忍ぶ意思 Shinobu Ishi

[boblemon]

Title: Part 1: Shinobu Ishi
Rating: PG13 (for mild violence)
Pairing: TBA, Ohno-centric
Genre: action, AU
Chapter: five
Disclaimer: I guess Johnny’s technically owns Arashi, huh? Not me.
Summary: Ohno Satoshi is the student of a strong ninja lord who has lived his life following his teacher’s strict guidance. But what happens when he slowly learns he has to live for himself?

Chapter one, Chapter two, Chapter three, Chapter four



“I’d like to introduce you to someone.”

Nino only perked up only mildly at the announcement, but he was curious enough to at least open his eyes.

Ohno and Sho simply waited for Jyani to continue and reveal to them what was likely a new addition to their group.

The room was dead silent for five full seconds, an awkward smile plastered on Jyani’s face, before he repeated with emphasis, “I’d like to introduce you to someone.”

There was a rustling above them, from the same entrance Sho had used when he had joined the ninja group, and after what was an apparent struggle with the door, a boy, once again about their age, dropped from the ceiling.

This boy, though, stumbled when he landed on the ground and fell forward a little, but pushed himself back into a kneeling position immediately. Instead of looking embarrassed at the mistake, he smiled brightly at the boys barely able to keep their eyes open across from him.

Sho simply stared at the new arrival blankly and Ohno held a similar expression. Nino blinked sleepily, obviously confused at the entrance.

“This is Aiba Masaki!” Jyani said cheerfully, drawing the team’s attention to him. Their bland expressions didn’t change.

“Yoroshiku ne?*” the boy giggled in a light hearted voice.

“He’s a little… uh… different,” the ninja lord continued pointedly, looking at the boy next to him out of the corner of his eye, “but he’s an expert at making and using both explosives and poisons. He’s also experienced in hand to hand combat and can use a pole well enough. I think he’ll bring some energy to your group.”

Nino rubbed his eyes and sighed heavily while Sho began to scrutinize the boy laid before them with uncertainty. Ohno looked at Jyani instead, wondering what his intentions were, exactly.

“Well, then.” The ninja master cleared his throat awkwardly. “He’ll be living with you from now on, of course, so… why don’t you show him around?” his voice raised awkwardly towards the end of his suggestion, almost as if he was unsure of why the group was acting so disinterested. He had expected his boys to be tired, that was true (since they had only returned last night), but Nino looked like he hadn’t slept in a week.

Oh well. Jyani just hoped that Masaki’s energy would rub off on them quickly.

+++

“Wow, this is so awesome, I’m so glad I could meet you guys, you’re really famous now, you know? I can’t believe I got to be a part of Jyani’s Boys, seriously…” The new boy began chatting as soon as the door to the mission room was closed behind them. “I’m so lucky, I hope I can keep up with you guys, you must be really strong…”

The group of four stood in the hallway, the three original members staring at the newest one with expressionless faces (except that Nino just looked tired).

“What’re your names? I’m Aiba, you know, but you can call me Aiba-chan or Masaki I guess if you want, but people usually call me Aiba-chan, especially the old ladies that live in the village, they think it’s really cute, I guess…” the boy trailed off again, looking between his three new friends happily. “Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve been here, I used to live here you know, but when Jyani found out I was good with explosives and stuff he asked me to go to the capital and I learned all sorts of stuff with the ninja stationed there, it was really cool but I missed it out here where there are so many trees and you don’t have to hide from people, you know…”

Aiba took a breath and waited a few seconds to see if the other boys were going to speak. When none of them even opened their mouths, he started again.

“Of course there’s probably not a lot of shopping here, I’ll miss that probably, and I’ll have to go get my own herbs, but that’s okay, because they’ll be fresh and not dried. Oh man, this is going to be great. I brought you guys some candy, do you like candy? Some of them are flavored like lemons, but I don’t like them as much, so I hope you guys like them.” At this point he chuckled, although continued immediately. “But anyway, what’re your names again? I don’t think you said.”

This time he looked at each of them expectantly, his gaze eventually resting on Leader. After a few seconds of stunned silence, Nino turned to Sho.

“Is he for real?” he whispered, half heartedly covering his mouth with the back of his hand.

Sho didn’t react to the question, only blinked a few times as if trying to figure out the same thing.

Aiba gave the pair a lopsided, slightly uncomfortable smile, and then turned to Ohno.

And the two of them stared at each other for a second.

“I’m Ohno.” Leader blinked, then realized that the other two weren’t going to talk, so he pointed to them with his thumb. “That’s Nino and Sho.”

Aiba’s smile tripled in size (something none of them thought was possible) and he bowed curtly to Ohno, who looked a little disturbed by the action. As the new boy straightened again, he turned his sparkling eyes to Nino, who sighed.

“Call me Nino. You can call him Oh-chan or Leader,” he said begrudgingly, motioning to the boy beside him, “and he’s Sho-chan.”

The archer was still looking at Aiba like he was a mystery yet to be unraveled.

He blinked after a second, though, and turned to Nino, as if barely realizing something. “Sho…chan?” he asked with an incredulous look.

“Aw, that’s so cute!” Aiba squealed. “Oh-chan, Sho-chan, and Nino!”

Nino, with an expression that still said he couldn’t believe this was happening, raised his eyebrow and motioned towards their bedroom. “Let’s get back, okay? I have a long day of sleeping ahead of me.”

Sho and Ohno both turned to him with questioning looks.

“Nino, you can’t sleep all day…” Sho started, following the short ninja as he took off down the hall way.

“It’s my day off, I’ll do what I want!” Nino replied, but his tone sounded light despite his curt words.

Without really noticing, the couple began walking and chattering back and forth without the other two; Aiba had stayed frozen in place when Ohno hesitated.

Leader looked thoughtful for a second before trudging after them, Aiba mimicking his movements.

“Oh-chan, huh?” he asked happily, although he seemed to have picked up on the older boy’s melancholy mood. Ohno spared him a look out of the corner of his eye and nodded, forcing a small grin.

“Aiba-chan,” he responded. “Nice to meet you.”

+++

Nino was napping in Ohno’s lap while Leader watched Aiba and Sho rearrange the room enough to accommodate the new member. They were running out of space; there was enough for maybe one more person after Aiba’s things were taken into consideration.

One of the housekeepers had brought another futon a while ago, and Sho had volunteered to help Aiba, since Nino was already asleep by then and effectively neutralizing Ohno in the process.

The two newest members made light conversation, Sho being the most proficient at it of the three, and Ohno was content to simply listen. Just having Aiba in the room had already lightened his mood and he was smiling with a dazed expression as he lightly rubbed Nino’s head.

“Are you really a poison master?”

Aiba smiled innocently and responded immediately to Sho’s question with a bright voice. “Well, I don’t know about master, but I know a lot about them, like did you know that Taipan will kill you in less than five minutes but Nightshade can take almost three months depending on how you prepare it? Fugu poison will paralyze you before you die and there’s nothing you can do to stop it-”

“Wait,” Sho broke in when Aiba didn’t slow down. This boy had way too much energy. “I thought Fugu was a delicacy in the capital city?”

Aiba brightened up immediately at the question, eager to display his knowledge. “Yeah, but that’s only if it’s prepared right. Everyone in the city stopped eating it last year-- too many people were dying because of improper cleaning. Now you can just get the puffer fish and extract the poison yourself and it’s called the same thing. It’s really hard to get, though…”

Aiba and Sho continued the conversation this way, although it seemed like Aiba knew more about the topic than Sho did.

After the room was situated several minutes later, the archer suggested they go and get something for lunch in the village, offering to bring something back for the other two.

Ohno smiled and shrugged, content to be alone with Nino.

Sho gave him a smile that said he was happy for the opportunity and that his mood had lightened too, before motioning for Aiba to follow him. Aiba gave Leader a smile as well, waving happily.

Not five minutes after the pair had left the room, Nino turned over and said begrudgingly “They didn’t even really invite us.”

Ohno looked startled and immediately withdrew his hand from his friend’s head. “Nino? You were awake?”

The younger boy looked at the window with a guilty expression. “Yeah, sort of…”

Leader didn’t even bother to ask because he knew he wouldn’t understand Nino’s reasoning no matter what it was.

“Sho and Aiba seem like they’re becoming pretty good friends, huh?” Nino said after a minute, but his tone was sort of bitter.

“Yeah… I think Aiba is fun,” Ohno replied honestly, with a questioning expression.

Nino scoffed in return.

“But we’ve only known him for a few hours-by the way, if you want to keep doing that…” Nino motioned to his hair and looked away shyly before returning to the topic. Ohno immediately obliged with a fluttering in his stomach and a small smile, running his hands lightly through Nino’s hair. “Anyway, I think he’s an idiot,” Nino concluded with a pout.

“But we’ve only known him for a few hours…” Ohno repeated with a sad look. “I don’t think Aiba-chan is an idiot, he knows a lot about poisons…” he tried to argue weakly.

“Oh come on, that stuff he was going on about is pretty basic.”

Ohno raised an eyebrow in ignorance.

“I mean, even I knew that Taipan will kill you in less than five minutes.”

Ohno cocked his head to one side and Nino shifted his eyes sheepishly. The two of them were silent for a moment.

“Kazu.” Nino’s head twitched back to Leader at the rarely used nickname, the one that they had conveniently forgotten to mention to Sho. “I think we should give Aiba a chance,” Ohno said seriously.

Nino swallowed and lowered his eyes to his hands.

“I guess…” he said as if conceding to Ohno, but it seemed more like he hadn’t really been against the idea in the first place.

+++

When it came time for the group to go to bed that night, instead of the haphazard pile they’d been sleeping in recently, they all nested into their designated futons and were staring up at the ceiling with an awkward tension in the air.

Aiba was lying between Sho and the wall while Nino was between his two friends, as usual. Although the new boy had been in a cheery mood the remainder of the day, especially after he and Sho returned with oversized rice bowls for the other two, once Nino glared at him five or six times he stopped his mindless chattering and instead continued on with a silent air-heady grin.

The new boy could tell that Nino wasn’t taking to him like people usually did. For example, he had won over the lady at the store with nothing more than a smile. He wasn’t quite sure why the younger boy was being cold, but he figured that maybe after a few days of being together that Nino would warm up to him.

Suddenly he heard Leader, the stoic adorable one, sigh, almost in annoyance, and mumble, “This is weird.”

Aiba perked up immediately.

“Shh,” Nino, the one who didn’t seem to like him but that Aiba thought was lovable anyway, replied harshly.

“Nino-“ Oh-chan replied and Aiba thought that he had turned his head or something to look at his friend. Ohno and Nino seemed really close, and Sho had told him that afternoon that the two of them had been together longer than he’d been with them. But Sho and Nino also seemed close, so maybe Aiba had lost favor because he went out with Sho that afternoon? “Nino, if you want-“ The oldest boy started, but Aiba didn’t get to hear what Oh-chan thought Nino wanted.

“I’m fine, okay?” Nino said in a low abrupt voice, obviously trying to end the conversation. Aiba’s curiosity only grew when Sho joined in a minute later.

“Nino, honestly, just because Aiba’s here now-“ he started, but Nino cut him off again.

“I’m. Fine,” he responded through gritted teeth.

The herbalist couldn’t help himself. “What?” he asked eagerly, sitting up a little in his bed.

“We usually all sleep together,” Sho started, turning to Aiba so that he could be better heard.

The newest member immediately thought it was a good idea. Snuggling was the best.

“No we don’t-“ Nino started in an arguing tone, pushing himself up as if to prove his point.

Ohno seemed genuinely confused. “Yes we do,” he offered matter-of-factly.

“That’s fine! It sounds like fun!” Aiba responded before any of the rest of them could grow the argument any more. “Where should we sleep? In Oh-chan’s bed?” Aiba asked, excited.

The room was silent and Aiba could at least see Sho’s eyes looking at him with a stunned expression.

“Okay!” Aiba said happily after none of the rest of the members offered an alternative. He stood, pulling his blanket with him, and stumbled across the room to Ohno’s side.

The captain was looking up at him curiously and Aiba gave him a wide grin before plopping down between him and the wall. He threw his blanket on top of the two of them, but pulled up Ohno’s so that they could properly cuddle.

He scooted closer until he was right against Ohno’s side and then grabbed onto his new friend’s arm lightly, resting his head next to Leader’s.

“This is so much better, isn’t it?” Aiba asked contently.

Ohno gave him a lopsided grin and Aiba felt his stomach flutter. He admired Oh-chan so much already.

After a moment of shocked silence Nino finally slid his own futon over towards Ohno and nestled into the captain’s other side, Sho right behind him.

Aiba thought he heard someone mumble a thank you but he was already losing consciousness with his nose against Leader’s shoulder.

+++

Sho wasn’t sure why, but Aiba looked absolutely ecstatic that Nino was challenging him to a sparring match.

The day following their new arrival, the four of them trekked to their training grounds together, and after a brief warm up, Nino withdrew a pole from his pile of equipment and motioned Aiba over with a tough look on his face.

“Aiba-chan.” Somehow Nino’s deadpan voice didn’t give the cute nickname the justice it deserved. Sho thought that everything the new boy did was absolutely adorable.

“Nino…chan?” Aiba tested out a new nickname and Nino glared at him. “Nino?” he tried again, obviously not ready to push the boundaries with his friendly rival too far.

“Where’s your pole? Let’s go.” Nino motioned to him with a scowl, then took a waiting stance in the middle of the cleared grounds.

Aiba gave him a questioning look, but before Sho or Ohno could step in and reprimand Nino, the newest addition grinned widely.

“You want to practice? Oh wow, I’ve never had anyone to practice with before, really, just this old-“

“Let’s go!” Nino said impatiently, gripping his weapon so tightly that his fists were white. Aiba looked startled at the interruption, but picked up his pole and approached his partner.

Sho, who had barely made it through some arm stretches, had watched the scene anxiously, torn between stepping in to defend the new boy that he had taken quite the liking to and allowing Nino, who had been his friend for almost two years, free reign.

Well, it seemed like there were no hurt feelings yet, so Sho simply watched the bout from the safety of an ivy-free tree trunk.

Ohno took a similar position next to him a moment later, watching the two begin to exchange blows.

Even to the pair of combat-experienced boys, it was hard to determine who had the upper hand. Nino was faster and seemed more accurate in his attacks, but Aiba was several inches taller and had more force behind his.

Nino dodged a slightly off target advance and almost hit Aiba on the shoulder, but it was blocked by the opposite end of the pole and then swung back at him. Blows like these were exchanged for several minutes before the pair’s breath began to get heavy.

As they progressed, Nino began using the rest of his body in the fight, kicking with his feet and trying to elbow Aiba in the chest. The taller boy was blocking all the assaults, but didn’t have any room to start his own attack on his new nimble friend. Nino was giving him quite the run for his effort, but Aiba didn’t seem fazed by it.

The smaller ninja began to look furious the more he missed, his jaw clenched in frustration, and the more Aiba evaded him the bigger the stupid smile on his face got.

When Nino pushed his pole against Aiba’s, attempting to crack his head, and they were caught in a stale-mate, the new boy suddenly moved his gaze a few degrees to Sho and Ohno, who bristled at the sudden attention. The boy’s mouth dropped from a smile to an expression of shock, hanging half open.

“Oh-Oh-chan!” Aiba said with a genuinely surprised voice. “Why did you take your clothes off?”

Sho snickered while Ohno looked down at the black issued clothing that was still covering him, pulling at it lightly.

But Nino had turned around sharply to look and Aiba had taken the opportunity to tackle him to the ground.

“I win!” Aiba said triumphantly, pinning Nino underneath him by straddling his hips.

“No fair!” Nino whined, kicking his feet, but it seemed like some of the animosity had drained out of him. “You cheated!”

Aiba grinned down at him and chuckled. “It’s a tie then?” he conceded.

Nino raised an eyebrow, but his expression relaxed and he let the tiniest smile slip onto his lips. “I guess…”

By then Sho and Ohno had approached the duo, grinning at the trick Aiba had used and the fact that Nino had fallen for it. Sho placed his hand lightly on Aiba’s shoulder while Ohno leaned over Nino’s head with a bright grin.

“Shut up…” Nino said shyly and looked away, embarrassed that he had lost, and to a trick such as that.

“Didn’t say anything, Nino,” Sho offered teasingly, and Aiba smiled at him before falling over to lie on his back next to his sparring mate.

“Wow, that was fun! I’m tired,” Aiba sighed. “You’re good,” he complimented a second later, looking up at the blue sky above them. Sho rolled his eyes at the early break, then trudged back to his equipment that had been left at the trunk of the tree to start practice for the day.

Ohno followed a few steps behind him, hoping that Aiba and Nino could have a little more bonding time together.

Nino was staring at the wisps of clouds that dotted the sky, trying his hardest to hold back a grin. That had been fun, but he still couldn’t repress the tinge of jealous over the attention Sho was giving the new boy. Aiba was lively and peppy and cute and he was smart and everything that they needed right now, but Nino couldn’t help but feel intimidated again.

It was nice to get his mind off of things, though.

It had gotten better. At least Nino liked to think it had.

He had had another nightmare, yes, but he still got to sleep next to Sho and Ohno and at least he was getting rest. During the day he didn’t think about it as much, and he felt like he was used to the fact that he lived in a world where you need to kill to survive.

Nino had decided that if he needed to kill to protect Ohno and Sho who were so important to him that he would. No questions asked. Whenever he was faced with that decision, which seemed more and more often recently, he would, of course, only kill when necessary, but always kept his comrades first in his mind.

He still couldn’t help but think that he was too young to be worrying about something like that though… Sometimes Nino wished that he had never become a ninja, that Jyani had never discovered him that day so long ago. Sometimes it seemed that living in poverty, stealing for a living, even something like selling your body was better than selling your soul, your conscious.

Killing would never feel natural to Nino, he could never do it the way that Ohno did, just running the enemy through and then moving on to the next mission without even-

Nino’s thoughts were interrupted by Aiba’s musical voice next to him. He was pointing up at the sky and resting his head against Nino’s arm.

“Doesn’t that one look like a bunny?”

Blinking, Nino focused his attention on the cloud at hand and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“No, it’s more like a teapot.”

“Teapot? How did- oh wait, I see it, the fluffy part right there is the lid…?”

+++

*The same meaning as “Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu” only much less formal.

A/N: I almost forgot to update again! =A= I'm so sorry you guys! I'm going to Sapporo this weekend and so tired from work... Summer is coming and I'm looking forward to it, but I can't help but feel like I'm not going to get any rest! Plus it's so hot here I can't sleep unless the air conditioning is on. ):

But anyway, Aiba appeared!! Yay! I'm sure you can guess the purpose of his presence, but you'll have to wait to see how well it'll work. :) By the way, I think this is the shortest chapter I've posted of anything not a drabble, haha. ^__^

I'd love to hear any thoughts on this story, about pairings or where it's going or current relationship or anything at all~ Even criticism~ Yokoshiku ne~ <33

Chapter six