Hey y'all, just FYI this chapter isn't really relevant to the plot. I just wrote it for fun/stress relief and to further develop characters and to world build more. So if you don't want to read it, you don't have to and you won't really be missing out on anything.
(After much begging on her part, Avery's grandpa agrees to teach her what he knows about weapons when she is 12, while she and Elle are visiting him and their grandma over the summer. He's a veteran with an interest in guns and sharp things, and more stories and knowledge than she can even imagine.
He shows her how to shoot a gun in the quiet of a Louisiana bayou, the sun beating down on them and sweat trickling down her back, her glasses sliding from her nose. There is nothing but the muffled sound of the water, his scratchy voice, and the deafening thunder of each gunshot. She's decent with the shotgun, and they move on to handguns quickly. She's so thrilled at hitting her marks that she doesn't even notice that the hammer has caught her thumb until there's blood trickling down her arm.
When she returns from the house, bandaid already stained red with blood, it's to find Elle hitting each can with apparent ease. Avery stands back and watches, lips pressed into a thin line as the cans rattle and fall with each loud crack.
At the end of the lesson, he takes them back inside and gives them a lesson on how to clean the guns. Elle escapes into their shared room before the end, but Avery sits and listens. Their grandpa moves on from cleaning guns to the correct way to handle certain knives, then to different kinds of swords, then to the functionality of a butterfly knife, and she is enraptured by every new conversation and every change in topic.
He gives Avery a throwing star and a few throwing knives and tells her to practice with them, instead. She's not great, but after a while, she can at least hit the wooden board she's aiming at almost every time. He promises her that he'll teach her swordplay some day, maybe next time they visit. He smiles warmly and ruffles her hair and tells her that, if she promises not to tell her mom, next time they go into town, he'll buy her the dragon-hilted knife that he knows she'd been eying. She blushes and insists it isn't necessary, but he just laughs and, secretly, she's pleased.
By the time she heads back outside to practice, Elle has disappeared to swim in the bayou, uncaring of their grandparents' warnings of the alligator gar fish and actual alligators that call the murky water home. She's too entranced by the fact that there are otters living under the pier to care about the nest of sharp-toothed fish, bigger than she is, that brush her sides as she swims below the rotting wood.
Elle has lost interest in the weapons. Though Avery won't say it aloud, she's a little relieved.)
The sweat was just barely drying on their skin when Mayuri asked him if he would show them more of the base. They had an hour before their next lesson began, and during the allotted time the children were encouraged to eat a light snack and to keep moving in some way. Technically, exploring the village counted as light exercise.
Dosu and Hiroko groaned in unison at Mayuri's request, neither one wanting to move after the hours of training they had already put in that day.
"We've done nothing but explore Otogakure in our free time," Dosu pointed out, sounding a little woozy. One of the girls from his age group had apparently been learning genjutsu, and she had done a number on him during their spar. He'd been stumbling the rest of the lesson, and Mayuri was pretty sure he had yet to refocus his eyes.
"Yeah, it'll just be boring. I'm too tired to move! My whole body hurts," Hiroko whined, blinking up at her sister with big sad puppydog eyes. Mayuri wanted to laugh, because Hiroko was well aware that that look hadn't worked on her Before, and it certainly wouldn't work on her now, yet she just kept trying it. Mayuri had to admire her little sister's resilience in that respect, at least.
"You'll just be more sore later if you don't keep moving." As she spoke, Mayuri kicked herself up into a handstand and balanced for just a second before falling the rest of the way and landing in a backbend. She huffed angrily, annoyed that she couldn't hold her form, and lurched up to stand straight. She brushed the hair that had escaped her braid out of her face, eyeing her companions as they continued to stare at her from the floor. "Plus, sensei will enjoy beating you up even more if he finds out that you didn't follow his instructions," she reminded them cheerfully, a thinly veiled warning in her words as she stretched her arms over her head.
They both looked at her with eyes full of betrayal. Hiroko groaned dramatically, arms splayed out wide. Mayuri grinned back, crooked and full of teeth, and they both sighed but forced themselves to their feet. Mayuri bounced cheerfully on the balls of her feet, her smile softening to something more natural and cheerful as the three of them headed out into the interconnecting passageways that came together to form Otogakure.
"Where haven't we been yet?" Hiroko asked, her face set into a mask of annoyance as she trailed along behind Dosu and Mayuri.
"I don't think you've seen the training grounds yet," Dosu said thoughtfully, his rough voice echoing through the halls. They each moved carefully, the bells around their ankles and wrists barely making a single sound and their footsteps nearly silent. That part of their training was coming along very nicely, much to Mayuri's begrudging satisfaction.
"Aren't the training grounds just…'ya know. Where we train every day?"
He huffed out an almost-laugh, the bandages covering his face rustling. "No, that's just where we're learning. The training grounds are where the actual shinobi go to learn. My mom's taken me there a couple of times. It's got obstacles and traps and stuff. It's a lot cooler than the academy's stuff."
"Oh, is that what we're doing?" Hiroko asked, sarcasm heavy in her voice. "Going to an academy?"
Dosu glanced back at her, head tilted in confusion. It had been hard, at first, to read his movements and his emotions. The bandages had made it nearly impossible to see any emotions that his face might give away. Even when the bandages were torn or removed, the horrific scarring had disfigured and warped his features enough that it was hard to find any emotions there at all. After spending enough time with him, though, both of the girls had gotten pretty decent at figuring out what he might be feeling from minute body movements and other more subtle tells.
"What's that face for?" Mayuri asked, mirroring his movement, head tipping to convey her own confusion. The bandages wrinkled slightly as Dosu arched a nonexistent brow.
"What did you think we were doing?" he asked, his attention turned to Hiroko. She shrugged and he sighed. "Of course we're going to the academy. We're learning to be shinobi, aren't we?"
She laughed and shook her head, flipping her long black hair over her shoulder in the process. The second they were done training, she always took it out of its bun, preferring to wear it loose. "Well, you got me there. I guess we are in the academy, aren't we?"
Dosu rolled his eyes, but didn't respond. He moved ahead, longer legs making him faster than either of the five-year-olds. They hurried to keep up, and Mayuri took note of the fact that neither of them were breathing any harder yet. Apparently the hellish exercise really was good for something, after all.
The training grounds turned out to actually be a series of caverns connected by narrow, dark passages. Dosu stopped them in the first cavern and explained that each room served a different purpose, and that each of the passages were full of boobytraps and obstacles. The first cavern was the safest one, where shinobi came for light sparring sessions or to practice their aim with kunai or other weapons. There was only one person in it at that moment.
"The furthest and most deadly training ground is also the one closest to the entrance to the village," he whispered. He was watching the kunoichi practice her aim with senbon, and missed the tension-filled look that the sisters shared. "You haven't been around for an evacuation drill yet, have you? It's pretty cool. In case of a raid or emergency, all of us would get out of here and the traps would all be activated. Then the intruders would be faced with some pretty deadly stuff."
He laughed and Mayuri could admit that that strange, rasping sandpaper sound of his joy had sort of grown on her.
"I guess that means that Otogakure shinobi have to be really strong, huh?" she asked, leaning against Dosu's side.
"Yeah," Hiroko added, leaning into his other side. "It's really impressive that normal training for our shinobi is deadly to outsiders."
Their voices were just loud enough to carry, and the kunoichi paused in her training to turn towards them. Her expression softened at the sight of the three children and she smiled. Mayuri and Hiroko smiled back, twin grins that they already knew could melt the hearts of all but the most grouchy and war-scarred of shinobi. Dosu draped an arm around each of their shoulders, the fabric of his too-long sleeves hiding his scarred fingers and brushing against the girls' ribcages.
"Did you three want to learn?" the kunoichi asked, her voice smooth and kind. Mayuri hesitated, well aware of the fact that her eyesight was shit and she wouldn't be able to see the targets clearly enough to actually hit them. She knew that Hiroko had gone tense as well, for a completely different reason. Her sister didn't like interacting with new people, and while a part of her yearned to make friends, her anxiety was hard to overcome. Sensing their hesitance, Dosu huffed and trapped them each in a headlock, shuffling forward and dragging them along with him despite their muffled noises of indignation.
"They're shy, but we'd like to learn anything you can teach us," he announced, bowing slightly and dragging the sisters down with him. The kunoichi laughed loudly, the sound pure and sweet, filling Mayuri with a tentative warmth. Surely someone who could laugh like that couldn't be a bad person, right? Dosu released his hold on them, and Mayuri offered the woman a small smile.
Some time later found Mayuri sitting to the side, squinting at the target and tossing a kunai thoughtlessly between her hands. The kunoichi, who had introduced herself as Risa, had given her a few kunai and shuriken to practice with after she had proven that she was absolutely hopeless with the senbon. Dosu had laughed at her, but promised to help her with target practice later. Mayuri liked to think that the only reason she was so abysmal with them was that she just couldn't see them after a certain point, but that was probably a lie. Still, it made her feel better.
She was a little better with the more traditional weapons, enjoying the weight of them in her hand. Dosu was already pretty much a pro at them, and had at least been able to hit the general area of the target with the senbon after a little practice. Hiroko, however, had managed to hit the target dead-on after she got the hang of them. Risa's focus had very quickly shifted over to the younger girl, her eyes bright and her smile wide as she corrected Hiroko's stance or directed her to aim for a more difficult target.
"You jealous yet?" Dosu teased as he settled down next to her. She could tell by the way his chin lifted and the light in his eyes that he was grinning behind his bandages. Mayuri huffed and flipped the kunai, only to let out a dissatisfied hiss as she caught it by the wrong end. Dosu rolled his eyes.
"I'm not jealous," she defended, pulling her hand close to inspect the damage. She had noticed that her ability to tell how badly she was hurt had diminished, to the point she had taken to asking Hiroko or Dosu to check her over after each spar to make sure she didn't need medical attention for anything. It was worrying, if she was being honest with herself. This new cut wasn't too bad, though it would probably leave a scar.
Her eyes scanned her hands and arms, still searching for old scars from another life entirely. Even after two years, it was still strange to no longer know her own hands.
"Are too."
"Yeah, right. Just like you're jealous that we can do headstands and you can't? Everyone is good at different things. Just because Hiroko is good at everything she sets out to do, that doesn't mean—"
Dosu crossed his arms and she cut herself off, face flushing red. She sighed and the silence stretched on.
"It's okay to be jealous you know," he told her at last, eyes gentle. It was easy to forget sometimes that he wasn't even eight years old yet. He was still just a child, yet he seemed so mature and grown up to her sometimes. It scared her, to think that her brain still had such a hold on her. A child his age shouldn't seem so much older and wiser, and yet there were days where she found herself believing his every word with the wide-eyed trust of the child her brain still thought she was. She looked up at him, taking in the softness of his black eyes, the smoothness of the bandages, and the easy way he held himself. She relaxed slightly, her lips twitching up into a smile.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," she began, only to cut herself off with a choked shriek as he pounced on her, twisted fingers digging into her sides in a tickle-attack that was just short of painful.
"But I'm not jealous of you, you little brat!" he teased, fingers pressing hard into her flesh to make sure she felt it.
She laughed between her shrieks, fists pounding playfully against his back and shoulders. Though they were light strikes, she knew that they would probably leave bruises. Their senseis hadn't really bothered to teach them how to pull their punches to anything less than "not technically lethal." Even with her chakra sealed, her bones were unusually dense, and she knew that any hits with body parts that weren't fleshy generally felt more like getting knocked around with steel beams rather than fists or shins. Not that anyone would ever dare to complain when they were forced to pair up with her during sparring sessions; their senseis generally didn't take kindly to students who questioned or disobeyed an order.
"What the hell do you brats think you're doing?"
Apparently the saying, "speak of the devil and he shall appear" worked with senseis, as well.
Mayuri and Dosu froze, both turning to look at the man who was standing over them, arms crossed and features stony. His voice was soft and gruff, angry enough to raise goosebumps across Mayuri's flesh. Dosu was yanked away, straight up into the air. Their sensei held him up by the back of the shirt, legs kicking uselessly as he reached up to grasp at his collar, choking as the fabric tightened across his throat.
"Sensei, please put him down!" she pleaded immediately, jumping to her feet and stepping forward, hands already outstretched like she could somehow free him through sheer force of will.
Immediately, she found herself scooped up as well. She yelped, blinking in shock as she was hoisted up and dangled like a misbehaving kitten. The collar of her tunic was lower cut than Dosu's, so there wasn't the uncomfortable sensation of choking, but it wasn't a pleasant feeling to be dangling like this. The fabric was pulled taut across her chest and the seams were digging into her armpits.
After a second of instinctual struggling, Mayuri allowed herself to go limp. She pouted, mostly to hide the pinch of fear in her belly that rose at the thought of what her sensei might do to them. She wasn't really scared of him, per se, but she was certainly wary. He was bigger and stronger than her, and he had a power and authority over her. While she didn't like to admit it, even to herself, she was instinctively wary around adults in positions of power and would do most anything to make sure she didn't get on their bad side.
"Put them down!" Hiroko shouted, rushing forward with a fire in her mismatched eyes. She looked fully prepared to fight Tanuma-sensei, despite how hopelessly outmatched she would be.
Before she could reach them, though, Risa stopped her in her track by snatching the back of her shirt and holding her there until her angry thrashing calmed. Her tiny hands were balled into fists at her sides, her chest heaving and her eyes sharp and angry. She would probably cut an imposing figure with that stance and expression some day, but at such a young age, she just looked sullen and adorable.
Mayuri sighed and dropped her head, because yelling at their sensei definitely wasn't going to solve anything. Hiroko's temper might even end up making it worse, especially if she decided that striking out at the man would be the best course of action. She could feel his hand tighten in the material of her shirt, like he was wishing he had a free hand to scoop Hiroko up as well.
"What are you doing, Tanuma?" Risa asked, releasing her hold on Hiroko's collar to cross her arms over her chest. There was the hint of a smile in her eyes, but her mouth was turned down into a disapproving frown. The woman's hair was messy and her face was red and sweaty, but Mayuri could hear a slight hitch in her sensei's breath at the sight of her. Mayuri frowned, wondering if maybe Risa outranked him or was somehow dangerous enough to make him worry.
"These three," and he paused to give the two students he had his hands on a good shake, rattling Mayuri's teeth and making Dosu gag a little, "—were meant to be back in my class 30 minutes ago! I had to leave Kohaku in charge of the class while I came to find these brats. Do you know how awful that kid is at—"
"Oh, lay off it. Put the kids down before that boy starts losing brain cells."
Tanuma-sensei made a quiet strangled noise. Then, much to Mayuri's surprise, dropped them both. She grabbed Dosu's arm and together they scrambled to stand just out of arm's reach of their sensei, dragging Hiroko along with them. She was still glaring angrily at the man, and Mayuri elbowed her meaningfully. She apparently either didn't get the message or didn't care, because her angry expression didn't go away.
"Risa-san, you can't tell me what to do with my students," he declared, arms crossed and face stony. Risa snorted and mirrored his position, stance wide and arms crossed, but she appeared loose and relaxed, otherwise.
"I was just saying that you were well on your way to making one of your smartest students brain dead, and two of your most gifted kunoichis hate you," she shot back, a lazy smile playing across her face. Her voice was softer and lower than it had been before. "Besides, I was teaching them. What more could you want?"
Mayuri felt Dosu's elbow dig into her side, and when she glanced at him, he was practically glowing at the indirect compliments. She grinned back, her own excitement at the acknowledgement a warm bubbling in her chest. Beside her, Hiroko leaned in closer, practically pressed to her side.
"For them to come to class on time, for one," Tanuma grumbled in response, but it didn't hold any real anger. Risa laughed, her head thrown back, and Mayuri could have sworn she saw his cheeks darken with a blush as his eyes darted from Risa's face to the ground and then back again.
"You say that like you ever came to class on time, back in our academy days," she teased, stepping closer until they stood almost toe-to-toe. Mayuri watched with a dawning sense of realization as their sensei turned into a stuttering mess, face growing even more red, all the way to the tips of his ears.
"Sensei has a crush," she hissed into Hiroko's ear, her eyes wide. Hiroko rolled her eyes, mouth opening to make a snappy retort. Dosu slapped them both upside the head, his eyes closed and his face resigned. Apparently, their sensei was too enthralled with Risa to notice his students' exchange.
Somehow, by the time he left, they had been given permission to continue training with Risa until she was tired of them. Hiroko laughed at the news, loud and boisterous, then turned to Risa and, with all the embarrassing bluntness of a child, asked, "Are you two in love?"
Dosu groaned and dropped his head into his hands, likely lamenting his choice of friends. Mayuri patted his back sympathetically but waited for Risa's answer with baited breath. The woman laughed softly, one hand moving to scratch the side of her nose in a nervous gesture that had apparently never been trained out of her. She leaned in a little closer, voice going quiet like she was telling a secret.
"I think we are," she admitted, and Hiroko laughed again.
"How do the two of you know each other?" Dosu spoke up, moving closer and settling down cross-legged in front of her. Hiroko and Mayuri moved to copy him, knees bumping as they stared up at their temporary sensei with curious eyes, anticipating a story. Risa hummed, then settled herself into a graceful seiza in front of them.
"Well, we grew up in the same village. We were actually in the same class in the academy. After graduation, we ended up doing a lot of missions together and we grew to be quite close."
"Which village were you from?" Dosu asked, unusually vocal. Mayuri glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, confused by his actions. He had always been curious, but unless he was lecturing her and Hiroko or the other students, he was usually pretty quiet.
"Have you ever heard of Takumigakure?" she asked. The children all shook their heads and she shrugged, like their answer was expected. "Not a lot of people have. It's a village of artisans. I actually apprenticed under some of the most renowned weapon makers in the village!" Her voice was full of pride and her grin was bright and cheerful.
"Why did you leave?" The question came from Hiroko, soft and almost afraid. Risa's smile faltered and she dropped her gaze to her hands, resting motionless in her lap. She sighed. Mayuri got the feeling she knew where the story was going.
"I told you that your sensei and I were very close, didn't I? Well, there was...tension in the village between certain people. Families that didn't agree with some of the ideals of the village leader, that were vocal about their own opinions. Something...well, something bad happened. Tanuma and I were out on a mission during that time, but when we came back…." She sighed again. "There wasn't any family left for either of us to come back to. We left as soon as we learned what had happened."
It was easy to read between the lines. It wasn't an unusual tale, really. A good portion of Otogakure's citizens seemed to be remnants of clans that had dwindled, either naturally or through outside interferences. Still, it made Mayuri's heart ache a little bit every time she heard these sorts of stories. She was sad for these people whose entire families had been ripped from them. It made her think of the family that she had left behind and made her itch to find some way to get back to them, grief something hollow and echoing inside her chest that she refused to acknowledge in the light of day.
"I'm sorry," Hiroko whispered, soft and sincere. It was the same tone she used whenever someone shared the stories of their past with her, and she meant it every time. Risa shook her head.
"It's fine, Hiroko-chan. It's been a few years, so I've had time to get over it. Don't tell Tanuma I told you about it, though!" She gave a soft, brittle laugh before continuing. "Anyways, a little while after that happened Orochimaru-sama approached me to ask if I would make a new home here. I asked if I could bring my teammate along, he said yes, and I've been making specialised weapons for Otogakure ever since."
"But sensei was so nervous around you," Dosu pointed out, arms crossed over his chest and head tilted to the side. His eyes were narrowed slightly, showing how hard he was thinking over this. Mayuri snickered and elbowed him, ignoring his answering shove. Risa's grin was back full force, and Mayuri wondered if that had been his plan all along, or if he was fishing for information for some other reason.
"Well, we've never really made anything official," she admitted. "I'm waiting for him to make the first move. It's actually kind of fun to see him become a stuttering mess whenever I'm around!"
"Ooo, you're evil!" Mayuri cooed while Hiroko burst into another bout of laughter. Dosu crossed his arms and muttered something about women being cruel, which got him another bruising elbow to the ribs from Mayuri and a poorly-aimed kick from Hiroko but was otherwise ignored.
"Speaking of evil, I think it's about time we get started on your training again!" Risa said cheerfully, clapping her hands and getting to her feet. Then, suddenly, there were senbon clasped between each finger and her smile was sharp and overly cheerful. "I've never been a sensei before, so this will be a learning experience for all of us!"
Mayuri and Hiroko shared a look, wondering what they had gotten themselves into.
If you read, then thank you very much! I hope you enjoyed it. (Dosu has a crush, which is why he was so interested in what Risa had to say. Lol)
