[AN: loving all the feedback. I might start updating a bit slower next month. Unfortunately I have to submit a proposal for my masters degree soon. However, I will be updating as soon as I can manage.]
KO
Given his secret mission that would inevitably lead to his demise or civil war, Ko had not expected to enjoy any part of this mission escorting the Nara's to Suna. The small spar had been successful distraction from his turbulent thoughts and an enjoyable one at that.
Kotetsu and Izumo were certainly Jonin level. As he'd suspected, Ayaka was also fared extraordinary well in close combat. Shikamaru, well he'd have to work on a few things if he ever wanted to be a Jonin. There was potential there though. the younger Nara had that spark of intuition where he knew when to admit defeat and regroup. There were few in the shinobi ranks that could boast the same sense of self preservation.
Even the most naive of soldiers could be molded into the best of tools. Every shinobi village was aware of this. Even the Sannin had been mere genin once. Ko himself was a Jonin, an elite, against the odds. Nobody cared what their tools were at the end of the day, as long as they got the job done.
There was something amazing about being the last man standing in a spar with individuals as talented as Ayaka, Kotetsu and Izumo. Fair enough, they weren't going all out and it had been sheer dumb luck he wasn't a part of the tangle of limbs that he was staring warily at but, by kami, Ko had actually won.
The mock spar had been going pretty evenly, minus the Nara heir, until Ayaka had brought ninja wire into the fray. Unfortunately, she herself had gotten tangled up in her own plan. Ninja wire worked wonders on unarmed shinobi. Unfortunately, Kotetsu and Izumo, the targets of her wrath were experienced weapon users. The two wouldn't go down without taking her down with them. He was fortunate enough, as the only non weapon wielder to know to avoid the fuck out of ninja wire. It had paid of in the end, considering his current view of his opponents.
He could see by the scowl on Ayaka's face, that being sandwiched between Kotetsu and Izumo was definitely not on her agenda. Genma's face palm indicated that the senbon chewer hadn't expected the result either and yet he was somehow still not surprised.
The other two shinobi were also less than pleased. Izumo seemed about ready to hyperventilate in sheer awkwardness, while Kotetsu was worming around in discomfort, apparently oblivious to his partners state. Taking pity on the trio and noting that neither Shikamaru nor Genma made any attempts to help, he cut them free with a Kunai.
They didn't spare a single second in leaping apart. Kotetsu shoved the other two off him with a grumble. Ayaka immediately took it as an invitation to leap away to safety whilst Izumo hastily shot off in the opposite direction. If it wasn't a mission, Ko might have found it funny. He frowned at that. Kotetsu was the immature type, so that wasn't a huge shocker from the boisterous guard, but the other two did not share that particular trait. Whatever had them troubled was personal. It wouldn't do, he decided.
Technically as the winner of the spar, by Genma's 'sacred' approval which merely consisted of the man just pointing at him and a general unanimous assumption that he'd won, Ko was awarded a chance to choose the watches. Ko narrowed his eyes at the senbon chewing Jonin. So Genma would leave it up to him to force the two problematic parties to make peace.
His secret mission from the Hyuuga ignored, Ko took being ninja seriously. Whatever differences the pair had they'd best clear it up. It was simple shinobi protocol at this point.
"Shikamaru and I will do the first, Genma and Kotetsu next, Ayaka and Izumo last."
He paired each non-Jonin with a Jonin. So he knew none of them would object. Still, everyone looked a bit uncomfortable, aside from Shikamaru who was looking at him with more relief than Ko was comfortable with receiving. Without any vocal complaints, the others went of to catch some sleep while he and Shikamaru settled on a log in silence. He activated his Byakugan just in case. He didn't think anything would be out there, but after years as a bodyguard for Hinata, old habits died hard.
He really had to figure out what he was going to do. He couldn't just kill her on the way to Suna. This team was too good to leave her unguarded and he'd be caught instantly. He didn't fancy his chances against the lot of them as well. The spar had proved they were dangerous. He had little delusions that had it been three against one, he would have lost in a spectacular way. Genma, he suspected, was much better than the trio when it came to the basics of combat in the field. Shikamaru himself despite his tendencies was the best of his group and had become chuunin very long ago.
Yet, there would also be more guards in Suna too. He would not be able to pull this off subtly even if he wanted to.
She was tough one. Ayaka wasn't going to just roll over and die. If he wanted to defeat her in a battle he'd have to out manouvre her. It was possible, she was only human and a flawed one at that based on her immaturity she'd displayed along with Izumo. If the mock battle proved anything, close combat was her battle to lose. Unfortunately, he was a close range fighter too.
Ko felt like every time he even contemplated a plan he was signing a death warrant for himself. Besides, he didn't even want the girl dead! She and her unusual ways had really made Neji loosen up. Frankly, at one point Ko had been convinced Neji Hyuuga would turn into the second coming of Itachi Uchiha. Did everyone not remember the outcome of the chuunin exams preliminaries? Fair enough, there'd been an invasion to worry about, however nobody could deny the Hyuuga prodigy had a darker side to him. Or at least he used to, before he'd discovered the opposite sex.
Should he tell Ayaka about the elders orders? He wasn't certain that might be enough to spare him. The kazekage was also responsible for her safety. He could be executed on the spot in Suna! A loud snore drew him from his mental monologue as he stared at Shikamaru in disbelief. The younger man was out cold.
"Fucking Nara's, " he groaned before something caught his eye. Instantly alert, he gripped Shikamaru painfully by the shoulder, yanking the boy from his slumber. To his credit, Shikamaru woke instantly and immediately was on guard like any shinobi his senior would be. Perhaps Ko's expression had scared him. Pushing his eyes to the limit, Ko felt nothing was disturbed. Still, it was suspicious. The night was almost too quiet and any tracker knew that it was not a good sign. He may sound paranoid, but instincts told him that there was something there.
"Something is out there, " he says, sure of the conclusion he has come to. Shikamaru glances about. He's wary and Ko's glad for it. Complacent shinobi died young and it seemed both Nara's were far from it.
"Should we tell the other's? "
He shakes his head in response to Shikamaru's query as he strains his gaze. The forest is quiet so on paper he must be mistaken, for he can see nothing unusual in the dark of night. If there was danger though, he wagered it would attack when they were not on high alert. Most likely when they hit the road again, and outside Fire country.
"We warn them on the next shift to careful. I can't be certain it's not a shinobi but if it was a they're not there anymore. " He instructs the younger man, with seriousness etched on his features.
He's impressed with the youngsters ability to concentrate. Shikamaru was also trying to locate whoever his eyes were missing. Unfortunately it didn't help. If someone was there, they do not want to be seen. Even with the others placed on alert, he doubted whoever it was would be so easily revealed. He was the best sensor on this team. If he saw nothing, they would not either. As far as he knew he was this teams closest thing to a half decent sensory type.
"I don't see anything but will let the others know when we wake them up for the next shift, " Shikamaru says and Ko nods in mutual agreement. For his youth, Shikamaru was fairly reasonable. If he would work on his stamina, Shikamaru might even be impressive sight one day commanding a battlefield, or so Ko predicts.
Shikamaru's cousin was correct about one thing, potential needed experience to flourish . The spar earlier had proved that Shikamaru wasn't ready. He wasn't yet a true leader, he didn't know battle like they did, and he was glad that Shikamaru seem to know it too. At least the boy deferred to him, despite him only being a lowly branch family member of his clan. Shikamaru is smart, Ko decides. He cannot see the boy's father making the same decision. The Nara head was a leader since childhood - with war experience under his belt, and he was an obstinate one. It was probably the only reason both Nara's were even on this mission. They did not trust the judgement of their clan head. A dangerous decision for an hear or a spare to make. A lesser leader than Shikaku would consider their rebellion as a major insubordination. A lesser clan would have one, if not both of them dead.
Ko hasn't forgotten there's something out there that also wants the would be Nara heir or heiress dead. Perhaps, he muses, he need only wait. Whatever is in the may just prove to be exactly what he needed. Why stress about doing a job somebody else was ready to do it for you?
Ko liked Ayaka, well enough to not want to kill her. However he also likes being alive. It was a rock and a hard and he knew, by Kami's will, he was stuck.
There would be death in the desert. Exactly who would die, Ko could not guarantee. It may well be his own head on a plate.
SAI
He crept as close as he dared to the camp. For a body guard squad, this was excessive. Fair enough, the Nara girl had been attacked several times already but he couldn't imagine the Hokage picking this team.
She was meant to have compiled the team herself. So how had she gotten a pair of the villages best guards, a Kage's elite body guard and an elite bodyguard of the Hyuuga clan? Hawk had not anticipated this surely, else he would have sent more agents. Sai was good, but not good enough to get by three Jonin and two Tobekstu Jonin.
As it stood, attacking now would be a kin to suicide on his part. He was only a chuunin himself, although he supposed Danzo would have him entered in the next exams.
He'd have no choice but to make his move on Shikamaru in Suna. He wagered they'd focus more on the girl, leaving the chuunin as easy picking.
His ink mice had eyes on each pair as they went about the camp. The pair with the Hyuuga was the most suspicious of his presence. The second were equally so. The final pair spend the time bickering in an awkward argument, displaying a startling array of emotions Sai couldn't even begin to decipher.
He struggled to understand the emotional stressing in their voices. The woman was awfully upset. The man was equally apologetic. At least that was what he understood. However there was another emotion that lingered, something he thought was pride. The last shift left him with questions. Why did people allow themselves to get bothered by something as arbitrary as emotional distress? It was entirely inappropriate for soldiers of the Leaf to behave like this, or at least that was what he'd always been told.
Emotions were things he often he did not understand. Yet, when he found himself thinking of a certain blonde, Ino, he couldn't help but want to decipher the emotions that flicker across the beautiful face she had. So it was crucial for his research to observe the team and their emotions.
It wasn't easy. Root was not kind to shinobi that prove to want to learn about certain forbidden things. However he checked out a couple books, an ANBU had jokingly recommended out loud in his presence. 'Emotions for dummies'. The librarian had looked at him rather strangely when he checked it out. He'd informed her she was more hideous when she looked at people before getting thrown out. Despite attracting more attention than he'd planned, he couldn't imagine Hawk finding out about his library record.
So he found himself paging through the book, trying understand why the pair in front of head had gone from incredibly awkward to comfortable with each other in the space of a single argument.
They were an interesting lot for the sake of his studies. Even if he had to kill Shikamaru, he hoped a few of the others would be spared. He might observe them again sometime, in order to help himself work exactly the mechanisms of having an emotional capacity.
Perhaps then he might understand why the Yamanaka seems to fascinate him so much. He understands lust, he thinks and while she is beautiful he still finds himself curious about other things. Things that have nothing to do a painting those curious blue of her eyes or sketching her plentiful curves.
He wants to know her mind. He wants to what she enjoys. He wonders what she hates. When he kills her team member in the dunes of Suna, is she fragile enough to break? Or would she vow to kill an assassin?
He has no delusions that the Yamanaka heiress has killed, she's a chuunin after all. It would be impossible to not have taken a life . However he couldn't image those uncalloused hands in the heat of battle.
He finds her curious thing but Root did not do curious.
She's forbidden and he likes that. He could only wish he understood why.
KANKURO
Nobody in Suna could best his older sister when she was in a bad mood. Even his brother, on the rare occasion, would make himself scarce when the eldest Subaku was in a mood. Unfortunately he was the poor soul, she had decided to unleash he wrath on.
Normally fighting her was an exhilarating experience. Nobody was quite as well-rounded as she was in the desert. She was good strategist and an even better fighter. There were few things in life that his sister didn't excel in. Suna was Temari's playground, more so than it had ever been his own. The very desert, he decides, is Temari's friend. The wind is ravaging and the sun takes its side blending into the harshest of conditions only she could revel in. The wind provides no relief to the sun in Suna. In fact, it carries the heat and Kankuro swears he can feel it in his bones burning down to his core.
Even a blind man could see that the spitting beast of a woman in front of him was at her wit's end. The council had come forth with another proposal for Temari's hand.
A pompous royal ass twice her age was proposed as a possible fiancé. She had opposed it before he and his brother could interject. They had backed her, of course, but the princess was fuming. He could not blame her at the end of the day, for someone as accomplished and royal as her to marry for the wealth was unthinkable. Suna's economic condition aside, even he could realize that his sister's marriage would do little to improve the conditions. The council was naive to think non shinobi royalty would bail them out. They needed missions. They needed new blood. They needed s - rank shinobi. They need to compete with all the lands without resorting to war.
His sister was not a suitable scapegoat, nor a superhero that could save them from themselves. She was a soldier and a princess. They had best respect her as such or it would hopefully be some fossils job to be here as a literal punching bag. As long as it wasn't him next time, he'd be happy.
He knows his sister secret. He knows exactly where she desires to be and who she desires to be with. He doesn't think his younger brother has any idea yet. Perhaps they're fortunate about that. Shikamaru is on his way and he wonders how the boy will react to knowing that Temari was under any pressure to be wed.
He knows that there will be some kind of fighting. If its not between the lovebirds, then of the Council and the one they once called Spider in Konoha.
He doesn't even bother with his puppets. Temari needs the release of something more savage. Now that his brother was stable, it was easy to see that his sister was most volatile of three. Temari no Subaku personified the harshness that was synonymous with being a shinobi of the desert. Not that his brother was particularly great at controlling his temper or being but he made the effort that his sister never would. She was an abrasive woman.
He allowed himself to be pummeled, mostly because he knew someone had to do it and he himself was resilient enough to outlast her. Besides he couldn't really poison his sister even in a spar. Let's face it, his pockets and puppets were coated in that stuff. Who knew what a flesh wound from one of his weapons would do?
She needed the kind of fight that would result in blood, sweat and tears. It wasn't really his cup of tea but he would indulge her this time. It would do no good to just put her in the infirmary just before her beloved arrived anyway.
He was covered in bruises but so too is the desert princess. They breathe heavy, she slumped against her fan and he about ready to fall to his knees. Kankuro can taste blood in his mouth, Temari had clipped his face with the edge of her tessen already. He's struck her strategically though, his sharp blow to her shoulder would make it difficult to swing her heavy tessen about like a club.
Yet, the wind picks up once again and there is a flash of danger in teal eyes as he watches her drop the tessen and raise her fists. It's a salient challenge - no a plea- for something more carnal than even lust or liquor. She's begging for a fight and nobody can deny the call for battle when one presents it the way Temari does. Kankuro doesn't dare drop to his knees, dare he insult a princess, and instead he leaps at Temari to engage her in aggressive Taijutsu. She will leave bruises on his frame and he's embarrassed to say that even at his best he has not done the same to her.
Kankuro had always favored speed over brute strength when it came to Taijutsu. Temari was his opposite in that regard. Gaara, with his sand had completely forsaken Taijutsu in his youth. He may take the odd lesson from Shira these days, but he was a novice in comparison to the two of them. Baki had trained them both in youth but even as kids, it had been easy to see that Temari had a better grasp of the art.
Not that Kankuro lacked talent in the area. Yet, it was hard to compete with her when he simply disliked Taijutsu to begin with.
It was basic physics, Temari threw her weight behind chakra enhanced blows, which increasing her momentum and resultant force output. He tried to do the same, by increasing the velocity of his blows, thus increasing his momentum and therefore the force output he could pack.
However Temari had always better form and it showed in the results. She's good at this, the raw violence of a fist fight while Kankuro much prefers finesse in his action. Why would he want to touch a sweaty, smelly opponent under normal circumstances? Taijutsu was his last fallback if puppetry, poison and Genjutsu did not work.
Normally he wouldn't use Taijutsu against Temari, but some things in the desert remain a fact. One never denies a princess out for violence and certainly not one that wasn't unwilling to spill blood in the desert.
He could only hope that Shikamaru would have better luck taming the storm that was Temari no Subaku than he did. Else, the blood the desert claimed next may very well be the young Nara heir's.
