-Jhyli
Walking down the street, I knew that everyone thought I was an outsider. Glaring cold stares greeted me as I walked down the dusty, tattered road of Konoha, I knew I wouldn't be welcomed. Let me introduce myself. Sôhi Kael is my name, and I always have wraps or dressings covering my entire body. If you're lucky, you'll learn why later. It's a long story. I decided to dress up for my day of arrival. The silver streak in my hair gleamed in the sunshine, which seemed to be the only happy thing to see me. A black tank with a banded neckline and silver-grey cargo pants covered my bandages with a kunai pouch strapped to my left leg. Black ninja sandals covered my already bandaged feet. I found those feet lead me to renting a flat at the top of a larger building with enough room for all of my things. It was a pretty large flat, with a small balcony overlooking the city. I figured I would have to meet the Hokage before I moved all of my things in. I sighed as a saw the messenger coming to alert me.
"Sôhi Kael?" he said with a smirk. I also detected a bit of a scowl, but ignored it.
"That would be me." I calmly replied back. No emotion was important for unfriendly interactions. I stared back into his dull brown eyes with my icy grey ones. He seemed to momentarily shudder, but quickly gathered himself.
"The Hokage wants to see you," he let the words roll of his tongue with unimportance, "Do you need a-"
"It won't be necessary," I said as I watched him glace warily back and disappeared. Soon enough, I found myself walking to the Hokage's office. I past a school, which I figured I would be attending. It looks dull... I thought. After a few more minutes of uneventful walking, I found the office. They immediately let me in, and the conversation was completely dull.
"So, you finally escaped your pursuer?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"I killed him myself."
"Your family?"
"All are completely dead. As are our secrets."
"Except for you."
"Yea... except me." I forgot to mention a few things. My entire clan is dead. We have a special Kekkei genkai. Our bodies are able to handle abnormal amounts of heat, which allow us to control metal. My father, before he died entrusted me with the family secret, so now I am able to control it. I will always have the streak of silver visible in my hair. Liquid silver. Anyone who messes with me gets burned. We also have customs that must be upheld. For example, I'm not allowed to show my inner emotions on my face. At all. I can't visibly change moods. It's actually really hard to do. Anyways, back to the droll conversation that I was having with the Hokage...
"Did he get them all?"
"Yes." A long, awkward pause followed that comment.
"Are you planning on enrolling in our ninja school?"
"Yes. I'd like to give them a challenge."
"You'll do very well. I will have a sensei privately teach you in the early mornings to catch you up."
"I might like that. Your toughest sensei please."
"I'll talk to Kakashi then."
"Thank you master Hokage." I bowed deeply out of respect... actually, more out of manners. I knew that it would take a while for me to be accepted, if I was at all. Another ninja came and showed me out of the room.
As I was lead down the stairs, the ninja explained that I was to go straight to the school that I passed by. They would let them know that I was coming. I simply nodded, and looked on as the ninja disappeared. I continued walking back to the school.
I went into a relatively large room, where class seemed to already be in session. As I entered, all eyes turned on me. I better get used to this... I met everyone's eyes in the room, and rested on three genin. One had bright pink hair and seemed preoccupied with the ninja next to her. The ninja next to her, though somewhat handsome seemed not to notice her. There also was an older ninja who wore an orange jumpsuit and didn't seem to possess the skill of sitting still. My steel eyes ended up resting on the teacher. He seemed to be the only one excited to meet me.
"Welcome! I'm Iruka-sensei. Please sit down in the seat next to Kiba. In the back," he said with a giant smile. I acknowledged the welcome with a "thank you" and a bow, and followed his general direction up to my small, uncomfortable seat next to a relatively handsome ninja in a furry hoodie. He met my eyes for a moment then grabbed something out of my seat. It barked.
"This is Akamaru, my dog," he said quickly. I could see his nose going crazy, well, his and the dogs. It was like he was a creature too. I nodded, and focused back to the sensei, who seemed to have asked about me.
"Everyone, our new student is Sôhi Kael," A murmur went through my fellow students at my last name being stated. "She will be joining our class this year. Why don't you tell us a little about yourself Sôhi?" He proceeded to look up at me with anticipation.
I stood, and once again surveyed the room, keeping my emotions in check, and commented. "I am 13, and seem to be the only remaining member of my clan, which seems to be convenient, for I am the prodigy for my family." I sat back down very curtly. The one called Kiba turned to me with a look of bewilderment across his face. I met his gaze, then focused back to the lesson that had resumed.
After school had let out, I was walking back to the flat that I had rented. I was unpleasantly interrupted by four girls, who all seemed to be excited in their own way. They all excitedly introduced themselves.
"Hi! I'm Ino! This is Sakura," She said, pointing to the Pink haired ninja, "Hinata, And Ten Ten," She finished, pointing towards a seemingly shy girl with navy hair and a brown haired girl with her hair up in two buns. "Temari had to go and look after her brothers... so she couldn't meet you. Do you want to hang out with us? See the town? We know of this great little café and we could meet the guys there. Naruto and the others are excited to meet you."
I stared at this girl like she was insane for the slightest if moments, then returned to my constant, stoic expression. "Sure. I need to unpack my things though."
The girl known as Sakura offered for their whole gang to help unpack for me. I mentally questioned their sanity, then reluctantly accepted. They had the girl with navy hair fetch the boys, then followed me to my flat. Most of the larger boxes I brought in before my trip to the Hokage, but one that couldn't fit through the doors was still outside. I looked at the large box, knowing that the contents were extremely fragile and important to me. Suddenly, a very loud, "Believe it!" was shouted by the hyper ninja in the orange jumpsuit running straight towards my very precious box. If the calm ninja with raven hair hadn't have stopped him in his tracks, I probably would have murdered him right then and there. I silently thanked the raven haired ninja for protecting the rather large box.
"This is the last box, and we need to get it to the top floor," I told the others, "It must arrive at the top floor undamaged. If not, the genius who broke it will receive permanent burns and have to replace the contents. Does everyone understand?" At that, I met the eyes of everyone there, and saw a collective nod. "Good. So, who has a plan?"
One of the guys, though lazy, seemed brilliant and actually figured out a way to lift the box. It required a ton of chakra, and some time, as well as everyone to work together. My box entered in through the balcony. "Can we please see what's in it?? Please?! Please?!?" the hyper one, Naruto was whining.
"You really want to know?"
"YES! Please...???"
I sighed. "Sure. Just let me open it." I created a sharp knife with the sliver of silver in my hair, and sliced the edges. As the box fell apart, a giant white sheet was draped over an extremely large object. "This is..." I pulled the sheet off, rather neatly to the side. "My grand piano from my mother. She always said I had a knack for music." I dusted off the giant 12-foot grand with a cloth from the bench.
"W-w-will you play s-something for us?" The girl named Hinata asked.
"That's a great idea! Will you??" Naruto chimed in rather loudly.
"Please?" The pink haired genin asked.
The multiple requests told me that I wouldn't be able to see the town until I did, so I sat down on the bench and heard cheers from the ninja gang. Slowly, but surely, I played some of the songs that I had written. I even hummed along to one. They all had words... but I will never sing for anyone ever again. That's another long story. Anyways, applause greeted me as I finished the final chord of a piece. I got up and bowed, and was greeted with a new wave of applause. "Let's go!" was a command issued from Ino, and everyone slowly exited from my flat.
I found myself being unwillingly led down a very busy street in the middle of the town. Stares were still shakily given, but my company distracted me from them. In the lead was Ino, followed closely by Sakura, while Ten Ten was talking heatedly with her friend Neji who helped with the piano. Naruto and Sasuke were arguing about who was better at getting people's attention, or something along those lines, while Rock Lee was keeping watch. Kiba was talking to Shino and me about pets, for he had just met my favorite cat and was saying how much better dogs were. Hinata seemed to be staring off after one of the guys up ahead. "We're here!" Ino yelled back to us, and we all wandered into a beautifully decorated restaurant. One of the waiters gave us a look of, 'holy crap, they're going to break something,' and Naruto was excited about ramen. We all received menus and Sakura stood to make a speech.
"Alright you guys, Sôhi just arrived here in Konoha, so we should make her feel welcome!" Cheers rose from our extremely large table. "After all, she will become great here and even though she is without family, we will operate as her dysfunctional family!" More cheers rose, and I stood up to receive the gracious welcome. When I did, all went silent in the entire restaurant. I proceeded to make eye contact with everyone in the restaurant, and slowly, there became white noise once again.
"Thank you Sakura for making me feel welcome. I really appreciate all that you all have done for me so far. I already feel indebted to you. So," I said, for it pains me much to talk about myself, "I will answer any questions that you have about my previous journeys or anything else that you have been wondering. But only one each."
Murmurs went around our table as everyone began to talk of questions. After ordering and receiving dinner, everyone seemed to have a question prepared. Sakura went first.
"Why do you not show emotion?"
Usually, this is hard to explain to other people not from my clan, but for some reason, the words came to me. "Within our clan, no one must reveal any emotions to prevent burns from surprises or accidents. Anger is controlled. Eventually, it developed into a stereotype of my clan, the ones with no emotion." I met her emerald eyes with my steel ones. "Does that satisfy your knowledge craving?"
She smiled. "For now."
Naruto went next. "Do you like ramen?"
"Maybe. I've never tried it." I said to a now astonished face of the deep-blue eyed ninja.
"WHAT?!?!? NEVER TRIED RAMEN?!?" That almost seemed to put him into a faint. "I'll have to show you the ramen shop! Oh boy! You'll love it!" he started babbling incoherently about flavours and textures. Sasuke gave him a look which shut him up. Then, Neji went next.
"I heard that your house has an amazing library. Was it ruined as well?"
I sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. I saved as many undamaged works as I could. I'll let you borrow some at some point. Just don't break or deface them. They are thousands of years old." I told the pearl eyed ninja. He nodded with an actual smile, and I knew he could be trusted with my scrolls.
"Show me how powerful you are. I don't believe that you could be the heir to the Kekkei genkai of the Kael clan."
Sasuke Uchiha had stated his question. I met his now red eyes with my steel ones, silently accepting his challenge.
"WHAT??!" Naruto yelled. "She's our guest! You can't fight her!"
"Sasuke..." Sakura said timidly, "please leave her alone for the night. She just got here."
Once again I stood. "I said I would answer any question. Granted, that wasn't a question, but I have been interested at what they have been teaching you here. If you want to fight, I accept." The Uchiha genius was out of his seat in a matter of seconds.
Everyone moved outside to a wider side road. He finished powering his sharingan and faced me. He grabbed and threw a kunai at my arm, but instead of piercing my flesh, it seemed to freeze on the surface of my arm. I unwrapped some of my dressings to show him that my entire body was now covered in liquid metal. As an astonished look crossed his face, the remaining metal covered my face and covered every strand of hair. I pulled the kunai out of my arm, and shaped the metal into a small dagger for my particular use. After a series of complicated moves, I was behind him with the dagger at his neck. "Good enough for you?" I whispered in his ear as he flinched from the immense heat that the metal threw off. He seemed to carefully nod. I allowed the meal to slip back to its normal position as part of my hair and reshaped the dagger back into a kunai. I presented it back to him, and he drudgingly took it.
After dinner was paid for, everyone seemed to go their separate ways. I followed the road back down to my flat, but I saw a park I hadn't seen before. Glancing around, I went in through the entrance. There was a single swing hanging from a blooming cherry tree, and I soon found myself thinking about how weird the day had been. It took me a moment to realize that I wasn't alone. "You... fight well."
"Thank you Sasuke-san," was my only reply.
"I... was wondering... do you want to see more of the town tomorrow?"
I turned to him. "I think I might like to know where everything else is. There's no school?"
"No. It'll be the weekend."
"Sure." I glanced at him, then walked away. The Uchiha was nothing special, but that didn't mean we couldn't be friends, right? Plus, I'm not looking for guys anyway. I'm going to continue improving. I walked back to my flat, and looked at the stars from my balcony.
"I'm calm as the ocean, I'm steady as the tide. I'll see what my life brings me, with only me by my side."
Well, that was my first ever chapter of Fan fiction! And for you Gaara lovers, I promise, there WILL BE MORE GAARA!!!! YAY!!! Well, feel free to tell me what you thought, what I should change, etc. so comment or just enjoy! Thanks for reading!!!
-Jhyli