AN
AHA! This still counts as double posting since it wasn't uploaded on a Saturday!
WARNINGS:...couldn't think of anything so maybe some Language but you guys are used to that. Maybe language, grammar and bad writing? I'm trying to adjust to the whole POV switch thingies so please bare with me. Any tips on writing easily determinable character speech despite the POV thing is much appreciated since this POV is much more fun to do in the time being. Anyway, enjoy!
Tokina's life was often just a hazy blur to her. One minute, she was fending off bullies from the playground, the other she was being tortured for information in Kiri. Now? She can finally take it slow by doing menial labor. Sometimes details were blurry, and that she found herself in a room where she didn't know what she was doing.
And cringing whenever she remembered "You guys are acting like civilians" incident since it was so try hard of her but she's trying to forget.
Like most of her memories but she tried not thinking about that.
Oh, and sometimes a literal blur when Obito and Kakashi decide to fight and all that. They were getting faster and faster, which is good in her eyes. Only marks of improvement.
She sometimes stopped them and sometimes she didn't bother. She wasn't their mother, she was their teammate and she will act like one.
It's not like diplomacy ever worked before, anyway.
This is...training. Besides, it was kind of fun watching the two boys duke it out. Kakashi always won those fights, sadly. It was painfully obvious that Obito was out classed in every way. It wasn't his fault. The Uchiha's "Branch" family is more lenient than the Hyūga which required training when we could walk and forcing the Byakugan to activate and manifest when we could hold a kunai. Kakashi was just plain determined from the looks of it. She didn't know his training regimen exactly but she was sure it was pretty intense if he managed to graduate early without a clan training.
Kakashi has to bring his formerly prestigious clan honor somehow.
She leaned to the right, casually dodging a fireball as she continued reading a book about the human anatomy for…reference.
"Where's the famed Uchiha precision?" Kakashi challenged with a sneer and crossed arms, jumping to the left when a haphazardly thrown kunai went his way.
"Sh-shut up!" Obito stomped, preparing to cast another fireball that would inevitably miss.
And this is the reason why Obito should be late most of the time. When he was, they would fight but sensei was here to save the day. When he was early, they would duel to the death like it's the last time they'll see each other.
It didn't help that Minato still expected her to try and calm the unstoppable force and the immovable object on her own. She often had to resort to a genjutsu where both parties won so that they would shut up about it. She's been doing this for weeks and they still haven't noticed. Minato often came to a tired boys and an exasperated girl most of the time but he wasn't complaining. They didn't need to stretch when he arrived.
"What the shit! That was a tree!"
That being said, the girl couldn't help but flinch when she heard a shriek and a subsequent crash. She raised her head from her book and expected the damage.
The image of Obito standing in front of really big trees, a little bit scared but mostly just irritated filled her vision. Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly and replied with a curt "I've been exercising."
This was usually where she would place them in a genjutsu.
"I'll show you exercising!" Obito yelled, charging up a very anime-like punch.
Tokina closed her book and repressed a groan, trying her best not to mutter. She was working on keeping her crazy under wraps and it was really hard without a licensed therapist but she manages somehow.
She summoned a single butterfly to help her with this one. The Hyūga girl was trying her best to not rely on her butterfly summons to help her concentrate since she knew that there will be a time where Akinosuke would somehow double cross her.
Safe to say, she had major trust issues.
Before the punch would land, the boys instantly froze as Tokina clapped and imagined a scenario where everybody wins.
It lasted for three minutes until she felt someone pat her head with a little bit of weight. She didn't have her Byakugan activated but she could make a few educational guesses on who it was. It still surprised her, though. She tried to grasp the genjutsu but it ultimately failed. The genjutsu ended at the climax of the fight, where both of them were giving their all.
"No wonder they usually seem happy and content when I arrive." The blonde teen accusingly poked her cheek with a smirk. Minato saw how her face blushed with something akin to shame. It was kind of cute, Minato thought, that someone as blasé as Tokina would let herself lose her cool.
The teacher thought he was making leaps of progress on her psyche.
Maybe the ramen actually did help, Minato thought.
"And here I was going to ask you to help the boys in team work." Minato shook his head, ignoring the strange glint in her passive eyes. "Maybe making yourself as a target and forcing them into a genjutsu or something? But I think I should reserve that lesson for another day, huh?"
The blonde ruffled the girl's hair (ruining her bun) as she dipped her head with a low "Oh…"
Minato watched, continuing to poke and probe Tokina's really soft hair (he was going to ask her what shampoo she uses for a future gift to Kushina later) while watching the boys blink at each other and regain their bearings.
Minato's amused smile went even wider as he saw his calm student look absolutely sheepish. She was quiet, polite and professional most of the times so seeing her like this was absolutely adorable.
It was like seeing Kakashi be grateful.
And that only happens once in a blue moon.
Worried that this might be a rare occasion as well, he tried to embed the memory of the cool girl blushing. If only he had a camera but those were really expensive. That reminded him to arrange an appointment at the village photographer for a team picture.
She stood up, Minato's hand still on her head. "I can explain." She waved fervently.
Kakashi crossed his arms while sneering at the audacious girl while Obito raised an unbelieving and absolutely betrayed eyebrow. Minato, the sadist, seemed to be reviling on Tokina's awkwardness like any other dad.
"Well, explain!" Obito, who looked hurt, huffed. Well, who wouldn't be hurt at the prospect of your best friend making an intricate lie to make you feel better, as if they thought you couldn't fight your own battles? It was dishonorable.
"Ah, you see," Tokina bit her nail, looking shifty eyed and embarrassed. Minato widened his eyes when he caught her biting her thumb while she was seemingly biting her nails. Obito waited for his much deserved explanation while Kakashi looked intrigued at his sensei's reaction. He followed his sensei's eyes to Tokina…biting her nails to bleed!
Kakashi threw a kunai from his pouch
Too late,
The girl disappeared in a flurry of butterflies before Kakashi's kunai landed.
The three boys stood there, baffled at the normally laid-back girl's almost whimsical approach to escape an awkward situation.
Minato decided to make the most of it since he was supposed to address the elephant in the room, Kakashi and Obito absolutely loathing each other.
"Okay, so this will be a great chance in training you guys in the art of tracking!" Minato clapped his hands, a habit he has developed when he wanted to gain the attention of his students. He inwardly thanked Tokina's sacrifice when he was the two boys nodding dutifully together to defeat the same enemy. "I'll give you the one-o'-ones in tracking while we find Tokina. Let's move out."
"Yes, sensei!" They said in unison. Unison!
Minato couldn't be any more proud of them.
Obito was in the verge of crying.
He was scared, separated and anxious. The Uchiha boy didn't think his friend could be this cruel. The ninja world didn't leave prisoners unless ordered to. They were cunning, ruthless and you needed to be as cunning and even more ruthless to survive. He knew that Tokina was really good in genjutsu, and apparently, he's been in the receiving end of the stick for a week so that has to say something about her genjutsu skills.
He knew what it looked like when someone was trapped in a genjutsu. It just looked like they were playing charades or just standing there, looking dumb as Tokina ran around and did some cool shit that involved medical-ninjutsu, Jyūken and a lot of snakes.
He didn't know what it was like to experience the pure, psychological torture aspect of genjutsu.
"Obito! I told you to wash the dishes!" Rin's normally melodious voice was substituted by her demonic counterpart…
…Rinnagger, her motherly, annoying and absolutely terrifying alter-ego whenever she sees a dirty spot or when he's late.
He ran through the forest, closing his eyes and covering his ears to stop the voices in his head while he unknowingly shouted "I am Rin! I am!".
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in Tokina's house, his hands wet with soapy water, his left holding a sponge and the right holding a plate that looked clean to him.
It felt so…real.
"Obito! Stop daydreaming and clean those plates!" Rinnager shouted directly into his ear, her eyes that reminded him of sweet milk chocolate now brought him nothing but fear.
"Y-Yes, Rin!" He rushed out, focusing on cleaning the already clean plate. When he deemed in worthy, he set it aside and wiped a sweat off his forehead. He turned to his left to find a tower of dirty dishes. He heard Rin's incessant tapping, threatening to scold him once more.
He carefully tried getting a dish from the middle. Obito yelped as his actions caused the tower of precious porcelain to begin leaning and tilting, as if it was challenging Obit to stop it from falling. He tried holding the dirty dishes steady but when the top collapsed, everything followed. He closed his eyes and cringed at every resounding crack of the plates.
NaggyRin looked absolutely livid.
"You know what the dishes falling reminds me of? You're GrAdeS!"
He didn't know what compelled him. He just wanted to get out of this…this…hell he was in. Obito got a kunai from his kunai holster and made a shallow cut on his finger, wincing at the sharp pain that me put himself through. He didn't know how to release so this was the next best thing.
The genjutsu brok…untangled in front of him.
With a bleeding finger and a resigned look, he wanted nothing more than to hurt Tokina really bad.
"Minato-kun, where the hell are you?!"
Minato shook his head and released it in a cold sweat.
Minato thanked the girl for the easy lesson, unifying the two to find a common goal and throwing in a "Do's and Don'ts" in breaking a genjutsu. The genjutsu itself was easy to break once you know you were actually in one. What was hard is trying to remember what you were doing before the genjutsu.
And the genjutsu was irritating at best.
He knew Tokina could whip out scarier genjutsu. Hiding behind that polite yet blasé demeanor she put up was an intelligent, imaginative and a very manipulative girl that didn't have enough time to let some of the same whimsy she recently demonstrated out because of her…experiences. He still hasn't managed to find her mission report legally, of course, and he couldn't blame her for being soft-spoken with what he thinks she's gone through but every child should have a right to childhood.
His childhood just involved saving the girl of his dreams and killing whoever stood in her way.
…and eating ice-cream from time to time but everyone does that.
But when her idea of low-grade "torture" was Kushina being unbearable and louder than she already was?
That is where he drew the line.
His calculating eyes shot to the left, Minato thinking he heard rustling in the foliage. He didn't risk it. The blonde threw a three pronged kunai at the direction of the sound without much hesitation. There was a squelch, shriek and a thud in a quick succession.
He readied another kunai, a normal one, and walked warily to it.
He sighed in relief when it was just a normal squirrel. He clasped his hands and muttered a soft "I am sorry for your unneeded sacrifice." and got back to work, trying to locate the girl since it was more than just a training session. He turned his back on the bushy-tailed rodent and walked away, thinking not much of it.
Unknown to him, the said rodent started shaking unnaturally; its belly bulging in shapes it shouldn't be able to when it's dead. He heard the strange disturbance of nature and whipped around, kunai in hand as he stared at the squirrel he dismissed a little bit too early. For a second, the shaking stopped and he thought that the strange disturbance was finished. His eyes widened as butterflies fluttered out of the gore, the squirrel being a product of a good genjutsu since it avoided his sensing.
"Minato…" Kushina's form and soft voice formed from the butterflies, the effect of the forest ambience and beautiful (but knowingly deadly) butterflies surrounding her making an absolutely breath taking and stunning effect that he wanted captured in a photo.
…It was probably part of the genjutsu too.
Until she opened her mouth,
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! GO MAKE RAMEN YOU LAZY PR-"
Without thinking much thought, he threw the kunai he was holding at Kushina's head, making the insects disperse, giving him the time to release. Now, in that afternoon, there was a strange image of a feared yet respected jonin sensei running away from a kaleidoscope of butterflies with a dead serious face in his features.
It would have been humorous to anybody but him.
He realized this as he was forced to tie a small explosive tag to one of his kunai.
"I never thought I would be chased by a swarm of butterflies." Minato sighed, tying a tight knot to the kunai to make sure the explosion tag doesn't fall off. God knows how many times that happened. The blonde reminisced of what happened in his life that would result in this situation before he threw the explosive kunai to the giant swarm of butterflies. He stood straight, not letting the explosion influence his solid stance, quickly drawing another kunai.
He sensed someone.
Even if it was for a brief moment,
Tokina must've lost focus.
He smiled, "Tokina-chan, I know you're out there." The slightly sadistic teacher called out to his student who was hiding behind a tree, in the branches, using the foliage as a camouflage and a genjutsu as an extra measure. Minato extended his senses towards the whole forest, trying to pinpoint the girl but only finding erratic chakra signatures, most likely Kakashi and Obito trapped in their own personal nuisance.
The genjutsu broke because of a loud sound…
Minato smiled, gathering a sudden burst of chakra, converting it in speeds the girl would envy. A loud cackle of lightning came from Minato's fist, startling the local fauna and, successfully, Tokina. The genjutsu broke for a nanosecond but he already was sure where she was.
He threw two kunai at the tree behind him, one going left and the other going right. He teleported the kunai to the right, threw the right kunai to intercept the left kunai and teleported there. When he arrived, he deftly caught the left one mid-air and threw it again to the sky while throwing the right kunai to the tree.
Tokina ditched the genjutsu and favored spitting snakes from her sleeves. Minato smirked and couldn't resist muttering a "Got'cha," He threw the kunai in his hand to the right teleported, effectively dodging the snakes that he didn't stand a chance fighting in mid-air. As predicted, Tokina tried putting him in a genjutsu but it was too late as he teleported to the kunai he threw to the sky earlier.
So he memorized the range of her genjutsu? He was her teacher after all.
He got two kunai from his seemingly infinite kunai pouch and slashed and cut through the snakes that were streaking through the sky. Once he reached the ground, he tried to fly-kick Tokina in the head but the girl dodged and shifted stances, grunting as she tried to seal his elbow, shoulder and heart in a quick succession. He blocked the attacks with his kunai, which didn't surprise him. The Hyūga were known for their really durable hands.
"Aren't you going a little bit overboard with this?" Minato couldn't help but chastise while they were trying to overpower each other, metal versus flesh. She smirked, an unsettling image for him with her bulging eyes and small frame but he was getting used to this.
"I'm just doing what you wanted me to do." Tokina challenged, pushing herself, causing her bandages to turn red from blood.
The Hyūga's upper body strength should never be underestimated, like most taijutsu experts.
But that was usually their weakness.
He ducked from one of her strong jabs and immediately gave her a sweep kick. Tokina gasped in surprise, yet quickly gathered herself while mid-fall. She tried summoning a snake to grapple herself to a nearby tree and avoid her inevitable capture but her sensei read her like a book. Minato quickly cut her lifeline and, in all that in under a second, she was face flat on the grass.
Minato smirked as he sensed the boys coming to their senses. With one hand, he threw one of his pre-tied, low-grade explosive kunai to the air, turning it to a makeshift flare and the other restraining Tokina, his weight probably being more than enough for the girl.
"Well, well, well, our little genjutsu mistress is going to be surrounded soon." He let an inkling of his sadism show. Tokina began struggling, which was an painful attempt to try and escape his grasp. "Let go, let go, let go!" The girl wailed in a pitiful manner.
He wasn't going to fall for this again.
Obito was the first to arrive to the location of the signal. There he saw Minato on top of Tokina while she was being restrained, her front on the grass as she struggled to get out of his grasp.
She looked so cold…
"I'm not being captured again!" Tokina (was that even Tokina?) declared, opening her mouth wide. Minato tried not letting go but that was getting harder and harder everyday by what they were witnessing.
Obito didn't repress the scream.
Kushina ran to the lone, self-satisfied girl at the training grounds clearing. She just recently finished a long mission and she was itching for ramen with Minato and his team. If she was being completely honest, Kushina didn't really think of them as "team Minato" but as "Minato's children".
Well if it was Minato's children, then as girlfriend rights, it was her children too.
Kakashi, the oldest brother who had no sense of humor but is oddly cute, trying to look older and mature than he is.
Obito, the middle child and eager to please yet his reckless behavior makes them, the eldest brother and his own parents, get into arguments with him a lot
Tokina, the youngest child who was quiet and introverted yet tried her best to keep her brothers in line.
It was a happy, dysfunctional family with a workaholic dad and a mom addicted to preservatives but it was Minato's dysfunctional family, and by extension, it's her's.
Tokina smiled and waved at the tomato-red haired woman. Kushina returned the greetings with a smile and approached her, ruffling her hair in the process.
Well, tried anyway. Her bun was so tight that it was practically un-ruffable. But Minato tried and succeeded most times.
"Hello, my child. Where's your father and brothers?" Kushina snickered at Tokina's habit to tilt her head when she was confused. The baby fat wasn't helping with her adorableness. Her pale eyes that still slightly creeped the Jinchūriki out gleamed in recognition at the impromptu nicknames she blurted out.
"Ah, they're...busy." Tokina said simply as she gave Kushina a small yet filling sheepish smile that she was known for.
…Not a good sign.
Sometimes the youngest was the most troublemaking anyway. Kushina couldn't help but seriously pity the girl. The Uzumaki had the opportunity to see classified records that she purposely hid from Minato when she got a hold of them.
Don't get her wrong, she loves Minato for his unbiased eyes, the same eyes that saw her when she was being bullied by the same village she was defending.
Yet she knew how…carried away Minato could be when he loves something.
Over-protective doesn't cover it.
And right now, maybe she was wrong but, Tokina probably only wanted to be treated like the rest. She probably didn't want special treatment if she's in this group since the Hokage actually recommends her getting professional help.
Which she probably needs but…
She knows what goes under there.
They coddle ninjas too much, even if they are Yamanakas.
Tortured for four months in Kiri? That isn't something to joke about. It must have been hard. She couldn't help but think what the girl was like before…everything. Was she "slightly whimsical" as Minato insisted she was? Was she more talkative and outgoing? Did she always have a deadpan humor or was it more sarcastic or corny?
Kushina was determined to find out. She gave Tokina a mock-stern look. The woman put her hands to her hips and eyed her.
"Tokina," her voice that carried authority filled the empty fields.
She shifted uncomfortably.
"T-They ganged up on me in practice!" She confessed, a little bit humiliated by her reaction of blurting it out.
Kushina raised an eyebrow.
Her eyes widened when she heard a high pitched yet boyish shriek that belonged to only a particular Uchiha.
"IT'S IN MY PANTS! IT'S IN MY PANTS!"
Tokina giggled darkly, stopping abruptly when Kushina gave her the mama bear look.
…Before smirking and smacking the girl's back a little bit harshly, making the young girl grunt out due to the force.
"My little baby is all grown up!" She cheered while flinging the girl around. "Showing the boys that we girls aren't to be messed around with! C'mon, let me get you ramen."
And so, with a content smile from Kushina and a confused yet grinning Tokina, they left the three boys to fend for themselves.
Kushina will give the documents back when she knows Minato is ready to handle it. Maybe she'll buy one of those…manga books he likes so much as an apology.
She shrugged, letting herself embrace the peace she wants to protect with all her life.
AN.
Hehe, that's 2/2 of this week and here starts 1/2 of the next Saturday A.K.A tomorrow in my country.
Anyway, enjoy this like how I enjoyed your reviews (The fuinjutsu gun one was a really good concept) and most importantly Enjoy Life :)