Trouble at the festival of lights

The mission:

Heroshi woke up on the Tuesday before the festival of lights still in the shirt and pants he had worn for his mission the night before. It was a loose-fitting shirt, now it had a ring of sweat around the collar. It was a plain white tee that had been worn for training before it became Heroshi’s good luck shirt, but it needed to be washed. It was starting to smell like body odor and dirt, and sweat the combo made Heroshi squint as he took a whiff. Heroshi wouldn’t worry about his pants because as long as he changed his underwear, he could wear his pants for a week before he had to wash them. Heroshi was in luck though, he had a pair of shorts and a second plain white tee that wasn’t encumbered with the evidence of hard work, and sleep in a warm room. Heroshi would take a quick bath and change his clothes before he would leave his house. It was still warm with the heat from yesterday’s sun, even though the night had come and gone, the heat never left. Heroshi would find this oppressive, and couldn’t wait to leave his hot muggy house.
Heroshi had been to the festival of lights with his dad one time when he was four, Heroshi thought they were having fun when he realized his dad was just using him as a prop. He hoped this year’s festival of lights would be more fun, but he didn’t expect it to, he had asked a few friends if they would go with him, but they all were going with their families. Heroshi would put his name into a reserve spot in case they would need him to patrol or do any missions during the festival because he couldn’t find any friends to go with. Heroshi wanted to go, but he didn’t want to go by himself.
Heroshi would leave his house and wander down the street to go see a few of his friends. His childhood crush, well his current crush would be among those that he was going to see. When Heroshi arrived at the location almost all of the friends he wanted to see were there. “Where’s Tamai?” Heroshi would ask the group. “He’ll be here soon, what’s going on Heroshi?” One of the boys would answer and then question Heroshi’s motives for why they were hanging out. “The festival of lights is coming up; I was wondering what you all were doing for it? Is anyone not being taken by their families?” Heroshi would ask getting to the point. Everyone shook their heads, “I think all of our families want to take us there Heroshi. Maybe we can ask our parents if you can come with us?” One of the boys would answer his statement becoming a question at the end with Heroshi shaking his head. “I don’t want to get in the way of your family time.” He would tell his friends smiling trying not to show how upset he was getting, he might have been a shinobi, but he was still a young child, and he still hadn’t mastered his emotions. “I might get a mission anyways, a lot of shinobi have families, and the festival of lights will be where they’ll want to be. I want them to spend time with their families.” Heroshi would ramble on, cheering himself up a little bit. “Heroshi, I heard Ino wasn’t going to have anyone to take her, her dad is on a mission outside of the village, and her mom works at the hospital, so maybe she would want to go with you?” His friend would inform Heroshi. This caused Heroshi to blush, “She doesn’t have anyone to go with?” Heroshi would confirm, as he would start running in the direction of Ino’s house. “I’ll be back guys!” He would run all the way to Ino’s house.
When he arrived Heroshi had a bead of sweat running from the top of his head to his chin and it followed his cheek and would drip off his chin. Heroshi would knock on Ino’s door and his anxiety would go through the roof, the what-ifs would run through his head, but he wanted to ask if she’d at least consider going with him. When Ino opened the door Heroshi almost froze. “Hiya Ino, I was wondering if you’d go to the festival of lights with me?” Heroshi would ask as he could feel his face burning red, I am a trained shinobi, and I can’t ask a girl to a festival? Heroshi would think to himself. Ino looked at Heroshi and gave a little giggle, “You want me to go with you Heroshi? I thought maybe you’d be going with your dad.” She would say, “I would love to go with you, the festival of lights is my favorite, and I think you’re a nice boy.” She would finish. Heroshi was beyond elated, “Uh, we’re going to be playing outside if you wanted to join us, it’s a bunch of us just playing tag and stuff.” Heroshi would say rapidly almost too fast to understand. Ino would giggle and agree to come to play, she was as excited to hang out with Heroshi as he was to hang out with her.
The children would play until the sun would hide behind the mountains and the parents of the children would beckon them all home, the only child that didn’t have to be home was Heroshi, and Ino was in the academy so her parents let her stay out to train or watch other shinobi so she could emulate them. She asked Heroshi if they could train for a while, and Heroshi agreed. “You’re the youngest shinobi in the village right now Heroshi, that’s quite impressive.” She would swoon. “How did you do it?” She would ask extremely curious how Heroshi age six had managed to become a genin. “I worked hard, my dad would run drills with me from sun up to sun down most days, I just now started to get to play more, it’s weird as soon as I made Genin my dad doesn’t train me as much, I have a sensei and friends that help me along the way, but now in between training and missions, I get to just hang out, it’s really nice. Take your time, Ino, play with your friends and learn as much as you can in the academy. I haven’t done any hard missions yet, but I’ve been told about hard choices I’ll have to make when I get stronger.” Heroshi would say noticing how dark the conversation just became. “I am actually becoming pretty skilled in Ninjutsu and fuuinjutsu.” Heroshi would explain to his crush, “What specialization were you thinking of trying out when you become Genin?” Heroshi would ask interested, she was going to be a great Kunoichi someday Heroshi believed. “My dad is a powerful Taijutsu master, as well as a ninjutsu extraordinaire, and my mom does Iryojutsu at the hospital and in her squad, but I really like Genjutsu. I’ve already started practicing a few my dad has taught me.” She said with a slight smile, “I’ll put the Uchiha’s to shame.” She would giggle out. “Okay Heroshi, I’m getting pretty tired. I’ll see you tomorrow?” She would ask as he helped her up. “Of course, we should plan our day so we can have the most fun.” He would say with a smile.  She would nod and head to her house. “Good night Heroshi!” She would call out as she got to her door. “Good night.” He would call back, Heroshi was elated, he almost forgot he had volunteered to work during the festival of lights, he’s a Genin, they won’t need him, he would think to himself.
When Heroshi got home he was surprised to find on his kitchen table was a letter from the office of the Hogokage. “Heroshi you are hereby summoned to do patrol work the night of the festival of lights as deemed by the Hogokage.” The letter said as Heroshi’s heart dropped into his stomach, how could this happen to him? He would have to find a way to explain to Ino that he would have to work unless he could get away with being in two places at once. He had learned the shadow clone Jutsu, so that could count as him on his date with Ino and patrolling. Heroshi would have to think about this, if he got caught sending a shadow clone in his place, he might get in trouble with the Hogokage, but this is young love the purest love to grace the planet. Heroshi would ask his dad in the morning what the consequences would be if he sent a shadow clone in leu of himself going. I think my dad’s wrath will be worse than the Hogokage’s. Heroshi would ponder. Heroshi would get ready for bed with this dilemma on his plate.

WC: 1500

Heroshi would wake up with no clue as to how he was going to manipulate the situation to work how he intended it to, and he was feeling desperate. He couldn’t think of the consequences or the long-term effects of his actions at a time like this, the girl he likes is willing to go to the festival of lights with him and he has a mission, of all the rotten luck. Heroshi did something he would never do if it wasn’t as serious as he thought this was. He woke up his dad. “Why are you waking me up?” He would say as he brought a fist down hard on the young boy. *poof* It was just a shadow clone. “Dad, I don’t ever ask you for much…” He would get interrupted by a kunai flung at his face. He would dive to the ground because that’s all he had time to think about. “Dad, I have a date tonight with Ino, but I’m supposed to be on a mission!” Heroshi would yell and cower on the floor with his hands over his head and face. His dad did something unthinkable next, he relaxed a little. “Okay, boy, you have a conundrum and you need ol’ dad to fix it for ya? I would usually tell you to get lost, but I don’t know, maybe I have a soft spot for young love.” His dad would say in a tone that sounded soft, but Heroshi knew he’d pay for waking him up later. “Let’s see here, you don’t want to fail this mission, and you don’t want to ditch your lady, shadow clone, they count and no one would know the difference. And if it died you would have a better chance of alerting the city watch better from elsewhere anyway. Now if you wake me up again that kunai will not miss, and you’ll have a cool scar to tell your friends about, now leave.” His dad would say as he laid back down and covered himself with a blanket and went to sleep. Heroshi would get up and put on a new set of clothes and would leave his house to meet up with Ino.
When he arrived, she was already training. “You’re excellent at ninjutsu. You’re defiantly going to pass the Genin exams coming up.” He would say smiling, “You ready to go to the training grounds?” He would ask her as he led the way to the training grounds. They would find the spot they wanted to occupy and Heroshi would pull out his yoga mat, “I like to start training with a little bit of meditation.” He would explain to the girl and her clone. “I like to center myself before I start exerting my chakra.” She would take her mat and place it next to his, and the pair would start meditating. They would meditate for about an hour when they felt like they had gotten everything out of the meditation that they would get. Heroshi stood up and grabbed Ino’s hands, “Alright, we spar, but we’re not going at lethal levels. Just until the other yields or is knocked out, no death blows.” He would explain even though he was confident she knew the rules to a spar. Heroshi would initiate the count down and run to his spot ten meters away from Ino. She would start hand seals and Heroshi would create two shadow clones and would split all three of them. He was hoping to confuse the girl that had just finished hand seals when he started feeling weird, he decided to look at where the girl was and she wasn’t there anymore, where could she be? He looked to his left and a shadow clone was defeated and a flock of birds was coming right at him. The flock of birds turned into Ino as she tripped him and put a kunai to his throat. “I win!” She would say, proud of herself. Heroshi was proud too. “I’ve never been in a genjutsu like that before. That was both really cool and extremely scary.” Heroshi would reveal to the Kunoichi in training. “Let’s go again, I have a few I want to try.” He would say with determination on his face. They would spar for about four hours and then call it a quits. Heroshi had to get ready for the festival of lights and his mission, and Ino had to get ready as well. Heroshi would walk Ino home and then head to his house after. “Good bye Heroshi, I’ll see you in a couple of hours.” She would say waving to her friend. Heroshi would wave back and then head in the direction of his house.
Heroshi got home and then summoned a shadow clone, he would dress his clone in mission attire while he would dress in fun festive wear. “Thank you for helping me tonight, you’re a life saver.” Heroshi would say to his clone, “I didn’t think I’d have anyone to go to the festival with, but then Ino wanted to go and I had a mission waiting for me.” His clone didn’t seem bothered by the fact that he was the clone and seemed excited to go on a mission all by himself. “I just hope we don’t get in trouble for doing this.” Heroshi would state as he put the finishing touches on his clone for the mission at hand. Heroshi would then put the finishing touches on himself and get ready to meet up with Ino. Heroshi’s clone would head to the headquarters where the shinobi would be given their areas to patrol for the night. Heroshi would look around his house for something to eat, he didn’t want to look like a slob in front of Ino. Heroshi dawned a colorful shirt that was darker at the base and as the colors got to his neck it was bright greens and purples with a white background. He got this from the last festival of lights and was excited to get another festival of lights shirt.


WC: 1015

The clone of Heroshi would jump into action, he would take off from the house and head to headquarters there he would discover he would be patrolling the festival of lights with another Genin which was fine with the clone. He didn’t want Heroshi to get into trouble on account of sending a clone to do patrol work. When The clone and the other Genin arrived on the scene things were starting to pick up at the festival. There was so much happening the clone didn’t know if he’d be able to do a good enough job of patrolling the streets. He knew he had to do his best and there would be more shinobi out there to watch out for everyone’s safety. The first task the clone had to do was to help a little boy find his parents. They had gone to look at some merchant’s wares when the kid wandered off. It was simple enough work; it was nice to put the clone’s mind at ease. If only the rest of the night would go like this. He would speculate scanning over the top of people from his position on a rooftop. Heroshi would see some older kids picking on some younger kids, Heroshi didn’t like bullies, but it wasn’t his job to break that up. Pretty soon the adults would start to drink, this would cause them to start fighting each other and getting rowdy. Heroshi’s clone would be ready, most of the time if a drunk adult saw the headband they would chill out, the clone just hoped that would be the case. Shortly after the clone would make an observation about the time, he saw three fully grown men start to fight random strangers passing them by. Heroshi signaled to the other Genin and hopped off the roof. The three adults looked at the clone and smiled. “They sent kids to deal with us?” One of them would say, but it was too late the other genin had all three trapped in a genjutsu as soon as they tried to take a few steps toward the clone. “I was kind of worried there.” The clone would say to the Genin. “I didn’t know you’d be genjutsu trained.” He would relay to his comrade. “Just make sure if they come after me you got my back.” The Genin would say to the clone. A lot of the night was uneventful, actually got extremely boring for the clone for quite a while until the village started the show. Lights were launched in the air, ninjutsu, and fireworks alike it was truly a show to be admired. The clone was happy he got to be around for it, when he heard crying it broke him out of his trance. A woman was bleeding profusely out of her face. The clone would jump down and try to administer first aid, “Ma’am what happened to your face, you’re covered in blood.” The clone would ask showing concern in his voice. The woman pointed at a man wielding a beer bottle and covered in blood, the clone was about to approach him when an arm reached out and stopped him. It was the Genin he was partnered with, he was trying to activate a second genjutsu on the drunk patron, but he was breaking out of it. “I got this.” The clone would say as he ran over to the man swinging the beer bottle wildly. The clone would dodge and duck out of the way, and counter with a kick to his privet square. “Now, you’re going to relax for a few minutes.” The clone would tell the man as he bound his hands. “You’re in big trouble, she looks injured and that’s not okay.” Heroshi’s clone would tell the man. They would call for backup and they would come to take the man away and take the woman to the hospital. After that, the night would start to die down, and the clone and the fellow Genin would do the rest of their patrols on foot. There were a few vendors still open hoping to get that last sale in before everyone went home. The Genin asked the clone if he wanted something to eat since he took care of that psycho with a beer bottle. The clone would agree to eat and share stories. The Genin was about to be promoted and having a new Genin under his leadership was sort of a test the elders were putting him through, he believed with how the night went he would be promoted and he wanted to thank Heroshi for his diligence. The clone would happily accept the praise and would congratulate the man on his promotion.  The clone would head and Genin would finish their meal and then head back to the headquarters, where they would debrief the shift leader and then part ways. While they were in the headquarters several chuunin and Jounin were impressed with the collars the pair had made they would come over and remark about how the new ninjas of Hoshigakure were some of the bests around, and they were excited to see the growth and potential of all the new shinobi. The clone felt a sense of pride and was glad he got to experience this. As the night was coming to an end the shinobi all started making their way home, the Heroshi clone didn’t want the night to end, he was having so much fun laughing and telling and hearing stories from and to others. The clone would realize it was the last shinobi in the headquarters that wasn’t there doing administrative duties. It would begrudgingly leave the headquarters and head back to the house of Heroshi and his dad. As the clone of Heroshi walked painfully slow to anyone else it started to feel sad, sad it wouldn’t get to live another day like today. Do missions like today, it wished it could have more time, but that was fool-hearted thinking. Heroshi would have to dismiss him and go on living a normal life. As the clone approached Heroshi’s door he heard Heroshi freaking out a little bit. What could be the matter, maybe I stayed at headquarters a little long, the clone would think to himself.

WC: 1048
TWC: 3569

Heroshi would leave the house a few minutes later he was so ecstatic about the day that nothing could bring him down. He would be present for both the mission he had accepted and the date he would be on with Ino. Heroshi walked to the market before going to Ino’s house to pick her up. He would find a flower merchant and buy a small bundle of flowers that he thought she would appreciate. As he was headed to Ino’s house from the market he ran into a Jounin that recognized him. “Heroshi?” He would ask with a little bit of amusement in his voice. Heroshi’s blood ran cold, had this shinobi realized he was just at a meeting to be briefed about the mission he was about to go on. Time to lie my ass off Heroshi would think to himself deep into his subconscious mind. “How can I help you, sir?” Heroshi would say trying to hide the guilt in his voice and the shakes of his hands. “I thought I saw you at the festival dressed in gear suited for a mission? Why am I seeing you here?” He would ask skeptically. Heroshi would start to stutter and realize the truth would have to come out. “I am, but I’m also here for a girl. You see I used a shadow clone…” Heroshi would be interrupted but this Jounin. “To go on a date while you did the mission at the festival, kid, I gotta hand it to you. You are brilliant. Well, have a good time.” The Jounin would say as he would wave and walk away. I should have done that; my anxiety is through the roof right now. “Have a good day, sir.” Heroshi would wave back as he headed to Ino’s house hopefully this time with no delays or run-ins with anyone his clone had already seen.
Heroshi had the advantage in a lot of tactical areas, not a lot of people expected him to be powerful, ready for combat, or most of the time, a shinobi, but his age also had some drawbacks, when you meet a six-year-old shinobi you tend to remember them. Heroshi walked at a brisk pace, it was starting to get hot outside on a June mid-day, Heroshi would be excited to see the girl he had a crush on receiving the flowers he bought her, he hoped she liked flowers. When he got to her house he knocked gently, this is how he would knock on his own door if he couldn’t get in. Ino appeared in front of him from behind the door. She looked stunning, a long flowing brightly colored sun dress from a festival of lights from a year before maybe. Heroshi would stand there stunned and in awe of this girl he liked a lot. “Wow, you look ready for the festival.” Heroshi would say as he extended his hand to help her out of her house. “Thank you, and also a gentleman.” She would quip in a friendly manner. “I’m extremely excited to go to the festival with you. I appreciate the flowers; tulips are my favorite.” She would smile at him.
Heroshi and Ino would talk about how they wanted to be when they were Jounin or more advanced. Heroshi just wanted to make sure his village would stay safe, and Ino wanted to be the Hogokage’s personal Anbu security she wanted her genjutsu prowess to usurp the Uchiha’s genjutsu. As they arrived at the gates of the festival it had gotten so busy that Heroshi wasn’t worried about people noticing him anymore because now people would be too busy focusing on rides and food, and the lights to worry about two Heroshi’s at the festival of lights. Ino and Heroshi would go on all of the rides and eat as much food as they possibly could, and when the light show started Heroshi and Ino would find the best seats. Heroshi’s favorite ride was one where the trolly would spin and make it to where inertia would hold him in place, he would flip himself upside down or try to fight against the overbearing weight holding him to the side and try to reach the middle. They tried all the food their little stomachs would handle; they made a vow to each other that they would try food they had never tried before. They were able to scale the side of a light tower and sit on the top out of sight of any security or onlookers. Heroshi got himself a new festival of lights shirt and he got one for Ino too.
They were having so much fun they didn’t realize most of the festival patrons had left and all that really remained was a few workers cleaning up the mess that was made by hundreds of people in the streets. Heroshi and Ino would offer their assistance to a few of these workers and be taken up on their offer. Heroshi couldn’t be bothered this was the perfect day, and giving back to those who helped make it happen is what Heroshi desired the most. Ino was cool enough to follow along and participate in the cleanup of the area with Heroshi. After they were done helping Heroshi and Ino would walk to a park instead of to Ino’s house right away. There they would recount the lights that they just watched shoot across the sky, and how Heroshi should have won that stuffed rabbit, but the booth operator cheated. They were having a lot of fun being kids. It was a refreshing break for Heroshi who barely got any time to escape the clutches of missions or training. The pair of kids sat on the swings and just swung back and forth until Heroshi realized it was late enough that his clone should be off the shift. Heroshi was having so much fun and thought if he was in danger his clone would do the decent thing and return to him so he would know. It would be nice to have an idea of how the mission went, he had hoped the clone wasn’t making him look like a fool in front of everyone. Heroshi would decide against letting the fear ruin his perfect day and night with his friend, so Heroshi just swung on the swing. Ino informed Heroshi that she had to go to bed soon, she had a long day of training in the morning. Heroshi would concur with her as he also had training and some more missions he would be getting done in the morning. Heroshi would walk her home and then give her a hug goodnight. She informed him that she would like to have another spar when he learned how to combat Genjutsu. Heroshi would smile and gladly oblige his friend. They would wave as Heroshi walked away from her home.
As Heroshi walked home he was joined by another shinobi, one that had been drinking heavily, and this one Heroshi knew all too well when he was this level of drunk, it was his dad. Heroshi would help his dad walk to the house like he had done so many times before, even being three feet shorter than his father Heroshi would still be of great assistance to his stumbling father. His father drank heavily on three days a year, in particular, his dead wife’s birthday, death day, and the festival of lights. The festival of lights is where the pair had met and subsequently fell in love before Hoshigakure was a ninja village. They were both sent on a recon mission to see what the security was like in the village, Heroshi’s dad had seen his mom and they were away from prying eyes so they went on the rides and ate the food, they even bought the goofy shirts. They fell in love on that day that’s why when Hoshigakure was taken over by shinobi his mom and dad jumped at the prospect of joining the village hidden in the stars. They wanted to go back to the village they had fallen in love with, back when Heroshi’s dad was a loving and kind man, but now, especially now, he was cold with a seething hatred for anyone that reminded him of his late wife and too bad for his son, he looked just like her.
As the pair walked home Heroshi’s father started getting loud and belligerent with his son. He started accusing his son of treachery in the village, that his son should be demoted to academy student for the trouble he’s caused that in the morning they’d do training like they used to. Heroshi was keen that his father didn’t mean half of the things he was saying, his dad told him he was glad his son wasn’t freeloading anymore, and that there wasn’t much more he could teach him, as Heroshi was more like his mother in the sense that she was a ninjutsu master and he was better with weapons and genjutsu, but that didn’t stop his father from verbally destroying his young son’s self-esteem. When they got into the house is when the all-out brawl started. Heroshi’s dad would grab a pot and begin to try to subdue his son with it, while Heroshi would summon more shadow clones to help subdue his dad. His dad would prove to be quite skilled drunk with a pot as a weapon so much so that all the clones Heroshi was sending at his dad were bested in a short amount of time. Heroshi would use two last clones as a diversion to have his dad attack them while he snuck to his room. His dad was getting tired though and when these clones jumped him, he fell. They were able to restrain him and take him to his room. On their way in the clone Heroshi had sent on the mission entered the abode.
He would carefully enter Heroshi’s room and report. They would talk for a few minutes and by the end of it, Heroshi would dispel his shadow clone and get all of the information the clone had gotten assimilated into his own memory bank.  Heroshi was now tired of living two lives and having to fight his dad, as soon as he placed his head on his pillow, he fell asleep. He dreamed of nice days when his dad wouldn’t attack him and he would hear stories about his mom, Heroshi wouldn’t probably ever get to hear stories about his mom until his father was on his death bed, or if Heroshi could beat him in combat, well, maybe when he got his promotion to Jounin. It made him sad to think about all the wasted time shared between the father and son. It did make Heroshi strong, and quick on his feet, though, and for that he was grateful. Heroshi had another dream this one about his sensei, where Heroshi had to save him from the wrath of the Hogokage. That one woke Heroshi up with a start.
Heroshi would ponder what his dream meant all morning, he wanted to chalk it up to a bad dream, but Heroshi had a bad habit of looking too far into dreams, but this one was different, was it a premonition, who knew? Heroshi would hope that it wasn’t but would look out for if it ever did come true. Heroshi would need to turn in his assignment form to the administration office. Heroshi would get out of bed slowly, last night was pretty brutal and he was worried he might wake up his dad.


WC:1944
TWC:5513

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