
Still blushing, she accepted his lunch with a quiet "thank you" and she sat back down onto the ground. He sat down next to and watched as she shoved an entire rice ball into her mouth. After she finished chewing, she offered his lunch back to him.
"I'll split it with ya." He smiled, and accepted a rice ball. He watched her take a bite out of another rice ball before he spoke up
"If you have any free time, you should come here." She paused in mid-chew to look at him, blinking several times. He coughed lightly, blushing ever so slightly. "Well uh, if we are going to be helping each other out, we should… you know, have a meeting place…and all that…" she smiled, tossing the rice ball up and down in the air.
"Ok. When is a good time for you to meet up?"
"How about in five days? Jiraiya-sensei is going to take us on a border patrol mission tomorrow and we won't be back until then."
"Is that a promise then?" She asked, smirking slightly. He nodded, matching her grin with a smile and held out a free hand.
"A promise of a lifetime." She took his hand and held it firmly in his own.
"Better not slack off during that mission of yours! I'll be stronger by the time you get back!" He let out a bark of laughter, grinning widely.
"Right!" The two of them continued to eat in a comfortable silence. Kushina smiled, looking up at the sky. Oh yes, she was definitely coming back here.
She would return sooner than both of them thought. Ten minutes later Minato's teammates returned, giving the news that they had the next two weeks off. Turns out that Jiraiya did run into Tsunade in the hot springs and she had put him into the hospital because of his actions.