New Assignment

[Mugen]

At the foot of towering stone brick buildings, beneath the hazy mist that pervaded all of Kirigakure, stood one Hōzuki far out of their depth. The chain of command had become destabilized and, with so many holes in their ranks, Kirigakure sought to assign a few of their ANBU operatives to teaching duty. For Mugen, this was a nightmare. They weren't the teaching type, they thought. It was better for a naïve genin to train under someone who would be enthusiastic and encouraging to a student, surely. But, despite all of their protests and pleas, there was no other option.

So, there Mugen stood, shifting weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "What appearance would be best?" The Hōzuki pondered, morphing their feminine features into something a bit more androgynous. "Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe she won't even show up, and I can just go home and tell the boss tomorrow that I tried my best but it just wasn't for me, and they should find someone else. I work better alone, anyway..."

 

[Haizansha Furasato]

A subtle rapping accompanied Haizansha on the way to meet her new sensei; the rhythm almost reminiscent of children running sticks through fences. A stark white spike held between her fingers danced against the masonry of each stone-brick building. It thrummed with hollow echoes, reverberating the almost-nostalgic sound. The more gruesome truth was in her hand was no stick, she was no child, and these buildings were no white-painted picket fences.

The tang of the sea hung in the air as pervasive as the mist that seemed a constant in the village. In her younger years she had loved the mist, especially days when it was too thick to see through at some points. She would find the highest point of the fog, stand in such a way that it hid her from the waist down. She used to pretend to be a ghost in those times. The irony of pretending to be what she was now had never left her bones. She smiled in the saddest way, remembering how she had somehow predicted how her life would now be.

Her smile faded as the fog lessened. Today was the day most Genin look forward to. Today was the day she would meet her sensei and, presumably, the rest of her team. She had only been given a time and a place however so the details of the meeting were more of a suggestion than anything. She couldn't help but wonder what had caused such a nonchalant beginning to what would presumably be one of the most important relationships in her life. Was it her sensei's decision or had the sudden disappearance of the Mizukage had ripples that reached this deep?

Lost in her thoughts she didn't realize that the meeting point was quickly approaching. If it wasn't for the constant motion, foot to foot, feature to feature, of the person she wouldn't have noticed them at all. Her smile returned, smaller but with no hint of sadness this time. She found it charming, and reassuring, to find adults, or at least those in power, were sometimes as unsure as she felt.

"Un." She wasn't sure how to greet the person. Sir? Ma'am? Sensei? None of the words felt one-hundred percent. "Furasato, Haizansha, pleasure." Her voice, husky for a girl, wafted on the air like cigar smoke before going down like whisky. "I look forward to working with you."

 

[Mugen]

Just as they has begun to settle on throwing in the towel, Mugen heard a set of footsteps emerging through the haze of salty mist. Their posture straightened up, and their gaze turned to meet that of their student. She looked about as accurate as a block of text could describe a human being, but not the way Mugen imagined. When distance between them tightened, the student spoke, offering a gentle smile and a curt introduction of herself. Mugen's back leg flinched, fighting instinct to take a step back and create more space. "Don't be rude," The Hozuki thought.

"Ah- Er, good morning, genin, it's.... good to meet you." The uneasiness of Mugen's tone betrayed their internal discomfort, clashing with their otherwise cool, smooth timbre of voice. "You're my first student. I.. hope we can work well together as a unit." Their lips shaped into the most polite smile they could conjure.

 

[Haizansha Furasato]

Her head jerked back as a disapproving frown pulled at her lips. "Haizansha." She repeated. Her name was not Genin. She had spent too long answering to such generic and empty words. She had spent most of her life answering to them. Now that she had a name she would make sure others used it. "My name is Haizansha." She moved past her sensei whose name they had not given and pressed her back against the brick wall. The hollow bone she held in her hand beat against the stone in a simple rhythm, filling the silence between the two.

"Soooo...." She shuffled uncomfortably silently cursing that this was her sensei. "What should I call you? Sensei? Teach? Trainer?"

 

[Mugen]

"—Oh." Said Mugen, startled by the new student's bluntness. "Haizansha, then. Sorry." They watched as Haizansha drifted past and leaned up against the wall, rapping a beat against the brick structure. She returned the question-that-wasn't-really-a-question, inquiring as to what she should call them. "Wweellll... Um– My name is Hōzuki Mugen. Er, I suppose that's not really appropriate for a student to call their sensei by their full name..." The Hōzuki took a few steps away, hoisting themselves up onto a pile of bricks and stone, so as to create a better space for conversation. "Sensei or teacher are fine, I think."

...

God, this is awful. Just dreadful. "I shouldn't be here," Mugen groaned internally, feeling they've effectively ruined this first meeting already. Maybe they just need to talk more...? Or, maybe they should talk less. Small talk was always Mugen's least favorite part of any interaction.

"You... want to walk and talk? I haven't been to this part of the village in a while."

 

[Haizansha Furasato]

Mugen sensei. She thought, letting the name sink in. They had also mentioned their surname, that of one of the higher clans of the village. The Hozuki were known for their unique ability to manipulate their bodies as if it were water itself, something that proved quite powerful in a land named after such a thing. Her own clans, though disowned as she was, were much less profound in their place among Kirigakure. The Kaguya were often used as frontliners, berzerkers who threw themselves at battle with little more push than the word "Go." Her other bloodline, those who possessed Boil Release, were higher up than the Kaguya for certain and in some instances were on par with the Hozuki for their power in the village. She felt a little frustrated seeing the way Mugen carried themselves. If their roles were swapped she was certain she'd carry herself with more confidence. It almost felt insulting to see someone born to such a different world acting the way she did.

She stared at her sensei with an uncertain gaze. Was it normal for the teacher to ask the student what they should be doing? "Uhhhh, sure?" She answered in like uncertainty. "Are we gonna play twenty questions or something while we walk?" She asked it ironically but a part of her secretly thought that Mugen expected exactly that.

 

[Mugen]

It seemed to Mugen that they were still, quite frankly, blowing it. "This sucks," They thought. "I'm already losing them." Still, it had to show for something that Haizansha was willing to humor them anyway, even if it was begrudgingly so.

"Cool." Their response was, in all honesty, more of a sigh of relief than anything else. The Hōzuki hopped down from their makeshift seat and stood uneasily, waiting for Haizansha to accompany them. "Twenty questions? Er- I mean, I hadn't thought that in particular, but... well, I guess it'd be worthwhile to get to know each other, right?" It took an extra beat or two for Mugen to begin walking, still adjusting to the leadership role they've found themselves in. Their cadence was light but stiff, as though they wanted to make as little sound as could be, while taking up the least amount of space. Around the corner was a vast harborplace, bustling and buzzing with the usual foot traffic along the docks and gangways, with various workers and merchants mulling about the warehouses that lined the right side of the main boardwalk. "Ssoooo... what was your graduation like?" Mugen asked, earnestly. Their eyes flicked around from this to that, from face to face, not lingering on one thing for too long.

 

[Haizansha Furasato]

She waited for Mugen to begin walking; taking the same extra beat or two to move after he did. She shook her head as confusion sank in. This person clearly either had zero experience as a sensei or had zero interest in it and both raised the same question. Why were they assigned a Genin in the first place? In the Land of Water a shinobi's life was fleeting and temporary. Clearly Mugen had been able to survive and grow but were they able to pass on the knowledge of such a thing to a new generation? Was she doomed because her sensei was inexperienced? Her life was in their hands now and she suddenly felt very, very unsafe. That feeling was abruptly, and violently replaced by a single question.

"My graduation?" She asked increduously. Anger stoked her next words as her teeth attempted to contain the lfames. "You mean where I had to kill everyone I grew up with? That graduation?" It was unclear how much Mugen knew. If he was aware she was Lower Caste. If he was ignorant to her name only being chosen after she graduated. If he knew about her mutt status; abandoned by both clans whose blood coursed through her veins. Her blood boiled and her bones ached, reminders of those very clans who had disowned her.

 

[Mugen]

"Yeah,"Mugen affirmed. "That one." Haizansha definitely seemed to resent that question, and Mugen did their best not to betray any visual recognition or acknowledgement. It made sense, of course. For them, graduation was over a decade ago. Any minute lingering grief over lost lives was washed away long before this conversation. But, understandably so — especially given her own genetic makeup — the genin was still fresh off of her graduation ceremony. It was acceptable to still be prickly about it.

They thought back to their own graduation. "Everyone I knew was waiting for me to die, in mine. Even my parents were shocked to see me come back home."Their hair grew longer, their face slightly rounder. If there was ever a time to talk about themselves, it wasn't now. Maybe another time.

"How did that make you feel? —Uh, the graduation, I mean."

 

[Haizansha Furasato]

Rage boiled within the girl as her chakra boiled in similar fashion. Steam bubbled through her pores, leaked out of her skin, singing the air around her. "It made me feel sick." She began, barely able to speak through the gritting of her teeth. "Like a monster, like nothing more than an animal forced to kill or be killed. Survival of the fittest but at what cost? What did I survive for? I have so few to share that survival with. So little to show for it. All I have is the blood on my hands and the anger in my heart. I'm still not welcome in my clans. I'm still treated as a no-name nothing by the fishermen. What do I have to show for all the friends I lost?"

Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms across her chest. "You?" The word was as hot as her chakra. "All I gained for everything I lost was a sensei who clearly wants nothing to do with me or the job." Her eyes rolled and she began tapping her foot rapidly. "Hoo-ray." She said, sarcasm dripping venomously from the word.

 

[Mugen]

Immediately the tone went from sour, to bordering on hostile. It sounded, to the Hōzuki, that Haizansha was still very hot from what they experienced as a graduate. Mugen understood, of course. The very core of who they are, how they showed up in the world, and how they interacted with others was signed, sealed, and punctuated by the finality of that day at graduation. It comes as no surprise that each generation came with a mountain of baggage, repression, and perhaps a bit of restrained bloodlust. Haizansha's story sounded so sad. While suffering was far from a competition, Mugen couldn't help but feel that, for the first time, someone else seemed to have it worse than them.

They stopped, and turned to their new protégé. Instead of finding nervousness or apprehension in Mugen's gaze, Haizansha would find intense concern. "You gained freedom." The Hōzuki declared. "Every day you wake up is one more day you could have died, you know. I strongly disagree with the existence of such a trial, doubly so because students are deliberately left in the dark about it, and triplyso because it's treated as a spectacle. But we did not have a choice. Not if we wanted to be shinobi. Not if we wanted to make it out alive."

They leaned back, resting against a railing that separated the beach from the walkways. "I, uh, didn't ask for this assignment. I fought against it, actually. But... I'm here." Mugen took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm not... great.. with, uh...... with people. I didn't think I'd be a very good teacher. Sorry I'm not what you hoped for."