[Honō Kojirou]

It was no surprise that the Land of Fields and the Land of Fire had very strong bonds. Traveling between the two allied countries was easy, they had plenty of connections and webs weaved into each other (one of which took the form of a trading hub that Kojirou helped guard), and they both liked the color green. It was no surprise that a Genin as easy to deal with as Kojirou would find himself joining up with another Konoha-nin on a joint mission to safeguard a traveling route – this time, the route went from the Land of Wind to the Land of Fire, but said route cut through the Land of Rivers on the way.

Therefore, Kojirou kissed his parents goodbye and went off the simple roads mapping Kusagakure with a readied backpack. This backpack was a long, rectangular one, and it appeared to store some sort of instrument inside… or a weapon. No matter how long it would take for Kojirou to save up enough money for more swords, he’d just have to suck it up and carry this Katana Case Holder everywhere.

Armor Vest… check. Secretly snuck under his haori like it was nobody’s business. Katana? Check. One sheathed on his hip, another sheathed inside the Katana Case Holder. Hidden blade under his wrist? Check. He hadn’t really used it that much yet, but it was such a cool weapon. Scrolls? Check. He had a pair of scrolls that had firebolts sealed inside of them…

But wouldn’t he need to know how to unseal? Nah, maybe the scrolls did that themselves.

For now, he was tiptoeing a little, for time had passed before he arrived at the entrance to Konohagakure… they sure had tall g- nevermind. It was a big world – Kusagakure’s bamboo forests were thicker and larger! Take that, Konoha!

"… *whistle* … *whiiiiiiiistle* …”

Hyūga Asuka

[Hyūga Asuka]

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[attr="class","puppycat"]Honō Kojirou

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[attr="class","puppycat"]your notes here

A joint mission!

Asuka walked out of the Konoha administration building, her eyes sparkled in excitement. In truth, she had only come today to see if there was a mission she could take. After her training sessions with her older brother, the girl wanted more chances to be able to show the world what she was capable of doing. And what better way to do that than to go on a mission. What she hadn't expected, was that there was one that was joint with another hidden village. Asuka knew that those missions existed, and she had taken a similar one with another Konoha shinobi, Mairusu, but never with someone from outside her own village or land. This was exciting, she thought.

Come to think of it, the girl had never actually met another shinobi from a different village. This was quite a feat, to do something with someone from somewhere other than Konoha and to expand her social circle, which for a reserved person like her, was hard for her to do in general. She hummed a soft tune under her breath, Asuka would make her way to the village gates. Presenting the gate guards with the mission scroll, she was allowed passage. Every time she walked through the gates to do a mission, the girl felt somewhat happy, if not proud that she was doing something for her village outside her village.

Wearing the Hyuuga hoodie that she always wore, she had put on some cargo pants, her weapon pouch strapped to her right leg thigh and her headband to her left arm. It was still bright and early, but she decided that it best to go out to the Land of Fire to meet up with her mission partner. All the while she was thinking about this person. Were they a boy or a girl? How old were they? Where were they from? How much experience did they have? All questions that she knew would eventually be answered but made her excited nonetheless.

MADE BY MIZO

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[Honō Kojirou]

And the mission was as followed…

A frequently used route through the Land of Rivers was targeted heavily by bandits. Since many merchants and civilians traveled this route, the problem was very clear to see. The shinobi of Konohagakure and Kusagakure were tasked with keeping the route safe, and to do so, they’d have to run off a recent bandit group that had taken roots in this route.

Kojirou had done that before with Azarea. If there was one thing bandits feared, then it was molting lava flying their way! It had made him quite confident in his ability to complete such a similar mission as well… but this time, the reliable Azarea and her Sensory abilities weren’t with him. But that was also a challenge that every shinobi had to face – dealing with multiple, varied allies from time to time!

Bring it on, Konohagakure! Who was he going to team up with today!?

One of the gate guards reaffirmed his mission scroll from Kusagakure and knew who he was going to team up with. They emphasized him to be careful, for his teammate was a prestigious member of the Hyūga cl-

"Wait, they’re related to Shigure-senpai?!”

"Y-You mean Lord Shigure… and yes, she’s his younger sist-"

"Got it!”

Kojirou was right off to meet up with her. They were both moving forward from the gates and into the Land of Fire, but Kojirou caught up at one point along with a caravan that knew where to reach the route of today’s mission. The young swordsman of the Grass was wearing something far more traditional; a crimson haori with a shinobi armor west underneath, black hakama and sandals to boot, and a rectangular backpack. His katana was sheathed and strapped to his left hip, and his headband was hanging around his neck. This allowed Asuka to notice the deep-brown scars on his forehead and palms.

And without consideration for private space, he was inches away from her face when he landed on the ground, having come from above the treetops to meet up with them. "Hi! Sorry, couldn’t find you near the gate… but that’s alright. I’m Kojirou! I heard you were Shigure-senpai’s sister…!”

[Hyūga Asuka]

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[attr="class","puppycat"]Honō Kojirou

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[attr="class","puppycat"]your notes here

Asuka had seen many grand entrances in the past, but none like what this boy had in mind. The Hyuuga girl gave a little yelp as a boy literally dropped out of the trees in front her, a blush forming on her cheeks that made her red like a tomato because of his lack of distance. She took a couple of minutes to recover, clearing her throat as she looked into his eyes and then more closely at his face. "Um...hi..." she stammered, the girl was without words for a good minute, unsure of how to react when there was a boy who just landed centimeters from her. "And yes, I am Hyuuga Asuka, Shigure is my older brother." She almost called him 'onii-chan', what she would have called him in private. This was perhaps an indication of just how flustered she had been...or startled.

"Nice to meet you too...Kojirou-san" The woman looked at the boy quizzically, noticing the scars on his forehead. She gave him a small smile, even as he would eventually pull away. When he did, the girl would be able to see his attire to its entirety, her immediate thought being that she had somehow underdressed. This was quite a surprise to her since she was always the one who wore formal traditional attire whenever she went on missions and the one time she decided to dress a little more casually, her partner was in a haori. She wondered about this boy especially because he called her onii-chan his senpai. Did they have some kind of relationship she didn't know about? Granted, she had been in the compounds for far too long that it didn't surprise her in the slightest that she was as ill-informed.

Asuka had found out that Shigure had gone on a mission with her previous partner, Mairusu, when she had taken the same mission as they were about to embark on now. "You know...my brother?" Of course he did, she chided herself for asking the obvious, but it was a way for him to perhaps tell her a little more, especially since he was not from the same village. Asuka's eyes trailed to his headband and took note of its symbol.

MADE BY MIZO

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[Honō Kojirou]

Wait, did he scare her? But he didn’t mean no harm! Maybe he just startled her with his descent… but she was a Hyūga! She couldn’t let herself be surprised by the very visual arrival of this red-clad swordsman! Nah, nope, no way! It clashed against his image of their clan in so many ways! No can do!

He’d definitely make a habit of it from now on.

It was confirmed – she was Shigure-senpai’s little sister! Obviously, Kojirou’s eyes shone like the Milky Way at the notion – any friend of Shigure-senpai was a friend of his, and so every family member of Shigure-senpai was also a friend of his! It aaaaaaaaaaaall made total sense!

She seemed surprised at the remark that Kojirou actually knew her brother, which made the young shinobi tilt his head in confusion. "Yeah, we sparred when he visited Kusagakure. He’s really fast – I bet you’re all fast!” he replied with a wide smile, "So it’s really great to work with you today! I hope we get to know each other more.”

So… in order to complete their mission, they’d have to lure out the bandits at the road destined. To do so, they were planned to accompany a small caravan and keep a low profile until said bandits would jump out to reveal themselves. Then, the two shinobi would retaliate and clean them out, and since it would likely take place outside of any village zones, lethal force was very much adviced. Two Genin like these two couldn’t afford to hold back with their own lives on the line like that, just like back with Azarea.

Luckily, the caravan had a large carriage with it. It was pulled by a pair of horses whose breed Kojirou could’ve sworn he had seen back in his home village, but it also meant that they could save their energy and actually just chill for the time being… at least, until they reached the specified road. The Land of Fire was enormous, so that would obviously take a while, but that was part of the fun – the sense of adventure and exploration and stuff! Kojirou was all about it!

The young swordsman had taken a seat at the back of the carriage, so that he could also keep an eye out for sneaksters trying to get up behind the crew. Nothing for now… so story time!

"Hey, I’ve been training a lot, so that I could beat your brother one day… you must have sparred a lot with him. Any tips I could borrow?”

[Hyūga Asuka]

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[attr="class","puppycat"]Honō Kojirou

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[attr="class","puppycat"]your notes here

This boy was quite an interesting character, the girl decided as she just watched him. Having now calmed down to her usual state from the scare earlier, she would simply stare at him, unsure of what to make of him. She had already remarked on his choice of clothing, but it was his personality that caught her attention. He seemed quite positive, at least in the way he interacted with her. Or was it carefree? Whichever it was, she hadn't really met someone who exhibited the same personality as Kojirou did. At the mention of Kusagakure, her eyes lit up. Right, that was the village she had read about in the textbooks.

So he sparred with onii-chan and came from Kusagakure...

She would commit both of those things to memory, as well as reminding herself to ask him about his village while they were traveling. Asuka doubted that they would get there in a short span of time and so she knew that they would have ample time to ask questions to get to know each other. She was primarily interested in the spar he mentioned and to learn more about what Kusa was like and how it was different from Konoha. Having never left Konoha, she felt that she had missed out on a lot of the fun of traveling, even though she knew she couldn't travel given her rank.

Fast...her brother was indeed extremely fast. In fact, many of her other clan members were. It was one thing that she had tried and wanted desperately to learn how to be more skilled at. Agility and speed were two things that she knew would aid in her Jyuuken techniques, and being able to be fast so as to not give her opponents time to react seemed to always be beneficial. Although she would say that she never really sparred before...the very thought made her a little sad. Asuka had wanted to spar with Shigure many times but knew that her brother would probably go easy on her.

Maybe for a training day...

He was just so busy that it wasn't that easy to get Shigure to spend a day training her. She remembered their last training and that warmed her heart. She would then hear the sound of horses and looked to see that a carriage had been summoned to ease them for part of the trip. This was quite favorable, since she didn't want either of them to waste their energy and waste time traveling. It would seem that Kojirou had the same thought. Climbing into the carriage, she sat opposite him, and would feel the carriage being pulled forward, rolling slowly down the road.

"I've actually...never sparred with him unfortunately."

MADE BY MIZO

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[Honō Kojirou]

… The carriage was taking a bit of time to reach the Land of Rivers, where the hotspot would be located. Therefore, Kojirou wondered how to spend the time… thinking back, last time he sparred with Shigure-senpai, the latter was so quick and rapid and overwhelmed him before the young swordsman could land a single, decent hit. Speed kept doing him over, but it wasn’t all… at least, Kojirou could hold his ground. Not for long, though.

He had to mess around with Nekketsukan to make it take less chakra, but that in and of itself was such a hassle. Right now, however, with a single Tiger handseal, he could feel chakra bubbling inside of him – he had rested well, eaten well, drunk well, and now his chakra reserves were full and ready to be of use to him. But stacking his past experiences up on top of each other made him realize that he really wanted to have much more chakra to spend…

Like, imagine if he was able to use Nekketsukan for so much longer? Shigure-senpai wouldn’t have been able to land so many Palm Strikes without burning his hands! That would’ve been the ultimate counter-attack to the feared Gentle Style! Ahhhhh, if only he had a source of chakra that lasted forever… or something like that. Lava Release took a lot of chakra, and… how exactly did someone increase their chakra reserves? By… eating more?

"… Wait, you’ve never sparred with your own brother?!” Kojirou almost yelped in shock, his eyes widened and his hands flailing around, "That’s not right, no no no no no, that’s- that’s- but he’s your brother, right? Is he that busy?!” Now… Kojirou wasn’t totally updated on the Hyūga situation, not to mention informed at all, so he didn’t know what Shigure-senpai was actually up to. All he could do was rest his hands on Asuka’s shoulders like a worried parent trying to soothe their child. "I’ll spar with you, then! And when I see Shigure-senpai again, I’ll scold him for you! As a matter of fact, I just got a brilliant, genius idea...”

Kojirou, one pure of heart, was also confident when it wasn’t really called for. "I have a very good counter-Genkai against Shigure-senpai’s Jyūken… b-but this is between you and me, and him too, he knows already,” Kojirou would begin to whisper, feeling the carriage jump from the horses walking over uneven gravel and bulging terrain, "But this ability takes a lot of chakra to use effectively, so I need to get more chakra before I fight him again… you got any tips on how to increase my chakra pool?”

"We’re halfways there, reaching the border to Land of Rivers soon. I know you two are young, but we’re counting on you. Keep your eyes open!” voices from the front called back to them, which made Kojirou shutter and keep silent as he knew that he was on an official mission right now. He couldn’t make a dud, this mission was important… but he kept sending puppy eyes towards the adorable Hyūga, hoping via the power of luck that she knew a thing or two about big chakra pools and how to get such.

It was like he was plotting to enact revenge on Shigure-senpai on her behalf, even though they just met for the first time today.

[Hyūga Asuka]

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[attr="class","puppycat"]Honō Kojirou

[attr="class","lemonsoda"]

[attr="class","puppycat"]your notes here

As the carriage rolled along, the boy would simply just keep talking, mostly about Shigure. She didn't think that someone would be as fascinated as he was about her older brother, wondering now what exactly was the relationship they had. The boy could just been overly energetic though, no doubt, for that was apparent enough, and yet the way he kept talking about Shigure made her somewhat giggle. "I have never heard someone talk about my brother for so long." she couldn't contain her thoughts any longer. "And no, I've never sparred with him. We grew up quite apart from each other even though we lived in the same house..." she left the sentence there, not wishing to go any deeper. Her childhood and her somewhat strained relationship with her brother and father were sore spots that she didn't want to touch unless absolutely necessary.

"So, tell me how you know my brother. I see you speak very highly of him so I assume you've met each other more than once?" She deliberately evaded his question about increasing chakra pools, not only because she had no idea, but also because she simply woulldn't be able to explain it to him even if she knew. Asuka was always under the impression that one's chakra pool just got larger with practice. Wasn't that the case for learning jutsu and for chakra control? It had to be the justification for most things shinobi dealt with. At the mention of sparring, she raised an eyebrow. "You want to spar...with me?"

It wasn't an idea she wasn't willing to entertain, for she was curious as to his abilities. Of course she wasn't much of a combat oriented person herself but there was nothing wrong with a friendly spar once in awhile, right?" And it was just then that a voice called out to them, telling them that they were coming close to the Land of River borders. She could feel Kojirou tense and she too tensed a little, unsure of what was to come. "Maybe we can spar after this...?" Leaving it open to the boy if he was still up for it after the completion of their mission.

MADE BY MIZO

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[Honō Kojirou]

Huh… wait… oh no! Was he being too pushy, talking about her brother so much?! It wasn’t his intention to embarrass her or anything! A myriad of silent sorry’s escaped his mouth with a lowered face, feeling like a puppy that got scolded for barking too much outside of the house. Gladly, she didn’t appear to mind it in a bad way… but it bothered him. She was Shigure-senpai’s little sister, right? Right?

Sisters should have plenty of time being doted on by their brothers! That was what Kojirou believed, and he had a little sister as well – little Kusarou would be heartbroken if he didn’t play tag with her once in a while or something! Okay, maybe Asuka was too old to play tag, but the idea was the same! Shame on you, Shigure-senpai…

"We went on a mission together, too…” he explained to her. A mission and a spar, and also another mission in the Land of Lightning, "And a rescue mission, too.”

Not much else to say there. He wished he’d spend more time with the joyous Hyūga, but he could tell that being a Chūnin was tough work. And here they were, these two Genin, on a rather demanding mission themselves – it was best to just let things flow and not push on too hard.

She sounded confused as to why he wanted to spar with her, but the reason was clear to him. "Yeah! That way, you also get experience fighting other shinobi, like me.”

… Then things tensed up. Soon enough, they did enter the Land of Rivers’ border, and Kojirou nodded back to Asuka, letting her know that he’d always be up for a spar after their mission was completed. For now, they had to keep their eyes open – this road had been reported as infested by annoying marauders who took every opportunity to rob merchants of goods with conventional weapons. Well, now they’d have to face two shinobi-

The sound of wind cut apart by metal was brief, but Kojirou’s hand was already grabbing the handle to his sheathed katana. A single Mirror Blade reflected two shuriken that were aimed at the back of the caravan where they sat, and the swordsman was on his feet ready to call: "Everyone! We’re being ambushed!” This was a similar event to his mission with Azarea, so Kojirou had an idea how to process things like ambushes by bandits like these.

Still, they were hiding in the tall grass near the river banks. The few merchants along with them all sought shelter inside the cart, but Kojirou was having trouble spotting their precise locations. Then again, his partner had two, orb-like tools to fix this problem. "Asuka!”

[Hyūga Asuka]

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[attr="class","puppycat"]Honō Kojirou

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[attr="class","puppycat"]your notes here

The girl looked over at Koji, his personality something special that she had never encountered before. Asuka nodded her head at his simple explanation of the missions he had gone on with Shigure. Of course, there were questions she wanted to ask him, specifically the rescue mission, but she thought perhaps this was a discussion for later, when they weren't thrown into a mission. For now, she was going to let it rest, the girl simply kept quiet about it, instead focusing her attention on the spar idea. "I don't think that's a bad idea at all..." she mused, knowing that she hadn't yet sparred with anyone outside of her brother. "Maybe we can do one after this mission."

She wasn't really scared or anxious about the thought of fighting someone else, but the idea that Koji had been on missions with her brother was somewhat daunting. Asuka was sure she could hold her own ground, especially because she wasn't any weakling herself, but she also didn't have much experiernce with anyone that wasn't a taijutsu user. In fact, the only off-chance she had to see anything other than taijutsu was when she trained with Azarea, where she taught her a little bit of ninjutsu to supplement her jyuuken training. It did peak her interest to see what this boy was capable of though.

Asuka would be snapped back to reality by Kojirou's voice, yelling out the fact that they were being ambushed. Activating her Byakugan as soon as the words were heard, she too moved from her seat in the carriage, the two shuriken that had been aiming at them deflected by her partner's blade. He was a weapon user, which was great, since she preferred close hand-to-hand combat. Her eyes narrowed as her vision changed, veins appearing around her eyes with the activation of her kekkei genkai. "I see one near the water and one among the bushes to the far left..." she whispered to the other shinobi. "Do you want to tag team this or take one out yourself?" She had done this with Mairusu in the past, so she would be open to either option.

MADE BY MIZO

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[Honō Kojirou]

One near the water, and one to the far left at the bushes…

With a silent nod, Kojirou raised a hand to let Asuka know that she could stay at the caravan. He was afraid that some third party would sneak up on the merchants while they were off the carriage for even a second, and Asuka clearly had the better clairvoyance of the two.

That wasn’t to say that Kojirou didn’t make quick work with his katana. The moment he stepped off of the carriage, chakra pummeled through the metal and burst forth as bright, orange magma that heated the blade up tremendously. The magma looked like it belonged in a lamp, bubbling up ever so slowly with a surprisingly somber tone… followed by a few, quick slashes that released sizzling hisses and growls of dying bandits in its wake.

Hien... he was likely overdoing it. Still, he had to make this Jutsu feel less taxing on his chakra - otherwise, he'd never be able to have an edge against the likes of Chisai, Mako or anyone else in his clan. They all possessed chakra in spades, and he wanted to be among them badly. Besides, if a future incident was to occur alike the one back in the Land of Lightning, then he'd better have larger pools of chakra to use by then. Hien was his strongest Jutsu...

Pure of heart… that was debatable. Kojirou was still a shinobi, and these marauders had to pay for what they’d done to the Land of Rivers. That was the purpose of his presence.

Without his knowing, as he tackled into the second bandit and prepared to make quick work of him too, a third one was approaching the carriage from up front. With the merchants witnessing Kojirou’s Jutsu and being quite astonished, they’d been distracted from the front and left that area unsupervised…