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**EARLIER THAT WEEK**
*This place'll do.* Drake nodded to himself, *Nothing fancy... but running water is a welcome change.*
He pushed the door-flap aside and stepped in. After ringing the bell and paying for a night, he walked up the thin staircase and found his room. He threw his backpack and coat onto the bed, chuckling a little when it creaked. He went into the modest bathroom, and glanced at the mirror. What he saw stopped him in his tracks.
"Wow..." he thought aloud. "I look like hell."
He did. His stubble was fast advancing into beard territory, and his hair stuck out messily from under his bandana. He sighed and walked back to his pack, removing his razor and trimming scissors. After removing his bandana he took a deep breath, focused himself, and took off his headband. After a haircut, a shave, and a much needed shower, he dried off and put on a pair of clean pants. He then replaced his headband and looked in the mirror.
His eyes were always drawn to the headband first, studying the seal there. He could control it if he focused, but when in town, he preferred to just put on a seal and relax. He gathered up his dirty clothes, and filled the sink with water. This was one of his rules of living on the road. Wash your clothes whenever you get the chance. After about ten minutes of soap and work, he rinsed the clothes and hung them up to dry.
He stopped at the mirror again. He looked into his own green eyes, they looked tired. That never seemed to change. He studied the cleanly-shaven face.
*Not bad.* he thought with a smirk. His eyes moved farther down, and he regarded the latticework of scars on his torso...
"Those I could do without." he thought aloud. He turned from the mirror, catching a glance of his nearly unblemished back as he did so. "At least nobody can call me a coward."
*So many fights.* He reminisced as he put on a clean was shaken from his thoughts when his stomach gave a loud growl.
"Guess It's time to feed the beast." he chuckled to himself. Concealing his headband under a black bandana, he threw his coat over his shoulder and strolled out of the room.
Upon leaving the inn, he headed towards the center of town, looking for somewhere to eat dinner. He felt, rather than saw, a shadow fall over his form, and looked up, barely catching the silhouettes of four flawless kunoichi as they bounded across the rooftops above the rest of the town. None of the civilians around him even looked up. His eyes returned to the ground just in time to narrowly avoid plowing through another stunning young kunoichi. He apologized quietly. The girl ignored him.
"Ninja villages." he muttered under his breath.
*Why does every female ninja here have to be so damn attractive?* he thought irritably as he turned a corner and another flawless blonde bombshell wearing ninja gear walked by. He pulled out his headphones and put them in, thumbing the tiny device in his pocket to find the right song. The music started to soothe his mind, until he noticed that everybody on the street was moving out of his way when he walked. *Well, at least being 6'5' gets me something...* he thought darkly. He did his best to ignore them, focusing on the music. His mind slowly eased away from such frustrating thoughts. Before he knew it he'd lost track of how far he'd walked from his inn. He stopped at an intersection and looked around.
"You look lost." a voice stated from his right. Drake pulled his headphones out and turned. The source of the voice was a man in an orange shirt with spiky blond hair. He had what looked like whisker marks on his cheeks and had the look of a fighter about him. He was standing with his arm around a very pretty girl with pink hair and dazzling green eyes. They each wore a forehead protector with the leaf symbol.
"Yeah, I don't really know my way around town," the tall man agreed. "I was just looking for somewhere to get dinner."
"Say no more. Follow me!" The blond man said with a big grin, taking off down the street at a jog. The pink-haired girl shook her head with a chuckle and took off after him. Drake followed after her.
About ten minutes later the blond man slowed down, coming to a stop in front of a small noodle stand.
"Ichiraku Ramen huh?" Drake asked. *Wow... Ritzy... Some stools... a flap... this place has everything*
"No better place in all of Konoha!" beamed the blond man, with the smile that never seemed to leave his face. The girl just rolled her eyes.
"Care to join me?" asked Drake politely, "I hate eating alone when I'm in town, I get enough of it on the road." *Where'd that come from? I'm being social?*
The blond turned to his girlfriend and gave her a pleading look.
"Wow." Drake thought aloud. "Stunning execution of the puppy dog eyes."
"Alright..." she sighed. "We can stay for ramen."
"YES!" the blond exclaimed. "You're the best Sakura-chan!"
"Oh yeah," said the blond as though remembering something, "I'm Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki," he said, extending his hand. Drake shook it. Naruto gestured to his female companion. "This is my fiancée Sakura."
*Cherry Blossom?* he pondered. *Well... it fits.*
"I'm Drake," he stated, "...and congratulations."
"Thank you." Naruto and Sakura chimed in unison. An uncomfortable silence started to form, lingering for about ten seconds. The smell of food wafted from the ramen stand, it was cut off by the hungry growl of three stomachs. All three of them started to laugh.
"I think that's our cue to sit down." offered Sakura.
"I think you're right." nodded Drake, moving to hang his coat on the rack. He waited to make sure the rack held, and took the far left stool. Naruto took the next seat, and Sakura sat to her fiancé's right. Drake leaned forward to look at Sakura as he pointed at Naruto. "So I take it from the begging earlier he's a regular here?"
"Addict would probably be a more fitting term." the girl deadpanned.
"I'm right here you know." Naruto grumbled irritably.
"Well then Naruto, what would you recommend?" asked the taller man.
"Well," Naruto contemplated the question for a moment. "Everything's good."
"What are you going to order Naruto?" asked the man behind the counter. He was big, and had a friendly face.
Naruto contemplated the question for a moment. "Give me a bowl of Miso-Pork ramen with an egg."
"That sounds good." nodded Drake. "Make it two."
"Make it three." chimed Sakura.
"Coming up." The man said as he started preparing the food.
"So you two are ninja?" Drake inquired, eager to avoid another awkward silence.
"We're both jounin," Sakura answered proudly, "I'm head of surgery at the Konoha Hospital, and Naruto here is next in line to be Hokage."
"Wow. I had no idea I was in such auspicious company." admitted Drake, "It's an honor to meet both of you."
"Are you a ninja Drake-san?" asked Naruto
"No..." Drake fidgeted uncomfortably at being the center of attention. "That'd be impossible. I'm just a swordsman."
"Why impossible?" Sakura and Naruto asked in unison. Drake tensed a little, feeling a single drop of sweat roll down the back of his neck. Their food was placed before them.
*Whew! perfect timing!* he thought, relieved.
"Ask me if we meet again." he said cryptically as he broke his chopsticks apart and proceeded to set a pace hard for Naruto to follow. About thirty seconds later, their bowls were both empty.
"Wow." stated Sakura, her eyes wide. "you're only the second person I've ever seen that could eat a bowl of ramen faster than Naruto." .
"It wasn't faster!" pouted Naruto. "He got a head start. One bowl doesn't prove anything anyway."
"Is that a challenge Naruto-san?" asked Drake with a smirk.
"Loser has to pay the bill?" Naruto said, with a smirk of his own.
"You're on!"
An hour later, Naruto and Drake each stared at twenty one empty bowls.
"I never thought I'd see the day." the man behind the counter muttered in disbelief.
"It's a tie." stated Sakura in an equal state of disbelief.
"I should've said earlier, I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast yesterday." said Drake, scratching his head. "Sorry Naruto-san. I guess we'll split the bill."
"No problem," Naruto laughed. "If you're in ever in Konoha again we should have a rematch."
"This was a welcome change after two months on soldier pills and trail rations." Drake nodded.
"So where are you traveling?" asked Sakura, glad that she could finally do something other than watch them eat.
"I'll probably head north from here." Drake scratched his head absentmindedly, "I hear the waterfall country has nice scenery."
"That's all you're looking for?" Naruto asked skeptically. "Nice scenery?"
*He's sharp* "I tend to just go wherever the road takes me. I heard that the waterfall that the country is named for is amazing." said Drake honestly. "I figured it was worth checking out."
"You don't stay anywhere?" Sakura asked, sounding sympathetic.
"Meh." Drake said with a smile. "I haven't really found anywhere I really fit in yet. So I wander."
The bill arrived, and Drake payed for his portion and added on a hefty tip for the exhausted looking stand owner.
"It was nice to have met the two of you." he said as he threw his coat over his shoulders, bowed, and then began to walk off. "I hope our paths cross again."
"Good luck," Naruto called after him.
"The same to you two." stated Drake over his shoulder. "Take care of each other."
*Why'd I have to go and make friends?* he thought irritably as he put in his headphones. The music did its job as he slowly retraced his steps back to the inn. He hummed along, attempting to soothe his thoughts away from the people he'd met. The people he'd probably start to miss once he was on the road again.
His departure from the Hidden Village of Konoha the next afternoon was fairly uneventful. He'd stopped in a small shop to buy some soldier pills and some dried meat for the road. Then he made his way to the gate, strapping his sword in place and replacing his boot knives. It felt good to have them back. Granted, he hadn't needed them in town, but they still made him feel a little safer. Waving to the guards, he walked out. He took one last long look at the village before he pulled out his compass and began walking vaguely towards the Waterfall Country.
He'd made it about forty miles north by the time the sun was gone. Finding a nice little hollow underneath a massive tree, he laid down his bedroll and stretched out to sleep.
*As usual.* he sighed inwardly.
Sleep was elusive, and his mind drifted to his eating contest the prior night, a smile creeping across his features. Truth be told, he could have eaten more. But it didn't seem right to mooch that big of a meal off of a man with a fiancée to take care of.
*I'm almost out of money.* he mused. *Guess I'll have to start doing odd jobs in the towns I pass again.* Chuckling at the memory of one of the wierder jobs he'd performed, he started to doze.
Something snapped him awake, and he'd reflexively drawn a knife before he'd even opened his eyes. He could've sworn he'd heard something off in the distance. He glanced up at the moon, less than an hour had passed.
*Nah...* he thought to himself. *Probably just a bird or something.*
He waited for a few moments. Nothing. Letting out a sigh of relief, he resheathed the knife and stretched out on his bedroll. The sound came again. This time it was unmistakable, sending his hands back to the hilts of his knives. It was a sound he had heard often enough to recognize instantly. Steel meeting Steel. Someone was fighting nearby, and another clang told him they were getting closer.
*I'll need to keep a low profile until I figure out who is fighting.* he reasoned, *I shouldn't interfere, any more business with the villages will lead to too many questions.*
He closed his eyes and emptied his mind, listening to the sounds around him, trying to pinpoint the direction it had come from. Another clang, followed by a crash of branches. He drew one of his knives and began to slowly move toward the direction the sound had come from.
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TenTen was out of ideas. She'd been on her way back to Konoha after a simple diplomacy mission to Waterfall when she had been hit with some kind of gas. It must have been some kind of contact poison. She hadn't breathed any of it in, but it had knocked her out almost instantly.
She'd woken up tied to a tree, that didn't last. She'd managed to escape the ropes, and retrieved her scroll, but the poison was apparently still in her system. Her reflexes were completely blunted, her last dodge having sent her tumbling through the branches of a tree. Her scroll was getting too heavy to carry without slowing down. She unrolled it, summoned a pair of kunai and some shuriken, and waited.
She caught the briefest flicker of movement in the distant trees. The enemy were coming at her from the east as the sun rose. She could barely make out their shapes as they flitted through the trees. It was getting harder to see in the growing light. They had every advantage.
She heard the unmistakable hiss of a weapon flying toward her and dove away. She managed to dodge it, but just barely. She looked up, and time seemed to slow to a crawl. She saw the whole scene in perfect detail. The three sound-nin, their arms still extended from the throws. The morning light glinting from their slashed forehead protectors. The leaves of the trees as they gently swayed in the wind. The orange-red of the morning sky. The glint of something metallic as what looked like a massive shadow loomed up behind the farthest of the Sound-nin. And above all, a huge swarm of kunai, headed straight toward where they had known she would dodge.
*This is it.* she thought, *I can't dodge all of those in my current state.*
She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable pain. She heard the sounds of the projectiles hitting her, many clinking off of the mesh armor she wore under her clothes, and the sound of several projectiles punching through the armor and into her body, and waited for the pain again. But the pain never came. Instead she had the novel sensation of a warm pair of arms wrapped gently around her. She opened her eyes slowly to the unexpected view of a black shirt under a long coat. She raised her gaze to the face of a huge man standing in front of her, shading her from the rising sun.
Drake grunted as he felt the projectiles continue to rain against his back. His coat had stopped most of them, but two or three had gotten through. He'd acted without thinking, grabbing the first to slit his throat and then hurling the knife at the second while he sprinted to shield the girl. It had worked surprisingly well.
He looked at her, and his breath caught in his chest as she locked eyes with him. She was as stunning as the other kunoichi he'd seen, but she looked beaten up and completely worn out. He looked at her forehead protector and saw the leaf insignia.
*Good.* he thought. *At least I'm interfering for the right side.*
He gave her a wink and let out a quiet "Shh," Then dropped to one knee, coughing, before falling face first on the ground.
This was a trick he'd used before. There were countless projectiles entangled in the links of his coat, so from a distance he would look like he'd been pin-cushioned by the volley. He focused to keep his gift in check as heard a malicious laugh from behind him.
"Well well..." said a smug voice, slowly approaching. "It would appear your tall friend has learned the price for attacking us."
TenTen saw the man's two accomplices, one with a long knife protruding from his chest, the other face down in a pool of blood, lying a few yards behind him. The rogue-nin and TenTen simultaneously felt for the tall strangers' chakra. There was none.
"He died to give you what? ten seconds?" The rogue-nin asked sardonically. "What a failure."
The man approached TenTen and she hurled her last kunai at his face. He caught it effortlessly. "Tsk tsk tsk..."
She saw him wind up and viciously kick the body of the man who'd tried to save her.
"I'm going to enjoy this."the rogue-nin said arrogantly as he moved to push TenTen against the tree. TenTen felt her hands pinned above her head and felt the his eyes as they moved down from her face and traversed her body.
*Oh no...* She didn't want him to touch her. *Anything but that.*
Her mental plea was answered when the man was hoisted bodily off of her and slammed into the tree. She looked up and saw him being held up by his throat, his feet dangling about a foot above the ground. Held in one hand by the man who had shielded her from the storm of projectiles, who once again shaded her from the sun. She saw the Sound-nin's hands flash through a series of seals, and when he finished the chain... Nothing happened.
He tried again, with a different set of hand-signs. Nothing. The big man leaned in closer so they were nose to nose. The Sound-nin pulled a kunai and slammed it into the tall man's back.
Drake hissed in pain as he felt the kunai slide between his shoulder blades.
*That one felt deeper than the rest. Fuck.*
He narrowed his eyes at the man he was holding and softly spoke the first verse of his code.
"Never violate a woman."
There was a sharp crack as he twisted his wrist and the man in his grip went limp.
TenTen's legs gave out, but instead of the ground, she felt the arms gently wrap around her again. As her vision began to fade her ears caught a gentle voice.
"It's okay. You're safe now. I'll take you home."
With that knowledge, and no more strength to fight, TenTen lost consciousness.
Drake moved to where he'd dropped his gear at the edge of the clearing and laid the unconscious girl down gently. He checked her pulse, the heartbeat was there, but it wasn't strong. Her breathing was even, but she felt cold. He looked her over. She didn't have any major injuries, a lot of nicks and scratches, and a gash across her left shoulder and another on her left wrist. He rummaged through his backpack for his first aid kit, eventually producing a roll of gauze and some antiseptic. After her binding her wounds, he gently wrapped her up in his bedroll.
He walked back to where the fight had happened and inspected the body of her attacker. He didn't recognize their symbol, a music note bisected by a rough slash. He decided to take the forehead protectors with him, in case he needed proof. He moved to retrieve his knife from the second one he'd killed, cleaning the blade on the man's shirt before sliding it back into his boot.
"Payback's a bitch, huh?" he mused, leaving them where they lie and shaking his shoulders to try and rid his coat of all the weapons embedded in it. Sharp pain lanced into his back, making his head spin.
*Okay... Bad idea.* He thought as the stars faded from his vision and he glanced over his shoulder. *Four kunai... If I pull them out I'll bleed to death before I can get her home... So they stay.* He began reciting his code like a mantra.
"Never violate a woman, nor harm a child." he whispered and began to walk back to where he'd left the girl, every step sending a jolt of pain into his back. He stuffed his first aid kit into the inner pocket of his coat.
"Do not lie, cheat, or steal, for these things are for lesser men." he muttered, throwing the girl's scroll over one of his shoulders and lifting her gently. He looped her arm over the back of his neck and held her as comfortably as he could.
"Protect the weak from the evil strong," He looked down at the girl's face. She looked peaceful.
"and never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the pursuit of evil." He took another step, and another.
"Never back away from an enemy, either fight or surrender." He started to jog, the constant motion making his back feel like it was on fire.
"It is not enough to simply say 'I will not be evil.'" he hissed through gritted teeth. The girl's arm tightened slightly around the back of his neck.
"Evil must be fought wherever it is found." he finished and took off at a sprint.
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