ADVENTURE

Chapter Eleven

SHION HADN'T EXPECTED HIM TO ARRIVE ON TIME WHEN SHE AWOKE EARLY FOR training that very morning. With that being said, she remained unsurprised when Naruto was not there to greet her at the training grounds. Likely, he forgot, so she quickly grinned and turned on her steps towards the orphanage that she hoped to never see again. It was all so morbid when she arrived, finding the building looking more like a prison than a home. She felt a moment of guilt that Naruto still remained there, before deciding there was ultimately nothing she could do about it at the moment.

She walked closer to the boys dormitory and felt her leg for soreness, finding it weird how with five minutes of Tsukasa's Jutsu, all of the pain practically went away. Yes, it was still in the process of healing, but it was as if Tsukasa had actually numbed the pain receptors in her entire leg, yet Shion could still move it as normal. It was weird because Tsukasa's knowledge of medicine was advanced, and her skills were above the medical staff that initially treated her. Shion forgot all about it when she jumped up towards the orphanage, digging her Chakra into her feet in order to stick before she rushed up and jumped through one of the windows of the boys section.

Shion made certain to stick to one leg since Tsukasa had told her that just because the pain was gone, didn't mean that she was better. So, she balanced on one leg to say attached to the building. Luckily, some kid left the window open, likely to add some air to the very hot rooms filled with growing boys.

When Shion glanced into the room towards sleeping kids, she searched the rows for Naruto's bright blonde hair but only saw brunettes. This forced her to step further into the room and jump onto the ceiling, her leg nearly giving out, but she forced more Chakra to her legs and stick to the spiky ceiling. She glanced down, seeing lines of kids, but no Naruto. Finally, she glanced towards the side of the room where a bed was basically pushed so far out of the way that no one could notice it. It was next to a drafty window and a bunch of spider webs. There rested Naruto, visibly far from the other kids.

Shion jumped towards it, landing on all fours before seeing that they had given him the itchy blankets with holes, much too thin for the winter, but too damaged for the summer. Shion glanced at the other kids, seeing they all had much newer and better looking sheets. She shook her head, grabbing an empty ramen container with a frown at Naruto's messiness. She chucked it at his head, and it bounced off and hit the ground. Naruto's eyes cracked open with a groan, causing her to smile as she leaned over the bed and watched his gaze move tiredly and in a daze before finally resting on her. He jumped, falling off the bed with a thump and hitting his head.

Her head tilted with a soft smile, kneeling down and placing her finger against her lips to shush him. "I'm here to wake you up."

"I wasn't sleeping, dattebayo," he quickly shouted, and she shushed him one more time, glancing over towards the sleeping boys who looked like even an earthquake would not get them to leave their beds at 7:30 in the morning.

"Training to become a Hokage...I would have thought it meant more than you," she told him, standing up. "And here I thought—ah I overestimated you and your resolve."

"I will become Hokage!" Naruto stood up to shout it, causing one of the boys closest to his bed to groan, forcing a pillow over his head to cover up the shout.

"Shut up Naruto!" The boy shouted this as he turned over in his bed to get away from the sound that Naruto brought with him.

"Then get dressed. Brush your teeth. Let's teach you something worth it all," she told him, and he nodded his head, dashing towards the bathroom, almost running straight into the door. She watched him slam it behind him, and more kids groaned at the noise and made Shion slightly understand why they pushed his bed to the worst corner of the room. However, she doubted that was the only reason as to why.

She walked over to the boy clutching his blanket and tore it off of him, he tiredly attempted to find it again, and she quickly tossed Naruto's crummy blanket on top of him. She then stealthily swapped the pillows and made Naruto's bed before noticing that Naruto's bed was the only one of all of them to have rickety wood that looked only a couple of days away from crumbling. She crossed her arms but didn't get a chance to fix it when Naruto walked out.

"Did you brush your teeth?" she asked, and he nodded eagerly with a 'yep'. "Wash your face?" He repeated his nod. "Pee?" He walked back into the bathroom with a frown.

She glanced out the window with a solemn expression replacing her normal smile but her smile was back when Naruto walked back into the room. She gave him a once over before she picked up some bright orange pants from the ground and tossed them his way. He didn't catch it and the pants fell onto the ground.

"Put some pants on you nasty," she told him, and he blushed and shoved his small legs into his pants. He still looked half asleep on his feet, so Shion took a step forward, grabbing his face in between his hands. "What is your goal?"

He looked confused for a moment, and uncomfortable since she was smooshing his cheeks in between her hands. "To be Hokage?"

"Say it like you mean it!" Shion exclaimed, not mindful of the noise. Naruto's eyes were wide and blue, and slowly his lips spread into a grin.

"To be Hokage!" Naruto exclaimed, and she nodded her head.

"What is your goal?" Shion asked again, and he didn't miss a beat.

"I will become Hokage, dattebayo!" Naruto's voice boomed and echoed, causing many of the other boys to finally stir and shoot the two kids with a glare that could melt ice. Unfortunately, Shion was steel. She had tried to be stealthy, but fuck that, and fuck these kids.

"Will you two shut the fuck up!" One of the boys screamed out, ducking under his pillow and attempting to block out Shion and Naruto's voice.

"You are talking to your future Hokage! Speak with respect!" Shion exclaimed, grabbing Naruto's hand with a grin. The boy's eyes were still wide and blue, and it was like looking into the sky. She gave his hand a squeeze before letting it go. "Come on Naruto. Unless you work hard, nothing will change." Shion jumped onto the open window seal, high up on the wall, with one swift motion. Naruto glanced up at her, and she wondered if he could make that jump.

She didn't get long into her thoughts as he attempted, but she saw he wasn't going to make it so she used her Chakra to stick to the wall and reached out to grab his hand and toss him out the window. He flopped onto the ground with a painful-looking bounce.

She jumped down next to him, landing on one foot. "You were supposed to stick the landing, Naruto."

"Who pushes people out of buildings, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed, and she raised her hands in defense.

"Sorry, Naruto. I've seen you stick better landings than that when we were defacing the Hokage monument. Thought you could hand this," she explained, and he grew red. "Besides. I threw you out, not push."

"I wasn't ready, dattebayo," he said, pointing at her. She swiped away his hand with a frown.

"Well, a lesson has been learned," she told him. "Let's go. I think the first thing you need to work on is Taijutsu."

"My Taijutsu is perfect," he retorted, and she pressed her finger against her bottom lip before she swiftly swiped her leg under his and watched him fall and stumble on his butt. "Stop hitting me when I'm not ready!"

"If your Taijutsu was perfect, your reflexes would have reacted before I could get close enough," she told him, standing straight. Slowly, she grinned. "You know, it's not a bad thing to not be good at something. That's what training is for. We can't all be prodigies who have natural talent. Some of us have to work hard to get there."

Naruto stared up at her with those innocent eyes. "I will work hard."

He sounded so earnest, that she almost felt bad for what was to come. "I know that, Naruto." She began to stretch, pulling her arm over her chest in the middle of a squat. "Let's go for a jog."

"Running?" Naruto's face paled.

"Step one to any training Naruto," Shion told him, her voice light and playful, but her eyes were serious. "It's to run. It's to build up your stamina. For fucks sake Naruto. Stretch."

"I don't need stretching, dattebayo."

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"Let's go for a run Naruto!" Shion shook Naruto awake the next morning, but all she got was a tired groan.

"I can't move dattebayo. Go away," Naruto ordered, and Shion gasped.

"Go away?" Shion shook her head.

"I wish you both would go away," one of the other boys muttered into his pillow.

Shion patted Naruto's head with a smile. "Rest up, Naruto."

With her morning plans shot, she had a chance to see the familiar conditions of the dorm, from the broken door to the infestation of mice. No one cared about the orphans of this village, and they always got scraps of food. Being a ninja was actually one of the only ways to become something new. At least, it was the only way for her to become anyone else.

The only way she could help Naruto was to make him strong, that way he could leave too.

Then again, as great as that sounded... "Sounds like it would take too long," Shion muttered as she walked out the front door, and it seemed like she had forgotten why she had taken back exits and didn't realize until madam Ushimi made eye contact.

"You! Where are the pillows and bedsheets? I know you've been stealing them!" Ushimi took out her deadly ruler and Shion's eyes widened, almost immediately jumping and sticking to the ceiling when she used her Chakra to fill her veins. "You ninja think you are above the law, but I'll do everything in my power to make you pay for your crimes."

"Fuck, Ushimi. They're pillows. Chill," Shion jumped towards one of the high windows and rammed her foot into the glass, causing it to shatter.

"That window will cost you 800 Ryo!" Ushimi screamed, and her ruler flew from her grasp as she tossed it at Shion with a rather deadly accuracy and caused it to lodge into the window seal just as Shion dodged.

"You're crazy, Mimi!" Shion jumped onto the ground with a slowly forming grin as she began to walk towards the trees, heading to the Hokage's building in the middle of the village. Her wounds had healed up almost completely, and she was rather restless in the village now that Tsukasa had taken a sabbatical or something.

Thus, Shion decided to find her own daily task to pass the time, since obviously, Naruto was less than willing to wake up early and train. When she made it to the building, she let out a long, bored sigh before climbing up the steps and telling the ninja guarding the door to let her pass or she'd egg his house again.

"I am so sick of your face," the ninja muttered, and Shion grinned and walked past him.

The room was rather empty, except for Iruka who was overlooking mission reports and looking dead on his feet with her never-ending and relentless pestering in the form of the wailing of a Budgett's frog. It was a sound that she only recently perfected, and judging by the deep bags under Iruka's eyes, it was very effective.

"Iruka-sensei! My friend!" Shion exclaimed, watching as Iruka visibly shuddered at her call, and it only slightly hurt her feelings considering she only had the utmost respect for him.

"If I ask nicely, would you lower your voice?" Iruka asked, rubbing his temples, and that only further caused Shion to smile.

"Iruka, we're pals. You don't even need to ask," she said this, but her voice hadn't actually changed in volume, and she merely lowered it to a pitch so husky that it could probably push a sleigh.

"What do you want?" Iruka asked, and Shion gave him a slight smile, showing off her dimples as she hopped in front of his desk, nearly blowing away the papers as she did. Her hands pressed up against the wood and she leaned forward so she could rest her elbows against the surface.

"I'm bored. Misaki is deformed-"

"A broken limb doesn't equal deformity-"

"And Tsu-sensei just up and ditched so she could spend time with her boyfriend-"

"You shouldn't spread rumor-"

"AND, to top it all off, I haven't had a mission in like a month-"

"It was actually a week and-"

"It's not nice to interrupt," Shion said, giving him another sweet dimpled smile. "So, I was thinking, what's a girl gotta do to get a mission around here and I came to the conclusion-"

"We don't give solo missions to Genin," Iruka told her, causing Shion's bottom lip to tremble.

"Iruka, I'm hurt. I'm not asking for a solo mission," Shion told him, and he leaned back in his chair. His eyes narrowed and the area of skin that rested underneath the scar across his nose slightly crinkled.

"You're not...?" Iruka sounded unsure, but he had never been able to get a read of the girl. She was always rambunctious and loud and immature, which was why he protested so heavily against her becoming a Genin so young. Unfortunately, he was also very overruled and he suspected that Shion was bitter at him for the whole matter.

"No, of course not," Shion leaned closer, not minding that she nearly knocked over his small statue of a dog that said 'bark for the best teacher'. "I don't want a solo mission. I want to duo mission. Just me and Hikaru."

"Absolutely not. Tsukasa Izana should be back in a couple of days. Wait for her," Iruka tried to shoo the girl away with his hand, but she didn't move a muscle.

"Iruka, I need stimulation." Iruka was irritated at the casual usage of his name, and was about to tell her as much, but she continued. "Adventure. I could die. Do you want me to die?" Shion's eyes were very earnest and it was abundantly clear to Iruka that she wasn't about to leave easily.

"At the moment?" Maybe...

"It doesn't have to be a big adventure. Hey, I'll settle. I'm a settler. Anything, Iruka. I'll take it." Shion smiled once more as Iruka sighed and shuffled through some small cards, glancing up at her as he did, probably hoping that she would leave.

"Fine. I have just the mission."

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"Hikaru! We have a mission!" Shion said as Hikaru answered the door with a sleepy yawn, looking as if he had just woken up. Judging by the disheveled attire and the way his pupil-less eyes were unfocused, she imagined he was very sleepy.

"What are you doing in my house?" Hikaru said mid-yawn.

"Your mom let me in. Thanks, Hyuuga-san!" Shion shouted loud enough that the Hyuuga woman could hear and Hikaru could flinch.

"What do you mean we have a mission? It's my vacation."

"Oh, that? No, that's all over. We gotta buckle down and get serious."

"What did you do?"

"What didn't I do? I saved you from this misery," Shion told him, lips still in the shape of a grin that looked a moment too evil to Hikaru's sleep-deprived eyes.

"I was sleeping. Come on, I haven't even had breakfast yet," Hikaru whined, but Shion wouldn't hear of it as she stormed past him and began to pack his things. She even picked out his outfit while he tried not to fall asleep against the door frame.

"Hikaru, you only live once. Let's live it together," Shion said, holding out the weirdest combination of an outfit that looked like she grabbed it from Hell itself, and topped it with his late father's most hideous hat.

"I'd rather die," Hikaru said, glancing at the oufit with a horrified expression. "Did no one ever teach you about fashion," Hikaru stormed past her and grabbed his own clothes, ignoring Shion's frown.

"I thought it looked nice."

"You clashed the colors, Shion!"

"Clashing is good! It's a sign of power. Like the clash of blades."

"You didn't even pick out shoes. Those are slippers."

"I thought you were tired. I wanted to make the transition easier."

"If you were so concerned about my feelings, we wouldn't be on this mission in the first place you noodle!"

After about twenty minutes of arguing, the two finally made it downstairs to see Hikaru's mother preparing a meal for breakfast. It had an aroma so sweet that Shion paused, almost as if her legs were made of lead. "Is that food?"

"Yes, but it won't be ready for another forty minutes. I just started darling," Hikaru's mother had the voice of an angel and the eyes of a beauty. Shion took a step towards her, nearly forgetting about the mission in a moment of hungry weakness. This was not seen kindly by Hikaru, who tapped his foot lightly against the ground.

"If you were so quick to give up on a mission, why wake me up?" Hikaru asked, and Shion glanced away from his mother chopping up the vegetables. "What is the mission anyway?"

"We are guarding an important son of a lord!" Shion almost immediately jumped up with enthusiasm as she repeated what Iruka told her. Hikaru was more than a little skeptical, and he crossed his arms but followed Shion when she began to walk out of the house. He said for his mom to save him some food before he slipped on his shoes by the door and followed Shion out of the complex.

Like with all strangers, many of the Hyuuga gave Shion dirty looks as if she were trespassing, but Shion paid no mind. "Guarding him against what?" Hikaru's question caused Shion to turn towards him and walk much too quickly, but backward. She did manage to skillfully dodge any oncoming traffic in a rather graceful way as if her back wasn't turned towards the world.

"According to my sources," and by sources she, of course, meant Iruka, "his name is Kinnosuke Toshio. He is an important lord who is always at risk for bad people to come after him."

"Is that right? Why would they give that mission to us?"

"They must have finally recognized my prowess and skill on the battlefield," Shion laughed into her hand, already prepared for a fight.

"What battlefield? You have been in two battles and I'm pretty sure you fainted at the end of both of them," Hikaru reminded her and she paused.

"You're just jealous that you're as boring as a bag of bricks!"

"What rank did you say this mission was?"

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"Great mission huh?" Hikaru said, or more like grumbled as he scowled straight ahead.

"What was I supposed to do. You would have fallen for it too."

"Why wouldn't you suspect something was wrong if you hear the mission is D rank."

"I thought missions levels had changed when I was out into the world."

"We weren't even gone long, you moose," Hikaru reminded her, causing Shion to shake her head, letting out a sigh. She pushed back a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her face, shoving back the pink strand as she watched the son of a lord shove down one of the Hokage statues in the lobby.

"I still don't deserve this. I wanted an adventure with fighting and a damsel in distress," Shion gave a scrutinized glance towards Hikaru. "Actually, I suppose I already have a damsel. You."

"You say some really hurtful things sometimes," Hikaru told her, crossing his arms.

"Play with me! I'm bored!" Kinnosuke Toshio screamed, knocking down another statue.

"I'm going to be honest with you," Shion began, prompting Hikaru to glance towards her as he waited for her to finish her sentence. However, she was nowhere to be seen, leaving him with a very destructive kid.

"What a bitch," Hikaru muttered.