Last Year. [open]

[Hanone]

O.M.G. OMG. Classes would be starting again soon and it felt sooo amazing that she, Hanone, was now on her last year of the academy. Did anyone know what that meant?! It meant she was this close, thiiiis close to being a shinobi; a real, honest to goddess real shinobi.

The red haired girl threw herself back on the dusty floor of the old scroll locker. It was empty now, nothing more than a relic of a once powerful holding place for the secrets of Suna. She liked to come here sometimes and just bask in the history of this place. It felt right to sit where so much power had been held, as if she just reached out she might be able to tap into its mysteries.

It was a pretty popular hangout for some of the older kids, but since most of them had been promoted the year before to genin rank, Hanone found the place was deserted more often than not. Pushing a hand through her stringy, not-so-clean bangs, the girl exhaled loudly then said to no one in particular, "I wonder how many of those old scrolls still exist anymore..." She figured she was alone, but if not, hopefully no one would notice her talking to herself. That would so make her look crazy, wouldn't it?

 

[Juzo]

Thwarted. The boy spoke up once he heard the girl speak, sure she had detected him, "They all exist somewhere. My father once told me that!"

The boy had been sneaking up on the girl from his classes. It was his goal to improve his skills a little more everyday and today he chose to practice stealth and sneaking up on his peers. Apparently it didn't go so well because his first target had noticed him so quickly. He had been using a shelf as cover but now he moved from behind it and spoke excitedly, "He even said that some of them were stolen shortly before the last big attack and he is sure it was a shinobi inside our village! But I don't think a Sunan would do that."

Then he grinned from ear to ear. "My name is Juzo, what's yours?"

 

[Hanone]

Han felt a start rush through her body when a second voice rose, but she tried to conceal her reaction as best she could. Real ninja were never surprised! In actuality though, she had probably jumped 4 inches off the ground.

Pushing up on her hands, the young kunoichi whipped her head around in search of the owner of the boyish voice. Several strands of crimson hair got stuck on her lips which she proceeded to spit out loudly. Once clear of the stringy annoyances, she tipped her chin up and looked at the boy with a sort of haughty looking expression. "Huh..." she said, looking at the boy as he rounded a shelf and made an appearance. She didn't want to admit how cool it was he even knew that fact. Playing it smooth (as possible) she got to her feet and dusted off her tiny behind.

"I'm Hanone. But I go by Han. But don't you call me Han-san or I'll punch you!" Pronouncing each a as a long A sound. Then after a second added, "Or Han-San!!" which of course was pronounced with matching short a sounds. Or wait, there was also Han-Chan. The thought boiled her temper so much she puffed her cheeks out in frustration. So many people picked on her name.

That's when it occurred to her... Her cheeks deflated and her gaze returned to a suspicious haughtiness "Juzo. I know who you are. How come this is the first time you've ever said hi to me, huh? We've been in classes together for like forever now. Are you stalking me? Mom says there's creepy people out there." Truthfully she probably hadn't talked to more than half of the kids in her classes before. But who's counting!? Or maybe he was just being polite...

Her expression softened, revealing a much kinder looking person. "How does your dad know about the scrolls?" Her curiosity was getting the best of her.

mft

 

[Juzo]

The girl was fairly rough edged and Juzo could see that much. Maybe that was why he had never spoken to her. "I don't know why we haven't spoken. I don't remember you ever trying to greet me!"

He inched closer and got a better look at his peer. Once he was satisfied he answered her inquiry, "He knows because he is one of the best shinobi this village has!" But truthfully he did not know and given how little time he had spent with his own father he had never been given the opportunity to get more details. Whether or not his father would have shared is another story altogether. "So why are you so jumpy? Doing something you aren't supposed to in here?"

Truthfully he had never come inside this scroll closet. It always seemed like a waste of time given that his peers mostly relaxed and socialized inside. He was a young man of action! So he spent the majority of his time studying and trying to improve his own combat skills, meager as they were. Progress was painfully slow and he felt that pinch. For the time being he decided to focus on his other attributes. Being light of foot and trying his best to mask his presence had always come naturally to the young shinobi. But it was still a laughable affair for any real shinobi, let alone his peers which also seemed equally adept at noticing his attempts at disguising himself. What was he doing wrong?





WC: 252
MFT

 

[Hanone]

He was right. She hadn't tried to greet him before either. But he was kinda... bookish in her opinion. All serious and boring and some of the girls said he was the boringest guy in class. Shira had said he was mean and called her ugly, but then Shira was a bitch so it was hard to tell if she was telling the truth or just lying for attention. Blonds were usually like that.

Brushing off his comment with a shrug of the shoulder, Han focused in on the rest of what he was saying. So his dad was a shinobi, huh? Han couldn't help but be a little jealous. Her parents were both just civvies. And fat civvies at that! She never called them fat to their faces because they were good people, but man mom was like 100 lbs overweight and dad was bigger than mom! She bet Juzo's dad taught him all sorts of secrets and tricks.

The thought was abruptly replaced by accusations of misdeeds, which of course caused Han to huff. She crossed her arms... apparently he saw her startle earlier. "No. This is my place. I come here to... meditate and reflect on my training." She nodded sagely. "Well, okay no. I just like to hang out here. Mom and dad are busy all the time with the bakery and since school is out until next week, I guess I just like to come here." The pencil of a girl stepped toward and empty shelf and reached forward, making a fingerprint on the dusty surface. "This place used to be where all Suna's secrets were held. I feel like I can do anything when I'm here. Like all the power of our forefathers is still in here even though the scrolls are not. Can't you feel it?" she asked, looking at the boy in all seriousness. "But I bet your dad teaches you a lot of these secrets if he's Suna's best."

 

[Juzo]

The young man shook his head seriously, "He is much too busy and important to be teaching me. The village needs him, he says."

And then he grinned, "He says the only way to become as great as him is to learn everything in the proper order." Then he looked to Hanone's dust fingerprint, "I don't need the power of old dusty scrolls." A tiny fist found itself balled up and held up to his face like a miniature guard, "The real power of a shinobi comes from within."

No one had specifically told him that before but it was what Juzo held as truth. The young man knew that a shinobi village was nothing without its new recruits which would inevitably replace the old guard. And if his history lessons had taught him anything then that usually also meant surpassing the skills of the older shinobi. It was how the world of combat progressed. But for now he had his sights set on closer goals, like being able to perform a jutsu.

"Well, I am going to go practice transformation and clone jutsu," Juzo stated cheerily, "Would you like to come with me?"

 

[Hanone]

To be honest, Han thought Juzo looked a little silly. Like he had stars in his eyes when he talked about his inner strength or whatever. It actually made her want to giggle.

Hiding her smile behind her fist, Han was quick to take up his offer to train with a nod, if nothing else but to keep her amusement to herself. It wasn't nice to laugh at someone's shinobi mantra. She didn't like to be laughed at so she was sure he wouldn't either.

It wasn't until after she agreed she really thought about the boy's offering to train with him and got excited. Their teachers were planning on teaching them some of that stuff this year... finally... and she hadn't gotten the chance to find someone to help her learn any jutsu before the year started. It was always best to try them out before class resumed otherwise you risked ending up looking like the idiot making tard clones or something awful like that.

"Lead on." she would follow him wherever he led her and in the meanwhile asked him, "Do you know any jutsu yet? I can throw kunai pretty good but that's about it."

 

[Juzo]

Juzo turned and started towards the exit. "I don't yet. But I feel like I am close to mastering the transformation jutsu!"

The pair moved down the hall and towards the open grounds meant for student training. It wasn't a long trip and it was unlikely they'd run into anyone else. Most of the other students were enjoying their time off before classes started up again. It seemed like only a small handful stayed behind to continuously fine tune their own skills. Internally he evaluated his new sparring partner. "I wonder if she was lying about her parents not being shinobi. It seems like that doesn't happen a lot around here. Mostly the offspring and bastards of the shinobi of this village. Interesting...."

Although he found it noteworthy he didn't mention anything. For now they had something more exciting to focus on, training! The young Juzo seemed light on his feet with the prospect.


[Thread exited]

 

[Hanone]

Han was glad she hadn't brought anything along to the scroll locker this time. Usually she had something with her that she would have had to worry about losing or had to bring home before she could train, but not today. She was able to just head right out to the training grounds with the boy.

As the two walked, Han noticed he was shorter than her... and she giggled behind her fist again.

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