CHAPTER 5: NEW FOUND LOVE BLOSSOMS

I know not a lot of people have been reading this, only 1 review, but still I enjoy writing this so I'll keep doing it. Here's the fifth chapter, enjoy:

p.s.-training jutsu: a special ninjutsu scroll given to young shinobi in training . they are re-usable, only create an illusion of what would happen if it were real, and have the desired spell painted on it after each use as the energy flow is running through it the ink is erased.

-three days later, Takeshi and Tatsuki are training with Kohaku-Sephou in the Oboro training grounds, Takeshi has been paired up with Tatsuki in a sparring match-

"Takeshi, make better use of your footwork, good, like that. Now kick a little more swiftly!" were what Kohaku-Sephou was saying to Takeshi. He was trying his hardest even though he couldn't seem to get the upper hand over Tatsuki, and she was like wise having problems keeping up with him. "Tatsuki, why are you holding back? You can do better than this, now give it your all!" Kohaku-Sephou was a cut-throat warrior and a ruthless teacher. He gave them no rest until they proved that neither of them were holding anything back.

"I wish Nagasaki were here," Tatsuki said through her panting. She was dripping sweat, as was Takeshi, and was trying to catch her breath.

"Yah, usually Kohaku-Sephou would train with you and Nagasaki and I would train together. Fighting you is like fighting myself." Takeshi was looking around for his teacher then remembered he said something about going to get some ninjutsu books, that would take anywhere from ten to twenty minutes. "Hey Tatsuki?" he asked already having a plan in his mind.

"What?" she asked already seeing what he wanted by the look on his face.

"Kohaku-Sephou said he was going to go get some ninjutsu books right?"

"Yah, why do you…" she paused pretending not to know (no, they're not going to have sex), and then saying, "Oh, I know what you want. But do you think we'll have enough time?"

"He'll take about fifteen to twenty minutes, half hour if he has a hard time finding them."

"Well that's about how long we usually take anyways," she said.

He was already seated on a bench, and patted his thigh. She caught what it meant and got up and sat on his lap, smiling at him.

If there where ever any shyness between them, it was all gone now. They held an open, public relationship and they were very intimate with each other, in private of course, but they never went too far.

They removed each others helmets and gazed into each others eyes until they seemed to float right into each other. They kissed passionately, as they had before with their tongue, and were now used to people staring at them while they did so. There where not many people on the field, and they were in a little patch of cherry blossom trees, the cherry blossoms falling around them in a swirling pattern. They were the last people who were expected to be a couple, a half-breed with above average performance and a respectable (orphaned) teenage girl. But that's the way it happened, and they intended to keep it that way. They stopped for a moment, and looked at each other.

"It's hot don't you think? Or is it just me," she said taking off her armor jacket in it, exposing the tank top she wore underneath it.

"I think it's just you," Takeshi said, flirting with her.

"Yah that'd better be your answer," she said.

"Oh yah, what're you gonna do about it, kiss me?" he challenged playfully.

"Yes!" she pecked his check and he responded with a childish 'eww' and she kissed him some more as 'punishment.

"Did you like it?" she asked, still flirting with each other.

He shrugged his shoulders and said plainly, "It was all right, I've had better."

She gasped and responded with, "I can't believe what I'm hearing!" she grabbed his armor jacket and pressed her lips against his. She whispered to him through her slightly heavy breaths, "You're mine, and only mine. I won't share you with anyone."

"I would never expect you to," Takeshi promised her.

She giggled and kissed him again, then, he started biting her neck as he had three nights ago. She loved it when he did this, and gasped and then sighed softly as she always did when he bit her neck.

"Hello Tatsuki," came a voice from behind her. She was alarmed and jumped out of Takeshi's lap ten feet in the air and landed behind the person and held a kunai to his throat.

"Tatsuki," Takeshi muffled a laugh and continued; "it's just Kohaku-Sephou."

"Oh," was all she could say before she let go of Kohaku-Sephou he stealth dashed behind her and held the back of one his butterfly swords to her neck.

"Good Tatsuki; and bad at the same time. Nice reflexes, but you should have heard me coming earlier, even in your moment of passion you need to be aware of what's going on around you." Kohaku-Sephou let go of Tatsuki and they heard someone stifle a giggle and looked behind their teacher to see who it was, only their teacher did not. Neither Takeshi nor Tatsuki recognized her from the village.

"Haku, aren't you going introduce me?" this girl, who couldn't be more than eighteen, called their teacher 'Haku' this came to them as a shock, no one, not even their clan leader Hotsuma called him that. Everyone used his full name, Kohaku. Haku was a bit of a pet name for her to him.

"Students, this is Naiomi. She'll be instructing Tatsuki specifically in ninjutsu and I will teach Takeshi in this art." Tatsuki was obviously about to ask if they would still train together in every thing else, but he finished with, "You will train together in everything else though, shuriken, and weapons training will also still be separate."

Damn! I was hoping that we could learn this together, the only things that we learn together are shuriken and stealth. I was hoping to learn more with her, Takeshi thought. "Who will teach Nagasaki when he recovers Sephou?"

"I have another waiting for Nagasaki to recover, when will that be again?"

"It should be the end of this week Sephou."

"Good, I've been waiting to teach someone the art of ninjutsu for a long time; I haven't had a student for almost five years now." The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. In an instant a figure slightly larger than Kohaku dropped from the shadows of a tree and dashed at Takeshi, but he saw it coming and leaped over the shadow. He landed behind it, his Wakazashi was drawn now, and he put the back of it to the figures neck the instant he landed and said, "Dead." He felt a hand hold his head still and a cold blade touch his neck. Its grip suddenly tightened and he felt the person's presence behind him. "Dead," came the voice he had heard before. He blinked once and saw that figure before him was really a log tied with a rope to the tree. The log had been disguised as a person with a ninjutsu, he could even see the ninjutsu scroll attached to it; though it was smaller than the ones he was used to.

"Nice trick," Takeshi said, "but I bet you didn't know I could do this." Takeshi elbowed him in a special spot in the side that causes temporary paralysis to the arm, the one with the blade in it, and flipped behind the person, wrapped his arms around him, sealing them together with one of the training jutsu (look at the beginning chapter to see what it is if you already didn't) that Kohaku-Sephou had given him and Tatsuki the other day and activated it. It was the explosion one he had made and as the false flames danced around them he say that this man was not much older than his teacher either.

After the false flames settled, he heard the same voice behind him, "Very zealous young shinobi, perhaps a little overzealous? I don't think you considered what would happen to your little lover here." Takeshi turned around; still holding what he was sure was the shadow man. What he saw was the man he thought he was holding behind Tatsuki with an axe shuriken to her neck. If the shadow man was there, than what was he holding? He looked at it and saw that it was just another log.

How does he do that? I'm not even really sure that's him. Who is he? These and many other questions ran through his mind at that instant.

"It seems, Takeshi, that the only two things you've killed so far are a couple of logs, but since this an adult shinobi, I won't count it against you. After all, Naomi and I are never totally sure if the Suichi we're talking to is the real one is the real Suichi or not. By the way, this would be Nagasaki's new ninjutsu instructor; his name is Suichi as I assume you had already guessed."

Suichi had released Tatsuki after Takeshi dropped the log he was holding. The moment Suichi let go of her she ran to Takeshi and wrapped her arms around him, trembling a little.

"They scare me," she whispered incoherently into his ear, still holding him tightly to her.

"I know, me too," he whispered back too her. He wrapped his right arm around her and used his left to put his used training jutsu back in its leather pouch on his thigh.

"Awe, we scare them Suichi. Well too bad honey, we're gonna be here for a while so you might as well get used to it." Naiomi seemed nice enough but could still be firm when needed. He felt sorry for Nagasaki; he had to be taught by the weird one.

"We'll have to teach them to abandon fear," Suichi said.

"Who are these people Kohaku-Sephou? I haven't ever seen them in the village." Takeshi was confused as to why they needed separate training.

"They're my teammates from when I was your age. The haven't been here for so long because they've been on a one-year-mission." As their teacher explained this, Takeshi and Tatsuki both saw Naiomi slip her hand into their teacher's. Tatsuki hugged him tighter and her kissed the top of her head and rubbed her shoulder as she leaned against him, her head on his shoulder.

End chapter five