Chapter 3 : Time before the Summoning

"... Alright, and what has that got to do with me" She noted the subtle narrowing of his eyes, and the worry that was hinted in his tone of voice as he explained he had been offered a mission from ANBU. "What's this really about?" It was obviously not convinced of his explanation, it'd be a little harder than that to get her to believe him. Though she had temporarily missed his first question, a little more focused on the strange conversation with the mystery woman.

Hatake Compound

Kakashi would sigh and shake his head as he saw that she didn't buy his explanation.
"Ohw boy...." He sighed again and then looked at his daughter a bit hopeful and worried at the same time.
"It's a very important mission that requires someone with my skills, in fact they say they'd prefer me specifically. But there is a great chance I wouldn't come back from this mission. Not alive at least." He looked a little pained saying the last part.
"And...you....are not yet ready. Not ready to lead this Clan on your own. You still need time to grow. So I declined." he nodded to her confirming his words. He hoped she would believe him this time around.
The worry in his voice and the pain in his eyes when speaking of his own death at least appeared very real, but then again he was a shinobi, he could have acted this. But Kakashi was her father and she knew he wouldn't pretend about things like that to her. So at least that part of it was true.

Since the battle was over, Houtarou walked towards Kenshi.

I'm sorry about that Kenshi... Like I said, I didn't intend on hurting you, it was clumsy of me not to think about it, guess I really put my mind to it, huh? I despise hurting others, so I'm kind of angry at myself about it...
Anyway, we'll call it a tie then! And we should resume sometime!

It bugged Houtarou. It really did. He almost hurt someone just there, he almost did something he disliked. ''That's not what my parents taught me. That's not what I taught myself...''

Mmm, that took quite some time, but there's still some left, you've got anything to do for the time that's left?

Houtarou looked at Kenshi and the ground, noticing something he forgot about.
OOPS, SORRY! I completely forgot about Mizuame Nabara! KAI!!!

Houtarou's justsu dissapeared.

I'm such a clumsy idiot... Sorry for not noticing that earlier!

T-thank you miss! But he's right. I almost hurt a comrade right there, which is something I won't stand for myself. I love sparring, but I hate hurting people, and my actions here kind of passed that line...

After finishing what he said with his head down, Houtarou actually took a moment to look at the person in front of him. ''W-wait a minute... This is Haruno Sakena!'' He'd heard of this person before. She was quite well known throughout the village!

The ANBU released th Hakake's hands and made a salute "Yes Haruno Hime, I'll leave them in your care then." And with that he was gone in a blur of motion.

Guess that's a good point! Although next time when we help each other practice techniques, I should make sure it doesn't cause him to have to go to a hospital though, isn't that right Kenshi?!

The smile on Houtarou's face returned, she had made him stop worrying.

Thank you miss! You're right. I should train to get stronger. Because I'll get stronger and stronger, so I can contribute to creating a more peac-... Whatever, it's just, you're right!

The ANBU would release Houtarou and after that Houtarou would be walking towards Kenshi. He began apologizing which wasn't really needed. Kenshi heard what he said to the ANBU and it was a sparring match which he asked for himself. He heard him says that this should be a tie but Kenshi didn't really agree with that. " No you won. I got captured and if the ANBU didn't show up I might have ended bad for me. So once again, you win. This didn't really take that much time but I don't think we should spar again. So just talking should be fine." He said and he pointed towards the ground.

Houtarou would notice it and he released the jutsu and apologized again. Houtarou really apologized a bit too much. Shortly after that a girl with pink hair appeared. She began to speak and it looked like she was able to heal him if the ANBU didn't stop the attack. She continued speaking and he words were so true. She said they did good but Kenshi didn't really thought he did good. After taking a good look Kenshi recognized the girl. It was Haruno Sakena. She was well known for her healing skills. So even if Kenshi got hit by the jutsu she would have been able to heal him right away.

"I wouldn't be in the hospital for too long so please don't worry about that. And if she would heal me than there would be nothing to worry about. But I think that practicing would be better next time." Kenshi turned towards Sakena and bowed. " Thank you for offering your help. Even though in the end it wasn't needed I really appreciated the thought." He said and bowed to her again.

Believe me, with me being as clumsy as I am, I might even need an entire healing squad on stand by for you Kenshi, haha!

He replied to Kenshi laughing, but that wasn't what Houtarou was thinking about. As he thought, she'd been able to finish that sentence... He'd taken interest in what she said though.

*sigh* I'm like an open book, sorry... But... peace club? That sounds interesting. I-it's my main reason for becoming a shinobi after all... I'm curious as to what you mean by ''peace club''...

" You might be clumsy but now that you have witnessed your own powers you might be more careful in the future." Kenshi himself was also curious about what she meant with the peace club. After her explanation Kenshi started thinking about it. But he quickly made up his mind. If there really was a peace club than he wanted to join it. "The idea of having a peaceful world is great. But what if everyone really wanted to have a peaceful world then it might actually happen. Or what if there is 1 person that takes control but that person is good and is willing to use his position to build a peaceful world?"

At the Academy

One of the back-doors of the Academy building would open close to Sakena as Anko would poke her head out with a happy grin.
"Oy Omeg....." She stopped right there falling silent and getting a sweatdrop next to her head before continueing, sortoff.
"Omegawd! What's going on here?! Hey Sakena-chaaaaan! Would you mind stepping inside for a moment the Jounin meeting is about to begin. " She said in a fast nervous speech.

The ANBU captain would then pull back inside and whisper. "Darn that was close." She mumbled pained.

Mana looked at her Father quizzically, it certainly wasn't like him to question his own capabilities. Whatever they were talking about it must have been quite a mission if he didn't think he'd come back from it. "... I suppose that makes sense." she seemed more convinced than she had a little while before, still skeptical though. For now, she was happy, but she decided that she'd try and look in on this at a later date.

Shortly after he spoke the Haruno would response with something that he didn’t see coming. She was just talking about a peace club and now she said that there will never be peace if she didn’t know who killed Tsunade and who had anything to do with it. But Kenshi realized that he said something that he shouldn’t have. “I’m…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” He apologized hoping that she wouldn’t be mad at him for what he said before.

Kenshi would keep quiet when she started walking away. He already said something he shouldn’t have said and he didn’t want to make it worse. Then a door opened and someone came out. Kenshi recognized her but he couldn’t remember her name. The woman asked Sakena to come inside for the jounin meeting. ‘Oh crap… if that meeting is about which jounin gets which team then I might get her as my jounin sensei. ‘ He thought and he just hoped that she didn’t dislike him for what he said. It would be bad if his sensei didn’t like him.

As Nomaru walked through town she felt a bit weird about the whole situation for fighting Faolan, asking herself if she really wanted to fight or just was that addicted to cigarettes.
After a moment she didn't really care much about it anymore and figured it would be best to just go enjoy her last bit of free time. Before she would have to go serious and follow the dream of her father. Nomaru sat down on a bench close to the Ninja tool shop and closed her eyes, the sun on her face felt great. This would be a perfect day if she didn't passed the exam. This would be a perfect day if Tenshi didn't go all emotional on her, leaving her problems at home wherever that might be. This would be a perfect day if she had never met Faolan and his dog. This would have been a perfect day if she wasn't a Genin at this point.
Nomaru let a deep sigh escape from her mouth and remembered the first time her father told her to attend to school well.

~ It was this one particular night, he had come home drunk with some chakra sensitive paper. Either the four year old Nomaru and her mom had no idea what had happened, but after some explanation and a bucket of puke it became clear he had won it in some kind of drinking game. Nomaru was watching television and watched her dad walk to the couch with the chakra sensitive papers in his arms. Still the man was unable to walk in a straight line and ended up tripping over his own feet, dropping the papers next to his daughter. Nomaru, who had not really much of an idea what the problem was picked up one of the papers and started nibbling on it, as a light came from it. Excited by what was happening Nomaru grabbed the other two pieces, both reacting differently, showing different colors.
Tears were running over Koui Hazure's cheeks as Nomaru was playing with the tree pieces of paper. From that day on something in her dad's eyes changed, realizing his daughter could make up for the failure he was. This was followed by Hazure running to the toilet again, still wasted as fuck.~

Nomaru sighed again, playing with her cigarette. Nobody had ever asked her what she wanted to do in life. All they did was tell her what she should and shouldn't do. Due to her talent her dad was always so extremely focused on Nomaru achieving greatness. Nobody ever really asked what she wanted in life. They just assumed Nomaru really wanted to become a ninja and really did like the fact she received her headband today. That she loved the fact she had become expendable and probably close to death as it was.

Houtarou had just been listening to the conversation between Haruno and Kenshi, silently.
When she walked away he silently whispered:
True peace can only be achieved by understanding. Revenge and hate will only cause more revenge and hate on the other side, that's not how you achieve peace. As long as I still have the will to create peace within me, I won't give up my dream trying to achieve it. That's what I'll become stronger for.
He whispered that so silently probably no one could hear it. He very well knew that achieving peace in this country would be hard, knowing how it's full of different groups with different ideals, and people at top. But that would never stop him. He was friends with people from other clans, that's prove it should be possible. Adults were always so pessimistic in his eyes...

Whatever, he didn't want sink away in his idealistic thoughts again. Today was the day he had become a genin, and he should be, and was, happy.
Her being one of the Jounin sensei sounded interesting though... She seemed pretty nice.

Well, that was quite a serious chat for such a fun day Kenshi. I think it's a chat to have another time though, today is a fun day. Why don't we take a look around the city for now, since there's some more time left?

Kenshi was drifting away in his thought until Houtarou spoke to him. He didn’t know where these negative thoughts came from. He’d never really been negative. Maybe it’s because of all the things that had happened today. It might have changed him a bit. Or it could be a temporary thing which would go away. He hoped it was because he didn’t like the negative thoughts.

“Sure lets go into the village. I don’t know how much time we have left so we shouldn’t go too far away.” He said and a smile appeared on his face. Kenshi never really talked like this to a classmate. And no one ever invited him to go somewhere. It was a feeling that he wasn’t very familiar with. Maybe this was how it feels to have friends.

As Nomaru sat across from the Ninja Toolshop she kept wondering about her life and what whould happen to her in the future. She wondered about her sensei, her team and wondered about where the fuck Tenshi could be. Nomaru wondered about a lot of things and seemed to be the only one that wasn't pleased with receiving her forehead protector. She really had rather given it to someone else.
As Nomaru lit anothe cigarette she wondered if she had ever stolen something from the Ninja Toolshop. Probably not, but no-one in town really trusted her anymore when she walked into shops and stores. Nomaru found that quite the achievement and smiled about the idea of being a "wanted criminal". Usually they would just call her dad and get a speech made of fire and brimstone every time she waa caught.
Nomaru lauged out loud, remembering most of the stuff she used to do. That time would be over and it gave her a bittersweet feeling. No more skipping classes, no more getting into trouble, no more illegal drinking in a dark alley. She was an adult now and didn't like the idea.

Tenshi walked back into town. 
She pondered about what sakena had said. It was true. Peace wasn't the way of the shinobi. But what if she could create her own peace through the deeds she did?

At home she would take 2 cans of drinks with her and walk towards school. On her way she found Nomaru and tapped her on the shoulder, holding out the drink.
I still owed you this I believe. Please forgive me for barging of like that. It is hard for me to receive kindness for a change.

Nomaru looked up and smiled at the girl standing behind her. Acting as if nothing had happened she raised her eyebrow, grabbing the drink. 'I went for a bit of a walk as well, needed some fresh air after te amount of food I ate. Besides that, I would freak out as well if I wasn't already born in the Koui-familly. My parents are just so... Weird. And I apologize for that.' She gave Tenshi one of her biggest, childish and innocent smiles and invited te girl to sit down with her on the bench. 'So, you ok?'