Episode 20: The Hidden Leaf

Team Rinji and Team Tatsuzo were walking through the Leaf.

"Everyone, you can split up, if you'd like." Said Tatsuzo. "But we all need to meet back up at the same place. We'll meet at that building-" He pointed to the Hokage's mansion. "At nine."

Everyone darted off.

Yoichi jumped off of a building, looking around. This place is strange. They don't have a maze or anything. How are they Hidden in Leaves? Sure there's a forest around the village, but there's a pathway right of the village! He jumped onto the ground. "What a strange place. Right, Ryu?" Ryu made a quiet noise, and nodded his head.

Yoichi started walking, and he heard a loud dog bark. Then he heard someone yell, "Akamaru! No!"

Yoichi turned around, just in time to see a giant white dog tackle him.

Yoichi fell on his back, the giant dog right on him. The dog's front paws were on Yoichi's shoulders, so he couldn't move his arms. The dog opened it's mouth, and Yoichi flinched, thinking it was going to bite him. Instead, the dog licked his face several times.

Yoichi laughed, and pushed the dog backwards- with the help of a kid in black. The kid had brown hair, and red claw like tattoos under each of his eyes. He was wearing a black zip up jacket and pants. He also had black sandals. He had a leaf headband.

"Sorry about that..." He said.

A girl and another guy ran up. The girl had lavender and cream colored hoodie, with lavender cuffs. She also was wearing navy blue pants. She had long blue hair, and white eyes. She was wearing her leaf headband as a choker.

The guy was wearing a line green jacket, with his hood up. His collar was high, hiding his face. He was running with his hands in his pockets. He had black sunglasses on. He had his leaf headband on, slightly hidden by his hood.

"We're very sorry for this..." The girl bowed a bit. They all seemed to be about sixteen.

"Don't bow to me." Said Yoichi. "And I'm fine. There's no need to be sorry, I love animals."

"Where are you from? Your headband says steel..." The kid in black said. "Oh right. I'm Kiba. My dog's Akamaru. This is Hinata." The girl smiled. "And Shino." A few insects flew around his head.

"I'm Yoichi Tahara, from the Village Hidden in the Steel! And this is Ryu!" He gestured to the monkey, who nodded to them.

"I've heard of that place." Said Hinata. "That's where Kenpachi resides..."

"My Sensei trained with the current Kenpachi. It was very interesting."

"That's a pretty interesting ninja partner, you've got there." Kiba said.

Yoichi nodded. "Is that dog a ninja partner, too?"

Kiba nodded. "Yeah! Though, I've never seen him jump on someone like that."

Ryu climbed down Yoichi's arm, and then swung off of his fingers and he landed on Akamaru's nose.

Akamaru looked at him, and then Ryu jumped onto his head.

"Ryu sort of does his own thing. He's pretty strange, but I guess he's alright."

Ryu stuck his tongue out at him.

"Why are you here?" Asked Shino. "The Steel has no ally with the Leaf."

"I have my papers. I'm allowed to be here. I'm here to explore the Leaf. I'm going to take the Chunin Exams in a month." Yoichi reached into his pocket, and he pulled out a crumbled form that said he was allowed to be there.

Kiba nodded. "I see..."

"Well, see ya!" Yoichi turned to walk away, and Ryu climbed up his pant leg, onto his arm and then back up onto his shoulder.

Daichi was walking around the Leaf. He came across a ninja. He walked up to him. The ninja had white hair, a sideways headband, a blue mask covering his mouth and nose, and the rest of his ninja gear was the basic Leaf gear. He was walking next to a short pink haired girl wearing red.

"Can I help you?" Asked the old ninja.

"Yeah. I want to know how you protect your village without a maze surrounding your village."

"Well, that's top secret information." Said the ninja.

"Hey, you're from the Village Hidden the Steel?" Asked the girl. "Why are you here?"

"Yeah, I'm from the Steel. And I'm here to look around the Leaf. I'm taking the Chunin Exams in a month."

The girl nodded. "I see... Say... Kakashi-sensei! Naruto's still a Genin, right?"

"Yeah." Said Kakashi.

Kiyomi was looking at the Hokage Stone Faces. Why don't we have a monument like this in the Steel? It could be that we've only had one Kinkage... She thought. She walked away.

Yozo was darting through the Leaf. He loved all the bright colors, and all the people. It inspired him to write. So he fell down out of the air, and he landed on a bench. He pulled out a small notebook, and he quickly wrote down all of his ideas.

Hiro was eating ramen in the local ramen shop. "We don't have this kind of stuff at the Steel! What do you call this again?"

"It's called ramen." the owner laughed. "You could take some home with you, if you want."

Hiro grinned. "Thanks!"

Kiku walked up to Yozo, and sat down next to him as he was writing his ideas down.

"Hey, Yozo."

"What's up, Kiku?"

"I already saw everything there is to see. This place is pretty boring."

"BORING?" Cried a voice. Kiku looked up, to see a man wearing green, and he had orange leg warmers. He jumped down to their level. "How about we spice things up with a sparing match, then?" He cried.

"I'd like to hear your name before I fight you."

"I am Rock Lee!"

"Kiku Ishikawa."

Kiku stood up, and then took a few steps backwards.

They struck their stances.*

"I will not go all out, being as you are only twelve!" Lee said.

"That's a mistake." Said Kiku.

Lee punched at her, but she dodged to the right, and punched him in the shoulder. He spun around and kicked her in the side.

She grimaced, and then grabbed his leg, and tried to swing him around but Lee was a lot heavier then he looked.

She threw him backwards, and punched at him. He dodged it easily, and punched her lightly in the shoulder, and then punched her in the stomach, again- very lightly. He was seriously trying to hurt her. Kiku kicked up into Lee's jaw.

"That was a solid kick!" Lee said.

Kiku jumped backwards.

Lee grinned. "This sparing match, is over!" He cried.

"It's not over! You can't just quit like that!" Kiku growled.

"No, I'm not quitting. You beat me. You hit me in the jaw. But I could have got you if I wanted to." Lee then darted off.

Rinji and Tatsuzo were walking through the Leaf. "It hasn't changed much sense our last visit." Said Rinji.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. The only thing different is that we don't have Kenpachi with us."

"You want to grab a bite to eat?"

Tatsuzo shrugged. "Sure."

The two went to the ramen shop, seeing Hiro walking out.

Hiro had a bag with him. He grinned at them as they walked passed him.

Tatsuzo and Rinji both ordered some ramen.

"So, your squad's doing good?" Rinji asked.

"Yeah. I think they're on pare with your squad. If not better."

Rinji laughed. "It's been a while sense we could talk like this. We should hang out more often. Maybe we could get one of the other Jonin in on this too."

"Like Kenpachi?"

"Maybe. I was actually thinking of meeting someone new, and seeing what's up with them."

The group had to meet back up, and they all showed up at the Hokage's mansion.

"Did you enjoy the Hidden Leaf?" Asked Tatsuzo.

"I did." Yozo said. "I got inspired to write more manga."

"Of course you did. Everything inspires you." Rinji told him.

"It was alright, I guess." Kiku yawned.

"I got attacked by a dog." Yoichi said.

Everyone looked at him.

He smiled. "Just kidding. He didn't attack me, but he did tackle me and lick my face."

"I thought that it was alright." Daichi told them.

"It was decent. Not as good as home though. But they do have some pretty good food." Hiro explained.

Kiyomi shrugged. "We should totally get a cool monument like they have for all the Kinkages of the Leaf."

"Their called Hokages when it's Leaf." Tatsuzo corrected.

"We'd better go back to the village before we're missed." Said Rinji.

Everyone agreed.

Kenpachi was lying on his bed.

"Kenny, it's getting really boring lately! We need to do something!"

"I'll try to get us a mission tomorrow." He told her.

"But I wanna see a fight now!" The short girl wouldn't budge.

"Tough. I can't just suddenly start a fight with someone. That would be childish."

"You would have if it was two years ago." Yachiru pouted.

"Two years ago was different. I had a mission to take those guys out. Yachiru, we'll get a mission tomorrow. And that's final." He closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

Notes: *I don't think Lee would actually do this, but I wanted something in the episode that'd spice things up a little bit and not make it really boring. And I had half the episode left anyway, so I needed something time consuming.

I realized while writing this episode, I neglected to mention their headbands. Everyone wears headbands aside from anyone from Squad Eleven. Rinji and Tatsuzo wear headbands now. And on their headbands is 金属, and according to google translate, means steel.

Also, I'm going to take a break from his story for about a week. After that, I'm going to start posting episodes bi-weekly. But not like every Monday and Thursday. It'll still be weird days, but it'll be twice a week.