Chapter 1-5
"I'll write him and make sure he's available." Hifumi paused and adopted a thoughtful look.
"Would you mind joining me tomorrow before breakfast on a short trip to the market? I wish to show you Konoha's messenger-service."
Curious, I happily agreed.
Being an early riser given my exercise routine I had no problem to be up and ready.
I appreciated the clouds getting bathed in soft pinks and purples by the sunrise and made my way stealthily to the bathroom.
Hifumi found me sitting in the dining hall with a cup of tea, which I wished was a cup of coffee, balancing a leaf on my forehead.
I smiled when I saw her trying and failing to suppress a yawn and wordlessly slid an empty cup and the teapot to the seat next to me.
Hair ruffled, tea finished and we were ready to go.
It was a five-minute walk with leisure to the market of our district. I had no real comparison, but our neighborhood seemed incredibly quiet and cozy.
Houses were rather small, one-story with the occasional two-story building between, and the residents seemed to mostly consist of civilians.
When we reached the market itself Hifumi pointed to a small wooden box fixed to a sturdy post at the edge of the market square.
"This is a messenger box, these are distributed all over the village."
Walking up to it Hifumi continued, "When you become a genin there's a good chance you will see them on a regular basis."
She held up her small scroll for me to see and put it through the opening of the box.
"At the end of the day, a genin will come and collect all the scrolls inside and deliver it to the administration building beneath the Hokage Mountain."
She pointed in its general direction.
"This is the first of a set of D-rank missions revolving around our messenger system."
It wasn't the first time I noticed Hifumi talking to me like that, it might be subconscious on her part,
but I'm sure the other children in the orphanage wouldn't have understood a single word.
Letting that stray thought go, I quickly continued to listen to her as we turned and made our way back.
"Missions are divided by their difficulty and danger. D-rank is the easiest and safest and A-rank the opposite." She paused,
"There's also S, but you hopefully won't see that for a long time or better yet ever."
"Anyway", Hifumi was on a roll here, "after the scrolls are delivered other genins will mark all scrolls with a code and note down said code and the recipient of the scroll."
She adopted a frown "These are considered D-rank missions as well, but they are usually reserved for shinobis that are unable to continue with regular missions because of injuries."
"The next morning a new set of genins will deliver the scrolls in their respective district.
Upon delivery, the recipient will sign it off and the completion will be noted again in the administration building.
When everything is said and done payment will be distributed."
With that, the orphanage came into view and we settled into a comfortable silence.
Reaching the door Hifumi turned to me once more.
"I will inform you when I get an answer until then keep up your training."
Two days later after supper, Hifumi told me we would make the trip to the western part of Konoha near the edge of the Nara Clan Forest.
Apparently there was a park, which was where we were to meet her associate.
I was to pack a small lunch and put something to drink into my back bag, which made me hesitant because this started to sound like a long trip.
Voicing my thoughts as gentle as possible regarding the long walk and her injury I was met by I something I have never seen before.
Hifumi sat straighter and looked almost pissed, which had me wide-eyed.
"I'm still a chunin of Konohagakure." She said stiffly and that was the end of any discussion.
The next morning after breakfast we were on our way again.
"I told Miu-san and Nanami-san, that I was taking you with me to get some supplies from the Nara pharmacy and that I wanted to show you some parts of the village."
This conveyed to me, that this was supposed to be our cover-story if somebody asked.
Despite my hesitance from the previous day, I was pretty damn giddy.
Apart from the occasional group trip to one of the bigger playgrounds we were asked not to wander and stay in the vicinity of the orphanage.
To be honest I was perfectly fine to stick to the rules since I was somewhat happy to stay in my comfort zone and keep to my daily routine.
What had me especially in high spirits was that depending on how the meeting went I might be given the clearance to go on my own in the future,
which would literally open up a whole new world for me.
Having planned most of the day for the trip we were in no rush and enjoyed the silence.
Relaxed atmosphere, not too crowded and the weather was pleasant.
I wouldn't mind going for a stroll through the village more often.
I tried to recognize people, while Hifumi explained various landmarks and points of interest, which were supposed to help me with navigation in the future.
"If you follow this road" She pointed to our left. "you will end up at the Konoha Cemetery."
She paused and looked at the sky, probably estimating the time.
Seemingly coming to a decision she motioned for me to follow her and we made our way down the street she just pointed to.
A short walk later she paused again at a little booth that apparently sold cut flowers based on the honor system given the way Hifumi put two coins into a little metal box after she took two flowers.
Rounding the next bend and suddenly we stood in front of the entrance to the cemetery.
"Here" she gave me one of the flowers and signed for me to be quiet from now on. "Follow me."
I dutifully followed in her step and we ended up in front of a gravestone.
'Ayano Suzuki'
She put her flower into the little ceramic vase and closed her eyes. I followed suit and since I had no idea about prayers and the like I just kept quiet and waited for Hifumi to finish.
"We are almost there." I hummed around the Onigiri in my mouth.
We stepped into the park and apparently Hifumi found who she was looking for the way she steered towards a group of older men huddled around a Go board.
One gentleman noticed us and stepped around the two playing men and strolled towards us.
The man's light grey hair was tied into a short ponytail and he happily continued to puff away on his worn looking pipe.
He eyed Hifumi with what looked like faint amusement and seemed to wait for something.
In the meantime, I glanced at his obviously missing arm and wondered about that particular backstory.
"I thought I told you to quit smoking!" Hifumi glared with a bit of heat in her voice.
"I thought I told you to quit nagging me." The man was obviously enjoying this.
"You know how it is, me and my pipe just go hand in hand." I barely suppressed a snort and Hifumi just sighed.
"You are horrible." She shook her head but couldn't help smiling herself.
"How are you doing?" Some genuine concern crept into her voice.
"Well enough. So… that's the squirt?" I sensed a poor attempt at changing the topic, the way Hifumi tried to hide her frown she sensed it, too.
"Ichirō Yamanaka, this is Daiki Ito."
"Yo." Little wave, he only raised his eyebrow.
"Daiki Ito, this is Ichirō Yamanaka, my old teammate." He continued to stare at me and I stared back unbothered.
"How old is he? Isn't he a bit young to mess with his chakra?"
"He's five and incredibly bright for his age. The way he described his sensing after he mastered the leaf exercise reminded me of what you once said."
She ruffled my hair, while Ichirō and I proceeded with our staring contest.
"Leaf exercise… like I said, isn't he a bit young for that and isn't that what the academy is there for?
"He's already fixated on becoming a shinobi and you haven't seen the way he trains. I thought it was safer to guide him."
He shrugged, obviously not caring either way.
"So what do want me to do anyway? You were pretty vague in your scroll and I doubt you want me to teach him one-handed juggling."
'Well, that was almost funny.' Hifumi wasn't impressed either and ignored the comment altogether.
"No, I hoped you could give him some pointers and some ways to practice his skill. He'll figure out the rest himself."
She finished in a mix of pride and fondness, which made me stand just little straighter.
"If you say so," he sounded doubtful, "well, if it's fine with you he can come here tomorrow; same time and I will see what to make of him."
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it." We said our somewhat awkward goodbyes and Hifumi and I started our journey back home.
As soon as we were out of earshot I couldn't stop myself.
"His humor is certainly a bit of a handful." I quipped and got whacked over the head.
"Please don't say things like this to his face, he is…just acting tough around me."