Title: Jashinist Log
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto in any way shape or form.
Summary: Side stories from the Child of Jashin fanfic.
Author's notes: I noticed that while writing Child of Jashin, I had compiled a load of banter, and I had grouped it up with my plot-related notes. So I'll likely be returning to write some fun banter in this fiction later on.
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Somewhere in Ishigakure, between the Land of Rock and the Land of Wind...
"So where are we headed, then?" The purple-haired girl spoke up. She'd been trailing after the duo for a good few miles now but nobody had bothered to say anything. Almost as if she didn't exist, '... or was the reason why they were even leaving Iwa to begin with!' she jibed internally.
Her black haired companion turned to face her with a surprised look, "We've only just left the village."
It'd been nearly an hour and the boys with her hadn't even taken off their Rock shinobi gear yet. True, she was assuming that it'd be a danger the longer they kept them on. Though at least they were planning to replace it with civilian wear at the next shop they saw, which is a start.
She put her hands on her hips, "Took you long enough."
Given her position, she felt that she was entitled to a little bit of bossiness after the stunt those two pulled. The almost-14 year old girl had been waiting years for Ryūichi – less so for Kouta because who cares about him – to leave the village. What she didn't expect that the two of them would wait until the last possible second however – final academy year.
"Enough, Kokoro. Sheesh. We're okay," the one identified as Ryūichi replied. He was dressed up in his regular academy clothes under the Iwa vest and seemed content with having successfully failed the process. He was also wearing an acquired Iwa headband. Stupid as hell, but she couldn't fault him for wanting the thing he blatantly deserved.
Speaking of, Ryuichi had let a full smile burst across his features, emphasising his sharper features and was clear that he was focused on a memory. They'd tell her later. Probably.
Years ago he'd told her that his plan was to keep steadily performing worse over time to seem like a bad candidate. Not bad, she supposed. Kouta probably came up with it. And despite that guy being a skinny, pale black-haired boy who moaned all the time, she found herself slotting him in that role of 'male Tenten-meets strategist' - a category markedly absent from her life. Sadly he wasn't Tenten-esque enough.
"And how're you?" Kouta spoke up from her right.
She put her hands on her hips. "I'm fine," she said, beginning to relax. "I'm just thinking that you guys might've gotten attention from the wrong kind of people. Iwa's like that."
Kouta began sniggering, which then bursted out into full-on guffaws, "Don't worry, I am – very – very certain that nobody will take us seriously as ninja."
Contrary to what she expected, Ryūichi's wide grin re-emerged across his face. She'd also noticed that he'd naturally drifted towards the front of the group, whereas she and Kouta stood alongside one another. Clearly he had some confidence in his skills, based on the gait of his walk.
'This is gonna be good.'
"We actually arranged it – we are certain nobody will be able to tell – so that the whole city will be busy looking for a giant invisible clam."
Ryūichi burst out laughing. It was the sound of childlike happiness.
"How the hell did you manage that?"
He managed to cull his laughter to explain, "Being the village pranksters. And yes, we did it in ways that people didn't take our skills seriously."
Kouta added, "Yeah. We basically convinced people that there was a secret grandson of the Second Mizukage – you remember the blonde guy with the clam in the final war?"
She smiled widely and nodded.
"If he had any family, they'd probably have that contract. Probably." Kouta smirked. "Anyway, among all the pranks we almost did – we also painted most of Iwa – including the Tsuchikage's building. That took weeks though."
The purple-haired teens' eyebrows rose, "How'd you manage that one?"
"You see how the buildings in Iwa have that kind of cone shape? You can just drop paint on the top. The only problem is that it's really easy to get caught because there's no cover. Even if we knew the Hiding In Rock technique, I'm pretty sure Ōnoki would be able to tell easily."
Ryuichi winced, "Yeah, Ōnoki kind of gave us hell for that prank."
"Testing village awareness though. Psh to the whole 'encouraging poor behaviour thing'."
They trailed off and kept walking forwards towards their destination – her improvised shack. It was somewhere that she found herself coming back to whenever she wanted to train, because her village was too close to Iwa. The plan was that when they got there they'll figure out what to do, or where to go, next.
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They'd made it the majority of the way before Kouta spoke up. It was about 1:40pm according to her watch, and they'd make it there by 3, she was thinking.
"… Do you think Shigeko will be okay?"
Shigeko, her little sister, seemed fixated on becoming a big bad ninja like her onee-chan. Kokoro had considered bringing her, but she didn't want to risk putting her in danger unless they had somewhere safe to go. Plainly put, she wasn't old enough. She might be a good ninja though. She can wall walk at 10.
Only out of sight though.
Ryūichi also turned around to peer at her. "You sure you don't want to bring her around?"
She slowly tilted her head at the passing foliage before looking at Ryūichi and nodding. "Yeah.. It's for the best I think."
The brown-haired angular-faced leader of the group spoke up, "Yeah, she's a bit young. Growing up with you might've made her more mature, but she's naïve."
"Don't have to tell me," the violet-locked girl grouched. "I gotta be strong enough to protect her."
"So... Speaking of strength, how's your Rasengan guys?" Kouta spoke up, ignoring the subject. Blunt as usual.
"I swear if you didn't know it I wouldn't agree to this," she said, "I haven't gotten past the balloon part yet."
Ryūichi, as expected, lifts up a perfect Rasengan. The brightness of the orb made her wince momentarily while she tried to adjust for the rapid changes in danger.
Kouta follows suit, but his is significantly smaller. "80-20. I'll improve it later," he said after forming it.
Ryuichi grinned before dispersing his and turning forwards again to take position. Kokoro didn't see much point, since they'd long left the 'spiked rock' region and were now were traversing through open fields. They were taking the long way around Ishigakure – the minor village hidden in stones. Still, better safe than sorry.
Breaking up the jutsu, Kouta pitched in, "I wonder what we need to do to make Oodama Rasengan. Seems like better chakra control."
The brown-haired dedicated ninja spoke from the front, "I'm just glad that I'm earth type... I like to imagine that a water Rasengan just behaves like soggy wet paper."
"You would," replied Kokoro. "It's probably more practical than bulky earth though."
"Do you know your nature?" The thin black haired boy beside her asked in sudden curiosity.
She sent him a doubtful look, "Civilian, remember?" 'It's not like it's hard to remember.'
"Oooh, yeah. We'll pick some chakra paper up when we decide on where to head."
"Do you think you could learn-" Ryuichi paused in thought, "No, actually. I was thinking that we could get you to perform a different nature technique and see what works best, but we only know 2 or 3."
"3. Earth, water and lightning," Kouta added helpfully. "You know, we're actually in the Konoha 2-boys 1-girl setup," the pale one remarked, slouching forward slightly.
"What's it like in Iwa?" She fixed her head onto Kouta. She had no idea that it was different anywhere else. Though she remembered that Kumo had widely varying teams – Bee taught Team Samui – 3 people, and Team Samui – Samui - taught 2 people.
Ryuichi chimed in facing forward, "It's more like platoons. Remember how in the story there were tons of ninja ambushing Konoha ninja? "
Kokoro pushed her mouth to the side, "Maybe? Like the Chunin exams? Or was that Oto?"
He hummed in assent, "They're pretty ruthless. I hadn't really noticed just how ingrained their kind of 'overkill' method was 'til when I was getting packed."
"So how far is this shack anyway?"
"Um.. About 5 miles? I left some dry food that we can eat in there."
"From how you've been talking about it I get the impression you're really proud of it."
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They arrived at the shack with enough time to cut some trees and find some game for dinner. It was in the middle of a pretty barren grassed area – where the cliffs transition into the rocky ones of Amegakure (Rain) just over the border, and south eventually turn into dry ravines towards Suna.
The shack was around 10 by 15 feet in size, and constructed from untreated wood of varying qualities. It looked rickety, but they weren't planning on staying here for long anyway.
Kokoro walked in front of the building to greet her two new teammates inside, "This is it, my humble hideout."
She stepped up to the side of the door and picked up a stick and curved it around into a hole in the wall. After some fiddling she pushed open the door. Before entering she turned and gave them both a sheepish look. "Yeah, not the most advanced locking system..."
They made their way inside the small shack, and noticed that the floor underneath the shack went in 10 feet deeper. There were some cheap, unmatching stools and a small area with an old fridge. Presumably most of it was found from other places, bought by herself or acquired through other means.
"It took a long while even with the earth techniques I know, what with compressing it to make it more stable. I wish I had a fire one though. I had to set up a bonfire in here to dry the walls."
"Nice job," Ryuichi harped in.
"Yeah, this is really impressive," the black haired kid chimed in, turning his head to take in the sight of the indoors.
She flushed. "Thanks guys..."
"Should we get started then?" the leader of the group spoke, already stepping down the stairs and making way for the table.
"Are those cards?"
"Ooh, oh yeah! Yeah, I found some a while ago and left them here."
"So... Have you got ramen?"
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AN: Sorry for the sluggishness of the main story. I've got it planned, it's just getting to the fun part that's taking a while. I'm glad I decided to put in what's happening off-screen as a separate story :P
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