The moon rose towards its peak as two young men watched a fog start to roll in between the trees north of their village. Quickly, the air before them was filled with the growing mist, forming a thick, moving wall that approached them inch by inch.
"There it is, the cursed mist," one of them said. "The witch is coming back, get ready."
"Okay, we're going to free everybody she's taken," the other said.
Slowly, the wall of mist rose higher and started to thin, revealing, not the familiar sight of towering trees, but a wooden house standing in the bottom of a misty valley.
In front of the house a woman in dark robes seemed to be dancing through a series of slow steps without paying attention to anything else around her.
"There she is! Get her now before she finishes her curse," one of the two young men declared as he charged forward into the phantom terrain.
Moments later the sound of frustrated screaming rang through the forests and the mists vanished all in an instant, leaving behind only one of the two young men behind.
Only a few miles distant, in a shrine at the nearby village. A woman with bright orange hair breathed out a relieved sigh as her hands relaxed at her side.
"I'm in position at the target area," Sasuke said quietly into his radio.
"Same here," Naruto said.
"Is our tracker sure that this is the right place?" Kakashi asked.
"H…hai," Ryoko said. "Imouto-chan s…says th…the target has not left this area…W..well, she did not really say…but…"
"We get the picture," Sasuke noted.
"I'm moving in," Naruto said.
"That's good," Kakashi said. "Sasuke, move in to flank. Ryoko follow the tracker in and keep her protected. The target is vicious when cornered so be careful."
"H…hai," Ryoko said. "Let us go, Imouto-chan."
At her feet a yellow-furred fox was futilely attempting to scratch at her ears with her forepaws. Two years as a part time fox and Joseibi still refused to use her rear legs to scratch herself most of the time.
The fox yawned and then started to meander forward, sniffing around at the ground with a bored expression as Ryoko followed along behind her.
Joseibi yipped and whuffed as she moved along pointing in one direction or another with her forepaws and sounding a little bit bored.
Right up until the streak of furry fury launched itself out of the most recent bush pointed at by the yellow fox, who yipped in nervous surprise while back-pedaling. Ryoko moved herself in front of Joseibi and reached down to intercept the streak, which moved to climb up her outstretched arms.
"AIIAAH!" Ryoko shouted as the small furry critter scratched up her body, until it leaped off and away, leaving the martial artist to fall to her knees with a sigh of relief.
Naruto and Sasuke were quickly on scene and had the ferocious animal under control.
Normally, Ryoko thought cats were incredibly cute things. Of course, she had no idea that they had long been considered the bane of her family's existence.
"Well," Kakashi said as he came on the site and watched the chaos.
Ryoko was in a state of unusual disarray trying to put her semi-shredded travelling kimono back into one piece while biting her lip and looking on the verge of tears. Naruto was still wrestling and seemingly losing, he already had more scratches than the Saotome girl, but didn't look like he was about to give up. Sasuke had a disdainful look as he took in his comrades and compared their state to the mission they had just been on. Joseibi in fox-form seemed to be trying to give Tora a stink eye.
Ah, it brought back so many memories.
"I see you brought back Tora," Sarutobi said to Kakashi as the two looked to where the feline was being tor…lovingly welcomed by his owner, the wife of the Fire Lord. "Where's your team?"
"They're taking Ryoko's sister back to the Academy," Kakashi said. "I'd say this was good practice for protecting an expert in the field."
"Or a way to turn a full-day goose-hunt into a much shorter task," Sarutobi asked.
"I don't know about that," Kakashi said. "With all the paperwork involved in borrowing an academy student, I'd say it took a little bit longer."
"More time is not more work," Sarutobi said with a smirk. "In any case, when you're team gets here, we can talk more about the next mission we assign you."
"Naruto is getting antsy, just to warn you," Kakashi said. "It might be time to try them out on a Class C mission soon."
"Too bad you weren't here earlier," Sarutobi said. "We had a decent Class-C mission until about ten minutes ago."
"Oh well," Kakashi said. "Another few days of weeding gardens and patching up roofs won't be so bad until the next one."
As predicted, Naruto was fit to just about burst out of his own chest as they received a mission to shelve books in the village library the next day. Only the promise of some training the next day had kept him from causing more than a minor stress headache to the various officials that dealt with assigning missions under the Hokage.
Now, the three followed along behind him after finishing the work at the library in short order.
Clones were useful that way.
"Now, for today," Kakashi said as started to reach the trees. "We'll be working on chakra control."
Ryoko blinked as Kakashi said that and slowly started to raise her hand.
"Yes, Ryoko," Kakashi said, "That includes you."
"Ano…?" Ryoko responded thoroughly confused.
"Though you're going to have…different exercises than these two," Kakashi said, indicating Sasuke and Naruto.
"And what will we be doing?" Sasuke asked.
"Tree-climbing," Kakashi said.
Ryoko sat and listened quietly as Sasuke and Naruto started off protesting and then watched in a bit of amazement as Kakashi walked up the side of a tree as easily as if he were walking down the street. She only wished her chi senses were attuned enough to actually see what the flows looked like around the ninja.
Her father had said that with proper mastery over chi, you could do practically anything. The old panda, had she actually thought of him like that…?
In any case, her father had told stories about even seeing people fly with proper chi-mastery. It should have been likewise possible to do what this ninja was doing.
Unfortunately, she could only feel chi, not really see it yet. She certainly couldn't see what the chi looked like around the ninja. Even then, it was likely that looking at the chi wouldn't have told her anything useful since the man was using his chakra rather than molding and moving with the world's chi.
Listening to his explanation of what to do sounded familiar, however, in ways.
In any case, she was going to have her own exercises to do.
"Now," Kakashi said, walking over to Ryoko and pulling out some scrolls. "I think you might be familiar with these, assuming you take any interest in your sister's activities."
"Ano…" Ryoko said. "Wh...why am I to learn how to use chakra? Strong chakra makes chi clumsy."
"You already have strong chakra," Kakashi said. "I can't judge your chi-control, can you?"
"Fa…father say…said I was clumsy," Ryoko admitted hesitantly.
"I suspect," Kakashi said, "Your limits of control will be based on how will you can control both energies. You currently have no control over your chakra, so your chi control is heavily limited, because the chakra gets in the way."
"Ano…" Ryoko said, not sure that that was necessarily true.
Of course, her lack of understanding of her own chakra meant she was unaware of how it acted during her fits and what effect that had on her chi.
"Now, I think you might find some of these exercises familiar," Kakashi said. "Depending on how much interest you take in your sister's school life."
Naruto came down from his sixth attempt and watched as Sasuke climbed up the tree at a near run. He growled to himself and prepared to give the exercise another shot. Glancing back, however, made him pause.
The blonde, hyperactive ninja wasn't alone in being distracted as Sasuke ended up following Naruto's look to see what Ryoko was doing with Kakashi.
"Aren't those…" Naruto started to ask.
"First year exercises," Sasuke confirmed as Ryoko sat and worked through the hand signs slowly.
She'd actually blurred through them earlier, but had been quickly lectured about the differences of holding ones fingers in certain positions and in actually focusing how that position altered the chakra.
"If she can't even use her own chakra yet," Sasuke said. "How is she so strong?"
"She told me once that she uses something called chi," Naruto said.
"Chi?" Sasuke said with a curious frown.
"Yeah, something about using the power of the world," the blonde ninja said shrugging.
"I've heard of it," Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes before turning back toward his own exercise.
Not one to let Sasuke get ahead of him, Naruto turned back as well and was soon slamming hard on the ground.
Sakura could hardly contain her laughter as she passed the training grounds and saw her newest apparent competition sitting in the training ground performing what were, for someone her age, remedial exercises in chakra control.
Then she paused and thought that through.
Why would the village put someone in the teams that hadn't been through the academy and, apparently, didn't even have the basic concepts of how to find and control chakra. There had to be more to this than she was seeing.
Anyway, she was supposed to be practicing that "tree-climbing" technique the medical ninjas instructing her had talked about. Something about sharpening her chakra control. There was this technique and one other that she had practice before they'd start working her on chakra-related medical techniques.
Until then, she was learning basic first aid, acupuncture, anatomy. Stuff that didn't require the fine control of chakra required by most medical jutsu.
She looked around the training field and noticed that one-eyed jonin sitting there reading an orange book and frowned. Hopefully, if she went down there to practice this technique, then he wouldn't be concerned with her presence.
Then maybe she could figure out about the Saotome scardey cat and get close to Sasuke at the same time.
Smiling at her own cleverness, she started down toward the training field, under the frustrated and watchful glare of that one-eyed jonin.
The man set down his novel and gestured for Sakura to come over to where he sat. Nervously fearing that she might be getting sent away in the next couple of moments, she hesitantly moved to stand in front of the man.
"Aren't you supposed to be at one of the hospitals?" Kakashi asked softly.
"I've got an assignment to practice tree-climbing," Sakura said.
Kakashi nodded and looked around, noticing that the pink-haired girl's presence was starting to attract the attention of his genin. However, he did remember that the girl's chakra control was top notch, better than even Sasuke. Sakura had almost no wasted energy in the few jutsu she had learned.
Having someone else to watch might just give his students some pointers.
"Don't cause a problem," Kakashi said. "And you're welcome to share the training ground."
"Thank you, sensei," Sakura said in a relieved tone before she bounced over to the trees to start practicing her technique.
Earlier, she'd been able to walk, run really, up the wall of a room, but if she stopped, she fell back to earth. Judging by the craters and hash marks Sasuke's and Naruto's trees, they were having troubles even keeping a constant rate of chakra going.
Which meant this was a chance to show that she was especially good at something.
Smiling brightly she walked over to a tree and started up it at a fast walking pace worked her up to the tallest branch capable of holding her weight and sat down.
Below her, four sets of eyes looked up, two of them appropriately impressed by her feat, and one pair, the wrong pair, looking quite bitter.
"All right Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted out. "Way to go!"
"All right, Sakura," Kakashi shouted. "You're here to train, not show off, so head back down and get started again."
"I will," the disappointed pink-haired ninja said as she jumped down from her perch to the ground.
She was getting started again when Naruto came over, seemingly to congratulate her more, but quietly putting in a request for advice in the same breath. Sakura was about to tell him to buzz off when she made unintended eye-contact with the jonin, who stared at her meaningfully.
Sweating at the necessity of dealing with the irritating brat of a prankster, Sakura swallowed what she was about to say.
By the end of the day, however, Sakura was impressed herself. Sasuke and Naruto seemed to have endless energy, and after her little bit of surprise, Naruto was improving by leaps and bounds, slowly catching up to Sasuke.
"All right, everybody," Kakashi said. "That's enough for now, you should probably get to your homes. We'll pick this up in the morning, assuming we don't have a mission anyway."
Joseibi looked down at the bottle of pellets in her hand as she came to her and Ryoko's apartment. The lights were on, meaning her sister had probably gotten home.
Not having her sister drop her off or pick her up at the academy anymore was somewhat new and strange. On the one hand, she was rather happy about her new-found freedom to go where she wanted after a day of school.
However, and she'd never admit this, she was somewhat missing the after school exchanges with Ryoko.
Climbing up the stairs was simple enough, and then it was just walking into the apartment and locating her sister.
"Oneesan," Joseibi said. "I've got some medicine from that Inuzuka woman my fox form is supposed to take everyday. Can you…the hell?"
Joseibi blinked as she turned a corner and found her elder sister digging through the box that she used to keep the younger's school assignments stored.
"Oh, Imouto-chan," Ryoko said, looking up and biting her lip. "Do you think you can h…help me with something?"
"What are you doing?" Joseibi asked.
"Kakashi-sensei wa…wants me to l..learn to control my chakra," Ryoko said. "He thinks that if I…I can control both chakra and chi that I will…fix s…some of my issues."
"Let me get this straight," Joseibi said. "You want me, your imouto-chan, to teach you, my oneesan, how to deal with the basics of chakra."
"H…hai," Ryoko said nervously.
"Egg rolls," Joseibi said quickly.
"Ano?" the older one muttered, confused.
"I want egg-rolls for dinner for a month's worth of dinners," the blonde said firmly.
"Umm…" the dark-haired Saotome responded. "Assuming that I am within the village? I…I believe I can do that."
"Good," Joseibi said with a victorious smirk that was pure Saotome. "Then let's get started."
The Hokage smirked as he looked through the missions coming in that morning and looked over the table to where Naruto fumed under the implication that he'd be having another D-rank mission.
"When are we going to get a real mission!" Naruto demanded bitterly.
Sasuke had to agree, though he wasn't about to voice such an opinion. These D-rank missions felt like nothing more than a waste of their skills. He understood the need to get a few such missions out of the way to start, but it was getting, in his mind ridiculous.
Ryoko's reaction to Naruto's loud declaration and Sasuke's quiet agreement was equally predictable: she was biting her lip and watching the other two for indications of how they were going to act.
"'A real mission'?" the Hokage asked. "Careful what you ask for. I think I've got a 'real mission' for you."
The smile on the man's face was a bit unnerving as he retrieved a mission scroll and started to look over its information.
"There's a village," he said. "In the Grass Country that is having troubles they want us to investigate."
"What sort of troubles?" Kakashi asked as he accepted the scroll.
"To hear them tell it," the Hokage said. "They're haunted by a witch."
"A witch?" Naruto said, feeling a shiver work down his back. "A real witch?"
"What do they want us to do about this witch?" Kakashi asked.
"They want us to convince her to leave the village alone," the Hokage said. "Peacefully if it at all possible."
"Probably some old lady living outside of town in a shack," Naruto said with a nervous laugh.
Ryoko continued to be looking back and forth between each speaker, not adding much of her own thoughts.
"It'll take about a week to reach the village if you conserve your efforts," the Hokage noted. "So I'd suggest you make whatever preparations you need to make today and get started tomorrow."
"We'll be ready," Sasuke said.
"H…hai," Ryoko agreed from behind the other two.
"Good," the Hokage said in a light manner that slowly became serious. "This shouldn't be too much of a problem, but be on the look out anyway. Most of the time 'witches' are, indeed, just simple old women, but sometimes there's more to it than that."
"Don't worry," Kakashi said confidentally. "I'll look after them."
With that, they started filing out of the room, Ryoko bowing before she left.
"So what's the deal with this…err…witch?" Naruto asked as they walked out over the gate.
"I guess that means you didn't read the mission briefing," Kakashi said with a sigh.
"I was supposed to read that?" Naruto said, scratching his head in embarrassment.
"That's the general purpose behind giving you the report," Kakashi said. "Ryoko? Sasuke? Can you explain things?"
"Ano…" Ryoko said. "D..do you mean Uchiha-san or me?"
"Either, or," Kakashi said.
Ryoko looked towards Sasuke who looked back at her and gave a slight shake of his head.
"H…hai," Ryoko said, looking back toward Kakashi. "Th..there have been…mists in the forests near the village hiring us…people have seen a house and a woman dancing in the mists, but people have vanished each time the mists and house a…appear."
"This doesn't seem like the sort of thing a ninja village should be investigating," Sasuke said.
"For the most part, these things are hoaxes or misunderstood natural phenomena," Kakashi said. "That's why exorcisms and similar investigations are usually Class D ranked missions. If it turns out to be something more, we either deal with it or send for back-up. The missing people and the distance from home both make this Class C."
"So, we're basically just going to be trying to find some missing people then?" Naruto asked, frowning.
"That's…"
Kakashi was interrupted as an angry, blonde form landed down in front of the four and pointed at Ryoko.
"Oneesan!" Joseibi declared loudly. "You forgot something…something very important."
"Ano?" Ryoko said, confused. "Oh! S…sumimasen. Umm…my recipes are in the green and blue book…the – imouto-chan! Green and blue! Imouto-chan! Not green and purple!"
Already, the blonde Saotome was rushing back toward the apartment and not listening to the rest.
"What was that all about?" Sasuke asked.
"I pr…promised her egg rolls every night for a month," Ryoko said.
"Can she cook?" Naruto asked.
"No," Ryoko said. "She is not allowed to cook…but she said she w…would find so…someone to cook for her."
"What's in the green and purple book?" Kakashi asked.
"Ano…" Ryoko responded, though there was a tell tale flush of red that made Kakashi think it might be a diary of some sort.
"Anyway," Kakashi said. "Let's get on with the walking."
The Hokage frowned at the report in front of him. Of the chunin he'd sent to protect the bridge-builder Tazuna, only one had survived an ambush by two shinobi not more than half a day's walk from the village's outer bounds.
The one survivor was currently in the hospital being treated for some sort of poison, but the minimal information they had on the matter implied that the attackers were a pair of missing nin known as the demon brothers.
B-Class missing nin with names listed in the international bingo book.
He'd have to arrange an investigation into the problem, having missing nin of that rank so close to the village could not be tolerated. Beyond that there was their failure to properly protect their client. Though, of course, had the man been more forthcoming about the danger, they probably wouldn't be in this situation right now.
A part of his mind drifted toward Team 7 and wondered if the mission he'd given them would turn out to be just as dangerous as this other mission had turned out to be.
Joseibi walked into the Inuzuka home later that night carrying a small stack of green striped notebooks which she put on the table.
"Hey, Joseibi-chan, what's this?" Hana Inuzuka asked as she picked up one of the notebooks.
"Oneesan left town for a mission," Joseibi said. "But she promised me egg rolls for a month. Somewhere in these notebooks is her recipe. She said it was green and…something."
Joseibi's mouth twitched as she realized her desire to find the recipe had made her not listen as well as normal. It seemed like all Ryoko had to do was say something to do with her egg rolls and Joseibi became as headstrong and reckless as her father and sister.
"So, what's the big deal about these egg rolls?" Hana asked as she picked up some of the notebooks. "Laundry, house-keeping…are these stance drawings for sweeping floors?"
"Everything is training," Joseibi said rolling her eyes. "Oneesan takes that literally."
"Ahh, here's your cook book," Hana said. "You said egg rolls right? Ah, Joseibi's Egg Rolls, I see."
Hana started to read the list of ingredients and started to cock an eyebrow as she read it. The veterinarian looked up at the eight year old girl and then looked back down at the recipe in front of her.
"I think we can make these," the woman said, smiling at the little girl.
Hana thought she could actually see stars in the girl's eyes.
It was a few hours later that Hana noted that one of the notebooks had been set aside and forgotten.
A green and purple striped notebook that, out of curiosity, she opened up to see what domestic chore was written about inside.
Her eyes widened and face flushed as she started skimming through a few pages.
"Mother's Massage Techniques…" she said under her breath.
The village stared as the outsiders came in on the road. Long, suspicious faces that stared at the strangers walking into town. The anger in their eyes was palpable as they scanned over the shinobi team as if gauging whether or not the newcomers had insulted them in someway.
Despite the general mood of the people, the village's architecture and appearance was much different. Everything was painted brightly, or shined with a brilliant finish. The village itself was set atop a hill, in a sunny clearing with streets running predominately east to west, with streets sloping up from the center of town.
"Wow, the people here are angry," Naruto said, looking around.
"That only makes sense," Sasuke said. "Given the circumstances."
"The village headman sent in the request," Kakashi said, looking over the buildings. "Let's see, next to the inn….that should be it."
Kakashi walked up to the door of building and politely reached up to ring the bell tied above the roof that hung over the front porch.
Ryoko was looking about, biting her lip.
"Something wrong, Ryoko?" Kakashi asked, as he noted the girl looking around curiously.
"Ano…" Ryoko said. "S…something…bothers me."
Kakashi looked at her carefully.
"Probably nothing," the jonin said after a moment as the door started to open to the house.
The headman was a middle-aged man who looked like any other villager. Given the surroundings, he was probably a carpenter or miller or the like. Until they got inside to see what his house was like, it would be hard to tell, but not too important either way.
The same expression of smoldering anger sat in his eyes as he looked over them with barely restrained energy. He took in the forehead protectors and the symbols on them, and the burning anger turned into a similarly burning eagerness.
"Ah, the shinobi from Konoha!" the man said eagerly. "You're here to handle our witch for us then?"
Kakashi arched an eyebrow.
"That's the plan," Naruto said brightly. "So point her out and we get rid of her for you."
"Heh," the man said. "I like this boy, come in, all of you, we'll get down to business."
The four walked into house, Ryoko bowing politely as they did. There weren't many people in the house, just a young woman whose bearing seemed almost the brightest thing about the whole village so far.
She stood at about average height with vibrant orange hair that she grew down covering her ears and reaching midway to her back. She was dressed in the simple robes of a country priestess.
"This is the priestess of our village," the headman said. "Lady Luta Beia. It's because of her that we've been able to keep the witch at bay so long."
"So long?" Kakashi asked as he sat down. "How long has this witch been a problem?"
"Her family first came to the area out of the east ten years ago," the headman said. "They kept to themselves down the hill for a while, then, six years ago strange warriors raided through the village and when it was over, their house and the whole section of forest she lived in had vanished."
"What, they left a crater?" Naruto asked.
"No," the man said. "I mean that it was as if it had never existed, trails met at places that were once miles apart."
"Whatever dark magics or forbidden jutsu the witch had been using," the priestess said "consigned her home to another realm, but she still tries to return time to time."
"And why call for help only now?" Sasuke asked.
"Because lately she's has been coming very frequently," the headman said. "And this time people have gone missing."
"Any pattern to these events?" Kakashi asked.
"Always at night," the headman said. "In the same place."
"Then, I suppose we should be getting our rest for tonight then," the jonin said.
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Wed, 08 Sep 2010 05:31)
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