Spear & Shield

Spear & Shield
Chapter 21

It’s been two weeks since Yasu had last seen Gai.

Two, very quiet, and very uneventful weeks.

It made Yasu feel… ambivalent.

At first, she rather enjoyed the quiet. She didn’t know how long their hiatus would last, so she used every free moment she had to simply relax. She had even taken a whole day off from work and training to just stay home and clean her apartment (Bao-chan was very pleased).

But relaxing quickly grew tiresome.

She found herself grumpier than usual, finding it significantly more difficult to sleep without exerting the amount of physical energy her body had become accustomed to. So she poured this excess of energy into her normal work, taking on every odd job she could get her hands on. She even reached out to her father, asking if he had any jobs he needed assistance with (he did not). Lastly, she resorted to digging up every in-progress project she had and was systematically finishing them. As anyone could see, she was desperate.

She wondered what Gai had been up to during this time.

She didn't want to admit how much she missed him, not even to herself. They hadn't known one another for very long, so it was silly to think she had grown so used to his presence. 

But she had been ruminating on their training sessions, thinking about her technique and how to develop it…

What was the point if he wasn't there to help her?

So here she sat upon the Hokage monument, right at the crest of Sandaime’s crown, another half-finished floor plan spread out before her. 

She rested her chin in her hand, her pencil running along the same lines over and over until she had nearly cut cleanly through the paper. 

A flutter of movement caught her eye. She looked up with a curious expression, seeing a hawk taking flight from the aviary window at the top of Hokage tower. In a fleeting moment of hope, she wished it would come and fly to her.

...And then it did?

Her eyes widened to twice their size as she watched the hawk swoop down, soaring straight towards her head. She yelped, ducking sideways as it flicked its wings, landing on the edge of stone she used as a drafting table, perching there and looking at her expectantly.

She couldn’t recall the last time she received a messenger hawk. 

The bird tilted it head to the side, staring her dead in the eye. 

Still not totally convinced this wasn’t a mistake, she hesitantly took the scroll attached to its leg.

Summons to the Hokage. Report immediately.

Yasu balked at the message, glancing at the hawk as if it had an explanation. 

It clicked its beak at her.

With a frown, she gathered her supplies, sealing them away in a scroll that she shoved into her hip pack. 

The climb to the Hokage’s office was a long one, even at the brisk pace she set. Her mind speculated with every step. Was she in trouble? She hadn’t done anything warranting discipline… Unless they found out about the hole she made in the border wall. 

...No, she patched that perfectly. 

Was it a new commission, then? The thought made her heart race. Perhaps the redesign she had submitted for the archive building had finally been approved. Or maybe they needed an extension on the Academy… Or a new Hospital wing! 

Or perhaps they had seen her suggestion of installing an elevator in the Tower.  

She showed the jounin guarding the door her scroll, he nodded and allowed her to pass.

Yasu has only been inside the Hokage’s office a handful of times. As a Village contractor and general maintenance worker, she mostly gives her reports to high-level subordinates, and occasionally even the Elder Council. Only new construction reports went straight to the Hokage. And seeing as no new structures had been approved yet, let alone built, she doubted that was the purpose of her summons. 

Her surprise only doubled when she noticed that she was not alone in audience with the Hokage.

“Hokage-sama,” she greeted with a bow, letting her curiosity bleed into her expression. “And, uhm… Hi, Dad.”

There he was, Ushi Yasuchika, in all his glory. The stocky man sat in a chair across from the Hokage’s desk, a steaming cup of tea in his hands. He sat tall, broad shoulders perfectly square, clearly displaying the family crest on the back of his haori jacket. She couldn’t help but quirk a smile at it.

“Ah, welcome Yasu-san,” Tsunade smiled, gesturing to the empty chair next to Yasuchika. “I hadn’t expected you to arrive so quickly.”

“I was close by,” she admitted sheepishly as her gaze slid to the window behind Tsunade, in clear view of Mount Hokage. 

Her father smiled at her in a knowing way, eyes crinkled shut as his mustache twitched with stifled laughter. 

A cup of tea was offered to her. She took it gratefully.

“I apologize for calling on you so urgently,” Tsunade said with a sigh, “However, I’m booked up for the rest of the week… When I originally scheduled this meeting with your father, I thought he would be the only one.”

Yasuchika cleared his throat, “I’m sorry for the last-minute change, Hokage-sama.”

Yasu glanced between them, amused that neither knew that they had saved her from a day of complete and utter boredom. 

“It’s alright. If you don’t mind, may I ask what this is about?” She asked merely out of politeness, feigning ignorance with an expression of innocent curiosity. 

Because there was only one reason her father would be meeting with the Hokage. 

“The Village is in need of your father’s skills… Another face has been commissioned to be added to Mount Hokage,” she winced in embarrassment. “...It’s tradition, after all.”

A giddy grin slowly spread itself across Yasu’s face. Her eyes lit up, meeting her father’s prideful smile, nearly bursting out of her chair with delight.

“It’s time…?” she asked, dizzy with excitement.

Her father set down his teacup with a chuckle, slapping his palms on his knees and bowing his shoulders, “It is a great honor, Hokage-sama!” 

“Dad!” Yasu practically squealed with joy, her heart racing. 

Tsunade leant back in her chair, a fond look on her face as she observed the exuberant pair before her. Sure, the resemblance was obvious now, but she had initially been surprised when she met Yasuchika’s only daughter. Tsunade had never met the Stone Carver’s wife, but Yasu must take after her… Yasuchika was an ox of a man, with a broad face, and an odd-number of fingers. Yasu seemed to be… Well, a perfectly normal kunoichi.

Yet in that moment, with their beaming grins and eyes aglow with esteem and pride, she could see just how alike they really are.

“Your father requested your assistance with the project, Yasu-san. Are you up for it?”

“Yes! Yes, of course!” she blurted, a little louder than appropriate. Her father shot her a subtle look. She cleared her throat, “Erm, I mean, I would be honored, Hokage-sama.”

So the negotiations began.

Yasu was able to talk her father out of the plaster cast and mold, recommending a series of photos from different angles instead. Tsunade eagerly agreed. 

She would create a base design by carving out a scale model of the monument with Tsuande’s face added. Her father would take care of the finer details.

Yasu and her father buzzed around the poor woman with a shared excitement, bouncing rapid-fire ideas to one another while meticulously measuring Tsunade’s features. 

"Should she be smiling?" 

"Of course not! A classic warrior expression is customary."

“Relax your brow, Hokage-sama, or the measurements will be off.”

“Oh, her hair’s out of place on the left side.”

“Are you getting all this, Yasu-chan? These numbers are important!”

The older woman groaned, letting Yasuchika poke and prod and measure. Yasu, who she had previously viewed as a rational and level-headed ninja, was making a rough sketch of her face, marking each feature with numbers and markers she didn’t understand.

“Is all this really necessary?” she whispered to Yasu out of the corner of her mouth. 

Yasu nodded, a dead-set look of determination on her face, “Mount Hokage has been sculpted with a perfect one-to-ten ratio. The measurements must be concise.”

‘The Will of Fire manifests in mysterious ways…’ Tsunade thought to herself with a sigh.

"Alright, alright," the Hokage sighed, forcibly pushing the two out of her personal space. "We'll send out the photographs and have the Council approve the model design. Sound good?"

In tandem, father and daughter bowed deeply, "Yes, Hokage-sama!"

A vein in Tsunade's forehead pulsed. "You are dismissed," she grumbled, massaging her temple.

Yasu may as well have skipped out of the Hokage's office. Even her ever-stoic father had a little more bounce in his step than usual.

"It's exciting, isn't it, Yasu-chan?" her father practically giggled. "We get to carve the most beautiful face Konoha has ever seen!" His sharp black eyes crinkled with a wide grin, as his four-fingered left hand curled into a fist.

Yasu smiled down at him, "I won't tell Mom you said that."

He paused. "Best not," he agreed.

The two continued down the spiraling stairs in high spirits, chittering away at ideas, discussing the next step. 

“I’m surprised you didn’t ask Goro to help you, Dad,” she admitted, glancing down on the scrap of paper she had written every necessary measurement.

“Bah,” her father scoffed, “This is too important a job for that little imp. I needed someone skilled.” A large hand clapped her shoulder, harder than most people would be able to tolerate without stumbling, but Yasu was fine, “Someone as skilled as me!”

Her heart swelled with intense fervor. The sentiment behind her father’s words were almost too much for her to bear, her throat suddenly heavy with the feeling.

Yasu beamed as she bid her father goodbye, a tremor of excitement reverberating in her stomach. 

She turned to race home and get to work, shouting her success to the rooftops the whole way there, but stopped short… 

Because there was really only one person she wanted to tell. One person she really wanted to share this joy with...

But she hadn’t seen him in two weeks.