"Excuse me," A small boy with a wooden staff pulled on the back of a tall jounin's vest outside the livestock pens as carts and caravans moved into position on the grounds within the walls of Konoha. "Have you seen an underage drunk lady with a spear?"
The older man seemed taken aback by the question as he examined the boy's staff with a raised eyebrow.
"It's made out of metal? Has a red ribbon under the blade? The lady's got a bad haircut?"
The older man looked increasingly confused.
"You haven't then? Thanks!" He scampered off down the road checking in every bar, inn and teahouse on the way down the packed main road as locals set up booths and decorations for a festival. It was why the two of them had such an easy time getting in. No one bothered looking twice at travelers and caravan guards.
The two of them had left the Land of Iron after a series of events that Ren was not very clear on, Kai just knew she had been chased out and he had decided to follow the woman who had freed the people from a vicious tyrant who had ground the town under his heel.
The village saw a new villain in heroic guise, Kai saw a real heroine who he would follow anywhere. Which he did, across two nations before he caught up with her and convinced her to make him her student in the art of the spear.
He pulled the sleeve of an older woman and asked her about underage drunks with spears, he hung his head dejectedly as she told him no but to try further down the street. Kai was gone in a flash, peaking through windows and popping his head into restaurants and stalls he passed as he made his way down the road.
This festival was going to begin tomorrow and last for three days and this whole village was alight with an indescribable energy that made Kai shiver in anticipation. He picked up an event flier from one of the teashops he popped into and read the list and stopped short at hand to hand combat tournament and grinned widely.
His teacher would love this!
Ren Hagane was not drunk or a drunk. Today. Two weeks ago her now student had found her in a seedy bar that did not check your age before selling, and she was halfway through the bottle. Was he going to let it go? No. Not after she staggered and fell into the water trough and almost drowned in six inches of water.
Granted, it did sober her up.
At present, she was in a bar trying to see if she could find a form of work that would not tie her down to village life for too long. In a thriving village full of ninjas six months into a postwar peacetime, she doubted she could get another caravan escort job in a hurry unless she got lucky.
The people were… better then the last place she had tried to stay in.
Meaning they had not tried to shove a knife in her back yet. Major plus.
She propped her elbow on the bar and motioned for the purest sake on the menu. The barman looked at her and shook his head, pinning her correctly as to young to drink with a glance. Ren laughed quietly. Smart man.
Ren got to her feet and cracked her back with a groan. She was a slight, thin girl of roughly seventeen, her hair was and messy unevenly cut. She checked the pockets of her pants for loose change before kneeling down to adjust her well worn boots.
At first glance, she did not look dangerous until her weapons came into view. The long metal spear strapped to her back behind her small knapsack was an interesting weapon from an older time that was clearly well used, but instead of a wooden shaft it was carefully crafted with fine metal and iron from top of bottom. There was a bright red ribbon tied under the blade to help personalize the weapon, hide a series of very tiny paper bombs and distract her opponent in battle. If one got close enough to notice, she carried a short sword at her hip, hidden carefully in the folds of a knee length olive colored jacket.
Her student said she looked a bit like a vagrant cart hopper, Ren would agree with him.
She checked her belt pocket for her (empty) money pouch and felt her teeth grind together and her fists clench. Ren would have her revenge.
A weird looking man in green spandex who liked to start bar fights should not be this hard to find!
Stepping carefully through the door and into the evening light, Ren yawned loudly and peered down the street for a place to sleep. Being in a proper village for a few days was a nice distraction from her usual adventures.
She made an effort to not repeat things like the cult incident for example.
Now, where was Kai?
As if answering her thought, her errant student came running down the road, his russet hair mussed and olive skin in full glisten from his run in with the livestock they were helping to escort in town for the festival.
"Shishou!"
Ren waved as Kai skidded to a stop in the dirt road and caught his breath. Ren passed him the water jug from her pack which he sipped at gratefully.
"Mission complete! The livestock are in the enclosure and I got paid." He held up a small bag of coins and jingled it with a grin.
"Good job," Ren ruffled his hair affectionately. "I may have a place for us to stay tonight."
"Really? I thought they said there wasn't a spare room in town?"
Ren smirked, "There's not, but there is a training ground at the edge of town we can stay in as long as we're not noticed. Still got the hammocks?"
Kai smiled, pocketing his money and pointed at his backpack. "Sure do!"
"All the other vagrants are probably going to spend the night in the bath house or in their carts, so we'll probably get this place to ourselves." Ren threw her arm over his skinny shoulders and pulled him down the road as the streets began to fill with weary travelers looking for a place to relax and exchange news from the road.
They turned down side streets just to see what was down them, climbing up fire escapes to get to roofs to get their bearings and watch the travelers find places to set up their wares for sale. Ren noted the food and clothes stands while Kai pointed at representatives from the other ninja villages asking if she had ever been to those places. Ren had been everywhere in some capacity and was happy to answer his questions.
As Kai's questions were answered, Ren began to adjust her backpack by taking it off and tying it to the sash at her waist, carefully checking it to make sure it would not move much before moving her spear in her hand and kneeling down. Kai took the hint and wrapped his arms around her neck as she put her remaining hand under one of his knees. Ren took off at a run and jumped from rooftop to rooftop gracefully landing like a cat each time without breaking stride.
"Keep your eyes open for a grove of trees in the city wall." She staggered on the next rooftop before regaining her footing.
"Have you been drinking again?" Kai tightened his grip around her neck as she made another leap.
"Sadly, no." Ren reached out to grab a laundry line to regain her balance, "If I was, this would be a little less embarrassing."
"I think you need food."
"Probably."
They both looked in opposite directions, scanning the horizon carefully. There was an excited noise from Kai, "Over there!" Kai pointed at a grove of trees on the far side of town.
"Perfect! We'll get closer and walk in okay."
Ren took off at a run, continuing to leap and scramble over rooftops until they got a block away from the forest entrance and dropped down into an alleyway, narrowly missing a trash bin in the process. Kai slipped off Ren's back and began to check his pockets, sighing in relief when he touched his wallet and pulling a piece of paper out of his other pocket.
"What are you hiding?"
"Well," Kai handed Ren the flier to read. The festival had a list of events one of which he had circled. "They're offering a reward to the winner. A big one."
Ren felt her face flush at the number. Hand to hand combat tournament, fantastic! Terrible! But fantastic!
"You are worried about money. If you win, eat something besides instant ramen while you train me."
And they could put a down payment on an apartment rental with some left over. Ren could teach a couple of classes, and get a second job while they laid low for a couple of months. She was sure there was a blacksmith in this town who could use some help or a innkeeper who needed more cleaners.
"Are you complaining about my ramen choices?" Ren joked.
Kai seemed to miss the joke and immediately started shaking his head, making Ren laugh as she started ruffling his hair.
"I'll think about it. Now c'mon, we need to find a place to sleep."
"So," Kai finished tying off his hammock high in the trees above the training ground and looked at Ren who was doing the same a few branches over. "Why are we here again?"
"Getting off the road for a few days, that's all."
"And the mercenaries we met on the road have nothing to do with it?"
"Nothing at all."
"What's the plan for after the festival?"
Ren shrugged, Kai was smart for an eleven year old, better watch what she said around him. "Big ninja villages charge much more then we do for escort services, just gotta line something up. That's all." She eased herself into her hammock with a quiet sigh. "I'd like to take the opportunity to teach you a bit more staff work so you can start earning your keep."
Kai sat up so quickly it unbalanced his hammock slightly. "Really?"
That worked!
"Yeah, just don't get cocky and you won't get skewered."
"Like you're gonna do to those mercenaries right?"
If this hammock flipped, Ren would accept her (supposedly) broken extremities with no complaints. She just had to wish for it a little bit harder.
"I'll think about it."
They were here for three reasons. First, to find another escort job. Second, to get those mercenaries off Ren's trail. Last of all; get even with the drunk spandex clad man who had ruined Ren's favorite teahouse last week.
The mere memory sent Ren into spasms, after she had finally sat down for a nice meal after three days of counting every coin she made, it all went horribly wrong in a span of two minutes. Some drunk man started trying to fight everyone and throwing people into tables, including Ren and Kai's. Kai, devious little thing he was, had managed to save his takoyaki from the rampage by jumping out of a newly smashed window, while Ren's curry had smashed against the wall. Ren valiantly dashed across the teahouse to try to knock out the drunk man out with her spear only to find herself thrown through a wall with a flying table and banned from the establishment along with crazy green spandex man and his friends, some woman with hair buns and a really loud blond man with one arm.
Though, she and Kai had gotten an escort job to the Land of Mist out of it by Ren crashing into the family's wagon on the other side of that wall, but it was really the principle of the matter. They only got paid half as Ren had destroyed valuable china on her way through their cart.
The family was quite impressed there was not a scratch on her.
Ren was less impressed.
It was a petty side goal, but Ren was not in the forgive and forget department when it came to a hot meal.
Now that Ren had a student to worry over, she had to find him supplies to learn with while they did not earn enough money to keep two people from starving. If she taught him how to use a staff efficiently, she could charge an extra half on top of her usual rate for an extra body on watch.
It would work.
Her life was easier on her own, but an opportunity to pass on her craft was too good to pass up.
She just had to keep them ahead of her pursuers.
And teach Kai the difference between poisonous and non-poisonous mushrooms.
It was quiet for a moment before Kai spoke again. "What do you do for fun?"
Ren waved her spear around from inside of her hammock, hitting a couple of small branches above her hammock. "This. This is fun for me."
"So not the traveling around the world thing?"
Ren double checked her spear sheath was tight before tucking it in next to her. "Side benefit."
"Did you just tuck your spear into bed?"
"…Yeah. Got a problem with it?"
"Nope! It's cool."
There was the slight noise of a creaking branch as Kai wrapped himself in the fur lining of his hammock. All was finally quiet. Ren peered through the branches to start looking for constellations to try and get a better guess on how much longer until winter arrived so she could plan on where to ride out the season. Probably Suna, but it was too dry and too hot for her or Kai to be comfortable. Juro had always wanted to head out to the open ocean on a ship but Ren was not a very good swimmer and she doubted Kai could swim either. Maybe just head to a beach?
"Ren?"
"What is it?"
"Do you think we're alone in the universe?"
There was a moment of existential silence while Ren's mind swam in possibility of creepy people living on the moon. She looked at the crescent moon tentatively through the branches before pulling her blanket over her head to try and stop thinking about it.
"Go to sleep, Kai."
After all, there was no such thing as moon people.
Right?
END CHAPTER ONE
A/N: This is a different project for me. I really just wanted an excuse to do a series of action scenes, take a break from a larger project and explore the idea of how doing good can still have consequences. I like to write stories where it feels like you just dropped in to watch a chapter of a person's life. Everyone has a history and is the hero of their own story and the villain of another. This should only be about 5 chapters.
I wandered into a pit of ancient feudal era weaponry for this, fascinating stuff. Ren's primarily a spear fighter, liking the reach and multiple uses of the weapon. The short sword (kodachi, 60 cm or less) is mostly used in tight places, like inside a building where it's harder to swing and block with a larger weapon. It was historically used by caravan guards to fight bandits and was just small enough to not be breaking the laws about non-samurai carrying weapons, making it available for citizens to carry during the Edo period.
Also, I am bothered by the fact we don't know who Metal Lee's mom is so here's my theory in long fic form. Because this is my fandom niche and by god I will own it.