Gaarafan12
Active member
Hey guys! This is the first chapter of the second part of Restless Peace! If you didn't read the first half and want to here is the link!
It’s a quiet night; the stars that fill the open sky cast small shadows across the desert sand. As I lay back on my pack gazing up at the moon, I think again how lucky I am. My name is Hannah, shinobi of the Sand, and the Leaf. Yes I know it’s unusual, it’s so unusual in fact that I am the only ninja like this. Like I said, I’m lucky; I was all alone at my home in the Leaf village, I was an orphan and my team had been lost in the war. I tried to stay strong but was almost lost. That’s when I met the Sand ninja and all hell had broken lose.
But that was all behind me, now I’m here in the Land of Winds and working on a new team. Matsuri, my partner was the only person I had met on my team. She was Gaara’s student before he became Kazakage and we had met while I trained under Temari. She fights using different weapons, and is also a learning medical ninja. Next we have Souka, he’s Matsuri’s age and she gets impatient with him. Don’t get me wrong he has it coming to him. He’s a lot like Kankuro always complaining. He fights using a couple of earth style jutsu he picked up, but his best quality is his tracking. He can track a cold trail anywhere. The third member of our team is our captain Deryk. He was in my sensei’s class at the academy, and is a puppet master like Kankuro, but of course he hasn’t quite reached his level yet. But Deryk is also a skill tactician making him a wise captain. He has been a good leader since I’ve worked with him.
It has been four months since I moved to the Sand village. It wasn’t an easy transition for sure, but it has been worth it. I was injured right before the move, Gaara and Temari wouldn’t even let me think about joining a team before a doctor cleared me for combat. Luckily the doctor here didn’t even come close to comprehending my condition the way Lady Tsunade had, otherwise I’d probably still be waiting it out. Yes, I don’t think I’ve fully recovered yet, but it’s not a big deal. The worst is way past and the only problems I still have a bit of soreness.
The only other problem with my transition was the fear of the unknown, mine and the Sand’s. The village was scared by my presence, but not because of me. I had spent a couple of months here training under Temari before and everyone welcomed me. And now, I didn’t feel unwelcomed, but I could sense the unease that my presence brought. That was passing though; the fear was turning into pride, for being the first ninja village to have a joint shinobi living in it. My fear was still lingering persistently. Before I committed to the journey, Lady Tsunade sat me down and told me exactly what the consequences might be, and the responsibilities I would carry. It was a daunting decision, but in the end, the prospect of feeling that sense of loneliness forever was much more frightening.
All has been quiet recently; just as quiet as this starry night. I had expected to be hunted, hated by all those that surely wanted me dead. But not even the clone master that had brought us to this point has made a move.
Although, it might have to do with the fact that Gaara keeps assigning our team genine level missions close to home. The team is becoming restless, after feeling the pressures of war, being handed such simple tasks is excruciating. Souka complains every time we get a new mission about how boring it is. Matsuri and Deryk however understand why we keep getting these low rank missions. It’s because of me. Matsuri is my friend, so she would never complain in front of me, but I can tell she yearns for more exciting work. It was nice at first, not having to worry so much about getting ambushed by packs of rouge ninja, but now that I can see my team suffering I also wish we had better work.
Right now for instance, we are on our way home from a mission to repair a nearby civilian village’s wall. No great battle or ninja confrontation had caused its walls to crumble, just old age. Souka almost died when we got this mission, of course he doesn’t have the guts to speak out in front of Gaara as my friend Naruto would, but he voices it plenty to us.
The sky is beginning to turn lighter, predicting the soon rising of the sun, I rise from my spot and move to assemble my belongings. Deryk wakes next, gathering his few items and waking the other two. Souka takes his alarm very well this morning.
“What the hell do you want? I’ll catch up with you.” He mumbles into his pack. Matsuri rolls over and sits up. Her long brown hair is creased from her sleep and her headband she wears around her neck is crooked. Matsuri takes mornings just about as well as Souka does; the difference is Matsuri opts not to talk.
“Souka get up, you can’t be tired we had a full night’s rest.”Deryk, on the other hand is alert it seems at all times. Nothing gets past him. If I didn’t know better there’s no way I would say he had been sleeping. His pack was packed and ready. His messy black hair had already been pulled to the side to show off his Sand headband coving his forehead. He had no bags under his dark blue eyes and nothing was out of place. He slips his foot into one of the arm straps of Souka’s backpack turned pillow, and pulls it out from his head. His face land in the sand; and in rebellion doesn’t even move.
“I know the way home.” He grumbles into the sand, unfortunately for him he must have gotten some sand in his mouth when he did. He jerks up and starts spitting in Matsuri’s direction. Mistake, Matsuri’s eyes flare and she throws her pack at his head. He’s way to drowsy to dodge it so early. “What was that for?!” Matsuri responds with only a glare as she runs her fingers through her hair trying to get ready to go. Souka looks up to where I’m perched on a rock a couple of feet above him. “I don’t understand you two, getting up so early and making us get back to the village. You don’t get it do you, the time in between us finishing the mission and when we get home is like vacation… no rules, no deadlines. And yet here we are getting up before the sun, to get back and get another stupid job.”
Souka finishes his rant by putting on his glasses, he doesn’t wear them all the time, just in the mornings or when he’s thinking really hard, trying to track.
“That’s enough Souka,” Deryk says moving away from the group. “It’s time to get back, we want to arrive before the day in the village begins so we can get our next assignment.” Deryk is about ten feet away from the group now, treading the familiar path home. Matsuri and I move to walk behind him and we hear Souka hurrying to gather his scattered belongings and finally he matches our strides. He is a little shorter than Matsuri and I but he won’t admit it, he works hard to keep up with us and always says we are delusional when Matsuri says he’s short.
We make our way across the desert like this talking about the finished mission while Deryk moves ahead of us leading the way. The cool night air is quickly heating up to the temperatures I have learned as normal. As the sun rises behind us we make our home, to the Sand village.
==========================================================
The village is quiet this morning, no yet up stirring, of course this isn’t unusual. I rise before the rest of the village every day, not needing much sleep gives me time to be the Kazakage. If I had needed sleep in the way others did, I don’t know how it would be possible. As usual, after preparing myself for the day, I allow the wall of my room to crumble and step out onto the waiting sand. I make my way to the roof of the large building that was my home. There was no other way up here, but by my sand. I look around the village checking its status. Like I said, quiet.
By now the ninja of the village were waking and lights were turning on in the houses. My thoughts summon the sand to me and form exactly what I need. I step onto the hovering platform and have it carry me high above the city. I make my way to the outer wall where I drop and step onto the highest portion of the wall. The ninja keeping watch there great me and give me a quick report. No movement in or out of the village last night. I walk around the perimeter this morning instead of returning my office.
I sent Hannah’s team on a simple mission very close to the village. I had expected them in last night. I know the team and know I have nothing to fear. Temari’s classmate is very capable and knows the details of our previous encounters. He knows Hannah is a likely target. But still I feel uneasy when they are away on assignments. I put them off as long as I can, waiting for nearby missions. I end up on the east wall and look out across the horizon to see the rising sun. Within the suns blinding light, are four figures running swiftly towards our village. The guards around me see them too and begin to bark orders around, trying to distinguish who it was.
“It’s just team 10, they were due back anytime.” One of the guards decides and reports. As soon as the four figures come into view I see he is right. Hannah and her team are back. I turn and drop down to the village floor below and walk through the streets toward my home. There would be plenty of paperwork to do, and I could focus now.
==========================================================
“It’s nice to be back.” I say to Matsuri after we pass the village walls.
“Yeah, I guess so. When do you think we’ll get our next mission? I kinda hope the next one is a bit more exciting.” She asks me, but quickly changes the subject. “Are you going to go train with Temari today?”
This gets my mind off her comment, I always look forward to my training with Temari. “Hopefully! I’m gonna go drop off my pack then go see if she is busy. You wanna join us?” I ask hopefully, maybe that would make up for the sorry missions we’ve been getting because of me. There’s never a dull moment training with Temari…
“No, I’m gonna go home, I’ve always got ‘chores’ to do. I just don’t understand my parents, I go off on missions just to come home and work there too!” Matsuri sighs dramatically. I smile and laugh at her comment, but inside I think about how lucky she is to have parents to annoy her. One can’t really understand the pain of loneliness unless they have felt it.
“Well ok, you have fun with that!” I laugh.
“You act like you’re going off to have some kinda great fun; I know how hard Temari pushes you. Remember the last time I went and trained with you?” She questions me. Of course I do, Temari and I had been training for a while when Matsuri finally came over and joined us. Temari had made us do this sort of ridiculous obstacle course and we thought we might have died. “Yeah, no thank you. I’ll stick with Deryk.” With this we part ways, I wave to her as she moves to go home and I make my way to the ninja dorms. I have a simple room, much like my one in the Leaf village. I don’t spend much time here, nor do I today. I drop off my pack and change clothes.
I move out of the dorms and walk down the busy roads of the Sand village. Some people I have come to know call out in greeting to me. Our missions are spread out and short so I have quite a bit of time to spend in the village. I spend that time training with Temari as much as I can, and then if she is busy training alone. But a person can only train for so long. After that I spend a lot of time playing with the kids in the village, the ones who lost their parents in the war. I know exactly how it feels, and if I can spare even one child from feeling alone, it will be worth it.
Speaking of, just then a small girl named Saidy runs up to me. “Hannah! You’re back! What are you doing? Are you going to go train with Lady Temari?!” Saidy thinks Temari is the coolest person on earth, and I don’t really blame her.
“Yes hopefully,” I say laughing at her enthusiasm. “If she’s busy though I’m gonna need your help to train ok?” I say in a serious tone as I lean down on one knee to look her in the eyes.
“Really?!” I nod my head, “Cool! What will we do?” She yells in excitement.
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll come by later and tell you what I’ve figured out, Okay?” She replies by yelling back ok and then turning to run back to her friends. I laugh at Saidy as she reconvenes our conversation to her friends. I shift my weight to get back to my feet when a familiar sharp pain races up my muscles and makes me stumble. I look around to make sure no one is watching before I reach down to access my leg. It is red, which is normal, but know I can see the dark spots that indicate a bruise forming. Great… that must mean I tore another fiber. It seems like every time I think I’ve fully recovered another thing breaks or tears. I could work through the pain though. I’d been through worse, much worse. So I stand and move again toward the Kage mansion, Temari would be there along with Kankuro and Gaara. Last time I was home Kankuro hadn’t done anything for days. I decide I should stop by and make sure he was breathing.
I enter the large building without any protests from the guards. They knew me and smiled as I walked up the steps into the round entrance hall. There were people moving about working various duties. No doubt Gaara was already on the third floor assigning missions, and Temari would be either in the advisors room, in which case I would leave her be. Or she could be in her or Kankuro’s room. She tried to get him to do more, but with the war over not much was going on.
I reach Kankuro’s room first and knock. When I don’t hear a response I move to leave. But then I hear the grumbles of someone crawling out of bed and making their way to the door. Kankuro opens the door yelling, “Who in the world woke me up!” He looks down at me and I smile up at him. Kankuro is much taller than me and glares down to meet my expression. “What are you doing here Hannah, I’m so tired.” He yawns to add to his statement.
“Well I just got home and thought I’d treat you to some breakfast if you’d go train with me!” I smile as his face brightens at the mention of food, then drops again when I get to the part about training. “Come on, you don’t have to do much, we’ll go get Temari and you just throw some kuni at me every once in a while.”
“Why don’t you ever bother Gaara with this stuff?” Kankuro said grumbling as he moves back into the dark room leaving the door open. I follow and sit on his work desk and listen to him complain.
“If you haven’t noticed Gaara is a little busy being Kazakage! He doesn’t have time to train with me, but you on the other hand have tons of time!” I laugh as he hollers back from the other room.
“I probably would have taken the job if I’d know it meant always being too busy to be bothered by anyone.”
“You wouldn’t have lasted one day as Kazakage and we all know it. I’m gonna go find Temari and I’ll meet you down stairs for breakfast!” He yells back a ‘yeah yeah’ and I leave the room, closing the door behind me and hoping he doesn’t go back to sleep. I move down the hallway further to Temari’s room.
I knock and I hear her yell back just a minute. And just a minute later she opens the door looking annoyed. Her expression changes when she sees me.
“Hannah! Sorry, Kankuro hid one of my shoes and I can’t find it anywhere.” I move into her familiar room and help her look for the lost sandal.
“Speaking of, I just invited him to go to breakfast with us and train, that is if you have time.” I say hopefully. “Found it!” I found the shoe behind a chair in the corner. As I hand it to Temari she groans in anticipation. Not of training with me, but by the presence of her brother.
“Really, he’s coming?” She complained.
“When was the last time he left the mansion?” I counter.
“Good point, alright lets go.”
We only have to wait about five minutes from when we drop down through the center to the first floor to when Kankuro joins us. Temari lets him know what she thought about him hiding the shoe and I just laugh. We leave the mansion to go to head over to one of their favorite shops for breakfast. I had told Kankuro I would treat him, but him being the Kazakage’s brother, he and Temari didn’t really ever have to pay. Obviously since I was with them the shop owners always offered to give me mine on the house, but I always pay. I don’t want the villagers thinking I’m greedy, I’m an outsider to some of them still and don’t want to make anyone mad.
We finish quickly and head over to the training courtyard behind the mansion. Kankuro walks under the shadow of the building and lays on one of the large stones that are scattered throughout the courtyard.
“Come on Kankuro! Don’t just go to sleep on me! We just got here!” I yell in protest.
“Get up you lazy pig, Hannah let’s warm up.” I nod my head in attention, moving into a training mindset from here on out no more jokes, no more laughs. Kankuro of course was yelling at his sister about her comment but finally he joins us. He grabs various small objects laying around and moves them through the air with his chakra strings I aim for them with one fan first hitting each target. Next he moves two separate objects and I move to two fans. Temari stands by and watches my form. Next we practice a technique I invented after watching Temari, I combine my fans to create a larger fan and attack some long rang dummies. After about an hour of warming up, we really start to train.
You must be registered for see links
Enjoy and comment!! It’s a quiet night; the stars that fill the open sky cast small shadows across the desert sand. As I lay back on my pack gazing up at the moon, I think again how lucky I am. My name is Hannah, shinobi of the Sand, and the Leaf. Yes I know it’s unusual, it’s so unusual in fact that I am the only ninja like this. Like I said, I’m lucky; I was all alone at my home in the Leaf village, I was an orphan and my team had been lost in the war. I tried to stay strong but was almost lost. That’s when I met the Sand ninja and all hell had broken lose.
But that was all behind me, now I’m here in the Land of Winds and working on a new team. Matsuri, my partner was the only person I had met on my team. She was Gaara’s student before he became Kazakage and we had met while I trained under Temari. She fights using different weapons, and is also a learning medical ninja. Next we have Souka, he’s Matsuri’s age and she gets impatient with him. Don’t get me wrong he has it coming to him. He’s a lot like Kankuro always complaining. He fights using a couple of earth style jutsu he picked up, but his best quality is his tracking. He can track a cold trail anywhere. The third member of our team is our captain Deryk. He was in my sensei’s class at the academy, and is a puppet master like Kankuro, but of course he hasn’t quite reached his level yet. But Deryk is also a skill tactician making him a wise captain. He has been a good leader since I’ve worked with him.
It has been four months since I moved to the Sand village. It wasn’t an easy transition for sure, but it has been worth it. I was injured right before the move, Gaara and Temari wouldn’t even let me think about joining a team before a doctor cleared me for combat. Luckily the doctor here didn’t even come close to comprehending my condition the way Lady Tsunade had, otherwise I’d probably still be waiting it out. Yes, I don’t think I’ve fully recovered yet, but it’s not a big deal. The worst is way past and the only problems I still have a bit of soreness.
The only other problem with my transition was the fear of the unknown, mine and the Sand’s. The village was scared by my presence, but not because of me. I had spent a couple of months here training under Temari before and everyone welcomed me. And now, I didn’t feel unwelcomed, but I could sense the unease that my presence brought. That was passing though; the fear was turning into pride, for being the first ninja village to have a joint shinobi living in it. My fear was still lingering persistently. Before I committed to the journey, Lady Tsunade sat me down and told me exactly what the consequences might be, and the responsibilities I would carry. It was a daunting decision, but in the end, the prospect of feeling that sense of loneliness forever was much more frightening.
All has been quiet recently; just as quiet as this starry night. I had expected to be hunted, hated by all those that surely wanted me dead. But not even the clone master that had brought us to this point has made a move.
Although, it might have to do with the fact that Gaara keeps assigning our team genine level missions close to home. The team is becoming restless, after feeling the pressures of war, being handed such simple tasks is excruciating. Souka complains every time we get a new mission about how boring it is. Matsuri and Deryk however understand why we keep getting these low rank missions. It’s because of me. Matsuri is my friend, so she would never complain in front of me, but I can tell she yearns for more exciting work. It was nice at first, not having to worry so much about getting ambushed by packs of rouge ninja, but now that I can see my team suffering I also wish we had better work.
Right now for instance, we are on our way home from a mission to repair a nearby civilian village’s wall. No great battle or ninja confrontation had caused its walls to crumble, just old age. Souka almost died when we got this mission, of course he doesn’t have the guts to speak out in front of Gaara as my friend Naruto would, but he voices it plenty to us.
The sky is beginning to turn lighter, predicting the soon rising of the sun, I rise from my spot and move to assemble my belongings. Deryk wakes next, gathering his few items and waking the other two. Souka takes his alarm very well this morning.
“What the hell do you want? I’ll catch up with you.” He mumbles into his pack. Matsuri rolls over and sits up. Her long brown hair is creased from her sleep and her headband she wears around her neck is crooked. Matsuri takes mornings just about as well as Souka does; the difference is Matsuri opts not to talk.
“Souka get up, you can’t be tired we had a full night’s rest.”Deryk, on the other hand is alert it seems at all times. Nothing gets past him. If I didn’t know better there’s no way I would say he had been sleeping. His pack was packed and ready. His messy black hair had already been pulled to the side to show off his Sand headband coving his forehead. He had no bags under his dark blue eyes and nothing was out of place. He slips his foot into one of the arm straps of Souka’s backpack turned pillow, and pulls it out from his head. His face land in the sand; and in rebellion doesn’t even move.
“I know the way home.” He grumbles into the sand, unfortunately for him he must have gotten some sand in his mouth when he did. He jerks up and starts spitting in Matsuri’s direction. Mistake, Matsuri’s eyes flare and she throws her pack at his head. He’s way to drowsy to dodge it so early. “What was that for?!” Matsuri responds with only a glare as she runs her fingers through her hair trying to get ready to go. Souka looks up to where I’m perched on a rock a couple of feet above him. “I don’t understand you two, getting up so early and making us get back to the village. You don’t get it do you, the time in between us finishing the mission and when we get home is like vacation… no rules, no deadlines. And yet here we are getting up before the sun, to get back and get another stupid job.”
Souka finishes his rant by putting on his glasses, he doesn’t wear them all the time, just in the mornings or when he’s thinking really hard, trying to track.
“That’s enough Souka,” Deryk says moving away from the group. “It’s time to get back, we want to arrive before the day in the village begins so we can get our next assignment.” Deryk is about ten feet away from the group now, treading the familiar path home. Matsuri and I move to walk behind him and we hear Souka hurrying to gather his scattered belongings and finally he matches our strides. He is a little shorter than Matsuri and I but he won’t admit it, he works hard to keep up with us and always says we are delusional when Matsuri says he’s short.
We make our way across the desert like this talking about the finished mission while Deryk moves ahead of us leading the way. The cool night air is quickly heating up to the temperatures I have learned as normal. As the sun rises behind us we make our home, to the Sand village.
==========================================================
The village is quiet this morning, no yet up stirring, of course this isn’t unusual. I rise before the rest of the village every day, not needing much sleep gives me time to be the Kazakage. If I had needed sleep in the way others did, I don’t know how it would be possible. As usual, after preparing myself for the day, I allow the wall of my room to crumble and step out onto the waiting sand. I make my way to the roof of the large building that was my home. There was no other way up here, but by my sand. I look around the village checking its status. Like I said, quiet.
By now the ninja of the village were waking and lights were turning on in the houses. My thoughts summon the sand to me and form exactly what I need. I step onto the hovering platform and have it carry me high above the city. I make my way to the outer wall where I drop and step onto the highest portion of the wall. The ninja keeping watch there great me and give me a quick report. No movement in or out of the village last night. I walk around the perimeter this morning instead of returning my office.
I sent Hannah’s team on a simple mission very close to the village. I had expected them in last night. I know the team and know I have nothing to fear. Temari’s classmate is very capable and knows the details of our previous encounters. He knows Hannah is a likely target. But still I feel uneasy when they are away on assignments. I put them off as long as I can, waiting for nearby missions. I end up on the east wall and look out across the horizon to see the rising sun. Within the suns blinding light, are four figures running swiftly towards our village. The guards around me see them too and begin to bark orders around, trying to distinguish who it was.
“It’s just team 10, they were due back anytime.” One of the guards decides and reports. As soon as the four figures come into view I see he is right. Hannah and her team are back. I turn and drop down to the village floor below and walk through the streets toward my home. There would be plenty of paperwork to do, and I could focus now.
==========================================================
“It’s nice to be back.” I say to Matsuri after we pass the village walls.
“Yeah, I guess so. When do you think we’ll get our next mission? I kinda hope the next one is a bit more exciting.” She asks me, but quickly changes the subject. “Are you going to go train with Temari today?”
This gets my mind off her comment, I always look forward to my training with Temari. “Hopefully! I’m gonna go drop off my pack then go see if she is busy. You wanna join us?” I ask hopefully, maybe that would make up for the sorry missions we’ve been getting because of me. There’s never a dull moment training with Temari…
“No, I’m gonna go home, I’ve always got ‘chores’ to do. I just don’t understand my parents, I go off on missions just to come home and work there too!” Matsuri sighs dramatically. I smile and laugh at her comment, but inside I think about how lucky she is to have parents to annoy her. One can’t really understand the pain of loneliness unless they have felt it.
“Well ok, you have fun with that!” I laugh.
“You act like you’re going off to have some kinda great fun; I know how hard Temari pushes you. Remember the last time I went and trained with you?” She questions me. Of course I do, Temari and I had been training for a while when Matsuri finally came over and joined us. Temari had made us do this sort of ridiculous obstacle course and we thought we might have died. “Yeah, no thank you. I’ll stick with Deryk.” With this we part ways, I wave to her as she moves to go home and I make my way to the ninja dorms. I have a simple room, much like my one in the Leaf village. I don’t spend much time here, nor do I today. I drop off my pack and change clothes.
I move out of the dorms and walk down the busy roads of the Sand village. Some people I have come to know call out in greeting to me. Our missions are spread out and short so I have quite a bit of time to spend in the village. I spend that time training with Temari as much as I can, and then if she is busy training alone. But a person can only train for so long. After that I spend a lot of time playing with the kids in the village, the ones who lost their parents in the war. I know exactly how it feels, and if I can spare even one child from feeling alone, it will be worth it.
Speaking of, just then a small girl named Saidy runs up to me. “Hannah! You’re back! What are you doing? Are you going to go train with Lady Temari?!” Saidy thinks Temari is the coolest person on earth, and I don’t really blame her.
“Yes hopefully,” I say laughing at her enthusiasm. “If she’s busy though I’m gonna need your help to train ok?” I say in a serious tone as I lean down on one knee to look her in the eyes.
“Really?!” I nod my head, “Cool! What will we do?” She yells in excitement.
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll come by later and tell you what I’ve figured out, Okay?” She replies by yelling back ok and then turning to run back to her friends. I laugh at Saidy as she reconvenes our conversation to her friends. I shift my weight to get back to my feet when a familiar sharp pain races up my muscles and makes me stumble. I look around to make sure no one is watching before I reach down to access my leg. It is red, which is normal, but know I can see the dark spots that indicate a bruise forming. Great… that must mean I tore another fiber. It seems like every time I think I’ve fully recovered another thing breaks or tears. I could work through the pain though. I’d been through worse, much worse. So I stand and move again toward the Kage mansion, Temari would be there along with Kankuro and Gaara. Last time I was home Kankuro hadn’t done anything for days. I decide I should stop by and make sure he was breathing.
I enter the large building without any protests from the guards. They knew me and smiled as I walked up the steps into the round entrance hall. There were people moving about working various duties. No doubt Gaara was already on the third floor assigning missions, and Temari would be either in the advisors room, in which case I would leave her be. Or she could be in her or Kankuro’s room. She tried to get him to do more, but with the war over not much was going on.
I reach Kankuro’s room first and knock. When I don’t hear a response I move to leave. But then I hear the grumbles of someone crawling out of bed and making their way to the door. Kankuro opens the door yelling, “Who in the world woke me up!” He looks down at me and I smile up at him. Kankuro is much taller than me and glares down to meet my expression. “What are you doing here Hannah, I’m so tired.” He yawns to add to his statement.
“Well I just got home and thought I’d treat you to some breakfast if you’d go train with me!” I smile as his face brightens at the mention of food, then drops again when I get to the part about training. “Come on, you don’t have to do much, we’ll go get Temari and you just throw some kuni at me every once in a while.”
“Why don’t you ever bother Gaara with this stuff?” Kankuro said grumbling as he moves back into the dark room leaving the door open. I follow and sit on his work desk and listen to him complain.
“If you haven’t noticed Gaara is a little busy being Kazakage! He doesn’t have time to train with me, but you on the other hand have tons of time!” I laugh as he hollers back from the other room.
“I probably would have taken the job if I’d know it meant always being too busy to be bothered by anyone.”
“You wouldn’t have lasted one day as Kazakage and we all know it. I’m gonna go find Temari and I’ll meet you down stairs for breakfast!” He yells back a ‘yeah yeah’ and I leave the room, closing the door behind me and hoping he doesn’t go back to sleep. I move down the hallway further to Temari’s room.
I knock and I hear her yell back just a minute. And just a minute later she opens the door looking annoyed. Her expression changes when she sees me.
“Hannah! Sorry, Kankuro hid one of my shoes and I can’t find it anywhere.” I move into her familiar room and help her look for the lost sandal.
“Speaking of, I just invited him to go to breakfast with us and train, that is if you have time.” I say hopefully. “Found it!” I found the shoe behind a chair in the corner. As I hand it to Temari she groans in anticipation. Not of training with me, but by the presence of her brother.
“Really, he’s coming?” She complained.
“When was the last time he left the mansion?” I counter.
“Good point, alright lets go.”
We only have to wait about five minutes from when we drop down through the center to the first floor to when Kankuro joins us. Temari lets him know what she thought about him hiding the shoe and I just laugh. We leave the mansion to go to head over to one of their favorite shops for breakfast. I had told Kankuro I would treat him, but him being the Kazakage’s brother, he and Temari didn’t really ever have to pay. Obviously since I was with them the shop owners always offered to give me mine on the house, but I always pay. I don’t want the villagers thinking I’m greedy, I’m an outsider to some of them still and don’t want to make anyone mad.
We finish quickly and head over to the training courtyard behind the mansion. Kankuro walks under the shadow of the building and lays on one of the large stones that are scattered throughout the courtyard.
“Come on Kankuro! Don’t just go to sleep on me! We just got here!” I yell in protest.
“Get up you lazy pig, Hannah let’s warm up.” I nod my head in attention, moving into a training mindset from here on out no more jokes, no more laughs. Kankuro of course was yelling at his sister about her comment but finally he joins us. He grabs various small objects laying around and moves them through the air with his chakra strings I aim for them with one fan first hitting each target. Next he moves two separate objects and I move to two fans. Temari stands by and watches my form. Next we practice a technique I invented after watching Temari, I combine my fans to create a larger fan and attack some long rang dummies. After about an hour of warming up, we really start to train.
