Hello, all! I'm very sorry to have posted this so late, I have been focusing on three other stories and have been very busy. Thank you to my one reviewer, it meant a lot to hear from you and thank you to all of you who put this on your story alert. More information than anything in this chapter, big action and more romance in the next!
Thank you for reading, oh…
Disclaimer: and for the record, don't own anything but the plot and my character, Hanna (and her parent's). Everything else is the property of G.A. and not me.
Now, please read on!
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Once they had finished their meal, Shino and the Lady were off on the road-- er… run, again. Their bodies were mere flashed to the naked eye, their silhouettes a blur as they passed through the desolate landscape.
"So," Shino began between a jump, "Were you born in the Land of Waves?"
The Lady smiled, "Well, I was born and raised there-- until I was about seven… that's when I graduated the nin academy…" She paused as she pushed off from another branch,
"My father, Horotori Mori, was in the trading business and sent my mother, Hakijima Mori, and I to Konoha ahead of him--" She pushed off again,
"He had graduated from the nin academy there years ago but retired from being a Shinobi due to an accident, you see he got into trade then."
Shino grunted.
"Well," she said as she jumped again, "Then came the rampage of the Momochi-- Zabuza, you know."
"I've heard." Shino mumbled.
"He went up against every Shinobi to prove that he was the best and slaughtered every one of them." Shino grunted again.
"Well, the villagers and former Shinobi tried to fight back, but were also killed, including my father."
"I'm sorry." Shino said softly. The girl waved it off as they continued on,
"It's all in the life of a ninja, I suppose," She said as she pushed off again,
"After that, my mother fell ill and died. Only then did I truly realize that I was the only one left-- the only survivor of the massacre of Mist, besides of course, the Momochi and his follower."
Shino nodded as he surveyed the landscape again. It was becoming dark and he wasn't very fond of the thought of staying up through the night in order to protect the Lady.
"So, I stayed in hiding in Konoha for a long while, until I heard from a boy-- Uzumaki, I believe-- that Zabuza (and his follower) had perished on the right side. He had brought down Gatou, so I have no hatred for he or his follower."
Shino glanced at the Lady. She seemed so calm-- at peace while discussing the thoughtless slaughter of hundreds of people and her own father, and the death of her dear mother.
'That which does not kill you will only make you stronger' Shino remembered a teacher said in the middle of a lecture once. He supposed now that it was true.
"So…" he said quietly between leaps, "What are these plans for Mist?"
The Lady caught the bug-man off guard and laughed,
"I'm not really supposed to tell anyone, you know." she said lightly, "But the plans involve simple things like re-fertilization of old fields so farming will flourish, a plan to increase population, a program to educate those who would run school and programs to teach young generations of ninja, you know, simple things." She sighed,
"I suppose the most important things that I hope to accomplish are unity and the reconstruction of the Mist Nin Academy so that once again, the people will have a real line of defense."
Shino was silent for a moment,
"So are you a messenger or a leader?" He asked. He could see her gaze off into the clearing ahead of them by a few dozen miles,
"That I do not know, yet…" she said slowly,
"Because I am supposed to be met by the leaders of the small villages within Mist." Shino nodded.
"They are really the ones to decide. There hasn't been order in quite a while, you see, and it really depends if they can put my plans to action on their own or if they would prefer for me to be the one to enforce them." She shrugged,
"Either way, I will need to be the one at least starting up the schools because there are no ninja there to teach them," she paused as she kicked off again,
"It will probably be a long process and I'm sure that it will be hard because I will have to teach them everything from scratch… in the beginning of the whole process, while I'm educating the teachers, they will be teaching… so it will probably be as if a graduated Genin would be teaching un-graduated Genin and then once they learn more, they will teach the ones under them and so on and so forth until a whole system of teachers and students is established."
Shino stopped suddenly and the Lady came to an absolutely scorching stop on the next branch,
"Aburame-chan?" She asked as she turned to the other.
"We need to stop for the night." He said firmly. The Lady cocked her head,
"But it's still light out; shouldn't we keep moving so that we can get there by morning, perhaps?" Shino shook his head,
"It will do us no good, traveling would be harder when it gets dark and once we would arrive, you would probably be too tired to put any of your plans into action. We should sleep now and save our energy for the trek tomorrow." The Lady jumped and landed on the branch next to the spiky-haired boy.
Shino rummaged through his sack and handed the Lady a blanket. He pulled one out for himself and laid down on the branch,
"Goodnight." he said simply. The Lady looked at him as it his skin was neon pink and had tentacles,
"Up here?" She asked, her voice cracking. Shino sat up and took off his headband,
"Yes. Up here. Don't you think there are less bugs to frighten you up here?" the Lady smiled and without another word, laid down a bit farther on the branch then he and snuggled in.
"Just wake me if you need anything." Shino said as he took off his sunglasses. The Lady perched her chin of her palm as she stared into his handsome face. He had quite large brown eyes that stared unblinking back at her. His hair fell limply into his face and his jacket was unzipped partially. For a moment, the Lady pondered why such a handsome guy would hide his beautiful features-- but then mentally shut out the thought as being exhausted and a bit confused.
"Thank you for being my guard" said she as she laid back down on the hard, scratchy branch.
"It is my duty, Hanna-sama" he said as he watched her.
"I know…" she mumbled, "But thank you for being so sweet anyway…" she said before she drifted off to sleep.
Shino sat in the stillness for a long while. Had she really just called him sweet-- or was it just his imagination? Surely, it must have just been some Genjutsu or something… right?
He watched her side gently rising and falling for a bit and listened intently to her soft breath. She was a Lady with such a worthy cause. Most ladies her age back in Konoha were more interested on what new motion-picture had come out… but she… she was going, basically on her own, to a crime-infested, torn community to bring back hope to a severed peoples. She was going with what little she had, a few scrolls maybe, and was going to try and rebuild an entire village. It was her dream, to see a suffering people flourish.
Shino could tell while she was speaking that she wasn't doing it for glory or recognition. Nor was she doing it to bring harm to anyone.
Shino (actually) smiled down at the sleeping Lady as he continued to think of her. She could have left the job to someone else, a Kage, maybe. But what reward-- what wonder, to do it herself and to be proud of herself for reviving a dying culture.
Shino continued to smile, something he did very rarely, as he lay down under his blanket and stared up at the stars until he fell asleep.
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Well, I sincerely hope you liked it! I had fun writing it and it only took about half an hour or so! Please Review, I'm sure it will be worth your while! Oh, and I'm thinking only 2-3 more chapters, Thankies!
Thank you once again!
Mysteria Pearl
