"Man, they really went all out," Orino chortled in that voice of his. It was deep, gravelly, and way too grating for a boy barely older than Momoi was.
She hadn't known him or his brothers for long, and perhaps it was rude to think it, but she wasn't sure if she liked them. There was a strange sense of coordination between them. When one moved the other two did as well, and nothing they said ever seemed to surprise each other. It was like they were all on some hidden wavelength.
It reminded her of the people back home. How insular they had been and how they had shunned her as a result. No matter where she went, folks were always putting her out. She watched the stocky boy inspect a long knife, trying in vain to shave the hair from his arm with it. Even watching it made her skin crawl.
The soldiers had taken them to a staging area where another table full of weapons sat. Swords, clubs, axes, even throwing knives and a bow were available. They were assured that they wouldn't be able to do lethal damage, but that did not mean they weren't dangerous. All around her the pressure seemed.
Momoi tugged at her hair, a nervous habit she had never grown out of. The only adult here was a single soldier who didn't seem to care about explaining anything to them.
"Yeah man, guess we oughta find something," Wakita smirked, picking up a sword. "Ooh, I like this one."
The bald girl brushed by Momoi, nearly shoulder-checking her as she marched up to the table. With an easy confidence she snapped up a bundle of kunai and placed them into a pouch on her belt. They all seemed so good, whereas she had fumbled nearly every exercise so far. It didn't serve to help her mood as one of the Bruise brothers finally acknowledged her.
"Hey, yo, Momoi, ain't cha gonna grab a weapon?" Mitsugi nearly sneered.
She felt a shock of alarm surge through, quick and jarring. If she said no, would he be offended? Was he trying to prod her? If she said yes she'd need to grab a weapon, and then she wouldn't be confident in picking. They'd know she was faking, a fraud, a loser. Would they pounce on that? Leave her out of their activities for the rest of their training.
Her brain backfired, and though her mouth opened no sound came out.
"E-Excuse me everyone," a pointed voice came from behind. Momoi turned to see Kaoru drawing a diagram in the dirt with a stick. "Shouldn't we be taking this time to strategize?"
"Here's a strategy for ya: we go in, we make shit happen, and we grab that flag," Orino chortled, arms folded over his barrel chest.
His brothers cackled in response, and Momoi was unflatteringly reminded of a flock of crows. Noya stared derisively at the large boy with a look of mixed disgust and disappointment. Kaoru, however, merely pushed his glasses up and knelt down.
"The flag is staged here in the center, however Mr. Uzumaki may not be. He could very well try to lead us into an ambush and catch us in our hubris."
"Hu- what?"
Momoi detected the smallest of sighs from the proper young man. "It means arrogance. Exactly the sort of thing we should avoid as ninja-in-training. Mr. Uzumaki is a talented ninja-"
Another snort, this time from the youngest: Wakita.
"He is. Your own ego aside, he's competent enough to be trusted with our training and is an established ninja of a foreign village. We'd be fools to assume he anything but outclasses us."
"Lotta big words, but I ain't hearing a whole lot."
"C-Come on guys, let's not fight," Momoi murmured, tugging at her hair. It had grown again since the last time she had cut it, and this tension was making it grow faster.
More often than not, it was like trying to stop a tsunami with a sponge. She could shave herself bald and by morning the next day it would hang down to her ears. It was suffocating, itchy, hot, and it wasn't helping her already disjointed thought process. If they argued back, what would she even say in response?
Orino opened his mouth, but stopped as his head twitched incrementally towards Mitsugi. With a soft clack it closed and he returned to merely glowering at nothing. Kaoru took the moment to splay a hand over his diagram, gesturing for everyone to look at it.
"We'll separate into teams of two-"
"Three. My brothers stick with me," Wakita said, his voice leaving no room for argument."
"Okay… teams of three and engage in a two pronged assault. We'll stagger our approach so if one team is caught in an ambush, then the second team can help them break out of it."
"I'll be fine on my own, I don't need two hangers-on making a bunch of noise and giving away my position," Noya spoke for one of the few times today.
Momoi could see that Kaoru was already accounting for that. He wasn't bothering to argue or push and instead just tried to roll with it. He poked at the ground a bit more with his stick, until he seemed to come to a conclusion.
"Alright then. You can serve as a solo operator, and perhaps our trump card."
"T-Trump card?" Momoi ventured.
"She could be the variable that Mr. Uzumaki doesn't or can't account for in a fight.. She might be able to take the stick while we keep him in check, or she can produce a devastating blow when he least expects it."
Momoi glanced at the grizzled girl and watched her nod slightly. She wished she could have such a way with words. Instead, the shaggy-haired brunette was forced to the sidelines, waiting in anxiousness for the battle to begin. She had to come back from her earlier embarrassment and not rely on her classmates to help her out all the time!
A sharp, keening whistle erupted from the forest. Instantly, the soldier who was on duty sprang into action. "Get moving! Go, go, go!"
It was like the whip crack that started the race. Instantly they shot off as Kaoru shouted about the plan. Momoi watched the Bruise brothers go off together, a vicious smirk on each of their faces. Noya leapt ahead, managing to land upon a tree branch above and use her momentum to spring forward. Momoi and Kaoru went right, encircling the copse of trees to find an opening. It wasn't long before they found a beaten dirt path that speared directly into the innards of the forest.
With their earlier exhaustion already taking its toll, Momoi soon became unable to keep running. Kaoru wasn't much better, panting behind her as they ventured deeper and deeper. The girl's lungs burned as bad as her legs did, each muscle searing with pain that didn't seem to lessen no matter how long she waited. Momoi staggered forward, trying to at least pull off a jog and failing just as quickly.
There was a sharp clang from deeper into the woods, punctuated by the guttural snarl of someone being hurt.
"H-Hurry!" Kaoru ran ahead, and she struggled to keep up.
The two young children found the source of the sound all too quickly. In a clearing just wide enough to hold them all, the Bruise brothers faced off against their mentor: Mr. Uzumaki. The blonde haired man was fending them off with contemptuous ease. Orino speared forward, fists tipped with iron knuckle dusters only to be thrown on his back as their teacher threw him over his shoulder.
Wakita took advantage of the opening and attempted to slice the man's back with his training sword. He never got the chance though, because as soon as Orino landed Mr. Uzumaki vanished. Momoi felt a cool draft behind them, followed by a sudden presence bearing down on both of them from behind.
"If you want to lay a trap, you're going to need to hide first of all," he said.
"Get down!" Wakita shouted, leaping towards them to try and slice their foe.
Momoi jumped and tackled Kaoru to the ground just as the blade whistled overhead. Their teacher dodged it by mere inches, moving just enough to get out of its range without jumping away. The young girl caught the image of Mr. Uzumaki smashing his fist into Wakita's jaw, sending him tumbling into the dirt. She looked up to see the blonde man staring down at her, and her heart skipped a beat.
She didn't want to be punched! He was too close to run, and if she tried to attack he'd take her down like he had the others! For the briefest of moments, she could see her father in his place. That familiar look of parental disappointment, like he knew that she would never amount to anything. "Nothing but a burden" he would mutter when he thought she couldn't hear. It was too much.
"Stop!" she cried out, and her hair responded.
Like a tidal wave it grew, cresting overhead to try and smash their teacher with its bulk. She saw Mr. Uzumaki's eyes widen as it came down upon him. With a thunderous smash her hair finally connected with the ground, but she couldn't feel her teacher trapped within it. Blinking back sudden tears, she turned to Kaoru whose glasses had been cracked by the fall. He glanced past her, barely noticing her new haircut, and pointed.
"T-The flag!"
Momoi had almost forgotten in all the excitement. She looked back to see Mr. Uzumaki fending off Noya. The bald girl had managed to get behind them and nearly had gotten to the flag. She heard someone groan nearby and turned to see Wakita stirring. Kaoru rushed over to check on him before looking back to the fight.
"I can help him. Momoi, you need to help Noya!" he yelled at her.
"B-But I'd just get in the way! They're so much better than me, I would slow them down. O-Or I'd make Noya mess up, or-"
"Momoi!" she flinched. "You nearly caught Teacher just a moment ago. We can win this, but you need to use… whatever that hair thing is."
"I… I don't know..."
"Get moving kiddies!" Mitsugi yelled from their side, joining Orino in a bullrush to stop their teacher.
"Go!" Kaoru insisted.
Against her better judgement, she did. Her teacher was still battling Noya. The girl went in for a low kick and he easily jumped over it, only to come down like a wrecking ball. Their classmate barely managed to roll away to avoid being crushed. She threw a knife from her pack only for it to be deflected by a well-placed shuriken. Every new angle she tried to use was countered, and Momoi could see why.
He was too fast, all his movements were practiced and each one was made with purpose. She remembered what he had said before "you are neither ninja or in the field", and he had been right. They couldn't even slow him down, so why try!? She looked to the remaining Bruise brothers to see if they shared her trepidation only to find them with their telltale smirks on.
"Mitsugi!" Orino yelled.
"Right!" the boy rolled low, sending a volley of shuriken at their teacher's legs. He was forced to jump upwards to avoid them. "Noya, do something!"
The girl in question drew a shuriken from her pouch and threw it. At first, Momoi thought that was a pretty poor follow-up attack until the girl made an odd sign with her hands.
"Ninja Art: Shadow Shuriken Jutsu!" instantly, the single shuriken became ten, then fifteen. As a combined volley they soared towards Mr. Uzumaki.
In the air, he had no ability to dodge. Many of them hit home, peppering his chest with the bladed weapons. Mitsugi and Orino stopped cold in their tracks, unsure if they had just mortally wounded the man. Momoi's heart leapt into her throat, and she felt tears sting behind her eyes. Had they just killed their teacher?
A moment later Mr. Uzumaki's body disappeared in a puff of white smoke. In its place was a single wood log.
"Transformation!" Noya yelled, surprised. "Look-"
"Focus guys," Mr. Uzumaki spoke from behind them with tempered coolness. "Don't get shocked so easily."
Her hair reacted of its own accord, spearing out in thickened stalks to try and pierce her teacher. He stepped to the right and grabbed one of the braids, using his turning momentum to whip her around to smash into Mitsugi. With a bellow loud enough to shake her chest, Orino leapt over both of them and smashed down with both fists, fingers interlaced.
Their teacher merely brought up his hands and took the blow with barely a grunt. His fist flashed out and smashed twice into the large boy's stomach before another hit him dead center in the chest. Orino made a sort of guttural sound and tipped over, falling to the ground in a groaning heap. Momoi, perhaps wisely, stayed down and out the way as he approached Noya.
The fight was over in seconds…
0-0-0-0
"Well!" Naruto said cheerily, watching as his students greedily gulped down their jugs of water. "I think that went well. I can see a lot we need to improve on, but the potential for everyone is there."
"We got our asses beat, bossman," Mitsugi huffed, rubbing his chest.
"The first step to being good at something is sucking at it. I didn't expect you all to beat me, and yet you each surprised me in your own ways. Orino, your strength was exceptional but raw and unfocused. Mitsugi, you took advantage of the proper openings without being overzealous, however you also relied on your brothers too much. Wakita's skill with a sword put me on the defensive at some points, but he was too headstrong to regroup instead of just blindly attacking."
The brothers grumbled, but didn't argue with it. Naruto turned his attention to the other half of his class. Noya, Momoi, and Kaoru also seemed to be in dimmed spirits. It was natural, he supposed, especially for the formermost member. Noya was tenacious and ruthless, but she apparently despised losing. Her pouting reminded him that she was still a kid, ninjutsu skill or no.
"Noya, you impressed me greatly in this exercise. Your usage of stealth and ambushes is on par with some of the genin I knew when I was young. You also showed your expertise with ninjutsu, something I imagine your classmates are not yet capable of. However, you stayed alone for too long and only tried to work with your comrades at the end. That cost you the advantage you may of otherwise had."
"I didn't need their help," she grumbled sourly.
"Apparently you did," he chuckled. "Because you lost."
The girl seemed embittered at the reminder, but didn't give a retort. He turned his attention to the remaining two. "Kaoru, you devised a strategy given little time, few resources, and not much information. The plan you came up with was rough, but its logic was sound. Good work."
"Thank you, sir."
"However, your combative skill and physical endurance needs a lot of work. If I remember correctly, you did not aid in the fight at all."
"S-Sorry, sir."
"Don't be," he waved it off. "You're here to learn those things. Your inability to fight a full grown trained ninja isn't a mark against you. Finally, there's Momoi."
The girl twitched, clearly bracing herself for the stern lecture she would receive.
"You, perhaps out of everyone here, have the most untapped potential."
The words brought her thoughts to a halt. What had he just said? She looked up to see her teacher smiling down at her brightly.
"You very nearly had me when you did your hair thing, and then again you surprised me. Without hand signs or proper chakra control, you managed to react instinctively to a threat and tried to counter it. That is something only exceptional ninja can do. It's rough, and you lack confidence in yourself and your abilities, but the potential is there. And I intend to find it."
He… didn't care? He wasn't mad? But she had messed up! She hadn't been able to stop him or get the flag or help her teammates! She was pretty much useless that whole time. She didn't have potential, she was just a flunk out!
Even so, his smile didn't go away. "Tomorrow, training begins again. Four hours in the classroom, four hours in the field. I see nothing but great things for this class, so long as each of you is prepared to give it your all. It won't be easy, but if you don't give up then I won't either. Believe it!"
Something in what he said, or perhaps how he said it, stirred something in the small brunette. Kaoru fixed his glasses and smiled, apparently on board with the idea. The Bruise brothers were the same. Even Noya, for all her bitterness, wasn't averse to his demands. No matter how hard it was going to be, it was apparent that none of them wanted to give up.
For Naruto, their enthusiasm sparked a flame of hope in his chest. He had been worried that he had been too harsh on them, too demanding. And yet he could see the way they looked up at him. That fire in their eyes, it reminded him of the troublemaker he'd been all those years ago. Momoi especially reminded him of his life. Something in the way she spoke and the way she held herself. It was like a mirror to the way he had been before he had decided to be the class clown.
He wasn't going to subject another child to a life like that. Not if he could help it.
0-0-0-0
"I'm glad it worked out," Shion murmured into his ear as he leaned his head on her shoulder. "They seem like good kids."
"Feels weird, acting like a teacher, being all stern and authoritative. I used to hate teachers like that back in school."
She smiled. "Maybe now you see why they acted like that."
He had no retort for that, and merely leaned deeper into the crook of his fiancee's neck. Truthfully it hadn't been bad, but he couldn't ignore the small knot of anxiety at the bottom of his stomach. The worry that he wouldn't be enough to make sure they grew up into fine ninja. He knew, logically, that he probably could handle it, after all, he'd taught Konohamaru what he knew, but much like his worries about being a father it didn't matter how much he tried to reason with it. This was something he was just going to need to face head-on. A problem that wouldn't go away until it was finished.
"You've done great so far, and you have both Tenten and Mizuno to help you. Besides, you're my husband, and that means you can handle anything."
He snorted quietly. "Is that a brag of you, or me?"
"Yes," she flicked the side of his nose lightly. "The kids were quiet today, mostly they just slept. Not looking forward to making them get out of bed when they grow up."
"You can handle that, I'll be too busy sleeping."
The two shared a quiet laugh in the relative peace of their bedroom. For Naruto, the easy rhythm and string of successes made him uneasy. At times, he felt like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the facade to fall away and reveal something terrible. Maybe it would be a messenger bird alerting him that the Akatsuki had destroyed the village, or that Sasuke had returned to reap cold vengeance on his friends.
Sasuke, he thought wearily to himself. I almost forgot about him. I still owe Sakura that promise. I need to find him.
But that meant abandoning his place in Ashiya, with Shion and his students. For now, perhaps he could just set this all up and get it running before he went back on the hunt. He had waited two years already, what was another one? Granny Tsunade had told him it was fine, and the Five Great Nations were working together to get rid of the Akatsuki once and for all. He could leave it be and attend to his family for a while.
They aren't helpless without you, Naruto. You can trust them, he reminded himself.
"Your hair is growing out," Shion remarked, running her fingers through the mop of sun-bleached blonde hair.
"Is it? Haven't found a good barber here in Ashiya, and I didn't pack my razors either," he scratched the growing stubble on his chin. "Don't think I've gone this long without a trim."
His hair had a distressing tendency to grow like kudzu. Maybe it was something he inherited from his mother or his father. The shaggy growth he had had as a kid was more a result of his own attempts at giving himself a haircut. Few places would cater to him, and he often lacked the funds to get a nice cut, so he had just hacked something together for most of his life. When he had been with Jiraiya, the toads had done their best.
"I kinda like it," Shion spoke again, surprising him. "I like men with longer hair. Have you ever thought about it?"
He shook his head slightly. "Nah, couldn't imagine myself with it.'
"You should give it a try. I know a lot of techniques for hair maintenance, maybe I could try them out on you."
That sounded… nice. Maybe it was the scalp massage she was giving him, or the warm ambience of their room, but he couldn't find it in him to argue. A change of lifestyle demanded a change of appearance, did it not? Besides, he could always cut it later. For now though, it cost him nothing to humor his wife.
"You got it, hun. Always wondered what I'd look like with a beard."
"Hm, don't think I'll let you go all wildman on me just yet mister."
He chuckled, before sliding over to rest his head on her lap. She accepted the chance of position without a word, still running her fingers through his hair. There was something almost motherly in her touch. Accepting. How long had he been touch starved? Even his friends barely had a reason to hug him, and it wasn't like anyone had wanted to touch the demon child. For years upon years there had been no one to really hug him, hold him. He never realized just how much he had missed that contact until he had come to the Land of Demons. Shion made a small, amused sound as he rolled over to bury his face in her robe.
She kissed the top of his head. "When you're a bit more awake, I was wondering if you and Tenten could find some time to investigate something for me."
He perked up a bit, intrigued but too tired to formulate a coherent question. The words came out as a jumbled mouth salad with a vaguely inquisitive tone to it. Shion sighed softly and leaned in closer.
"People going missing around the land. At first it was nothing too out of the ordinary, but they found one of the missing ones. Dead, no heart or blood in her. Figured it might need a ninja's touch."
"No organs?"
"Yeah, and then a few others started showing up. Left abandoned in random places, sometimes miles from where they were taken. Many of them had strange markings on them. Tribalistic paint that I've sent our librarians to look into."
He hummed, eyes shut. "Do you think it might be something from the Land of Demon's past?"
"Possible, but unlikely," she whispered conspiratorially. "Or, at least, not one of the major cults. This one is very odd. Human sacrifice is a horrible, dreadful thing, but many dark spirits rely on natural energy for sustenance. It wouldn't be the first time our people have dealt with it."
He couldn't- wouldn't allow that to pass. As the Priestess's fiance, her people were now his people. As much as the thought of fighting a demon scared him, this moment felt worth protecting. Come devils or ghosts, he'd take all-comers to protect his family. That was his ninja way! But for now though, the call to sleep was too strong to resist. Try as he might, he could feel his will fading.
"I'll… take care of it…" he murmured, losing his fight against the dread Sandman. "Believe it…"
"I do, Naruto. I do."