Chapter 6
The next morning Kimimaro, Haku, and I met in the hallway of our apartment. "Even though we haven't gotten our stipend for food yet we still have the ryo from the bandits we killed. That should be plenty enough for us to buy some new clothes and gear." I said as I quickly gave Haku and Kimimaro a once over.
Yup, they definitely need a makeover. I can't have Haku continue dressing like he currently is. He's making his gender too ambiguous. He could be very popular with the ladies with the right outfit. As for Kimimaro, well, it's a bit inconvenient for him to wear too much clothes due to his special Kekkei Genkai so I guess less is more for him.
"Follow me, I'll help you both pick out new outfits and then we can go grab some breakfast."
"Okay big brother. I could use some new senbon needles anyway." Haku replied.
"Mn." Kimimaro simply nodded.
It didn't take us long to reach the clothing shop that Kotetsu showed us yesterday. It was called essential gear and wear tailor. Simple and to the point I thought. As we entered we were politely greeted by the shop owner who also gave us a curious glance more than once. I heard her mumble something about not being familiar with our faces before.
I guess we did look strange enough that if anyone saw us at least once they would of had an impression. We were three strange kids after all and one looked like a girl, one looked to be blind, and the last had two strange red dots atop his forehead. The entire time we were in the shop, the owner, an old lady, didn't try to hide the fact that she was staring at us. I don't blame her. It was early in the morning and we were the only customers in her shop, furthermore it looked like the blind kid, me, was the one picking the outfits for the other two kids.
I suppose we did make for a comedic scene like a blind mama duck and her two baby ducks following suit. After an hour of browsing, contemplation, and trying on various outfits we had finally found the ones.
For Haku he sported a white t-shirt and a blue vest with high rise collar. He wore white wrist guards, blue pants with black greaves, white bandages wrapped around his right thigh, a turquoise color jacket tied on his waist, and a ninja tool pouch on his right waist. Mn. I nodded silently to myself. He looks much better like this.
As for Kimimaro, he wore a long sleeve white haori with black borders and a black sash tying it in place by his waist with no shirt underneath, while donning a black capri pants. Once again I nodded in satisfaction. Simple truly is best for Kimimaro.
As for myself, I chose a long sleeve black cloak with a high rise collar that had 9 white tomoe patterns printed on the back. I wore a white t-shirt underneath and put on black pants with white bandage wraps around both legs from below the knee to my ankles. I also had a ninja tool pouch on my right waist. As we went to pay for our new attire at the counter the old lady struck up a conversation with us, no longer being able to contain her curiosity.
"Well hello young lads. My name is Mito, I hope you found everything alright." She smiled and said in an old but very gentle voice.
"Ah, yes, you have a great variety of clothing here which gives us a lot more options." I replied.
Mito gave an inquisitive look as she rang up the payment number and said, "I apologize if I'm being intrusive but I couldn't help noticing that you were the one who chose the outfits."
"Ahem." I coughed. Then replied as kindly and as convincingly as possible, "Well, my companions here aren't that picky with their fashion sense and so I took it upon myself to help out. I happen to be a sensory type ninja so even though I'm blind it makes me more attuned to my other senses. Perhaps you didn't hear us since we moved around a bit but I asked my companions what the color and style of the clothing were before picking for them. I simply piece what I imagined it to look like in my head."
"Oh! Very incredible young man. Your fashion choice is definitely spot on. Please, allow me to give you all a discount." She replied amiably.
"Mn, thank you very much miss Mito-san." I replied. Kimimaro and Haku simply clasped their fist and bowed in salute as a show of respect and gratitude. Mito, embarrassed, simply chuckled lightly as we completed our purchase. She gladly lent the changing room to us so we could wear our new clothes right away. After shopping for clothes we went shopping for some new senbon needles for Haku, eventually getting him a new set of long sharp needles.
I was looking for a set of kunai similar to that of the 4th Hokage except, they were only custom made and it would take more money than I currently had, to have a blacksmith custom make a complete set of 5 for me. I had also wanted mine to be distinguishable from the 4th's so instead of a black iron color with a silver edge like Lord Fourth, I wanted mine to be a blue silver color with a white edge. I silently cursed at the fact that I lacked money. I could only wait until we graduated from the academy to be inducted as a genin. Then I could take genin level missions for money. For now I needed to continue focusing on building up my foundations and training.
I needed more information on other techniques and the perfect place to get that was the academy and the library. The academy would have more advanced techniques stored in their archives but I wouldn't be able to access those until sometime next week. As for the library, it should have the most basic of techniques and information on fundamentals so that'd be a good place to start. I ended up buying a storage type scroll before leaving the weapon shop. We wandered around town a bit more and ended up spending a few hours at the library. When noon rolled around we left to find some food. We totally missed breakfast since we were too busy exploring town so we were definitely hungry.
"Where do you guys want to eat?" I asked.
"Mmmm...I'm not sure big brother. Anything is fine with me." Replied Haku.
"Me as well." Kimimaro replied.
I inwardly sighed to myself. One day, hopefully, they will be able to voice their opinion on things like this. I gave a thoughtful look before remembering from my previous life that there was this Korean barbecue style restaurant that team Asuma always ate at called Yakiniku Q. "Ok, since you both don't mind me choosing then let's go eat some barbecue meat." We quickly made our way around town trying to find this place. After 10 minutes of walking around to no avail we paused on the side of the street.
"Big brother, maybe we should ask for directions." Haku said.
I gave a quick sweep of the area and spotted a familiar and famous ninja. Hatake Kakashi. He was leaning on a wall by the side of a store reading a book. He looked like he was waiting for someone. I turned to Haku and Kimimaro. "I'll go ask, you two wait here."
I quickly jogged over to where Kakashi was. Yup, I inwardly noted. He's reading Make-Out Paradise by Jiraiya. Kakashi looked up from his book as I approached him.
"Hello." I cupped my fist and greeted.
"Hello." He nodded back.
Before the situation could turn awkward I asked my question, "Umm...My brothers and I were looking for a restaurant called Yakiniku Q. Would you mind pointing us in the right direction?"
"Oh. Yakiniku Q. huh?" Kakashi pointed down the road and said, "Go straight down that way and take your second right, then follow the path and take your third left, the restaurant is on the right side."
I cupped my fist once more and bowed before saying my thanks and left alongside Kimimaro and Haku. Kakashi remained there with a pensive look in his eyes at the place where we disappeared from.
"Oh, something the matter Kakashi?" Said an aged old voice. This snapped Kakashi out of his daze.
"Lord Third." He saluted.
Hiruzen gave a slight chuckle before saying, "What seems to be on your mind?"
"The three kids you mentioned earlier just stopped by and asked me for directions." He replied.
"Oh, so you've gotten to see them have you. What do you think?" Hiruzen inquired.
Kakashi gave a thoughtful look before replying, "Hmm...Well, I don't think your decision to let them into the village is a problem. They seem like good capable kids."
"Hahaha, that's good then." Hiruzen replied amiably. "Kakashi, you know that I am already very old. If one day, something happens to the village and I lose my life, I hope that you can also look after those three kids. They are a bit special. I know I have already demanded a lot from you with watching over Naruto and Sasuke, so I apologize that I must ask more of you."
"Lord Third, please don't say such words. You've done more than enough for the village. Anything I can do to help alleviate your burdens is something that I should do. Compared to you these tasks are minor." Kakashi respectfully replied.
"Mn." Hiruzen gave a slight nod.
Following the directions Kakashi gave us we quickly found the restaurant and after eating our fill we decided to head for the training grounds Kotetsu showed us the other day. These were public training grounds and there were quite a few of them. Some were being used by academy students and others by genin or chunin level ninja. The three of us looked and chose a training ground further away and more secluded than the rest. This was more of a battlefield style training ground where shinobi use to spar. It was much more widespread and was surrounded by trees and a river. Kimimaro and Haku began sparring to practice their taijutsu.
Haku had the speed and agility advantage over Kimimaro, but Kimimaro had the power and techniques advantage over Haku. I took out the storage type scroll and activated it summoning forth a box of water balloons I bought earlier when wandering around town.
Alright, I made enough Flying Thunder God paper seals and I'll practice using them later. I've already discerned what my mangekyou sharingan can do but I can't afford to practice their abilities at my current level. As for my sharingan, it's helpful for discerning and copying techniques but I can't use it to cast genjutsu or that'll reveal my secret. I'll focus on my Flying Thunder God technique, some ninjutsu, taijutsu, and I'll work towards developing the Rasengan.
Hence a week of training and waiting around for Haku, Kimimaro, and I went by without much of a hitch.