Father's Judgement (Dusk)

Having heard the news of the fire that had spread in one of the shops at the city squire, Akihana rushed to the scene, arriving in a flash of gold and worry where a large number of citizens had gathered to watch while others were actually helping, throwing pail upon pail of water a the burning structure. It took the kunoichi a moment to realize that using high level water jutsu might be a problem here, a problem more to the surrounded onlookers than the building and anyone trapped within. Where was a ninja to clear up the crowd when she needed one?

Casting golden eyes upon the mass of people, mostly civilian but she did notice the glint off a few Hoshigakure headbands trying to either get water or keep the onlookers at bay, Akihana finally spotted a very familiar head of blue hair. A small breath of relief escaped her narrow frame as she waved towards the boy.

"Dusk!" she called out, her voice ringing as it bounced across the square to the small child who- actually the medic had no idea what Dusk was doing. Probably trying to help. Catching his attention, the kunoichi called him to her. Should be appear by ehr side, seh would speak quickly and urgently. "Sweetheart, i need you to speak as loudly as you can okay?" Without giving him time to respond, she picked him up gently, easily lifting his slight body to her shoulders so he now sat above the crowd. "Tell everyone to move fifteen steps back while we take care of the fire, as loudly as you can, please."

With that, she would fall silent, letting him do his thing.

Smoke had filled the once peaceful air of Hoshigakure as a building, who's reason for being on fire wasn't known, but it was. Ninja were called out to help assist the effort to put the building which on fire out, save people that were still inside and above all keep the citizens outside as calm as possible so that they could do their job. Dusk only knew of this because his father heard a pounding on their home, a queensguard calling for all available hands to assist in the fire. Dropping what he had been doing, his mother and father rushed out of the house just after calling upstairs," Dusk!!! There is an emergency and we are needed! Come on," but Dusk had already seen the smoke in the air. Grabbing his head band he launched himself out of his window, serious Dusk coming into play as he landed beside his family and dashed towards the scene.

With haste the Tachibana family made it to the scene seeing many ninja already helping to get the fire out by getting water, knowing that ninjutsu was forbidden they decided to use more normal methods instead. His mother had been assigned to help the wounded and those that could not move or had burns while his father had been put on water duty. The youngest Tachibana had been in charge of helping others move back from the fire so that the job could be done correctly. While Dusk had been one of the smaller ones there he had some voice on him and immediately begun to help out, assuring people that this was going to be taken care of and that everyone would be okay. After a bit of the people stepped back, the blue haired boys ears would tingle a bit as he looked around, jumping up and down until he caught sight of the blond and bolted through legs and crevices before glomping her and giving her a hug, so much for serious Dusk.

Knowing by her tone this was no meet and greet, he nodded quickly and piggybacked onto her shoulders, looking to everyone and taking in a deep breath," EVERYONE!!! PLEASE MOVE BACK FIFTEEN STEPS SO WE CAN GET THE FIRE OUT AND SAVE EVERYONE! YOUR COOPERATION IS VERY IMPORTANT SO WE CAN SAVE OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY THAT ARE STILL IN THE BUILDING! PLEASE!," taking another deep breath he would continue this a few more times as he saw a few people stepping back so that they could get in and do what they needed to.

Dusk's healthy lungs did what over a dozen ninja couldn't do, they got everyone's attention at the same time as the little boy kept issuing orders in his high voice, making everyone look up at him and then follow his instructions. It took a minute to clear up the larger part of the crowd but only a moment. Akihana had to give it to the little boy, he kept on shouting until the path around the had cleared significantly, the rest of the ninja cleaning up the small trickle of bystanders that were still unaware of the danger. Once there was enough room for her and the boy to safely get to the building, Akihana let him down, holding on to one of his hands as she steered him towards the burning shop.

"Okay, how many people are in there and how long have they been in?" she asked. Dusk had been here longer, he would know more. Once he had explained, the kunoichi would raise a hand, using chakra to push the door to the shop aside.

"Okay sweetie, remember how we talked about no ninjutsu in public? But we also talked about how we need to sometimes do things we aren't supposed to if it means helping?" While she spoke, she brought up her fingers in front of her, performing the hand seals as she spoke. The young woman knew Dusk well enough to know he could keep track of several different thing at once.

"We need to put out the fire from the inside, outside force will collapse the structure. So instead of casting a water jutsu," she finished as the tail end of something large appeared inside the building, something blue and water based. "We need to dispel one in a great deal of water. Now I need you to come here and hold on to me tight. We're going to go in covered in water and while I try to figure out how to break the jutsu inside the building without harming the infrastructure, you're going to be pulling people with us inside the jutsu okay?"

Hoping Dusk would follow, she would hold on to the boy's shoulders as they both entered a giant shark made of water, swimming inside the jutsu as it entered the building slowly.

Watching as his voice reached the people he smiled and clambered down from Akihana, watching as his father nodded to him in approval before looking up to Akihana. For a moment there he thought on the question until he had finally remembered the time," It's been about... Eight or so minutes since it was on fire, I saw it from my house so that's why we got here so fast. As for how many people I think they said somewhere between five to ten people that were still inside the building. We are going to save them all aren't we?," the big blue eyes looked up to her as he wondered about it. When she offered her hand to him, he took it with haste and went into the building with her. Looking around he could see the bright embers of fire dancing around, some of the wares were dancing with fire and to be honest the young male was scared, but he had to be strong for the people of Hoshi and for himself.

Taking off the bandages he had normally worn around his torso, he tied him along his face and nose so that he didn't breathe in anything bad all while paying attention to the hand seals she had been making. Her plan made perfect sense, using water from the inside and pushing it outward so that the infrastructure of the building wasn't compromised. Climbing onto her back he held on tight, with his small body looking around as the two entered inside of the shark. With them being inside he slowly looked around through the first room, his eyes catching sight of a small child and pointed towards her," Akihana look! There is someone over there...They need our help," pointing towards them he wiggled from her while staying inside of the shark, pulling the small child into the protective water and smiling," Have no fear you are safe now!," the bright smile of Dusk beaming forward to try and calm the young child.

Being inside the water shark gave the kunoichi a brand new perspective. the flames were still there but through her water shark, they looked refracted, somehow harmless. She knew however that the boy with her had been scared so even as they swam into the building, Dusk eventually letting go of her hand to rescue a child, Akihana made sure to give the boy a reassuring look, things would be okay. Since the strength of the shark was too great to have it move a high speeds, Akihana would have to remain within the main body, controlling its movements to the point of being slow and cumbersome. Once Dusk had retrieved the first child, the area now empty of humans save them. Motioning for everyone to hang on, Akihana slowly let a small portion of the shark's fin collapse, covering the previously flaming area in water.

Hoping Dusk would get the idea from there, the blonde gestured to the next room where her sensory told her three people at least were huddled somewhere. As the shark entered the room, Akihana's vision clear thanks to her dojutsu despite seeing everything through a five feet thick translucent water wall, she motioned for Dusk to get those people out of the way once more. How he would do it would be up to him, all she knew was that the next second, those three people were pulled in too and she let the right fin of the shark collapse whole, flooding the area in water and - as it hit burning embers - steam.

Pointing to the door, she gestured for Dusk to lead those people out (via walking or swimming through her jutsu) before coming back for more. Having give the young shinobi his task, Akihana focused on the building once more, navigating the slowly collapsing shark carefully through the shop and trying to do as little damage as possible. A trail of steam followed in her wake, the blonde holding the shark's shape but releasing water as she went further in, putting out the fire bit by bit.

The shark was barely big enough to be thrice her size as she approached the storage area, having dispelled most of the jutsu slowly on her way to put out fires. Here however, the kunoichi's breathe caught in her throat as she noticed an old man behind the flaming door, trying to beat the fire back with his stick and only succeeding in catching his wooden cane on fire, The right half of his body was already aflame as he attepted to escape from a dire situation.

Hoping that Dusk was behind her, the kunoichi increased the speed of her shark, hurtling towards the man with her arms held out, reaching to pull him in just as the storage area collapsed from the speed of her jutsu. Should Dusk be by her side, he would ensure the old man didn't get knocked out by the strength of the shark as it approached him and help her in the pulling process.

Feeling like he had did something good, he held onto the child as they moved forward through the building making small talk to make them feel a little better about the situation, he knew while being a child these things were quite scary so a little reinsurance was that one needed to truly feel safe. When he had been pointed to the other three people inside of the building he knew that he couldn't exactly use the shadow clone jutsu, but because of what had been going on he needed to so he asked the young female to close her eyes and count to ten. After she did this, he quickly weaved the signs Aki had shown him before to make three clones of himself, ordering them to quickly move whatever debris wasn't on fire in order himself and one other clone to get the people out.

Grabbing onto one of them, he carefully applied a little weight so that they could stand each one looking at him in confusion," You will be safe once we get to the water over there, and you will be able to breathe inside of it," the group of three looked at the little male hesitantly before listening to the male and stepping into the safety that she had made for them. After grabbing the first four he looked at her somberly before nodding and leading them through the water by walking, escorting each through the door before pointing them towards the medics, where his mom and been and disappearing back into the building. Jumping back into the shark he followed her footsteps, having felt proud of his recent accomplishments and hoped that he could save more people.

The more that they had walked, he would be able to see what had caused Akihana to stop for a moment. Seeing the debris that had stopped them from getting to him, the Dusk trio of clones jumped into the fray quickly, banging themselves into the debris until it had broken down allowing the shark to get through quickly. In the heat of the moment, Dusk lunged forward protecting the old man form the brunt of the shark's speed though hurting himself a bit causing him to let out a small grunt of discomfort, but was happy that the old man got out safely. Standing him up he would make sure that he wasn't too badly damaged, he applied the first aid technique that Akihana had taught him in the class the previous day. After healing the male as much as he could he escorted him out quickly before returning to his teacher to help out more.

Seeing that Dusk had a handle on the old man, watching him quickly grab the burning male and use his own small body to bear the brunt of the shark's bulk, Akihana did her best to slow the momentum but it was too late. Dust still managed to get hit and a spike of worry fractured her focus, making the rest of the shark's watery volume dissolve into water all around her, Akihana's concentration broken at the idea of the blue haired child hurt. The next minute though, Dusk was back up and healing the burned flesh on the civilian.

"Are you okay," the blonde called out as the boy continued to apply medical jutsu on the man. Leaning over to help, she applied a touch of anesthetics, making the man fall asleep and become impervious to the pain of both the burn and the healing process. Once they were done, medics would be rushing in to look after him. In total, five people had been rescued from the building and save the old man they had gotten to last, no one else had been burnt seriously as far as she could tell.

Akihana and Dusk emerged from the building to cheers from the crowd, the young woman now dripping wet thanks to the jutsu she'd maintained around her all this while. Squeezing out the ends of her damp blonde hair, the kunoichi finally smiled as she took in the now safe and minimally harmed building. "Hey, you did it!" She congratulated Dusk, raising her hand for a high five. "You were amazing in there, a real hero."

Shina appered then, having just gotten to the scene. The jounin didn't need a lot of time to realize what had happened. one look at Akihana and the genin trailing water and black marks all over the building was probably enough. Raising a dark eyebrow, the kunoichi said to Akihana. "Compensation?"

"Yes, please make sure these people are looked after and compensated fully for whatever they lost in the fire. Dusk will be assisting you, what do you say?" she asked, turning to the boy. "I'm assigning you to a very important mission, Miss Shina's second in command. You have to help her ensure everyone gets home safe and then investigate how the fire started with her so we can prevent it from happening in future. Does that sound like something you can do?"

All he could do was nod slowly as he took care of the old male in front of him, his worries came before his own and if it came to it Dusk would seek medical attention," I'm fine. Just want to make sure he is fine and alright before taking care of myself is all. Besides he is fine and alive so I am happy overall," watching as the medics came in, one of them being his mother, he removed the bandages and put them back onto his torso smiling as he walked out slowly. As the duo walked out of the now successfully dried building to the cheers, Dusk could not help but chuckle and wave his hand to the crowd in response, feeling every happy emotion in his tiny body. It felt good to be thanked by the people of the village, especially since he got to save some lives in the process. When he was offered the high five he smiled and shook his head," No we were amazing, I couldn't have done it without your help and courage Akihana. I feel good knowing I could save so many people, even if it was only five, it still felt like an awesome accomplishment," knowing this he turned his back to see his mother coming out of the building with a smile on his face.

Seeing that he had another job to do, he shook his head eagerly accepting to help Shina in her duties," I'll do my best!," of course listening to what he needed to do, he ran off in search of people to ask, of course going to where his father had been since he had been in the area in which the people who were in the fire had been escorted over there. Shortly reaching there he patted his dad on the back slowly asking him had he heard anything on the beginnings of the fire. With a small point of his index finger, he pointed to a middle aged female who said she had been the shops owner. Nodding he would walk over to her and lightly tug on her shirt tail to get her attention," Excuse me miss? Could I ask you what happened for the store to catch on fire? I'm helping with the official report and would be forever grateful if you could share the experience with me," at first she was confused because of the child asking her for the information, but once she noticed he was trying to help she slowly let it come to light.

Apparently there had been a few candles lit in the storage room where she had been working for a brief moment, and after leaving for a while the candles caught light on some of the boxes which contained flammable materials. As she told him the story he slowly wrote it down in a small notepad he had in his ninja pouch, nodding with each word she told him as if he was a music beat. After getting the full story from her, he gave the unknown female a hug before running off to help in the final stages of getting everyone home. With the help of his family, he got almost everyone home except for those still seeking medical attention, helping where that had been needed before going to Shina and giving her the report he had received from the shop owner.

Having dispatched Dusk to do the preliminary investigating on how the fire had started, Akihana began some detective work of her own. This was the third fire in the last three weeks and while the first two events had given rise to suspicion, the third could very well prove a link. Though from what she heard all around, the shop owner was a little old lady who sold mostly prayer candles and rosary beads to different religious groups. Akihana remembered seeing such items both in the main shop area as well as in the store they had barely managed to save. Had the fire truly been an accident, she would have dismissed it, and she hadn’t ruled it out yet but something sat uncertain with the blonde as she moved through the bystanders, greeting them politely and answering the usual questions. Akihana had always been better at picking up information from a crowd than being skilled in conventional combat – a talent for which she had been recognized as a kumogakure ANBU and sent on relevant missions by Yaju. Her ability had only grown with time.

When Shina found her again, it was with a complete report that Dusk had helped the jounin compile. As she’d heard, the report stated that some candles were left burning and the old lady in question would have very little reason to lie. Still the fire came on the heels of two similar events which gave the medic pause. Did everyone suddenly become so careless with flammable objects or was something more sinister afoot. After negotiating a decent compensation, Akihana sent Shina off to the royal treasury to clear the shop owner’s claims. Perhaps she should tell Dusk to be on the lookout for future? The idea of worrying the boy was not one she liked but if something fishy was afoot then it was best to not be caught unaware.

Walking over to the blue haired boy who was now with his parents, the kunoichi smiled, curtsying in respect to the two adult Tachibana. “It’s an honor to meet you,” she would say politely to the brown haired couple. “You’ve done an outstanding job with Dusk, I can’t even begin to tell you how helpful he and your entire family have been today. Please accept my gratitude and take the compensation of a mission reward for your services today. We need good shinobi like you guys to make this country the fine jewel that it is.” With that, Akihana would produce a document that the family could submit at the mission counter to collect their reward. Once she’d spoken to his parents, the kunoichi would ask for a private word with Dusk. Should he follow her a few feet away where they could have some privacy, she would begin to explain.

“Do you think you can do one last thing for me? You see, lately people have been super careless with fires and we’ve had a few cases where it turns into something dangerous like today. So when you patrol the streets, keep an eye out yeah? Make sure things are running smoothly. If you hear or see anything strange about fires out in the city, you come and tell me or Denkiteki-sama straight away okay? Even if it is in the middle of the night. You can wake us up to tell us,” she finished with a grin. Should Dusk agree, she would pat him on the head and hug him one ls time before leaving the scene.

Back at the palaces, she would relate the whole incident to Dekiteki who was working out of the palace library that day, sharing her suspicion with him. Den merely listened as he normally did, speaking very little. He did look up though when she mentioned having left Dusk in charge of intel gathering.

“Are you sure that’s wise?”

“I’ve found he’s a lot tougher than he looks, and a lot more capable when he wants to be. You’d have been proud of him had you seen him today,” she would reply with a soft smile. Den would merely shake his head, as usual not clueing her in to how he felt about the whole thing. It was alright though, Den and Akihana didn’t need words to understand each other most days.

(Exit Akihana)

TWC: 2,290

Claiming: 2, 000 Ryo
Claiming: 2, 250 words towards Shark Bullet
Claiming: 40 words to Charity

As Dusk stood with his parents and the three conversed, once Akihana had stepped foward, the two would bow to the young misses as they expressed their gratitude as well," We should be thanking you for taking care of him and teaching him how to use his unique attitude and skills to a good use. We are thankful for you and the Queen for taking us in and anything we can do to help, we shall be there," the two older Tachibana family members would look at the gift Akihana had given them with thanks before both hugging her and then Dusk before heading off to their home. With Dusk still behind to make sure that everything was good and okay, he turned towards Akihana and nodded," Dusk is on the job! No fire shall escape my vigilant blue eyes. If one does happen, I shall ring the bells of help to get you and Denkiteki-sama up to help!," with that he hugged her back and titterd off towards his home where he busted open the door, hugging his parents and thanking them for their help. After all the family had been thanked by Akihana herself, and finally seeing the teacher their son talked about so highly, it made them feel better knowing he was in good hands. For now the young Shinobi would settle in his bed for sleeps and then more protecting in the morning.

Exit

2016

Claiming Shadow Clone and mission rewards pls ^^