A great, big THANK YOU! to my Beta-editor, Kibo Oto!
Updated March 4, 2019.
~Sixth Summer: Part II~
Shou had extra classes, leaving Kokuchou to train by herself. Two weeks following the tournament and Shou's admission hadn't changed the fact that Kokuchou still couldn't bring herself to fight someone seriously. They continued to spar during lessons at the Academy and she found that her classmates were beginning to take everything more seriously, be a bit more brutal –especially towards her.
They looked at her like her father looked at her.
It didn't help that she was able to train with Shou less and less. He was busy almost every afternoon with extra mandatory classes in preparation for his graduation. When she'd asked, Shou had said that they were learning the Replacement Jutsu.
Students learned meditation and chakra theory during their first two years at the Academy. Their third and fourth years were spent learning to mold chakra and enhance their control of it, leaving their fifth year to learn the Replacement Jutsu. Competency in that technique and the basic Academy taijutsu and kenjutsu was all that was required of them to become a genin.
Since entering his fifth year, Shou had become more serious and even stressed at times -not because what they were learning was difficult, but because he said it wasn't enough.
He'd muttered something about Hama and Kareha the one time she'd asked.
Kokuchou turned off the path to follow a shortcut through a training ground. There was no path to this training ground and Kokuchou had a feeling it was because the people who used it usually took to the trees. It wasn't uncommon to find evidence of intense spars and random weapons in the field and surrounding forest.
Kokuchou exited the tree line and immediately stopped in her tracks. A man stood in the center of the field with a large box under one arm. He was big and burly and didn't look all that much like a shinobi. His clothes were covered in black soot. He stared at her and though she couldn't see his mouth from beneath his bushy mustache, Kokuchou knew he was frowning.
The man had been in the process of picking up a kunai from the ground. Kokuchou felt like a rabbit frozen under the weight of his gaze. When neither of them did anything for a long moment, the man righted himself, throwing the kunai in the box. Kokuchou heard a clanking sound as it impacted.
"What're you looking at?" the man demanded.
"Excuse me," Kokuchou, finally able to move her muscles, bowed to the man and made for the other side of the clearing. She was terrible at talking with people, especially strangers.
"No," he said though it sounded more like an order. Kokuchou halted once more. "What're you doing here?"
"Nothing, sir," she replied evenly despite the trembling of her insides.
"Students aren't allowed near this training ground." That was the first time Kokuchou had ever heard of such a thing, but if the scorch marks and fallen trees were anything to go by she assumed it was for safety reasons. It wouldn't do for someone to get caught up in spar.
"I apologize, sir," Kokuchou tried to appease the man. "I'll be on my way."
He spoke before she could take a step. "You didn't answer my question."
Unsettled by the weight of his stare even from across the clearing Kokuchou brought her hands behind her back. "I was heading to a different training ground. This is just a shortcut."
"Then take another shortcut. Students aren't allowed here," he repeated.
"Yes, sir," Kokuchou bowed low.
"What's your name?"
Kokuchou straightened. The man hadn't moved since he began talking. "Aokigahara Kokuchou."
He didn't say anything for a long moment. "You an orphan?"
"No, sir."
"Which school do you attend?"
"The Third School…" And as if that was all he needed to know, the man nodded. "…Are you going to report me?"
The man took a moment to reply. His eyes flickered over her and he scowled even more. "No." Kokuchou didn't relax, though. There was a caveat in his tone. "Because you'll help me collect all of the weapons from this field and then you'll use another shortcut from now on."
The man strode towards the center of the field and dropped the box. Metal clanged against metal. "Get to work."
Kokuchou understood an order when she heard one and although she'd come to hate being told what to do, she knew that disobeying –especially in the realm of shinobi, was a fast way to make enemies.
Without a word, she immediately set about picking up every weapon she could find. She stuffed shuriken into the pockets of her pants until they were nearly bursting and hooked her fingers through the rings of kunai. Every now and again, she would head to the box and dump her loot only to start again. Without having to say the words, they'd both agreed to take one half of the field. It was large and the recent spar must have been a big one if the amount of weapons she was collecting was any indication.
When the box was full, Kokuchou paused and looked to the man for more instructions. She did not want get a reprimand, even if she hadn't been aware of the rule about this training ground.
"You're not done," the man said, dropping his own stash on the ground beside the box.
"…It's full," Kokuchou nearly cringed at his look. "Sir."
"Your pockets aren't. Neither is that bag," he nodded his head at the straps around her shoulders.
In lieu of a response, Kokuchou simply removed the bag from her shoulders and placed it open beside the box of scavenged weapons. They cleared the rest of the field in silence. By the time they were finished, Kokuchou could have been halfway through with her endurance training.
The man hauled the box into his arms and Kokuchou was surprised when nothing fell out. "Let's go." He didn't even bother to see if she was following as he strode towards the forest.
"Sir," Kokuchou bound after him. She had to hold her hands in front of her pockets to keep the weapons from spilling. She felt their sharpened points digging into her legs. The bag on her back was heavy and made noise every time she moved. Kokuchou worried that a blade would cut a hole in it. "Where are we going?"
"My shop."
"What kind of shop?"
"Blacksmith," he said curtly from several paces ahead of her.
Kokuchou had to stop and pick up a shuriken she'd dropped but hurried on as the man continued to weave through the trees. "What's your name, sir?"
"None of your business," the man threw over his shoulder.
Her stomach clenched, a familiar feeling. Even at her most polite, false as it was, this man didn't seem to like her. Kokuchou mentally scowled at his back though her expression retained its placidity –she hadn't asked him anything that he hadn't asked her.
The man glanced back at her. He stopped and turned, blue eyes icy. "You got something to say?"
"No, sir," Kokuchou murmured.
A breeze rustled the canopy of leaves, but from so deep in the forest she couldn't feel it. "Say it."
Though her expression remained calm, not without a bit of effort, all she wanted to do was run away. She tried to come up with an excuse that wouldn't make the man angry. Shou had been right, she did care too much.
Kokuchou must have been taking too long, because after the man's eyes roved her face, he turned on his heel and continued walking. "Kitaeru."
She scurried after him but didn't ask if that was his first or last name. Kokuchou was silent the rest of the way to the man's shop. It wasn't especially far, but Kokuchou was fairly certain that she'd never been to that part of the village before.
They exited the tree line and the sun shone bright in her eyes. She squinted against the light. Across the small field, Kokuchou saw an alleyway that the man, Kitaeru, was heading straight towards. A kunai poked uncomfortably into her shin. Kokuchou hoped it wouldn't be much further.
Her hope was not in vain; instead of continuing on through the alley, Kitaeru stopped. He shoved the box into her arms. "Hold this." Kokuchou nearly buckled with the weight of it. He'd made it look so easy, too.
For all her flexibility, the ease with which she bent her body like a noodle, her arms were as weak as them.
While he was digging in his pockets, Kokuchou observed the door. It was red surrounded by a constellate of ivy that grew up the brick. A kunai symbol had been carved into the wood, but other than that there were no signs to indicate to customers what the name of the shop was. She wondered how anyone ever found it.
Kitaeru produced a key and after jiggling the knob a few times, the door opened. A bell above it rang out. The man entered, Kokuchou's only welcome being the door he left ajar for her. She followed him in after a moment.
"The door," he reminded her from somewhere in the shop and Kokuchou almost spilled the weapons in her haste. Backtracking, she used her foot to nudge the door shut. When it wouldn't close all the way, she resorted to pushing her backside against it an attempt to force it closed.
Just as Kokuchou bent to place the heavy box on the ground the man shouted, "Not there!" Kokuchou straightened immediately, arms shaking a little. How had he known?
"Where would you like me to put it, Kitaeru-san?" Kokuchou tried to be as polite as possible and made her way towards his voice.
"In the forge!"
"Where, sir?"
"The forge!" he shouted. "With the leather flap!"
Kokuchou held in a groan, adjusted her grip, and turned to trudge towards the door he'd indicated. She had to edge around a counter and nudge the flap to the side with her shoulder.
The forge was dark inside and Kokuchou blinked as her eyes adjusted. The only sources of light were the dying embers from a fire on the opposite wall and a small, high window that she figured was more for ventilation than light. The room smelled of metal and smoke and grease.
Eyes adjusted, Kokuchou looked around for a place to set the box down. To her right she spied a worktable and made a beeline for it. Kokuchou heaved the box onto the table with a grunt. After she'd emptied the contents of her pockets and bag, Kokuchou tentatively roved her gaze across the room. She wasn't sure if the man would think her nosy for looking around.
Unfinished projects littered nearly every surface and Kokuchou thought there were more than a few safety hazards in the place. An apron swung dangerously close to a vat that she could feel heat radiating off of even across the room.
Did he leave this place unattended while he was gone?
Just as Kokuchou made a move towards the nearest fire hazard, the leather flap swung open, light flooding the room. "Stop," Kitaeru ordered. "Do you get a kick out of traipsing through dangerous places?"
Kokuchou looked at him from the side of her eye. "No, sir."
"Then what do you think you're doing?"
She faced Kitaeru, hands behind her back. "The apron is really close to the fire."
Kitaeru crossed his arms over his barrel-shaped chest. Even in the dim light she could see how hairy his arms were. "You got a problem with how I keep my shop?"
"No, si-"
He cut her off, "Because if you do, then why don't you do something about it?"
So, Kitaeru didn't want her walking about his shop, but he was challenging her to 'do something about it'? "That's what I was about to do… Sir," she added.
"I didn't mean that. The apron's fine –made from fireproof material."
"Oh." Kokuchou still didn't understand. "What do you mean, sir?"
Kitaeru frowned and made to walk past Kokuchou. "Why don't you work here?" The way he said it made it sound like more of a challenge.
Kokuchou was floored. She watched the man tie a white cap over his hair and begin piddling about the room. Despite the practiced movements, she thought he looked uncomfortable.
Where did that come from?
"I can't work here, sir. I'm a student. At the Academy."
"I know that," he said, adding wood to what she thought might be a stove. "As an apprentice."
"…But I don't know anything blacksmithery-"
"It's called blacksmithing, and if you knew anything about it I wouldn't have asked. You can come everyday after school and on the weekends."
It sounded as if he'd made the decision for her and that irked some part of her –reminding her of her fifth birthday and her father and the Academy. But she only said, "I have to train, sir."
"And you will. You think you'll only be cleaning and helping around the forge?"
Kokuchou nodded hesitantly. Was Kitaeru a shinobi?
"That's only payment –how you'll work off what you owe me for overseeing your training."
What had made this man decide to take her on in the first place? "But-"
Kitaeru shoveled chunks of something into a pot, "I don't know why you're fighting this so hard." He dropped the pail with a clamor. Kokuchou only flinched a little. "Listen. I'm offering to train you in taijutsu, kenjutsu, even some ninjutsu, if you're up to it. All you have to do in return is help with the shop."
"Why-"
"Do I need a reason?" he grumbled. "I just feel like it." Kitaeru could see the indecision on her face, apparently, because he went on. "I know that what they teach in the Third School is crap. Tell me, do you know how to discern when an opponent is going to feint left or right?"
"I don't-"
"What about the various speeds at which kunai can be thrown depending on a person's height and weight?"
"…No."
"Or how to not telegraphy your moves to an opponent?"
She hadn't even known that was possible. Kitaeru accepted her silence for what it was.
"Need I continue?" He picked the pail up once more and turned to shovel what looked like ash into it. The material plumed in the air as he shifted it. "You don't need to decide now. If you come back, I'll take that as your answer."
Kokuchou knew a dismissal when she heard one and made to leave the forge. When she glimpsed the collected weapons on the worktable she asked, "What do you do with them?"
Kitaeru shifted his gaze from her, to the worktable, and back to whatever chore he was working on. She thought he might be ignoring her.
"Do you melt them down?"
"Of course not. That would be wasteful."
Kokuchou waited for him to elaborate, but when it became clear that he was waiting for her to ask again, she repeated. "What do you do with them?"
"Clean 'em. Sharpen 'em."
"And then you sell them?" She knew how expensive kunai and shuriken could be, selling them all could add up to a pretty sum.
"No."
"So you keep them?"
"Come back and you might figure it out." Then Kitaeru went back to ignoring her. She'd clearly gotten all that she would out of him –unless she agreed to be his apprentice.
"
By the time Kokuchou arrived back in the Wakuraba district, the sun had already set. It had taken her a very long time to figure out where she was and then even longer to make her way through the maze of streets back to Wakuraba.
Those who had jobs in the main parts of Konoha, as street cleaners, construction workers and other such occupations, meandered along with her. A few nodded to her in greeting, but most just shuffled tiredly. People hung outside of their homes. Some people drank. Others, many of them unemployed, just watched them go by.
Shou was sitting on the steps of the Aokigahara Orphanage when she walked past it on her way to her house. He hopped up and trotted over, curls bouncing.
"Where were you?!" Shou grabbed her shoulders and shook them. "I looked everywhere!"
Kokuchou lifted his hands by single finger each and let them drop. She didn't really know how to explain the strangeness of her afternoon. "I met someone."
"What? Who? Did they hurt you?" Shou began searching her body and clothes for signs of a fight. At one point, he even checked to make sure she had all of her teeth by pulling her lips at the corners.
Kokuchou swatted his fingers away, annoyed. She wondered when Shou had become so obnoxious. He'd always been a mother-hen sort of figure in her life, but had only become outrageous when she was four. "No, Shou-nii. He didn't."
Shou leaned away from her, wiggling his eyebrows. "Ohhh. He? A boyfr-"
"Nope. And don't make that face," Kokuchou struggled to remain deadpan though she was pretty sure her flush was visible even in the dimming light.
Shou laughed and put his arm around her shoulders. He began to walk them in the direction of her house.
"So," he encouraged her. "Tell your big brother Shou everything."
Kokuchou did, though she shortened the story for the sake of time. She didn't live far from the orphanage. "Then he asked me to be his apprentice."
Shou's eyes brows rose high on his forehead. "What?! Like to be a blacksmith?"
Kokuchou shook her head, "No. At least, that's only part of it. He said he'd take over my training –that the Third School is… inadequate."
Shou looked away from her, nodding. She wondered if he agreed with Kitaeru-san. His thoughts seemed so far away- "Will you accept?" he asked, suddenly.
Kokuchou shrugged.
Shou halted, put his hands on her shoulders, and bent a little until they were eye to eye. His bushy hair tickled her forehead. "You should. Really."
"But then you and I can't-"
"I'm busy with class, anyway. And in six months I'll be on a team. Do it. I'm serious."
Kokuchou picked at her nail –it was her way of frowning. Shou was the second person that day to tell her what decision she should make. She began walking once again. "I like to train alone."
"Don't be an idiot," Shou snapped, easily keeping pace with her short strides. Kokuchou nearly stumbled in her surprise. She couldn't remember the last time Shou had snapped at her. "How many of us get the opportunity to be personally trained? None. But all those kids at the First School get help outside of school."
"Why are you getting so worked up over thi-"
Shou threw his hands into the air. "Because you're not thinking! You know what happens to us! To those kids, Kareha and Hama and that Jukai boy!"
"I might fail the graduation test," Kokuchou reasoned. "Or become a paperwork shino-"
"You won't! They won't let you. You may not be the best, but you're certainly not the worst, either. And in war they don't need quality. They just want quantity. One day you'll be on a mission or on the front of some war and all you'll have to save yourself is the bottom-tier education you got at the Third School!"
The people walking by paid them no mind, though everyone had obviously listened. A few people sat on their stoops or leaned out of their windows to watch the scene. Someone poured a bucket of something from their window. Kokuchou and Shou stepped aside to avoid being splashed. It could be from any number of things –none of which they wanted touching their bodies.
Shou took a deep breath, pushed his hair from his face. "Unless you become his apprentice. Then you'll have a chance."
Kokuchou didn't know what face to give Shou. She tried to keep her expression composed, serene like her mother and the moon, but failed. Her eyes tightened and her mouth pulled down at the corners a bit.
Kokuchou didn't say a word.
"You didn't have a choice in becoming a shinobi, your father made that for you," Shou went on. "But you do have a choice in what you do to keep yourself from dying."
He put his arm around her shoulder. "Just think about."
Kokuchou nodded, trained her face, and let him lead her home.
"
The next day, once school had let out, Kokuchou wandered the streets until she found the alley. She hadn't made a decision so much as she had been considering it and suddenly found herself there, at that red door with a kunai engraved on it and ivy covering the wall.
Thus far, Kokuchou had been doing what she'd believed was enough. Shou obviously didn't agree and after the tournament two weeks ago, she was beginning to see where he was coming from. She'd always known, at least since she first began at the Academy, that others were given an unfair advantage, while not much was done for those who came from less.
This was her chance, like Shou had said, to do something about it. In her own little way.
Kokuchou grabbed the handle and opened the door.
