Shattered Destiny:
Chapter 7: Quality Time
I didn't spend much time at home since I got back from the academy, how can I tell them that I became a genin after killing my classmates? Would they be horrified of what their child is becoming? Or would they understand that I had no choice?
"Keiki." Dad says, interrupting my thoughts. "We're going fishing."
"Why?"
"We need some father son time." He explains.
I'm filled with dread, does he want to talk about school? "Okay papa." I nod cautiously.
We take the fishing boat at the fishery my father works at. I've been here a few times before, but not in a while.
"Hey Keiki-kun." One of my father's co workers greets me. "How long's it been?" He asks my father.
"Oh, year or two?" He hazards a guess. "He's been busy in the ninja academy."
"I didn't know you let him enroll!"
"I didn't." Papa mumbles. "Enough about me, how's the family?" The two of them are working on getting the fishing boat out of the dock, papa and I in the boat and his co worker guiding us out.
"Hope you catch a big one!" Papa's co worker calls out as we're out of the confines of the dock.
"You'd be able to see it!"
Quest Added: Quality Time:
The notification startles me. "Something wrong?"
"I see words."
"What do they say?"
"Quality Time, Fish with your father."
"That sounds nice." Papa nods, satisfied. "We'll catch some lar-"
"Optional, Locate the Big One."
He's sputtering. "We can't catch the Big One in this thing!" He exclaims.
"What's the Big One?" I settle down in one of the few seats available on the fishing ship.
Or worse, topple it. "The biggest whale in the world." He explains.
"How's your day going, Kiddo?" Papa asks after the net has been in the water for a few minutes.
Kiddo? "I'm okay." I shrug nonchalantly. "You?"
"Good, good." He nods, as if that was the answer he was looking for.
"Is the Big One really as big as a whale?" I have a hard time believing that, I can still see the quest.
"Oh yeah, there have been a few sightings, the Mizukage isn't concerned about it so there haven't been any missions for it." Papa explains.
"Is it a summon?" I ask, thinking back on the shark from earlier.
"What's that?" Papa asks me.
"Animals?" I try, I don't think it was ever explained to me. "A shark got into the Academy's pool, Goro-sama went to talk to it."
"He went to talk to a shark?" Papa wonders, I know how crazy it sounds.
"Yeah- whoa!" something tugs on the ship.
"Reel it in!" Papa calls, frantically drawing the net onboard. I help as much as I can, and a Tiger Shark is pulled thrashing onto the boat. It's an infant Tiger Shark.
"Get the net off it!" Papa calls.
"Okay!" I help as much I can, with it thrashing it's hard to get it off.
The tiger shark's mother almost touches the boat, this is unusual. The baby is thrashing so much that it's pretty hard to get the net off. I don't think we're going to cut the net off unless the mother attacks.
With a splash, the enormous tiger shark leaps out of the water beside the boat… and then sinks back into the waves. "The Ffff…" Papa says in awed confusion.
"It stopped struggling!" I exclaim, pulling at the net with renewed effort.
"Almost- there! Get it into the water!" With both of our efforts, we manage to shove the infant shark into the water.
"Does that happen often?" I ask as the two sharks swim away, side by side.
"It's not as common as it looks, but it happens." Papa nods, throwing the net back out into the water. "This ship isn't designed for shark catching, if you can imagine that." He jokes.
"Yeah." I give him a large grin. "Shouldn't we be using a ship that can?"
"If we accidentally catch more sharks, then we'd have to go back and get one." He nods. "And let the others know."
The amount of sharks so close to the village is staggering. No matter where we look there's at least three dorsal fins, some dip beneath the surface as others rise up. Papa looks bothered by the numbers, but he acts like he's seen this before. "How long have the sharks been acting like this?"
"Oh, roughly the time you got in your slump." Papa answers. I was right, he does want to know. "If you need to talk, your mother and I are here for you."
"I'm fine, papa."
"Is it a bully? Did mei-chan do something-"
"I'm fine!" I snap, I'd rather not tell him about the exam. I've managed to hide the headband under my collar and backwards ever since I got it, the Mizukage didn't have the time to stick around past congratulations.
I haven't been in the mood to figure out why, trying to cope I guess. "... Whenever you want to talk." He pats me on the shoulder.
"Thank you, papa." I sigh holding my head in my hands.
We don't talk for awhile, occasionally pulling up the net and storing whatever's caught in containers of ice water, don't want them spoiling just yet.
Without a warning a sea otter leaps onto the ship, startling the two of us. "That's a first!" Papa says, eying the Sea Otter warily.
It cleans itself and looks into the water, more sharks. I'm trying to stay quiet. It's. On. My. Leg. Every part of me wants to squeal in excitement, or try and touch it, but I hold myself back.
"Sorry for hopping up like that, the sharks have become rather aggressive lately." The Sea otter turns to look at us.
The silence is profound. "Did… did it just talk?" Papa asks.
"A-are you a summon?" I ask the sea otter as it looks at us in turn.
"My clan does allow for summoners, yes." The sea otter nods. "Ah perfect, I can get away!" It leaps into the water and vanishes under the waves, leaving two stunned fishermen behind.
"That was a summon.
"Yup."
"Have we been eating summons all this time?" I wonder aloud.
"None of the fish have tried talking me out of catching them."
"This is weird." I rub my head.
We go back to fishing, keeping an eye on the sharks keeping their distance. "What is the Big One?" I ask again.
"A whale, I think?" Papa says and I stare at him. "What? We catch whales sometimes, but never The Big One."
"I've personally never seen it, but The Big One is supposedly larger than any of the islands that make up our village." Papa continues.
"Really!?" I cannot fathom anything being larger than the main island at the center of the archipelago… besides the mainland that is.
"Really, you'd have to go out a ways to have a chance at finding it." Papa nods profusely. "I'm not a whaler, so I never go out that far." He sounds envious.
"Do you want to be a whaler?"
"Heavens no, but I do want to see what fish are out that far from the islands, this is about as far as we can safely go out."
"That's not very far." I can still see the islands.
"I know, and even from here-" An enormous fish erupts from the water out in the distance. "-you can see the bigger fishes that could swallow us, boat included, whole."
The sharks around us dart in the direction of the fish. "Think they're hungry?" I ask as a shark speeds past the boat at inhuman speeds.
"Keep an eye over there, we might be able to scavenge what's left." Papa says, looking at where the fish breached the water with renewed interest.
"Yes papa!" I nod furiously.
Something tugs at the net. "Haul it in!"
With our combined effort we haul the net in, a squid thrashes in the midst of fish. "That's rare." Papa notes, examining the squid.
Without being told I start putting the fish away, they're slippery but no match for me!
Papa puts the squid in it's own container, don't want it eating the other fish before we get the chance to. "Keiki look!" Papa says, pointing in the distance.
A whale breaches the water a distance away. "Beautiful isn't it?"
Quest Updated:
"Papa."
"Yes, Keiki."
"That's the Big One."
"No way, he's never this close to the islands." He means relative, as that whale is still quite a ways away, it doesn't seem all that big honestly.
I've never been more disappointed. "Make way!" The sea otter from before leaps onto the boat.
"Otter-san!" I say excitably.
"Otter-san? I'm Yoritomo of the Otter clan."
"I'm sorry!" He sounded so offended.
"No problem, I am a sea otter after all." Yoritomo shakes the water from his fur. "Just don't mistake me for one of the dumb ones and we'll be fine." He sniffs the air. "Say, this is a fishing boat, right?"
"Are you hungry?" I ask him.
"Famished, it's difficult to get anything with the sharks being aggressive… more aggressive than usual."
"Do you know why that is?" Papa asks.
"Hmm… I'm not sure how much I'm supposed to tell civilians." He rubs his chin.
"My son's in the academy, does that count?" Papa asks. I have my headband.
"Nope." Yoritomo shakes his head. My curiosity is killing me.
Ahhh… I was hoping to keep it a secret! I pull out the headband and flip it over so that the crest rests under my chin. "I'm a Genin of the Hidden Mist." I say with both pride and shame.
Papa is sputtering. "Ah, an official shinobi!" Yoritomo perks up. "But there's a civilian here…. Sooo."
"Would letting you have some fish make you forget about him?"
Speech has leveled to 6. +6 character XP (7/125)
"I could maybe be persuaded to feign ignorance to your father's presence, if he's quiet." Yoritomo bobs his head back and forth, as if it's a hard question for him to answer.
"Papa?" I look at him.
He looks at the headband with distraught. "I knew you would graduate one day and become a shinobi, but not this soon, never this soon." His sigh breaks my heart. "Sure, he can have a few… We're still catching more."
"Now we have a deal!" He looks around. "Where's the fish?"
I open the box closest to me and Yoritomo and he bounds over. "You are now my most favorite person in the whole world." He says, salivating heavily.
Without any prompting he snaps up a fish and practically inhales it. He clicks happily and grabs another. "Okay, what was the question?" Yoritomo asks me in between bites.
I glance at papa for just a moment. "Why are the sharks so aggressive?"
"Reports of a Land Of Lightning staging point for an assault on Water, we're unsure of the target, but your kage isn't taking any chances."
I can hear my father react, but trying to keep silent. "Ah, I see." I nod. The war, that's right… It's hard to think that something like that's going on with how everyone's been so upbeat.
"Yeah, the sharks being so loyal to kirigakure as they are, are being fiercely protective of it, not even us clans are safe." Yoritomo glances over the side and into the water. "Yeah I'm talking about you, so what!?" He yells at the shark, waving a paw angrily.
"Where does your clan live anyways?" I can't stop thinking about it, there aren't any islands close enough for them and not have anyone learn of them… isn't there?
"Clan secret." Yoritomo says seriously. "That hit the spot." He moans, eating another fish.
Papa wants to ask a question, but holds himself back. "About Lightning." I say, getting back on track.
"What about them?" Yoritomo asks. "They have a staging point to attack us, so does Fire, but they're preoccupied with Wind and Earth to bother us as long as we don't bother them."
"Fire's in this as well?!" I ask with eyes wide. Fire is a juggernaut compared to the rest, by far the largest Nation.
"Yes, this is… quite the conflict if I were to say." Yoritomo glances at my father as he says that. "I think that's enough questions, shinobi." He says reaching for another fish. "Mind if I ride back to Kiri with you? I have some business there."
"We're not going back to Kiri yet." Papa interrupts. "We have a quota to fulfill."
"That's fine, I'm not in a rush." Yoritomo curls up into a ball, settles down next to the box of fish and closes his eyes, cutting off any further conversation.
"Those sharks are all sentient." Papa notes, watching a shark swim past. "And we catch them occasionally."
"You catch the dumb ones, the smart ones have training to avoid you altogether." Yoritomo pipes up without opening his eyes.
"I'm not sure that makes me feel any better." He admits. "Keiki, help me with the net."
He probably doesn't need my help, but it's nice to be needed. "Hey Yoritomo-san."
"Snore, snore, snore." His pretending to sleep could use some work.
"Do you know what The Big One is?"
"The Big One, is it a fish?" Yoritomo perks up.
"A whale."
"Pass." He settles back down.
That's a no.
It was a good haul, we make it back to port with a ship full of fish, which is strange given how many sharks there are, there were times where swear they were chasing the fish into the net.
"You have to tell your mother about this when we get back, okay?" Papa says, tapping the headband I have around my neck, no use in hiding it now.
Quest Complete: Quality Time
"How was the trip?" Another of Papa's co workers asks, helping to navigate us back into the dock.
"Lots of sharks, you can't turn your head without seeing at least seven." Papa groans. Without warning Yoritomo hops off the ship and into the water, vanishing beneath the surface.
"A sea otter?"
"Yeah, he hopped aboard while we were fishing, trying to avoid the sharks." Papa shrugs. "Didn't see the harm in letting him stay."
"Did the sharks give you any trouble?"
"We caught one accidentally, but let it go." I pipe up. "And we got a squid!" I smile.
"Say, isn't that a shinobi headband?" Papa's co worker squints at me.
"Y-yes." I say, grabbing it.
"Fresh out of the academy?" He asks, his voice shaking.
The only response I can muster is a nod.
"Lucky boy." He says, a tear forming in his eye. "Lucky boy."
I continue nodding, I understand what he's talking about. "What's he talking about?" Papa asks, worried.
"You live in the outskirts, right?" He helps us out of our boat.
"Yes."
"The Examination is a slaughter, those who survive become genin." My papa's eyes go wide.
"Keiki, is… is this true?"
"Yes Papa." I hold my hands up, flaming. "I survived, and I killed." Tears threaten to overflow with a few sneaking out.
Instead of saying anything Papa hugs me tightly. "That's why you were… My word."
"Your son is lucky, mine had his chest blown out."
It was an…. Interesting time back at home. Mama was distraught with the news, saying that the Mizukage was going to send me out to get me killed, lots of blame placing but eventually Papa got her to calm down… somewhat.
They were mad that I hid the truth, but I hope that deep down they understand why.
The teams are finally being announced. Everyone who survived the graduation exam have been called to be assigned their teams.
I wish Goro were here, he's the only one to truly understand me and my struggle. Zabuza-san is patiently waiting off to the side, watching the rest of us with interest. No doubt he's contemplating who his teammates are going to be.
The last shinobi closes the door behind her. "We're all here." the Headmaster says, taking a mental count. "There are more of you than usual, but that's good." He nods to himself. "More bodies for the war, the shinobi out there will be glad to know that helps coming."
All of those kids. I take a deep breath, I can't see Mei-chan in the crowd… Is she looking for me?
"There's enough of you left for nine teams." Thirty Seven out of a hundred. "Let's not waste any more time, there are a lot of names to go through."
He looks down at the list. "Team One lead by Ogai Tabuchi; Junichi Arai-" Of course he survived, he's the prodigy after all. "Yoshinobu Tsujimoto, and Hiroe Tsukioka. You will be meeting at Training Ground One tomorrow at six AM sharp, dismissed you three."
Three students leave, unconsciously I look for Junichi, he's walking away with a smirk painted on his face… the jerk. "Team Two lead by Katsura Narumi; Yamakage Sadao, Hoshiko Sawamatsu, and Mei Terumi, You'll be meeting at meeting ground two, six AM sharp, dismissed you three."
My head spins around, trying to spot Mei-chan as she leaves. Her arm is completely covered in bandages, was that from graduation?
"Team Three lead by Goro Shoda." My head snaps around with eyes wide, why is he getting a team now of all times? "Yushiro Hideyoshi, un Nagashima, and Minoru Okanaya, Training ground three, same time as the others, dismissed."
I let out a sigh of relief, I don't want to be on his team, it would be very awkward… would he embarrass me in front of my teammates? I shutter at the thought.
"Team Four lead by Koi Serizawa; Satu Matsuo, Keiki Sekine, and-" I stopped listening.
It was easy to pretend to not to be part all this, but it was bound to catch up sooner or later. With a sigh I turn my attention back to the names being called, who's my last teammate? "Team Seven, lead by-"
Holy I spaced for a long time! I hurry out of the room, face red. Where are we supposed to meet and when? It is the same with the rest?
I hope.
Authors Notes: Finally it's over with! Keiki is no longer an academy student and is a full fledged Genin with a team of his own! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you guys ate as well as I did XD Anyways, thank you for reading this and the previous bits, I hope you enjoyed!