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|| [Hatake] : Fascination : [Kakashi] || [Part II] ||
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It had been a grueling month and a half for Oriko under Kakashi’s ‘tuition’; he was a good teacher in as much as whatever he said was important and directly relevant to her, but it was more that he rarely said all that much to her. She wasn’t really sure what to make of him, he wasn’t an easy man to dislike, rather he seemed to make it his business to make most people feel merely…apathy towards him.
Oriko, however, never liked people in general all that much, but Kakashi – well, he was one of the least stressful people she’d ever met, he seemed happy to supervise, answer questions and instruct when necessary but he wasn’t a nag, or full of constant criticism or complaints – and she liked it that way. She’d just finished her training session for the day (mastering a fire technique, the Goukakkyuu no Jutsu), Oriko turned over to where Kakashi was sat, finding his attention a little too quickly,
“Ok, now what’s on the agenda?” She questioned, comfortable enough in his presence to speak mostly as she wished, although ensuring that she was never rude,
“Lunch,” He responded simply, leaping from his seat and landing gracefully a few feet in front of her, “Then I think we should extend today’s lesson and spar for a little while – I’m curious to see how well you’ll do in a battle situation,” He commented, and she nodded enthusiastically – after the last spar they’d had, she lost miserably, and was looking forward for an opportunity to lose not quite so badly. After all, she’d been using his lack of temporal awareness to her advantage and had been working on her own jutsu.
“Well, how about we meet back here in an hour and a half?” He suggested and upon receiving a prompt nod in return, he disappeared in a sudden puff of smoke. Oriko, now used to his rather abrupt exits after their training sessions allowed a breath of fatigue to escape her, somehow, felt it somewhat ‘unprofessional’ or child-like somehow to show to him how tired she was – although as yet unable to find a decent reason to justify it to herself.
Nonetheless, she walked away slowly into the town centre – knowing her way around very well now, and her feet almost automatically leading her to tepinyakki restaurant (Yakiniku Q) which she’d come to frequent regularly – always enjoying barbeque just a little more than ramen. As she wandered in and took a seat the very polite boy whom she was always served by approached her,
“Hello, Oriko-san, what would you like today?” He asked in his typical, gentle, although young, voice,
“Hello, Izumi-kun, and no need to use ‘-san’ with me, just Oriko will do,” She smiled back at the young man, younger than her by a good few years or so – he couldn’t be much more than thirteen or fourteen, she supposed, “I would like some peach juice and beef set-menu please,” He nodded, and flashed her a genuine smile,
“Of course, Oriko-sa…of course, Oriko, coming right up… Oh, and you don’t need to address me as ‘-kun’ either!” Izumi exclaimed playfully as he walked away to place the order. Despite Kakashi and his tardiness (which was offset by Oriko and her skill), they’d decided to take a break before the lunch rush and as such, (Oriko was thankful for) the place was essentially empty. Izumi hurried back over with her drink,
“Here you are, Oriko… and…may I ask you something?”
“Of course, go ahead,”
“W-Well… how is your training going?”
“Eh?” Oriko answered back, unsure of what he meant,
“Well, you’ve only been here for a month or so, and I was wondering how you were doing,” He continued, himself a genin working part time for his father’s business;
“Uh…well fine really, just the usual…gruelling, but quite fun, I suppose,” She looked at him with a slightly confused expression, but she hoped that she was living up to expectations; she’d been working hard, but had no idea what ‘good progress’ was, and liked to think that she was at least making a good impression on Kakashi…
But then again, she’d lost so badly the last time she’d fought him, that he probably believed her to be a pathetic student…she didn’t really want to admit it, but for some reason, it was important to her that she made a good impression on Kakashi. Her ambition, after all, was to become an exceptional shinobi and the mix of lots of physical exercise in the morning, and mental exercise in the afternoon suited her perfectly, having always believed that the mix of both, in equal proportions, was the key to a truly healthy body, mind and spirit.
“U-Uh, O-Oriko?” The shy voice of Izumi broke her thought train, “Are you alright?”
“Hmm? Yes, I’m fine, sorry about that,” He smiled again and left to bring her back her food and he set it on the table,
“Thank you, Izumi,” She said as a clear sign to tell him to leave her alone, for the time being, that she hoped wasn’t too rude. She placed some of the meat on the barbeque set into the table in front of her, trying to ignore her worry over her performance and focus on her strategy for beating Kakashi later today. She’d been practicing with her new jutsu and was looking forward to testing her ability to put it to use in battle. All too soon, the hour was near its end and Oriko rose to her feet, paying the bill and saying goodbye to Izumi before she left the shop, she allowed her walk to be a slow and peaceful one, ignoring the apprehension.
Just as she predicted, Oriko was first back to the training grounds and began to warm her body up, and allow her full stomach to get used to being jerked around. Silently hoping that she wouldn’t throw up or something…that really wouldn’t make a good impression. Eventually after some twenty minutes of gently warming up, Kakashi made his presence known to her,
“Ready?”
“Yea, I guess so,”
“Good, remember you must come at me with the intent to kill, or you’ll have no chance of winning,”
“Yea, I know,” She responded, remembering his advice from the last time they sparred, hoping that this time the outcome would be better than last time, it will be! I know more jutsus, and one in particular he doesn’t know I’m capable of! She thought in determination,
“Ok~! Begin!” He exclaimed and Oriko followed her set from last time, darting off into the tree line to observe him for a few moments, before sending a kage bunshin to keep him busy while she set up her trap. The kage bunshin leapt out of the tree with a kunai and smoke bomb in hand as it landed on the ground near to Kakashi but out of his field of vision, before leaping again into the air as he threw a shuriken in her direction, his attention still focused on his book. Although she dodged the kunai with ease, she sent another one straight down towards him, followed up by the smoke bomb and finally her outstretched foot.
Although Kakashi was wise to her attempt, he took hold of the kunai aimed at him as well as grabbing a hold of her ankle before swinging her around and throwing her into a nearby tree whilst sending the kunai after her, already aware that he was dealing with a kage bunshin. Kakashi felt tempted to engage his sharingan but knew that she should still be no match for her and he would have too much of advantage…not to mention that she wasn’t aware of what one was or that he had a sharingan in his possession.
It was no doubt something best left for another day. Oriko, on the other hand, the real one, was busy setting a few shuriken and kunai traps, as well as planning exactly when to spring her new jutsu. Finally having gotten her preparations ready, she formed a kage bunshin and sent it in one direction to find Kakashi hoping that he would end up in the middle and she could effectively double-team him with herself.
It didn’t take long for her to find him, as he wandered slowly through the trees, in the general direction of her trap she stuck close, but knowing he’d already sensed her presence, she couldn’t escape as quickly as she’d planned and was forcing into hand-to-hand combat with him. Taijutsu wasn’t her strongest point, and she couldn’t avoid some sharp kicks which would leave her with large bruises later. Luckily, her kage bunshin had good timing, and it threw a kunai at Kakashi but as he and Oriko were still fighting, he could only dodge it forcing him to leap back a few paces which gave Oriko the opening she needed to lead him into the trap.
Oriko, turned to throw some sebon needles in his direction, one of which had a chakra thread attached, as he deflected them with his kunai, the last trailing one with thread attached moved contra to his prediction. As she tugged on the chakra thread it avoided the kunai and kept on heading for Kakashi, as he ducked, he guessed that a thread would be the cause of the troubled and slashed at it with the kunai.
“Not bad, Oriko, but it’ll take more than that to win,”
“Just seeing if you’re still awake,” She commented back, hoping that her jutsu would work, and that all the training she’d done in gathering chakra wouldn’t fail her now.
She ran as fast as she was able and reappeared in the small group of trees between which she’d set up her traps, as she landed none had been set off and so guessed she hadn’t stepped on any wires, but was desperate to look down and check – but if she did that, Kakashi would be immediately alerted to their presence.
Her kage bunshin had been taken out by him a few seconds before and she knew that he was in the vicinity, but couldn’t risk yet revealing her secret weapon without knowing exactly where he was; calming herself as well as concealing herself behind a tree and in a small thicket of undergrowth, she attempted to search for his presence or chakra signature (something she’d discovered she was able to do after some mornings of quiet meditation before her warm up in waiting for him) and could feel him close by, but something was odd about it…he was…below me!
A doton element! She, sharp to her feet, leapt off the ground and attached herself to the trunk of the tree, some fifteen feet up and began to form hand seals as Kakashi appeared from seemingly nowhere, about to take Oriko out; just as he stood, Oriko realised her charka was a lot less than she thought, and her jutsu only half-formed, but still effective and she sent it flying towards him, in a small cloud of blades made purely of wind chakra; with only a split second to react, he managed to dodge them but they in turn cut some of the wires and released her traps. She, not paying enough attention to her surroundings, watched Kakashi intently as he attempted to dodge all of the shuriken and kunai, but eventually one struck him in the chest. But instead of drawing blood, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
“That would have worked, Oriko, if you had accounted for the likelihood me using a kage bunshin,” The lazy voice of Kakashi spoke suddenly from right beside her, as she could too, feel the cool metal of a kunai on her neck.
“Shit,” She commented,
“You lose….again,” He smiled as she turned to face him with a slightly disgruntled expression, “But I am impressed with your strategy and that jutsu you used, excellent work, this is a drastic improvement from last time,” They both jumped from the tree back the ground and Oriko turned to face him, but in setting eyes on him fully, she couldn’t resist the amusement that overcame her and she burst into hysterical laughter.
“What?” Kakashi asked, feeling rather confused at her sudden snickering, “What are you laughing at?”
“He-he, y-you have… y- your hair, hahaha,” She seemed unable to form any more complete sentences and Kakashi lightly grabbed the tip of his hair, and in looking back at his hand, he found it to be covered in spider-webs. Sighing in exasperation he put his kunai away and lifted both hands, to begin removing the spider webs, Oriko’s laughter subsiding but still present as she watched him pull his hands roughly through his hair, removing the mass of spider webs which had come to inhabit the top of his head. Kakashi resisted matching her smile, feeling irritated (as well as slightly amused) that his attempts to remain dignified and to win the spar ‘cool-ly’ had failed so miserably due to a small group of spiders.
“Haha, no match for the spiders, eh?” She eventually calmed her laughter just as Kakashi had finished removing the visitors from his hair and they began on their way back to the centre of Konoha.
“Oriko, I’ll say well done once more; that jutsu of yours has been well thought out, but you need more practice with it – which perhaps is something you can work on… tomorrow is our day off, and then we’ll need to go on another mission, meet me outside the Hokage’s office at nine o’clock then.” Kakashi continued as they walked in the direction of Konoha, Oriko nodding to his words,
“Hai, no problem…and…thanks,” She returned, a little shyly, as Kakashi flashed her what looked to be a smile of encouragement, this one seeming a little more… genuine than those previous.
“Do you know what rank mission we’d be doing?”
“Not sure, probably a C rank,” His quiet revere creeping back to his voice; she didn’t say any more and neither did he for a little while, they walked in a comfortable silence. She easily felt his presence as he walked close beside her; there was something a little odd about it, but she couldn’t really place why. If she were back in the world where she came from (and Kakashi was there too), they wouldn’t have had the friendship (or at least acquaintance) they had now…
They would be as much strangers to each other as they were they day they met. The shinobi world, at least to Oriko’s fresh eyes was a great place, and where the boundaries in her world didn’t exist; she was grateful for the opportunities afforded to her by the shinobi one, and would make a big effort not to take any of them for granted.
“Well, I’m this way,” She eventually spoke, glancing at Kakashi, who came to a halt,
“Sure, see you two days,” He spoke as she gave him a short wave and turned to walk the rest of the short way back to her small apartment, leaving Kakashi behind her.
Not quite meaning to slam the door behind her as loudly as she did, pulling off her zori from her rather sweaty feet, before walking over to her small kitchen, quickly grabbing a can of peach juice from the fridge and guzzling it down – it immediately refreshing her tired body. She walked over and slumped down on the sofa, feeling quietly pleased that she’d achieved her mission for the day: to not loose quite as badly to Kakashi as she did the last time.