No Boom Today [Hanabi, Nejiko]
[ooc: happens after Kids These Days. And points of awesomeness and love to anyone who knows where the title/cut quote comes from and who says it ♥]
A day after his adventure in the Forest of Death and Hanabi was still alive. This came as something of a surprise to the pre-teen Hyuuga, as he'd been assuming his mother would finish what those gigantic (and far less terrifying) tigers had started once she got her hands on him. But then he'd realized something that nobody ever wanted Hanabi to realize... there was no way his mother was ever going to kill him for what he did. Because he was the last potential heir to the clan. They'd sealed Nejiko, they'd sealed Hinaji, his mother wasn't about to re-marry and have more children and Hanabi... was the end of the line.
All his life, especially in the last year, this had been a source of constant pressure and expectation to the young boy... but now, oh now it was quite possibly the most awesome thing about life to ever have occurred to him. Besides the joys of controlled explosions, of course.
Hanabi had gained a sort of immunity in exchange for having absolutely no choice about the direction of his life; and hot damn if he wasn't going to indulge in an abuse of this power the second he had a chance!
Right now, was the second he had that chance. Hanabi was busy attempting to violate his parole, or whatever the quaint military term was for bailing on being grounded by his mother. He'd been extremely stealthy about it, and had only about another twenty feet of roof tile to shimmy over before he had a clear jump for the edge of the compound wall and freedom!
Nejiko hadn't quite been able to believe it when the reason for the massive explosion in the Forest of Death filtered through the ANBU ranks. While a part of her was somewhat impressed by the fact it had been Hanabi to make that explosion (and this is after seeing the kinds of mushroom clouds Tentsuke could produce), the rest of her was furious that he could've been so stupid as to have gone into the Forest, period. Doubtless Hiashiko-sama would have already gotten to him. That didn't mean Nejiko didn't plan on having a little chat with him herself. A mother's, and clan head's, wrath was one thing. Older sister-cousin who had actually been in the Forest more than once? Something else.
Of course, she hardly expected the focus of her temper to come sailing gleefully over the compound wall to land right in front of her. Instead, she decided to thank Fate for saving her the trouble of finding the little---boy herself. She knew that if Hanabi was coming over the wall verses through the gates, chances were high he wasn't supposed to be leaving the compound, period.
Before he had the chance to react, she snapped a hand out to grab his earlobe before twisting it sharply while pulling up. (Height doth have its advantages.) "Going somewhere, Hanabi-sama?" she asked mildly.
Hanabi's yelp of pain turned into a snarl with a remarkably short turnover; and as soon as the "-sama" part of her words was out he managed to twist and embed his teeth securely in the arm attached to the hand yanking at his ear. Nobody manhandled him and got away unscathed! Especially not Nejiko, in all her bitchtastic glory.
Sadly this meant he couldn't answer her question, being as his words would be rather muffled in her untasty sleeve, but he didn't plan on telling her the truth anyway, so what did it matter?
The three simultaneous thoughts in Nejiko's mind were: Nice reflexes, Ow what the hell, and He better not have broken the skin. They stared at each other for several heartbeats, neither wanting to give, until Nejiko loosened her fingers. And waited for him to remove his teeth from her arm.
Hanabi waited, tensed, eyes fixed right on Nejiko's until she let him go. He shuffled his heels back, so it'd be harder for her to grab his ear again, and then let go and shuffled back a bit more.
Then he stuck out his tongue and spat out some cotton fibres and what was hopefully not some bits of Nejiko. He gave her a squinted look and crossed his arms, then resorted to whatever you were supposed to say in this situation. (Suzumo-sensei's etiquette lessons hadn't gotten this far along) "Hi," he said, incongruously.
Nejiko refused to give him the satisfaction of letting him see her rub her arm. Instead she simply arched an eyebrow at him, but also dipped her head to the appropriate depth when responding to a member of the ruling line in response. "Hello." Yes, they were family, and yes, they were close-kin, but some things were learned too early to change. "Where were you trying to escape to?" As it was a fair assumption that within the compound was precisely where he was supposed to be.
"If I tell you that defeats the purpose," Hanabi replied, feeling his ear burning a bit from how hard Nejiko had twisted it. Ow. It didn't put him in the most cheerful of moods for talking to her. Plus... the compound wall was high, but it wasn't as though nobody on the other side could just look and see him here. He needed to be on the move.
"Leaping without Looking also defeats the purpose," she told him. "Because I know you're more careful than to attempt fleeing the compound if I'm right in your path." She studied him with half-closed eyes and considered things. She still wanted to lay into him good and well the magnitude of his stupidity of going into the forest like that, but she also knew that any reprimand given in public, meaning anywhere others could observe or hear, would not be taken as well as one delivered in a less attention-whoring manner. Served no purpose if he didn't listen.
"I will give you a choice. You can either accompany me back into the compound, or we can go for a walk." That way Hiashiko-sama would probably have less of a fit, than if Hanabi had just run off on his own.
Bugger, thought Hanabi, though he'd definitely learned not to let that thought show. He looked up at Nejiko and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Looked like his cunning escape was being foiled by his spoilsport bitchy cousin. Much as Hanabi loved Nejiko (which was a great deal more than she bothered to credit him with, that was for absolute certain) he wasn't above calling her out for how she was, and given the last time he'd tried to have a conversation with her... well, Hanabi wasn't keen to repeat the experience at this point in time.
But he knew how to prioritize. Better to make time away from the compound than to stay here and argue. He huffed out a sigh and looked up at her. "Just so we're clear, you are not the boss of me. But I wouldn't mind a walk." And with that, he set off, leading the way anywhere but there.
It was proving to be an interesting walk. He walked a step ahead and managed to ignore her silent nudgings so that instead of going to the Forest like she wanted, they were going to where more people congregated the streets. She scowled internally but went along with it. The unfortunate side effect of being in the public was that she would have to curb her temper when talking to him.
She was shinobi. She would adapt.
"Mind explaining just what in the world possessed you to go inside the Forest of Death in the first place?" And don't you dare say 'yes' or 'no'. She really wasn't in the mood for word games.
"I don't mind, as it happens," Hanabi replied diplomatically. "As it was completely the right thing to do. Some little assholes from the Academy were tossing puppies over the fence. I went to get them." His tone became quite sharp towards the end there, because Hanabi knew fine well he had failed - and had very almost met the same fate as the puppies themselves, if it hadn't been for Suzumo-sensei. His white eyes flitted off to the side, guiltily despite himself. "I didn't succeed."
While his intentions were admirable, it was still stupid. What with everything in that place, and he not shinobi-trained... "Snakes or tigers?" Nejiko asked. No need to mention the tree-slugs, as puppies could move around fast enough to avoid them. "And do you by chance have the names of said assholes?" Reprimanding him for swearing was moot at this point. Of course, anyone capable of willfully throwing the defenseless to get slaughtered deserved the derogatory terms.
Hanabi kept his eyes on the Academy students running around outside the playpark, half-looking for certain bruised and familiar faces and half-wishing for something he had no business wishing for. "I was too busy impairing their ability to breathe to take names," he said to Nejiko. He wished now he'd done them more damage. In all the excitement of near death and explosions and Suzumo-sensei... part of him had forgotten how it'd all started - that those poor animals were dead. It made him think of his cats with a hurt twist in his stomach. "And if your first question was what killed those dogs and tried to kill me and Suzumo-sensei, it was tigers. Large ones."
"Mn." Nejiko adroitly side-stepped a small child that looked to be playing 'ninja' with some of its age-mates. Unsurprising, the wooden kunai and shuriken went wide of what was the probable target and struck an adult, who fixed a sharp, disapproving glare on the child as it gathered up its toys. "I suppose it should go without saying that while you meant well, going into the Forest like that regardless of reason was remarkably stupid in the least and at most could be construed as suicidal. I presume that suicidal you are not, and that you have learned folly of that particular stunt."
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Hanabi glanced away from his cousin and the kids around them. "Sure, the folly is not watching out for the giant tigers. I'll be more wary of humungous freaks of nature next time," he replied - the shortness in his voice betrayed that he was less than impressed at yet another silly lecture. He'd survived. Suzumo-sensei had survived. That day-by-day ninja existance he was supposed to understand so well taught him that was enough. Nejiko being the warrior queen she was ought to realize that, he thought.
"The folly," Nejiko said, "was going inside the Forest in the first place. The folly was not telling anyone that you had gone in there. There is a reason that area is cordoned off and utilized as a testing ground for the chuunin exam, for which you now know some of the why. You were bloody fortunate as hell that Suzumo-san found you when he did. And finally, that explosion you caused - I sincerely doubt Suzumo-san gave you tags that powerful. Where, then, did you get them?"
"I made them myself," Hanabi replied, not bothering to grace the rest of Nejiko's blathering with an answer. If she thought he hadn't heard this four dozen times from his sensei, his mother, the clan elders and the people at the hospital then why did she think it'd mean more coming from her? She who did much, much, much stupider and foolish things at thirteen and never mind if they were for nobody's reason but her own. Never mind who else they hurt.
Hanabi, being the youngest, had seen the trials his brother and cousin had gone through - and he understood the whole 'not wanting to make the same mistakes' issue. However, he had no intention of letting their (rather spectacular) neuroses screw over his life any more than was necessary, so watch him decide those mistakes were his to make.
"And Suzumo-sensei had nothing to do with that, it was all my own research. Admittedly the blast yield was far higher than I'd thought it might be - but given the circumstances it wasn't a bad thing to have underestimated."
'I made them myself.' Nejiko actually stopped short for all of two seconds before continuing walking, lengthening her stride to return to the place she had been. But her brain was rapidly replaying Hanabi's words even while she walked in silence. True, had the yield been too high, they wouldn't be having this conversation, but...
She didn't know whether to feel pride or something else that he had been able to do something like that on his own.
"You like experimenting with explosives, don't you."
Hanabi lifted an eyebrow, then lifted his head and looked up at his cousin as they walked.
"It's practical, it's useful, and it's... awesome," Hanabi opined, not entirely sure where this question was leading. Hopefully not to Nejiko doing something to disable his ability to blow cool stuff up (and thereby make it cooler).
....Nejiko probably shouldn't be surprised. Her aunt named her younger son quite aptly, it seemed. The look she gave Hanabi was rather bland but also frank. And had the just the slightest tinge of respect to it, if Hanabi looked hard enough. However, there was still the matter of him playing with this stuff on his own. Nejiko simply wouldn't have it.
"If I asked a favor of you, Hanabi-sama, would you honor it?" she wanted to know. Coercion wouldn't work. And for this she would rather Hanabi be willing.
Her little cousin looked up at her, pausing in his stride for a moment - as if deciding something quite deliberately internal - before picking up step again. They were passing some restaurants now, and he remembered he was hungry. "That is what family do for each other," Hanabi said with an air of education clear in his voice. "And since we are family, the answer is probably yes - so long as it isn't unreasonable."
Suzumo-sensei would be proud, Hanabi had just had his first stab at diplomacy. (Weaseled that into a scenario that worked for him quite nicely, that is!)
She shouldn't be surprised that he worked that in, either. Rather than reacting badly, she simply nodded agreement. If he would listen, she could make the concession of not being outwardly prickly about 'family'. "If you're going to play around with explosive tags and Suzumo-san won't or can't help you with something, would you go see Tentsuke before taking a stab at it yourself? He's had a love affair with black powder for as long as I've known him, and you may benefit from his experience as he's not yet managed to blow himself up." Not for lack of trying, sometimes. No doubt they would inspire each other to new creations and potentially hurt themselves in the process, but Tentsuke would make sure to keep the both of them from becoming chunks of scorched, bloody meat or ashed blast craters. And while Nejiko respected Suzumo-san, she trusted Tentsuke without question or doubt. If something happened to Hanabi... Something that wouldn't happen, she felt, as long as it was Tentsuke keeping an eye on him. She wasn't asking that Hanabi hold back (she recognized a stubborn streak similar to her own in Hanabi; stifling him would only throw up roadblocks that he would attempt to surmount anyway whatever the personal cost), just that he be supervised.
At the words 'Tentsuke' and 'benefit from his experience' Hanabi was sold. He hadn't thought of that. Tentsuke-san had only given the impression of being a bladed weapons specialist.
"I can do that," Hanabi affirmed, not giving away the fact he considered this a win and not a favour. He glanced at their reflections in a storefront window as they passed and made sure he was hiding his smirk. "Clearly Tentsuke-san is a man of many talents. I hope you aren't jealous of his 'affair' with gunpowder."
Hanabi made certain not to say it, but he was one hundred times more positive his cousin was more volatile than any explosive, anyway.
....
Nejiko only had herself to blame as she was the one who had opened the door in the first place. Suppressing the sigh she simply shook her head. "It's gunpowder, Hanabi-sama," she replied. "If there was any inanimate object in his arsenal that one could theoretically be jealous of, it would be Reva." Which she most assuredly was not. He baby-talked all of his weapons. Reva just received the most of it and it was Tentsuke's fault that any sort of gender was ascribed to the damn thing.
And why the hell did she just volunteer that up? ... Nothing to be done of it, now.
Okay, to be fair Hanabi had had very limited interactions and experience with other kids his age (Konohako was about it, and they didn't so much have 'interactions' as 'ass-kickings') which meant thus far that he'd missed out on the pre-pubescent snickerings that went on when twelve-year-olds heard things like 'arsenal' and 'affair' and their cousin's boyfriend's name in the same context.
Which just went to prove that when Hanabi snerked into his hand, the case was made for that sort of insight being instinctive. For a Hyuuga, anyway. But he regained his composure quickly. "Theoretically jealous? You're going to have to do better than that if you're going to make a go of this, Nejiko-neesan."
Nejiko wouldn't ask. She wouldn't ask. She would not ask.
"What are you talking about?" she growled out.
...Bloody hell, she was as human morbidly curious as anyone else in her position. Dammitt. (Tentsuke needed to be home already.)
Again, Hanabi hid the smirk. Again, Hanabi knew he was a cunning little bastard.
"I'm just saying, a man like Tentsuke-san deserves somebody who'll actually be jealous," he stated, raising and clenching his pointy little fist in an expression of how utterly and completely significant this fact was. "Good gods, 'theortetically', you and Hinaji are the ones free to run around with mates of your choosing - put plenty of backbone into it! We are Hyuuga, after all. If there's one thing we know it's dramatics."
He gave her a teasing smirk out the corner of his mouth, amusement and enthusiasm clear in his white eyes. Though whether that was enthusiasm for teasing, or enthusiasm for that beautific quality called 'love' you'd be hard pressed to say. (Unless you actually knew Hanabi, in which case of course it was the former.)
Nejiko scowled, remembering part of the reason she disliked being around Hanabi. Very, very few people could get under her skin with practically no effort, and he was rather high on the list. Stupid little bastard. "It is a weapon," she managed to state without grinding her teeth while her eyes took on a glow like ice in the sun. "There is nothing to be jealous of." Now, if some stupid little feather-headed flirty twit of a simpering female tried anything with him and he didn't laugh off after light teasing (he was a flirt and a charmer, but not seriously interested in other women; he'd told her that), then she might be obliged to act. And then out of good conscience perhaps dump them somewhere near the hospital where they would be noticed.
But there was nothing to get jealous over.
"And I'm not as free as you think," she added as she remembered Hiashiko-sama's words, Hiashiko-sama's offer.
At this point, Hanabi switched from smirking and sarcastic teasing - to being actually mature and responsible. It was Suzumo's influence, though there was no question his sensei would actually believe what he'd be seeing. Rather than archily informing her that she was freer than he was and would ever be (because Hanabi knew, as he'd always known, that now there would be no choice for him) and that as things were shaping up Nejiko and Hinaji were most certainly going to have less rigidly structured existances than he... Hanabi did the unexpected.
"You will be when I'm in charge," he informed her, in the same factual yet off-hand tone one would use to describe plans for the following Monday. So far as Hanabi was concerned, it was the same.
Nejiko's eyebrows shot up before she could stop them. Hanabi's words were... nothing short of completely unexpected. Truthfully, she hadn't really given much thought to how things would be when Hiashiko-sama either stepped down or died, but whatever she was expecting... Perhaps it was something she should start giving some serious thought.
Though she kept her silence as there wasn't anything to say in response. 'Thank you' seemed inappropriate somehow, and the skeptical part of her insisted on waiting until she saw it before she believed it. She settled for a non-committal nod.
Hanabi didn't expect her to say anything, but it didn't stop him rolling his eyes again. "I'll give you a reason to care if I live or die if it's the last thing I do, Nejiko-neesan," he informed her, omitting the 'like you're supposed to' through sheer force of will. He glanced to the left and his eyebrow flicked up. "Come on, want some dumplings? My treat." He'd just spotted a great little place he always tried to drag his sensei towards. And he was planning on dragging Nejiko in too.
Hey, being able to order her around had to be enforced for her own good at some stage, right?
Nejiko considered pointing out she did care if he lived or died, but the eye-rolling was enough clue that he wouldn't listen. Rather than begin a pointless argument, she simply nodded again. "All right."
"Yes, it is." Hanabi replied with a haughty little smirk, and on they went. The Great Escape, accomplished - and even with his cousin in tow. How awesome was Hyuuga Hanabi? Oh yes, they hadn't invented a word for that large an amount yet.
And they probably never would!