(Welcome back! Team 3 is on an extended mission in the Valley Country. Jando and Sakura have taken this opportunity to do some serious training. I love feedback and constructive criticism, so please leave a review so I can improve my writing and storytelling skills. Enjoy!)
Sakura collapses onto her hands and knees breathing profusely. Her clothes are sticky and wet, drenched with all the sweat from her training. "Damn, I'm still not even close to making one," she thinks, "I wonder how long it took Kuroda to perfect this Jutsu. I can't disappoint him; I need to learn this Jutsu so I can become stronger. I don't want to be the useless one on missions anymore."
"Good work, Sakura, that is enough for today," observes Kuroda, seated on a log a short distance away. Sitting next to him is their Sensei, Kayo Yuhi, wearing a concerned look.
"Really? Already? I can go for a bit longer," Sakura replies frowning, trying to figure out if Kuroda is displeased with her efforts.
"No, you can't and you know it," he replies, rather coldly, "You need to rest and relax so you can start again fresh tomorrow. Also you smell pretty bad, you really need a bath."
"Okay," Sakura says, recoiling from the harsh words. She blushes, feeling like a disappointment, as she turns to go inside the manor, her shoulders hanging as she leaves.
"You are letting Sakura push herself too hard," comments Kayo as she watches the young girl walk away.
"If you don't like the training regimen then maybe you should be the one teaching her," replies Kuroda, "You are the Sensei after all."
"Yes, but you are the one making her learn the Jutsu," she counters, "And I don't know the Shadow Clone Jutsu."
"I could teach you as well if you want," he offers.
"My chakra level is not high enough for me to use that kind of Jutsu effectively," Kayo says, "And besides I am a Genjutsu specialist. Clones can't initiate Genjutsu, so it would be rather pointless to have one."
"Hmm…I guess I never really attempted to use Genjutsu with one of my clones," he grins, "Thanks for the tip, Sensei."
"Stop trying to change the subject," she responds, frustration building in her tone, "This training method is not good for Sakura. Why are you even trying to teach her this Jutsu in the first place? It doesn't suit her nature at all. She should really be focusing on…"
"I'll decide what she should and shouldn't learn," states Kuroda, "If you think there is something she needs to learn then fine, go ahead and instruct her. But don't interfere when I am teaching her."
"Is that an order?" Kayo questions, gritting her teeth.
"Of course it is, can't you tell?" he replies curiously, "Anyway, your job is to teach her how to be a ninja, but I have to teach her how to survive if she is going to stand by me while I work toward my goals."
"And those would be?" she inquires sharply, hoping to catch him off guard.
Kuroda flashes a wicked at her smile before he gets up to walk away and calls back, "You know, Sensei, something you might want to consider working on is patience. You'll definitely need it in the long run."
"Damn, I messed up with that one," Kayo thinks as she watches him go inside, "He's always on guard. Maybe I do need to be a little more patient so I can strike when the time is right and get the information I seek."
Jando moves around the training area attacking the imaginary enemies he has dreamed up for this training session. He flows through the forms and stances of the Gentle Fist Style in an attempt to perfect them. Beads of sweat roll off his forehead as jabs his fingers out for the quick strikes needed to properly use the technique. When the last of his fantasy foes have fallen he takes a break and goes to sit down against the wall of a nearby building. He picks up his canister of water and takes a big swig, gulping the cool water down. He sets the jug down and wipes his mouth before staring out at the blue sky.
"I don't feel like I am getting any better," he thinks, frustrated by his lack of improvement, "But there is no real way for me to tell. I knew this mission was a waste of time. If I was back home I could be training with my father or one of the other clan members. It is practically useless for me to train on my own. I need a sparring partner so that I can see their chakra points. And there is no one here to spar with since Kuroda just plays with the princess or watches Sakura fail over and over again. Plus Kayo-sensei will only train me in that dumb Genjutsu stuff. I hate missions like these. I wish someone would actually attack so that I could get some real experience. I want to get stronger."
In a private room deep inside the manor Kuroda sits watching Princess Kyoko as she practices calligraphy on a large piece of parchment. "I've become very fond of you, Kyoko," admits Kuroda, his words flowing softly through the silent room, "More than I ever expected."
She turns to look up at him, her heart swelling after hearing his intimate confession. "I have as well," she confesses as her face turns bright red, but she turns back and tries to concentrate on her work, "I have never met anyone like you before."
"Right here and now everything seems so magical and perfect," he replies, sliding around the room to the front of her desk, "But I know it isn't true. The world where I come from is full of danger; it is not peaceful like this place. I know when I leave I'll be thinking about you and worrying if you are safe."
"You will?" she says shyly as she sets her writing tool down on the table.
"Of course I will," he confirms, "You are very dear to me. I never want to see you get hurt. I want to protect you, always."
"You are a ninja," she reminds him, "You can't be worrying about me while you are on dangerous missions."
"There is a way that I can make sure that you can always be safe," he reveals, "A way that I can always protect you."
"I don't understand," she replies, unsure of what he speaks of.
"It is a special Ninjutsu I created to protect the people that I care about," Kuroda explains as he moves closer, letting the words drip off his tongue, "And if you let me use it on you then I can always be there to protect you when you are in danger."
"Can you really? Is it really possible?" she asks, entranced by his affection.
"Yes, all you have to do is sign a special ninja scroll and then I can bind us together forever," he promises, almost hypnotically, playing on her feelings towards him.
"It will bind us together?" she asks, looking uncertain for the first time.
"Yes, we will always be connected," he whispers, gently brushing the hair back out of her face and caressing her cheek, "Will you please let me protect you?"
"I…Yes, I will," she replies enchanted by the prospect of being tied to him forever. Kuroda pulls out a kunai and reaches for her hand.
"What…what are you doing?" she says as she pulls back.
"Don't worry this will only hurt for a second," he assures her. Feeling relatively safe she lets him take her hand and he carefully makes a small cut into her finger. He sets the kunai down on the table and reaches into his bag. Kyoko pulls her finger close and examines the blood leaking out of it. Being a princess and living a pampered life it was rare for her to become injured or see other people injured. She stares at her finger, absorbed by the red liquid flowing from it.
Kuroda unravels a scroll on the desk before her and says, "Now all you need to do is sign this document and then I can finish the Jutsu."
"What is it?" she inquires, curiously reaching for it.
"It is just a spell that will allow me to help you," he replies gently and subtly placing his hand on the small of her back and urging her forward.
"I don't about this…" Kyoko murmurs, faintly trying to emerge from the dreamlike state, "My father said never to sign…"
"You said you would let me protect you," Kuroda reminds her softly, "Don't you trust me?"
She stares into his eyes, holding his gaze for what seems like eternity until declaring, "Yes, of course I trust you." She reaches forward and quickly smears the blood on to the paper to form her name.
When she is done he reaches for her finger and slips his mouth over it to suck the remaining blood off. At the same time he rolls up the scroll and stores it back in his bag. Utterly engrossed by him she barely catches his next words and replies, "Sorry, can you repeat that?"
"I said I am sorry," Kuroda clarifies, his face looking at her somberly for a moment.
"Why are you sorry?" Kyoko asks, confused.
"Because now I need you to remove your clothes," he says still in his gentle voice, but now with a hint of anguish mixed in.
"Kuroda, I like you a lot but I am only 12," she says blushing, stammering, unsure of how to respond, "I'm not ready for…AHH!" She falls off her chair and collapses onto the floor writhing in pain. The high pitch of her screams fill the air, but just as Kuroda planned they are in an isolated area of the manor and no one is within range to hear her pain.
"I'm sorry, Kyoko," he says in a darker voice as he tenderly places his hand on her cheek, "But I wasn't asking; I was telling."
"Please make it stop!" she shrieks as pain shoots through every nerve in her body.
"I'm sorry I can't," he says, "Only you can do that. I have to complete the Jutsu, but I can only do that if you don't have any material covering your body."
Unable to bear the agony any longer she reaches for the sash of her pink kimono and fumbles to remove it. Immediately when she does this the pain ceases and allows her to function normally. "It stopped," she says in astonishment. Disoriented and not really sure what to do she struggles to stand back up, still half-reeling from the pain.
"Yes, but only so long as you comply with what I say," Kuroda explains, "Otherwise it will come back. Do you understand?"
She turns her back to him and mindlessly begins stripping off her attire. The pieces of her kimono slide off of her one by one until she is down to just a pair of white panties and wrappings around her chest. Her breasts aren't developed enough yet to merit a bra or even a training bra. She undoes the wrappings and throws them to the side and then slowly slides her panties down and steps out of them.
"I'll need you to lie down on your back with your hands at your side," Kuroda says. A hesitation brings the pain back and sends her convulsing down to her hands and knees, but she quickly turns over and gets in the proper position so the pain ceases.
Kuroda grabs the kunai off of the table and walks towards her. She immediately looks away from him, not wanting to see him look at her naked body. But she can still feel his eyes on her and fears what he intends to do. He places the kunai on the ground beside her and kneels over her. Then he places his hands a few inches above her body and moves them around over her as if scanning for something. After a minute or so he locates the correct spot on the front of her left thigh. "This will only hurt for a few seconds. I will be as quick and gentle as possible," he says picking up the kunai. Tears start to stream out of Kyoko's eyes as thoughts of various ways he plans to hurt her flash in her mind.
He lightly slices into her skin barely even penetrating into it. Moments later when the symbol is finished he makes a few hand signs and pours a small amount of his chakra into the mark. After a minute the mark dims and soon is no longer visible leaving her soft skin as perfect as it was minutes ago. He wipes away all of the blood that leaked from the cuts and then cleans off his kunai.
"Would you like some help putting your clothes back on?" he offers, returning to his kind voice, "I know that a kimono can be difficult to put on."
"That is it? That is all you wanted to do?" Kyoko says in a mix of shock and relief, "I thought you were going to…"
"I told you I just needed to complete the Jutsu," he replies as he brushes his hand against the spot where the invisible mark lies, "Now there is a part of me inside of you and I can always be there to protect you." She reaches her hand towards her thigh and pokes it too see if anything will happen. When nothing does she looks into his eyes and again becomes entranced by them.
"Come," he says grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet, "We can't have anybody walking in and finding you naked on the floor. They might think we were doing something inappropriate."
"Yes, that would be bad," she agrees as she gathers up all of her clothes and begins putting everything back in place, her mind now certain that he truly is a person she can trust with her life.
(A young Princess with a crush now has Knight to protect her. But did she make a terrible mistake? As always, if you want more information on my characters you can see their bios on my profile page. Be warned, there may be some spoilers. Also I'm in the process of getting pictures drawn for the characters, but I have no idea how long that will take. If you're interested in drawing and have a DA account then send me a Message. Enjoy the next chapter, and please review.)