Chapter 16 - Summoning
Hinata rolled out of bed, hair messed up and tired from a busy weekend. Friday had been the festival, and she spent Saturday and Sunday either training or hanging out with Izumi. Hinata groaned, getting up and pulling on her running clothes.
She opened her window and jumped out.
"Good morning Hinata-hime!"
"Motherfuck!" Hinata blurted out, jumping backward. "Kō! Don't just appear out of nowhere like that! You almost gave me a heart attack."
"Apologies, Hinata-hime, but please watch your language."
"I reserve the right to shout curses when I'm surprised like that." Hinata said, pushing past him to start her morning run. "What's up with you? You're not usually here this early."
"I just came to let you know I have a mission, and will be gone for a few days. I'll also be restarting my training in earnest." Kō explained, easily keeping up with her pace.
"Ahh… That's right I almost forgot about that. What's the mission? Or is it confidential?"
"It's not confidential. I'm joining a team on a hunt for a missing-nin. It shouldn't take that long, she was a few towns away in konoha. It's some missing-nin from Suma."
"Be careful then… This is your first out-of-village mission in a while right?"
"Yeah, since I started watching over you, in fact. I'm actually excited to get out again." Kō thought about what he said, before adding: "Ah, not that I dislike being in your service, Hinata-hime."
Hinata snorted. "Nice save. But really, it's fine. I know it's a bit dull watching over me all day long. We both need to get stronger! So do your best Kō!"
"I will, Hinata-hime. I'll leave you here then, have a good day at the academy." Kō said, before peeling off.
"Okay! Tell Izumi I said hi!" Hinata shouted after him. She saw Kō stumble for a second when he heard her, but he didn't turn around. Hinata just snickered to herself as she kept running.
Hinata finished her usual run, usually 3 miles, and went back to her house, climbing back in through the window of her room. She set out her clothes for the day and left to go take a bath before breakfast.
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Hinata walked into Iruka's classroom dressed in her casual, go-to outfit of a t-shirt and shorts, walking over to her desk. She had been the first person to arrive, but it wasn't long before others started trickling in.
Ino and Sakura usually walked to the academy together so it wasn't strange when Hinata saw them enter at the same time, laughing to each other over one of their strange inside jokes that Hinata never understood.
She greeted them when they sat down and joined in on their conversation. A little bit later though, an event that Hinata saw coming, took her by surprise.
Sasuke walked into the classroom and tossed a large stuffed nin-ken dog over to Hinata. The whole class froze, wide-eyed.
"They didn't have any of the rabbits left." He simply said, as if that explained everything, and sat down at his desk, completely ignoring the reactions of all the other students.
"This might be my favorite moment…" Hinata said in a quiet voice, mainly to herself. "Can you imagine the looks he got walking here carrying a giant stuffed dog? *Pfftttt*" She couldn't hold it in and started cackling. "Thank you Sasuke, I'll always treasure it." She said between gasps, trying to catch her breath.
"Whatever." Sasuke said, not even turning around to look at her. He honestly didn't give a shit about what other people thought.
Ino and Sakura looked like they'd been slapped.
"What was that?" Ino asked Hinata.
Sakura just looked at Sasuke then back at Hinata with her mouth agape.
Hinata, still chortling, told them the story of Sasuke trying desperately to catch a goldfish to get her stuffed rabbit. This story didn't help the girls' envy though.
"Ughhh, Sakura-chan.." Ino sighed, leaning into her friend's shoulder. "We're losing so badly, and to someone that doesn't even care, at that."
"Mhm.." Sakura nodded dumbly, patting her friend's head.
"Okay, settle down everyone!" Iruka walked in with a smile. "It's time for homeroom!"
"Now, I want to go over a few things this morning. I'm sure everyone is aware of the events that happened last week, and what should and shouldn't be said."
Sasuke's hand tightened into a fist, as he stared out the window.
"I hope everyone had a fun time at the festival on Friday, but please keep the chatting down during class. You all can talk while we train outside if you want. Today, we're going to be testing your proficiency with the bunshin no jutsu, so I hope everyone continued to practice last week even though we didn't have class!"
Several groans echoed around the room.
"After that." Iruka continued, as if he didn't hear them. "I'll be teaching you kawarimi no jutsu. The substitution technique is another staple of shinobi and you also need to learn it if you want to have any hope of graduating in a few years."
"Yes! Finally." Hinata grinned.
Iruka continued telling them about the plans going forward, assuring them that the new changes in the management of the village wasn't going to be changing much about the academy and the structure of the lessons.
He finally finished speaking and everyone started walking towards the training ground for their first class of taijutsu and physical conditioning.
Iruka walked over to Sasuke and pulled him off to the side as everyone else left. Hinata spared them a glance, before leaving the room.
"Sasuke-kun… I'm sorry about what happened. If you need or want to talk about it, please find me. I'm willing to talk, or just be an ear if you want to vent." Iruka told him, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm fine." Sasuke said, curtly. "I'm dealing with it."
Iruka sighed. "Well, if you change your mind, I'm here… Alright, let's head out to the training ground."
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Hinata took a stance, standing in front of Iruka who had become her new sparring partner in taijutsu class. Sasuke was a fine training partner in other things, but he really didn't give her too much of a challenge when it came to straight up taijutsu.
"Start!" Iruka shouted, dashing forward with a punch. Hinata ducked the punch, bringing one palm up and pushing his wrist away as she struck out with her other palm. Iruka brought his second hand down in a block, before kicking. Hinata jumped back, barely dodging the kick in time, before taking a step forward and striking out again.
The spar went on like that for most of the hour long class, leaving Hinata a panting, tired mess by the end of class. It was much less risky sparring against Iruka than it was against Mizuki, but Iruka was also better at taijutsu than Mizuki had been. She hadn't landed a single hit and had taken quite a few blows herself.
After taijutsu was over, they moved on to shurikenjutsu. Hinata finally had the courage to walk over to Iruka.
"Iruka-sensei!" Hinata called out to him.
"Yes, Hinata-chan?"
"I want to take the test to move on to senbon!" Hinata said, confidently.
Sasuke overheard and looked over.
"Oh really? I didn't think anyone was interested in senbon." Iruka was surprised. Senbon were a really niche weapon, and most shinobi didn't bother learning to use them.
"I've always been interested, I just wasn't good enough for the test before. I should be now though, I had a pretty decent teacher." Hinata laughed.
"Alright, let's see what you got." He handed her training shuriken and kunai and led her over to a target range that was set aside for testing the students.
Hinata gripped a kunai and eyed the target that was about 5 meters away. There were a series of 5 targets, each being 5 meters further back than the one before. She had to hit the bullseye of the first 3 in order to pass. For the shuriken, she had to hit the bullseye of only the first two, but she had to throw at least two at once.
Any shinobi worth their salt would be able to do this in their sleep, most not having any problem hitting all five targets, but she had just started learning a few weeks ago and had limited arm strength with which to throw.
"You may begin when ready." Iruka said, standing off to the side.
Hinata nodded, gripped the kunai and threw it at the first target. It sunk into the bullseye solidly, and she threw the second before even checking where the first landed, hitting the bullseye on the second target as well.
"Not bad. One more, then onto shuriken."
'Alright I can do this! It's just like in practice.' Hinata imagined Mizuki's smug face on the target and threw the kunai. It sunk into the bullseye, slightly off of where she aimed. It was close to the edge of the inner ring.
"Good job! Almost done." Iruka smiled.
Hinata took the shuriken, two in each hand, and threw the first two before instantly throwing the second two with her other hand. She heard the thunks as the shuriken all sank in on target.
"I did it!" Hinata jumped up, pumping her fist.
"You did! Great job! Alright, go grab the senbon and I'll show you the basics of how to throw them. It's going to be a lot harder to learn than kunai or shuriken though, you should be aware of that."
"I am, don't worry. But I've wanted to use them for years, I just haven't had a chance to practice them. I've been too busy with other stuff." Hinata explained, grabbing the pack of senbon and following Iruka over to the dummies that had colored dots on them, marking out different vital spots, chakra points, and acupuncture points.
"Well you're going to need to make time if you want to be proficient with them at all. If you really want to master them, I'd recommend at least three hours a day spent on studying anatomy and target practice." Iruka said, pulling out senbon of his own.
"That's fine. Who needs sleep anyways?" Hinata said, half joking.
Iruka just shook his head. "Alright watch closely, this is how you hold them properly…"
Iruka walked her through the process, and made sure she could at least hold the senbon correctly and make the right throwing motion, before moving on to other students and leaving her to practice by herself.
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"Alright class. Let's see what you got. Hinata-chan, you can go first."
They were back in the classroom and Iruka was getting ready to test them on their bunshin no jutsu. The students had various looks on their face, ranging from confident to downright terrified at the prospect of showing off their jutsu in front of everyone.
"Yes, Iruka-sensei." Hinata smirked, deciding to pull a Naruto, and walked up to the front of the class.
Sakura groaned. "Traitor!" She hissed. Hinata being first and choosing to walk to the front of the room set a precedent that it was going to be expected they all go up front.
Hinata just turned around and stuck her tongue out at her. She walked up and turned to face the class. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" She said, forming just the first seal. There was a puff of smoke and three perfect Hinatas stood in the front of the classroom.
"Very good! You pass!" Iruka said. "You also shortened it down to one hand seal! Great!"
Three Hinatas bowed at the same time, looking at Sasuke with a smug look. 'Beat that, pretty boy.' She walked back to her seat and sat down.
"Traitor!" Sakura hissed again. "You practiced outside of class didn't you!"
"Of course?" Hinata tilted her head and a sudden horrible thought occurred to her. "You… You train outside of class right?"
"Um… Some..? Not much though… Why?" Sakura asked, confused by the question.
Hinata just gaped at her. "How much is some…?" She asked, dreading the answer.
"I spend a couple hours here and there. I also usually go for a mile run in the morning!" She said the last part proudly.
Ino covered her hand with her face, perfectly expressing what Hinata was feeling at the moment.
"How on earth do you expect to become a kunoichi with that type of training schedule?" Hinata asked, completely dumbfounded.
"I still have plenty of time right? I mean, we have 4 years until we graduate." Sakura pointed out, as it was obvious.
"Idiot." Ino said.
"What?" Sakura looked over to her, confused.
"Sakura-chan…" Hinata didn't know exactly what to say. "I go for a 3 mile run every morning, come to the academy, then run back to the Uchiha training ground and train taijutsu, shurikenjutsu, kenjutsu, and whatever ninjutsu or genjutsu my shishou or Iruka-sensei has assigned me to learn. We train until after dark every day, then I run home. On Saturday I train all day with my shishou, and on Sundays I train half the day with chakra control and my byakugan."
Sakura was looking at her like she was mad, and even Ino looked pretty surprised.
"Is training all you do..?" Ino asked.
"Pretty much. I have half a day on Sunday though, but you know that, I usually spend it with you guys in the village." Hinata shrugged.
"That's so.. so... sad…" Sakura looked at Hinata like she pitied her.
"What? I enjoy training. It's fun to see myself making progress and getting stronger." Hinata said. "Besides, I actually don't plan on dying the first time I get sent on a mission."
Sakura made a face that showed she actually hadn't thought about that facet of becoming a kunoichi.
They proceeded to watch the other students go up one at a time. Sasuke only made one clone, and even though it was perfect, Hinata felt a sick sense of satisfaction.
Naruto, of course, showed off his shadow clones, which he had become known for now. No one even batted an eye as ten of them filled up the front of the class.
Ino and Shikamaru were the only other two students that were able to make a perfect clone. Everyone else had varying degrees of success or failure. Sakura's, as Hinata expected, could barely pass as human shaped and looked nothing like her.
When they were done with the test, Iruka showed them the hand seals for the substitution jutsu and demonstrated it, before leaving them to practice it themselves for the rest of class.
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Gekkō Hayate walked into the Hokage's office. He had been summoned a few minutes ago and was wondering what it could possibly be about.
He knocked on the door. "Gekkō Hayate, here to *cough* see Hokage-sama."
"Ahhh, Hayate-san, come in please." Jiraiya called out.
Jiraiya was currently sitting behind his desk going over mission reports from the previous week. He looked the shinobi over as he stepped into the room, nodding to himself.
"Hokage-sama." Hayate greeted. "May I *cough* ask what this is about? *cough cough*"
Jiraiya gave him a look. "Are you sick?"
"I've had a chronic cough since I *cough* was a child. Doctors can't *cough cough* figure out the cause." He explained, shrugging.
"Hmmm.." Jiraiya thought to himself for a moment. "Anyways, I called you here because I have a few things to go over with you. Firstly, concerning your student, Hyūga Hinata, frankly, I'm worried that you don't have what it takes to teach a genius like her." Jiraiya eyed him, gauging his reaction.
Hayate narrowed his eyes. "In what *cough* way am I unsuited?"
"Your age, for one thing. You're young and have your own training and missions you need to focus on. Also, she needs someone able to guide her in all areas, not just kenjutsu." Jiraiya said matter-of-factly.
"I *cough* realize I might not be, *cough* the strongest or most experienced shinobi in the village. But, *cough* she's already my student. For better or worse, she's already recognized me *cough* as her shishou." Hayate said.
"That's not a big deal." Jiraiya said, waving his hand. "We'll just annul the shishou-disciple relationship and find someone more suited. I'm looking for an apprentice you kn-" He was interrupted before he finished his sentence.
"No! Neither of us *cough* would allow that. Shinobi law *cough* states it must be unanimous *cough* by both shishou and disciple. Not even you, *cough* Hokage-sama, have the right." Hayate said, getting angry.
"So you're determined to remain her shishou, even if there are better options out there?" Jiraiya asked, arching a brow.
"If there are *cough* better shinobi out there to train her, that just means *cough* I need to get stronger. I'm not giving *cough cough* her up."
"And you're willing to do what it takes to get stronger? No matter what?" Jiraiya asked, a slight smile forming on his lips.
"Yes. *cough* I am." Hayate eyed him.
"Good answer son!" Jiraiya grinned. "I thought you'd say that. That's why I already signed you up for ANBU training with Rō."
Hayate looked both confused and flustered. "I don't *cough* want to be ANBU."
"I know you don't." Jiraiya said, tapping his hand on his desk. "Sorry, I can see how you took it that way. I signed you up for the training but you won't actually be ANBU. It's just the training program you'll be going through. You said you wanted to get stronger right? Well they'll remake you. I signed you up for the advance course. You're going to get trained by Rō himself."
"Rō? The *cough* head of ANBU? That Rō?"
"That Rō. He's gonna put you through your paces boy. 6 months of grueling training." Jiraiya said as he kept the same grin on his face.
Hayate looked stunned. Rō wasn't well known except inside certain circles. Hayate only knew of the man because of Yūgao, who was in ANBU. Apparently Rō was a complete badass, and one of the best Shinobi in the village. He was the one that trained Kakashi Hatake when he first joined ANBU.
"I know when you're in ANBU training, you *cough* isolated from the outside world. How *cough* is that going to work. I have *cough* Hinata-chan I have to train." Hayate asked, still trying to wrap his mind around the fact he might soon be training with the head of ANBU himself.
"We'll find a temporary teacher for her. Don't worry, we'll give her back when you're out. Assuming you give it your all, and don't flunk out, of course."
"Who will be *cough* teaching her?"
"Me of course." Jiraiya said, grin getting larger. "I'm interested in the girl's potential and if I can't get her as a disciple, then I might as well have her as a student for a short 6 months. That being said, we're not doing this yet. I want to make sure she gets as much out of my training as possible, so we'll wait until she's 10 before you start your ANBU training. You'll also be able to use these two years to get into shape to prepare."
"Two *cough* years, huh?" Hayate rubbed his chin. "That's fine. I can prepare her for my absence then, and finish the *cough* foundations of her training."
"Alright! Now that that's settled, onto the second reason I called you hear." Jiraiya threw a scroll over to him.
"A summoning *cough* contract?" Hayate looked at it, surprise written all over his face.
"For the ōmizuao clan." Jiraiya explained. "When the last contract holder died, without passing it on, the ōmizuao gave the scroll over to the Yamanaka clan to protect it while they searched for a successor. However, the Yamanaka have yet to find someone the ōmizuao have approved of."
Hayate looked at the scroll in his hands.
"Put a drop of blood in the circle on the scroll. It will reverse summon you to their clan. If they approve of you, they'll let you sign the contract. If they don't approve of you, they'll probably send you back unharmed."
"*cough* Probably?" Hayate looked up at him.
Jiraiya just shrugged. "Give it a try."
Hayate opened the scroll and laid it out on the floor. He looked back up at Jiraiya, who was just smiling at him, before he sighed, bit his thumb, and dropped a drop of blood in the middle of the circle that was drawn with a strange green ink.
Jiraiya watched Hayate disappear in a puff of smoke. "Well now… Let's see what happens."
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Hayate appeared in a puff of smoke. He looked around and found himself in a glade in the middle of a forest filled with massive, ancient looking trees. The ground was covered in a thick fog, rolling around about knee height. The sky was dark as if it was night time, and there was a massive moon illuminating the night sky.
'A genjutsu?' He thought to himself.
"Kai!" He shouted, trying to break the genjutsu.
'You'll need more strength than that to break this genjutsu boy.' Hayate heard a voice inside of his head. It sounded like a woman's voice, but as if it was made up of many different people speaking in the voice at the same time. It would have been overwhelming, if it wasn't such a quiet volume.
"Are you *cough* from the ōmizuao clan?" Hayate asked, looking around for the source of the voice in his head.
'That's right.' The voice sounded again. 'So you're the new potential contractee the Yamanaka sent us this time, hm?'
"I was sent *cough* here by Jiraiya-sama, not the Yamanaka. Though I *cough* suppose they gave him their permission."
'Hmmm? Jiraiya? I don't know this person.' The voice sounded confused. 'How did this… Jiraiya… get my contract?'
"I'm *cough* not sure. But Jiraiya-sama is the current *cough* Godaime Hokage of Konoha."
'The Hokage hmm? What is your name boy?'
"Gekkō Hayate."
'Gekkō Hayate?' A strange sound filled his head after the voice said his name. He realized after a moment that it was laughing. It's laugh sounded like a thousand different women laughing at once, in different pitches and styles, creating a soft buzzing noise of sorts in his head.
"Is my *cough* name funny?"
'Forgive me…' The voice chuckled again. 'It's just oddly… appropriate.'
A shadow suddenly appeared over Hayate. He looked up and saw something blocking out the moonlight.
A massive luna moth was hovering in the sky above him, slowly moving its four wings to stay afloat. It had a wingspan of at least 80 meters, with it's rear two wings being narrower, but much longer, forming what looked like two tails. It's wings were a pale green, almost translucent. It's thick body was covered in a white fuzz and about 30 meters long. It had two long, pale yellow antennas coming out of its head.
Hayate watched the creature with wide eyes. He noticed when it flapped its wings, dust was falling from them. 'No, not dust.' He thought to himself. 'Moths…' He looked more closely and was shocked to see the entire luna moth seemed to be made of millions of smaller moths of different colors. They made up both the body and wings, moving together to create one massive form.
'We are the ōmizuao clan, Gekkō Hayate, and we are named Tasū.' The multitude of voices said at once in his head, louder than before, causing him to wince. 'And we will give you a chance to prove yourself. Show us what you can do.'
The giant moth suddenly erupted, its form breaking up, and flooding the air with millions of moths. They surged towards him, and he readied his sword.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Hayate shouted, summoning two copies of himself. The three of them flashed, disappearing for where they were standing and reappearing further away from the swarm coming towards them.
"Kanton: Kasaiken!" The three Hayates suddenly shouted. Their swords ignited in fire as if they were first dipped in oil. They then moved at once, using mikazuki no mai. Three Hayates weaved through the moths leaving a trail of fire behind and cleaving a wide area around them as they went, burning their wings and cutting them in half.
Hayate continued to cut through the seemingly endless swarm of moths. The moths, soon realizing they couldn't get close to him any time soon, started circling around Hayate and his two clones, forming a cyclone of sorts.
'Dokutaifū…' He heard the words in his head and noticed a wind beginning to blow towards him, coming from the cyclone of moths. The fire on his sword began swaying in the wind, causing the shadows cast from the flame, to flicker wildly.
Hayate held on, trying not to be blown away from the surge of air. He could feel slices of wind cutting at him. "A bit interesting *cough*" He said, getting ready to react to counter the wind. Right before he used a ninjutsu, however, "*Cough cough*" Hayate began to cough loudly, doubling over. He soon noticed that the air around him was beginning to fill with a white powder.
'Poison..' Hayate thought to himself. He held his sword out in front of himself. 'Need to get rid of it..' Hayate dismissed his clones, and felt the rush of chakra returning to his body.
"*Cough cough* Kanton: Honō no Wa *cough*" Hayate quickly spun in a single circle, letting loose a massive wave of fire that formed a ring of fire that grew out from him, scorching the air and burning away the floating powder. The ring of fire pushed outwards, getting sucked into the wind that was blowing, forming a giant cyclone of fire, with him in the center of it.
He was woozy, and his head was spinning. Whatever the poison was, it was potent. Not deadly it seems, but it was enough to make him feel tipsy and like the ground was moving beneath his feet. Hayate shook his head, trying to dispel the feeling, but the feeling kept getting worse. He soon realized what was happening. "Kai!" He shouted.
Suddenly his vision stopped spinning and he regained his balance. 'The powder wasn't poisonous… it was only there to confuse the person into thinking they were actually poisoned. It was a genjutsu technique."
'Very good… You saw through it..' spoke once more. 'You're the first in a long while to get out of that. Most, allow themselves to fall unconscious, forever believing they were actually poisoned.'
'Enough of this…' Tasū said.
Suddenly Hayate felt a huge surge of wind, blowing away the massive cyclone of fire at once. He looked up and Tasū was whole once more.
'You have passed my test, Gekkō Hayate…' A group of moths broke off from the main body and flew down, swarming a spot on the ground. When they flew away, the contract scroll was lying there. 'Sign your name, and complete the contract. Know that when you summon us, the more chakra you expend, the more of our clan you can summon.'
Hayate looked up at Tasū for a moment, before walking over to the scroll. He bit down on his finger once more and signed his name in blood, next to the previous holders of the contract.
As soon as he signed, the scroll broke apart, turning into dozens of moths that scattered and flew away.
'Very good, Gekkō Hayate…' Tasū spoke once more. 'Now… hold still.. Relax your mind. Meditate on the knowledge I send you, while I… remake... your diseased body.'
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Jiraiya was doing paperwork when he noticed the scroll on the ground suddenly poof out of existence in a puff of smoke.
He laughed to himself. "Looks like I'm going to have to disappoint Inoichi. He's not getting that contract back it seems. I wonder how long it will take Hayate to return? I should probably get someone to inform Hinata…"