kitsunemoonstar

A Good Day

Rangiku let out a soft, melancholy sigh. It was her birthday. And Gin wasn’t here. This wouldn’t be the first birthday she had spent without him. But in the past that hadn’t been because he had betrayed the Seireitei. Rangiku didn’t know what his reasons for doing so were. It had hurt, but there was some part of her that still had some faith in Gin. He had been her constant for so long, and to tell the truth, she was in love with him. Rangiku knew that one fact probably affected her opinions on what he had done more than a little.

But none of that changed the fact that he wasn’t here for her birthday. But Rangiku wasn’t going to let that spoil her day. Her birthday had always managed to be special, even the year she’d been stuck in the Fourth for it. Of course, that was in part because Gin tried to do something for year every year even if he wasn’t there on the actual day of her birthday. However, before Rangiku had time to start brooding on that, Nanao appeared at her elbow.

“Are you busy, Rangiku? I need some help with a project.”

A project was just the sort of thing she needed to keep her distracted. “Sure.”

Nanao led the way to the Eighth Division. However, Nanao didn’t head inside but around the buildings to the garden the Eighth kept. Rangiku followed behind her.

“Surprise!” The call rang out.

Rangiku blinked as she came realized that she had just walked into her birthday party this year. Nanao had a secret little smile on her lips which told Rangiku that she had arranged all this. There was food and sake as well as most of her friends and colleagues throughout the various divisions. She quickly found herself swept off and escorted to a seat of honor where she was showered with food, drinks, and presents.

It was entirely fun and really quite lovely. Nanao had done a good job of organizing a party that Rangiku would both enjoy and that would take her mind off of the recent events. Even her captain seemed to be enjoying himself. Sometime during the party, Rukia sidled up to her. She pressed a small box into Rangiku’s hand.

Rukia gave her a half smile. “This was left at Ichigo’s for you.”

The little box bore a label with a distinctive script. Rangiku frowned slightly but eased it opened. Inside was a delicate chain bearing an intricate pendant made from silver and gold. The pendant was beautiful: a silver fox carrying a gold chrysanthemum in its mouth. On its back the character for love was engraved. It was the second piece of jewelry Gin had ever given her, the first being the necklace she always wore. Her fingers gently skimmed over her new necklace. Gin had once again found a way to make her birthday special. Rangiku closed her eyes, and when the autumn breeze blew through her hair, Rangiku could feel the ghost of a kiss across her cheek.

kitsunemoonstar

A Perfect Third

Tsunade let out a little sigh as she went about her duties for the day. It was one of those days when Jiraiya and Akira were out on a mission, and quite honestly she missed them. At least Kosuke, Jiraiya’s older sister was around. Still, she was closer to Jiraiya and Akira. But there was enough going on at the hospital today to keep Tsunade busy enough that she wouldn’t be dwelling on the fact that her friends wouldn’t be around when she finished with her shift.

She spent most of her time at the hospital these days. Once her skills had come to the awareness of Konoha’s other medic nin, she was practically been kidnapped by them. Most of her time was now spent in intensive training. She did go out on mission, but she wasn’t actually assigned to any teams right now. Tsunade just got lent out as needed. It really wasn’t that bad, and her medical studies had made a great deal of progress since the change. Still, it could be hard sometimes when she was the one left behind.

Stretching a little, Tsunade glanced up from her inventory work as someone came down the hall.

“Tsunade, could you please run down to the Hokage’s office? There’s a ninja making his report that needs some treatment, and they don’t want to wait until he’s done.”

It was phrased as a request, but Tsunade knew it really wasn’t. She was the low man on the totem pole after all, and she often got given tasks like this.

“Of course.”

It didn’t take Tsunade long to arrive. The Hokage smiled and nodded at her, and she went about her work healing the ninja’s broken arm, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible and trying to ignore the fact that this was Jiraiya and Akira’s teammate, and they weren’t anywhere around. As she worked, Tsunade paid attention to the report. It quickly became clear to Tsunade at least that what had really happened was that Toushiro Kanazaki had felt that they were in over their heads and had cut and run. Of course, Akira and Jiraiya had gotten their ideas about what might be dangerous from their parents. Given that they were the heroes of Konoha, that explained some things.

By the time she had completed Kanazaki’s treatment, the Hokage and some of his advisors were debating what to do. It sounded like they wanted to send someone to replace Kanazaki, but Sakura-sama wanted to send a medic nin, and they didn’t really have anyone they could send. Except for Tsunade. She wasn’t normally sent into situations like this because she didn’t have much field experience, but Tsunade knew that she wouldn’t have any problems with this mission.

Tsunade calmly rose to her feet. “If you give me an hour, Hokage-sama, I will be ready to replace Kanazaki-san on team eight.”

The assembled group looked at her almost as if they had forgotten she was there. There was the off chance that they had. They certainly hadn’t expected her to volunteer.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Inoue-san?” the Hokage asked.

She nodded. “Jiraiya and Akira are my closest friends, and this is something I can do. How can I not go?”

Sakura-sama had an odd little smile on lips. “She does have the qualifications we were looking for, Naruto.”

So Tsunade went off to pack her bags. It didn’t take her long as she kept a kit ready take on missions at all time. She just needed to make sure she had everything she needed ready and check to see if there was any additional equipment she might need for this specific mission. Two hours later, Tsunade was on the road after being briefed for the mission. She figured she had about a day of traveling before she got near where the team’s camp was supposed to be. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Tsunade found herself in an extremely cheerful and good mood. There was something right about this that made her feel at ease.

When she got closer to where their camp was supposed to be, Tsunade started using a little more caution. After all, it probably wasn’t a very good idea to sneak up on two ninja who didn’t know you were coming to help them. However, this didn’t keep her from nearly giving both of her friends a heart attack. To be fair, when they popped up in front of her, they nearly did the same to her.

“Tsunade? What are you doing here?” Akira asked.

She smiled; She almost wanted to announce that she was here to rescue them. “I’m your new teammate for the duration of the mission.”

Jiraiya and Akira gaped at her. But they took her back to their camp, and it didn’t take them all too long to sort things out and come up with a plan to complete the mission at hand.

It was nearly five days later when the three of them returned to Konoha. Tsunade was quite she they made a something of a sight to see as they entered the town. Tsunade was riding piggyback on Jiraiya’s back, laughing and trying to smack Akira for something he said. There had been injuries during the mission, including her breaking her ankle. Tsunade had decided it was better use of her resources to heal her teammates first. They after all had more combat experience than she did. And she hadn’t had enough energy to heal herself afterwards. So that had turned Jiraiya into her mode of transportation.

“And so the great hero carried his lady home in order to ravish her until--”

Tsunade gigged and tried to smack Akira again from her perch. He had been teasing her and Jiraiya almost since Tsunade had arrived. The three of them made a pretty good team. She had to stretch a little, but Tsunade managed to smack Akira upside the head.

“Ouch! Not nice, Hime.”

Tsunade rolled her eyes. Jiraiya had gotten him calling her that now as well. Tsunade stuck out her tongue at him. “You deserved it. Let’s give our report, and then you can go find Kosuke to kiss it better.”

Jiraiya laughed. “You heard the princess, Akira. Let’s go report in. I’m hungry.”

Laughing, the three of them made their way to the Hokage’s office.

kitsunemoonstar

Breathless

They spun in circles across the ice, laughing all the while. While Riza knew they really should be practicing, neither she nor Roy actually felt like doing so. The pair’s figure skating team had been working nonstop for the past few months, and now after the rousing success of the first competition of the season, both of them were in the mood for some silliness. It felt good to be out on the ice without worrying about judges, coaches, or an audience. It was just the two of them like it had been on that lake behind her house when they had been children just learning to skate. Things had been simpler then.

The two of them hadn’t actually planned on becoming competitive figure skaters. They had just sort of fallen into it. Both of them had loved ice skating ever since they had learned how to do it. As long as the ice was frozen, most winter days they both could be found on the pond in Riza’s backyard. It had been an escape for them both. Neither of them had ever fit in very well in their small town and didn’t spend much time with the other children. They had met one another because Riza’s father was Roy’s tutor.

As they had gotten older, both of them had attended classes at the local ice skating rink, even if they still mostly skated on the pond. It was their teachers there that singled them both out for further training and encouraged them to compete. Though not together at first. In fact, it really had been by accident that they had ended up as pairs skaters at all. The two of them had been at the rink early for lessons one afternoon, and Roy had goaded her into a game of tag on the ice. They hadn’t realized that they were being watched, but apparently, they had impressed a number of people with the way the moved together. Someone had suggested that they try pairs skating, and both of their coaches had agreed.

So she and Roy had found themselves competing in pairs at the regional championships that year, and they had surprised everyone by taking silver. That had sent the two of them to nationals where they took fourth place. No one had expected the two of them to be that good, so quickly. By the time she was eighteen, the two of them had international competitions under their belts and had been winning competitions. They were nationally the top ranked pair’s team, and now just a year later, they were going into their first Olympic season.

All of it had changed her perspective on skating some. There was more stress and pressure now than when she had been little. It was still fun, and Riza still loved to figure skate, but there were days when she just couldn’t wait to get off the ice too. And there were days when they would spend hours working on a perfecting program only to mess it up in competition. It wasn’t as carefree as it used to be.

cutelildrow

84,201 words. we win!