Natsuko Rinha
Afternoon || Land of Lightning
Aside from slapping herself silly in her head, Natsuko was also having a hard time feeling bad for calling the white-robed man what she had. After all, he had been rude, and it seemed he’d trashed the place too. Besides, who in their right mind scaled the cliff in an all-white ensemble? If you asked her, he was just looking for some excuse to smudge up his overly perfect outfit, not only because she tended to dirty things before she even noticed it herself.
That said, Kazuhiko and Koharu clearly didn’t agree with her mental justifications. Judging from the tightness she could see in Kazuhiko’s jaw and the stance Koharu was adopting, her sword coming out from its sheath, Natsuko could guess that they held a few opinions about her actions in the previous few minutes, and she was almost glad they were in a situation when the two couldn’t gang up on her. Almost, because now that she’d opened her mouth, she had to deal with three swordsmen and a white-washed man who she was beginning to realize might be a bit out of their league.
There was a brief moment of stillness in the room as the two sides sized each other up, the swordsmen glancing between the team as the white-clad man smiled, shaking his head as he tsked and stepped back, crossing his arms. Koharu broke this silence by interjecting that the men had no technique, which took Natsuko off-guard since she hadn’t paid much attention to their stances—or, rather, hadn’t known what to pay attention to. With Koharu’s observations, Natsuko thought she could see some disorganization between then men's stances, each standing in their own way but none in a formation so clearly refined as Koharu’s. This brought a grin to her lips since it was a given that her teammates were pretty amazing people, and suddenly the man in white didn’t seem so daunting anymore, just a bit arrogant.
However, given that she was now the closest to the swordsmen and had no weapon at her disposal, Natsuko knew that she’d have to jump back to buy herself some time to prep. She hesitated, trying to figure out how to signal it to her teammates, but thankfully Kazuhiko took the burden off her shoulders, hurling three sparking kunai at the swordsmen and allowing Natsuko to jump back and dodge their retaliatory slashes, which were met by her teammate’s blades in one way or another as she quickly drew a kunai, stuck it in her mouth, and began signing her Wind Release. Thanking Minoru for his insistence that she should at least have one jutsu she could sign instantly, she was glad to see that Koharu and Kazuhiko were more than capable of fending off the three swordsmen for the moment. Again, Kazuhiko picked up her slack for her, kicking one swordsman’s feet out from under him and rolling away to dodge the other one’s sword, glancing at Natsuko as he did so.
Giving him a nod, Natsuko leapt forwards, thrusting her open palm into the swordsman closest to him. The wind she stirred up whipped around her, blasting the man back to send him crashing back into the stone bookshelf behind him, where he landed with a heavy thud. From beside her, Kazuhiko leapt at the man who he’d tripped before, his kunai again sparking with light as it made contact with the other man’s sword, prompting him to flinch back with an angry cry instead of dropping his sword.
The swordsman at the bookshelf rose to his feet, grunting as he hefted his sword again, and Natsuko grinned, jumping back and signing another of the same technique before she grabbed her kunai from between her teeth. From the way the man snarled, rushing at her, she could guess that he thought he knew what was coming, but she wasn’t so dumb as to think she’d achieve the same results from the same riff and tune. This time, she concentrated her wind around her kunai, hurling it at the man who clearly hadn’t been expecting it. With the gales boosting its speed, the kunai flew right past the man’s attempted parry, burying itself in his shoulder as he cried and sunk to his feet, grabbing at the knife. Natsuko took this chance to run over and aim a kick at his head that, aside from sending his head into the bookshelf beside him with a bang, appeared to knock him out cold.
A glance at the man in white showed that he was already heading for the exit, prompting a spike of annoyance from Natsuko.
“Hey radish face! Why don’t you turn around and fight?” she yelled.
A glance from Koharu had Natsuko meet her teammate’s eyes, which appeared to help the white-haired girl make a decision that she relayed to Natsuko with a cryptic message that had the brown-haired genin completely confused. A second later, though, the word ‘fly’ made full sense as ice sprouted up from the ground at Natsuko’s feet, raising her up so quickly she was practically thrown at the white-robed man, who was in the process of turning around to see what the fuss was about. Just as she met the man’s eyes, Natsuko managed to retrieve another kunai, and she thrust it at the side of his neck as she crashed into him. Her momentum sent them both into the floor behind him, his body taking the brunt of the impact and quite literally caving beneath Natsuko’s weight. Just as she was about to yell that no, she was definitely not that heavy, Natsuko realized that the man was, in fact, rippling beneath her, his eyes round in surprise, though the corners of his mouth still hooked up in amusement.
“Not bad. Not bad at all,” he said, then exploded into water, which pretty much soaked Natsuko and everything around her.
“Eww!”
Shooting to her feet, Natsuko rushed to shake herself off, then groaned when she found that she couldn’t.
“I got soaked by ninja guts,” she whined, holding her arms away from her body as she dripped water.
“Not guts, water. That was a clone,” Kazuhiko said, the clothes of the swordsman he’d taken down still trailing wisps of smoke behind him as he walked over.
“Right. I knew that,” Natsuko said, again attempting to shake off the water on her before giving up with a sigh. “Still, ew.”
Looking to Koharu, Natsuko grinned, giving the girl a thumbs up.
“Good call there, throwing me at him! I guess I really pack a punch—or a stab, in this case.”
She shrugged, then opened her arms.
“Celebratory hug, anyone? For a job well done. C’mon, do it for you ‘ol buddy Suko-chan, your adorable little Susu?”
Kazuhiko Taketori
Afternoon || Land of Lightning: Daimyo’s Residence
After regrouping with Minoru and once again explaining themselves and their situation, the three genin were able to take a breather and let Minoru handle the logistics of clean-up, seeing as there were still three swordsmen present, however indisposed. At this point, Natsuko was clearly pooped, remaining almost silent apart from some scattered clever remarks here and there, and Kazuhiko wasn’t feeling much livelier. He and Natsuko relied on their jutsu for battle, unlike Koharu, who had the option of using her sword instead, but it was only the difference between a spiritual strain and a physical one. That difference, though, probably didn’t make too much of an impact, especially considering that Koharu too had used her jutsu, this time in some sort of invented burst move. Add all of their expended energies onto the deficit from their long hike and Kazuhiko could almost begin to justify admitting that he was a bit tired. Almost.
With the swordsmen and the genin’s accounts of the fight taken in by the Kumogakure ninja, the team returned to the Daimyo’s residence to spend the night, where they were greeted by a very huffy Hachiro, who’d apparently expected them to stick around and keep him company for the rest of the day, given that they were staying at “his house.” Nevermind that he’d hardly been there his whole life or that he’d only arrived earlier that day because as far as Hachiro was concerned, he was in his element and his previous genin escorts were guests that ought to now pay him respects.
“That’s father’s garden, where mother will probably want to plant flowers in the future, and that’s the patio where I’ll be able to feed the koi every day,” he said as he led the team of genin through the property, his hands on Kazuhiko and Koharu’s arm. It was this forced proximity that had Kazuhiko hold his tongue, nodding along with a strained smile as he listened to introductions and descriptions of various landmarks and locations he likely wouldn’t see ever again, as far as he was concerned. While he’d had experience with tolerating the adults of Konohagakure, especially those in his family, Kazuhiko was at his wits end here. It’d been a long day of trekking and fighting, and as much as he hated to admit it, he was beginning to understand why Natsuko found the boy annoying. Could he not tell that they’d arrived back tired? And besides, as both one of their current hosts and their previous client, shouldn’t he be doting on them?
“You know what would be more interesting than all of this? Dinner!” Natsuko said loudly from where she trailed behind them, and—much to his surprise and slight horror—Kazuhiko found himself internally agreeing.
“Yeah, whatever, chubby!” Hachiro called back, not even bothering to turn around.
His word choice brought an exasperated smile to Kazuhiko’s face because, while it was funny in that it precisely needled Natsuko in being a completely unnecessary yet present fear of hers, Kazuhiko wished the boy would stop annoying his most troublesome teammate so much. Sooner or later, tensions were going to boil over, and someone would have to clean up Natsuko’s mess—or tolerate her taking out her frustration on them. From what he’d seen of Hachiro, Kazuhiko knew that the boy knew what he was doing, at least partially, and for that Kazuhiko didn’t feel that Hachiro could be considered innocent, young age or not.
“Perhaps we should check if dinner is ready,” he said, attempting a kind tone.
Hachiro whipped around to face him, his face awash with the sadness. “Not you too!”
His sudden change in demeanor took Kazuhiko aback, and the black-haired genin opened his mouth to say something to try and rectify the situation, but Hachiro let go of his arm with a laugh, skipping away.
“Dinner’s this way!”
@Sunflower
