"Recall"
"Slumber, watcher, till the spheres,
Six and twenty thousand years
Have revolv'd, and I return
To the spot where now I burn.
The veil wears thin. The years come crowding in.
The veil wears thin. The years come crowding in.
Who were you the last time you lived?
Who were you the last time that you lived?"
"Polaris/Recall (By H.P. Lovecraft)" by Leslie Fish
Chapter 1
Murphy Is Always There
There was no discussion with Hinamori Momo once she set her mind on something. Right now, she wanted Hisagi Shuuhei to stay alive and to do so, they all had to turn on their heels and run towards the danger instead of away from it like a sane person would.
The Hollows were hanging over the clearing like a swarm of giant, white flies, their shapes monstrous and mask twisted in vicious grimaces. Their spiritual pressure was strong enough to push the grass to the ground hard enough it was completely flat. The surface of the lake nearby was also changed by it, the surface uneasy, waves dancing all over it, flashing white in the darkness.
They were only Academy students. It was their first time out too and they were only supposed to wander around for a bit, having their first taste of the world of the living.
Only, the supposedly safe area suddenly turned into a nightmare right in front of their eyes and two of the people who were supposed to keeping them safe were already dead. The third one, Hisagi, told them to run. Which was exactly the thing they were not doing.
Hinamori launched herself forward, painfully aware of the fact that they were still just a Freshmen. She couldn't even use her most powerful spell, partially because it could hurt Hisagi and partially because she hadn't trained it yet. Instead, she focused on the easiest kido she knew, the first one Academy students learned. It was just pushing away the enemies, not even doing any damage at all... but it would get the job done. She just needed the Hollows away from the senior student for a short moment. She repeated the incantation once again, feeling the force bubbling under her skin as the reiatsu in her hand fought to be freed. Kido spells were funny this way, the more you repeated the lines, the stronger they got. Only, they had to be freed eventually, because keeping them in hand too long usually ended up in nasty ways.
"Hadou number One!" Momo shouted. "Shou!"
The force pushed her backwards and she bumped into Renji who was just behind her. But the Hollow swarm was also pushed aside, far just enough to let Hisagi safely flash-step towards them.
"I told you guys to run!" he barked.
"Run where?" Izuru asked with a sigh, while taking a position in the formation. All four of them were now standing back to back.
"Good job with the spell," Hisagi admitted his defeat. "You good with number 31 by any chance?"
"Sorry!" Renji immediately answered.
"Heard the stories," Shuuhei snickered a little.
"I can do it," Momo admitted, her eyes not leaving the Hollows for even a moment. "But I'm afraid my range is much shorter than it supposed to be."
"Can't do that," Kira said. "But I'm decent with Byakurai and can Shou without incantation."
"Don't try it," Hisagi warned him. "Doubt that would be enough, those suckers are pretty strong. You two smash these in range with Kido. Abarai, your job is to hit these that managed to get too close; try to break the mask if you can."
Renji confirmed, narrowing his eyes and waiting for the first Hollow to die under his blade, his mind automatically following the spell incantation.
"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!"
Shakkahou was one of the spells everyone who was at least a few months in the Academy knew. People liked their shinigami to have at least one trick up their sleeve that offered a decent range and a big amount of power. First the students went through few Bakudo and Barrier spells, just to get a grasp on controlling the power and then they were thrown right into casting fireballs at the shooting range.
Renji's kido went three ways. It was either not working at all, it was blowing up in his face - literally - or it was doing something it definitely wasn't supposed to do. The Kido teacher still had no idea what in the world went wrong with that Hainawa spell Renji tried a month ago. It was supposed to bind the mannequin in front of him, not grab and then throw a chair at it.
This definitely wasn't the time to play the usual roulette and check if he could use this in real fight. Anything that went wrong, anything that could throw off the others - and they all will end up dead.
The first spell flew away as soon as Shuuhei finished reciting the lines, casting a red light over the clearing. A moment later, an explosion blossomed right in the middle of Hollow mass, hungrily swallowing their inhuman bodies. a whole bunch of them rushed forward, only to face yet another Shakkahou.
Renji wasn't sure how many of them were destroyed in the fiery onslaught, but there still was a horde of them for them to face. One managed to crept right next to their group and Renji saw the hungry expression on it before he smashed his sword into the mask with all his might. The mask was hard and his sword screeched in protest. Then it broke with a crack and his blade went much deeper than he expected. The flesh underneath wasn't hard at all.
Why nobody told him how it felt when his sword entered a body?!, Renji thought with fury, trying to fight of sudden nausea.
"Good job!" Hisagi said. "Now, rotate!"
Standing in one place with so many enemies swarming around was a bad idea. Slowly moving around, rotating so all of them were oriented in the situation at all the times at least gave them a chance to wait for someone to check what was going on. someone surely noticed the sudden spike in Hollow reiatsu by now.
"Crap!" Hisagi suddenly cursed.
Renji blinked and then saw that too. One of the Hollows, a bigger one, with way to many hands to even look human, was doing something. A dark-red light shone through its long, bony fingers.
"Spread, now!"
He had no other choice than just desperately dash forward and roll to the side, hoping to survive, while the air right over his head was cut with a blade made of red light. The beam exploded right over the lake.
Did a lake just fell on me?, Renji though, wiping the unpleasant, hot wetness from his face. His ears were ringing and he barely could hear anything at all.
No time to be shocked now! Renji forced himself to stand up and looked around, searching for his friends.
His eyes widened. Kira and Momo were not that far away, the girl helping the noble to stand up, but a menacing figure was right behind them and they were oblivious to it.
Renji thrown himself forward, barely in time to shield tem with his own sword. The angle of the hit was different than he expected and the monster pushed him away with ease. Renji smacked into Izuru and both of them landed on the ground.
"Shou!" Momo shouted, using the opportunity to force the Hollow away. "You guys okay?"
Her breath was heavy, her usually neat ponytails in disarray and her clothes looked like she spend the last five minutes rolling in the mud. But besides that, she wasn't hurt.
"'m fine!" Kira said, already up and positioning himself so he could have their back. "Where's Hisagi?"
"Dunno," Renji shook his head. "I think it blew him someplace further."
"Crap."
It was a complete different thing to face the Hollows with Hisagi and to trying to do so on their own. Shuuhei had already experience with fighting Hollows, while they were still trying to hit the unmoving target on the range field. Mastered his swordsmanship, while they were stuck at repeating basic moves and only starting on the meditation training needed to communicate with their zanpakutou. Without Hisagi, they were...
The Hollows knew that too. They were forming a tight ring around them, slowly enough so the young shinigami could tell what exactly was going on and what was to come.
"Shit," Kira muttered and Renji could feel his shoulders to start shaking. "Shit, shit, shit!"
It was hard to not agree with him. All Renji could see were hollows, their eyes gleaming hungrily under these horrifying masks, all he could hear was the inhuman, high-pitched chuckle of the monsters and his own frantic heartbeat.
I don't want to, a childish part of Renji protested. I don't want to die! Not now! Not like that!
He heard too many horror stories about Hollows slowly tearing their victims apart, limb after limb, before finally, in a horrifying parody of mercy, swallowing what was left of their prey.
Oddly enough, their players were answered.
With a soft click, a Senkaimon opened not too far from where the three of them were standing and Captain Aizen walked into the clearing. The light was dancing on the surface of his glasses, obscuring his eyes from their vision, but his characteristic, gentle smile was firmly in place.
"My, my!" Gin, who walked through the portal just behind his commanding officer chuckled. "Aren't you in a pickle!"
"Ichimaru," Aizen warned the lieutenant.
"Right," the man didn't look guilty at all. "I deeply apologize. Should I deal with the Hollows now?"
"Go find Shuuhei Hisagi," Captain said with a subtle shake of his head. "He's such a good boy, it would be a shame if he got hurt, right?"
Gin nodded and flash-stepped away, while Aizen reached for his zanpakutou. Renji had no idea when the Captain drew his sword or even when he moved; the man was so fast, the eyes of the mere Academy students were unable to follow his movement. All Renji knew was the fact that the Hollows started to die left and right, their dying screeches filling the clearing with mad cacophony.
Renji's shoulders slumbered and, for the first time since the battle started, he felt like he could breathe with ease once again. He wasn't the only one who felt the wave of relief. Hinamori was standing only because she was holding onto his sleeve, while Kira leaned on his sword like a very old, very tired man, his blond, a bit too long hair were sticking to his face.
It seems that he wasn't the only one who got caught in a hot shower, Renji thought, letting an amused smile spread on his lips. That, was going to be one hell of a story. Rukia probably is going to murder him for almost dying like that, without her around.
He noticed Ichimaru Gin leading Hisagi towards the group, while the Captain nonchalantly chopped the few of the remaining Hollows that had not enough self–preservation instincts to run away while the others were being obliterated.
Feeling no need for the naked blade anymore, Renji sheathed his weapon and the rest of the group did the same. The battle was over.
Or not. Captain Aizen opened his mouth to speak to them, but before the first word came out, something tremendous grew in between them and the Shinigami. It was so much bigger than a normal Hollow that it obscured the Captain completely from their vision, leaving them staring right into the void.
It wasn't exactly dark. Most of it looked like it lacked any color at all, but then, there were white–hot spiderwebs of lightning crawling through the space soundlessly, while bluish, amoeba–like structures floated around aimlessly.
Renji had trouble with tearing his gaze away from the void and Momo seemed to be as much overwhelmed by its presence as he was. The void was framed by whitish structure with odd, complex patterns covering its surface. It looked flat, too. Paper thin flat. The top of the odd structure was a bit wider than the rest of it. The pattern seemed to wrap itself around a plain, bended line, that looked almost like a crescent shape of the moon. It suddenly opened and stared right at them.
Then the creature bended over and in one, lightning fast movement, it feel right in top of them, swallowing them into the lightning filled void.
Oddly enough, they were the ones doing the actual falling. Upwards.
xxx
"...what in the world?" Aizen asked. With a worried frown on his face, he stepped forward, but the students were nowhere to be seen and it didn't look like the monster was coming back either. His brow furrowed deeper and, for the split of a second, a mask slipped off his face, revealing the cold and calculating glare. Something definitely didn't go according to a plan.
"My, my..." Gin sighed, partially because it was a sigh truly worth seeing, the master of lies standing there completely dumbstruck and partially because he needed to warn him before Hisagi noticed that something was off about good Captain. Hisagi was a good kid, after all. It would be a shame to kill him off only because someone couldn't keep his face in check.
"This is... unexpected," Gin continued. The amused tone of his voice definitely caught the kid's attention, because now Hisagi was staring at him with partially horrified expression. Partially, because there definitely was a lot of fury too. "I never saw anything like that before."
"H-how can you be so cold?!" the young shinigami tripped on his words. "Those were kids! It was supposed to be a safe training trip and I couldn't-!"
"Shush," Aizen said gently, laying a hand on Hisagi's shoulder, the gentle persona back in its place. "We don't know anything yet, not for sure. I'm planning on going straight to the Twelfth Division as soon as we return to the Seireitei."
Hisagi's eyes widened. "You... think they are still alive?!"
"It looked somewhat like a Garganta," Ichimaru shrugged. Then looked around. "My, my. We really shouldn't leave those just lying around, do we?"
He gestured towards the swords rather than bodies of the fallen senior students. The bodies were invisible for human eyes and were going to turn into reiatsu anyway. The kid, reminded of such harsh reality shuddered visibly, but then pulled herself together and straightened his back and marched towards fallen friends, to carefully pick up their zanpakutou's.
"Would you like me to talk to their close ones?" Aizen asked softly.
"No," Shuuhei shook his head. "If anyone can get to the bottom of this, it's definitely you, Captain."
Guilt trip, Gin decided. The kid was definitely guilt tripping himself even now, for letting his friends die and then leading three dumb kids to the exact same fate. Brat was definitely for a hell of a ride, but if suffering was what he wanted...
Gin shrugged.
"Just remember to stop by the Fourth too," Aizen reminded the kid, while Gin was occupied with opening the Senkaimon. "Your wound doesn't look deep, but better safe, than sorry."
Hisagi's hand moved towards his face in a knee-jerk reaction. His fingers touched the bloodied skin and then jerked away, surprised by the sudden pang of pain.
Gin shook his head with amusement. The kid was so easy to read!
xxx
It wasn't a bad day for Rukia, but it could definitely go better. while Renji was having a blast on his first time out in the human world, for the first time in his life using his zanpakutou to help lost souls pass on, she was stuck in the Academy, where one of the teachers once again pointed out how poor her Zanjutsu skills were. Not that he wasn't right, Rukia was miserable with a sword in her hand, the blade too long and too heavy for her to swing with ease like the others did.
It was probably the only thing that kept her out of the Accelerated Class Renji managed to got himself into.
They still shared most of the lectures, which was good; Renji's schedule was so packed it was hard to find time to actually sit down and talk. And talking, definitely was very, very important. Among the noble kids and people from the mid-Rukon, they were sticking out like a sore thumb. Renji especially, with his ridiculous height and bright red hair. His personality wasn't helping either.
Luckily enough, Renji managed to smash his face into the just right grave marking. Izuru Kira, who was just visiting his parents grave, happened to be a very nice person and decided to take two Inuzuri street rats under his wing. Rukia couldn't help herself and asked about his reasons.
"It would be stupid to not help you," he answered with a small shrug. "We all want to be shinigami, no? We are going to be comrades in arms. I think we already are."
"...so, you want us to have your back?" Rukia asked carefully.
"I never was outside the walls of Seireitei," Kira admitted without a shame. "And there are missions far in the Rukongai all the time. Besides, what sort of a man pick on his comrades?"
Izuru Kira was an idealist. Sort of. He tended to see the world in dark colors, but it also made him reach towards people, hoping to add something brighter to the palette. Rukia didn't want to argue too much. They really needed all the help they could get and they needed it now.
Several months later even Renji managed to somewhat fit, even if he still had his little overenthusiastic moments in class. But making fun of him because of that was like kicking a puppy, so people got bored with it, eventually. Besides, they quickly discovered that Renji was making notes on everything and good notes were always precious on the school grounds. Especially the well–detailed ones.
Rukia sighed. She knew he was being used and he knew that too. But starting a war in this place didn't make any sense; they all were going to become shinigami, so they at least had to act like they tolerated each other. And even if they wanted to pay somebody back – there were no strength behind Renji and Rukia, while many of the other students got big families that had their back and money to pay people to deal with the problem for them. Risking a conflict just wasn't worth it.
There was a knock on the doors. Did Renji decided to finally show up and tell her how the whole outing went? She sure was going to punch him for that one it was late as hell and he wasn't even supposed to be in girls dorm rooms at this time!
"Renji, what in the world do you think you're-!" she started. Then stopped.
It wasn't Renji on the other side of the doors.
Pretty much all of the students learned to recognize the new rising legend pretty much on the spot. Even now, with his shoulders slumbered and half of the face covered in bandages. But what in the world Hisagi Shuuhei wanted from her?
Rukia blinked, suddenly feeling a strong grip of cold overwhelming her body and squeezing her stomach tightly. It was known among the students that he already took missions as a shinigami, even if he hadn't finished the Academy yet. One of the most common task of his was to overview the first few times the freshmen spend in the world of living. He probably was there with Renji's team too.
What he was doing here? The question was ringing in her mind, her head suddenly twice the size.
"I'm sorry," she managed to squeeze out of the throat. "Why are you here? What's going on? It... it isn't Renji, right?"
He lowered his head.
Oh no. No, no, no, no!
"I'm so sorry," he said softly.
Rukia swallowed. Alone, she was all alone now. They went here to avoid the loneliness, Renji and she. They decided to become shinigami, because everybody else was dead. They were supposed to lie long and be happy and have little brats gasp in awe at their sight.
"What happened?"
"I'm still unsure," Hisagi sighed. "There were so many Hollows, suddenly appearing all around..."
"But... aren't the places supposed to be safe?" Rukia asked, her mind still numb with shock.
"They are," Hisagi nodded. "All the students are supposed to do is to perform a Konsou of the spirits, after a full–fledged shinigami secured the territory. It was safe, without a trace of hollow reiatsu..." he shook his head.
"I understand," Rukia slowly nodded. "And I thank you for thinking of me."
"I'm so sorry I couldn't do anything for them."
Them. So Kira too... and probably that girl, Rukia never could catch her name. Something with fruits and flowers in it, nice and delicate name.
"...he went down fighting, didn't he?"
Hisagi nodded. "They were amazing. I don't want to give you false hope, but..."
He told her about the unusual hollow that carried a garganta like structure in its mouth.
It was something.
Rukia was still a realist. If it was a garganta, then they were already dead, torn to shreds by the hollows and absorbed into their cursed bodies, imprisoned in nightmare and forced to give the monsters their strength.
Horrendous fate.
"Thank you," she nodded shortly. "For telling me that. You wasn't supposed to, wasn't you?"
"I keep an eye on the new students... you two... you were like a family. You deserved at least that."
Rukia nodded and thanked him once again. Hisagi left and she closed the doors behind him with a soft click. They were made from a pine tree, cheap, but in such nice shape, even after seeing many, many students who lived in here before her. In this place, even stupid doors were an amazing thing. The roof was always whole and the cold wind never managed to sneak inside. They had spare clothes, a true luxury from someone the lower Rokungai, and there was more food in the mess–hall than they saw in their entire lives. It was like walking into a wonderland after crawling through a nightmare. everything they even dreamed of waiting for them.
Was that the price then? For these few short months of having a stomach full and a real bed? Such an awfully high price for something the others called scraps.
Rukia had no idea, how long she stood there, clinging to the doors like she was stupid, with tears streaming down her face, leaving a wet traces on her uniform and the wood. She didn't care much. It all will be gone long before the sunrise.
xxx
Uzumaki Naruto was eleven years old and wanted to be the strongest ninja ever. Right now, he was quite far from his goal. After all, he just failed his exam and for the second time. Then one of the teachers showed up, that nice guy with grey hair who was one of the few that never gave him a stinky eye for no reason and told him a little secret. There was a second chance, a very special quest to bypass the boring rules and get the new, shiny head protector anyway!
Though right now it felt more like Naruto stepped right into something funny.
Mizuki told him that the mission to pass exam was to sneak into the Hogage Tower and grab a scroll from there. Then, Naruto had to get to the Konoha's border, while not letting other shinobi to find him.
Hiding was the easy part. Because people didn't like to notice Naruto very much, he forced them to notice him, pulling pranks all over the village. After the pranking was done - and sometimes in the middle of it - he had to run away from pissed of shinobi. That gave him quite a neat start. And Iruka was screaming his lungs out at him so many times, saying that pranks were a waste of time!
Sneaking into places was not to be in wasn't too difficult either. Naruto lost count of how many times he was late for school, but managed to get to his desk unnoticed (or the other way around. Sometimes the school was just too boring to really care and he was quietly letting himself out).
The stinky part was about getting the scroll so close to the Konoha's borders. Maybe Naruto wasn't among the best students - his scores said he couldn't be further from it - but he knew perfectly well that if something was important enough to stick it right under Hokage's butt then it was well... important. A lot. Would they really risk something like that for a test? Sure, Naruto was going to be awesome, but a Genin. Genin's were not fancy enough for super-secret scroll from the Hokage's tower, they couldn't even get into some sections of the library, because it was restricted!
"This is like the most important missions are looking like, Naruto," Mizuki explained, when he asked about it. "How do you think Konoha is recruiting the ANBU forces?"
"ANBU?" Naruto blinked. "Shouldn't they be Jonins, or something?"
"If they all were Jonins don't you think that somebody would notice the best and brightest of Konoha dissapearing all the time?" Mizuki asked with a smile.
He was right, it would be hard to not notice the connection that was between Jonins not being in the village or on the official missions, while the super-awesome ninja stuff was going on elsewhere. Besides, ANBU were the one who were supposed to do stuff like stealing scroll from the other Hokage's and bringing these home, while the rest of the village was either playing stupid or was just oblivious to the whole thing. Obviously, they wouldn't send a Genin to be to a foreign village and risk an outlash of anger if something went south...
But still, the whole situation stank. Especially that part when the grey-haired Chunin joined Naruto.
"I'm here as an observant," Mizuki said. "You're the boss on this mission."
Naruto wanted to trust Mizuki. He was supposed to, the man was an Academy Teacher and he was one of the few who were nice to Naruto. But the village buildings were already behind them and the forest was thinning. Naruto knew they were getting too close to the border. soon enough, they would reach that place where the grass suddenly swallowed the whole terrain like someone suddenly chopped all the trees off and then the Valley of the End would become visible.
"What's going on?" Mizuki asked, nice smile still on his face. "Are you tired?"
Naruto was slowing down gradually, hoping for the shinobi to not notice it, but well. Mizuki was a ninja and it would say bad things about Konoha if a Leaf Chunin wouldn't be able to notice things like decrease in speed.
"Uh-huh," Naruto agreed. "It's pretty heavy for a scroll, you know?"
"You can hand it over then," Mizuki proposed. There was an odd twinkle in his eyes.
"Aren't I supposed to carry it all the way there?"
"We are alone," the teacher grinned. "I promise not to tell anyone that we cheated a little bit!"
Alone. It felt like Naruto swallowed an ice cube, because there was a sudden weight in his stomach and it was turning his blood so cold his hands felt numb. During the normal exams there were at least two examiners and someone in the shadows to oversee the process. Heck, Naruto spotted more than once a Genin team hidden in the class during the normal tests. Even if it was a challenge to become an ANBU someone other than Mizuki would be observing Naruto's progress. But there was no one, just like Mizuki said.
Oh crap, the realization hit him with enough force to crush boulders. Oh crap, this is not an exam at all!
"Can we stop for a moment?" Naruto asked carefully.
Mizuki's brow furrowed in an instand. "May I ask why, Naruto?"
"Well, the others surely knows that I snatched the scroll by know," he answered, hoping to sound nonchalant. "So, they would probably head right for the border, right? We can, like, wait them out and then decide how to sneak between them unnoticed, right?"
Mizuki looked at him for a long moment. The grass was up to his knees, bending with the wind and filling the heavy air between them with noise.
"That's a pretty smart plan, Naruto."
He blinked, still hoping that it was only a test and he reached the end of it, so the world could go back to normal.
"Sadly," Mizuki continued. "You already know what is really going on, am I right?"
Naruto sighed. So, that was it. He was played.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Why," Mizuki snickered. "They are always asking that, don't they?"
"Please," Naruto begged. "We can still turn this around. I-We can tell that it was all just a prank!"
"Oh, Naruto!" Mizuki laughed. "Didn't mommy tell you that is a bad thing to lie like that?"
He chuckled.
"Oh, yeah, silly me!" Mizuki shook his head. With a corner of his eye Naruto noticed a kunai, suddenly appearing in his hand. "Demons don't come with mother in tow!"
"...what are you talking about?" Naruto shook his head and took a careful step back. Stupid grass, it was swallowing him up to his hips and betraying his every move. He needed a change of terrain, fast!
"Wouldn't you wanna know," Mizuki's smile turned more sinister. "Anyway, I have two packages to deliver for my real cage. One is the scroll, the other - you."
"Me?" Naruto blinked, backing off some more. Trees, he needed to go in between the tress. The ground was much more sturdy there, more places to hide, too. "Why me? I'm... I'm a dead last! I'm just a kid!"
"Oh, Naruto!" he shook his head in clear amusement. "That, you never were."
Suddenly, the air was pushed out of Naruto's lungs and his back smacked into some hard surface with a mind–numbing thud. He desperately fought for breath, black stains already dancing in front of his eyes.
Found a tree, he thought, even if it really wasn't time to joke.
Naruto pushed himself forward, jumping as far as he could, his vision still blurry from the hit. A kunai followed in his wake, the blade missing by an inch. A second one darted from the opposite side, ripping a tear in his shirt.
Away, away, away! Naruto desperately pushed himself forward, trying to change the direction of his escape suddenly and as random as possible. Random was good, random always threw people off and slowed them down just enough to give him a chance-
Something his Naruto on the leg and it was enough to throw him off balance. He managed to fell on his side instead of smashing the ground with his face and rolled behind a tree.
He pulled himself back up, ignoring the unpleasant wetness in his sandal.
"Persistent, aren't you?!" Mizuki shouted after him. "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you!"
Naruto wasn't fast enough, he knew that now. And that wet feeling on his leg... he pushed the though away. That wasn't helping either. But there were shurikens in the ground right where he dropped on the ground mere seconds ago.
He rushed back and grabbed all three of them, not slowing down.
The sudden change of direction surprised Mizuki enough that he stopped to look around.
Naruto threw two of the shurikens.
The man whirled around and the first projectile meet his kunai with a painful clang. The second one, however...
The smirk left Mizuki's face as he tore it out of his leg, his eyes flickering with bloodlust.
"I," he said slowly in a menacing, low voice. "Am going to rough you up really good!"
Naruto gulped and squeezed his weapon. The metal was slippery in his sweaty fingers and he couldn't drop it, not now, not when the man in front his pulled a whole new set of sharp projectiles.
He gulped, his eyes widening. All he needed to do was to parry a few of them, Naruto told himself, trying to stay calm. It was almost like tossing a hot potato, only the potato had some sharp edges. If he do it at the just right angle, then there would be more stuff to Naruto throw at that awful guy.
He bend his knees, trying to make himself as small target as possible, ready to dodge.
The shurikens were in the air and then the air was filled with high, unpleasant sound of metal smashing into other pieces of steel... only it wasn't Naruto who blocked the projectiles. There was someone towering over him. The guy was huge and wearing white and blue clothes, an empty katana sheath dangling from his belt, while the blade was shining in his hand.
A samurai? Naruto blinked in confusion.
"Hey, asshole!" the man growled at Mizuki. "You find picking on kids funny?!"
A/N: Hello. I probably shouldn't toy around yet another story but damn, this thing ambushed me. And it's kinda fun to write. I'm probably more smashing the canon with a baseball bat than tweaking it a wee bit, but eh. Sue me.
If someone cared to read the lyrics instead of scrolling down to the actual story (guilty and charged here, I'm always doing that), you probably can guess where I'm going with this thing.