Truth: Sometimes the people you are a perfect match for are the ones you least expect.
"Can we give you all the disciplinary issues from now on?" Temari asked in amusement. Sayuri smiled slightly and snorted.
"Probably not the best plan. I can only intimidate so many people before it starts to get boring."
"So, do you like your students?" Kankuro asked.
"They all have such interesting kekkei genkai!" Miyako exclaimed. "It'll be challenging to come up with ways to teach them. None of their abilities are very similar to our own."
"What else is there left in the body to manipulate?" Sayuri pointed out.
Temari sidled closer to Kimimaro. "So, how'd you like your first day teaching?" she asked slyly. "Is your student-"
"Gaara!"
Kankuro cursed softly as a woman a few feet in front of them waved wildly. She was obviously a kunoichi, going by the hitai-ate on her forehead. Gaara flushed and winced slightly.
"Who's that?" Miyako asked curiously.
"That's Takako Ito," Temari explained. "She's been hitting on Gaara for a couple of months. It's really annoying."
"Hitting…on Gaara?" Miyako repeated faintly.
"And he's too shy to tell her to piss off," Kankuro muttered, nudging Gaara forwards as Takako bounced up to them.
"Hi Gaara!" the girl squealed. "I came to see how teaching went today!"
"It was… fine," Gaara replied slowly, looking incredibly stiff.
"Great!" Takako exclaimed. "I'm sure they learned a lot. I bet you're a great teacher, Gaara."
"I don't… really know."
"I'm sure you are!" Takako insisted. "You're strong and powerful and resourceful and-" She continued rambling, not even pausing to shoot a glare at Kankuro when he made wretching noises.
"Well… With Kiyomi gone, it's been a while since I've had someone to fight with," Sayuri murmured. Miyako glanced at her.
"What are you-?" Temari began.
"Gaara," Sayuri said, striding forwards. Takako cut off her stream of praise with an outraged yelp as Sayuri leaned against Gaara's shoulder, linking her fingers with his. Gaara looked down at her in surprise and she smiled up at him.
"Who's your friend, Gaara?" she asked casually, glancing towards Takako.
"Who're you?" Takako demanded indignantly.
"I'm Sayuri Kaguya. I'm one of the kekkei genkai instructors from Konoha."
"Oh," Takako said, looking a bit pacified. "A foreigner."
Sayuri smiled, this time with a bit of bite of it. "That's right." She glanced back up at Gaara, who looked totally lost. "I forgot to ask, were we going to go out for dinner tonight, or do you want to come to my place and I'll cook?"
"We can… go out?" Gaara replied. He understood she was getting him away from Takako. What he couldn't figure out was why.
"Great," Sayuri smiled at him. "I was hoping to sample some of the local cuisine. So, will you pick me up about six?" she asked, pressing gently on his back and steering him away from Takako. The others hustled after them, Miyako smothering laughs while Temari and Kankuro were laughing like idiots. Even Kimimaro was vaguely amused. He wasn't entirely okay as Sayuri leaned up and kissed Gaara's cheek fondly, though, even though Takako's horrified yelp made it clear why she did it.
"That was awesome!" Kankuro grinned, clapping Sayuri on the shoulder. "I think you're my new favorite person!"
"I suppose it's a Kaguya thing, but I quite enjoy fighting with someone every now and then. I thought I should make at least one enemy while I was here," Sayuri shrugged.
Miyako sighed. "You know there are times I really worry about you, Sayuri. That's not normal."
"I completely understand it. If you have no one to challenge you, how will you improve?" Kimimaro disagreed. Miyako blinked at him.
"It really must be a Kaguya thing," she mused.
"Was everyone in your clan as weird as you two?" Temari asked, glancing between Sayuri and Kimimaro.
"We look downright sane compared to the rest of our clan," Sayuri snorted.
"Sayuri…"
"Hmm? Gaara?" she turned to him. He lifted their joined hands.
"You're still holding on to me," he pointed out, not sure whether he wanted her to stop or not. The bones of her hands felt so delicate, but her skin was scarred and calloused. It was an interesting contrast.
"Sorry," Sayuri apologized. "I was using you to keep my balance."
"Oh," Gaara blinked. He hadn't thought about the fact that it was probably a little more difficult for her to walk on sand than on solid earth. "If it helps… you don't have to stop."
"Thank you," she replied, taking his hand again, and now that he was paying closer attention he felt her grip shifting slightly as the sand moved under her feet. "Now I won't run into things as often."
Behind them, Temari and Kankuro exchanged glances.
Until she could get near Sasuke, all she could do was make herself more appealing as a travelling companion. Why not start with learning swordplay? That was the ono thing Sayuri could do that she couldn't.
Kiyomi knew she was risking a lot going anywhere near Hajime Fujiwara. But she had no other choice. He was the best teacher she had access to, a ronin from the Land of Iron military. No one really knew what he'd done to get kicked out, but he had been, and now he lived on his own near the border of the Land of Waterfalls.
Kiyomi paused outside of the little shack. It didn't look like much. Certainly not the home of the best swordsman outside of the Land of Iron. The roof was tin and the walls were in desperate need of a coat of paint. The fence was run-down with a few crossbars resting on the ground on one end.
"Alright Kiyomi, this is it," she muttered to herself. "You can do this."
Kiyomi walked down the dirt lane towards the little house. There were two artfully-cut bonsai on either side of the two stairs up to the low porch. Kiyomi glanced at them carelessly as she mounted the steps and headed for the door.
"Hajime Fijuwara?" she called, knocking on the door. "I'd like to speak to you."
"You know, I don't often get visitors."
Kiyomi whirled at the voice and saw Hajime coming from around the back of the porch. He leapt lightly up onto the porch, landing with barely a sound. He didn't look like much. His clothes consisted of a worn blue yukata and a pair of geta. Dark eyes glittered from a craggy face. His white hair was swept back into a high topknot with military neatness, his face clean-shaven.
It would be easier to mistake him for a beggar than a swordsman for the average person. Kiyomi wasn't the average person though. She saw the strong arms and muscular shoulders that were ever so slightly different from the build gained through simple heavy lifting. He moved neatly, never the slightest stumble, and he seemed almost to glide from place to place instead of walking.
He was staring her down, but Kiyomi had never let simple nerves get the best of her. She'd made her decision and was sticking to it. That in mind, she placed a hand on her hip and gave the older man a winning grin.
"You must get lonely, then," she commented casually.
"I prefer it that way, actually," he disagreed, stepping forwards and looking her up and down. He raised an eyebrow at her headband. "Well. A rogue ninja. And from Konoha. That's not something you see every day."
"My situation isn't something you see every day," Kiyomi countered.
"And what is your situation?"
"I want to kill someone."
The other eyebrow went up. "Such an ugly goal for such a pretty girl."
Kiyomi refused to be thrown by the compliment. "She's looked down on me for the longest time, she and everyone else. Everything was handed to her on a silver platter and even though I worked I only got critiqued while she got praised. When I tried to kill her, the rest of my team caught me. I didn't have any choice but to flee."
"Hmm. That's not quite true, is it?" Hajime commented, leaning against the side of the house.
"Wh-What?" Kiyomi asked, mildly thrown. "What's not true?"
"You had another choice. It would have possibly ended in death, but you did have another choice."
"That's not a choice," Kiyomi disagreed. "That's stupidity."
"To some. Others would say it was honorable to stay and take your medicine."
"Some would say it was better to finish what you start," Kiyomi said, narrowing her eyes angrily. Hajime chuckled slightly.
"Some would," he allowed. "And you've come here hoping I'll teach you," Hajime said, and it wasn't a question. Kiyomi nodded anyway. Hajime pushed off the house. "And I will teach you."
Kiyomi beamed, triumph flooding her. "Thank you so much! You've no idea what this means-"
"Yes I do," Hajime cut her off sharply. "But I want you to understand something before we begin."
"What is it?" Kiyomi asked in confusion.
"I'm not doing this to help you get your revenge. In fact, I think it's rather a pathetic reason for wanting to improve oneself." Kiyomi opened her mouth to protest but he held up a hand and cut her off. "I'm teaching you because I'm hoping some of the discipline will rub off on you. You have talent and potential, that's easy for me to see. And I'd hate for that to go to waste on revenge. There are so much more important things in life."
"Like what?" Kiyomi asked, expecting some proverb that would make her roll her eyes.
Hajime sighed. "The usual. Companionship. Love. Service to others."
"I'd rather just kill Sayuri."
"…We'll work on that."
"Throw!"
Gidayu hurled the clay disk into the sky, sweating with effort after hours of throwing as hard as he could. Every now and then he'd turn his head and the blindfold over his eyes would tug at his hair painfully, drawing a wince.
"Spin!"
Harumi spun around and feather-shaped darts of air flew from the wind wings draped around her. She hit the very bottom and sent the thing spinning as it plummeted to the ground and shattered against the sand.
"Alright Gidayu, go get it!"
Gidayu trotted forwards, following his nose as he traced the scent of Harumi's chakra through the sand. He stopped and patted at the ground blindly before triumphantly holding up a large chunk of the disk Harumi had just hit.
"Well done!" Miyako congratulated her two students.
This training exercise was one she'd come up with for both of them to work on their abilities simultaneous. Gidayu could run for hours, but his upper body strength was a bit weak. The throwing helped and gave Harumi moving targets for her to fire her feather air bullets at. He then used his nose to find the remains of the disks he threw.
They'd all had to move out of Suna proper for the sake of training. Most of their students' kekkei genkai simply were too large to reasonably practice in the small training area they had. Sayuri had it hardest, finding places to train. Atami's water-based kekkei genkai was hard to work with in the middle of a desert.
Miyako squinted under a hand towards Sayuri, who stood at the edge of the reservoir that provided all of Suna with water. She winced at the startling large pile of bones beside Sayuri that her friend had forced out the night before. Shoulder blades littered the ground. Sayuri had insisted this was the best way, as they were cheaper than finding something else to throw that would be destroyed by Mayumi's acid.
Sayuri's training techniques consisted of tossing one to five bones into the water at a time. Atami would then use her kekkei genkai to search the area around her for the bones. She had to be fast though, because her body couldn't stay afloat while scanning. She would then kick to the surface for a brief gulp of air before diving to retrieve the scattered scapulas.
While Atami dived over and over, Sayuri hurled more bones into the air for Mayumi. It was very much like the training for Harumi. Sayuri would then call out a technique and Mayumi would perform it, trying to hit the flying bone with her acid.
Kimimaro had another large problem with his student. Atsumori's kekkei genkai relied on eating people's chakra to increase his eyesight. Kimimaro was forced to let the kid eat his chakra and then pick out the objects he had set up to three miles out in the desert, moving farther and farther away until they ran out of objects.
"Heads up!" Mayumi shouted as a swirl of sand appeared in the middle of the area being used by the kekkei genkai students. They were all familiar with the sign that Gaara was coming. He appeared at the end of the day to tell them class had ended before vanishing again.
However, this time he'd appeared right in the path of one of Harumi's wind feathers. His sand sprang into action, lunging in front of him. The feather burst against the sand with a screeching of wind before fading.
"I'm so sorry!" Harumi panicked. "I'm so sorry, so sorry! Really, I didn't mean too!"
In the background, Gidayu was howling with laughter as Harumi fretted. Atsumori merely shook his head and said, "rice bowl," the object Kimimaro had just asked him to pick out of the distance. His pupils were blown wide as he turned back to his work. Atami climbed from the water and took the towel Mayumi tossed her, nodding her thanks.
"Harumi, it's alright," Miyako assured her student. "You didn't hurt him, it was just an accident."
"R-Right," Harumi stammered. "But I'm still very sorry. I feel terrible…"
"I'm not hurt," Gaara rasped.
"There, see?" Gidayu said, whipping off his blindfold and slinging an arm around Harumi's shoulder. "It's nothing. You've got to relax!"
"I'd feel bad if I hurt someone!" Harumi said, flushing with annoyance and embarrassment as she pulled out of Gidayu's hold.
"Kankuro sent me to tell you class has ended," Gaara said. "He also wanted me to tell you that we'll be working with weapons tomorrow, so you should all join us at the training grounds."
"Alright," Miyako nodded as Mayumi sent a wind jutsu at Atami, drying her off but leaving her hair sticking out wildly and a glare on her face. Atami opened her mouth angrily. Sayuri sent both of her students sharp looks and they were immediately contrite, although Atami's annoyed glares didn't go away.
"Thanks for telling us, Gaara," Sayuri said, turning around and beginning to gather the leftover bones into a large sheet for transport. Gaara paused when he saw that.
"Are those-?"
"Shoulder blades, nothing critical," Sayuri replied carelessly. "The usual time tomorrow?"
"Yes," Gaara nodded, and vanished in another swirl of sand.
"You're free to go," Miyako said to her students.
"Come on guys, let's go get something cold to drink!" Gidayu suggested loudly. The other students agreed whole-heartedly, having spent the day slaving under the unforgiving sun. "Great! First one there gets free drinks!" he shouted, and took off sprinting. The other students rushed after him, Mayumi protesting loudly as they ran after the speedier boy, leaving their bemused teachers behind.
"And now the long walk back to the apartment," Sayuri sighed, glancing in the general direction of the sun. "This heat…" she shook her head and reached for the water bottle resting not far away in the sand. Her fingers missed it and she scowled slightly, leaning farther. Kimimaro snatched it and passed it to her. She took it gratefully and stroked the back of his hand with her fingers. They'd all taking up drinking more than usual since coming to Suna, and now they went almost everywhere with a water bottle.
"It's not so bad," Miyako disagreed. "I don't mind the heat so much." She examined her hands. "I don't think I've ever been so tan in my life though."
"Good for you," Sayuri sighed, absently brushing her hand over her neck. Her pale skin made it easy for her to get sunburned and she and Kimimaro were both literally feeling the heat.
"Would you like to go out for dinner tonight?" Kimimaro asked, sliding his fingers around Sayuri's wrist and squeezing gently. "You must get tired of cooking for us all the time."
"I don't mind, but I would like to eat out," Sayuri said, placing her free hand on his bicep. "I wasn't lying when I said I wanted to try the local food," she said, referring to the time weeks ago when she'd helped Gaara fend off Takako. "Miyako, are you interested?"
"That sounds good," Miyako approved. "Temari told me about this nice place not far from our apartment. She said she really liked their food."
"We can try it," Sayuri agreed.
"Excuse me, Sayuri Kaguya?"
Sayuri turned, surprised, in the direction of the speaker. Miyako whispered about an average-sized boy with blue eyes and white hair in a short braid over his right shoulder. A Suna hitai-ate decorated his forehead.
"You don't know me," the boy began. "But my name is Haru Natsuhana."
"How do you know me?" Sayuri asked, confused. Besides classes and her apartment, she hadn't been to many places in Suna.
He flushed and gave her a sheepish grin. It reminded Miyako vaguely of Satoru, and she watched in interest. "Well, I've seen you around and I've heard about all the good things you've been doing for the younger kids. I've heard you were nice, and strong, and… Well, you know, you're pretty cute too. I just thought, maybe… you might like to go to dinner with me?" he finished hopefully.
Kimimaro immediately started glaring, a protective instinct rising up in him. He opened his mouth to tell the boy to go away, but Miyako nudged him sharply. He glanced at her and she shook her head vehemently, pointing to Sayuri, who seemed frozen.
Sayuri just blinked at Haru, who shifted uncomfortably. "Uh… is that alright? I mean, you're not attached to anyone, are you?"
"No, no," Sayuri said hastily. "It's just… erm, don't take this the wrong way, but why?"
"Why what?"
"Why in the world are you asking me to dinner?" She was honestly flabbergasted. No boy had ever looked twice at her in Konoha. Many had even actively avoided looking at her the first time once they heard about her kekkei genkai. And now here was a random Suna boy crawling out of the woodwork and asking her out? This… was uncharted territory.
"Well… I like you."
"You don't know me."
"Yeah, but I'd like to."
Sayuri looked at him skeptically, before slowly nodding, as if she was agreeing to some sort of risky procedure. "When and where?"
"There's this great place down there," Haru said, pointing down a road to their right. "End of the road on the left. Tomorrow night?"
"Fine," Sayuri said, nodding again in the same way.
"See you then!" Haru said, grinning like an idiot and waving as he walked off.
"Alright, weapon work today kids, and maybe, if you do well, our friends from Konoha will show you something special."
Kimimaro, Miyako, and Sayuri turned to Kankuro questioningly.
"I hear you two have Summons," Kankuro said, nodding to Sayuri and Miyako. "Thought you and Temari could show them off?"
Miyako and Sayuri exchanged glances. "Why not?" Miyako shrugged, and nodded.
"Hear that guys?" Temari called to the assembled students. "Do well and you get a show. Now, let's go. We teachers will be circling among you. Take a partner and start sparring. Five minute sets. Finish out with one person, find someone else. Understand?"
There were noises of affirmation and the students started to pair off, pulling out their weapons of choice. As they got going, the noise of steel against steel began to ring out.
"I won't be much help here," Sayuri said, patting Miyako's shoulder and giving a self-depreciating smile. "Go ahead."
Miyako nodded and started circling among students, pausing to correct a student's technique.
"I'll stay with you," Kimimaro offered quietly, looking at her in concern. There were few things she couldn't at least make an attempt at. Observation was one of those. Sayuri smiled at him and ran a hand from his shoulder to his wrist, twining her fingers with his briefly.
"I'm fine," she assured him. "I think I'll just go get a drink."
Sayuri walked along the edge of the area, heading for the small table where she, Miyako, and Kimimaro had deposited their ever-present water bottles.
Nearby, Matsuri was practicing with her junko. She'd gotten better at manipulating the rope dart and getting it to go where she wanted. It took some work to get the rope to work with her limbs and keep up its momentum, but she was getting the hang of it. That didn't mean she didn't still have clumsy moments, such as when the sun glanced off her opponent's tanto at the exact right angle, blinding her momentarily. Her rope dart swung wildly as she instinctively moved to shield her eyes.
"Sensei!" she cried worriedly, jerking on her weapon in an attempt to keep it from connecting with the oblivious Sayuri. It didn't quite work, only slightly switching the angle so that it cut across her throat instead of her chest. Sayuri shouted and clutched her throat with one hand, a bone sliding instinctively from the palm of the other.
Immediately, she was surrounded by concerned friends and students.
"Are you okay?" Mayumi asked worriedly, taking in the red blood glistening on Sayuri's fingers.
"I'm fine," Sayuri gasped, struggling a bit for air.
"That should have crushed your throat," Kankuro said, impressed. "What did you do?"
Miyako scurried over and pulled Sayuri's hand away. The tip of the dart had caught her a glancing blow, enough to break the skin, but it wasn't sharp enough to cut deeply. The glint of bone showed how she'd been saved a damaged artery though, the bone membrane under her skin gleaming.
"That trick of yours has saved your life on more than one occasion," Miyako observed, placing a hand glowing with green healing chakra over the cut, using it to close the skin after her kekkei genkai pulled the blood back in.
"Sensei?"
They all turned to look at Matsuri, whose face was pale and scared. "I'm really sorry," she apologized. "I lost control of it for a second, I didn't mean to… I'm really sorry."
Kimimaro's eyes narrowed slightly. "You could have killed her." Matsuri flinched as if he'd hit her and Gaara gave him a dark look.
"I didn't mean to… I'm really sorry..."
"It's fine, Matsuri," Sayuri assured her. She rubbed her throat slightly. "No harm done. This is why we practice."
"Yeah but… that looked like it really hurt… I didn't mean too…"
"I'm fine," Sayuri assured her. "It's just part of being blind. I'd have seen it coming otherwise, but weapons like yours, that come in an arc instead of a line or angle… I have trouble with them. It just means you're more likely than a lot of people here to be able to beat me in a fight one day," she smiled at the younger girl. "Really, I'm fine. Don't worry."
"You're not expected to be perfect right off the bat," Kankuro added to Matsuri. "Just be careful. Like you pointed out the first day, these are real weapons, and they're dangerous."
"Alright everybody, show's over!" Temari called to the staring students, some of whom were whispering worriedly about Sayuri. "Back to work!"
"Are you sure you're alright?" Kimimaro asked, chucking her gently under the chin and examining her throat. There wasn't even a bruise.
"Fine," Sayuri assured him, doing the same to him and chuckling slightly. "Not a problem."
"Alright," Kimimaro allowed, but he still sent Matsuri another glare.
"I can feel you glaring," Sayuri said. "Stop it." The corner of his mouth twitched slightly upward. Sayuri raise a hand, feeling his expression and smiling in pleasure. "There, that's better. You're much nicer looking when you smile. Now go, watch the students," she urged, leaning back against the wall and sending him off.
The drama of the day over with, Kankuro gathered the students back together. They were all watching eagerly, waiting to see if they'd done well enough for their reward.
"Alright Temari, take it away," Kankuro said, gesturing to his sister, and the students leaned forwards excitedly. Temari bit into her thumb and spread her fan.
"This is Kamatari," she said, making the appropriate hand signs and pressing her thumb to the fan. A one-eyed weasel appeared in a puff of smoke, holding a scythe that was longer than it was.
"Will we ever have Summons?" one of the students asked, raising a hand.
"Maybe," Miyako nodded. "To be honest, we sort of stole ours."
"Did you?" Temari asked in surprise.
"Chunin exams," Sayuri nodded. "We fought a girl named Aya who used Summons to keep her enemies back. We knocked her out and took her scrolls. She had a half dozen on her."
"Interesting technique," Temari mused as Kamatari scrambled up to her shoulder. She scratched under his chin and nodded to Miyako.
Miyako bit her thumb and ran through the hand signs twice, pressing her thumb to the ground after each round. When the smoke cleared, a crane larger than she was stood to her right and a cougar whose head was level with her shoulder was at her left. "This is Kurendo and Kugama," Miyako said, nodding to each of her summons. The cougar nodded its head, conical hat nodding forwards.
"Greetings, I am Kugama," the cougar greeted.
"It talks!" one of the students exclaimed. Kurendo scoffed and ruffled his wings.
"Of course we talk!" he huffed. "What do you think we are, mindless beasts serving you shinobi? You see Kugama, no respect?"
"Oh, lighten up, they're young," Kugama rebuked.
"This is why I don't work with Academy students," Kurendo sneered and vanished in a puff of smoke.
"As you can see, they have varied personalities and some are a bit… touchy," Miyako said weakly, waving the smoke away from her face.
"His bark is worse than his bite," Kugama assured the kids, winking one large eye lazily and making a few people chuckle.
"Sayuri?" Miyako turned to her friend, who had already punctured her thumb and was half-way through hand signs. A few moments later a tiger slightly larger than Kugama appeared at Sayuri's side.
"This is Torani," Sayuri said, laying a hand on the tiger's head fondly, before scratching under her chin. The tiger blinked lazily at the children, nodded to Kugama, licked her lips at Kamatari, who hissed and puffed up in response, before finally turning to her Summoner.
"No Dokumo?" she asked. Sayuri winced.
"There are children…"
"I'll control him," Torani promised.
"Fine…"
Sayuri ran through the signs again and pressed her finger down once more. There was a puff of smoke.
"Hey baby, it's been a while!"
A scaly tail whipped out of the smoke and smacked Sayuri's rear. She yelped and tucked closer to Torani, glaring at the giant komodo dragon.
"Dokumo, we talked about your behavior last time," she said shortly. "Namely, no more greeting me like that."
"Hey, can't a guy greet his gal with a little bit of affection?" Dokumo grinned, which was slightly more menacing than was intended seeing as his teeth were stained a bloody red color.
"I'm not… Why did I ever pick you as a personal summon?"
"Animal magnetism. It's the pheromones, babe, can't fight the pheromones."
Sayuri sighed and rubbed her forehead wearily. Her audience, meanwhile, was highly amused. "Some Summons are more tolerable than others," Sayuri said, giving Dokumo a pointed look. He had the decency to look abashed. "They all have their own attributes, just like people. Some have personalities you clash with. That's the trick to finding your personal summons."
"And you really get along with him?" asked Mayumi unsurely, giving the komodo dragon a wide berth. Dokumo winked at her and did something lewd with his tongue. She winced and Dokumo got a smack over the head from Torani.
"Manners," the tigress rebuked.
"It's surprising, but true," Sayuri admitted, giving Dokumo a dirty look. "Truthfully, sometimes the people you are a perfect match for are the ones you least expect."