[Log] Kids These Days... [Hanabi & Suzumo]
The day hadn't started off that different from any other. Suzumo had risen and done what he needed to do before he headed to teach, had then taught, and had surprisingly not had any explosions. It had been nice and relatively calm for a change and he had enjoyed it. It had actually been pleasant out as well when he headed home for the day; a perfect day so far really.
He should have known it wouldn't last.
On his way home, he had passed a group of boys, all looking rather surly and apparently nursing wounds. That wasn't too unusual, as this was a shinobi village, but it was what one of the boys muttered that caught Suzumo's attention.
"Stupid Hyuuga," the boy had muttered, rubbing what looked suspiciously like a bruise from the Jyuuken. "Why'd he have to go crazy? Ain't like it was his pets or nothin'."
Suzumo started to slow and then another boy spoke up, snorting.
"Not like it matters," the second snickered, rubbing his own arm. "He went and ran into the Forest of Death. Betcha no one will miss h-URK!"
The boys words were cut off as Suzumo grabbed the boy's shirt, hauling him back towards him. It was obvious that, for a second, he wanted to start a fight, but seeing the grim faced obviously angry shinobi, he wilted. He seemed to shrink even further when Suzumo spoke, voice a dangerous thrum. "Where in the Forest of Death did this Hyuuga boy go?"
Because the only one who could be so foolish as to run into the Forest of death alone... was Hanabi.
Hanabi was absolutely furious. Venomously furious. So furious he wasn't paying the attention he should have been paying to his surroundings as he made his way deeper and deeper into the Forest of Death looking for the poor little dogs he'd seen thrown over the fence and into this godforsaken pit of vegetation. He thought maybe there were three of them but he couldn't be sure (he'd beaten the boys throwing them a bit too soundly to get an answer out of them before he clambered over the fence to fetch the poor animals back).
The twelve year old kept storming on, Byakugan flared open, searching for the panicked little animals as best he could do. But there wasn't any sign. In fact... as he slowed down to realize it... he couldn't see any animals for fifty feet in every direction.
Okay, this was a forest. That was weird, right?
Suzumo was at a very serious disadvantage. He only had the vague area where Hanabi had entered, couldn't see with any bloodline, didn't know how far Hanabi had gone in, and didn't even know if the boys he had caught would do the right thing and get help. Actually, he realized he should have gone and gotten help but with the dangerous that existed in the forest there had simple been no time. Hopefully, he could find Hanabi and get him out without too much trouble.
... right, like that happened in the forest of death.
Vaulting over the fence without much though, the chuunin dashed into the trees, suddenly grateful for them- he could see clearer and if something knocked off his glasses, it wouldn't be like acid was being poured into his eyes- it just be like knives instead. Suzumo forced himself to slow momentarily and felt something like relief course through him at what he saw- they hadn't gotten to stealth training yet and Hanabi had left a decent trail, enabling the chuunin to follow him.
Not daring to call out the boy's name, he quickened his pace and darted forward, hoping to find Hanabi before something else did before him.
Hanabi wasn't daring to make any noise either, mostly because he'd just turned around and realized that he wasn't going to be able to save at least one of those poor dogs he'd come into here to rescue.
Okay. That was a tiger. A big tiger. So big he had thought it was a huge rock until he'd realized that was a heart his Byakugan was watching thunder and pulse inside it. He cancelled his doujutsu and stared. A brown and furry leg was hanging from between its teeth. Teeth that might actually have been longer than Hanabi's arm.
Hanabi's eyes went extremely wide. Oh...
"HOLY SHIT!!" screamed Hanabi, taking off for the treetops fast as his feet could carry him. The tiger watched him, huffed out a huge breath that reeked of fresh blood, and went after the boy who'd headed straight up and through the lightest branches in the hopes the huge cat couldn't chase him there.
It didn't really have to, it was big enough to rip the tops of the trees off if he made it. Hanabi just kept on running, trying to double back to where he knew the fence was.
It seemed the something else had found Hanabi before Suzumo had.
This was going to make things a little more difficult.
Hurling himself ahead, Suzumo moved at breakneck pace towards the sound of breaking trees and nearly stumbled at the sight of one of the giant tigers leaping after Hanabi. Not bothering to think about what he should do, or what was going to happen he leaped from his branch, straight into Hanabi, knocking them both down off the tree. He could feel large claws snag his vest as the tiger swiped at him, the beast's roar leaving his ears ringing.
Student and pupil hit the ground rather hard but Suzumo didn't let them pause. One hand fisted in Hanabi's shirt, dragging him up and then propelled him forward, towards the exit of the forest.
"Run Hanabi," he barked urgently. "Run and don't stop running until you are out of this forest, no matter what. That's an order."
Suzumo didn't expect an answer. But he really hoped that Hanabi would follow what he said, if the teacher himself fell.
Winded by the fall, Hanabi didn't have the breath to argue (for once in his life) and when Suzumo flung him to his feet he took off fast as he could through the undergrowth. He did flare his byakugan open though, and with the exception of his blindspot (which conveniently obscured the homicidal face of the tiger on their tail) he could see exactly where they both were and where they were going. Sprinting full-tilt through the darkness of the forest, Hanabi didn't have time to think about... well, anything. Everything was pretty much instincts when you were being hunted by a freak-of-nature-mega-tiger-bloody-thing and for that, Hanabi was pretty grateful.
Up until the point when his eyes spotted even more trouble. "Sensei!" he gasped, suddenly skidding and sending up a mad flurry of leaves. "Back! Back at the giant cat bastard thing!" he yelled, just before an even bigger giant cat bastard thing exploded onto the scene from where it had been coiled to ambush them.
... son of a...
There was no back or left or right or forward. Suzumo grabbed Hanabi before he could dart either which way, holding him close. At the very last possible second, he shoved them both forward and then to the ground, so the bigger cat sailed over them. The chuunin just barely managed to hurl a kunai into the beast's belly, but that only slowed it down. Of course, that it had crashed into the big cat that had been chasing them from behind slowed it down a little more.
Suzumo was smart enough to know that a little more wasn't going to be enough.
Not even thinking beyond that he had to get Hanabi out of this mess, he scooped the boy up in his arms and darted up the side of a tree, taking to the branches and using chakra to propel him as fast as he could go. Hanabi could not move as fast as him, was not even a genin level yet, and carrying him was the fastest and best option. Some light flitted through, occasionally blinding him and pretty much doing nothing to aid in actually seeing what dangers lurked ahead. It was a very bad situation but Suzumo still refused to think beyond getting Hanabi out of the Forest. And then giving him a talking to he would not forget, and then unleashing his mother on him to do the very same thing only ten times worse.
A sudden patch of light blinded him briefly and the sensei hissed, nearly losing his footing. Shaking his head, he spoke urgently to the small boy in his arms. "Hanabi, you need to guide me. Use your eyes."
Trying not to yelp (in indignation or fright, he wasn't going to distinguish right then) Hanabi realized he didn't have a scrap of control of the situation. His natural snark nearly had him piping up that no, of course he wasn't going to use his eyes, he'd use his pinkie toe to guide them - but he managed not to say it. Insteady he reorientated his Byakugan and started yelling out instructions, where to step and where to dodge and all the while his attention was kept on the two cats who'd only tussled for a few moments before the larger one caught on to their pursuit. "The bigger one's following us! It's only half a minute to the fence!"
And then Hanabi thought about it, in between the swishing of leaves and the roars behind them. Wait a minute....
"The fence isn't going to bloody stop it!"
So he reached around and snagged a pair of kunai out of Suzumo's pockets and quickly looped something from his own pockets around the handles, biting the ends off with his teeth. "Suzumo-sensei --left! duck! under!-- don't turn around okay?" Hanabi flung the two kunai out, a wire strung between them, and watched them plant right across the path of the tiger on their tail. "Okay, faster! Faster would be better!"
No, no the fence was not going to stop it, Suzumo was glad Hanabi finally realized this. But he was too busy focusing on just the running and following the hurriedly shouted out orders as best he could without falling, or dropping the small boy in his arms. The chuunin put on an extra burst of speed when Hanabi pointed out that the fence was only a half a minute away, wanting to shorten that time as much as he could. There was slight distraction though as little hands dove into his kunai pouch and pulled out two kunai. Distraction turned into slight confusion as Hanabi was suddenly doing something in his arms and he couldn't spare the time to actually look and see what it was. Just dart left, and duck, and leap under a branch.
And by that time, Hanabi was already telling him not to turn around. "Hanabi, what are you-"
The question was cut off by one of the loudest explosions Suzumo had ever heard in his life, effectively making him deaf for the moment. He had already been leaping over the fence when it went off, and the rush of air behind him actually propelled him even farther forward, ruining a good landing and making him thud hard into the ground. Glasses bounced off and he reflexively let go of Hanabi so he wouldn't some how smash him into the ground and hurt him. Once he came to a stop (what the hell was the back of his vest burnt?!) he dared to open his eyes despite the pain and look towards the Forest of Death, since the tiger could still be-
... it seemed part of the Forest of Death was on flames. And another part was missing. Though no tiger was in site.
Suzumo heard himself ask in disbelief as his hearing came back, "...nabi what the hell was that?!"
Spitting up dirt and struggling to crawl out a pile of woodchips, Hanabi dragged a burnt sleeve over his face and looked from the complete and utter carnage behind Suzumo back to his sensei. And then yelped and scrambled forwards just in time to avoid getting concussed by a flying chunk of tiger meat bigger than him which thudded into the earth where he'd been. Tumbling forward he wound up sitting and coughing slightly by Suzumo, and gave him a very, very Hyuuga smirk.
"That was awesome!!!" he proclaimed, white eyes beaming out of his dirt and soot streaked face. "And you were awesome!"
If this was what having children was like... Suzumo was glad he had never had any.
For a moment he could only stare at Hanabi, wrinkling his nose at the smell of burning flesh, then he moved away slightly to grab his sun glasses, brushing them off before putting them on. It was easier to see now, the damage to his clothes and Hanabi's clothes... but Hanabi himself seemed unharmed, which in and of itself was probably a miracle. Suzumo was a little singed, but a shower could probably take care of that. Overall, they were both very lucky, with all factors considered.
The chuunin sensei had stood up, mouth opening to start the mother of all lectures when he felt a wisp of air behind him. Somehow, when he turned, he wasn't surprised to see several white masks staring back at them. One was even familiar.
Sighing and wiping a hand over his face, making it even dirtier, he addressed the one familiar mask. "... no one is hurt. Apologies for the disruption."
Said 'familiar' masked ANBU turned her head and carefully but swiftly examined the area, then let her hidden eyes rest back with Suzumo.
"You can't keep out of trouble for five minutes, can you?" she commented, tipping her tiger-masked head a little to the side and smiling just slightly under the mask at the sight the two of them made. The explosion that had just gone off was still raining chunks of unidentified meat down on sections of the village, along with plenty of botanical debris. It had been loud enough to break the windows on a few houses and rattle the ones in the Palace where - this ANBU was reasonably sure - Hyuuga Hiashiko would shortly be having an anyeurism.
...she knew there was a reason she liked Suzumo.
Tenzouko lifted her hand and signalled, and in an instant her squadmates scattered to secure the area and the gap in the fence that had been caused by the shiny new crater in the side of the Forest. The captain herself knelt down by the two males and eyed them carefully as she'd examined their surroundings a moment before. "Come on, Suzumo-san. Hyuuga-kun. You're both coming to the hospital to be examined." They could explain the situation to a higher authority, Tenzouko was just concerned with making sure they were alive.
"I can, but you always seem to find me when I'm in trouble." Suzumo sighed to the tiger masked ANBU, an exhausted smile playing along his lips. He was unaware of how bad the damage was, but he knew for sure that his ears were still ringing. And that this was going to take so much explaining that he had a feeling he wasn't going to be getting that shower he had intended.
The chuunin stayed still as Tenzouko looked at him and then nodded, standing up. Before Hanabi could protest, he carefully took the boys arm, and hauled him up as well. Sunglasses tilted to look down at the boy and Suzumo frowned, just faintly. "And as we walk, you're going to tell me exactly what you did back there, before we have to go and explain it to everyone else. Is that understood, Hyuuga Hanabi?"
Suzumo had never had to out right scold Hanabi before, just gently reprimand and turn him in the right direction. But given the nature of everything that just happened... there was going to be a lot of scolding in Hanabi's furture.
Internally, Hanabi was somewhat split over the situation. On the one hand: he'd just blown out a massive section of the Forest of Death after being chased through it with his sensei by a gigantic freak-of-nature-cat-bastard tiger monster. On the other hand: said explosion had been so big and so bad it'd drawn out a squad of ANBU to check out the destruction, and was still raining down bits of flash-fried feline.
Hanabi was split over which was the more awesome hand.
Wisely, he did not mention this fact to Suzumo. Even more wisely he tried not to let the notion drift to the rather intimidating ANBU captain escorting them back into the village proper. Instead he cleared his throat quietly and made sure to keep up, limbs still buzzing with adrenaline and ears still ringing with the sound of spectacular devastation. "The fence wasn't going to stop it from following us, Suzumo-sensei," he explained - as if quite curious as to how this fact had passed Suzumo by - "So I rigged a trap with explosive tags. Sorry I lost two of your kunai."
Suzumo pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to figure out how to address this without making his brain somehow explode. Ideas weren't exactly forthcoming though, so he realized he was just going to have to wing it and hope Hanabi actually got the message.
"...yes," he started, dropping his hand to his side. "The fence would have probably not stopped the tiger. However, blowing a chunk out of the forest was a little excessive." An eyebrow arched behind sunglasses and he looked at him fully. "And far more force then normally found in explosive tags. So, tell me, Hanabi, where exactly you got those tags, especially when I have never allowed you to have any."
"You let me look at some once," Hanabi pointed out. He remembered the day oh-so-well. Best lesson, ever. "Before you used them to set off a few explosions during that particular lesson, so I took a very good look at them." As in Byakugan'd them very thoroughly indeed. Then he gave Suzumo a small smile as he trotted alongside him, "You did a really good job of explaining the physics and jutsu behind how they actually work."
His eyes flitted back to the street in front of them. "A really good job, so I tried making some. That was a pretty good test run, I suppose. Blew up that bloody tiger." Hanabi's eyes flitted up to the ANBU on his other side and her mask. "No offense, ma'am."
Tenzouko was trying not to snicker behind her tiger mask. She just shook her head and glanced over to Suzumo for a moment. "None taken," she replied evenly. If there had been, the little brat would know it. It was hard to resist pointing something out to Suzumo though. "You teach your students how to manufacture explosive tags?"
"No," Suzumo answered the ANBU, a faint groan in his voice. "Apparently they ignore my words of warning and make their own instead."
He shook his head, and then looked over to Hanabi with a frown. "This is not amusing, Hanabi, it's not even something to be proud of, let alone smile about. Do you understand what could have gone wrong? If they had blown up while on you, blown us up? Or if they had blown up while they were in the Hyuuga Compound, or while you were making them, or if a child got into them? And what about you running into the Forest of Death without thinking? You've seen the signs, you know what your brother went through while in there. And yet you ran in anyway and nearly got yourself killed. It was blind luck that I ran across those boys, or you would have died."
The chuunin shook his head, a little exhausted by this and said softly as the hospital loomed into view. "You think you are infalliable, Hanabi. And unless you learn it now, you will learn it later on the hard way."
Hanabi was not accustomed to eaing humble pie (in fact, he was far more likely to start a foodfight with it) but even though he didn't entirely see Suzumo's point, he knew better than to contradict anything his sensei said in company. He was right, after all, he probably would have gotten killed by that big tiger thing if Suzumo hadn't rescued him - but that wasn't really a big deal in his mind right then. His thoughts were far more preoccupied with that awesome explosion. Give him a break, he was twelve years old!
Still, Hanabi had been people-watching with Suzumo enough times to know how and when and why to play the obedience card. With a murmurred, "yes, Suzumo-sensei," and his best attempt at a contrite expression, they made their way up to the hospital.
For her part, Tenzouko thought that was a bit harsh, but it wasn't her place to say anything about how Suzumo interacted with his pupils. And for all she knew, he was quite right. Still... the expression on the boy's ghostly little face and his slumped skinny shoulders was kinda sad to take. So when Suzumo signed them both in at the desk, Tenzouko determinedly didn't look at him through her mask's eyeslits and murmurred quietly. "You could see the explosion from the Palace."
A pair of white eyes flicked up to the ANBU watching Suzumo through her mask, and Hanabi risked a smirk. "Really?"
Tenzouko nodded, apparently at nothing. "Really." When Suzumo turned back to the pair of them, Tenzouko raised a hand. "You both set, Suzumo-san?" She did have to get back to the Palace, make sure Tsurude was properly informed and properly protected. Plus, it was a little hard to ignore the fact that Hanabi was having trouble keeping a straight face now.
If it wasn't for the fact that he liked Tenzouko and she was an ANBU, Suzumo might have killed her.
Then again, even he had to admit that it was more natural to see Hanabi trying to hold back a smug little look then looking downcast.
He cast a vaguely annoyed look to the Tiger ANBU but his look softened faintly at her question. "Yes, ANBU-san. Apologies for the troubles we have caused and thank you for accompanying us this far."
He bowed slightly to Ten, and then placed a hand on Hanabi's shoulders, carefully steering him to where they needed to go. After a few moments of walking in silence, Suzumo glanced down to the quiet boy beside him and murmured quietly, "So."
"... how do you propose we explain this to your mother? Because we will be telling her."
Ah. As the ANBU evaporated into thin air, Hanabi paused and pretended to think about it. Hm... perhaps the only non-awesome thing about that explosion was that his mother couldn't help but have noticed it.
Bugger.
The little Hyuuga glanced up to Suzumo, but it wasn't until they were both sitting on an exam bench waiting for a doctor to come see them that he worked out what there was to say.
"Maybe we could just let the actions and results speak for themselves?" he offered hopefully. "I mean... everything we did was extremely cool."
From the way his sensei buried his head in his hands and groaned, Hanabi thought maybe this wasn't the approach of preference after all.
He should have known it wouldn't last.
On his way home, he had passed a group of boys, all looking rather surly and apparently nursing wounds. That wasn't too unusual, as this was a shinobi village, but it was what one of the boys muttered that caught Suzumo's attention.
"Stupid Hyuuga," the boy had muttered, rubbing what looked suspiciously like a bruise from the Jyuuken. "Why'd he have to go crazy? Ain't like it was his pets or nothin'."
Suzumo started to slow and then another boy spoke up, snorting.
"Not like it matters," the second snickered, rubbing his own arm. "He went and ran into the Forest of Death. Betcha no one will miss h-URK!"
The boys words were cut off as Suzumo grabbed the boy's shirt, hauling him back towards him. It was obvious that, for a second, he wanted to start a fight, but seeing the grim faced obviously angry shinobi, he wilted. He seemed to shrink even further when Suzumo spoke, voice a dangerous thrum. "Where in the Forest of Death did this Hyuuga boy go?"
Because the only one who could be so foolish as to run into the Forest of death alone... was Hanabi.
Hanabi was absolutely furious. Venomously furious. So furious he wasn't paying the attention he should have been paying to his surroundings as he made his way deeper and deeper into the Forest of Death looking for the poor little dogs he'd seen thrown over the fence and into this godforsaken pit of vegetation. He thought maybe there were three of them but he couldn't be sure (he'd beaten the boys throwing them a bit too soundly to get an answer out of them before he clambered over the fence to fetch the poor animals back).
The twelve year old kept storming on, Byakugan flared open, searching for the panicked little animals as best he could do. But there wasn't any sign. In fact... as he slowed down to realize it... he couldn't see any animals for fifty feet in every direction.
Okay, this was a forest. That was weird, right?
Suzumo was at a very serious disadvantage. He only had the vague area where Hanabi had entered, couldn't see with any bloodline, didn't know how far Hanabi had gone in, and didn't even know if the boys he had caught would do the right thing and get help. Actually, he realized he should have gone and gotten help but with the dangerous that existed in the forest there had simple been no time. Hopefully, he could find Hanabi and get him out without too much trouble.
... right, like that happened in the forest of death.
Vaulting over the fence without much though, the chuunin dashed into the trees, suddenly grateful for them- he could see clearer and if something knocked off his glasses, it wouldn't be like acid was being poured into his eyes- it just be like knives instead. Suzumo forced himself to slow momentarily and felt something like relief course through him at what he saw- they hadn't gotten to stealth training yet and Hanabi had left a decent trail, enabling the chuunin to follow him.
Not daring to call out the boy's name, he quickened his pace and darted forward, hoping to find Hanabi before something else did before him.
Hanabi wasn't daring to make any noise either, mostly because he'd just turned around and realized that he wasn't going to be able to save at least one of those poor dogs he'd come into here to rescue.
Okay. That was a tiger. A big tiger. So big he had thought it was a huge rock until he'd realized that was a heart his Byakugan was watching thunder and pulse inside it. He cancelled his doujutsu and stared. A brown and furry leg was hanging from between its teeth. Teeth that might actually have been longer than Hanabi's arm.
Hanabi's eyes went extremely wide. Oh...
"HOLY SHIT!!" screamed Hanabi, taking off for the treetops fast as his feet could carry him. The tiger watched him, huffed out a huge breath that reeked of fresh blood, and went after the boy who'd headed straight up and through the lightest branches in the hopes the huge cat couldn't chase him there.
It didn't really have to, it was big enough to rip the tops of the trees off if he made it. Hanabi just kept on running, trying to double back to where he knew the fence was.
It seemed the something else had found Hanabi before Suzumo had.
This was going to make things a little more difficult.
Hurling himself ahead, Suzumo moved at breakneck pace towards the sound of breaking trees and nearly stumbled at the sight of one of the giant tigers leaping after Hanabi. Not bothering to think about what he should do, or what was going to happen he leaped from his branch, straight into Hanabi, knocking them both down off the tree. He could feel large claws snag his vest as the tiger swiped at him, the beast's roar leaving his ears ringing.
Student and pupil hit the ground rather hard but Suzumo didn't let them pause. One hand fisted in Hanabi's shirt, dragging him up and then propelled him forward, towards the exit of the forest.
"Run Hanabi," he barked urgently. "Run and don't stop running until you are out of this forest, no matter what. That's an order."
Suzumo didn't expect an answer. But he really hoped that Hanabi would follow what he said, if the teacher himself fell.
Winded by the fall, Hanabi didn't have the breath to argue (for once in his life) and when Suzumo flung him to his feet he took off fast as he could through the undergrowth. He did flare his byakugan open though, and with the exception of his blindspot (which conveniently obscured the homicidal face of the tiger on their tail) he could see exactly where they both were and where they were going. Sprinting full-tilt through the darkness of the forest, Hanabi didn't have time to think about... well, anything. Everything was pretty much instincts when you were being hunted by a freak-of-nature-mega-tiger-bloody-thing and for that, Hanabi was pretty grateful.
Up until the point when his eyes spotted even more trouble. "Sensei!" he gasped, suddenly skidding and sending up a mad flurry of leaves. "Back! Back at the giant cat bastard thing!" he yelled, just before an even bigger giant cat bastard thing exploded onto the scene from where it had been coiled to ambush them.
... son of a...
There was no back or left or right or forward. Suzumo grabbed Hanabi before he could dart either which way, holding him close. At the very last possible second, he shoved them both forward and then to the ground, so the bigger cat sailed over them. The chuunin just barely managed to hurl a kunai into the beast's belly, but that only slowed it down. Of course, that it had crashed into the big cat that had been chasing them from behind slowed it down a little more.
Suzumo was smart enough to know that a little more wasn't going to be enough.
Not even thinking beyond that he had to get Hanabi out of this mess, he scooped the boy up in his arms and darted up the side of a tree, taking to the branches and using chakra to propel him as fast as he could go. Hanabi could not move as fast as him, was not even a genin level yet, and carrying him was the fastest and best option. Some light flitted through, occasionally blinding him and pretty much doing nothing to aid in actually seeing what dangers lurked ahead. It was a very bad situation but Suzumo still refused to think beyond getting Hanabi out of the Forest. And then giving him a talking to he would not forget, and then unleashing his mother on him to do the very same thing only ten times worse.
A sudden patch of light blinded him briefly and the sensei hissed, nearly losing his footing. Shaking his head, he spoke urgently to the small boy in his arms. "Hanabi, you need to guide me. Use your eyes."
Trying not to yelp (in indignation or fright, he wasn't going to distinguish right then) Hanabi realized he didn't have a scrap of control of the situation. His natural snark nearly had him piping up that no, of course he wasn't going to use his eyes, he'd use his pinkie toe to guide them - but he managed not to say it. Insteady he reorientated his Byakugan and started yelling out instructions, where to step and where to dodge and all the while his attention was kept on the two cats who'd only tussled for a few moments before the larger one caught on to their pursuit. "The bigger one's following us! It's only half a minute to the fence!"
And then Hanabi thought about it, in between the swishing of leaves and the roars behind them. Wait a minute....
"The fence isn't going to bloody stop it!"
So he reached around and snagged a pair of kunai out of Suzumo's pockets and quickly looped something from his own pockets around the handles, biting the ends off with his teeth. "Suzumo-sensei --left! duck! under!-- don't turn around okay?" Hanabi flung the two kunai out, a wire strung between them, and watched them plant right across the path of the tiger on their tail. "Okay, faster! Faster would be better!"
No, no the fence was not going to stop it, Suzumo was glad Hanabi finally realized this. But he was too busy focusing on just the running and following the hurriedly shouted out orders as best he could without falling, or dropping the small boy in his arms. The chuunin put on an extra burst of speed when Hanabi pointed out that the fence was only a half a minute away, wanting to shorten that time as much as he could. There was slight distraction though as little hands dove into his kunai pouch and pulled out two kunai. Distraction turned into slight confusion as Hanabi was suddenly doing something in his arms and he couldn't spare the time to actually look and see what it was. Just dart left, and duck, and leap under a branch.
And by that time, Hanabi was already telling him not to turn around. "Hanabi, what are you-"
The question was cut off by one of the loudest explosions Suzumo had ever heard in his life, effectively making him deaf for the moment. He had already been leaping over the fence when it went off, and the rush of air behind him actually propelled him even farther forward, ruining a good landing and making him thud hard into the ground. Glasses bounced off and he reflexively let go of Hanabi so he wouldn't some how smash him into the ground and hurt him. Once he came to a stop (what the hell was the back of his vest burnt?!) he dared to open his eyes despite the pain and look towards the Forest of Death, since the tiger could still be-
... it seemed part of the Forest of Death was on flames. And another part was missing. Though no tiger was in site.
Suzumo heard himself ask in disbelief as his hearing came back, "...nabi what the hell was that?!"
Spitting up dirt and struggling to crawl out a pile of woodchips, Hanabi dragged a burnt sleeve over his face and looked from the complete and utter carnage behind Suzumo back to his sensei. And then yelped and scrambled forwards just in time to avoid getting concussed by a flying chunk of tiger meat bigger than him which thudded into the earth where he'd been. Tumbling forward he wound up sitting and coughing slightly by Suzumo, and gave him a very, very Hyuuga smirk.
"That was awesome!!!" he proclaimed, white eyes beaming out of his dirt and soot streaked face. "And you were awesome!"
If this was what having children was like... Suzumo was glad he had never had any.
For a moment he could only stare at Hanabi, wrinkling his nose at the smell of burning flesh, then he moved away slightly to grab his sun glasses, brushing them off before putting them on. It was easier to see now, the damage to his clothes and Hanabi's clothes... but Hanabi himself seemed unharmed, which in and of itself was probably a miracle. Suzumo was a little singed, but a shower could probably take care of that. Overall, they were both very lucky, with all factors considered.
The chuunin sensei had stood up, mouth opening to start the mother of all lectures when he felt a wisp of air behind him. Somehow, when he turned, he wasn't surprised to see several white masks staring back at them. One was even familiar.
Sighing and wiping a hand over his face, making it even dirtier, he addressed the one familiar mask. "... no one is hurt. Apologies for the disruption."
Said 'familiar' masked ANBU turned her head and carefully but swiftly examined the area, then let her hidden eyes rest back with Suzumo.
"You can't keep out of trouble for five minutes, can you?" she commented, tipping her tiger-masked head a little to the side and smiling just slightly under the mask at the sight the two of them made. The explosion that had just gone off was still raining chunks of unidentified meat down on sections of the village, along with plenty of botanical debris. It had been loud enough to break the windows on a few houses and rattle the ones in the Palace where - this ANBU was reasonably sure - Hyuuga Hiashiko would shortly be having an anyeurism.
...she knew there was a reason she liked Suzumo.
Tenzouko lifted her hand and signalled, and in an instant her squadmates scattered to secure the area and the gap in the fence that had been caused by the shiny new crater in the side of the Forest. The captain herself knelt down by the two males and eyed them carefully as she'd examined their surroundings a moment before. "Come on, Suzumo-san. Hyuuga-kun. You're both coming to the hospital to be examined." They could explain the situation to a higher authority, Tenzouko was just concerned with making sure they were alive.
"I can, but you always seem to find me when I'm in trouble." Suzumo sighed to the tiger masked ANBU, an exhausted smile playing along his lips. He was unaware of how bad the damage was, but he knew for sure that his ears were still ringing. And that this was going to take so much explaining that he had a feeling he wasn't going to be getting that shower he had intended.
The chuunin stayed still as Tenzouko looked at him and then nodded, standing up. Before Hanabi could protest, he carefully took the boys arm, and hauled him up as well. Sunglasses tilted to look down at the boy and Suzumo frowned, just faintly. "And as we walk, you're going to tell me exactly what you did back there, before we have to go and explain it to everyone else. Is that understood, Hyuuga Hanabi?"
Suzumo had never had to out right scold Hanabi before, just gently reprimand and turn him in the right direction. But given the nature of everything that just happened... there was going to be a lot of scolding in Hanabi's furture.
Internally, Hanabi was somewhat split over the situation. On the one hand: he'd just blown out a massive section of the Forest of Death after being chased through it with his sensei by a gigantic freak-of-nature-cat-bastard tiger monster. On the other hand: said explosion had been so big and so bad it'd drawn out a squad of ANBU to check out the destruction, and was still raining down bits of flash-fried feline.
Hanabi was split over which was the more awesome hand.
Wisely, he did not mention this fact to Suzumo. Even more wisely he tried not to let the notion drift to the rather intimidating ANBU captain escorting them back into the village proper. Instead he cleared his throat quietly and made sure to keep up, limbs still buzzing with adrenaline and ears still ringing with the sound of spectacular devastation. "The fence wasn't going to stop it from following us, Suzumo-sensei," he explained - as if quite curious as to how this fact had passed Suzumo by - "So I rigged a trap with explosive tags. Sorry I lost two of your kunai."
Suzumo pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to figure out how to address this without making his brain somehow explode. Ideas weren't exactly forthcoming though, so he realized he was just going to have to wing it and hope Hanabi actually got the message.
"...yes," he started, dropping his hand to his side. "The fence would have probably not stopped the tiger. However, blowing a chunk out of the forest was a little excessive." An eyebrow arched behind sunglasses and he looked at him fully. "And far more force then normally found in explosive tags. So, tell me, Hanabi, where exactly you got those tags, especially when I have never allowed you to have any."
"You let me look at some once," Hanabi pointed out. He remembered the day oh-so-well. Best lesson, ever. "Before you used them to set off a few explosions during that particular lesson, so I took a very good look at them." As in Byakugan'd them very thoroughly indeed. Then he gave Suzumo a small smile as he trotted alongside him, "You did a really good job of explaining the physics and jutsu behind how they actually work."
His eyes flitted back to the street in front of them. "A really good job, so I tried making some. That was a pretty good test run, I suppose. Blew up that bloody tiger." Hanabi's eyes flitted up to the ANBU on his other side and her mask. "No offense, ma'am."
Tenzouko was trying not to snicker behind her tiger mask. She just shook her head and glanced over to Suzumo for a moment. "None taken," she replied evenly. If there had been, the little brat would know it. It was hard to resist pointing something out to Suzumo though. "You teach your students how to manufacture explosive tags?"
"No," Suzumo answered the ANBU, a faint groan in his voice. "Apparently they ignore my words of warning and make their own instead."
He shook his head, and then looked over to Hanabi with a frown. "This is not amusing, Hanabi, it's not even something to be proud of, let alone smile about. Do you understand what could have gone wrong? If they had blown up while on you, blown us up? Or if they had blown up while they were in the Hyuuga Compound, or while you were making them, or if a child got into them? And what about you running into the Forest of Death without thinking? You've seen the signs, you know what your brother went through while in there. And yet you ran in anyway and nearly got yourself killed. It was blind luck that I ran across those boys, or you would have died."
The chuunin shook his head, a little exhausted by this and said softly as the hospital loomed into view. "You think you are infalliable, Hanabi. And unless you learn it now, you will learn it later on the hard way."
Hanabi was not accustomed to eaing humble pie (in fact, he was far more likely to start a foodfight with it) but even though he didn't entirely see Suzumo's point, he knew better than to contradict anything his sensei said in company. He was right, after all, he probably would have gotten killed by that big tiger thing if Suzumo hadn't rescued him - but that wasn't really a big deal in his mind right then. His thoughts were far more preoccupied with that awesome explosion. Give him a break, he was twelve years old!
Still, Hanabi had been people-watching with Suzumo enough times to know how and when and why to play the obedience card. With a murmurred, "yes, Suzumo-sensei," and his best attempt at a contrite expression, they made their way up to the hospital.
For her part, Tenzouko thought that was a bit harsh, but it wasn't her place to say anything about how Suzumo interacted with his pupils. And for all she knew, he was quite right. Still... the expression on the boy's ghostly little face and his slumped skinny shoulders was kinda sad to take. So when Suzumo signed them both in at the desk, Tenzouko determinedly didn't look at him through her mask's eyeslits and murmurred quietly. "You could see the explosion from the Palace."
A pair of white eyes flicked up to the ANBU watching Suzumo through her mask, and Hanabi risked a smirk. "Really?"
Tenzouko nodded, apparently at nothing. "Really." When Suzumo turned back to the pair of them, Tenzouko raised a hand. "You both set, Suzumo-san?" She did have to get back to the Palace, make sure Tsurude was properly informed and properly protected. Plus, it was a little hard to ignore the fact that Hanabi was having trouble keeping a straight face now.
If it wasn't for the fact that he liked Tenzouko and she was an ANBU, Suzumo might have killed her.
Then again, even he had to admit that it was more natural to see Hanabi trying to hold back a smug little look then looking downcast.
He cast a vaguely annoyed look to the Tiger ANBU but his look softened faintly at her question. "Yes, ANBU-san. Apologies for the troubles we have caused and thank you for accompanying us this far."
He bowed slightly to Ten, and then placed a hand on Hanabi's shoulders, carefully steering him to where they needed to go. After a few moments of walking in silence, Suzumo glanced down to the quiet boy beside him and murmured quietly, "So."
"... how do you propose we explain this to your mother? Because we will be telling her."
Ah. As the ANBU evaporated into thin air, Hanabi paused and pretended to think about it. Hm... perhaps the only non-awesome thing about that explosion was that his mother couldn't help but have noticed it.
Bugger.
The little Hyuuga glanced up to Suzumo, but it wasn't until they were both sitting on an exam bench waiting for a doctor to come see them that he worked out what there was to say.
"Maybe we could just let the actions and results speak for themselves?" he offered hopefully. "I mean... everything we did was extremely cool."
From the way his sensei buried his head in his hands and groaned, Hanabi thought maybe this wasn't the approach of preference after all.