The next day started early for the two wildlings. Kagame had already got them out of bed at 6 o'clock. All three gathered at the breakfast table and the plan for the day was discussed over some tea and Shokupan. Tayuya was still very grumpy in the morning, and she wasn't hungry either.
"The plan for today is as follows ...", Kagame began to explain. "We will practice your Taijutsu until early noon. In my opinion there are still basics in both of you that are missing. Then we will take a short break. I have selected a class C mission for you to follow. If you have successfully completed the mission, you'll be free for the rest of the evening. I can recommend you walk to Shizugakure. It's only a stone's throw. There is the fair tonight, so you probably can have a lot of fun there!"
"What is a fair?" Asked Tayuya, very confused.
"It is an annual festival that is celebrated in many villages. There are stalls set up where you can buy local specialties or lots of sweets and amusement attractions such as target throwing or shooting or apple diving," Yato explained dryly. "I've never been a particularly big fan of it. Too many people, too much hustle and bustle-"
"What is apple diving?", Tayuya interrupted him. Kagame listened to them with a gentle smile.
"Your hands are tied behind your back and a barrel is filled with water in front of you. Apples swim in it, which you have to fish out with your mouth.", explained the young Ganan.
"As I said, I don't particularly like it-"
"I want to go there!", Tayuya said resolutely, interrupting Yato again. Yato felt ignored and his face made an idiotic expression.
"We could do it at a different time...", he tried to navigate his way out.
"Then I'd have to wait a whole year!", replied the red-haired girl.
"Oh nonsense! Fairs are annual, but on a different day in each village. Kibugakure is not far from Shizugakure, maybe we could-"
"Yato, stop talking yourself out and take the young lady out to Shizugakure!" Kagame instructed him.
"But what does that have to do with training?", Yato tried further.
"Don't argue!", Kagame made clear. Yato then hung his head.
They don't even let me finish speaking. The former Konohanin whined in his thoughts.
"Then that's a done deal, I'll meet you down in the training hall in half an hour!" Announced the old man. Thereupon he left the table and the two among themselves for a while.
"You could have helped me." Yato snapped at Tayuya.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"I don't feel like going to the fair ..."
"Oh that ...", said Tayuya, while she took a bite of the Shokupan: "Yes, that's not my problem, moron!"
She still drives me crazy! He thought.
xXx
„We'll start with you, Yato!", Kagame instructed „Something I realized when we fought is, that your Taijutsu is pretty bad."
„True, my strenghts lie elsewhere.", Yato justified himself.
"That may be. However, you cannot always rely on it!", The Taijutsu master explained, "I will explain it to you. We will simulate a small exchange of blows and you can exceptionally use your Sharingan to demonstrate." Yato closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again. His eyes were piercing red now.
"All right, I'm ready!", Yato took up a defensive position.
"I'm going to attack you like a normal ninja would do and you watch with your Sharingan. Then you'll tell me about your observations.", Kagame Yato instructed. "Oh, of course you should try to parry my blows!" Joked the old man afterwards. Yato gave a silent nod. Kagame rushes off and tries to give Yato a right hook. Yato blocked it with his left hand. Not even a second later, Kagame tried ti get Yato from his feet with a low kick. Yato evades with flying colors.
I don't really know what he's up to. I can precisely predict every movement. When we had the first trial match, I felt like it was much faster. Yato thought. The young Ganan crosses his arms in front of his chest to block another kick from his teacher. Yato flies back a few meters in the air and lands on his feet again.
"What did you notice?" Asked Kagame. Tayuya listened curiously.
"Every attack pattern was obvious to me, and it was no problem for me to predict your attacks.", Yato analyzed.
"That is absolutely correct. We will do the whole thing again now, are you ready?" Asked the coach. Yato nodded again and took the defensive position again. He was very focused on his Sharingan. Kagame sprints again. He swung out his right hand again, Yato held his left hand ready to fend off the blow. But in the second the blow hit his face and he fell over backwards.
What the- Yato wondered in his mind. What happened?
"You're probably wondering what happened, aren't you? I'll explain. The Sharingan not only pays a great physical toll, but it also has another weak point that few people know about, probably even the fewest Uchihas themselves. ", Yato looked skeptical and raised an eyebrow on it. Tayuya now wanted to listen very carefully so that she could defeat him one day. "The Sharingan is more of an analysis tool. It analyzes the movements and patterns of the opponents and thus helps to anticipate an attack, but it does not make an exact prediction. You'll have to use the Sharingan more carefully and be aware of this weakness. Sure, most of the Shinobi learn fighting techniques and in principle every fighting technique is based on a pattern or on learned movements. However, it can be learned well in a safe environment, but a fight is never a safe environment. Every conflict situation harbors different dangers, and they are all unique, because it depends on many factors: location, people involved, weather, time ... "
"That's all well and good, but that doesn't explain how you hit me!" Yato complained.
Yato inclined his head a little in the mistaken belief. "The core of my training is to get rid of patterns and combat habits and to use the momentum of surprise The moment I indicated my punch and saw that you were raising your arm to block, I changed the path of my punch in one quick movement. That happened in a split second and that brought your Sharingan to its limits, which is why you couldn't parry.", Kagame described.
The hours then passed quickly until noon. Yato learned to break out of ready-made patterns and to rely less on his Sharingan in combat. In fact, he had to train without it. Yato needed a break quite early. Tayuya was far more ambitious and inquisitive. Even after repeated offers from Kagame, she decided not to take a break and wanted to continue. She learned at an unimaginable pace and soaked up the knowledge of Kagame.
It is completely wacky. If I continue to train myself in this style, I will age three times as quickly in these 2 years. Kagame quipped in his mind, slightly worried. However, if she keeps learning at this rate, it may not take her two years. "Enough for today!"
"No! I want to try this combination once again!", Tayuya tried to intervene. She was already over her exhaustion limit, but her enormous ambition drove her. She still gasped a little but got up and wanted to go straight back at Kagame.
"That's enough now, Tayuya!", Kagame announced again more energetically and stuck out his arm to meme a stop. "As much as I admire your zeal and zest for action, you still have something to do. The mission money is important so that you can afford the rest of the stay. You also wanted to go to the fair," explained the Atsuka instructively.
"You are right!", Tayuya saw and bowed respectfully to her teacher.
"You don't have to bow to me young lady! This is not a dictation, and I am not your leader. We can keep this a little more relaxed."
"Hmm ..." she thought. "Master Orochimaru has always demanded that from us, as well as maximum commitment..." Yato was still upset inside that she still said master to him.
"You are welcome to demonstrate the maximum effort, but such gestures are not necessary.", Kagame made clear with a smile. Tayuya just shrugged. "Well, get ready then. Upstairs on the breakfast table is a bingo entry about the deserters you will probably fight against during this mission. As soon as you have completed the mission, you can pick up the reward at the Shizugakure pawn shop.", so Kagame. The two teenagers made their way upstairs. Tayuya jumped under the shower while Yato studied the mission and the bingo sheet.
"What's taking so long?", Yato asked impatiently.
"I forgot to get a towel first, damn it!" The red-haired girl cursed.
"I'll bring you one.", Yato rolled her eyes. He went to the closet in their room, where many towels were stored on the upper shelf. Yato took the first thing out and knocked on the bathroom door. This was a good meter across from the bed of the two, while the wardrobe was right next to it. "May I come in?"
"Woe to you using your Sharingan!" Warned the impulsive lady.
"Do you think I have nothing better to do than use my Sharingan to peep?" Yato asked rhetorically.
"Close your fucking eyes and come in!", Tayuya swore again.
What have I got myself into here? Yato whined mentally. He carefully opened the door and held the towel in front of his closed eyes. Slowly he padded step by step into the bathroom.
"I'm standing right in front of you, you can hand it to me.", Tayuya said in a tone that was surprisingly warm for her. Yato followed her suggestion and stretched out his arms with the towel towards her, his eyes still closed. She took the towel and the second Yato realized his arms were empty again, he turned and walks out of the bathroom. Almost in panic, he closes the door behind him. Pervert! Tayuya thought provocatively. After she finished the shower, she went into the room and put on her riot gear. A black combat tunic, as she was used to from the old potato sack-like tunic from Orochimaru. It was most comfortable for her. Her black arm warmers and black leggings. On the part of the tunic, that laid below her belt, the Ying & Yang symbol was depicted in silver and gold. Now she tied her leg bandages and put on the traditional ninja sandals. Last but not least, she put on her hat. She snuck out of the room around the corner to Yato, who was still sitting at the table and had sunk into the bingo entry again. "We can go then, slowpoke!"
As if the long wait was up to me! The boy complained in his head. Without a word he stood up and made a "come along" gesture with his arm. They made their way through the forest.
"Give me the information!", Tayuya demanded.
"You could have read it yourself! Don't get the idea that just because I fed you through nature, I will carry everything behind you! I'm not your employee!", Yato made clear to her.
"No reason to bother!", Tayuya exclaimed. What the hell is his problem? she thought to herself.
"Well, the two villains we're looking for are Seydo and Paku! They are holding a little boy named Katamaru. I don't know from the bingo entry what the relationship is between the two of them, whether they are siblings or whether one of them has the lead. In any case, Paku has a good command of the shadow technique ... "
"Oh, not another shadowy guy!" Complained Tayuya
"What makes me curious is that he has no connections to the Nara Clan. That means for me either it is a different type of shadow manipulation than the Naras, or he has managed to acquire this technique through theft. The latter would make it even more dangerous for me, since the Nara secret lies in a special forest in Konohagakure and is not recorded in writing. I neither know where this forest is nor in what form it is recorded. But that would mean that this guy knows that and that makes him more unpredictable, "Yato explains.
"And what about the other one?" Asked his companion.
"Seydo is a user of the Raiton. His techniques are probably on a rather low level. From this I conclude that the other person is probably more in charge."
"Why do two adults hold a child? And where do they do that anyway?" Asked Tayuya again.
"Those are all things that you would know if you had prepared yourself for this mission ...", Yato had to clarify again briefly, "Katamaru is the son of the village elder from Shizugakure. These two gangsters have been trying to beat out family secrets of the little one for almost two weeks."
"What kind of family secrets?"
"Unfortunately, I don't know either, I could only speculate here. However, five minutes north-east of Shizugakure there is probably an abandoned grain silo in the forest, where the three are suspected. Our task will be to locate the silo and from there to read traces. ", reasoned the young Ganan.
xXx
Arrived at the silo, the two jumped as silently as possible onto the roof of the granary. Yato now formed the hand signals: I - Uma - Saru. Now he grabbed his right wrist with his left hand and pressed his right hand to the ground: "Shīkushīru no rīdāshippu". Yato closed his eyes. Tayuya couldn't quite follow what was happening. They both paused for a minute or so until Yato opened his eyes again. Tayuya looked up expectantly. "They are here! However, the entrances are riddled with traps. Since I want to go on this mission as free from conflicts as possible, I suggest that we find an alternative way in."
"Oh no, conflict-free is boring!", Tayuya sharpened and bit his thumb. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" She summed her three Doki, pulled out her flute and, based on a certain harmony of sound, ordered the man with the club to hammer onto the roof of the barn that the silo belongs to. Two silhouettes jumped out of the rising haze. One was tall, long, brown, wild hair, a goatee and an all-black, tight-fitting overall. The other was of medium size, also long, brown hair, but no beard. He wore normal, dark blue ninja pants and bandagettes around his shin. On his upper body he wore only a brown, half-tattered linen shirt without sleeves. His upper body was well trained and muscular.
"Are you crazy! You could have hurt the boy!", Yato scolded Tayuya in a loud whisper.
"What kind of birds are they?" The somewhat smaller figure asked his partner.
"I don't know.", The bigger one laughed into his sleeve.
"Yato!", Tayuya commented dryly and pointed in the direction of the two figures. Yato paused for a moment and everything about his body - from facial expressions to posture - became serious.
"Seydo and Paku!" The young teenager called after the two of them. Because one of them wears a flashy black jumpsuit, I assume that he is Paku, the shadow guy... He talked shop in his mind.
"What are you children doing here?" Asked the supposed Paku.
"We're here to bring Katamaru back home!" Announced the Kunoichi. The two figures began to laugh out loud.
"You don't seriously believe that, do you?" Asked the man in the sleeveless linen shirt. "Paku!" He asked his partner without comment.
"Already at it!" Replied Paku. He sank into the ground.
"Tayuya, be careful!" Yato warned while he jumped at the remaining opponent. She was about to jump when she realized that she couldn't move.
"Yoohoo!" Replied a rough voice from behind. Paku, who has just disappeared into the ground, appeared in the shadow behind her. "How do you like my Stone Shadow?" He asked gleefully.
Dammit! Tayuya cursed to herself. Yato attacked Seydo head-on and had drawn a Kunai before he took off. Seydo and Yato stood Kunai to Kunai directly in front of each other. Seydo looked deep into his opponent's eyes. A mischievous grin spread across his cheeks as he began to channel the lightning chakra through his kunai. Yato began to whimper and moan in pain, but simulated steadfastness.
"That's it for you!" Shouted Seydo. He was just about to start the stab when he noticed that the two hadn't moved a bit. What's going... he wondered when he saw the Sharingan in Yato's eyes.
In the meantime, Tayuya tried to activate her curse mark. When I fought with the guy from Konoha, I was able to pull myself out of his jutsu with sheer strength. I'll try it here too... Why doesn't my curse mark activate? She wondered and began to panic a little.
"Well, what is it? Don't you want to defend yourself at all?", Paku provoked.
"Shut up!", Tayuya defended himself.
"Huhahaha", Paku laughed softly, "Well, at least you try it verbally", he made fun of.
"You know, as satisfying as it may be for perpetrators to look their victims deep in the eyes when they want to kill them, it is so deadly to do that to me!", Yato made his opponent understandable. "Tell me where you are holding the boy!"
"Do you think you get informations out of me so easily?", Seydo replied.
"Tsukiyomi!", Yatos Sharingan turned into a Mangekyou. The normal Sharingan's four tomoe thickened and it took the shape of a cross. At the point where his pupil was before, there is now nothing, only the visible red background color.
Paku rose from Tayuya's shadow with a sword in his hand. Damn it, I can move even less than I did with the other shadow guy. This is going to be really bad. I can't even move my flute a few centimeters to play notes, then at least I could order my doki.
"And bye!", Paku croaked when he was ready to stab.
Dammit! Yato cursed softly and let off of Seydo. Millimeters before Paku's blade pierced Tayuya's torso, Yato stepped in and grabbed the blade of Paku's sword in his bare hand.
Tayuya let out a startled "Uhm ..." Paku's eyes widened in shock. The blood dripped from Yato's fingers. "Hey, I had everything under control here, you stupid!" Scolded Tayuya.
"This is no gimcrack here.", Yato warned his team partner in a cold, emotionless and serious voice. "Chikaidesu!" Yato gripped harder and Paku's sword pulverized.
"Chidori!" Shouted Seydo, who came from above them to counterattack.