Spear & Shield

Spear & Shield
Chapter 16

“So where are we going?”

Yasu and Gai walked together, a day pack strapped to Gai’s back. She had been a little nervous when she first saw him with it, but he promised her a short trip and a free lunch. Lord knows that Yasu's biggest weakness was a scenic view and free food.

"Not far," he said with a smile. His pace kept him a stride or two ahead of his companion, leading her further and further away from the Village. 

Yasu followed at a more leisurely pace, noting that there was a hint of chill in the air. Autumn was near its end, making way for the colder months. That meant winterizing and getting ready for the rain. Even Konoha's mild winters still required preparation. Her priorities will shift from new construction to maintenance. If it slowed down enough, she may even be assigned field missions again.

‘Maybe all this combat training will pay off…' she thought with a frown. 

As if reading her thoughts, Gai began to speak, “I noticed some jounin making use of your housing building. They say it’s very nice. Spacious, even.”

Yasu felt heat rise to her cheeks, “Oh? I wasn’t aware that the Hokage approved it for occupation already.”

“Well, many homes were damaged in the Sand and Sound invasion…”

At the mention of the invasion, Yasu’s mouth suddenly ran dry as a feeling she had shoved to the deepest part of her gut crept up her throat. It glued her teeth shut, rendering her unable to reply directly. Instead, she shoved shaking hands into her pockets, offering him a quiet hum of acknowledgment and continuing their hike in silence.

Gai’s stride fell a bit slower, and soon the pair matched in step. He noticed the shift in the air, watching her carefully out of the corner of his eye.

Her gaze was cast downward, watching her own feet blindly walk the trail before them. His hand twitched with the urge to reach out to her, but he kept a firm hold on the straps of his pack. 

Thankfully, their destination was nearing.

“Up here, to the right,” he told her with a grin, eagerly marching forward and leading her off the path.

Whatever Yasu had been feeling during the last leg of their walk, it gave way to pure awe. 

They stepped through the treeline into a scene from another world. Somehow, nestled within the lush forest that surrounded Konoha, lay a wasteland.

He had brought her to a hillside utterly devoid of life. The ground was nothing more than sand and gravel. Chunks of rock scattered from past destruction wrought by an unknowable force. Nothing grew here, no brush or weeds or grass. Not even a speck of moss could be found along the barren ground. No animals or insects were among the rubble, the whole area was utterly lifeless. She could only imagine the horrors that caused such devastation. 

Birds could no longer be heard. No leaves rustled, even the air itself seemed stagnant and lifeless. There was a strange odor here, she couldn’t quite place, but it was familiar.

She hasn’t been to places like this before, but she’s heard of them. Deadzones. Wastelands. Barren fields. Places where such awful things occurred, the earth itself was changed, and life could no longer be sustained.

"This is where I first opened the Eight Gates." He told her, hands on his hips and a proud grin on his face. 

Ah.

That explained it. It also explained why they were so far from the village. Before, Yasu had compared Gai to a natural disaster as a joke. Now she was terrified to realize just how right she had been. The thought of such destruction anywhere near her village was too horrible for her to even think about.

Yasu was still in a state of dumbfounded astonishment. Her mouth gaped like a fish as she stared at him with wide, nearly fearful eyes.

She had thought Gai had been going all-out before. He’s put her through the wringer with some of the most intense training of her life, yet he hadn’t even scratched the surface of his true strength.

“Are you hungry?” Gai asked her with a casual grin, already reaching into his pack. “We should eat before training to maximize our energy.”

Their walk had taken a fair chunk of the morning, and Yasu had really skimped on breakfast. Gaining her breath back once more, she pipped, “Eh, I could eat.”

Her sandals kicked up soot and soil as Gai led her across the barren field. There was a pile of jagged rocks jutting up from the ground, as if the earth itself had been compressed upwards, leaving strange clusters of stalagmites dotted around the edges of the field. This only added to the otherworldly effect this area had, making Yasu wonder if she was actually dreaming.

“I have tamagoyaki, onigiri with pork, and salad,” he produced two bentos and a container of rice balls, handing her one as he took a seat on one of the fallen sheets of rock. 

Yasu smiled, considerably warmed by the gesture of him feeding her, enough to allow her to relax in such a strange place. 

When he made the offer of a more mild training day, Yasu jumped at the invitation. Her genin team used to make day trips with their sensei fairly regularly. It was good team-building… And a good excuse to blow-off their genin responsibilities. Bonding like this was important, or so she had convinced herself. Just as important as the pile of maintenance D-ranks and two courier C-ranks she had been assigned, right?

“Itadakimasu!” the both chorused.

Then she took a bite. 

Her face fell to stone, head dipping until she was covered in shadow. “Gai-sensei…?”

“Hm?”

She could barely sputter out her answer “... This is amazing.”

The omelet was cooked to perfection, with fresh-cut vegetables, and perfectly seasoned. The rice cooked evenly, and the meat was tender.

“Eggs are an excellent source of protein!” he replied through a mouthful of rice. She just now noticed that he had carefully tucked some of his hair behind his ears to keep it out of the way while he ate. 

It was something small that she found endearing. It was the little things that made time with Gai enjoyable. And him being an amazing cook was definitely a bonus. 

The whole meal was great. 

Every bite she took was amazing. ‘Maybe Ichiro could use a new chef at the tea house…’

For a while, they enjoyed the meal in silence. Yasu thought back to her dinner with Tenten and the slight uncomfortableness of dining with a stranger. It was much better eating with a friend.

“How long do you think we could spar before one of us gets tired?” the question fell from her lips without any thought.

Gai pondered on the question, “The longest I’ve ever fought continuous was approximately three days--”

“Three days?!”

“But that was a life-or-death situation. If we’re only training without intent to seriously harm… No soldier pills, and if  we didn’t collapse from chakra exhaustion... Well, at least three days, then.”

“Three whole days. You think?”

He nodded. The corner of Yasu’s mouth twitched upwards, “She told me that’s why you like training with me.”

“Who told you?”

“Tenten-chan.”

That made him pause mid-bite. “...Tenten-chan told you? You and Tenten-chan spoke?” he echoed, dropping the riceball back into the container. “When?”

“Two nights ago? We got dinner at Ichiraku.”

Gai looked more confused than anything, “I wasn’t aware you were acquainted. I was hoping to be the one to introduce you.” He sounded a little disappointed, which made her think he may have had something planned.

Yasu kept her voice as neutral as possible, explaining plainly, “We met the other day and started talking… So I took her to dinner. She seems like a nice kid.”

“She is a wonderful student,” Gai beamed, clearly pleased. “Very talented. Gifted in fuuinjutsu.”

Yasu smiled, having already known this from the five other times Gai had told her. “So I’ve heard… We talked a bit about our training. And you.”

“Exchanging tips?” he suggested excitedly, “My Darling Kunoichi are Very Clever!”

“We ended up talking for a while. She was worried, you know.” Yasu made a point to focus her eyes on her food. She maintained a relaxed posture to not give anything away. She was glad he didn’t seem upset about her and Tenten spending time together.

“Worried?”

“Yeah. About you… and Lee-san.”

That’s what did it. The air shifted, and their peaceful meal ended. Through her delicate social wiles, Yasu had turned an amicable picnic into an awkward confrontation. 

Yasu had known there was a reason Gai hadn’t told her about Lee before. It was probably the same reason he had not yet taken the time to introduce her to his team. Probably because he wasn't sure if there would be a team to introduce her to in the first place. Lee's fate was held in the air.

And while part of her knew his reasoning was none of her business, but another part wanted to know why.

“...How much did she tell you?” he asked quietly. Too quietly. 

“Most of it,” Yasu fiddled with her bento, shifting the food around with her chopsticks but not taking a bite, “Maybe all of it.”

The silence between them was heavier here in the deadland field. Yasu took the opportunity to look out over the landscape once more, that same gut-clenching feeling filling her as she assessed the irreversible damage. 

“I used to bring Lee out here a lot…” the hair fell back from behind his ear. He mimicked her gaze, staring out into the rocky mess he created, “We would leave the Village before dawn. Sometimes we’d be out here all day.”

It was the wistful way he spoke that didn’t sit right with her. She put down her bento, turning to face him completely. She readied herself to do something she never thought she would do with Gai. 

She made herself emotionally vulnerable.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I… I didn’t want to bother you with my problems.”

Yasu found that answer to be incredibly silly. He didn’t mind knocking her sideways and ambush attacking her during work hours, but talking about his problems was too bothersome?

She shook her head, “Gai-sensei… I’ve only known you a few weeks now, but we’re friends, aren’t we?”

His whole face lit up at the notion. It was like she had just told him he was the new Hokage. That ridiculous grin was back, “Yosh! Of course, Yasu-chan!”

“Then we can talk about this stuff, if you want to. It’s a pretty serious situation, isn’t it? If we’re spending this much time together, you should share this stuff with me. It’s upsetting to think you’ve been dealing with it on your own.”

Maybe she just had an empathetic nature. That most likely had something to do with why she didn’t care for being a ninja. But she had a whole family who would listen to her whine and complain about any little thing, because she would listen to them whine and complain too. And while she knew Gai had friends in the village, they were mostly all shinobi. Considering the post-invasion chaos and war looming on the horizon, it was likely issues like this were being left behind. From what she had gathered, Gai didn’t have a family… besides his students. And that was her now, wasn’t it? 

“Tenten-chan mentioned a surgery… that Tsunade-sama could help him.”

“He’s considering it,” Gai said, informative and a little detached. “But the odds of success aren’t good.”

“How bad?”

He was quiet again, this time the silence stretched a few minutes. When he finally spoke, his voice was hoarse, “Fifty-percent chance of recovery, fifty-percent chance of fatality.”

‘Gods above…’ Yasu’s breath caught in her throat. “I wasn’t aware it was so serious…”

“His injuries are technically healed, but there’s still fragments of bone in his spine--”

Yasu flinched.

“It’s causing him pain and physical limitations. If he doesn’t get the surgery, he’ll never be a ninja again.”

She leant back against the stone, drawing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin there. “But he doesn’t think a non-shinobi life is worth living?”

Gai shook his head, “He doesn’t want to die, either.”

She offered him a half-smile, “He sounds like a great student.”

“The best.”

She picked up the container off the ground, offering Gai the last riceball. He took it with a small nod of thanks.

“That’s a heavy situation,” she said. “How are you feeling?”

“Not the best,” he admitted, giving her a bare, watery smile. “... I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him, Yasu-chan.”

There was something in the way he said it that made her heart shatter. Tears began to prick at the corner of her eyes as well. 

“He hasn’t decided what wants to do yet, has he?”

Gai looked up when he heard the crack in her voice, concern painting over his distress. Her eyes were freshly bloodshot, brimming with tears that she would not let fall. She met his gaze and returned it with all the strength and compassion and warmth she could muster.

And for a moment, they were just two open hearts in the middle of a wasteland.

“You should tell him,” she spoke with as much clarity as she could muster, though her voice was much raspier than she would have liked. “Tell him how you feel. It’ll help him decide.”

Gai looked unsure, picking at his bento, “I can’t pressure him--”

“He’s making the hardest decision of his life right now, Gai-sensei. He’ll need all the help he can get.”

It was really all she had to say on the matter.

Gai remained contemplative, eyes cast downwards. 

It was the most quiet she had ever seen him.

Yasu pulled herself up on her knees, leaning forward to start packing up their bentos, “C’mon. We can keep talking while we train. It’s a lot easier when we can punch each other, trust me.”

She offered him a hand, he gave her a grin.