Starring:
Date: August 10, 2011
Summary:
Takashi and Amani take on the roles of Hansel and Gretel, placing a different twist on the old fairy tale.
"Hansel and Gretel"
Woods
Thus began the parable of Hansel and Gretel..
Two young children, Katari and Amani were out walking in the forest one day, two children from different villages, but alike in their ways they had set out through the forest together one fine crisp summer morning. Walking along through the tall trees it isn't far into the woods when Katashi suggests, "Sometimes when I'm out deep in the woods outside of Leaf Village I leave behind shuriken in the trees, and then collect them on my way back out, either that or we can mark them with like, a mark of some kind we can look for!"
Even as the diminutive boy makes the suggestion, he pulls out several shuriken and marks a tree with what almost looks like a set of clawmarks. "See, we can find out way back out now!" he tells her and then goes back to skipping along.
"Say, what's your village like? Mine is really green."
Amani wasn't used to the forest so she had to drop off a lot of clothes. She was down to the bare minimum. Shorts, shirt, sandals. It was just so /warm/. She wasn't used to this at all. It's obvious she doesn't come from these parts, but she is like any other kid, sort of. She grew up in a clan of hunter gatherers, so her interests might be a little different. As Katashi speaks of the method he uses to find his way through the woods, she takes note, nodding in understanding while saying, "Wait, wait…. That's the way back to Leaf Village, right? I neeed to find my way back to…" She points in the direction of the mountains. "It's…really cold and has a lot of rocks. It's high in the mountains." She lifts her hand and begins to peer as if she could see through the trees. She couldn't, but at least she had a sense of direction. "It's also really colorful. There's monks and all sorts of other things too."
"That's the way," Katashi confirms with another of those broad smiles and marks another tree. As he hops along, he points out with a laugh, "Can you imagine if we'd left crumbs behind, I bet birds would have at them," and bounces a bit more.
Hearing her comment about monks, the young Kinjo turns his head to look at her and asks, "What kind of monks?" his eyes going wide as he envisions some dangerous super-monks who know ever form of Jutsu ever created and have long beards and only ever say anything in Haiku. Because that's what monks are in the mind of a nine year old.
"What do they call your village?" he asks, having not heard that part of it yet. This place in the north. "The place with the monks and the mountains," he adds.
Amani was a little confused. She didn't know what kind of monks they were either, but she's sure she remembered some guy. His name was hard to pronounce, but she remembered it from one thing. "Shime." She started. "I think they're…pasic…paci…pacific…" Pacifists. She grumbles. "They don't fight a lot." Yeah, that'll work. Not really the vision of super monks, but maybe they could be if they wanted to. "They call our village Kumogakure." She wasn't sure if there was any other name it went by. "The monas…monetary…mon…" monastery. "They live in a really big building."
"Oh yeah? Sounds like an interesting place," Katashi tells her not knowing anything more about pacifists or monasteries than Amani does, he just nods his head in seeming understanding, despite having very little idea why monks would live together. He thought they mostly wandered around and were all Sage-like and stuff. "Kumogakure," he repeats back to her and reaches out, marking another tree, this time making the mark a bit more elaborate.
Passing around and between two big trees they suddenly find themselves in a clearing with a house on the opposite side, the faint smell of cookies and snacks emanating from the smokestack and a rather joyfully painted exterior that makes the place look like the best candy shop in all of the Lands.
"Wow, that place smells great, I haven't had anything to eat in hours!" he tells Amani at his side.
Amani looks up to see Katashi mark another tree so that they could find their way back. Now that that's been taken care of…"What's that smell?" She asks and sniffs the air. It smelled like…baked goods, but…what kind of baked goods? Whatever it was, it smelled delicious and she wanted to have it! Since her mind was moving faster than her senses were, she completely missed the home with the smoke billowing up and out of the chimney not too far away from the both of them. She just wanted to have whatever was /inside/ that place. "Oh, there it is. I haven't eaten either!" Her stomach growls quite loudly. Looking down, she pats it gently saying, "Maybe we should go check it out?"
"Oh man, I'm starving!" Katashi decides when he hears her belly growl.
"Of course!" Katashi calls out quietly and then tip-toes towards the front door, looking back towards her as he starts to cross the clearing bound for the distant doorframe. Looking back towards her a few times, he nods at her as if he is finding this idea more and more to his liking and as he nears the gate he spryly hops over it and continues right on up towards the door.
Something they agree on! "Be careful!" She called in a hushed tone. She wasn't familiar with this place, but it smelled so darn good that it made someone forget common sense! As Katashi approached, she watched from the trees to see if things were in the clear, y'know, so she'd be able to escape if anything happened to him… c.c; But her gut keeps 'punching' her everytime she considers staying back and she doesn't realize she's creeping closer to the house in anticipation. "This house was farther away just a few moments ago…"
It's a fairy tale don't get all touchy about distances! Neh!? Lightly rapping his knuckles on the door, Katashi calls out, "Excuse me, is anybody hooome!?" and bounces up and down a few times on his toes, not being the least bit stealthy in his approach. Even as he asks, he leans quickly to either side and looks into the windows before looking back out towards the woods, looking towards Amani, he waves again and gives a thumbs up. Reaching up then, he knocks one last time and as his last blow falls on the door it opens, his hand tailing off through the air wildly and then ducking back to his side.
The figure who opens the door looks as motherly as they come, save for a tall pointed hat. "Oh, hello there little boy, don't you just look delicious! I bet you smelled my cooking, didn't you? Would you like to come in and have some? I could just gobble you right up, what's your name?" she asks and makes a beckoning gesture.
"Would I ever!"
Amani didn't realize she was drawing so close and so quickly! Before she knew it, she was at the door and heard the ratta tap ta—air? The door was opened to some kinda lady with a pointed hat. "Hey, I'm here too!" She calls out to the witch. She was not about to be ignored and miss out on some good food. She peeked inside past the witch and the aroma hit her full force. Soooooo good. Popping her head back out from the doorway she looks at Katashi ready to follow him inside. "C'mon, let's go!"
"I was just about to invite you too, but sure sweety, you look good too, why don't you both come in and we'll get you two nice and fat!" the woman suggests and beckons them both inside. The interior is warm with a huge oven. There are lots of candies there and the woman shuffles around immediately, fetching up a tray filled with food for the both of them. "Have at it pretties," she tells them and grins wickedly, a gleam in her eye.
Katashi continues to remain oblivious and eats away at the food immediately. Omnomnomnom. "This is really good cookiesensei!" he tells her with a quick nod of the head and a broad smile. Indicating the tray, he asks, "Were you expecting company?"
"Oh no, I just like to cook, I'm very hungry all of the time."
Amani yays and runs inside to take a seat at the table. No sooner than they sit, they're treated to a tray filled with, well treats. All kinds of treats and the young Yamayuki digs in to them without any reservations. Munching on all the goodies they have, she nods in agreement with Katashi saying, "Thesh ish good!" with mouth filled with delicious snacks.
Swallowing that bunch down, she starts on another bunch, her hand dipping into the tray like a shovel to place into her mouth as if to fill a hole. "Youf cook reeely goodf."
When they have finished eating in what must be record time the woman wanders over and grabs Katashi up under one arm. "Time for me to eat!" she yells out and cackles wildly as she starts to carry the, at first rather docile young boy towards the oven.
As realization dawns on his young face, his eyes go wide and he yells out, "No! Help me Amani!"
Amani was still stuffing her face, clearing her tray and building up a mess on her face made of crumbs and glaze, yet one thing snapped her out of it rather quickly. That call of distress that rang out and slipped through her ears caused her head to jerk up and see her newfound friend being carried off by cookiesensei towards the oven. "Hey! Put him down!" She called, starting from her seat to go after the witch.
She felt a bit weighted by all the treats she had and so she was a tad slow, but she was still in good shape. Running forward, she war cried and jumped into the air to perform a flying kick on the witch's back to get her to drop him.
The woman is a scary old lady, but no Shinobi! She cries out as she drops Katashi, the boy immediately rolls away with some Genin like speed and hops to his feet, drawing a kunai from the small case at his back which he offers towards Amani. "We'll take her down!" he calls out and then draws out those shuriken from earlier and narrows his eyes. "And bring her to town!" A single rhyme being necessary, because it's a fairy tale!
The woman, still feeling at her back, looks between the two and realizes only now that they aren't regular children- but students of some academy of ninjutsu! Flaw! "No, I was just going to show him the oven, please little delicious children, I wasn't going to gobble you up."
Amani was glad to have freed Katashi from the old lady cookiesensei and just in the nick of time. He was about to be put in an oven to be baked! Taking the shuriken offered by him, she spread them out along the folds between her fingers, ready to throw them at a moments notice.
"Yeah!" She shouted in agreement with Katashi. Yes, they were academy of ninjutsu children and they were here to whoop butt and take names or name in this case. "I don't believe you," she stated at the witch's remark. Soon after, she threw a couple of shuriken towards the witch.
The shuriken hit the woman repeatedly, unable to dodge, having very little fighting skill whatsoever. Her targets had always been small and squishy and /delicious/ but she'd never had the misfortune of catching a child from the academy. Woe is her! She gasps as she is hit and recoils. "Oh, please don't kill me.." she begs and even as Katashi starts to lower his own weapons, the woman senses weakness!
Grabbing a great cleaver off of a nearby board, she leaps at Amani, swinging the huge blade with all of her pointy-hatted might.
In response, Katashi jumps back, simultaneously throwing two shuriken in quick succession, the first hitting her in the ribs, the second flying through the window behind her!
Large cleaver! Amani nearly got freaked out as she's not used to…having cleavers used against her, but she managed to evade and watch the witch's swing miss her. The woman flew elsewhere while also taking two more shuriken to the ribs and back. "This lady is crazy!"
What kind of person wields a cleaver like that?! For the record, Amani used to use her spear in the same fashion, but it was confiscated by Kumo authorities. Too many reports about missing animals… She couldn't help the urge to hunt. Oh, how she wishes she had her spear now. She'd show her how its /really/ done.
"I'll try to get her to stop moving and then you can finish her off." With that, she goes after the witch and uses a sound blast against her, amplifying the sound of a shout to target the witch specifically and render her stunned as well as deaf.
"Alright!" Katashi calls out and throws up a thumbs up in approval before he dashes in, drawing a kunai and lunges at the woman simultaneously to her getting blasted. Landing on her hips with his feet, he drives the kunai in and then springs backwards off of her, rolling through the air and landing beside Amani, he spins the kunai by the ring at the end and reverses his grip, still staring at the bleeding woman.
The brutal blow from the kunai by Katashi makes the witch lose her grip and the weapon falls to the floor, taking a stumbling step then, she collapses against the front of the open, bracing herself against the heat, she seems to be trying to muster one last stand.
Grabbing Amani by the hand, the duo then charge in and both drop kick the heavier woman in the chest simultaneously, yelling out, "Burn the Witch Jutsu!" and she goes flying back into the oven- the door slamming shut behind her.
"I'm so glad they taught us that before we left town," he remarks with a shrug and then throwing an arm around Amani, the duo grab up all the goodies they can carry and walk back to town.
The end.
