Chapter 10
Brown Fox
Doctor Visit-Pure Profit
Kasshoku wasn't a teen who ignored situations; in fact, he was a teen who ignored very little. This morning the boy woke up around a dead fire-pit, after getting the morning meal ready, which was last nights dinner, he continued on his usual routine and began to wake up his partners.
The teen walked over to Juro, and proceeded to shake him awake, this usually worked for Juro, he was a light sleeper, but oddly enough he just kept on sleeping. Breaking from the routine Kasshoku tried another tactic-one he usually reserved for Hitomi when she didn't wake up after a jostle.
Kasshoku cleared his throat, preparing to yell as loudly as his thirteen year old lungs could. "Juro" Kasshoku immediately covered his mouth; the shriek he just let out was a higher pitch then any bird's song. Both Hitomi and Juro were shocked, and immediately got up, and prepared for a fight. The voice was nothing like they ever heard, and their hard life on the road had taught them to be weary of strangers.
However, their initial perception of danger was quickly dispersed when they saw Kasshoku holding his hand over his mouth, wearing a expression of confusion and fear. Hitomi was worried, was their something wrong with her friend? She had never seen Kasshoku this worried before. "You alright Kasshoku, you look lik-"
"No clichés!" Both Juro and Hitomi took a mental note, if you wanted to retrieve Kasshoku out of shock, say something stupid. "My voice is weird; it keeps on becoming high pitched, at seemingly random intervals!"
Juro, being one for lacking compassion at sensitive times, he saw it in a movie and thought it was cool, proceeded to make Kasshoku feel terrible. "Freak" irony was a truth you can't dodge, even for Juro. "Now I am worried Hitomi, what's going on?"
"Apparently, you two are turning into giant freaks, but wait you-"she was cut off, the commotion of the morning allowed the stain on her paints to slip her mind. She now felt something warm down there, something akin to well, blood. She stood there frozen, completely frightened, she thought immediately to internal bleeding. Would she be alright?
"Juro, how much money we got? And what is the closest village?" Kasshoku spoke with worrying for his friend, he was no longer scared for himself, he was scared for Hitomi, she was bleeding, and they both had no idea what was wrong with her.
"Plenty, and not close enough, lets get changed, and Hitomi, you good enough to walk?"
Hitomi nodded quietly, a rush of fear came over her, she never was so unsure about her future as she was now, never had she heard of a women bleeding out of her, you know, her private area. She was sweating profusely; everything in her body seemed so foreign right now, it was like it was leading a rebellion against her, trying to behead her, the priestess of her own temple, hopefully the doctor would have an answer to this uprising, it was her only hope.
Kasshoku and Juro both kept a solemn look on their faces, though Kasshoku was thinking, analyzing all of his knowledge of women, in order to try to figure out what was going on with Hitomi. He knew off the bat the growing chest was normal-after all they had ran into plenty of older women, each having a bust of normal size, the weight she was putting on was normal, he and Juro will also getting a bit chubby, maybe he should start to look at their diet, and her widening hips were also normal, well he assumed, his only comparison was bikini models, and his Kaa-san quickly shot down comparing them to real women.
When the trio reached the village, the mood hadn't changed since that morning. Juro quickly ran to the nearest police officer, asking where the doctor was, and with no short amount of panic in his voice, being a bit taken aback by the boy's suddenness, he just pointed the way to the clinic.
The trio walked into the doctors office, lucky for Hitomi, no one else was there. Kasshoku sat down with Hitomi while Juro went up to the desk. The one-eyed boy stood in front of the desk for a few minutes repeatedly looking at the clock and seat, over and over again. Like any worried friend he was getting impatient, he rang the attendant bell.
She heard the attendant's bell, which was bad, mostly because the doctor was dead, and the attendant was passed out on the floor, due to her favorite white rag. She couldn't just walk out; anyone would immediately become suspicious of her.
Contrary to what it may seem, she wasn't here to kill the Doctor, she intended for him to have the same peaceful sleep on the ground as her assistant, she just needed the office for a few hours. Though against her better health she fought back, and quickly got the worst paper cut of her finished life.
Konan stashed the bodies, making sure to put the unconscious women in a different closet; she had woken up by a dead body before. Not pleasant. She took the doctors clothes; they choose this office specifically for the doctor's sex. The man she was going to capture was not only sick, but entirely blindsided by attractive women.
Juro rang the bell again, and again, and again, and was about to do it once more, when the doctor swiftly stole the bell away. Konan put on her best doctor impersonation, cold, distant, and indifferent, "Do you have an appointment?"
"No, bu-"
"Then leave, no impromptu appointments" that should get him out of here, she needed more time to prepare for the capture.
"But my friend" he pointed towards Hitomi, who was pale with fear and worry. "May be sick, and we require a doctors opinion" Konan thought about what she could do. Turn out a sick girl? That would be suicide for her operation, the villagers would come in, seeing the girl's condition and demand that she examine her-and she was not the doctor they would expect to see-with little to no choice, she brought them into the back room. Maybe it was something simple like a cold, or flu.
They all walked into the doctors office, Konan motioned for Hitomi to sit on the paper covered bench. Though right after Hitomi jumped on the bench, she noticed a trace of blood down in her vaginal area.
"Boys, please leave the room" spoke Konan with a stern voice, she knew what was going on, the girl hit Puberty, and her friends, whom had no idea what was happening, brought her to the doctors. It was probably for the best, since from the looks of it they had no parental supervision. She knew about having a life on the road, all the uncertainties you face, you get paranoid fast. It was the only way you live, the boys left, and Konan began to calmly explain everything.
"So, I do not have internal bleeding?"
"Nothing of the sort Hitomi, you're just maturing naturally, turning from a child into a young adult."
Hitomi released a large sigh of relief, she was just fine, and her body wasn't trying to kill the priestess, just remodeling the temple. "What about my friends, their voices kept jumping up in pitch, as Kasshoku put it, 'In seemingly random intervals'"
"The same thing that's happening to you, except instead of turning into beautiful young women, their turning into dirty young men," Hitomi laughed at the joke, Konan's doctor said the same thing to her, when Jiraiya took her for a physical, it stuck with her since then, and maybe it will stick with Hitomi here as well. The biggest thing to do now is to comfort her, she spent most of her time with boys, who at this age were not 'in tune' with their sensitive sides. "So Hitomi, how long have you been with your friends?"
"About three years, I met Kasshoku first, and Juro a matter of days after."
"Are they nice to you?"
"Heh, Juro is an ass most of the time, but that's just who he is, Kasshoku is never mean, pretty sure it's impossible for him to get angry."
"Sounds like an interesting group," seemed like she traveled with a nice balance, one who was mean enough to see reality, and other nice enough to make friends. They would be fine on their own.
"You have no idea, the first two weeks we knew each other, and we got captured by the sound, and two days later, escaped!"
Konan was shocked beyond belief, no signs of lying, they escaped from the sound village, that was something that made these children special, and information gathering needed. "What else have you done, Hitomi?"
"Well, lots of Odd jobs, in a matter of two weeks we went from couriers to meat packers, we also did some escort missions, but nothing bigger then a caravan, Oh and bandits, only a few at a time though."
World experience, C-level missions done, bandits fought, these kids were you're every day genin team; only difference was the lack of a jonin instructor. She couldn't do that for them though, but like every good ninja, she could find a way to use them, she already had the trust of one of them, just needed the other two. "What about your 'escape' from Sound?"
"Well, the funny thing is-we had this elaborate plan where we made up a fake gang, 'The Misinterpreted' the name and idea was Juro's. I cam up with a way to alleviate the public eye from us, through spreading out our friendship circle, and remaining good children, no one would expect us. Finally Kasshoku came up with this idea that we pretend to Kidnap ourselves, and demand ransom, when they gave the ransom, if, they gave the ransom we would take it, and leave a 'tag' saying that we were dead."
That, was an interesting plan, something that a conventional ninja wouldn't think of doing. "Since you obviously didn't go through with this plan, what happened for you to get out?"
"Orochimaru kicked us out because of Kasshoku's bad hygiene." They both laughed, Konan's laugh was fake, she knew the real reason, Orochimaru was interested in these children, for what she did not know, she took at look at her shoulder-of course in a doctoral manner, making an extra effort to check both. If Orochimaru did not give them a seal, what could he want with these three?
She didn't know the answer-the unanswered question wouldn't stop her from using the teenagers though.
Hitomi walked out with a skip, she was happy, oh so glad, no death in her future, just womanhood. She saw the boys, who quickly saw her, seeing her color return to her, and a bag in her hand filled with womanly products, they asked what had been wrong, and Hitomi proceeded to reiterate everything she had learned from the Doctor.
With their friend cured they walked out happily-passively noticing the tall, blonde haired man, who coughed as he passed, if Hitomi knew anything that doctor would cure him, she was amazing, truly a female role model to admire.
Konan handed over the demon container to Zetsu, along with a note, Konan walked away, wordless as usual. When she was out of range the man read the note.
Genin Team Found,
Chance of making it to the Finals 76%
Konan found the three teens, resting at the camp each occupied in his or her own world, Juro was recalculating the Budget, new expenses for the new young woman, Hitomi was drawing, a hobby she picked up for her 'Entertainment' budget. Kasshoku was spinning his game of the day over a fire adding herbs collected from the surrounding area.
She approached, getting a smile from Hitomi, a confused look from Juro, and a small smile from Kasshoku.
Konan began to speak, "You three have heard of the Chunnin Exams, correct?"
A simultaneous nod came from each member of the team, they attended one a year ago, it was something Juro wanted to do.
"Then you know that there is another exam coming up in two months time,"
They nodded in unison yet again, wondering where the doctor was going with this.
"I am no Doctor-and no, that doesn't mean the information I gave you any less true. But my organization needs a representative, and you need a representative for you to get into the Chunnin Exams."
The three of them narrowed their eyes in unison, looking dead into the woman's eyes. "What makes you think we want to get into the Chunnin Exams?" insinuated Juro, Konan knew he was speaking for the team when he said that.
"You hate living on Odd-jobs, if you were a Chunnin, an Independent Chunnin at that, you wouldn't have to be a meat packer." Juro knew where she got that from, though he couldn't blame her that was an interesting story to tell.
"She's got me, how bout' you Hitomi?"
"Well, it would be a way to get more money; we could buy newer clothes since I think we have out worn these ones." The entire team was still wearing their sound uniforms, each with a defining characteristic to it. Hitomi had an orange cloth around her waist, Juro pilfered a scarf before they left the sound village, and Kasshoku still had his cloak.
Kasshoku needed an answer before he went along with this, "As your 'Representative' what would you have us do?"
"Well, Kasshoku" she guessed that he was Kasshoku, the brown cloak gave it away, "You just have to win"
Though 'Just Win' was simple enough; however, he knew she had ulterior motives, but, did that really matter? "If you require nothing of us, except to win, I see nothing truly negative about it."
With Kasshoku's approval, the deal was sealed. "Since I see you three are all in agreement, all I have to ask of you is to put this cloth pattern somewhere visible."
Hitomi went behind a tree, and came back out with a new piece of cloth over her eye. A black cloth with a red cloud, which was placed right over her eye, her smile was as big as it had ever been; she liked the black and red.
Kasshoku just put it around his neck, making sure to tuck the knot beneath his cloak, didn't want anyone chocking him with it. Juro wrapped it around his arm, and with the knot tied on Juro's arm, the deal was done.
Behind a tree, out of vision of the four of them, the same presence that had occupied Tayuya's room for only a few seconds, made her second appearance, one could see her white teeth smiling, the plan she had set in motion so many years ago, was still running smoothly.