Beauty & the Beast

The large bear listened to the girl’s oration as he scoffed. It was clear that this child meant business and wasn’t going away anytime soon. “There’s not much to be said.” He said slowly, replying to the request to divulge information about himself. He wasn’t about to tell her how proud his parents were when they found out he’d be the new holder of the contract. He hadn’t even told them that he only chose the job because it didn’t require any work and he could decide how and who would get sign the thing. Although his father probably picked up on it, he always had his eye on Marezou. “You like to cook and I like to eat. Maybe we can work something out.” Love gave the beast a curious look, surely he didn’t expect her to become his chef. Aside from the look she remained quiet so that he could explain himself further. But he too remained quiet, to him what he said was pretty straight forward and it also allowed him to dine and dash if her food wasn’t good enough.

Although who’s to say that he won’t even if it is good. He had yet to actually confirm that he is the contract holder. “All I have to do is cook for you, then I can sign the contract?” Love asked breaking the silence. “Let’s just say if you make me something amazing I’ll consider pointing you in the direction of said item.” The bear yawned, he’d need another nap soon. Love simply rolled her eyes as she was still convinced that he was the bear she was looking for. “Alright, then what should I make?” The stopped, plopping on his butt, he put one paw to his chin in a thinking position. “I don’t know surprise me.” The large animal then spread himself across the ground. “Oh and make sure the meal includes ramen.” He added before falling asleep. Ramen? Wait meal!? Did this thing expect more than one course?

Love groaned, where the hell was she supposed to find ramen in the middle of a forest. Not to mention this forest was located in a cave inside of a desert. Too bad she didn’t know where that pirate went maybe he had some, he seemed to fancy human things. Perhaps she could make some from scratch? Love began to wander off while thinking, she wasn’t worried about Marezou disappearing not only because of the seal she placed on him but he didn’t seem like the type to miss a free meal. Hopefully, I can find some kind of shop around here, surely these bears made human food. She thought to herself as she also scanned the area for a wheat field in case she really had to make it from scratch. Her next thought was the meat, she didn’t have time to skin and cook a chicken so fish would have to do.

While she walked the scenery changed from a somewhat open plain to a heavily wooded area. She was about to turn around, thinking that she’d gone too far and probably missed the hidden village when she noticed that these looked like pine trees. Intruied she climbed on to get a better look. Upon inspection of the branches, she identified them as Sugi and instantly knew what to cook for her lackadaisical friend. The young kunoichi would pull out a kunai and cut about three twelve inch sticks. Despite the greedy bear less would be more since she didn’t know if she would find all the ingredients she would need. Jumping down from the tree, now excited Love charged into the deep forest. It was her intention to find their hidden fields, surely they would be here to keep safe from the other animals. As humans wouldn’t venture into the cave without knowing what was on the other side.

Seeing the trees begin to decrease again Love kicked up her speed. The sun shone brightly overhead and the grass gave way to dirt, causing the girl to come to a sliding stop. It should’ve gotten taller; The human looked around to see bears of all size everywhere she turned. “This can’t be good.” She thought aloud, unsure whether to run back or say hi. After a full minute of stares, she locked eyes with a mother who was about to speak before a male, even larger than Marezou, stepped between them. “What are you doing here human?” He demanded in full bravado.

Love’s eyebrows raised impressed by the deep tone. “I was looking for some rice, vegetables, dashi, miso, and wheat. Perhaps you have ramen?” The giant looked at her as if she were deranged. “I have to make a meal for Marezou.” She added with the hope that this would make her seem less crazy. It appeared to work because the male then asked, “What do you know of Marezou?” “Just that he’s the contract holder.” She replied honestly; With that village life began to continue as nothing happened. The mother from before walked over, placing her paw on the shoulder of the male standing before Love.

“Come with us.” She said and Love followed with the male walking behind her, for safety she guessed. “What were the things you said you needed? I don’t think I’m familiar with the dish you’re making.” The female said once they were inside, the kids that were with her before had disbursed. Love had been caught completely off guard at the sudden uncertainty that quickly switched back to peace and calm, so much so she almost missed the woman's question. “Oh, Kiritanpo with miso ramen. I got the idea after seeing the trees.” She said raising the hand that held the three branches. Momma glanced back to see what the girl was talking about then turned back around, proceeding to gather the ingredients. “Miso, ramen, dashi…” Yes! Love did a small arm pull when she saw the noodles.

Moving from one side of the enormous kitchen to the other she placed various vegetables from spinach to mushrooms on the equally large table. “Will this do?” “Wow. Yes, thank you. This is everything I need.” The male grunted at Love’s excitement. “By the way, why are you helping me? Everyone seemed pretty nervous when I showed up.” The female bear shook her head at the male. “Don’t let him get to you. We all fear that one day humans will take this land from us, but you’re just a summoner or will be.” She gave Love a reassuring smile. “Why are you here? You’re supposed to sign and leave.” Poppa asked before Momma could although rather rudely.

“I also expected it to be that way but it seems I rubbed the contract holder the wrong way and he won’t let me until I cook for him.” Poppa rolled his eyes and exited on all fours mumbling, “That boy.” Under his breath, as he did so. The Hyuuga looked back at Momma for an explanation. “We used to get summoners all the time but since Marezou has become the holder the number has rapidly declined.” “I see... May I ask what your connection to him is? You seem pretty protective of him.” Momma giggled. “Naturally, he’s our son.” That one shocked Love, of all the people for her to run into. “Wow, I guess I lucked out then huh?” The female smiled. That would definitely explain the father's attitude.

Maybe his father was a backslider in his youth and this is karma coming back around. His mother seemed like a pretty nice person, her energy felt too real for her to have been one. Love shrugged it off though, she didn’t need to worry about their in depth personal lives, she hadn’t even made a connection with the person she came to find. It would also be rather intrusive to learn things about him through them. “I know how to make miso ramen but can you show me how to make the kiritanpo?” Momma asked shifting the subject back to something more fun. “Of course. It’s quite easy actually.” Love washed the rice and placed it in their rice cooker, probably a gift from Taupy or someone on his crew. It would cook for about ten minutes, the girl must have made a worried face because Momma spoke up.

"You probably want to hand make everything but I think in this case we can use the dehydrated noodles. If he gives you any trouble just tell him Orsa made it." The female bear winked at the kunoichi as she put a kettle of hot water on the stove to boil. As nice as this creature was that was really creepy, Love smiled to cover it up though. She felt good that the woman had opened up and shared something about herself, that's when she noticed that she never introduced her own self. "Nice to meet you," She extended her hand. "I'm Love Sakumo of Konohagakure." With her paw, Orsa shook the human's hand. So warm.. and fuzzy. The girl thought.

"So that's what the little squiggle means." She said looking at Love's headband. "We haven't had any ninja from the village here before." The Hyuuga blushed a little feeling special, it's one thing to brag about becoming a summoner but to be the first from her village to make a contract with these bears put her on another level. "You seem quite knowledgeable." At those words, it was Orsa's turn to blush. "Thank you." She replied and she began to engage Love with some of that knowledge. The two easily got off track, talking as they cleaned and cut the vegetables. They also used the water for the ramen to make tea as they chatted, making the process longer.

Before long ten minutes had passed and the rice was done. They shared a sigh, disappointed that their time together was coming to an end. Love pumped herself up, "Alright! Let's do this!" Orsa nodded and they got to pounding the rice until it was somewhat mashed. "Now we just wrap it around the skewers like so." The red head said while showing Orsa. It sucked that she had only cut three branches, she would've like to let Momma taste them. "I'll get the fire started." The woman started.

"No need," Poppa said, spooking the two females a bit. It seems that he's been just an earshot of them this entire time. Love made sure not to show her happiness that he was now helping in case it made him change his mind. The male weaved a few hand seals and a stream of fire spouted from his mouth. "A bear with fire nature, how cool." She thought out loud; Papa glanced at her but let it slide as the sticks were placed inches from the stream. This will be a lot faster since he can control the temperature. Once they had a nice golden brown color she slid the rice off the sticks and placed it in the bowl with the noodles and vegetables. "Perfect!" The ninja exclaimed.

"I'm- We're glad we were able to help and don't worry about the dish. Marezou can bring it home later." The Hyuuga bowed formally. "I really appreciate it. I promise I'll come back and we'll get to eat together." "I'd like that" Orsa replied. "Alright, I'm off." She said before disappearing in a blur of speed. "Good luck!" Due to the speed she was moving at Love didn't know who had wished her well but she liked to think it was Papa.

Her body flicker had carried her to the other side of the sugi forest. Hearing the soup splosh Love thought it best not to use the technique again. The presentation was a big part of a meal and this guy would definitely comment on it. As the leaf shinobi got closer to where she had left Marezou she could smell something cooking. Oh hell no! She thought and sped over to the location of a small fire. The contract holder turned his head at her arrival. "Oh hey." Love's eye squinted, "You've got to be kidding me." "You can have that puny one over there if you're hungry." He said pointing to one of the fish he had caught.

Love's anger rose and she almost cracked the dish she was holding. "Oh no you don't!" Love slapped the fish the bear was about to bite into from his grasp. "You sent me on a quest to make you a meal and you are going to eat!" Marezou smirked at her. She was so over this jerk. "Let's see what you came up with." He held his paw out to receive the food. "Ooo nice and toasty. Chopsticks?" She rolled her eyes before reaching into her sack to retrieve the utensil. "Itadakimasu!"

Once the tiny things were in his hand the bear lifted the lid off of the dish. Taking a whiff he scoffed, by just the smell he could tell that the noodles hadn't been fresh. Due to her secret weapon Love was more worried that he was upset about it being miso. Breathing deeply she watched as the bear maneuvered the chopsticks grabbing a cluster of the pasta and began to slurp. Her eyes grew wide as she watched the rice and vegetables entwined ride the ramen up into his mouth. The broth would also tag along but he had to tilt his head back a bit to drink it all.

Love felt somewhat defeated after witnessing him devour the meal in a single bite. Marezou placed the dish on the ground in front of him, placing the lid back in its' place and the chopsticks on top of that. He sat for a moment chewing and pondering his assessment of the food. After an entire ninety seconds, he was ready to deliver his verdict. "It was good, but I've had better." He lied. "You should've hand made the noodles. And the miso tasted stale."

Love folded her arms. "Well Orsa helped make it, so take it up with her." He calmly turned his head to face the girl, with a look that said: "you're lying". But Love wouldn't back down and the male was left without a comeback. He clenched his jaw, "Fine it was slightly better than average but not great." "Heh. I can take that." Love replied. "So where's the contract?" He looked away and went to grab the fish she knocked away. The Hyuuga glared at the back of his head, he was not about to continue jerking her around.

"Byakugan!" Was all that was heard when Love quickly dashed over grabbing the amphibian before the larger mammal could. "So that's how you wanna play?" The bear stood on its' hind legs and swung its forepaws at the girl. The claws were faster than they were strong so she wouldn’t be severely hurt if she got hurt but it would still cause damage. She dodged the attacks left and right while walking backward. Not needing to look back, she would then apply chakra to her feet and walk up the tree behind her.

Once high enough she would jump over the bear. Luckily for him, he was able to knock the fish free from her grasp as she did this. Damn. She glared at him as he quickly scooped it into his paw and then held it clamped between his teeth as he ran on all fours. I don’t think so. She thought throwing four kunai to block his path, they also had explosives tags attached to them although Love didn’t plan to detonate them. They were just there for show so that Marezou would change his course and Love could attack from a better angle.

Once he turned Love made her way over to that direction, blocking him she would ensue an eight trigrams assault on the creature. It was the next best thing to the Nara’s shadow possession jutsu and she didn’t think that he’d allow her to use keiren on him a second time. She would have to make a note to learn another temporary paralysis jutsu. Though for now, her objective was to shut this thing down, surprisingly or not surprisingly the lazy guy was particularly fast.

It was interesting to see the anatomy of a bear so close in person, too bad he was moving that made it harder to accurately memorize it. Clearly, the girl wasn’t attacking to kill and had recently become distracted so the large paw attacking out of pattern easily knocked her off balance. “Sorry, did that hurt?” Marezou taunted with the prize held firmly between his teeth becoming covered in his saliva. Gross. The girl thought also grateful that she wasn’t intending on eating the scaly thing.

“Didn’t anyone teach you it’s not polite to talk with your mouth full?” She replied rearing up for another attack. “You’re right, let me finish this up and we can fight for real.” “Tch.” Like hell she was gonna let that happen. Weaving the Boar, Ram, Snake, Horse, Dragon hand seals the Hyuuga sprouted a wave of electricity from her palms. Aimed at the ground beneath the bear she would give it enough power to cause cracks in the earth. As the large mammal stumbled backward Love reached out snatching the fish from his mouth. She then stuck out her tongue as she ran to the spot where she threw the kunai that previously cut Marezou off, picking them up as she passed.

Marezou glared at her, embarrassed that he had feared he’d fall through those cracks. Fire vs lightning? This will get messy way too quick. The bear thought to himself deciding for now not to use any jutsu. From his spot on the ground, he could see the red haired girl climbing up a tree, “I can do that too doll.” And so he did but instead of climb the same tree as the kunoichi he climbed one adjacent from it. Having reached her destined height before the creature Love smirked looking down on it as it climbed.

This time around the girl would perform the Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram hand seals and instantly after the last seal was complete a giant fire ball appeared behind her, it’s target Marezou. “You’ve gotta be shitting me.” The bear sighed, noticing that it was moving faster than he could get out of the way Marezou let go of the tree. His hope that gravity would do him a favor and speed up his escape. Seeing this Love also jumped from her tree, diving straight for him. Yeah, she kinda forgot the point of this but how many people can say they beat up a bear?

As the two fell the fire ball got even closer, the heat of the ginormous thing felt like they themselves were on fire. Marezou was sure that the girl had a jutsu she could use to avoid it but he did not. “What are you gonna torture me seconds before death?” The Hyuuga grinned as she flashed one of the de-bombed kunai she had recollected. “Maybe…” The animal closed its eyes and sighed. ‘At least he got to smell food on his way out, even if it smelled rotten’ Is what he would be thinking.

Unfortunately for him, the wind was knocked out of his chest as he hit the ground, the heat and encroaching threat disappearing at the same time. Love landed about two feet away from the beast. “You should really get better at deciphering genjutsu from ninjutsu.” She told it with one hand on her hip. “Ow.” He moaned as he realized what happened. “You ninja and your damn tricks.” He then rolled over onto all fours and shook out his fur and started to walk away without another word. “Where are you going? I was just starting to have fun.” The creature replied with a yawn that sounded more like a weak growl as he continued walking.

Love had half a mind to the throw the fish at the back of his head but instead decided to follow Marezou. As she walked the girl noticed that the fish was falling apart and with reason, after being cut, slashed, and knocked around not many things would still be intact. To avoid dropping it she pierced the kunai through the last remaining whole piece. She had a brief thought to run back and get one of the other fish he caught but she wasn’t really up for stinking any worse. Though she did quickly go put out the fire he neglected to put out when their little squabble started. Couldn’t have the forest burning down and have him blame her for it, she’d never get to sign the contract if that happened.

Speaking of which that better be where he was leading her or he’d definitely be catching a shoe up his ass. As for now the young leaf ninja quietly walked behind her hairy four legged “friend”. Friend. It was ok to call him that right? I mean they were having fun and she did meet the parents. This caused Love to giggle a little. Marezou rolled his eyes, although Love couldn't see this, he also mumbled under his breath and made a sharp turn. It surprised the girl and she stumbled over her feet as she also changed direction. She really didn't want to be one of those kids that constantly asked: "Are we there yet?" but how long did they have to walk before it was ok to ask?

Love hummed to keep herself preoccupied as it didn't seem like the bear wanted to talk. He turned his head to look back at where they had just come from then quickly snapped it forward when their eyes connected. This would go on for a few minutes as the bear oddly started to serpentine. The girl didn't say anything about it, just managed to keep up but after a whole minute of it she had to ask, "Are you lost?" Marezou's body became rigid. "What would make you think that?" He replied trying to sound calm but his voice was shaky. Love shook her head. "Tell me where we're going or what you're looking for and this will go a lot faster." The creature made an indecisive "eh" sound. He didn't want to tell her what he was up to but they only way to describe it would make him sound like an idiot.

"I told you I haven't got all day right?" The bear closed its eyes and said, "I'm looking for a tree ok." The words came out rather forcefully proof of his once again embarrassment. An audible slap could be heard as the girl's palm had been sent flying to her forehead. "We're literally looking for a needle in a haystack, great." She exclaimed, was this tree not marked or something. Walking over to a tree with her fish kebab, she pinned it there as a marker to let them know this is the spot they started looking. "Alright, I'm gonna help you. Tell me, do you remember any little things about the tree or that surrounded it?" The bear plopped on his butt as he pondered. "Hmm.. there were these tiny flowers and a rabbit that used to come around." "Okay." That's a start I guess. The girl thought before looking around to see tiny flowers of many colors. She sighed. "Think harder was it near any water or a distinctive bush?" Marezou squinted his eyes as he tried to picture the things she had mentioned. "Who knows?" He yawned. "It was so long ago." He said sleepily as he slumped over.

"Of course he goes back to sleep." Love mumbled to herself. "Guess I'm in this alone." She said as she started to walk again. Geez, at least he could've told her what color the flowers were or better yet what was in the tree. She would feel so stupid if they were just going around looking for his favorite scratching post. The girl wished she could just slack off like him. Ugh! He better have remembered by the time she gets back. Love would take this time to make a mental map of this place it would only help for her know the layout just as well as the locals. She was still impressed that all of this fit inside of that little cave she'd entered way back when.

Yet again running up on of the various trees surrounding her Love would activate her byakugan and hop from tree to tree. She figured this would be better than looking for marks on half of the trees in this forest that house little flowers at their base. With her x-ray vision, she would be able to find whatever he was looking for that was obviously hidden inside the timber. While traveling around like Tarzan the kunoichi thought about learning a new jutsu while she searched. But decided against it since the training would probably take longer than it would for her to find the thing. If she were to be optimistic he might be going to get the contract for her while she was on this wild goose chase. Though she tended to lean towards the realistic idea in this situation, the one where Marezou would leave again and probably find what he was looking for on his own. And it would turn out to be something meaningless to her. This caused the girl to sigh, how much more did she need to do to prove her worth?

Too bad she didn't get to talk with Papa more, he might've been able to tell her something helpful for this pursuit. Shrugging Love decided to only look for things with chakra signatures. If she found the contract and brought it to him there's no way he could deny her request to sign it, right? Well whether or not it couldn't hurt to try. Meanwhile, the lazy Marezou had woken up from his catnap and guess what he started moving. Least this time he wasn't running away he'd actually gone back to searching for the whatever. This tsundere ass could've at least given the human a fake thing to look for but it must've taken too much energy to make up something. How sad, he better not be like this on the battle field or Love would have to find a new partner. Ironically after walking just a few meters from where he took a nap, Marezou found the tree that he was looking for. "Too take it and find the child or let her come back on her own?" He asked himself once he removed the contract from its hiding spot.

Of course, the bloat chose the later. Luckily Love had been keeping track of the mark seal she placed on him. Noticing that she was going out of range the Leaf shinobi turned around using the seal to go directly to Marezou rather than the last place she saw him. She reached him after a body flicker and a few meters of running. Right before she was to comment on him not staying put Marezou pulled the contract from behind his back. "Is this the real deal?" She asked he nodded slapping the scroll with one paw causing it to unroll. "Write your name in blood along with your finger prints and you can get the hell out of here." He replied with a cheeky smirk. "Tch." Love bit her forefinger and began to write, then touched that finger to the tips of the others and pressed down on the paper. "Great now I can go back to my life." "Oh no, you're coming with me or else." She said wiggling her fingers around as to remind him of the keiren jutsu. Marezou glared at this little human, who was she to think she held any power over him. Hopefully, she only needed a ride home and it would be a short walk. He knew that the Village Hidden in the Sand wasn't too far from the cave that led to this place so he suspected that that's where she was going. He'd been taught the village logos in school, yes bears have school too, how else do you think they learn jutsu and chakra natures. Anyway, he had been taught the symbols but in his later years after becoming lazy he was prone to confusing them. Thus he agreed to leave with the girl.

"Now to find the exit." "Just get on." The bear said to her as he now stood on all fours offering her his back to ride on. Marezou really wanted to get back and take a nice day long nap so he wasn't about to play around with finding the exit. Love mouthed the word "Oh" before climbing aboard. She didn't at all expect this kind of treatment especially from someone who pretended not to like her at all. She hadn't even noticed him putting away the giant scroll, how it magically went inside of the tree would remain a mystery for now. "Ready or not here we go!" Marezou broadcasted just as he took off running, the sudden fast movement caused Love to clinch his back. The sharp pain from her nails then generated a temporary boost to that speed. "Shesh, skin me alive why don't you?" He shot back and the girl released her grip, now only holding on to the hairs. "Better." Love turned her head to hide her embarrassment, not that he could see her. As the two dashed through the forest Love spotted the place she had originally met and trapped Marezou. She was glad to see that other bears had come along and were using the fire to have a cookout, it was so cute. But that would be her last vision of the summon land as they reached the exit moments later.

WC: 5,005 [Exit]
TWC: 10,550
Claiming: 10 stats; 10 ap; 4,000 ryo; Mark Seal; Bear Summon

Approved