Yo
Well, here's the next installment in this story. Not a whole lot to say. Hope you enjoy.
I don't own Naruto
"Kusakage sama, my genin humbly request a mission that might send them outside the village." Yumi said respectfully from her kneeling position in front of the powerful grass shadow.
"I knew they would soon." The Kusakage said with a grin "It is time we initiated the first part of our plan Yumi san."
"I shall carry out my orders as instructed Kusakage sama…" Yumi said with as little emotion as possible.
"Here." The Kusakage said, handing Yumi a pre-prepared scroll from out of his desk somewhere "You'll be going to thewater country. Everything has already been set up in advance. All you need to do is play your part and watch him."
"Yes Kusakage sama." Yumi said almost robotically as she took the scroll and headed left that accursed office.
The plan. It almost made her sick to her stomach to even think about it. As Yumi descended the stairs leading out of the Kusakage's tower several thoughts swam through her head. Why had she been chosen to assassinate Hei instead of somebody else? What set her abilities apart from the others? Furthermore, what kind of advantage would she have against the boy? That was probably what this mission was for. Gaining an upper hand against a boy.
Turning down the street, she began her trek to the meeting place. It was a cool day today, with a cold breeze coming from the north that heralded a change in the seasons once again. So beautiful a day shouldn't have been ruined by such a grave mission.
Yumi forced on her smile as she walked into the park. The cobblestone path led the way to the pond as always, while the trees above cast their shadows across the ground serenely.
"Yumi sensei!" Katsumi exclaimed in her usual exuberant greeting "Did we get that mission from Kusakage sama?
"We got it all right!" Yumi said, throwing them the scroll "It's a pretty damn good one too if I do say so myself. We're going to the water country!"
"Wow…" Hitomi said in slight disbelief while reading the scroll "It seems a town has come under attack and they want us to halt the enemy ninja forces."
"I know! This is going to be so exciting!" Yumi said, grabbing all of her charges around the shoulder and bringing them close to her "We'll probably get to fight some of the powerful mist shinobi!"
"You call that fun!" Katsuki exclaimed, pulling herself out of Yumi's grasp "I can't fight anybody!"
"You'd be surprised what people can do when they have to." Hitomi said coolly as she got up and straightened out her skirt.
"I don't know what's wrong with you two. I want to kick some serious ass." Hei said with a grin.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Yumi yelled, giving him a high five that nearly knocked him over "At least somebody has a clue how to have fun in this group!"
"I'm not saying that I'm not inclined to fight a few shinobi…but the mist nin are known for their relentlessness. They could prove annoying." Hitomi said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"What's the big deal, they use water and we use plants! Water is our ally, naturally speaking!" Hei exclaimed with a chuckle.
"You've got that right!" Yumi chimed in, bending down to their eye level "Okay, now all of you go home and pack up for tomorrow. It's going to be a long trip."
Everyone headed home with a smile on their faces, assured an easy mission. Hitomi however was a bit more skeptical about the mission. Why would simple genin get such a dangerous mission that involved fighting shinobi? It was almost unheard of in the ninja world. She didn't let it worry her too much however. There had to be a perfectly logical explanation to everything.
>>>>>
They next day, they started their mission with the same northern wind blowing through, only slightly more chilling than the day before. Good time was made over the terrain, which changed drastically as they traveled more and more. They went from lush grasslands to arid deserts to thick forests in nothing more than a few weeks.
For Hei, it was the greatest thing that could ever happen to him. Having Yumi as a sensei was really good for him. Her very caring personality made it seem like he had a family for the first time ever. Together they laughed and trained lightly in their off time at night. Yumi did most of the cooking because she was the only one who was any good at it. There was a strong bond between them, created in no small part by the ever-nurturing Yumi, who kept everybody in good spirits the whole time.
In the meantime, Yumi felt sick to her stomach anytime Hei smiled at her. Every kind word they exchanged made her want to take a kunai and kill herself with it. The truth was she truly did care for these kids in more ways than most jounin would. To her, they were more than a responsibility, and the thought of killing one of them was almost more than she could possibly bear.
"Yumi sensei, I can see the shore from here!" Katsuki cried from atop a cliff that overlooked a long beach with white sands and clear blue waters "Hooray! We're going to go on a boat ride!"
"Of course we're getting there by boat. There's no way we could make it any other way." Hitomi said condescendingly.
"Our only obstacle seems to be this cliff right here." Hei said, looking over the edge cautiously "It's quite a ways down and I don't see any stairs or gentle slopes nearby."
"You call this an obstacle!" Yumi said, looking over the side as well "Do you kids know how to use chakra to stick to surfaces even when upside down?"
"No. That's something you're supposed to teach us." Hitomi said, not liking where this was going at all.
"Well you're about to get a crash course. Hehe…crash course…I crack myself up." Yumi said, laughing at her own pun "Just concentrate chakra to your feet and you should be able to stick to the wall going down. If you find you can't stop, don't worry. I'll catch you when you get to the bottom."
With that, Yumi walked off of the edge, sailing through the air for a time until she latched her feet onto the rock face and started to slow down. By the time she got to the bottom, all she had to do was flip off the side and land neatly on the ground like an acrobat doing a simple cartwheel.
"Nice form…" Hei said as looked at Yumi waving at them down below "The only question is who's going next."
Before anybody could debate the idea further, Hitomi pushed Katsuki off the cliff with mild fascination as she screamed at the top of her lungs all the way down. Apparently the entire three seconds of instruction she had been given didn't really help her much because she didn't make any moves to cling to the wall.
"Well, that was cruel and slightly fun…" Hei said as Yumi caught Katsuki at the base of the cliff. "Now who goes next?"
"Take a wild guess." Hitomi said with her arms crossed.
"You?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Pushing you is more fun."
"So?"
"So what?"
"Ladies first you know."
"Ass."
"A little bit, yes."
"Fine, I'll go, but if I die, I want it written on my tombstone that I hate you." Hitomi said with a sigh, signaling her defeat.
"I'll carve it into the headstone myself." Hei said with a smile as he pushed her off the side.
Hitomi did much better than Katsuki. She tried to steady herself using chakra, but didn't feel to secure doing that so she just took a kunai and dug it into the wall. At the end of the cliff she jumped off just as Yumi had and landed on her feet next to Katsumi with a smug smile on her face.
Hei looked at the edge and fought down the urge to just walk away from this whole situation. He walked to the utmost edge and let his toes dangle over. With his last resolve, he allowed himself to fall over the edge.
He fell through the air without any real plan of what to do. When he realized that he didn't know how to live through this, his mind started to panic. A thousand thoughts raced through his head all at once before a single voice of reason called out to him.
All you have to do is gather your strength and walk. Nothing can harm you if you believe in yourself.
Hei unthinkingly put his body into motion. He felt chakra coursing through his veins and into his feet and dug his soles into the bare rock. As soon as his feet touched something solid, blue chakra started glowing around them and left trails of sparks in the deep gouges his feet made as they tore through the solid stone.
In a flourish of movement, he sailed through the air gracefully and landed on crouching knees right next to a very surprised Hitomi. Standing up he looked over at his comrades and smiled weakly for a second before passing out and falling into the cool white sands.