[Hatake Suzume]

Suzume's breaths came out in labored bursts as she faced off against her enemy. Yoki, the longer of her two tanto, was firmly in hand and held squarely in front of her, its matte gray blade covered in the gore of her target. As she fought to keep her lungs supplied with fresh air, several drops of sweat ran down the sides of her face, picking up mass as they ran into other beads of sweat before coming to a slight stop at her chin and finally dropping to the ground below. With a grunt, the Hatake chose to rest no longer, bursting forward with movements so quick, only a shinobi could keep sight of her. She moved forward not in a straight line, but with alternating lunges to each size, zigzagging her way up until she was just in front of her victim.

Weapon wielding hand shot forward, driving the tanto's point into the defenseless victim several times in just one second, three quick punctures shaking the target and finally capped off with one powerful slash across the center. The blade shined with a brilliant white on the final attack, a crescent shape of light splitting the target in two, and a moment later the top half of the victim slid off. The poor unfortunate soul? Just a wooden target dummy. The noon-time sun shone down on the Konohagakure with its familiar warmth, and as usual, Suzume found herself training the hours away. After splitting her dozenth target dummy in half, though, the woman was beginning to grow tired, and she began to consider the idea of calling it a day. She sheathed her blade as she once again worked to catch her breath, mind weighing options.

For now, though, she wanted to get her sweat soaked hair out of her face, and she pulled the purple hued strands back with both hands. Gathering it all up into one hand, she used her teeth to pull her hairtie off of her wrist, and with it she tied her hair into a messy ponytail. While she finished making the final loop, Suzume finally noticed that there was someone watching her just ahead, causing her hands to freeze. It was... some younger girl? How long had she been watching Suzume? Her low self-esteem immediately told her that it was most likely due to her shoddy appearance. With sweat-soaked, Konoha green clothes and hefty flak jacket, Suzume imagined she was quite a sore sight.

Nara Shun

[Nara Shun]

NARA SHUN CHRONICLES

VI - I

-  t h e  t a l e  o f  -

S H A D O W  I N  T H E  F I E L D

---

Two grey eyes stared at the chuunin and the area around her. The day had thus far been uneventful. Shun had done her morning training. She woke up with the sun, went for a run that lasted about three hours and then worked on basic taijutsu forms. The girl had tried to stick to some sort of a weekly routine and, slowly she was gaining more and more stamina. A part of her was proud that taking a couple hundred laps as punishment for class disobedience wouldn’t bother her anymore in the academy – she used to hate it.

The raven haired student had taken a break and went out to get a milkshake. It was when she was coming back to the training grounds that she spotted a kunoichi with a short sword. It was intimidating and mesmerizing to watch. The woman moved like the weapon was an extension of herself and so – Shun stopped to stare and slurp her vanilla milkshake through a bamboo straw now and then.

”So cool. I wonder if I’ll be able to do that one day. I wonder how long she’s been learning to do that…”

Sluuuurrrrrrrrrrrrp

The purple haired shinobi had stopped. Maybe she was tired? It was also at that point that she noticed Shun staring at her and the young girl froze a little.

…slurp.

”Maybe it’s best I go apologize for staring. I might come across as some weirdo stalker or something.” Shun let go of the straw in her lips and let out a sigh. ”Figures. Me making a first impression like this. Good job, Shun! Good job!” Her shoulders dropped a bit and she went into a slow jog to close the distance between her and the older girl – all while making sure the remnants of her shake don’t spill out. The way they made them in Konoha – they had to be drunk quite quickly or they went stale.

”Um, excuse me, miss! Sorry for staring but… what you did there looked so cool. How did you learn that?” she asked sincerely without even introducing herself first. The young one was overly curious.

---

Tag: Hatake Suzume
Shun: 96d13d

[Hatake Suzume]

Suzume lowered her arms as he noticed the girl was beginning to approach, instinctively slouching and shrinking into a more defeated posture. She had no real reason to fear the younger girl, she was at least half a head shorter than her, but she still couldn't help but feel intimidated. Would she shout at her for staring? Maybe it was high time for her tuck tail and run, but before she could come to a definitive decision, the girl was upon her, unleashing her fury- Oh. The Hatake had been so ready to take a verbal lashing her face was winced pre-emptively, but when the girl in front of her simply said that she looked cool, Suzume couldn't believe it. Just to make sure that she wasn't making some sort of mistake, she turned her head to see if there was anyone behind her, and finding that there wasn't, she'd hesitantly answer the girl.

"I... wouldn't say I look cool... but the secret to mastering any technique is plenty of practice."

From the way she looked, Suzume figured that the girl in front of her was about academy student aged, and she also made the assumption that if she approached her so casually, she most like was actually an academy student. Feeling that her answer had been quite lackluster, an idea popped into her purple-haired head, and she hastily moved to unsheathe the shorter of her two tanto, Daitan-sa [x], turning the shining blade in her hands and holding it towards the girl with the handle pointed in her direction.

"Would... you like to try it out?"

Suzume knew that most younger shinobi got a kick out of holding and trying out any weaponry they could get their hands on, and if this girl had thought that she was cool, then she'd surely be no different. Her eyebrows raised suddenly as she realized that neither of them had introduced themselves yet, and while it was understandable for an academy student to forget, the same couldn't be said for a chuunin.

"My name is Hatake Suzume, by the way... what's your name?"

[Nara Shun]

NARA SHUN CHRONICLES

VI - II

-  t h e  t a l e  o f  -

S H A D O W  I N  T H E  F I E L D

---

”What do you mean?” she replied quickly. ”Of course it looked cool – I’ve never seen someone wield a weapon like that. You should have your own comic book series or something” Shun spoke up and also couldn’t help but wonder what that might look like. Well, her comic would be pretty lame, probably. Just a regular girl doing regular academy things. Maybe, one day she’d become someone important and could go on many adventures.

”Hmm…” the raven haired girl trailed away in thought for a bit as she gazed up at the sky and tapped her chin with one of her index fingers.

”Then again, I don’t want to go on adventures where I might die. I just want to become great and see a lot of things of the world. Certainly, I’m just not the hero type.” she nodded to herself and crossed her arms over her chest for a little bit. ”Right. Not the hero type at all.” the Nara nodded again.

The nice, skilled woman asked if Shun wanted to try it and for a second the girl didn’t believe she heard it correctly. ”What? Seriously?” Her grey eyes widened and she shifted her weight forward. Her gaze switched from Suzume’s face to her blade and back again. Shun’s face lit up in excitement and she cautiously reached her free hand up to the handle because the other still held a cup of milkshake. ”Oh, right.” she let out and stopped midway to put said cup on the ground.

”This is amazing! It’s so pretty!” she let out when taking the blade and inspecting it from all ends. There was an inscription. ”Hm? Ha-ta-ke?” Soon it made complete sense since Suzume introduced herself.

”Hehe, sorry.” Shun lifted her newly free hand to lightly tug at the back of her neck. She was embarrassed. Indeed, both of them hadn’t introduced themselves and Hatake-san had been so kind to let Shun hold one of her blades.

”My name’s Nara Shun. It’s nice to meet you.” she spoke in a very polite and calm tone and bowed forward as she did with her arms at her sides. This woman was a superior after all. The Nara girl’s mother would scold her if she didn’t show respect.

”So, how do I do what you just did?” she was too eager – the gleam of excitement was back as she quickly regained her posture and gazed into Suzume’s face. There was so much curiosity and attentiveness from the girl that she could hang on each word that would come out of Suzume’s mouth.

---

Tag: Hatake Suzume
Shun: 96d13d

[Hatake Suzume]

The younger girl absolutely insisted that Suzume looked cool, going so far that she should have her own comic book series even. As genuine as it was, the praise still made her feel a bit uncomfortable, eyes momentarily flickering to the sides to avoid any more eye contact with the young Nara. Thankfully, she seemed to be lost in her own thoughts for a few moments, but her attention was brought back by Suzume's offer to let her handle one of her prized tantos.

It took the girl a few moments to actually take up the weapon, taking a second or two to set her cup down before actually following through, but once it was in her hands she appraised it with a bright look in her eyes, complimenting its craftsmanship and taking note of the inscription. It was Suzume's introduction that spurred the girl into returning the gesture, revealing herself to be a member of the esteemed Nara clan. That nugget of information caused one Suzume's eyebrows to arch upwards in curiosity. Maybe this girl knew her team leader, Satoshi-san? The purple-haired shinobi chased the thoughts away, now was the time to focus on the Nara in front of her, a slightly hesitant look on her face as she was faced with the task of answering her question.

Indigo eyes shifted so that were looking towards what remained of the practice dummy she had cleaved, and an idea formed in her head. Gently reaching forward, Suzume wrapped her hand around Shun's, the one that held her tanto, and carefuly turned the girl around so that she was facing the target, using her other hand as well to maneuver her into a good position.

"Um... do you know how to control your chakra? It's... not really me who's special, but the blade is. If you can put some chakra into the tanto, that's what causes the glow."

As she explained the secret behind her signature weapon, Suzume lightly guided Shun's hand in a few practice swipes that would give her the most power behind the swings. And while her explanation had a bit more self-derogatory than necessary, it was filled with truth. So long as Shun could channel some of her chakra into the weapon, the tanto would handle the rest, glowing bright white and even growing a few more centimetres in length.

[Nara Shun]

NARA SHUN CHRONICLES

VI - III

-  t h e  t a l e  o f  -

S H A D O W  I N  T H E  F I E L D

---

This was not at all how Shun expected the day to go. She was prepared for another boring practice day and just stopped by out of curiosity. This was awesome! Curiosity didn’t kill the cat after all, it seemed! Well, then again, the day was still young.

”Ah, ok.” she gave out as Suzume took her hand and proceeded to guide her. It was a little embarrassing to have an adult that close all of a sudden that wasn’t her parent but that was greatly outweighed by learning something new. Shun would nod as her new mentor spoke and would try to take in as much as she could. She couldn’t remember the last time she was this excited.

”Right, so I just focus chakra in to it…” she spoke up while her brows furrowed and she focused on the blade. She could feel the energy in her body travelling towards her hands from her core. It happened slower than that of a real shinobi but slowly, certainly, it was moving. As a result, the blade would glow white and become longer.

”Whoa!” the raven haired girl exclaimed in amazement and almost broke her focus in the process. It was a hard thing to do for a student – not get too excited by other things.

”So. Cool. This is awesome, Hatake-sama!” she still used a polite form of speaking but the tone was that of an eager child. She started to move on her own but a bit more carefully at first. In just a few tries, she would mimic the movements that were showed to her.

”So you always keep focused on maintaining chakra in the blade? You must have amazing control, miss! I can’t even maintain a proper jutsu yet.” she praised Suzume and looked up at her with a wide smile.

”Oooooooh! Can I try attacking a dummy? Can I?” she hopped in the spot while still holding the blade and asking permission from the young woman.

---

Tag: Hatake Suzume
Shun: 96d13d

[Hatake Suzume]

Suzume was impressed by how quick of a study the young Nara seemed to be. It only took her a moment or so to be able to focus her chakra into the blade, and when she did it successfully, the younger shinobi's excitement put just a bit of happiness in Suzume's heart as well. The compliments continued to be just as ineffective though, the purple-haired shinobi simply dismissing them as empty flattery.

"I do have pretty good chakra control... but good chakra control just comes from practice, so I'm sure one day you'll be as good as I am, if not better."

The girl was full of animated energy, immediately moving from one thing to the next. Now she expressed that she wanted to have a go at the dummy, which Suzume had to think about for a moment. Shun had shown that she could replicated the motions Suzume had shown her, but still she felt that actually letting her attack something might be crossing a line. Seeing her hop and down in eagerness helped her change her mind though, and so Suzume gave the green light to the girl.

"Um, you can but you have to promise you'll just do one attack first.... and also you have to be careful, while the blade has chakra it's very sharp... and so you might feel less resistance when cutting than you might expect..."

Suzume had a brief flashback to the first time she had used a chakra enhanced tanto, the confusion she felt when she swung with much more force than necessary, nearly stumbling and cutting herself the sudden imbalance.

"If you can promise that then... just one attack for now."

[Nara Shun]

NARA SHUN CHRONICLES

VI - IV

-  t h e  t a l e  o f  -

S H A D O W  I N  T H E  F I E L D

---

The grey eyed girl nodded and her facial expression got more serious. It appeared that Suzume wasn’t kidding at all. This instantly made the Nara more cautious. However, she couldn’t yet see what was so dangerous. For a moment, the young girl stared at the dummies in front of her and released the concentration on the blade for a while. She was using too much of her chakra. While working on her stamina training, the academy student had gained more chakra reserves that worked in her favour. Her control wasn’t the best yet so she compensated by pouring more chakra in jutsus than necessary.

”Hmm… I guess the dummy could fall on me.” she said under her breath as she visualized a dummy as big as a house slowly falling on her after she had done a proper swipe with the tanto – for some reason she was in a kimono and samurai armour in this visualization. The surrounding area was a crimson wasteland and Shun wouldn’t make it before getting crushed. The shadow of the gigantic dummy ate up everything around the girl. A huge crashing sound would be heard over all the lands.

”Or, I guess I could go right through…” she thought aloud again and this time imagined cutting through so smoothly that the force aimed her straight at the ground after her slash from mid-air and the girl ended up with half of her body buried in the ground – unable to get out. She would stay there forever.

”Right! I’ll be careful!” she announced with a smile to Suzume and walked over to the dummies. This was research so she didn’t need to dash in with a hero-run.

The teen found an upright dummy and focused her chakra in her hands again. After a little bit of wavering, the blade gained some white glow and Shun took a stance with feet apart and knees slightly bent. She imagined being an old samurai and lifted the tanto with both hands above her rright shoulder before delivering a diagonal slash on the dummy. Even with that she didn’t expect how smoothly the blade would go through and stumbled forward half a step after the cut. There was a gash in the dummy but Shun had gotten distracted by the feel of the motion so she couldn’t hold the chakra till the end of the movement. She now stood there looking at the damaged object… and then she looked back at Suzume – expecting some feedback.

---

Tag: Hatake Suzume
Shun: 96d13d

[Hatake Suzume]

Suzume was glad that Shun agreed to her terms, though it was a bit strange how she voiced the potential dangers aloud. In any case, the young Nara eventually stepped up to one of the upright dummies, taking a strong stance in front of it before raising the tanto with both hands and suddenly slashing forward. The dummy remained upright after the attack, with the young girl suddenly stumbling forward a half step. As soon as Suzume saw her doing so, she'd dart forward in a flash, taking hold of Shun's shoulders just to ensure that she didn't actually fall forward. Immediately after the failed attempt, the younger girl turned to face Suzume, clearly looking for some sort of feedback. Releasing her hold on Shun's shoulders, Suzume took a step back, giving her some space as she finally gave an explanation.

"Ah well... that was a good first try, Shun-chan, but remember how I showed you how to hold the tanto? Just one hand is okay." Once again, Suzume would stand just behind the girl, putting her hand over hers and giving guiding movements. "Tantos aren't meant to be strong, but fast and light. The cutting power comes from the chakra, so it's okay if you focus more on channeling chakra rather than the power of your swing."

The Nara's mistake had been an understandable one, however. With most weapons, it made sense that swinging harder would make it more effective, but thanks to the Hatake steel, it was simply more efficient to focus on the chakra aspects of things and let the excellently forged steel handle the rest.

"Um, go ahead and try again, if you'd like. But again, just one and please be careful."

[Nara Shun]

NARA SHUN CHRONICLES

VI - V

-  t h e  t a l e  o f  -

S H A D O W  I N  T H E  F I E L D

---

”Haha, yeah, sorry…” she rubbed the back of her neck with the free hand. ”I guess I just wanted to channel my inner samurai. They seem so cool in books.” the kid admitted and tried to mimic the movements in the air on her own for a three or four times after Suzume was done with the presentation. She was getting more used to the young woman. She seemed to be a person of patience and Shun had great respect for it.

Too often she had seen hot-heads and they had proved the most difficult to work with in group projects so she felt a lot more comfortable with more soft-spoken people – even if Shun herself was a little impatient sometimes.

The girl would try again. She now held the blade in one hand and lifted it up to the upper left corner of her stance with the right hand. The raven haired Nara delivered a slash but this time it was lighter. The blade kept gleaming light and Suzume would be able to tell that the student was more focused now.

”Ok, light and quick. It’ll probably go through the dummy like butter if I do it right…” The grey eyed girl thought while delivering the attack. She didn’t try to cut too deep but kept an even, decisive and quick stroke.

”!” The feeling of cutting through the surface of the dummy was almost like cutting foam. It was amazing what such a difference felt like. ”I know I didn’t cut deep but this is so cooooooool! I barely felt the resistance even though the dummy is more or less solid. Whoa…”

Shun looked behind her and up at Suzume: ”Sensei, was that better?” She called her teacher out of habit at the academy.

---

Tag: Hatake Suzume
Shun: 96d13d

[Hatake Suzume]

Thankfully, Shun seemed to understand quickly what she had gotten wrong, as well as why it had been dangerous. There wasn't any malice behind the reasoning though, as she revealed that it was simply childish imagination that had been the root cause. Suzume backed away as the young Nara tried a few more practice swipes before stepping back up to the dummy, this time taking her advice to heart and focusing more on the speed of her attack, rather than the strength. She didn't manage to cleave the dummy into two pieces, but she did make a much more even slash than before, and with her success Suzume gave the young girl an approving nod when she turned around.

"That was much better, I'd say you're a natural."

While she was giving genuine praise, her voice remained as meek and flat as ever, though she tried to further express her congratulation with a weak smile. She wasn't too sure how she felt about being called a sensei, however, but as long as Shun wanted to Suzume wouldn't object.

"Why don't you try it again but a little bit closer? I think you can cut completely through the target if you really try your best on this next try."

The young Nara seemed to have picked up quickly on channeling chakra through the tanto, and Suzume genuinely believed that she was very close to being able to cleave straight through dummy.

[Nara Shun]

NARA SHUN CHRONICLES

VI - VI

-  t h e  t a l e  o f  -

S H A D O W  I N  T H E  F I E L D

---

”Hm.” Shun looked up at Suzume. Did she mean it? The girl did draw a conclusion that her current tutor just didn’t have the most expressive of voices. In just a moment she got a big smile on her face and seemed very proud of herself.

”Oh? Really?” she gave out thankfully and a bashful look played across her face. Shun was proud yet didn’t want to boast.

”Thank you, Hatake-san!” She replied politely with a smile and looked back at the blade in her hand. It was so interesting. It made her think how many others had such weapons. Was it common practice? Maybe a part of being a real shinobi was being able to use ninja tools like this all the time. The girl gained a new understanding on how many skills must be honed to function as in their line of work.

The raven haired Nara nodded and would try again. This time she took a swing-like slash from her right side after making sure to focus chakra into the blade. Her experience was that this time it was a bit more easier to channel it in but she started feeling that her exertion was rather big. However, that was not something she could easily fix – it would take years to get rid of a habit of using too much chakra.

Her swipe of the blade reminded more of a right hook to the side. It was swift and she held the weapon in her fist this time. It just felt more natural for the girl. It almost looked like a taijutsu punch move. The blade cut a lot deeper and the chakra blade at points went through the dummy. Perhaps, the swipe was a result of a hidden talent in close up boxing-like taijutsu. She did "technically” cut clean through. The dummy slowly toppled backwards and the top half tilted, about to fall off at any moment due to gravity.

”Oh! Did you see? I did it! In a way! Did you see, Hatake-san?” Shun talked with excitement and looked back at the purple haired woman for approvement.

---

Tag: Hatake Suzume
Shun: 96d13d

[Hatake Suzume]

Suzume was glad that she had gotten her point across, Shun seeming to be grateful for the compliments and encouragement. Once again the young Nara needed a few moments of mental preparation before giving it another try. It was still rough, the way she held and moved the tanto was a bit unorthodox, but it still managed to get the job done, a flash of glowing light being left behind in the slash's wake. The top half of the dummy remained suspended in place for just a fraction of a second, finally tilting a bit backwards though not falling off quite yet. Shun immediately broke out into excited exclamations, to which Suzume gave the younger girl a light round of applause. They weren't audible claps, just a quick pitter patter as fingers met palm rapidly.

"I saw, you did do it. That was very good, Shun-chan. And... you're an academy student? I could swear that looked like the work of a genin..."

Was the purple-haired girl laying it on thick? Just a bit. But Suzume thrived off of pleasing others and making them happy, and besides, it wasn't as if though the praise was completely unfounded.

"Are you... interested in bukijutsu? If you are, I would be willing to start setting up some regular trainings with you."

It wasn't the Hatake's nature to go out of her way to offer to train with someone, but seeing the girl's excited face whenever she accomlished something... well, who could resist? Even if Shun wasn't all that interested in weaponry, however, Suzume wanted to keep a connection with her, curious to watch her grow on her shinobi path.

[Nara Shun]

NARA SHUN CHRONICLES

VI - VII

-  t h e  t a l e  o f  -

S H A D O W  I N  T H E  F I E L D  

---

”Oh? You think so? YAY!” She took the compliment almost too eagerly. ”I can’t wait to tell mom!” Shun thought about how she could underline her progress to her mother. The girl shot her hands in the air while still holding the weapon and hopped up in excitement.

”Then again, she might not be that impressed. That woman graduated the academy at age nine. Dad said she’s been stronger than him since she was twelve…” The thought did make her lose some enthusiasm for a few moments as her facial expression froze and she looked to the side. ”But! She might not have had this talent! I hope she needed more than a week to get the hang of this. I need an edge to become the best shinobi there is.” The grey haired Nara would take the situation as is.

She walked over to Suzume and would respectfully return the blade to her – lifting it up on a platter made from her palms to the woman. She didn’t really know the right way to pass blades so she chose the easiest one she could think of. ”Thank you very much, Hatake-san!”

”Oh? You’d do that? Cool! I was told I still need to do work on my fundamentals before I start other jutsu. I would love to train with you if you’d have me, Hatake-san!” Grey hues gleamed with excitement – it was almost as the gleam was now all around the young girl. Was this really happening? Such a cool kunoichi was offering to train with her?

”Could you…” she started while rubbing her hands together, ”possibly help with me with combat practice? You must have a lot of great experience that I could learn from!” Shun believed that the seasoned shinobi were walking, talking fountains of wisdom and she would take any chance to learn from them.

”Ah! I forgot! I have to go home and help mom with chores before she leaves for a mission! She’ll talk my ear off!” Shun gave out with a slight look of fear on her face as she realized what the original plan of her day had been - the girl totally forgot.

”I’ll see you soon, ok?” The young girl bowed about four times while saying: ”Thank you so, so much!” and backed away to pick up her cup again and run away to the Nara compound.

---

Tag: Hatake Suzume
Shun: 496b36