Chapter 18
When Haku and Raito finally got to the village about a week later, Shibuki was already waiting for them outside. He embraced Raito, who didn't return the hug, and then left an arm around her shoulder while he turned to address Haku. The shinobi schooled his face into politeness, having already been made aware by the kuinichi that she did not, in fact, like Shibuki. In the slightest
The only reason she put up with it was because she didn't want to hurt the leader's feelings (which led Haku to believe that she might be lying about not liking him) and because he was dying for his village, which both of them fully respected. He still felt kind of bad about not knowing about the rogue nins coming back to reclaim the village and not having been able to make it so Shibuki didn't have to drink the Hero's water.
"It took you guys a while to get here, but now that you're here you can start the mission," Shibuki said with some relief in his tone. "I'll explain when we get inside," he said, and looked around before diving into the water.
Raito and Haku followed him through the underground caverns. They emerged to the village that wasn't that familiar. Raito wrung out her hair and clothes as best as she could, not that it really helped. Haku and Shibuki had kept the water off of them with a simple jutsu, but Raito wasn't capable of that and had gotten soaked. Shibuki took advantage of the fact Raito's clothes now stuck closely to her skin for a few seconds before turning his attention back to the reason he had brought them here. He gestured to a building behind him.
"This is the new Academy," he said. "And I want you two to teach here, at least until I can find some suitable teachers."
Raito and Haku looked at each other. "You do realize that we can't reveal any secret techniques, right?" Haku asked.
Shibuki nodded. "I know, it's just that since the attack, I've realized if something like that were to happen again, we would be in some serious trouble, and it's not going to be for very long. I just need to find some teachers that I can trust."
"Shibuki, you do realize that I have the patience of... a five year old kid. There is no way I'll manage to teach anyone anything useful without giving them brain damage from smacking them upside the head first," Raito explained.
Her more patient counterpart nodded. "Raito's more likely to snip all the wires in a bomb than to figure them all out because it would take too long."
"Please? I don't have anyone else to ask yet, you guys are the only ones in the village that know anything about fighting," Shibuki begged. "Besides myself, but I have other things that I have to do."
"Fine, but on one condition. If you tell anyone about this, we will be forced to draw support from your village," Raito replied. The only reason she was doing this was because Shibuki soon wouldn't be able to defend the village, and they needed more capable ninja.
Shibuki smiled and nodded, sticking his hand out. "Deal."
Haku smiled as well, and shook his hand. "We will have to leave after a month, but until then, we'll help you."
"Good. I have three students that are ready to learn right now," Shibuki said proudly. Haku didn't have the heart to tell him that normally there were enough students to fill up an entire academy.
"Just... one thing," Raito said. "You can't interfere with our teaching methods, ok?"
"Consider it done! Nori, Shichiro, Ayane! These are your senseis, Haku and Raito."
The three students, two boys and a girl, bowed formally to the feminine boy and soaking girl.
"So you're real ninja?" Nori asked skeptically. "You don't look like it."
The twelve year old wasn't buying it, he had always pictured ninja as decked out with plenty of armor and strong looking. Also, he didn't like that a girl was teaching him, much less that she was only four years older than him.
Raito smacked him upside the head. "We're doing you a favor by doing this for you."
Nori rubbed his head and glared at her. "I was just saying..."
"I told you girls could be ninja," Ayane told Nori smugly. "So, what are we going to do first? Are you going to teach us how to use nunchucks? Or maybe a really cool jutsu that can blast fire and toast our enemies!" she said emphatically.
"I just wanted to be a medical nin..." the other boy, Shichiro, said quietly. "So I could heal people..."
"Haku, get them started on basic kunai exercises while I get into dry clothes," Raito told him. "Just to see where they're at. I shouldn't be long."
"Can't you just use a jutsu for that?" Nori asked her, like she was stupid. It was too late though, she had already left. Haku looked at the students. Shichiro, a boy with brown hair and blue eyes wearing a hoodie that was too big as well as baggie jeans and normal shoes, looked nervous. Nori, with black hair and green eyes, looked ready to question Haku's authority at the next opportunity, and Ayane, who had deep purple hair and teal eyes that were so dark they were almost green, looked eager.
"Do any of you have your own kunai?" Haku asked.
Ayane pulled out five of them from her pocket, but Nori and Shichiro both shook their heads no. Haku couldn't say he was terribly surprised. He handed five each to both Nori and Shichiro. "I want you to try and hit that tree over there," he said, pointing to a tree that was about five feet away. He would back them up until eventually they started really missing.
He put his hands in his pockets and waited for the students to start throwing. Shichiro hesitated, while Ayane threw her first kunai. It missed entirely. Nori smirked at her, but he missed as well, though he wasn't as off. His expression darkened, and he threw another one, which grazed it but didn't stick. The last one he threw did though.
"Hah! I'd like to see you do as good as that, Ayane!" he bragged.
Her next one stuck, but the last one missed entirely. She went to pick them up, but Haku put his hand in front of her. "You have to wait until everyone has stopped," he told her.
She frowned, and crossed her arms over her chest, but didn't protest. "Well hurry up then," she said impatiently.
Shichiro's hands shook, but he hit the tree with two of his kunai.
"Not bad," Raito said. She had managed to sneak up on her students, which wasn't hard, and they all jumped before turning around to see her standing next to Haku. "For your first time doing this, that is. I guess we'll work on this first, as there's no way we'll be able to help you with chakra control until you can control your physical body."
Ayane looked disappointed, but didn't protest it. Nori, on the other hand, felt differently. "I want to learn some jutsu, knife throwing is easy and every ninja can do it."
"You hit one, barely, of three hits. You're hardly in a position to talk," Raito told him.
"Yeah, but if you know enough jutsu, then you don't have to worry about it," Ayane argued.
"And if you run out of chakra?" Raito asked her.
"You hit them with your most powerful attack first, duh," Ayane replied.
"Then the ninja that you didn't see comes out of hiding and kills you. Good plan," Raito said sarcastically.
"They have chakra detecting jutsus," Ayane mumbled, now seeing the flaw in her plan.
"General rule if you're going into a fight, always have a backup plan. There's always a chance something will go wrong, and you need to be prepared for that," Haku said. "Now adjust your grip like this..."
Haku helped Nori quickly while Raito adjusted Shichiro's grip. Ayane watched the way Nori was holding it now, and tried to figure it out on her own. Haku helped her as well, and both Haku and Raito gave them helpful suggestions to better their aim. By the time they broke for lunch, each of the ninja in training were able to hit the tree at the five foot mark at least two out of every three shots.
Shichiro lingered behind to help Raito and Haku pick up the fallen kunai.
"Do you think you might be able to teach me some medical techniques?" he asked somewhat nervously.
"Sure," Haku agreed. "I'm not going to teach you anything about medical jutsu or anything like that, but I can teach you normal medicine. One question first though, can you handle seeing a lot of blood?"
"I think so..."
"Does this bother you?" Raito asked. A mixture very similar to blood was running down her arm, and the front of her shirt was almost completely soaked. It looked like her neck had been slashed open, though that was just the product of makeup that was kept in one of her multiple pockets.
Shichiro looked a little pale. "I-I... I think I can handle seeing that," he said breathlessly.
"Good. Then I want you to bandage this."
She drew a kunai across her forearm very lightly, raising little red dots of blood. Shichiro swallowed, and patted his pockets for bandages. Haku handed him some, and with a shaky hand he wound the material around her arm.
"T-there," he said when he finished, and looked like he was about to pass out.
"Chill out, it's fake blood," she told him. "I'm not really hurt, except for my arm, but that'll heal in no time."
"You did well," Haku told him. "Seeing someone you know covered in blood can be scary, just pretend that it's fake."
Shichiro nodded, never taking his eyes off of Raito's neck. She laughed a little. "I think we've traumatized the poor kid. If it really bothers you that much, I'll show you that it's fake."
She pulled a small towel out of her pocket and rubbed some of the "blood" off, smearing the makeup a little as well. She dipped the towel in the water in the lake, and then rubbed the rest of it off. "See?"
Shichiro relaxed a little, but still looked kind of shaken. He nodded. "I know it's fake, it's just..."
"Kid, go get some lunch," Raito ordered, and he left as quickly as he was able.
"Did you really have to do that?" Haku asked once their student was out of earshot.
Raito shrugged. "It worked, didn't it? Besides, he wants to be a ninja, a medic nin no less. He's going to see blood."
Haku shook his head. "We could have gone a little bit easier on the poor guy..."
"You're forgetting who you're talking to," Raito interrupted.
"Point," Haku conceded. "I almost feel bad for the poor kids... sticking them with you," he teased. "We should go get some lunch, though, and you need to change your shirt. We've scared the kids enough for today."
"Are you kidding? I'm just getting started."