Date: March 15th, 13 years following the Kyuubi's attack
Time: 7:45 AM
Nakahito Haruno relaxed in the hot spring. It was a cool morning and thick steam rose from the naturally heated water, forming wraith-like shapes that quickly dissipated in the breeze. A dark shadow appeared within the white steam and was accompanied with the sound of sloshing water.
Nakahito paused momentarily in confusion; no one had been in the springs when he'd gotten in and the entrance was behind him, anyone entering would have passed by him first. "Hello? Is someone there?"
The shadow emerged from the steam. It was Miho-sensei...
Naked.
The Hyuuga woman's lithe body walked seductively towards him. Droplets of pure water caused her skin to glisten in the cool air as the steam wreathed around her, further accentuating her natural beauty.
Nakahito's breath caught in his lungs at this vision of perfection. "Miho-sensei. I... I..."
Miho Hyuuga laughed gently, causing a slight bounce to her chest. "Why, Nakahito, whatever is the matter?"
Haruno tried to answer, but he could only babble unintelligibly. Suddenly, Hinata-chan emerged from under the water in a swimsuit as pure white as her sweet spirit. She grabbed his left arm, pulling around her and nuzzling against his firm chest. "Oh, 'Hito-kun... You're just too nice."
A pair of shapely legs appeared on either side of him as someone began massaging his shoulders. "Yes, he is..." Kurenai-sensei's voice said. Nakahito turned his head to look... What he saw caused blood to spout from his nose. "Why so tense, Haruno-san?" She asked leaning deeper into the massage and Nakahito felt two soft weights press on his head. "You stood up to Master Jiraya to protect our honor."
Miho Hyuuga nodded as she took his right arm and took a spot beside Hinata. Nakahito's skin tingled wherever their bodies made contact. "Yes, he did. And such courage..." She looked at her cousin, who nodded.
"Deserves a reward..." Hinata said as she and Miho pursed their lips and leaned up to give him a kiss.
Then, suddenly, Miho, Hinata and Yuuhi Kurenai disappeared as Kimiko Itou, dressed in full armor, strode from the mists. The hot water suddenly turned to ice, freezing Nakahito uncomfortably into place. "ECCHI!" She shouted as she hurled her Tonfa at him, which grew in size until it blocked the scene and crushed his skull...
* * *
"Kimiko! Gomenasai..!" Nakahito shouted as he erupted from his bed, covered in a cold sweat and gasping to catch his breath. His heart raced in his chest from the adrenaline released by his fear.
"Yume..." He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Just that damn dream again." It was, in fact, another version of the same dream that he'd been having almost every time he fell asleep for the last month. In every single one, Kimiko would appear at the end and find some new way of killing him. Typically she used the Tonfa, but every now and then it was something different: her chain whip, razor-edged combat fans, her Water Bomb...
She'd barely talked to him since the incident at the bathhouse. Maybe that's why she kept appearing... She'd stopped hitting him and he'd forgiven her and she'd forgiven him, but there was definitely a strain on their friendship that hadn't been there before the accident.
As he moved his hand, the glow-in-the-dark arms of his alarm clock burned through the night: 4 AM. "Damn... We have a mission in five hours."
'Women.' He thought to himself wryly as he pulled his pillow over his face. 'Can't live with 'em... Can't resist 'em.'
* * *
There was a knock on the front door. Sakura Haruno, who'd been closest at the moment, slid it open. "Oh, Kimiko-san!" She said with a slightly fake smile. Sakura had conflicting feelings towards the Itou girl: she liked Kimiko from the standpoint that she was a good friend to her cousin and that she was not a would-be rival for Sasuke. She also detested the girl because she was such a tomboy and didn't like Sasuke AT ALL. "You must be for 'Hito..."
Kimiko nodded. "We've got to be at Lord Hokage's in 45 minutes for duty assignments. He wanted to get there early; someone told him that the better D-rank assignments are available the earlier you get there... Inugami-san said it's a crock, since Sandaime chooses the assignments as he gets to them on the scroll, but Nakahito insisted on trying."
Sakura shook her head, her long pink hair dancing expressively like the cherry blossoms for which she was named. "I swear there are times when I can't tell who's more gullible: 'Hito or Naruto..."
"Heads!" Kimiko Itou joked, gesturing as if she were flipping an imaginary coin, causing Sakura to laugh in agreement. "Speaking of him, how's he doing?"
"He's hopeless!" Sakura said; a note of disgust in her voice. "I mean, he fell for the same trap twice in a 10 minute period. And then he got beaten up by a cat belonging to the Daimyo's wife." She sighed, not noticing how Kimiko's jaw tightened at the insult of Naruto. "At this rate, he'll be Hokage like he claims… Just in time to be buried!" She shook her head. "Anyways, what's it like having Inugami on your team?"
"It's odd... I mean, there are times where what he does are the opposite of what I'd expect of him... A few days ago he cracked a joke that wasn't at the expense of 'Hito or me - or anyone else for that matter. The guy's fiendishly smart, it's like every time we turn around he reveals that he's not only been there, but he's three steps ahead of us and has a trick up his sleeve as a backup! It's like he's playing Shogi while we're expecting him to be playing Go... You know what I mean?"
Sakura nodded; a twinkle in her sea-green eyes. "I remember the competition we got into over grades on the final exams: we both scored perfectly and decided to come up with a tie-breaker test. We spent three hours coming up with more and more complex problems for the other to solve, until he finally came up with one about the founding of Konoha that I actually knew. Then I asked him if he knew the brand of shampoo that Sasuke uses... He didn't, so I won."
'I swear...' Kimiko thought to herself, studiously trying to keep her contempt from rising to the surface. 'What the hell is it about that ass that keeps them coming back despite his utter disregard for their efforts?' She coughed momentarily. "Anyways, could you get 'Hito; we really should be going..."
Sakura paused, thinking about where her cousin could be. "You know, he hasn't come down yet this morning. He must've overslept; I'll be right back."
She turned and rushed up the stairs to Nakahito's room. She knocked on the door a few times. "'Hito? Are you up yet?" The only response was a half-whispered moan. "Geez!" She said, sliding it open. "Are you still asleep?!" She walked in, noticing that his bed was practically unmade and that Nakahito was writhing uncomfortably on the mattress. "'Hito?! Are you okay?" Sakura asked, concerned for her cousin.
Unknowable to Sakura, her cousin was locked in a new version of the same dream that had woken him up earlier that morning. This time around, however, Kimiko's appearance - with her garbed as a shrine priestess - had caused the water turn into flames and she was shooting arrows that kept nearly hitting him. Only his agonized writhing in the fire pool allowed him to dodge the attacks. He was also trying to work his way towards Kimiko to halt her attack.
"Nakahito Haruno!" Sakura said tersely, poking his shoulder with one of her fingers.
The touch caused Haruno's half-conscious mind to think that he'd been hit and heard Sakura's voice as Kimiko's shout of rage. "Kimi, no!" 'Hito cried as he sprang from his bed - thinking he was jumping towards Kimiko and her bow - and tackled Sakura instead. As they hit the ground, Nakahito's lips touched Sakura's, finally breaking the nightmare. Haruno's eyes open and then bulge in utter horror as he realizes he's kissing his cousin!
"Gaaah!" He says, immediately breaking off the kiss and spitting away from her. "Sakura?! What the hell are you doing?"
"Me?!" She roars back, wiping her lips off with the back of her hand and then slugging him in the chest. "You're the one who grabbed me! What the hell were you dreaming about?" She puts her hands on her face, making a face designed to be a caricature of him. "'Kimi, no!' You sound like a bad anime or something. Or maybe I should ask WHO you were dreaming about, hmm?" She have her cousin a sly smile: she'd long since realized Nakahito and the Itou girl were perfect for each other… If only the knuckleheads would realize it!
'Damn her and that whole 'female intuition' stuff.' Nakahito thought as he threw a pillow at her which bounced off her head. "Why are you in my room?"
"You overslept, Baka!" She replied as she threw the pillow back at him with a malicious grin. "Kimiko's downstairs waiting for you; maybe I should ask her about who you're dreaming about?" This time, she ducked when he threw the pillow at her. "Okay, fine, I won't. Geez, you're too easy to bait at times, you know that?" She sighed. "Get dressed; you need to be at the Hokage's in 30 minutes. I'll have Mom put together something you can eat while you walk." She then beat a hasty retreat from the room as her cousin raced to the bathroom to wash away the fear sweat that clung to him.
* * *
It took Nakahito some fifteen minutes to pull himself together and come down the stairs. His aunt stepped out of the kitchen as he reached the bottom landing and hands him a disposable container. "Sakura's already left. Her team gets their assignment sometime after yours, but she wanted to..."
"Walk with Sasuke." Nakahito finished her sentence, rolling his eyes. He lifted the lid. "Tamagoyaki!" He said, using the utensil to eat a small bite of the egg dish. "Obasan, this is probably one of your best ones yet!" He noticed Kimiko staring at him, tapping her foot impatiently. "I'll see you later this evening!" He said; dashing out the door and sliding it shut. "Sorry, Kimi... Bad night - kept waking up."
They walked in silence as he ate his eggs. After a few minutes, Kimiko finally asked dryly. "So how did I kill you this time?"
"Shot me with a bow and arrow," He responded without thinking. He then stopped short. "Wait a second… How do you know what my bad dreams are about?"
She rolled her eyes. "You fell asleep while we were practicing a few days ago. Apparently I clubbed you in that one because you winced as if you'd been hit in the head just before you woke up. I may not be as smart as Sho, but I can put two and two together, 'Hito." She answered and then gave him a wide grin. "You also talk in your sleep." Nakahito's mortified look caused her to chuckle. She wrapped her arms around him, giving him what she called a 'teddy bear' hug. "I'm really sorry about how I reacted to the whole bathhouse incident. I still don't know why I got so upset, but I miss my friend." She then nuzzled up against him.
For an instant, Haruno's blood ran chill. 'Please, Kami-sama, don't let this be a new version of the dream...' Nakahito thought to himself. "So you really forgive me?" He asked cautiously.
Kimiko, hearing the confusion in his voice, looked up at him with a hint of tears in her eyes and causing him to feel like a jerk. "Don't you want me to?"
"Of course I do!" Haruno flared defensively. "I just..." He faltered. "Kimi, I hope you'll understand when I ask you this... Are you really sure I'm awake? These dreams have been so vivid that I'm not too sure what's real at times. I mean, the getting killed part usually helps, but..."
Kimiko Itou gave him an incredulous look. "You can't tell if you're wake or not."
"Well, I'm pretty sure I was all the way up to the point that you rubbed up against my chest... It's not exactly something you've done since, ah, well..." He trailed off, looking at the ground. 'Since around the time my parents died, which was when your chest developed. That's when you stopped doing that out of fear that you were sending me mixed messages.' He couldn't say that, after all. It was too close to what got her mad at him in the first place.
Her ire cooled as she finally understood his caution. She then spotted something that brought a smile to her face. "I think I can show you something that'll prove you're awake." She murmured, bumping his hip. "Incoming, one o'clock."
Nakahito looked up and spotted the gray-white hair, green glasses-wearing looks of Sho Inugami and the dark haired, white-eyed look of Miho Hyuuga...
Who was completely clothed.
"Oh, thank God..." Haruno breathed, the tension suddenly escaping him. 'I never thought I'd see the day when I hoped to see Miho-sensei WEARING clothes.' He wisely managed to not say aloud. "Thanks, Kimiko. I really needed to see that." He mussed her hair with one hand, something he'd started doing when he'd grown taller than her. "And I missed my friend, too."
"Well, that's good, because if they're here, that means we missed duty assignments. She's probably going to give us an earful." Kimiko Itou sighed.
"There you are!" Miho called, equally annoyed and amused as she spotted her two wayward Genin and worked her way towards them.
"I'm sorry, Miho-sensei." Nakahito responded right away, noticing that he could now look the Hyuuga woman in the eye without feeling embarrassed. "I slept through my alarm and Kimiko was waiting for me."
Miho nodded. "It's all right; just try not to make a habit of it. I don't want you turning into Kakashi-sempai on me."
"So what's our mission today?" Kimiko asked as Team 13 resumed walking.
"Food Delivery at Ichiraku's Ramen shop." Miho Hyuuga replied.
Nakahito threw Kimiko a confused look. "That doesn't sound too bad... But since when does Old Man Teuchi deliver?"
"Two days ago." Sho answered, causing his teammates to look at him. "I happened to be at Ichiraku's with Naruto when his supplier delivered his food order for the month. Apparently the vendor transposed a few numbers and sent him roughly triple what Teuchi-san was expecting. Since it would cost more to have it returned to the warehouse, the supplier gave him a discount."
"That was nice of them." Kimiko replied.
Sho shrugged. "The only problem is that Ichiraku-san doesn't have enough storage space for all the extra supplies. I made a few suggestions on what he could do and Teuchi-san thought that a delivery service was probably the best solution; he uses the food up and gets some extra income. Since its temporary, he's decided to only announce it via word-of-mouth. It must be working extremely well if he needed to hire extra help."
Nakahito chuckled. "I'm surprised that Naruto didn't try and snag this job."
"Are you kidding?" Sho retorted with a snort. "Uzumaki would probably sell body parts - his own or someone else's - to get this one. Lord Hokage made sure that Naruto wasn't anywhere within earshot when he gave out this assignment. Probably a good idea... Naruto's an absolute ramen fanatic, especially for Ichiraku's; I doubt half the orders would be delivered." Haruno and Itou chuckled in agreement; Uzumaki's ramen proclivities were well known.
They arrived at the ramen diner as Teuchi Ichiraku was removing the wood planks from the front that indicated the store was currently closed. The old man wore his typical chef's whites and the service industry cap that kept his hair under control.
"Teuchi-osan!" Miho Hyuuga said, waving her hand at the old man.
Teuchi looked up from his work with a laugh. "Miho-chan!" He grinned. "You're a sight for these sore, old eyes. It's been too long... What are you doing here?"
Miho-sensei gestured towards her Genin pupils. "My team is here to fill your contract for ninja services."
"I must be getting senile..." Ichiraku said, pretending to clean out his ears. "I could have just sworn I heard little Miho-chan say that she has a team and they're here to work." He shook his head with a chuckle. "Congratulations, Miho-chan! I hadn't heard that you made Jonin instructor. Ayame-chan will be so excited to hear that."
Miho looked around. "Where is Ayame, anyways?" Ichiraku's daughter was as much a staple of the shop as Teuchi himself.
Teuchi sighed. "She pulled a leg muscle the other day while making deliveries and can barely walk at the moment. That's why I needed to order some help for today."
Sho Inugami stepped up, looking pensive. Teuchi Ichiraku startled momentarily as he recognized one of his frequent customers. "I'm really sorry that my suggestion got Ayame-neechan hurt, Teuchi-san... If I can use your phone, I'll get Kaasan to stop by your house on her lunch break and see if she can help speed Ayame's recovery."
Another smile appeared on Teuchi's face. "That's awfully kind of you Sho-kun. You know where the phone is." Sho nodded, slipping into the half-opened restaurant.
'You know...' Nakahito thought to himself. 'Twenty days ago that would have surprised the hell out of me. Now, I almost expected him to do something like that the second I heard the old man's daughter hurt herself. It's so weird seeing this kinder, gentler side of On…' Haruno stopped himself mid-thought. 'Damn it, it's SHO! Start using it, you idiot!'
Ichiraku finished removing the planks to officially open his restaurant to the public, revealing the wooden counter top with six barstools spaced to give people enough space to eat and still have conversations comfortably. The smell of hot miso and salt ramen soup stocks filling the morning air.
"I figure that if I get one of you to help me serve the walk-ins and two of you working deliveries, we should be able to handle the work. You can keep any tips you get; Hokage-sama gave me a discount for that." Teuchi said as he tested the broths that he'd started two hours earlier. He nodded and lowered the heat. "Yes, that's perfect..."
Sho emerged from the back area, patting Teuchi on the shoulder with a nod. Old Man Ichiraku grinned, bowing slightly. "Two runners and we get to keep the tips, right?" He asked to confirm what he thought he'd heard while on the phone.
Miho Hyuuga nodded. "That's correct. Kimiko, you'll take Ayame-chan's place here at the shop for today and help Teuchi-san. Ayame-chan should have an extra apron and scarf to keep your hair out of the way in the back that should fit you nicely." Kimiko Itou nodded, ducking into the back.
"Sho, Nakahito, you'll be our runners. We'll split the village along the line from the Hokage's manor to the South Gate. Sho, you'll handle the east side of that line." The light haired medic nodded. "Nakahito..."
Nakahito nodded. "West side." He grinned. "I might not be the genius that Inugami is, but I can at least figure that out... Also, Miho-sensei, you can just call me 'Hito if you want; I'm kind of used to it."
Miho Hyuuga gave a faint smile as Sho, unnoticed to Haruno, rolled his eyes. "Very well. You'll get the west side, 'Hito. Keep in mind, this will not be just about delivery speed; the bowls need to be unbroken and a minimum of spillage." She looked at Sho. "No Body Flicker; your movements are still a bit too rough."
Nakahito's jaw slackened in disbelief. "Too rough? I couldn't even track him and you're saying he wasn't doing it right?" He also felt a bit of discouragement. He'd been trying the hint that Sho had dropped in his frustration on their first day on how to Body Flicker - namely to concentrate the chakra in one's leg muscles. It'd taken the better part of a week, but Haruno had definitely seen a slight improvement in his running speed - nothing like Oni had shown, but an improvement - while augmenting himself with chakra. That and the Charlie Horse cramps had finally stopped as he repeated his efforts had told him he was on the right track.
Sho sighed, looking at Kimiko as she walked back out, looking vaguely like a younger version of Ayame Ichiraku. "Why is it he leaps to conclusions when he misunderstands what someone else is saying?" He asked rhetorically and got a slight shrug that said 'How do I know? I'm just his friend.'
"She didn't say I was doing it wrong, just too roughly." He pulled a spherical bell out of his pocket, holding it between his first two fingers, giving it a slight shake to make it chime.
"Watch." Sho suddenly disappeared from his spot. Over the next few seconds came three clear rings of the bell before the medic-nin reappeared between Miho and Nakahito. "That's what she meant by too rough. Since I haven't mastered it yet, my body still moves too much while making the ultra-fast steps. A Body Flicker master, however..." He tossed the bell to Miho-sensei. As Nakahito and Kimiko watched, Miho Hyuuga and the bell suddenly disappeared.
A heartbeat or two later, she appeared behind Kimiko, drawing a surprised gasp from the other two Genin. "...Knows the proper way to adjust one's stride while using the technique to neutralize the extra forces being exerted. You'll note that she caught the bell mid-air and then ran around the room without causing the bell to ring." Sho finished.
Miho smiled and tossed the bell back to him, which Inugami caught with a muted jingle. "In the training session next week, I'll be showing you the proper way to do the wall-walking jutsu. This will greatly expand the bounds of your chakra skills, if you learn to do it right."
Suddenly the telephone rang. Miho, being closest, picked it up. "Moshi-Moshi? Yes, this is Ichiraku's... Why yes, we are offering delivery for a short time." She grabbed a pencil and paper, writing quickly. "Double shrimp miso with rice noodles?" Teuchi started preparing the order with the speed and grace of a chef who had his kitchen memorized. He quickly flashed 7 fingers. "That will be ready in seven minutes. Plus delivery time to the east side puts it between fifteen and twenty. Extra if it's there under 15? We'll see what we can do, sir! Thank you for your order."
She hung up the phone and handed Sho the piece of paper. "Do you know where this is?"
Sho looked at the address. "Yeah. It's about a half kilometer west and two north from the East Gate. Even without Body Flicker I can be there in 6 minutes; easy."
"That's three and a half kilometers away from here!" Nakahito objected as he snatched the paper from the medic's hands in disbelief. Even on his best day it took him 7 minutes to cover a little more than 1.6 kilometers.
Sho paused, his eyes losing focus as he reached back into his near flawless memory. "Oh, that's right. It is." Nakahito smiled - he could only handle so much of Sho's grandstanding at one time. Sho looked back at Miho-sensei. "Five minutes."
Haruno raised his hands into a T shape. "No way, I call that bullshit. There's no way you're that fast without Body Flicker."
Sho nodded. "You're right, I'm not. But the Hospital and my house are only 3/4 of a kilometer away from there." Kimiko and Nakahito looked confused while Miho-sensei simply began to chuckle to herself as she shook her head. Sho noticed their confusion. "You've never needed to be rushed to the Hospital before, have you?" His fellow team members simply shook their heads. "How much do you know about the Nidaime and Yondaime Hokages?"
"Not a whole lot..." Kimiko replied. "I mean, Lord Second was the younger brother of the Shodaime and created what would come the Academy… And the Fourth… Well, aside from the fact that he was a major force in ending the Third Great Ninja War and died saving Konoha from the Kyuubi, not that much." Nakahito nodded agreement. "Ninja History 201 and above were elective courses neither 'Hito or I took. Why?"
"The Nidaime, Lady Tsunade's uncle, was one of the fastest men alive. He developed many devastating techniques, one of which was called "The Flying Thunder God" which makes Body Flicker look like slow motion in comparison. It's a teleportation technique that allowed him to seemingly appear from nowhere and strike like lightning itself." Both of Inugami's teammates' jaws dropped in shock. "But he died about 34 years before we were born and, because he didn't have any children, a lot of his techniques were lost or sealed."
"The Yondaime, Lord Jiraiya's master pupil, was a ninja genius, probably the strongest man that was not from any major clan to ever become the Hokage. There's a story how in one training session, before becoming Hokage, he manage to hold his own against the combined strength of the non-traitorous Sandaime – Master Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade-dono – in a three day melee." Nakahito, who'd recently felt the strength of Master Jiraiya firsthand, felt his jaw drop in utter awe.
"Anyways, one of his nicknames was "The Yellow Flash of Konoha" because he was the first person since it's creator to not only be able to learn – and master – the Flying Thunder God, but IMPROVE on the technique. Namikaze-sama could move at speeds faster than Body Flicker over dozens – even hundreds – of kilometers."
"The original technique required just one thing: a paper ticket, similar to the ones we use for paper bombs, written in the user's own blood." Miho Hyuuga continued. "As long at the ticket was intact, he could target the magical seal, sight unseen, and then instantly teleport to its location. The Yondaime, however, figured out how to put the seal on ANYTHING, without using blood, with the merest touch. During one crucial battle during the Third Great War, he had the entire contingent - 12 squads - throw dozens of triple-tipped kunai, the Yondaime's signature weapon, near each of the enemy's entrenched and heavily fortified positions. On each kunai, he had wrapped one of his teleportation seals around the handle." She smiled at the memory. "In the span of a minute and a half, the Yondaime then transported himself to each of those kunai, destroying each of the positions before they even realized he was there." A beatific look formed on her face - clear signs of hero worship. "After that, the other ninja villages gave standing orders to their men: Avoid the Yellow Flash at all costs; Retreat on sight."
"Whoa..." Nakahito breathed in utter awe at the story.
Kimiko nodded. "Now I kinda wish we'd taken those courses."
"In any event," Sho continued as Teuchi Ichiraku started serving up the ramen order. "After the war was over, the Medical Ninja corps asked the newly elevated Yondaime to teach them his version of the jutsu. They reasoned that if they set up a special room near the Emergency Treatment wing for Target Tags, patient survival rate could be dramatically increased as the medical unit could take the critically wounded from their location in the field to the Hospital's ER nigh instantly. Most can't get anywhere close to the range that the Fourth could and every one needs to use their blood to make the time/space connection work, but most of the medical staff that are capable of it can travel from anywhere within 20 kilometers of Konoha to the hospital in a matter of seconds."
Nakahito winced, knowing the answer before he asked. "And you know this technique? Really?!"
"What part of 'nearly finished the Chuunin training program' did you not understand, Haruno?" Inugami said, reaching into his back pouch and pulling out what looked like an explosive tag, but written with a more complex jutsu seal in brownish red. "A Flying Thunder God user can carry one additional, maybe two depending on their sizes, person at a time. If there are more people injured than we can transport," He waved the slip of paper, "We carry a spare tag to create a circuit between our starting point and the ER. Most can only handle connecting up to two tags at a time and – for a change – I'm not an exception to that average."
Itou had been looking long and hard at the tag and something about the ink was off… Then she realized what it was… "Sho..." Kimiko groaned in disgust. "Please tell me that tag's not written in your own blood... That would just be too creepy!"
Sho shrugged. "I could lie to you if you'd like, Kimiko-san, but you'd know it's a lie." Kimiko got a queasy look on her face. "Relax... It's not like I opened a vein just to write this. I just happened to donate blood to the Hospital Blood Bank and asked them to just siphon out a little bit extra. Since it was Tousan drawing the blood, he didn't object."
"Aren't you going to get in trouble if you teleport into the ER wing to speed up your delivery of ramen?" Miho Hyuuga asked rhetorically.
"If I had a Tag in there, yes, yes, I would." Sho replied as he accepted the ramen carrier box from Ichiraku. "But the Tag Room is restricted to Medical Ninja currently assigned to working the ER wing." He slapped the tag that he'd pulled out of his pouch to the underside of one of the stools where it couldn't be seen.
"My parents have a small lab at our house to allow them to run experiments late at night and they've set up their own Tag Room so their walking to our from the lab doesn't wake my younger sisters. When I graduated the Academy, my parents taught me the jutsu and allowed me to set up my own tag in the lab to practice."
"You've learned how to cover three and a half kilometers in a month and a half?" Miho asked, surprised. Even taking into account that he'd been sandbagging at the Academy, only an impossibly gifted student could have developed that much in that short a span of time.
Sho shook his head. "My current limit is a hair over 2.5 kilometers or so... Beyond that, I can't sense the Target Tag clearly enough to safely use the technique. I mean that's all I've been doing for the past few weeks: practicing this and Body Flicker for 10 hours each day." He hefted the padded delivery case and left at a fast-paced march. "I'll be back in 15 minutes!" He called back behind him.
"Damn it!" Nakahito cursed after Sho was gone, punching one hand with the other. "Another advanced technique! I'm really getting tired of playing third fiddle..."
"Don't you mean second fiddle?" Teuchi asked, interrupting Haruno's rant.
"No, I mean third. Oni, Oni's ego, and then me." He replied, ticking out his fingers. He sighed. "Crap, I'm using his old nickname when I told myself I'd stop." Haruno paused to resume his rant but couldn't recall what he was going to say. "And now I've lost my chain of thought..."
Miho Hyuuga came around the counter. "'Hito, give me one of your kunai. Please." Confused, he pulled out one of his throwing knives and handed it to her. She reached under the seat and pulled off the Target Tag, wrapping it around the handle of the kunai.
"What are you doing, Miho-sensei?" Kimiko asked, not sure what was going on.
"Giving Inugami-san a badly needed humility lesson…" The Hyuuga Jonin replied. She stepped outside the shop, jumping enough to allow her to stick the knife into the roof over the entrance to the ramen shop. "Keep in mind, you two, that while advanced techniques are potentially useful force multipliers, they also have exploitable weaknesses - even Kekkei Genkai like my Byakugan. Sho just needs a bit of a refresher course on that fact."
Kimiko and Nakahito threw the other a look of surprise. Miho-sensei was pulling a prank? On "golden boy" Inugami? Then they smiled at each other. Even Ichiraku himself chuckled under his breath.
This was going to be awesome!
The four of them sat around the shop for the next ten minutes, waiting for the next order to come in - it was still the time of the morning when the night shift had not yet been relieved of duty yet, after all - while Miho Hyuuga caught up with Teuchi Ichiraku.
Suddenly, there was a popping sound, from outside and the creak of wood on the roof.
"Thirteen min... AUGH!" Sho Inugami's chortling voice turning in to a yelp of surprise. "Oh, sure..!" He grunted under his breath before shouting. "Really mature guys! WHOA!"
The wooden box that Sho had left with fell towards the ground as the wood creaked louder as Sho tried to keep his balance. As the box nearly crashed, a massive hand came into view to catch it and set it safely on the ground even as a kunai-thick black streamer raced along the ground to intersect the shadow that Sho cast on the ground before it jumped up at a right angle, as if reality itself had been cut in half.
"Geez, Sho..." A new voice said from outside. "It's too early to be that troublesome!"
"Shikamaru, any time is too early to be troublesome for you!" Sho replied to the unseen voice. But he sighed with relief. "But thanks for the save. You, too, Chouji. Now, if you'll let me go, the first bowl for the two of you is on me!"
A deeper voice cheered. "Free ramen! Come on Shikamaru, let him go already."
The black streamer retracted and a few seconds later, Sho back-flipped onto the ground on the far side of the box, the kunai in hand. From the direction the black streamer appeared and vanished appeared two ninja in the same age group as the members of Team 13.
One was a kid in a green-lined gray vest with a black mesh shirt and his forehead protector tied around his left arm. He was thin as a rail and had his jet black hair pulled back into a topknot that accentuated his ragged hairline.
The other was heavyset young man with an olive green coat and a white scarf wrapped around his neck. He had a forehead protector that had a third strip of fabric that ran from just above the metal plate and split his brown hair into two thick tufts.
"Ah, Chouji's here earlier than usual…" Teuchi said as he started unwrapping packets of noodles and put them in the hot water.
Miho looked at Ichiraku. "You know them? I'm afraid I don't recognize them..."
"The big one's Chouji Akimichi. The thin one's Shikamaru Nara." Teuchi replied as the Jonin recognized the names of two prominent ninja families. "Chouji typically stops in at least three times a week when they aren't at the Shushuya, which is his favorite place."
"Oh, they're on Asuma Sarutobi's team." Miho said, remembering the specific names.
The three stepped into the ramen store, Chouji and Shikamaru taking a pair of open seats and placing their orders. Sho handed the case and money – both from the order he'd delivered and for the food for the two who had come to his aid – over to Teuchi before unwrapping his target tag from the kunai, which he handed to Miho Hyuuga. "Was that really necessary, Miho-sensei?" He asked wryly.
"What makes you think I did it?" She asked innocently.
Sho gestured at his teammates. "Kimiko's never been one for playing pranks; if she has a problem with you, she's more likely to beat it out of you." Itou nodded confirmation. "That and I don't think I've done anything to earn her ire recently.
"Nakahito, on the other hand, has the best motive - I keep drumming into him the fact that I'm in a different skill class than him; one better than the one he's currently in." Haruno's lips twisted like he'd eaten something rotten. "Nakahito also has a tendency to pull a prank if his mad enough to take action, but not enough to fight it out…" Inugami held up his tag. "However, he would have elected for something simpler and far more degrading - like dropping the Tag onto a pile of dog crap so that I land in it when I jump." Nakahito thought about that for a few seconds and chuckled in agreement; that did sound like something he would have done.
Sho looked back at her. "So that leaves you, Miho-sensei. You used one of Haruno's kunai - I recognized the wrap pattern on the handle immediately - to get me to jump down his throat if I made the logical assumption that it was him. The only flaw was the fact that you chose a location that guaranteed that I'd only be off balanced, figuratively and literally, when I came back. You didn't simply jam it into a wall ten meters in the air so I'd be guaranteed to fall - that means whoever did it didn't want to see me hurt myself." He raised an eyebrow. "All signs point to you, Miho-sensei. So, what exactly was I supposed to learn from this?"
She gave him a wry smile as she handed the kunai back to Nakahito. "Which is more important? What the teacher wishes to teach or what the student actually learns?"
Sho Inugami opened his mouth to answer, but then paused with a thoughtful frown, leaning against the near wall to contemplate the question. He finally shrugged. "I'll have to get back to you on that one, Miho-sensei... Metaphysics isn't exactly my area of specialty."
'He learns.' Miho thought to herself as she nodded to accept his response.
* * *
The first two hours of their shift were fairly quiet after Chouji and Shikamaru left. At eleven o'clock, the lunch rush began in earnest and the team was really starting to earn their tips. By 11:30, Nakahito had unilaterally decided to make a competition out of getting tips between the three Genin.
By noon, he was losing. Kimiko was leading with 75 ryou in tips, Sho was next with 68 - he would have been in the lead but had used some of his tip money to buy for the two members of Team 10, and 'Hito was last with 60 ryou.
"You're doing great so far, team." Miho Hyuuga said encouragingly as Kimiko served her a bowl of chicken & shitake ramen.
The phone rang and Kimiko ducked around Teuchi to answer it. "Ichiraku Ramen." She began writing down instructions. "Two orders of Shark Fin with buckwheat noodles for delivery." Teuchi went to work with his customary efficiency, flashing nine fingers. "Going to the Northwest Wall Post? Call it twenty-five to thirty minutes. Have an excellent day!" She set down the phone. "'Hito, you're up!"
"All right!" He said, stretching his legs. He'd been using his chakra to increase his speed for the return trips… Maybe he'd try it on the outbound trip as well. He'd been muscle spasm-free all day, so he should be fine...
Teuchi loaded the ramen into the carrying case, adding extra padding and dividers to keep the two bowls of soup separated. "Ready to roll!" He said, slapping the side of the box. Nakahito nodded, grabbing the case and rushing off.
Haruno began to slowly open the smallest flow of chakra into his legs and he distinctly felt an effect as his speed increased. He turned onto one of the village's major roads and shifted his focus to the other foot traffic, trying to guess points of congestion before he got to them, allowing him to make the most of his extra speed.
As the Northwest guard post on the Wall finally came into view, a blonde and purple blotch appeared unexpectedly out of one of the side alleys. Moving too fast to stop without upsetting the bowls, Nakahito shouted. "Purple blondie; duck!" The figure reacted instantly, allowing Haruno to plant his hands on the person's back and half-vault over the figure. In doing so, he was able to stop almost immediately without the sound of clinking porcelain from his back.
"Oww!" The person - more accurately a woman from the sound of the voice - cried. "You're crushing me you big ox!"
To Nakahito's surprise, he recognized the voice. "You should consider yourself lucky if all I do is crush you, you insensitive bitch!" He growled back as he got back on his feet and took his weight off her spine.
"What?!" She shouted with umbrage, "What did I ever do to you..." Ino Yamanaka straightened up and her jaw dropped as if she were seeing the second to last person she wanted to see; which she was. "Nakahito…"
"What, so busy hurting peoples' feelings that you can't remember your victims?" He said, spitting at the ground by her feet. "What you said to Kimi is unforgivable! Even Oni Inugami refuses to say things like that; so what does that say about you?" Tears started filling her china blue eyes, but Nakahito turned his back, refusing to feel any sympathy for the stuck up girl. "In fact, as much as I hate to admit it, I actually have more respect for him at the moment than I do for you."
"I... I tried to apol..."
Nakahito turned around clenching his fist and teeth in rage, cutting her short. "I don't care! I'm not the one who can - or is willing to - forgive you. She's over at Ichiraku's at the moment." He turned away from her. "I have a delivery to make. Until Kimi tells me you apologized to her in person, I don't want to see your pathetic, self-absorbed ass. If I see you again before she tells me that... Well, even this Lady Tsunade that Sho is always obsessing about couldn't fix what I'd do to you." And with that, he stormed away, leaving the kunoichi to slump to the ground in tears.
A few minutes later, he reached the check in station at the Northwest Post. Two Chuunin sat in the open-air shack looking over paperwork. "Ichiraku Ramen Delivery!" He announced as he set his case in a clear spot of the table.
"Sweet!" One of the Chuunin said, sliding open the case. A cloud of steam rolled out of the case. "Still hot, too!"
"Two bowls of Shark Fin with Buckwheat Noodles..." Nakahito said as he pulled two sets of disposable chopsticks out of the case to give to the patrons. "...plus delivery comes to 25 ryou."
The other one took a deep breath of the steam from his bowl. "That smells incredible..." He pulls out his wallet, handing Haruno two 20 ryou bills. "Keep the change, Gaki, you earned it."
Nakahito Haruno bowed deeply as he closed the empty case. This tip had jumped him from last to being tied for first with Kimiko! "Thank you for choosing Ichiraku's!" He then turned to begin a well-earned leisurely walk back to the shop, a large grin on his face.
* * *
Kimiko Itou knelt behind the counter of the Ichiraku Ramen shop, the white apron and scarf usually worn by Ayame Ichiraku added to her usual white and blue outfit. Her pink sash was now tucked in behind the apron instead of loose the way it usually was - the kitchen area was confining and her sole relic of her mother had gotten uncomfortably close to the stoves.
'No...' She thought to herself as she paused in her work. 'That not quite right... It had nearly caught on fire, but that small stream of water broke through the ceiling and killed the stove's burner before it even singed the fabric. Teuchi-san dashed to the water cutoff valve, worried that one of the pipes had ruptured, but the water stopped nearly as fast as it had started. Miho-sensei used her Byakugan to check for cracks, but couldn't guess where the water came from…'
Kimiko was bent over, looking for the mop to clean up the spill, when a bang of displaced air caused her to startle and hit her head against the underside of the counter. "Oww..." She looked up, rubbing the spot that would likely have a lump on it in a few hours. Sho Inugami stood in a dissipating cloud of smoke.
"Sho! How many times have I asked you to call us to make sure no one's eating before you do that?" She chided him. The first time he'd used his teleportation jutsu to return to the shop, someone had been sitting by the chair that Sho had re-fastened his Target Tag to after Miho-sensei's object lesson and had spat a mouthful of Miso Barbeque Pork ramen out of surprise. Kimiko had had to clean up the resulting mess as there had been an order waiting for Sho's return while Nakahito was out.
Sho handed the money the client had paid to Teuchi Ichiraku, who gave him back some. "You get to keep your tips. You know that..."
Inugami gave Kimiko a sickeningly sweet smile. "I've already used up all my loose change - that's why I didn't call." He glanced around. "Where's Haruno?"
"He left around 10 minutes ago to take an order up to the Northwest Wall." Kimiko answered the medical ninja trainee. 'That was a frightening thought...' Itou suddenly thought to herself. 'If he's only a trainee, what are the full-fledged medical ninja capable of?' "So, where are you in 'Hito's game? I'm at 75 ryou."
"I've got 65." He answered. "I keep having to pay a ryou to make phone calls."
"You could always just Body Flicker back, you know." Miho Hyuuga, who must have stepped out while Kimiko had been looking for the mop, said as she walked back in with three skewers of dango from one of the nearby food vendors. "The Yondaime's Teleportation jutsu must use a lot more chakra than simply running must, Sho-kun."
Sho merely shrugged. "The more chakra you use, the more stamina you develop. I typically try to expend all my safely moldable chakra by the end of each day. After all, doing so increases my overall amount of chakra and it also helps me test different ways to increase the efficiency of each unit of chakra."
"Ano..." Kimiko asked hesitantly. "What do you mean by a 'unit of chakra'?"
"It's a measurement that the scientists in the Jutsu Development Unit started using." Sho responded, donning his 'professor mentality' again. "Just as size, weight, and time can be quantified into things like meters, kilograms, and seconds, Chakra is just another type of energy source and can be measured. This means that in laboratory settings, we can tell how much chakra the specialists use to make a new technique through use of machines and analysis scrolls calibrated to do so."
He paused, making sure she'd followed all that and got a nod. "So they defined a 'unit of chakra' is defined as the minimal amount of chakra required to perform the simplest of techniques, the three taught to every student of the Academy: namely Transformation, Illusionary Clone, and Substitution. Now because chakra is a heterogeneous mixture - a combination of body and spirit energies that maintain their separate natures even when blended - the efficiency, or more accurately the quality, of the mixture is also important. If the energies are not properly mixed, you have to expend more chakra to get the equivalent of a single unit of chakra, thereby depleting your reserve that much faster."
Kimiko's face lit up. "I think I understand! Since in the real world, we have to estimate how well we mold chakra together intuitively, that's why they don't refer to measuring it in the Academy. And by molding all your chakra on a daily basis, you exercise those 'muscles' and make them stronger so they can generate more chakra in addition to learning how to make the chakra blend the best way!"
"Very close, Kimiko." Miho answered with an approving smile. "But you don't try to expend ALL your chakra each day. Just as if you over-exercise a muscle, it can tear and take weeks or years to recover, if ever, you mustn't over-exercise your chakra circulatory system either. As you start to reach the safe limit of your chakra generation capabilities, the flow weakens and you start to feel ill."
Itou looked pensive for a moment. "Like I did during the Yondaime thing."
The Jonin nodded. "At that point, you have to stop, if only for your own safety."
"My own safety?"
"The chakra circulatory system is connected to every major system in the human body." Sho resumed. "Internal organs, brain, everything is interconnected via the chakra network. This network is what allows you to focus on where your chakra is flowing through conscious effort. But there's a drawback: once the body becomes accustomed to interacting with chakra, it becomes dependent upon it. When you start to run out of chakra, your body gets ill to warn you that it's low on something that it needs. If you disregard that warning, it can have serious repercussions: organ damage, chronic illness, and, in the extremes, death."
He gestured at Miho-sensei. "It's one of the reasons the Hyuuga clan is extremely feared by ninja of opposing villages. The Byakugan is the only technique known that allows the user to actually view the chakra circulatory network. Because of this, they have developed a combat style, called Jyuuken, to use this to their advantage. A Jyuudoka - a student of the art - can interrupt the network for a short time, preventing a ninja from being able to mold chakra at all. They can also force their own chakra into their opponent's network; this causes internal injury as the extra energy explodes like a miniature bomb."
Miho-sensei's eyebrow arched. "You know an awful lot about the secret combat style of my Clan, Inugami-kun."
"There are countless books on the EFFECTS of Jyuuken attacks, Miho-sensei. That's different from actually KNOWING the style." Sho Inugami replied cautiously - this had entered a treacherous area for him... "Or being able to perform it; my own Taijutsu style, you probably noticed, is a paltry attempt to mimic it by using my Chakra Scalpels. In my case, I can easily cause internal injuries as I typically target the vital areas of the body, but at the same time, killing is easier than keeping them alive; a fraction of a millimeter can determine whether my foe dies instantly or is merely severely incapacitated. That is where Jyuuken is definitely the superior style."
Ichiraku gave Inugami a queasy stare. "Come on, Sho-san... How many times have I told you not to talk about that kind of stuff in here?"
Sho bowed slightly his face a mask hiding the relief he felt for the interruption. "Sorry, Teuchi-san. I was so focused on answering Kimiko's questions, I forgot myself. I promise; no more discussions like this today."
'That's odd...' Kimiko noted to herself. 'Inugami hates to be interrupted when educating other people, but he doesn't seem to mind this time.' She shook her head, remembering what she'd been working on when Sho's return had interrupted. 'Mop! I need to find the mop to clean up... the... water?' She stalled, noticing that the floor was now bone dry. She wiped beads of sweat from her forehead as it suddenly clicked. "Oh, the stoves… It's so hot back here that it must have dried it up faster than usual." She said under her breath and ceased to give it any further thought.
* * *
About 30 minutes or so after Sho's return, a man wearing a Jonin equipment vest, bluish-black hair, a ribbon-like beard that grew solely on his jawline and a lit cigarette in his mouth entered Ichiraku's. His face has an intense look on it, although it does soften slightly as he notices... "Miho-san."
Miho Hyuuga, who was finishing the last of her dango, turned around at the call of her name. "Asuma-san..." She said after swallowing the mouthful of the desert. "What brings you down here?"
"Apparently a member of my team and yours had a bit of a run in. Apparently your Genin severely insulted mine and then threatened serious bodily harm."
Miho Hyuuga shot a look over at Sho, to which he rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Why did you assume it's me? I'm on friendly terms with two of his three Genin. The third one I can take or leave, but I wouldn't do anything to cause them friction." He paused giving her a cruel grin. "Besides... I don't make threats - real or idle. If I promised to cause serious injury, I would have already done it and then let my fellows in the medical corps TRY to repair it."
"It wasn't Inugami." Asuma Sarutobi agreed. "If you'll join me outside, I think it'll become obvious." Miho Hyuuga nodded, following the other Jonin out to join a young woman, her eyes red from crying. "This is Ino Yamanaka, the Genin that had problems with yours."
Miho recognized the name instantly and sighed. "Haruno..." Hinata-chan had told her about Yamanaka's unfeeling comment to Kimiko Itou from the previous month. Given how protective Nakahito was of Kimiko, it only made sense that he would threaten the person that had caused Kimiko grief.
"When Ino told me what happened, I was ready to tear your student a new one." Asuma admitted. "But then she told me the rest of the story and so I offered to help her make restitution."
"I... I knew I should have tried to apologize earlier..." Ino said, fresh tears starting. "But I could barely forgive myself for making such a vile comment, I didn't expect Kimiko to give me the chance to let her know how sorry I was. Then I ran into Nakahito about 15 minutes ago: I knew that I needed to get Kimiko to call him off as quickly as possible, so I asked Asuma-sensei for help."
Miho nodded with compassion, stepping over to the entrance and ducking her head in. "Kimiko, could you join us out here for a moment?"
Kimiko appeared in the doorway a few moments later. She spotted Ino instantly and her jaw clenched in rage. "What the hell do you want?"
Miho Hyuuga gave her an intense look. "She came over to talk with you."
"Well, I don't want to listen to her!" Itou raged, tears springing to her eyes. "She deliberately said the most hurtful thing anyone could say. It's absolutely unforgivable." Her gaze bored into Yamanaka's. "What gives you the right, huh? Come off your high horse and try and imagine how you'd feel if it were you, if you can!"
Just then, as if summoned by Kimiko's heightened emotions, Nakahito Haruno appeared around the corner. Seeing the tears running down Kimiko's face, he stormed forward. "What the hell did you say to her now, Pig?" He shouted at Ino. Miho and Asuma both stepped between Nakahito and Ino.
"'Hito," Hyuuga-sensei said with a frosty tone. "Inside. Now."
"No, Sensei." Haruno said defiantly, pointing at Yamanaka. "If that heartless bitch thinks she can hurt my best friend and then hide behind the teachers..."
"Shut up, Haruno!" Ino finally shouted, stomping her foot. "I came here to try to apologize to Kimiko!" She turned back to the one she'd wronged. "Look, words can't even begin to express how sorry I am for what I said in the heat of the moment the other day." Yamanaka gestured to Haruno. "When I ran into him earlier, I knew it was wrong to avoid facing you and I made up my mind to not delay my dinner of crow any longer." She dropped to the ground, bowing as deeply as possible as tears fell to the ground. "I'm so sorry for what I said. I can't ask for forgiveness, but I hope that you'll at least accept my apology."
Nakahito opened his mouth, but Kimiko stilled him by raising her hand. She looked at Ino Yamanaka's subdued form. "You're right. You can't ask for my forgiveness... But I give it to you anyways." Ino looked up, gratefully. "Now I'm not saying we're going friends or anything; we have far too many differences of opinion for that to ever be likely, but I'm willing to accept that you didn't mean it." With that, she turned her back and reentered the ramen shop.
Haruno's tension suddenly disappeared. "That's all I needed to hear." He told Asuma, Miho, and Ino before he took a few steps towards the ramen shop. "I won't apologize, but I will say that I no longer hold a grudge against you, Yamanaka-san." With that, he disappeared inside.
Asuma took a long draw of his cigarette. "Well, that went better than I had expected. I half-expected him to attack Ino on sight from what she told me he said to her."
Miho gave him a slight smile. "He's as devoted to her as you are to Yuuhi, but he's not stupid enough to try and fight his way through two Jonin to defend her."
"She told you we were dating, huh?" He asked.
"Actually, no, she hadn't." Miho answered. "But you've been friends since before I was in the Academy, so I'm not that surprised." She looked at Ino, who'd finally stopped crying. "Looks like you've got your work cut out for you..."
Sarutobi snorted smoke. "Like you don't?" Hyuuga raised her hands in mock surrender. "Hopefully, this will be the last time we need to worry about something like this."
Miho nodded in silent agreement.
To be concluded