"My parents asked me to invite you to dinner tomorrow evening." Misa said conversationally as we approached the gate leading into the Hyuga Compound. I was dropping off Misa after our studies.
My parents weren't home again, giving us the whole house to study. We'd stayed at the kitchen table, but we could have gone anywhere in the house if we wanted to. And no you dirty minds, we did not go to bedroom and turn off your dirty minds, we are kids!
I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at her. "Is this an invitation that it is impolite to accept or impolite to decline?" I asked.
Despite the large amount of time, I'd been spending at the Hyuga compound in recent months, I still wasn't the best at reading the Hyugas or understanding their intentions.
But I'd found Misa to be fairly straightforward. If you asked her plainly what she wanted or what she meant, she would tell you.
"It would be impolite to decline. They have already purchased additional food to prepare for you." Misa said without a hint of offense. She knew I wasn't the best when it came to politicking and socializing.
"Then please tell your parents I would be grateful to attend dinner with them."
"Good. We will eat after we train."
"Um…" I started to say.
"We will focus on thrown weapons so you are presentable." Misa said with a small smile, having understood I didn't want to sit at her parent's table covered in dirt and bruises.
"Great. I'm looking forward to it."
"As am I. Thank you for your help tonight, Kagen." Misa said with a bow before she turned and entered the Hyuga Compound.
Her attitude at the age of 7-8 years makes me think what went wrong with the girls in Naruto's generation. Misa seemed mostly mature and was focused on training. Most of the girls in Naruto's class were focused more on Sasuke than on becoming shinobi.
The only respectable girl might be Hinata but she was too much of a softy to be a shinobi.
With that thought in mind, I decided to bid farewell to the Hyuga compound. Normally, I would now head to the library or to a prearranged destination to study or train with Aiko, but she'd told me earlier today that she was busy tonight. I could go straight home, but I had somewhere else in mind.
I walked into Konoha proper and scanned the creaking wooden signs hung over the various stores and stalls. Each was etched with vibrant paint to attract the eyes of potential customers.
I was looking for one sign in particular. After a short while searching, I found a comparatively large shop with a large, rectangular sign hanging over the door. Stylized white and pink letters read, 'Yamanaka Flowers'. There was a smaller sign in the front window that read, 'Open'.
I pushed open the door and walked inside. White-petaled flowers with long green stems, lush red buds with thorns, a strange orange leaf with black coloring reminiscent of an eye – there were flowers and plants of all kinds in the shop, set on shelves and hanging from pots hooked into the ceiling.
"Welcome!" a tall lithe woman with acorn hair greeted with a bright smile on her face. "Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers, young man. Are your parents with you?"
"Um, no actually. They're both on a mission. I'm currently a student at the Academy and wanted to start a small garden with flowers I could use when I graduate. I'm getting pretty good with senbon and kunai, so I was looking for different kinds of poisons to coat them in. I was hoping you could either provide me with some flowers that would work how I wanted or direct me to somewhere else that could help me." I explained.
Since beginning my training with Misa, I had improved substantially with thrown weapons. In addition, I'd been working with Aiko on my chakra control whenever I had the chance.
While my focus was mainly tree walking and water walking, I'd also been working with chakra strings. I now had enough control that I could create a string from each of my fingers and simultaneously make each string invisible.
Over the past couple of weeks, I'd been experimenting with using my strings to throw senbon and kunai and had made a surprising amount of progress.
Initially, I'd more tried it just to see if it was possible than out of a desire to actually use chakra strings like this, but as time passed, I realized it was viable.
I could throw five times as many projectiles at once with chakra strings than with my hands. At the moment, I wasn't able to hit the target regularly, but that would change with practice. If each of those projectiles was coated in poison, I would be that much more deadly.
Who knows? I may even be able to control a chakra string independent of the Shadow Imitation Technique and use it to strike people I had caught in my shadow without moving myself.
One of the main downsides to the Shadow Imitation technique was you had to move every way you wanted your captured target to move.
I could move the chakra strings just by manipulating my chakra, so I might be able to synergize them with my shadows. I would need to wait until I could actually use the Shadow Imitation Technique to test that though.
The woman behind the counter pursed her lips as she stared down at me. "We carry a number of flowers that would serve your purposes, but I will not sell them to a child without his guardian present. I also think you'd have better luck at a dedicated poison shop. The majority of our flowers serve more…mundane purposes."
"I poked my head in a few poison stores, but they only sell the poison itself, not the means to make it yourself. I'd rather grow my own poisons. I can come back with my parents later to buy them, but I'm mainly looking for three things." I held up three fingers, one after the other.
"A poison that will kill rapidly. A paralytic that will keep the target alive but immobile. And a hallucinogenic that will mess with the target's senses." I wanted a lethal poison for obvious reasons. I wanted to be able to kill an opponent with a simple cut.
I wanted the paralytic in case I needed to keep a target alive and was too hard pressed to use the Shadow Imitation Technique. The hallucinogenic was mostly for interrogation purposes, but it would also help in a fight or to keep a target alive.
The woman fixed me with a scrutinizing gaze, not saying anything for a moment. "I will see what I can do. Please return with your parents after one week."
I scratched the back of my head and looked away from her eyes, sheepish. "I don't know when they'll be back. It might be more than a week."
The woman's expressions softened. "Just come back any time after a week with your parents. There's no rush, sweetie."
I smiled up at her. "Thank you for your help."
"You're welcome, young man. I look forward to seeing you again."
I smiled at her and left.
I stuck my hands in my pockets as I began walking home. That visit wasn't a total bust, but I would be lying if I said I didn't wish it had gone better. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand her not wanting to sell poison to a little kid. I didn't resent her for that. I resented the fact I was a child in the first place. Being a kid sucked.
I took a deep breath to banish my frustration. I would legally be an adult when I became a genin. I just needed to wait a few years until graduation, then all these little inconveniences would be behind me.
---------Author Notes--------
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