Date: January 22nd, 13 years following the Kyuubi's attack
Time: 1:10 PM
"Somewhere more comfortable" turned out to be a small park on the far side of the village from the Academy. The park was like many others scattered through the village, but this one was distinguished by a monument that resembled an oversized stone kunai. It was secluded and almost unnaturally quiet, save for the occasional bird in the trees.
A lone figure, a tall gray-haired man with a Konoha forehead protector draped across his left eye stood as still as a statue before the monument; clearly lost in thought.
"Just as I figured…" Miho Hyuuga sighed under her breath as she and her three charges entered the park. She stepped up to the man, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. "Kakashi-senpai!"
"Hmm?" The man said, his good eye blinking as the Hyuuga broke his reverie. He turned his head, showing a scar leading out from under the covered eye socket – he'd lost an eye somewhere in his duties. The half-mask that covered his nose and mouth twisted with the hint of a smile. "Oh, Miho-chan! Ohayo!"
Miho shook her head, speaking to him with a playfully scolding tone of voice. "No, Senpai; its afternoon!" The man blinked in surprise and looked up to the sky. "You lost track of time again – you were supposed to be at the Academy nearly an hour ago. I've already picked up my trainees…" She gestured to the three graduates behind her. "Yours are probably still sitting in the classroom waiting for you!"
"Heh." Kakashi replied his 'smile' turning into a wicked grin. "They might as well get used to me being late sooner rather than later… If they HAVE a later, that is."
Hyuuga tapped the ground with her foot impatiently, "Senpai! You promised Hokage-sama that you wouldn't send this Team back for remedial education the first day as you have all the others!"
"Hai, hai, Miho-chan, I remember…" The Jonin said with a chuckle and a merry twinkle in his good eye. "I plan on waiting until tomorrow at the earliest."
Despite herself, Miho laughed. "You're incorrigible, Kakashi-senpai… The bell test again?"
"It's worked for decades; who am I to go against tradition?" He answered, looking at her three students. "How about you?"
Hyuuga paused in thought, but shook her head. "From what I saw when I picked them up, it wouldn't work with this team… I'll be asking Uncle Hiashi for advice tonight; maybe he'll have some ideas."
Kakashi finally turned his body to match the direction of his face, putting a confident hand on her shoulder. "Just remember, I believe in you. Whatever you decide to do, just put your all behind it and you'll do just fine." She smiled at his words of encouragement. "Now, as you reminded me, I'm running late; see you later." He said, leaping out of sight.
Miho shook her head. "Both he and Team 7 have their work cut out for them…"
Nakahito's eyes bugged in realization, recognizing the team number his cousin had been assigned to. They'd just had a brush with one of the most legendary ninjas after the Yondaime himself and THAT was him? "Wait a second… You're saying that that's THE Kakashi? And he regularly sends his students back for remedial education?!"
"Hasn't passed a single team of graduates yet." Miho said with a slight grin.
"Oh, man…" Haruno said, covering his cheeks with worry; Kimiko put her hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "I don't know how Sakura will take it being sent back to the Academy… She's always been so good at what she tries to do; she isn't geared to accept that kind of failure…"
"Don't worry about it." Miho said with a smile. "Kakashi-senpai is tough-but-fair. If your cousin deserves a chance to be a ninja, he'll make sure she gets it."
"You were expecting him to be here of all places, Miho-sensei…" Sho spoke up quizzically as he looked at the monument that had so entranced the other Jonin. "But I don't understand why; it's just a list of names on a rock." He frowned, none of the names really stood out in his nearly encyclopedic memory. "What's so mesmerizing about it?"
"Memories, Inugami-san," Miho said with a sad smile. "This particular cenotaph is dedicated to those who died during the Third Great Ninja War. Over there," She gestured to a larger monument, "Are the Kyuubi attack on the village. The names of those engraved on these monuments: my father, Iruka-sensei's parents, Kakashi's sensei the Yondaime, and so many, many more. Too many more..."
Sho nodded in understanding; he knew he was one of the lucky few in the village to have no family listed any of the more recent monuments.
She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "Anyways, for Kakashi-senpai, these aren't just a list of names, they're friends and family that he's lost along the way to reach the present... Whenever he's in Konoha, he comes here at first light every morning to pay his respects, but he gets lost in his memories and is CONSTANTLY tardy because of it." A rueful smile crossed her lips. "But he's a good sport about it; when he shows up, he'll usually have an absurd excuse for why he's late. I think the best one I ever heard was when he claimed to have been defending the village from a horde of wombats with an uncooked ramen noodle as his only weapon."
This caused the trio of graduates to laugh, breaking the solemnness of the moment. "Anyways, as you know, I'm Miho Hyuuga, your Jonin instructor from this point forward. I'm 23 now and was originally on a team of rookies like you are now with Iruka-sensei. I'm afraid I can't share much more of my story than that with you – like Kakashi-senpai, I'm a former ANBU special operations agent."
She paused, making sure she had the recruits undivided attention – which she did – before continuing. "Now, I won't lie to you: being a shinobi isn't all fun and games as it may seem to those of you who have grown up in a period of peace. It's risky in the field and the wrong move could result in the death of yourself, your team or even the whole of Konoha. But, despite these risks, there are those who serve and have made Konoha one of the most respected shinobi villages in the world and the Land of Fire the largest nation on our continent. In the days ahead I will determine whether you are worthy to join our ranks."
"Now, I know it's been an exciting day – maybe too exciting for some of you – so I'd like you to help me get to know you and we'll call it a day." She looked at Kimiko and Nakahito. "Why don't one of you two start us off?"
Nakahito and Kimiko look at each other, Kimiko nods and he smiles.
"I'll go first, then. Quick a question for you, though, Miho-Sensei..?" Nakahito asks.
"Well, I'll answer it if I can..." Miho says in her own gentle tone, placing her index finger on her lower lip, bending so that it follows her lip line, and places her left hand on right elbow in a contemplative gesture.
Taking a quick, deep breath, Nakahito asks, "Are you related to Hinata Hyuuga?" To this, Kimiko sighs and slaps her hand over her face and Sho chuckles behind his book.
"Why, yes, I am... I'm from the main branch, Hinata is my cousin-in-law; the daughter of my father's sister. Why do you ask?" Miho replies, not quite following his line of questioning or the reactions of the other two graduates.
"He has a mad crush on your cousin," Sho said, coldly with a snort of wry humor at the recollection of Nakahito being shot down on the first pass. "Even if she did say no to him asking her out on a date. He's probably hoping for pointers to get another shot."
"SHO!" Kimiko gasps, trying to defend her closest friend, as Haruno turns crimson with equal parts anger and embarrassment.
Miho giggles and speaks, "Well, Hinata is a cute girl. It's nice to see that someone cares for her." She pulls 4 silver pouched drinks from her hip pouch and throws one to each of them and keeps one herself, she pokes the straw in and takes a sip of it then speaks again. "But I'm not a match-maker, I'm your teacher. So, about you?"
Nakahito sips his drink, then sighs, "OK, then." He stands up and points to the sky, "My name is Nakahito Haruno, I placed 3rd in Weapons and Taijutsu, and 2nd in Ninjutsu in our class." He sighs, "I live with my uncle, aunt, and my cousin, Sakura, who I care about deeply." Then he mumbles, "But I'll never understand why she likes that damn Sasuke Uchiha... I guess you can call me a Protector of sorts."
Miho takes a sip of her drink and asks, with a raise of one of her midnight black eyebrows. "A Protector?"
Haruno glances around and to look at Kimiko sipping her drink, his gaze then travels over to see that Sho has just opened his own drink while still reading that damn book of his. He smiles when looks at Miho, close enough to notice for the first time that she is truly beautiful. 'Damn,' He thinks to himself, 'What is it about women from the Hyuuga Clan that makes them so damn sexy?'
After a moment of contemplation he finds it. 'The eyes... It's got to be the eyes...'
Noticing that he didn't pick up the hint she'd dropped. "Excuse me, Nakahito, I asked you why do you call yourself a Protector?" Miho asks.
Nakahito's cheeks blush as he remembers the question, praying his lapse of focus wouldn't make his thoughts too obvious. "Sorry, Miho-sensei!" He takes a sip of his drink and continues. "I fight so others don't have to; I fight to protect those that I care for." He sees Kimiko give him a bright smile as he says that.
"Anyways, I lost my folks about 2 years ago; they were killed while helping build a dam on the border of the Land of Waves." He sighs in depression at the thought as Miho places a hand on his shoulder.
"Are you okay to continue?" She asks.
He nods, resuming. "I want to improve my skills so that I can be one of the best of the best of the best to keep everyone living." He walks over to the cenotaph, and places his hand on it. "I want to leave an impact on this world, so that when it's my turn to leave this life, it'll mean something. Like the 4th Hokage, I want to die a hero's death, just like everyone on this stone. Not because of a damned construction accident!"
Kimiko stands up and runs over to him and leans her head on his back and wraps her arms around his shoulders and almost in a whisper says, "Please, 'Hito, don't talk like that, it makes..." Tears start to falls from her gentle eyes.
Not hearing the little talk between Nakahito and Kimiko and unable to follow Haruno's logic, Sho mutters - just loud enough to break the moment. "And people say I'M weird."
Still pissed at Inugami's performance on the training ground, Haruno spins to face the lesser of the two village outcasts. "SHUT THE HELL UP, ONI!" Nakahito yells. He turns back, placing a hand on Kimiko's arms, dropping his tone to a whisper. "Kimiko, not in front of Miho-sensei, okay?"
Miho cover her mouth to hide a laugh at the byplay before she says. "Please continue, Nakahito."
He sighs, gathering his thoughts as Itou returns to where she was sitting a moment before. "I basically want to make sure that I never lose anyone I care for again."
Miho sees his right hand open and close into a fist a couple times; wandering a bit as his mind clearly goes somewhere else. She looks at Kimiko and whispers. "Is he ok?"
Kimiko Itou sighs, taking a quick sip of her drink and replies. "He does that when he focusing his anger. It's one of the few stress relief tricks that helps keep him calm."
Miho sighs, thinking to herself, 'What have you gotten me into, Kakashi-sempai?'
Nakahito looks at the stone, he remembers a day about 5 years ago, when he and his cousin Sakura were playing in a field... Remembers how her pink hair caught the sunlight... Remembers that she tripped and skinned her knee so bad she started crying.
"Sakura-chan! Are you okay?" He remembers asking her.
"It hurts, 'Hito-kun, it hurts!"
He recalls kneeling down to pick her up, and that she wrapped her arms around his neck as he rose to his feet. "I'll get you home," He promised and started running, nearly tripping a several times until he gets to her house. He yelled "Auntie, Uncle, Sakura's hurt!"
Her parents came running and after her mother cleans the wound and bandages it up, Sakura jumps up and hugs him and says, "You're just the best, 'Hito!"
"Hey! I know you're not all there, but are you still in there?" Sho's shout brings him back to the present.
Smiling despite himself, he replied. "Yeah, just thinking is all."
So what are some of your likes and dislikes?" Miho asks.
"Well, I like training, good food, and like most guys my age I like to watch pretty girls."
Kimiko sighs and rolls her eyes, while Sho adds fuel to the fire by saying, "Especially if their family name is Hyuuga."
"SHO!" Nakahito gasps, in utter embarrassment; his mind racing. 'Damn it! How the hell can he be so observant when he has his nose in a book all the freaking time?'
Kimiko starts laughing and falls on her back almost causes juice to come out of her nose, "H… He got you right on the money, 'Hito!"
"Oh, shut up you two!" He snaps, his face now a beet red.
Miho giggles, and then gives a warm smile that could light up the darkest night and asks, "So what are some of your dislikes?"
She sees his eyes lose the fun-loving zeal for life they had a while ago, as he says in an emotionless tone, "Anyone who makes my friends or family sad, makes them cry or brings them pain; they cross the line!" Flames of rage flicker momentarily in his eyes as his voice rising uncontrollably. "I'LL KILL THEM!"
He pauses, taking a quick breath, "But the thing I absolutely hate the most is..." He lashes out at a tree and Miho gasps in surprise as a huge hole appears with a brief flash of fire. "Is the Village Hidden in the Clouds!"
Miho looks confused momentarily as the name brings back bad memories of her own and asks, "Why?"
Kimiko stands and answers for Nakahito. "Because of me, Miho-sensei."
Miho looks at the young woman again, feeling like she's missing something, and asks, "Why is that Kimiko?"
In response, Kimiko flicks her hair over her right shoulder, causing a gasp of surprise to escape Miho as she notices the red circle with the yellow bisected diamond on the young woman's shirt for the first time. It was a sigil that the Hyuuga woman knew quite well.
Kimiko then replies simply, "My full name is Kimiko Itou. I'm the last of the Itou Clan."
The Hyuuga and the Itou clans had once had close ties to each other, both clans possessing eyes of insight – the Hyuuga their Byakugan and the Itou their Mizugan – that made them regular foes – much like the Uchiha and the Senju had once been – back in the day when the Itou had been part of the Village of Hidden Mist. When the corrupt regime of the First Mizukage fell apart some thirty years earlier and the Land of Water began tearing itself apart, claiming those with Kekkei Genkai were responsible for their woes, the Itou clan defected en-masse to the Land of Fire and served Konoha with distinction during the Second and Third Great Ninja Wars.
"I see…" Miho said, genuinely surprised. She hadn't known that the Itou survivor was in this year's class. "So you were the one Uncle Hiashi and Lord Third found that morning…"
Kimiko nodded, her right hand touches the star-shaped pendant around her neck as her left touches the pink sash around her waist, "These are the only things I..." Her voice cracks momentarily. "I have left of my family." Nakahito places a hand on her shoulder as Sho looks over his book, takes a quick sip of his drink and shakes his head, but remains respectfully quiet.
Kimiko sighs before lifting her head up and smiles, "But everyone knows that story. So, Sensei, what else would you like to know?" Miho simply walks over to the young woman and puts her arms around her to hold her close as tears start to form in her silvery-white eyes.
"Sensei?" Kimiko gasps; surprised at not only the emotional outburst by the teacher, but also the follow-up from it.
"I'm sorry." Miho says softly while still holding onto her, "It's just that I still remember that night so clearly..." The Hyuuga woman knew the full extent of the tragedy of the Itou and had lost many good friends that night 10 years ago.
After a few more seconds, Kimiko gasps. "Ah, Sensei? You're really embarrassing me."
Miho gasps as she realizes the situation and releases the hug, "Sorry." she repeats. With a slightly dry cough she looks at Kimiko, sizing her up with a different perspective than before. "So what else can you tell me about yourself?"
Kimiko sips her drink then sighs, "Really, I'm a just your average girl, but unlike the other ones I don't woo over that dumbass jerk, Sasuke Uchiha. In fact I wish someone would just break that damn jaw of his just to make him shut up!"
"Well, it's not from a lack of trying, Kimi…" Nakahito said ruefully, recalling the last time he and the Uchiha survivor had fought during Taijutsu training.
Inugami rolled his eyes. "No, just a lack of trying hard enough…"
"Shut it, Inugami!" Itou retorted. "I seem to recall you were barely in the top 10."
"I didn't have the motivation to try harder…" The medic said with a grin. "Hey, Haruno, how about you lift your forehead protector to remind your friend and our Sensei what I can do when I'm sufficiently… Motivated…"
Both Nakahito and Kimiko's faces took on a rictus of agony as they recalled just how brutally Sho had taken Nakahito apart without harming more than his pride less than an hour before.
"Why do you have an issue with Sasuke, Kimiko?" Miho Hyuuga asked in confusion. From her understanding, Uchiha rarely spoke except in direct responses to questions asked by those he respected enough - or was annoyed enough at - to reply to.
Kimiko Itou wipes her left eye as everyone, even Sho who looks up again, sees a look of unbearable sorrow - nearly despair, really - on her face and fresh tears starting to fall. "He's always talking about avenging his clan, but at least..." This time Kimiko grabs Miho in a hug and cries hardier, "At least he can remember his mother's face or the feel of his father's hand!" In near agony, she sniffles and continues, "I can't even remember my Onee-chan's real name, let alone anything significant about my clan!"
Miho places a hand on the young woman's back. "If you'd like, I could ask my Uncle Hiashi to dig out the records and get for you..?" She offered tentatively, uncertain as to Itou's likely reaction.
Kimiko's expression changes instantly as her despair evaporates in the light of this sudden opportunity. "Thank you, Sensei!" She says instantly before pausing to take some deep breaths to get control of her own unbridled emotions. "Sorry about that..."
"Even the strongest of people need to release their feelings now and then." Sho says gently – no mockery or sarcasm in his tone for the first time that day – over his book. "Right, Miho-sensei?"
Kimiko glances at him in surprise and then at Nakahito, who has a stunned look on his face. Well earned, too - it's only the fourth or fifth time in all their years at the Ninja Academy that they'd heard anything resembling positive support from Oni...
'No,' She thinks to herself. 'From Sho… He seems to be trying – in his own weird way – to make a fresh start now that we're a team; we just got off on the wrong foot at the Academy.' A longer glance at Nakahito allows him to catch some of her thoughts and his own expression turns to something that says 'I'll try, but I make no promises.'
Miho nods at the white-garbed young man then looks back at Kimiko to ask. "Your necklace and sash are the only things left of your family, right?"
Kimiko nods and says, "The sole mostly-clear memory I have of that night is Onee-chan and Mother hiding me in the panic room hidden under the mats in the bedroom. Onee-chan handed Mother's necklace to me and told me to keep it safe for her..." Her hand then moves to the sash, "As they tried to leave me, I grabbed my mother's kimono and held on tightly. I sort of remember that she waved her hands in a series of what I now know are jutsu seals and that I started feeling very sleepy. When I woke up, a long piece of it was still in my hand."
"So then your sash is..?" Miho started.
Itou nodded, "Yes, the piece I was holding in my hands. Apparently, despite falling asleep, my body refused to let her go. Mother had to cut her robe to close the panic space." She sets her drink down before walking over to the stone to place her hand on it. "All their names are probably on one of these markers somewhere, but they're cold facts… I can't remember their faces." She looks back at Miho, gritting her teeth as she feels a fresh flush of anger, and continues, "But HE can! So you tell me who's worse off, him or me!?"
"Kimiko..." Nakahito sighs, before Miho could think of a response. "Remember what Iruka-sensei said that day?"
Kimiko thinks back to a time a few years earlier, about 2 months after the Uchiha clan massacre, when Sasuke returned to the Academy for the first time after his world ended; changed to the way he is now. She remembers on that day that someone was trying to break her spirit - and starting to succeed since Nakahito was out sick. Sasuke stepped in and put the bully in his place, before he standing over her and says, "Don't let them get to you, we avengers must be strong."
"AVENGER!?" She yelled, angry for the reasons that took her years to finally understand. "Don't give me that shit!" She slaps him across his face as Ino, Sakura and other girls from their class run to check on Sasuke.
She walks off, bumping into Iruka-sensei as she leaves the room. Seeing the hand print and confusion on Sasuke's face, he turned and began to follow her. "Itou? Did you do that?"
"What if I did?" She yells, not caring that she was raising her voice to a teacher.
"Kimiko, you have to be calmer than this." He places his hands on her shoulders as he knelt to look her in the eye. "Just remember, there are others who know how you feel; I'm one of them - I lost my family to the Kyuubi when I wasn't much older than you or Sasuke are now."
She looks up with tears in her eyes as she grabs her sensei in a life-clenching hug. Someone who really understood! "Iruka-sensei!" He holds her in a warm caring embrace that made her feel safe.
Another voice speaks out, "So do I Kimiko-chan." She looks over to see Naruto Uzumaki, Iruka's orange-clad shadow, standing there. She releases Iruka to hug Naruto with the same feeling of brotherly love that she felt for Iruka. Her reaction surprised Naruto silent as a hint of a smile appeared on Iruka-sensei's face. "Thanks, Naruto-kun, I know you understand better than anyone..."
Kimiko sighs, as the trip down memory lane concludes. She nods contritely to Nakahito as she reaches into her weapons pouch to extract a Wusha Whip Chain, taking a few steps away from the cenotaph as she does so.
Miho gets ready to walk over to her when Nakahito stops her. "Believe me, Sensei; you don't want to get near her now." Haruno says. "This how she calms her mind, but she kind of loses touch with reality… I've had many a welts she didn't remember giving to prove it…"
Before Miho could ask questions, Itou starts to do a weapons training kata using the Wusha. Kimiko moves with a graceful flow, the chain whip whistling slightly as it cuts through the air. The near silence is so profound that Sho lowers his book again to watch her display of skill.
"She uses her chakra to manipulate the links." Nakahito says, in a near whisper to try to avoid breaking Kimiko's focus. "It's a move she half-remembers, half-recreated."
Kimiko spins on her toes and she swings the Wusha around herself like an extension of her own hand, which, in turn, makes the sunlight catch the metal to create a translucent cocoon of light around her. She starts humming a song in counterpoint to the sound of the whip - the words are long since lost, but the emotion they conveyed remains somehow. She remembers that her sister use to sing it while she did the same move.
"Onee-chan, I miss you." She whispers, the emotions breaking her focus. "AH!" She screams in pain as her eyes beginning to throb uncomfortably - almost as if they have heartbeats of their own. Abruptly, she loses control of her whip and it responds by hitting her in the face. Another section hits the back of her legs, dropping her to the ground as she loses her grip on the weapon.
"KIMIKO!" Nakahito screams, a phantom sensation of her pain burning his own face and legs.
Before either Haruno or Hyuuga can move to help her, however, Sho has dropped his book and is beside her. His hands glow a faint green as his medical jutsu erase the minor welts from the weapon. Kimiko his still grasping her eyes, but, oddly, the sensations he can feel through his Chakra Sutures says there's nothing the matter with her eyes.
"What's wrong?" He asks, intensely – clearly disturbed by the fact that she seems to be in pain that has no physical culprit. "Can you describe the pain?"
"Oni, you sound w-w-worried..?" Kimiko replies, surprised yet again by this newly displayed sense of compassion. The painful throbbing ceases as abruptly as it began, peeking her deep brown eyes out between her hands, which she then lowers.
"I'm a medical ninja, damn it. Part of the job requires you to be able to worry on demand." Sho says simply. "Regardless of how you feel about the person."
As the others join them, Nakahito asks. "Is she OK?"
Sho checks her eyes a bit more thoroughly... There was still no sign of physical injury, but Kimiko seemed to be recovering. "Maybe just a stress reaction. After we're done here, go home, put a cool cloth over your eyes and get a good night's sleep. You should be OK." He says before returning to his book; picking it up and dusting it off.
Miho, however, recalls something that maybe not even Kimiko recalls about her clan; it wasn't exactly common knowledge in the village. 'Could it be? Could she be ready to use it so soon? Why not - HE could use his at age 7 to become a Chuunin when he turned eight... And I first saw the world through the Byakugan when I was 6.' She smiles in realization. 'That's why you made me her sensei, isn't it Lord Hokage? We have similar Kekkei Genkai, so I can teach her the basics whenever it happens. Kakashi-sempai will be able to do the same for the Uchiha, but even better for him than I could with her...'
She clears her throat to speak, seeing everyone has gotten comfortable again. "I see you're using a Wusha, your clan's preferred weapon."
Kimiko smiles and says with a nod. "Yes, Sensei… I want to restore my clan - or at the very least recover the honor and glory we once had." Itou smiles as Nakahito hands her her drink, she takes a sip then continues, "The only difference between me and that Uchiha ass is..." She holds Nakahito hand, "I want my friends to help." She rubs her eyes and looks at Sho "And maybe my teammates, too."
Miho Hyuuga - noticing Sho's startled reaction and clearly evident look that he's resisting the urge to point out to Kimiko EXACTLY what she was proposing (and likely get a great deal of amusement out of doing so...) - gives him a slight shake of her head with and smiles as she places a hand on Kimiko's shoulder. "Okay, I think I understand."
She turns to Sho and says, "So, what's your story?"
Inugami frowned; he wasn't – by nature – someone who was open about himself. There were many secrets in the medic-nin's family. Closing his book with a final pull of his drink pouch, he rose to take center stage as it were.
"Ah, umm... Well, I'm Sho Inugami, an apprentice medical ninja. I love learning new things, taking idiots down a peg or two when I get the opportunity, and expanding my personal horizons whenever I can." He paused briefly. "I dislike being in the spotlight - like now. People in the spotlight are the easier targets, not to mention the fact that the masses tend to foist their viewpoints onto you and then wonder why you don't conform to their idealized version of yourself."
He paused yet again, this time walking in a circle around the cenotaph, trying to gather his thoughts. "Lot tougher than I expected... Ah," He grinned sheepishly, "My hobby is reading and working with 'Aniki' in the low security medical research and development labs. I learn lots of interesting techniques and information while in there. And my dream is to one day become one of the great medical ninjas, like Lady Tsunade-dono."
He went silent at that point, waiting.
It didn't take very long.
"That's it?" Nakahito sputtered in disbelief. "Kimiko and I spill our guts and you're done in just a few seconds?"
"What would you have me tell you, Haruno?" Sho asked, deliberately leaving off any honorifics and trying not to get defensive as he usually did when in the spotlight. "Hmm..? My interests are intellectual, not tangible; I don't seek personal glory the way you seem to, nor do I have a family history to restore..." He shrugged. "I mean, I could give you a discourse on the interaction of the lymph nodes and the chakra flow network of the standard human body, but your eyes would roll into the back of your head so fast I fear the backspin would cause them to pop out of your skull."
Kimiko and Miho began to laugh as Inugami's choice of words made the scenario easily imaginable.
Unfazed by the insult - it was true after all - Nakahito tried again. Needling Oni usually could get him to spill something useful. "Well, how did you know Body Flicker? Seriously, you probably could have had incredible marks at the Academy if Iruka-sensei and the others knew you had that level of skill! I mean, damn, like you suggested before you might have even been able to take Uchiha down a peg or two."
Sho shrugged. "It just wasn't all that important to me." Kimiko and Nakahito looked stunned at that thought - the Academy? Not that important?! "I see that surprises you… It shouldn't. In the field, the enemy doesn't give a DAMN who was the big man at the Academy; the survivor is the person with the most tricks up his sleeve. I just try and make sure I have one more trick than the next guy." The other two looked at Miho Hyuuga, who nodded confirmation.
"See, I just needed to do well enough to graduate so I can officially be accepted into the medical ninja program. I say officially because I've been studying medical ninjutsu since I was six, so I've technically already completed the first few years of training – we're talking Chuunin-level techniques, so Body Flicker is easy in comparison. The members of the Inugami family – we've never been numerous enough to be called a Clan – have been healers since the dawn of time – even before humans learned to harness chakra if the records are to be believed – so there's a place waiting for me in the medic corps when the time is right."
Now Kimiko, seeing how Nakahito was getting answers to his questions, decided to try some of her own. "What about your past?"
"What past?" Inugami asked sarcastically. "I'm sorry, Itou-san, but there are no big mysteries about who I am. I have two great parents who are both medical ninja. I have two younger sisters that I would kill to protect in a heartbeat - no differently than Nakahito feels about you. The only big things in my past are the explosion that did this to me when I was 5," He touched the shock of white hair that covered his head, "and put me in a coma long enough the Academy put me in with your age group rather than the one that graduated last year. Oh, and let's not forget that whole boar incident from 7 years ago that causes you, and everyone else in this bloody village who listened to the wild ravings of their frightened kids, to cringe whenever someone brings it up." As if on cue, Nakahito and Kimiko fidgeted uncomfortably. "Like that."
He shrugged. "I'm a nobody, but, then, that's I'm supposed to be: I'm a medic and a ninja."
Miho Hyuuga nodded in acceptance and Sho was finally able to draw a comfortable breath again. After all, the two best traits of a properly trained a medical ninja is to be damn near invisible until his services are required and to get there quickly when needed; just as he had when Kimiko lost her concentration during her kata a few moments ago and hurt herself.
It was one of Tsunade-dono's primary concepts: the visible medical ninja is just another target. Get hit and not only could you die, but so could your entire team.
Then there were the OTHER reasons to keep people from paying attention to him…
"All right, then." Miho said, pulling Sho's attention back to the here and now. "Let's call it a day for now. I'm got some other business to take care of, so meet me tomorrow at 10 AM sharp by the entrance to the Hyuuga clan compound. Understood?"
"Hai!" The three Genin members of Team 13 said in near unison.
"Dismissed, then." With that, she turned and walked off.
Sho watched as Nakahito and Kimiko began chatting as they made their way of the park, leaving him by the cenotaph with the names of all those that had given their fullest for Konohagakure. As usual, he felt the slight twinge in his chest at seeing people being able to get along together so easily - able to have everything out in the open… Nothing hidden.
It made him so jealous sometimes…
'Stop it!' He berated himself, again, as usual, in response. 'We have a damn good reason for keeping secrets; both the family's and my own... At least Aniki understands, even if he doesn't know the secrets himself...'
He glanced at the tree that now had a fist sized hole in its trunk. As he'd thought, there was some charring of the wood - Nakahito had revealed more than he'd intended in his fit of rage. He knew an elemental jutsu, probably a Haruno clan technique of some kind, but one so simple that it didn't require seals to manifest; anger alone could force it out and still make it strong enough to damage a softwood tree. He pulled out a sample kit to extract some of the burnt wood.
"You can never know too much about your enemies." Aniki was fond of saying. "The same is true of your allies; especially since they can trade roles from time to time…" It was an axiom Sho had lived by his entire life, even before the boar incident made it clear that while a person can be smart, people are usually incompetent.
Inugami nodded as that chain of thought made his decision as to what he was going to do with himself for the rest of the day. Taking a moment to orient himself, Sho departed the park in the direction of the Konoha Hospital. Aniki was usually there this time of day. He glanced at his right hand, the one that he'd "caught" the kunai with to earlier. There wasn't so much as a scratch; in fact, if not for the fact that his glove had a hole in it, Sho would have been hard pressed to believe that he'd been stabbed. That would please Aniki - he'd been working so hard at the regeneration jutsu, but had lacked an opportunity to test it in a combat situation.
"Yet another step forward for science..." Sho said to himself, his glum mood vanishing before that thought.
* * *
"Are you sure you're okay, Kimi?" Nakahito Haruno asked for the third time since the meeting broke up.
"Again, yes, I'm okay. It's probably just like Sho said, a simple stress reaction - it happens every now and again." She answered him.
"Yeah, Sho..." Haruno said frowning. "It's kinda weird - he was always Oni before; I didn't even know he had siblings... Not to mention the thought that he might actually have a personality outside of what he would typically show in class."
Kimiko nodded. "I never thought that he and Naruto-kun would have so much in common. Maybe that's why they like each other - or can at least tolerate one another. We're definitely going to have to re-evaluate our opinions of him."
"You're right." Nakahito agreed, rubbing his chest. He could definitely feel bruising there and on his back. "He could have seriously kicked my ass without me being able to do a thing about it. I'm not sure what shocked me more - the fact that he did this," he gestured at his chest, "the that he took a kunai to the hand without bleeding all over the place, or that he jumped in to help you before Miho-sensei and I could respond to your accident."
Kimiko nodded as they continued walking in silence. Inugami really was like two different people - she simply couldn't reconcile "Oni" with "Sho." "I have a feeling there's something that we're missing some huge puzzle pieces, but I can't guess what they are..."
"Well, we're on a team with him now; it'll take some time, but maybe we'll be able to figure him out eventually." Haruno concluded as they reached Itou's apartment building. "Meet you here in the morning?"
Kimiko nodded. "Yes. Well, I'm going to take Oni's advice..." She paused. "Wow - that felt weirder than I would have thought. You should probably put some ice on your forehead so you stop being 'Bakamono-san.'" Haruno grimaced at his first impression given to Miho-sensei. "Anyways, I'm going to go to sleep early like he suggested. See you in the morning, 'Hito." She turned to walk into the entrance of her building.
Nakahito stood there for a few minutes, lost in his thoughts about everything that had happened today. He knew that being a ninja meant that he was no longer a child, but the events of the day had surprised him, rather seriously, too. Thoughts of Kimiko, Oni, Team 13, and Miho-sensei followed him with the afternoon sun as he walked home.
* * *
The simple white exterior of the Konoha Village Hospital was a welcome sight for Sho Inugami. The hospital was a second home for him, barely a kilometer from his real home. There had been an Inugami working there since its creation, not long after Konoha itself was created. It was also one of the few sanctuaries that Sho had in the village - all the staff treated him as, if not exactly an equal, but as one who will become one in time.
Like many of the "older" families of the village that had their specializations, being born an Inugami practically guaranteed you'd become a doctor or a medical ninja if you were one of those that learned to tap into the reservoir of potential that was commonly known as chakra. If not for the fact that Inugami men rarely sired more than one child - Sho's father, Kurando, was one of the few exceptions - the Inugami family could have one of the "major" clans of Konoha.
'Just as well that we aren't...' Sho thought to himself as he entered the hospital, giving one of his few genuine smiles to the nurse at the front desk as he walked past. 'I see the toll that being a member of the village's "noble" families has had on both Hinata Hyuuga and Sasuke Uchiha. Even Kimiko Itou, despite barely remembering her clan, seems tortured by the obligations her clan once carried.'
'Anyone crazy enough to desire that kind of life deserves PRECISELY what they wish for... Hinata's at least the smart one - she'd gladly give it up if she had the opportunity, but since the leader of the Hyuuga clan must be a shinobi, she grits her teeth and tries hard to win whatever modicum of approval Hiashi Hyuuga is able to give.' He snorted aloud. "And they call ME an oni..."
As he approached the medical research and development labs where he would work during the summer and, on occasion, days that they finished early at the Academy, Sho paused to listen at the door to Aniki's workspace. The only sounds were the typical bubbling of potions and the rasps of papers that were associated with someone hard at work.
That was good as on occasions, the two newest members of Aniki's own 3 man Genin cell, Yoroi Akadou and Misumi Tsurugi - nicknamed Vampire & Boneless, had a tendency to be in the labs with Aniki. Ninjas come in numerous varieties, but there was just something off about those two that it made Sho uncomfortable to be within line of sight with them.
"Well, are you just going to wait out there or are you coming in, Sho?" Aniki's voice came through the closed door.
Sho shook his head as he opened the door. Aniki was damned good at detecting even the faintest traces of chakra; that was for sure. "Of course I'm coming in," He said, opening the door to reveal Kabuto Yakushi – 'Aniki' to Sho, even though there was no familial connection. To look at the two side by side, however, one would naturally assume that they were somehow related: both had fairly lanky frames, showed great talent in the field of medicine, and had similar facial features. The obvious differences - aside from the age gap - were that Kabuto had grayish hair while Sho had primarily white and the younger Genin's heterocromic eyes. "I just wanted to make sure I didn't accidentally knock you into your experiment was all."
A wry grin crossed Kabuto's face. "Thank you for that…"
"How's the experiment going? Will you be done in time to focus on the Chuunin Exam?" Sho asked, mostly out of idle curiosity. In each of his six attempts, Kabuto ended up injured in one fashion or another and was forced to withdraw prior to the final stages of the exam. Kabuto hadn't made any decision about trying for the exams that would be starting in about five months.
"Slowly…" Kabuto sighed in reply. "The last two batches were complete failures, but, hey, '1,000 ways not to create a jutsu,' right? How'd the organizational meeting go?"
Sho snorted. "'1,000 ways not to create a jutsu…'"
Yakushi winced. "That good, huh?"
Inugami paused. "Well, maybe a bit better than that. I'm on Team 13 with the male Haruno and Itou of all people. We've got a Hyuuga that just recently made Jonin as our instructor from what I overheard in conversations. Oh!" He peeled his damaged glove off his hand. "Take a look; I goaded Haruno into a fight and he knifed me; you can't even see a scar, so the Regeneration technique works to reduce damage as its happening. Doesn't do much for the pain, either, although the rapid healing made it fade faster than normal." He grinned excitedly. "With this, you're sure to make Chuunin this time!"
"Sho, Sho, Sho…" Kabuto said, shaking his head and fighting a chuckle at the younger man's enthusiasm. "You know researchers don't typically use themselves as the test subject, right?"
The younger Genin shrugged. "Haruno was spoiling for a fight, so I made sure that occurred at a time and place convenient for me to deal with it. Showed them a bit of the real me and they showed signs of severing their preconceived notions of who I am."
"A bit of the real you..." Yakushi said with a slightly sad smile on his face that Inugami failed to notice before it disappeared. "…That must have shaken them up. Any other interesting news?
"Your definition of "interesting" is much broader than mine, Aniki."
"True. And..?"
"Well, Whiskers," That was Inugami's nickname for Naruto Uzumaki – chosen for the rowdy blonde's odd cheek markings – since the other insisted on calling him 'White Hair,' "somehow made Genin despite bombing the graduation test and is paired with the Uchiha and the female Haruno. Apparently Kakashi Hatake has been assigned from ANBU to supervise them. He's the one who got a Sharingan from an Uchiha during the War, right; the Copy Ninja?"
Kabuto nodded. "That's how the story goes, but since he's ANBU who knows exactly how it happened. He's never had a team last before, so I don't know much about him. You pick up anything interesting?"
"Well, IF he's the Sharingan user, it's probably on his left side – there was a scar under that eye – but he keeps it covered. He's probably afraid to deactivate it since he lacks the Uchiha genes to reboot it, so he blocks it off to keep it from draining his chakra unless he needs it. He's also apparently the sort that dwells on the past, there's a park with a Third Great War cenotaph that makes him lose track of time when he's in front of it."
Kabuto nodded. "The sentimental sort, huh? Those are the most unpredictable ones, you know."
"Yep. Haruno's similar - can't stand the thought of losing someone important to him. 'Course I don't think he's wired quite right; his highest goal is to end up on a memorial someday - hopes that his death will be 'meaningful.' Martyr wannabe." Sho shook his head. "Those kinds of ninja can come in useful, but I can only think of a dozen times or so when someone's death resulted in that kind of good, but in each of those times, they weren't looking for meaning, they just knew that it's what the job required."
"True enough." Kabuto agreed. "Aside from that, anything special about your teammate?"
"Oh, yeah." Sho reached into his pocket and pulled out the sample kit. "Do you have a chakra residue analysis scroll around here? I don't normally carry one on me and there was something about what Haruno did that actually intrigued me."
Kabuto nodded, grabbing a copy from by his workstation and unrolling it on one of the empty tables. Sho dumped the burned splinters into the appropriate section of the scroll, paused for a moment in recollection before performing the five seal set of Boar-Hare-Dragon-Ram-Dragon to activate the scroll. The lettering of the scroll began to glow as it initiated an analysis of the sample material. A few moments later the results appeared on the scroll.
"Just like I suspected…" Sho nodded as he read the data. "Nakahito's chakra is fire-natured. He must also know some clan fire technique - he blew a fist-sized hole in a tree trunk from three feet away without any signs in a momentary fit of anger."
"It's very impressive for a fresh Genin to be able to perform any nature manipulation, even if it is very inefficient." Kabuto remarked, gesturing to the appropriate section of the scroll. "Looks like he only gets about 15% output after conversion." Sho glanced at that section. Sure enough - the energy spectrum analysis showed that for every 1 chakra energy unit that had been converted into combustible heat energy, there were 5 and 2/3rds that were pure chakra. "I'd estimate that if he were to deliberately manifest it - concentrate, proper seals, and so on - he's looking at probably 25% efficiency. I might even have to start a card for this guy." Kabuto said with a smile.
Sho smiled. Kabuto's ninja reference cards were extremely accurate summaries of a ninja's abilities taken from a variety of resources - first hand observation, interpretation of medical files that Kabuto and anyone else at the hospital had access to, and sometime just straight up gossip that Kabuto had a silver tongue to get people to reveal. "'Medical ninja make the best spies,' right, Aniki?" Sho said, quoting the Second Hokage, something that Tsunade-dono had included in the book that he'd been reading earlier.
There was an odd pause before Kabuto chuckled, noticing a bulge in Sho's shirt pocket. "Ah, you're reading Tsunade's 'Discourse,' again, huh? You've got a photographic memory, Sho, why bother?"
Sho shrugged. "It's difficult to find good books that I can use to make people think I'm not paying attention. Gets people to lower their guard easier than trying to suck up to them. You know me; I'm not one for small talk."
"True. Anything else interesting?"
Sho grinned. "Kimiko propositioned both me and Nakahito today... Funnier part is that she didn't even realize it. I was going to thank her for the offer, hopefully get another embarrassed blush out of her - during my scuffle with Haruno I managed to trick her into thinking I'd cut out a section of her pants without her realizing it - but Miho-sensei flashed me a warning look before I could come up with something good."
Kabuto shook his head. "Somehow I doubt that will be your last opportunity for something like that."
Sho flashed him a rakehell grin. "Don't I know it…? I'm rather looking forward to it, too..."