The Tale of Hashirama Zaleimaru Pt 1

                                                                      Chapter One

     A knock came from Hashirama’s door.  “Hashi, get up.  Sensei told us that the Kage has a mission for us” he heard a feminine voice say.  Opening his eyes, he knew it was Kurenai Mitsu, one of his childhood friends and teammates.  Rising from his bed, he proceeded to get dressed.  “Alright, go get Komaru...” “He’s already up, doing his morning workout...” “Right...  Forgot...”  Sweeping his black hair out of the way, Hashirama stretched.  Looking in the mirror, he tried to remember his count on how many near-lethal wounds he’d had that had become scars.  He’d last been at 12.  Counting the last two, he was at 14.  Maneuvering his green eyes away from his own chest, he grabbed his last good shirt out of the dresser.  He reminded himself that he needed a new set of shirts, as his current ones were battle-worn, with holes, cuts, and various other marks all over them.  Slipping it on, he heard Kurenai say, “Are you getting ready?” “Yeah” and he headed for his armory closet.  Grabbing his armor, Hashi then grabbed his wakazashi and tonfa.  Putting them in his weapon belt on his leather weave armor, he slid his pockets full of shuriken, and a few kunai for good measure.

     Stepping out of his room, he was met by Kurenai, who was 15 years old, a young woman that he had a childhood crush on.  He considered her a beautiful sight to behold in the morning.  She had raven hair, and burgundy eyes that were a result of an injury with an alchemical ingredient that didn’t seem to want to fade, even after 5 years.  That didn’t matter to Hashirama, though.  He found it quite beautiful and somewhat sexy.  Her features were soft, and her hair ran to her shoulder blades.  Her armor was considerably less protective when it came to his, it being made of leather weave as well.  Her’s was meant for mobility, protecting only the vital areas, such as the chest, forearms, and shins, allowing her to use her Energy to imbue objects with extra power, along with casting various jutsu.  She had the faintest of blushes when she noticed his gaze linger for a moment too long.  “What?”  Her voice snapped him out of his stupor, and said, “Nothing, just checking your armor for weaknesses...” “Uh-huh...” Kurenai said dubiously.  “Hey, you two done ogling each other?” and Hashi’s gaze became one of a tired smirk.  Looking over, he said, “Morning, Komaru”

     Standing at a huge 6’5”, by comparison to Hashirama’s 6’1” and Kurenai’s 5’6”, Komaru Katatsu, at 18 years old, was muscular and, when angered, terrifying.  That was anybody else’s evaluation of him.  Kurenai and Hashirama knew differently.  He was a loveable beast, giving them laughs all the time.  Being the biggest, he’d admitted to feeling responsible for Hashi and Kurenai, wanting to keep them both safe.  At the time, Hashi had felt slightly offended, but had quickly appreciated it when it came to a straight-up fight.  He and Kurenai were not amazingly resilient to wounds, like Komaru was, and still keep fighting.  Something that he knew was fact, Hashi remembered that he had at least quadrupled the amount of near-death experiences than Komaru and Kurenai combined.  It came from his suicidal tendencies.  Komaru scratched his white hair, and walked over, his hazel eyes glued on them, his usual grin established.  “Where’s Sensei?” “Over at the Citadel.  He’s with the Kage, Lord Minamoto...” “Got it, let’s go” and the trio of ninja headed for the Kage’s residence.

     Upon the way, he talked with Komaru and Kurenai, gathering whatever he could from them about the mission.  It wasn’t a dangerous one, only a C-Rank, guarding some farmers from bandits while they gathered harvest and moved their livelihood to the city.  He noticed that Komaru had his usual armor on, bulky plated leather.  It had the usual leather weave, with metal plates placed all over it, adding significant protection to weak points, and improving his overall combat efficiency.  With it, he had his Daikatana, his two Fuma shuriken, and his Daishuriken.  He was a combat expert, professing in close range combat and long range.  Kurenai was their jutsu master, being able to take down several before they got to her.  Hashirama was known as the group wild card, as nobody could ever predict him.  His Sensei had mentioned this, saying, “You are unpredictable.  You are the type that could be in battle, fighting, and suddenly turn on your teammates, or be the one to jump into the path of a lethal blow just because you could...”  Komaru had used that as a cue to call Hashi crazy from time to time.  It made sense, too, as some of his behavior in battle could be called outright crazy.  This was especially true when he’d jump in the way of lethal blows to teammates and comrades.  Amazingly, he’d always survived.  He had been nicknamed both Wild Card and Miracle Man by his teammates, pulling off otherwise unimaginable feats of suicidal stupidity and coming out on top.

     Landing in front of the Citadel, Hashi and his team made their way inside.  Reaching the Kage’s residence, they were waved through by the guards.  Going into the Kage’s study, they saw their Sensei, a man of considerable strength, at age 29, and the Kage, a man going on 65 years of age, and 8 years as Kage.  Being the second youngest in the room, at age 16, Hashirama said, “Sensei, Lord Kage, we’re here...” “Good...” their sensei said.  Hashi was once again reminded that they still didn’t know their sensei’s name, so they’d taken to still calling him sensei until he gave them permission, which would likely be never.  As they conversed about the mission, Hashirama slid into his memories, not being needed at the moment.  He’d remembered when they were formed into a squad; they had to fight their Sensei one-on-one, then as a team.  Komaru was first up, and fought for a good 10 minutes before being defeated.  Kurenai, she lasted 6 minutes.  Hashirama, despite being a jack-of-all-trades, and couldn’t defeat Kurenai in jutsu, nor Komaru in combat, lasted upwards of 20 minutes.  After recovering, they fought him as a team.  They lasted nearly- “Hashirama...” “Hm?  Yes, Lord Kage?” “Since your sensei has other matters to attend to, you will be leading this mission, understood?” “Yes, sir...”  He knew why he was chosen, but didn’t like the reason that much.  It was because of his willingness to do anything to protect those around him, including taking bodily harm, sometimes on a scale of severity unseen.  As the hospital staff put it, he was their number one customer.

     Sending them off onto their mission, Hashi and his team moved out of the city and towards the homestead.  They arrived at about 4pm, the sun getting ready to set.  Upon walking into the homestead, they were greeted by the farmer and his wife, who had already hired what mercenaries they could, and had their farm hands armed and loading the wagons with the harvest.  “So, one more time, for good measure...  What has been happening?” “Bandits have been harassing us, telling us to pay them so they don’t attack our wagons, but we simply don’t have the money for that...  So we sent a letter to the Kage, and he has sent you...  I pray everything will be okay...” “We’ll keep you all safe, we promise...” Komaru said, smiling confidently.  Heading over to the wagon to help, the farmer and the wife kept things moving.  Setting up, Komaru was waiting near the fences, with a mercenary nearby.  Hashi and Kurenai stayed near the wagon with the two other mercenaries.  It didn’t take long for the bandits to show up.  There were 12 of them, and, counting Hashi and his group, there were six combat-ready people.  Without much thinking, the trio of ninja knew this wouldn’t be easy.