The Fox's Third Flash of Hope

Chapter 20

Just wondering how many people actually like this story? Like legitimately like and not just an ok story you read when you're out of good ones to read. Be honest. I never actually planned to be obsessed with writing so it's not surprising if these are boring.

Sometimes there were trees overhead, and sometimes there was open sky. The sunny day didn't match with the two young shinobis' mood. At all. The stream seemed oblivious to that fact as it flowed on its merry way to the lake the two genin had left behind hours ago.

"You know, I just realized something," Niju suddenly spoke up after about ten minutes of silence. That was how they spent the journey, having short conversations and then silences in between to regret what they had and hadn't said.

"What," Kansen replied.

"Only half of a ninja's work hours are spent fighting."

"What about the other half."

"Walking to get from place to place."

"That's the most accurate thing I've heard all day."

"How long have we been walking?"

"Don't know, don't care."

Things were quiet for a while again.

Kansen heard it before she was officially alerted of it like she always did, but of course one doesn't simply believe something without evidence presented to them. Especially in a situation like this one. However, it didn't take long for the evidence to arrive, since a minute later a mini meteor hit Niju in the face.

Yep, that actually happened.

Like, seriously.

Ok fine it wasn't exactly a meteor. It was little more than a pebble, but the chakra used to propel it made it speed up to flammable levels. Luckily it had been tossed from quite a distance away so the power had diminished somewhat and the boy wasn't too badly hurt, but a good sized patch of broken skin was spilling blood on his forehead and down his face.

"I literally wrapped up your head yesterday in the same spot except on the other side of your head," Kansen looked at him quite annoyed. Definitely not the look or words of a concerned teammate. The bandages were still there, but had been quite mangled by the unconventional piece of artillery and were now soaked in red.

"Well not everyone has insane reaction speed and reflexes like you do," he shot back, wiping blood out of his eye. That wasn't an exact display of friendship either.

Kansen sighed, and took out the roll of bandages from her bag along with a small light blue handkerchief. "It was about time to change your bandages anyway, so might as well."

After soaking the handkerchief in the stream, she put a hand on top of his head and began wiping at the wound with the wet cloth. "Hold still," she ordered when he flinched a bit at the coldness of the water. When most of the blood was gone from his face, the redhead bound old injury and new alike with a fresh bandage.

Putting the gauze back into her pack, she soaked the handkerchief once again in the river to try and get rid of the splotches of red. Blood stains really are stubborn. Just water isn't enough to wash it out.

In the end she turned around and held out the stained blue cloth to her teammate. "It's got your blood on it now, so you might as well just keep it."

"That's a stupid reason to give someone something, but I'll take it," Niju tucked the square into one of the smaller pockets on his backpack. "How about we go check out where that rock came flying from now?"

"Good idea."

It only took them a few minutes to get to the source of the commotion, and really, Kansen wondered if she was going deaf. How had she not sensed this farther off? HOW?!