A strange new life

2.14

Fully decked with all my seals and bracelets, dressed in my ninja statement outfit, I followed Tazuna out of the house. I spent the rest of the early morning helping Tsunami with all the normal house chores. The boys had eaten breakfast for three, ran out of the house to continue training. Since Kakashi-sensei was out of commission for at least a week, it fell down to me — injured me — to protect the client while he did his bridge building thing.

That was more than fine with me. The shoulder injury didn’t seem as bad as it first appeared, and I could fight if the situation demanded. And I needed space, and time to think. I thought after I joined a team, I would improve faster, but aside from helping me with taijutsu, and teaching me those two jutsu, Kakashi-sensei hadn’t actually helped me that much. Naruto and Sasuke were improving fast, and it felt I was being intentionally train-blocked. Yeah, sure, I had improved my teamwork, we learned a lot about politics and how the world functioned. But I had not seen any big personal improvement. Or at least that was what it felt like.

Kakashi-sensei might be right that what I need was experience. It just felt like it wasn't enough. If I couldn’t defeat Zabuza’s clone, how could I interfere with Orochimaru and the Third’s fight? How could I make sure the old man wouldn’t die?

I followed Tazuna through a shanty town. He waved and talked and shook hands. The man seemed to know everyone. The people were happy and energized by his presence. Was that the same rude drunkard Tazuna we escorted from the Land of Fire? The difference was uncanny.

A bunch of thugs walked onto the still unfinished bridge, pushing workers out of their way, threatening people with their improvised weapons. They beelined straight for Tazuna. The trio stopped, weapons held in both hands.

My work was boring. I mean, super boring. I just had to stand around, and make sure no one messed with Tazuna. Like what those assholes were doing just now.

“Look here old man.” The biggest of the lot declared. “Gato-sama—”

I didn’t let him finish. That was more than enough confirmation they were sent by the enemy. I moved, ninja speed fast. I punched the man on the stomach. I might have used a bit more strength than appropriate. I didn’t care, really. My fist sunk into the man’s stomach. His eyes bugged out. He went flying away, crashed against the bridge railing, toppled over and fell into the river.

The other two thugs stared at me scared shitless. I popped my board. Wrote a message. “Better go save him or he will drown.”

The thugs bolted. I wasn’t sure if they were going to rescue their comrade. For a moment I debated just leaving it at that. The other workers stares made me feel uncomfortable.

Tazuna approached, whispered to me. “Can you make sure he doesn’t die? The boy is just being used by Gato, he doesn’t deserve to die.”

I nodded. That was fine. Even more so now that it was a client request. I walked to the bridge railing. Jumped out, fell on the water, feet covered in chakra so I wouldn't get wet. My threads dug inside the river, pulled the man out. I made sure to poke him in the correct places to wake him up. The man spluttered, coughed a lot of water. I walked to the river bank, deposited the man there. Noticed the other thugs were there as well, trying to prepare a boat. They looked pretty freaked out to see me walking on water.

I threw the moaning man at them. Turned away, walked up one of the bridge pillars, then into the bridge itself.

That was pretty cool, if I do say so myself. I had to contain a bit of my joyful squirming. Being a ninja was so cool.

Second day of guard duty went about the same. In the morning, I did my katas, reflected on the battle with the clone. Thought what I could have done better. If Kakashi-sensei wouldn’t help, I just needed to improve on my own. The inner fan-girl had taken over for a while, and convinced me that Kakashi-sensei, the coolest ninja in the whole story, would teach me lots. Hold my hand and gift me all the secrets of power.

Now that I think about it, for the past two years I’ve been basically waiting until Kurenai-sensei taught me how to become strong. That was when the trouble started, when I unconsciously decided other people were responsible to teach me stuff. No one would hold my hand and guide me to become stronger. I had to take power by the horns, and dominate it myself, so to speak.

I helped Tsunami-san around the house again. She fussed over my still recovering arm. I let her. Felt good to be pampered. The boys went back to training. I followed Tazuna to the bridge.

A peaceful morning of work came and went. I upped my control training. I could always increase the number of threads I was using, and how many things I controlled at the same time, while still keeping stuff glued to my skin, while still paying attention to the surroundings. Couldn’t let a ninja or a normal thug attack the client after all. It felt nostalgic to push myself with this type of control exercise. Not that I ever really stopped training, even if the exercises were easy most of the times.

I followed Tazuna to a restaurant. The man had some sort of agreement with the owner. A lot of the workers came to eat here. The place looked shoddy. The client sat on a bigger table, surrounded by workers. I sat a bit further away. Popped my own food out of my seals. I had just bitten into the first bite of my rolled eggs when I felt it.

A bundle of chakra, a bonfire, one I often felt on trained shinobi. I hadn’t sense any other shinobi yesterday or today morning. Just some thugs with a bit more chakra than the average person. I packed my lunch. Looked at Tazuna still eating with his boys. Walked outside. If this was a shinobi casing the joint, so to speak, I needed to know who they were.

I followed the chakra until I stood outside what looked like a flower shop, or maybe a herb shop? Was this shinobi buying poison? Was that the next avenue of attack? I considered what to do. Going inside and confronting the shinobi was out of the question. It would put me at risk, it would alert them I had ways of detecting them. No, better observe, enter the store after to investigate.

Course of action decided, I walked into an alley, dimmed my presence and settled down to wait.

It didn’t take long. The bundle of chakra moved closer to the wooden door, and out of the store came the prettiest girl I had ever seen. Soft delicate features, long black silky hair, simple make-up around the eyes, soft pink lips. The girl was dressed on a pink kimono with red spiral details. My ears burned a bit. She was so pretty. I was pretty sure I blushed.

Then reality hit me like a truck. It was a trap. I was struck speechless. I was struck dumb. Was that fucking Haku? How in the hells was he so pretty?

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