The Tale Of Flowering Fortunes

Murasaki walked down the street, fuming slightly, the case files in hand.



What the hell right did Kakashi have to butt in? He had no clue what it was like, training gennin…nurturing them and watching them grow…



Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when an orange-clad bundle of energy crashed into her elbow.



“Ouch, sorry, kiddo…” She said absently, before realizing who it was. “Uzumaki Naruto?”



He looked up at her in surprise, and it was then Murasaki realized sadly that he had forgotten her.



“Yeah, what do you want, lady?”



“Ah…nothing…” She said, biting her lip and looking at the ground. “Have you eaten yet?” She asked, just as Naruto’s stomach let out a loud growl. He shook his head, looking down at the ground.



“No…some kids at school took my lunch money…” He said, picking at a scab on his elbow. It was then she noticed a bruise under his left eye.



“I’ll buy you some ramen, if you don’t mind eating with me…” She offered, determined, this time to try and do a better job. He looked at her suspiciously.



“Why?”



“I…I knew your parent’s, that’s all…they were nice people…”



“My classmate’s parents said you weren’t supposed to talk about that…” He said, adjusting the green goggles around his head and sniffling. Murasaki smiled slightly.



“Well, I won’t say any more, then…I don’t want to get you into trouble…so do you want to eat with me, or what?”



Slowly, he nodded.



She smiled down at him. “Good then, let’s go…Have you ever had ramen before?”



He shook his head. “No…but I’d like to try it!” He said enthusiastically.



Murasaki nodded with a laugh as they headed to Ichakaru’s.



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Murasaki awoke early the next morning, partially due to the inability to sleep.



She got up and got ready to meet her team, still thinking deeply about the mission Sarutobi wanted to send them on. Her mind kept wandering to Kakashi.



She sighed as she stared at the case-files on her kitchen table. They just sat there silently, as if they were mocking her.



“Of course they’re silent!” She fumed to herself. “They’re an inanimate object!”



More silence followed.



“You’re being irrational…you can’t possibly be thinking about taking the mission just to impress Kakashi?” One inner-voce argued.



“It’s not to impress him, it’s to shut him up…he needs to learn to butt out of my business…” Her other inner-voice argued back.



“You need to just let go of that idiot…he’s going to be your downfall…”



“But he’s always been there…okay, well not ‘been there’ been there, but been ‘around’… certainly when you didn’t know you needed him…and even when you did…”



“But so has Gai…and he’s interested…”



“I just can’t see him as anything more than a brother…I discussed that with him already…we agreed…”



“Just shut up….” She blurted out loud, seizing the case files and setting out of her apartment to the hokage’s office. She was going to settle this damn thing once and for all…



She arrived at his office just as the sun had risen completely over the horizon.



She wasn’t all that surprised to find him already hard at work behind his desk, that was just in his nature…



“I’m taking the mission…” She said, setting the papers on his desk. “I’ve thoroughly reviewed the files and I feel that my gennin are capable of dealing with the situation involved.”



Sarutobi nodded. “ You leave tomorrow…” He dismissed her. Murasaki bowed.



“Doomo Arigatou gozaimasu, Hokage-sama…” She said, turning and leaving, a strange feeling settling in the pit of her stomach. She made her way sullenly towards the training grounds, looking forward to the half an hour of peace and quiet in the morning air before her team showed up.



She sat on the top of the red bridge, dangling her legs over the wooden beams and staring off into the morning sky.



“Well hello there, gorgeous, where have you been all my life?” A familiar mans voice boomed from below. Murasaki’s heart skipped a beat, her day suddenly getting a million times better.



“Dad!” She cried, leaping down and giving him a big hug. “You’re back!”



He laughed and hugged her back.



“So how’s my little girl?” He asked, pulling her away and looking at her. “You’ve gotten so beautiful!”



Murasaki blushed. “You only think so because you’re my dad…”



Jiraiya chuckled and put his arm around her, steering her out to the training grounds.



“I wanted to discuss something with you…” He said, rubbing her shoulder.



“What? Is something wrong?”



“Ah…no, actually…” He said, watching as two birds flew off into the morning sky. “I actually had a proposition for you…” He said, taking off the scroll from his back. “You see…you’re dad’s getting up there in years…”



“You’re forty eight, but go on…” Murasaki interrupted.



Jiraiya made a face. “Anyway…I’m going to need someone else who can summon toads, too…and I was talking to Ma and Pa…”



Murasaki nodded, knowing he meant the two toads who advised him.



“You originally weren’t part of the plan, I must admit it…but they think you could possibly be my successor as a toad priestess…”



Murasaki blinked at him. “You cant be serious…I cant even summon-”



“Have you ever tried?”



“Well, no…”



He dropped the scroll on to the ground, unrolling it and taking out an ink brush.



“Just sign behind Minato…” He said quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder. Murasaki nodded, knowing this was a big thing for both of them; Not just anyone could put their name on the scroll, nor would Jiraiya let him.



Murasaki dropped onto one knee, taking the brush and signing her name neatly in kanji behind Minato‘s illegible scrawl. She found herself trembling with childlike excitement that she always felt when she was around him.



“Let’s get started…by the end of the day, you should be able to summon Gama Bunta…”



“Ah, but my gennin!” She said, suddenly thinking of them.



“It’s okay, we’ll work on it a little today, a little tomorrow…”



“But…but…we have a mission tomorrow…”



Jiraiya chuckled. “Boy did I come back at the wrong time…” He said, scratching the back of his head. Murasaki shook hers.



“No, no, it’s okay…we’ll just hurry back…” She said, her stomach flipping in excitement. Her father nodded.



“Just follow what I do…we’ll practice until your team gets here…I’d like to meet them.” He said with a smile.



Murasaki beamed. “All right, sounds good!” She said excitedly, barely able to contain herself.



By the time Yashiro and Moeko showed up, Murasaki was sitting at the base of a tree, several small toads surrounding her. She sighed, looking up at them with a tired smile.



“Ohaiyoo…” She said, standing up and brushing the dirt off of her pants.



“Ohaiyoo gozaimasu…” Yashiro said with a bow, still coldly formal. Moeko smiled shyly and immediately bent to play with a toad.



“Are we still waiting for Toshi to get here?”



Yashiro nodded. “Hai, Murasaki-sensei…” He said quietly. Murasaki could tell that he sensed her father, who was sitting in the tree overhead. She smiled up at him, motioning him down.



“Students, this is my father, Jiraiya…” She said with a smile as he joined her on the ground. “Dad, this is Hyuuga Yashiro and Tanuzai Moeko….”



Yashiro seemed to be speechless as he bowed politely to Jiraiya. Murasaki chuckled inwardly. Yashiro knew exactly how to play the game…which is precisely why she wouldn’t let him…



Moment’s later, Toshi appeared in a loud huff, brushing dirt off of his jacket.



“Oi, who’s the old man?”



Yashiro scowled, smacking Toshi in the back of the head.



“Do you not recognize him? He’s the Great Toad Sage, Jiraiya…he’s one of the sannin!”



Toshi made a face as he rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t care if he’s a Daimyo…” He snapped, giving Yashiro a death glare.



“And this is Fukuzawa Toshi…Toshi, my father, Jiraiya…” She said, watching as the day’s first real battle unfolded.



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Murasaki watched from the safety of the sidelines as her three students took on one of her shadow clones. The day was ending, and so far the only thing the three students had managed to do was land Toshi with a black eye and Yashiro with a bloody nose. Not that it had been a result of Murasaki’s efforts, oh no, it was their own doing, but the whole thing had her apprehensive about tomorrow.



Jiraiya sat in the tree overhead, shouting different tips, sometimes giving them false ones for his own enjoyment.



The sun dipped low into the hills and Murasaki dispelled her shadow clone, calling her student’s closer.



“All right guys, you all worked really hard today. I still think Yashiro and Toshi need to work on teamwork…Moeko, you’ve shown a lot of improvement, but you need to be less distracted by animals…” She said with a smile, putting her hand sin her pockets.



“Tomorrow we have a mission to the border of Suna, so I expect you all to be on your best behavior…” She said before dismissing them. She watched them as they headed back to the village.



“I hope you didn’t use too much of your chakra…you’re trainings not over…” Jiraiya said, leaping out of the tree.



Murasaki turned, smiling.



“Of course not…”



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It was almost midnight when Jiraiya finally forced Murasaki to stop.



“You can’t expect to master it in less than twenty-four hours…”



“But it should come more naturally to me, dad…Hebeko was summoning snakes by the time she was-”



“Don’t even compare yourself to her….” He said, holding a hand up to silence her. “You’re twice the kunoichi she’ll ever be…just in your teaching efforts you’ve outdone her…”



“But I’m not as powerful as her…” She said with a sigh, sitting down on a log.



“Being a shinobi has nothing to do with power…it’s about application…” He said sitting down beside her. “And she has a few years training on you, anyway…”



“I guess I was just hoping that I would be this amazing kunoichi with all this natural talent…”



“You are, but you don’t realize it…It takes work to become good…equivalent exchange.”



Murasaki sighed and stood up. “Mah, now you just sound cheesy…”



Jiraiya chuckled. “Time to go home…”



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Murasaki woke the next morning, her head swimming slightly and her muscles sore from the previous night. She could hear her father snoring in the next room and someone was pounding on her door. She rolled over and got up, pulling on a sweatshirt as she pulled the door open.



It was Kakashi. Murasaki was mortified, but let him in anyway.



"What's going on? What's wrong, it's like..." She glanced at the clock. "Six thirty..." She said, waking up slightly.



"I know...I...I have something to tell you..." He said, tucking his book into his pouch and shoving his hands into his pockets.



They stood there blinking at each other for a long time, Jiraiya's snoring the only sound that resonated from the small apartment.



"What is it?" Murasaki asked, taking a step towards him. It was another one of his ‘things' she just knew it. "Is this about your stupid competition with Gai?"



Kakashi stepped back slightly, knocking over a large house-plant and a photograph of her team.



"Ah, er...sorry..." he said, stopping the plant before it fell. The picture fell to the floor, the glass shattering. Murasaki sighed.



"Well...that cant be a good sign..." She muttered, stooping down to gather up the broken glass and picture. Kakashi helped her, cutting his finger on one of the shards.



"I'm really sorry about that..."



"It's no problem..." She said, getting a band-aid and wrapping it around the small cut. "Now what is it that you came here to tell me?"



Kakashi scratched the back of his head, a hint of a blush spreading beneath his mask.



"Ah...well...I was wondering if...when you got back...maybe we could see a movie or something?"



Murasaki blinked at him, her heart almost stopping, before she regained her composure.



"You're just messing with me, aren't you?"



"No...I know that I haven't exactly been nice to you in the past...but...well...I'm serious...I really want to take you out..."



"Like on a date?" Murasaki said, feeling a little lightheaded. This was too much for her... Kakashi was scratching the back of his head in that annoyingly cute way again. Wait? Since when was he annoyingly cute?



"So what do you say?"



Murasaki chewed her lip. "Ah..."



"Just give me a chance, okay? I promise, I can turn around..." He sounded almost pleading now.



"Can I think about it? Just until after the mission?" Murasaki said, blushing as she looked him straight in the eye. He had sprang it on her way too soon, though her inner voices were screaming at her to say yes. Kakashi looked down at the floor.



"I understand if you don't want to..."



Murasaki shook her head, almost too enthusiastically. "Ah, no...I just need to think on it, okay?"



"All right then...I guess I'll see you later then?" He said, sounding a little put out. Murasaki looked down, nodding.



"All right..." She said, walking him to the door.



"Oh...and good luck on your mission today..."



"Ah...thanks..." She said with a blush, closing the door behind him. She heard a deep, rumbling chuckled behind her.



"Well, I wondered how long it would take him..."



Murasaki turned and blinked at him.



"Wha-? What do you mean?"



"He's had a little crush on you since before The Fourth died...from what Minato told me, since before Obito...he actually came to me yesterday when you were distracted with the kids and asked my permission..."



Murasaki stared at him like he had just spoke Click. "No...you're losing it, dad...he hated me..." She explained calmly.



"He needed to push you away for his own reasons...he didn't want you to get hurt if he was killed, or the other way around...apparently now he thinks it's safer than it was...or Sarutobi-sensei finally got tired of it and pushed him..."



Murasaki sat on the counter, still in shock from all the information she had been given at such an early hour. "I feel bad now...because I wasn't too nice to him, either...but I thought he didn't like me..."



Jiraiya chuckled and put a teapot on the stove.



"Well, naturally you'll say yes, because I know you like him too..."



Murasaki nodded, jumping off the counter.



"Yeah..." She said thoughtfully, a slow smile spearding across her face as she picked up the picture of her team.



Suddenly, a pain shot up her arm and her vision blurred. She saw blood everywhere, she could hear someone yelling, crying...It was dark, like the night. She could see her hands covered in blood...was it her own? No...it was someone else's...someone...she felt herself shaking with fear as something cold hit her face...



She woke up to her father setting a cold cloth on her forehead. She was laying on the couch and he was leaning over her, looking worried.



"Dad...what happened? It felt like a genjutsu..."



"You just blacked out, that's all..." He said, stroking her hair. "You probably are still worn out from last night...are you sure you feel like going today?"



Murasaki nodded. "Yeah...It's just a simple mission...I'll be fine..." She said, sitting up. "I have to get ready."



Just then, there was another knock on the door. It was Anko.



"Did you guys hear, the entire Uchiha clan was wiped out sometime last night...there's only, like, two survivors...Itachi and Sasuke, the two boys..."



Murasaki blinked at her, suddenly understanding. "Ah...I didn't know that..."



"Yeah...anyway, I have to go, see you around!"



Murasaki shut the door. "Well, that was weird...the entire Uchiha clan was wiped out last night..." She said, frowning at the floor in shock and dismay. Jiraiya frowned.



"I'm going to go see Sarutobi-sensei..." He said, rubbing his chin. He gave her a hug. "Good luck today, sweetie..." He said, before leaving.



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