Okay. I managed to draw one fan page of this comic which brings my total pages to two. Thank you CuddlyChristina for helping me write it.
OOO
Later that night, they all set up camp, and Koki even helped Rei and Haro take care of Dato.
Dato didn't like them, they were strangers and smelled of blood over Haro who smelled nice.
It growled until Haro went up to Dato with a reassuring smile, stroking its fur as he told it, "It's gonna be okay, they're here to help you with those wounds of yours."
"You made friends with a wolf? But...how was that even possible?" Rei asked.
"Must be wolfs like time travelers." Koki replied.
"Actually, I was meditating in a cave when Dato took a nap next to me. It didn't have any intention to eat me alive, and Dato became some sort of companion towards me." Haro told them.
"Or maybe it had intentions but wasn't trained how to eat you so it befriended you." Koki joked.
Haro let out a small chuckle, once again rubbing Dato's head. "Tomorrow, we get to work making ourselves stronger." he said.
"And I get to finally look around to see if I can find my parents. They'll be young and I can't interact with them, but at least I can try to know what they were like since they died when I was young." Koki said. "I'll even settle for finding only one parent."
"And maybe I'll live up to my dad's name." Rei added.
"Agreed." Haro replied, nodding his approval.
The days were like stunts gone wrong. Haro tried doing more basic ninja acts only to fail with every attempt.
It seemed that Taiyuri stole much of his chakra, and occasionally Rei and Koki would offer some of their own chakra to help him out.
"Wow...he has most of your chakra, so that you're probably defenseless against any enemy?" Koki asked.
Haro looked at him with eyes that said "Really? Do you really want to ask me that."
Haro didn't say anything mean spirited though because it wouldn't help him with his predicament. "I wouldn't be so helpless if I had a katana."
"All Koki and I have are kunai and shurikens." Rei responded.
"Sorry Haro, maybe you can break into a shop and steal a bladed weapon." Koki said.
"I am trying to grow up to be a medical nin and how can I be one after stealing?"
Koki laughed, and replied, "I'm only kidding! But seriously, there has to be a way to get our hands on a katana without any stealing involved."
Haro didn't have any ideas except get out of their procarious position.
"We could try and make enough money to get a katana; what do you say?" Haro asked.
"You mean WORK? Are you that serious?" Rei asked.
"Do you have any better ideas? I'm sure even your father needed to work sometimes."
"Pssst."
The three turned to the direction of the sound to see someone wearing a cloak. A girl from her nose.
"Excuse me, but...who are you?" Haro noticed the girl and asked her.
"You sound like you're looking for a weapon, are you?" she replied.
Instead of waiting for an answer, she showed the group a bag. This bag had Rei's sash's and Koki's shurikens. They chased her for it. For a girl wearing a cloak she was fast, but it seemed to be over the chase when she threw the bag on a tree branch.
Koki confidently jumped up to grab it, but the branch fell wifh the bag with it. Rei ran over to it to catch it. Just when it was in her reach, the girl leaped and grabbed the bag. She then continued running away from the group.
"Oh, I almost forgot; I have some of your items!" she added.
Haro, with as much stamina as he could, had ran to find her, and was almost out of breath once he saw her. "Listen, miss...I happen to be looking for a katana I can use; most of my chakra has been sucked dry by that bastard Taiyuri, and I'm looking to get it back, too!" he told her.
"Come to my cabin and I'll give you something. Won't be anything like what you've used before."
Haro and her walked together to the cabin she mentioned. When he walked in, he saw an array of weapons on the wall from katana's to kunai. It was heart breaking seeing they belonged to other ninja's.
"So you'd steal other peoples's weapons?" Haro asked.
Rei, Koki and Dato also arrived at the cabin and were just as astonished as Haro.
"No. Stealing is not something I do. I see ninja's fight for the sake of their Hokage or the sake of their emperor, and perish in battle. KIA is more up to speed to what happens to your kin, ninja."
"That's one hell of a history right there; also my name's Haro. And you are?" Haro asked.
"I'm Tanpopo." Tanpopo replied.
"Interesting...right now, I'm trying to look for a katana that can help me in combat, since most of my chakra has, as I've explained earlier, has been stolen from a former friend named Taiyuri." Haro said.
"Okay. I have a certain blade. It will cost five thousand ryo."
Haro's eyes widened in shock. He didn't have that kind of money, or money for that matter. He thought she brought him here to give him a free blade. Before he could reply, she did a ninja disappearing into thin mist technique before reappearing with a katana in a scabbard. Unlike normal black cone shaped scabbards, it was a wooden block scabbard.
"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't have that much money on me." he told her.
"Really? That's awful...alright, I'll give it to you for free." Tanpopo replied.
"You will?" he asked.
"Oh, definitely. I'm 100% honest with you." she said.
She handed the blade over to Haro. Haro naively took the blade away from her. He then proceeded to leave her house, however, he felt the blade was missing. He turned around to see her holding it before she threw it in the air.
"Catch it so you can-"
The blade almost hit the floor if she hadn't caught it before it hit the ground. "I'm sorry, catch it so you can keep it. What good is a ninja if they can't catch their blades in record speed?"
Once again, she threw it in the air right before Haro jumped high enough to touch the ceiling. He grabbed it, and his fingers couldn't grasp it. He tried again, and his fingers couldn't grasp it. He tried catching it in a flurry of grabs...he couldn't catch it once. It landed in Tanpopo's fingers.
Clenching his teeth, Haro watched as the blade went in the air again, and as he jumped, his hand reached for it, and finally, his fingers, slowly but steadily, took hold of it.
This impressed Tanpopo, so much so that she said, "That's pretty impressive, I'll give you that."
"So you'll give me this blade now?" He asked.
"Yes. I'll let you have it..." Smoke appeared as an identical katana in a scabbard appeared in her hands. "Use it to fight me. First rule of important possessions: always carry a spare."
With the katana in his hands, Haro took a deep breath. 'It's time for me to redeem myself,' he thought to himself.
He swiftly moved one leg forward and sliced his blade in a disk slash. Tanpopo swung down and blocked the blade. She provided a surprising counterattack, slashing at Haro a few times, mainly in the upper body area. Haro felt very weak and those slashes really hurt his skin. Hopefully it didn't leave scars.
He went right for Tanpopo's upper area as well, his katana sharp enough to almost leave a mark on her body. The blade even unraveled a part of her cloak, causing it to hit to the ground. Tanpopo took a deep breath trying to ignore the cut on her robes.
"Did you just unravel my cloak?" she asked.
"I didn't mean to." Haro replied.
She rolled her eyes at his statement, before lunging towards him and looking to strike. Haro almost cried like a girl when her jab was fast and swift.
However, he blocked her next attack, and he struck back by slashing at her a few times, and knocking her to the ground with the last jab. Tanpopo looked up at Haro, and was quite in awe at how someone as weak as Haro could best her in combat.
She raised her hand putting a halt to their combat. The next thing she did was stand up and shake hands with Haro.
Haro smiled at Tanpopo, and said, "Thank you."
"You're welcome. Congratulations on the win." she replied.
Haro blushed as he rubbed his hand on he back of his head.
"Thank you again, Tanpopo...but, you're not flirting with me, are you?" Haro asked.
"Of course not. Heck, what are you blushing about, anyway?" Tanpopo replied.
Haro tried to hide his face. Suddenly, a mask just appeared on his face like magic. It was really Tanpopo's doing.
"This belonged to another KIA ninja, but I cleaned the blood off."
"Huh...the blade's still good, right?" he asked.
"Definitely sharp as a knife." Tanpopo replied.
Haro was glad he had a weapon sharp as his former katana.
"Hey...one more thing. Are you a capable fighter? Because if you are, we would like you to accompany us." he said to her.
"Me? Well, isn't that obvious? I'm pretty good in combat. But joining you guys? Hmmm..." Tanpopo replied, before thinking it over.
She was a girl from the past Haro never even heard about. He could use her help and then he would go back to his own time without her.
"I'll go with it." Tanpopo finally said.
"You'll accompany us? Thanks!" Haro replied, shaking her hand.
Tanpopo left but not before taking one sentimental item from her home. She joined Haro who tried introducing her officially to Rei and Koki.
"Who are these guys?" she asked.
"Uh...let me rephrase that: these are my allies Rei and Koki, and my animal companion Dato." Haro replied.
Dato licked his lips before cloning himself into three Dato's. Tanpopo didn't know what to think about that.
"Is that...?" she asked, blinking in surprise.
"That's Dato's ability; he can make clones out of himself. Which is pretty cool, in my opinion." Haro replied.
Tanpopo was intrigued but like any ninja art she got over it quickly.
"Yeah, I see that...so what were you up to again?" Tanpopo asked. "Oh yeah, you were supposed to go after that Taiyuri guy."
All of them nodded their heads when she mentioned his name.
Tanpopo nodded back, and the group immediately took off on their journey.
Every few minutes they had to look over their shoulders to make sure they weren't being followed. If Taiyuri's plan worked, he would have killed the Daimyo and took over his place maybe using a transformation jutsu to look like him.
"You got any idea where's he's heading for?" Tanpopo asked.
Haro could chew on his fingernails from how much he didn't know about Taiyuri.
"I don't know..." he said.
"Is that so? Then we might need to ask people for clues."
