Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. Double my sorrows why don't you? Why stab a man once when you can do it twice just to make sure he stays down?
Chapter 21: For My Master
"Uh-un." Naruto said, standing in front of the door to Shigure's room, "Not again. No way. I'm already breaking my neck trying to get in as much time here as I can and you're about to ditch me again."
To his credit, Naruto had been reasonable when he'd first arrived that Sunday morning to Ryouzanpaku for his allotted training and had heard that he could go home due to it being cancelled. The reason for that was due to Shigure going out on another one of her mysterious missions to do… whatever it was she did when she left.
Fuurinji Hayato left all the time and wandered around, so it wasn't that weird.
But when he said that it was cool if she was leaving, and that he would totally be willing to go along on this trip since he would only miss the last day of school that week if he went with her and they made it back in a reasonable amount of time (and if he missed more school, boo-hoo), Shigure simply responded with a casual dismissal.
"Not taking… you."
Her reasoning being that if he went with her to where she was going, he might die.
Naruto was not a fan of getting ditched. Even more than that, he was not a fan of being underestimated by any means by people that knew him. People doing things to 'protect' him pissed him off.
In walked Sakaki from outside, holding his personal groceries, mostly consisting of beer. Upon seeing Naruto taking a seat with his back directly against Shigure's sliding door, he stopped and stared down at the boy, "Found out about Shigure leavin'?"
"Yup."
"Tryin' to convince her to let you go?"
"Yup."
"Any luck?"
"…I'm workin' on it."
That was good enough as a 'no' for the Karate master, as he just shrugged and continued on to his room until he stopped and noticed a few bandaged burns and singes on Naruto's face, "Why do you have burns brat? What, did you headbutt a box of matches or a lit candle this morning?" He commented upon his departure.
"All of my hate Karate Bum." Naruto shot back at him as he left.
Naruto actually did have to headbutt stuff the night before due to practicing his taijutsu with Jiraiya, but that wasn't where the burns were from. Jiraiya was forcing him to endure more hazardous horrors in order to learn the next insanely dangerous jutsu that he wanted to teach him.
He'd spent all of Saturday getting chewed up and spit out, and it was terrible.
The man didn't seem to understand that the human body had limits to how much work it could endure in a short amount of time. Either he didn't understand, he just didn't care, or he realized that Naruto wasn't the one to be fettered by common human limitations. All of the training he pumped into two hours in the morning and two hours at night during weekdays was just incredible. The man could maximize his time with the ninja kids to the extreme, and there was still one training session in the afternoons that Naruto usually missed due to training at Ryouzanpaku.
God only knows what typically went on during that session. Jiraiya with Shikamaru and Tenten all to himself, without a third to train? Pray for them.
Continuing to wait, Naruto watched Kenichi crawl down the hallway instead of walk. Beaten to a pulp from the aggressive training that the other masters were putting him through after the threat of YOMI became common knowledge to the others.
"W-What?" Kenichi muttered tiredly upon reaching Naruto in his path, "Naruto-san is that you? I'm not crawling to the afterlife?" What was that bright light he was moving towards then?
"No." Naruto told him, rolling his eyes at all of the drama. He understood that they worked him hard, harder than most people as Kenichi's training regimen was extreme, but he didn't have to sell it like that, "What's wrong with you? Shouldn't you be used to this by now?"
"I keep thinking that too… but then it gets worse."
Well, Kenichi really had only been training ultra-hard for eight months. With the pace that his progression kept getting sped up, it was understandable that he wasn't used to the pace yet. He probably wouldn't ever be used to it until he left discipleship.
Kenichi pulled himself up against the wall by Shigure's door and sat against it, deciding to take a break before he continued crawling off to his room, "So what are you doing out here?"
"Shigure's gonna ditch me again." Naruto said, resolutely crossing his arms over his chest. Sunday was his day to spend the whole day around Shigure, Kenichi, and Miu, "Not happening. I mean, if I didn't come here to train I'd be stuck with Ero-sennin for three straight sessions. Fuck that. If the two people teaching me are gonna take turns trying to see who can kill me first, I at least wanna be around the one of 'em that's hot… and that was totally not me talking just now." He added on as an afterthought once Kenichi stared at him owlishly.
It was the Jiraiya. It was beginning to burn into his soul. Just as long as he didn't start watching porn in the living room in broad daylight while eating a bowl of cereal like Jiraiya did. As long as that never happened he'd be fine.
The door Naruto was sitting against slid open, ending with Naruto's leaning body tilting back against the legs of the very woman he'd been talking about. Turning his head up, Naruto looked straight into the downwardly gazing light purple eyes of his weapons teacher who was holding a small travel bag.
The stare-off carried on for several seconds until Naruto gave her a huge grin, prompting Shigure to step over him, shut her door back, and begin walking down the hall. He got a look all up her skirt, but she didn't seem to care, "Be good Naruto. I'll see you and Kenichi… soon." Her pace didn't stop even when Naruto latched onto one of her legs and let her drag him around on the floor, "I won't be gone for long."
"Take me with you."
"No."
"Please?"
"Too… dangerous."
That prompted Naruto to let go of her legs just as they made it into the common area of the Masters' Quarters. Akisame had just entered after cleaning up the dojo from Kenichi's training, "It's probably for the best that you don't go with her Naruto. You really might die."
"Well if I die that just means I suck too bad to live." Naruto figured that they'd been over this already. The prospect of getting killed didn't bother him nearly as much as it would have bothered most people not of the ninja persuasion, "What's she doing that's so bad that I can't even know about it? She won't even tell me what she's leaving for."
"It's personal to her Naruto." Akisame said, "If she doesn't want others involved, it's her business. After all, she believed in your ability to handle your own problem. Mostly."
Naruto grumbled, accepting the point as he sat up correctly on the floor, "I guess… but damn it, I owe you guys something." He reasoned, "I mean I almost died helping Sakaki with his b.s. mission in Chinatown and opened a whole can of worms that almost ruined my life, and all we ever do is bitch at each other. If I can almost get myself killed five times over for that guy, I can do something worthwhile for Shigure. At least, that's what I think."
Even if she didn't think he was strong enough to deal with it, he wasn't trying to go to in order to prove he was strong. It was something he wanted to do to show her that he appreciated her training him. In reality, while he was paying the cost for training at Ryouzanpaku it wasn't really that much money at all in the grand scheme of things. It wasn't enough to convey what he had been getting out of it.
Before she reached the door, Shigure stopped and turned around after hearing what Naruto had to say and taking it all in, "Even if it's dangerous, and… is almost certain to get you hurt or killed?"
Naruto stood ramrod straight and snapped off a military salute with his right hand, "Genin-level ninja Uzumaki Naruto available for duty and volunteering for the super-secret fact-finding mission… that isn't really a secret."
"Fine. Come on. Bring all of your gear."
She'd have him change into actual fighting clothes on the way, because this wasn't the kind of time for him to run around in street clothes. It wasn't safe.
People shouldn't grin when they're given a choice of doing something that might get them killed, especially when they chose that option. But lo and behold, Naruto grabbed his shoes, grabbed his pack, and set on out with Shigure to do whatever it was she was leaving to do.
Akisame just smiled and shook his head before heading down the hall, "He's good for her."
But, it wasn't just her that wanted to keep him away from this mission, it was him as well. What Shigure was about to do, chances were that it would take her extremely close to Yami, and after knowing his parents and telling Shigure what he could about them before their time came, Akisame didn't want Naruto anywhere near that organization and Shigure agreed.
If he remained around them he would have to face Yami eventually though, and one day the facts of what really happened to his parents would come out.
As he walked he noticed Kenichi sitting against the wall by her door, temporarily taking his mind off of the thought, "Oh, I thought you were going to your room to rest Kenichi-kun?"
Kenichi just groaned.
XxX
(Elsewhere in Town – Kugatachi-Ryuu Dojo)
Shikamaru felt extremely sore and tired. Honestly. He wasn't allowed to half-ass things in training any longer with Jiraiya being the one to steer the ship. Anytime he tried to skip out or anything of the like, he wound up having to make it up with three times the length and intensity that Naruto and Tenten had to train.
Apparently if Jiraiya was going to train someone, he was intent on making sure that they weren't going to die on the first serious incident they got into under his tutelage. Either that or he'd rather kill them off to ensure that such a thing didn't happen and tarnish his name as a teacher of high-class ninjas.
The only ninja he'd ever trained before this was Naruto's dad, so technically his track record was 1/1 in building an awesome ninja.
So when he heard that Tenten was being allowed a reprieve on that particular day because apparently she wanted to visit a friend that was injured a short while back and Naruto was out on a mission so he wouldn't be appearing for evening training he jumped all over the break and decided to make sure Jiraiya did nothing to push his physical and mental limits any further by leaving with Tenten.
He really should have asked exactly where she was going before he wound up sitting in front of several weapon-wielding women that really weren't happy to see a man there. Naruto was right. They were really not keen on having guys around.
"I feel like I'm on lockdown or something…" Shikamaru muttered to himself, sitting on the floor of the dojo while all eight of the Valkyries more or less had him surrounded, weapons out just in case, "I wish this would hurry up already."
Not too far away, Tenten sat aside and watched Freya attempt to work through the pain of her injuries suffered from Berserker to keep her technique up and continue training, "You really shouldn't be practicing so soon after what happened to you, but considering who I live with I'm used to people not caring much about their health."
Freya's staff moved smoothly from technique to technique as she listened to her former underling in the Valkyries talk to her, "It's good to see that you're happy. You just seemed to be going through the motions when you were with us, but you seem stronger now. I'd like to spar with you sometime."
'I'd better be stronger now.' Tenten thought to herself before shaking it all off, "We can hold off on that." Until she stopped ending each day feeling like her arms and legs were going to fall off, "And let's just say I've found some people in the same difficult situation as me, and we sort of feed off of each other's hardship."
And harder days still were a-comin' if Jiraiya's words were to be taken at face value. As of press time she, Shikamaru, and Naruto were marked. It was just a matter of who was coming to collect on them, when they'd do it, and if they themselves were strong enough to fend them off.
Speaking of those people, "I noticed that Uzumaki didn't come along with you to see how I was recovering today." Freya said, concealing her actual contemplation of this point.
"Well he had a mission to go on with his weapons sensei. That and the Valkyries kind of scare him."
"Why?"
"The same reason they're scaring Shikamaru." Tenten pointed out, alluding to how Shikamaru seemed hesitant to even scratch his nose lest he receive some sort of wrath for it, "Why do the girls not like my roommates?"
"Uzumaki embarrassed all of them by himself. That and they more or less blame the two of them for taking you away from us."
"Do you blame them?"
"I… can't." Freya admitted, "Honestly I felt somewhat betrayed at first. I figured that even if there was a problem that kept you from feeling safe or feeling like you belonged with us, there was something we could do. But you seem more content now than you ever were with us. I guess it was the right thing to do to put my faith in that person."
"Why'd you do that by the way? Let me go without a fight just because Shikamaru backed me up?" It couldn't have just been because of the giant scramble that was the mall incident. At another time, Freya would have fought them both anyway to adhere to Ragnarok's policies which became her own.
"He wasn't the person I was putting faith in." Freya said with a shake of her head, "I meant Uzumaki." She tried to ignore the grin that spread across Tenten's face at that point and failed miserably, "What's with that look? Was I wrong?"
Holding her hands up defensively, Tenten just shook her head, "No, no. It's not that. It's just… I thought you didn't like him Freya-chan."
"It's kind of hard to continue disliking someone that saved your life." Also, she'd started softening her stance on Naruto even before that point as well. But she had appearances to keep up either way.
At the moment, her stern appearance was betrayed by the hint of red on her darkened cheeks. Even from Tenten's mostly side-based view it was visible. And she was getting a kick out of it.
"Sure. I hear you. Whatever you say."
XxX
(With Naruto and Shigure – Rural Area in Japan)
"You're so slo~~~w." Shigure pointed out in a drawl, waiting for Naruto to reach the crest of a forested hill that she'd led him through, "I'm… not taking any breaks for you. We're almost there, so keep your guard up."
Naruto shortly thereafter reached her side on the hilltop. Per Shigure's instructions, on the train ride out he changed into clothes that could actually be considered combat-wear; the same sort of dark colored, lightweight clothes that he wore for his fight with Neji, arms covered in dark wraps up to his elbows. She wasn't particularly pleased with his fuctional wear, but he didn't have any official uniform, so that was the best she was going to get.
"I'm not slow, you're just ultra-fast." And like hell he needed any breaks! Cross-country prepared him for this! …Kind of. He snorted like a bull at the effort he'd been exerting ever since they'd gotten off at the nearest train station thirty miles away, "I hate the forest though. I'm more of an urban ninja."
At that moment, Shigure raised her arm and pointed directly at a small town nestled in the hills, "Town." He could see that, "Follow." And once again, Shigure took off through the trees, faster than Naruto could keep up with.
"Fuck." Naruto said before pumping blood back to his legs in order to jump up into the trees in an effort to try and keep pace with Shigure. She was not taking it easy with the pace she was cutting. When they'd gotten to the trees he'd been forced to follow her by tracking the leaves she kicked up and the branches she disturbed in her wake. Tracking wasn't his strong suit, but he was either going to get better at it here or get left in the dust, "Can't wait… 'til I'm that fast."
Once again, by the time he reached the outskirts of the town, Naruto found Shigure standing there waiting for him. He was running as fast as he could the entire time. There was one thing he could have done to go faster, but he wasn't about to do that unless it was worth the cost it would take.
Shigure didn't say anything. Instead, Tochumaru popped up on her head and used one of his front paws to tap at the wrist of his other front paw as if to say he'd taken too long for her tastes.
He was getting no stale snacks from the bottom of Naruto's bag for that pandering little stunt. Not any time soon.
"So what are we here for?" Naruto asked as they started to walk through the town, "You really didn't say anything about what we're doing and I asked you like a hundred times on the way here."
"It's a long story." The lovely mistress of all weaponry told Naruto as they passed a team of roofers sitting on an old-looking house at the end of their work day, "Short version, there's a weapon collector here with an important… sword. One that I need to get back."
Get back?
"Someone stole from you and got away with it!?" Naruto couldn't believe it. He'd been trying to rob her for years and someone else pulled it off right under his nose? That was bullshit! Talk about a shot to the ego, "Come on, how's that fair?"
Shigure covered her mouth momentarily, figuring that she'd simply worded it wrong, "It wasn't stolen and it wasn't obtained from me. It's from my father. He used to make swords… for bad people."
"Oh."
"I can't… let that be my father's legacy. Especially as Yami is beginning to move again." Shigure told Naruto, "That much has been proven by what the Elder has found recently in his travels. Duck."
"Huh?" Naruto did what she told him to on cue however and managed to avoid a broadsword of all things lopping his head off.
The roofers they had passed were now armed and attacking, and looked like they meant business. Instinctively after nearly dying from a rear attack, Naruto planted his hands on the ground and threw a double mule kick straight to the chest that knocked him back to the ground. Propelling himself forward with the force of the kick, Naruto rolled through and stood back up behind Shigure, pulling out his kusarigama as he did.
After putting his 'not-master' between himself and the armed attackers, Naruto blinked and felt at the top of his head, making sure he still had his scalp, "Wait, I hit that guy. Someone was willing to attack you, and I actually hit them?"
"They're not masters." Shigure said, not even bothering to draw her own sword in the face of the six armed assailants after them, "If they were I… would have removed you from the fight." By kicking him through a wall or something, just as long as he was out of the way, and quickly, "…From how they moved, you can fight them."
"…What?" Before anything else could be asked, Shigure had jumped onto the top of a nearby rooftop to perch and watch Naruto fight several grown men with various sharp instruments of destruction, "Shit!"
He quickly started up with the spinning of his chain, fast and able to get good momentum with a single movement of his wrist, just like Shigure had taught him. His move was quick enough to intercept the first man that decided to charge him with a sword. With a toss, Naruto's weighted chain wrapped around the blade, allowing him to yank it down just as the man got into range.
Defenses down, Naruto wrapped the other end of the chain around wrist and forearm, clutching the other end-weight in his hand as he used his forward speed feint to punch his enemy square in the jaw, rendering him unconscious as he rushed past him and continued on to the next ones.
Pulling his chain tight around his hands for grip, Naruto lifted his hands to catch a downward sword strike with the tightened links. A twist of his body with a swing of an elbow knocked the sword arm of the attacker out wide as two more came in from behind to chop Naruto up from behind.
Stepping up off of the knee of the man in front of him, Naruto improvised his twisting backward flip kick, Sorasake Keru, nailing the first man in the face and finishing the flip just as the other two came in, smashing them both on the tops of their heads with the heels of his feet and sending their chins down to bounce off of the dirt. The sudden move was so fast they never even got to swing their weapons at him.
After landing that instinctive alteration to one of his favorite moves, allowing him to take out three attackers at once from all around instead of just one, Naruto seemed surprised by his own actions, "Holy crap, that was a total shot in the dark! Did that actually work?"
Well Jiraiya explained to him that the Sorasake Keru was meant to be used in a situation where he was surrounded so that he could attack and keep an eye on what was happening behind him at the same time. That certainly manifested itself here.
It was supposed to be used with weaponry however instead of him using his feet for a second and third attack.
"Two left." Shigure pointed out helpfully, watching spectator-style with Tochumaru, "…Oh. Nevermind." She concluded as she saw that the last two had already run away. Naruto looked ready to pursue until she pulled her kusarigama seemingly out of her clothing and wrapped him up in the chain to stop him, "No. Don't waste anymore time."
Waste time? What? This could have been over in a heartbeat if she'd have fought instead. Not that Naruto wanted her to fight his battle for him, even if it was a fight that he hadn't picked for himself, but now that it had started he really wanted to see it through. His blood was boiling for a finish.
But as long as he was wrapped in that chain there wasn't anything he could do even if he had been inclined to disobey his gorgeous 'not-sensei'.
"Yes ma'am…" The chain slacked and allowed Naruto to free himself and re-stash his own chained weapon.
Remembering everything he did, Shigure gave him a quick critique of the fight, "You did fine, but I didn't like your… last move." What? But that move was totally awesome. He was even going to name it when he got the chance. It was pretty practical, "You're not quick enough to do that attack safely against armed opponents. If they were better they could have cut a leg off. Your Kawarimi would have been better to try."
Meh. He could have replaced himself with the guy he'd stopped in the first place and jumped off of, in hindsight. More than likely the other two wouldn't have noticed and would have cut their own guy, giving Naruto an opening to follow up in a safer method than the way he let it all hang out with his admittedly flashy finish.
Oh well. You couldn't please everyone, and at least it was something to remember for later. Something to grow on as it was. It made sense. If he was fighting someone unarmed he probably would have been praised. Shigure had to be harsh in her critiques because there was no room to screw up when dealing with weapons.
"We're in the right place." Shigure said, confidently storing her kusarigama, "Armed Division members."
"Wha-wha?"
"-Of Yami."
"Oh." Naruto said, taking note of the four people he'd beaten soundly. They were barely better than the Valkyries, and he'd still wrecked them, "They're not that tough." He really must have been getting better and more used to dealing with weapon-wielding enemies.
"Dumb… muscle." Shigure said, jumping back down to the ground and brushing her hand across Naruto's cheek as she walked past him to continue leading the way, "Those were not the disciples of a true master. Just low-ranking agents. We need to find the sword."
XxX
(Elsewhere in the Rural Town)
A tall, muscular tan-skinned man with dark, long braided hair sat on a fence at the edge of a dust path that lead to a small house. He wore a tight long-sleeved top that flowed past his waist like a robe, along with similarly colored pants and a necklace comprised of fangs. His sharp, cruel eyes possessed lines running down his face from underneath them.
All five of his skull-ringed fingers drummed impatiently on the hilt of his broad, curved scimitar sword until he saw the suited underlings under his command drag a heavily beaten and cut up man outside, holding a cloth-covered bundle in his arms.
They dropped him at the head swordsman's feet and kicked him until he released his possession of the bundle that was picked up by one of the men that had beaten him and searched his property for whatever was inside of it.
Turning to their leader, the bundle was opened to reveal a broadsword in its sheath. Revealing the steel of the blade just a hint as it glowed proudly for the inanimate object it was, so did the eyes of the large swordsman that stared upon it, "He was protecting this above everything else. Bantou Master, is this what we've come to collect for Yami?"
"To hell with Yami." The Bantou Master said with no small sense of hunger in his eyes. Hunger for the sword that held the true secrets of iron. One of the finest blades in the entire world, created by a true master blacksmith unmatched by almost any in the world, "I might have been sent here by them, but this is for me."
"N-No, not my prized sword." The bloodied man pleaded, slowly climbing onto his knees in order to beg, "I've searched for most of my life for a weapon that fine. It's the centerpiece of my collection. There isn't a blade in the world as fine."
There was disgust in the eyes of not only the Bantou Master, but in the men that followed him, as well as a teenager that he kept close by to watch and study everything. Attired the fairly normal garb of jacket, boots, and jeans, he had darkened skin like his master, and long black hair. Cold, detached eyes looked on at the scene as the handle of the sword that was similarly curved but less broadened than his master's shone in the setting sunlight.
"Andaka." The Bantou Master said.
"Yes master." The youth standing close watch said obediently to the man that taught him his art.
"Let me reiterate a beginner's point for you right now, just to drive it home. Swords aren't meant for collecting." The hulking swordsman said, grabbing the pilfered weapon away from the Yami goon as he inspected it closely. It didn't take long at all for him to nod in confirmation that this was what he was looking for. And with that being confirmed, he brutally cut down the man that had formerly been in the possession of the weapon utilized, splitting his body clean in half and causing quite the mess, "…They're meant to be used."
And what a blade he had to use.
Despite having been forged quite some time ago there wasn't the slightest sign of wear on the blade. He knew that this… collector, would never have the talent or drive to use a sword, but it had to have had an actual owner before him. The man that forged it wouldn't have done so without someone it was intended for.
Well it was going to be used to fulfill its original intent once more. It was back in the hands of someone that would use it to spill the blood of his enemies.
XxX
(With Naruto and Shigure)
It didn't take them very long to arrive at the destination as their unknown enemies, but it was after they had already left.
They'd also left a very serious calling card.
Namely in the form of a grown man that had been split diagonally in twain out on the middle of a dirt road in front of what was presumably the property of the deceased. The man hadn't even been a martial artist. His hands had no calluses, his muscle mass was basically nonexistent. This was just a regular man with an appreciation for the artwork of weaponry.
And he'd been killed so viciously.
"Never turn into the kind of person capable of… such callous bloodshed." Shigure said in a heartfelt tone, "If you ever did, I would die."
"If I was ever the kind of guy that would do this…" Naruto replied with a deep gulp, "…Against somebody that can't even fight back, I think I'd rather have you kill me."
Naruto had seen death before. Rather recently actually in the form of someone he'd actually wound up killing himself in Neji. That wasn't even a quarter as violent as what he had to look at there and then.
He wasn't going to vomit or anything over the top like that, even at the sight of the most graphic thing he'd ever seen in person. As over-the-top as he tended to be from time to time when it came to his gut reaction on things, Naruto knew that showing his panic was the worst possible thing he could do.
Yes, he knew this and did his best to keep things under wraps, but his heart hammered in his chest so hard he could feel it in his knees. It showed all over his face. Shigure couldn't consider herself an important figure, especially a teacher, if she couldn't see every nuance of discomfort on Naruto's face.
The frown on his face wasn't pronounced, but it was the subtle sort of uncomfortable look he'd have when he didn't want to address something. He couldn't keep his fingers still to save his life at the moment, the constant twitching of the small appendages at his sides, as trivial a physical action as they happened to be, were still another of the tells he had.
Of course, when she really needed to gauge his reaction to just about anything and felt the need to skip the process of trying to locate brand new hints of Naruto's discomfort, Shigure simply needed to look into his eyes and read him from there. Behind those blue orbs lay the index to that teenage bastard's soul.
"So now what?" Naruto asked, eventually finding it in himself to tear his eyes away from the recently departed. What seemed like minutes in reality only lasted maybe one at most, "This was the guy that had it isn't it? Your dad's sword?"
Shigure pointed down at the tire tracks of the vehicles they used, "…This town sits in a forested valley. There is only one way in and out for vehicles to use." And it was a way that was separated by much of the town itself and a lot of forest.
"…We're going to catch the convoy aren't we?" Shigure just nodded in response to her not-student's question, "…Which way?"
"That-…" Shigure said slowly, pointing in the appropriate direction only for Naruto to take off as fast as he could before she even finished her slow-paced answer, "-…Way." She lingered for several seconds by her lonesome until she jetted off after him.
A headstart, just to be fair and all.
Sure, she'd catch up to him in less than a minute, even at the pace he was cutting, but for a few seconds he'd feel great and then she'd bring him right back down to earth.
That was how the master-disciple relationship was supposed to work. She'd build him up a bit and then check him to keep him from getting a swelled head. It was tougher than it would have been for a normal disciple because Naruto's ego was anything but normal-sized, so she usually had to do it by completely emasculating him in increasingly more difficult ways to show him that there was always a step further that he had to reach.
Eventually, as hard as it was to believe now, the day would come where there wouldn't be much more room between the two of them for her to show him up. The day that finally began to happen, her job would be more or less done.
However-.
"Damn it! Why are you so fast Shigure? You're makin' me look bad! And I can totally see you laughing! Stop laughing!"
"Heh… heh."
-That day definitely wasn't going to be today though.
Well-trained in the art of swiftly running, Naruto's method of full-on sprinting was different from that of most others that would do so. Instead of pumping his arms alternately with each movement of his legs, Naruto's technique when traversing long distances involved him setting his center of balance far forward by bending his upper body at a degree that required pretty good balance to maintain, arms out behind him to lessen resistance.
It was still pissing him off that Shigure could keep up with him doing nothing more than jumping forward. The force she could generate with her quite lovely legs propelled her hard enough to let her lazily move with him after catching up.
Naruto oftentimes swelled with pride knowing that he was the fastest member of the Shade Alliance, at least over long distances, due to a combination of his actual speed and his stamina. But here he was, pumping his legs as fast as he could while cutting through the forest to reach the bad guys that were going to get away if they didn't catch up, and Shigure was just stepping on the neck of his ego with extreme prejudice.
Fortunately, there was only one road into, through, and out of the valley.
"Convoy… coming up." Shigure said, flicking up the nodachi on her back to show the slightest hint of steel inside of the sheath, "Be ready." Wasting no more time, Shigure left Naruto in the dust the last few hundred yards they had left to reach the cut-off spot.
Now Naruto had never actually seen Shigure fight. He'd been on the receiving end of more than a healthy share of her attacks back when he'd been infiltrating Ryouzanpaku but he never saw many of the strikes that landed against him, not that she'd ever missed anything against him.
He realized just how much that every single master of Ryouzanpaku had probably been holding back against him after he watched Kousaka Shigure slash right through the side of the lead car of the Yami convoy as if it were made of newspaper. Thank God she never used the front side of her sword against him. She almost killed him repeatedly just with the back side.
Cutting the front vehicle straight in half, she completely blocked the road with its two pieces and brought the entire progression to a halt.
Five other cars came to a stop as the armed division members of Yami began trying to pile out of the car to engage their apparent enemy. One of these cars quickly suffered, but not because of Shigure. It was because of the shock of yellow that had been trailing extensively behind her finally reaching the road himself and deciding to make an immediate impact. A smoke bomb hit the side of the car, taking its toll on the vision of the enemies inside to allow Naruto a safer approach.
Naruto dropkicked the side of a passenger's door shut just as it opened and completely shattered some poor man's arm at the elbow, but the arm had been holding a sword on the way out of the vehicle so it was totally fair game. The front door opened, but that person didn't fare any better as his clock was cleaned the second his foot touched the ground and he exposed the top of his head.
An easy target for a haymaker. No it wasn't a ninja-ey kind of attack. But seeing someone's head go through a window because you punched them through it was kind of cool.
On the other side of the car, the two rubes from that side jumped out only to be covered by a shadow, signifying Naruto falling down from the sky with a foot on each of their chests as he drove both of them to the ground violently.
With a wide grin after clearing an entire car within seconds, Naruto turned in the direction that he felt Shigure was in, "First blood is-!" He ceased in his boast when he found that every other car had been turned into idle pieces of scrap and every other person in each of them had been dealt with.
"-Mine." Shigure interrupted and amended, "…Last blood counts for more anyway." She concluded coolly as she and Naruto both slowly walked their way over to the final car that hadn't been touched yet, "Be careful."
Naruto hadn't even noticed it until it wound up being the last vehicle standing, but now that it was he could feel this aura coming from it, telling him instinctively to stay the hell away from it. Almost primal in how it was warding him away with nothing more than his own sixth sense.
The door opened and the Bantou Master stepped out with an annoyed look on his face, "A kid and a chick. Eh, I don't care. A body's a body and you're both in my way."
"Holy crap." Naruto muttered under his breath. One of the first rules of being a ninja was to never let the enemy see you sweat, but that was always more Shikamaru's thing than his. He was a very expressive young man.
"…This might be a bi~g problem." Shigure pointed out, knowing that this man was a master-level fighter, "But he has my sword."
"My sword actually." The Bantou Master said while holding up the broadsword in question as he looked around at the thrashing that every single person under his command had endured. He scoffed at the sight of there being absolutely no fatalities amongst them, "Hey!" He shouted to the man driving his vehicle, "Get out here and handle the kid! I'll take the woman."
The driver's door opened and out charged a suited man at Naruto with his sword in hand, only for a kunai to hit him right in the chest and drop him before he took three steps. No one said anything in the immediate aftermath until Shigure just turned her head at Naruto and shook it, clicking her tongue in reproach.
"What?" Naruto asked in return, "That wasn't even fatal. I hit him dead-center. It wasn't like it was in the heart or something. It didn't even go that deep either."
The Bantou Master just stared down impassively at his beaten underling, "I didn't mean you. Now I've got to drive myself." Gesturing with his head back to the car he called out again, "Andaka. Kill him. I've got bigger fish to fry."
In response, Shigure just put out her hand in an expectant manner, "The sword… please."
"Certainly." The Bantou Master said before suddenly swinging the sword at her, intending to cleave her entire arm off before Naruto could even blink. Shigure simply pulled her arm away safely without so much as getting a nick on the sleeve of her kimono, "What's the matter? I thought you wanted it. By all means, come and get it Kousaka Shigure, or is that Prodigy of Swords and Weapons name just a complete load?"
Shigure just peered at him with her unreadable purple eyes, "Rude." As Andaka moved to stand by his master, Shigure softly stroked Naruto's cheek without taking her eyes off of the primary threat and the target weapon he had in his possession, "Use that technique… and then get out of the way."
The Bantou Master just rolled the weight of the broadsword around in his hand as he spoke to Andaka, "No mercy. Kill the boy." By now he knew who he was facing, and if that boy was her student he knew just what this battle really meant, "You've seen him move. He doesn't know the first thing about you."
It was the first conflict between Yami and Ryouzanpaku. If his disciple could destroy one of theirs and he himself could kill Shigure, it would mean that his legacy and high-ranking placement in Yami was secured.
Shigure didn't have time to give Naruto any advice about how to really deal with fighting against someone skilled that could use the scimitar, because she was forced onto the defensive with the Bantou Master's aggressive and powerful attack. Her father created the broadsword that he'd murdered for, and she needed to get it away from this person.
Naruto and Andaka made sure to protect themselves from any friendly casualties until their masters had gotten out of the way before finding themselves facing one another. Andaka just smirked and drew his sword from his back. Another of those curved kinds of weapons that he'd faced more than a few times today, 'Only he actually looks like he's got the chops and the physical training to back up holding that thing.'
This kid wasn't like the others that Naruto had fought today. The suited goon squad were all gofers with the minutest amount of training possible to make them functional, interchangeable thugs for hire. The cool, collected, practiced ease with which Andaka faced him, he had no rage at being forced to take Naruto on the way most of the others that he'd put out of commission did, whether he looked down on Naruto or not. Even with the manriki-gusari, Naruto would have to be careful to take this Andaka person on.
'Right.' Naruto thought to himself, pulling out his chain and holding it in his hands, 'This is what I actually trained the most for, dealing with swordsmen with this thing.' With that he held it at both ends with the rest of the weapon directly behind him, "Bring it on."
Andaka didn't know exactly what to make of this guy. Naruto was deadly serious and aware of how dangerous this fight had the chance to be compared to the cannon fodder he and his master had mowed through, but he seemed confident that he could handle it regardless.
Aside from that, what was with the positioning with that weapon? He was leaving himself more exposed than the conventional stance of the manriki-gusari which would have at least had the chain in front of him to try to catch and capture the blade and disarm the enemy. Now he didn't even have that.
"The way you are, this is going to be over in one strike." Andaka said, drawing his sword, "You realize that right?"
"Yeah." Naruto nodded in agreement, "This'll be over in one move." If he screwed up the technique he wouldn't have to really dwell on his failure, because he'd be dead. So he had that going for him.
Standing against one another as still as statues, Naruto and Andaka refrained from moving a muscle. He who hesitated was lost, but too eager to attack in a battle of weaponry and things could end just as badly.
'Let's do this. Make sure I don't screw this one up mom.' Naruto thought to himself, 'Kajoushuki (Spiral Cycle).' Naruto exhaled at the same time he stepped forward first to charge Andaka head-on, 'Gotta make him commit!'
Andaka had to make the first move, and he had to do it before they got too close to one another. It was like a reverse game of chicken, and he needed Andaka to pull the trigger before him.
As a swordsman, Andaka was taught that the first strike was oftentimes the most important, because that was all a battle could consist of before a life came to an end, "You must be on drugs." Andaka hissed, taking the opportunity to lash out at the copious amount of weak points Naruto had.
Got him.
Naruto's feet suddenly propelled him forward faster than Andaka's arm could swing backhand at him. But he didn't attack. He simply ghosted past Andaka, refraining from so much as brushing him as he did.
The point of the Spiral Cycle was meant to take advantage of the way that Naruto darted in and out constantly during battle. Feinting direct engagements with an enemy were the centerpiece of how he chose to fight, but he could turn harmless aversions of his movements into debilitating or outright deadly attacks just by moving past an enemy.
In this particular Spiral Cycle scenario, the moment he saw Andaka commit to attack, Naruto let go of one end of the chain just long enough for it to move past Andaka where he immediately grabbed it again. With the rest of the chain lingering behind him, Andaka basically trapped himself in a noose, and it could have gotten him anywhere, but this time Naruto aimed for the neck.
"What the- GACK!" Andaka had absolutely no time to wonder what had happened, as after being passed by Naruto, he found his neck pulled on hard enough to turn him upside-down and inside-out. If he hadn't been trained, the speed of Naruto's run and the strength of his pull could have snapped his neck. As it was anyway, it wound up dropping him on his head awkwardly where he didn't get up again.
…So there was still a fair chance that he'd broken his neck or something.
"I don't do drugs! I AM drugs!" Naruto said, grinning maniacally as he stood over Andaka's motionless form. In hindsight that sounded cooler and seemed to make more sense in his head, so he had to come up with a new sort of victory one-liner, "Uh… RARIATOOOOOO-! No, damn it that's not a good one either! "
He needed to start listening to the asinine things Jiraiya said when he was tormenting them. The man was a deity at coming up with mind-crushing one-liners.
"Booooo." Shigure jeered at her not-disciple's attempt to leave a cool impression in near monotone, pausing in her fight against the Bantou Master while standing on a tree trunk to do so, "You fight better… than you taunt."
"Thanks Shi-…" Naruto felt a crushing level of futility set on his soul as the attention of the Bantou Master was firmly set upon him, "…-gure."
"Boy." The Bantou Master said in a tone of voice that didn't seem to sound very pleased about the outcome of his own disciple's fight, "Kids like you really piss me off."
"Oh fuck all kinds of-."
"-DUCK!"
Naruto had been trying to subtly reach into his supplies for something to help him with, but when Shigure yelled at him by now Naruto knew that she wanted the order completed before she even finished the statement/sentence. She never yelled.
The sudden demand alarmed Naruto enough to squeeze a smoke bomb tight enough to set it off, covering his body in smoke as he simultaneously did his best to save his own neck.
In a single moment, the Bantou Master had not only thrown his curved sword that was now useless to him now that he had a blade with the secrets of iron, he rushed in with said sword to make sure he was in position to either kill Naruto, take down Shigure when she moved to protect him, or both.
CLANG!
The smoke quickly cleared with the power of the Bantou Master's swing, and needless to say he was not pleased with the results of his attack.
"I don't appreciate… you attacking my disciple." Shigure said coldly, preventing the strike of her father's crafted sword with a combination of the Bantou Master's original curved scimitar and her own nodachi. Even so, having gotten in front of such a powerful attack, it had come close enough to harming her to cut through some of the chain mail armor underneath her clothes, "Have you no understanding of a master's pride?"
The Bantou Master found himself surprised by the fact that this relatively small woman was able to hold off his attack directly.
He'd attacked Naruto to begin with for multiple reasons; because Naruto had embarrassed him by defeating his disciple Andaka in one move, because he knew that attacking Naruto would distract Shigure enough to provide him an opening to deal her a devastating blow, because even if the previous scenario failed to occur he still would have killed off what could be a potential future threat no matter how puny he appeared to be at the time.
"Grr…" Why was it so difficult to overpower her? It made no sense, "Are you talking about pride as a master-level martial artist, or pride in your own disciple?"
"By attacking my student you've violated both." Shigure said before kicking him away. Her kick was blocked but it wasn't meant to deal damage, it was meant to get him away from her not-student, "Naruto. Get out of the way. Now."
"Yes ma'am!" Like a soldier running for a foxhole during an artillery strike, Naruto couldn't have run away and scrambled to the top of the nearest tree he could find a safe distance away fast enough.
He was not going to stand in that woman's path right then. Fuck. That. She was pissed, and he had never seen her legitimately upset before. Shigure just wasn't that kind of woman, so if it happened there was probably a good chance she was about to wreck shop, he didn't want to be anywhere near the target zone when she did.
He did however find it to be of the utmost importance that he watch every last second of the battle… and maybe record it on his phone for posterity.
Oh who was he kidding? That cheap piece of crap wasn't good enough to pick up anyone moving as fast as Shigure was going to.
And she didn't disappoint.
"Kousaka-Ryuu: Samidare Shuriken (Kousaka Style: Summer Rain Shuriken)!" From her both of her sleeves, dozens of shuriken flew. Her arms moved so fast that despite letting go of both swords she'd been holding, gravity didn't even have time to let them drop before she grabbed them once more.
The Bantou Master blocked the small blades with a scoff at the annoying diversion. Even if she could control the trajectory of the shuriken to throw him off, it was a technique that wouldn't get anyone better than an expert-level fighter, "Trying to get behind me won't work!" Turning around with a crushing swing he came close to cutting Shigure's head off had she not dropped down. In that case she only lost the absolute end hair follicles of her long ponytail.
In a hasty retreat, Shigure fell back to the woods to avoid the Bantou Master and prevent him from getting good chances to see and strike at her. As she nimbly darted through and around the trees to keep herself out of his sight he followed. Instead of anything roundabout, the powerhouse swordsman decided to cut out the middleman and simply slash his way through every tree Shigure tried to put between them.
His straight line of pursuit against her darting method of moving trees between the two of them kept him close despite her clear speed advantage, and the constant stream of trees being thrown her way turned it all into a rather dangerous obstacle course.
To Naruto, he felt a subconscious need to put his goggles down, as if they would protect his eyes from the strain that it was taking him to keep up with what he was seeing. Watching Shigure was like trying to follow a mosquito with his eyes through a bamboo grove.
After cutting down one tree in particular, the Bantou master severed it into five segments and with the trajectory of his slashes he sent them flying Shigure's way in large chunks. She was able to dodge them, but he corralled her into a position where he could get another cut at her person.
His attack missed and blew out two trees behind his point of aim as Shigure moved past him. A quick attempt to lash out with the chain of her kusarigama to hook his leg only wound up with him stomping on the chain and pinning it down without her actually wrapping up a limb.
With a downward strike of his new broadsword, he destroyed the chain underneath his foot, rendering the chain-end of the weapon useless to her. This sword that could so easily break common iron when used by someone that could generate his kind of force, incredible.
"Have I really upset you that much by attacking your runt of a disciple?" The Bantou Master asked, trying to taunt Shigure into attacking him and making a mistake. All of this running around was getting on his nerves, "If he wasn't ready to defend that sort of attack from me it's obvious you haven't been raising him the best way."
"Which way?" Though confident that Naruto was getting stronger, Shigure was still self-conscious about being a master capable of teaching a student all on her own.
The thoughts constantly crept in. Was she doing it right? Should she have handled him more like how her master had taught her? Or maybe more like how some of the other masters of Ryouzanpaku taught Kenichi?
"The quickest way." The Bantou Master replied realizing that he'd struck a chord with that last chain of remarks when Shigure stopped in her tracks, "This is the first time you've had a disciple isn't it?" Her silence was enough of an answer for him there, "Putting all of the effort to make sure that your student learns every technique one at a time. What's the point if they're just unskilled? By doing things quickly you'll know soon enough if the person you're invested in is worth the time or not."
"Oh." Shigure said as if having come to a conclusion on something, "I see." Instead of openly voicing her opinion on the Bantou Master's opinion, Shigure just affixed her index finger and thumb in the shape of an 'L' and pressed it to her own forehead to tease her enemy, "No wonder mine… is so much better than yours."
If that was the way a so-called master that was older than her chose to treat the people he trained, he could have it. The rearing of a disciple was a display of the love and understanding one had for their combat style and the martial arts in general. Even true Satsujinken masters knew this. This Bantou Master was a talented man to make it to his level, but in what was possibly the most important part of martial arts he was lacking.
Out of anger at the stoic woman's taunt, the Bantou Master tightly gripped the handle of the sword and made to attack her again only to find by his fifth step that Shigure stood at his side. Instead of being attacked he just heard the sound of her sword being sheathed.
"W-What?"
Shigure didn't say anything else to him until she walked past him again and plucked the broadsword from his grasp. To his surprise she took it just as casually as if he'd never had any grip on it at all. It was then that he felt it. She'd definitely struck him.
Letting out a groan of pain, the entire outfit of the Bantou Master split into two and he fell to his knees before slumping over to the ground.
"Thank you." Shigure said as she walked away from the unconscious man that more than likely couldn't hear a word she was saying, "I always wonder if I'm… doing right by my student. If I'm training him correctly, teaching him the right things. If he's getting as strong under me as he could be. So many things. To think about all of it… it's scary."
'She's scared of something?' Naruto could hear every word she said, as quiet as she spoke and at the distance he was listening from up in the tree, 'What's she scared of about training me? She's awesome.'
"It's scary… because I'm proud of him." Shigure admitted, a ghost of a smile crossing her face for a split-second, "My first true disciple. Fighting and listening to you just made me understand that my way is the only way I can possibly teach him, and as long as he never turns out to be someone like you… even if he one day strayed down the Path of the Asura… I would still be proud of him."
And from that point forward if it hadn't been clearly established before, it was now official in Naruto's mind without a shadow of a doubt. He would do absolutely anything that woman asked him to do, no matter what and without question. In a heartbeat.
He would hurt himself ten times over before he ever even thought of doing anything that would cause her pain.
Moisture slid down Naruto's cheeks from his eyes. Not tears. He was not crying, repeat, NOT CRYING. Guys didn't cry, definitely not him.
Damn it, he hated the woods. There was probably something he was allergic to irritating his eyes or his sinuses. That was it. Yeah, he'd be fine after getting down from that tree.
"Naruto." Shigure's voice carried out to him through the cleared out forest space that had been the site of her fight, "It's over. Come on. Lets… go home."
"Yeah, right behind you." Naruto said, clearing his throat to help it sound normal, "Just uh… retying my shoes *sniff*. Give me a sec." Tochumaru popped out of his backpack and stared at him from behind his shoulder, "If you tell her or anyone I was crying about what she said I'm gonna start putting loaded mousetraps in my bag."
XxX
(Just Outside of the Rural Town)
From a far distance, the entire mission of the Armed Division of Yami had been witnessed by two members of the junior group YOMI, meant to observe and gain something of an understanding for those that used weaponry in combat.
The actual point of the mission didn't mean much to the unarmed end, so there was no reason for the disciple group to get themselves involved. The Bantou Master simply said that if they weren't going to help they were to stay the hell out of his way.
He was the master on-hand leading the mission. It was a mission that he desired for his own devices, and he had no qualms with killing either of the two disciples because he was annoyed by them. The man was… extremely unpleasant to say the least, so the two YOMI members kept their distance.
A preteen girl with long black hair, one side of which was tied, stood at the precipice of the valley that the target town had been set in, watching as much as she could with a powerful pair of binoculars. She wore a white kimono top and traditional red Jujitsu hakama pants, with a chillingly emotionless look on the face of a girl so young.
Kushinada Chikage.
"It seems that the Armed Division wasn't up to the task once Kousaka Shigure arrived." The little girl explained to her company for the observation mission, "Andaka was even defeated in one blow by her disciple. Are you listening Jihan-san?"
"Ah-ah-ah." A wag of the finger came from the exotically garbed young man with her. He was handsome and dark-skinned with long, wavy black hair tied in a ponytail. He wore a purple outfit with royal yellow cuffs on his wrists and ankles. With a long red sash over his right shoulder, a purple belt and cape, a leopard wrap around his waist, and a functional golden crown on his head, he was barefoot even in the wilderness, "It's Nagaraja. Learn it Kushinada, and remember to refer to your royalty by their preferred titles little one."
The crown prince of the nation of Tidat; Radin Tidat Jihan.
Situated on a cleared space of ground with many cushions around him for comfort he lounged on his side while being attended to by the servants of his country, choosing to let the boorish job of reconnaissance be handled by those underneath his station as it were.
The little girl simply turned around for a moment to regard him before turning back to where she had been looking at the clash between Satsujinken and Katsujinken that hadn't gone very well for the Satsujinken side of things. She was not going to refer to anyone on the disciple level as her superior. As far as she was concerned, they were equals. Both of them were special people; high-level martial artists.
"You Japanese are such an anxious people." Jihan said, dismissive of the evening's events, "Andaka was the epitome of the worthless commoner. With the way he was taught, the only thing that made him dangerous was the fact that he was taught real skills with a sword. If nothing else, he understood his place as background dressing compared to his betters. If only all commoners understood this much about their position in the world."
Well there was something they could partially agree on. Andaka was skilled, but with the way he was trained he wasn't that dangerous. As Jujitsu was an art meant to assist unarmed samurai in dealing with armed opponents on the battlefield, she could have finished him in one move as well.
If you were properly taught how to deal with armed enemies he was extremely beatable, and if his opponent had been taught by Kousaka Shigure he would undoubtedly know how to deal with all sorts of weaponry. Even with a weapon exotic to Japan such as the scimitar, it would only take a bit of adjustment to deal with it for anyone taught to look for the traits of a weapon that would make it effective in combat or different from another weapon in the same family.
"So we've seen the one meant to be History's Strongest Disciple." Chikage said, "How do we identify this one, other than ninja?" She still didn't see why Odin said that his master was so interested in him, but then again she only saw him make one move against a real opponent.
"It doesn't matter." Jihan said, holding up a piece of fruit in his hand that he'd been about to enjoy, "I've done some studying on this country's culture and history. It's very interesting, the ninja in particular. Simple peasants skulking around in the dark, taking their shots from behind at their betters in the samurai and the lords of the feudal era instead of face-to-face on the battlefield where they'd be crushed; the only way they could ever hope to lash out at those dictated as their betters."
As he continued to speak on what he'd found on the ninja, his voice gained a steelier edge at the thought of what they represented. Commoners striking at those that they had no business doing anything other than bowing to.
In his growing ire at the thought of such a class of people being idealized and romanticized in cultures around the world, Jihan crushed the fruit in his hand into pulp before his anger subsided, "But that's fine. There's clearly a reason that no one talks about them anymore. And before long no one will be talking about this one either."
"So you're going to fight him yourself then?" Chikage asked.
"Of course not. I'm not about to sully my hands on a commoner such as him unless it's absolutely necessary." Jihan said confidently, "Let the other members of YOMI more eager to deal with riffraff handle one such as him."
They might have been known for their encounters with samurai and feudal lords of all sorts, but a lowly ninja had no right to be graced by the honor of doing battle with a king.
XxX
(Some Time Later – Tokyo, Japan)
It was hard for Hatake Kakashi to walk around normally and do the kinds of things he liked to do in cities around the world because of the facemask he wore. In Japan it was easier though. Because of it, people would assume he was some sort of undercover cosplayer or some kind of germaphobe just trying to avoid air-transferred sicknesses since he dressed normally most of the time along with the mask.
He had spiky silver hair, a vertical scar over his left eye with a relaxed look in them both, and wore business-casual attire of khakis and a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows to walk around town regularly in. Was it really so impossible to imagine that he was a ninja?
…
Yeah, on second thought it probably was. And it wasn't like he ever hung around in one area long enough for it to matter either.
Walking out of a major bookstore with people going in and out all around him, Kakashi paid them no mind. He was too engrossed with the latest installment of a novel series. Popular all over the world, it was really only sold in Japan and western Asia, so he oftentimes had to wait until his business took him back over to that side of the world.
Killing two birds with one stone as it were, and speaking of killing…
Before long, someone fell in step with Kakashi and the scent of cigarette smoke filled his nostrils, "…Asuma one day those things'll kill you."
"It hasn't happened yet in fifteen years, so I guess I'll keep taking my chances." Asuma replied, wearing the same walking coat that he wore on his mission in Yokohama Chinatown, "You know what the mission is by now don't you?"
"It's hard to see why killing one kid that didn't even graduate needs a jounin to do it, even if three genin couldn't get the job done."
"Tch, well you need to keep your nose to the ground in the martial arts underworld more. The reason they've got you doing it is so that you can get it done without getting Ryouzanpaku on your case."
The theory on the failure of Kiba, Shino, Ino, and Neji was due to too much interference from elsewhere. While it was perceived that Naruto was the one that killed Shino and Neji, it was reported that the male and female disciples in the Ryouzanpaku camp were the ones that dealt the defeats to Kiba and Ino and were openly and vocally noted of being friends with Konoha's wayward ninja.
That was something a little too stiff to send the way of genin. Even chunin.
"Those people huh?" Kakashi idly wondered, nose buried into his book as he weaved through the human traffic on the sidewalk, "Well at least I won't die if I'm caught. I'll just feel like I did." A little joke was always nice, "You tangled with them recently didn't you? Any advice?"
"Yeah, don't attack the kid until you have a bonafide clear shot at him." Asuma said, "If it's a scenario anything like my little impromptu try on him, don't take it. Make sure you know what's up before you take your chance, because if they find out you tried something you won't get a second chance as easily."
"Relax Asuma." Kakashi assured him just before they parted ways to adhere to their own business, "If anyone should be set up to do something like this, I'm the only one with the right to take care of my handler's son."
XxX
(Ryouzanpaku Dojo – Hot Spring)
A successful mission to retrieve one of her father's swords completed, Shigure decided to take a break after returning before she would destroy it and after the day she'd had there was no better place to relax for a bit than in the on-property hot spring, even late at night.
She'd shooed Naruto on home after they'd gotten back to the train station in town and told him that she'd be seeing him tomorrow. Apparently now that he'd learned his mother's Spiral Cycle stance to satisfaction, training tomorrow was going to be 'fun'. Whether it was going to be fun for him or fun for her she didn't specify, and that in of itself sent a shiver down his spine.
Either way, when getting home she had been quick to store away the broadsword for later demolition and went to take a bath. Miu, who was still awake, decided to join her before going to bed.
"So, to be absolutely positive Shigure-san…" Miu started to say as she sat naked at the edge of the hot spring, "…Naruto-kun's still alive right? He didn't die out there and you're hiding it until he doesn't show up for a few days or anything like that? He's alive?"
"Yes." Shigure answered, submerged up to her chest in the water, "…Why would you think he was dead?"
"No reason! Just asking because he didn't come back with you!" Miu hurriedly declared before tapping a finger off of her chin in thought, "Well if he isn't dead, did he get 'Apachai'ed' again?"
"No, he just went home." Shigure assured her, sinking down to her neck in the water out of discomfiture, "Why do you think he'd get hurt or killed just… because he's with me?"
Honestly, Miu was sure that out of herself, Kenichi, and Naruto, any one of them going with any of the masters had a better than average chance of something bad happening to one of them. Fortunately here she had past evidence to use, "The first thing you made him do when you trained him was make him run around in rush-hour freeway traffic."
"…So?" She needed to see what she had to work with didn't she? That was as good a way as any.
Well eventually Miu conceded that it didn't really matter. If anything was amiss, everyone would know by tomorrow morning and if everything was fine it wouldn't be an issue anyway.
"Tee-hee."
What the hell? Did they just hear that?
Shigure couldn't sense anything, but she knew that she'd heard something. Living there with a pervert like Ma Kensei, she knew how this whole song and dance was supposed to go. Luckily she always kept a sharp weapon well within reach even when sans clothing.
As subtly as she could she reached out of the spring and felt her fingertips touch the hilt of her sword, "No..." In a sudden move she rushed out of the water in the direction where she heard the pleased little laugh come from, "…Peeking!"
"Woop-woop-woop!" A silver-haired blur cried out, dodging a slash that cleared every bit of foliage in that general direction higher than five feet off of the ground. In the midst of he figure's dodging he honed in on an alarmed Miu who had stood up after Shigure had initiated her attack.
It was just too good of a target for him to ignore. How could he possibly resist?
"Wah!" Miu cried out, feeling a pair of hands grab her breasts. But before she could even begin to think of lashing out with a retaliatory punch there was nothing for her to take aim at, "What in the world?"
"No touching!" Shigure said, able to take advantage of the intruder's temporary interest in Miu to close the distance on him and attack with a swift and accurate downward slash, "Kousaka Slash!"
Everything came to an end as Shigure brought her long sword down, seemingly catching the enemy down the face, straight down the middle as he reared his head back out of the path of the swing.
After several seconds of no movement, Jiraiya pulled his head back forward to reveal that Shigure had cut through his turtle-shell glasses, sending them falling off of his face, "…Those cost 50,000 yen." His eyes panned over her body and a grin crossed his face, "I'll forgive you though. The show was worth every bit of it."
"W-Who are you even supposed to be?" Miu asked, submerging herself back underwater to preserve what crumbs were left of her dignity, "How did you even get this far into the property?"
"Sneaking into even heavily guarded military compounds is mere child's play for the greatest ninja in all of the underworld; the almighty Jiraiya." Jiraiya boasted before feeling the tip of Shigure's sword push against his chest. With a roll of his eyes he put his finger on the blade of the sword and moved it away, "Alright, can you put that thing away already before someone gets hurt? Seriously, I've snuck in here four times before already. I let you find me this time."
"Konoha didn't want him so… leave him alone." Shigure declared resolutely, "I won't let you kill him."
"I'm not going to. I'm actually trying to whip him and his little motley crew into halfway decent ninjas." Jiraiya defended, "I just wanted to finally meet the woman that my brat of an apprentice is willing to stick his neck out for." Jiraiya said, staring completely unfettered at the pair of women in the hot spring, "I'm assuming that it's the dark cutie right here since she's the only one that could react to me. That and she was the one who was good enough to try and take my head off twice just now."
Shigure held her sword up at Jiraiya, not minding her own nudity in that instance while Miu scrambled to wrap a towel around herself, "…And?"
Jiraiya took a moment to examine her up and down. Hey, if she was offering him the free view it was only polite as a guest to take her up on the offer to look, "I have to say… I can't really blame the kid. He's got good taste."
Naruto was more like him than Jiraiya would ever get him to admit even under threat of torture, whether he knew it or not. The blonde girl his age was fine and would only increasingly be so over time. The woman with the sword was impeccable, and she couldn't have been any more than five or six years Naruto's senior.
Shigure's face didn't react to anything that he'd said. She still didn't trust the man, "What do you want?"
"To thank you actually." That was a surprising admission coming from one such as him, "Weapons were never really my strong suit and I wouldn't really have taught him anything other than stupid tricks with small arms. Those would have had a better chance of getting him killed than actually helping him grow."
Hearing Jiraiya thank her actually disarmed Shigure's attitude toward him, "You train him?"
"I teach him ninja techniques where you teach him how to own all with weapons." Jiraiya told her before getting gravely serious, "Don't ever go easy on him. That's my only request. You break him every single time you train with him. I don't want you to think that it was a good day if you can't doubt if he can walk home when he goes to leave. If you think you're going too hard, you're not going hard enough."
"That's a little much isn't it?" Miu asked with a dry look on her face.
Jiraiya just gave her a look as if to say, 'Aw, that's so adorable that you think I care about your opinion girlie,' before he addressed her, "Look, in addition to the whole Konoha thing, I'm fully aware of the fact that because he's associated with you people he's a target for Yami now, and they're going to send their brats after him, you, and the weak-knee kid because you three are Ryouzanpaku. I don't fight kids, alright? So I'm gonna torture that little fucker to the point where nothing anyone does to him in a real fight will be any more dangerous than what I do to him in practice."
"Again, a little much."
"Well tough. Because that's the only way I'm letting him out to play with killers." Jiraiya said before looking around suspiciously, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm getting the hell out of here before Fuurinji realizes I'm here, because that old bastard ALWAYS knows, and I ain't dealing with him tonight."
Shigure blinked before pointing over in Miu's direction. She wanted to get one over on Jiraiya somehow if at all possible, "…Miu is the Elder's granddaughter." Jiraiya paled and slowly looked between the two women before taking off faster than Miu's eyes could keep up with, "There. He won't peek on you… again."
If only she knew. He just didn't want to deal with Hayato. That didn't mean it would necessarily stop him from trying again at some point later. He was drawn to looking at girls in bathhouses, and even the Invincible Superman wouldn't keep him from getting in if he really wanted to.
Aside from that, Jiraiya peeking on them in the future was the least of their concerns. He'd been carrying a notebook that they'd missed out on after Shigure had attacked him.
That would be something to think on later, after Ma Kensei walked around the dojo with his nose in a brand new book with an orange cover, constantly looking at Miu and Shigure without actually trying to sneak a panty shot of them. They would wonder why, and without getting to the to-be published book they would never know.
Alright, first of all a shout-out to my main-main man, username Shisora (because using his real name is not standard procedure for the internet), who seriously hooked me up with an absolutely obscene amount of beef jerky. And by 'obscene amount' I need to make sure that I'm not understating this at all.
I got one box mailed to me Saturday morning with 32 fucking bags of brand name goddamn beef jerky in it. And then after I recovered from my seizure upon finding it and stood back up, I messaged him to thank him, and he told me that another box was supposed to be coming, which arrived on Tuesday.
I woke up a few minutes later at that point, and instead of finding it to be a beef jerky related fever dream I found that I'd simply blacked out after reading his very informative email.
In case you haven't noticed, I have several crippling Achilles' Heel traits that can stop me in a heartbeat; amongst other things they include a surgically repaired knee that craps out on me in cold weather, an irrational fear of the literal unseen (not ghosts or anything, just fear of getting caught off-guard), and the one that is currently on display in my rant which would be that I am a sucker for beef jerky.
So yeah, in closing… Shisora brother, you're badass, and I can't say enough on the tail end of a fanfic chapter to convey my gratitude, because I needed a win lately like nobody's business and the last thing I expected was the thing I do for absolutely no profitable benefit whatsoever resulting in me actually getting something.
Anyway, this chapter was meant to establish something on Naruto and Shigure's relationship, that he sees her as more than just a teacher and more closer to something like some sort of family. Hopefully I conveyed that well. I didn't want to go overboard, but maybe I didn't make it stick hard enough. I don't know.
Now, other than that I've got nothing really to say. I hope you enjoyed.
Kenchi out.