First Mission
(In some parallel universe I might own Naruto and or Boruto but in this one I only have my characters. Enjoy)
(^-^)
It was a quiet morning, birds were chirping, flowers were blooming. On days like this, kids like Zeko were training with a powerful drive. Akira was seated in the same clearing that he let the boys spar in, his arms were crossed and his eyes were shut. There was almost perfect silence in the small expanse of trees. The sound of a snapping twig came from his left but he paid it no mind, and focused his attention in the opposite direction. The leaves in the trees rustled loudly right when Akira opened his eyes, and he saw two figures leap from the canopy towards him. He focused on his sand armored son's enlarged right arm and noted that it was the closer of two attacks meaning that it was only supposed to hold him still for the, "Chidori!" For the aggressively charging human spear with jet black hair. Akira didn't struggle once the sand managed to work itself around his still seated form.
'I'm starting to wonder where that boy gets all that sand…' The human blade that was Kotetsu was directly in front of Akira with a confident smirk from their guaranteed win. Faster than either of the young Uchiha could process Akira was gone, Kotetsu didn't even manage to move his neck to look around before he was cracking the earth with his body. While his cousin was embedded in the ground Zeko took the small opening that he had and ripped his arm from its elongated armor.
"Tou-chan!" Akira looked up to his retreating son with curiosity, mainly due to having yelled for his attention instead of launching a surprise attack. Zeko reeled his right arm back and grit his teeth. "Suna shuriken!" He swung his arm in a blur and from it came multiple spirals of sand, looking closer Akira could see that his son's arm had a layer of sand over it that was slowly reforming after expending itself as the barrage of makeshift shuriken.
The man only shook his head and held out a hand to the first projectile. "I'm a little disappointed in you Zeko. You called out my attention just for-" He stopped once he felt a pinching in his hand, he brought it to his face and saw that one of his son's sand shuriken embedded itself through his palm. 'Oh shit.' He leapt away to dodge the remaining projectiles but he forgot about his nephew in the process. 'Oh double shit!' Kotetsu's body was riddled with shuriken before he could move himself away, but to Akira's relief a log of wood was in his place with a poof of smoke.
Zeko landed on the ground right when his arm looked perfectly human once again. "I practiced for that one all week Tou-chan!" The boy slammed his hands onto the ground and sent a wave of sand three meters high at his father.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!" Now Akira had a wave of land ahead of him and a gout of flame behind him, Kotetsu was to blame for the latter of the two.
"Akira-sensei." The female voice brought Akira's attention from his situation and so he casually jumped out of the path of both attacks to walk closer to the new arrival.
The flames collided with the wall of sand but didn't even slow down its course, seconds later the wave toppled a tree in the forest and finally lost its motion in the process. "Shiro-san, what brings you here? You don't have much to train for."
"My damn fireball! I put a lot of chakra in that!" Kotetsu was displeased at his attack being snuffed out so quickly by Zeko's sand but Shiro and Akira paid his hissy fit no mind.
"Okaa-sama wanted me to find ya for this." She extended a hand and gave Akira a scroll. The man whistled behind himself which caused his son to stop listening to his cousin's raving and come to Akira's side. "She said it'd be our first mission that ain't a D-rank."
Akira opened the document and read it silently while the kids around him distracted themselves with their own dialogue, Shiro took the chance to grab Zeko and hug him close to herself. "Shiro-nee…" The boy dragged. "Why right now? It's embarrassing for you to hold me like I'm a little kid." The girl only responded by wrapping her arms around his torso and lifting his much smaller form off the ground.
"Can't help it, always wanted a little brother to spoil. And to find out that Baka-Tetsu has an adorable little cousin just makes it better." While they were either embarrassed or embarrassing, Kotetsu stood just a bit away and eyed his cousin with feelings that he'd never felt flashing across his face. His hands were clenched and his teeth were lightly grinding in his closed mouth.
"Well great. Shiro, Kotetsu." The two preteens stood upright when Akira finally addressed them, although Shiro still had his son in her grasp. "Looks like you two are getting your first C-rank mission together, we're gonna be escorting a caravan to Amegakure. We set off in an hour so get everything you'll need."
Shiro grinned at the news and released Zeko while Kotetsu only turned and let out a simple, "Hn." He shrugged his shoulders before speaking again. "Better now than in another week, how the hell can a cat get out twice in a day?" He was referring to the earth daimyo's cat, the last week alone sent them chasing after it over a dozen times.
"I see it right there, I got a plan but one of us is gonna get scratched up so-" Kotetsu stopped once he heard the sound of a purring cat, he turned his twitching eyes forward to see his cousin scratching between the ears of a brown cat with a patch of white fur on its back.
Shiro moved from the bush they were hiding in as Zeko swept the cat into his arms, it moved into his touch with every motion. "Why'd they call it a little monster? She's cute." Shiro reached for the feline only for it to turn aggressive and do its best to claw her eyes out… Even though only her hand was available.
"I think that's why. Akira-sensei, we found the cat." She said into a microphone by her neck while Kotetsu kept his distance in fear of being on the receiving end of the feline's claws himself . "What's so special about ya that makes her be so friendly?" The older girl questioned as the cat calmed down and resumed enjoying Zeko's touch.
The boy only shrugged his shoulders while they began to head back to turn the feline in for the umpteenth time.
The two older kids ran off to gather whatever they felt like they'd need for their mission while Akira was left with his son.
Zeko was downtrodden once he heard the news, he knew very well that since he didn't have a hitai-ate yet he couldn't go on any missions. The boy was stuck with his aunt while his father and, heavily disliked, cousin went off. "I know why you're sad but I'd read the scroll myself if I were you." Akira held out said object and Zeko looked away from it.
In a flash the boy snatched the scroll and started reading through it. "Wait a second… Tou-chan why does it say that I'm part of the deliv-" The sound of something poofing from a storage scroll drew the boy's attention away and then the sound of the scroll hitting the ground was heard. In Akira's hands was an ash grey gourd the size of Zeko's body, and on it in light blue was the kanji for "Love".
"I wanted to give this to you when you became a Genin but now's a good-" The man couldn't finish his sentence due to the near bone crushing hug his son managed to wrap him in. Akira hugged back as Zeko captured the moment with his sharingan, of course only he knew it was active due to the seals below his eyes but that was neither here nor there. Eventually he had to break the hug and walk to his new gift with a giddy smile adorning his small face.
The boy grabbed the large gourd and found that it was currently empty, he strapped it around his torso and placed his cloak around his neck once again. He didn't have a mirror but a once over told him that he now looked the part of a sand user. "Thank you Tou-chan." The warm smile that his son had made Akira more happy than he'd been in some time and he'd treasure it as long as he could.
"This is fucking boring!"
The sound of a hand going against the back of a head echoed through the mountain range. "Watch your mouth Kotetsu!" Shiro obliged to strike the boy when he got overly vulgar in the presence of their employers and the child among them, said child was standing on top of a moving cart watching their flank. "You ain't corruptin my otouto before I get to see him as a Genin."
Shiro was seated on the leading cart and was looking back at her teammate. Calling what they were perched on simple carts wasn't doing them justice, technology moved forwards over time to the point where saying the caravan was a series of slow moving trucks. "We don't have anything like this in Suna, I wonder how it works." Zeko said without turning his attention from behind the caravan, his cousin leapt from his position in the middle of their convoy and joined him in the rear of the formation.
"I learned a little about it in the academy… Something about chakra conductive metals that manage to output it into energy that propels the entire vehicle forwards." Confusion didn't begin to describe what was all over Zeko's face in that moment so Kotetsu facepalmed and decided to break it down in layman's terms. "It takes in chakra and turns it to energy. Let's just talk about something else so I'm not fucking-" Another hard strike to the back of his head made Kotetsu stop talking entirely, this time however he turned to see that nobody was behind him.
"I guess Tou-chan doesn't like you swearing either." The two grew quiet over the next few hours as they passed into the land of grass. They decided to pick up on conversing again to pass the time.
"So you were gonna be named Ituza but your dad lost a Rock Paper Scissors match?"
"Heh, I like my name so I'm glad my mom won in the end."
Kotetsu shook his head. "Ituza sounds cooler but I can't talk much on names, I got named after some jonin in Konoha who died a long time ago. I didn't even think you were a boy when I first met you though, so maybe a name as nice as Ituza wouldn't fit you." An aura of depression surrounded the boy while his arms and head hung down.
"Not the first one to say that cousin, hurts a little more coming from you."
They grew quiet once they heard noises behind the convoy and they looked through the foliage with their crimson eyes, scanning for any possible movement or chakra flow. Kotetsu was the first to notice the six figures, poorly, hidden in the foliage. "Hn. Six bandits after the wrong delivery, I'll take the three on-" The cork on Zeko's gourd loudly popped off and cut Kotetsu off. "Slow down on the sand. None of them are shinobi but we can't be too careful."
"Careful, gotcha… I don't feel like it." Sand poured out of the gourd in a giant wave and swallowed the unfortunate plunderers in it before they could even reveal themselves.
"What are you idiots doing back there?!"
Kotetsu tensed and turned his head to respond. "Nothing Shiro!"
'Sabaku taisō.' A pair of clenched hands led to the sand collapsing around its victims, with anyone who wasn't watching being completely unaware. The sand slowly retreated back to Zeko's gourd while Kotetsu squinted in thought.
"How much can that thing hold? That was at least enough sand to fill my kitchen."
The platinum blonde was putting the cork back on his container when he dug up an answer. "It's a big gourd, and the sand is com- comper- compess-"
"Compressed?" Zeko nodded. "Still cheating to me, what kind of Uchiha can use sand anyway?"
Zeko brimmed with pride and looked to Kotetsu with a grin. "Don't be jealous cause you can't." Kotetsu loudly exhaled and dismissed himself back to the vehicle he'd been posted on.
'Hey brat, perfect timing.'
"Of course you're awake now, what is it Shukaku?"
The tanuki growled in annoyance from his host's disinterested tone. 'I almost don't wanna tell you now but I spent the last week figuring it out so it'd be a waste. The girl that whips your cousin, I can tell that one of my siblings is in her.'
"Shukaku she's… like me?"
'It's probably why she likes being around you. No doubt in my mind that she's got the Ox in her.'
The boy had to double take at the last piece of information. "Ox?" A hand on his back made him jump in fear but speak of the devil and she shall come
"Anything goin on back here Zeko-kun?"
"Nothing going on Shiro-nee, I'm just keeping an eye out."
The girl had a cocky grin on her face that only grew with each passing second. "Ya sure you weren't talking about the monster ox? Don't give me that look, you've been talking out loud." Unfortunately Zeko couldn't raise any eyebrows but the muscle movement was still present once he was told that he was thinking very aloud. "He told me that ya got the Ichibi, that why you got those bags around your eyes eh?" She slapped his back mirthfully. "Guess I can teach ya about how to use bijuu power when ya can handle it." She went back to her post with that last comment and left the boy alone.
'Bijuu power? I already know how to use the sand really well so what's that supposed to mean? Maybe there's something else that I can learn… Can you tell me what that means Shukaku?' No response. "Guess he went back to sleep."
A rustle of leaves turned the boy's attention to a tree that he'd just passed and when he took a whiff of the air he smiled in realizing that the team leader for this mission just passed him in their patrol.
The next day of travel was smooth for the group as a whole. The shinobi, and shinobi in training, kept their senses heightened for any sources of danger that would've threatened the caravan but they didn't come. Kotetsu tried to spend his time with Shiro but to his annoyance, his cousin was also with her and when he was Kotetsu received very little attention. One such instance was right now as they were entering Amegakure, the hidden rain village. Once again Shiro was taking her time in scratching Zeko's scalp while they were being protected from the rain by an umbrella of sand, however Kotetsu was also below said coverage unlike what comedy would suggest.
Kotetsu was sharpening a kunai beneath the coverage of sand, a scowl was on his face while he scraped his weapon with a black stone. The stone streets of Amegakure were scarcely populated while their caravan rolled in but the few people that were currently on the streets only gave passing glances at the convoy. 'That's right, mind your own fucking business.' Can't blame the asocial boy for not liking to be stared at can you?
The convoy came to a stop in front of one of the massive industrial buildings and as soon as the vehicles came to a halt the Jonin monitoring the kids made his appearance known. The cold of the rain made Akira opt to wear a tan long sleeved shirt beneath a beige vest. He stepped towards the building where a mask wearing woman met him. "A day earlier than expected, I'd expect nothing less from the Uchiha Akira." Her voice was distorted from her accessory but the man was picking up the respect in her tone. Unfortunately for the kids present she didn't stop there. "I never expected him to be such a specimen. If you don't mind me asking, but with the extra time your early delivery gave you, would you mind joining me on a date tonight? I've got a special dessert to offer…"
Kotetsu and Shiro went blank at the woman's advances while Zeko was left confused at her words, it wasn't his fault that he wasn't as old as the other two he was technically on a team with so could he really be blamed for not following the innuendo? Maybe. "Did she just- Is she trying to pick up Akira-ojisan?" The raven haired boy was nothing short of confused with what he'd just witnessed and it showed since he cut his hand while sharpening his kunai but didn't pay any mind to the injury.
Shiro was trying her best to not burst into laughter over the woman's offer but she wasn't successful since her snickering could be heard even by Akira who cleared his throat. "I don't see why not but I think it's too soon for me to get back into the dating game so this'll be a friendly date."
"I apologize for your loss." She knew what he meant by that so obviously she'd want to apologize for opening the wound, yet her tact was not maintained for too much longer. "In the shinobi world we always have to worry about losing our loved ones." She reached a hand to her mask and removed it with an audible hiss. "But our lives are short so there's never any true harm in moving on is there? I'm sure that those we lose wouldn't want us to linger on them and miss out on forming new bonds." At first her removal of the accessory was lost on Akira but she ended her philosophy by allowing her tongue to roll out of her mouth and the organ reached below her chin once it was fully extended. "But that is my take on it." She somehow spoke clearly despite the long organ in the pathway of her mouth. She put the mask back on right as three others exited the building and began to unload the cargo in the vehicles they'd been protecting.
Disaster picks odd times to strike and that moment of Akira somehow keeping his professionalism is when the vehicle that his wards were on was knocked over by a sudden flaring of chakra. The sole female of the group landed on her feet and hands while the two boys either cushioned themselves by sand or landed flat on their rear.
"Oh great now my clothes are wet, this place is just great."
'Eight did you feel that?' Shiro said inwardly awaiting a response from her physical and mental roommate.
'It wasn't anything major, a bluff if anything.' Said roommate responded plainly. 'There isn't anything there now so where's the enemy?' She drew her blade and approached the tilted truck cautiously but when she reached the side that was hit she found nothing there, not even a mark indicating where they were hit.
She did find an odd blue box with black lines on the side that was hit and prying it off the side took more effort than she expected but it gave with enough force. Akira came to look over the object with crimson eyes and found it to be something he'd seen before. "A timed seal. Something stuck this to us just to try and throw us off but they didn't expect our trip to end so soon. The box must've made the chakra pulse and the seal determined when it'd happen… These aren't easy to make so whoever did this not only was after us but they're a threat."
The woman evaluated the item beside him and came to a similar conclusion. "We did need more chakra conductive metals and sealing paper, I apologize for this inconvenience. Seems that C-rank missions can never be simple."
Akira chuckled at the quip, by no means was he a genius but he was a clever man and he came to the conclusion that this was meant to go off when they were in a tough position so they'd be easier to take down. His choice in picking their detour route paid off in the end but he was a man who didn't leave loose ends. "Guess we'll have to search for whoever left this on us, sorry miss but you'll have to put a rain check on that date." Her pout was visible even with a mask covering her mouth but she did take a moment to hand him a slip of paper with a series of numbers on it.
The kids were lucky that they didn't have to see her lean into his ear and whisper something to him but they did have to deal with Kotetsu complaining about his outfit while sand was only working to cover Zeko from the rain. The boy was tapping his sandal clad feet into the water and marveling at it. "Quit acting like you've never seen rain it's annoying." Kotetsu said while shaking his hair like a dog.
"I haven't, this is the first time I've seen rain and it's cool!" Zeko was holding a hand out and letting the water collect in his palm. He couldn't get why Kotetsu was so upset with being covered in the cooling water, the only issue he could think to have was his sand being weighed down some but that was a minor issue compared to the beauty that the rain was to him.
"We're going to move out, our mission is to find whoever left this with us." With that order the group started heading back the way they came, even as two of them were distracted by the rain in their own separate ways.
Later that night the group was camping out in Kusa with there being three tents and a dome of sand. In one of those tents was a freshly changed Kotetsu who was wearing a red shirt with one long sleeve for his left arm and a pair of fresh black pants. He took first watch just so he could sleep without being interrupted but it came at the cost of having to wait to change his outfit.
"Kami knows I hate getting my clothes wet, ever since that damned cousin of mine showed up my luck's been shit. Telling me I should train… I'll train then, I'll beat him with both hands behind my back and laugh right in his face."
Caution and joy crossed Kotetsu's face once he heard a noise outside of his tent, caution due to him not knowing who'd get this close to him when he'd supposedly be sleeping and joy because whoever was doing it could be a source for him to take his anger out on. The flap opened quickly and Shiro was there with a grin on her face. "Weren't expectin me were ya?" Kotetsu lowered the kunai in his hand and rolled his eyes at the girl. "Zeko-kun said he could take watch since he doesn't get much sleep."
"Of course he wouldn't." The boy put his weapon beside his pillow with a groan.
"Somethin wrong? You've been acting weird for awhile… More than usual really."
A swirl of emotions that Kotetsu didn't quite understand made themselves at home in his stomach and made him feel awkward, something that he'd forgotten he could feel. "I'm fine."
Shiro deadpanned at that and scooted closer to him. "I'm s'posed to be the girl in this relationship, don't tell me it's fine when it isn't."
"It's my cousin, you've been paying more attention to him than me. It's been making me feel weird."
They sat there in silence once that was in the air. Despite what she wanted to do, which was laugh aloud, she managed to hold back her urge and simply leaned against him. "You're jealous of Zeko-kun? I guess I was a little too excited to have a brother figure but that's nothin for you to feel bad about."
"Hn." Such verbosity would only befit an Uchiha, if there were any doubts in his bloodline by anyone who'd heard him utter that then they'd have to be gone. Shiro however was used to him being terse and preferring words unspoken so she understood the grunt clearly.
"Who'd guess that Baka-tetsu could be emotional? Don't worry I won't tell anyone if ya cry." The boy threw himself, and subsequently Shiro, back to his bedroll to stare at the top of his tent. "It's alright, mama's here to make it better…" Her voice gained a sultry tone to it that nearly cracked Kotetsu's stoic facade but he kept his cool to it.
"You're just saying that cause you're older than me."
"But here I am waiting just to graduate ya." His stone face was gone in place of widened eyes and raised brows but he turned his head to the side so she couldn't see his shock. "Saving myself just for ya Kotetsu but it doesn't mean we can't do other stuff…" He looked back at her to see a small smile gracing her lips while he felt her hand tracing across his upper chest
"O-Other stuff? Like what?"
She laughed softly, something that greatly challenged her usual tomboy demeanor. "Stuff that might let us be closer as a boy n' girl." Kotetsu was speechless at the response but he felt excitement course through his veins nonetheless
'Just like that my luck turns!'
"Raiton: Gian!" An unfamiliar voice shrieked from outside and a crackling sound followed it.
"Futon: Daitoppa!" Zeko's voice rang out while the sound of wind and something taking a heavy impact echoed in the night.
"FUCK!"
The wind blew the large lightning jutsu apart and crashed through the tree that it's sender was standing in front of, the person who used the lightning jutsu was a woman clad in a black robe with blue stripes running vertically along it. Her eyes had black sclera with blue iris'. Her robe was cut low enough to reveal part of her cleavage while her lower body was clad in dark purple pants with black sandals. "Didn't put as much in that as I could've brat, don't get a big head." Her voice was deep for a woman's but still held femininity to it. Before Zeko could bother to give a response
"GRA DLLLA BRLLLA DLLA GAAH!"
"Huh?!" The woman recoiled as a crazed Kotetsu skidded into view with a wakizashi in his left hand, his eyes unfocused to where even their three tomoe spun rapidly and without care.
"How dare you interrupt just when it was getting good?!" His right fist was clenched hard enough to draw blood. "The hell man?!" He waved his blade around without care in his rant. "You ever think about the trouble you cause other people, dumbass?!" He finally managed to focus his livid gaze onto the woman. "You want an ass whooping?!"
"I'm sorry!" The woman recoiled and ducked away from his view but she opened her eyes and realized that he was still a child compared to her. "Wait, you don't scare me you little shit." Shiro slowly walked into view while drawing her blade, both the woman and Zeko followed her as she took her place by Kotetsu who was heavily breathing from his outburst. "My my, did I interrupt something with that attack?"
"Yes the hell you did!" Kotetsu screamed. "I don't care how hot you are bitch!" He broke into a run for the woman. "In the name of gender equality, I'll cut down anyone who earns my rage!"
In the moment Kotetsu went for a slash three things happened. First his blade was caught by Zeko's sand, second Akira appeared and clashed fist to fist with the woman who intended to take the slash, and lastly a wall of sand rose beside Kotetsu and allowed him to see that it caught an arrow of pure chakra that was about to leave him as a rage filled corpse had his cousin not seen the attack coming. "S-rank nuke-nin, Takuya the heart stealer, to what do we owe the pleasure?"
Takuya's eyes almost lit up once she took in who caught her punch that would've ended the boy who so recklessly charged at her if the arrow hadn't. "Uchiha Akira… The spine breaker. I'm here to either kill you all or capture you, but if I kill you then I get that bounty on your head!" In one movement she flung her robe off and revealed that she only had a short sleeved shirt that matched her pants. They dropped their clash and started trading blows to each other, Akira's eyes let him predict Takuya's moves so that every single strike matched perfectly.
"Shiro! You're in charge of the other two, find whoever's supporting her!" He ended his command with a hard kick to his quarry that pushed her backwards and gave her space to from hand seals.
"Suiton: Suidanha!" Takuya spat a thin stream of water from her mouth in a sweep and made the man dodge it once it cleanly bisected a tree. Shiro showed that she understood by catching the next projectile that was fired and snapped it in two halves.
"Let's go idiots!" The boys hurried after her and left Akira to fight the greatest threat they had present. As soon as they left they could hear the sounds of a fight behind them but they didn't focus on it and pressed forward. Zeko and Shiro were in front while Kotetsu kept a bound behind them.
"So we have to find some asshole with a bow? I've never fought anyone with-"
Zeko stopped and glared up towards a tree that had a single figure standing on a branch, they were clad in a sleeveless shirt with grey pants and they had a pair of fingerless gloves on. There was a mask covering their face but their stark white hair stood out below the moonlight. "Takuya-sensei was right to have us spread out while she dealt with your sensei…" The voice revealed that the figure was in fact a boy.
"Damn, we're gonna have to split this up. You two keep looking for their support, I'll take care of this one." Shiro announced to her temporary underlings who spared no time to resume following the trajectory of the earlier shot.
"I'm glad it's you who remained, I won't take anything other than the strongest." He leapt down from his perch and nearly matched Shiro in height but that didn't make him less intimidating since she could tell that he was a major threat.
Kotetsu and Zeko were still on their path until the elder of the two decided to break the silence. "It's not important but I had the weirdest dream for all the five minutes I was asleep earlier."
"What happened in it?" Zeko's eyes remained facing forward while he questioned his cousin, the pull of metal that he'd feel grew closer.
"It was bright white and there was some guy in a robe there, weird markings on it too. But the weirdest part was that he had a sharingan… I couldn't really make out his face though." Zeko stopped once again and looked at a branch where another mask wearing figure was present. This time it was obvious to see that they were female and had long brown hair, her outfit was no different than her teammate's and she fell from her perch and stared Kotetsu down.
"Takuya-sensei will be proud when we bring you all back."
Kotetsu brought his blade up to his chest and rolled his neck. "Rabbit it's up to you to find the archer." Zeko didn't bother to acknowledge the nickname and continued charging ahead.
Zeko wasn't making bounds for long until his sand reflexively stopped another projectile that was inches from his face. "Almost doesn't count, does it?" The figure was in a tree that stood higher than the others, he was also wearing the same outfit with a nondescript white mask. The difference in his appearance was his dark skin and the glowing blue coming from where his eyes would be, and in his hands was a black bow that had a glowing arrow nocked. Almost instantly sand was at his perch and it ripped through the branch that he was no longer occupying. "Woah slow down! That's fast stuff!" While he was in the air he took his time to fire a shot from his weapon and it went from being a glowing arrow to three bursts of chakra that were caught in sand.
"Huh, these look kinda cool. I'll keep it clean when I take it from you."
The masked teen had to move to another tree to dodge the next onslaught of sand that tried to rip him from his high ground. "All I need is one shot and kid, I don't miss." He fired another shot that multiplied into three but they were caught by a wall of sand before they could do any harm.
"If it doesn't hit me I think it's a miss."
Akira was an expert on sticky situations but being literally stuck with his back against a tree while black threads were wrapped around his throat was something he could mark as new. 'The jiongu… Only heard of how annoying it was but yep it's worse.' His enemy now had black threads bursting from several points on her body, including her own mouth, resulting in her resembling a demonic creature. The threads that had Akira securely trapped were emerging from her right arm.
"Too easy to catch you Akira, this was an easy one. But just to be sure that you stay down." She weaves four hand seals and inhaled. "Katon: Ryūka no jutsu." She exhaled a stream of fire onto her threads and it coursed straight for her captive but instead of leaving massive burns on his body it was stopped in its tracks by a gentle crackle of lightning. Akira was now covered in electricity and used his left hand to sever his bonds. Takuya scoffed at his technique and withdrew her severed threads back to her body. "Too bad for you, I've got a wind heart, how long can your armor hold up against my jutsu?"
Akira went into his combat stance and smirked at the woman. "Can your attacks hit me is the better question."
'Futon: Shinkūgyoku!' A barrage of air blasts tore through the forest floor and its foliage but Akira was nowhere to be found in the carnage of it all. He made his appearance right in front of Takuya who couldn't respond to the hand that ripped through her chest and out of her back. A mass of black tendrils fell from the wound and in the center of it was a clump of flesh that once resembled a heart. Unfortunately for the man he was too close and received a blast of wind to the face for his efforts. Takuya's would closed itself with stitches while the threads coming from her mouth retracted and revealed that despite being a zombie by all means, she was fairly beautiful. "That was my favorite one! I've kept that fire heart for almost five years!"
The two lunged for each other and clashed their forearms in a power struggle. Crimson eyes caught movement on Takuya's back and from it came a plain blue mask with a mass of threads that formed into a large crab-like monster with the mask acting as a face. Akira swept his leg beneath Takuya's and sent her flying with a kick, he then weaved the dragon and ram seals. A wall of earth sprouted from below and blocked the bullets of water that were fired at him through the crab's claws. Takuya recovered from her rough landing and snapped her neck back into place. "I'll just replace my old lightning heart for yours as payment…"
The ebony skinned archer was worse for wear after dealing with the worst possible opponent he could've had, no matter how many shots he fired they could even touch the child who was standing on the ground beneath him. It didn't make any sense! He had the high ground and more experience than the kid who didn't even look half his age but here he was worn out while the brat was staring at him blankly. His body felt like it was burning from how much chakra he'd been using to boost his shots but none of it was bearing fruit, no matter what he did to just to land one strike it wasn't working. "I'm bored."
What? What the hell did this kid just tell him? No, no no no. "What?!"
Zeko sighed and withdrew the sand that was creeping up to the boy. "I'm bored, you're boring. I'm gonna go help Kotetsu." Zeko turned his back on his enemy and started walking away while the dark skinned archer shook in fury. The idea that this little brat would turn his back on him?! This time he readied an arrow but didn't try to split it into more, instead he put even more of his chakra into this one and pulled his string back even further. 'Suiton: Mizu no kiba!' The arrow was coated in rapidly rotating water and once it was spinning as fast as it could the teen let it loose.
The prickling feeling of danger made Zeko turn his body in time to see the oncoming projectile and his sand moved to stop it in its tracks. The sand formed a wall between Zeko and the arrow that slowed it down and even made it lose the shell of water surrounding it, but it wasn't enough to stop it. Pain exploded into Zeko's brain and shut out the feeling of him landing on the ground gourd first. 'This- That hurts!' Zeko looked up at his attacker who removed his mask to show his grin.
"Aw what's wrong? Your little walls didn't help you much against that did they? Now you're a fly in my spiderweb." His eyes glowed a luminescent blue and were focused on the downed boy and were looking at every minute detail that they could take in but they noticed that despite having an arrow lodged in his shoulder, the boy's body was somehow relaxed. "Wh-What are you planning?" He readied another arrow. "The second you move I'll shoot again." He tried to leap to a further branch, emphasis on tried. "What the?!" Sand was encasing his ankles and Zeko took his chance to get up while clenching his bloody left shoulder.
"Tou-chan taught me all about setting a trap, I just kept making you run into the tree I put sand on at the start. Who's a fly now?" Zeko clenched a fist and a pair of ankles were shattered from the force, the teen fell from his perch and landed back first onto the ground. A much larger shattering noise brought the injured teen's enhanced sight to the tree he was crippled on, the sand around its now split trunk let him see that it was falling… towards him.
The good news for the previously masked teen was that he was partly in shock from having both of his ankles destroyed so suddenly, the bad news is that his midsection was crushed under three thousand pounds of wood. "Urk!" Losing to a kid with dirt as his main weapon was not how he planned to die but it's what was happening. 'Otou-san… Okaa-san… I couldn't get enough money for you." Zeko approached the internally monologuing teenager while pushing the arrow lodged in his shoulder all the way through. 'Maruyama you gotta pick up where I left off . I believe in you little brother.' With that last thought the shinobi went limp entirely right as Zeko removed the offending object from his body. A red marking appeared on the forehead of the fresh corpse and made the child step back in preparation but the only thing to happen was that the previously glowing eyes of his deceased enemy exploded in his head.
The boy could only stand there stupefied at the display to his enemy's eyes and unconsciously blinked his own repeatedly, having a dojutsu made one very aware of their most valuable asset and seeing someone else's be damaged so horrifically… it was offsetting. 'Find that bow he had, it's yours now.'
Kotetsu was almost happy for once, his frustration from before had been properly vented on his unsuspecting vict- Enemy. All she had was water style jutsu on her end and since they were in a forest she could only do so much against him, but she did come close to hitting him every now and again but his constant use of genjutsu made it very easy to drive his blade into her chest. Right now he was looting her body for any and everything she had on her and the only thing of notice he saw was a locket, he opened it to see a picture that he didn't bother looking at. He threw the picture away and pocketed the accessory. 'Now I don't have to buy Shiro a birthday gift. Nice.'
Shiro was smiling despite the scrapes on her outfit, her enemy was more skilled in swordplay than she was and it showed with how he'd matched her blow for blow with every strike she went for. She was envious of his ivory weapon since it didn't show any wear despite having sliced clean through her tanto a few moments ago. "Your skin is very tough…"
"Ya ain't really good at talking are you?" Her opponent was only speaking occasionally and every time he did it was a one liner about her skill or durability. He lunged with his blade in hand and she did the same with her own fists, she ducked below his swipe and delivered a punch straight to his stomach. She faltered when she realized that she didn't hit soft flesh but instead something solid but regardless of what she hit she sent him reeling with her strike, and he left her the gift of his dropped weapon. 'Be careful with this one, I don't know what it is but something's telling me he's hiding something.'
'Yeah I hit him right in the gut but it felt hard, he might be hiding armor.' The boy leapt forward again with a new weapon that matched the previous one, and what confused Shiro the most was that it came from nowhere but she returned his attempt with her own burst of speed. They clashed weapons but the pale boy dropped himself backwards and kicked the girl in the jaw in his somersault, and in the scuffle he retrieved his weapon from the girl.
"Tsubaki…" This time he returned with only one blade, the second having disappeared during his maneuver, and started thrusting wildly at Shiro's body. Every single movement that the girl made to dodge was only a tiny bit faster than the thrusts from the weapon and now the thrusts were starting to catch parts of her skin. "You're slowing down."
Shiro only let out a simple grunt as she started to get hit more by the weapon until she managed to do something entirely unexpected, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him into her grasp and from there she slammed him onto the ground stomach first. He recovered and was prepared to charge at her again but he felt the air thicken enough to slice with his ivory blade. From Shiro's body came a bubbling orange chakra that covered her entire form, the most noticeable part was that it made a tail come from her lower back and a horn on the right side of her head. The boy fought through the urge to be cautious and charged ahead but this time his blade didn't come close to Shiro, and the smirk on her face let him know, "The turns have tabled." Her fist was reeled back and landed in his solar plexus with a satisfying crack, his body was sent straight into a boulder.
'You and your boyfriend need to stop with that, it's almost as annoying as rapping.'
"Sure Ox but I got a beat down to give first!" She advanced on her downed enemy while cracking her knuckles. The boy loosened himself from his imprint in the rock and looked up to see Kotetsu and Zeko with two corpses encased in sand.
"You're hitting harder than you did, and now there are three of you. I must go." He pulled a ball out of his pocket and threw it into the air with a flourish. The object burst in a flash of light and blinded the three who didn't have masks covering their faces.
"Son of a bitch!" Kotetsu exclaimed before the sound of something hitting the ground entered their ears.
The feeling of his sand hitting the ground made Zeko try to look around but by the time the trio recovered from their temporary blindness the masked shinobi was gone. Zeko turned his head to see that his sand was on the ground and missing the two bodies it had. "Tou-chan!" The kids headed for the sounds of fighting, resolved and ready to help Akira in his battle.
The forest had seen better nights. Fallen trees, burning foliage, pools of water, scorched ground, all things that were the result of the two titans currently deadlocked. Akira had the advantage in speed and strength but Takuya made up for it in being impossible to keep down, every wound that was inflicted on her stitched itself up to the point where even cutting her in half didn't even make a difference. The only thing that lasted against the stitched zombie, "No more water!" Was destroying her hearts. Akira had the mask of the thread crab in his hand and crushed it in a spray of blood. For a second Takuya's eyes glazed over and immediately the color returned to them. "Hm fire and water, how many more until you stay down?" The mass of thread fell to the ground, useless without a source of chakra leading it.
"Takuya-sensei…" Her night was about to be worse wasn't it? Takuya looked to see that one of her students had the dead bodies of his teammates. "Fuck my life, well Akira-san it seems that we'll pick up our dance another time." She threw a ball into the air and just like his own students, Akira was blinded by the sudden flash of light but the voice of the woman still rang out clear as day. "Next time I'll make sure to get your heart."
Once he could open his eyes Akira found himself alone in that newly made clearing with the sound of his little ducklings approaching. 'I'd say this was at least A-rank in terms of pay.'
It'd been a few weeks since the team reported back to the Tsuchikage about what happened on their mission, and because of the sudden appearance of such a dangerous nuke-nin that had a team of chunin level threats at her beck and call the mission was bumped up to S-class. Kotetsu was dissatisfied with this only due to the fact that his opponent was lackluster to his standards but a strike to the head, courtesy of Shiro, ended any complaints he had. Akira informed his son that his opponent was in fact chunin level despite how simple the altercation was since his automatic defense was the worst thing that the teenager could have been stacked against since it shut down any chance of attack, but now the boy had a weapon to show for it.
At this moment our father/son duo was standing by the thunder rail saying their goodbyes to Kirya, Kotetsu, and of course his abusi- loving girlfriend. "Shiro-nee… you can let me go now." Zeko complained to the iron gripped teenager.
"I'm just gonna miss having a brother around. Your cousin is more fun to hit than he is to hug." And said cousin was too busy being fussed at by his mother over not wanting to say goodbye to hear the jab at him, eventually Shiro had to let Zeko go so he could get on the train while Akira hugged his sister goodbye and joined his son.
They got on the rail not a moment too soon since the doors shut and the vehicle pushed forwards to get them back to Suna. Zeko was reading a book about desert wildlife while his father was writing in some type of journal. "So what'd you think about this summer? Is our family too crazy for you to meet the rest of them?"
"Kotetsu wasn't that bad… Okay maybe he was but he's alright when Shiro-nee's there to smack him back to normal." The boy looked out the window and saw that they'd left the village and were heading back home, their time having been well spent for the near two months they'd been there. "Wait Tou-chan did you say, 'rest of them'?"
"Eh, don't worry about that right now… You'll meet them when you're older."
"But-"
"When you're older!" With that Akira continued to write while his son continued reading with a child's curiosity, he'd be older soon enough and he was patient so what was there to lose by waiting to meet the rest of his family?
Author's Notes: Well it took its time but with this the "Younger years" arc is done. Hope you enjoyed because we are just getting started, pm if you have questions, favorite or don't it's your choice. See ya.