(A/N): Let's start mates. Hope you enjoy!
___________________________________________________
You've now been walking for hours non stop under the heat of the sun. You feel even more tired than all your training for some reason, it really was a hell. More since you didn't even bring water with you.
You then noticed a small river flowing over by and ran fast so you could drink some water. You didn't even notice the fishers near by. You got up fast in embarrassment since you didn't notice them and calmly cleaned your mouth.
"Do you know where i can buy something to drink around here?" you said covering your face with your mask and a calm voice. They all pointed towards a small shack in wonder of what they just saw.
You just hurried away from there as soon as possible to the small shack to buy a some oolong tea and some fresh water with one or two fruits for the rest of the long walk you had to endure. At least this time, you were prepared.
At nightfall you had finally reached Nagaya City and instead of looking for the Sound Pillar you decided to go straight for a bowl of udon. After eating your second plate you noticed a figure behind you, clearly taller and bigger.
"Making me wait like that is not Flamboyant at all, you know? Especially when i myself offered to teach you how to be the best near my flamboyance".
When you turned you a very tall, wide-set man of a bulky, muscular build with lightly-tanned skin. His hair is white and of uneven length, the longest strands reaching his shoulders, and is styled with three more notable, shorter clumps arching up to fall as bangs between his eyes and on either side of his face.
It was him. The Sound Hashira was standing front of you staring down while you were still eating.
Your eyes widened a lot, and you spit out your food surprised as hell by his sudden appearance.
"I thought you lowly hunters were taught to respect your superiors" he said with a now angry face. You were just in shock.
"Sugimoto, (Y/N)! Still not a hunter but here as your flamboyant student, sir!" You said while bowing down not wearing your mask.
"Aha, that's more like it!" he said now smiling.
"No time for distractions now. We've received information about a Demon hiding here in the market area.
Apparently they've sent some hunters before but none of them reported back. So that's why I'm here. Finish up eating and we'll be on our way"
He said this while sitting on a bench right beside yours.
"I heard from Kocho that you have a similar past as her and that's why you want to become one of us. I'm sorry for what happened, but that won't change anything, alright? That's why we're here and now" He was saying wanting to inspire you.
Shortly after, you finished eating and got ready to depart further into the city with him.
"So what do we have to do?" You asked calmly.
"It's night so we should hurry and hit up every business in the area to see if something seems off. We need to get as many clues as possible" he was explaining as you both walked.
"You just ate but you might have to buy a thing or two to get what we need" He said smiling.
You sadly knew that after this your wallet was going to be empty
You crossed the small division that separated the area you came from to the market area. You both went separate ways as if you didn't know each other and noticed he head into what seemed like a bar.
You on the other hand walked into a meat section.
"Goodnight sir. I'm here to ask you some questions" You said looking at him while he worked in front of you.
"What is it, son? Don't you see we're busy here?" He said in a rude manner. "Has there been anything strange going on around here, you know, disappearances or something related?" You said going straight forward, getting closer to the butcher you were speaking with. You could tell he was visibly agitated by what you just asked.
"I need you to leave.. Now!" He said pointing at the door with his knife. You slowly left since you felt immediately threatened by this.
You walked to the next business which was a herb store, herbs of every kind. This time you came up with a more serious approach.
"Ma'am, i need to know what exactly has been happening lately. It's urgent so we can solve this as soon as possible" You mentioned this and she seemed to have been hit by a ray of hope. "...Please, follow me".
Once she said that you got on guard since you didn't know what could happen next.
You followed her beyond the back service door.
After walking to another busy area out of the market you both entered what seemed like a small house on the busy road. It seemed weird, but nothing unusual
When you looked back at her you noticed that she was pulling something out of coat. This put you on high alert and put your hand on your blade as if you were about to throw an attack the moment she finished pulling out whatever she was.
Until she spoke with a sad tone in her voice, covering her mouth.
"...This was my son, he helped me with our small business.. But one day he told me he was going to the bath house nearby and head here from there. But he never came back" She pulled out a small picture of her and her son and handed it to you.
You were shocked to hear this and got sad as well. "Don't worry ma'am. I'll find out what happened to him.." You said silently handing back the picture to her.
"I'm sorry to keep on asking you about this but have you heard about any other case similar to yours from around the market district?" You asked trying to get as many leads as possible to find wherever this Demon was hiding.
There was a brief moment of silence until she slowly started speaking again. "I heard that the husband of Natsuki-san went disappearing as well while he was headed to a local bar.." She added. "Is there any relation with this and your own case? Like same day, or daytime, or probably same district?" You asked agitated.
"The bar is just a few doorsteps away from the bathhouse, it was nighttime as well" She said wanting to just cry remembering the horrible things that have been happening recently.
You slowly removed your mask showing your gentle smile and your gleaming E/c Eyes. "Please do not worry. I will find out what happened and fix all of this". You walked out the house back towards the Market putting your mask back on. You were now fueled with rage but try to seem calm for when you met Uzui-Sama once again.
On the other hand, Tengen was still in the same bar. He was trying to get information from anyone who was present, sadly all of them were drunk and didn't cooperate as he wished. You walked into the bar, just looked at him and he followed.
You both got on a roof where no one could see you.
"Apparently the disappearances have been around the social district. Between a Bar and a Bathhouse" You said convincingly.
"I see, i guess most people here go there after work so the stories usually come from here. That's why they sent us to this district" Uzui explained in detail. "Well it's about midnight so we should head over there as soon as possible, we can't let another night go by with it on the loose, man" He said as he disappeared from plain sight. This is how fast he was, you could barely follow him with your eyes.
You quickly followed him to the social district.
Once you were both there you took your time to come up with a plan that might work since once again you were separating to investigate as much as you could to put an end to the Demon and the disappearances of the city folk. More importantly, end this so you could start your hard training with Uzui.
Before you headed to your investigation spot Uzui stopped you by grabbing your shoulder. "Here, you might need this" He handed you a Kunai. "It has posion strong enough to paralyze a demon, hopefully it will come in handy. Also, start your Total Concentration Breathing here, it will be hard but i'll see where to start working your training." He said while smiling and dissapearing in thin air. When you saw again he was entering the bar.
You started your total concentration breathing but it was really hard to endure. No matter what, you still did it while walking towards the bathhouse. "Goodnight sir. Do you mind if i ask you some questions?" You asked calmly as you entered, he just stared back and pointed at the sign with the prices.
You obviously knew what he meant, so you gave him the money and went inside. Depite this you were completly on guard just incase, you knew anything could happen at anytime.
You hid your sword well in between your clothes and took them close to the water where you would be, right before you got in the water you asked the old man if you could ask him the questions. Angrily he pointed at the water not saying anything. You just headed towards the water annoyed.
Right when you gave your back to the old man you got the worst feeling possible, trying to ignore it you slowly entered into the water but the worst scenario came true. You started getting a burning feeling in your left leg as you put it in, but it wasn't the hot water, it was way worse than boiling water on your skin. No visible injury was visible on your leg but you couldn't move it at all, in fact you almost fell completely into the water since your leg was completely paralzyed by the water.
You were more than afraid, with something like this of course you could die in an instant. However you followed Uzui's advice and kept your calm and Total Breath Concentration going on. You calmly hopped towards your sword and remembered the kunai he gave you, so you grabbed it as well.
"So it was you all along, huh?" You turned putting on your mask and unsheathing your sword now with intentions of killing the Demon that was some meters away from you.
"Why wouldn't i take the chance and eat a young hunter?" He said now smiling like a spider who caught it's prey.
He threw more of the paralyzing water towards you. You tried your best to jump out of the way, landing on your side, but some still managed to fall on your left ring finger, this poison was so strong it rendered your whole left hand useless. You could hardly even move it without feeling pain.
In a fast reaction time you got up and leaned against the wall. With all the strength you had build up in your right arm you threw the kunai as hard as you could hitting the old man on the left leg. He pulled it out with ease and started charging more paralyzing water, but right before he was about to throw the last stunning blow, he stopped in the middle of charging it.
The kunai finally made effect, stunning him as well. You saw a small window of opportunity and thought of the best move possible to get there without having to move as much.
"...Second Form: Water Wheel" you used the strength in your right leg to jump and create a vertical spin forward to get closer to him. Once you got in close distance, you saw the string. Knowing your cut probably wouldn't make it through since you were only able to use one hand you still took all chances and risked it. Die here or cut and live
"Second Form: Improved - Lateral Water Wheel" you gathered the strength and momentum with a jump using your right leg to hit him directly in the neck with your sword while he was still paralyzed.
The sword was cutting but you still didn't have enough strength to cut cleanly. At the same time the Demon was slowly recovering and slowly charging more of his paralyzing water with the intention of killing you on the spot.
Out of thin air you saw another sword with a chain hit from the other side of it's neck, creating a clean cut from both sides making the Demon's head go flying into the air and it's body fall to the ground while slowly turning to ash.
"This can't be, i thought it was only you!!" He yelled his last words before turning completely into ash.
Right after this you fell to the ground in pain since the poison liquid was still in your leg. Uzui hurried over and gave you a small antidote he carries with him just in case. For special occasions since he was mostly immune to poison, after all he was a shinobi.
"Man you truly are a magnet to all this, aren't you?" He asked jokingly while you were grunting in the floor as the poison slowly died out in your body. "I-i guess I am" You said while still in pain. He helped you up, you used your sword in its sheath as a walking stick as you slowly recovered from the pain.
You slowly went over to put your clothes back on. When you were ready Uzui told you to start leaving the place. "I can't, I still have to investigate what or how it infiltrated this place and tell the mother what happened to her son." You said while grabbing the counter still in some pain. "...Fine, let's not take long, alright?" He replied with an annoyed expression and started looking around.
You went behind the counter and saw a small hole on the floor, you lowered down and put your eye there, you noticed wind was coming out of it, signaling there was something more in there. You called for Tengen to help you, he broke it with a kick and you both went down.
To your surprise, you found many people in a paralyzed state tied up and with their faces covered with a potato sack, you slowly took off all the sacks and untied them. You also noticed a pile of bodies hidden in the corner. This angered you, but at least you found her son and killed the Demon before there would be more victims. After this you had to report the incident to the police while leaving so they could do the rest.
You and Uzui walked away from the city towards some mountains.
"I can't deny it, you did a pretty good job alone, especially when you were paralyzed like that." Uzui said calmly while looking at the dark road.
"I still have much to learn from you, Uzui-sama" You still gave him the superior honorific. "Just call me Uzui-san from now on, man" He replied.
It was a long and silent walk meanwhile you were still recovering.
After an hour had passed you had recovered totally from the poison. Mentioning this to your teacher was kind of a mistake since he made you run as fast as you could non stop towards his place in the mountains.
Without a doubt in mind you ran afraid of his attitude now as a real mentor.
Before you noticed, you were still breathing in total concentration. This was a huge help since you now did it without even thinking while you were awake. The problem now is if you are able to do it while you sleep.
No matter what, you kept on running as if your life depends on it. You got there during sunrise hours only to be greeted by Uzui who was already there for at least two hours. This showed you that you truly had much to learn from him.
He obviously let you sleep first, he did the same thing as well. After some hours you both got up and stated the facts. "So I'm not like Kocho, or Rengoku alright? I really don't know how to do this mentor-student type of shit. So i will just try to work the hell out of your body so you can manage to get stronger and control your breathing better" he said this while a woman came out of the kitchen with food. "By the way, this is one of my wives Hinatsuru, she will be here helping as well, and in case i go off to another mission she will be your teacher, understood?" He said now with more of a bossy attitude.
You were only thinking of what he said, about everything. "Wives?, Work like hell?, Bad teacher?" You kept on thinking stuff like that for a while.
After eating some red bean cakes you both left into the mountains. There was a brief moment of silence until he spoke out: "Run 10 times around the mountain while breathing in total concentration" He just smiled as he hit a bamboo sword into the floor making it shake around you.
You really couldn't make sense out of what you heard.
"NOW!" He yelled and you ran off into the mountain.
__________________________
At least 10 hours had passed already and you barely managed to be on your 2nd lap. Running whike breathing in total concentration was extremely difficult to do. You suddenly remembered why you were here in the first place.
"If i wasn't there yesterday night more people might have disappeared and died as well..
I'm actually doing well with the promise I made myself that day" you thought proudly of yourself, until you remembered why a Pillar was training you as well.
"Shinobu.. I wonder what she's doing right about now. Working or studying or working on studying more probably. Probably even on a mission.. Ahhhh once I think of her it's hard to think in another thing"
You happily ran faster and didn't even remember how tired you were due to these thoughts.
All day and night had passed and it was sunrise once again, you were finally on your 6th lap but you hardly even felt tired, in fact you could keep on going if it weren't for your hunger.
You pulled on some berries which were on a bush and ate them while you kept on going non stop.
Every now and then Uzui would check on you to make sure you were okay. But after the 7th lap he no would no longer be there
By the time midnight hit you finally finished your 10th lap and since you already had momentum, you just ran directly to the house where you were greeted by Hinatsuru, one of his wives.
"Goodnight, where's Uzui-san?" You asked smiling looking at all directions to see if you spot him somewhere. "He left this morning, there was a Pillar meeting in Oyakata-sama's residence" She politely said smiling.
"Now that I'm done with running the mountain, what should i do?" You happily asked expecting more hard work. "For now you can rest a while, I'll prepare some tea for both of us" She said as she left the room. You went to sit outside for the meanwhile.
Some minutes passed and she came out with a small tray with two cups and sat down as well, you couldn't beat the curiosity and decided to ask her some stuff. "So if you're one of his wives, how many are there?" You asked with a surprised face. "It's three of us and him, our clan selected each one of us to marry him, and to be honest, he is such a great guy. But of course you have to be on his good side for him to like you" She said smiling.
"Clan..?" so quietly asked. "Yes, a clan of Shinobi, we were all part of it and sadly taught to kill from a young age" she calmly added. "So you're all Kunouichi as well?" You asked even more surprised. She just laughed and nodded.
"You know, about what he said two days ago in the morning. He's absolutely right, he may have a big heart but he isn't like the other Pillar, he doesn't really know how to interact with a student. So don't take it so hard, alright?" She said with a gentle stare.
You knew exactly what she meant by that. In the city you remember him being worried in his own way about you.
All this talk lead to you wanting to learn how to be or at least use Shinobi skills in combat the same way Uzui does. "Excuse me, Hinatsuru-san" You politely said. "Could you please teach me the basics of being a shinobi so I can apply it in combat as well?" You asked hoping she would say yes.
She thought about it for a second wondering if it was a good idea to do so. "Of course, in the morning we'll start." She then got up and went back inside the house
After some minutes you did the same
Inside you went towards your backpack, pulled out your notebook and started writing what happened to you in the city and how you managed to control your total concentration breathing during the day.
You then remembered that you didn't keep your promise, you've gotten hurt so many times by now it was impossible for her to tell her reasons now. You felt kind of sad, but suddenly remembered that she sent a letter as well that you hadn't read at all, you quickly pulled it out and started reading
_______________________________
"To (Y/N)-San.
I know i mentioned that i usually do not have time to write or send messages but i intentionally did my research faster to find time and write this for you.
The road from now on will be very hard and tiring. But with your force of Will and determination i know that you will become a capable hunter soon. By the way i absolutely knew you were going to get hurt, why did you think i gave you medical advice in that book? So please don't worry about the promise anymore. I had already planned on telling you everything, so no matter what, please come back to the estate safely.
Sincerely, Kocho Shinobu."
_______________________________
The letter had a stamp from the estate in the shape of a butterfly.
After reading this you peacefully went to sleep knowing that she's actually worried about you.
When morning came you were expecting something more ninja like but you started out with the basic of basics. Hinatsuru slowly taught you some hand-to-hand combat which is a fighting style exclusively taught to the shinobi clans.
At first you practiced against a pile of stones you put in front of you with her help. It was very painful having to punch and kick them, but this only helped your body and even mind become stronger. You did this while you mastered your Total Concentration Breathing, so usually there was not as much pain as there should be.
You finally mastered your total concentration breathing technique while awake. It was now something you started to do without thinking about it. This now made you incredibly happy, knowing that you were stronger now.
After a week of training this way Hinatsuru finally started to spar with you so she wouldn't get rusty as well. One morning while sparring in front of the house you noticed a figure sitting inside looking at the both of you, when you turned you got distracted promptly getting punched by Hinatsuru and quickly fell to the ground. She hurried to see if you were alright. You sat in place and looked back inside to be met with Uzui just watching calmly
"How was the reunion, Uzui-San?" You asked as you stood up to bow.
"Just a false leads, i killed a small fry hiding around a small town on the way back. Nothing flamboyant enough for me." He said as he drank out of his cup.
"I asked Hinatsuru-San if she could train me to fight like you, as a shinobi." You said excitedly to your teacher to which he just started at you for a second. "I will teach you some things, but i will tell you the same thing i told my wives alright?" He said with a serious tone. "Put your own life first, then the person you love followed by respectable people, alright?" He said pointing at you.
You simply nodded. Hinatsuru meanwhile was smiling behind her husband.
Uzui then got up and made you go with him deep into the mountain.
Once you arrived he hid with ease, something that you didn't even notice.
"Here's the first part, train your hearing. Find me and approach me without being noticed" He said from a distance, you didn't know where it was coming from, but decided to do what he instructed you.
First you started by going on top of the trees trying to identify where the sound of his voice was coming from. You started by feeling what direction the wind was blowing so you could pinpoint which side he was in, like a human compass you figured it had to come from the northeast side since his voice was loud and clear enough proving that he was where the wind was coming from.
You slowly approached jumping from branch to branch, and noticed that he was not where you thought he was. And right when you turned he was right there looking straight at you from another branch.
You jumped off scared by seeing him just there.
"Well at least you pinpointed where the sound came from, that's actually a great advancement for someone who isn't really experienced with this kind of stuff." He said happily noticing your quick growth in such a short span of time.
What he didn't know is that you were a hunter as well, so you know how to locate any animal that could be hiding from miles away.
"There's one thing that i cannot actually teach you, and that is poison resistance, you slowly have to adapt to that. It was Kocho who sent you, right?" You nodded while listening to him. "Well this is something of great risk, but you could ask her to give you small doses of different types of poison to build a resistance"
You were in shock by hearing this, but he was right. This was the only way you could build it up.
You noticed him murmuring to himself about something.
"It's decided, you're going on a solo mission to see how much you've advanced. Rengoku hasn't said anything so this is perfectly timed, man" He said while jumping off the tree towards you.
"Let's head back and get you ready to depart" he said putting his hand on your back. When you arrived you went to your backpack and grabbed everything you carried with you and headed towards the door where Hinatsuru stopped you.
"You might need some of these" She said smiling while handing you 3 more kunais which you packed in your bag. "Thanks for your hospitality and the training." You said while bowing with a gentle smile.
Uzui was outside waiting for you.
"Alright man, you need to go straight through this road and when you reach a small pond the road will separate into two, go to your right and head towards the village."
He was explaining what you were going to do.
"What's on the left side?" You promptly asked. "There's another village, but it's completely empty. That's where the locals believe that the people and merchants are disappearing, they're mostly women. So you have to take the long road and investigate as much as you can and save these people from whatever is going on there."
You put your backpack on the ground, fixed your haori and tied your katana on your waist. Soon after you put on your mask and backpack back on.
You simply bowed in front of Uzui and went on your way.
What you didn't know was that he was sending you to the same mission as Shinobu's, only to show her what you've become in this short time period.
You were about to unknowingly meet up with her once again.
No matter what, you kept on walking.
_______________________________
A/n: Hello, uh i really hope you people don't get bored with all the world building I'm doing. Next chapter you will meet up with Shinobu and you will get closer
So anyway, i really hope you enjoy it and feel free to give me your thoughts on this. (o'▽'o)
Also the very ending of this chapter is kind of bad written, i did it at 6 am (°ㅂ°╬)