Chapter 8: A Chance Encounter in the Park
"Tag your it."
Arashi looked over at Kochi's outstretched hand on his shoulder and met her smile. They had gotten into the habit of playing tag along the rooftops and streets of the Leaf Village at night. He and Kochi had started shortly after the first day of class two years ago as a way to practice their agility. They had agreed to train with each other after class. She showed him taijutsu techniques and he showed her how to run and traverse obstacles.
It's been two years since he left Tekan and started a new life here in the Leaf. Two years of ninja academy and constant training. They both have improved drastically and added chakra to their skills.
Unfortunately, it wasn't all good news. Both Fumuro and Motomi had dropped out of the academy. Motomi by choice. It hadn't taken her long to realize it wasn't for her. But she seemed more relieved than sad after making her decision. Arashi believed she mostly joined to follow Fumuro and not for her own desires.
Fumuro, on the other hand, had been dropped by the academy's decision. A decision he vehemently opposed. After the initial tests concluded, he had been placed in the bottom third of the class. But as the year progressed, instead of making up ground, he fell further and further behind. Arashi and Kochi had offered Fumuro many times to join their training sessions, but he was inconsistent only joining in a couple of times, and upon seeing the progress they kept making, became more removed from him and Kochi. Eventually, he stopped coming all together, preferring to spend his time with Motomi instead.
When Chakra was introduced into the training, it sealed Fumuro's fate. Ishino sensei had told them that chakra was in everyone, but some had more than others and some were more gifted at using it than others. Several civilian students in the class could not sense and manipulate their chakra. Fumuro was one of them. He could never tap into his chakra and use it.
At the end of the first year, Ishino sensei delivered the bad news and told him he would not be able to continue in the academy. Seeing him pack up dejectedly was tough. Arashi had grown much closer to Kochi than either of the other two, but Fumuro was his roommate. He had seen and talked to him every day for a year. Fumuro and Arashi had vowed to stay in touch, and it worked for a couple of months, but slowly they fell apart. Both Fumuro and Motomi moved back to the orphanage until they would be old enough to start apprenticeships for other professions.
"Alright, alright you got me. Typical 5-second rule?" He asked Kochi.
"Yup!" she replied as she turned away and jumped across to the next rooftop.
Arashi counted to five as he watched her race off across the dark rooftops of the Leaf. The only light coming from streetlamps and the warm glow from windows. Then using chakra, he raced off after her, jumping from building to building.
Learning how to use chakra was a game changer for Arashi. Using it correctly and deliberately allowed him to amplify all his physical movements. Using some in his legs allowed him to run faster and jump farther. Pushing some into his arms allowed him to punch harder or safely block an incoming kick without too much damage. And that was just the physical stuff. At the start of their second year, Ishino sensei started teaching them how to mold chakra for jutsu. He and Kochi have both learned the substitution and clone jutsu and despite both being beginner-level jutsu, he was already seeing so many possibilities in those two jutsu alone.
Arashi leaped over a balcony guard rail and onto the building below him, just in time to see Kochi's long black hair blowing in her wake as she disappeared around a corner in an ally to his right. He continued across the rooftops, tracking her from above and slowly making up ground but then losing her as she entered some dark alleyways.
Befriending Kochi had been a blessing. When they first met, he didn't think they would grow this close. She had been the most standoffish in the group at their first meeting. But after the first day in the academy and a couple of their after-class training sessions, they became inseparable. Training virtually every day after school and learning from each other.
Arashi had learned that Kochi's parents were both first-generation ninja and that both of them had died in action two years before she joined the academy. Before their deaths, they had started teaching her taijutsu and other ninja skills. Taijutsu skills that she continuously used to put him flat on his back during their training sessions. He was making up ground, but she still held the advantage when they sparred.
As the first year progressed and on into the second year at the academy, both of them moved up in the class rankings. Kochi was comfortably the top non-clan girl student. She was placed second in the class behind an Uchiha girl. Arashi was now fourth. He was also the top-performing non-clan boy student. He had caught up to the clan students in many categories but still lagged in taijutsu, and his earlier poor written test scores were still hurting his overall ranking.
A blur to his left caught his eye, and he spotted a similar silhouette leaping from balcony to balcony. Arashi took off in pursuit from above, effortlessly gliding from building to building, gaining on the girl. A shift of a shingle below his feet made a noise alerting Kochi of his presence, and she immediately picked up the pace.
With stealth out of the question, Arashi bolted, pushing chakra into his legs to quickly accelerate and allow him to make the jump across the large street in front of him. Landing and rolling to break his fall, he ran to the edge of the building and jumped off the edge to the ledge halfway down, and then dropped again to the ground a couple of feet behind Kochi. Pushing off with one of his hands, he continued the chase on the ground, leaping off trash cans to jump over fences and sliding under carts. Kochi darted right, down another alley and then made a left. Arashi made a quick guess at the general direction she was going and continued straight. Using the wall to his left, he pushed a small amount of chakra to his feet and leaped onto the wall to use it to get over the fence in front of him. Using his forward moment and the chakra in his feet, he ran along the wall for a couple of seconds and then dropped down to the ground on the other side of the fence. The path he believed Kochi had taken intersected his path ahead. He sprinted off again and slid into the intersection just in time to meet Kochi at full speed as she barreled into him, knocking both of them to the ground.
After tumbling to a stop and coming to his senses, Arashi felt a weight on his chest and opened his eyes. Kochi was sprawled out from their collision and pushing herself up into a sitting position. On top of him.
"Tag your it," he wheezed from his back on the floor.
Kochi pushed her ruffled hair out of the way and started laughing. He joined in and they both laughed, most likely waking up some confused citizens.
"As much as I like laughing on the ground in this dirty alleyway, it is kind of hard to breathe."
Kochi stifled her laughs and blushed, seaming to just realize she was still on top of him.
Kochi quickly stood up and extended her hand to him. "Well, next time, just tag me like a normal person. Don't suddenly appear in front of me when I'm running at full speed."
Arashi grabbed her hand and let her help him up. Once up, she started helping him brush the dirt and grime from his clothes.
"It's not as easy anymore. You're getting better and better at this, so I have to get more and more creative." He smiled and then said, "sometimes that means having you run into me instead of me tagging you."
Once done with him, he twisted Kochi around, helping to clean her up as well.
"I'm flattered, sensei. That's the nicest thing you've said to me."
"Don't get used to it Kochi, I'm sure my praise will stop the next time you rag-doll me during our spars."
"I can't wait. It's always the best part of my day," Kochi said with a mischievous smile.
"Let's take a break. I found this cool spot near one of the public parks. We can stop and get some dango from Hirobe's stall. He always stays open late."
"Alright, but you're buying this round. You owe me for those lecture notes when you skipped class," Kochi said as she giggled and patted his back.
A couple of minutes later, and some dango in hand, they were both sitting on a balcony on the top floor of an apartment complex overlooking a park. Arashi had found this place a couple of weeks back. The building was new and thus didn't have any inhabitants yet. During the day, it was a chaotic mess due to the ongoing construction, but at night it was empty and quiet. It was also a newer and taller building, providing a good view. It reminded him of the lighthouse back in Tekan.
"Have you gotten a response back yet from your friend in Tekan?"
Arashi jumped at the unexpected topic. Amaya was still a sore point for him. Once he learned how to read and write, he had been sending letters to Amaya in the orphanage in Tekan. But he had yet to get a response.
"No. I thought maybe because she couldn't read or write, but the caretaker can. Maybe they aren't even getting there."
"Do you think she could be angry at you?" Kochi asked.
Arashi winced at the thought. He still had a lingering feeling of guilt from his decision to leave. But Amaya had been the one to push him to do it in the end.
"Maybe. I just hope she's doing ok."
"I'm sure she's fine. From what you've told me about her, she had street smarts. Like you."
"Yea she should be fine. She just doesn't make friends that easily."
"Sorry about bringing it up, how about something else? Have you given any thought to Ishino sensei's advice on picking up a weapon specialty? Didn't she say with your quick reflexes that you could pick up a sword pretty easily?"
"Yea she did," he said silently, thanking the change in topic. "I like the idea of learning kenjutsu. I'm getting much better at taijutsu but it's never going to be my specialty. Not like the Huyga or Inuzuka clan styles. I also don't have the flexibility that you do, allowing you to fight at much closer range using the opponent's size against them."
"And with your larger chakra reserves, you could pair your kenjutsu with ninjutsu as well. You're definitely picking up ninjutsu faster than me. My smaller reserves are going to limit my ninjutsu. Ishino sensei said I should focus on a close-range weapon like a tanto and argument my style with small quickly castable genjutsus." Kochi said, while playing with the dango stick in her hands.
"It's getting real, isn't it? Soon will be out there in the war, fighting," Kochi said, just above a whisper.
Arashi looked over and regarded the girl. To their other classmates, she was the definition of stoic and reliable. Always trying her hardest and always moving forward. She was even gaining a following with some of the other female students, mostly of civilian origin because of her progress and skills. To them, she was a role model, an example that you didn't have to come from a clan to succeed in the ninja life.
But with him, she showed her insecurities. It came slowly at first, but as they got more comfortable around each other, her cracks started to show. He didn't think any less of her. In fact, her fears showed how smart and mature she really was. A ninja's life rarely ended in glory, like the stories he had heard in the taverns in Tekan. It was something he was coming to grips with as well. But Kochi had experienced firsthand what could happen. Both of her parents died within a couple of weeks from each other. Both having been deployed at the same time to different outposts. Kochi one time mentioned that she doubted her mother even got word that her husband had died before she was killed. She knew full well what graduating meant. It meant danger and a lot more risk.
He scooted closer to her and interlocked his arm with hers at the elbow. She looked over at him with a smile and leaned into him.
"It is. But we've got each other. And even if we get split up on different teams, we will always train with each other, right?"
"Right," Kochi said, a smile making its way back to her face, pushing away some of the nerves she showed before.
They sat like that for a while longer until a noise and movement below in the park caught their attention. Both of them leaned over to get a better look.
Below, they saw three people. An older boy with a ninja headband, a younger boy standing next to him, and a red-headed girl alone in front of them. From their vantage point, they couldn't make out the conversation, but from the boy's body language and rising volume, he could tell it wasn't good.
"Hey, isn't that The Redhot Habanero?" Kochi said beside him.
"It can't be anyone else, not with hair like that. Let's go lower and see what going on," He said as he stood up and jumped down using the balconies below to get closer. Once on the ground, he and Kochi made their way stealthily to a tree about 20 yards from the group. They climbed up onto one of the higher branches and crouched down to watch and listen.
He and Kochi have never interacted with the girl, but they heard stories for sure. She was in one of the other classes from their year. And the rumor around the school was that she was absolute chaos.
"How dare you pick on my little brother, you foreign bitch. You and your ugly red hair are only here because this village took pity on you and let you in. And now you think you can pick on my little bro!" The boy in the ninja headband spat at Kushina.
Kushina, to her credit, held her ground and yelled right back, "Your little bro started it. He pulled my hair and made fun of my homeland. If you think I'm going to take that from weakling like him, then you're just as stupid as him!"
The boy with the ninja headband snarled and moved forward. "You're going to pay for that."
Then suddenly he rushed forward and kicked Kushina in the stomach, sending the girl flying back and tumbling across the floor.
"This is bad. We have to do something." Arashi said, still crouched.
"That boy's a ninja, and it sounds like they have some history. I'm not sure we should get involved." Kochi whispered next to him.
"She's in our year of the academy and may very well end up on one of our teams, or at the very least work with us. She's a comrade."
"Is it that or the foreign comment?" Kochi said with an eyebrow raised.
"Both."
Kochi sighed, "Alright I'm with you."
"Did you bring your kunai?"
Kochi nodded and patted her holster on her left thigh.
"Good, on my mark you throw your kunai close enough to scare him and get his attention. I'll then use the replacement jutsu on a branch close to him."
"Ok, what's the plan after that?"
A scream down on the floor caught their attention. Kushina was on her knees. The ninja had his hand in her hair and a kunai in the other and was slowly cutting long strands of her hair away.
"Let this be a lesson, you foreign bitch. Don't touch my brother again." The ninja spat while yanking Kushina's hair.
"We'll have to improvise," he whispered to Kochi.
Arashi started the hand signs for the replacement jutsu and nodded to Kochi, giving her the signal. Just as he finished his jutsu, he saw her let loose a kunai.
Arashi heard a thud below him and a squeal in surprise as he twisted in midair and plummeted down. He had picked a branch above the ninja, hoping to drop down and separate him and Kushina in the confusion. Just before he landed, he pulled a kunai out of his holster and brandished it ready in his right hand.
Thankfully, the surprise kunai from Kochi scared the bully into letting go of Kushina and jumping back.
Arashi landed right where the bully was previously, with Kushina behind him and the boy in front.
"What the fuck!" The ninja yelled as he jumped backward.
"Back off!" Arashi yelled.
The ninja stumbled back to where his younger brother was standing, trying to find where the Kunai had come from. Kochi, being smart, had thrown the kunai and changed position.
"Listen kid, you're getting in the middle of something you shouldn't be. Why don't you just back off and leave us be."
Arashi narrowed his eyes. "You're picking on a fellow classmate, and I'm sure if we brought this up to our teacher, your superiors would hear about this. I have multiple witnesses in the trees."
"Bullshit, only one kunai was thrown. At most, you have one friend up there."
Arashi rolled his shoulder and prepared for a fight. He hoped Kochi would get the message and let loose another kunai.
On cue, a couple of kunai flew from a different location at the ninja's feet. This time closer, forcing him to grab his younger brother and jump back.
"Fuck!" the older boy said.
"Bro let's forget about it and get out of here. She already learned her lesson. Those kunai came from a different place than the first one. I don't think he's bluffing." The younger one said.
The older boy sneered at them, "fine!" He then pointed at Arashi and Kushina, "You stay away from my brother, you red-haired freak." And with a jump, he and his brother were gone.
Arashi took a deep breath and nodded to Kochi as she jumped to the ground from her hiding spot and started picking up her kunai.
Behind him, he heard a sniffle and turned to Kushina. She was still crouched on the floor, trying to wipe tears from her face and comb her tangled hair out.
"I didn't need any help," Kushina said between sniffles.
"I'm sure you didn't, but we weren't about to let that bully get away with messing with one of our comrades," he replied.
The girl looked up at that, an obvious question boiling up from her expression.
"But I don't even know who you two are. Why would you help me?"
By this time Kochi had collected all her kunai and joined them.
"Your Kushina Uzumaki from class 3A. I'm Arashi and this is Kochi Sanayoshi. We are from class 3B and in the same academy year as you. We weren't about to let our future comrade get bullied by some older washed-up ninja. Plus, us foreigners from outside the village have got to watch each other's backs."
Kushina's eyes widened at this, but before she could say more, Kochi crouched down next to her and put her hand on Kushina's shoulder, "How about we talk more in my dorm room? Your hair is a mess. Let me clean it up for you. Sound good?"
Kushina paused for a moment, then nodded and wiped the rest of the tears from her face. Kochi helped the girl up, and they headed back to Kochi's dorm in silence.
After a couple minutes of silence and walking, they arrived in Kochi's dorm room. The same one she used to share with Motomi but was now just hers because they haven't given her a new roommate yet.
Kochi walked Kushina into the bathroom to help clean her up. Arashi decided to give the girls their privacy and plopped down on Kochi's bed to relax and pass some time.
He was sure it was the right decision to help Kushina, he just wasn't sure he was ready for the consequences. Kushina had a stigma around her being from another ninja village. Also, from the stories he heard he's sure her red hot personality didn't help much either. She was always picking fights. But no one deserves to be treated like she was and Arashi felt a weird connection to her because both of them were from outside the Leaf village. He just hoped this didn't come back and bite them or he would never hear the end of it from Kochi.
Kochi led Kushina into the bathroom. The girl was a mess; she had dirt all over her face and clothes. She also had some blood on her lip, no doubt from the older boys' attack. But the worst was her hair. Kushina had long hair that was originally down to her lower back. Unfortunately, now it was a haggard mess. Some strands at their original length, but many clumps are now just barely past shoulder length. Kochi would have to cut it all to just shorter than shoulder length to get it looking good again.
Kushina however, was almost unresponsive in her arms. She didn't appear to be too physically hurt, just shocked. Most likely feeling the sudden drop in adrenalin.
Kochi maneuvered the girl over to the shower tub and sat her down so that her back was facing the tub to catch the hair Kochi was going to have to cut off.
"Kushina, are you with me? Does anything hurt badly?"
Kushina seemed to jerk slightly back to reality at the mention of her name.
"Uhh no no nothing hurts too bad," she paused and seemed to notice where she was, "Why are we in the bathroom?"
"We need to clean you off, you're covered in dirt. Also, your hair."
Kushina stood up at the mention of her hair. "Nothing is wrong with my hair! The color is natural for my clan!"
Kochi stood up and grabbed the girl softy by the shoulders to move her to the mirror. "Your color isn't the problem Kushina. It's the jagged cuts that asshole cut into your hair."
Kushina's eyes widened when she saw her appearance in the mirror. Her eyes immediately filled with tears as she ran her fingers through her hair in dismay.
Kochi came behind Kushina and put her hand on the girl's arm in comfort.
"It's alright, I can help clean it up. I helped the caretaker at the orphanage with a lot of haircuts."
Kushina still looked unsure but asked, "Most of it will have to come off, won't it?"
Kochi nodded, "Yes, but the shortest part is just above shoulder length, so it won't have to go any shorter than that."
"I've never had short hair. It's always been long like my mother's used to be," she said with a whimper.
"I think it will look cute, you can pull one side back with a hair clip and push it behind your ear like this." She then softly grabbed some strands from the right side and tucked them behind Kushina's ear demonstrating to the girl. "It's also only temporary. In a couple of months, it will be past your shoulders again."
"Ok fine let's do it."
She grabbed some scissors and a comb and then led Kushina back over to the tub and sat her like before and went to work.
After a minute or two of silence, Kushina started fidgeting. Kochi could tell she wanted to ask something but was probably too shy or uncomfortable with the current situation.
"Go on. Don't worry, just ask," she said softly to the girl as she continued to clean up her hair.
"Why did you step in and help? I've seen you two at school and during lunch, but we've never talked before. You had no reason to help me."
"You will have to ask Arashi that question." With a small pause, Kochi continued. "If it had been just me, I probably wouldn't have jumped in. I have nothing against you, it's just on my own I don't tend to get into other people's business."
Kushina looked a little crestfallen at that response.
"But I'm glad we did." Kushina perked back up at that. "Joining the academy as an orphan wasn't easy. Arashi and I faced all sorts of discrimination at first. He more than me. But we always had each other to lean on. You had no one out there. Everyone should have someone that is ready to fight for them."
The conversation quieted down for a minute or so. It looked like Kushina was slightly uncomfortable with her comment and was processing it. After a minute or so, Kushina reached her hand up to touch Kochi's.
"Thank you."
The sudden unexpected contact made Kochi slightly uncomfortable, but she brushed the slight unease aside immediately and returned the gesture.
"Out in the park, Arashi mentioned he was a foreigner too. Is that true?"
"Well, I'm not sure he counts as a foreigner, but it's true that he's not from the Leaf. He's an orphan from Tekan city. He came here about two years ago right before we started in the academy. They recruited him to become a ninja."
"Is that why he was discriminated against more than you?"
"Yup, while we both had our fair share of bullies the first couple of months in the academy, he got a lot of extra grief due to not being from the Leaf. Nothing physical. Arashi made sure really early that no one was dumb enough to try anything physical. But he still got a lot of side looks and was often shunned out of friend groups. Even though he's from the land of fire, people were skeptical of him and didn't show him any trust. I'm sure you've felt some of the same if not more coming from Whirlpool right?"
Kushina nodded, "Yes. People are stupid."
Kochi laughed, "Yes they are, especially boys."
Kochi smiled when she got a laugh out of Kushina. Who between laughs continued the conversation.
"So how did you become friends with him. You said he came to the Leaf right when your class started in the academy so you couldn't have known him long."
"I was introduced by coincidence. My old roommate was friends with Arashi's old roommate. Because of that, the four of us formed a group pretty quickly. Out of the four of us, Arashi and I got along best, and we started training a lot after class. Unfortunately, the other two dropped out of the academy."
"That's cool! Well, not about your friends dropping out, but the roommate part. I wish I had roommates. I live in a big empty compound where everyone else is older than me. There are some nice parts but it's too quiet."
"It's fine and yes, it is fun. At first, I was hesitant about roommates, but I'm glad the Academy set me up with one. If not, I wouldn't have been friends with Arashi."
After a couple more minutes of idle conversation, Kochi was making the last cuts to Kushina's hair.
"Ok, I think I'm done. Let's check you out in the mirror."
They stood up and looked in the mirror. Kochi was proud of the job she did. She had managed to clean up her hair to just above should length into a semi-popular style she has seen many girls wear. But Kushina still looked unsure.
"It's going to look weird because you're used to long hair, but I think it looks really great on you." She said as she reached into one of the drawers next to the sink and pulled out a hair clip. She tucked some of Kushina's hair behind her ear and put the hair clip in place.
"Here see. Despite your hair being shorter, there are still a lot of different things you can do with it that will make a big difference."
This got a smile out of Kushina as she twisted her head around to get glimpses in the mirror.
"I like it! Thank you so much!" Kushina said as she twirled around and hugged her.
Again, Kochi was caught off guard but quickly returned the hug.
"You're welcome. Let's go outside and make sure Arashi hasn't set fire to anything."
Kushina giggled and followed her out of the bathroom. Where they saw Arashi sitting on her bed reading a scroll.
"So, what do you think?"
Kochi put one hand on Kushina's shoulder and with the other, displayed her handy work.
Arashi put his scroll down and leaned on his fist, elbow pressed against his knee.
"Hmm, it looks like you lucked out Kushina. Kochi did a great job this time. The first time she cut my hair, it looked like I was balding at the age of eight."
Kochi quickly grabbed the closest object, a scroll, and sent it flying at Arashi's head. Hitting him scare in the forehead and causing him to sprawl out on the bed.
"You're an idiot," she said at the now limp body on her bed.
Next to her she felt trembles and quickly turned to Kushina but was relieved when she saw the girl failing miserably to hold in giggles.
"You guys are fun," Kushina said between snickers.
Kochi looked over at Arashi, whose face had its familiar cocked eyebrow. She had a feeling he was thinking the same exact thing she was. What had they gotten themselves into?
Authors notes 11/27/2021:
Hi everyone! I hope your thanksgiving was great if you celebrated it! I also hope you are enjoying the fanfic and new chapter. This is my first author's note. I plan on going back to the previous chapters and fixing some errors. When I do that, I think I'll add some author's notes there as well, but I thought I'd add the first one in this chapter, as it's the new one.
This is my first fan fiction, and a first real attempt at writing a story. I'm an aerospace engineer by trade, so the vast majority of the writing I've done is technical reports for labs or research. So, if my grammar especially around dialogue is janky it's because I don't have any experience lol. There is no dialogue in technical reports :(.
I see some people are adding reviews. Thank you! I enjoy reading them. Most of them are good, which also helps! But if you have some constructive feedback, please don't hold back! I want to get better so any advice is welcome. Feel free to PM me on if you have any questions or suggestions.
How do you all like the pacing? I ask because this is the first-time skip. Personally, I'm finding it a struggle and am constantly going back and forth on my plans. I want to develop the characters and relationships, but I also don't want to get bogged down in the academy for too long. I feel like there are a lot of OC or self-insert fanfictions that spend 100K words before graduation and now I understand why. There are so many opportunities for character building and introducing characters into the story.
Also, how are you guys liking the story in general? Let me know!
Character ages:
Arashi: 9
Kochi: 9
Kushina: 8