Swans
By icecreamlova
- : -
Udon
When Team Konohamaru was first formed, Udon remembers, no one was surprised; well, maybe Konohamaru, who had used all his (considerable) sway trying to get onto Hyuuga Hanabi's team. He can still recall the pure shock that flittered onto Konohamaru's face, and still laughs for long moments afterwards. He's the only member of his team who can do so.
Konohamaru was annoyed. Udon doesn't know why; yes, Hanabi is strong - a prodigy, in fact. Yes, Hanabi is rich, a possible heiress to an old clan in Konoha. But Hanabi doesn't give him the time of day, beat him up three times straight in their last sparring matches, and completely flattened Moegi. Still... Udon can't claim to understand the power of his love.
(Or his dedication to being repeatedly humiliated.)
Moegi was happy until Konohamaru leaped up and shouted: "No! It can't be right. I have to be with my darling Hanabi-chan!"
Moegi hit him across the head with her packet of crayons, which she still carried around then, and hard enough that their team training had to be delayed until Konohamaru returned from hospital. She didn't apologise.
(That put an end to any complaints. Udon had been enjoying the change ever since).
Lately, though, Moegi has been acting differently. Sometimes, they have to go looking for her, because Moegi is cheerful and smiling and there during training, but right afterwards she is gone without a trace. Which means that it's the end of the Konohamaru Corps, and Konohamaru is really pissed ("Do I drive off girls or something?") because no one will give him the time of day.
So one day they decide to follow her. They are in the shadows from the moment that Ebisu-sensei dismisses them, and then they trail after Moegi when she leaves through the treetops. She's fast; not for a kunoichi, but for a kunoichi who's been going all-out during training, the way Moegi does. She's panting by the time she gets down on the ground; Udon is too, but Konohamaru isn't.
Udon restrains his envy to look for Moegi.
When they find her, she's standing on the banks of a river watching a swan. They aren't far from Konoha, so Udon is surprised that Moegi looks around warily, as if she's scouting for the enemy.
(Which might not be so far from the truth; they're spying on her, after all, and he and Konohamaru had learned the hard way that spying on girls, especially a white-eyed Hyuuga their age, isn't a good idea).
Moegi doesn't have all-seeing eyes, though. She misses their presence. Udon is unsure what she is so wary about, because she just sits down on the bank and she watches that swan. Oddly enough, the swan looks at her, blinks once, twice, then ducks down to catch some sort of amphibian. So Moegi is a common sight, then, after slipping away for here for the past few weeks.
Konohamaru, who is crouched beside him on the branch, whispers, "I can't believe we followed her for this."
"You could be wooing Hanabi-san?" Udon shoots back, and Konohamaru grins sheepishly.
(There is still a bruise on Konohamaru's temple, from the last time he mentioned Hanabi. There's something between the two girls - probably one-way, since Hanabi looks straight through Moegi, but whenever her name is mentioned in front of their team mate, whatever Moegi is holding inevitably shatters or bends out of shape).
Then Udon sees a flash of white, and the swan is on the other side of the river, trailed by a line of young. They are grey-furred and tiny, and they each look curiously at Moegi but don't react. This tells Udon something.
But not as much as Moegi's thoughtful look as she reaches down and pulls up a blade of grass. It's that look on her face that makes Udon lean back slightly, so that the leaves tangle with his hair, and he's forced to brush them out while disguised by movements of the wind. It's the same look, Udon thinks, that he sees on his mother's face every once in a while.
It's a look he rarely sees on a kunoichi (which his mother isn't), except sometimes on Suzume-sensei's face right after she brings the girls of their class back, while she watches them chatter and giggle. Her hands hold a little tighter on her uniform, and she leans back slightly, but she doesn't look displeased.
(She noticed him, once, watching her, and smiled enigmatically. He never saw that look on her again).
Moegi doesn't have Suzume-sensei's faint scowl or the calculating look, but neither does Udon think Moegi's expression is unique; just odd, peculiar, for a kunoichi of his age. It's an expression that makes him question why she became a kunoichi in the first place, because he knows her grandmother didn't put her up to it, and the neither he nor Konohamaru ever pressured her to join in.
"Hanabi-chan is..." Konohamaru begins. He's too loud though. Moegi hears him and spins around, and with a start Konohamaru nearly falls out of the tree. He does fall when he is forced to dodge a kunai Moegi sends their way, but Udon is not unaffected. They land at the same time.
(Moegi is vicious when she wants to be. The smile that crosses her face is different, and Udon wonders sometimes where his friend from two or three years ago disappeared to).
Moegi looks sheepish when Udon hands her the kunai. Then her face changes and she looks annoyed - not angry, just annoyed. "Why are you two here as well?"
"Um... well..." Konohamaru says.
Used to this, she just shakes her head.
(Udon thinks this is much better than Hanabi's reaction of demanding 'Stop following me' and then, when Konohamaru tried to explain, slamming him against the wall. Udon got lighter treatment: he escaped with a glare that froze him to the spot for half an hour).
When she turns around, she gives a cry of dismay: the swans are gone. Udon quickly takes his first thought back, as Moegi begins to rant. They run. Fast.
(They've learned from Naruto-niichan's team mate, and from Hanabi-san, that it's not a good idea to infuriate a kunoichi. Too bad it's too late).
- : -
KonohamaruMoegi is absolutely silent on their mission, which worries Konohamaru as much as he allows himself to be distracted by someone other than Hanabi. He thinks he can excuse this thought, because Moegi isn't a mind-reader, and because they are on a joint mission with Hanabi's team.
(Moegi shattered the porcelain cup she was holding when Ebisu-sensei mentioned it, and had to wipe off all the blood and little shards that were left behind. He doesn't know what Ebisu-sensei said to her afterwards, but Konohamaru feels it's safe to say that she won't have huge outbursts like that during the mission. She'll just take it out on him because he's right beside her).
"Wanna switch places?" he says to Udon, who takes one look at Moegi and smirks and shakes his head. Bastard.
He gets Udon's message, though. Konohamaru glances out of the corner of his eye at Moegi, warily, back at Udon, and then sighs in defeat. He moves so that he is leaping close enough to Moegi that his voice won't carry if he talks.
"Something wrong?" he asks.
A guilty look flitters across Moegi's face. He hasn't seen that look since two months ago, when the kunai she thought she was throwing at strangers nearly cut off his ear. "Am I that obvious?"
He shrugs. "A little."
She turns away, and looks straight ahead at Ebisu, who is leading. They aren't too far behind, but Udon bridges the gap between and no one would hear them talking. Her fists clench—Konohamaru only notices this because Lee-san, who saw him following Naruto, offered to help him 'train'—and she draws in a deep breath. She looks like she wants to crush something.
(The way she did when the three of them first met; Moegi wasn't quite shy but she wasn't loud either, and stayed behind her grandmother's skirts until Koharu-sama pushed her towards the centre. She stumbled, and blushed so deep it was a miracle she wasn't emitting steam from her ears. Konohamaru still remembers feeling sorry for this five-year-old girl, but not being interested until he, and then Udon, was presented. Then he was very interested, and promptly tried to steal the spotlight from the other two).
"Only one person makes you that angry." Konohamaru comments. He tries a grin. "Don't let her hear me say that, though."
She grits her teeth and doesn't reply.
By now Konohamaru is getting annoyed himself. They are on a mission, and there's no time for petty grievances. Moegi probably knows this – in fact, she's lectured him on the same thing a couple of times, when he was distracted by a dark-haired girl who had the same stride as Hanabi. That made him a bit more receptive and less likely to snap at her.
(The next time he met Moegi, Udon wasn't there. This was at the playground at one of the suburbs of Konoha, and he almost forgot her name. She laughed, Konohamaru remembers, when he recalled it again, and they played with toy kunai and shuriken with blunted edges while the other children shied away. He also remembers that she wasn't very good, and kept looking at her grandmother, as if expecting some sort of scolding).
"Come on."
Finally, Moegi turns to look at him. "It's nothing really." She pauses, but adds, "One of the swans died. A baby one. I found it on the way back."
"There are more, aren't there?" Konohamaru presses quickly, in case she tries to shy away from the subject again. He's not about to let this go so quickly. One less row between Moegi and Hanabi, arguments which Moegi have never won once, means less of a headache for everyone involved.
(Moegi met Hanabi before he did. She greeted the heiress when they passed her table, during the first time they were in the same class at the academy, and that was what made Konohamaru notice Hanabi in the first place. Hanabi, he is always startled when he gets to that part of the memory, nodded back and smiled. The next day there was a sparring match. Hanabi walked away with a single scratch across the back of her hand; Moegi got a concussion and couldn't access chakra for three days).
Moegi sighs. "I might as well tell you. Yes, the swan died in an odd way. There were bloody dots all across the body."
"Spikes?" Konohamaru suggests. "Poaching isn't allowed within a one-mile radius of Konoha, apart from the trips academy students take into the wild, and even then we are more than a mile out from Konoha."
She knows this, of course.
(Moegi has always loved animals, from her teddy bear she only consented to part with after her first month at the academy, to the rabbit that she took home three times as much as anyone else did during the year they kept it. She was the one who buried the rabbit, with him and Udon standing in grave attendance, and Iruka-sensei watching the burial with solemn eyes).
"You should tell your grandmother."
"I don't think so," Moegi says. She is always firm on this, and Konohamaru has never understood why, except he is sure that her grandmother would listen very carefully. Moegi's grandmother is a perceptive woman; old enough, and well-proved to be observant. He's always felt that Koharu-sama was very attentive towards her only granddaughter, despite her young age.
He glances at her. There's more she's not telling him, but he recognises the signs that she will no longer talk. It's frustrating, really – what is it with girls their age? Hanabi-chan, Moegi, and the girls he still catches up with from the academy, are all mysteries. Naruto-niichan was right.
He says instead, "If you want to talk about it, well, there're Udon and me, and Ebisu-sensei too."
Moegi laughs. "Why on earth would I talk to Ebisu-sensei about swans? Swans with dots of blood looking like they've been subjected to a shower of senbon without piercing the skin? He'll think I'm insane."
"He won't." Konohamaru assures her, getting the feeling she's not really listening.
(Right after their first C-rank mission together, the three of them ran into Hanabi, who was coming out of the academy. They'd been about to tell Iruka-sensei all about their adventures. Konohamaru asked her how her mission was, and Hanabi deigned to answer for the first time, "C-Rank. Boring." Konohamaru remembers that she wasn't looking at anyone in particular, but that Moegi stiffened and had that look on her face she always did when checking the scoreboard after their last assignment or exam. That expression had grown more and more frequent after their graduation).
- : -
Ebisu
In Ebisu's well-educated opinion, their mission isn't a failure, exactly.
When they arrive they have broken ranks, due to some sort of drag that means Udon, Moegi and Konohamaru end up appearing a full minute after he's landed, all three looking awkwardly at anything but each other. He feels like apologizing to the other team but refrains, because it isn't his job to do so. In the end, it is Udon who speaks quietly to the family they are guarding, before their clients begin to move.
Ebisu assigns Udon and Hanabi together in the front of the caravan, solely because he can count on those two to work together without one going on a rampage. In the corner of his eye, he watches Moegi, chatting lightly to the seven-year-old daughter of their client. He thinks she looks just like her grandmother.
(Moegi, he remembers, is the only surviving direct descendant of Utatane Koharu. When Moegi was introduced to the academy he'd been a special guest, lecturing on the importance of keeping weapons clean and hygienic and the possible consequences of getting them wet – involving a long chart and formulas he suspects that only Udon did not sleep though – and saw her sitting up, avidly paying attention. He'd said to her, "Why are you here if not to learn?")
Konohamaru, he forces into the rear, in case the boy gets into another argument with Hanabi. He feels a little guilty, like he's underestimating the boy's resolve, but after that morning he is not taking any chances. That's why he pays attention to Moegi, too. The outburst hadn't been shocking, but it did startle him.
"What happened to your hand?" the seven-year-old says concernedly, pointing to Moegi's bandaged palm. They are half an hour out from Konoha by shinobi-speed, deep in a grove of trees.
Moegi laughs nervously; she's never been much of a natural at the… deception all shinobi, particularly kunoichi, should master. "I smashed a cup by accident, and it cut into my hand. Do you travel much, Rika-chan?"
Ebisu thinks he needs to teach her better ways to change the subject.
The girl's reply is lost in a sudden crack, and a branch falls into the path of the caravan. At once, Moegi pushes Rika back, and Hanabi makes tiny gestures behind her back that pinpoints the location of the people. Ebisu also reads that they're simple bandits, not shinobi, and prepares for them such. He turns under the pretence of coughing, forms seals, and directs a gust of wind where Hanabi pointed, just enough to force the bandits out.
(This is a jutsu Koharu showed him, while she led him on a mission years ago. Ebisu tried to teach Moegi, too, but the girl shows little aptitude for wind jutsu, unlike her grandmother. It's not that it is out of Moegi's range – he's sure that she'd had as much training in chakra control as he did when learning it, at that point. Even his tactic, of telling her that it was her grandmother that taught it to him, only made her face turn red as she tried again. She still hasn't managed to use the jutsu).
There are three of them, and they look so unwieldy Ebisu is surprised they'd managed to hide for as long as they did – he'd sensed them, of course, the moment they entered the copse of trees – so he withdraws with the family to watch his students fight. There are actually two teams, but the other team's sensei is off for a higher-level mission so he's been stuck with six genin.
Hanabi and Konohamaru take out one each; somehow, both of the bandits end up flying towards the same tree and crack heads, and Hanabi turns and delivers a heated glare toward Konohamaru. The others, apart from Moegi, who is with the family like they arranged before leaving, capture the last bandit, and they are waiting patiently when Hanabi finally turns towards them.
"Good job!" Konohamaru says brightly, and one of Hanabi's team mates snorts gently but doesn't reply—he takes charge of the family in Moegi's stead when she goes and examines the two bandits who've been knocked unconscious.
Hanabi activates her Byakugan and nudges their captured, awake bandit. She leans forward until her eyes, freakish to many non-shinobi families, are level with his, and she says in a soft voice, "Who?"
(The first time Ebisu met Moegi he asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up – she'd been six years old – she'd replied promptly, a kunoichi as great as her grandmother. He lent her a scroll on the many great personas of history – one he was sure she'd never read – and she took it home with him. The next time he saw her, she asked him if her grandmother had really done that, and though he'd been unsure what she referred to, he said, "Yes, so you'll have to be the best if you want to be as good as her." He still doesn't know what she had been referring to that day).
On the other side of the caravan, one of the supposedly unconscious bandits reaches up suddenly and pushes Moegi back until and she hits the caravan. Ebisu sees this through a window, but before he reacts Konohamaru is already on the other side spitting out phrases he's sure he didn't teach him.
Hanabi is there, too, and her last team mate makes a move to go but restrains himself. She lands beside Moegi, says something that Ebisu is unable to hear, but he can see Moegi glare at her. Moegi says something else, which Hanabi reluctantly nods at. Moegi steps back to let Hanabi charge forward.
Ebisu can tell right away by the bandit's movements that he's not a bandit at all – both are shinobi, but only C- or B-Rank by their fighting. They're not good enough to stop Hanabi reaching Konohamaru's side, and telling him something. He nods, briefly, and glances at Moegi before continuing to fight.
It's not a retreat on Moegi's part, either. Ebisu can see she's forming seals, and that there's sweat at her temples. What's she trying to form?—wait; he recognises those seals. They are the ones that he'd taught her three months or so after she became his student, on a whim to measure her potential. He's unsure whether she'll manage to use it, though, since she's never managed to master the jutsu that came all the way down from her grandmother.
Hanabi slides suddenly behind Konohamaru – behind one of the five Konohamaru clones, who have shot off ten kunai each. Of course, the illusions burst into smoke the moment they touch the two shinobi, and he sees Hanabi lunge forward and use some sort of jutsu to mark their positions; she's the only one who can see them in the cloud of smoke. They glow faintly.
Moegi makes her move. Her voice is lost in the winds that erupt from her hands, joined palm to palm, and then separating as the wind shoots forward. Ebisu recognises it, though, and he feels proud.
(Moegi has never been a particularly good kunoichi, Ebisu knows. She doesn't have the same raw potential that Utatane Koharu did: her chakra levels will never be as high, her control is dependable but not exemplary, her work with weapons on par with her team mates but not higher, genjutsu and ninjutsu passable. Her greatest ability is her planning – not in a genius manner like Nara Shikamaru, but in the way that she has an idea of what to do for the next thirty seconds of the fight. It wasn't enough to get her victory in her first chuunin exams, though – not that any member of the team passed. He recalls that she avoided meeting her watching grandmother for a week by showing up three hours early for training and disappearing right afterwards).
It works. It isn't as impressive as when Koharu performed it, but more so than his, because it catches both 'shinobi' (who, Ebisu now thinks, probably never even made chuunin) and spins them hard against a tree. Hanabi and Konohamaru are out of the way already, taunt and ready for the wind to fade.
When it does, they finish the two off – properly, this time; Ebisu wonders how much he can blackmail Hanabi's sensei for to keep quiet about her first slip – Hanabi with blows of Jyuuken that make her a prodigy, Konohamaru with a straight-out, good-old punch to the face. The second time they collapse to the ground, Hanabi makes sure to seal all their tenketsu.
"And this time you can forget about escaping," says Hanabi, voice icy and – Ebisu thinks – slightly ashamed.
She nods at Moegi when she passes, and Moegi answers without any scorn. Then the redhead looks at the two shinobi, and she just stops moving. Konohamaru, he is surprised to note, does too.
Moegi leans down and examines one of the prone forms. Ebisu isn't sure why – there's nothing interesting save the red dots peppered across his body at each point of the tenketsu. Like they'd been struck by a hail of senbon-sharp fingers.
Their mission goes well, but Moegi's behaviour isn't any better towards Hanabi. She isn't temperamental any longer – she just avoids Hanabi in a not-quite-subtle way. All the same, they part on polite nods, which Ebisu thinks is good.
(They are greeted by Koharu upon their return. Moegi hesitates on her part of the description but she eventually admits her use of the jutsu and demonstrates. For some reason, Ebisu is surprised when Koharu praises her but can't understand why; a look at Moegi's face, surprised and pleased, tells him that she is not, however, unhappy at all).
- : -
Moegi
Team Konohamaru celebrate by their old training grounds. Moegi arrives first, but she is soon joined by Udon and Konohamaru. All three are sporting their new chuunin vests, and she cannot help but smile at the sight of her boys looking so proud.
"Where are Ebisu-sensei and Naruto-niichan?" Konohamaru complains, looking glum and annoyed. "They should be here by now."
Moegi shrugs in thought. "I don't know, but Naruto-niichan is probably busy training and Ebisu-sensei at the baths for whatever reason." She pauses, and adds thoughtfully, "You know, we're on par with Naruto-niichan now. We're all chuunin!"
Their last team member says, "We were all genin at the same time, too, you know."
"But this counts for something," protests Moegi. She sighs, watching the sky. It hasn't really been that long since the finals of the chuunin exams, and she finds it a miracle that all three of them passed at the same time – at twelve-and-a-half for she and Udon, and thirteen for Konohamaru.
"They're late," Udon says. "Maybe we should try and be later."
A thought strikes her; since the three of them are no longer genin, will they be in the same team? She glances across at Konohamaru, who would probably rather be with Hanabi, and Udon, who's the most dangerous of the three of them though no one realises it. Maybe their team will split up. It actually takes her breath away for a moment, though she doesn't know why.
Should she be expecting this? After all, most of Rookie Nine—apart from the team once led by Yuuhi Kurenai before the birth of her child—are now split up with their new duties. Maybe it will be that way with their team.
She's the one that answers Udon. "Maybe we should. I'm coming back in an hour – see you then."
Her feet lead her towards the river, where swans are growing. It isn't really that far from Konoha at all. She slows as she approaches; the swans are always defensive, even more so now that she hasn't seen them for months. Eventually, though, one of them recognises her, and let her touch down on the bank.
When she can see them, Moegi notices with alarm that there are only three swans which have made it to an age where they leave their parents and split up. Is that all that are left after winter's chill?
Although, she recalls with grim satisfaction, none of them died of a cause which left spots of red all over the fur. Moegi watches as the parents fuss over the children, and she smiles and dreams.
She notices the three who are ready to leave home taking flight, all in opposite directions, and wonders, how many will return?
"Moegi!" Udon calls—they are so close none add suffixes after the name any longer.
Konohamaru is not far behind him: "Ebisu-sensei is there, and so is your grandmother."
Moegi's head shoots up, and she wonders. Then she nods and follows. When they arrive back at the training grounds, she sees that two others have also showed up; Naruto-niichan and, too her very great surprise, Hyuuga Hanabi, who is also wearing a chuunin jacket.
"Congratulation!" Naruto looks like he's run a mile just to be here. Moegi wonders if, maybe, he did. "I'll have to teach you a special stance of the chuunin to make sure you know to be good. A great friend of mine taught this to me." Moegi doesn't see what he does next, because she's blinded by the gleam that comes off his teeth. "You have to learn it."
Hanabi looks a bit more subdued, but she does say, "Congratulations on all three of you making it through the exams." Whatever bitterness that was in her voice after the fights is absent.
It makes something hard in Moegi's chest and both fists relax a bit. She's reminded of a friend who disappeared when Hanabi and Moegi sparred, in the comments that Hanabi didn't whisper but spoke through her blank white eyes and the top scores Hanabi received in every class during the academy. She can empathize with Hanabi for the first time in years.
Hanabi is promptly tackled by Konohamaru, and for some reason—one Moegi thinks she understands—she doesn't push him off.
Later, Koharu approaches Moegi. They watch the celebration, loud between Naruto, Konohamaru, Ebisu, and Lee (who, Moegi thinks, has done nothing apart from demonstrating a superior version of Naruto's pose), while Udon and Hanabi look embarrassed.
"It won't be long before Hyuuga escapes," her grandmother notes.
"It won't be," Moegi agrees.
Koharu hesitates, and says, "Congratulations, Moegi, on passing. On all three of you making it through." She forms a seal, and a box appears before her in a puff of smoke. "This is for you."
Moegi opens her present, and isn't sure what to make of it; it's a potted plant. For her last few birthdays, her grandmother only gave her equipment for her shinobi training, and later for her graduation and her missions as a genin. Carefully, she sets it down on the table (she does notice, out of the corner of her eye, Hanabi pressing a point on Konohamaru's elbow and taking off—maybe to visit some graves) and smiles.
"Thank you, obaa-san. It's an interesting gift." She doesn't ask what prompted it.
"It's for your home," Koharu says. "It's so you have something to nurture while you battle." She smiles, briefly. "I would have been content if you had a civilian life."
"Thank you," Moegi says again, with greater sincerity than before. A few months ago she might have misunderstood her grandmother's meaning, but she knows now. "Obaa-san… will Team Kono—I mean, Team Ebisu stay together now that we're all chuunin?"
She notices Koharu level a disapproving glare at something Naruto says, but before she is able to enquire to it a swan lands by her foot. It's one of the three by the river, earlier. She watches the skies, but neither of the other two land.
Koharu looks back at her. She says, "It's unusual for a team to stay together. You'll probably be arranged for your skills. "
"Oh," Moegi pauses, then adds determinedly, "We'll probably stay together. We're a team now."
(They are. And she's had a right to be part of it).
- : -
END
R & R, please