For something called the forest of death, Hikaru had yet to run into anything interesting.
At the very least, he’d expected some monsters to fight. He’d heard stories of this place from both his elder brother, and he’d been excited! He’d thought there was going to run into a giant snake, or like at least a fox or something… Were Mori and Iza having more success than he was?
Karu’s plan had been to do it all himself. Find another squad, beat them up, and take the scroll away. He wanted to make his parents proud, make his sensei proud… but instead, Karu was just hopping from tree to tree and blindly hoping something interesting would happen to him. He’d even brought the slug princess along in case he needed help!
Weren’t there like, hundreds of other genin in here? Then why wasn’t anyone showing up to challenge him to one on one combat?! Or, why wasn’t he running into a team so he could try and use stealth techniques to get past them? He was so unlucky! Others were probably having… so much fun, and he wasn’t even getting a chance to be a hero.
Even more than that, he was hardly getting a chance to be a
shinobi.
Karu paused, perched atop a rather tall tree in what he approximated to be the center of the forest (he was, of course, dead wrong) and decided to take a moment to catch his breath, and tune his senses to his surroundings. For the first time in a while, Hikaru paused and listened. He was desperate, okay? He had to do what he needed to do, and sometimes what he needed to do Katsumi-sensei would have recommended. He put his hands together and focused his chakra as he closed his eyes.
With a moment of clarity, Karu was able to reach out through nature, and sense his fellow shinobi. To sense his opponents that were surely present somewhere in the forest, Karu had to reach out with his chakra and see what he could feel-
“Young sir Kaminari, you’re aware you aren’t a sensory type, right?”Hikaru cracked one eye open, and used it to look over at Princess Nurunuru, the slug summon he’d ‘borrowed’ from Mori (really, Mori had
insisted Karu take her along), and said.
“Well, I mean, I’ve never really tried… Not like, with all my effort.” Yes he had.
“So I was hoping I’d be able to pull something off…” He trailed off, opening his other eye and giving up on the fruitless endeavor.
“I wanna do something! This forest sucks. Kenshin promised there’d be a lot of fights and moments where I’d be toeing the edge of certain death, but there’s nothing going on! It’s even quiet, and peaceful, I’d even say beautiful which is nice because I really like the forest usually, y’know, but I thought the Forest of Death — DEATH, Princess! — would have somethin’ goin’ on, y’know? But there’s nothin’!” Hikaru boldly claimed with a disappointed sigh.
“Allow me to assist, young sir Kaminari.”Hikaru immediately lit up. He always was a bit of a slingshot with his emotions, going up and down at blinding speeds.
“Oh, really? Could you? That’d be great!” He had to stop himself from clapping his hands together in excitement. He was happy now, waiting for Nurunuru to do her part and guide him where he needed to go.
“Oh… oh, my. I can feel one of your classmates — Suzuhime —” The Princess said the name with some annoyance. While she was doing her job, and assisting young sir Kaminari with what he wanted, she wasn’t going to do it happily if it involved
competition.
“— but her chakra feels weak… there’s another one there, as well. To the left.”Karu had a mixed rush of emotions from that. On the one hand, there was finally something he could do. On the other hand, one of his friends (all of his classmates were his friends) was in danger. Karu took the Princess off of his shoulder, and cupped her in both of his hands,
“Thank you. Can you show me the way?” She gestured with her eyestalk, and Karu lifted her up and put a kiss on the top of her head.
“Let’s go, okay?” He tucked her back on his shoulder, and an astute observer might have noticed she seemed to be blushing. Kaminari Hikaru was
not an astute observer.
“V-very well, young sir Kaminari.”With that out of the way, Karu was rushing down the tree top and toward the fight…
A few moments later
Hikaru was far from good at being stealthy. A future ANBU Black Ops member, he was not, but he was a member of the Kaminari clan. With a few exceptions, they were hardly
known for being anything other than loud and proud.
“You’re nearly there.” Hikaru nodded. He knew that. He could see them now, and he could certainly
hear them, or at least Suzuhime’s scream…
"I don't – have it.”
Under his breath, wanting to maintain as much of an element of surprise as he could, Hikaru had to call out the names of his moves. If he didn’t, then the power wouldn’t be there; his dad had taught him that, after all.
“Kaminari Wind Tunnel Burst Technique…” Immediately, the wind started to pick up around him, and he had to turn his collar slightly to make sure the slug Princess didn’t get launched off of him. Hikaru was moving faster now, and he launched himself off of the tree and toward the enemy shinobi that was holding Suzuhime by the wrist.
With leaves being caught in the swirling wind around him, Hikaru called out his next move. This time, he saw no reason to be quiet.
“Karu… SLIDING RUSH!” Unleashing a barrage of kicks at the enemy, Karu targeted the face and the arm that was holding Suzuhime. Successfully knocking Suzuhime out of the enemy’s hands, and pushing him back to create some space.
As he stood between Suzuhime and the enemy, Hikaru was feeling fired up, and he couldn’t keep the grin from his face. He was finally getting to do something. He shook his limbs out and bounced from side to side. How long could he keep the Wind Tunnel open? He figured now was as good a time as any to find out.
“You look pretty tough… why don’t you fight me… if you’re ready to lose!” Hikaru’s voice was as cheerful as ever. He was finally,
finally getting to put his skills to the test.
He turned to look down at Suzuhime,
“hey! Are you okay? Relax, alright? I got this.” The smile on his face never left. It was time to fight! Turning back to face the enemy, Hikaru muttered to himself,
“time to go till I drop.”