"Are you ready for this?"
"I'm so ready."
"I don't think you are."
"Yeah? We'll see."
Ash and Kankuro, nine and ten years old respectively, give or take a few months, were standing on the edge of one of Suna's residential buildings, looking up at the lip of another building that was two stories higher.
"Alright, Ash, we got this. I'll use my chakra strings, you can use the ninja wire, and we'll use 'em to swing into that window over there. Should be a cinch."
Young Ash, not one to question his pseudo-siblings two years after his acceptance into the family unit, could only agree. Still, there was always some level of concern in him when it came to dangerous stunts, even if he himself enjoyed them. "Are you sure? I thought chakra strings were kinda weak physically... and you haven't been using them for all that long."
Kankuro had his hood thrown back, revealing his spiky brown hair as he glanced over at his daredevil companion. "What are you talkin' about, Ash? They can hold a puppet, I'm sure they can hold me, right? Right."
Ash nodded, deciding that if he was wrong, Kankuro would find out the hard way. "Right."
"Alright then, let's do this. And fast, before Temari finds out we are. You know how she gets."
The young blonde nodded again, readying himself for what was most certainly a stupid stunt the only other blond in his family would likely not condone. But she wasn't around to stop them, so what was the harm?
Ash mentally corrected himself rather quickly. What was the permanent harm? After all, he was leaping off of a building here...
The two boys readied their respective tools for this jump, all caution thrown to the wind their land was named after. Without a second thought, they ran towards the edge of their platform and leaped into the air, preparing to latch onto the lip of the roof above them halfway through the jump. Using chakra strings and ninja wire with kunai, they both managed to do so, and surprisingly, Kankuro's chakra strings held his weight all the way through the arc. The two of them landed feet first on the wall of the building they had been aiming for.
Kankuro was about to say something about accomplishing their little stunt, but before he could pat himself and his brother on the back, his strings broke from the strain. "Oh crap! Catch me!"
Ash reached a hand out to catch the black-clad boy, but the sudden addition of weight started topull his kunai anchors from the wall, and it was obvious that they were going to fall any moment now. In all honesty, Ash was not surprised things had turned out like this. "So if anyone asks, what are we gonna tell them?"
Kankuro tried to come up with a good excuse before he and Ash fell. It was only about twenty feet, so they would survive, being partial ninja and all. He wasn't too worried even if it hurt. "We were roughed up by a pack of older kids?"
"We tell Sis that and we'll look like huge wimps."
"Yeah, but then she would just hug you or something instead of beat you over the head."
Ash's face took on an expression much too wise for his age. "Hm, that is a fair point..."
That was all they managed to discuss before Ash's kunai finally gave way, but neither of them seemed too alarmed even as they fell towards the ground. They were so used to hurting themselves with stupid things like this that they mostly just made a joke out of it. Unfortunately, they also pulled stunts like this so often that they weren't surprised at all when a small gust of wind buffeted their free-fall, reducing their landing to little more than a plop on the dusty street.
The two boys craned their necks to look in the direction the wind had come from, and were, once again, not surprised to find the scowling visage of their older sister with a small fan in each hand. Neither of them said anything, knowing that words would likely only make their current situation worse.
That being said, Temari was more than happy to fill the silence, her eyebrow twitching the whole while. "You idiots... do you have any idea how stupid that entire stunt was?! What's wrong with you two, leaping off of a six story building like that?! I mean honestly-"
Kankuro sighed as he cut her off. "Just go ahead and hit us, Temari, at least spare us the lecture."
Not that she needed an invitation, but the eleven year old blond did just that.
---
"Somehow I feel as though Lady Chiyo did not teach you to use chakra strings for this purpose, Kankuro..."
Within the Kazekage's residence, Baki sat cross-legged in front of the two boys under his care, their older sister standing behind them with a look of irritation on her face. It seemed like the older her brothers got, the more foolish their little escapades became.
"Let's just say it was a good test of their strength, Sensei. Now I know they won't hold me up like that. Trial and error and all that, right?"
Baki looked over to Ash, who sat on the floor with a far smaller bump on his head. For some reason Baki had yet to understand, Temari always hit Ash much more softly than Kankuro. "And what about you Ash? You've usually got the best excuses between the two of you."
"Mistakes are the best way to learn something new, right, Cyclops? Next time I'll know to let Kankuro fall instead of going down with him."
Baki could've sworn that he saw a small tick mark forming on the puppeteer in training's forehead. For such a young child, Ash was a ruthless sibling. "Either way, that was definitely one of the more foolish stunts you two have pulled. Although I guess it's still better than terrorizing the populace like you usually do..."
The two boys shared a knowing look between themselves, easily recalling the multiple times they had been chased by angry merchants or housewives. They were really a menace around the village, if left to their own devices. Not that they ever really got in trouble, considering who they were. But if one of their own family got onto their case, that was a different story.
Which was why having their sister on their case was a fairly regular occurrence.
"Seriously, Ash, what would you have done if you ended up landing on your neck or something? If I hadn't been there to catch you, who knows what could have happened?"
Kankuro cast a deadpan look back at his sister. "What if I had landed on my neck, huh?"
"Tough luck, this whole idea of swinging from the rooftops was probably your stupid idea in the first place."
Ash nodded in agreement, leaving Kankuro to mutter something about how cold his siblings were. Baki could only inwardly sigh as he wondered how the three children before him had managed to create such a dynamic when approximately two years ago they were virtual strangers. "If the three of you are done bickering about this, there are more important matters to attend to. We've actually got a mission for you to prepare for, you know."
Ash couldn't help but grumble to himself, unwillingly reminded of the 'mission' he and his adopted siblings had been selected for sometime earlier that day. "I don't see why we have to go, Cyclops. None of us are even Genin yet, so we shouldn't have to do any missions at all, right?"
By this point, the Jonin was well accustomed to all of the young boy's complaining, having been subject to it from day one. It was extremely odd; Ash liked learning how to fight, and worked to improve his fighting skills without much outside motivation. But on the other hand, he completely detested the idea of being a servant to the Kazekage. In short, he enjoyed the skills that came with being a ninja but hated the politics.
That being said, no amount of grumbling would change Baki's mind on matters these days. "It will be a good experience for you. Besides, at the rate you've all been learning the shinobi arts, your days as students are numbered. You'd might as well get used to the squad dynamic now."
Temari leaned in behind Ash and placed her hands on his shoulders. "C'mon, Ash, it won't be so bad. At least we can all suffer together. Besides, if I have to put up with Kankuro and Baki no matter what, I'd at least rather have you there too. You wouldn't want to leave your big sister out in the desert with only those two for company, right?"
Any resistance Ash may have mentally put up crumbled at his sister's slightly pleading tone. Sure, even Ash knew she was just manipulating him, but he'd been putty in her hands for a long time now, so what was he going to do about it?
"Fine, fine... what are we doing anyway? I don't really want to do that D-rank crap... manual labor is civilian work."
"We're going out into the desert at evening tomorrow to look for a rather rare flower that only blooms at night around this time of year. I don't now why the client wants it and I don't really care: the village doesn't get nearly enough missions as it is, so we take what we can get."
Kankuro rolled his eyes, although he was glad to do something that didn't involve building a fence or towing blocks of sandstone. "Better than what most Genin do, though not by much..."
Baki wondered if his proteges would ever grow out of this rut of complaints and whining. For the sake of his sanity, he certainly hoped that they would.
---
The Kazekage's secretary sighed as she planted her forehead onto her desk, though she was careful to avoid damaging her glasses. "I can't believe Lord Kazekage is just dropping all of this paperwork into my lap... isn't this supposed to be his job?"
"Maybe, but that old dustbin probably gets lazy every once in awhile too, Sohara. C'mon, it's not like you really work or anything on regular days."
Sohara lifted her head just enough to glare at the new arrival through her brown bangs. "What do you know, Ash? You're too young to have really worked a day in your life. You don't know how grueling paperwork is, it's so bad that even the Kazekage has to give it to someone else sometimes, as you can see!"
Ash walked up to Sohara's desk and plopped his chin down on it, since he was the perfect height to do so. "All you ever do is sit at a desk, Sohara. You're gonna get fat or something."
"I hope you don't say that kind of thing to your sister, Ash."
"Not only would she never let that happen to herself, but I'd never be stupid enough to say something like that to her. I value my life quite a lot."
Sohara was too tired to laugh fully, but still smiled. "Well I sure hope so. Anyway, I haven't seen you in a while, so what brings you here? I mean, I'd understand if you wanted to drop in just to chat and all..."
"Don't kid yourself, Sohara, I'm here to ask you about something, that's all."
The stricken brunette stuck her lower lip out in a mock pout. "For someone so cute you sure can be cold sometimes... anyway, what's this question about? You know I don't know much about anything ninja related."
"Well I got dragged into some mission Cyclops is taking Sis and Kankuro on, and I was just wondering if you knew anything about it. I mean, most lower-rank missions come through you before you give 'em to the old guy, right?"
"Well sure, but... I don't usually pay much attention to them. What are you doing?"
Ash flipped his bangs to the side, giving Sohara a small glimpse of the eye he always kept hidden from everyone. Unfortunately, it was took quick to do anything for her curiosity. In the couple of years she had known the boy, she had never once seen his other eye. It made her wonder, without a doubt.
"We're going to look for some flower out in the desert, one that only blooms in the evening or something around this time of year. Sounds boring, but I couldn't get out of it."
Ash missed the gleam of interest in Sohara's eyes as he mentioned his upcoming task, because if he had noticed it, he probably would have cut his losses and made himself scarce.
"You mean the Moonglow mission?! Actually, I know exactly which one you're talking about, I read through it just this morning!"
Ash cocked an eyebrow at the young woman. "Why did you pay so much attention to that one? Is there something special about this flower?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact there is! Ah well... supposedly there is. There's this urban legend that if you give a fully bloomed Moonglow to the person you love, they'll reciprocate your feelings! Isn't that romantic?"
Ash, being the nine year-old child that he was, only had a deadpan stare to offer to his conversationalist companion. "OK, tone it down there, Sohara. Please leave fairy tale land and come back to reality. Who would need a special flower for something like that?"
Sohara planted her hands on her hips. "Plenty of people! You know, girls who don't have a lot of confidence when they want to confess to the guy the like, and vice versa and whatnot..."
"Are you talking about yourself here, Sohara?"
"Well, you know, maybe... I mean... kind of...you know what? Stop asking questions! I wish your sister had asked, she'd probably be much more appreciative..."
Ash began to turn and walk towards the door, more than ready to exit this particular situation. "I don't think so. Sis never pays attention to boys, she doesn't care about them."
Sohara shook her head as she watched the young boy take his leave, muttering to herself all the while. "Maybe because she has to spend all her time looking out for you, blockhead..."
By the time the next day rolled around, Ash wasn't feeling any more enthusiastic about his mission. There were many factors that rolled into that, not the least of which was the fact that he hated menial tasks. Literally anyone could go out and find a pretty flower at night. Aside from the servitude to stupid ideals and figureheads, the other part of being a ninja he wasn't looking forward to was wasting his life away doing minor things. He wanted to be called on for things that really mattered, though that may have been a little much for his current status.
But whatever his stance on the day's later assignment, the young blonde student had no choice but to prepare for it, although it was with no small amount of grumbling. Sitting cross-legged on the floor of the room he had long since claimed as his own (adjacent to his sister's of course), the Genin-to-be carelessly stuffed his backpack with things he deemed remotely useful. That included everything from water, to kunai, to bandages, to that little orange book he had swiped from a street vendor last week without anyone noticing. He hadn't read it yet, but got the distinct feeling that it would be better if no one knew he had it. Especially his sister.
Speaking of which, the girl poked her head through Ash's open doorway, not bothering to knock. "Ash, did you pack water?"
"Of course I did."
"And how about kunai?"
"What kind of ninja wouldn't pack those?"
"What about soldier pills, just in case? You never know..."
Ash turned to cast a deadpan stare at his adopted older sibling. "Soldier pills, Sis? We're hunting a flower, not a giant scorpion."
Temari frowned at his statement, somewhat put off by Ash's blatant dismissal of her overbearing concern. "Maybe I oughta double-check for you, just in case you missed something..."
Instantly remembering that suspicious orange booklet currently stowed away inside his bag, Ash tried to deflect his sister's efforts through any means necessary. It wouldn't do for her to find out that he had stolen something. "Temari, how am I supposed to grow into a capable ninja with you on over-watch all of the time? I've got everything I need, really."
Coming into the room fully, Temari placed her hands on her hips. "Really, Ash? Because you only ever call me by name when something's wrong."
Of course, Ash now realized that mistake. Under normal circumstances, he always referred to Temari with an affectionate moniker, instead of her name or anything else. Anytime he used her name while talking to her usually meant he was nervous or otherwise emotionally affected. "I'm nervous about the mission, Sis. You know how I get."
"I wouldn't call the way you're acting 'nervous.' It's more suspicious than anything else."
Running out of defensive lines, Ash nearly panicked, but managed to keep it off of his face. Thankfully, he didn't need to say anything. His only brother inadvertently saved him with a call for assistance from down the hall. "Hey! Have either of you two seen that poison smoke bomb I was working on for my puppet? I can't find it anywhere!"
Ash caught the look of incredulity on Temari's face before she stormed down the hall, forgetting about him completely. "Kankuro, are you serious?! You lost a bomb in the house?!"
The young ninja trainee tuned out the subsequent squabbling as he dug his book out of the bag and stuffed it into an inside pocket within his shirt instead. He may have only been nine, but he was well on his way to being a smooth criminal, as long as Temari didn't nip his bad habits in the bud...
It was funny, because Ash didn't even know what was in that orange book. Hell, he hadn't even read the title yet. But that wasn't going to stop him from keeping it a secret, at least until he found out if it was any good or not.
---
There really wasn't all that much preparation to do for a mission as simple as retrieving a flower, so roughly an hour after the trio of siblings had averted an impending disaster by finding Kankuro's bomb, they went to the rooftop of their home to wait out the rest of the day. There was an ample view of the surrounding village, mostly because the house was one of the tallest in the immediate area. Only the Kazekage tower commanded greater height, but Ash always made sure to turn his back to it. He hated the tall symbol of the village, for reasons his siblings had never quite understood.
Temari and Kankuro had always wanted to be ninja. It held meaning and purpose and merit for them. For Ash, being a ninja felt more like being a tool than anything else. Like all other students, Baki had taught the young child all of the proper mantras. 'The village before all. Absolute loyalty to one's Kage.' Something something sacrifice your life for one reason or another.
He hated all of it. The idea of servitude, of throwing your life away for something you didn't necessarily believe in, of your life being of less worth than a bunch of stupid buildings: Ash detested it all. He had not wanted to be a shinobi two years ago, and although he was close to reaching Genin level, he did not want to be a shinobi still.
The title of ninja only held two merits for him; one was, obviously, the skills that came with the job. He'd found over the past two years that he enjoyed the rush of combat, and the challenge of pushing himself past his limits. He enjoyed fighting in the purest sense and he appreciated that his ninja training made him better at it. And of course, more importantly, being a ninja meant staying close to his siblings as they became shinobi as well. If they became ninja and he didn't, they'd constantly be off on dangerous missions without him, possibly getting hurt or killed because he hadn't been at their side.
As much as he hated the subordinate details of being a ninja, Ash wasn't willing to let his misgivings lead to something like that.
His wayward thoughts kept Ash from joining in with whatever mindless conversation his siblings were having, which did not go entirely unnoticed by his sister. "Ash? Is something wrong? You look kinda down."
He didn't even bother looking in her direction, lest he accidentally catch sight of that accursed tower that was a symbol of his soon to be overlord. "I'm fine, Sis. Just tired and not all that excited for a scavenger hunt in the desert."
Temari frowned at him, well aware of Ash's lack of passion for the ninja life, but still expecting to look forward to the things to come more than he was. "C'mon, Ash, it's a flower that glows in the dark. We'll be out there for less than an hour, tops. And since it is an official mission, you'll even get paid a regular Genin's wages for participating. That's something to be excited about, right?"
Ash scowled, not at all excited about such a thing. "Whatever 'wages' a Genin gets around here is pathetic. With the state this village is in, we might not get anything at all. Not to mention that you two are the Kage's kids, so money is never an issue anyway. And then there's the fact that I didn't choose to come on my own."
Temari was about to lecture the diminutive child on being so pessimistic, but Kankuro grabbed her by the shoulder and made it clear that it was useless to even try. They both knew that their adopted little brother was far from pleased with the most prominent aspects of being a ninja, even though he wasn't even really a ninja yet. They could only wonder at how negative he would become as his career progressed.
With none of the children willing to speak further, they all descended into oppressive silence, the two older siblings worrying over the younger, and said child wondering if it would be safe to pull out that book to pass the time, but deciding against it.
It had been roughly five minutes or so when the trio's only female member couldn't take the silence anymore. "Ash, practice your taijustu with me."
"What? Why?"
"Because we could both use the practice and I'm sick of sitting around. Come on, it'd be better than staring off into the distance like you are, right?"
While Ash normally didn't frown on combat training, he wasn't all that eager to go at it right now. It wasn't like he and his sister would push it hard enough to actually achieve anything, so that made it pointless. Even so, he got to his feet, always desiring to please his older sister. "Why are we doing this though? You hardly ever practice your taijutsu anyways, Sis. I thought you were going to be a ninjutsu specialist."
Before Temari could offer her own answer, the voice of Baki came from behind the group, having arrived without any of them noticing. "It's critical for a ninja to be well-rounded, Ash. Even if you are a specialist in a certain area, you should have at least average skills befitting of your rank. A Jonin with incredible skill in ninjutsu but Chunin level taijutsu would be dead in no time. Well, it is unlikely that someone like that would ever have made Jonin rank in the first place."
The three kids turned to face their Sensei, Ash being the most vocal of the three of them. "That's great, Cyclops, but it doesn't help me get out of anything, so I'll pass."
It was standard fare for the young blonde boy, but his dismissal irked Baki anyway. It wasn't that Ash was lazy; in fact, his recently awakened passion for fighting had made him much better than most of his counterparts in the Academy. But his attitude wasn't conducive to progress at all. Even though he had no qualms practicing when it came to battle, he had no desire to use those skills for anything greater. Anytime someone mentioned service to the village he tuned them out completely.
Now Baki was not very passionate about a lot of things, but if there was one thing he hated, it was to see potential being wasted. It was actually more painful in Ash's case, because he wasn't fully wasting his potential, but he was just shy of making the most of it, which was actually worse. Baki hoped there would be some sort of life-changing event down the road that would change Ash's mind about a lot of things.
"It's unbecoming of a ninja to complain so much, Ash. I know being a dutiful ninja isn't at the top of your priorities, but you should still try your best. It's the least you could do for those of us that took you in."
The youngest member of the group said nothing in reply, but scowled nevertheless. Even at age nine, he was not naive. He knew he had been rescued off the streets only because he could potentially fill the hole Gaara's disappearance had caused. Had the redhead never left, Ash would have probably died already, left out there on the streets to starve. No one he had now as 'family' or 'friends' would have been there for him if fate had played out just a little differently.
Ash replaced his irritable countenance with a measured neutral look as he realized what he was thinking, mildly surprised to have thought it at all. This bitter swirl of thoughts tended to cloud his mind on a fairly regular basis, but it was very recent, in all honesty. Just a few months ago, he never would have thought such things. He didn't know if they manifested themselves now because he was stressed over his training, or bored, or for some other reason entirely, but it bothered the boy to no small extent. They all cared about him now: it shouldn't have really mattered to him how he had gotten where he was.
But not finding anything to say, Ash merely nodded, a neutral action that showed his understanding of Baki's words but did not reveal his stance on the matter. This infuriated the older Jonin, mostly because he hated answers that weren't really answers, and Ash excelled at that. "Well as long as you understand, I suppose we can move on. Let's just go over the mission before we leave."
With varying degrees of interest, the three kids turned their attention to their sensei. Temari was the most focused, while her two brothers were likely to tune out halfway through the briefing, or sooner.
"Now you two," Baki said while pointing to the older siblings, "have been on a few low-key missions with me before, even though you aren't officially ninja yet. Ash, this will be your first, but there will be little difficulties involved for you to worry about. Collecting this rare flower is only a high-ranked D mission after all. It is almost guaranteed that we won't encounter any danger out there, and the most difficult aspect of this mission will likely be fighting off your own boredom. All in all, it should be easy."
Ash crossed his arms and gave the Jonin a disapproving look. "Why'd you say that, Cyclops? Now you know it won't be."
"If you are suggesting that I have jinxed the mission with mere words, I assure you that such superstition is nonexistent. After all, as I said this is only a D-rank mission. Still, all missions are valuable missions, so we can't blow this off or treat it as unimportant, no matter how insignificant our task may seem. The client is willing to pay the village for this, and that's good enough for us. We need every ryo we can get these days."
The reference to the Sand's dire economic straits did nothing to lighten the moods of the kids under Baki's tutelage, but he wasn't one to mince words or hide undeniable facts. The Hidden Sand was the poorest of all the five Great Nations right now. There was no point in hiding that, as it was obvious in the day-to-day aspects of every villager's life, both civilian and shinobi.
But whether it was fact or not, it was best to not linger on such bitter things for very long, so Baki moved on with what little was left of this 'briefing.' "Well as you know, we're heading out in a few minutes to comb the desert's oases for a rare flower that only blooms in the evening around this time of year. I don't know what's so special about it besides the fact that it glows when in full bloom, but I don't care why the client wants it, only that he does. We must find it tonight, because this flower will begin to die as soon as the sun rises tomorrow morning. I don't expect it to be hard, but we do have a deadline, nevertheless. Any questions about what we're doing?"
Ash raised his hand, but Baki cut in before the boy could say anything. "Any questions that aren't 'do I have to come?'"
Defeated before he could even start, Ash lowered his hand. It was a shame that Baki knew him so well already.
"Well if that's the case, let's get a move on. Double check your gear one more time, and meet me at the gates."