Our Own House
"Into my soul you stared, and brought down every fear"
We must have looked like quite the sight walking through the outskirts of Konoha - three paranoid genin and one delusional aristocratic dog, strolling along in a protective triangular formation. Asuma walked in front, so that the rest of us could have eyes on the scroll strapped to his back at all times. Meanwhile, I took his right flank, and Shisui took his left, leaving Benkei to strut in the center with his nose pointed towards the sky and his tail swishing back and forth.
I had a dog once, back when I was growing up the first time. I don't remember her ever looking half as smug as Benkei looked right now.
"Stop!"
"What is it now?" Asuma groaned, as he spun to look at our little canine overlord.
"What kind of tree do you think that is?" Benkei barked towards a leaning tree on the side of the path. He was really just messing with us at this point. After a few hours of putting up with his antics, I was positive Benkei had been given specific instructions to annoy us as much as possible.
"Why do you even care?" Asuma bristled.
"I may be an assistant to the Daiymo," Benkei sat down in the dirt. "But even noblemen like me have to have their hobbies. I also happen to be a nature aficionado."
"That's a good hobby Benkei-san. This assignment must really be a treat for you - Konoha's nature is very beautiful," Shisui commented, clearly trying to break the tension. I had to hand it to him, Benkei didn't seem to be bothering Shisui at all yet. Even though this was probably the fourth or fifth time he'd gotten us off track on our mission, Shisui was still humoring his tangents.
"It's a type of Deciduous tree, probably a Zelkova," I broke in, trying my best not to sound too impatient. "They're one of the most common kind growing around here."
All three of them paused to stare at me for a moment.
"Of course you knew that," Asuma shook his head.
"A Zelkova, of course," Benkei barked. "That's just the tree I was looking for." Then he strutted over towards the greenery in question, lifted his leg, and started to relieve himself.
"I'm going to kill him," Asuma muttered.
"Maybe after the mission, Asuma-kun," Shisui piped up, jamming his hands into his pant pockets.
"It won't even matter at this rate, we're never going to make it to the drop off in time," he huffed in response.
I looked up at the sun and bit my lip. "It's definitely going to be close if we keep taking breaks," I agreed. "... Shisui, you don't think you can convince him to hurry do you? You've got the best rapport going with him."
"I don't know. You really think he'll listen to me?" Shisui frowned, looking past us towards Benkei, who was now sniffing around the tree next to the one we had been discussing earlier.
"Well he's not listening to Asuma, that's for sure" I shrugged.
"That's not my fault," Asuma crossed his arms.
"Because you're so charming," I smirked back. He gave me a gentle shove, his expression twisted into a scowl. That of course, only made me smile wider. "Offer him a treat or something, normal dogs like that kind of thing" I suggested, looking at Shisui again. We really needed to get on task, and bickering with Asuma wasn't getting us anywhere.
So that's what Shisui did. Trotting over to Benkei, Shisui knelt down and had some sort of debate with him. After Benkei hustled a sizable bribe out of our Uchiha teammate, we were on our way again, twisting around the back dirt paths of Konoha and heading towards our drop off point.
The going was mostly smooth for a while after that. Benkei's tail swished back and forth as we made our way around the village outskirts, but he didn't demand any more stops. Asuma and Shisui started chatting idly about some different adventures they'd had on nearby training fields during their time at the Academy. Asuma was embellishing stories about grand contests he and I had shared during our training exercises - although I'd noticed he was only talking about the occasions when he'd won. While Shisui told us a little bit about the various games he would play out here with his sister and cousins in his clan. I mostly just listened, only bothering to pipe in when Asuma was starting to exaggerate a little too much. I couldn't let him get too much of a superiority complex.
Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, at least until it wasn't.
Shisui noticed it first, as we passed a familiar looking leaning tree for the second time that day.
"Um, guys," he muttered quietly, as he lifted his hand up for us to stop. "Is... is that the tree from earlier? The one Benkei made us stop at?"
I frowned as I looked at it, then turned to take a good look towards the Hokage monument - which I had been using as a sort of landmark to keep track of our progress. A few moments ago, I could've sworn that it had been almost completely behind us at the 5 o'clock position. Now, it appeared to be closer to 2 o' clock to me.
I blinked, feeling unnerved.
"Genjutsu," I stated the obvious. We must've gotten caught in this hours ago - and in such a blatant trap. There was a whole category in our genjutsu text books dedicated to making your enemies walk in circles. Having graduated from the Academy, we theoretically were supposed to be able to recognize cliche tricks like this.
"Give me your hands," Shisui said urgently. I glanced at Asuma before cautiously stretching out my palm for Shiusi. He reached out and pressed his finger to it.
"Ouch!" I yelped, pulling my hand back in surprise. It felt like I'd been shocked, but as I looked around again, the world felt sharper, like a film had been pulled off of it. Ahead of us, down the road, I could see a right fork in the road that hadn't been there before. We must've been veering left and circling around for hours now.
"Sorry," Shisui muttered sheepishly as he shocked Asuma too. "It's the best way to do it."
"I don't get it," Asuma frowned. "We never let our guard down. When could that have happened?"
"We wouldn't have noticed if the genjutsu user is any good. At least, not with something as subtle as a loop trick," Shisui shook his head. "My sister always says that until you're on like a jonin level, it's easier to be able to recognize a genjutsu on missions after you've been caught than to be looking for one all the time."
"Well you should've recognized it then! Just my luck - being assigned such incompetent ninja escorts," Benkei broke into the conversation.
That was the last straw for Asuma. I glanced at him a second before he reacted, knowing intuitively that this was about to turn bad. He wheeled around towards Benkei, chest puffed out and face turning a little red.
"Listen up scruff," Asuma started, his hands balled into fists. "If anything this is you're fault. If you didn't make us stop fifty bajillion times- no, if you just let us walk through the freaking village like we wanted to. We would have been there hours ago. So if I hear another freaking complaint, come out of your -"
"Asuma..." I tried interrupting.
" - stupid snout. I'm going to -"
"Asuma!" this time it was Shisui. I glanced over surprised to see our teammate springing forward unexpectedly.
"Wha-" Asuma stumbled as Shisui barreled into him, knocking him to the ground. There was a beat of confusion then, before a kunai whirled through the spot Asuma had been standing, and lodged itself into the ground a foot in front of Benkei's paws.
I moved without thinking then, whirling my staff up into a fighting stance in front of Benkei, our customer, and faced the tree line where the kunai had come from. A large familiar white figure was blurring towards us with a tanto out in hand.
Sakumo-sensei had taken the liberty of putting on a decorative blue and red wolf mask before attacking us, but he hadn't put much extra effort beyond that to conceal his identity. I recognized his wild white hair and the signature white and red sleeve poking out from underneath his flak jacket almost immediately. Knowing it was our sensei didn't make the situation any better, however. The boys were still in a pile on the ground, and I was still facing a notorious elite jonin with a staff that suddenly felt like a glorified stick.
His black eyes looked amused through the slits of his wolf mask as he came right for me, blade first.
Miraculously, I didn't freeze up immediately now that we were in the thick of things. Hiruzen's drill-sergeant training methods seemed to kick in like an instinct. When Sakumo-sensei slashed forwards with his tanto, I whipped my staff forward around the blade, trying to take out his wrist. He tossed his weapon easily into his other hand, however, now stabbing towards my vulnerable side. I pivoted backwards, bringing the butt end of my staff up to try and stop him. The defense half-worked. His tanto nicked the band that kept my kunai holster attached to my thigh.
At this point, Asuma and Shisui had recovered. While I engaged Sakumo-sensei directly, the boys launched themselves at him from behind. Asuma going low, while Shisui went high. Sakumo-sensei somehow saw them coming. He flipped backwards, over the lunging boys, out of our reach. That gave us the split second reprieve to file back into the defensive triangular formation we'd been traveling in earlier before having to take a second round.
"You shouldn't make yourselves such easy targets," Sakumo-sensei counseled now, as he watched us brace ourselves. "Bickering shinobi are not alert ones."
Asuma's cheeks flushed beside me. "Yeah well, we're ready for you now Sensei," he responded.
"Are you sure?" he asked casually. Then his body flickered out of sight so fast that I couldn't trace him.
It was like he disappeared. The air was suddenly eerily quiet. There was no sign of him down the road, none in the brush, or above in the trees. I felt Shisui's shoulder brush against mine as the three of us backed closer together.
"Where'd he go?" Benkei whimpered from the center of our formation.
"Where you'd least expect me," Sakumo-sensei's voice echoed through the air. Shisui moved suddenly with shuriken spinning on his fingers and heaved them towards the a bush to Asuma's right. There was a poof as a log fell forwards onto the road. Almost immediately after, I heard a crumbling sound, like somebody was grinding rocks together. A ghost of a thought flashed through my mind, something about Kakashi in another world at another time.
"Below!" I shouted, springing up into the air. A hand popped through the dirt a moment later, grasping for the spot I had just been standing in. Shisui plucked Benkei up with him as he leaped backwards. Meanwhile, Asuma pulled his foot back and tried to kick Sensei's outstretched hand. Sakumo-sensei caught Asuma's attack by the toe of his boot though, twisting his foot roughly so that he was sent reeling off to the side.
Still in the air, I pulled a kunai out and threw it towards Sensei's hand, but he disappeared back into the ground for just long enough that my kunai planted itself harmlessly into the dirt. Then he came back up, pulling his entire body out from the earth.
Shisui and I landed next to each other, while Asuma scuttled back up to his feet a few yards away. All three of us were breathing heavy.
Sakumo-sensei took his time straightening himself, brushing some dirt off his pants like he'd just taken a light tumble. His leisurely composure was disconcerting. He was making sure that we knew how easy this was for him, that he was just playing with us. I could see in Asuma's face that the challenge was only making him more determined, but that wasn't right. The moment Sakumo-sensei decided to end this, it would be over. There was no chance here at completing this mission unless he wanted us to.
What was he playing at then? There had to be some sort of trump card Sensei had up his sleeve, some lesson to be learned. This was a test after all. What was he trying to examine us for?
"He's unreal," I muttered aloud, knowing our little break would be coming to an end soon.
"I think we're going to have to run," Shisui nodded, eyes darkening. "The mission's to get the scroll to the drop off point. Not to fight sensei."
Hm, I pondered that for a moment. Running wasn't actually such a bad idea. There was certainly no point in fighting a loosing battle here. Was this what Sensei wanted us to see? Was it a test of our strategic thinking skills?
"He's not going to let us get away easily," I pointed out my only counter argument.
"I can distract him," Shisui said. There was a flare of enthusiasm in his eyes. "Then I guess you'll just have to run fast... Do you need to be carried Benkei? Or do you think you can run yourself?"
"I'll never be fast enough to outrun a ninja like him, pup! Absolutely not!" Benkei gasped dramatically. Shisui looked at me then and I nodded. Twirling my staff back into it's holster, I took Benkei from Shisui's arms. Then I stared hard over towards Asuma. With two fingers I pointed at him, then at me, then towards the forest. He frowned, biting his lip unhappily. My gaze towards him sharpened.
I was going to kill him if he did something stupid here.
"Ready," Shisui breathed under his breath.
"Let's get it over with," I whispered back.
Shisui leapt away from me then, running a wide circle around his target. Sakumo-Sensei watched him with mild interest. The glint in his eyes made my stomach feel uneasy. He let Shisui move into place, so that we completely surrounded him. Then when we each squared ourselves into a fighting stance, he tilted his head to the side, as if to taunt us. For just a moment, the entire world stood still. I hugged Benkei a little bit tighter to my chest, crouching down and ready to sprint. I had Benkei, and Asuma had the scroll.
This was it. Our moment of truth.
"Look it here Sensei!" Shisui broke the silence. In quick succession, Shisui threw two kunai at Sakumo-sensei's feet, arced four shuriken towards his midsection, and then leapt high into the air. Sakumo-sensei reacted effortlessly, taking a quick side step away from the kunai and ducking underneath the shuriken. Shisui didn't waste any time with his follow up attack. I watched as my teammate started to rapidly form hand-signs. For a brief moment, my eyes connected with Shisui's, and understanding registered.
Run
I darted across the field, just as a large plume of flames erupted from Shisui's lips. The shear heat that radiated off the jutsu was incredibly impressive, not to mention the size of the fireball he was shooting off. I half expected to see Sensei burning and engulfed in fire as I darted towards the clearing. He was an elite jonin though. Shisui's fireball jutsu must've been child's play for him.
Sakumo-sensei didn't move an inch as he faced down the fire that was coming for him. Then, just before it scorched him, he whipped two of his fingers in a long arc, drawing a line right through the fire from top to bottom. A whoosh of air cut through the clearing as the jutsu flared up, bolstering to twice the size it had been a moment ago. It billowed around Sakumo-sensei hotly, scorching the grass to his left and right. Up in the air Shisui was knocked back, like he'd been hit by an invisible wall.
A wind jutsu! Sensei had cut the fire ball in half with some sort of wind cannon!
I gawked over my shoulder as I ran passed Asuma.
The fire began to settle, and Sakumo-sensei straightened his back, to turn towards his remaining to targets.
I was half way down the road though, almost in the clear. A few more seconds, and this would turn into a game of chase instead of a hopeless power struggle.
"Nat! Catch!" I heard Asuma shout behind me. Turning around, I saw the scroll flying through the air towards me. For a second, I felt a wave of panic paralyze me. We were too close to sensei to be throwing the scroll around. He was going to leap forward and catch it, then it'd be all over.
He didn't though. Instead he watched as I shifted Benkei into just one arm and hoisted the scroll over my shoulder in the other.
"Go on Nat! Complete the mission. Shisui and I will catch up to you later," Asuma called as he raised his fists in front of his face.
I nodded meekly, although my feet didn't move. The path ahead of me was open. I had the customer and the scroll. The boys may have been out of their league, but it would be enough. I could complete the mission. Looking back though, Asuma was facing Sensei on his own. Shisui was on the ground visibly weak from casting a jutsu meant for a ninja twice his stature.
Everything about this situation felt wrong to me. I took a hard look at Sensei, trying to gauge his next step. Suddenly, I wanted him to chase me. That was his goal right? I had the scroll, so I should be his target now. His eyes twinkled beneath the mask with a light that seemed almost cruel, given our situation.
Then he winked.
The next five seconds were a blur. Sensei moved first, pulling his tanto blade out and gunning straight for Asuma. I dropped both Benkei and the scroll like a bag of rocks, and threw myself towards the fight. Asuma dodged the first swing of Sakumo-sensei's blade, and the second. When he swung his fist forwards in an attack though, the gap in skill caught up to him. Sakumo-sensei caught Asuma's flying fist easily in his free hand, pinning Asuma in place. The tanto gleaned in the sunlight as it swished around in a wide arc, going right for Asuma's neck.
But then I was there, and my staff was twirling. I cracked it down on his wrist just in time, forcing him to drop the blade. Sakumo-sensei's black eyes flashed towards me, as Asuma and I fell into a natural unspoken dance. I flanked right, and he flanked left. Sensei was forced to fight off both of us with one arm each. We closed on him- trying to land a hit. Just one hit. His movements felt almost impossible, like his body was the wind. Every time I thought we had him, he would block or blur just out of the way.
Then, with an abrupt pop of smoke, his body changed into a block of wood - even though neither of us had hit him. I blinked, before noticing a kunai protruding from the back end of the log. It was Shisui - he had gotten him from behind while we were distracted.
As the chakra dust began to dissipate, a few slow claps began to fill the air.
I spun around dangerously with my staff, but the atmosphere at changed. Sakumo-sensei was squatting in a tree, the wolf mask pulled off the top of his face, looking quite pleased with himself.
"Bravo, you passed," he smiled warmly.
The words were jarring. Adrenaline was still roaring through my ears. My knuckles were still white gripped around my staff.
"We passed?" Asuma repeated, as the three of us gaped at him dumbly.
"Well yes. That was excellent. You three did much better than I expected!" Sakumo-sensei beamed.
My cheeks flushed red. Was that supposed to be a compliment?
"We never even scratched you though, and the mission... we didn't complete it," Shisui protested. He had righted himself on the ground a few feet away, and was now sitting cross legged, with his hands gripping his knees.
"Think harder than that Shisui-kun. I never expected you to win a fight against me, or to get away with the scroll. Three seasoned chunin might have a hard time with a Jonin-level shinobi like me. Three genin students fresh out of the academy never stood a chance. No offense of course, this is all part of the learning process," Sensei shrugged.
"It was about how we reacted," I muttered, my mind buzzing. "You wanted to test our instincts under pressure."
"Right," Sakumo-sensei nodded, cocking his head to the side. "I put you three in an impossible situation. If this had happened on a real mission, it would have been dire. Your lives would have been in danger, and completing mission would have seemed hopeless. I can teach you three a lot about fighting and jutsu, but certain shinobi instincts can't be taught. I needed to check those, to make sure that you three were worthy of wearing Konoha's headband."
Beside me, Asuma fingers brushed subconsciously against the leaf symbol on his forehead. "So what? You wanted to see that we had good teamwork or something?" he asked, face twisted in a light scowl. "You sound like my Dad."
"Is that a bad thing?" Sakumo-sensei smiled. "But no, actually, it was more than just testing your teamwork. This team was chosen because we think you three will work exceptionally well together. I wanted to see what was most important to you three when your futures felt like they were on the line."
"And we chose to sacrifice ourselves to save the mission," Shisui blinked, seeming to come to an understanding. That was wrong though - sure Asuma and Shisui had put the mission first, but I hadn't. If this had been real life, I would've technically just put the entire Fire Nation in danger with my actions. Sakumo-sensei had told us lives depended on that scroll being delivered to the drop off point, and I had literally thrown it away to save Asuma.
"He wanted to see if we'd sacrifice ourselves to save each other," I shook my head. Shisui rocked back slightly in his seat.
It was a rather dark lesson to be teaching three children, wasn't it? But it fit. A shinobi's life was always supposed to be at the bottom of their own priority list. This career was meant for those who were willing to sacrifice it all for those around them. Comrades, the mission, the village - all of that was more important than saving yourself. It was a matter of honor and duty on paper, but also a thing of love too. Shinobi were rarely as robotic as we were supposed to be.
With great power, comes great responsibility, I thought idly.
"I dunno, it's always supposed to be about the mission though," Shisui frowned. "Sensei said that people would've died if we'd failed to deliver the scroll."
"You're both right," Sakumo-sensei cut in. "Shisui-kun, the village teaches you that you should put the mission first, no matter what. I'd like to think that being a ninja is more than just following orders though. You three need to understand something about me before we can really call ourselves a team. When you go on missions, sometimes you have to make really tough choices, and you're not always going to feel prepared to make them. Shisui, you say that being a shinobi is always about completing the mission, but yesterday you said your dream was to be strong enough to protect your family. Well what if your comrades are like family to you? How do you choose between their lives and the mission?"
Both of the boys grew quiet as Sakumo-sensei's question settled over them. I could see it in both of their faces that this wasn't something they'd considered before.
"A few years ago, I was on a mission like that, and I had to make that kind of decision. I chose to keep my comrades safe, to fail the mission and let them go home to their families. Not everyone agreed with that though. A lot of people think that we should have kept going, despite the danger and the risk. There are even villagers that don't think I should be allowed to teach a genin team because they don't want any young shinobi to be... infected with my way of thinking. Thankfully, the Hokage hasn't listened to these people's complaints and has given me the chance to teach you three. Nonetheless, I needed to make sure we were of the same mind. This was a test to see what you three each thought was the most important. And you passed. Congratulations!"
Sakumo-sensei's serious expression broke, and a wide smile stretched across his face. Pride swelled up in my stomach, and I bumped my shoulder happily into Asuma's.
"So does that mean we're going to start missions tomorrow?" Asuma asked, an excitedly.
"Yes, it does," Sensei nodded.
"Great! We won't let you down Sensei! We're going to be the best genin team you could've ever asked for," Shisui declared, leaping to his feet.
"Don't get too excited pups. Did you see yourselves during that fight? You've got a lot to learn," Benkei muttered from Sensei's feet. I snorted looking down at him. I'd almost forgot he was there, he'd been so quiet during Sensei's little speech.
"Eh, don't be a downer, Benkei-senpai. I promise I won't drop you on the ground next mission," I said.
"That would certainly be a good place to start," he let out a low growl.
Sensei's eyes crinkled at the corners as he looked down at all of us. "Okay," he said. "Well I think this has been enough fun for one day then, Team Four, you're dismissed."
Chapter quote and arc title from song Our Own House by the MisterWives
A/N Sorry for the little hiatus there guys. I have been super busy with school, and this had to go on the back burner for a little while. The good news is that I finally finished the new chapter, Natsuki's finally a full fledged genin.
Let me know what you all think!
Until next time,
Aule
