Chapter 34 – A Princess's Determination: Part 3 – The Daimyo's Daughter
The pair of shinobi found Aina in the back courtyard where the guards trained. A pile of knives lay on the ground beside her, blades going every which way. She picked another up, stuck out her tongue in concentration, and threw the weapon with all her strength at the target in front of her. The blade bounced off and fell to join a number of its fellows at the target's feet. Aina stomped her foot in frustration and muttered to herself.
"My Lady," Haku said, stopping a respectful distance away, "if you'd like, I can show you a better way to throw."
The little girl spun around, her voice full of anger. "No! I can do it. Nobody thinks I can, but I can!"
"She never said you couldn't, Princess. She was only offering a little advice." Amaya was surprised by how quickly Aina had become angry. Surely, no one would've outright told her she wasn't using the right technique.
"You two will be just like the guards. I ask them to teach me, but they never really do. I mostly have to watch while they throw," the Daimyo's daughter said, folding her arms.
Amaya held back a sigh; this was going to be a long mission. "Well, Aina-hime, that's really for your own safety. Knives are dangerous and your father doesn't want you to get hurt."
"Is that why he told the guards not to give me lessons anymore? I'm not a baby. I won't cut myself." Aina reached blindly at her feet for another knife.
Haku darted forward in time to grab her wrist before her hand clamped around one of the knives.
She tore from his grip. "What was that for?"
The dark-haired nin picked up the knife his charge had been reaching for. "You would've cut your hand on this. You weren't looking, my Lady."
Aina huffed. "Whatever. I'm tired of practicing anyway."
"Then what would you like to do?" Amaya asked, hoping the child would say she wanted to play quietly in her room.
"You're ninja, right?"
"Yes," was the kunoichi's hesitant response.
"Teach me be sneaky."
Haku crouched down beside the little girl. "Why would you want to learn that, Princess?"
"Because I want to prank people without getting caught. I always get caught and it's no fun if the person lets you prank them."
Pranks, Amaya could do pranks. Pranks wouldn't get the Princess hurt, though she was sure Aina hadn't given up on the knife-throwing. While she wasn't sure why, the auburn-haired Jonin sensed that gaining this skill was important to Aina. Hopefully she and Haku could reach the bottom of Aina's determination and sway her to a different path. Fighting wasn't something a child outside a shinobi Village needed to worry about, especially not the daughter of a Daimyo.
"Well," Haku said, a smile spreading on his face, "I do know the best prankster in all of Konoha."
Aina's eyes widened, her expression full of awe. "You mean the Blonde Bane?"
"... Who?" The shinobi shared a questioning glance.
"The Blonde Bane! Stealthy as shadows and mysterious as the night. He undoes injustice wherever he finds it," she sighed dreamily.
"... Huh?" Amaya tried to wrap her mind around the name with little success. Surely this little girl from another country wasn't talking about Naruto.
"He's the best! Traveling merchants have told me all kinds of stories about him. Oh, I wish I could meet him."
His smile firmly in place, Haku spoke in a confidential tone. "You know, Hime, I know the Blonde Bane personally. I could get him to send you an autograph when we go back."
"Really?" the Daimyo's daughter squealed.
"Really," the medic nin promised solemnly.
The little girl squealed again. In a rush, she told the nin to wait while she retrieved her pranking supplies. As the Princess left, they glanced at one another again.
"We don't tell him. Agreed?" Amaya said.
"Agreed; but it's a shame he can't be here."
"Then we'll just have to enjoy it for him."
The quiet allowed Amaya to return to her thoughts while they waited for Aina. She frowned; maybe she was wrong. Maybe the Daimyo's daughter should have some sort of training. She remained silent for a moment later before addressing Haku. "Do you think I'm a hypocrite?"
"About what?"
"I don't think we should train Aina to fight, but children in Konoha younger than her are learning the very skills she wants."
"I learned to fight because I had to. It was that or starve on the streets alone. Zabuza gave me a purpose, taught me to fight for something. More importantly, I think, he taught me to fight to protect what's precious to me. Maybe that's what we should do for her. Help her discover what's precious to her and teach her to fight to protect that and only that. At least until she's older."
His words made sense. In the Academy, teachers tried to instill that same notion into students. Amaya remembered her teacher taking an entire day to talk about why ninja fight. Most of the students had ignored him. Most of them never became Genin. "Maybe knowing why to fight and what to fight for was something every shinobi needed if they wanted to stay human. Without it, you became either an animal or a walking corpse."
The dark-haired nin nodded. "It keeps us human, even when everything around us tries to strip that away. What Zabuza taught me is part of the reason I wanted to become a medic nin. I never enjoyed killing, wouldn't if I could avoid it, but it took me until meeting Naruto to realize that Zabuza wasn't the only precious thing to me. Life was precious."
Running footsteps halted their conversation. Aina, her arms full, ran towards them fast as her little legs would carry her. She dumped her collection of small paint cans, paper, brushes, and rolls of tape at their feet. "Here. Can we go paint something like the Blonde Bane did to the Hokage faces?"
"Slow down there, Aina-hime," Haku said, kneeling beside her. "Let's start with something simple. The Blonde Bane didn't become a master prankster by getting in over his head."
"Simple? Like what?"
"'Kick me' signs."
"You there! Guard! Come here." Amya thanked the gods Kazuma was the guard she'd spotted. At least she'd be able to get him to go along with the Princess's plan.
As he walked towards her, pretending to not know her as was their instructions, she signaled with a small jerk of her hand to ignore the person creeping up on him.
She saw him twitch, doing his best to suppress his instinct. He curled an uncurled his fingers while he spoke. "Yes? What can I do for you?"
"I...uh...thought I saw someone peering over the wall."
His hand balled into a fist as Aina, who rode on Haku's back, gently placed the sign on him. "Oh, really?"
The mischievous pair quietly left once the sign was in place. "I'm not sure. I thought I did, but my eyes could've been playing tricks on me."
"I'll go check it out then." Kazuma smiled at her, but she knew there was pay-back in her future. He'd never taken kindly to her pranks as a Genin and apparently the years hadn't made him any more fond of them now. He walked off just as Raido, having heard their conversation, appeared from around the house. The two nin passed and a grin lit up the scarred nin's face. He lashed out, making Kazuma stumble, which set off delighted giggles from the shadows. The ANBU walked away grumbling, unknowing that many of the younger guards would follow in Raido's footsteps.
The scarred nin inclined his head to Amaya as he passed, a grin still on his face. After he disappeared around the other side of the house, Aina and Haku stepped from the shadows. The little girl clinging to the medic nin giggled again. "That was fun. What next?"
Sighing, Amaya followed Haku, who held a half-asleep Aina in his arms. She slid the door to the Princess's room open and the medic nin tucked the little girl into bed. She'd gotten bored of pranking later in the day and instead started causing mischief. She'd stolen the cook's best blade and tried to recreate her knife-in-the-apple stunt. Instead of the apple she'd been aiming for, she almost hit the cook's apprentice, who'd been carrying a large pot and couldn't really see past it. Only her speed had saved the young boy. The Princess then decided to run away from them when they took her to the shops to look for an orange outfit like her hero, the Blonde Bane. They were going back out again tomorrow since they couldn't find anything.
"Do you think the Daimyo would object if we put her on a leash?" Amaya asked quietly as she and Haku made their way through the silent house to their room.
"I think he might," Haku said, laughter in his voice.
"That's too bad. You know she's going to run away again tomorrow."
"I know. We'll just have to keep a close eye on her."
"That'll be easier said than done."