Two pairs of eyes (obsidian and teal) looked over to their teammate, though the obsidian pair was only discreetly glancing over; feigning disinterest in the matter at hand. It had been quite a mystery to them (though their sensei was enough of one already to them) as to who the woman that had dropped in on them the other day, was. Sakura was the first to bring it up as they continued on their D-ranked mission.
“Well? I’m waiting, Naruto. Please, won’t you tell me?” Sakura gave a sweet smile and bat of her lashes for added effect.
Naruto couldn’t take it anymore. Though Sakura was only giving him attention for her own gain, he couldn’t help it—he just had to obey her request. “Her name is Hisayo-san and she’s been my friend for a couple of years now.”
Sakura blinked; she had thought that there’d be more. “That’s it? What about where she’s from, or how it is that she knows our sensei? And it’s kind of obvious that she is a shinobi, but what rank? Do you know what she can do?”
So many questions and Naruto didn’t even know where to start. He didn’t want to get too in depth about Hisayo, fearing that he might say something that was otherwise a taboo—which their most definitely was. He was still wondering about that—up until recently—unknown fact about Hisayo. It was of course, something that he would keep to himself as he knew of what problems that there may be if that kind of information got out. Even if he figured it was already known in the higher shinobi ranks as well as probably the adult civilians in the village, it was obvious right now that neither Sakura nor Sasuke knew about her. He had to admit though…he didn’t know a whole lot about Hisayo other than her ability to morph into a wolf, and that she was, and continued to be, one of the few people to be by his side despite what he was.
He wondered just then, ‘If she is what she is…then does that mean that she…understands the loneliness that I’ve felt all this time?’
Yes, she did. All of those times that she stayed with him…all of those times that she stood up for him and protected him…she truly understood. She was always there to comfort and protect him, but this time it would be different…he would be the one to stand up for her and protect her, and he would also be there to comfort her if ever she needed it, even if she hadn’t a clue about his knowledge of her. He’d do all of that for her because he was a true shinobi now—he wasn’t a kid anymore. By his own oath as a shinobi, he would be the one to be by her side just as she was for him.
Sakura and Sasuke both raised their brows at how concentrated Naruto seemed to be as he continued to pull away at the weeds in the garden that they were assigned to. Sasuke gave a small smirk, “He claims to be friends with her, but he has no clue at all about that woman. What a loser.” He said, believing the quiet demeanor of Naruto to mean such.
That broke Naruto out of his thoughtful trance, though he still, was pulling weeds. “Hey, am not! I was just thinking of how many cool things I’ve seen her do! I just can’t decide on which to tell you guys is all!” He fumed as he, now, began to pull the weeds with more gusto.
“Naruto, watch what you’re doing! You’re pulling out the flowers and herbs now!” Sakura frantically informed, fearing the consequences they would face due to his mindless actions.
“Huh?” Naruto looked down at the task he had been performing and bugged out, giving a yell in surprise. “Gyahhh! I pulled out all the good plants! What do I do!?”
“Great. We won’t get paid for this. Thanks, you loser.”
“Wait, I can fix this!” Naruto assured as he tried to save the plants by patting them back into the ground, only to have them fall over in a sad (more like dead) manner.
As Naruto cried out in defeat, Sasuke “Tched” in annoyance, and Sakura frowned, Kakashi made his way around the corner…followed by the woman who owned the, now mutilated, garden.
Several angered screams and frantic apologies later, Team 7 made their way to make their report, as well as to give a letter demanding reimbursement, to the Hokage from their client.
It went downhill from there as Naruto found himself always butting heads with the Uchiha of his team as well as getting yelled at by Sakura for doing so. All the while Kakashi would be off to the side with a sigh at how little the group seemed to be working together, even after his little speech not so long ago—nearly two weeks back.
“Having fun?” Hisayo found herself with time one afternoon after her return from a short mission to the south.
Kakashi gave a small playful glare, noting the slight, sarcastic tone in her voice. “I don’t know. You tell me. After all, you’re the one with the experience, not me.”
It was Hisayo’s turn to give a small glare, but she quickly replaced it with a light smile. “So they still aren’t getting along too well?”
Kakashi glanced over to his Genin, seeing Naruto and Sasuke forcing the other back with their foreheads as steam seemed to shoot out of their nostrils. Sakura was also in the fray, threatening Naruto for even thinking to mess with Sasuke.
With a heavy sigh, Kakashi looked back over to Hisayo. “Does it look like they are getting along?” He voiced with lazy sarcasm.
Hisayo rolled her eyes and turned around. “I guess I can try helping you this one time.”
Kakashi raised a brow. “Help? How?”
“Do you know the field behind the mountain, were the elk usually graze?”
A light bulb clicked in Kakashi’s brain and he smiled. “So, you want them to see that, do you?”
Hisayo nodded. “Yes, sometimes a model is needed to get them to see the bigger picture…I’ll go find Akio and we’ll be there to show your Genin in about twenty minutes.”
“Alright, we’ll be there.”
…
A full hour later, thanks to Kakashi’s late fashion, Hisayo and Akio greeted the group at the foot of a tree covered hill, with the open field being just on the other side where the elk were.
“Hey, hey, Hisayo-san, so why did Kakashi bring us here!? He won’t tell us why?” Naruto whined; trying to get the answer he had been bugging his sensei over for the past hour.
“Maybe if you’d shut up, then you’d get an answer…Dork.”
“Well maybe if people would explain things to me then I’d be quiet!”
“I think it’s time Hisayo and I stepped in.” Akio gave a playful ruffle of Naruto’s gold mane and gave a chuckle.
“H-hey, Akio-sensei, not in front of Sakura-chan.” Naruto whispered in embarrassment.
“Right. Sorry, Naruto.” Akio apologized with a knowing smile as he glanced over to the female member of the boy’s team.
“Hisayo and Akio are going to give a demonstration for you that I want all three of you to pay close attention to, got it?” Kakashi then gave an expectant look over to said demonstrators, waiting for them to take over and explain.
“A demonstration? What kind and why all the way out here from the village?” Sakura tried to make sense of it all.
“A demonstration of teamwork, but we won’t be showing it to you alone.” Hisayo then pulled out a scroll and summoned her pack of eight. When the smoke cleared however, there were a total of ten—more than what was expected.
Two juveniles, almost one year in age, sat with waging tails. Well, one of them was wagging its tail and panting happily; the other seemed to have an exasperated look on its face.
“Doji, Hachimitsu, why did you two tag along? You know that summoning is a serious business and neither of you are old enough just yet to be summoned for important matters—it could be too dangerous for you.” Hisayo scolded, using a solid emotionless tone of voice.
The honey brown wolf-pup stood up and began to defend itself (causing a great deal of surprise to Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke as they hadn’t expected the animal to speak). “It wasn’t my fault! Doji’s the one to blame! I was just trying to keep him in line and out of trouble when he decided to tag along.”
Nana laughed at her two pups before giving Doji a playful wrestle to the ground. “That’s my boy! I didn’t think you had the guts to follow us!”
Hachimitsu frowned. “Mom, I don’t think encouraging him is a good thing.”
“Nonsense!” Nana stopped wrestling with the black and brown pup. “You two need to start thinking about your future in the pack and how you’ll be of use to Hisayo! Isn’t that right, Hisayo?”
The group of shinobi (that knew Nana) and the rest of the wolves gave a sigh. Nana was always having these kinds of talks with her pups, and in front of an audience no less. Her daughter, Hachimitsu, and son, Doji, were her first set of pups and she couldn’t help but both praise and encourage them to do great things as she had continue to do in the pack (or so she claimed).
“Nana, this is no time for such discussions. I had summoned you and the others to help carry out an important task.” All wolves’ ears perked upon hearing the statement.
“Ooo can we help?!” Doji gave an excited, wolf-ish grin as he trotted forward, tripping over his own front feet and smacking into the ground with a surprised yelp.
Hisayo deadpanned as did everyone else. “No.”
“Aw man.” Doji whined, giving a small huff as he still found himself to be on the ground thanks to Hachimitsu, who had sat down on the smaller pup in order to keep him from further embarrassing himself, and to keep out of the others way.
“So what’s up already, Hisayo?” Ichiro questioned with a small cock of his head.
Hisayo gave a small smirk. “A hunt.” She said, gaining several excited expressions from the group of wolves.
“Hope you all are hungry.” Akio smiled.
“A hunt? So you’re going to make us watch a group of dogs chase something? Pheh, this is such a waste of time.” Sasuke frowned and turned away.
“Hey, we are NOT dogs!” Several of the wolves growled in anger over such an insult.
“Sasuke, this is more than just about watching a hunt take place.” Kakashi put a firm hand on Sasuke’s shoulder to keep him from leaving. “As Hisayo had said, this is all about teamwork, which you three are still lacking heavily on. If you want to get to a higher and better level of missions, then you three need to shape up.”
An excited and determined look on Naruto’s face was seen on him as he looked at the wolves in awe of their size and, most probably, power. Lesson or not, he wanted to see what they could do. Sakura too was curious, but she was a bit more hesitant in the matter; those wolves could probably take her out in one move if they wanted to and if they (especially Sasuke) weren’t careful, then they might end up on the wolves’ menu instead of whatever it was that they were going to go hunt.
Hisayo wasted no time in waiting for the arrogant brat’s reply to Kakashi as she shifted into a white wolf. Now that gained the Uchiha brat’s attention; it wasn’t at all a normal thing for him to be witnessing. She hadn’t used any hand signs, leading to a transformation technique or anything. The uncomfortable feeling he had about her from the very first time he had met her, made itself present in the pit of his stomach. ‘Forget about who she is. The question is more like…what is she?’
“Hisayo, are you really going to make me participate? I’m not as young as I use to be, you know.” Akio whined causing Hisayo to playfully scoff.
“Oh please, sensei. You and I both know that you aren’t that old. I think teaching at the academy has made you lazy, like someone we all know.” Several pairs of eyes then directed themselves to the Copy-Ninja who blinked in confusion.
“What?” He innocently said, feigning complete ignorance over the comment made.
“Oh, Kakashi, how we are both so unloved.” Akio gave a fake cry, gaining flat, unimpressed expressions from both the Genin and Hisayo, before he let out a sigh. “Alright, let’s get this over and done with.” A black wolf then took his place and began to trot up the hill, further surprising Sasuke.
‘Okay, who and what are they?’ His eyes carefully studied the two shinobi, now turned, wolves.
He had been familiar with Akio as he had helped to teach him and the others when they were in the academy, but never gave him much thought as he never really cared in the first place. But now…it was clear that they both were related in some way (apart from the teacher-student relationship that had continued to be made clear due to Hisayo’s way of addressing the dark-haired man) as well as came from the same place (wherever that may be).
“Hisayo, what about the border watches?” Ichiro questioned after the others followed Akio up the hill.
“Don’t worry; I summoned Myukyu and the other messengers to take your places for now. Akio also made sure to have Karasu move his watch to the east near their border.” Hisayo assured as she began the quick climb to the top of the hill with Ichiro following beside her.
“Alright you three; come on and be very quiet—we don’t want to scare their game away.” Kakashi ushered his Genin up the hill.
As soon as they reached the top, with the two juvenile wolf pups following them, Naruto’s and Sakura’s eyes widened in awe as they looked down and over the scene.
The field was a lot bigger than they had imagined and the heard of elk that fed there was pretty large. There must have been over a hundred of the massive animals and their young down there, though from the distance they were looking from, their size was distorted so they looked smaller than they actually were. They also didn’t have to worry about missing out on anything as the field seemed to span for a good three miles or so opposite of them before the tree lines became more apparent.
Looking back to the largely gathered heard, they could see a few young males engaging in a mock fight with their small, but still growing antlers while the rest of the heard went about their business uninterested as the rutting season had not yet begun. Those with juvenile calves hovered near the edge grazing, while those with younger calves were closer to the center. The heard was unsuspecting of the hunt that would soon begin.
“Okay, watch carefully. I think you’ll be able to pick out a few things from watching this hunt.”
Sakura looked over to Kakashi, breaking eye contact with the elk and the wolves that disappeared in the trees as they moved to get close to the large heard. “What kinds of things, sensei?”
Kakashi looked down at his pink-haired student with a closed-eyed smile. “You’ll see.”
After a few minutes of waiting, it began. It started with Akio as he took point to get the heard moving. Soon after, the rest of the wolves, including Hisayo, appeared from the tree lines to give chase, driving the heard and testing them to find the weak, sick, or young, inexperienced ones of the heard.
“Amazing, sensei! It looks like they’re trying to pick out their target.” Sakura observed in awe.
“They are…By making the heard run continuously, they eventually figure out which one is the weakest and so go after that one.”
“They all look pretty strong though.” Sasuke pointed out, actually taking interest now.
“It’s true; they are all running around with their heads held high in a strong gait and some are even leaping to show strength as well, but they do that for show in hopes of escaping the wolves’ attention.” Kakashi explained.
“I say they should just rush the heard and take down the slowest!” Naruto gave his rather loud opinion.
“Just because it’s slow, that doesn’t make it the most probable target.” Hachimitsu began to inform.
“Yeah, you have to make them tired first! A slow one probably just has a high level of endurance and so it might take a long time to wear it out and take it down, especially if it decides to stand its ground.” Hachimitsu glared at her brother, angry that he had budded in on her educated explanation.
“I guess that all makes sense, but don’t the wolves get tired too?” Naruto did have a very good question.
“Wolves are built for stamina and speed, and are very patient too. They strategize and are able to make quick adjustments to their strategies.” Again Kakashi explained as they continued to view the hunt; the wolves now were forcing the heard to split and lose the security of being in a group.
Several of the brown wolves stayed on the left, while the others of Hisayo’s pack stayed on the right, nipping at the elks’ heels to keep them running. Akio stayed to the back to help keep the heard moving as well, while Hisayo sped forward and entered the heard of elk from behind in order to try to get the heard to split once again; they were getting closer to singling out their intended target.
“Okay so they all know what they are supposed to do, but how do they make adjustments and how do they let each other know? There’s so much going on and they’re all spread out trying to pick their target.” Sakura was still trying to figure out all the points of the wolf pack’s workings.
“It isn’t so much about communication as it is knowing the others well enough to be able to work together effectively as a whole. I’ll put it at an easier level for you all to understand…strengths and weakness—you all have them and as a team, you help out and cover for each other’s weakness. It will get to a point where you all instinctively do it without ever being told. Make sense now?” Kakashi’s statement made the Genin’s eyes widen in realization.
Naruto was the first to speak though it was loud and full of excitement. “Wow! That is so cool!” He then turned and pointed to Sasuke who looked over to him with a blank expression, waiting to hear the idiocy that would spew from the loser’s mouth. “Sasuke, you and I are getting to that point! I want us to be cool!”
“Heh, you think that two completely opposite people like us can act—without so much as a word to the other—together? Good luck with that. You can barely go a minute without saying something.”
“Yeah Naruto, you’re so loud!” Sakura stood behind her crush.
“I can be quiet! I can go minutes—even hours—without saying anything, believe it!”
“Oh, look, Hisayo-san sprouted wings and is flying.” Sasuke calmly pointed out to the open field where the hunt was still taking place; drawing to a conclusion as now the wolves were chasing down a single elk now.
“Really! Where is she?!” Naruto scanned the field and sky for his friend as he yelled.
“See?” Sakura said with a flat voice and expression.
Kakashi’s shoulders slumped and he gave a small groan. ‘Will they ever grow up?’
Hachimitsu blinked in disbelief. “Wow, that kid is probably dumber than Doji.”
“Hey, I’m not dumb!” Both Naruto and Doji quickly defended.
“You could have fooled me.” Sakura sarcastically said with a frown.
The sound of howling caught the young wolves’ attention and both happily began trotting down the hill, forgetting the shinobi they had stayed with. A kill had finally been made.
“Hey, where are you going?!” Naruto shouted to the wolves.
“It’s dinner time!” Doji happily replied over his shoulder before turning back around to the front, only to run into a tree with a surprised and slightly pained yelp. He quickly recovered though, shaking himself a bit before running to catch up to his sister who began to laugh at his constant blunders.
“Thanks for the demonstration, Hisayo.” Kakashi thanked several minutes later as soon as the white wolf came into view, followed by a black wolf—that one being Akio.
“Sure.” Hisayo nodded as she walked past the group, deciding to stay in her fury form for the moment.
Akio drew closer to the group with a heavy sigh of relief, “Phew, hadn’t done that kind of running in a while.” He panted as he sat down on his hind legs.
Kakashi gave a light chuckle, “Well I suppose it’s as Hisayo had said; you’ve become out of shape due to working at the academy.”
“Watch yourself, Kakashi, or I may have to schedule a couple of training sessions with you. We’ll see if I’m as out of shape as you believe me to be.”
“It’s kind of hard to take you seriously when you’re panting away like that.” Hisayo gave a wolfish smirk at Kakashi’s little poke at her sensei.
“Really, now? How about now?” The black wolf suddenly stood up and gave a monstrous snarl with wild eyes and flattened ears. He quickly followed it up with a few intimidating barks that made the Genin all flinch in surprise of the sudden outburst of the wolf, even though they knew it was only Akio.
The wolf’s face returned to a more docile and playful one as Akio threw his head back and laughed upon seeing the reaction he had received from the Genin. “Oops, sorry about that.” He apologized before shifting back into his normal human form, scratching the back of his head with closed eyes and a sheepish smile.
******
It was several days later that Hisayo made her way home one evening, with Naruto walking beside her as she had kindly invited him home to eat with her and Akio. With him being a Genin now, it was difficult to have the time to spend around the other, what with all of the training and missions Naruto had been doing these past couple of weeks. It was quite the treat now for her to be able to spend time with him when he didn’t have his team around, especially since she was about to go on a semi-long mission with her Chunin within the western border of their country. It would probably be two weeks (perhaps a bit shorter if they were lucky) before she and her team would be scheduled to return, so she mentally made sure to enjoy the kid’s company; as would Akio, too.
The rest of the evening went by too fast for everyone of course, and morning arrived. Hisayo grabbed her travel pack which she had prepared yesterday after dinner, and made her way out the door with a small wave and discreet glance in Akio’s direction as he went down to his book with a concentrated look after wishing to her luck and safe return from her mission. Paying it no more mind, she made her way to the front gate and met up with her team.
Though they were Chunin and quite capable of leading their own missions, they all often found themselves working, together, still—not that any of them minded in the least. As she had witnessed a few weeks back, Akira was all too happy to still be assigned regular missions together—not being ready to completely be on his own with others on teams that he was less familiar or comfortable with.
‘I completely understand, Akira.’ She inwardly sympathized, ‘I still find myself dealing with those kinds of feelings. New people… new teams…but eventually…they become friends…they become family.’
“Akira, you pervert!”
Hisayo tuned back to her team, as they were making their last preparations to leave, upon hearing Suzume somewhat yelling—okay, very much so, yelling—at her teammate. She could see Ken holding back laughter as Akira, beat red in the face, waved his hands in front of himself.
“W-wait! I didn’t mean it like that, honest Suzume!” He then turned away and mumbled to himself. “…though they do look nice…”
Suzume, unfortunately for him, heard the comment and smacked the back of his head, causing more laughing on Ken’s part, but he too got a smack over his head. “And you! Stop laughing. I swear, all guys ever do is think about-“
“What’s wrong now?” Hisayo decided to cut in at this point in time, having no clue as to what was going on.”
“Apparently, Akira thinks miss blonde over there,” Suzume pointed out the tall blonde, wearing a short Chinese style dress and heels, who was tending to her daily routine of cleaning her shop windows just across the street from them, “has a nice set going for her.”
Her dress was blue, making her blonde hair and eyes stand out more, and it worked its way around her neck, leaving the space below her neck and just above her chest wide open for wandering eyes (which Akira’s had been heavily doing before Suzume had caught him.). Hisayo might have been clueless in many areas, but she wasn’t lost on this one and she was very quick to correct the teenage boy, though in a much nicer and not so violent way as she had done with one white haired sage back in the past.
“Akira, it would be wise for you to keep your focus elsewhere, least you have a woman’s temper to deal with—including mine. Are we clear?”
Akira gave one last (though this time very discreet) glance to the endowed and well-dressed woman before giving a defeated sigh. Ken too, couldn’t help but give the woman across the street a small glance, inwardly cracking up over Akira being caught by their female teammate and then being scolded by their teacher too.
“Sorry sensei. I’ll be sure to keep my head on straight from now on.” ‘And not get caught next time, but jeez who couldn’t help but check her out? Her dress is to blame.’ A small smirk found its way to his face as his mind began to wander, but the glare sent his way by Suzume quickly made him sober up and stand up straight.
“Sooo, are we going or what? Come on!” Akira began to take the lead, along with Suzume who was still angered over her teammate’s show of pervertedness, and Ken, who elbowed Akira in the side playfully.
“Dude, next time, don’t be so obvious.” Ken whispered with a teasing grin.
Akira was about to retaliate over the gesture, but a loud, excited and very familiar blonde boy’s voice cut him off.
“Hey guys!” Naruto waved with much enthusiasm at the departing group.
Suzume’s eyes lit up and she was the first to openly greet the boy in a very friendly and equally excited manner, much to Sasuke and Sakura’s surprise. “Naruto, hi! We haven’t seen you since you graduated from the academy a couple of weeks back. How’s the Genin life treating you?”
Naruto grinned from ear to ear and closed his eyes as his hands found a spot behind his head. “Oh, you know,” He began, playing it off coolly, “training, and being assigned C-ranked missions.”
“You’re already taking on C-ranked missions? Cool!” Ken expressed his surprise and joy for the new Genin.
Kakashi closed his eye in a very sheepish smile. “This is only his first.” He pointed out, glancing over to Hisayo to gage her reaction, which was, for the moment, a calm one.
“Yeah, Naruto! Don’t act all high and mighty.” Sakura scolded with her hands on her hips, causing her travel pack to slide forward as she leaned over with a frown.
“Heh, I cannot believe I’m getting stuck with these brats who look like they are barely out of diapers. I should have a group like this one instead!” Tazuna, Team 7’s first client for a C-ranked mission, complained as he pointed over to Hisayo and her much older looking (and most probably—in his eyes—more reliable) team.
Kakashi could see just the slightest narrowing of Hisayo’s eyes and gave an inward groan as he visibly slumped forward a bit. ‘Please don’t do anything to scare our client, Hisayo. It’s bad enough that this man’s impression of us isn’t a great one.’
“Naruto and his team will surprise you. They are some of the best Genin around.” She ended with closed eyes and a turn of her head away from the insulting client.
Kakashi quirked a brow, surprised to not see any flickers of lightning encompassing the white-haired woman’s fists. Suzume, Ken, and Akira were a bit surprised as well; they had witnessed a few times in the past were their sensei would become visibly irritated or angered over comments, or rather, insults, being given to anyone close to her.
“Ha! Ya hear that one, gramps!? So stop doubting our skills!” Naruto stood tall with a proud grin and a thumb pointed to him and his two teammates behind him.
Tazuna glared at the loud brat, but kept his mouth shut; opting instead for a very big swig from his liquor bottle. “Let’s just get going already. I need to get back to my bridge!” He said after his long indulgence.
“Of course.” Kakashi agreed, turning to Hisayo and her group after. “Hisayo were you just on your way as well?”
Hisayo nodded, “Yes, apparently there is some family squabble to the west that needs sorting out.”
Kakashi smiled. “I’m sure you are the perfect one for the job then. You’re good with dealing with unruly people.” He finished, glancing off to the Chunin and his Genin.
Not one of them let the comment slide however.
“Hey, we aren’t unruly, Hatake-san!” Suzume stuck her tongue out at the Genin’s sensei.
“Yeah, that might apply to your group, but it doesn’t apply to us.” Akira pointed his finger at the younger shinobi.
“And you are doing a good job of proving that right now, aren’t you?” Sasuke smirked.
“Says you!” Ken jumped in to defend himself and his team.
“Hey, we don’t need to fight over something like this.” Sakura tried to calm everyone, though inside, her inner self was screaming out, “Oh yeah! Bring it! Sasuke will tear you all to pieces! CHA!”
Naruto, who knew the Chunin longer and was on way better terms with them, jumped in to defend them against Sasuke. Before the two older shinobi knew it, an all-out brawl had begun with the male shinobi, while their female counter-parts were on the side cheering on their comrades all the while the two females shot electrical death glares at the other.
Tazuna looked on in disbelief of the entire group. ‘Forget what I said earlier. That older group is no better than the one I currently have to protect me. Great…well I guess I had a good run in life.’ He then took another heavy drink to calm his nerves, which hadn’t been responding yet to his choice of poison.
Hisayo looked over to Kakashi with an unreadable face though he knew that she must’ve been feeling the same amount of embarrassment and irritation over the scene. “I guess now would be a good idea to part ways before our teams destroy each other. I’ll see you as soon as I get back. You won’t be gone too long on your mission, will you?”
“I hope not.” Kakashi gave the lazy reply, “But, with these three it’s hard to tell.” He finished, glancing over to the still quarreling bunch.
“Well, I suppose we’ll run into each other eventually.”
Kakashi stared at Hisayo with a soft expression. “Yeah, we will. Take care Hisayo.”
Hisayo gave a small smirk. “I think you’re the one that needs to take care. Don’t go getting hurt over something as simple as a C-rank mission.”
“Ye have little faith in me, don’t you?” He gave a pathetic sounding sigh.
“Oh don’t start acting like Akio now. I only say that because I know you.”
“Right, right. Be back in one piece, got it. I wonder if you cause this much fuss over Akio, or maybe I’m just a special case?” Kakashi said, meaning it in a joking manner.
Hisayo’s face flushed a near unnoticeable pink and she turned away from Kakashi. She didn’t want to admit it, but she, for some reason unknown to herself, did think of Kakashi as special. ‘Damn chaotic mind; I’ve yet to get it straightened out. Kurenai’s been so busy with her Henin and Yugao has been taking double shifts at the border for nearly three weeks now.’
From afar, the mixed group of Genin and Chunin had stopped (long ago) and were staring intently at the two sensei during their exchange. So that’s how it was…All six of them looked at each other and grinned knowingly from ear to ear (Sasuke held only a smirk of course).
Suddenly noticing how quite their students were being, Kakashi and Hisayo looked over to them only to find them staring. “What?” They both gave their signature tones of voices.
The young shinobi quickly shuffled out of their fighting cluster and stood straight. “Nothing, nothing!” Akira beamed as he adjusted his pack. “Hisayo-sensei, let’s get going already or we’ll be late. You don’t want that, now do you?” He teased with a smirk.
“That’s right!” Naruto agreed as he too readied himself to exit the gates, “You don’t want to take up after another person you know, do you?” He gave the teasing reference to Akio as he ran passed to avoid the irritated glare that would be sent his way from both Kakashi and Hisayo.
“Be prepared for some extra training when we return, Akira.” Said boy flinched and gave a sigh.
“Right.” Came the saddened reply.
“And Naruto,” The young Genin also flinched, waiting for his punishment, but Hisayo gave a soft smile to him, “you be careful—both you and your team.”
“Right! We’ll own this mission, believe it!”
With the last of their goodbyes and best wishes given, the two teams separated at the gate with Hisayo and her team heading west, while Kakashi and his team headed in a south direction.
…
The wind blew and caused Hisayo’s locked to flap about wildly as she and her team quickly made their way to their destination from high up in the trees. There was no need to direct the Chunin as to the kind of formation to take during their journey, for it was all executed out of habit by now; Hisayo at point, Suzume and Akira to either of her sides just behind her, while Ken was stationed at the rear. It was a formation that Hisayo had decided upon just after Akira had finally made Chunin. They could afford to spread out their offensive abilities as Ken and Hisayo could sense any oncoming enemies (Hisayo for her sharp canine senses, and Ken for his sensory type of ability) easily from both the front and rear and thus be able to direct Suzume and Akira to either direction.
“So sensei…”Suzume became the first to speak after a long time of silence as they continued their journey to the sight of their latest mission, “you and Hatake-san are pretty close, right?”
Hisayo’s gaze unnoticeably shifted, wondering why on earth the kunoichi would bring up a topic like that with her. “I guess it depends on what you mean…” She found herself giving the reply without much thought as to how she would be answered back.
“She means if you are more than just acquaintances and friends.” Ken explained with a smirk.
Hisayo came to a sudden stop, causing the three Chunin to almost pile up behind her. She then turned around with a visibly confused expression to which her Chunin’s eyes widen in surprise over. “What do you mean by ‘more than just acquaintances and friends’? Do you mean like family? Because, no, we aren’t like that…at all.” ‘It’s something other than that, though I can’t quite put my finger on it…’ Hisayo mentally crossed her arms and looked up in thought over the matter.
“Sheesh, sensei, you are so clueless! Haven’t you ever had a crush before or something? That’s what we’re all getting at here.” Akira rolled his eyes.
Hisayo barely gave a tilt of her head but held a blank expression, “Crush…what is that?”
All three’s jaws dropped.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Akira shouted in complete disbelief, “How can you not know what that is?!”
Suzume slapped her hand over Akira’s mouth and glared at him, clearly not happy of his outburst. “Be quiet Akira. You’re being so rude!” Suzume sighed and looked back over to Hisayo, “Do you like Hatake-san, sensei? I mean like really like him? Like you turn all mushy and stuff? Do you go all bubbly inside? Do you get nervous around him, like you’re afraid of doing or saying something dumb? Answer as truthfully as you can cause this all can affect the outcome of your love life!”
Hisayo blinked at the teenage girl that was going off at light speed over her interrogation-like questions; she couldn’t keep up with all that was being said. Both Akira and Ken slumped forward with deadpanned expressions.
“And there she goes again.” Akira mumbled.
“Yup.” Ken concurred.
‘L-love life?’ Hisayo mentally flinched back in uncertainty. What was with these new terms all of a sudden? Crush…love life…Gyah! It was all further adding to the confusion she already had to deal with! She felt like her mind would explode with all of the new set of terms she was trying to decipher! Rather than voicing her ideas (or lack of) over the matter (and thus causing further trouble for herself) Hisayo turned away from the Chunin to begin once again on their trek to the West.
“What you are talking about has nothing to do with our mission, Suzume.” She answered with no emotion at all to her voice, “Now come, we need to get to our destination point before nightfall.”
All three teens’ shoulders slumped in disappointment—they had hoped for a better response. They knew that something was up between the two shinobi as soon as they had all seen the, earlier, exchange between the two and had all silently decided among themselves to be nosey. It wasn’t often that they inquired into Hisayo’s personal life, so they had hoped that maybe this once, their sensei would give them some insight on it, even if only just a tiny bit.
Perhaps they had gone about it all wrong and needed to try a different approach the next time? Upon rewinding the conversation, playing back over it, and seeing how blunt they had all been...yeah, they would have to.
The nature behind their mission made their eyes sparkle as soon as they had reached their destination—a village just within the border of their country with the Land of Rivers.
“Oh wow, this is perfect you guys!” Suzume whispered loudly to her two, male teammates as soon as they had received the details of the mission.
Apparently, the family that was head of the village and its operations of everyday life, and another family that was head of the village just on the other side of the border in the Land of Rivers, were at odds with each other. The reason: A classic Romeo and Juliet love affair. The only daughter and only son of both side’s families were in love and determined to bring their villages together despite the competitive natures of them.
With how close the two villages were to the border, one really couldn’t tell that the two were separate villages unless they, in fact, lived life in them. The border villages were connected by a large bridge-way as the borderline was a small river that carved between the two. The area was always heavily filled with travelers going in and out of the counties, so competition between the two villages was fierce—each side constantly making way for the newest trends in food and lodging in their attempts to gain customers.
If one side served complimentary breakfast with the traveler’s stay, then the other would do the same, but took it up a notch, serving them breakfast in bed. If one lodge had indoor hot spring baths, then the other side would do the same, but adding a full spa service to the customer. If one side—I think you get the picture by now…
Back to the whole Romeo and Juliet affair; both sides were not pleased to discover that their heirs to their villages and their future were meeting with one another on a nightly basis. It caused the competition between the two villages to soar to new and dangerous heights, with it coming to a deadly tumble after a young man belonging to the village of Fire, was found dead, floating down the river one evening. Rumor had it that the village in Rivers had hired a shinobi to help them end the entire ordeal—hoping to scare the other side into submission.
“I don’t think that is the nicest thing to say at this time, Suzume.” Ken sighed in annoyance, knowing exactly what Suzume meant by the excited outburst. “This isn’t the time to be bringing that subject up. There is possible shinobi involvement and we haven’t the slightest of ideas of which nation the shinobi is from.”
“I know, sorry.” Suzume frowned as her head dropped, but she quickly rose it back up, “But you have to admit; this could work out perfectly on sensei’s behalf.”
“No way, Suzume. We should stay out of sensei’s personal life…at least for now” Akira mumbled to himself, but Suzume heard him and gave a small giggle.
“See? I knew it; you guys are just as curious as I am.”
“We’ll split in groups of two and look around our side of the border around the village first to see if we can catch any kind of shinobi activity or suspicious behavior for that matter.” Hisayo returned from her discussion with the village leader to further gain any useful information; quickly ending the Chunin’s own conversation.
“Okay, the usual?” Ken inquired, already expecting the answer.
“Yes, especially for this type of work. We don’t know where this alleged shinobi is from or if he or she is even actively a part of a shinobi village. They may be a missing-nin.”
“What about the village head’s daughter? If the village in Rivers has ordered their hired hand to use deadly force against anyone from this village, then shouldn’t we be keeping her from leaving to go meet with her guy?” Akira brought up a very good point to which Hisayo inwardly smirked, impressed with the boy’s increased intelligence.
“Good, Akira—and yes. So Suzume…”
“Yes, sensei?” Suzume stood at attention.
“You will stay behind with Akahana, the village head’s daughter, to keep her from leaving her residence. Find out whatever you can about her as well until the three of us return from scouting; she may be able to provide us with more insight to the other village.” Hisayo further ordered before turning to face Ken and Akira, “The two of you will stay together and scope out the northern most area of the village and its outskirts. I’ll be scouting the south and we will both meet in the middle at the border’s river no later than nightfall, understand?”
“Yeah.” Both boys nodded.
“Furthermore…stay out of view as much as possible. We don’t know if the other village knows of our presence or not, or even if their ‘shinobi’ does, but all the same—try to stay hidden.”
“Right!” The Chunin all responded before they began to separate and go about their assigned duties.