AT5 Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Sensei's Scare

Taihei had considered, once or twice, that having the power of invisibility would be
pretty cool. He would be able to just sneak into enemy bases and out again, he could
observe clandestine operations, he could possibly get into that mysterious section of the
bookstore that seemed to be barred to anyone under eighteen. And he could imagine a
whole lot of other interesting things he could try. At any rate he had thought it would be
useful…useful and cool.

Of course, this power, when he had imagined it, included an 'off' option. The fact that it
didn't seem to was… very un-cool.

"Kai." He said rather listlessly, mentally counting it off as having been the 42nd time he
had tried to release the strange shield which he seemed to have unintentionally absorbed
into himself. And then he absently tried to disrupt his chakra flow. This again also didn't
work as he trailed after the group who was searching for him.

Ibitsu was beside herself, but overall no one else seemed to be terribly worried.

Well, he was getting a little worried, admittedly.

The young ninja picked up his pace and fell in beside his sister. Well, as long as she
couldn't hear him anyway, perhaps he could have a little fun.

"So, Tori-chan… remember when mother tied your hair with pink bows when you were
sleeping and then you didn't bother to look in the mirror before ninja class? Well, Komi-
kun told me that he thought you looked cute and…"

Toride, meanwhile, was wondering why she was unexpectedly struck with the sudden
urge to kill one of her old classmates. She racked her brain, trying to think of what Komi
had ever done that would make her angry…well, angrier than usual, anyway.

Her rage grew as they walked along the forest path, confusing her and making her
unexpected rage grow even more. It was almost as though someone who knew her very
well was whispering things that she'd rather they DIDN'T know in her ear.

"Ano…Toride-san?"

"What!?" She snapped, looking around and finally focusing on her cowering team-mate.

"You…um…your kunai…"

Toride looked down and found that somehow her kunai had become clenched in her
trembling fist.

"No stabbing, dear." Her mother called from behind her.

She stared at her fist. Her brows contracted. Her eyes narrowed. "He's here."

"W-what?" Ibitsu quavered.

"I don't know how, but he's here!"

"Are you feeling quite well, Toride-chan?" Iouka glanced around, seeing no sign of her
son, even as Taihei waved almost cheerfully from beside his sister, a rather evil grin on
his face.

"He's pi…" Toride glanced at her mother. "He's…it's like I can almost hear him. He's
teasing me. I know he IS! Don't look at me like I'm crazy! I'm not crazy! Taihei, shut
up!" She swept her kunai through the air where Taihei was standing, and he dodged, still
grinning.

Oh, yes. This was working, and he was quite enjoying himself. "Hopples-san…" He
whispered in her ear, maneuvering between swings.

"Your face is getting really red!" Called Ibitsu as she retreated a safe distance from
Toride, who was flailing about with her kunai and determinedly NOT thinking about pink
stuffed bunny rabbits.

Kokushi exchanged a glance with Iouka and in a flash was behind Toride, hooking his
arms under hers and restraining her from actually finding targets.

This, of course, did not serve to make Toride any happier. She snarled, struggling against
the ANBU's grip.

"Let's get back to the village quickly." Iouka said. And they started back down the path,
Toride's howls of rage preceding them.

"We've reached vein-throbbing level!" Ibitsu squeaked as she ran after them, at a
respectable distance of course.

--

Some sort of disturbance seemed to be coming down the street. Tsu could see people
leaping back, or staring in astonishment, but she couldn't quite see who it was who was
causing it.

But a moment later she could hear it.

"TAIIIHEEIII! I KILL YOU!"

She dropped the magazine she had been pretending to read and pushed her way through
the crowd.

When had she ever thought that teaching would not be a mortifying experience? But
Toride was her student, and she supposed that no matter how much she wished otherwise
she would have to at least SEE why Toride was shrieking that she would kill her brother
at the top of her lungs in the middle of the day in the middle of a crowded street.

"What's going…" She squeezed through the last rank, "…on here?"

"Tsu-sensei!" Ibitsu practically threw herself at her sensei. The young genin clung to her
and stared up with wavery eyes.

"So cute…" Tsu thought. "What is it, Ibitsu?" She actually said.

"Tsu-sensei! Toride-san's gone insane!"

"Insane?" Tsu paused. "Um… You mean more than usual?"

"Yes!"

"Whoa." Tsu shook her head. "I mean, what makes you say that Toride-kun's gone
insane?"

"She keeps saying that she hears Taihei, but Taihei's not here!"

"That…" Tsu looked over at the group, which had paused. Toride flailed in the grip of a
ninja that Tsu found vaguely familiar, Iouka was looking a bit worried, and even more
embarrassed. And… "Ibitsu-chan. Taihei's right there."

"Where?!" Ibitsu's head whipped around. "Where?!"

"Right there, next to Toride-kun."

The boy in question must have felt her sudden attention. He looked at his teacher, a
startled and slightly shamefaced smile on his face.

"Ah, you can see me, sensei." He laughed, backing away from his sister. "Funny, that."

"Just what have you been up to, Taihei-kun?" Tsu asked sternly.

"Honored mother, it's catching!" Ibitsu wailed.

Iouka shot the girl a confused glance.

"Well, sensei, it seems I absorbed some sort of jutsu a little while ago. They can't see me.
I've been trying to get their attention."

"Seems you've gotten Toride-kun's." Tsu said sternly, crossing her arms.

"Ah-hahaha. I was trying anything I could think of."

"So you decided to tease your sister…"

"Kazaguruma-san?" Iouka asked. "What's going on?"

"Ah, good morning Yamanami-san. I'm trying to find out."

"Before you go back to that, can you confirm something for me?"

"Certainly."

"Is Toride actually hearing her brother?"

"Yes." Tsu confirmed.

"Ah." Iouka rubbed a hand over her forehead. "Thank you."

"Anyway…"

"It was in the woods to the east of here." Taihei said. "I was going for a walk."

"Against Doctor's orders…"

"And found a clearing." He looked at his sensei piercingly. "With a concealing jutsu on
it."

Tsu could feel her ears heating, though she fought to keep her expression neutral.

"Sensei, I understand if you don't want to say anything about that place, and the others
couldn't see it, but they're going to wonder if I tell them what happened."

"And the medi-nins were worried that something like this would happen which is WHY
they ordered you to stay in the hospital." Tsu said in a strained neutral voice.

"It was a nice place."

Tsu was silent for a minute. "Kai."

Taihei felt his ears pop.

"Taihei-san!" Ibitsu crashed into him, knocking him to the ground.

"I see I have reappeared." He grinned, patting his team-mate comfortingly as they sat in
the dirt in the middle of the road in front of a small crowd of curious onlookers.

"TAIHEI!" Toride screamed, her voice reaching such decibels that it set dogs howling up
and down the street.

Kokushi tightened his grip, but a moment later his eyes watered in astonishment and
sudden pain. He stared after the girl charging away from him then down at his empty
hands. Then the ANBU quietly folded into a heap in the middle of the road wondering
HOW such a small girl could have one; such flexibility and two; such a very powerful
kick. In spite of himself he was a bit impressed for a moment.

Then everything sort of faded into a white haze in which it was difficult to think of
anything at all.

Except pain.

"Ow…"

"Kokushi-kun? Kokushi-kun? Are you all right?"

He managed to make a sort of gurgle, and managed to scrounge enough conscious
thought to push the pain away. He was an ANBU after all, and this was very undignified.
But still, ow…

He squeezed his teary eyes open just enough to see Iouka-senpai's blurry face hovering
above him. "Be all right… just a moment." He groaned. He focused his attention a bit
away where the sounds of battle were growing.

Toride was fierce, he had to give her that, as the appreciative audience moved back until
they were pressed against the shops on either side.

Kokushi mustered up the strength to get to his knees, and after another moment was on
his feet.

"I really do apologize, Kokushi-kun." Iouka was saying. "Is everything, um…damaged?"

He hoped she wasn't laughing, if she was laughing he was just going to go off and kill
himself. But he couldn't bring himself to look over at her and find out.

"Nothing permanent." He managed shortly. He focused on Iouka's children, glad to have
an excuse to draw attention away from possible injury to his…delicate place. "Should we
be attempting to stop them, Iouka-senpai?"

Now she did sound amused, if a bit irritated. "Better not to until Toride-chan gets this out
of her system. I would rather like to find our home in one piece in the morning."

"I should hope that it won't come to that." Tsu commented.

Kokushi looked at her in horror, having forgotten that she had been standing nearby and,
likely, had observed everything up to this moment. He wondered if they would find it
amiss if he just vanished, here and now, and got himself assigned to some distant outpost
for a while. It was beginning to look like a welcoming prospect.

She was, almost too ostensibly, focused on the cloud of dust being raised in the middle of
the street. A moment later, a small pale shadow emerged and wobbled breathlessly up to
her sensei. "I think it's best if I sit this out…maybe…" She panted as she sank down at
Tsu's feet.

"Bad in there, Ibitsu-chan?" Tsu asked kindly.

Ibitsu stared off into space for a moment. Then she shook her head, not as if she didn't
know, but more that she wasn't sure what was a strong enough term.

Tsu nodded and took out her red fan. "If I may Yamanami-san?"

Iouka nodded and Tsu did a complicated gesture with her wrist, snapping open the fan
and snapping it shut again quickly. As she did so an isolated breeze kicked up in the area
directly in front of her, rising directly up in a circular motion, spreading slowly into a
disc, then settling over the dust filled area before the audience. In an action disorienting
to the eye the air smashed down, taking the dust with it.

"Nice." Kokushi commented.

"Why, thank you." Tsu smiled briefly, flipping her fan back into its holster. Then she
looked at the scene revealed before her and all the blood drained from her face. "Oh! Oh,
Kami-sama! Toride, stop! Stop NOW!"

For Toride had managed to trap her brother in one of her force-fields. Not only that, but
she was shrinking it slowly, so that Taihei was practically curled in a ball, his hands
tucked firmly under his arms. Obviously he had understood the danger he was in just as
quickly as Tsu had. His eyes, what Tsu could see of them through the swirling chakra
field, were terrified.

Tsu did not believe for a moment that Toride would intentionally kill her brother. Toride
would never forgive herself if such a thing happened when she was merely trying to give
him a scare.

Tsu walked slowly toward the girl, keeping her body language as non-threatening as
possible now that her initial horror had tempered into a steadily simmering fear.

She spoke in a low, slow voice. "Let him go, Toride-kun. Let him go. You've made your
point." Toride didn't answer.

She heard Iouka ask something anxiously behind her, but couldn't risk taking her
attention away from the girl to answer. A moment later she deliberately blanked
everything out of her mind except for Toride and her twin.

"Let him go. Please, Toride-kun. This is enough."

"Not enough," the girl ground out from between clenched teeth.

"Toride, listen to me." 'Gently, gently.' She told herself, as the field grew a little smaller.
"If you keep this up, it will really hurt him. I'm sure you don't want that, Toride-kun.
Now just let it loose. Carefully, now."

Toride's furious eyes turned to her teacher's face, and what she saw there made her
suddenly afraid. But her tide of anger had not yet receded. Tsu could see her battling
herself, her face tight and twisted.

"It's okay, Toride-kun… Just let him go now." Tsu stood there, her whole posture
begging.

Toride's anger eased a little more, and the sphere encasing her brother widened a bit. He
wobbled, but did not put out his hands to catch his balance.

"It's okay." Tsu repeated, soft, soothing even as her heart threatened to leap out her
throat. No one should have to see someone they love die. No one should even FEEL
responsible for it. Her throat tightened, sending her heart back down into her stomach as
tears began to fight her control and rise in her eyes. "Please, Toride-kun. I don't want this
to happen to either of you. I don't…" Her voice caught in her throat.

The bubble vanished, dropping Taihei to the road as Toride stared at her sensei,
questioning and for once, not angry at all.

Tsu ran to Taihei, only now daring to draw a deep breath.

He was still curled as he had been when Toride had held him, and when Tsu touched him
she could feel his arms trembling with the effort it had taken to keep his hands firmly
tucked away. His whole body was so tensed that she did not think he could relax even
had he wanted to.

"Taihei, it's gone now." She said soothingly, kneeling beside the boy. She could feel
other presences approaching and turned to warn them off before realizing that it was
Ibitsu and the boy's mother.

"What happened!?" Iouka demanded. "All of a sudden, your face…" She crouched down
and took her son in her arms.

Perhaps it was the scent of her, or the familiar feel of her soft arms, arms that had kept
him safe since he was little, but Taihai relaxed, slowly uncurling though helpless tremors
still wracked his body.

Tsu bit her lip, turning slightly away and rummaging through her pack. Finally she came
up with what she sought, and she quickly unrolled a length of bandage between her
hands.

"Give me your hand, Taihei." She said.

He lifted his head from his mother's chest, his eyes focusing for the first time since he
had been released. His eyes found his teacher's, and the understanding there. With a
shaky nod he held out his hand and she quickly and expertly wrapped his fingers, first
one hand, then the other. When she had bitten off the end of the last bandage he seemed
to relax the rest of the way and almost before he could smile his thanks he had fallen
asleep.

Iouka looked at Tsu, then. "How much danger was he in?" Tsu could see how hard she
fought to keep her voice steady.

Tsu hesitated, and closed her eyes in one long blink before replying. "More than I like to
think." She turned her head and looked at Kokushi, who had come closer. "Will you take
him? He needs to be back in the hospital." She looked around, but the crowd had already
begun to dissipate now that the show was over. "He'd rather you take him." She added
softly.

Kokushi nodded, stooping down and taking the sleeping boy on his back. Ibitsu, who had
been keeping back of the two women, not quite understanding what was going on, was
beside him in a flash.

"I'll…I'll help you steady him. If that's okay?"

Kokushi looked down at her and smiled, nodding. She hesitantly took one of Taihei's
bandaged hands and the three set off.

Tsu and Iouka stood a moment longer, letting out a huge sigh in unison. Iouka glanced
over her shoulder. "Come along Toride-chan."

But Toride did not 'come along'. She just stood there in the spot where she had been
when the fight ended, in the emptying street, and watched them leave.