Raizen

Lunch was odd, in the time it took Raizen to calmly eat his one bowl of ramen, Ushi burned through eleven. After the first seven Raizen just stared on in awe. “Where is he putting it all?” Raizen thought to himself. It wasn’t too long after Ushi ordered his twelfth bowl that he started turning blue and holding his neck. Out of instinct Raizen dashed behind Ushi and performed the Heimlich maneuver.

Hack… Hack… on the third try Ushi spit up what looked like a scroll. “Wow, thanks!” Ushi exclaimed as he gasped for breath. Raizen looked up at the shopkeeper while pointing at Ushi, “Why is there a scroll in his ramen?”

The man just looked confused. “I didn’t put that in there. But I’m sorry for the trouble.”

“Whatever, what does it say Ushi?” Raizen asked. Ushi unrolled the scroll, coughed, and proceeded to read it out loud, trying as hard as he could to sound official.

“Raizen, and Ushi. Meet me in the forest clearing just outside the village as soon as possible. Bring your ninja equipment. –Kakashi Yukiso”

“Hmm, I guess we should get going.” Raizen got up to leave only to see Ushi roll up the scroll, look right, look left, then slowly raise it back to his mouth. “No!” Raizen grabbed the scroll from Ushi. It looked like this kid has no common sense what so ever. “Right,” Raizen mumbled, “I’m just gonna…” and he started sprinting toward the forest clearing.

“Waaaaaaaaiiiiiit! Raaaaaaaiiiiiiizen!” And Ushi ran off after Raizen. It took about five minutes of Ushi sprinting madly after Raizen, who was failing miserably at evading him, to get to Kakashi sensei’s clearing. When they finally arrived Raizen looked slightly murderous, but Ushi didn’t seem to notice. “Look Raizen! It’s our sensei! Isn’t this exciting?!!!”

All that ran though Raizen’s head while he walked over to Kakashi and raised an eyebrow was, “Why God, why?” Their sensei was hanging upside down from a tree branch reading another book, this one labeled “Physics, the forgotten theories” Immediately Ushi jumped up and mimicked Kakashi perfectly, minus the book. Raizen just stared at the two, shaking his head until Kakashi called them a pair, at which point he audibly twitched. Yes, an audible twitch. After Masato arrived and Ushi got a death glare for trying to touch Kakashi’s book, the three were finally informed of their task, to wash a kunai, by any means in the forest.

“But first we all need to get to know each other.” Sensei said. “Let’s see, why don’t you tell me your names, your likes, your dislikes… and then give everyone in the group a complement. Here I’ll go first. My name is Kakashi Yukiso, I like kittens… and I dislike… well, that’s not important. And I just met you, so how am I supposed to complement you. Ok, Raizen.”

“He didn’t tell us anything…” Raizen thought. He sat there for a moment questioning why his sensei was treating them all like five year-olds before speaking. “Ok, well I’m Hyuga Raizen, I also like kittens-“

“Oooo! Do you have one?!!” Ushi interrupted.

“Yeah, I do.” Raizen continued. “Anyway, I don’t like-”

“Oooo! Is it a boy or girl kitten?!!” Ushi interrupted again.

“He’s a boy. I don’t like-”

“Oooo! What’s his name?!!” Ushi asked as Raizen twitched again.

“His name is Mitch… and he’s black, with a white tip on his tail.” Raizen shot out before Ushi could say anything more. Anyway I don’t like… people interrupting me when I’m trying to talk.” Raizen said, as he shot Ushi a death glare very similar to Kakashi sensei’s. But Ushi seemed quite unfazed by the glare and continued to look on with curious excitement. “Right…complements, Masato, you’re very determined. Um, sensei, you’ve got to be intelligent to understand the books I’ve seen you reading. And Ushi…you’re…” Raizen twitched at the thought of complementing possibly the most annoying person he’d ever met. “You’re… the most enthusiastic person I know.”

The others then shared about themselves and Kakashi sensei disappeared to leave them to wash their kunai. Raizen stood up and pulled out his kunai. “It doesn’t even look dirty.” He thought to himself. Assuming that there had to be more to the test that sensei wasn’t telling him about, Raizen pulled out a small cloth and made to polish his kunai. But the cloth never touched the blade. Try as he might Raizen couldn’t force his cloth within a centimeter of it. He looked over at Ushi and Masato; they didn’t seem to be having any luck either…. Ushi was trying to lick his. “Ok guys, I’m going to go see if water will work on this thing.” And with that Raizen wandered off to find a stream that he knew was nearby.