"So what else can this sword do?" asked Rin.
Naruto thumped onto the ground and took a few moments to get his breath back. "Eh?"
"It's taking all his concentration to tree walk," noted Sakura from one of the higher branches. "You might want to hold off on having him use his talent."
"Th-thanks, Sakura-chan," said Naruto from where he was lying on the ground.
"If I say the name of the blade, I can cause it to ignite," said Rin. "Also the same thing if I want it to go back to being a normal sword."
"Yeah, and if you thrust the sword into a fire - you can command the sword to drink the flames," said Naruto, still lying on the ground. "There's a couple of other features, but they're locked."
"But you can still see how to use them, right?" asked Rin.
"Not really," said Naruto, lifting his legs up and then rolling forward to stand upright. "This time for sure!"
"What do you mean 'not really'?" asked Rin.
"I thought you were just going to help us learn this stuff," said Sakura.
"I am," said Rin, going through a few sword maneuvers. "Any of you asking for help or hints, I'm here. How you gather and use chakra though - that's something you have to manage individually because we all experience the feeling of chakra differently."
"So... basically you're just watching Sasuke and Naruto repeatedly fall off trees," summed up Sakura.
"What am I doing wrong?" asked Naruto.
"Too much chakra, and your control is horrible," said Rin. "That's why you keep blasting yourself off the tree."
"So that means..." said Sasuke as he managed to land on his feet.
"Too little chakra and you fail to stick," said Rin, swinging the blade around and making a face at how it was pulling her off-balance.
"So Sakura's just awesome at control?" asked Naruto.
"Yeah, but she's been resting up on that branch for a good fifteen minutes," said Rin. "Depleted your chakra, didn't you?"
"Uhm, kinda," admitted Sakura.
"So, I'm no Hyuga," said Rin, "but I'm guessing that Sasuke here has roughly five times your chakra level. Naruto is closer to five hundred times your chakra level. That being the case, I have an exercise for you to build up your chakra, Sakura."
"What is it?" asked Sakura, curious.
"Water walking," said Rin, putting the sword back in its scabbard. "Come on, there's a stream over here."
"There's just one ninja," said the mercenary. "And he ain't even paying attention. Just sitting in front of the house reading some book."
"Good, he won't even know what hit him," said Gato. "Let's see, wait. I wanted fifty of you mercenaries. Why is there only forty-nine?"
"Renaldo ate something that musta had dairy innit," explained one of the mercs. "He's intolerant. Be a couple of hours before he can get far from the toilet."
"What?" asked Gato. "What kind of rabid attack-dog mercenary is lactose intolerant?"
"Well, he's good with an axe and all," said the talkative mercenary. "Though I think he was a cabinetmaker before the economy went ta the crapper. Which is what the dairy stuff does to 'im. Ya ever been downwind of 'im when that happens, ya wouldn't want 'im around anyway."
"Fine, but he's not getting paid," said Gato. "Forty-nine toughened merciless humorless mercenaries will have to do."
"Actually, I like a good joke," said one of the mostly-anonymous mercenaries before he was elbowed by the mercenary standing next to him.
"Any further interruptions?" asked Gato, frowning.
"No, not so much," said the talkative mercenary.
"Good! Go kill the bridge-builder!" Gato paused. "Why are you still standing here?"
"Oh, I thought this was the part where you gave a motivational speech or somethin'," said the talkative one, rubbing the back of his head. "Or maybe gave the villainous soliloquy."
Gato frowned at the talkative one. "Did I hire ruthless mercenaries or not?"
"Well, most of us used ta have other jobs ya know," said the talkative one. "I was a breadmaker, local union 307. Danis over there taught math and social sciences. It's just that there's no jobs anymore with the economy like it is, so we ended up taking whatever job we could find and doing whate'er needed doin' - and ain't that kinda the definition of mercenary?"
"I suppose," said Gato, frowning. "And no. Just kill the bridge-builder and the ninja, crush the spirits of Wave, and ensure my rule is unchallenged."
"What he's saying, Leeroy," said one of the other mercenaries, "is we got to do what we got to do."
"Gotcha," said the former breadmaker, hefting a pair of long knives up. "Leeeeerooyyyy Junkbox!"
Gato smirked as his mercenary force charged down the street, turning the corner and heading for the house. He proceeded at his own pace, not hurrying.
When he turned the corner though, he saw the bodies of his mercenaries lying all over the place. And a single ninja, still apparently sitting on a tree stump, reading a little orange book. "WHAT?"
The ninja on the tree stump apparently ignored him. One of his mercenaries fell down from where he'd apparently gotten thrown into a tree.
The ninja sitting there giggled at something in the book.
"WHAT?!" repeated Gato. "Did you kill fifty mercenaries without even looking?!"
The ninja turned a page, and his single visible eye widened slightly. "Oh my. Heh heh heh. Yoko, you're such a naughty girl."
Gato strode up to within a few feet of the ninja, anger overcoming caution, to peer at the cover of the book. "Icha Icha?! You're reading that trash? I wouldn't even use it to line a bird cage!"
ka-thunk
Gato fell backwards, a kunai having imbedded itself in his chest.
Kakashi Hatake looked up. "I'm sorry. Did you say something?"
Rin paused as she returned to the house with Team 7. "Why are there dead mercenaries all over the front lawn?"
"That must have been some fight," said Naruto, sounding awed. Really, the only time he'd seen more bodies lying about like this had been after one of the minor clans had this really massive party and drunk themselves into unconsciousness. Of course, being as he was fully into being a prankster at the time - he'd gotten one of their metal ladles and a large iron pot... okay, that hadn't ended all that well.
A mercenary fell out of another tree, leaving four more still up in trees and three on the roof.
"It's raining thugs," noted Naruto. "Was it some super-cool jutsu that thrashes entire armies at once?!"
"Hmmm?" asked Kakashi, looking up. "Oh. You guys are back?"
"You're reading something?" asked Rin. "It isn't another of those tawdry hentai court romances again, is it?" If it was, she was going to borrow it - current physical age be damned.
"No," said Kakashi. "This is much better. The Icha Icha series by Jiraiya."
"Jiraiya?" asked Sakura, looking completely exhausted and being given a piggyback ride by Naruto. It was a measure of her exhaustion that she wasn't protesting that. "One of Konoha's legendary..."
"She fell asleep in mid-sentence?" asked Kakashi before smiling behind his mask. "You've been training them well."
Sasuke merely went past everyone, headed into the home, found his bedroll and collapsed onto it.
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(Posted Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:25)
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