A boy and his rat!!! (solo, nk, etc.)

The newly minted genin wandered the streets of Hoshigakure. He had easily noticed that the natives tended to not like ninjas, which implied, combined with the genin exams, that the city of Hoshigakure was undergoing a state of great change. The ninjas were likely the new ones here, and the citizens of Haven had not gotten used to the idea yet, although the people in the Queensguard seemed friendly enough. Hopefully they would realize that people like Hado Kirino were not bad people, and would cheer up, but who knows. For now, Hado had other things to worry about, and one of those was about examining this sodden lump of fur, reminiscent of a gray rug, that was flopped down on the ground in a small little lump on the alley ground, against one wall, in the minute shelter of a small alcove, hidden from sight of those walking down the street. What was that thing? If it was a carpet like he suspected, there might be some amount of carpet tacks embedded in the material. However, his senses were not going off on this, the metal detection he had discovered was fairly innate, anyway. So what was this? A carpet bag?

He reached with his hand forwards, to grab the fur, and then it occurred to him that this was probably an animal, not a rug, as the tip of a claw was just barely visible from under a fold of what must be fur. Hmmm. He did not want to be rude, but if this animal was dangerous he should keep his distance. Hmmm. Looking around, he spotted a rock. And no, before anyone like Akihana can show up and tell Hado to be nice, he was not about to throw any rocks at the motionless lump of fur, as that would be honestly, quite rude. Very much rude, and totally not what Hado would do, as he was not a mean insane twisted killer like any potential alter egos might have been. No, he was going to do something else instead. Holding the rock in one hand, while keeping his eyes on the lump of fur, and the alley way entrances, to make sure there were no observers, he poured his chakra into the rock, like he did whenever he wanted to do something useful, and the rock grew into a two meter long staff, about an inch thick.

Carefully backing away so that he was about two meters away from the sodden lump of probably fur, or at least very convincing fake faux fur, Hado pointed the tip of the stick at the motionless lump, and gently, pushed the stick at the lump. The lump of fur remained motionless as Hado retracted the stick, and put down the stick, watching carefully for signs of movement from the rat. Nothing…. Still nothing….

Then some of the fur began to shift. Oh my, so it really was alive after all. The fur finished moving and Hado found himself looking at an eye. The eye blinked. The fur shifted some more, until Hado found himself face to face with what appeared to be an extremely weak rat. Uhmmm…. Hado was a little confused at first with what to do. Then the rat toppled over unconscious, stretched out to its full length, as Hado stared. He had never seen a two meter long rat, and THAT was if you did not include the tail. The rat’s eyes were shut, and it breathed wheezily and heavily. It looked like it was in trouble.

Well, Hado had been in trouble before, and he knew exactly what he had wanted back then. Kneeling next to the barely conscious rat, he began to run medical chakra through his hands, before covering the many minor wounds and scratches and bruises visible on the rat’s pelt, and slowly healing the, He was weak, himself, so the healing took longer than Hado would have liked, but the rat was not about to complain, and as Hado progressed, he found himself cheering up a little. The rat also seemed to be relaxing, as its injuries were healed. After a while, Hado stuck the Rock Section Cane he had made earlier, under the rat, and gently rolled it onto its back, before continuing to heal up the little, err, tall and lanky fellow.

The rat gave a little sigh of contentment that resonated with Hado, and he was suddenly sure he had found a new friend.”Everything will be ok, big feller.” He spoke as he patted the rat on the head.

A noise filled the alley, attracting brief notice from passerby outside the brick confines.

It seemed the rat was hungry, his stomach rumbling had cut through the nosie of the grinding town temporarily. Uh oh. Hado had no money on him, having just joined up with Haven country, with the City of Stars, Hoshigakure. He only barely remembered the apartment he had gotten upon becoming a ninja of Hoshigakure, and he was pretty sure there was no food there. And rats were able to eat a lot of different stuff. What to do…?

In a flash it came to him. He had purchased a little curiosity before, a thing called a “pokeball” that was advertised to be able to contain ones friends and work as a compartment, in times of need. Well, it looked like this was definitely a time of need for this poor little guy… rat. Hado pulled the little capsule out of his weapon pouch, and carefully activated. The rat managed a mere surprised squeak, before it disappeared in a rather dramatic flash of light that only Hado noticed, the rat being inside the capsule before it could see the flash itself. In fact, Hado only saw the flash of light, the rest of the suction was too fast. However, when he looked closely at the pokeball, he could see the rat sitting there inside, still slumped over. Hopefully it could hang on, he was not big enough or strong enough to contain the rat otherwise.

Stuffing the pokeball into his pocket, he dashed off towards the super market. Looking around for a butcher, he found some meat scraps in some buckets. Taking the buckets with him, he scrambled through the alleyways of the city, avoiding contact with others who might ask as to why he had buckets of raw meat on him. He honestly had no clue what this mystery meat was, but he did not know and did not want to ask and suspected the rat would not really care either, since the meat was presumably safe to eat, if one could eat uncooked red meat like this, in any case.

Hado eventually managed to get to his apartment, jumping in through the window to avoid setting the buckets of meat down. Finding a relatively uncluttered part of the room, in other words, the massive blastic bowl that was his bath tub, a good two meters in each direction, he gently opened up the pokeball again, the rat popping out and appearing in the bath tub, Hado setting the buckets of meat next to the rat, alongside a pail of water he fetched shortly after. The rat stared at him, a slightly bewildered expressino on its face.

Hado gestured at the buckets of meat and said “I don’t know what you normally prefer to eat, but this is what I could get on short notice. Will you be ok with that for the time being?” He rose as if he was going to go get some stuff if needed, but he first watched the rat for his or her reaction first.

The rat crawled towards the buckets, painfully slowly, despite its size, and it sniffed tentatively at the bucket of meat scraps, the first one anyway. After a few moments it seemed that nothing was gonna happen but it then tipped the bucket towards itself, and began swallowing meat, it seemed, it was eating so fast. When the first bucket was finished, the rat rolled over onto its back, its stomach distended a little bit, and it gave a contented little sigh. Hado smiled a little, it looked like his job had been ok after all.

“…”

“Thank… you…”

Then, when the rat spoke, he jumped five feet in the air, literally, as he had not expected that at all. He would have been a bit ok with helping the rat even if the rat forgot all about him afterward, so the appreciation was nice. However, he had not expected the rat to talk.

“Umm… didn’t know you could talk.” Hado had eyes that comically were the size of dinner plates, not saucers, because saucers were smaller and they took fewer words to describe. “Is that better now?” “It” referring to the rat’s general situation and well being. “You can stay here until you are definitely feeling better, I don’t mind, though I do admit I sometimes might have to be away on missions or such.”

The rat blinked, also taken aback by Hado’s offer. “R-really?” Its voice was stronger but still weak, and frankly, it reminded Hado of a big pliushie. Like the ones he used to play with as a little boy. He resisted the urge to give it a squeeze, he had to remain strong for the rat, and he migth accidentally crush the rat still.

“Yep, really.”

Soon though he had to do some missions, he had another mouth to feed. So this was what it was like to have a family, huh?

Over the next few weeks, the rat began to recover enough that it could stand and then walk around. It seemed it was not the only giant rat in Hoshigakure, though fortunately people tended to pay it no mind. When the rat was able to run again, it insisted on accompanying Hado around on his duties, and Hado at first though it was because the rat was able to exercise and did not want to be cooped up in the apartment the entire time.

Hado could not help but wonder why the rat always came along with him though, so one day he asked the rat. “It’s not that I dislike your company or anything, but why do you want to hang out so much? Do giant rats have packs as well as the smaller kin?”

The other sopke… “It’s not that. My pack abandoned me, because I had bad luck bringing in food for the pack, so I am with them no longer. You saved me when I was dying of hunger, so you will always be my pack leader. I owe you my life, so my life is yours for the taking.” The rat knelt.

Hado, still recovering from his initial shock, nearly fell on his skinny little bottom. The rat was alarmed, but Hado forestalled the rat’s potentiall attempts to help, by raising his hand. “It will take me a bit to get used to this, but why should I be your master? Let’s be friends instead. I wish to not be anyone’s true master, honestly.”

The rat chewed on this. “Alright. But don’t stop me from trying to repay the debt I owe you. Nobody else was going to help me back then after all.”

Hado shrugged. “Sounds ok to me if you are ok with it too. I better try and get some bedding so you have something comfy to lie down on at night.”

His new friend relaxed visibly when Hado agreed. The rat stood to all of two meters, his frame much more filled out now than when Hado had first met him. He threw what could only have been a salute at Hado. “Ferus, the Warrior, at your service!”

He extended a paw towards Hado. Hado spoke up in reply. “I, Hado Kirino, newly minted genin of Hoshigakure, gladly accept your services.” He clasped the giant rat’s larger paw, as a new unholy alliance was born between boy and rat.

(exit)

(ttl wc: 2002, claiming +10 stats, and http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t28786-ferus-the-warrior#219606 as a familiar)

thank you <3