TOTR – Chapter Four

Part the four

Where you plan to have an intermission chapter, where theoretically nothing should happen, but instead you introduce two important characters, start the premise for the main part of the story and have all the characters meet up and chat about irrelevant things. Some things don’t go my way at times.

 

Something wasn’t right.

 

Actually, there were many things that were not right. This exchange program for one, it came to her like three thorns in her backside that would follow her everywhere she went, disrupting her schedule and upsetting her balance. Yamato’s attitude was disturbing her as well, but with a little focus that was easy to ignore. The next thing that wasn’t right was Danjuro, but she had been using an effigy of him for target practice recently, so he didn’t matter. Shikamaru wasn’t right either, he was the dangerous type of intelligence, where he’s so smart that things became too easy for him. If it wasn’t for his lazy attitude, he might be a major threat one day. Even with it, he was still a force to consider.

 

But the main thing that wasn’t right at the moment was them sending her away.

 

Not on her own, of course. She still had to attend to these little genin. Chouji, Ino and the confusing Shikamaru was following fast behind her. She had assessed that all three were reasonably talented, in their own way, as shown by last nights exercise and now, as they skimmed through the branches heading south, they showed no sign of having any trouble keeping up, which was good, since she had no intention of waiting for them.

 

”There’s been word of a disturbance, on the beaches to the south. Our agents have seen signs of unwelcome visitors. We wish for you to check it out.”

 

‘A disturbance to the south, what on earth?’ Sayuki thought to herself as she bounced effortlessly off each tree in front of her, leaving not a single trace of her presence as she did. It was obvious what he meant by unwelcome visitors. Foreign shinobi had been sighted and, naturally without permits, they were to be removed as soon as possible. Something still wasn’t right though.

 

“But, Raikage-sama, you have assigned me to the genin exchange program. While I am not happy with my current assignment, you should not be removing me from it just because I ask.”

 

She had figured that the advisor had informed her master of her outburst the previous night. There was a possibility that her blowing her top and running down to the Raikage residence might have been seen as a sign of failure.

 

“You are to continue your current assignment as well, Sayuki. It is merely a scouting mission and you are one of our fastest agents. You are to take your new associates down to the beach as well.”

 

There was just one huge contradiction in that sentence that she noticed immediately. Taking the kids had slowed her down. She didn’t want to stop for them, but she was moving slower than usual, so they wouldn’t get left behind. Why were they sending her down here if time was an issue and then adding weights to her legs? It would have been better to leave them at home. It had taken her an extra day to get here now. The trail would be getting cold.

 

“Scout the area, see who is there, and then visit Kabule and report your findings there to the one waiting for you, then stay the night there. Only approach who is it if you are sure you can handle it without damaging the children. This is important. Do you accept your new orders?”

 

She may be facing a dangerous enemy. An adversary wouldn’t just send genin across the ocean. It may have just been smugglers, but even then there was always a chance of something happening along the way. Sending her across the country, putting her in a dangerous situation she could handle, but giving her a further disadvantage by bringing the kids along, whilst stating that they shouldn’t be put in too much danger. Why was this happening? It didn’t upset her as much as confuse her. There were too many things wrong. She was already in a mission. There should be agents closer to the beach than she was. To give her good reason to why she was being sent and then contradict it. To make her go to one of the nearby villages to report before returning home and spend the night. Why bother when she could just return home straight away? It sounds like they were trying to get rid of her for a short while. It’s exactly what they were doing.

 

“Yes sir!”

 

But still, she would go. She had always gone, she probably always would.

 

**********************************

 

Ino started pushing her feet harder. She panted the first few times, but then got into the habit. Her new teacher was just a foot ahead of her and she didn’t want to slow the older woman down, but she had to ask something.

 

“Sayuki-sensei?” she called out, the mere act of talking breaking her rhythm. Ino felt slightly annoyed when she didn’t receive a response.

 

“Sayuki-sensei?” she practically whined this time, as she finally caught up with the jounin now skimming to the side of her. She got a slight feeling that the older woman had slowed down for her.

 

“I heard you, be quiet,” the jounin commanded rudely. Ino almost stopped her movement as she heard this, her body kept itself in automatic for the next few seconds before Sayuki glanced at her slightly.

 

“What is it?”

 

“Where are we going? We’ve been moving a whole day now and you’ve barely said a word. Is this our next exercise?” The jounin was silent for a few seconds, as if contemplating something that came out of Ino’s words. She looked back for just another second.

 

“No, it’s mine,” she replied briefly. “I think. We’ll find out when we get there. We’ll be at the shore in fifteen minutes.” As she heard Shikamaru mumble something about her last sentence, she saw Ino’s look of worry reflect what she was feeling inside. It felt like the worse was going to happen, that everything was about to go wrong. Even the sunshine and birds chirping seemed out of place. She hoped for it to crack and thunder and pour and gale as soon as possible, just to put her feelings to rest, the wind would take them all away, it always did. She glanced back over and realized that the girl had overtaken her, the same look of worry still on her face.

 

“Relax. Whatever happens, I’ll protect you all. It’s my duty.”

 

****************************************************

 

“Screw you guys,” Danjuro shouted, as he held the giant frying pan over the small stack of wood, the weapons special properties stealing all the heat coming from it and keeping the three children as wet as when they had pulled themselves out of the ocean. “Make your own fire. This one is necessary for me to get my pan nice and warm. It doesn’t want you dripping on it!”

 

“But our clothes are soaking wet, as is all our gear,” Kiba complained angrily. Besides him, both Hinata and Akamaru whimpered in unison, the dog had been spinning itself dry for ages, but the wet sand was still stuck to his fur, preventing him from getting warm. A few feet away, Shino just sat, drenched.

 

“It is reasonably hot,” he stated. “We should dry quickly.”

 

“Speak for yourself man. I’m freezing here.” He shook his arms to show how much water was coming off of his vest.

 

“Then remove the rest of your clothes,” Shino stated as Danjuro began humming a tune, placing bacon on the frying pan as he did so. Hinata was still shaking slightly as she looked at the body of the dead animal, its little forehead protector still hanging around its neck.

 

“What? You gay or something? No way man.” He would have normally had no problem stripping off fully, but he didn’t want Hinata to bust a blood vessel blushing. He had made a joke about the differences between male and female chests the other day, and she didn’t move from her seat for twenty minutes; he didn’t want to risk going any further. She too, was currently under the same, shivering conditions, her jacket was hanging off a tree, but her embarrassment from being able to see her undergarments through her netted top was clear. Shino had remained fully clothed and didn’t seem at all bothered.

 

“Do not call me that, you ignorant dog boy.” Kiba grinned slightly at this, excited in his own way by annoying his fellow genin. He began to walk towards Shino.

 

“What? Aren’t there homosexual bugs or something? Come on, you can admit it, we’re all friends here.”

 

“Kiba-kun,” Hinata whispered to her team-mate. It went unnoticed.

 

“You don’t seem at all interested in girls, you just play with your little bugs all the time.” Shino could see what he was doing. The training had frustrated him and he wanted to blow off stream and get warm in the process. He might just oblige.

 

“What about you? Your partnership with that dog seems a little beyond friendship.”

 

“What did you say?” Kiba shouted, as Akamaru growled loudly to back up his partner, his plan of annoying Shino rebounding as he became angry.

 

“Kiba-kun.”

 

“I’m gonna rip a hole in you so big, that your queen bug would take ten years to fill it with eggs.” He stretched into his stance, bringing his hands together to form a seal.

 

“You’re referring to wasps, fool,” Shino replied, raising his arms to each side.

 

“Shut up, you freak!” As Kiba dropped his hands and jumped towards the insect carrier, his fist pulling behind him to strike.

 

“Kiba-kun!” Hinata finally shouted. Her voice was followed by a clanging sound.

 

“Would you guys shut up and eat,” Danjuro shouted, dropping the pan next to the two boys, as Kiba’s punch stopped just short of Shino’s face. “You’ve got to learn to keep your voice down, little girl.”

 

“Hey, she didn’t do anything, don’t shout at her.” Kiba turned around to defend his pathologically shy companion, knowing full well that she wouldn’t do it herself. The jounin response seemed to be a full on punch to the stomach, which completely took the boy for surprise. The boy gasped, as air left his body, before dropping to his knees.

 

“I told you all to shut up and eat. Now do it while I investigate that sound.” The three of them perked their ears to this, having heard nothing and still unable to even now. Hinata thought of asking if he wanted help, but couldn’t bring herself to do so. As the other two sat down, Kiba limping to a spare rock, she simply joined them.

 

‘Why am I so uptight?’ he asked himself as he moved silently through the undergrowth. He was nicer to Kouji and Tomo than he was being to these kids. He mildly wondered to himself whether or not he should threaten to fire his two waiters and replacing them with cattle when he got back. He always loved doing that. The bright thoughts pulled away the frustrating ones as he moved along, but they still bothered him. How could he make such a huge error? He was too busy trying to intimidate the new flesh so that he could have an easy month that he completely missed the fact that they had started moving in the wrong direction. After they had disappeared, he just followed their trail, too intent to catching up as quickly as possible that he hadn’t even noticed that they had gone the wrong way. They had clearly been using the moon as a reference point, somehow forgetting that the giant piece of rock tended to move, or was it them moving, what did it matter? He found it all very frustrating. Hopefully, whatever animal was nearby would satisfy him in someway. This country had excellent food stocks in their small forests.

 

It was just around this corner. He stood waiting.

 

*****************************************

 

“Stop,” Sayuki commanded in a hushed voice. “There’s something here.” As the three genin finally had chance to stop, Sayuki noted what she could from the noise.

 

“One creature, human, not moving,” she mumbled to herself, her voice monotonous. “No obvious associates, no hiding associates, no noticeable cargo, around five and a half foot.” She felt it move slightly. “We’re hiding,” she said instinctively, and the genin followed suit, even Chouji was quick to get in a position that was hard to spot. Focusing on the fat boy a second too long, fearing that he might not have been paying attention, she almost lost track of Shikamaru and Ino. This alone impressed her, to most they probably would have disappeared from the senses, she could see how they got so far the previous night.

 

Turning her attention forward, the human still hadn’t moved much. It was leaning against a tree, she could sense that much. She raised her hand and tilted it slightly, before she began slowly moving herself. Careful of being detected in any way, unsure of what may be around the area and somewhat surprised to have found it so easily, she practically merged through the bushes and approached her target.

*******************************************

 

He was grinning now, it was the part of his life that he loved the most. He was the hunter, one of the best, nothing could hide from him. Not even Mizukage-sama could fully hide for him. It’s why he was so valued in the village. He could find any animal, any ninja, he even found that hidden arms factory in another country in just the space of a week. And when he often tracked it, found it, whatever, he knew with a warm feeling in his heart that it would always end up in his frying pan. Although that was why he tended to be feared in the village as well.

 

It was coming closer; it was, surprisingly, moving on two legs, and had others with it, three small ones. Were they human? Their movement suggested shinobi. He pulled out a shuriken, intending to use it for an initial decoy if that was the case. He stayed his ground.

 

*******************************************

 

It shuffled slightly, Sayuki noted, and she raised her hand for the others to stop, not wanting to risk them if it had discovered their presence somehow. She had to take into account that it wasn’t entirely impossible for whoever it was to sense her. A few weeks ago, there had been reports of one of the legendary exiles in the country, although if that were the case, they would probably all be dead by now, if it had wanted to kill them.

 

She decided to go further on her own. Turning to signal this to the kids, she went on.

 

*******************************************

 

It would have been boring in any other case, Danjuro noted, but being in foreign lands seemed to excite him a little more. He had no idea what was coming, but it now seemed a little more aware of him. The smaller ones had apparently stopped as well, and he could sense them shuffling slightly in apprehension. Should he get them too, or just let them go? It’s not like they would survive anyway without a mother.

 

Five more meters. He still couldn’t see anything.

 

*******************************************

 

Two more meters. Behind the tree. If this were just an animal, she would probably scream. It had to be human though; it would have been shorter otherwise.

 

She was close enough. She brought out a wooden kunai and jumped up into the air, grabbing the trunk of the tree and wrapping around it, as she sighted the target, she threw her weapon.

 

***************************************

One more meter, Danjuro thought, getting himself braced. Suddenly, he sensed that the opponent was in the air. He looked up in shock to see a large figure attack him.

 

**************************************

 

Sayuki glared as she saw the human effortlessly block her wooden knife, but didn’t stop. Using her initial momentum, as well as the blind spot her first attack would have caused, she came down hard, striking the opponent with her foot. With amazing reflexes, her unknown target blocked as effortlessly as before, and easily countered the next three kicks, before delivering an attack of his own. The large weapon swung around without warning, and Sayuki back flipped out of the way, grabbing grass in her hands as she moved over her own body.

 

As she up righted herself, she caught sight of her opponent for the first time, although there wasn’t much to see for the large cloak. It didn’t matter; this had to be the illegal immigrant. She formed four seals in a blur, before holding the strands of grass to her mouth.

 

“Kazeton: Steel slicing…”

 

“Sayuki-sensei?”

 

The adolescent voice stopped her technique and her eyes stretched, the wind blowing the pasture in her hands into itself. She felt her body freeze as emotions tried to rock it. As she fought them off, the girl, apparently looked on, clearly as surprised as her ‘teacher’ was.

 

“Itako-chan?”

 

“I thought it was you, sensei,” the newcomer stated. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.” She pulled her weapon out from under her cloak. Sayuki recognized it to be a large bronze naginata, the pole made out of oak, and the blade poorly sharpened, but still razor thin. She almost laughed. It was clear why the girl had chosen that particular weapon. Her technical thoughts disappeared under the weight of the situation. Itako was trouble. The girl swung her weapon around to get her bearings, before bearing the weapon at her former master.

 

“You don’t have to do this, Itako,” Sayuki warned the girl, her open hand filling the space between them.

 

“Why not? We both know that that stupid village isn’t going to let me back and you, you stupid fuck, would be more than willing to bring me in.”

 

“I let you go the first time, didn’t I?” Sayuki replied weakly, she froze, the kids were moving forward. They must have heard their voices and assumed the situation was safe. It was very bad, considering Itako’s special ability.

 

“You only let me go because I wasn’t considered exiled then. You think I don’t know you? You’d become a whore if that fuckface told you to.” Itako stopped in mid sentence, as she noticed other presences around them. “You bitch,” she screamed at Sayuki, as she pulled out a small round ball.

 

“Itako, no!” It was too late, the grenade went flying towards where Chouji was now screaming. Ino was fortunately focused enough to grab him, pulling him out of the initial explosion and both of them getting caught in the shockwave. Ino screamed in protest to the pain, as they were both thrown straight into a tree. Sayuki turned to attack her student, when Itako started screaming at her again.

 

“You got new students?” she screamed. “You bitch, you think we’re just dogs to be replaced or something?”

 

“You know that’s not…”

 

“Shut the fuck up,” Itako interrupted, now charging, spinning the large, spear like weapon around her head. Her emotion now replaced by a sense of duty, to protect the kids and possibly to capture the exile, Sayuki didn’t hold back. She grabbed the naginata easily, before kicking the girl in her stomach. Itako’s cloak got caught in the jounin foot, and Sayuki quickly used this to her advantage, pulling at the garment to spin her opponent around, removing the disguise in the process.

 

Shikamaru looked on, surprised at what he saw. In front of him must have been a girl only a little older than himself. She was wearing a white tank top and blue demin shorts that covered her ivory white skin. It was hard to tell if she wore them out of necessity or choice, but they were covered in small rips and looked like they had been washed in a river. She wasn’t wearing any shoes. The girl didn’t look that strong, she looked under nourished and it looked wrong that she was taking on the jounin without being instantly defeated. The weirdest thing about her was her red and white bandana. It looked poorly dyed, as if it had fell in a pool of paint. It gave Shikamaru an odd feeling, like his stomach was bleeding. It covered her long, blond hair as well as her eyes. It was clearly a thick fabric, he wondered how she could see through it.

 

Ino’s groan brought him out of his transfixed state. Both she and Chouji were clearly injured, but they were on the other side of the two fighting. If he stood up, this girl was probably going to get angry with him as well.

 

“Damn women,” he muttered, as he looked for a gap.

 

Back in the battle, Itako had recovered from the first attack, but had not done any good in avoiding the rest. Sayuki launched kick after kick at the exiled girl, the speed of the jounin proving to be too much for her. With a final knee to the stomach, Itako fell to the floor. Sayuki stood, not entirely sure what to do next. She watched over her ex-pupil as Shikamaru took the moment to run across to his teammates. He seemed more annoyed than concerned. Beneath her, Itako choked a little as the she tried to lift herself up.

 

“Itako…i…”

 

“Shut up,” the girl screamed. “Just shut the fuck up!” Swinging her weapon blindly as she unleashed her rage. Sayuki easily jumped out of the way, before reacting to the explosive powder covering the girl’s weapon. The bronze hit a large rock embedded in the ground, and Sayuki began to jump further away just as she saw the spark.

 

The area exploded, filling it with smoke and various pieces of debris. The jounin avoided all and stood patiently for the smoke to clear. Whatever Itako would do, she knew that she wouldn’t have to put much effort into getting around it.

 

It took her only another moment to realize that the girl had gone, now running at least six hundred meters from their current position. Deep down, the jounin was glad. She didn’t entirely want to capture the girl, yet knew she would if it came down to it. Orders were orders, after all. On the other hand, she would still have to report it when she got back. With an accurate position on the girl, it would probably only be a matter of days before she was finally caught.

 

Chouji’s light cry turned her around, when she saw Shikamaru pick him up and drag him into the clearing. It reasserted her. There were other things to think about for now. For one, if Itako wasn’t the immigrant , who was, and where were they?

 

***************************************

 

“Who wants Kangaroo meat?” Danjuro shouted, announcing his presence to the three genin that sat round his fire as he returned to them. In one hand, he held a large white marsupial. In the other were three smaller ones. The genin looked on in a mixture of shock and absolute terror, both at the vast strength showed by their new teacher but also the nauseating feeling rippling over their stomachs.

 

“Kangaroos?” Kiba said, with as much shock as if Danjuro had walked by holding his slaughtered family instead.

 

“Would you believe it?” the jounin said with an adolescent excitement. “I had no idea they had kangaroos here. I mean it just isn’t the climate y’know. They must have been imported or something and escaped into the forest.” He threw the dead animals on the ground next to the children, practically causing Hinata to scream as he knelt down to examine them.

 

“Look at their fur, it’s white. They’ll probably be extra tender after they get fried. Isn’t it beautiful?” He held the head of one of the children up for Kiba to see. The boy nearly answered by projectile vomit.

 

“Errr…. No.” Danjuro looked confused for a moment, as if he couldn’t guess why Kiba was horrified.

 

“Wh…why…?” Hinata began.

 

“Why? Well, I guess it’s how glossy their coats off. I mean…come on, come feel it. Come on.”

 

“N…!” Hinata weakly shouted, the syllable turning into silence before it had even finished. Nobody said anything as they all turned to face Hinata. She stayed quiet for a moment, not wanting to continue, trying to shrink into her own coat and actually considering running, ashamed at her failed outburst. She thought of Naruto for a moment. She couldn’t say why.

 

“Why did you kill them?”

 

Danjuro took a few seconds to answer. He was about to state how the mother attacked him first and how he was defending himself. This was the excuse he usually had to tell his fellow ninja, usually when he had compromised a mission to go fishing. However, this excuse would then be met up by the fact he didn’t actually have a reason as to why he killed the children, or even pursued one of them, pretending to give up and attaching an exploding note to it’s leg as he did so. Before he had a chance to say anything, he heard a rustle behind them.

 

“This is such a hassle. Why do we have to carry them?” one of the voices whined out. The ears of the genin picked up as they vaguely recognized the voice.

 

“It’s just to the beach, and you have the light one, so don’t complain. There’s a camp here, we’ll see if we can get help,” another voice said. The ears of the jounin burning as he instantly distinguished the woman it belonged to.

 

“How troublesome.”

 

“Is that…?” Kiba asked confused, as he recognized the male voice.

 

“Ah, it’s her,” Danjuro replied, every cell in his body preparing for what was about to come.

 

“Her?” They all turned as the four figures pulled themselves out of the bushes, two of them being carried. They lifted their heads out of curiosity as they saw who it was.

 

“Shikamaru?”

 

“Huh? Kiba? What are you doing here?”

 

“You! I guess I should be meeting you. It’s finally time to finish this!”

 

“Huh? Who are you guys?” Sayuki asked with eyes half open, like she had found someone waiting by her front door.

 

“What? How could you…?” He grinned. “Oh I get it, messing with me huh. Well i…” He stopped in mid sentence when he realized she wasn’t looking at him. “Pay attention!” he screeched.

 

“Leaf genin?” Sayuki said in confusion, as she saw their headbands. “How’d you get here?” As Danjuro jumped to attack her, she stepped to the side, making him miss her completely. For some reason the kids couldn’t help but feel that it had been intentional on both sides.

 

“I’m finishing this today,” he stated boldly. “We’re equal in so many ways, my eternal rival, and the amount of times we’ve fought, people would think there was no end, but today will be the day, no, the hour, the one precious moment where I shall finally defeat you and then, then, I shall steal your panties.”

 

“Steal your panties!”

 

“Steal your panties!”

 

“Steal your panties!”

 

Everyone observing the scene froze, this being the last thing they were expecting from a fully grow male who carried around an obscure phallic symbol everywhere he went. Sayuki, as if she had recognized him from the moment they met, started to stutter as she turned to him. For the first time in years, she could be compared to a broken record.

 

“That’s…that’s why you’ve been harassing me all these years? For my underwear?”

 

“Why else?” Danjuro shouted, as if it was the only valid reason. “I am the hunter, I track down my prey and when I’ve done so, I take an item off of their possession as proof that I’ve found them. Nothing will stop me, woman. Even if you escape now, I will track you down to the ends of the earth and take what is rightfully mine.”

 

“How…how are they rightfully his?” Ino mumbled in confusion, having been awoken by the mere stupidity of the situation.

 

“Fight me, woman!” Danjuro requested. “And the winner shall take the underwear of the loser. Our years old feud, our eternal rivalry, will be answered today.”

 

“No,” Sayuki answered simply without anger or malice, and turned around to start checking up on the wounds of her genin. Danjuro stood in a dramatic pose as his temporary genin continued to watch, unsure of what to do next. Kiba was biting deeply into his left hand, an alternative to committing suicide, he told himself.

 

“No?” Danjuro repeated. “No? We are eternal rivals. We are supposed to fight forever.” Sayuki stood back up and jumped right in his face.

 

“First, how the hell are we eternal rivals? I’ve known you for four years, and in that time, I’ve met you six or seven times. Two, you’re doing nothing but contradict yourself here. You’re talking about fighting forever and ending it all today. How the hell does that make sense? And three you’re… you’re just…just annoying me.” She turned back around, walking to the kids again. Chouji was still out of it, but Ino was okay, if not mildly traumatised. Danjuro was speechless.

 

“You…you don’t see it the same way I do?” he , feeling his energy drop. “But it’s a huge story in my village. Danjuro vs. Sayuki, forever and ever.”

 

“Danjuro? Is that your name?” she asked politely, as she was bandaging Chouji’s wounds, not even looking at the jounin anymore. She spent a few minutes more on Chouji as Danjuro remained motionless, his arms had gone limp, and his body weight was resting on the giant frying pan’s handle. Eventually, Sayuki stood back up. “So what the hell are you doing in my country anyway?”

 

“We’re invading,” Danjuro mumbled, not really caring anymore.

 

“What?” Sayuki gasped, paying more attention now.

 

“We took a wrong turn,” stated Kiba, with more truth than his jounin had wished for.

 

“And ended up in a different country?” Sayuki commented.

 

“Is that so hard for you to comprehend, woman?” Danjuro stated.

 

“I guess so. I’m not an idiot, so I’m not prone to those type of things.”

 

“I’m no idiot.”

 

“Oh yeah?” Sayuki replied grinning with a superior tone. “Mind telling me how you missed your own country by a full two hundred and seventy degrees.”

 

“Don’t make it sound big. It was only ninety.”

 

“Doesn’t hide the fact you’re missed a whole country and hit another one. Most jounin have a ninety nine percent hit rate. You don’t even appear to have even one.”

 

“Damn you woman!” He had lost it, and Sayuki clearly didn’t care as he charged blindly towards her. She jumped out of the way, barely making any motion.

 

“I’m not some brute who’ll fight for the sake of it. If I don’t have my orders, I’m not going to fight you.”

 

“Fine, then I’ll make you fight me.” He raised his hands, and formed what had to be fifteen seals in a blur. When he finished, he took a step back.

 

“Hissatsu:Pantsutake!” He charged towards her, and Sayuki remained as still as before, intending only to move at the last second. As he reached her, he increased his speed slightly, distracting her with the burst as he got near.

 

“Got you!” he screamed as his right hand darted out, brushing her every so slightly. She got away at the last moment, able to pass by him with him barely scratching her. She turned her head slightly, allowing herself to grin a little.

 

“I don’t know what that was supposed to do, but it clearly faile…!” Her eyes opened wide in shock, as she caught a glimpse of what he was now holding in his right hand. He looked as shocked as she was.

 

“Boxer…. shorts?” he said, scratching his head, as he dangled the garment out in front of him.

 

“When did you…?” She patted her hips quickly. They were clearly gone, but he had barely touched her. She looked round as the genin had mixed looks of confusion and bewilderment on their faces. Ino looked deeply mortified.

 

“Boxer… shorts?” It seemed to be the word on everybody’s mind. Sayuki felt her legs go weak as the blood left them and went to her cheeks, her arms began to flail aimlessly as she poorly attempted to explain the situation..

 

“It’s not like I…. I mean I don’t….it’s not a regular….” The Konoha genin remained as nonplussed as before as the respectful Lightning ninja turned into a jibbering wreck before them. “They’re just more comfortable, that’s all.”

 

Her confession was interrupted by a burst of laughter behind her. She turned to see the Mist ninja in hysterics. “Well, that’s certainly interesting,” he replied. “But I don’t want boxer shorts.” For a second, Sayuki thought that he was going to toss them in some stupid attempt to have them land on her face. Instead, she watched in horror as he pulled out some cooking matches and set alight to them, her final shred of dignity for the moment disappearing in a sea of flames. “Woah, strangely flammable.” He dropped them onto the floor and Sayuki watched as they floated to the ground. As they did so, she had the strangest, most sorrowful music play in her head, as images of her and the great times she had had with her underwear floated through her head, dancing through the fields, eating dinner together, the day she lost her umbrella and they gave her theirs. She was pretty sure that at least half of it was real.

 

Like the handkerchief in a men’s duel, the second the burning mass touched the floor, Sayuki charged towards Danjuro, now more than willing to take up his previous request. Seeing this himself, he stepped back, and grabbed the handle of his pan, ready to swing or defend, based on her actions. As was her style, he saw her forming seals, but instinctively knew that she was using it as a decoy, intending to tackle him when she got close. Neither had a chance.

 

As they approached each other, they immediately became aware of another presence, resting in the trees above them. Any attacks were called off as the two jounin looked in the direction of the newcomer. Despite being a mist ninja, he made no attempt to hide himself. Danjuro recognized him instantly.

 

“Takeda-chan?” the jounin said as he acknowledged his fellow ninja. The man stared at him for a moment, his dark, red eyes observing the scene around him.

 

“Please don’t call me that, Danjuro-san,” he asked respectfully, as stepped forward and landed on the ground twenty feet below him like he had just walked down a step. Sayuki immediately noticed his height, having to crane her neck up to meet his face, a full three feet higher than hers. The man seemed to be a wall of muscle, with a relaxed expression on his face. He looked around once more, before saying nothing.

 

There was silence in the forest for a moment, and several of the genin felt they should say something to fill the silence. Danjuro beat them to it.

 

“What are you doing here?” The tanned jounin sounded very annoyed by the man’s presence, Sayuki noted. He clearly didn’t like this man.

 

“Mizukage-sama…” The tall man fell silent again, as if he was thinking of nothing. “I am to check on you.”

 

“You’re being lazy again. Give me your full mission.” Danjuro practically growled as he commanded his nakama. The one known as Takeda seemed to ignore this, feeling that talking was too awkward. He looked around for a few moments, it looked like he was hoping someone else would talk. When no one did, he rubbed the back of his head.

 

“He wants you back in the country. He’s not going to like this. Please come back as soon as possible.” With that, the eight footer turned around to leave, disappearing in a puff of smoke, leaving only…

 

“Mushrooms?” Kiba noted. That particular type didn’t grow on the ground, which meant that the jounin made them appear there.

 

“Teh, what a nuisance,” Danjuro complained, turning back to face his opponent. “Of all the times to interrupt….OI!”

 

Sayuki wasn’t paying direct attention to him anymore. He turned to face her as she walked over to a fat kid and knelt by him.

 

“I’ll deal with you later,” she stated, as she looked over the boys injuries. “I have bigger concerns right now.” The majority of the genin wandered over to Chouji’s unconscious body. He was mumbling slightly due to the pain, and Ino swore she heard him mention food.

 

“Is he alright?” Kiba asked, with a half smile on his face. To him, it was partially amusing that it was Chouji who had got like this.

 

“Yes, he is fine. Just took the shockwave of an explosion.” Next to her, Hinata quickly rummaged through her bag, pulling out a small little pot.

 

“He…here, u…se thi…”

 

“I have some ointment,” Sayuki spoke to herself, as she got out a small jar and began lathering it on the boy’s chakra pores. “His burns should be healed in the hour at this rate.” Hinata shuffled back as she realized she wasn’t needed. As the jounin finished up, she turned back around to face the other jounin and sat down.

 

“I don’t really care what you’re doing here or how you got here, even though I already know the answer to both,” she began, as she glanced at the sun to figure out the time. “But I was given a mission to investigate the disturbance that either you or your friend just caused.”

 

“He’s not exactly…”

 

“Anyway. Now that you’re here, you’re coming back to my village.”

 

“What?” Danjuro’s exclamation of shock was echoed by three of the genin.

 

“Don’t complain. I have to show Raikage-sama some kind of proof of what I found. Your body should be enough, and then I can continue with my prior assignment.”

 

“Oh, so you want my body now? Well, you’re going to have to fight me for it,” Danjuro quipped to the woman in front of him, but she was no longer there. He looked at her in shock as she jumped to the trees behind him. It wasn’t just his imagination. She was now faster than last time. Before, he was definitely faster, but now, they were at least equal, and his eyes hadn’t been ready to keep up.

 

“Let ‘s go. All of you.” No one had really noticed, but Chouji had already gotten up and was halfway through a packet of crisps. Sayuki’s three genin looked at each other, before jumping after her. Shino walked over to his teacher.

 

“Are we going as well? We don’t hold any obligation.” Danjuro thought about it for a whole of five seconds, before unleashing his trademark grin.

 

“Ah, why not,” he decided. “As far am I’m concerned, I got nothing to do this month anyway. We’ll oblige for now.” With that, he also pushed himself into the trees, leaving the three genin slightly bewildered in his wake.

 

“Is this a good idea?” Hinata asked, failing to notice she didn’t stutter.

 

“Probably not,” Kiba thought aloud. “But what’s the worst that can happen? Her village is part of the program too. We just have to be a little careful.” With that, Kiba jumped off, followed by Akamaru and then the other two. Unaware that a certain jounin was still watching them, deep in the forest.

 

Even deeper in the forest, a young girl lay down tending a bruised arm whilst moaning to herself. The backfire of her naginata had cost her a little pain, but that was nothing to the pain she felt of betrayal. She felt nothing but hatred for that bitch. As she grunted, wiping the blood with a patch of dried leaves, she heard the footsteps of eight people and an animal. Leaving herself to haemorrhage, she grabbed her weapon and jumped off after them.

 

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Woo, part four done. These are kind of getting too long. Although, in the same way, they’re about the size as most book chapters, so no complaints.

 

All characters have pretty much been introduced now and there’s even been much character development and relations, as well as a few fights, so plot can finally be allowed to properly develop. Yay for me

 

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