Chapter 2 The Incomplete Halves

Ino sat near the fire, thanking god for every second she spent near it. The fire may scream away their position, but it kept the harsh sea winds at bay. Fairtrade in her book.

She took out bandages from her bag and tied them around her patient. Aki Tsuchisaru, the boy who had bungled up their rare C-rank mission.

"Ouch! You brat, are you trying to tie my veins up?" Aki said.

"Brat?" Ino said. "You're barely any older than us."

"I am fourteen, and I graduated a year earlier than my peers. I'm surprised you all don't know me." Aki said. "I'm famous."

"The way you bungled up our mission, they should've kept you in the academy longer."

Aki looked at the girl incredulously. He would have jerked her away if not for the fact he needed those bandages. Besides, he was a humble man. It was not beneath him to explain to the simple-minded fools the nuance of his intellect.

"Why are you staring at me like that, weirdo? What's your problem?" Ino said.

"I suffer from constipation. It is in my genes, I guess. I remember my grandpa sitting for hours on toilet seats, grunting. He once told me- "

"I did not mean it like that." Ino said.

"You're really dumb, right, kid? To think that you can't even phrase your question properly. Preposterous."

"Who're you calling an idiot!?"

Before Aki could tell the poor girl who he called an idiot, her healthy friend dragged her away. Her other friend, the kid from the Nara clan, sat in her position, helping him with the bandages.

"I think what she meant was why did you change the target without asking Asuma? This is our first c-rank mission and despite it being a drag, we could not afford to fail it."

"Uncle Asuma was sent here on a commission issued from outside the village. My mission comes from the village itself, so it gets priority."

"Still, Asuma is a jonin. He outranks you in position and experience."

"You know Renzo Reizuka? The minister for coin and commerce. Inagae Reizuka is his stepmother. In the past two months, he has cut our budget substantially and we believe it is because of Inagae Reizuka." Aki said. "She would have proven a great asset, not to mention the Geisha, the leader of one of the richest cities of the Land of Fire. I had them all. Waiting was not an option."

"This is troublesome, the political side of things."

"Don't sweat it. We at least know why they were cutting our budget and where that money was being diverted." Aki said. "The hidden sound village provides services these lords cannot solicit from us. They value money over peace and stability, since it's been abundant for a few years."

"So is that why you were in that city?" Choji asked, finally free from calming a raging Ino.

"No, I was there on another mission. Girls are being abducted from the lands, and all with the potential to be a ninja." Aki said. "Two were taken away in my year during the wilderness survival training. There have been three more instances of it since then. We suspected other villages, but the trail led us to this city."

The trio sat down quietly near the fire, here they were thinking their mission was the important one. It was important, but not as the one assigned to the older boy. As they were mulling over their day, Asuma came out of the woods, a white marten riding his shoulder.

"Rest up. We will move in three hours." Asuma said, batting Gin's paw from stealing his cigarette.

Every genin obeyed his command, leaving Asuma alone near the fire to go to their beds. The jonin kept watch on them, enjoying his cigarette while keeping Gin away from his pockets.

An hour and a half later Aki woke up, ready to change the watch duty with Asuma.

"Your injuries look severe." Asuma said.

"Just a couple of cracked ribs and a broken hand. Nothing to kill me outright." Aki said.

"Nothing to scoff at, either." Asuma said. "It will take time to heal them, and you might lose some of your chakra pool at the end, too."

Aki said nothing. He sat beside the fire with his right hand in a sling and the left one holding a book. That was his way of avoiding conversation, just open a book and pretend to be busy.

"Listen kid, sometimes it is better to give up." Asuma said. "It is not an easy option, but a shinobi must always choose between an easy one and a right one."

"Is this why lord third sent you here, uncle? To dissuade me from being a shinobi?"

"To you, this life is certain death."

"So it is for others, too. Mine just has a timer visible to others.."

Asuma stood up from his place, sighed, and threw his cigarette away. To deal with kids, especially stubborn ones like Aki, was not his thing. Then he saw the feeble smile the boy had on his face. Maybe the smile was forced, but it was protecting the boy's big dreams and hopes.

So what if it is not his thing to deal with stubborn kids? Asuma thought. To protect the green leaves is the will of fire.

"Put the book down. I know you're pretending. Be sharp and keep watch, Aki."

"Yes, sir."

It took the team of five a week to reach the village. Travelling with an injured and two prisoners was hard. Especially when the prisoners made every bit of an effort to escape.

Before they even reached the gates, the medical corps took Aki away while the interrogation dept. claimed the prisoners.

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Gin, the white marten, was standing on the Hokage's table stealing puffs from the pipe while the old man had his back to him. Hiruzen turned suddenly, catching the marten in the act.

"Heh… heh… you see, I was just taste-no, testing it. Yes, yes, I was testing it for poison, lord third."

Hiruzen chuckled. Taking his seat and reading the report laid on his table with raised eyebrows.

"Pretty, right?" Gin asked.

"Yes, exquisite calligraphy, but why is everything written in it a lie?"

"What do you mean, lord third? I swear, everything happened just as I wrote it."

"Oh, I don't doubt that. I was talking about the remuneration form."

"It's according to the market rate, sir. Ask anyone."

"You spent a million ryo on this mission on supplies?"

"Of course, no skimping on the village, my lord third, sir."

Hiruzen nodded pleasantly, taking out a wad of cash. The hundred ryo bills totalled out to be hundred and fifty thousand ryo. But that didn't matter. The–I did not lie-marten–could not count.

Just like Aki could not read and write properly.

"Thank you for your generosity, lord hokage, sir. I will take my leave now."

"Leave the pipe."

"Yes, sir."

"And my wallet, too."

"Just keeping it safe for you, sir."

Gin stashed the wad of cash inside his black haori, tossing Hiruzen's purse back. Before leaving, he took a long, draining puff from the pipe. Enough to last his trip back home. He jumped from the table to the open window behind Hiruzen. He stopped to ask for one last thing.

"Our next mission, sir?"

"Gin, do you remember the promise you made to me seven years ago?"

Air around the jovial marten changed suddenly. He stood up on his two small paws, pushing his black glasses close to his face and taking a sip of sake from the gourd tied around his neck.

"I am the WATCHER. How dare you question my vows?"

"Ah, I see you like to call yourself that, but as I recall, your arrival here is what caused Aki his problem."

"He knew the risks."

"He was seven, and you have given me your word. Anything happens to him, you die. Is that alright with you, oh great marten of the banished lands?"

Gin jumped out of the window with a guttural snarl. The snarl was so deep and feral that it could not have come from a marten's diminished form. Hiruzen took a weighing drag from his pipe, taking out a medical report from under his sleeve.

This was the third time he was reading it, and the third time he hoped there was something wrong with it.

Gin reached home when he saw a double story family villa. The lower floor served as a shop front and a blacksmith's workshop. While the upper floor was a residential area. The sight of the old and dilapidated house did little to improve his mood.

Even the wad of cash and sake from his gourd failed to make him feel better. Someone had questioned his words. That was a shame he could never wash away.

He searched for Aki on the upper floor and accidentally stumbled on his vintage porn collection. The dissatisfaction left him fast. He giggled as he read through them, and when he was done, he remembered he was looking for Aki.

He scoured every inch of the house, only to find him sitting in the basement. The boy was reading a book under the light of a candle. No, he was pretending to read it.

"We will complete the summoning today, Gin."

"Finally ready to do it, eh, boy?"

"It's not like I have a choice. Or were you lying about it being the only choice?"

"I gave my word, boy. I'm the WATCHER-"

"Whatever you are, you have made me suffer."

"Look, it was your fault you let some snivelling geezer interrupt the summoning, and just because he hated shinobis."

"He was my grandfather."

"He was a bitter, sad man, allowed to grow old while the young died left and right. He thought he knew better, but did he? Did you not know what happened to your mother, boy?"

"He saw the world differently."

"Nothing special, unless you have the power to make the world see differently. Seven years ago I gave two people my words other than you, your granduncle and your mother. That is more than what I did for my people, so trust me. Or be brat, like I care."

"Draw the circle, then."

"No, it has to be you."

Frustrated, Aki stood up, taking a knife out to cut his palm. Warm blood gushed out of the wound, and Aki collected it in an inkpot. He mixed in some herbs and ore dusts in the pot, sealing it with cork.

"Nice, boy."

"What now, should I use it to write?"

"No. Mix in some chakra. Careful though, only in small precise amounts."

Aki did what the marten asked him, introduced chakra in small bursts. After the fifth burst, the cork flew off the bottle. Meanwhile, Gin had lit every candle in the room, making it come to life with warm light.

"Now, be careful when you write the formulas, boy. "

"I know. Stop nagging me."

"Boy, you spelled your name wrong there."

"Honest mistake."

"You wrote Inu and Tora in romaji."

"Happens to the best, Gin."

"The varna is आ, हू, त, you've mixed them up."

"It's a foreign tongue. Anyone can mistake them."

"So you say, boy, so you say."

Aki spent three hours writing the summoning formula on the basement floor. Another two correcting it. By the time he was finished, he was exhausted and ready for a nap, but that had to wait.

He sat in the summoning circle, with Gin on the right shoulder. Aki did every hand seal Gin did, moving like his shadow, in sync with even the breath of the marten. In time, even their beating hearts synced, rising and falling in symphony with the hand seals.

The orchestra of heart beats, breaths and body ended with the jutsu completing.

"Exalted-Summoning-Art: SIn"

Words from Aki's mouth came with vibration, as if several voices were overlapping each other. Each voice had a tone of its own. Together, they rang out like a choir praying for plague with their sweet voices.

Behind Aki, the ethereal figure of a moon appeared. Shrouded in dark rolling mist, only a part of the green celestial mass was visible. Chains made of chakra shot through the rolling dark mist, burning a path through it.

The yellowish orange chains shot out of the ethereal and incorporeal imagery behind Aki, becoming tangible. They shot inside Aki's body, piercing his soul, mixing with the old chains. Together, old and new chains totalled out to be thirteen. Prefect and precise.

Aki felt weight on his left shoulder as the phenomenon behind him vanished. Finally, the jutsu was complete.