忍ぶ心 Shinobu Kokoro
Title: Part 2: Shinobu Kokoro
Rating: PG13 (mild violence, some sexuality)
Pairing: Jun/Ohno, Sho/Nino
Genre: action, AU
Chapter: eleven
Disclaimer: I guess Johnny’s technically owns Arashi, huh? Not me.
Summary: Ohno Satoshi is the student of a strong ninja lord who has lived his life following his teacher’s strict guidance. But what happens when he slowly learns he has to live for himself?
Part 1: Shinobu Ishi ( Chapter one, Chapter two, Chapter three, Chapter four, Chapter five, Chapter six, Chapter seven)
Part 2: Shinobu Kokoro Chapter eight, Chapter nine, Chapter ten
Nino sighed and corrected Jun’s form again, moving the boy’s elbow so that it was tucked in closer to his body instead of poking out to the side like a chicken.
It was the fifth day of Nino’s intensive training period and he was surprised that the two of them hadn’t had a confrontation yet.
Jun’s time had been split between endurance exercises in the deeper part of the forest with other soon-to-be ninja (most of them were children, but there was one older boy nicknamed Yamapi that had befriended him, and so he hadn’t begun complaining about the long hours yet) and exploring different weapons with Nino in the afternoon. He had slept soundly every night, going to bed early because of exhaustion, and occasionally taking a nap in the afternoon when he was able to.
But right now Nino was about ready to turn Jun over to Sho-chan, even though he wanted to spare his boyfriend the extreme incompetence of this new kid. It was taking hours to even get to a basic level with any particular weapon, and he needed to get that far before it was evident that Jun had absolutely no talent with using it whatsoever.
And the weapons master was trying to hold his snarky comments back, he really was, for Ohno’s sake more than Jun’s. He didn’t want Leader mad or upset at him.
But Jun was completely useless at fighting. Usually what happened when a ninja was first discovering what he was proficient at, he would pick up a few things and learn the basic movements and then suddenly it would just come.
You could look at the weapon grasped in your hands and say this is it.
Nino had carefully explained that to Jun when they had started, that it was as much about Jun’s opinion as it was his actual skill, but the boy just hadn’t taken to anything yet, and Nino had been forced to start pulling out obscure things like scythes and throwing needles.
The only weapon that Jun was even close to wielding, not well, just correctly, were knives, but even after three hours of the two of them throwing them at trees, Nino displaying the correct technique and explaining the concept of balance and rotation, Jun hadn’t gotten one to stick in the truck, not even by luck.
The older ninja had finally given up, mumbling about how useless this boy was. He fell to the ground, holding his head in his hand, and Jun had frowned deeply at him.
Nino turned to him as Jun opened his mouth, hoping that he was ready to start complaining about the hard training, to say that Nino wasn’t being fair to him and how could he say those mean things?
They looked at each other with furious expressions, the air between them crackling, waiting for a fight. Jun was clenching his fists and taking deep breaths, and Nino was looking forward to his excuse to call him useless again and stomp off to find Sho in order to complain to him and take the rest of the afternoon off.
Nino stared at him intently, waiting for the upset words to fall from Jun’s lips.
But Jun’s gaze suddenly shifted from Nino’s and off to the space behind him, the tense expression immediately falling from his face.
He smiled gently and raised his hand in a shy movement, waving, and Nino’s head swung around to the same spot.
Ohno was standing a ways off in the clearing next to them, his sword in one hand and the other raised in a greeting to the new recruit. He was smiling widely and his body language was enthusiastic, as if he’d been waiting for one of them to turn that way for quite a while.
Nino dropped his head again and sighed. It looked like he’d have to spend the rest of the afternoon with Jun instead of Sho-chan after all.
+++
After Nino had exhausted all of his options, he dumped the new boy on Aiba to see if he had an affinity for herbs or something like that.
Although Aiba was at it quite a lot longer than Nino would have had the patience for, Jun was still useless.
The ninja didn’t bother pulling out his pole, since the Jun had already been shown the basic moves it required and it hadn’t worked out, but instead moved right into poisons and explosives.
Jun tried to memorize the list of herbs and their effects that the herbalist made out for him, but he couldn’t connect the information together in an effective way. Aiba even brought him to his mentor, Ken, to see if he could do anything about Jun’s lack of understanding, but after three days of torturing themselves trying to get Jun to start seeing things that were the same and how to adapt certain herbs to fit your needs, they also gave up.
Aiba had returned to Ohno with a sad smile and said that Jun just wasn’t an herbalist either.
Sho also took his turn, too, even though Nino had already tried to train Jun in basic archery.
He explained the concepts a little more in depth, but after Jun had shot at an oversized target for an entire afternoon, missing every time, Sho had moved on to darts, even though he knew it would probably end the same.
And it did.
As did the lesson of acupuncture.
Sho had pulled Ohno aside and told him that maybe Jun wasn’t cut out to be a ninja at all.
He didn’t want to say it, especially with the way Ohno’s eyes were sparking in disappointment, but he knew that Nino was too attached to Leader and that Aiba was too kind hearted to say anything, and that left the responsibility on Sho.
“No, we’ll find something, I’m sure. His basic training is going really good…” Ohno said in a pleading voice, even though he was trying to convince himself more than Sho.
“Nino’s tried everything. Aiba and I have tried everything. And you already said he’d be no good with a sword.”
Leader lowered his eyes in depression. “I’ll think of something…” he whispered and Sho sighed.
+++
After that, Jun focused all of his efforts on basic training since he had built up a little endurance and wasn’t getting as tired as quickly as he used to. He had learned the rules of the village and pledged his allegiance to Jyani, making him an official member of the community, and was now working his way through the technicalities of missions and troubleshooting common situations that would arise when he was in the field.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group tried to keep themselves busy.
Jyani had sent Ohno and Sho out on individual missions several times, and Aiba had become an aid to Ken, helping to build up the village’s supply of herbs and poisons during their down time. Nino had been kept occupied with Jun, but now that he couldn’t help the boy anymore, he’d been taking up miscellaneous jobs within the community, making extra money and distracting himself while Sho wasn’t available. He’d also been the one to dedicate the most time to figuring out exactly what to do with Jun, since he had the widest range of experience and was clever enough to put that knowledge to use.
One day after Ohno had just finished turning in a mission report (he’d been away over night and although Jun hadn’t said anything, the boy had moped around most of the evening), Nino burst into their private quarters out of breath and with a satisfied smile on his face.
“I know what to do.”
Ohno had turned to him with a surprised look in his eyes, but he quickly turned excited when he realized Nino was talking about Jun, who was still out practicing with Yamashita and the other trainees. Aiba distractedly looked up from the notes he was compiling and Sho raised an eyebrow, pausing his work on a quiver of arrows.
“I don’t why it didn’t come to me before,” Nino started, dropping onto the tatami mat just inside the door. “Before we rescued Jun, I was training with Nakai, remember? He was teaching me how to use illusions and different items in battle.”
Sho nodded, remembering Nino’s short interest in that particular area, but he hadn’t had much time to dedicate to it and since training Jun had been so consuming recently, he hadn’t been able to start up his hobby again.
“I’ll talk to Nakai and see if he’ll show Jun a few things. It’s not something that requires a lot of combat skills, so he’ll probably be able to plug his way through it.”
Ohno looked enthusiastic at the suggestion and immediately jumped over to give Nino a tight hug, offering him a soft thank you.
Nino repressed his own smile (he didn’t really like helping Jun after all, but he had become accustomed to the idea), and patted Leader on the back.
Actually, he was quite glad that he could finally unload the new boy on someone else. He’d just have to convince Nakai to take him.
+++
“You know I already have an apprentice, right?”
Nakai’s arms were crossed in front of his chest and he looked fairly annoyed, but not to the point that he wouldn’t listen to Nino as he tried to convince the older man to at least allow Jun a chance to prove himself.
“Look, giving you lessons occasionally when you have down time between missions is fine, since Tomoko is giving me half priced groceries and all, but I can’t just clear my schedule for a few days to look this squirt over. It doesn’t work like that.”
Jun was a little intimidated by the older man across from him and was trying his hardest to put on a determined expression. Nino had warned him that Nakai would be hardheaded about the whole thing, but Jun couldn’t bring himself to say anything negative concerning the idea once he saw Leader’s enthusiastic expression. Besides, Nino was really doing him a favor, even though it was obvious he found the whole thing to be a pain, and Jun couldn’t let something like that go to waste.
“Look, just think of him as free labor,” Nino replied, since none of his other arguments had worked so far. “While you’re training him, he can do whatever you tell him to, pick stuff up for you, do the stupid simple missions that Jyani assigns…”
Nakai’s expression didn’t exchange.
“I already told you. I have an apprentice. Touma does all that for me already.”
Nino’s eyes crinkled and Jun was losing faith, even though Nino had tried something as underhanded as that (at least it was as far as Jun’s welfare was concerned). But Nino hadn’t given up yet, and so Jun stood behind him in silence, staring at the floor.
“Besides, do you know how much time it takes to train a greenhorn like him? It’s too much trouble, no matter how you look at it,” Nakai complained, finally acting like he was ready to turn away, since Nino hadn’t come up with anything else to offer him.
But the weapons specialist who had been trying to train Jun for the last month stepped forward and stopped him, close enough to Nakai to say the next words under his breath even though it was obvious Jun could still hear them.
“Listen. This kid, he’s tight with Ohno.”
Nakai looked mildly interested, although a frown was stuck on his lips, and raised an eyebrow.
“I’m listening.”
“You might be able to, I don’t know, grill him for information. You know, learn Ohno’s weaknesses.”
Jun furrowed his brows. Leader didn’t have any weaknesses.
Nakai pursed his lips.
“And besides, if you help us out, Ohno would be indebted to you, too. You’d be able to hang this over his head forever.”
Nino nodded encouragingly as Nakai seemed to warm up to the idea. The illusionist turned to glance at Jun, scrutinizing him, and the new ninja met his stare head on, not sure that he liked the idea of this man digging into Ohno’s life through him.
“It would be a favor you could call in whenever you wanted… Just think about the possibilities…” Nino added, trying to show the older ninja how good of a deal he was getting.
“Fine,” Nakai eventually gave in, but not without a stern look at the both of them. “But only three days, okay? And I won’t be able to start until tomorrow.”
Nino forced a pleasant smile at the concession and politely replied.
“Okay, that’s fine. Thank you so much, Nakai-san.”
He stepped back over to Jun and gave the older man a short bow. He waited for Jun to do the same, and then hit him on the back of the head when the boy didn’t comply immediately.
In response he scoffed and shooed them away, and so Nino pulled Jun sharply out of the small hut that Nakai used to house himself as well as most of the extra equipment he needed for his job.
Once they were outside, Nino glared at Jun, like he had almost ruined their chance, but Jun found out just a second later that that wasn’t the case.
“You know not to tell him anything about Oh-chan, right?”
Apparently Nino felt that Nakai wasn’t to be trusted and it was obvious why, with the conversation and battle of strong heads that Jun had just witnessed.
“Of course.”
“Not that you know much about Oh-chan anyway,” Nino continued under his breath and Jun frowned as he was dragged back towards the Main Building.
He did know about Ohno. Not probably as much as Nino did, since Aiba had explained that the two of them had known each other the longest, but he knew how nice and sweet and cute the older boy was, and how much he admired him already.
But before Jun could counter the snippy remark, Nino had started again.
“Okay, so let me give you a few details about Nakai. He’s sneaky, as you can probably tell. He’s also stubborn and won’t do anything unless there’s something in it for him. So you have to make yourself irreplaceable. If you can do even one thing that he shows you, we have to find some way to take you on as his second apprentice.”
Jun swallowed back his bitter attitude and nodded at Nino’s careful words.
“Even if you just give him little details like Ohno likes to go fishing. If you make it seem like you know Oh-chan well enough, he’ll probably keep you around just for his own convenience.”
Nino looked thoughtful again, as if trying to think of what else Jun needed to know about the other man.
Their pace had slowed and they automatically headed towards the forest instead of the Main Building now, but Jun figured the two of them had a little more talking to do anyway. And he had a lot of questions.
“Uh…” Nino turned back to him with a neutral expression, and waiting for Jun to start. “Why does he care about Leader so much?”
He nodded back, as if he had just realized he’d forgotten something important and that Jun had every right to ask him that.
“Well, they’re sort of rivals. They’ve been in the village about the same amount of time, and they were first trained together, even though Nakai is older than Ohno. They both progressed together and worked with each other for about a year. But Nakai was jealous that Ohno was living in the Main Building, even though he was only in training, and when Ohno was sent on his first mission, which was a while before Nakai ever was, he got really upset. He complained to Jyani about it, but he told Nakai straight out that he wasn’t ready. That he wasn’t as good as Ohno was.”
Jun’s eyes widened a fraction at the first piece of information he’d received about the way Ohno was before Jun had met him. It sounded like he was just as amazing as Jun had made him out to be in his mind.
“This was all before I came to the village, of course. For as long as I can remember, Nakai’s been trying so hard to catch up to Ohno, even though Leader doesn’t really pay attention to him at all. The man’s made quite a name for himself, though, and his animosity has died a little bit, but he seems to have these delusions that one day he’s going to show up Ohno, if only for a minute. Actually, it borders on obsession.”
Nino had stopped walking and was rubbing his head, obviously annoyed that he had to deal with Nakai as much as he did.
“He’s not a bad guy, really, if you know how to treat him. And he’s an amazing teacher, which is something I’m not sure Ohno will ever be able to do well. Plus, he’s easily paid off if you know what to offer him.”
Jun nodded, standing next to Nino and examining the line of trees that spread across the landscape.
This was all very valuable information, especially if he was to be working with Nakai for a while. Jun took the lesson from Nino to heart, thinking of how to make himself irreplaceable to the illusionist and try to learn something so he could be of use to Arashi, too.
“But don’t worry about it. I’ll help you deal with him.”
Jun didn’t reply immediately. Although Nino had been treating him as a problem since he’d entered the village and wouldn’t hold back his criticism, he had actually done a lot to help him. Whether that was due to Ohno’s request or desire to incorporate Jun into the group, he didn’t know, and they were probably one and the same inside of Nino’s head.
“Thank you,” Jun offered in a quiet voice, staring down at his hands sheepishly. “For everything.”
Nino turned to him sharply, looking surprised. The two of them had been butting heads recently, and Nino was still seeing him as an arrogant spoilt brat, even though he had put his full effort into training.
The older boy averted his eyes, feeling a light blush rise to his face at the unexpected gratitude. Maybe he hadn’t given Jun the full chance he should have.
“You’re welcome.” Nino’s voice was softer than Jun’s had been, and the two of them stood a little longer in silence, staring at the stark scenery of the forest.
+++
On the first day, he told Nakai that Ohno liked to go fishing, as Nino had suggested.
It didn’t seem like a particularly helpful piece of information, but just as the weapons master predicted, Nakai ate up the side handed comment quickly, which had taken him a half hour of prodding to get out of Jun.
The second day, after an evening of sitting with Ohno and asking him stupid questions (which had been amazingly fun), Jun let it slip, after Nakai had been asking him leading questions during the explanation on how to make smoke powder, that Ohno’s favorite color was blue.
He had narrowed his eyes and nodded, like he knew exactly what to do with that piece of information.
Jun had raised an eyebrow at the weird response, but followed the illusionist’s directions exactly and eventually produced his own messy clump of smoke powder.
The third day, the important one that Nino had told him not to mess up, Jun had been up thinking late into the night of what to say.
After they had reviewed the previous lessons, Nakai making an offhand comment that Jun wasn’t nearly as bad as he had expected with the way Nino had acted, the older man had begun to explain to him the specifics of illusions and how to make yourself seem like someone you weren’t.
It was only when they took a lunch break that Nakai started hinting about Ohno, and Jun had frowned for several minutes before mock-sighing and acting as if he really shouldn’t say what he was about it.
“Well… Ohno snores.”
Actually, Ohno didn’t make much sound during the night, but while Jun had been up thinking yesterday, he had heard the quiet little noises escaping through Leader’s nose. And he thought it was adorable, just like everything about Ohno was.
“Ah! I knew it!” Nakai replied enthusiastically, biting down heavily on his rice ball with an ecstatic expression on his face.
Jun tried not to let how confused he was at the response show and finished his own lunch while Nakai tried to engage him in a conversation about the fact that Ohno might be using snoring as a secret technique to fight enemies.
+++
The new ninja didn’t even need to ask Nakai to keep him on. Once the trial training was finished, the older man had made an offhand comment about Jun coming back the next day and he would introduce him to Touma, since they would have to work together from now on.
Jun had nodded, not giving away the surge of happiness he felt at that seemingly unimportant direction, and had celebrated with the rest of Arashi that night.
“You aren’t useless after all!” Nino had said with a bright expression, but Jun felt the underlying compliment, even though his choice of words were harsh, so he didn’t do anything other than smile at him.
Aiba had hugged him immediately and Sho had patted him proudly on the back. But Jun couldn’t tear his eyes away from Ohno’s relieved grin, and he hadn’t let the older man wander away from his side all night, not until all of them settled down from their oversized dinner and into their beds.
Although Ohno had held him tightly the first night Jun had spent with the group, he had distanced himself from him after that. Ohno hadn’t push Jun away when he pressed himself against his side the third night at the Main Building when he was feeling melancholy, but since Jun had started training with Nino, they had only held hands tightly under the covers, a little more space between their bodies becoming normal.
Aiba-chan slept with his head on Jun’s shoulder, which was comforting, but the youngest ninja wanted nothing more, most nights, than to force Ohno to hold him like he had before.
But he had to grow up now. He wasn’t at home where his mother would crawl into his bed with him as soon as he asked. He didn’t have a servant to bring him a warm piece of bread when he couldn’t fall asleep at night.
Being part of Arashi was a big responsibility and Jun had quickly realized he needed to carry his own weight in order to stay with his new found friends. He needed to make himself irreplaceable in the group, as well as in the village, but all of his efforts would be worthless if he couldn’t aspire to the level that Aiba and Sho and Nino and Ohno were already at.
Tonight, though, he decided that he deserved a reward for all the effort he’d put into training over the last month, and especially for convincing Nakai to take him, allowing Jun to carve his own path in Arashi.
Sho and Nino had already snuggled up together across the room, about as far away from Ohno as Jun usually was, giving them just enough privacy to embrace as they wished, but close enough to still be part of the group.
Aiba had been chatting with Jun as they laid in the dark, telling him about the only run in the herbalist had had with Nakai, but his voice was slowing down and he had started using words that didn’t exist.
Jun let his friend trail off, his story finally stopping with an oversized yawn, before he squeezed Ohno’s hand, which was tightly gripped in his own, in their usual sleeping position.
He knew Ohno was still awake because he squeezed back.
Jun scooted over a little, Aiba’s head lolling with him as he moved, and rested his nose against Leader’s shoulder tentatively.
Ohno stiffened a bit, but didn’t say anything or back away, so Jun propped himself up just enough to drape the arm that was attached firmly to his own over the back of his shoulder and firmly snuggled himself against Ohno’s chest, released the hand in order to drop his own to Leader’s stomach.
“J-Jun…” the older boy whispered as quietly as he could, and he replied by rubbing his head against Ohno’s chest, just above his heart, which was beating faster than Jun thought it should have. That made him smile.
He felt slightly bad for abandoning Aiba like that, but Ohno hadn’t said anything else about the positioning and Jun felt like his heart would break if he had to pull away from the swordmaster right now.
Finally Jun’s eyes drifted shut and the sound of Ohno’s beating heart sent him off to sleep.
+++
Eventually Nakai stopped grilling him for information, although Jun wasn’t sure if it was because he had decided the details that Jun fed him were useless or because he actually became distracted with Jun’s performance (even though the master wouldn’t ever compliment him on it).
It was probably the later, or Jun liked to think so, because once he had met Touma, the pair had become quite the handful when they were together.
And the things he was learning fascinated Jun.
The most fun so far had been the day that he and Touma had spent perfecting their smoke arts.
With a smaller sized smoke ball, Nakai showed them together how to manipulate the shape of the rising smoke so that it looked like a person, or an animal, or even a monster.
After that, the pair couldn’t be convinced to try anything else until the sun had set and Touma could now make a perfectly shaped woman with large breasts. They snickered at that together, and then Jun showed off his own technique, making a smoke person who looked like a pissed off Nakai, sending them into another fit of giggles.
Nakai had so many things like this to teach him, though. Yes, Jun knew how to make simple items like smoke bombs or blinding pellets, but the best part was learning the art of disguise, how to blend in with a crowd even though he blatantly looked different from everyone, and how to keep anyone from spotting you in the shadows. It was more psychological than physical and it was unbelievable.
The fact that friends wouldn’t recognize you just because you changed your talking voice, spoke heavier or lighter, and the idea of scaring people with a particular drop of an eyebrow was amazing.
Jun had practiced that look on Sho one day and was surprised to find the archer whimper and scuttle off, telling Nino that something had happened to Jun.
Nino had given him a scolding, and Jun had apologized several times, although he was actually quite ecstatic that it had worked.
Jun had been training with Nakai for an entire season now, the chill of winter leaving the village for the soft hum of summer, and the boy had come to love his mentor (despite his weird obsession with Ohno and tendency to complain about everything) and Touma too, almost as much as the rest of Arashi. Leader, of course, still caught his eye and made Jun want to try his hardest to impress him, but the younger boy had settled into his new life with little conflict, and was actually quite happy despite the dismal situation that had changed his entire existence almost a year ago.
Nakai had been building up the lesson for today over several weeks, teaching Touma and Jun specific facial techniques and giving them tips on analyzing a person’s movements in order to prepare them.
They stood out in front Nakai’s studio, which was close to the edge of the city, opposite from the metal forge, and observed people walking down the street. After Nakai had pointed out several specific things to watch for, he showed the boys exactly what he wanted them to do.
As a middle aged woman passed, the one that ran the general store a few buildings down, Nakai politely stopped her and engaged the woman in conversation for about three minutes.
Jun and Touma watched with raised brows, attentive to each movement Nakai made, even just a quick nod of his head, as well as the woman, who had a bright smile on her face.
Their trainer bid her a good day, then turned back to face Jun and Touma seated on the steps of the building together. They perked up at the mischievous look, and Nakai quickly swiveled around, hiding his front from view, messing with his hair quickly and making adjustments to his clothes that neither of the boys could see.
He turned back and approached them, asking in a soft voice “And how’re you boys doing today?”
Jun’s jaw dropped.
Nakai was imitating the woman perfectly, from the pitch of her voice to her facial features and the small movements she had been making with her lips as she tried to repress a laugh at Nakai’s terrible joke.
It fact, it almost seemed like it was the woman standing in front of them now, only she was wearing Nakai’s clothes and was sporting his same haircut.
Realizing that he had impressed the boys just as he had meant to, Nakai dropped his facade and bragged about how easy it had been before explaining a little more technique and giving each of them a challenge to do the same thing.
They argued over who would go first and after a brief bout of rock paper scissors, Touma was given the winning position.
They watched the street again, Nakai taking up Touma’s spot next to Jun while the other boy looked back and forth at the sparse group of people walking by. After a second, he bounded forward, calling out to an older man who worked at the forge.
The pair talked for a few seconds, Touma’s face wide in enthusiasm, and when the man nodded to the boy and walked off, Touma averted himself from his comrades and adjusted things like Nakai had done earlier.
After he walked back and gave his impression of the old man, Nakai and Jun broke out laughing.
“But what was that thing with the lips? That was all wrong! And you weren’t slouching over at all,” the teacher chided when Touma had finished, and he slapped the boy lightly on the head and told him he needed to try harder. The teacher pointed out a few more problems with Touma’s impression and then gave more pointers to the two of them before Jun went.
A few hours later, the whole time the illusionist’s apprentices taking turns stopping people on the street and practicing their newly taught skills, Touma spotted Aiba coming close to them with a small burlap bag in his hand.
He waved at Jun as soon as their eyes met, and Jun waved back, but it was Touma’s turn, so he didn’t join his partner in crime as the cheery man stopped the herbalist in the street and engaged him in a short conversation.
But Aiba didn’t leave when thanked for his time, and looked curiously at Jun as Touma began adjusting his hair.
Jun grinned widely and moved his hand back and forth, inviting Aiba to join them on the porch of the building.
Nakai sighed and rolled his eyes, making an offhand comment about extra baggage when Aiba excitedly sat down on Jun’s other side, the small sack safely in his lap, but he didn’t force the ninja to leave. Touma turned back to the group and started his display, Aiba watching in fascination as Touma presented an almost identical replication of himself.
“Wow!! That’s amazing!!” he cried out, clapping loudly when Touma finished a short dialogue about how Aiba was headed to the general store to deliver a package to the shop owner.
Touma blushed and bowed at the praise, and while Nakai told Touma that he needed to watch the wording he chose more carefully (because Aiba certainly wouldn’t use a technical phrase like in transit), the herbalist turned to Jun and asked in wonder if he could do the same thing.
So the younger ninja smiled at his friend and stood to find another victim.
Giving himself a challenge in order to impress Aiba more than Touma had, Jun picked out a young girl, probably about eight years old, and gently called out to her.
Jun’s eyes immediately moved over her face, analyzing the way she moved just as Nakai had taught him. Her eyebrows were relaxed, but when Jun asked her if she was busy right now, she averted her gaze and her lips turned up just barely in a shy smile.
She had a habit of running her tongue over her teeth, Jun could see that immediately by the slight movement just under her nose, and her lips were parted just a smidgen, which meant that she was nervous right now.
The reply was well, sort of, and Jun asked casually where she was going. Her fingers were fiddling with her sash at her waist even though her eyes were darting back and forth between Jun’s gaze and his chest. Her posture wasn’t very good, her shoulder leaning too far forward, and Jun could already assume she had a bad knee by the way she held herself.
She didn’t answer and so the ninja apologized with a sweet smile and said he was sorry for bothering her, and she ducked her head nervously before darting off when Jun moved.
Before he went back to Aiba, Touma, and Nakai, Jun tucked his hair behind his ears. The girl had had hers pulled back in a pony tail, but really all that mattered right now was getting the general atmosphere.
Next he straightened his ninja gear, making sure it was all tied properly like hers had been, and then reminded himself that she had a bad knee.
He turned back to his friends, mimicking the shy look the girl had given him, and then tentatively stepped forward, as if it was something he was nervous about doing.
Aiba was grinning at him, but Jun didn’t return the motion, and instead immediately began playing with his sash and looking at Touma, who would be easy to watch without breaking character since they had been practicing that way all afternoon.
“Sorry,” Jun said shyly, looking quickly between Touma and Nakai, running his tongue over his teeth, even though it was such a tiny detail that only their master would notice. “I’m… I’m lost, can you help me?” he asked innocently, his shoulder falling forward, imitating the bad posture of the girl.
“Of course!” Aiba replied immediately, and Jun had no choice but to turn to his friend. He looked quickly between the herbalist’s chest and his warm gaze, just like his muse had done, his face otherwise relaxed. “Where are you going?”
Jun swallowed and swiveled his head a little. The girl hadn’t done that, but he was improvising at the direct question. Knowing the details that he had picked up from the short conversation, he had to infer other nervous habits she would have. “I’m looking for my older brother…”
Aiba nodded, playing along with the situation and asked, “What’s his name?”
Jun smiled softly and brought his arms together in front of his stomach, looking down at them in barely hidden affection, just like he thought the girl would do. “Aiba-chan.”
The herbalist’s eyes began sparking. “What kind of boy is he?”
Jun let the repressed smile on his lips break through and replied enthusiastically, “He’s really stupid! And he’s a pervert, too! Sometimes I catch him sneaking into the women’s bath-“ Jun started, but Nakai and Touma immediately burst out laughing at Aiba’s sudden disgruntled expression.
“I do not!” he insisted, and Jun couldn’t hold his character any longer. He burst out laughing too, earning him a sharp hit on the head from an amused Nakai, and Aiba’s features softened, realizing it was all a joke.
“That’s really so awesome…” he said in wonder, staring at Jun in amazement.
Jun grinned back, blushing at the praise just like Touma had.
+++
When Jun had arrived back at the Main Building that night, practicing late with Touma even after Nakai had excused them earlier, Aiba immediately pulled him by the arm and seated him in front of Sho and Nino, who looked apprehensive.
“Do Sho-chan, Jun! Do Sho-chan!”
The youngest boy blinked at Aiba and raised his eyebrow.
“I was telling them how amazing you were! Come on.”
Jun looked back at the Sho-Nino pair seated across from him as the weapons master let out a sigh and rolled his eyes, as if he didn’t believe an ounce of what Aiba had been saying.
Holding back his arrogant grin, Jun instead turned to the archer.
“What did he tell you?” he asked, motioning to Aiba with a flat tone that sounded almost annoyed.
“He said that you really getting really good at illusions and that Nakai was proud of you.”
Jun cocked his head to the side questioning as he took in all of his friend’s features, just as he had been practicing all day. It didn’t take much time, though, since Jun was already so familiar with each of them.
“Which really means that he’s not complaining about you as much as he used to,” Nino cut in. “It hasn’t been that long, besides, you know how Aiba is,” he mumbled unbelievingly to Sho, joining in with Jun, who was pretending to disregard what the herbalist had said.
Sho’s eyebrows furrowed in a pout, but before he could say anything, Jun broke in with his impression of the archer.
“Nino, you shouldn’t be so mean to Aiba-chan.” His eyebrow was furrowed in the same way that Sho’s was right now and his lip was pursed out in an identical pout.
Nino turned to Jun suspiciously at the new tone, looking skeptical, and Sho’s expression immediately fell into shock.
“Besides, I’ve been trying really hard to improve, you know.” It felt weird for Jun to talk in first person about himself even though he was imitating Sho. The archer would usually gently chide Nino like this, though, especially when Nino started getting particularly cranky and hard to deal with, which was also when Aiba started avoiding any confrontation with him.
But Aiba was giggling and Jun turned to him, his eyebrows now raised like Sho’s were currently, and his mouth open just a little in a look of surprise. “What?” he asked, still imitating Sho’s deep tone and displayed the quick blinks that the archer did when he didn’t understand something.
Aiba grinned at Nino and Sho who were obviously surprised at the impression, and Jun turned back to them too, looking worried and a little anxious, Sho’s signature expression when he had made a mistake.
“What? Did I do something wrong?” Jun’s gaze darted back and forth between the three ninja, trying his hardest to imitate the archer’s cute frenzied attitude.
Aiba started snickering openly as Sho’s own face fell exactly into the mold that Jun was displaying, a nervous expression on his lips, and Nino also tried to hold back a laugh at his boyfriend’s dumbfounded look, a mirror image of what was on Jun’s face.
But Jun couldn’t let Nino have all the fun. He had doubted him at the beginning, after all.
The shocked look on Jun’s face immediately fell into a copy of the smirk on Nino’s, and he rubbed the back of his arm against his nose, in the same way Nino did when he was trying to hide his smile.
“You’re really cute, Sho-chan, you know that?” he said under his breath and averted his gaze to the floor next to him, still covering his mouth distractedly with his hand.
Nino immediately fell silent and stared at Jun with a frown when Sho’s expression turned into a pleased, but embarrassed smile.
Jun’s features merged into Nino’s usual neutral expression, his eyebrows just barely tense and his mouth in a thin pout.
“What? Don’t look at me like that. I’ll say what I want to say,” Jun imitated Nino’s offended voice, a little faster than his usual pace, and with a breathy huff to it. Aiba started giggling uncontrollably.
Turning to the herbalist, Jun’s brow deepened more. “What’s so funny, Aiba?” He crossed his arms over his chest, just like Nino did when he was getting angry. His voice held a dangerous, low tone to it, but Aiba just started laughing louder and Sho began chuckling, too, while Nino looked disgruntled.
The door behind Jun slipped open and Ohno was suddenly shuffling into the room, noticing the laughter being emitted by the boys as he shut it behind him.
He looked around the group, his eyes falling on Jun, who was trying to look innocent, and Ohno grinned lopsidedly.
“What’s going on?” he asked in a casual but suspicious voice.
Aiba elbowed Jun in the side, but the youngest ninja didn’t even need to watch Ohno in order to imitate him. He already knew all of Leader’s small habits, from the way his eyes crinkled shut when he began laughing, to the way he scratched the back of his head when he was confused.
When no one answered, the room becoming silent with Nino, Sho, and Aiba watching Jun intently, Ohno walked a few feet closer and plopped down next to the illusionist-in-training.
Jun’s expression easily fell into Ohno’s usual laid-back one and he gave the older boy an uneven smile, the one that was currently resting on the swordsman’s face.
“Hey,” Jun said shyly after a moment, his lip twitching upwards a little, like he’d seen Ohno’s do once.
Leader blinked at him and tilted his head a little, trying to figure out why Jun wasn’t acting like himself.
Jun mirrored his action, although the goofy smile was still plastered on the younger’s face.
Averting his gaze to Sho and Nino, trying to find a hint, Ohno only was more confused when Nino began stifling his giggles, making something close to a wheezing sound.
“What were you out doing, Leader?” Jun asked in the same drawling tone that his friend used when making small talk, his mouth barely opening in the least amount of effort possible.
Ohno immediately turned back to him, still not understanding what was going on, but answered the question promptly.
“I went fishing.”
Jun’s lips immediately turned up into Ohno’s lopsided smile again and his eyes opened a little farther, as it was one of the only topics that Leader ever got excited over.
“Fishing?” he asked with a slightly faster voice. “Did you catch anything?” His interest was focused sharply on Ohno and the older man looked around the room as all three of the other ninja started laughing at the two boys seated together opposite them.
“No…” Ohno replied softly, his eyebrows creased again.
“That… is so… perfect…” Nino got out between his breathy giggles, his body crumpling forward with the effort to stop laughing. “You make… a good… Oh-chan…”
But Ohno’s cute confused look was getting to Jun too much. He couldn’t hold the light hearted expression that was always on Leader’s face anymore and he burst out laughing, too.
“What?” Ohno asked, finally getting a grasp on the situation. “That was me?”
Aiba nodded and Leader mumbled about how fast Jun was progressing while the others tried to calm down.
“Hey do an impression of Nakai for me!” Nino requested as his laughter ceased, even though he still had a bright smile on his face.
Although Jun was weary from practicing all day, he still entertained his friends late into the night with his new found talent.
+++
The season passed again, and before Jun had realized it, summer was already fading and the crisp autumn wind had set in.
Although he missed the time spent with the rest of his friends, who trained together on the outskirts of the village while Jun was stuck at Nakai’s, he continued to feel closer and closer to them.
But he had to admit that he had become envious of Sho’s and Nino’s relationship. Even though Sho had told him the short story of their run in with Jyani and confided that he wasn’t sure what he would do if the ninja lord brought up the topic again, Jun still wanted what they had, only with Ohno.
Leader, though, had gently brushed aside any tentative advances that Jun made, dedicating himself whole heartedly to training and completing group missions, even though Jun couldn’t complete any himself without a little more practice with Nakai. The only time they had really seen each other, actually, was during the night, when Ohno would only hold Jun against him tenderly when the younger ninja forced him to.
And he had stopped doing that a long time ago.
They still held hands occasionally, but the differences in the feelings between the boys were too extreme, and Jun knew his level of maturity wasn’t anywhere near Ohno’s. He felt like he couldn’t understand Leader at all, despite all the time they had spent together. Even though it had become second nature to read other people’s expressions and intentions, he still ran in to trouble with highly trained ninja like Arashi, and Ohno had been the biggest challenge to date.
But Ohno, unbeknownst the Jun, had been struggling with his own feelings.
He had tried to distance himself from the younger man, realizing that he was tangling with something that he shouldn’t as far as his emotions were concerned. This was something that Jyani had warned him about ever since he was a child, and that he needed to grown strong and remain able to detach himself from his comrades when it was required.
But as Ohno developed his relationship over the years with Nino, then Sho, Aiba, and finally Jun, he was finding it harder and harder to stay aloof like Jyani had told him to. He didn’t want to direct them, he wanted to follow them. He didn’t want to leave any of them behind, he wanted to sacrifice himself for them.
Ohno knew this type of thinking was dangerous, but that didn’t mean that he could repress the ideas or tell them to go away.
In fact, the times that it was most difficult were when Jun was pressed up against him, either in sleep at night, or while the group was messing around on their days off.
Jun had changed so much since Ohno had first met him. Instead of the quiet gangly boy that the group had first rescued, the illusionist had become confident in himself and close to the rest of Arashi, just like Leader had wanted him to. He had grown another inch, too, now obviously taller than the swordsman, and his hair had been cut in a fashionable style, which made him even more handsome.
And as he slowly became more proficient in his current field, Jun had also taken up practicing throwing knives again, since it was the only weapon he had even had a chance at perfecting. Nino had convinced him to start once more, saying that although illusions were great for infiltration and information gathering, if it came down to hand to hand combat, Jun would only be a liability. His argument had been sound, and so Jun had put his full effort into learning to use them, even though he rarely got the blade to stick properly into the tree.
Ohno spent hours upon hours training with his sword or fulfilling missions for Jyani, trying to distract himself from the forbidden want sitting in the pit of his stomach. Jun would be his downfall, this was clear, but Ohno was too weak to push the boy away from him, to stop what had already started between the two of them.
“Leader, do you want some lunch?” Aiba called out to him and the older ninja was forced out of his trance.
They were in their usual training grounds, filling in the time between his missions with practice, and Ohno had his sword perched out in front of him.
He had gotten distracted so easily by Aiba when he had been called to, immediately forgetting what form he had been practicing. Leader never used to do that, not even when Nino tried to get his attention.
And he had been cycling through the same form over and over again instead of moving onto the next one like he should have.
Leader stared down at his hands, trying to will away his thoughts of Jun.
They were distracting him from practicing, and although Jyani insisted that Ohno’s technique was as good as ever, the boy couldn’t help but feel bad about his lack of attention on the task at hand.
Suddenly Ohno stiffened as the feel of the air around him turned dark.
Something was wrong.
Sho could tell too, next to Aiba and Nino, and the two younger boys tensed up at the change in atmosphere.
Looking around him, trying to figure out what it was, Ohno finally placed the feeling and sniffed the air.
There was a faint smell of smoke on the wind, and he turned suddenly to the village, noticing the air above the trees on that side was growing dark.
“What’s going on?” Sho was looking in the same direction as Ohno, his face displaying panic.
“Something’s happening… We have to get back there,” Nino said in a tense voice, dropping the food he’d just taken from Aiba onto the ground.
But Ohno had already taken off at a full run as the rest of the group noticed the problem, his sword grasped tightly in his fist.
Jun was still in the village.
He had to save Jun.
+++
A/N: I think this may be the fluffiest chapter in the whole story, except of course the cliff hanger at the end and maybe Juntoshi not going along as well as expected. I'm sorry, the updates are still weird, but I have a busy weekend, so I wasn't sure I'd have time to update then. We'll see. There's still a lot of chapters left after all...:)
I've been trying to work on something else but I just don't feel like writing anything, even though I have a lot of ideas. So I might just be posting this story for a while, since it's mostly written already.
Chapter twelve
Rating: PG13 (mild violence, some sexuality)
Pairing: Jun/Ohno, Sho/Nino
Genre: action, AU
Chapter: eleven
Disclaimer: I guess Johnny’s technically owns Arashi, huh? Not me.
Summary: Ohno Satoshi is the student of a strong ninja lord who has lived his life following his teacher’s strict guidance. But what happens when he slowly learns he has to live for himself?
Part 1: Shinobu Ishi ( Chapter one, Chapter two, Chapter three, Chapter four, Chapter five, Chapter six, Chapter seven)
Part 2: Shinobu Kokoro Chapter eight, Chapter nine, Chapter ten
Nino sighed and corrected Jun’s form again, moving the boy’s elbow so that it was tucked in closer to his body instead of poking out to the side like a chicken.
It was the fifth day of Nino’s intensive training period and he was surprised that the two of them hadn’t had a confrontation yet.
Jun’s time had been split between endurance exercises in the deeper part of the forest with other soon-to-be ninja (most of them were children, but there was one older boy nicknamed Yamapi that had befriended him, and so he hadn’t begun complaining about the long hours yet) and exploring different weapons with Nino in the afternoon. He had slept soundly every night, going to bed early because of exhaustion, and occasionally taking a nap in the afternoon when he was able to.
But right now Nino was about ready to turn Jun over to Sho-chan, even though he wanted to spare his boyfriend the extreme incompetence of this new kid. It was taking hours to even get to a basic level with any particular weapon, and he needed to get that far before it was evident that Jun had absolutely no talent with using it whatsoever.
And the weapons master was trying to hold his snarky comments back, he really was, for Ohno’s sake more than Jun’s. He didn’t want Leader mad or upset at him.
But Jun was completely useless at fighting. Usually what happened when a ninja was first discovering what he was proficient at, he would pick up a few things and learn the basic movements and then suddenly it would just come.
You could look at the weapon grasped in your hands and say this is it.
Nino had carefully explained that to Jun when they had started, that it was as much about Jun’s opinion as it was his actual skill, but the boy just hadn’t taken to anything yet, and Nino had been forced to start pulling out obscure things like scythes and throwing needles.
The only weapon that Jun was even close to wielding, not well, just correctly, were knives, but even after three hours of the two of them throwing them at trees, Nino displaying the correct technique and explaining the concept of balance and rotation, Jun hadn’t gotten one to stick in the truck, not even by luck.
The older ninja had finally given up, mumbling about how useless this boy was. He fell to the ground, holding his head in his hand, and Jun had frowned deeply at him.
Nino turned to him as Jun opened his mouth, hoping that he was ready to start complaining about the hard training, to say that Nino wasn’t being fair to him and how could he say those mean things?
They looked at each other with furious expressions, the air between them crackling, waiting for a fight. Jun was clenching his fists and taking deep breaths, and Nino was looking forward to his excuse to call him useless again and stomp off to find Sho in order to complain to him and take the rest of the afternoon off.
Nino stared at him intently, waiting for the upset words to fall from Jun’s lips.
But Jun’s gaze suddenly shifted from Nino’s and off to the space behind him, the tense expression immediately falling from his face.
He smiled gently and raised his hand in a shy movement, waving, and Nino’s head swung around to the same spot.
Ohno was standing a ways off in the clearing next to them, his sword in one hand and the other raised in a greeting to the new recruit. He was smiling widely and his body language was enthusiastic, as if he’d been waiting for one of them to turn that way for quite a while.
Nino dropped his head again and sighed. It looked like he’d have to spend the rest of the afternoon with Jun instead of Sho-chan after all.
+++
After Nino had exhausted all of his options, he dumped the new boy on Aiba to see if he had an affinity for herbs or something like that.
Although Aiba was at it quite a lot longer than Nino would have had the patience for, Jun was still useless.
The ninja didn’t bother pulling out his pole, since the Jun had already been shown the basic moves it required and it hadn’t worked out, but instead moved right into poisons and explosives.
Jun tried to memorize the list of herbs and their effects that the herbalist made out for him, but he couldn’t connect the information together in an effective way. Aiba even brought him to his mentor, Ken, to see if he could do anything about Jun’s lack of understanding, but after three days of torturing themselves trying to get Jun to start seeing things that were the same and how to adapt certain herbs to fit your needs, they also gave up.
Aiba had returned to Ohno with a sad smile and said that Jun just wasn’t an herbalist either.
Sho also took his turn, too, even though Nino had already tried to train Jun in basic archery.
He explained the concepts a little more in depth, but after Jun had shot at an oversized target for an entire afternoon, missing every time, Sho had moved on to darts, even though he knew it would probably end the same.
And it did.
As did the lesson of acupuncture.
Sho had pulled Ohno aside and told him that maybe Jun wasn’t cut out to be a ninja at all.
He didn’t want to say it, especially with the way Ohno’s eyes were sparking in disappointment, but he knew that Nino was too attached to Leader and that Aiba was too kind hearted to say anything, and that left the responsibility on Sho.
“No, we’ll find something, I’m sure. His basic training is going really good…” Ohno said in a pleading voice, even though he was trying to convince himself more than Sho.
“Nino’s tried everything. Aiba and I have tried everything. And you already said he’d be no good with a sword.”
Leader lowered his eyes in depression. “I’ll think of something…” he whispered and Sho sighed.
+++
After that, Jun focused all of his efforts on basic training since he had built up a little endurance and wasn’t getting as tired as quickly as he used to. He had learned the rules of the village and pledged his allegiance to Jyani, making him an official member of the community, and was now working his way through the technicalities of missions and troubleshooting common situations that would arise when he was in the field.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group tried to keep themselves busy.
Jyani had sent Ohno and Sho out on individual missions several times, and Aiba had become an aid to Ken, helping to build up the village’s supply of herbs and poisons during their down time. Nino had been kept occupied with Jun, but now that he couldn’t help the boy anymore, he’d been taking up miscellaneous jobs within the community, making extra money and distracting himself while Sho wasn’t available. He’d also been the one to dedicate the most time to figuring out exactly what to do with Jun, since he had the widest range of experience and was clever enough to put that knowledge to use.
One day after Ohno had just finished turning in a mission report (he’d been away over night and although Jun hadn’t said anything, the boy had moped around most of the evening), Nino burst into their private quarters out of breath and with a satisfied smile on his face.
“I know what to do.”
Ohno had turned to him with a surprised look in his eyes, but he quickly turned excited when he realized Nino was talking about Jun, who was still out practicing with Yamashita and the other trainees. Aiba distractedly looked up from the notes he was compiling and Sho raised an eyebrow, pausing his work on a quiver of arrows.
“I don’t why it didn’t come to me before,” Nino started, dropping onto the tatami mat just inside the door. “Before we rescued Jun, I was training with Nakai, remember? He was teaching me how to use illusions and different items in battle.”
Sho nodded, remembering Nino’s short interest in that particular area, but he hadn’t had much time to dedicate to it and since training Jun had been so consuming recently, he hadn’t been able to start up his hobby again.
“I’ll talk to Nakai and see if he’ll show Jun a few things. It’s not something that requires a lot of combat skills, so he’ll probably be able to plug his way through it.”
Ohno looked enthusiastic at the suggestion and immediately jumped over to give Nino a tight hug, offering him a soft thank you.
Nino repressed his own smile (he didn’t really like helping Jun after all, but he had become accustomed to the idea), and patted Leader on the back.
Actually, he was quite glad that he could finally unload the new boy on someone else. He’d just have to convince Nakai to take him.
+++
“You know I already have an apprentice, right?”
Nakai’s arms were crossed in front of his chest and he looked fairly annoyed, but not to the point that he wouldn’t listen to Nino as he tried to convince the older man to at least allow Jun a chance to prove himself.
“Look, giving you lessons occasionally when you have down time between missions is fine, since Tomoko is giving me half priced groceries and all, but I can’t just clear my schedule for a few days to look this squirt over. It doesn’t work like that.”
Jun was a little intimidated by the older man across from him and was trying his hardest to put on a determined expression. Nino had warned him that Nakai would be hardheaded about the whole thing, but Jun couldn’t bring himself to say anything negative concerning the idea once he saw Leader’s enthusiastic expression. Besides, Nino was really doing him a favor, even though it was obvious he found the whole thing to be a pain, and Jun couldn’t let something like that go to waste.
“Look, just think of him as free labor,” Nino replied, since none of his other arguments had worked so far. “While you’re training him, he can do whatever you tell him to, pick stuff up for you, do the stupid simple missions that Jyani assigns…”
Nakai’s expression didn’t exchange.
“I already told you. I have an apprentice. Touma does all that for me already.”
Nino’s eyes crinkled and Jun was losing faith, even though Nino had tried something as underhanded as that (at least it was as far as Jun’s welfare was concerned). But Nino hadn’t given up yet, and so Jun stood behind him in silence, staring at the floor.
“Besides, do you know how much time it takes to train a greenhorn like him? It’s too much trouble, no matter how you look at it,” Nakai complained, finally acting like he was ready to turn away, since Nino hadn’t come up with anything else to offer him.
But the weapons specialist who had been trying to train Jun for the last month stepped forward and stopped him, close enough to Nakai to say the next words under his breath even though it was obvious Jun could still hear them.
“Listen. This kid, he’s tight with Ohno.”
Nakai looked mildly interested, although a frown was stuck on his lips, and raised an eyebrow.
“I’m listening.”
“You might be able to, I don’t know, grill him for information. You know, learn Ohno’s weaknesses.”
Jun furrowed his brows. Leader didn’t have any weaknesses.
Nakai pursed his lips.
“And besides, if you help us out, Ohno would be indebted to you, too. You’d be able to hang this over his head forever.”
Nino nodded encouragingly as Nakai seemed to warm up to the idea. The illusionist turned to glance at Jun, scrutinizing him, and the new ninja met his stare head on, not sure that he liked the idea of this man digging into Ohno’s life through him.
“It would be a favor you could call in whenever you wanted… Just think about the possibilities…” Nino added, trying to show the older ninja how good of a deal he was getting.
“Fine,” Nakai eventually gave in, but not without a stern look at the both of them. “But only three days, okay? And I won’t be able to start until tomorrow.”
Nino forced a pleasant smile at the concession and politely replied.
“Okay, that’s fine. Thank you so much, Nakai-san.”
He stepped back over to Jun and gave the older man a short bow. He waited for Jun to do the same, and then hit him on the back of the head when the boy didn’t comply immediately.
In response he scoffed and shooed them away, and so Nino pulled Jun sharply out of the small hut that Nakai used to house himself as well as most of the extra equipment he needed for his job.
Once they were outside, Nino glared at Jun, like he had almost ruined their chance, but Jun found out just a second later that that wasn’t the case.
“You know not to tell him anything about Oh-chan, right?”
Apparently Nino felt that Nakai wasn’t to be trusted and it was obvious why, with the conversation and battle of strong heads that Jun had just witnessed.
“Of course.”
“Not that you know much about Oh-chan anyway,” Nino continued under his breath and Jun frowned as he was dragged back towards the Main Building.
He did know about Ohno. Not probably as much as Nino did, since Aiba had explained that the two of them had known each other the longest, but he knew how nice and sweet and cute the older boy was, and how much he admired him already.
But before Jun could counter the snippy remark, Nino had started again.
“Okay, so let me give you a few details about Nakai. He’s sneaky, as you can probably tell. He’s also stubborn and won’t do anything unless there’s something in it for him. So you have to make yourself irreplaceable. If you can do even one thing that he shows you, we have to find some way to take you on as his second apprentice.”
Jun swallowed back his bitter attitude and nodded at Nino’s careful words.
“Even if you just give him little details like Ohno likes to go fishing. If you make it seem like you know Oh-chan well enough, he’ll probably keep you around just for his own convenience.”
Nino looked thoughtful again, as if trying to think of what else Jun needed to know about the other man.
Their pace had slowed and they automatically headed towards the forest instead of the Main Building now, but Jun figured the two of them had a little more talking to do anyway. And he had a lot of questions.
“Uh…” Nino turned back to him with a neutral expression, and waiting for Jun to start. “Why does he care about Leader so much?”
He nodded back, as if he had just realized he’d forgotten something important and that Jun had every right to ask him that.
“Well, they’re sort of rivals. They’ve been in the village about the same amount of time, and they were first trained together, even though Nakai is older than Ohno. They both progressed together and worked with each other for about a year. But Nakai was jealous that Ohno was living in the Main Building, even though he was only in training, and when Ohno was sent on his first mission, which was a while before Nakai ever was, he got really upset. He complained to Jyani about it, but he told Nakai straight out that he wasn’t ready. That he wasn’t as good as Ohno was.”
Jun’s eyes widened a fraction at the first piece of information he’d received about the way Ohno was before Jun had met him. It sounded like he was just as amazing as Jun had made him out to be in his mind.
“This was all before I came to the village, of course. For as long as I can remember, Nakai’s been trying so hard to catch up to Ohno, even though Leader doesn’t really pay attention to him at all. The man’s made quite a name for himself, though, and his animosity has died a little bit, but he seems to have these delusions that one day he’s going to show up Ohno, if only for a minute. Actually, it borders on obsession.”
Nino had stopped walking and was rubbing his head, obviously annoyed that he had to deal with Nakai as much as he did.
“He’s not a bad guy, really, if you know how to treat him. And he’s an amazing teacher, which is something I’m not sure Ohno will ever be able to do well. Plus, he’s easily paid off if you know what to offer him.”
Jun nodded, standing next to Nino and examining the line of trees that spread across the landscape.
This was all very valuable information, especially if he was to be working with Nakai for a while. Jun took the lesson from Nino to heart, thinking of how to make himself irreplaceable to the illusionist and try to learn something so he could be of use to Arashi, too.
“But don’t worry about it. I’ll help you deal with him.”
Jun didn’t reply immediately. Although Nino had been treating him as a problem since he’d entered the village and wouldn’t hold back his criticism, he had actually done a lot to help him. Whether that was due to Ohno’s request or desire to incorporate Jun into the group, he didn’t know, and they were probably one and the same inside of Nino’s head.
“Thank you,” Jun offered in a quiet voice, staring down at his hands sheepishly. “For everything.”
Nino turned to him sharply, looking surprised. The two of them had been butting heads recently, and Nino was still seeing him as an arrogant spoilt brat, even though he had put his full effort into training.
The older boy averted his eyes, feeling a light blush rise to his face at the unexpected gratitude. Maybe he hadn’t given Jun the full chance he should have.
“You’re welcome.” Nino’s voice was softer than Jun’s had been, and the two of them stood a little longer in silence, staring at the stark scenery of the forest.
+++
On the first day, he told Nakai that Ohno liked to go fishing, as Nino had suggested.
It didn’t seem like a particularly helpful piece of information, but just as the weapons master predicted, Nakai ate up the side handed comment quickly, which had taken him a half hour of prodding to get out of Jun.
The second day, after an evening of sitting with Ohno and asking him stupid questions (which had been amazingly fun), Jun let it slip, after Nakai had been asking him leading questions during the explanation on how to make smoke powder, that Ohno’s favorite color was blue.
He had narrowed his eyes and nodded, like he knew exactly what to do with that piece of information.
Jun had raised an eyebrow at the weird response, but followed the illusionist’s directions exactly and eventually produced his own messy clump of smoke powder.
The third day, the important one that Nino had told him not to mess up, Jun had been up thinking late into the night of what to say.
After they had reviewed the previous lessons, Nakai making an offhand comment that Jun wasn’t nearly as bad as he had expected with the way Nino had acted, the older man had begun to explain to him the specifics of illusions and how to make yourself seem like someone you weren’t.
It was only when they took a lunch break that Nakai started hinting about Ohno, and Jun had frowned for several minutes before mock-sighing and acting as if he really shouldn’t say what he was about it.
“Well… Ohno snores.”
Actually, Ohno didn’t make much sound during the night, but while Jun had been up thinking yesterday, he had heard the quiet little noises escaping through Leader’s nose. And he thought it was adorable, just like everything about Ohno was.
“Ah! I knew it!” Nakai replied enthusiastically, biting down heavily on his rice ball with an ecstatic expression on his face.
Jun tried not to let how confused he was at the response show and finished his own lunch while Nakai tried to engage him in a conversation about the fact that Ohno might be using snoring as a secret technique to fight enemies.
+++
The new ninja didn’t even need to ask Nakai to keep him on. Once the trial training was finished, the older man had made an offhand comment about Jun coming back the next day and he would introduce him to Touma, since they would have to work together from now on.
Jun had nodded, not giving away the surge of happiness he felt at that seemingly unimportant direction, and had celebrated with the rest of Arashi that night.
“You aren’t useless after all!” Nino had said with a bright expression, but Jun felt the underlying compliment, even though his choice of words were harsh, so he didn’t do anything other than smile at him.
Aiba had hugged him immediately and Sho had patted him proudly on the back. But Jun couldn’t tear his eyes away from Ohno’s relieved grin, and he hadn’t let the older man wander away from his side all night, not until all of them settled down from their oversized dinner and into their beds.
Although Ohno had held him tightly the first night Jun had spent with the group, he had distanced himself from him after that. Ohno hadn’t push Jun away when he pressed himself against his side the third night at the Main Building when he was feeling melancholy, but since Jun had started training with Nino, they had only held hands tightly under the covers, a little more space between their bodies becoming normal.
Aiba-chan slept with his head on Jun’s shoulder, which was comforting, but the youngest ninja wanted nothing more, most nights, than to force Ohno to hold him like he had before.
But he had to grow up now. He wasn’t at home where his mother would crawl into his bed with him as soon as he asked. He didn’t have a servant to bring him a warm piece of bread when he couldn’t fall asleep at night.
Being part of Arashi was a big responsibility and Jun had quickly realized he needed to carry his own weight in order to stay with his new found friends. He needed to make himself irreplaceable in the group, as well as in the village, but all of his efforts would be worthless if he couldn’t aspire to the level that Aiba and Sho and Nino and Ohno were already at.
Tonight, though, he decided that he deserved a reward for all the effort he’d put into training over the last month, and especially for convincing Nakai to take him, allowing Jun to carve his own path in Arashi.
Sho and Nino had already snuggled up together across the room, about as far away from Ohno as Jun usually was, giving them just enough privacy to embrace as they wished, but close enough to still be part of the group.
Aiba had been chatting with Jun as they laid in the dark, telling him about the only run in the herbalist had had with Nakai, but his voice was slowing down and he had started using words that didn’t exist.
Jun let his friend trail off, his story finally stopping with an oversized yawn, before he squeezed Ohno’s hand, which was tightly gripped in his own, in their usual sleeping position.
He knew Ohno was still awake because he squeezed back.
Jun scooted over a little, Aiba’s head lolling with him as he moved, and rested his nose against Leader’s shoulder tentatively.
Ohno stiffened a bit, but didn’t say anything or back away, so Jun propped himself up just enough to drape the arm that was attached firmly to his own over the back of his shoulder and firmly snuggled himself against Ohno’s chest, released the hand in order to drop his own to Leader’s stomach.
“J-Jun…” the older boy whispered as quietly as he could, and he replied by rubbing his head against Ohno’s chest, just above his heart, which was beating faster than Jun thought it should have. That made him smile.
He felt slightly bad for abandoning Aiba like that, but Ohno hadn’t said anything else about the positioning and Jun felt like his heart would break if he had to pull away from the swordmaster right now.
Finally Jun’s eyes drifted shut and the sound of Ohno’s beating heart sent him off to sleep.
+++
Eventually Nakai stopped grilling him for information, although Jun wasn’t sure if it was because he had decided the details that Jun fed him were useless or because he actually became distracted with Jun’s performance (even though the master wouldn’t ever compliment him on it).
It was probably the later, or Jun liked to think so, because once he had met Touma, the pair had become quite the handful when they were together.
And the things he was learning fascinated Jun.
The most fun so far had been the day that he and Touma had spent perfecting their smoke arts.
With a smaller sized smoke ball, Nakai showed them together how to manipulate the shape of the rising smoke so that it looked like a person, or an animal, or even a monster.
After that, the pair couldn’t be convinced to try anything else until the sun had set and Touma could now make a perfectly shaped woman with large breasts. They snickered at that together, and then Jun showed off his own technique, making a smoke person who looked like a pissed off Nakai, sending them into another fit of giggles.
Nakai had so many things like this to teach him, though. Yes, Jun knew how to make simple items like smoke bombs or blinding pellets, but the best part was learning the art of disguise, how to blend in with a crowd even though he blatantly looked different from everyone, and how to keep anyone from spotting you in the shadows. It was more psychological than physical and it was unbelievable.
The fact that friends wouldn’t recognize you just because you changed your talking voice, spoke heavier or lighter, and the idea of scaring people with a particular drop of an eyebrow was amazing.
Jun had practiced that look on Sho one day and was surprised to find the archer whimper and scuttle off, telling Nino that something had happened to Jun.
Nino had given him a scolding, and Jun had apologized several times, although he was actually quite ecstatic that it had worked.
Jun had been training with Nakai for an entire season now, the chill of winter leaving the village for the soft hum of summer, and the boy had come to love his mentor (despite his weird obsession with Ohno and tendency to complain about everything) and Touma too, almost as much as the rest of Arashi. Leader, of course, still caught his eye and made Jun want to try his hardest to impress him, but the younger boy had settled into his new life with little conflict, and was actually quite happy despite the dismal situation that had changed his entire existence almost a year ago.
Nakai had been building up the lesson for today over several weeks, teaching Touma and Jun specific facial techniques and giving them tips on analyzing a person’s movements in order to prepare them.
They stood out in front Nakai’s studio, which was close to the edge of the city, opposite from the metal forge, and observed people walking down the street. After Nakai had pointed out several specific things to watch for, he showed the boys exactly what he wanted them to do.
As a middle aged woman passed, the one that ran the general store a few buildings down, Nakai politely stopped her and engaged the woman in conversation for about three minutes.
Jun and Touma watched with raised brows, attentive to each movement Nakai made, even just a quick nod of his head, as well as the woman, who had a bright smile on her face.
Their trainer bid her a good day, then turned back to face Jun and Touma seated on the steps of the building together. They perked up at the mischievous look, and Nakai quickly swiveled around, hiding his front from view, messing with his hair quickly and making adjustments to his clothes that neither of the boys could see.
He turned back and approached them, asking in a soft voice “And how’re you boys doing today?”
Jun’s jaw dropped.
Nakai was imitating the woman perfectly, from the pitch of her voice to her facial features and the small movements she had been making with her lips as she tried to repress a laugh at Nakai’s terrible joke.
It fact, it almost seemed like it was the woman standing in front of them now, only she was wearing Nakai’s clothes and was sporting his same haircut.
Realizing that he had impressed the boys just as he had meant to, Nakai dropped his facade and bragged about how easy it had been before explaining a little more technique and giving each of them a challenge to do the same thing.
They argued over who would go first and after a brief bout of rock paper scissors, Touma was given the winning position.
They watched the street again, Nakai taking up Touma’s spot next to Jun while the other boy looked back and forth at the sparse group of people walking by. After a second, he bounded forward, calling out to an older man who worked at the forge.
The pair talked for a few seconds, Touma’s face wide in enthusiasm, and when the man nodded to the boy and walked off, Touma averted himself from his comrades and adjusted things like Nakai had done earlier.
After he walked back and gave his impression of the old man, Nakai and Jun broke out laughing.
“But what was that thing with the lips? That was all wrong! And you weren’t slouching over at all,” the teacher chided when Touma had finished, and he slapped the boy lightly on the head and told him he needed to try harder. The teacher pointed out a few more problems with Touma’s impression and then gave more pointers to the two of them before Jun went.
A few hours later, the whole time the illusionist’s apprentices taking turns stopping people on the street and practicing their newly taught skills, Touma spotted Aiba coming close to them with a small burlap bag in his hand.
He waved at Jun as soon as their eyes met, and Jun waved back, but it was Touma’s turn, so he didn’t join his partner in crime as the cheery man stopped the herbalist in the street and engaged him in a short conversation.
But Aiba didn’t leave when thanked for his time, and looked curiously at Jun as Touma began adjusting his hair.
Jun grinned widely and moved his hand back and forth, inviting Aiba to join them on the porch of the building.
Nakai sighed and rolled his eyes, making an offhand comment about extra baggage when Aiba excitedly sat down on Jun’s other side, the small sack safely in his lap, but he didn’t force the ninja to leave. Touma turned back to the group and started his display, Aiba watching in fascination as Touma presented an almost identical replication of himself.
“Wow!! That’s amazing!!” he cried out, clapping loudly when Touma finished a short dialogue about how Aiba was headed to the general store to deliver a package to the shop owner.
Touma blushed and bowed at the praise, and while Nakai told Touma that he needed to watch the wording he chose more carefully (because Aiba certainly wouldn’t use a technical phrase like in transit), the herbalist turned to Jun and asked in wonder if he could do the same thing.
So the younger ninja smiled at his friend and stood to find another victim.
Giving himself a challenge in order to impress Aiba more than Touma had, Jun picked out a young girl, probably about eight years old, and gently called out to her.
Jun’s eyes immediately moved over her face, analyzing the way she moved just as Nakai had taught him. Her eyebrows were relaxed, but when Jun asked her if she was busy right now, she averted her gaze and her lips turned up just barely in a shy smile.
She had a habit of running her tongue over her teeth, Jun could see that immediately by the slight movement just under her nose, and her lips were parted just a smidgen, which meant that she was nervous right now.
The reply was well, sort of, and Jun asked casually where she was going. Her fingers were fiddling with her sash at her waist even though her eyes were darting back and forth between Jun’s gaze and his chest. Her posture wasn’t very good, her shoulder leaning too far forward, and Jun could already assume she had a bad knee by the way she held herself.
She didn’t answer and so the ninja apologized with a sweet smile and said he was sorry for bothering her, and she ducked her head nervously before darting off when Jun moved.
Before he went back to Aiba, Touma, and Nakai, Jun tucked his hair behind his ears. The girl had had hers pulled back in a pony tail, but really all that mattered right now was getting the general atmosphere.
Next he straightened his ninja gear, making sure it was all tied properly like hers had been, and then reminded himself that she had a bad knee.
He turned back to his friends, mimicking the shy look the girl had given him, and then tentatively stepped forward, as if it was something he was nervous about doing.
Aiba was grinning at him, but Jun didn’t return the motion, and instead immediately began playing with his sash and looking at Touma, who would be easy to watch without breaking character since they had been practicing that way all afternoon.
“Sorry,” Jun said shyly, looking quickly between Touma and Nakai, running his tongue over his teeth, even though it was such a tiny detail that only their master would notice. “I’m… I’m lost, can you help me?” he asked innocently, his shoulder falling forward, imitating the bad posture of the girl.
“Of course!” Aiba replied immediately, and Jun had no choice but to turn to his friend. He looked quickly between the herbalist’s chest and his warm gaze, just like his muse had done, his face otherwise relaxed. “Where are you going?”
Jun swallowed and swiveled his head a little. The girl hadn’t done that, but he was improvising at the direct question. Knowing the details that he had picked up from the short conversation, he had to infer other nervous habits she would have. “I’m looking for my older brother…”
Aiba nodded, playing along with the situation and asked, “What’s his name?”
Jun smiled softly and brought his arms together in front of his stomach, looking down at them in barely hidden affection, just like he thought the girl would do. “Aiba-chan.”
The herbalist’s eyes began sparking. “What kind of boy is he?”
Jun let the repressed smile on his lips break through and replied enthusiastically, “He’s really stupid! And he’s a pervert, too! Sometimes I catch him sneaking into the women’s bath-“ Jun started, but Nakai and Touma immediately burst out laughing at Aiba’s sudden disgruntled expression.
“I do not!” he insisted, and Jun couldn’t hold his character any longer. He burst out laughing too, earning him a sharp hit on the head from an amused Nakai, and Aiba’s features softened, realizing it was all a joke.
“That’s really so awesome…” he said in wonder, staring at Jun in amazement.
Jun grinned back, blushing at the praise just like Touma had.
+++
When Jun had arrived back at the Main Building that night, practicing late with Touma even after Nakai had excused them earlier, Aiba immediately pulled him by the arm and seated him in front of Sho and Nino, who looked apprehensive.
“Do Sho-chan, Jun! Do Sho-chan!”
The youngest boy blinked at Aiba and raised his eyebrow.
“I was telling them how amazing you were! Come on.”
Jun looked back at the Sho-Nino pair seated across from him as the weapons master let out a sigh and rolled his eyes, as if he didn’t believe an ounce of what Aiba had been saying.
Holding back his arrogant grin, Jun instead turned to the archer.
“What did he tell you?” he asked, motioning to Aiba with a flat tone that sounded almost annoyed.
“He said that you really getting really good at illusions and that Nakai was proud of you.”
Jun cocked his head to the side questioning as he took in all of his friend’s features, just as he had been practicing all day. It didn’t take much time, though, since Jun was already so familiar with each of them.
“Which really means that he’s not complaining about you as much as he used to,” Nino cut in. “It hasn’t been that long, besides, you know how Aiba is,” he mumbled unbelievingly to Sho, joining in with Jun, who was pretending to disregard what the herbalist had said.
Sho’s eyebrows furrowed in a pout, but before he could say anything, Jun broke in with his impression of the archer.
“Nino, you shouldn’t be so mean to Aiba-chan.” His eyebrow was furrowed in the same way that Sho’s was right now and his lip was pursed out in an identical pout.
Nino turned to Jun suspiciously at the new tone, looking skeptical, and Sho’s expression immediately fell into shock.
“Besides, I’ve been trying really hard to improve, you know.” It felt weird for Jun to talk in first person about himself even though he was imitating Sho. The archer would usually gently chide Nino like this, though, especially when Nino started getting particularly cranky and hard to deal with, which was also when Aiba started avoiding any confrontation with him.
But Aiba was giggling and Jun turned to him, his eyebrows now raised like Sho’s were currently, and his mouth open just a little in a look of surprise. “What?” he asked, still imitating Sho’s deep tone and displayed the quick blinks that the archer did when he didn’t understand something.
Aiba grinned at Nino and Sho who were obviously surprised at the impression, and Jun turned back to them too, looking worried and a little anxious, Sho’s signature expression when he had made a mistake.
“What? Did I do something wrong?” Jun’s gaze darted back and forth between the three ninja, trying his hardest to imitate the archer’s cute frenzied attitude.
Aiba started snickering openly as Sho’s own face fell exactly into the mold that Jun was displaying, a nervous expression on his lips, and Nino also tried to hold back a laugh at his boyfriend’s dumbfounded look, a mirror image of what was on Jun’s face.
But Jun couldn’t let Nino have all the fun. He had doubted him at the beginning, after all.
The shocked look on Jun’s face immediately fell into a copy of the smirk on Nino’s, and he rubbed the back of his arm against his nose, in the same way Nino did when he was trying to hide his smile.
“You’re really cute, Sho-chan, you know that?” he said under his breath and averted his gaze to the floor next to him, still covering his mouth distractedly with his hand.
Nino immediately fell silent and stared at Jun with a frown when Sho’s expression turned into a pleased, but embarrassed smile.
Jun’s features merged into Nino’s usual neutral expression, his eyebrows just barely tense and his mouth in a thin pout.
“What? Don’t look at me like that. I’ll say what I want to say,” Jun imitated Nino’s offended voice, a little faster than his usual pace, and with a breathy huff to it. Aiba started giggling uncontrollably.
Turning to the herbalist, Jun’s brow deepened more. “What’s so funny, Aiba?” He crossed his arms over his chest, just like Nino did when he was getting angry. His voice held a dangerous, low tone to it, but Aiba just started laughing louder and Sho began chuckling, too, while Nino looked disgruntled.
The door behind Jun slipped open and Ohno was suddenly shuffling into the room, noticing the laughter being emitted by the boys as he shut it behind him.
He looked around the group, his eyes falling on Jun, who was trying to look innocent, and Ohno grinned lopsidedly.
“What’s going on?” he asked in a casual but suspicious voice.
Aiba elbowed Jun in the side, but the youngest ninja didn’t even need to watch Ohno in order to imitate him. He already knew all of Leader’s small habits, from the way his eyes crinkled shut when he began laughing, to the way he scratched the back of his head when he was confused.
When no one answered, the room becoming silent with Nino, Sho, and Aiba watching Jun intently, Ohno walked a few feet closer and plopped down next to the illusionist-in-training.
Jun’s expression easily fell into Ohno’s usual laid-back one and he gave the older boy an uneven smile, the one that was currently resting on the swordsman’s face.
“Hey,” Jun said shyly after a moment, his lip twitching upwards a little, like he’d seen Ohno’s do once.
Leader blinked at him and tilted his head a little, trying to figure out why Jun wasn’t acting like himself.
Jun mirrored his action, although the goofy smile was still plastered on the younger’s face.
Averting his gaze to Sho and Nino, trying to find a hint, Ohno only was more confused when Nino began stifling his giggles, making something close to a wheezing sound.
“What were you out doing, Leader?” Jun asked in the same drawling tone that his friend used when making small talk, his mouth barely opening in the least amount of effort possible.
Ohno immediately turned back to him, still not understanding what was going on, but answered the question promptly.
“I went fishing.”
Jun’s lips immediately turned up into Ohno’s lopsided smile again and his eyes opened a little farther, as it was one of the only topics that Leader ever got excited over.
“Fishing?” he asked with a slightly faster voice. “Did you catch anything?” His interest was focused sharply on Ohno and the older man looked around the room as all three of the other ninja started laughing at the two boys seated together opposite them.
“No…” Ohno replied softly, his eyebrows creased again.
“That… is so… perfect…” Nino got out between his breathy giggles, his body crumpling forward with the effort to stop laughing. “You make… a good… Oh-chan…”
But Ohno’s cute confused look was getting to Jun too much. He couldn’t hold the light hearted expression that was always on Leader’s face anymore and he burst out laughing, too.
“What?” Ohno asked, finally getting a grasp on the situation. “That was me?”
Aiba nodded and Leader mumbled about how fast Jun was progressing while the others tried to calm down.
“Hey do an impression of Nakai for me!” Nino requested as his laughter ceased, even though he still had a bright smile on his face.
Although Jun was weary from practicing all day, he still entertained his friends late into the night with his new found talent.
+++
The season passed again, and before Jun had realized it, summer was already fading and the crisp autumn wind had set in.
Although he missed the time spent with the rest of his friends, who trained together on the outskirts of the village while Jun was stuck at Nakai’s, he continued to feel closer and closer to them.
But he had to admit that he had become envious of Sho’s and Nino’s relationship. Even though Sho had told him the short story of their run in with Jyani and confided that he wasn’t sure what he would do if the ninja lord brought up the topic again, Jun still wanted what they had, only with Ohno.
Leader, though, had gently brushed aside any tentative advances that Jun made, dedicating himself whole heartedly to training and completing group missions, even though Jun couldn’t complete any himself without a little more practice with Nakai. The only time they had really seen each other, actually, was during the night, when Ohno would only hold Jun against him tenderly when the younger ninja forced him to.
And he had stopped doing that a long time ago.
They still held hands occasionally, but the differences in the feelings between the boys were too extreme, and Jun knew his level of maturity wasn’t anywhere near Ohno’s. He felt like he couldn’t understand Leader at all, despite all the time they had spent together. Even though it had become second nature to read other people’s expressions and intentions, he still ran in to trouble with highly trained ninja like Arashi, and Ohno had been the biggest challenge to date.
But Ohno, unbeknownst the Jun, had been struggling with his own feelings.
He had tried to distance himself from the younger man, realizing that he was tangling with something that he shouldn’t as far as his emotions were concerned. This was something that Jyani had warned him about ever since he was a child, and that he needed to grown strong and remain able to detach himself from his comrades when it was required.
But as Ohno developed his relationship over the years with Nino, then Sho, Aiba, and finally Jun, he was finding it harder and harder to stay aloof like Jyani had told him to. He didn’t want to direct them, he wanted to follow them. He didn’t want to leave any of them behind, he wanted to sacrifice himself for them.
Ohno knew this type of thinking was dangerous, but that didn’t mean that he could repress the ideas or tell them to go away.
In fact, the times that it was most difficult were when Jun was pressed up against him, either in sleep at night, or while the group was messing around on their days off.
Jun had changed so much since Ohno had first met him. Instead of the quiet gangly boy that the group had first rescued, the illusionist had become confident in himself and close to the rest of Arashi, just like Leader had wanted him to. He had grown another inch, too, now obviously taller than the swordsman, and his hair had been cut in a fashionable style, which made him even more handsome.
And as he slowly became more proficient in his current field, Jun had also taken up practicing throwing knives again, since it was the only weapon he had even had a chance at perfecting. Nino had convinced him to start once more, saying that although illusions were great for infiltration and information gathering, if it came down to hand to hand combat, Jun would only be a liability. His argument had been sound, and so Jun had put his full effort into learning to use them, even though he rarely got the blade to stick properly into the tree.
Ohno spent hours upon hours training with his sword or fulfilling missions for Jyani, trying to distract himself from the forbidden want sitting in the pit of his stomach. Jun would be his downfall, this was clear, but Ohno was too weak to push the boy away from him, to stop what had already started between the two of them.
“Leader, do you want some lunch?” Aiba called out to him and the older ninja was forced out of his trance.
They were in their usual training grounds, filling in the time between his missions with practice, and Ohno had his sword perched out in front of him.
He had gotten distracted so easily by Aiba when he had been called to, immediately forgetting what form he had been practicing. Leader never used to do that, not even when Nino tried to get his attention.
And he had been cycling through the same form over and over again instead of moving onto the next one like he should have.
Leader stared down at his hands, trying to will away his thoughts of Jun.
They were distracting him from practicing, and although Jyani insisted that Ohno’s technique was as good as ever, the boy couldn’t help but feel bad about his lack of attention on the task at hand.
Suddenly Ohno stiffened as the feel of the air around him turned dark.
Something was wrong.
Sho could tell too, next to Aiba and Nino, and the two younger boys tensed up at the change in atmosphere.
Looking around him, trying to figure out what it was, Ohno finally placed the feeling and sniffed the air.
There was a faint smell of smoke on the wind, and he turned suddenly to the village, noticing the air above the trees on that side was growing dark.
“What’s going on?” Sho was looking in the same direction as Ohno, his face displaying panic.
“Something’s happening… We have to get back there,” Nino said in a tense voice, dropping the food he’d just taken from Aiba onto the ground.
But Ohno had already taken off at a full run as the rest of the group noticed the problem, his sword grasped tightly in his fist.
Jun was still in the village.
He had to save Jun.
+++
A/N: I think this may be the fluffiest chapter in the whole story, except of course the cliff hanger at the end and maybe Juntoshi not going along as well as expected. I'm sorry, the updates are still weird, but I have a busy weekend, so I wasn't sure I'd have time to update then. We'll see. There's still a lot of chapters left after all...:)
I've been trying to work on something else but I just don't feel like writing anything, even though I have a lot of ideas. So I might just be posting this story for a while, since it's mostly written already.
Chapter twelve