Tsume P.O.V.
'Honestly, can't this be over already? I feel like I'm getting stuck in these situations way too often recently.'
'I can see someone's been spending too much time around Arata lately.' I pointedly ignored the jab towards my whiny little brother.
'You can say that again. Kid just keeps coming, asking for and more and more training. It's like he has nothing better to do. I'm starting to wonder if he even has friends.'
'On the topic of friends..'
"—ume! Tsume! Are you even listening?!" Haruo screamed, voice more strained every word he let out.
"No of course not. You were talking after all." I said, smirk unquestionably there.
The jeers dinged out among the rest of the crowd, jangling their booze bottles as appropriate.
"You should, considering it is the word of your soon to be fiancé." Nobuyuki helpfully pointed out.
"Wow, way to state the obvious." I muttered, downing the last of my bottle.
"A-As I was saying, I think it's bullshit that they still make you go to those meetings Tsume. It's not like they want you to even be there." Haruo added.
"They don't want Nobuyuki-senpai there either, and yet.." Shizuka countered, moving her still-broken leg on the other side of the branch she was sitting on. Nobuyuki looked set to argue.
"Guys, can we stop throwing sparks at each other? It interferes with my sake." Michiko intervened, somehow balancing her cup on a bunch of leaves at the end of her branch.
"Aight, better question then. The hell's up with Shizuka's mission?!" Riku spluttered.
Shizuka collapsed in on herself. "Ya gotta do a lot to make the Red Hot Habanero of all people scared of you." Riku's partner barked in agreement.
"I'd rather not talk about it." She really oughta do better on hiding her emotions, she's like an open book sometimes.
'I wonder who that reminds me of.'
'Sssshhhh.'
"I don't think Shizuka likes to be reminded of something that permanently put her off the field. For all we know, she was lucky." Michiko intervened again.
There was a moment of silence, and I tried not to think about the spaces in the trees purposefully left empty.
"Look, why don't we all just head home already. It's three, and I've got a date tomorrow."
"How many does that make now, Michiko? Twelve in the last month?" Nobuyuki, ever the wise man, had to comment.
"Pff. No, of course not." It was ten.
"Whatever man, I'm going. Got stuff to do." Susumo said, and with a swish of his tail, Body-Flickered out. The rest followed, if less hurried. Haruo tried to come over to me, but Michiko swiftly walked past him in obvious dismissal. Slightly offended, he and his partner Body-Flickered away.
"Thanks." I said. Michiko looked troubled, her way too pretty face contorting slightly.
"Are you sure you can't convince the elders to give up on that?" Boy I wish.
"Nah, my dad's conceded way too much ground for that."
She shook her head. "Politics."
"Tell me about it."
I waited just below Shizuka's branch. She deftly jumped off, landing on her hands and slowly lowering herself down to the ground so as not to hurt her leg.
"That's risky. Using chakra like that."
She smiled reassuringly at us. "I'll be fi-" Her chakra flared roughly, and her canines elongated for a second, before retreating back. "I'll be fine, Tsume-sama."
'I don't know. That looked painful.'
"Like hell you are. But it's alright. Nothing we can do about it for now."
Michiko frowned. "Can't say I like this new Tsume. What happened to the old 'do or die' attitude from before? Just a few years earlier you'd have stormed the meetings and demanded the herbs yourself."
"I grew up that's what. Learned that sometimes playing the waiting game is better than fucking it up for other people." I responded, with a little more animosity than required.
"Tsume." Kuromaru warned.
'Yeah, yeah.' Silence reigned over the three of us.
'Look, now you've made it awkward.'
'Me?!'
'Yes, you.'
'You decided to open that stupid mouth of yours.'
'She started it..'
'Ha. Future clan leader everybody.'
"I'mma just.. Go now. I'll need the beauty sleep." She smiled in my direction.
I smiled back. "No, you don't."
Michiko jumped through the trees to the direction of her apartment, apparently not wanting to flicker through.
"You know, I thought that after the war, the animosity within the clan would die down a bit.." Shizuka said, after another long silence. Why am I still here?
I sighed. "Everyone's just tense. It'll blow over."
"Or boil over." She muttered, before vanishing as well.
'...Let's just get some more booze. I'mma need it.'
'Agreed.'
Arata P.O.V.
I raced through the trees, ducking and weaving through different branches and bushes to try to shake her off. Just before turning over a corner of a particularly spiky branch, a swift elbow almost caught my ankle. I picked up the speed even more, and promptly dashed my shoulder into the trunk of a tree. It's obvious she's playing with me. She could have ended this a long time ago. Thing is, she's faster and more agile than me. So why am I doing this?
Put plainly, I'm losing. And she likes winning too much to end this.
"Hahahahahahahaha!" Her maniacal laughing echoed through the trees. One that could strike fear into even the most dominant of apex predators. It was one of a ferocious beast on the hunt, settled in the knowledge that its prey could never truly escape, living out its last moment with the the angst of knowing their life is forfeit, and there was nothing they could do abou-
"Got ya!" Ayame cried, catching my midriff in midair into her arms, all giggles and sunshine and rainbows.
We crashed into a bush, cushioning the fall somewhat.
"Ah dammit." I tried not to pout, I really, really did. But put on the ropes by a child a quarter my age…
She smiled at me, a smile that only a child could produce. Full of innocence and bliss and... I really couldn't stay mad anymore.
"Fine, you win."
"Oh it's over already?" Shiromaru called out from the side, in the arms of an Akimichi girl in my class.
"I-I thought you did pretty well.." She said.
"Yeah! No one else my age survived as long as you did!" Ayame exclaimed, still on top of me for some reason. Survived?
I tried to subtly push her off. She didn't budge. The other two looked at us awkwardly, not sure how to respond.
I sighed, having flashbacks of me and my parents' reunion. In those early days they would stick to me like glue, and I just sort of learned to roll with it. They're better now, but I still get assaulted every now and then.
So, as per protocol, I just lifted myself up, with Ayame clinging to me. Like a scarf.
"Well, at least you're less heavy." She gave me a confused look. "Any of you know where Hayama went off to?"
Shiromaru inclined his head. "Over there, with Hyuurou and Tomoe, fiddling around in the sand or something."
We sauntered over to see what the big deal was.
"So whaddya got there?" I asked.
Hayama looked up from what he was doing. Tomoe next to him jumped away and glared at me. Like a cat. Ironic.
"Well I was just telling them that you could use the sand here in so many interesting ways. For tracking right? Sand-nin are really good at this. They use sand bombs on a target they're pursuing. This way they'll always leave a trail." Hayama explained.
"But how would you differentiate between the sand on the ground and the one you threw?" I asked.
"That's the best part!" He exclaimed excitedly. "This over here is garnet sand. It's a lot redder than the usual mixed quartz sand that you usually find. A lot of times they'll use this one or other fine volcanic sand."
"Wow." And I really was impressed. Every single day these kids give me more reason to be impressed by them. Sometimes it's like they're really just mini-adults, just taking this form cause they're harder to hit.
"Ha. Hayama's so awesome! He's way smarter than you'll ever be! …..Dolt!" Tomoe just had to remark. I take it back. They're all blundering idiots who make me wonder how a society that relies on these terrors still functions under such sheer id-
"Hey that's not nice! You should be nicer to Arata." Ayame defended.
"Yeah! What she said."
"I don't care! Being nice is stupid. And it's true anyway. Arata's so dumb he once tripped over a log he was staring directly at."
"No I didn't! I distinctly remember you pushing me over that log, you dunderhead!"
She growled. "Did you just call me a dunderhead?!"
"Guys, maybe we shouldn't ar—" Hayama tried to intercede, still blushing from Tomoe's comment.
"I'll call you whatever I want you glorified purse dog!" She gasped. In fact, several people did. Okay I maaay have jumped through a few too many hoops of propriety there.
Also those shadows on the ground seem awfully big and—oh. There's a giant fist hovering over my head. How did I not sense that?
"You can put them down now, Torune." Ayame nearly whispered in the silence. The Akimichi girl did as asked, and nonchalantly picked Shiromaru back up. Tomoe was sweating now.
"Why don't we all play a big game of ninja? I'll gather the rest." Ayame added.
Kouta, who had stayed uncharacteristically quiet till now, celebrated loudly. "Yatta!" Uh huh.
The group scattered, leaving me alone. Hayama went off with Kouta.
Damn it. I got myself all riled up again. By Tomoe, again. I'm a sad excuse for an adult.
I sat down next to a tree, moping, watching all the children coalesce into the clearing. There's Anko, riding Kouta's shoulders for some reason. Tomoe seems to be talking with Hayama again, Kami knows why. Blegh. I looked away.
"Weren't you supposed to rally the common folk?" I asked.
"Kouta can take care of that. He's really good at it too." Ayame emerged from the tree next to me. "Sometimes I think I'm just there to make sure no one beats each other up."
"What? Like me and Tomoe just now?" She hummed.
"Yup!" She exclaimed, then turned thoughtful. "Why do you two not like each other anyway?"
I picked up a stick and started poking the ground with it. "I don't really know. As far as I know, we never have. Tomoe's always been the favorite of the caretakers, and I'm decidedly not. I guess it started there. As to why it progressed, I have no idea."
"Really? Tomoe always talks about how everyone in her clan says she has to work hard to live up to you."
"Me? Why?" She shrugged.
"I don't know. But I kind of understand it." She picked up a stick too, and start playing with it. Inspired, I guess.
"How so?"
"I wanna be Clan Head someday, you know? It'd be awesome I think for everyone in the clan to finally listen to me. Right now, everyone thinks one of my older cousins is going to be Heir. Ever since dad died, I haven't even been looked at! It's not fair!" She flailed her stick around, as if she was hitting everyone in the clan on the head. "So my kaa-san has been training me a lot. But every time I do something awesome kaa-san's all like 'Asuma could already do this when he was half your age.' Or something stupid like that. It's not fair!" She shouted in anger.
"That doesn't make any sense. Most of the stuff I've seen you do is physically impossible for a two or three year old to do. Your kaa-san is lying to you." Her mom's putting a lot of pressure on her. I wonder why.
Her face lit up as if she was just told the secret to eternal youth. "Hah! Take that kaa-san!" She yelled triumphantly, then slumped, as if possessed. "I can't say that. Kaa-san's the only one in the clan that wants to train me. I can't be mad at her." She pouted.
"I guess we're in the same boat then. All the caretakers except one want nothing to do with me so only really my family wants to train me."
"Really? You're like me?!" She almost sparkled.
"Why do you sound so happy about that?"
"Well, when I tell everyone else about my clan they always get jealous and are all like 'you're so good at everything, why are you whining?' And then they ignore me."
"What aren't you good at then?"
"Well…" She started blushing. "Kaa-san's been trying to get me into using genjutsu, and.."
"..And what?" I could already see where this was going.
She stayed silent. "You know. I could help if you wanted me to. I mean, I'm fairly good at it. At least that's what my family thinks, anyway." And it was true, in a sense. For an Inuzuka, who barely ever bother with genjutsu, I'm light-years ahead of pretty much everyone in the clan, which is a little sad. I can't get much more into it though, because there's been no one to teach me.
"REALLY?!" Her eyes had stars.
"We're best friends now! You can't refuse me!" She ran up to me and tackle-hugged me. Gee, the ground sure is nice this time of day.
"Umm… alright…" I patted her head awkwardly. What do I even do with a creature like this? In just the last minute she's gone through at least seven different emotions. If you told me she also went through the five stages of grief in the middle of all of that I might've even believed you.
"Outta the way dork!" I felt a kick to my head, and a grinning Tomoe raced past me, shortly followed by Hyuurou running after her.
"You thought you could get away from me!?"
I looked around. Everyone else was either hiding or running from each other. Ayame gasped. "They started without us! How rude!" Yeah that'll get em'.
"Well you can't really blame them. We were talking for a long time."
"Yeah I guess we did." We made eye contact, and somehow I don't think she felt too upset about it.
"I'm still gonna kick all their stupid butts!"
And then there's that.
A/N. Supposed to be a part 1, but got sick of staring at this chapter so decided to upload it anyway.
I have no excuses.
Have a nice day!
Revised 4/25/2020. More minor revisions on 12/2/2021.