Hello all readers, nice to see you all again! I have had some people ask about Kuroko's appearance! I've given it in the story, but that was pretty early on and not as in depth as I would have liked, so I'll just give a description blurb of Kuroko now.
Kuroko has black, curly hair. Not super curly, but he has curls. His eyes are cyan in colour and dilate and constrict just like a cat's pupil. He's very short, just shorter than Hinata, his growth stunted from malnutrition. He has a cool light-medium skin tone. He has faint scars on his body from beatings, but his most notable ones are on his face and neck. A horizontal scar runs across the left side of his neck, and a vertical scar goes from his chin to just below the corner of his lip on the left side of his face. His ears are the same colour as his hair with dark grew ear fluff, and his tail is the same with a dark grey tip.
I hope this has been good enough of a description to clear this up.
Happy reading!
• • • • •
Inoichi yawned into an open palm as he waited on his coffee machine for a much-needed dose of caffeine. He had been called into a meeting the previous night and it went on much longer than it should have, going well into the small hours of the morning. He still needed to get up early to open the store and his wife wasn't in the household at the moment to wake him up with a nice cup of joe—something he noticed that he had been taking for granted. I should do something nice for her when she gets back. The missus needs to be reminded that she's appreciated.
He smiled at the thought and caught a whiff of the coffee, "Ino-chan should be getting up soon—hopefully." She already tried to sleep in since her mother wasn't home. Too bad for her that Inoichi made a promise to not indulge her.
Now, Inoichi didn't usually cook. The missus usually did that while he got up. Somebody would have to cook, and he was going to give it a shot. Something simple would suffice, and while he wasn't as good in the kitchen as his wife, he thought that he could probably make the omelets she usually whipped up.
Taking out the necessary supplies, he cracked eggs into a bowl. Pouring the liquid in—he waited.
Inoichi was alarmed when the pan started smoking. I think I may have done something wrong...
"Otou-san, Otou-san!" Ino barrelled down the stairs, her hair up in a haphazard, lopsided ponytail, "I smell smoke!" She blinked when she saw him at the stove. "..."
Inoichi smiled nervously, "Good morning Ino-chan. I... tried to make breakfast."
"I can see that," she walked up to the stove, "You have the temperature too high. The butter burnt and the egg's stuck. Turn down the temp and try again, I'll finish getting ready." She left back up the stairs in a bit of a hurry—she had the hair straightener on. No wonder Okaa-san doesn't let him cook.
Inoichi sighed as he put the destroyed egg on a plate, "It couldn't be that bad... right?"
Ino smiled and hid her laughter when she heard her father pout.
• • • • • •
Kuroko stood outside of the Yamanaka's flower shop and pondered. He was wondering if they were awake yet when he smelt something burning. Oh, its ham and... eggs? Somebody was cooking inside. Well, now he knew that someone was up. He knocked on the glass doors of the flower shop. After waiting a minute or two, he thought it wasn't heard, so he tried again.
He tilted his head in confusion and leaned forward, trying to look in through the glass. Then he noticed that there was a path heading over to the side. "Oh, the shop and house are attached, but there are two different entrances." It was good to know it now since he would most likely have future deliveries here.
Knocking on the house door, he fiddled with his shirt under his poncho.
• • • • • •
"This is terrible," Ino grimaced as she swallowed the burnt egg concoction, it was crusty and scratched her throat on the way down. She coughed and hastily grabbed her water.
"Sorry," Inoichi frowned, he flushed a little in embarrassment. The second attempt that he was eating wasn't that great in comparison either.
Ino smiled through her grimace and fought down her gag reflex, "Nah, it's alright Otou-san. You tried."
Inoichi looked up from the table, sensing somebody's chakra at the door, "Would you be able to answer the door? We have visitors." Just after he finished talking, there was a knock at the door.
Ino groaned, "This early? It's like... eight," she said after looking at the clock on the wall. Her father gave her a look when there was another knock. "Alright, alright, fine. I'll get the door."
She trudged over to the front, cursing to whoever was disturbing their breakfast—she wouldn't want to finish the 'omelet' when she went back to it, and eating it cold would be much worse. Unlocking it, she opened it with fervor. She saw Kuroko.
"O-oh, g-good morning Ino-san. Is your father home?"
Ino looked behind him before she turned her head and shouted into the house, "Otou-san! A classmate of mine needs you! Soumei is here too!"
Kuroko blinked in confusion. He looked behind himself and jumped.
"Hello again," Soumei smiled down tiredly to Kuroko, "Mask-kun." So, he's Ino-chan's age...
"H-hello," he nodded in respect.
"Wow, two people in one visit. It's quite the busy morning, isn't it?" Inoichi chuckled.
"I'm going to finish that... that thing you made," Ino grumbled and went back into the kitchen with a frown. It would be a waste of food if she didn't finish it.
"He was here first so I'll let him go before me," Soumei yawned into an open palm. The deep bags under his eyes were prominent against pale skin, the man clearly needed some rest.
"Um, I-I have a package for you." Kuroko pulled it out and did his thing. It required a signature, so he'd drop the paper off when he went back in later. "Also... I'm supposed to join t-team ten for this week, and Shika t-told me that they met up here...?"
Inoichi rubbed his head, "Yes they do, but they meet up at ten o'clock. Ino and I take care of the flower shop in the mornings."
"At ten?" Kuroko pondered for a moment, wondering what he should do for... two hours. "Would you like some help?"
"I'm sure Ino would appreciate a helper now that I have some business to attend to. You may go inside. The kitchen is down the entrance hall and to the right."
"T-thank you Yamanaka-sama." Kuroko bowed his head and went inside, taking off his shoes and padding over to where the kitchen was.
"So, the Masked Messenger is a fresh academy grad, who would'a thought." Soumei laughed, "Kotetsu would be spit taking if he heard of it."
Inoichi chuckled, "As an intelligence specialist you get to hear all the rumors, don't tell him though please, the kid has enough troubles to deal with."
"Sure, sure. Now, I'm just here to give you this," Soumei whapped Inoichi in the stomach with a wad of paper. "Now I was planning to go and hit the sack, but something more interesting has appeared. I can go into comatose later."
"Want some coffee?"
"Hell yeah."
• • • • • •
Kuroko has never actually been in a flower shop before, so when he followed Ino in, he was amazed. It's so pretty! Kuroko looked around at the different plants and flowers, each having labels underneath them.
He knelt down to get a closer look of this pretty purple one. It had stocks standing tall, the majority of them having dark green leaves and about three of them had purple flowers decorating the whole stock. He looked at the tag below it.
"D-del.. phinum?" He didn't know how to pronounce it.
"It's Delphi-nium." Ino corrected. She'd been trailing behind him while he looked around the shop curiously.
"It's poisonous?"
Ino nodded, "Quite. Young plants and seeds can cause nausea, muscle spasms, and paralysis. You thinking of getting into poisons?"
Kuroko looked up to Ino, "Maybe? I'm going to try using daggers so it would work better."
"Cool. Now, I need you to sweep the floors while I count the till."
"A-alright."
Kuroko did as he was told and occasionally straightened out some flower pots and signs. He was lost in his thoughts when he was startled by Ino's shout.
"Kuroko! I need your help over here!" Kuroko emptied the dust pan in the garbage and set it to the side with the broom. "I need you to move these to the back," she pointed to a couple of boxes on the floor.
"O-okay." He tried lifting them and frowned when his hands stung, he probably shouldn't be doing any heavy lifting. He paused in his efforts when he saw a thick quilt. "E-excuse me... Ino-san?"
"What's up?"
"C-can I use that blanket?" He tilted his head to gesture towards it.
"Sure. It's old and we just use it to put plants on when we change the pots anyways."
Kuroko got the quilt and laid it on the floor, then he put the boxes on top. Now he could drag them all to the room without damaging his hands or their floors and walls—his dad taught him that when the first moved to Konoha. He wrapped the two free ends of the blanket around his forearms and pulled.
Inoichi was worried when he heard a shout and went to see what was going on. Soumei followed behind, curious about the commotion. They stood on the stairs and had a view of the hallway where Kuroko was.
"What happened Kuroko?" Ino asked while counting bills.
Kuroko was once again grateful for his mask. When he pulled, his feet didn't have enough traction and he slipped, falling flat on his face. His mask slid up a lot when he smacked his face on the ground, but thankfully it stayed on his head.
"I, uh, just slipped. My s-socks are too fluffy." Kuroko looked up to see Inoichi and Soumei. He flushed crimson.
"You alright there?" Ino leaned over the boxes to make sure, she raised an eyebrow and tried to hide a smile, "Sounded like quite the fall."
"U-uh, y-yes! I-I-I'm fine!" Kuroko looked her in the eye—face still red in embarrassment—and panicked for a second when he felt that his mask was about to fall off. He fumbled around and finally fixed his mask. "I... Uhm... I slipped."
Ino raised an eyebrow, quirking a smile all the while, "I can see that. Now come on, the store opens in twenty minutes."
Kuroko nodded and got up, and this time he directed chakra to his feet so he would actually stick to the floor and not slip, it would also make it easier to pull.
Ino went back to clean up the front while Kuroko was doing that. "Sakura was right," Ino mused.
"What was she right about?" Inoichi asked as he sipped on his second cup of coffee. Soumei looked really amused behind him.
"Well, we have never seen his face with that mask through the academy, and recently he was with her team. Forehead said that he was pretty cute and his eyes are a pretty colour."
Soumei laughed loudly when he saw Inoichi's expression darken.
"Oh, but you don't have to worry Otou-san, Sasuke-kun is still the only one for me." She smiled blissfully and brought her hands up to her cheeks, squealing a little when she thought of him.
Sighing into his cup, Inoichi muttered, "I don't think that's much better." He would honestly prefer if she was going after Kuroko instead. The last Uchiha was too much trouble to get involved with considering his revenge problem. "Azuma is going to be here in ten, go get ready and grab a snack or something," he shooed her away and took over the register.
Kuroko dragged the blanket back to take the last two boxes. When he was done, he glanced around. Where did Ino go?
"Little miss went to get ready." Kuroko nearly jumped out of his skin and went pretty high, though not as high as that time in the Hokage Tower, thankfully. Soumei laughed, "You startle easily, don't you kid?"
"I-I guess so?"
"You're scaring him Soumei." Inoichi chastised his cousin. "Azuma will be here soon, so I sent her to get her things. Do you need to go home and get your training gear?"
Kuroko shook his head and moved his poncho to the side. He patted his bag. "I-I have everything I need in here." He thought for a moment, well... maybe not? He would need to look for some daggers that he would like, possibly a tanto too so he could have a blade with longer range.
"Ha! A messenger bag, for the Masked Messenger."
Kuroko tilted his head, "Masked Messenger?"
"It's a name people came up for you. The civvies are getting quite the hoot out of it."
"I-I guess it fits? I mean, i-it's describing what I do."
With a jingle from the bells on the door, Azuma entered, "Is Ino ready yet?" He saw Kuroko and smiled in hello. Kuroko nodded back.
"Ah, Azuma she'll be out in a moment."
"Alright, I'll be outside then."
Kuroko bowed to the two Yamanaka and left to follow Azuma. "E-excuse me Azuma-sensei? I was wanting to ask you something..."
The bearded male took a deep drag of his cigarette, "Fire away, kid," and as he talked, smoke billowed out of his mouth.
"I-I was thinking that I should l-learn how to wield daggers. I'm not that strong, but favor agility... Shikaku said to ask you about it, he said you were good with them?" Kuroko saw Chouji and Shikamaru come around a street corner. He smiled and waved, "M-morning! You need t-to start getting up earlier Shika."
Shikamaru blinked and looked from Azuma to Kuroko, "I'd expect to hear that from Azuma-sensei, not you." He sighed, but smiled, "Mornin'. Did you help Ino out? You have dirt on your poncho."
With Shikamaru pointing it out, Kuroko spun around to try and see it. When he couldn't see it, he grabbed and pulled on his poncho to see where it was. There was a large patch of dirt on the side of it and he brushed it off. "Oh, t-thanks, I didn't notice—and y-yes, I did. I had a parcel for I-Inoichi-sama and offered."
"You get up too early," Kuroko was about to retort, but Azuma stop him before he even had the chance.
"Alright then, once Ino—"
"Hey, it's going to be pretty cold out today, huh? Otou-san says it should warm up again in a couple days. Mother nature sure is weird." Ino talked as she ran towards them from her front door. "Mornin' Azuma-sensei!"
Azuma sighed, but smiled, "It's not really morning anymore, but good morning everyone. Now, let's go to the training fields."
• • • • • •
"What are we going to be doing today?" Chouji asked through a mouthful of chips. He didn't like cold weather because he had to wear gloves when it was cold—and gloves got in the way of his chips.
"Today we will be working on basic chakra control and some team building exercises. After lunch, we'll do a mission or two."
From what Kuronuma told him of Kuroko, he thought that if the D ranks went well, then they could probably do a C ranked mission. Kuronuma wanted Kuroko to find the type of Shinobi he wanted to be, and joining different teams was showing him them. Team seven was an assault team, they specialized in close combat and taking down the enemy. Team ten, however, was more specialized in stalling and capturing—they could also go into infiltration, though Chouji was easy to recognize as an Akimichi with the marks on his cheeks. He's probably going to get him to join team eight too, then his thoughts drifted to Kurenai and what she would be doing the upcoming evening, maybe she'd like to go out for dinner tonight?
"Like what?" Ino asked, but Azuma wasn't paying attention. "Azuma-sensei?" She got a little concerned when he smiled and a light blush dusted his cheeks—or was that just the cold?
"Oh no," Shikamaru drawled sarcastically, "he's frozen, somebody kick him. It works on the TV at home, it should work on him," he snickered at his humor and Kuroko laughed lightly.
Looking to each other, Kuroko decided to take the initiative and poke Azuma's side. What he didn't expect was Azuma reacting violently. Kuroko and the others jumped in freight when Azuma swiftly brought out a knife and he barely had enough time to try and grab Azuma's hand to stop it from piercing his chest.
Kuroko's hand stung as he grabbed the blade and pushed. His hand slid down the blade and stopped on Azuma's. He grit his teeth. They were still healing damn it and he got himself injured again, though, thankfully, it wasn't that deep of a cut.
"You use trench knives?" Kuroko asked with curiosity, his head naturally tilting. When they went over weapons in the academy, they only glossed over the various types of swords and knives. They were talked about as specialty weapons and were only taught to use kunai and shuriken, senbon were also dabbled in, but only briefly for those interested in them. The handles caught his interest, they were like brass knuckles but sharpened.
Kuroko's voice snapped him out of it and Azuma's eyes widened and followed the red on Kuroko's hand to the ground where it was staining the snow. "Are you alright Kuroko-kun?" He couldn't see him from out of his peripheral, it didn't help that he was so short.
Kuroko nodded, "Y-yes, I am. It isn't that deep." Seeing as Azuma was back to his senses, he let go of the knife and looked at his hand, "I-I can't say that about my glove though."
"Who cares about the glove," Shikamaru intoned as he grabbed Kuroko's hand from the wrist. He pulled the glove off and inspected it, "And the doc said to be careful. Doesn't it hurt with the burn?"
"Yeah, I-I didn't take the meds this morning, so I'll have to take them at lunch."
Okay, this was new. Azuma never saw Shikamaru this way, it was usually only when he stood up for Chouji when he was being picked on when he got like this.
"You'll have to redress it, you have spare bandages, right?"
Kuroko laughed lightly and stuck his uninjured hand into his bag, "I-I have spares of everything Shika," and when it came out, he held a little first aid kit. He sat on the ground cross-legged and went through it.
"Okay, so, lesson number one for today," Azuma started, "please avoid startling a veteran shinobi—and sorry for reacting that way, I shouldn't have."
Kuroko looked up at him and shook his head, "N-no, I should have known better," he smiled a little and looked to the others, "Shika, instead of your suggestion of k-kicking him, we should throw snowballs at him n-next time."
"At least we would have enough distance to not get stabbed."
Ino made a noise at the back of her throat and laughed, "Maybe that would... cool his head down. Too much Kurenai on the brain, eh, Sensei?" she teased, wiggling her eyebrows to the man.
"You gossip too much Ino." Chouji seemed to offended her, but the girl's expression was clearly an exaggeration.
She gasped dramatically, "How dare you. There's never too much gossip."
Azuma sighed and palmed his face, and it wasn't just to hide the embarrassed flush that raided his cheeks either.
"O-okay, I'm ready." Kuroko opened and closed his hand to test out the bandage. It only hurt a bit more where the cut was, he put some petroleum jelly on before the gauze and it would help stop the bandages from irritating it when he moved his hand.
• • • • • •
After his explanation of what to do and an example, he got the four of them to have at'er.
"U-um, Azuma-sensei?" Kuroko fidgeted with his poncho, "I, uh, already know this exercise."
The smoker blinked in surprise, "Kuronuma, that sly bastard—he had Kuroko start out really early," Azuma mumbled to himself. "I'm assuming you know water walking too?" Kuroko nodded and he thought for a moment, he must know some more advanced stuff than what I'm teaching my kids. Then he remembered that Kuroko liked chakra strings, having more chakra control and manipulation skills would be beneficial for him. "Okay, here's what we'll do. Take some leaves and use the same principle of the tree walking exercise to make them stick to you. Once you get the hang of that, try to tree walk at the same time.
Kuroko nodded and gathered some leaves. He stuck about five in his pocket for when he wanted to try and add more. He thought of an idea, what if he used this when fighting? He didn't have a lot of strength, so he could hold on to someone with chakra if he needed to rather than his grip strength.
About ten minutes went by and Kuroko glanced over to see how the others were doing. Chouji kept slipping off from not using enough chakra, and Ino was destroying the bark by using too much, she was getting frustrated. Shikamaru however... his tree wasn't scuffed up at all.
"Shika?" The boy jumped off from his most recent attempt and looked up at Kuroko. "You know this e-exercise already. Y-you're just putting more effort in by p-pretending that you're practicing it."
"I guess you're right," Shikamaru admitted. "Well, since I'm done with this I'm going to take a nap." He walked over to a larger tree with a snow pile at the bottom of it. With a tug of his hood, he laid on his back and relaxed.
"Ino, you're using too much chakra, take a breather and try again. Chouji, use more chakra, you aren't adhering properly."
"Yes Azuma-sensei!"
• • • • • •
Thankfully the missions weren't as hectic as they were with team seven, but Ino was just at chatty as Naruto. It was a bit awkward at first with her complaining that they had to look after a drooling toddler. She was irritable because the little boy was insistently grabbing her ponytail, pulling on it and munching on her hair.
Azuma didn't want anything to do with the babbling baby so he chose to stand outside the balcony and smoke as he heard the cries of both the baby and his Genin.
"Oh, come on!" Ino shrieked as the baby refused to let go of her hair. "Kuroko, you're the only one who hasn't played with the tyke—here!" She picked up the little demon and held her arms straight out, holding the kid an arm's length away from her. "I have to rinse this… this baby slobber out."
"M-maybe you should put your hair up?" Kuroko reluctantly took the child, he didn't know anything about babies, only knowing how to hold them and that's it. He smiled a little when the kid squirmed in his grasp. He bounced him a little and rubbed his back.
Ino rolled her eyes, "It is up."
"I think he meant more up—like in a bun or something." Surprisingly, Chouji didn't have a snack on him. The little brat was trying to get into them, so he had to hide them. The kid was a little dust devil.
"More up?"
Chouji frowned in embarrassment at Shikamaru's teasing, "Shush Shikamaru," and he wasn't in that great a mood because of his lack of chips.
Kuroko laughed lightly. He looked down and saw that the kid finally fell asleep in his arms. "Shh," he whispered, "he's asleep now."
They all sighed in relief.
"Now that the tykes asleep, clean this place up before the lady gets back." Azuma chose to come back in when the little tornado was out of commission. "She'll be back in a half hour."
Ino and Shikamaru groaned. The kid scribbled on the walls and it was going to take forever to get off!
• • • • • •
After the team finished their missions they all went their own way. Kuroko was looking for a good shop where he could look at some daggers when his interest was caught. The outside looked a bit worn down and there were no windows. He could only tell that from the sign, as worn down as it was, said Higurashi Weapons. A fitting name for a weapons store, day-to-day existence.
When he entered a girl at the counter greeted him. "Welco—" she stopped when she looked up to him. Blinking and clearing her throat, she tried again. "Welcome to Higurashi Weapons!" The smile was a bit uncomfortable—she was taken aback by his odd appearance.
Kuroko inclined his head, "T-thank you." She seems familiar...
The girl's smile was more genuine after hearing his voice. Now that she knew he was a kid and not some insanely short Anbu operative, she had less to worry about. "Would you like help finding anything?"
"A-ah, y-yes! I'm, uh, looking for a pair of daggers."
"Of course, right this way!" She had brown hair up in two buns. When she was beside him, something clicked. Ah, now he remembered. Her name was... Tenten? It was still a bit fuzzy, but he remembered her being with that team that was practicing on the Hokage Monument while he was there.
"Anything specific that you're interested in?"
Kuroko looked at the selection and thought for a moment. He shook his head, "N-not really. I wanted to see what t-there was before I had a solid image of it."
"Well, I'll just be a shout away if you need me."
He looked at each knife individually, taking different aspects of them that he liked. The brass knuckle handles were something he would want. It would make it harder for him to drop the knife and he would have more leverage—plus if it was sharpened he could punch and cut at the same time. The blades that dropped to a point looked better for him, and the ones he was interested in had serrated back edges.
After a long time of looking through the section, he settled on two knives. One pair had a longer blade and had the serrated back edge. The grip had groves to fit the hand nicely and had a sharpened finger guard that trench knives usually had with a pointed pommel at the end. The second pair were shorter, more suited to combat in confined spaces, and had all the qualities of the larger pair, but without the trench handle, they also had a gut hook at the blade.
"You finally done?"
Kuroko smiled and nodded, "Mmhm, I-I think so."
Tenten took a look at his choice of weapons. It was a bit odd, he didn't look like he knew his way around weaponry, but he chose some of the higher quality stuff they had—the smaller knives were made of damascus steel while the larger pair had black metal. "The sheaths come with them for no extra charge. Would you be interested in a harness for them?"
Kuroko tilted his head in thought, "Y-yes, that would be nice. I think I would like a c-custom one though." He wanted some scroll slots and pouches to put other things in. His bag would only get in the way in combat.
"Okay, hold on a sec then," she ran over to the back door in the shop and shouted, "Tou-san! A customer needs you!" Kuroko flinched at the shout and a second later, a large tan muscular man with black hair and five o'clock shadow came out. "He wants to get a custom harness."
"This little guy does?" he barked a laugh. Kuroko was immediately intimidated by the man. He could only squeak and nod. "What's your name, kid?"
"N-N-Nekoma K-Kuroko," his voice ended up cracking and he bowed in respect—and not to mention fear. The man looked like he could snap his neck by accident—his hands were about the size of his head!
"Well I'm Kajiya, now how may I be of service?" Kajiya grinned largely at Kuroko, showing pearly whites with one missing tooth.
"I-I would like t-to order a custom harness for the knives I'm purchasing."
"What type of material would you be interested in?" He questioned, but with that confused tilt of the boy's head, he assumed that he didn't know much about the different types of materials. Kuroko asked for him to explain the pros and cons of each type and nodded along. He hadn't known most of this stuff before.
"O-oh, s-so leather is durable to wear, but is bad when it gets wet."
"Precisely."
"A-and you said that it can be coated in a h-hydrophobic layer?" Kuroko asked and the man nodded. He scratched his head, now the only problem would be durability, a sword would most likely be able to cut through it. "I-I would like to do that pigmented leather and, um, if it's possible is t-there a way to have a thin metal sheet on the inside of the leather? I t-think it would add durability to being cut..." He blinked at the looks he was getting from Tenten and her father, "O-Only if it's possible!"
"That's genius!" Tenten suddenly shouted in excitement, "It would add a little bit of weight, but the payoff is much better! And if we add joints underneath where the body moves it won't hinder the flexibility either."
"Hanji won't know what hit him!" Kuroko could only infer that there was a rival store of the Higurashi's.
After an awkward measurement of his hips and thighs, he was on his way. He ended getting a thirty percent discount and some perks with them for letting them use what he thought of. Their weapons were a bit pricey, but he could see the difference in metalwork that they were better quality than his own.
Now he was on the floor of his room fiddling around with the tools of murder, or self defense, that he had bought. Azuma said that familiarizing yourself with the tools you were going to learn was the best thing to do before doing anything remotely combat based. "I need to get comfortable with holding these," and so he fiddled with them, twirling them around and trying different grip styles.
Shikamaru barged in without knocking and it startled the both of them. "Woah!" Shikamaru tensed when he saw Kuroko with those knives. He raised an eyebrow, "So Kaa-san says 'not in the house with those' and you head here." Kuroko laughed at the squeaky falsetto voice Shika used when imitating his mother.
Shikamaru plopped onto Kuroko's bed, "Though to be fair I'm trying to escape from her too."
Kuroko stopped twirling the daggers and looked to Shika in question, "too?"
"Kaa-san wants to teach me how to cook." Shikamaru looked at Kuroko oddly when he just froze and stared at him.
"Cook?" Shikamaru nodded and Kuroko brightened—he liked food, "I'll learn to cook from Yoshino-san in your place if you want."
"I'll owe you one."
He smiled and put the daggers away in their sheathes before trotting down the stairs to the kitchen. "Yoshino-san!"
"Evening Kuroko-kun!" She smiled—because Kuroko's smiles were just contagious with how adorable they were—and ruffled his hair, "Do you know where Shikamaru is? I was going to teach him how to cook."
"Uh, w-well he said that he didn't want to..." he gulped when she had a dark look surface on her face. "B-but I would like to!" he blurted out quickly before she got... edgy.
"Oh, that's just fantastic!" She clapped her hands together with a happy smile.
Kuroko nodded, "S-since I'm alone as a Genin I thought I should learn as much as I can."
"Good, good. I'll need to get Shikamaru to do something else in turn then, do you have any ideas?"
He tilted his head in thought, "Hmm... Maybe clearing the snow off the roof? I-I overheard you talking about it yesterday."
"Yes, when it warms up in the next few days the leaks will get worse. The roof still needs to get fixed in places and we couldn't do it with the sudden snowfall." She sighed, this was quite the odd fall season. "Now," she piped up, "let's get started with seasoning and fish. We'll be cooking salmon today." She knew how much he loved fish.
He could feel himself salivating already.
• • • • • •
Over the course of the next few days, Kuroko stuck to his usual schedule. After finishing the deliveries, he would help out the Yamanaka's, and if he was done early he would train before helping them out. He learned about plants while working there and thought that he should ask his sensei about poisons. With team ten they were focusing on chakra control and did D-ranked missions. Azuma also taught him some basic stances and kata for his knife-wielding.
He wasn't expecting for his sensei to return so early, so when the man showed up as they were about to go to the mission's office, he was pleasantly surprised.
"Hey, Kuroko."
Kuroko spun on his heel towards the familiar voice, "Kuro-sensei!" He smiled and trotted up to the man. "H-how was your mission?"
Kuronuma grinned, and it was a bit of a scary one, "It was great." If Kuroko wasn't so used to the man he would have shivered in fright like team ten did.
"Ah, Arata, we were just about to get a mission."
"It better not be with that kid again. We've had it twice—twice!" Ino complained with her dramatics.
Arata raised an eyebrow at the type of mission, he'd rather have Kuroko do D-ranked missions that would actually teach him skills that would be useful as a shinobi, not a babysitter. "Actually, I was going to ask if you thought they were ready."
Team ten perked up—what did they need to be ready for? They couldn't understand the rest of the conversation because the two Jounin were talking through signs.
"What do you think they're saying?" Chouji asked.
"M-maybe if you're ready for a C-rank?" Kuroko wasn't sure, but that's the first thing he thought of.
Arata smirked and looked down to them. Team ten shivered again—the man's tired orange eyes were unnerving. "He's right you know."
"If you show enough initiative and stay proactive in training, I'll consider it." Azuma was surprised when Shikamaru or Ino didn't complain. "This means no missions and only training." He smirked, theeeere were the groans.
Kuroko waved goodbye to team ten when his sensei gestured him to follow.
"Have you kept up with your training?" Kuroko nodded. "Good, I'll be teaching you the basics of almost everything and will be reviewing some of the things in the academy. Later on, we'll try and find some specialty fields for you."
Kuroko was going to be mentally and physically exhausted by the time he's done with him, and now that he was done with the Akimichi's meal plan to get his body up to a healthy standard, he had to kick Kuroko's physical training up in gear. He had him focus on flexibility and chakra control while he was recovering so he would be ready for what he had planned next.
"In the meantime, we'll go out for lunch and you'll run me up to speed." Maybe he'd teach Kuroko a jutsu of his, even if it did mean more paperwork to run the request through the council.
"Oh, um... S-sensei?" Kuroko started nervously, "I would like to tell you something."
"Fire away."
"N-not here." He saw the man raise questioning eyebrows. "W-we should make an appointment with H-Hokage-sama."
• • • • • •
"Huh," Kuronuma frowned and held his chin in thought as he stared at his student. "How long have you had... these?" he gestured to Kuroko vaguely.
"M-my whole life."
"There has been no record of experimentation either," Hiruzen provided. He continued after the frightened, but curious look he got from Kuroko, "I have been looking into what may have caused your condition but, unfortunately, have come across no leads."
"You think it may be a seal or some sort?" Arata threw the possibility out there. He wasn't a master of fuinjutsu like Jiraiya, but he had enough experience to be apart of a barrier team similar to Suna's.
"It shouldn't be ruled out. You of all people must know the dangers of sealing," the moment he said that he seemed to regret it. "I apologize," Hiruzen nodded his head solemnly.
Kuroko looked up to his sensei. Did something happen to him? He looked hurt.
Arata cleared his throat and looked upset. He continued the conversation before it got too dark, "I have moved on Hokage-sama. Now," he looked down to Kuroko with a smirk, "We'll have to check your body for any seals."
Kuroko sighed lightly in displeasure, a small pout of a frown showing as he looked down with narrowed eyebrows. How many times would Kuroko have to strip down in front of his Kage? In his office of all places to boot? It was becoming a normal occurrence oddly enough, and the Anbu left without hesitating when Hiruzen ordered them to now. Now he was stripping in front of his teacher too. He wouldn't ever get used to this. Ever.
On a happy note, Hiruzen thought that he looked considerably healthier than he once looked before. His skin was a healthy colour and he had a proper constitution. No more skin and bones—the Akimichi did wonders with him.
Arata was worried from the number of scars that the kid had. Most of them were thin and faint, but there were a lot of them, no wonder he has such a high pain tolerance. "Now do that exercise I taught you, gather chakra and hold it through your whole body." It was a basic technique in theory, but he had been teaching Kuroko to do a full body enhancement rather than what people did instinctually to single limbs. It would let them see a seal if he had one on his body. His face gradually started to flush pink in colour and it seemed to be from embarrassment rather than the effort.
"Ah, now you only need to gather it to your stomach, Kuroko-kun." Hiruzen looked at the seal closely. It was an unstable seal, a triangle, but in the center of it was a circle that barely held it together. From the Kanji and Hiragana characters he could deduce the basic function of the seal. Storage, connection, chakra... and a life support integration? "I'll need to get Jiraiya to look at this."
"Either that's some really good seal—or it's all gibberish." Arata saw the same components as Hiruzen, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it. It looked sloppy, like it was rushed.
The two men started to talk again and he assumed that they were done looking at him. "U-um? M-may I put m-my clothes back on?" Kuroko squeaked out, face flush in embarrassment. Two grown men staring at his stomach was making him feel really uncomfortable.
"Yes yes, go ahead," Hiruzen chuckled. He found it a bit sad that he asked for permission to do anything—it was a learned behaviour, and from his symptoms, it all pointed to abuse.
With the last of his layers on, Kuroko put his mask back on and his appendages disappeared from sight. Arata blinked in realization. "Kuroko, may I see your mask for a moment?" Reluctantly, Kuroko took it off again and handed it to Kuronuma. The man looked at it for a minute or two, then suddenly it clicked. "Ah, it's a compressed seal. Kuroko, if I look at this seal I may be able to recreate it. It would be handy for the mission I have in mind for you."
"I-I have spares at home." Kuroko brightened, "W-would you like to come over for dinner Kuro-sensei? I've been learning to cook! Yoshino-san is a bit scary, but she's really nice. T-they've been wanting me to introduce you to them anyways."
Arata chuckled, "Sure, lead the way kiddo." He would not refuse free food.
Kuroko bowed lowly to Hiruzen and turned to his Sensei as they left the Hokage Tower.
• • • • • •
"I-I'm home!" Kuroko shouted with a bit of a crack to his voice. The Kuro-pair both took off their shoes and placed them properly facing the door. "W-would you be able to wait her for a m-moment please?" With a nod of approval, he padded off into the living room. "U-um Shikaku-san, is it alright if we have a guest over for dinner?"
Shikaku eyed over his book to Kuroko with a raised eyebrow, "I don't know, it depends on who it is."
"M-my Sensei?"
Shikaku turned back to his book in hand, "Bring him in."
He could just feel the happiness roll off of him as he left to fetch his Sensei. When he came back a second later, he was dragging a tall man with shaggy black hair with matching stubble, tan skin, and narrow golden eyes accompanied by dark bags under them.
"Shikaku-san, t-this is my Sensei, Kuro-sensei!" Kuroko's tail wafted back and forth excitedly, and even with his mask on, it was clearly visible under his poncho. Shikaku was worried if the man noticed it or not. "U-um, you c-can take a seat and relax if you want. I-I need to change and help with d-dinner."
"See ya in a bit then kiddo," Kuronumas fingers waved as Kuroko turned the corner and bolted up the stairs to his room.
A minute of silence in, someone broke the comfortable silence in the room.
"So, I'm assuming he's not your kid." Arata smirked when Shikaku started coughing.
"O-of course not. We've just taken him in. Shikamaru found out that he's been living on the streets for years."
Okay that explains his street smarts, Arata mused thoughtfully.
"Though… I didn't think you'd be his Sensei," Shikaku continued talking through Arata's thoughts.
Arata huffed a laugh and slouched into the love seat, "Ha! I didn't think I would be either, surely you've heard about my Genin test?"
"I have, but only snippets," Shikaku downed the rest of the water he had in his cup. He smirked, "The two civilians tried twisting your rules around and camped out for the night in a pit trap. I heard some from Kakashi."
"Figures. You're one of the only people he likes to gossip with," he laughed and got back to the original topic, "Kuroko, he's got a lot of potential. He's a bit of an oddball though—weird kid."
"Oh? How so?"
Arata scoffed, "How so? How so. I know you've heard of them. Lazy bastard." Facetiousness aside, it was all in good humor.
At that Shikaku laughed, "The Masked Messenger, huh? Suits him. The civilians are starting to stretch it though."
"Don't worry, I've thought up something to help him either counteract or run with it."
"Really?" Now Shikaku was curious, they were both intelligent, but they were on the opposite sides of the spectrum. Logic vs imagination.
They quieted down when heard voices and were distracted by a conversation in the other room.
• • • • • •
Shikamaru was in the kitchen resting with his head in his arms at the dinner table. He was almost falling asleep when Kuroko came in. Kuroko could smell the roast from the door when he first came in, the room was also warmer than usual, so he knew Yoshino had already started dinner.
With a stretch, Shikamaru leaned back into his chair and yawned, "You were gone too long so Kaa-san made me help her cook after I cleared off the roof," he shot a sharp look and Kuroko quickly looked away. Shikamaru smirked, he knew that it was his idea.
"How was training with your Sensei?"
Kuroko paused in his task of getting cups for tea. "It was good? W-we went over what I learned while he was gone and he went over the laws and regulations of Shinobi."
"Sounds boring."
"Yeah, s-sort of... but we need to know it right?" Kuroko saw Shikamaru shrug, "He used a genjutu to make it go by faster though."
"A genjutsu? Wow, he sounds scary—wait, never mind sounds—he's creepy," Shikamaru shivered, he was reminded of that creepy grin the man gave off when he talked vaguely about his mission. He looked over to the closed doors separating the dining room and the living room, confused. Did he just hear a snort?
Shikaku looked to the Jounin-sensei beside him oddly. Arata had to cover his mouth he was laughing so hard.
Kuroko laughed lightly, Arata certainly heard that. Shika had said it loud enough to carry through the sliding doors. "He is a little odd... but he's nice." Kuroko took the kettle off the element before it started whistling. He poured some of the water into a large teapot, swirling it around before dumping it to rinse it out. Now that it was clean, he put a couple bags of orange pekoe in and filled it to the top. Putting the lid back on, he left it to steep.
"W-where's Yoshino-san? Do you think she would like tea?"
"She's putting laundry away. I was ordered to baste the roast every fifteen minutes until the timer goes off." Speaking of Kaa-san, "She's going to tell you to take your mask off."
Kuroko nodded, "I know... I was going to change, but thought it would be a better use of time if I steeped t-the tea before I did." Shikamaru returned the nod in understanding. "I-I'll be back in a couple minutes." Kuroko left and Shikamaru was reminded to tend to the roast when the timer went off on the oven.
Opening the oven door, Shikamaru was greeted by a face full of heat, his face was going to be red for a while. With oven gloves, he reached in and pulled on the rack and grabbed the handle for the cover.
"Shikamaru!"
His mother's voice startled him and he ended dropping the metal lid back down with the loud clatter of metal on metal. "Kaa-san—I'm basting," Shikamaru drawled with exaggerated mockery.
The woman laughed at her son's humor, "So who made the tea?"
"Kuro did. He went to clean up while it stewed," he finished basting the slab of meat and heard the stairs creaking, "Speak of the devil."
"I-I'm not a demon Shika," Kuroko rounded the corner. He was now in his house clothes, a dark teal long-sleeved shirt, too-baggy brown khakis, and his mask which was just around his forehead and off to the side of his face. "I-I think I'm more of a cat." The sarcastic expression Shika gave him made him laugh, the sardonic eyebrow raise is what really what did it.
"I think we're aware of that hun," Yoshino commented as she sipped on the tea he got ready. "Good tea by the way."
"T-thank you, I-I bought it the other day." He had it a couple time while working at Touji's and he really liked it. "I'm going to grab cups, d-do you want some Shika?" Kuroko offered.
"Sure, I think I'll need it. If I fall asleep now I'll get an earful." Yoshino pointedly decided to not respond.
"I-is there a tray anywhere?" When he turned around Yoshino already had it out for him, "Thank you Yoshino-san." He got a little container for milk and the one for sugar and it was all ready. He slid the door open with his foot. Shikamaru was confused, why did he have four teacups? Was there a guest?
Shikaku turned to the sliding door and greeted him, "Ah, Kuroko-kun, how's dinner coming along?"
"Y-Yoshino-san and Shika have it in the oven. I would say a-about fifteen minutes? I-I brought tea."
Kuronuma chuckled, "I can see that, thanks." After letting Kuroko get his own cup to his liking, Arata grabbed his own cup, putting three spoonfuls of sugar in and making the tea as white as it could get, effectively draining all the milk from the container.
That's alright, Shikaku liked his tea with no milk anyways. He could deal with it.
"Hey, Kuro, who's here?" When he saw who Kuroko was talking to, his face paled a few shades. He was talking bad about him earlier and the man was just a room over, "H-hello..."
Arata burst out laughing, "Ha! No worries kid, I know I look scary." Shikamaru let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, relieved that the man was nicer than he first seemed. Shikamaru sat down beside Kuroko and listened to the continuing conversation between Kuroko's Sensei and his dad while drinking his own milk-less tea. They were talking about a run-in with a Jounin named Gai—he's never heard his father laugh so much.
Shikaku's laughter toned down to chuckles, "So Kakashi won it and Gai has to wear normal clothes for the week?"
"Got Kurenai involved and everything—though the man refused to cut his stylish hair."
"Gai?" Kuroko questioned, he was curious about the man.
An eager smirk grew on Arata's lips, "Oh, you'll meet him soon. In the next couple weeks, I'd say."
Shikaku's eyes widened, "You're not," it was said in both disbelief and humor.
"What? His Taijutsu needs some work and he's the best guy to go to."
Now Kuroko was getting worried. He scratched his cheek in anxiousness and hit his mask. He was reminded that he still had it on and needed to give it to him. "Oh! I-I have my mask Kuro-sensei, this one is one of my spares," Kuroko reached up and took it off, giving it to him. Shikamaru and Shikaku almost had collective heart attacks.
"Thanks kiddo. I'll be trying to figure this thing out tonight," Arata grinned and put his calloused hand on his head, ruffling his curly hair. He ignored the reflexive flinch and gave him the affection he needed to get used to.
Kuroko smiled up to his Sensei.
"He's joined the club then I guess?"
Kuroko nodded in answer to Shika's odd question. Noticing that the tea was finished, he gathered the empty teacups. Just as he finished, there was a shout from Yoshino.
"Boys! Dinner's ready!"
"Finally. Food," Shikamaru groaned as his stomach rumbled.
• • • • • •
Extra extra long chapter, 8265 words in total. I wanted to extend it a bit so I can get on with the plot and some character development for the next chapter, which I'm sure some of you can guess from something in this chapter.
Oh yeah!
I gave Tenten a father, well, adoptive father. Kajiya literally translates to blacksmith, and I thought it was fitting for her to be the daughter of a weapons-smith.
I hope that you guys liked it!
Please, drop a review, I'd love to hear your feedback! :D