When Ash finally returned home that day, Temari was appalled to see him covered in bruises, albeit light ones. The boy moved to his favorite couch immediately, plopping down on it face first, at which point Temari took to fretting over him. Fortunately, Ash was too tired to notice or care that Temari was still in her pajamas at nine in the evening, and not because she'd been preparing for bed.
"Ash, what happened to you?! Where did you get all these bruises?!"
With his face buried in a pillow, it was hard for Temari to hear his answer. "I couldn't dodge fast enough."
"Dodge what? I thought you were with Pakura?!"
"I was."
"And what, she did this to you?!"
Ash turned his head so he could speak more clearly. "It was training, Temari. It's not like she beat me up or anything."
This explanation didn't do anything to lighten Temari's severity. "If this was the result of training, she was going way too hard! You should have told her to take it easy!"
Ash sat up on the couch so he could look at Temari more seriously. He was entirely on Pakura's side, after all. "Temari, I need her to train me seriously so I can grow as strong as I can before the next major fight. I want to be able to protect you and Kankuro next time, even against powerful enemies like Raiga."
Temari's expression softened considerably, though she didn't look less irritable over Ash's minor pains. "I know, I know... I just don't like seeing you all beaten up like this. If you have to keep training this hard, learn how to dodge, would you?"
"It's a little harder to dodge a Jonin than you think, Sis. It's not like I stood around and let her hit me."
"If you say so... are you hungry? There's some stuff in the fridge I could make for you."
"Are you sure? It's pretty late already. I can eat leftovers if there are any."
Temari smiled as she moved towards the kitchen. "It's fine. I don't mind making dinner for you. I think all we have is chicken and rice, though."
"That's fine. Did I get any mail today?"
Knowing that her little brother was eagerly awaiting a reply from a girl he'd messaged while in the hospital didn't make Temari very happy, but she knew it was little more than petty jealousy. There was too much of an age difference between Ash and Kurotsuchi for her to be concerned about anything, surely.
"Sorry, but not yet. Still, you know how messenger hawks are: bad weather, resting, finding food, other distractions... there are a lot of factors that could make a message take longer than usual to get to and from somewhere."
Ash called back to her from the living room. "I know, there's nothing I can do about that. I just really want to see her reaction. You think she'll be jealous that we went on such a high-level mission before her?"
"I didn't think you'd be petty enough to brag about a high-ranking mission to your friends, Ash."
"Well, I almost died, so I might as well milk it for what's worth, right?"
"What if it turns out that she has already been on a high-ranking mission?"
She heard Ash snort in amusement. "With Deidara on her team, the Tsuchikage would have to be crazy to send them on a dangerous mission."
"I don't know, his explosives may have been useful against Raiga."
"Maybe, but doesn't the Stone Explosion Corps use earth-based explosives? Those would have been useless."
"What do you mean?"
"Lightning beats earth, right? According to Pakura's stories from the last war, the Explosion Corps uses explosives made of clay. Raiga would have been able to deal with them easily."
Temari tried her hardest not to feel irritated that Ash knew something she didn't, but it was difficult. She didn't want to be petty over the fact that her brother had learned something new before her, but she also didn't like being behind. In the end, she managed to keep the irritation out of her voice as she grabbed any dishes she might need for dinner.
"Interesting. At least she didn't just hit you all day."
Ash merely chuckled at that, choosing to go into a different, less important topic rather than defend his new teacher. With that, he and his sister didn't talk about anything of much importance for the thirty minutes it took Temari to concoct something relatively close to dinner. She was no chef by any means. In fact, Temari's cooking skills were dismally average, but at least the stuff she made was edible. Besides, as she brought the bowl of rather basic food to her little brother, he looked at it as though it were the best thing he had ever seen, and that look of appreciation reminded Temari how happy she was to have someone who would always hold her in such high esteem.
---
In the days that followed, Ash was only concerned with two things: training with Pakura, and waiting for Kankuro to get out of the hospital. The first was not so difficult, as Ash found that the more time he spent with Pakura, the more he enjoyed it. While she was older than him, she knew how to have fun, and she understood how to connect with someone many years younger than her. Even in the short time he'd known her, Pakura no longer felt like a stranger to Ash. In a way, she felt like a close friend already—someone he could look forward to seeing every day.
The second task was much more agonizing, especially on the day when Kankuro was supposed to return to them. While he had faith in the medics at the hospital, Ash found that every day without his brother by his side felt very wrong. It was obvious whenever he and Temari were together that a major part of their dynamic was missing.
Whenever Ash was not training with Pakura, he was doing his best to distract himself, even on the day of Kankuro's supposed release. He'd foregone his original desire to stay at home and read Makeout Paradise, not because he didn't enjoy the book, but because his newfound desire to spend quality time with people led Ash to find some of his friends in the village.
After all, even though it was around lunchtime, everyone else was busy. Pakura had been called away by the Kazekage for something, Temari was off developing her wind style with Baki, and Sohara wasn't someone Ash could bother at any given time, given her important position. That left him with few options. Ash had taken the opportunity to search for Matsuri and Yukata, who were basically considered a package deal these days. They were rarely seen apart from each other, and this proved true even when Ash found them sparring with one another outside the Academy they were not yet students at.
Surprisingly, their moves held some level of form to them, meaning that they weren't just throwing random punches at each other. Ash watched in interest from the top of the Academy's sandstone rooftop, wondering all the while who'd taught them some basic taijutsu. His observation of their amateur bout went on for about two minutes, until Matsuri accidentally punched her friend in the face.
Yukata fell to the ground immediately as she cradled her nose, and Matsuri began apologizing profusely. Ash decided to reveal himself in the middle of this, to check on Yukata if nothing else.
Wrapped up in their debacle, neither girl noticed Ash until he was right next to them, leaning down to pry Yukata's hands away from her face so he could check the damage. Matsuri didn't have much strength behind her punches yet, and it seemed that Yukata's nose was fine, except for a little bleeding. Ash took care of that quickly enough, though having him gently wipe her face made the dark-haired girl blush.
"T-thank you, Ash..."
Rising to his feet, Ash sighed amicably. "Seriously, who in their right mind taught such irresponsible girls how to fight?"
Feeling better already, Yukata took Matsuri's proffered hand as she rose to her feet as well. "We ran into Shira the other day and asked him to teach us since we aren't Academy students yet. He said he'd teach us a few basic moves if we were careful!"
Ash said nothing, but cocked an eyebrow at the duo, causing them both to smile awkwardly, with Matsuri voicing their thoughts. "Yeah... guess we messed up on that part..."
"No kidding. But seriously, you two couldn't wait? You'll both be attending the Academy in just a few months."
Matsuri pouted as she folded her arms. "Who are you to talk about waiting, Ash? You're just barely a year older than us and you're a Genin! You basically skipped the Academy altogether!"
"I had special circumstances, Matsuri."
"W-well... we're special too, y'know! We're gonna get a head start on everyone else in the Academy so we can graduate early too!"
Her hurting nose forgotten already, Yukata cutely fist pumped next to her friend. "Yeah, the sooner we graduate, the sooner we can go on cool missions and stuff like you! Maybe we'll even get to go with you on a mission!"
Although Ash smiled at the duo, inwardly, he felt troubled. The mention of going on missions so soon after his close call with Raiga only reminded him that these girls were going into a very dangerous line of work, and the idea of his friends being in harm's way didn't appeal to him at all. Of course, there was no need to crush their spirits by relaying the serious and gruesome nature of shinobi life to them, so for now, Ash just went along with Matsuri and Yukata's enthusiasm. He may have been a cynic, but he wasn't an asshole. Instead, he just decided to tease the girls a bit.
"Well, even if you graduate early, by then I'll probably be a Chunin, so I don't think we'd work together that much."
Matsuri placed her hands on her hips. "C'mon, Ash, you don't really think you can reach Chunin before we graduate, do you? That's so arrogant."
"I'm just saying, with a teacher like Pakura, I might go even further than that..."
Aware that he was just messing with them, Matsuri simply crossed her arms and pouted, leaving Yukata to giggle at her childishness.
Ash was about to continue their conversation, but a sudden looming presence behind him led the young boy to turn around instead, laying eyes on Baki's stony, half-veiled countenance. Ash couldn't help but wonder if that was the natural expression the man was born with. "Hey, Cyclops, haven't seen you in a few days."
Baki's face contorted in irritation. "You almost sound grateful for that..."
Smiling cheekily, Ash folded his arms behind his head. "Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't mind you, but if I had to choose between you and Pakura..."
"Very funny, Ash. Don't think that just because you have another teacher now doesn't mean I can't make you run laps around the village."
"Well, Pakura said that such pointless exercises are a terrible waste of valuable time..."
Ash could have sworn that he saw a vein pop out of Baki's forehead, but it only made him smile. He kinda missed messing with the old geezer these past few days.
Baki didn't offer a retort. "Look, I'm only here to tell you that Kankuro was released from the hospital an hour ago. He's at the house already."
Even though his heart swelled with joy at the news, Ash managed to maintain his composure. "Really? They let him out even sooner than I expected."
"I thought the same, but I'm sure the medics know what they're doing. If you plan on returning home to check on him, though, first tell me where Pakura is. I thought she'd be supervising a dangerous midget like you."
"She got called away by the Kazekage for something today. Didn't tell me what for."
Baki nodded to himself, having apparently confirmed something. "I see. Well, I'll leave you to it for today. Don't cause any trouble, since you're without adult supervision."
"What am I, five?"
"You're only nine. Hardly any better in my book."
With that, Baki flickered away from the scene, leaving Ash to frown to himself. Nine or not, he was legally an adult around here...
Still, he wasn't going to deny that he was still just a kid, so Ash replaced his frown with a smile before turning to face Yukata and Matsuri once again. "Alright, you two, I'd love to stay and chat more, but I should really go check on Kankuro; gotta make sure Temari doesn't smother him to death."
Though they were sad to part ways with him after such a short time together, the two girls understood Ash's desire to check on his family, so they merely waved to him as the blonde leaped towards the rooftops to get home faster, Matusri speaking for both of them.
"See you later, Ash! Tell your brother that we're glad he's alright!"
Ash waved back to them as he raced across the rooftops of the Hidden Sand village, which was a peculiar sight since a lot of their buildings were spherical in design. He hadn't quite mastered the ability to effortlessly stick to surfaces with chakra yet, but he had enough balance to stay upright regardless as he headed home.
Eager to see his brother after being separated for over a week, Ash made the trip in roughly ten minutes, not even minding the sweat he'd worked up in the afternoon heat. The only thing he cared about was seeing that his family was back together again.
He immediately recognized the voices of his siblings when he stepped inside his home. For once, they weren't squabbling.
"Is it high enough? Do you need another pillow?"
"It's fine, Temari, I already told you-"
"Are you absolutely sure? It doesn't look very comfortable."
Ash stepped into the living room to see Kankuro lying flat on the couch, his head supported by two pillows. Temari loomed over him, concern etched on her face.
"Seriously, Temari, I just finished lying around in a hospital bed for a week, the last thing I want is to do it here too. Let me get up and do something."
"Absolutely not! Who knows what could happen if you tripped or something?"
Kankuro, devoid of his usual hood or his face paint, sighed. "Only my neck is messed up, Temari, not anything else. I'm not going to trip..."
It looked like Temari was going to counter him again when Ash finally made his presence known. "C'mon, Kankuro, you should appreciate this unusual level of concern from Sis of all people."
Both siblings turned to face their third member, eliciting a smile from Kankuro and a frown from Temari, who placed her hands on her hips. "Now hold on, just what the heck is that supposed to mean? I'm a very kind and caring person!"
Ash cocked an eyebrow at her. "With Kankuro, though?"
Temari folded her arms in denial. "When it really matters, I am..."
Kankuro would have shaken his head if the neck brace he was wearing didn't make it so difficult. "Now that's a load..."
"Oh please, I was just worried that your neck wouldn't be able to support your fat head in this state!"
"Ah, there it is. Now you sound more like you."
Temari glowered at the boy below her. "You unappreciative twerp... why do I even bother being nice to you?"
Said twerp smirked at her. "But big sis, I'm hurt so bad. I need someone to take care of me..."
Though Temari's glare intensified, her resistance crumbled significantly. She considered Ash to be the better fit for adorable baby brother, but Kankuro was her little brother too, and Temari's natural sisterly instincts wouldn't let her ignore the fact that Kankuro was still recovering from a serious injury. Defeated but unwilling to admit it, Temari scowled as she stalked towards the kitchen.
"Fine, whatever! What do you want for lunch!?"
"Whatever we got is fine."
Temari said nothing in return, prompting Kankuro to call out to her sarcastically. "Thank you, big sis!"
"Shut up, that sounds weird coming from you!"
The young puppeteer snickered to himself as Ash moved closer to the couch he was resting on. "Man, Temari is so cold-hearted."
Ash smirked as he came to stand over his brother. "Something about you just makes girls meaner than usual, Kankuro."
"Very funny. C'mon, I at least expect you to hold back on the jokes at my expense."
"Why? You seem well enough to me, if you can still irritate Temari as much as you usually do."
Kankuro rolled his eyes but managed to smile regardless, leading Ash to move the conversation to less minor topics.
"So, what's the deal with the neck brace? How long do you have to wear it?"
Mention of the medical contraption around his neck caused Kankuro to grimace. "A month, at least. A little less if I come to the hospital for regular care."
"The hospital wasn't able to fix it completely? I'm surprised they had to resort to a device like this."
"Apparently, it's more of a precaution than anything else. Technically, they did fix my neck completely, but it's a little weak still, so they wanted to give me some support for a while."
Ash crossed his arms behind his head, torn between feeling bad for his brother or being amused by his bad luck. "Well, I'm sure it's for the best, even if it sucks. Maybe you should come train with Pakura, too; she'll make sure you can dodge the hit next time."
Kankuro eyed the several healing minor injuries that covered his little brother's body. "That what happened to you?"
"Yep. Trust me, I think I'll be paranoid before it's all over. I'm expecting Pakura to jump out of nowhere, yelling at me to dodge before she punches me in the back of the head or something."
"Sounds rough, bro."
"I get the feeling you aren't very sympathetic."
Kankuro said nothing, merely pointing at his neck brace. Ash conceded the point immediately. "Fair enough."
Before either boy could continue their conversation, they were interrupted by a sudden knock at the door. Temari made it halfway out of the kitchen before Ash stopped her. "I'll get it, don't worry about it."
With an appreciative nod, Temari returned to the kitchen to finish making Kankuro's meal, and Ash moved towards the door to their residence. Most kids his age would be a little more careful about opening the door to a potential stranger, but after dealing with Raiga, mundane things like that didn't seem very concerning.
Still, he was surprised when he opened the door. After all, being nine years old, it was strange for whoever was knocking to be shorter than him. Looking down, Ash made eye contact with the somewhat disconcerting gaze of Yome. Ash resisted the urge to glance away from the brunette as her pupils dilated rather strangely. He knew it wasn't Yome's fault that her eyes did that.
"Yome, what are you doing here? But-"
Yome cut Ash off without warning. "There's no time for that, I need your help!"
Ash cocked an eyebrow at her, surprised by the unusual bluntness. "With what?"
"It's terrible! A bunch of kids are picking on Shira, they're probably going to beat him up!"
An image of Shira beating up a boulder for training flashed through Ash's mind. He'd seen the boy wearing his fists out on the outskirts of the village several times. "Yome, I don't think there's anything to worry about. Shira can probably beat up most of the kids in the village, even if he's outnumbered..."
"No, it's not like that! It's not just a bunch of kids; some of them are ninja! Uh, Genin who graduated this past year!"
For some reason, Ash felt as though he knew exactly who would be involved in this, and he sighed. "Alright, take me to him. The kid messing with him will probably bother me instead..."
Ash called back to his siblings so they knew he'd be leaving. "Hey guys, I'll be back in a little bit, alright?"
With no reason to think he was heading off to a brawl, Temari called back to him calmly. "Alright, but I'll probably be done with lunch in about thirty minutes, so keep that in mind if you wanna eat here, alright?"
"Alright. I'll be back by then."
Shutting the door behind him, Ash motioned for Yome to lead him towards whatever trouble Shira had landed himself in. Since the girl herself was not yet a ninja, her speed was a little slow, but the scene she'd summoned Ash to intervene in was not too terribly far from his home. In the end, the whole ordeal was taking place in a small, empty lot down an alley where kids usually played ball sports.
The moment he laid eyes on the scene, Ash wasn't surprised to see that Shira's harassers were exactly who he'd thought they would be. He couldn't help but sigh as he saw Shinji, the boy who constantly had some sort of problem with Ash and apparently everyone else. Several other kids were with him, though only a few were actually other Genin from that year's graduating class. Ash also spotted Shinji's teammates, the wind style girl with the brown hair and that other boy who always had his face hidden with cloth bandages. However, unlike everyone else, they were standing off to the side, looking as though they didn't want to get involved.
Shira stood across from the group of five led by Shinji, looking as though he'd already taken a few punches. Shira seemingly hadn't fought back at all, though that became extra clear to Ash when Shira opened his mouth. "Please, I don't want to fight with any of you. We're all from the same village; there's nothing to gain in doing this."
Typical of his usual asshole existence, Shinji wasted no time putting Shira down. "Don't be ridiculous. We aren't equals: you're a weirdo who doesn't look like anyone else around, and you keep training out here like you're actually going to get into the Academy someday. It's pathetic."
Yome looked like she was about to blow a lid, but Ash stepped into the field before the girl could explode in a fit of anger. "Shinji, seriously? Don't you have anything better to do? I mean, you already bully people for stupid crap, but then you have to go after kids younger than you, and with all of your flunkies? I think we all know what's really pathetic here."
Shinji's dark eyes narrowed under his short-cut brown hair as he spotted someone he probably despised more than anyone else in his life. "You... you always talk a big game for such a freakish brat. You're one to talk about ego, being so full of yourself when you're just a kid!"
Ash refrained from pointing out that Shinji was no more than a kid as well. He didn't feel like starting a fight with the boy. "Look, Shira's right when he says that we shouldn't be fighting. We're all on the same team here."
"Not from where I'm standing! I'm sick of you and your team showing up the rest of us! You get to become Genin without going through any of the same crap as we did! And then you somehow get to go on some special high-ranking mission just a few months after that?! You chumps wouldn't get all of this special treatment if you weren't the Kazekage's brats!"
Assuming that Shinji was referring to the mission to save Pakura, Ash was kind of surprised that he knew about it. It wasn't like the rescue team had returned in utmost secrecy; they'd carried their wounded and themselves through the front gate. Anyone could have observed their return, and anyone with half a brain could deduce that they'd all returned from a dangerous mission. Shinji probably had no idea what that mission had entailed.
"It's not like I chose to go on that mission, Shinji. The Kazekage told us to go, and we did. Believe me, if I could have said no, I would have."
"Tch. So even when you get a golden opportunity to boost your career, you don't even want it. That just pisses me off even more! Besides, you and your bush league team came back in shambles, so it just proves my point that your opportunities should be going to real ninja like us!"
Ash refrained from laughing in Shinji's face—coming across as a total asshole wouldn't help the situation before him. Even so, he couldn't restrain all the snark.
"So called 'real ninja' of your skill would have been far worse off than my team. And that's being generous."
Shinji's face contorted into a scowl. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"
The epitome of nonchalance, Ash laid down the facts as bluntly as he could. He wasn't trying to put Shinji down. It was really just an objective observation. "Your team would've died out there. My team only lived because we got really lucky. And even then, we almost didn't."
"We aren't your pathetic excuse for a team! That wouldn't have happened to us!"
"Shinji, I'm going to tell it to you straight. Your team is weaker than mine. It's just a fact. And it's not because we're better people than you, we've just had better training, and there's nothing anyone could've done about that. You got regular Academy training, and my team got special teaching from a Jonin. That's obviously going to make a difference. Don't be mad at everyone else because of something no one could control."
If Ash's logic had any positive effect on Shinji, it didn't show. He only looked more irritated than before. "You really think you're some wise man, don't you? Stop talking down to me, you bastard!"
Ash sighed and rolled his eyes. Reason was clearly out of the question. "Alright then, let's get this over with. Come on, it's hot out here, and I promised my sister I'd be back home in time for lunch."
"What the hell are you talking about now?"
Ash jabbed a finger at Shinji. "You won't be satisfied until you fight and beat me, right? Come on then, let's just do it. Like I said, I need to get home pretty soon. I don't want to miss out on lunch."
Shira tried to step in, now that Ash was clearly saying something he didn't agree with. "Hold on now, like you said earlier, we're all on the same team here, there's no need to fight."
"This guy clearly isn't on our team, Shira. If anything, Shinji is hurting the team by turning people against each other. I tried talking, that didn't work, and now we're going to fight. Some people are just too stupid to understand reason."
Shinji cracked his knuckles as he signaled for the other kids around him to get ready to attack, prompting Ash to continue. "Speaking of which, you need to help the team right now too, Shira. I'm outnumbered here and need your help."
With a sigh of resignation, Shira walked over to Ash's side. It felt a little weird to interact with a kid younger than him in such a way, but he had to admit that Ash was an easy person to get behind. "Alright, but at least promise me you won't hurt them too badly."
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt a bunch of kids from my own village. I would say this is pointless, but this fight is to prove a point more than anything else."
Since they were making no effort to lower their voices, Shinji could hear everything the duo said. "Oh yeah? And what point is that?"
"That you're not the strongest person around, and you have to accept it. There are and will always be shinobi stronger than you, and jealousy will never help you beat them. I hope you learn that today."
To many, Ash was considered an infuriating individual. It wasn't really because the boy tried to be, but because he relayed the truth so nonchalantly that it just pissed people off. Especially insecure people like Shinji. "The only thing I'm going to learn here is how great it feels to pulverize you! C'mon, guys, let's get 'em!"
The mixed group of Genin and civilian kids charged at Ash and Shira at their ringleader's behest, the latter pushing Yome off to the side so she wouldn't get hurt. Ash furrowed his brow as the brawl was about to begin: it was way too hot outside for this sort of thing.
The moment the two groups actually came into contact with one another, Ash felt kind of bad for inciting the fight. It was obvious from the start that he and Shira were going to cream their opponents with ease. Shira may have possessed no talent in ninjutsu or genjutsu, but even outside of the Academy, he'd honed his taijutsu skills well. He alone could probably take on most of his foes if he had the heart to hurt them. Ash, on the other hand, while not some sort of taijutsu prodigy himself, had been training with Pakura almost exclusively in hand-to-hand combat for the past few days. Even that short time frame was enough for him to improve significantly, and Ash knew he could probably take on all of these kids as well.
The fact that most of the attacks that came Ash's way were wild and clumsy didn't help their position either. The civilian kids who'd never even been to the Academy swung haphazardly at him, and Ash found their efforts so pitiful that he didn't even have it in him to retaliate. Whenever one of those kids came his way, Ash dodged whatever blatantly obvious attack they threw at him before gently shoving them away. Hopefully, they would get the message soon enough.
As for the kids who happened to be Genin, Ash had no problem with causing some damage. After all, if a ninja picked a fight with another ninja, they had to be prepared to get hurt. Still, he kept his counter-attacks to things that wouldn't cause any serious damage. Exposed stomachs received blows to the diaphragm, kids who weren't watching their footing were swept off their feet, and anyone who had their limb caught mid-attack soon found themselves being flipped onto the dirt. All in all, the whole thing was nothing more than a debacle. Even Shinji's teammates, who were still off to the side, looked embarrassed to even watch.
Shira handled the fighting in the exact same way Ash did with the civilians, but he refused to fight back against the Genin at all. Ash was a little disappointed about this, as he was curious to see exactly what level of skill Shira possessed.
Shinji was growing even more irritable than usual as he noticed that neither Ash nor Shira had been touched after nearly a full minute of fighting. He wasn't one for self-control, especially when it came to being shown up by someone he hated, so Ash was not truly surprised when Shinji drew a kunai from the pouch at his thigh. But even though Ash managed to maintain control of himself, his attitude towards the fight shifted immediately. This was taking things too far.
"Shinji, I'm warning you: if you use that, I'm seriously gonna hurt you."
Shinji would never admit that Ash's deathly serious glare and tone intimidated him. He couldn't possibly admit to himself that a kid younger than ten could frighten him. But even subconsciously, the recently christened Genin second-guessed himself. Shinji had a gut feeling he couldn't entirely ignore: he genuinely felt fearful of someone he knew, deep down, really was better than him.
But that instinctual feeling wasn't enough to overcome Shinji's rage. He hated being talked down to. He hated Ash's confidence. He hated that he was older than this blonde boy but couldn't touch him. He hated feeling so weak and pathetic.
Shinji's brunette teammate could see Shinji's unhinged anger brewing from the sidelines, and she knew he was going to do something risky. "Shinji, don't be reckless-!"
"Shut the hell up, Chizuru! I'm sick of this brat looking down on me! I'm not going to be mocked by some poser who only gets anywhere because he gets special treatment!"
Shutting out the reasonable voice of his teammate, Shinji rushed Ash, kunai poised to strike the blonde. In his anger, the repercussions for hurting or even killing not only another Sand shinobi, but someone who was technically the Kazekage's ward, did not occur to Shinji. He just wanted to prove that he was better than this kid, at any cost. He just wanted to feel strong.
But his anger also kept Shinji from thinking about his tactics. The young ninja didn't think of anything other than making contact, so his swings were wild and unplanned. Ash ducked and dodged each of them, but Shinji's lack of finesse was causing him to hurt the others in the moshpit as the edge of his kunai caught arms or torsos, thankfully not deep enough to truly wound anyone. At that point, even Shira would have forcefully put a stop to things, but Ash moved to do it first.
Shinji traded his swipes and slashes for a straight jab at Ash, who sidestepped the attack with ease. The blonde wrapped his arm around Shinji's own, catching the boy in his grip so he could not escape. Shinji was too surprised at being caught to really do anything, and he was unable to react as Ash punched down on his outstretched arm with all of his might.
Shinji cried out in agony as he tried to extricate his arm from Ash's grip. The subdued cracking sound that accompanied the blow signaled to everyone that Shinji's arm had suffered a hairline fracture at the very least. Ash didn't have immense strength as a nine-year old, but he was a trained Genin who knew how to augment his strength with chakra. That meant his strength was still greater than any normal kid his age.
Honestly, this blow to Shinji's arm was probably more than enough to put him out of the fight, and maybe even scatter his flunkies to the wind. Ash really didn't have to thrash him further. But frankly, he wanted to. This wasn't the first time Shinji had given him or his family shit. He was a shitty punk who would go so far as to draw a weapon on someone just to try and salvage his ego in something as petty as a scuffle between children.
He deserved to be beaten. And Ash was enraged by the audacity of this bastard. Who better to crush Shinji's delusions than him?
With Shinji's arm still caught, Ash let loose a flurry of punches into the boy's exposed stomach, causing him to double over just a little more after each blow. When Shinji's face was at Ash's waist, the blonde grabbed him by the head, before pulling Shinji down into a knee strike.
Caught in the face, everyone in the field cringed as Shinji's nose emitted a ghastly crunching sound. The boy himself reeled backwards as blood spurted from his nose, gracelessly falling to the sandy ground as he lost his footing. Seeing this, many of Shinji's supporters quickly retreated away from Ash, though they stayed in the area out of sick fascination.
Shira lowered his fists as he saw that the fight was as good as over, but he quickly realized that Ash wasn't doing the same. In fact, the diminutive blonde walked over to Shinji's prone body, before lifting the boy by the collar and punching him in the face again. Ash repeated this process a second time before deciding that he could pound on Shinji's face more easily if he got on his knees. Soon enough, everyone in the field was watching with horror as Ash practically beat Shinji's face into the ground in a fit of blind fury.
Appalled by the notion of harming someone after they'd been beaten, Shira stepped in to restrain the new aggressor. Fortunately, he was stronger than Ash, being a bit older and more muscled, so he managed to restrain the boy's arms easily enough. However, the aggravated blonde was not about to be held back so easily. He didn't even speak to Shira as he engulfed his hands in an array of blue fire. With his arms held behind him, the raging flames were close enough to Shira to force him to back off.
Ash only spared Shira a venomous glare before he returned to his previous task, but thankfully, someone else stepped in on Shinji's behalf before Ash could unleash a new string of vicious blows on his victim.
"Ash, that's enough! Stop this immediately!"
The familiar sound of a mature woman's voice stopped Ash in his tracks. His fists still poised to strike the unconscious and bloody-faced boy below him, he turned his head to see Pakura standing at the entrance to the empty lot, looking on the scene before her with a somber countenance.
Knowing full well that she would restrain him if he chose to ignore her command, Ash simply glared down at Shinji one last time before getting to his feet and allowing his blue flames to dissipate.
Seeing that Ash wasn't going to push this any further, Pakura pointed a finger out of the sandy lot. "Everyone else, get out of here. Whoever that kid's teammates are, take him to the hospital, now."
The hard edge in Pakura's voice left no room for dissent. Everyone involved in the scuffle scattered; even Shira and Yome left the scene quickly. As for Shinji, Chizuru and his other teammate lifted his unconscious body before racing away as fast as they could. Shinji was often insufferable, but he was still their teammate, and they weren't going to waste any time getting him to the hospital. In moments, the only people left in the sandy courtyard were Ash and Pakura, the latter pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.
Ash said nothing to her, since he knew that the Jonin was likely conjuring up some sort of lecture. His guess was spot on, as soon enough Pakura exploded in indignation. "Ash, what the hell happened here?! Do you have any idea what kind of scene I just walked in on?!"
The youngest member of the Kazekage's children looked down at the sand at his feet, noting with malicious satisfaction that a lot of it was soaked in blood. "You tell me."
Pakura's voice quickly shifted from anger to concern. She'd come to investigate the sounds of a scuffle while on her way back from the Kazekage's office, only to find her new protege mercilessly beating another child. And even though Ash was just a kid, the look she'd seen in his eyes was not an emotion to be trifled with.
"Alright, I'll tell you what I saw. I saw a nine-year-old kid ready and willing to kill another child from his own village. In fact, he was probably already in the middle of doing it. I mean, look at you! You're covered in blood that belongs almost entirely to someone else! Just look at your hands! It's even in your hair! A child like you... Ash, were you seriously going to kill him?"
Unsure of the answer to that question himself, Ash glanced down at his bloodied hands. They were slick with blood from Shinji's face, and although the sight of it sickened him somewhat, even then, he couldn't say he was mortified. Shinji had gotten exactly what he had deserved. "He and I are both ninja and legal adults. If he wants to try to kill me, he should be ready for me to kill him. You said on our first day together that the ninja world works like that."
"That's not what I meant, and you know it! I was talking about fighting with enemies in the field, or foes you encounter that are truly out to kill you! This situation is nothing like that!"
Ash folded his arms, not caring at this point if he got any more blood on his clothes. "He tried to stab me with a kunai. Whether or not he really wanted to kill me, he could have. Shinji threatened my life, and I stopped him. That's all."
In a way, Pakura understood what Ash was saying. But he was taking the idea to such a radical level...
"I understand self-defense, but you know damn good and well that you weren't defending yourself at the end. He was defenseless, Ash, you were the assailant in that situation. Whether Shinji did something stupid or not, he's a fellow shinobi of the Hidden Sand. You can hate his guts, but you're on the same team! Honestly, what would your sister think of all this? What would she think if she heard the things you're saying right now?"
At the mention of his sister, Ash's anger briefly flared even higher. Where did Pakura get the gall to use something like that against him? How dare she even condemn him at all? His anger had been entirely justified, and it would have remained so even if he had killed Shinji. After all, what if Shinji had gotten lucky with that kunai? Was Ash supposed to risk his own life to avoid hurting someone who had initiated a potentially fatal fight in the first place?
And yet, imagining Temari's reaction to this scene did drown out most of the blonde's fury with guilt. He couldn't even imagine showing such vicious brutality in her presence. He didn't even want to imagine what she would think of him after seeing such malice from her baby brother.
Pakura's expression softened as she saw that Ash's own was filled with sudden remorse. She knew he wasn't a bad kid; of course he wasn't... he just had some anger management issues that clearly needed to be worked on. "Alright, Ash, let's forget about it for now. We can talk more later, and we'll work through it together. Right now, I think you should come bathe at my place before going back home. Your brother and sister are going to ask a lot of questions if you go home covered in blood."
Not feeling confident in his now troubled voice, Ash simply nodded, deciding that he would thank Pakura for her generosity later. Right now, he could only dwell on the terrifying question Pakura had asked him. Would he have really killed Shinji? If he were completely honest with himself, Ash had to admit that he probably would have... and that acknowledgment came with a great deal of internal concern.