Hey everyone, I brought the new chapter along!
As you may or may not have noticed, I've adjusted the rating from K to T for Hisana's humor and Sora's occasional potty mouth:)
Another thing is that more ninja typical violence is coming, so the rating will probably go up further pretty soon.
Also: I have a question for you at the end of the chapter!
It's not until their first D-rank mission that Hisana remembers that genin do not solely exist to clean up crap. It's an escort mission from Konoha to a small town called Otari, around four hours of travel north. A young man named Asano has sold his father's pottery in the village and now faces the problem of having to safely transport the money home.
"Nobody cares about pottery," he explains sheepishly. "Doesn't matter what it's worth. Money on the other hand …"
They don't expect much more than a handful of bandits, or a few people who simply decide to take a chance. 'Opportunity makes thieves', as her mother used to say. It's still incredibly exciting.
"Take the bokken," Sasuke advises. "If anyone tries to lock you in a bunker again, hit them right between the eyes."
She's never shown anyone in her team the bokken. It's been lying under her bed for almost three weeks now, and the most she's done with it are basic kenjutsu katas that still feel a little foreign. She's been meaning to ask Kohaku-sensei for instructions, but keeps putting it off. Instead there is a row of kenjutsu scrolls lined up next to her side of the bed.
So when she turns up that day, bokken strapped to her belt, the boys swarm her like curious puppies.
"Is that from Goya-san?" Haru asks, gauging the balance point.
"Cherry wood, right?" Sora assesses. She looks at him in surprise.
"What do you know about wood?"
"I know all about wood."
She snorts.
"Oh, I just bet you do."
"Why does everything sound like such a bad thing when you say it?"
They're all carrying knapsacks this time, rather than their bulky backpacks. Still, team 11 is equipped for much more than four hours of travel. Dragging a civilian along would at least double the time and also add at least two breaks that would be wholly unnecessary to them. All in all they are looking forward to around fourteen to sixteen hours of travel, depending on Asano's speed and whether or not they would run into any danger.
For once, Sensei arrives last. A possible reason for this becomes apparent when Asano takes one look at his eyes and turns white as a sheet.
Hisana forgets sometimes that ninja are weird to normal people. Sensei must look like some sort of demon to them.
"Asano-san," he greets, ignoring the way their client leans away from him, "my name is Hyuuga Kohaku, and I will be leading this mission."
There's an awkward moment of silence in which Sensei waits for Asano to introduce himself, and the man utterly fails to force out even a single word. Finally Sensei takes pity on him and addresses team 11 instead.
"Come along now."
It's still early, six in the morning to be precise, so there's mist wafting all over the forest and swirling onto the road. Autumn is in full swing; for the next mission they will have to buy winter gear already. Asano is already shivering in his thick coat.
The walk itself isn't so bad. By now Hisana is used to a much higher travel speed, so a civilian pace seems more like a leisurely stroll through the park. There's not much to see except for the trees, but she's taking point for the first two hours, so her mind is occupied enough. They pass fields and occasionally a few other travelers, each of them giving her a small heart attack until they're out of sight again, but otherwise everything is calm. It's only after the first break that trouble arises.
"Group of seven coming from north-west," Haru announces, "ETA 10 minutes."
Hisana can feel nervous energy trying to take a hold of her limbs. She shakes it off.
"A band of salespeople, maybe?" Sora suggests, but Haru shakes his head.
"Moving too fast to carry much."
"Evasive maneuver?" Hisana quips. "They might not have noticed us yet."
They move east, but it's of little use. She can feel their faint chakra signatures splitting up, half of them coming their way.
"They've changed direction," Sora realizes. "It's as if they already know we're here."
"The Great Fall Market ended a few days ago," Sensei reminds them, "a lot of salesmen are going home with full pockets this time of the year."
He's still calm, which calms her down in turn. The six people pursuing them might only be simple bandits, but it's still the first time she's confronted with people who are truly out to hurt her. The thought is strangely upsetting to the peace-loving civilian in her.
"So they're trawling the woods for victims," she muses. "They probably already know all the most popular travel routes."
"ETA 5 minutes," Haru reminds them, "prepare for contact."
From the corner of her eyes she can see him reaching for his kunai holster, while Sora is slipping into a defensive stance close to Asano.
Hisana shifts her center of gravity, falling into the familiar combat stance of the Uchiha style.
There's a rustle in the bushes and Haru yips, "Incoming!" before three grown men break through the tree line and onto the road. One of them is wildly swinging his sword – half rusted and splintered at the cutting edge – the other two are armed with simple wooden batons. When the biggest of them realizes that they're only children, he starts to laugh.
"Easy pickings, boys!"
Hisana has just enough time to wonder how he could have overlooked Kohaku-sensei, before he takes a swing at her. It's pure instinct that makes her jump back. Three kunai sink into the man's body; one into his arm, two into his left leg. He curses and instead turns to Haru, who is absolutely stone-faced.
Snap out of it, she thinks, trying to shake the fog of surprise and adrenalin. There are two more of them making a run at Asano, the only barrier between them Sora, who is barely half as big as them.
"Give us the money and maybe we'll let you go," the man with the sword leers, making a grab for Asano. But Sora plants a foot into his gut that has him stumbling backwards.
Before the other man can take a swing at her teammate, Hisana barrels into him.
They tumble into a tree, wheezing and grasping at each other. He tries to get his arms around her neck, but she squirms out of his hold and dropkicks him in the shoulder. There's a cracking noise and a howl as it pops out of its joint. There are more men coming out of the woods, she realizes. The other four.
A nasty looking blond tries to punch her in the face, but she catches his fist and twists. With a snap his arm breaks. The man's rat face twists in pain and anger, before he tries to punch her again with his other fist.
'Right between the eyes,' she hears Sasuke's voice say, and with a dull plonk her bokken comes down onto the man's forehead. The hit is barely hard enough to split the skin, but he sinks to the ground in a dead faint.
"Some help over here," Haru calls ducking and twisting between two of the bandits like a dancer. One of the men tries to ram his knee into his sternum, but he catches it with a flat palm, smacking it hard enough to crack the kneecap. "Oh!" he gasps wonderingly, "False alarm; I'm good after all."
Someone skids past her, narrowly avoiding the fallen blonde man. It's another bandit, with Sora's shoe print neatly stamped onto his forehead. He looks disoriented, and before he can collect himself Hisana's bokken hits him against them temple.
One more man moves past her, but he's fleeing. A kunai is still stuck in his arm and his eyes are wide open with fear. She lets him pass.
Fallen bandits litter the floor.
"Uhm, do we just … leave them here?" she wonders aloud. Kohaku-sensei seems to materialize out of thin air right next to her.
"Tie them up," he instructs. "There might be a bounty we can collect."
They tie four of the bandits together, before hoisting them up a tree like an ugly piñata. They're the only ones left, with one fleeing the scene and the other …
Sora had been suspiciously quiet. At first Hisana attributed it to the post-battle low; she only realized how wrong she was once they'd dragged the bandits off the road. There was the blond one that she'd knocked out with her bokken; the big burly one with the dislocated shoulder; a bald man, littered with Haru's kunai like a pincushion; and a tall, slim man, his forehead still clearly showing the print of a Konoha ninja sandal. A bit further away, head at an odd angel and eyes staring emptily into the sun, lay the man with the rusty sword.
"No need to tie him up," her dark haired teammate remarked dully. "Just prop him up agains the tree."
While Haru and her are busy comforting Asano, Kohaku-sensei whisks Sora away to have a talk. What exactly they're talking about, she doesn't want to know. Chances are she'll find out soon enough.
"I'm very sorry," Asano whispers, as if afraid Sora might overhear them. "I thought they would send experienced professionals with me – if I'd known that you would be so young …"
"We are professionals," Haru assures him gently. "And this is how we gain experience. It was … unlucky that you had to witness this, but I assure you we knew it was a possibility."
"As you've seen we can handle bandits," Hisana adds. "We'd simply hoped the situation could be solved without killing."
When Sora and Kohaku-sensei return from the woods, their teammate looks grimly satisfied. They don't talk about it.
There's only one more person who decides to take them on that day – a pick pocket right after they enter Otari. But Haru grabs his hand before it can sink into Asano's pocket and fixes him with a stern look.
"No," he says firmly and the young man trips all over himself trying to get away.
They deliver Asano the last few yards to his doorstep, where he thanks them profusely and offers to put them up for the night.
None of them feel like spending any more time away from home and so they refuse as politely as possible. It's barely afternoon; if they hurry they'll be back before midnight.
As it turns out, there's no bounty on the bandits. She's kind of glad for it. Something tells her Sora wouldn't have wanted anything to do with that money. There's no word on freeing the men on their way back. They're hardened criminals after all; if they aren't able to free themselves, well …
It's just past ten when the village gates slowly emerge from the dark.
The guards give them commiserating looks as they sign their names into the little red notebook and schlep into the village.
Again, Sensei vanishes without saying much, but this time not before squeezing Sora's shoulder encouragingly. The boy doesn't react at all, face showing no emotions. It looks unnatural.
Haru casts her an uncertain look, obviously unwilling to just leave, so Hisana makes an executive decision.
"Come on," she coaxes, "we're getting you home."
They walk in silence.
Sora's house is never quiet. Even now, when most of his siblings should be asleep, the lights are on and there's noise coming from inside. The closer they come the more clearly she can distinguish the different sillouhettes flitting to and fro. Sora looks through the window longingly, but makes no move to step closer to the door. Hisana sighs. If it were Sasuke she would hug him now, but Sora and she don't have that kind of relationship. So instead she bumps her shoulder into his.
"Go on, they're probably waiting for you."
He looks back and forth between her and Haru, before nodding.
"Good night."
His voice is hoarse, but there's a familiar forcefulness in it. He'll be ok.
"That was terrible," Haru whispers, as soon as the door closes behind their teammate. "I thought he of all people …"
Yes, she's also expected Sora would take his first kill better. Better than them at least. Then again, there seems to have been no crying either, so maybe he is taking it rather well.
"I'm glad it happend now though," she admits. "It had to happen sooner or later, so I'd rather have it like this – without excessive bloodshed and on a short mission. Imagine we'd have to keep going for another two or three days."
Haru winces.
"At least we're one third done now", she concludes. "Though I'm not looking forward to my own. Or yours, for that matter."
Sasuke is still awake. Of course he is, she thinks fondly. He knew she'd be home before the day is over. When she comes in there is class work spread out all over the table and a plate with a half eaten sandwich is balanced on the arm of their couch. Sasuke looks her over critically, before simply handing her the rest of the sandwich and letting her clean up. She eats while undressing.
There's dirt everywhere. Even when she knows that all the grime and sweat has been washed away, she still feels unclean somehow. When she's done her skin is scrubbed red and raw. And yet, putting on new clothes goes against every instinct; it feels as if she'll dirty them with whatever invisible filth is still stuck to her skin.
When she shuffles back into the living room, Sasuke has already put her things away. Wordlessly she sinks onto the sofa next to him, and for the first time in a while she just hugs her cousin, nose buried in his hair. She's not sure what he read in her face, but whatever it was, it keeps him still and quiet.
"Did you puke?" she finally asks incredulously and wrinkles her nose.
His head snaps up, scandalized.
"I might have overdone it with the training today. But I brushed my teeth," he insists.
"Yeah, might have to do it again though."
It's just such a ridiculously normal and irrelevant topic that she relaxes against her will.
"No, but seriously, go brush your teeth."
I've learned a new word: 'to schlep' (='to drag'). I was real surprised, because 'schleppen' means 'to drag' in German too. Turns out 'shlepn' is Yiddish – that's where it comes from:)
My question:
Ok, so as I said, I might not be able to write as quickly for a while. That doesn't mean that I'm not working on my stories at all! On the contrary – I have decided to take on a challenge.
From myself.
There are several genres/tropes that I remember loving at the beginning of my fanfic-reading career. Back then I only had a tentative grasp on the stylistics of the English language, so I could read whatever story caught my fancy without being put off by the terrible writing style. Looking back through a list of my favorite fics, I now realize that they were all terrible.
No, you don't understand – they were immensely, heartbreakingly horrific.
But even today these tropes (which I by now know have the reputation of being mostly written by 13-year-olds) are my guilty pleasure reading.
I'm obviously talking about SI/OC-insert stories for one. But also time travel stories und crossovers (in the Naruto fandom especially with Harry Potter). So I have decided that I will try my hand at all of them.
For after Bonds and Hugs is finished I have already a rough draft planned out for a time travel story (starring Sakura) and a Naruto/HP crossover (starring Kakashi).
My question to you: do you have guilty pleasure tropes? If yes, which are they? I'd love to hear, and maybe pick a few of them to try out.