XDDD I apologize. I chose to upload this, because A, it was getting a little long XD ( though I tend to make my chapters waay to short XDD) so this may be a welcome change. And B, it's 12:14 AM and somehow, to my sleep deproved brain, it seems like a good idea XDD It probbaly stinks, and I'd be too tired to tell XDDD
Anyways! Thank you so much to the people who reviewed this! youmake me so happy! -hugs you all-
er, chapter four XD anyways:
Naruto: Masashi Kishimoto
The jonin nonchalantly led the small, still-dazed children down a long stone corridor, off from where they had been assembled previously. They followed him to another room, which, though far from one end to the other, was narrow, and had a much lower ceiling. There were thin sleeping mats laid out along the wall, a sheet thrown over each. They were set in groups of two, about three feet away from each other, and a much larger distance from the next group.
The jonin went through the list again, assigning each team a set of mats. Zabuza immediately plunked down on the one on the left, when theirs were assigned, crossing his arm, and again, turning his back to his partner, trying to ignore the stinging in his lip.
"So," He turned, hearing a cheery voice from directly behind him. "How did you get here?" Zabuza blinked at the other, who was sitting cross legged, holding on to her feet, rocking back and forth happily, despite the obvious patch of skin around her eye, in the midst of turning to several deep shades of blue, black and purple.
"I just punched you in the face, remember? I don't like you. Why are you still talking to me?"
"You're my partner!" She giggled. "Who else would I talk to?"
"You could always just stop talking."
She frowned, sulkily."You're awfully grumpy, Zabu kun."
"Zabu kun?" The boy blinked at her incredulously.
"But yeah!" She replied distractedly, partially cutting him off. "Tell me about yourself, what were you doing before this?"
"I...No." He shook his head. "You first."
"Okay!" She tossed her head a little, pigtails swinging, "umm... well, as for how I got here... I took some food... from this store, two days ago." Zabuza nodded, undisturbed by the admission. It only took a quick look to see that, like himself, she had definitely spent the last while on her own: Her hair was messy, her clothes dirty and ragged, and her bare feet cut and bruised from walking on rough road an stone. Homeless children, wandering the streets of Mizugakure was such a painfully common sight that they were all but ignored completely. A little girl stealing a meal would have seemed commonplace.
"The shopkeeper caught me. Gave me to one of them." She said, motioning towards the jonin still assigning sleeping places.
"What happened to your parents?"
"Oh..." Kotone smiled weakly. "Mom died having me. I think... I think Dad may have been mad at me for that. Dad was a ninja. He was away a lot... I never really saw him much. He died on a mission a month and a bit ago." She paused, the silence between them filled by the low murmur of the other pairs. "What about you?"
Zabuza shook his head again, hugging his legs to his chest. "Please... Don't ask me that."
"Why not?"
"I don't...I don't want to say..." His voice had gotten small, shaky. He buried his face in his knees, waiting tensely for her to ask again, but the question never came. Instead, he felt a warm hand set lightly on his shoulder, and in a second, small, gentle arms wrap around him. He looked up, startled, and pulling away from his partner's small embrace, pushing her over in the process. "Wh-What are you doing?!" He stammered warily, wide eyed.
"You don't have to take a fit!" She frowned. "I was just trying to make you feel better!"
He opened his mouth uncertainly, before seemingly finding his confidence and speaking, annoyed. "Well...Don't!" He sat up a little taller. "I-I don't need you looking after me. Yuck. You're such a girl!"
"Fine! Be that way, see if I care!" Kotone got to her feet, and returned over to her own mat, and would have continued shouting had the jonin not started talking again.
"Alright." His voice echoed, and carried to the very back of the room. "Get some rest. Tomorrow your training starts for real. Also... ew. We'll see about getting you some clean clothing." With the last bit, he grimaced, looking at the dishevelled children with no small amount of disgust. With that, he turned and left, flicking off the lights, and locking the door behind him, leaving the children in a cold sleepy darkness.
Kotone settled herself under her blanket, hearing her partner do the same. "Hey," She said quietly, after several long moments of silence. "Are you scared?"
There was another long pause, before she heard an answer. "No." The fact that she was still asking him things astounded him. Either she was mentally incapable of staying angry, or had the shortest attention span known to mankind.
"Why not?"
"Because whatever it turns out to be, I can be pretty sure that being in here is better than dying out there."
Kotone nodded, holding the thin pillow that she'd found under her blanket close to her. "Goodnight, Zabuza kun." There was no reply, and Kotone frowned, grumbling to herself until she drifted off to sleep.
------
The next morning, they were awakened at the ungodly hour of five am, by another jonin who neglected to introduce himself. They were given clean clothes, shoes, were fed, and then asked to run what at the time, seemed like a ridiculously large distance.
Most of the pairs had gotten set into a certain pace, and were conversing lightly. It had been the same at breakfast, as the new Academy students tried to become better acquainted with their new partners. Save of course, Zabuza. Who had ignored her completely.
Even now, he kept his pace a tiny bit ahead of her own, which she found she couldn't match, and neither turned to look behind himself or slowed down. At lunch, again, he refused to acknowledge anything she'd said. The situation continued through their first lesson in shurikenjutsu, and their class time, in which they were taught the basic idea of chakra, and all the time in between.
They were given a chance to bath before lights out- Kotone had forgotten how wonderful it felt to be clean. Compared to the males, there were very few girls training along side her. Only one looked remotely friendly, a girl a few years older than herself, with shoulder length black hair. Kotone had begun to say something to her, but the Kunoichi on duty supervising the girls's showers gave her a sharp look which silenced her instantly.
Again, at bedtime, she gave her partner the same cheery goodnight, which he again ignored. This repeated itself for the next few weeks,( with the exception of the time before breakfast, which became basic taijutsu training) her partner never growing any more fond of her. She had realised fairly quickly that he had been angry since she had tried to comfort him that first night, but couldn't begin to imagine why.
It was almost two months into their training that the activities began to vary. Another unidentified jonin led them down to the water's edge, and giving a lengthy speech, about how seriously their swimming classes should be taken. "Now then..." He nodded gravely, "as mist nin, there are certain skills that are especially important for us to lean, and, you'll find that I have to bend the normal rules for this activity, but I can see no better way to stress the skills I want you all to improve." He pulled a simple piece of cloth from his pocket, smiling in a way that made them all uneasy. "Who wants to be it?"
- - - -
Kotone gritted her teeth, as the hand she had swung connected with nothing but the cold water that reached her chest. She opened her eyes instinctively, but could only see the yellow tinged light filtered through the cloth being used as a blindfold. "You rely to heavily on your eyes." She heard the jonin call disapprovingly from the shore. "Forget them, they're useless right now. Feel the waves where they're moving, listen for them! They couldn't make more noise if they tried..." The last bit he had simply muttered to himself, agitated.
It had seemed simple, at first. Put on the blindfold, and catch someone else that was swimming around. Easier said than done. She stopped, trying to pay more attention to her ears, instead of focussing on trying to squint through the fabric.
She heard the telltale splash of a wave against something, and dove for it, giving a happy little cry when her hand closed around someone's forearm, their skin cool from the water. She yanked off the blindfold to find, that out of all the other children, it was Zabuza she had caught. He pulled his forearm free, scowling at her. "I let you catch me." He grumbled, taking the blindfold from her, and securing it over his own eyes. "I couldn't stand to watch you flailing around like an idiot any longer."
Kotone's face fell momentarily, before she made a tiny irritated noise, turning away from him. "Auuugh! You are such a creep!"
The game continued in the same way for another long while, and then switched to basic swimming stroke drills, before the jonin decided that it was enough. As the children started back to the academy to change into some dry clothes for the rest of their day, he stopped them, informing them that there would be a change of plans the next day. "Tomorrow, we'll be going over outdoor survival. So, we'll spend most of the day hiking. It may be a little more... difficult than you're all used to."
'A little more difficult' was not the term Kotone would have used.
XD thank you all so much for reading this! Please review, and have a nice day:3