Naruko -- a crack!Naruto RPG

The night after the gala asplosions.

Despite the warm days in the Fire Country, the nights were cool. It was blessed relief from the smells the heat had caused all during the day, though blood and the smell of bombs hung in the air. It still made something cold and uneasy curl in his stomach, those smells and the memory of the sounds. Some shinobi were still going, still searching for bodies and people and body parts.

Suzumo himself had reached a point where he could no longer go on. He had retreated to a sheltered area, to where a little body already lay. But this body was alive, not dead, and thankfully all right. Hanabi had pushed himself until he could go no longer push anymore and had simply fallen over. When Hinaji wasn't watching him, or Kiba, it had been Suzumo who had done it. With Hinaji and Kiba having finally given up as well, it was the teacher who know kept a vigil over his exhausted, blanket covered student.

Set when everyone gets back from the gala o' doom.

The trip back from teh Gala had been much worse then the trip there and possibly worse then the Gala itself (if that was possible). Everyone was exhausted and high alert, some of them were injured and still coughing up smoke filled phlegm from all the fires. The kids, who had done so admirably, had stayed as close as possible to friends and teachers. It actually relieved Suzumo somewhat, to have Hanabi in his sights the entire time. He didn't want to admit how disturbed he had been when he had first been unable to find the young boy during the initial fight.

Right now, safe inside Konoha's walls, all Suzumo wanted to do was go home, get into normal clothes, and pass out for maybe a week or three. Hanabi was still close behind though, wanting to make sure that his teacher actually made it home. Someone else had promised to make sure the boy got home and Suzumo had eventually, reluctantly, agreed; Hanabi just would not go home until his teacher was safe and sound. It was almost touching.

Rubbing a hand under his glasses at his eyes, the academy teacher pulled out his keys and let himself inside, a small sigh of relief falling from his lips. He had just turned to let Hanabi know that, yes, he was fine and the boy could go home, when a sound caught his attention, coming from the kitchen. You have got to be kidding me...

Motioning Hanabi back, he reached into his kunai pouch, mouth dry and quite wary. But when he peeked into the kitchen.... it wasn't quite what he was expecting.

"... what?"

When your charge had food allergies, it was good to know right away when said charge got sick. Suzumo was a little irritated then that no one had told him that Hanabi had apparently thrown up some time ago. Since the boy had only seemed upset, and wasn't swelling, it was probably all right... but Suzumo was still concerned. This WAS Hanabi, and it really was best to keep an eye on him. He had hoped things would go smoothly, but... well, nothing ever went quite as planned when Hanabi was involved.

The shinobi teacher had been going through in his mind the list of things that could make someone sick when the first blast made the ground rumble. His step faltered and in that time, more hit the ground, blowing out chunks of building and sending people screaming. And all Suzumo could think about was Hanabi- he'd been with Sarutobi's granddaughter, neither of them could fully fight yet, he had to find them.

Without wasting another second, Suzumo took a second to rip his formal wear and them tore off towards where the children had last been seen. He had no idea if they were all right, or even in the same spot, but he had to find them, eyes darting around behind his glasses. In his running he managed to see Asuka, the person the gala was being held for, and didn't hesitate to bark out, "Sarutobi!"

Little more needed to be said, really. He was only a chuunin, this was bad, and both the heirs needed to be protected. Hopefully she would understand that he needed her, and fall into step.


[ooc: hope this is okay, let me know if it's not~]

It was a chilly day, as you'd expect in the dead of winter, and Tenzouko was discovering once again that she hated cold weather. She hated that the trees stopped growing, she hated that her ANBU uniform went from suddenly being fearsome and cool to being inadequate and cold, and she especially hated that after getting back from a mission only an hour earlier her entire squad wussed out and ran off home to hide under their blankets... leaving her bored, hungry, alone and cold.

Not a combination of moods you wanted to leave an ANBU captain in at times like these; which was why it was a good thing she'd run into Suzumo on the street twenty minutes ago. Not only was Suzumo never boring, but he also sprang for hot drinks and warm food... and she hadn't seen him in something like two or three months.

The two of them were now happily ensconced in a warm little cafe, and in the middle of yet another of their tangental conversations about whatever subject cropped up. A rare bubble of cheerful peace in the doom-pit of woe that most of Konoha's ninja population seemed to have sunk into lately. Not that Tenzouko had noticed, having not been home in quite a while.

"They call it Cloud Country but it's really not a good name," Tenzouko said, hands cradled around her hot cup of tea happily. "It makes it sound like there's something fluffy about it, when really no matter where you go there's nothing but horrible things coming out of the sky." She took a sip and put her cup down to gesture with one small, bandaged hand. It was the only visible part of her with a bandage, but it was also pretty much the only part of her visible when she had her jounin uniform on. "It rains mud there, Suzumo. Mud. I didn't even know that was within the laws of nature!"

The day hadn't started off that different from any other. Suzumo had risen and done what he needed to do before he headed to teach, had then taught, and had surprisingly not had any explosions. It had been nice and relatively calm for a change and he had enjoyed it. It had actually been pleasant out as well when he headed home for the day; a perfect day so far really.

( He should have known it wouldn't last. )

( A low chuckle left Suzumo's lips at her glare at the paperwork. It was a look he saw often, when giving students homework, and he had to admit it was funny seeing a big bad ANBU do it. )

( Optical photophobia. Not the easiest thing to live with. )

Set when Suzumo is 21, and Tenzouko 16.

( This mission sucked.  )

Suzumo-sensei had told Hanabi to meet him at his apartment, and following the directions he'd found delivered to the Compound that morning, the boy was fully intending to do just that.

The January weather wasn't making Hanabi particularly happy, especially not given that he was wearing training sandals, and shorts. To compensate he'd put on an extra few layers under his grey hoodie today; but there wasn't really much to be done about it. Suzumo-sensei had only just begun to teach him the principle of water-walking, and attempting any such thing on the ridiculously tricky structure of snow wasn't likely to get him to his sensei's home in good time. He would have to deal with freezing and wet toes and chilly shins on his own. Hanabi could be stoic that way... if he felt so inclined.

Still, numb feet didn't do him many favours as he climbed the stairs to Suzumo's apartment. Reaching the door, he knocked imperiously (he couldn't help the imperious part - it was genetic) and waited with his hands draped behind his back for his sensei to appear.

For Suzumo-sensei's sake, he hoped today's lesson was going to be interesting.

Suzumo, as a ninja, had done many many things. He had fought enemy nin, spied, planted bombs and other unsavory things. As a shinobi teacher he'd taught students and given them ways to survive in certain situations. But he was starting to think that maybe he should have warned the new shinobi about one thing that no one had warned him about.

Paperwork.

Maybe he had more of it because he was a teacher. But either way, it was quite annoying and he really wished he didn't have to do it. He had so much better things he could do instead of grading papers and filling out forms. Like... everything was pretty much better then doing paperwork.

Sighing, Suzumo finished one stack of papers and then moved on to grade the next. He had a feeling it was going to be one of those days.

( ...twelve years old and he already acted more mature then most people fifty. Impressive. If kind of disturbing. )