๐ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ฅ. ๐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ธ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ, ๐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ต๐ข๐จ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ.
๐๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ค๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ช๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ต?
ๆจ่War reports #1:
On the 1st of September, the vacuum of power and border skirmishes had finally brought Iwagakure and Kumogakure to declare war on Kusagakure. Due to Konohagakure's alliance and their shared borders, Konoha has in turn declared war on both nations.
The first front-line Battalion has been deployed, the genin messengers and supply delivery system is being put into place. Intelligence is working hard to prepare Konoha for war.
1/9/537
"Honestly" Allen Kohaku addressed his genin "I wouldn't be giving this talk to you if I didn't need to go to the front lines"
"I do wish I had more time" Allen Kohaku Huffed out to the open air
"You're acting like you're going to die, sensei" Sebu pointed out
The Kohaku clan head gave a short laugh before stating "Better safe than sorry"
In the afternoon light, her sensei led her to somewhere she figured she despised by now, the graveyard, greeted once more by the endless colones of the dead, stopping by a particular one.
Allen was not wearing his usual clothes, puffy sleeves and pants of somber colors.
"You seem quite unaffected by your father's death" he suddenly commented
"What do you mean?" Sebu questioned, tone surprised at the sudden breach of privacy
"I mean that's its bad to bottle everything up" Kohaku advised as he tended to the flowers of a grave, on it inscribed Lily Kohaku
Sebu narrowed her eyes in response, still not convinced
"Trust me, it'll overflow at the worst moments, find someplace to cry, somewhere alone if you want kid" he advised, breathing through the ever-tightening noose around his neck as he stood up, gazing down at the stone plaque adorned with flowers, he looked incredibly old and worn, eyes aged with sorrow
"Sounds like your talking from experience" Sebu averted her eyes and stuffed her hands in her jacket, glancing in the general direction of where her father's grave should be located, not that she'd known exactly, she had only seen it once. And once was enough.
Allen sighed before confessing, the words bitter on his tongue "I lost my daughter to a mission, somewhere near the border... Doesn't matter. All that does is my regret for not being better, I did everything to build her up to be the next in line. And I realise now that I was making children solve problems of adults. I completely and utterly disregarded her childhood without even realizing it. And I regret it, that I could have never bonded with her enough, I never knew her favorite color, nor her hobbies that well"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"No, it doesn't"
Sebu huffed angrily as she realized he wanted her to share her story too, and took a step to leave
"But I do feel like you were making the same mistakes as me" Allen Kohaku stated "Only to yourself"
There was a pause in her movement, a mad debate shouting in her head. Sebu hissed out a miffed breath before she started slowly "I didn't know my father had died for two days didn't know he had killed himself for a week. I was preoccupied with other things. Maybe I should have seen it coming. He used to say sorry all the time, for all the little things like under-seasoning the Katsu curry, not picking us from the academy, and even out of nowhere sometimes. And then he would make our favorite dishes almost every day-I think he was saying goodbye long before he left, and I couldn't have stopped it. I could have convinced him that it was stupid, to not leave." Sebu breathed before continuing
"... Maybe I wouldn't have needed to become a genin and pass that shitty exam. I could have spared myself and my brother from all of this. Truth is it's probably none of our faults" Sebu scoffed as she chose her next words carefully "But I still can't stop myself from thinking every day, how life would be so much better if he just didn't leave. If I could have convinced him to stay" She looked down embarrassingly, not looking in his eyes.
She started walking back along the path back to the exit before stopping abruptly, this time, she stared back at her teacher full force, green eyes boring into his. "You better make it back alive" Sebu ordered vehemently "You better make it up to your daughter" She added before turning back and walking away
Team 2 consisting of Sebu Hatake, Akeri Ave and Buronzu Kaneko had been sent on a C-rank mission consisting of delivering a message from the Hokage to Takigakure, Near the Fire-Waterfall border
Sebu tied her short beige hair into a low ponytail, wearing waterproof boots and a coat of muddied colors in preparation for the wet and cold weather as they reached the cusped of autumn. Both her teammate had the same idea with the clothing of their own.
They set out with grim faces and heavy backpacks for the weeklong journey.
Konoha normally wouldn't be sending genins but the nature of this mission wasn't a diplomatic one, it was just meeting up with Taki nins at the border and then leaving, not only that but they needed a small, and mobile group that could pass discreetly without grabbing attention to themselves.
It had been the second day the genins had been running, to any outsider it would look like they were untouched by the war, bickering, talking and smiling at every moment, but if you care to delve deeper, they were scared, all of them had an idea of consequences of the war, weighing heavy in their minds the uncertainties of their lively hood. Yet they still acted like nothing changed, because nothing did, they were still genins teammates that went on missions albeit maybe harder missions. Like Buronzu said, "To conquer without peril, one triumphs without glory"
They stayed at an Inn for the night before setting out into the prolific forests of Hinukuni.
Buronzu finally skinned his first rabbit, and then promptly vomited behind a bush as Akeri and Sebu prepared a small fire.
"We're getting closer to the rendezvous point, we won't be able to start a fire there, we can't risk attracting attention to ourselves," Akeri said as she brought her ration bar to her mouth,
Sebu nodded absentmindedly in agreement, staring thoughtlessly at the warm fire in front of her, soaking in its heat.
Sebu blinked once, twice. Before promptly shifting and questioning loudly behind her: "Buronzu?"
After a few seconds of nothing, both girls gave each other a wary look, their teammate had only gone behind a bush for a few seconds before he disappeared.
"Buronzu?" Sebu asked with more uncertainty as she moved her way to the foliage, Akeri moving cautiously behind her.
The Hatake knelt down and searched for recent trails, cursing her good sense of smell at the sour whiff of barf, they followed along the freshly turned ground clearly indicating the boy leaving the area.
Eventually, they burst out into a small clearing to find their friend-
"Are those foxes!?" Akeri exclaimed incredulously
Sebu couldn't help but agree as she stared baffled as the boy sat in a dog pile, or more accurately, a fox pile, his bronze hair blending with mammal fur in the darkness of the night.
"Aren't they cute?" Buronzu whispered as he fed another of his ration bar
"You really should be rationing those" Sebu commented to the side of the dark clearing, everything felt void of life apart from the presence of the furry animals. Scuttling around the clearing.
Akeri curiously moved closer to the weird pile of foxes, the bronze boy petting the animal with a splitting grin across his face.
"Yeah they're predators, they should be dangerous" Akeri stated, Sebu deadpanned as the kunoichi too started copying Buronzu in feeding the foxes like they were dogs.
"Alright that's enough, we really shouldn't get sidetracked, we should go tend to the fire" Sebu insisted as she snatched her teammate's collar and heaved them out.
"Maybe you should try" Buronzu grinned up at her as he held up the food bar in front of him,
Sebu stilled for a moment before slowly taking the food. She knelt and extended the food in front of her as a red-coated fox bit down.
Akeri snorted "She's totally blushing"
"Am not!" Sebu exclaimed hotly
They were now moving closer and closer to the Waterfall-Fire border, Buronzu and Sebu were once again having a mad debate about whether or not to keep the foxes as they deliver the message,
Akeri sighed wearily as the foxes followed the male teammate of their team like ducklings to their mother. The bad thing about being put into a team specializing in politicking and negotiations is that they were sometimes too good at arguments.
"Not only do the foxes provide more manpower to our already small genin team, but they also give moral support," Buronzu said calmly.
"Moral support? That's stupid. That's unnecessary for a week-long mission, they're wild foxes, they're untrained and can further attract unwanted attention." Sebu responded with an equally still tone. Yet despite their facade Akeri could sense the animosity permeating the air, words webbed with passive aggressiveness, if only Sebu could be that good at this when it actually mattered, Akeri thought dully
"They have already shown capacity to differentiate from us and prey, and as our past experience shows us that they higher senses can be proved useful"
"With our experience with the accident at the capital we know that the fox was in fact domesticated, a very different scenario with our current. And shall I remind you what happened to-"
"Alright that's enough" Akeri asserted "The foxes can provide us with further protein, they're livestock."
Buronzu whipped his head to stare ghastly at the girl in question.
Before he could make his retort all the foxes suddenly lowered their body into a stance ready to pounce, turning their head to snarl not at Akeri but like once before, an impecunious spot somewhere along the tree line, the air felt like it was charged with Intent.
The breath was caught in Buronzu's throat. The three genin stared at the green foliage, where they could see nothing but leaves innocently dancing onto the ground.
Buronzu and Sebu cast a glance at each other before Sebu shouted, strands of hair raised in tension. "Who's there!?"
Nothing moved. Nothing spoke.
Sebu, hand curled around the kunai she didn't know she even grabbed, then darting towards the tree line, checking for any trails or evidence that somebody was there.
Sebu jumped back into the clearing, the foxes had all lowered their head, though their body still poised for attack.
"There was someone, there was just one scent, it's one person"
"I say we split up." Akeri frowned "If he's just one person he can't keep track of two groups, we're close to the rendez vous point, we should just get this over with and figure out their motives"
"That's a risky move, even for me," Buronzu remarked
"We can't just lead them to the Taki nins, we should just lure them out" Akeri pushed
Sebu shrugged "Akeri can deliver the notice then, we'll be back up if something happens"
The three nodded in unison and flickered away, Whiles Akeri ran towards the border, Sebu and Buronzu stayed behind to an off-right.
Buronzu and Sebu had been moving for just five minutes before they were suddenly attacked, it was something less than a blur, she would not have figured out their appearance if not for the cool touch of a tag stuck on her neck.
Before she could react, her world turned upside down, Buronzu stared in shock as her green eyes turned hazy, every facial expression loosening into a blank state, her jaw falling agape as she stared wordlessly at him, straight to the depths of his sandy eyes.
And then she attacked, making a swooping motion with her kunai, aiming to separate his body from his head, he barely ducked under it from instincts alone, bits of his bronze hair cut from the attack.
"W-wai-" He let out a 'oof' as he was slammed to a tree with a well-aimed kick to the stomach. He bit back bile as he held his kunai weakly in front of him, his hands shaking from the air that was forcefully knocked out of his stomach.
He narrowed his eyes on her form, he couldn't help but realize how so small she was, but the way darkness bellowed from her form, made him realize how utterly outmatched he was. is this how he was going to die? Killed by his teammate? No, his friend? Buronzu decided that no, if he was going to die, he'll die an old man with his life accomplished.
He let out a sharp whistle before charging at the small girl.
Both kunai clashed, the ringing of metal on metal could be heard echoing through the trees. Buronzu saw the kick incoming and let himself be hit, before he could recoil he snatched Sebu, Immobilizing her for a mere second.
Before the kunoichi could respond she could feel the sting of pain biting harshly at the back of her neck, that was when Sebu realized she felt pain, she flinched, and she looked down to see the fox, tag bitten between his snarl.
She looked back to the boy with wide eyes and let out a small "Oh" "Buronzu?"
A smile started to grow on the young soldier's face "I saved you!" he exclaimed, eyes twinkling under the sun flitting through the leaves
"You saved me." Sebu repeated, lifting a hand to smudge the blood dripping down her neck.
"Ah, are you okay?" Buronzu examined, face scrunched up in worry.
Sebu put on her best reassuring grin "I'm f-"
And then it happened. An explosion tag flew their way as if mocking them for their lack of situational awareness, the stupidness of rookies for dropping their guard. Landing itself square on Buronzu's face. His only reaction was to push himself away.
He was still smiling when it went off.
She was still smiling when it went off.
Viridescent eyes stared in shock as where there once was a smile. Where there once were glimmering sandy eyes. His eyeballs popped out of his skull. The skin of his smile roiled and burst into a mixture of saliva and blood. His once bronze hair turned into a charred black as sparkles blew into blood
Sebu could see. Vividly. As his skull fractured and brain matter spilled into the air.
And after that was the noise, delayed by her mind, it was the nauseating screech of the explosion, the loud ringing at the back of her head, drowning the sound of everything else. And then there was the confusion and blurriness. Sebu didn't understand why, but her eyes couldn't see properly.
Her mind and every fibre of her instincts were screaming run run run run run run.
She cast one last glance at the blur of red and followed her instincts. Her senses were muddied beyond distinction. All she knew was the sting she felt when she fell and the numbness of her wounds. Her arms were rocks and her legs were lead. Her body was failing her, the weight of her own flesh too heavy to bear.
Buronzu died at the age of 9, if he were to have lived another, he might have been another nameless tragedy forgotten in stone, yet he'll live on as teammate and friend of two disgraces. Akeri Ave, Sebu Hatake.
AN: The Allen/Sebu scene was referenced from a work called Passerine by thcscus (blujamas)
Forgive me, but I'm not that good at hurt/comfort scene.