a/n okay, so it's been a while. SORRY!!! I haven't been in the mood-Naruto is more of a fall thing for me. actually every season but summer thing--but now I am in it, though I ca't guarantee it will last.

here's chapter four!


Sunrises
Chapter Four--On the Road
---

On their fifth day on the road, even Hato was getting a bit cranky. He was tired, sore, dirty, and hadn't eaten properly in days. And it didn't help his mood to learn that there was nothing he could do to make Seiko forgive whatever he had done wrong--"I'll tell you when I'm ready," she had said two days ago, rather snottily.

"Your sister is probably the only girl I will never understand," Hato grumbled, causing Sakai to chuckle slightly.

"Yeah, she is a fun one to figure out. I've known her my whole life and I'm still wondering," Sakai replied in his usual quiet manner.

"Do you have any idea why she's mad at me?" Hato then asked in an undertone, casting cautious glances to make sure the blonde girl wasnt in sight; he imagined that she wouldn't be pleased if she found out he was trying to pry information from her brother.

"No, I don't," Sakai lied, and efficiently, too. Hato sighed and asked no more questions, and the two walked alongside one another for quite some time in silence, following the somewhat chatty girls a few feet ahead.

"Pick up the pace, boys!" Mutsuko-sensei called over her shoulder, grinning. "I want to get there by tomorrow at some point, and we've still got a little ways to go!"

Hato and Sakai ran forward, and when Hato fell into step with his fellow blonde, she 'humphed' and moved towards Sakai.

"Seiko!" Hato whined, moving in front of her and walking backwards so that he could watch her. He gave her his best puppy-eyed stare, but she seemed immune to it.

"Mutsuko sensei, how much longer are we going to walk? The sun is starting to set," the blonde female said, ignoring the fact that Hato's face kept reappearing before her own. She pointed right past him to the sun which was slowly leaving the orange sky.

Mutsuko, as indecisive as ever, shrugged. "We need to get moving. Those attacks took longer than I would have thought and delayed us quite a bit."

"How so? Those bandits were easy? And we've only come across problems with attacks twice!" Sakai pointed out, flicking his rust-colored bangs from his eyes.

"Maybe so, but Hato received quite a serious injury during one of those battles and we had to rest. Right, Hato?"

The blonde boy grimaced slightly as he nodded. He didn't like to think about two days ago; it was humiliating. Nonetheless he touched the bandaged spot under his ribs where he had been pierced with a kunai. It was still bleeding, but very slowly and only slightly.

Mutsuko-sensei watched him thoughtfully before saying, "We'll have to re-bandage that soon," and turning away.

Hato's face flushed. He wasnt used to it being him that was constantly in trouble, thought it had turned out that way so far during the trip. And he could honestly say that he liked it better when it was either Seiko in danger or no one--as it usually was.

---

The sun was barely in the sky anymore, yet the four trudged along the path anyway. Sakai had suggested going into the forest and jumping along the trees, but Mutsuko-sensei had said that they had to stick to the path, otherwise she wouldn't know how to get to the village.

Seiko sighed, wishing that the day would go by faster. Every second seemed like an hour as they walked along the dirt road, their feet as heavy as lead.

"How are you guys all doing?" Mutsuko-sensei asked, brushing her light hair out of her brown eyes.

"Tired," Seiko grumbled, but it went unheard for at the same time, Sakai exclaimed:

"Ready to get to the village and fight!"

"Now that's the type of spirit that we need here!" Mutsuko-sensei said, smiling. "It's good to see someone is up to performing this mission!"

Seiko frowned. "It's not that we aren't up to, it's just that we're tired."

"I think we all are, but Sakai just is prepared to keep moving, right?"

"Well, no, not really. I do need a rest too," Sakai answered a little uncomfortably.

"Just go along with it, Sakai!" Mutsuko-sensei hissed in his ear.

As Sakai battled with himself, wondering whether he should or not, Hato moved back onto trying to get Seiko to talk to him.

"You're wasting your efforts," she said gently, almost before he could get a single word out. "There seriously is nothing you can do!"

"But, there's something you could do, right? Just push it out of your mind...forgive and forget whatever the offending crime was!"

"Hato, don't you get that I want to? I don't like being angry like this, and I hate it when I'm confused. But I just...can't. And trust me, I'd very much like to be able to. It's really sad seeing you trying like that. I tell myself to forget--I've been telling myself since we first set out, but...I can't, don't you get it?" Seiko explained, close to tears.

Hato stopped dead in his tracks and stared, just stared at her. The way her eyes were glistening with tears, she almost looked like...Cho. Hato shook his head, ridding the thought. How could he think of her right then? And how could he compare Seiko to her? Yes, he liked Seiko, she was a great friend, but...they were two different people to Hato. One whom he was friends with, and the other who he couldn't stop thinking about in his sleep.

"And you just make me feel terrible when you try," Seiko continued," so please just :"

"O-okay," Hato stuttered, nodding unsurely. He picked up his step again and moved back over to Sakai, who was still arguing with Mutsuko-sensei about the whole mission-rest thing.

Seiko heaved a sigh and wiped her tears on her forehead protector.

Wow. I didn't even realize I felt that way... she said to herself, amazed. Who would have guessed.

She glanced over at Hato, who looked lost in thought, his dark gray eyes glazed over, and her heart gave a terrible pang. Instinctively, her hand shot up and gripped at her chest.

Sakai spotted her and immediately cut his conversation with the young sensei short. "Seiko? Seiko, what's wrong?" he asked, panicked. He pushed over to his sister, who kneeling close to the ground, holding her heart.

"It hurts, and I don't know why," she whispered. Her eyes flickered towards Hato, his words from days ago filled her head, and her heart gave another horrible pang.

"Seiko, what is it?" Sakai whispered.

"Nothing," Seiko choked.

"But you're--"

"I'm fine," Seiko assured him impatiently. "Now help me up and let's get a move on."

Sakai hesitantly did as he was told. As they continued onward, he wouldn't let his sister out of his sight, much to her annoyance.

"Well, if you think it's so gross, be happy that you aren't one of those girls I'm always thinking about."

"Who knew it could hurt so much?" Seiko whispered, her fingers lightly clasping her chest again. "Just a silly little comment. It's not like I care who he flirts with anyway."

But something in the back of her mind told her that she did; she was just too stubborn to listen.

---

It was several hours later that they stopped to find a place to rest. Every muscle in Sakai's body was sore, and he had never felt like he needed to bathe more in his life.

"Let's have a quick bite to eat, I'll re-bandage Hato's wound, and then we'll sleep," Mutsuko sensei ordered, dropping her backpack in the middle of the clearing. "I'll keep watch."

"Okay," Sakai said. He too dropped his bag and started setting up his sleeping bag, watching Seiko out of the corner of his eye.

The blonde girl was moving towards their sensei, prepared to help out with the making of the fire, but Sakai couldn't allow it.

"Seiko!" he called; his twin looked over at him, eyebrow raised.

"What?"

"Come here, please. I um...need your help."

"With what? Fluffing your sleeping bag?" Seiko asked incredulously, slowly making her way towards her brother.

"No," Sakai scowled. "Just come here."

"Fine!" Seiko sighed. She took the final few steps towards Sakai and sat down on the ground beside him.

"What?"

"You should rest."

"So should you."

"I'm talking about earlier...I think you should rest. We don't want it to happen again."

"It has nothing to do with being tired!"

"Then what was it?" Sakai inquired, eyebrows raised.

"Just a little pain. I think I must've gotten cut on something," Seiko lied.

"That made your insides hurt? Nice try, Seiko..."

"Hey Twinjas!" Hato interrupted. "Hurry up and get some grub before we eat it all!"

"Before he eats it all," Mutsuko-sensei hastily corrected, causing the blonde boy to grin sheepishly.

"Seiko jumped to her feet and hurried over while Sakai took his time. He didn't usually worry about Seiko; she could fend for herself, no doubt about it, and she was emotionally strong, too. But that look on her face...it caused something to stir inside Sakai. He had never seen her look like it before, and he wondered if it had something to do with what she had said was bothering her days ago, on the porch swing.

"And Hato," he whispered to himself. He looked at the care-free boy and frowned. It wasn't his fault, Sakai knew, but he couldn't help putting some of the blame on Seiko's sudden pain on him. He didn't know what that comment did to Seiko; Seiko wasn't even too sure about it either, obviously.

But still...

Sakai shook his head, ridding himself of the thoughts. There was no use in getting all riled up and mad at Hato.

"Sakai? Don't you want this food?" Mutsuko-sensei asked, shoving the paper-towel at him. On it was a large sausage link, some, bread, and some cheese.

"Arigato, Sensei," Sakai said quietly, bowing his head as he accepted the food. Mutsuko smiled at the rusty-haired boy and then sat down to eat while he went and joined the other two who ate in an awkward silence.

"So, another uneventful day!" Hato chirped, trying to bring up conversation; Seiko and Sakai grunted and continued eating.

"Except fort hat whole collapse thing...Seiko, you really scared us all."

"Glad to know you care," Seiko grumbled, not even looking up.

"Do you know what happened?"

"Hato," Sakai began coldly, looking past his bangs at his comrade. "Why don't you just shut up for once?"

Stricken, Hato nodded numbly. "O-okay," he stuttered.

Sakai had never told him to shut up like that before...

As Hato ate in a shocked silence, Sakai continued eating as well, feeling only remotely sorry for having hurt Hato's feelings. He wouldn't have said anything if the pained look Seiko had worn earlier hadnt flashed in his memory.

"That was kind of mean," Seiko whispered, folding up her greasy paper towel.

Her expression showed up again and blinded Sakai's better judgment.

"He needs to learn when to close his trap," the Noriako boy replied quietly, getting to his feet. "I'm going to bed now. Thanks for the meal."

And he walked off to his sleeping bag to fall into an uneasy sleep.

---

Hato lay quite still in his sleeping bag later that night, listening as all the night bugs chirped around him. So both of the Twinjas were mad at him now? He didn't know what he did, but he wished he could fix it. No one ever got mad at him...no one except the boyfriends of the girls he hit on. He wasn't used to this...his two closest friends, mad for no apparent reason...

It was unsettling.

He sighed, turning over onto his side, unable to sleep. All around him he could hear the gentle--or not so gentle in some cases, like Sensei--snoring of his teammates.

"I need to sleep," he muttered to himself yet again, closing his eyes and trying to think of soothing thoughts that would make him sleep.

None came; he kept thinking about Seiko's confused anger at him and Sakai's cold words.

Then Hato heard something through the noise of the bugs and the snoring that made his body tense and his skin tingle. There was rustling in the leaves of a nearby tree. And he didn't think it was just some animal.

It rustled again, and Hato slowly turned, his eyes opened only a crack. In a tree to his right, he could the vague shadow of a crouching man. Looking around carefully, Hato saw similar shadows in other trees.

What do I do? he screamed inside his head; immediately his eyes flickered towards the nearby figure of Mutsuko-sensei sitting on the bare ground, having fallen asleep while keeping watch. He had to wake her, but how would he do that without the people noticing?

There was no way, so he'd just have to risk getting hit.

Ever so slowly, he slipped out of his sleeping bag and crawled along the forest floor towards the twenty-four year old.

"Hato? What are you doing?" Sakai groggily asked, sitting up in his sleeping bag as Hato passed.

Hato pressed a finger to his lips and whispered, "Quiet", but it was too late. The figures in the trees noticed they were awake and two weapons were thrown--one narrowly missing Hato's head and the other grazing Sakai's shoulder.

"What was that?" Sakai whispered, looking around through narrowed eyes.

"We've got attackers, duh," Hato whispered in reply. "I need to wake Mutsuko-sensei."

"I'll do that. You keep a watch out. You can see them, right?"

Hato nodded.

"Yeah, I can't. Now keep watch and wake Seiko and I'll take care of Sensei."

"Roger that," Hato whispered, winking. He crawled towards the peacefully sleeping figure of Seiko and began shaking her as he kept his eyes on the figures hidden in the trees.

"Seiko," he whispered, shaking a little harder. "Seiko!"

"What is it?" she grumbled, staring at him through barely opened eyes.

"Wake up!" he whispered urgently.

"It isn't morning, I think I'll keep sleeping; thanks."

"Seiko, please! We have unwelcome visitors."

"You mean besides you," Seiko snapped, sitting upright.

Hato's mouth twitched into a severe frown at this. "Please, Seiko. I wouldn't say this if there weren't."

"I somehow doubt that," Seiko replied unkindly. "Now if you don't mind--"

But her words were cut short by a kunai soaring through the air and lodging itself in Hatos shoulder.

Seiko shrieked and Hato winced.

"Let me see that," Seiko whispered. She touched the handle and jiggled it; it wasnt in far, but there was a steady pouring of blood.

Hastily, Seiko pulled out the kunai and dragged Hato over to Mutsuko-sensei's bag, where she pulled out a wad of paper towels.

"Hold that to it," she instructed firmly, pulling her hair back into a ponytail.

"O-okay," Hato stuttered, placing the wad to his wound.

"Come show yourselves!" Mutsuko demanded, jumping to her feet. She brandished a weapon before her, the moonlight glinting of its blade.

"You guys ready?" she whispered to her subordinates, glancing around at them. Seiko and Sakai were standing in offensive stances, kunai and shuriken hanging from their fingers.

Hato hurriedly pulled out a double-bladed kunai from his pouch and held it steadily before him.

"Show yourself!" Mutsuko ordered again, looking around the clearing.

"Sensei," Hato began slowly. "They are."

He pointed his weapon into the shadows, where about a dozen fully-grown men where slinking out of, coming towards them.

"Oh, yes, so they are," Mutsuko growled. She threw a shuriken in their direction, but they couldn't see if anything happened with it.

"Hm...look what we got here, fellas," the man in the front growled, laughing coldly. The other men following him laughed as well. "Three little children and a lady. This ought to be fun."

Hato's grip on his kunai tightened. He was not a little child.

"Old man, you have no idea who you're up against," Sakai said calmly. Even in the dark, Hato could see the smirk on his face.

"Well then why don't you tell us?" the leader retorted, getting ever closer to the four.

"Why don't you just find out?" Mutsuko spat. The next thing anyone knew, she was behind the leader, holding a kunai against his throat while she held anther in her mouth.

"Hato, Seiko, Sakai--go!" she ordered, jerking her head to the pack of men, though her message was a bit warbled due to the weapon she held between her teeth. "Give them all you've got!"

Hato stuck the paper towel under his shirt and then chased after the Noriako siblings to the bunch of armed men as Mutsuko-sensei took on the leader.

The sound of blades clashing and screams filled the air. Hato watched as the Twinjas summoned their hamsters and gerbils and began their attacks; Sakai and his gerbils spun at their enemies while Seiko, her two ghost selves, and all her hamsters and their ghost selves attacked their enemies.

Hato took a deep breath, formed a few hand seals, and then screamed, "Zetsumei songu no Tori!"

Fifty or so kunai suddenly began flying around in all directions, squealing loudly like birds. They lodged themselves in enemies all over; Hato smiled satisfactorily and took this chance to see how his teammates were doing.

Both Seiko and Sakai had been doing well, but while Sakai was being constantly vigilant, Seiko, like Hato was smiling and not paying attention.

One of those she had attacked seemed to notice this, for he struggled to his feet and moved towards her, a sharp knife in hand.

Hato's eyes widened. He suddenly sprinted forward and dove into the man's side, knocking him over. The knife fell from his hands and was thrown some ten feet away.

"Don't you dare do that," Hato hissed, holding the tip of a kunai to the man's forehead. "Have you no honor? Have you no courage? It is cowardly to come up from behind."

"Don't you go preaching to me, kid," the man Hato sat on top of growled. He swatted at Hato, sending the kunai flying, just like the knife.

"Now get off me, kid!"

Hato wielded another double-bladed kunai, but before he could hold it at the man's throat, Seiko ran up and gave the man a good hard kick in the head.

"I thought I told you to stay down!" she snapped, dull blue eyes flashing angrily. She glanced at Hato and smiled slightly.

"Put the kunai away, Hato. This guy is mine."

Hato obliged, if not hesitantly. Slowly, he stood up and walked over to Sakai, who was watching as Mutsuko and the leader fought their battle. Both were panting, but it was obvious who was winning--Mutsuko.

How could she not be? She was a strong Jounin ninja of Konoha and had been since she was eighteen. Hato had rarely seen her fight, but from what he had seen, she was good.

He glanced back over at Seiko and found that she was pummeling the man with her fists. He chortled and looked over at Sakai, who was staring at him, frowning slightly.

"Get away you two--this could hurt!" she screamed, glancing at them as she swung her leg at the man.

Hato and Sakai did as they were told, but continued to watch. Mutsuko ran in circles around the bald man, forming hand seals as she did so. She stopped behind him and shouted, "Kamisori ha no Konoha!"

It was the same move Hato had observed the Academy student, Seiichi, perform. A sea of razor sharp leaves came flying from all angles with kunai and shuriken mixed in with it. Mutsuko jumped out of the way as they flew at the man.

The leader of the bandits grunted and collapsed to his knees, leaves, kunai, and shuriken sticking out of various parts of his body.

"I think it best we leave now," Mutsuko whispered, tucking a strand of light brown hair behind her ear. "Go pack your things.

---

Seiko slipped her arms through her backpack straps, staring at Hato. He glanced over at her and flashed a tiny smile.

Her heart gave a small pang, but a different kind than before. Slowly, she moved towards Hato, who looked startled.

"Thanks for earlier," she said softly, struggling with her words. "That was really nice of you."

"Thanks, but it was only right,."

"Still, some people might not have done the same in your position."

Hato shrugged. "I guess I'm better than some people, hm?" he teased, poking out his tongue.

"Don't push it, Hato," Seiko giggled, giving him a slight shrug. He grimaced, touching his newly bandaged shoulder.

"Right. Sorry."

"Not a problem. And you're welcome."

The blonde male glanced over at their Sensei, who was ushering for them to hurry along. He rolled his eyes and walking lazily towards her.

"Wait! Hato!" Seiko called.

Hato looked over his shoulder, eyebrows raised.

"I...I think I'm ready."

Hato stood, confused, for a moment and then broke into his usual grin.

Seiko smiled breathlessly and then ran to catch up with him.

"So can I start acting like an idiot in front of you without you making huffy noises now?" he whispered.

Seiko laughed. "Trust me, Hato. That will never happen."


a/n I don't know the proper Japanese way of writing, so I don't know if what Hato and Mutsuko said was correct, but yeah. I hope you enjoyed! sorry it's been so long since I last updated. don't punsih me by not reviewing though, please! I love to know what my readers think :)