How To Tease Your Genin - Side Story

Kenji did have a much easier time of it since he had already been trained in the ability, but because of that Megumi just had him run sprints up and down a tree for most of the day while Kensai worked on getting his form down. By the end of things, Kenji had sprawled out on his back, his chest heaving as he struggled to take in enough air to sustain himself. He only half paid attention as Kensai run up the tree for the final time before crashing down to join his teammate.

"Nice of you to join me," Kenji said, with a weak thumbs up. he didn't even bother looking up, still staring up at the sky.

"Alright, well I think that was pretty good for our first day." Megumi stood over the two and held her hands out so they could help themselves up to their feet. Kenji followed suit and yanked himself upright before finally wobbling to his feet under his own power. "So, to celebrate our first official successful training session, let's grab some dinner on me, and then relax the rest of the day away in the hot springs. Sound good?"

"Thank you for having me." Was the parroted-polite response of an exhausted Kensai who was sweaty and dirty and ached all over. So when the idea of food and a hot spring left Hirohata-sensei's lips Kensai gave a mirrored weak thumbs up to Kenji, "Yeah, that sounds wonderful."

Kensai would push himself to his feet a little more slowly than Kenji, it hurt to stand, all the chakra he'd pushed through his feet made them incredibly sore and achy, the other parts of his body that ached where his shoulders from catching himself so much when he fell. He would follow the two at a much slower pace, the mind was willing but the body was pushed to its breaking point already he wanted to rest, though he wasn't tired his body wanted to lay there. He wanted to learn much more. There would be tomorrow for learning more.

Megumi took the boys to her favorite noodle stand for dinner. It wasn't fancy, but it was tasty, not to mention affordable. Until she could start taking on some higher level missions, her income wasn't exactly fantastic right now. Sure, Kenji's genin income helped, but not quite enough to get them out of their current apartment. Mission bonuses would help though, now that they had an almost full team capable of taking on plenty of jobs.

After dinner, they arrived at the local hot springs, the perfect place to relax their sore muscles and stress away. A billowing cloud of steam vented out through pipes on the roof of the building, giving way to its very own cloud as the condensation rose into the sky.

"And here we are," Megumi said, leading the two inside. "Don't worry about your entry fee, I got it covered. We do have some choices though. There's the gender separated sections, the mixed bathing area, and then a handful of private springs we could grab. Any preferences?"

"Uhhh..." Kenji glanced over to Kensai. If it were just him and Megumi, they'd probably take a private spring, just because...well it was them. But they had someone else with them now. "What do you think?"

Kensai already felt indebted to Megumi for taking him on as a student. And for training him, now she was feeding and practically bathing him. It was like she'd practically adopted him! "Thank you." Kensai remarked about her covering his charge like she'd covered dinner. "Please don't let me impose on your choice." The young man politely declined the opportunity to choose, though he got the feeling he knew exactly what Towel-sensei would pick right as the words left his mouth. Well it was done now there was no regretting it now, just learning.

Today had been a day for learning, but this moment was for relaxing, and maybe a little reflecting.

"Uh, okay then," Kenji said, with a subtle nod. He supposed if Kensai didn't care... "The same as always, I guess."

"Private spring it is then!" Megumi announced, as she made her way to the front counter to reserve one of the private areas for the three of them. The man behind the counter gave their group an odd look, but accepted her cash just the same. It was a little pricier for private springs, but the privacy was worth it.

Megumi led them down the hallway into the dressing room of their selected area and closed the door behind them. "Nothing like melting away in some hot water after a hard day's draining. Let's not waste any time." In the blink of an eye she stripped out of her clothes and tossed them into one of the lockers, then grabbed a towel off the rack and made her way towards the door that led into the spring itself.

"Uh, right, coming," Kenji said, as she started to kick off his shoes and hop out of his pants.

He would follow wordlessly into the locker room, but unlike Megumi and Kenji, Kensai took his time folding his obviously dirty clothing, he would lay his sash and scarf ceremoniously on them and place his ratty shoes neatly beside the neatly folded pile. He had very little money to spend on new clothing, though he'd already set aside money for new shoes, it was the rest of his clothing that was important.

Having disrobed almost ritualistically Kensai wrapped a towel around his waist and quickly moved to the hot spring. He would drop the towel and step almost gingerly into the spring with his leg nearly giving out when he put all of his weight on it to step down. Like his clothing he would fold the towel, but not make too much of a spectacle out of it, he would only fold it twice and leave it at the edge.

The warm water felt so good. He could feel the tension in his muscles melt. A long relaxed sigh-moan escaped his lips as he felt the warm water relax his weary body. "Wow, this is really nice." He admitted out loud though it was mostly to himself. "Thank you, Hirohata-sensei."

"Mmm...don't mention it, kid." Megumi gave a simple thumbs up as she sank against the edge of the spring, on the opposite side as the boys. She let her head fall back, propped her elbows up, and let herself melt away in the steaming hot water. "Doesn't just feel good, also helps your body recover."

Kenji made his way next to his teammate, easing his toes into the water to adjust to the temperature. As he did, his back foot slipped a little and he ended up sliding a little harder than he would have liked into the water, causing something of a splash as he landed.

Megumi flinched as the splash washed over her, soaking the half of her still exposed above the surface, namely her chest. "Hey, watch it you clutz."

All of the energy to dodge Kensai could muster was to turn his head, close his eyes and flinch just a little while still being splashed all over. However he would do his best to right his teammate before the man drowned. He'd been nearly as weak as Kenji getting into the water and only by some stroke of luck managed to not end up like him. "You okay?" Kensai asked as his partner's head came above water.

After Kenji was righted Kensai slouched into the water letting the warmth take him up to his chin, letting the back of his head rest on the ledge, his eyes drooped to nearly closed as they locked onto Megumi again, though there was much less of a reaction this time around. His teacher was however pleasant to look at. "I've never trained this hard before." He admitted, "I really look forward to working with you guys if this is what team training is going to be like." He hoped that this was a sign of things to come, not just a special occasion.

"Super," Kenji uttered, as he slowly drifted above the surface again. He coughed out a mouthful of water before wading his way over to his own spot in the spring and settling down with a pleasant sigh. He gave one quick look over to Kensai, and then brought his gaze to rest on his sister again.

"Don't mention it," Megumi stated, with a thumbs up. "Stick with us, and we'll do wonders, I guarantee it." She relaxed against the edge again and looked between both boys for a moment, noting that they were both quite transfixed on her. She couldn't help but grin and chuckle to herself. "Oh you kids are adorable, I swear."

There Towel-sensei went again, calling him adorable. It was a warm feeling now that he'd been exhausted and was relaxing, the little blush that formed could easily be dismissed that he was warming right up in the hot springs. Though he didn't dislike the praise and could get used to receiving it from time to time.

"I don't mean to pry." Kensai started off again, "But you're a Jounin and a Genin living together, but you guys don't have a bigger place?" Their place was only a few square feet bigger than his studio, and he was doing that on a Genin salary and Courier pay.

"Well yeah, do you have any idea how expensive bigger apartments are?" Megumi said. "I only really just started getting a steady pay as a jounin, and I haven't had a chance to go on any higher level missions yet, so really that's still all we can afford. I mean sure we're saving up, so maybe now that we have a team and might be getting regular mission pay, we could get a nicer place eventually. But we're alright for now, aren't you?" Megumi gave her brother a wink. "After all, if we had a bigger place we might have to get separate beds, and at least one of us would hate that."

Kenji grumbled quietly to himself, as he sank his head into the water.

His partner literally sank. Kensai, had been dying to move up into a better apartment and had priced the whole thing out, until he was a Chunnin on regular missions he couldn't afford the three bedroom that he'd wanted. He hadn't given any thought to Megumi getting regular pay. Then again he'd heard that some Jounin from other villages that defected to Hone were knocked down to Chunnin and some Chunnin that had come from other villages had been promoted to Jounin. Most had to be vetted and it couldn't be an overnight process, and that was what Kensai had been curious about. He'd even had a few late paychecks as Hone worked so hard to steal jobs and contracts from sources outside the village. There had even been talk of cutting standing pay from Genin, though Arisawa-san and Setsuna-sama had put a stop to that talk right away. Thankfully.

"Oh." Kensai responded, he felt from her response that he may have pried a little too deeply. Though it seemed that at least Megumi was open enough to discuss it with him. "There's nothing that says your family has to sleep apart from each other, even if you have a ten room house." He would change the subject to something a little more jovial.

Megumi raised a subtle eyebrow at the kid, watching him closely before breaking out into a laugh. "You know, I suppose there isn't. He makes a good point, doesn't he, Kenji?"

The only response Kenji gave was a single thumbs up emerging from below the surface of the water.

Trying to hold down her laughter, Megumi looked Kensai and sighed. "In the future, anyway. Still all we can afford on two subpar salaries, as it were. What about you, though? Where you living?"

Smiling a little bit as he'd managed to confound their teacher with only a minor suggestion. "I guess not, huh."

When it was turned on him Kensai's smile faded. "My apartment building is right across the alley from yours, I have a studio in the basement." It was dark, dank, It was like an unfinished large unifnished bathroom with a heavy curtain truncating the bathroom from the living space. "It was the cheapest place I could find after I left the orphanage. Though my Genin pay and the pay from my courier job kept me in it fed and clothed. Though I guess now that I've quite being a courier to focus on training and being a full time team member." With that he added, "I hope we get some missions soon. Or I may not be able to stay in my place much longer." He had about an extra month worth of rent saved up, but that was it.

"The basement?" Megumi blinked in surprise at the answer. Having a studio apartment was one thing, having one in the basement sucked twice as much, she could imagine. She was sure there were some nice basement apartments out there, but nothing that someone could afford on barely more than a genin salary. "Geez, that doesn't sound very homely. Just know you're welcome at our place any time. Teammates gotta stick together, after all."

Kenji finally came up for air, puffing out a deep breath from his lungs. "Yeah, what she said. I'm pretty sure we should be getting plenty of missions now though, right?"

"Well I would think so," Megumi said. "What good is a shinobi team that doesn't complete missions for its village, right?"

Megumi was right, his home wasn't very comfortable, he only ate and slept there though, he was usually out making money or training, now he would be doing that but hopefully raking in more money. Kensai didn't want to think about the missions the village would be getting, they'd be underbidding everyone else. That was bound to make you some enemies.

"Well I sure hope we get a mission as soon as you think we're ready for one. Hirohata-Sensei." Kensai hoped out loud.

"Well I don't see why we couldn't get one tomorrow," Megumi said, with a simple shrug. "You both seem competent enough, I'm sure there are plenty of low rank missions around the village we can help out with. The more we do, the more we make."

"I do like that sound of that..." Kenji muttered. "I don't even care what we do at this point, as long as it's something."

Megumi grinned. "Sounds like a plan then. Tomorrow, I'll see what missions are available for us. In the meantime, let's just...relaaaax." And with that, she lounged back against the edge of the spring again.|

And Kenji continued staring.

"That sounds good to me." Kensai said staring lazily at Megumi as well, she was definitely easy to look at that was for sure.