Something to Fight For (Naruto)

Teaching (On the Road)

Once they were about five minutes away, Rei and Haruka slowed down a bit. Nii-San and his teacher were probably going to walk most of the way, so if they kept up a steady jog the pair would be able to catch up before they reached the town.

Keeping her eyes forward, Haruka decided to speak up. "Good job."

"Doing...?" Rei asked, turning her head toward her sensei.

"The whip. Your placement of it is excellent."

With a grin, the younger girl spun around and began jogging backwards. "Thanks! It didn't take too long to think of, ya' know. We accidentally got pants that were too big, and all of Otou-san's belts are HUGE. So I just thought to myself, 'well, Rei, you got some droopy drawers and-" Yelping, she crashed into a tree on the side of the trail. Haruka continued on, not missing a beat.

Quickly catching up, Rei returned to Haruka's side. She gave a slight embarrassed chuckle, scratching the back of her head. "So, when am I actually going to learn to use this thing?"

Haruka thought about it for a second. Once they caught up with her brother, she would be too preoccupied with him to be able to teach her anything useful. She was obligated to at least teach her something, though, so they would have to squeeze some time on on the way there.

"We can start now."

Rei squealed, jumping and throwing her hands up. "Alright, let's get started!"

Not breaking her stride, Haruka slid over to the tree line and grabbed the thorniest vine there. Careful not to prick herself, she held it out to Rei. "To begin, you must jump rope with this for an hour straight without injuring yourself."

Frowning, she gingerly took the vine out of her hand. "How will this help me? Everyone knows how to jump rope." She complained, barely managing to keep up her pace while avoiding the thorns.

"You must learn how to use your weapon without injuring yourself. This will help you get used to that." This exercise was only the first step in helping Rei handle her whip, but Haruka could already foresee problems. The girl could barely keep it from scratching her while jogging.

Warily, she began jump roping. Right away, a thorn nicked her left shin, making her drop the vine on her foot, pricking her toe. "Damn it!" She cursed, throwing her hands up.

Haruka cuffed her on the back, pursing her lips. "Do not cuss. It is an unseemly habit." She ordered sternly.

Mumbling under her breath, Rei picked her vine up again, rolling her eyes. Once again, she was smacked across the back of the head. "Ow! What was the for?!" She demanded, clenching her fists, accidentally cutting her palms.

"Respect your Sensei." She would never admit it, but Haruka was getting some amusement from all this. All this teaching business seemed to be bringing out her inner sadist.

Nostrils flaring, Rei held out her hands. "Can you at least fix my hands, Nee-jāku?"

Once again, Haruka hit her, a minuscule forming in her lips. "No. The pain will help you learn faster. And do not call me 'jerk sister'."

By this point, Rei had developed a humongous eye twitch. Gritting her teeth, she started jumping, glaring daggers at her Sensei's back. Why did she have to pick the most evil kunoichi in Konoha to be teacher?

Rei's training slowed the pair's progress quite a bit. They had to keep stopping very time she tripped and, once they moved onto a road surrounded by fields, to get to a new vine when hers snapped. Her record so far was five minutes before she got cut.

Two hours in, Rei started to really get annoyed. It didn't take a genius to know that Haruka was dying of laughter on the inside. "If you think this so funny, why don't try?!" She growled after seeing her nose wriggle from suppressed laughter for the billionth time after her billionth fall.

"As you wish." She humored her, running across the field on her left to quickly get another vine. Getting back into pace with Rei, she twirled the vine slowly, getting a feel for it

The second she started, she fell. Dirt was shoved up her mouth and nose, and her palms were scraped. Stunned, she stayed on the ground for a few seconds as Rei doubled over with laughter.

Expressionless, she stood back up and began gathering her chakra to heal her hands and start again.

"Woah, woah, woah, Nee-chan! What do you think you're doing? 'The pain will help you learn faster'. Ain't that right?" She teased, spinning her vine beside her.

Haruka shook her wrists after a short pause, removing the chakra. With a brisk nod, she went back to the exercise, taking it seriously unlike before.

----------------------------------------------------

On their journey, they passed a few other travelers. It was quite a sight to see the two girls using vines as jump ropes, one growling with an aggressive look on her face, and the other cold and passive. Mothers moved their children as as far as possible from them, ninja kept their hands on their kunai, and everyone else did their best to erase the sight from their minds.

By the time the sun fell, Rei was able to go a whole fifteen minutes while Haruka could go for sixteen. This caused the academy student no end of annoyance, but she was determined to catch up.

Haruka would have preferred to go on through the night, but that was when most of the criminals came out, and she didn't know how she would be able to keep her student and herself safe. It would be better to find a nice place to settle down for the night and continue on in the morning. Hopefully, they would still have plenty of time to catch up to Nii-san.

"Are we gonna sleep in a tree? I've always wanted to do that! Or maybe we could find a tree hollow. Or what about-" Haruka placed her hand over Rei's mouth, dragging her over to a small shrine in the side of the road.

It was basically four long poles with a flat board on top acting as a makeshift roof. Underneath, there was a small statue of a shirtless man sitting on his knees, an empty smile on his face, and a few assorted offerings. It was obviously an unpopular shrine, seeing as there was barely any coins or food there, and half of it was purple and furry. Still, it would do for the night.

Settling down, she grabbed the one loaf of bread that wasn't completely inedible and broke it in half. It was so stale it made a loud 'snap' as she split it, but at least it was food.

Haruka tossed the other half to Rei, ignoring her looks of disgust. She grabbed the bowl of water in front of the statue and used half of it to soak her bread. Though it wasn't the most appetizing thing ever, at least she wouldn't break a tooth with it. She held it out for Rei to use, waiting for her to take it.

"Ah, crap!" She moaned, holding her jaw. Tilting her head over, Haruka saw that one of her front teeth was now chipped, the tiny bone in her lap.

Shaking her head, Haruka turned away again. "I cannot, and will not, fix that. Good night." And with that, she fell asleep, deaf to the loud complaints of her pupil.

Current count:98
Reader count: 46
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Soooo....
I am so, so SO sorry. I could tell you all the reasons I took so long updating, but that'd be longer than the actual story, so I'll just say sorry, and leave it at that....

That's the last of FinnianSama 's drawings!! Fabulous, right?
For all of those who also sent in one (which was a heck of a lot more than I expected), I'll put them up based on when I've got them. All of them are so amazing! There's some realism, some digital art, some cartoon-ish ones, and they're all so...!

On another hand, I reread the first few chapters of this thing, and... I almost died from shame. So thanks for sticking with me this long~

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