endless_scrolls (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
endless_scrolls) wrote2010-08-05 03:50 pm
endless_scrolls) wrote2010-08-05 03:50 pm
Substitution Technique
Title: Substitution Technique
Type: Drabble
Fandom: Naruto
Theme: 043. Mission [ Wordcount: 542 ]
Character(s): Sarutobi Hiruzen, OC: Sarutobi Mei; brief mentions of Sarutobi Asuma, OC: Sarutobi Katsuro
Pairing(s): None.
Warning(s): Creative license of events and making use of unknown information in the Naruto timeline; OCs to fill in the gap that is Tenten's history
Disclaimer: I own nothing but these words.
Note: Short drabble meant to be part of a series started when my internet was out. Ironic, huh~? ;D Theme borrowed from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ficlets100.
Dedicated to: The Sarutobi. Because there isn't enough love for them~ ♥
Without a single word, he took the head covering from her smaller hands and put it into place. All the while, the young girl watched in pensive frustration as her father prepared to set out on another mission once more.
It was not the first time he had left on a dangerous assignment, and so, as the eldest of his children, the feeling was a familiar one at least. But where there had been a comforting hand and a warm embrace to get her through the torment of wondering whether he would come back in one piece -- whether he would come back at all -- there was nothing but the icy cold realization that no one would be there to calm her nerves now. Not when her mother laid frozen and buried for what would be the fourth week since her death. And Mei was no longer the hopeful and eager Academy student she had once been.
"This isn't fair!" She held the responsibility and obligation of a Genin, now. "I can fight, too!"
"No," her father's gruff voice sounded, the shadow of his body turning towards the open window, "I need you to stay here and protect your brothers."
Here, she reached out her hand to him in a frantic manner, hoping beyond hope that it would be enough to hold him back just a moment longer to hear her argument. "But dad!"
"Mei." And any sort of further protest the girl might have had died in her throat right then and there.
It was not often that Sarutobi Hiruzen could find it within himself to yell at his children, least of all Mei, his eldest and only beloved daughter. But war was on the horizon as it tended to always be, and there was no time to waste struggling with her pride and resolve.
"Do this for me, please," the man said gently, almost pleading with the young kunoichi to follow his will, "You're all they have left of her."
She could have been stubborn and refused, Mei knew; wanted to refuse if only to fight alongside her father for the village. And in that moment of unmovable determination, the kunoichi was almost certain she could convince her father -- her leader -- to let her join the battle. But even now, Mei could feel the ties of maternal instincts and siblinghood chaining her to the young boys sleeping in the next room. And the look in her father's eyes indicated that there was a chance that no one would return from this onslaught of warfare.
If he were to die that night, she realized, Katsuro and Asuma would need her. But if she weren't there either...
Coming to this revelation, the young girl bowed her head in defeat and understanding, only daring to raise her eyes as far as his chest plate as she spoke. "...As you wish... Lord Hokage."
In a moment of tenderness between a father and his child, she felt rather than saw him lean over to place a gentle kiss against her forehead, whispering into the wind a word of departure before he left. "Take care of them," she heard him say. And then he was gone, like a ghost in the night breeze.
Type: Drabble
Fandom: Naruto
Theme: 043. Mission [ Wordcount: 542 ]
Character(s): Sarutobi Hiruzen, OC: Sarutobi Mei; brief mentions of Sarutobi Asuma, OC: Sarutobi Katsuro
Pairing(s): None.
Warning(s): Creative license of events and making use of unknown information in the Naruto timeline; OCs to fill in the gap that is Tenten's history
Disclaimer: I own nothing but these words.
Note: Short drabble meant to be part of a series started when my internet was out. Ironic, huh~? ;D Theme borrowed from
ficlets100. Dedicated to: The Sarutobi. Because there isn't enough love for them~ ♥
Without a single word, he took the head covering from her smaller hands and put it into place. All the while, the young girl watched in pensive frustration as her father prepared to set out on another mission once more.
It was not the first time he had left on a dangerous assignment, and so, as the eldest of his children, the feeling was a familiar one at least. But where there had been a comforting hand and a warm embrace to get her through the torment of wondering whether he would come back in one piece -- whether he would come back at all -- there was nothing but the icy cold realization that no one would be there to calm her nerves now. Not when her mother laid frozen and buried for what would be the fourth week since her death. And Mei was no longer the hopeful and eager Academy student she had once been.
"This isn't fair!" She held the responsibility and obligation of a Genin, now. "I can fight, too!"
"No," her father's gruff voice sounded, the shadow of his body turning towards the open window, "I need you to stay here and protect your brothers."
Here, she reached out her hand to him in a frantic manner, hoping beyond hope that it would be enough to hold him back just a moment longer to hear her argument. "But dad!"
"Mei." And any sort of further protest the girl might have had died in her throat right then and there.
It was not often that Sarutobi Hiruzen could find it within himself to yell at his children, least of all Mei, his eldest and only beloved daughter. But war was on the horizon as it tended to always be, and there was no time to waste struggling with her pride and resolve.
"Do this for me, please," the man said gently, almost pleading with the young kunoichi to follow his will, "You're all they have left of her."
She could have been stubborn and refused, Mei knew; wanted to refuse if only to fight alongside her father for the village. And in that moment of unmovable determination, the kunoichi was almost certain she could convince her father -- her leader -- to let her join the battle. But even now, Mei could feel the ties of maternal instincts and siblinghood chaining her to the young boys sleeping in the next room. And the look in her father's eyes indicated that there was a chance that no one would return from this onslaught of warfare.
If he were to die that night, she realized, Katsuro and Asuma would need her. But if she weren't there either...
Coming to this revelation, the young girl bowed her head in defeat and understanding, only daring to raise her eyes as far as his chest plate as she spoke. "...As you wish... Lord Hokage."
In a moment of tenderness between a father and his child, she felt rather than saw him lean over to place a gentle kiss against her forehead, whispering into the wind a word of departure before he left. "Take care of them," she heard him say. And then he was gone, like a ghost in the night breeze.