Starring:
Ikari, Kenta, Naruko, Nobunaga
Date: August 21, 2014
Summary:
A class of academy students get to have a play date with the children of Kadomai. Just one child can be a handful, so shinobi are needed to make sure all twenty eight of them stay away from too much trouble.
"Tiny Terrors of Konoha and Kadomai"
A forest clearing near Kadomai
It is drifting somewhere between early morning and midday, and it is a bright and sunny day. The temperature is perfect, just warm enough to be comfortable without risk of sweating overly so just standing around. The Konoha academy wanted to surprise the students by going on a field trip of sorts to play with the other children of Kadomai. Some couldn't travel to Konoha because their families were too busy working to escort them there, so it was the perfect time for them to socialize together. Of course, this meant that the academy instructor of this particular class would go about and seek help. His class was one of the larger ones, numbering to about sixteen children altogether, and it was a lot to ask for another teacher to accompany him because they had their own class to worry about teaching. Not many would lower their mission standards to the point of being glorified babysitters, but leave it to a five year old to know just what to say and what pouty face to use.
Ikari happily hurries along by Kenta's side, trying to keep up with the other kids in her class. There aren't many quite as young as her, the average age range appears to be between nine and eleven, but there are one or two seven and eight year olds to even it out. "I'm glad y'gotta come along Kenta-sama! Th'teacher said that when we get back t'the village, there's a present for you too."
Eventually the gathered group comes to a stop in a large clearing in the forest that's been cleaned up specifically for the children. There are some little obstacles that have been set up that can be hidden in or climbed over, and two large troughs of water have been placed on opposite sides of the clearing. The teacher clears his throat and addresses both children and chaparones alike, altogether there's about twenty eight children alone. "Alright. Listen up, for those of you that don't know me, I am academy instructor Hiyama Gesshin. Today everyone will be free to play and talk amongst each other, and of course there will be time to eat before most of us need to return to the village. But we did not want this fun to be all for nothing…we will be starting things off with a game…so sit down and pay attention, because the rules will not be repeated." Ikari reaches up to lightly tug at one of Kenta's fingers before plopping down heavily into the grass like most of the other kids are doing.
Kenta has no idea how he got roped into watching so many small children. He's never done much babysitting and has little desire for it, despite a firm belief that children are the future of a village. Nevertheless, strange decisions gets made whenever he's under the influence of the little beast known as Akimichi Ikari. It's like her cuteness is a form of mind control. The fact that there are other chaperones doesn't make him any less wary of the proceedings. A single child is a handful enough and there's -twenty eight- of them. Nevertheless, Kenta will take his duty as seriously as always and perform to the best of his abilities.
Kenta sits down on the grass next to Ikari. "I believe that it will be present enough for me if we manage to get back to the village without any unpleasant incidents," he murmurs to the little girl. She's one of the few people that he has to leave over to address. "I guess it's a good idea to have a medic nin along. The likelihood of there being broken limbs and sprained ankles is too high among a group like this one." Kenta straightens back up and settles attention on the academy instructor.
It was mission for for the Kumogakure kunoichi known as Uzumaki Naruko. While there was other business she was to attend to, the premise of the matter was for her to get to know her allies of the hidden leaf. What better way to do so than to tag along with the various academy students? A light yawn escapes her lips as she makes her way across the grassy fields, following along with the others until finally coming to a halt. Lightly she strokes a finger against the redness of her cheek, hmming quietly to herself as she considered, "I wonder what kind of rules they have? Hopefully the game isn't that difficult…don't want to make /myself/ look like an idiot," Naruko whispers quietly, turning her attention to some whispering by her side, it just so happened to be Kenta. " WHoa really? Broken limbs and sprained ankles in a game? Should I be worried? Sounds like some….dangerous fun,"
Once everyone is seated Gesshin nods to himself and starts to slowly pace a path in front of the children, "Today everyone will be divided into two teams. These teams will be opposing villages, which can be named after the teams are picked. Some local herb growers have been kind enough to offer us a discount on some dyes that will be a big part of the game." He half-turns to gesture to two crates, one filled with some packets of blue dye and the other with packets of green. "Now, the object of the game, is to not be the village that gets their water source tainted. Bad water leads to disease and weak shinobi and villagers alike, leaving you as a people vulnerable to attacks. There are many ways you can go about winning the game, but the key will be properly balancing an offensive -and- a defensive strike…If everyone rushes for the other village, then a single scout could walk in an ruin your water while the other village works united to fend you off…but if you stay hunkered down, then well…no one would win now would they?" He smiles and returns to his calm patrol. "Now, the rules are that no real weapons or force may be used. Some horse play will be tolerated to a degree, but if me or the other chaperones feel it gets out of control you will be removed from the game and thus stripped of your title as shinobi of that village. If you wish to use the dye to…" He can't help but grin as he goes on to say, "Slay one of the other villagers, then by all means. There may be a time where you encounter poisons directly in the field…but keep in mind, the more dye there is on them, the less dye there is to go into the water…Now, who would like to act as the Kages of their village?"
Hands shoot up into the air excitedly, including Ikari's, but eventually two older boys are picked. They each take turns picking out who they want on their team and even though Ikari keeps trying to snag their attention it doesn't look like they'll be getting to her any time soon. Gradually the excitement drains from her and she looks pitiful by the time they get to her, -the- last child picked for a team. Some of the kids don't seem to mind Ikari's addition, but there are those that aren't afraid of making their disappointment known. Some even murmer amongst themselves, "Can't they just have an extra player? It's not like they'll get that much of an advantage…" Still, Ikari carefully rocks herself up onto her feet and hurries over to the other kids after giving a bright smile to Kenta. Then both of the teams huddle together and quietly mumble amongst themselves as they all work on deciding on names for the villages.
"Oh, the game's probably safe. It's just that children are so prone to accidents. I don't know why. I've never broken anything when I was a kid. It's a little strange really, that almost everyone else that I know has that happen before," Kenta whispers back to Naruko. When the rules of the game is given out, his eyes brighten with recognition. "I remember that game. We played it a few times when I was an academy student. I always ended up on the losing team, but it's still a good exercise in teamwork and strategic thinking. But now I'm almost sure that there's going to be a broken limb or two. This is a rowdy type of game.
Kenta gets to his feet and folds his hands behind his back. It'll be easier for him to rush over to someone in trouble if he doesn't have to untangle his feet first. While Kenta is loathed to cheer one side over the other, he does sneak Ikari a thumbs up. He also toes the line even more by silently mouthing "I'm counting on you" to her. The fact that she was picked last doesn't make him disappointed at all, but he already knows she's talented for her age.
"Ha yeah, kids. They really do know how to overdo it don't they? They need shinobi like us to look up to, show them the ropes. Keep them in shape!" Naruko commented back to Kenta, her grin forming from ear to ear. Of course deep down inside Naruko couldn't help but to look a little nervous. "Just keep an eye out….mkae sure no one gets hurt to badly. Easy peasy right?" Naruko championed herself, keeping a lingering smile as she watches Ikari come off as last. Between Ikari and Kenta they seemed to have a warm connection, something that she could detect with mere observation. "Aww…that is so cute…." Naruko could be heard mummuring, though quietly taking to the side lines, her attention was on the kids, she couldn't disappoint.
Now that teams are picked the academy instructor helps two other chaperones distribute the dyes between the two groups. Each child gets one good-sized packet of dye to use, though the Kage's do get two since they are the leaders of the village. The children laugh and giggle as they inspect the dye curiously. It wasn't too thin and had a stickiness to it, it's almost thick enough that someone could paint a picture with it if they wanted to. "Alright teams, what are the names of your village?" The first team leader steps forward and announces, "Shorigakure! Village of Hidden Victories!" The academy instructor nods thoughtfully and looks to the other team leader, "And Shorigakure's rivals?" The leader of Ikari's team smirks and puts his hands behind his head in a relaxed posture, "Hirogakure, village of hidden heroes." Gesshin chuckles and nods before taking a more formal posture, "Alright, pick your sides then. You will have three minutes to formulate your strategies, before the fued begins." Gesshin strides over to Kenta and Naruko whenever the children hurry over to their sides. He addresses Kenta in particular, "Thank you for taking the time to help. It is a weight off my shoulders that we do not need to worry about rushing the children all the way back to the village to receive treatment if anything were to go wrong…"
In the meantime, on Ikari's side, she has to squirm and fight for a place amongst the huddled team. "I wanna go and help with the water! Can I help attack?" The team leader shakes his head and points to their trough, "You are going to stay here. If they can get past an obstacle as wide as you are, then there isn't anything that could stop them." Ikari stomps her foot and shakes her head quickly, "I don't wanna guard! It'll take forever for anything to happen. And you all'll probably win before I get to do anything!" The leader shakes his head and points at the teacher, "Take it or leave it. If you wanna be a baby then you can go and sit with the instructor while we play." Ikari glowers at the older kid, debating on whether or not she should just hit him with one super sized fist right here and now. Thankfully she really did want to play the game, so she finally concedes with a nod and mumbles, "Fine. But I better not be th'only one out here. I ain't doin' all th' work."
"I'm sure that you would have everything well in hand even without a medic-nin around," Kenta reassures the instructor. "It is just easier when there -is- a trained medical professional to take care of injuries. With some luck, there won't be any problems at all." Despite the optimistic tone of his last statement, he clearly doesn't believe that things will turn out so well. Like he was telling Naruko, children have a nasty habit of getting into all kinds of unexpected trouble even when they're doing something that should be danger free.
A frown appears on Kenta's face when he catches some of the things that the "Kage" of Ikari's "village" is saying to the little girl. He starts to step forward to offer a reprimand, but manages to stop himself in time. Children will be children and a scolding for rudeness right now might just make the others act even worse towards Ikari in the future. Kenta tries to distract himself by turning towards Naruko. "By the way, I'm Akiyama Kenta. So you're from Kumo. I was just there a few weeks ago during part of the Chuunin Exams."
"Go on and kick some butt! I'm sure all of you will accomplish that -nicely-!" Naruko spouted out, hopefully to rumble the kids a little bit with some cheering. She raised and waved her hands, a little hysterically though pipes down once the planning phase kicked in. "The rules are very interesting, we have some similar games in Kumogakure actually, oh do I miss those days sometime. My mother always scolds me that I'm too young the play games like this…. I'm dying inside though like really," Naruko comments to Kenta, exchanging with him and extremely friendly smile. "Ha… forgot to introduce myself. My name is Uzumaki Naruko, it's very nice to meet you Akiyama-san. Yep! Just here to learn a bit more about the village among other things. So far I really do like how things are….Looks like the other kids can be a bit rude though,"
The instructor nods in agreement and goes off to find a place high in a tree on the edge of the clearing, so he can have a bird's eye view of everything he'd need to see. When the three minutes have passed, he cups his hands together and shouts loud enough for both sides to hear, "BEGIN." The Kage of Ikari's village lifts his fist into the air, "Alright, everyone knows their part, scouts, stay out of sight and try to get to the trough, front line, CHARGE!" Both teams have five or six of their group racing to meet each other dead center in the field. They both meet each other with even force and the start of the rough housing assumes. The taller, more muscular kids try to push their way further through the field, but have to deal with their smaller adversaries diving and clinging to their legs. This might be fine, but they've taken to trying to bite and scratch since their hits won't be effective. At least one of the dives has a child falling down and crying out in pain, legs aren't meant to take -too- much direct force from an impact. The dye is everywhere at the moment between the two sides, and it looks like several parents will have the misfortune of trying to wash the stuff out of their clothes. What remains of the children left behind work on dividing themselves between stealth groups and those that do stay behind to protect their troughs.
There is Ikari waiting amongst the small count of three defenders. She definitely doesn't look as happy as she could be with her arms crossed in front of her and a firm pout set on her face. She still doesn't like the idea of waiting for the action. The other two opted to stay where they were and were actually happy about the fact that they could be lazy for the majority of the game. Like Ikari, they thought that the game would probably be over by the time -anyone- gets to their size. One of the other girls actually gets distracted enough to run off and try to catch a fleeting butterfly, "Come on! Pay attention! You're all gonna make us lose." Ikari grumbles and blinks, shifting to a defensive stance when she hears one of the other team's scouts break a twig on their approach, "Yes! I'm gonna get to do somethin' after all!"
"There are always rude children and well behaved children. I bet it's the same in the other villages," Kenta tells Naruko. He wrinkles his nose. "It's unfortunate, but not everyone's mature enough to understand that such tactics aren't useful in the long—" Kenta winces when he notices the children start to clash together. He's observant enough to see even from afar that none of them are actually seriously hurt enough to need his intervention, but that doesn't make the crying sound any less painful. "Ouch! They're going at it harder than we ever did when I was their age. If this keeps up, all of them will be sporting black eyes or worse by the time one side manages to win. Or maybe neither side will win, because everyone will be too exhausted and bruised to move much at the end."
"Ha… I don't know. I kind of light the sight of watching children crash into one another. I suppose it's not the most effective way but it's the spirit and dedication that counts huh? They are so determined….Just needs a little guidance. Mmm maybe your friend might round them all up? Stage a take over, remove the Kage from leadership, take charge and become victorious?" Of course at this point Naruko was more or less ranting, thinking about what may come of this. " Hmmmm do you enjoy your job? Akiyama-san? Medical stuff I mean. I have a feeling you are going to have your hands full,"
"Hey! Cut it out!" One child yells out as another tries to rub dirt right into his eyes, "Shut up, you're the enemy remember?" The child waves his hand to try and get the adults' attention, "Make him stop! He's not allowed to do that!!" The academy instructor sides and gets a chaparone to head over there and pry the two boys apart, taking the rougher of the two to the side lines. "Sorry son, you are no longer a shinobi. Now you gotta sit here while the others finish playing." He rolls his eyes and spits dangerously close to the chaparone's foot, "Ah shut it. I didn't want to play the stupid game anyway." He sits down and lays back in the grass while the adult grumbles about wishing that rotten teenagers could just graduate so they wouldn't have to deal with them. In the meanwhile, it doesn't appear that the fighting will be wearing down anytime soon. Punches and kicks are thrown, hair is being pulled, and a little girl comes running up to Kenta with tears rolling down her cheek and some blood trickling from her mouth. She doesn't have much to say, but holds out a hand with a single tooth in the center of it.
At Ikari's side she immediately stretches an arm out to try and push down one of the scouts coming to the trough. "H-hey, that's cheating!" Ikari shakes her head and sticks her tongue out at the other girl, "Th'instructor said nothin' about not being able to use jutsu, just that it couldn't be lethal force." The girl on the ground hesitates, uncertain she wants to go toe to toe with an Akimichi, even if she's just one've their kids, they were known for being able to put the hurt down on folks. Ikari doesn't have time to let her decide, since another group of two are trying to sprint around her to the well. Thankfully being able to grow and stretch had its advantages and she focuses on stretching her entire arm out just enough to clothesline the both of them. Ikari runs back to the trough, letting her limbs return to their normal size before standing her ground. "You guys aren't gettin' anywhere near here! I'll sock you if you try."
Nobunaga flickers from tree top to tree top changing his angle on the skirmish below. He silently cheered for Ikari but as a chuunin he had aspirations for all the
students participating. "Hehe wow they're really going at it." Nobunaga stops taking refuge in a tree not too far off from Kenta and Naruko. Nobunaga doesn't notice the two yet, his attention is on the students for now. He tries to think back to his academy days but all that he can conjure up in his mind is a thick white blank. He sighs "Nope no luck." he folds his arms and leans against the tree and returns his attention to the students. Some of them are playing rather rough though. Nobunaga spots a girl bleeding from her mouth running towards someone. "Is that Kenta?" Nobunaga was surprised. He decided to make his way over towards his medic friend.
Kenta shakes his head as he watches the game continue. He tells Naruko, "Being a medic-nin means that my hands are almost always full. There's never enough to go around. I usually treat adults, but plenty of children come in with problems too. Now I wish there's another medic-nin here. I didn't think that they'll play -so- rough…" His voice trails off before lifting again. "Hey! You kids! If you want to graduate and be made real shinobi, you better follow the rules given to you. An be respectful to your sensei!" The last statement is targeted especially at the boy that spat on the instructor.
Kenta shakes his head again as he drops to his knees to inspect the hurt girl. Some gentle probing with his fingers shows that there's no serious injuries. The young medic-nin removes a water flask from his backpack and offers it to her. "You'll be ok. Rinse out your mouth and don't swallow the water. It'll stop bleeding soon." He rummages around his pockets until he locates a small piece of candy, which he places in her hands after patting her on the head. "That's a good girl…"
Kenta looks up when Nobunaga approaches. "Konichiwa, Nobunaga-san. Did you come to help chaperone too? We're going to need the help. I think those children are trying to kill each other," he says in a serious voice. Kenta gestures at Naruko. "This is Uzumaki Naruko from Kumo."
"The one and only, though not quite as awesome as you all yet," Naruko comments, while bowing respectfully before Nobunaga as he approaches. " Are you a medical shinobi as well?" She asks of Nobunaga, while looking over towards the little girl and Kenta, she offers her arms to her. "Aww, come over here. Everything will be okay. Akiyama-san is the best of the best! Now you just need to sit and relax for a little," Naruko muses happily, peering back up towards Kenta. "It certainly looks like a lot of work, I'm not sure if I could ever be a medical ninja myself. I'm the kind of person that just likes to jump in and make a mess," she continued to explain, while sprawling a light smile.
The teenager pulled out of the game grunts and waves a hand dismissively at Kenta before he rolls over to lay on his side to try and get a nap in. His warnings seem to fall on similar deaf ears as the kids continue laughing and playing the same as they have been. The girl sniffles and nods at Kenta, taking both the flask and candy offered to her. The reassurance and treat makes her smile a little, "Thank you…" She finds a place to sit beside of the group, but tries to be polite as she swishes the water and focuses on flushing the blood out of her mouth. On the plus side it seems that all of the kids are exhausting themselves at this point, so the strikes they give each other are getting weaker with each passing moment. One of the front lines children from Ikari's team meets with a scout and teams up with them to try and make a strike at the trough. The defenders try to focus in on them, but it's looking like the games might end up having a winner soon.
The kids with Ikari look at each other, trying to find some guidance as to what to do amongst themselves. It seems they'd have to try and overwhelm her to try and get past her together. They all pounce on the little girl and Ikari rolls around with them, growling playfully as she tries to keep them in the scrap. She didn't have to try and actually win this time she was wrestling, she just had to keep them distracted from the trough. "Is that all you got! My grandmama could fight better than that. And she's gotta use a cane!"
Nobunaga waves to Kenta "Yo." he lightly pats Kenta on the shoulder "Yep. This is an overzealous lot dontcha think?" Nobunaga looks back to the students "Some of them are already fighting like shinobi. Ironically they're also the ones that are breaking the rules." Nobunaga chuckles. After being introduced to Naruko Nobunaga offers her a smile. "Nice to meet you." Nobunaga shakes his head answering Naruko's first question. "Nope. Don't have the patients (pun intended)." Nobunaga winks to the little girl "Come on you're ok. You're a tough one aren't ya?" He tries to encourage her. Looking back up to Naruko "Are you one of Hiei-san's friends?" He ask remembering fighting alone side Hiei. Whilst awaiting Naruko's answer he can't help but laugh at what he sees going on. "Dog pile on Ikari-chan haha. Look her roll." Nobunaga snickers. "I must be nice."
For the time being, Naruko watched as Kenta ran off to help a few of the other students, leaving her with Nobunaga. She maintained a bit of silence, not out of disrespect but for the hilarious scene that was unfolding before her. A light hand neatly pressed along her lips as she attempts to hold in a fit of laughter, something about a bunch of kids rolling over one another was just a bit silly to her, especially considering some of the jutsu being used. "You know, they may be breaking the rules but it really does look like they are having so much fun…That's what counts right?" Naruko randomly speaks though shakes her head, her attention returning to Nobunaga. "Oh, right. Yeah! It's nice to meet you too, Nobunaga-san. Sorry for assuming you to be a medical nin, though I think it was a little justified. I so wish I could consider Hiei-sama as a friend of mine. I know him well though I'm merely a genin. Someone as prestigious as him doesn't have a lot of time for someone like me," Naruko began to explain. "You speak about him as if you know him well though, you must be talented. If not, you handle kids well at least!"
The little girl nods at Nobunaga and tries to smile at him, but when more blood leaks past her lips she returns to focusing on doing what Kenta says. Just when it looks like everyone is about to call it quits, the kids at the trough jump up and down. "We won, we won!" Surely enough, the water inside of the trough had the diluted shade of deep blue to it, meaning that Ikari's team, or the village of Hirogakure, was victorious! The academy instructor jumps down from the tree and brings his fingers up to help amplify his whistle. "Hirogakure are the victors. Sorry Shorigakure, you all suffered through the poison and ended up being conquered. Good game everyone, though we are going to have a serious talk about discipline when we get back…for now, if any of you are hurting, come see Akiyama-san to get checked over." The children break up from their fighting and all of the ones that received a little more than the average bumps and scrapes line up to get checked by Kenta, which leaves him preoccupied for a few hours at the least. Afterwards the kids break off into small clusters and groups to talk about the game and whatever else they can come up with off the top of their heads.
Ikari comes out of the roll on her belly and she's panting tiredly. That was a good game, but she still wished she could help out a lot more. She pushes herself to her feet and since Kenta is preoccupied, she runs over to Nobunaga and tugs on his shirt a little. "Nobunaga-sama! Did you see me out there? I did good didn't I?" She looks over at Naruko curiously before offering her hand to her, "Name's Akimichi Ikari! Nice t'meet ya. Wanna talk with me and Nobunaga-sama while we eat lunch?" She hurries over to where she was sitting before and retrieves the over-stuffed bento box she left behind before the game began. After that she plops down in the middle between Nobunaga and Naruko to talk to them while she eats.
The other kids aren't as quick to get their lunch, but eventually everyone does find a nice place to sit and eat. After the sun has set further down in the sky and everyone has finished with their meals, the instructor gathers all of the Konoha students together. "Alright class, say good bye to the children of Kadomei, it's going to be a walk back. Watch and make sure nobody wanders off and gets lost chaparones." Then they set on their course back to Konohagakure after a long, tiring field trip.
Nobunaga doesn't bother trying to hold back a smile at the sight before him. He looks to see that Naruko is just about to bust out in laughter. "It's alright. You can laugh it's hilarious." He nods in agreement with her. "You're right. What's important is that they're enjoying themselves." Nobunaga continues to watch as Naruko speaks attentive to both what he's seeing and hearing. "I fought alongside him once. It was the only time I met him but he made quite the impression." Nobunaga chuckles nervously "I'd wager I'm more talented with my jutsu with than I am with handling children."
Nobunaga watches Ikari come up to tug his shirt. He smiles and nods to the chubby little thing "I sure did. You were awesome. You even had Naruko-san over here speechless." he points to the cloud nin. "Congratulations, your mother is going to be so proud." he adds before letting Naruko and Ikari become more acquainted. "Well I'm glad everything turned out well. I'm used to things usually going awry on missions. This…this is nice." he sighs in relief.
There was a slight charm to the adorable Ikari-chan, something that she couldn't honestly put a finger on. Whatever it was, it only amused Naruko further as she returned the hand shake her hand. "Haha, well my name is Uzumaki Naruko, it's nice to meet you. I can sit and talk but you are going to share right? Maybe just a wittle bit?" Naruko asks emphasising a tiny bit by her hand gesture.
"You know it's a bit hard sometimes, going to a new village. You have to be on your best behavior, and try not to look stupid so….. Sorry if I'm just a little bit tense. It is interesting to know you fought along side Hiei-sama, though I hope it wasn't a bad situation," Naruko happily and honestly replies back to Nobunaga, settling down on the grass next to him and Ikari. "Your used to things going awry on missions. I'm sure this is a nice change of pace then. Sometimes it's nice just to sit back and have some fun. Missions can be a bummer sometimes,"
