Over-Protective [Private]

[Chiyo]

In her small training dojo off the back of her blacksmith shop, the young redhead worked tirelessly to become more comfortable with some of the new techniques she had been working on. A wide grin on her face, and her toned body covered with a light sheen of sweat, she spun and flipped and slashed at the training dummy placed in the center of the courtyard as her Sensei, Toushin looked on. As she landed a flip over the head of her target, she aimed another quick slash with one of her blunted blades and slid them back into the sheaths at her hips before turning around to face the assassin.

“How am I doing? I feel like I'm definitely improving, but I need to work on my speed, I think.” Her breathing was a little heavy as she grabbed a cup of water and took a long draft from it, trying to cool her body down before she went back for more. As she took her drink, a soft giggle came from the infant in Toushin's arms and Amy held out her hands to hold him. Cradling his small body carefully in one arm, she reached behind her to take hold of a lock of her long hair and began to gently tickle the baby's nose with it. Smiling wide as the baby squirmed happily in her arms, the teenager let her hair go and hugged the child to her.

Already she felt immensely protective of Toushin's son, even though she had only known him for about a year. Big sister Amy would always be there to take care of anything that his daddy couldn't handle...or – more likely – anything his daddy would get mad about. Grinning at the thought of all the things the little monster would get into once he was older, Amy passed him back to his father. “You need to quit bringing him, he's such a distraction...much too cute for me to concentrate on my training.” She spoke with laughter in her voice, he knew she loved having the baby around, no matter how much of a distraction he was for her. Taking another quick drink of her water, Amy returned to her place before the training dummy, taking a deep breath before she whipped her swords out again and began to spar with the inanimate figure.

 

[Toraono Michino]

Smoke slowly bent unevenly towards the sky, burning from the lit end of a cigarette that wasn’t being paid much attention to. It hung haphazardly out of the mouth of a teenager as he gazed longingly at a picture he was holding up to himself.
Blonde hair and blue eyes uplifted his heart for a moment until his red colored eyes peered down at the smile; such a deviant and terrible smile. By all means it was a normal cheeky grin but the young male who stared woefully at the picture knew better.

Yoen was six feet tall at the age of sixteen. Three years after finally graduating out of the Academy he had managed to undergo a good growth spurt that helped squashed old teasing about his small stature. His body was lithe and his build was for speed giving him quiet cat-like agility with his every move.
The boy didn’t seem very intent on moving as he continued to look on with silence as his cigarette continued to burn itself down.
He was dressed in a pair of blue jeans with a white shirt tucked down into it. Over his upper torso a short leather vest laid flat against his chest and holding his blue bangs away from his eyes was a black headband with the village crest embedded into the middle. It was a lot less flashy than what most of the teenage genin his age wore, with the forehead protectors, but it served its purpose in keeping him quiet.

His entire background was not too far away from a certain assassin’s. There were, of course, some extreme differences in the two but they were both trained from an early age to be extremely quiet.
Yoen didn’t know his birth parents, as no one in his clan did. They were all a large group of orphans who are lead by adults who were previously orphans themselves. Amazing and humanitarian as it may seem it was all quiet sad really.
Like the others before it, the Rairyuu Clan was almost gone. They were once a large clan of thieves that moved from major village to village; almost nomadic as all Ryuus were famous for. Yet being known law-breakers and continuously trying to keep up with old religions was really hard.
It was actually quite amazing they had made it this far. As far as they knew the Rairyuu Clan was the only actual Ryuu Clan still in existence. All that was left to the rest were descendants and survivors of beliefs that are now long gone. Yet it was the straying from that strict religious system that began to dwindle their numbers.

Moving to the desert wasn’t the best idea, apparently.

The cigarette in Yoen’s mouth straightened itself suddenly as a shock of anger went through his mind for a second. He tossed the picture away like a Frisbee and placed his hands together to form two seals before reaching up to take the tobacco stick out of his mouth. Flame erupted from his lips to burn away the picture to ashes before he replaced his smoke between his lips to take a long drag off of it and exhale,
“Nice knowing you, I guess,” he mumbled as he stared up into the blue sky.

Yoen stared off into the wild blue yonder for a good minute. His cigarette had long burned itself out and fallen away from his face as if he had suddenly gone comatose. The sound of steel clashing against steel and then something hollow made his red eyes shift away from the sky to where the sound came from. Slowly lifting himself up from his little rooftop spot he scooted over to the edge and looked down into the courtyard of the smithy across the way. There a girl with extraordinarily long red hair was twirling back and forth with two practice swords. Even from a distance the fake weapons looked heavy but she was swinging them about like they were absolutely nothing. A slow smile over took his face as he placed his right foot up against the ledge and began to channel his chakra down to give him a boost over.

Why, he was going to say hello he was! Heart break was something the rogue had been through quite a few times and so he was ever the optimist about trying again. Besides, it would be rude not to say hello to such a cute girl, right?

Right.

His feet landed lightly in the courtyard without a single sound as he watched the red head move back towards her training. His eyes surveyed the large open area and took notice of the toddler that was obediently sitting there on the grass. The little boy was watching the red head flip around with wonder in his eyes but never once did the curious babe ever once move to investigate.
That was some serious obedience training.
Before Yoen could even take a step forward he felt the cold steel edge of a very sharp knife touch his Adam’s apple as a voice laced with acid whispered into his ear,
“Move an inch and I will cut your throat so that you may never speak again, but before you do I would ask why you have invaded this private training space.<i></i>”

The thief just froze.

[mft]

 

[Chiyo]

As she practiced, the strong muscles in her arms, legs, back and abdomen flexed and relaxed, showing just how strong the small girl was. Her size was normally very misleading as she generally wore more clothes than she was wearing currently. Her upper body was barely covered in a small, midriff bearing tank top the color of charcoal - originally she had worn a bikini top, but Toushin had put a stop to that - on her hips she wore a pair of cut-off dark wash denim shorts, her forehead protector with the symbol of Suna etched into the metal was tied around the middle of her muscular right thigh – so much for protecting her forehead – her small feet were bare – she wanted to see just how much the freshly cut grass would cushion her landings – and, as always, her hair was tied back in a long braid that brushed the back of her knees.

The small teenager, thoroughly absorbed in her work, never noticed the blue haired boy drop into the courtyard, she hadn't even noticed her Sensei put down his son, speak the word the boy knew to mean stay put, and move from his spot where he had sat watching her. However, Toushin's harsh whisper cut through the clanging and thuds of her practice blades like any one of her sharpened weapons would cut through flesh and bone. Suddenly she froze, her emerald green eyes flashing over to where the assassin held the tall teenager in place with a knife to his throat. Then the adrenaline kicked in.

In a matter of moments, Amy had moved to kneel in front of the toddler, facing outward - the boy began to play with the end of her braid - her hands on the hilts of her true blades where they rested in their leather sheaths. It had taken a matter of heartbeats to trade the sword belt she had fashioned for her practice swords for the finely crafted sword belt she had had commissioned to fit her custom broadsword and heirloom scimitar. Ready at a moment's notice to draw her impeccably sharpened blades, she looked into the boys face, her expression one of justified anger.

“You had better answer him, I'd rather not have to clean up your blood.” Her own voice was laced with her own brand of poison, though it was a much gentler poison than the assassin's, one meant to incapacitate rather than kill. The young girl had only killed one person in her entire life. Not that she hadn't had the chance for more bloodshed, she just wasn't one to kill needlessly when disabling a target could still get the job done.

As she watched the boy, her expression softened for a quick moment as she took in his appearance. For the second time in her young life, the girl that normally hid deep down beneath the tom-boy attitude bubbled up and her heart felt like it had dropped into her stomach. He was extremely attractive, his shaggy blue hair framed his handsome face quite nicely, even the frightened look he wore was enthralling. Shaking her head a moment, she brought herself back to what was happening, though she forced herself to focus on Toushin's face, this was not the time to start daydreaming about boys who had appeared unannounced and uninvited during her training.

 

[Toraono Michino]

Yoen’s body didn’t move an inch as both the redhead and the man behind him made viscous comments towards his presence. The thief, who would rather not explain that he came over to say hello to a beautiful woman to a man with a blade to his throat began to look for a way out of his predicament. He saw it in the form of a very reflective metal suit that was placed on an armor rack. He kept his eyes looking up at it and at the assassin that was holding him hostage before making a small jerk forward. The killer behind him raised the blade a little closer to his throat but began to look around for anyone else coming in to attack them. Uzu’s paranoia was justified given some of the things that happened in the last few years but for the first time in his life it actually put him in a disadvantage.

As soon as Uzu’s eyes crossed over the reflective plating they matched up eye to eye with Yoen’s for just a second; it was all he needed. Instantly the sharingan leaped up from the blacks of his pupil and caught the assassin a trance that made him freeze up. Without so much as a nervous shake the rogue lifted his hand up to the arm with the knife and calmly moved it away from his flesh. He stepped away from Uzu while the man just stood there frozen and calmly made his way over to the ginger.

He leaned up against a pole just out of her attack range with a friendly smile on his face,
“Hey, sorry about freezing up your man there. He’ll be alright in a few minutes. I saw you training and I wanted to stop by and just, you know, say hi and introduce myself. I vaguely remember you from my academy days and wanted to see if I was right before super killer back there interrupted me.”

 

[Chiyo]

The redhead’s emerald green eyes widened as her instructor froze. Her strong hands gripped the hilts of her blades even tighter as her expression shifted – her eyes narrowed dangerously and her normally full lips tightened into a narrow line. Whatever the blue haired boy was here for, she was now alone in her mission to protect her young…nephew, brother? It was hard to put a label on her relationship with the toddler, but either way there was no way she would give in where his safety was concerned.

Lifting her eyes from Toushin’s frozen expression, she looked at the intruder’s face, ignoring the bubbling sensation in her belly as she watched him free himself from the assassin’s grasp and move toward her. When he began to speak, her expression changed from furious to confused, then to flattered, with a deep pink flush in her cheeks – which clashed horribly with her bright crimson hair – and back to furious once again.

“What!? You interrupted my training and froze my instructor all to say, ‘Hi?’ You’ve got to be kidding me!” Her grip loosened a fraction and she straightened up slightly as she looked into the boy’s face, trying to find some hint of dishonesty in it. The flush returned to her face when she decided that he was telling her the truth, and she quickly let go of her blades, stood up straight, then glanced over at her instructor. The sight of Toushin frozen like he was, now that the threat was gone, caused her to burst into laughter – a lovely tone ringing through the mostly enclosed space that was her backyard.

“Um…well, then…” her words were punctuated with residual chuckles, her hands moving to remove her sword belt, walking over to the nearest wall, she hung the belt there, taking the moments where her face was hidden to take a few deep breaths and regain her composure – the heat radiating from her cheeks was overwhelming. Turning back and walking over to the little Genkai, lifting him into her arms and resting him on her hip where he began to toy with the loose strands of her hair.

“Sorry about that...we don’t take too well to interruptions around here; usually they end up being threats.” Smiling a little now, she continued, “I think I remember seeing you around the academy a few times, I was always too busy with classes, training, and work to bother with much of a social life, though.”

 

[Toraono Michino]

Yoen’s smile widened at her turn in response once she figured out he was friendly. It was a rare thing to drop in on shinobi and their training just to say hi and it actually turn out good. Honestly his escape plan if things were to go bat-shit went out the window when the assassin suddenly had him and it was pure luck that he had managed to catch the killer’s reflection. Now that he had everything under control he was able to turn back on his full charm.

His purple eyes went from Amy to the child she had playing with her hair. His special eyes were able to instantly tell that the two were not even remotely related based on their facial features but all the same a baby in the picture was a bit of a cramp on his style. Oh well, he still had a good tricks up his sleeves. No doubt it would be the first time anyone had every tried to woo the blacksmith so in all reality he wouldn’t need to use much but Yoen didn’t know that.
“Cute kid you got there, really…quiet for someone his age yeah? Really…calm…” the very idea of a baby that was so chillaxed about everything going on, despite the sudden changes of the new person and the other person being frozen in a genjutsu, he was still simply innocent and still. It was almost mesmerizing really.
“Shame you don’t take to sudden company well. In my short experience in life I have always found that the unexpected company ends up to be the best kind. Even if the person is there to kill us, because of the line of profession we’re in, there is still the excitement of suddenly trying to fight for your life. To find the real fulfilling moments in life you need change and chaos and the introspects of what those lessons teach us…so much of our life is wasted in routine, it really is.
“That being said, and I know we just met, but how about we actually go and try to meet each other and get some coffee or something away from Killy McKillerson over there. Besides that I really doubt that genjutsu is going to hold much longer and he is going to be pissed I can just tell,” he chuckled as he looked over at the trapped master and then back at the girl he just threw so much at,
“Oh! I’m Yoen, by the way. Ryuu Yoen. Don’t really have a fancy title to throw around yet.”

 

[Chiyo]

Amy's smile turned a bit more tender as she looked down at the toddler in her arms, “Yeah, Toushin there is this little one's father...that should tell you something about why he's so calm.” The first few times she had seen the little boy go so calm from just a word from his father had freaked out even the girl who had spent all of her teenage years around the assassin, and that was seriously saying something.

Turning her eyes back to the other teenager, she nodded and shurgged a little at his words. “Of course the sudden excitement of putting all your work to use is nice, but we've had so much excitement around here lately that any more can be just a little too much for some of us.” Her mind went over the events of the past year and she sighed a little, hitching the toddler up a little more comfortably on her hip.

The next suggestion from the tall boy brought her out of her thoughts and yet another garishly pink flush to her cheeks, her emerald eyes widening a little before she let out a nervous chuckle at the nickname he had given her master. “Um...yeah, he'll definitely be angry...it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get out of here before he wakes up – not only for your sake, but mine as well...I'm sure he'll have a few choice words for my letting you interrupt my training.”

With another nervous little chuckle she glanced at Toushin, “He's aware of what's going on, isn't he? I'm not really that familiar with genjutsu...” Without waiting for a confirmation of her guess, she walked over to her master and set Genkai down on the grassy floor with a smile. “Okay, Kai...just stay here and wait for your father to wake up.” Knowing he didn't need the extra instructions after what his father had already told him, she still felt she needed to say something. With that, she placed a small kiss on the child's forehead and stood back up to look up at Toushin with a guilty little smile.

“Sorry, Sensei...I know I'm gonna pay for this later...try not to be too mad at me, after all, what's a teenager that doesn't sneak out from time to time?” With that, she turned to look at the boy who had introduced himself as Yoen. “My name is Suchiru Amejisuto, of Suchiru Arms, that's my shop on the ground floor,” she gestured toward the building they were standing behind. “Everyone calls me Amy though.”

As she finished introducing herself, she glanced back at the Uzumoreru who was just beginning to move and whose golden irises were pointed directly at her with a 'don't-you-dare' sort of glare in them. “Uh oh...he's snapping out of it...we had better get out of here.” With an apologetic glance toward her Sensei, she turned back to Yoen, her cheeks flushing even more as she slipped her small hand into his and spoke again, "Lead the way." The young master blacksmith knew Toushin would know exactly where to look for her if they went to any of her regular spots, so it was better for Yoen to choose their hiding place. Amy now wore an exhilarated smile, though she felt a little guilty for allowing Yoen to freeze Toushin, then just leaving him like that. Shaking the thoughts from her mind for the time being, she allowed herself to be excited for her little taste of being a teenager.

 

[Toraono Michino]

“Yeah…he’s aware alright of what’s going on. I imagine he’s not very happy at all actually…” Yet Yoen couldn’t keep the shit eating grin off his face as he said that looking at the assassin. It wasn’t every day that the thief got the opportunity to actually one-up with someone who was obviously way more powerful than he was.

“Amy huh? Well that’s neat. Rather simple and clean, I like it, but do you seriously run this whole business at your age? I’ve seen the work outside in passing and I always thought there had to be like, six to seven blacksmiths here working around the clock. Seriously do all you do is train in your down time? Gotta live more girl!” the Ryuu felt a slight break in the hold he had over Toushin right as Amy mentioned it, “Yep! That is most certainly my cue to get the hell out. Come on, I know a place.”

With a push of chakra from his feet the rogue hopped over the fence and waited for Amy to join him before setting off with a light jog towards the poorer districts.
It only took them ten minutes to traverse the alleyways and odd corners before he had them lead to a dead end in an alley on the edge of the Lower and Mid sections of Suna. The area wasn’t exactly top class living but it wasn’t the hell that the rest of Suna degraded into the further down you went.

Calmly Yoen walked up to the wall and knocked his hand rythmatically three times in a two part rotation between the three knocks. The bricks in the wall shifted a little like sand and fell away to reveal a cave entrance that had an odd eriee blue glow in the back. He smirked at her and nodded his head for her to follow him in before leading the way.
The wall shifted itself back up into bricks behind them leaving only the blue glow to guide them down the way. It only took two minutes to climb down the rocks toward the source of the light. It revealed a small lake that had a source fed off from the gigantic one where all the crystals were.
However instead of crystals shards were crystallized mushrooms that emitted a soft blue light. There was enough shrooms there to give off a lot of light so that every last bit of magnificence could be seen but it was dim enough that the entire experience, no matter how grand, was all rather calming.

“Welcome to my home away from home. I call it the Azure Pond and its often where I go to…brood I suppose some would call it.”

 

[Chiyo]

“Yep, it's all mine,” she answered with a proud smile, "I started learning the trade when I was six...I'm 15 now...” She let her words fade off, Amy didn't want to seem as though she was bragging. Her cheeks flushed again, but she smiled as he hopped over the fence. With a short moment of hesitation, the redhead looked over at Toushin whose fingertips were beginning to wiggle menacingly and she waved to him before following the boy down into the poorer sections of the city.

They stopped before they hit the really bad districts and he led her to a bare stretch of wall where he knocked a few times and waited. Amy bit her lip as the wall before them melted away before her eyes, somewhere in the back of her mind she was a little wary of where he was leading her – she was almost having second thoughts as to if it had really been a good idea to run off with a boy she had just met, and she wished she still had her sword belt. Pulling her long braid over her shoulder, she began to run her hands over it nervously, her fears growing even more prominent as the door closed behind them leaving them with only the eerie blue light to show them the way.

Even still, she followed him, though she kept a wary eye out for anything strange until her emerald eyes fell on the beautiful little hidden oasis. A soft gasp escaped her lips as she took in the pool and the glowing blue mushrooms that surrounded it. “Oh...” was all she could say as her cheeks warmed once again and reddened, though it would be hard to tell in the dim light of the small cavern.

Smiling a little, she took a few more steps forward, trying to take it all in before she spun back around to face Yoen. “It's beautiful...I can see why you would make this your escape.” Looking up at the boy, her cheeks reddened even more as the thought that they were all alone and how difficult it would be for anyone to find them sank in. Biting her lower lip once again, she turned back around and looked down at the smooth surface of the water, trying to remember how to breathe properly.

[[MFT // WC: 387]]

 

[Toraono Michino]

Yoen calmly walked deeper into the cave and sat down near the edge of the pond and patted the spot next to him. His was nestled between two of the glowing mushrooms that gave off the soft blue light. As he waited for Amy to join his side the Ryuu turned his gaze out towards the lake and picked up a rock from the ground around him. Gently he began to toss the rock in his hand until suddenly snapping his wrist in a whip-like motion to send it sailing out over the crystal blue water. The smooth surface of the stone skipped over the water three times before finally slowing down enough to sink on its fourth drop towards the liquid.

The rogue continue to do this absently even after Amy came to join him. His mind had suddenly become distracted by the rock and the presence of the girl. How many times had he shown his numerous girlfriends this exact place to woo them silly? What had was a new experience for the red-head was something that had become rather cliché to Yoen. He let out a large sigh and leaned back on his hands after tossing the fifth rock or so into the lake,
"So...that teacher of yours...he seemed pretty mean, yeah?"

It wasn't like him to be at such a lost for words or be so terrible at starting a conversation. Normally he would have launched into the exploit of how he found the cave, how it had saved his life and continued to be a magical place for him no matter how hold he was; etcetera, etcetera. But for some reason he just couldn't bring up his normal dashing self. Maybe he was just tired of trying to be such a romantic that instead of sweeping Amy off her feet he wanted to actually get to know her.

 

[Chiyo]

Her cheeks still flushed a garish magenta, she moved forward to take a seat next to Yoen, her hands folded in her lap nervously as she watched him skip rocks across the smooth, blue surface of the pool. Also at a loss for words, they sat in silence for a while before the blue-haired boy broke the slight tension with a question about Toushin.

Looking over at him, she chuckled slightly and shook her head. “Oh, no, he's not mean, really. He's just very protective of me – not to mention his son. My father asked him to train me when I was twelve, so I've known him for a few years now. He can be strict, and definitely a little crazy sometimes, but never really mean.” Smiling a little more now, but still feeling a bit awkward, she looked down at her hands as she tried to find something to say to keep the conversation going. Social skills were definitely not one of the redhead's strengths, normally she was just bossy, that was definitely not a road she wanted to go down, she had enough knowledge about the opposite sex to know most men didn't like overly domineering women.

It took her quite a while to find something to say that didn't sound completely stupid in her head. Biting her lip lightly as she twiddled her fingers, she lifted her eyes after a moment to look around at the small cavern. “So how did you come across this place? It seems like it would be hard to find, especially with its entrance being so thoroughly hidden.” Turning to look at the boy again, she shifted on the rock next to his so that she could face him more comfortably, her knees bumping into his momentarily before her cheeks flushed once again and she mumbled an embarrassed apology.