The next morning, Daiki made his way to his ever homey training ground a bit earlier than usual, the sun even had only shone the barest hints of beginning to rise and that was only because it was summer.
Not that it would be like that much longer, they were already at the tail end of summer, mind you.
Still, there was a whistle on his lips and spring in his step as he jauntily swaggered his way through the paths between the training grounds towards his destination.
He was in a good mood, for sure. And why wouldn't he be? His abilities were looking sweet as shit, he had an Uchiha who plopped his ass in his training ground every now and then to challenge him to spars and even now would have a cute older girl coming to him for assistance and letting him endear himself to her. And on top of all that, he had a rough plan of action for the future.
Really, everything was coming up Daiki! This was the age of the Great Daiki!
Abruptly, the Great Daiki paused just outside of training ground seven and stared, a somewhat short girl, just around five feet tall, stood hiding behind a tree. Short, midnight blue hair, and porcelain skin, dressed in a large, baggy white jacket and a pair of dark blue shinobi pants.
Hinata Hyuuga was peering around a tree, 'stealthily', bending out just a bit to look into the training ground.
…Well, at the very least, he could see for himself, that like the tree she was hiding behind, with her bent over like that, he could see Hinata had quite the 'trunk' of her own.
'Why the hell doesn't she just use her byakugan?' he couldn't help but wonder. This was precious time in which she could be training, she could at least be training her doujutsu and expending chakra constantly to increase her capacity if she was going to waste time spying on Naruto!
Truly a plebeian to the great grindset!
Honestly, watching her waste her time like that, made his skin crawl a bit. She was a damn kunoichi for crying out loud.
How long had she even been there? He couldn't believe how wasteful that was. Why come to the training grounds, this early, just to spy on a crush, yet never even approach them?
If she was at least using her byakugan to do it, he could let it slide, because, at least some gains would be getting made!
Hinata was almost as much of a disappointment in the ninja arts as Sakura and Ino, only wasn't, because she had superior training than them from her clan.
But considering Hinata was the oldest of his graduating class…
Well, the disappointment only grew.
Come to think of it, besides Daiki himself, Naruto was the youngest of their graduating class.
Did that make Hinata an 'Ara-Ara' type?
…Eh, probably not, she had the body for it, and the background, but she lacked the mindset.
Silly Hinata, if she worked up the nerve and Ara-Ara'd Naruto, he would have been eating out of the palm of her hand.
Speaking of Naruto, Daiki was curious as to what kind of grind the boy was up to.
He made his way over to Hinata, light on his feet, and she didn't even notice him coming.
Truly, she wasted her doujutsu.
He stopped behind her and peeked over her head into the training ground. Yep, there was Naruto.
He had divested his usual orange jacket, leaving him in just his orange pants, sandals and mesh shirt.
And was currently in the process of push-ups, his face caked in sweat, and a small puddle having formed beneath him.
And off to the side, he could see all three of the training posts typical of one of the Konoha-training grounds.
Daiki nodded in approval. It was sub-optimal of a grind, but he was grinding away for sure. And he supposed with his innate healing factor, being an Uzumaki and Jinchuuriki, he was gaining mightily regardless of how poorly his grind was.
"So…stalking Naruto again, Hinata?" Daiki pulled his head back around the tree and asked from behind her.
Hinata gave a small startled 'eep' and and whirled around, face flushing a bright red, "D-Daiki-san!" she stuttered.
"I am indeed Daiki," he agreed with a nod, "Why not go just talk to him instead of wasting time like this?" he got straight to the point of the issue.
Hinata just stared at him for a moment before swallowing heavily, "I…I..Can't…"
"You're never gonna get him if you act like this." he couldn't help but roll his eyes. Naruto ended up with plenty of girls after him, even what amounted to the leader of an entire country wanting him to impregnate her.
'Nice going Naruto!' he couldn't help but mentally praise the future Naruto. The current Naruto was thoughtless and ignorant, but he'd grow into himself well for sure.
"…What do you mean..?" Hinata asked shyly, poking her fingers together.
"You know what I mean, let's not jump around the issue," he rolled his eyes, "And as you are right now, you aren't right for him either." what she wanted, wasn't a role she could fulfill, she didn't have the strength, or mental fortitude to be a partner for Naruto and support him.
Fucking hell she couldn't approach him for a conversation.
A hurt expression flashed on her face, "Ah…I see.." Hinata looked down.
Ah, his chest stung at the expression, and how defeated she looked. And he realised what situation he was in right now. He just kind of approached a lone girl, who was watching over the target of her affections and started lambasting her…
Now he just felt bad, since she really was just a genuinely nice girl. Thankfully, he could fix that.
Hinata yelped as he wrapped an arm around her waist and heaved her up into the air and over his shoulder.
Despite that dump truck she had on her, she was light as a feather. And with her pressed up against him like this, he could get a feel for her chest. She was just as stacked as Tenten, maybe a bit more actually.
She would come across as even more voluptuous he supposed, since she was that much shorter than Tenten.
"W-what are you doing Daiki-san?" Hinata spluttered.
Turning on his heel, Daiki resumed his trek towards the ever welcoming training ground sixty-nine.
"I felt bad with how sad you looked," he shrugged, "So, I'll help you out. You want to be closer to Naruto right? I can make that happen."
"Y-you can?" any hesitancy in her left and she gaped at him, white eyes wide, but he heard the hopefulness in her voice, she swallowed quickly and shook her head, "You…you don't need to do that."
He ignored what she said, "What time do you usually meet your team?" he asked instead.
"…Nine…" Hinata replied.
Plenty enough time, it was only just after five in the morning right now. "Good enough," he nodded, "Also, don't worry about feeling indebted or something or like I'm going out of my way. I'll be getting something out of this as well."
"…You will?" Hinata blinked.
Damn right he would. There were two things he needed to do with her to help her achieve femme fatale ara ara status. One, get her confident in her body and rid her of the shyness, something he already had an idea for.
Secondly, was making Hinata 'Get Gud'. In the process, he would be able to spar against the Gentle Fist of the Hyuuga Clan, which would give him experience in the future with it, should he end up fighting Neji in the Chunin Exams, and again, the more experience he got fighting, with the more variety of opponents, the more his skill stats tended to rise.
So, he'd get gains and he would get free eye candy out of it, a win, win for him really.
Two of her fingers lashed out, aiming for his shoulder, but were easily avoided, he stepped into her guard and Hinata's eyes widened as his knee flashed up.
She tried to jump back, but he was too fast for her to retreat from, and could only bring one of her arms up to block it feebly.
Her arm bone rattled from the force and Hinata grimaced as she was sent flying back through the air. She slammed into the ground hard on her back and lay there for a moment, panting deeply and staring up at the sun that had properly risen now.
…He was so strong.
'Daiki-san is absolutely ruthless.' she thought idly. Was he different back in the academy? She remembered he kept to himself mostly, but he fought tooth and nail during spars, though she couldn't remember him having this same…edge to him.
It wasn't really a bother, her father was rougher on her when he forced her to spar with him anyway.
'What am I even doing here?' Hinata wondered. It had all happened so fast, Daiki had found her watching over Naruto-kun, he'd caught on to her feelings…easily, as if they were as plain as day, hammered in that she wasn't good enough for Naruto-kun, a fact she already well knew, and then just dragged her off to train with him.
That was three hours ago.
For a full two and a half hours, Daiki had ran through physical conditioning, and she'd noticed he was wearing weights of some kind. He'd made her join in as well…but not before making her take off her jacket, leaving her in just her mesh shirt, and forcing her to keep her byakugan activated constantly.
She'd only managed a fraction of the amount of exercises Daiki did and that was without weights.
And then once he was done, he'd forced her to spar with him. And he'd thrown her around like a ragdoll…
She felt less like a training partner and more like a punching bag really. He reminded her of Sasuke Uchiha, with how intense he was during sparring, and a lot of Naruto-kun, with how he threw himself into his training.
…She couldn't measure up to him at all. She was a failure after all. Still…she just had to keep trying, and not give up, she'd get there eventually, even with how untalented she was, right?
A shadow was cast over her suddenly, and Daiki's face stared down at her from above. He stared down into her eyes, before his gaze trailed down to her chest.
On reflex, Hinata's arms came up to cover her chest…with how much she'd grown recently, her obscene breasts bulged out the front of her mesh armour quite plainly, and…with the way they stretched it out, if one looked closely, they would be able to see quite a lot of her chest through the mesh.
"…Is…is this really necessary?" Hinata couldn't help but ask, face flushing in embarrassment. She'd asked why he made her take off her jacket before and leaving her in just her mesh armour, but he'd just told her to do it and not question him, that it was needed.
…So far, all she knew was that, she'd been jumping around a lot with the fat on her chest bouncing around noticeably.
If only she were slender like Sakura-san, a proper cute girl, she wouldn't have this issue, the few times she'd seen Sakura-san in mesh armour alone, her chest didn't bulge the mesh out obscenely like her own chest did.
"Course it is," Daiki shrugged with a grin, "You're way too shy, it's kind of annoying actually. You need to be more comfortable in your body, so the best way is to show it off a bit, and sparring at the same time makes sure you're growing stronger while you do, respect the grind Hinata." he lifited his hand and waggled his finger at her, as if giving her a stern lecture.
…Well, it kind of made sense she supposed. She admitted, if only to herself, she'd forgot her state of dress when the sparring began and had to put all her thoughts into making sure Daiki didn't smash her into paste.
Though, she still didn't understand fully what he meant by 'the grind'. She assumed it had something to do with training, especially because he kept paraphrasing the words 'gains', which obviously was some form of slang for gaining more strength.
"Looks like you're done now though," he mused, and sat down beside her, "Well, three hours of conditioning and sparring isn't bad, I doubt Sakura or Ino could last even a third as long as you, so good on you I suppose."
…Yet, despite the fact that he was sweating quite noticeably, Daiki looked like he was still raring to go, and that was while wearing those weights of his.
Still, a small rush of pride ran through her at his light praise. It may have been petty of her, but she felt good at being praised at being better at something than Sakura-san, the girl who held all of Naruto-kun's attention.
Too bad, his plan would never work. He was missing one crucial thing that seemed to fly over his head in regards to her.
"…I…understand what you're trying to do," Hinata pushed herself up into a sitting position beside him, "But it won't work."
"Pretty sure it will." he refuted confidently, without hesitation.
How she wished she could have that same confidence he seemed to have. She envied that.
She giggled lightly, "…It won't," she still had to insist, "Thank you for trying, it does mean a lot, but, you can't be confident in something that has no worth. My body isn't as attractive as Sakura-san's, so there's no way I can compete with her for Naruto-kun's affection." she had made her peace with that back in the Academy, she knew she would never get Naruto-kun to herself, but she still couldn't resist watching over him training, never giving up and trying to emulate that, he inspired her to keep going.
Still, it meant a lot that Daiki was trying to help her regardless, even though he blatantly pointed out himself how impossible it was for her to achieve what she wanted.
She looked him in the eye and mustered the best smile she could to thank him, only to see him looking at her blankly, "…What?" he blinked, looking utterly confused.
"..Erm…is something wrong?" Hinata asked, confused herself now.
"Yeah, what are you talking?" he looked at her as if she was stupid, "The shy thing's a turn off for sure, as is the baggy clothes you always wear, and you have hair not far from Sasuke's, you'd look way better with longer hair, but beyond that, you're hot as shit."
"Eh…?" Hinata's mind was suddenly quite empty as utter confusion swept all of her thoughts away and she stared at the muscular, tan skinned boy sitting beside her.
"Don't get me wrong, Sakura's pretty, love that hair of hers and she has a nice ass, but she's a skinny waif, no guy wants a chick like that," Daiki bluntly continued on, before gesturing to her, "Maybe when she stops dieting like she likes to do all the time that'll change for the better, but as things are right now? Your body is way way better than Sakura's, better ass, nice hips, exotic eyes and a pair of tits that just don't quick."
Hinata's mouth opened and closed, and she felt her face heat up to burning proportions at his crass words, "I thought you were just shy in general and about how fast you're developing compared to the likes of her, but sheesh, to think your body is bad?" Daiki shook his head, "Man, no idea where you got that idea from."
"…You mean you weren't just trying to make me accept and get over the fact I'm unattractive?" Hinata absently asked.
"Hell no," Daiki snorted, before suddenly his eyes widened, "Wait, don't tell me you actually thought this because Naruto likes Sakura and based attractiveness on that?"
Why did it seem so silly when he said it like that?
She couldn't trust her voice, so just nodded.
Daiki laughed, "Naruto isn't in love with Sakura, hell, he doesn't understand the concept, trust me on that, he's been alone for so long nobodies taught him the difference," he pushed on, "He's literally trying to be friends with her, but doesn't know how to do it. No idea why he's fixated on her like that, but yeah, at best, he has a small crush on her, he's not in love with her or anything like that."
Daiki…it seemed he knew a lot about Naruto-kun. She hadn't known any of that at all, despite all the time she'd watched him.
'…I don't really know much about Naruto-kun.' Hinata realised. She didn't know what hobbies he had outside of training, what he liked to beyond that even and more.
It was…sobering. She had to try harder.
But, putting that thought aside right now, didn't Daiki's words mean…she was more attractive than Sakura?
"..I'm…good looking?" she asked, hesitantly, for confirmation.
"Six out of ten, better than Sakura who I'd rate three out of ten though," Daiki wasn't at all embarrassed to share his thoughts on her attractiveness, "Grow your hair out, and don't try and cover up that rocking bod' of yours, and get rid of some of that shyness, and you could easily hit a nine out of ten, maybe even full on ten out of ten depending on how you go from there."
Her cheeks felt like they would burst into flames at any moment, and she had to resist the urge to go grab her jacket and put it on when his eyes once again drifted to her chest, the fronts of her breasts were hidden by her arms, but he could still see the upper swells of her breasts and down into her cleavage.
But all the same, she felt one side of her lips twitch up at his words, and something stir in her chest, it made her arms shake, yet was a good feeling that almost urged her to drop her arms and let him see fully.
…Nobody had ever so blatantly complimented her before, and expressed such a sure fire belief in any of her potential.
'Longer hair, more stylish clothes, less shy.' she chanted lightly to herself That…was all she needed to completely dwarf Sakura in attractiveness?
A thought suddenly occurred as Daiki tore his eyes away from her chest and grinned in a way that made him suddenly seem very handsome, "…What did you mean you would get benefits yourself out of helping me?"
"Isn't that obvious?" he snorted, raising an eyebrow at her, "For one, I get experience fighting against the Gentle Fist, it's good training, and secondly, I got to ogle you at the same time, two benefits at the same time, gotta respect the grind, like I've been telling you Hinata, get the most for your efforts!"
Despite how absurd this situation was, Hinata couldn't help but giggle again, "I see….thank you, Daiki, you've taught me a lot." she smiled at him, despite the crudeness of it all, she was very thankful for his upfront honesty with her, and what he said, and the way he acted, it put a lot into perspective for her, and made the world seem just a little bit more open to her.
"Like I told you, you don't need to thank me," he repeated himself from earlier, "Pretty sure I'm the one who got the most out of this." his eyes dipped to her chest once more for a brief moment, a blatant obvious look, before he looked back up and winked at her.
She could have stayed here and listened to him praise her for hours, it was like she was someone who had been lost in the desert for so long, had suddenly found a beautifully full oasis of crystal clear water to drink from.
…She could not though. It was almost time for her to meet her team, "Is it okay if I join you again for training sometimes?" Hinata asked before she left, as she stood up and retrieved her jacket.
"Fine with me, I'm generally here a lot of the time when I've not got something to do or have missions," Daiki shrugged, "Feel free to hit me up anytime you want."
Hinata gave him a wide smile, before bowing to him politely in thanks, it was only as she did, and saw him grinning, his eyes looking below her face that she realised her large breasts were dangling quite noticeably from it.
…She may have stayed in that position for a few dozen more seconds than necessary before standing up, and pulling her jacket on, bidding the younger boy goodbye and walking away.
Hinata almost tripped as a wolf whistle echoed from behind her, followed by Daiki's voice cheering, "I hate to see you go, but I sure do love to watch you leave."
His words confused her for a moment, until she looked over her shoulder to see him eyeing her retreating backside.
She couldn't wipe the massive smile from her face as she made her way to meet her team, and there was a bit of spring in her step all the way.
As soon as Hinata was out of sight, Daiki stood up and stretched his arms out, "Well, that was interesting." he hummed to himself.
There was a puff of smoke at his side, and all of a sudden Kakashi Hatake was by his side, making him jump, startled, "The heck are you doing!?" Daiki calmed his racing heart and growled in annoyance.
…He really needed to find a way to up his sensory abilities.
"You're about as smooth as sandpaper huh?" Kakashi replied with instead, snorting, "Don't you think you played it up a bit too much for the girl?"
'This pervert was watching us.' Daiki resisted the urge to cringe, "Maybe," he forced himself to shrug, "But, hammering it in like that will help her in the long run, will make sure it's reinforced."
Plus, it wasn't often one could be so blatant about checking out a good looking girl. 'Still, to think she thought she was unattractive.' he shook his head at the sheer absurdity of it, Hiashi had really killed any pride in that girl huh?
Well, hopefully that helped her out and she wasn't bad company on top of being nice to look at and useful for getting those gains in taijutsu.
Still, time to address the elephant in the room, "…So why are you here?" he asked Kakashi, confused, "I've not made any more bets with Sasuke, but I won't say no to two more jutsu."
Since he'd met Sasuke and gotten the Fireball Jutsu from him, the Uchiha had turned up to his training ground twice to spar, and he'd won both. He'd even more or less caught up to Sasuke in physical speed as well, still, each spar was close as hell and the Force Palm Jutsu was what kept him ahead of Sasuke.
"Mmm, I'll think about it," Kakashi shrugged, which probably meant no, but whatever, "As for why I came to speak to you and heard your adorable little flirting and confidence boosting conversation with the cute little Hyuga Heiress, my team has a mission, the Hokage asked me to let you tag along."
"…What?" Daiki asked, confused, "Why?"
Kakashi shrugged again, "Apparently you caught the Hokage's eyes and he feels like it's a waste for you not to get a shot at the chunin exams," the man explained boredly, "This mission is a B-rank, in name only mind you, just a simple VIP escort mission, it will only take a day and will look good on your record."
Oh…
That made sense, he had stood out a little to the Hokage with his last mission and seemed to have shown a decent bit of potential with him getting the Chameleon contract.
He should get around to summoning soon now that he thought about it. He'd been waiting until his chakra capacity was quite a bit larger to get fully into it, he should have enough now to summon lower level chameleon's without too much issue.
"Alright, when?" he asked.
"We'll be meeting at the North gates in two hours from now," Kakashi replied, "Best get ready quickly.
Daiki nodded in understanding. That gave him a decent while to rest and recover the chakra he'd used up this morning during training. "I'll meet you guys there, then." he replied, and made to leave.
"Before you leave, there's something I want to ask you, or at least point out," Kakashi's voice stopped him, "You seem to know a lot about Naruto, despite rarely interacting with him."
Daiki paused.
How annoying, he wouldn't have said what he had to Hinata, if he knew Kakashi was watching.
Thankfully, this, he'd long since prepared an excuse for.
"I'm not an idiot you know," Daiki responded, looking over his shoulder and smirking at Kakashi, "I'll lay it out simply for you to connect the dots. My parents were killed by the Kyuubi, Naruto was born on October Tenth, the very same night.
There's an absurd hatred directed at him by the older generation of this village and to sum it up, As you've probably noticed, I'm pretty decent at Fuinjutsu." he tossed a wave over his shoulder at Kakashi, flashing his tattoo'd palm at the man, before continuing on.
"…I see…" Kakashi mused, nodding.
There was no need for some long drawn out excuse, keeping it vague was the best way to go about it, hinting at knowing about Naruto's Jinchuuriki status, and his dead parents, were good enough reason for him to have kept an eye on Naruto and learned about him.
Unlike your standard, scrub genin, Daiki did not need to bother with a backpack to carry his equipment and supplies for the mission.
'Though, maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea.' he mused as he approached the North Gates of the village.
Not a backpack with supplies, but rather, perhaps some kind of weighted back, or torso weights? He could really up the grind even further with that!
He put it out of mind as he reached the gate, finding Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke already waiting.
Sasuke greeted him with a nod, while Sakura waved at him, "Hey Daiki, going out on a mission?" the pink haired girl asked.
"Yep," he nodded, "With you guys actually, apparently I'm supposed to tag along."
"Eh?" Naruto sounded off loudly, "But why? We don't need your help, we're the best!"
"Do you have to complain about everything?" Sakura groaned, "After the way Wave went, I'm totally fine with the extra help, right Sasuke-kun?" she immediately looked towards the boy for his approval.
Sasuke shrugged, "I don't really care either way," he replied, before smirking at Daiki, crossing his arms coolly and leaning against the gate frame, "Just don't slow me down."
"Right back at you," Daiki snorted, "The record is three to zero in my favour, remember?"
"That was a long time ago." Sasuke shrugged.
"It was a week ago." Daiki pointed out dryly.
"Semantics," the Uchiha rolled his eyes, "I've grown much stronger since then, learned a new powerful jutsu and a few techniques, things won't end the same way next time we spar."
"Aww, look at you cute little Genin getting along like barking dogs," Kakashi's voice cut in before he could respond, "It brings a tear to this old mans eye."
"You're late!" Naruto growled at him.
Kakashi ignored him and gestured to his side, where a tall, willowy man with long brown hair stood, dressed in blue, a headband depicting the symbol of the Hidden Waterfall Village tied around his forehead.
"So, this is our client," he explained, "His name is Shibuki, he's the leader of the Waterfall Village, our job is to escort him back home more or less, don't you feel important?"
The man, Shibuki introduced himself, while Naruto and Sakura together griped at Kakashi for making them wait so long.
…From what he idly made out, they were actually supposed to meet an hour ago.
Still, all that was mostly drowned out as Daiki stared at the Waterfall shinobi, '…Don't tell me…' he thought.
He remembered this guy, from a mini-side movie.
Something told Daiki, this wasn't going to be as simple a mission as Kakashi claimed it would be.
Not long later, they were on the road, moving at a slow pace along the path heading out of Konoha and through the huge trees along the way.
'Why are we walking though?' Daiki had to wonder. No seriously, why? He could understand if Shibuki was a civilian, but he wasn't, he was a shinobi!
"So Shibuki," Sakura struck up conversation not long after leaving the village, "Since you're the leader of your village, doesn't that make you the Takikage?"
"Um.." Shibuki blinked, "I suppose so?"
"Wow, and you're so young!" she praised him, making the man laugh sheepishly.
'Honestly, calling him a kage is insulting to kage.' Daiki resisted the urge to snort.
Instead, he slowed down a bit and dipped to the back of the group, so he didn't need to talk to anyone, guarding the rear with Sasuke.
If things were going to go pair shaped on this mission, then he wanted to be as prepared as possible.
And there was one technique he could work on, that shouldn't be too hard. Naruto got it down instantly more or less after all.
With a small flare of chakra, a small puff of smoke erupted from his right palm, and suddenly he was holding a white hilted tanto.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him, but said nothing.
Hours later, Daiki had to wonder, 'Is Naruto really a damn prodigy after all?' because, he'd expended a decent little chunk of chakra, and all he'd managed to do so far, was coat the sword in his chakra.
…It was a lot harder to convert the flowing chakra into the lightning element. He'd briefly got it to spark for a bit, startling the others with him…but he hadn't been able to hold it.
He was missing some, a spark of knowledge, the trick to keeping it going. He knew he was on the cusp of it though, it was like having a word on the tip of your tongue, but just not remembering it.
Typical.
Why couldn't things ever be easy for him?
Deciding to chuck it in for now, and recover his chakra, Daiki sealed the tanto back in his palm, 'No matter, I just have to grind more.' he nodded to himself.
The grind would never betray him in the end.
"Giving up?" Kakashi asked, eyeing him with amusement.
"Just taking a break to think," the genin rolled his eyes, "You already know what I'm missing anyway, why not just tell me?" the asshole had been peeking over his shoulder at him struggling along with the Chakra Flow technique, before giggling and going back to his smut.
"Ah, but then I'd be depriving you of a wonderful learning experience." Kakashi eye-smiled.
Prick.
"…I hate you." Daiki deadpanned.
"And thus my day is complete." Kakashi snorted, turning back to his book.
Hate him, hate him so much.
A pat on his shoulder distracted him, and he looked to see Sasuke giving him an understanding nod, "You see why I'm beginning to envy you?" he asked dryly.
Yes…yes he fucking did. Daiki nodded.
Somehow…just the fact that there was a guy who knew all the answers he needed, that was right there and able to help him easily, yet for his own amusement, not doing so-
Somehow made the gains even slower.
He was clearly a heretic to the grind.
It wasn't long later, that they arrived, more or less at their destination. It would have went much quicker, even with walking, if Shibuki wasn't jumping at every shadow and hiding behind Sakura…multiple times, after birds made loud squawking noises above.
Kakashi had went into an explanation, when Sakura asked, about Shibuki's father, the old leader of Taki. A man who fought off the current Tsuchikage to protect his village, and losing his life later in the process after the fight.
…Shibuki wasn't even worth calling him a shadow of the man.
Daiki shook his head, and instead focused on the absolutely massive waterfall cascading down the side of a huge mountain, it was quite a view, he had to admit.
Maybe even worth putting up with Scrubuki.
"Shibuki-sama!" two kids rushed over just as they stopped at the base of the waterfall, carrying rubbish bags.
"Hey, hey don't come co close," Shibuki rebuked them, when they stopped in front of him, "I'm the village leader you know!"
Daiki resisted the urge to snort.
Instead, he sat down on a nearby tree trunk, "We're out here cleaning up the river you know!" the small, cute girl of the two, wearing her brown hair in tow pigtails and with her bangs combed over one eye responded.
He vaguely remembered her as well.
Well whatever, Daiki tuned them out.
He continued ignoring them even as Shibuki roped them in to help them clean litter out of the river, as an extra D-rank mission and Kakashi agreed, much to Naruto's vocal annoyance.
He was quick to give in though when the kids thanked him. Ever eager to please others who were nice to him, or stroked his ego.
Kakashi sat on a rock to the side of him with Shibuki, "You know, you should help them as well." he beckoned at the three of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura at the river surface, picking up trash and loading it into bags.
"I would, but it would deprive them of a wonderful and fulfilling experience of community service," Daiki responded dryly, "Besides, I only signed up for this mission, and you aren't my sensei, so you can't make me do it like them."
"Ah, frustrated at your inability to succeed? I see, I see." Kakashi nodded sagely, before turning to Shibuki, "So, what do you make of the recent rumours of suspicious activity going around in this general area lately?" he asked, ending his conversation with Daiki.
…Fuck Ranmaru's eyes, maybe plucking that eye out of Kakashi's head and killing him would be worth going Missing Nin?
A small grunt at his other side made him look to the girl, Shizuku, to see her struggling to drag the trash bag off to be disposed of.
"Here, I'll get it." Daiki offered, standing u and grasping the opening of the bag and easily hefting it up.
"Ah, thanks onii-chan!" she smiled at him brightly, "You're so strong!" she praised.
"I am, from a lot of hard work." he agreed, and promptly flashed a middle finger over his shoulder at Kakashi when the man snorted, "So, can you show me where to get rid of this Shizuku-chan?"
"Sure, follow me!" skipping forward happily, Shizuku gestured for him to follow her.
He was led through the forest to what looked like a dumping ground. Shizuku helpfully informed him, that everything pile up there was destroyed completely at the end of each month, though, she didn't actually know how, so couldn't tell him the exact details.
'Why don't they just seal it all away?' he had to wonder. Storage scrolls were piss easy to make, he'd learned how to do so in roughly two weeks or so!
And they couldn't tell him they had no sealing expertise in their village. They had Fu, didn't they? The Seven Tails Jinchuuriki, someone in there had to have sealed the Nanabi into her.
…Man if only he could examine Fu's seal. It was bound to be much weaker than the Eight Trigrams Seal, yet at the same time, much easier to learn.
He put that out of mind, and walked Shizuku back to the river front, though he was a bit surprised about a certain someone being gone.
"Where's Kakashi?" he asked Sasuke who was his way with a bag held over his shoulder, as Shizuku shipped back over to help the others continue cleaning up the trash in the river.
"Who knows," he shrugged, "He got a messenger hawk, then rushed off somewhere. Told us to head back to Konoha once we're finished cleaning up this trash."
Giving him a nod, Sasuke trekked down the path Daiki just came from, muttering under his breath about Kakashi all the way.
….Kakashi just left? Left the last Uchiha and the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, alone, outside another village?
'Bullshit.' Daiki narrowed his eyes, making his way back over to sit down on the tree stump he'd claimed.
Something was clearly going on behind the scenes, clandestine and something that was to be kept off the books.
'Kakashi must have another mission in the area and is using us as a smokescreen.' he mused.
He also couldn't be sure the Hokage actually signed him off for this mission. Kakashi clearly saw how strong he was, and perhaps fibbed a bit to get Daiki to accompany him so he could work as back up for Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura. And there was no point in even bringing up those suspicions with the Hokage either, because if the mission was as important as it was for Kakashi to ditch Naruto and Sasuke for a bit outside the village, then the Hokage would totally cover for him.
Well, whatever.
He just had to be ready for when whatever enemies in the area attacked. Besides, this would be another good test for how much he'd progressed.
At least there was entertainment in the meantime.
Like Naruto annoying Shizuku by making fun of Shibuki, and her pushing him straight into a piece of dog shit.
It was the little things that mattered in life.
In the meantime, he ran his hands over his wrists and ankles, sealing away his weights for now.
And here we are, back once again with the big numbero seveno, the big one side line connected a diagonal one, 7.
And the grind continues ever on, as usual. The Grind is eternal my friends, swoll is the goal. Anyway, up to Chapter twelve now on the big Peeeatron, aka my Pa-atreon, so more and more chapters getting uploaded every few days. Boom chacka-lacka!
Anyway, again, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.