OK, guys, here's the deal. As you can see, this is my first story. I've finished it, so there'll be more chapters up.
Shadow and Light
Chapter 1: The long intro
Readers must note that the author had to eat three muffins for inspiration, as her brain was hurting from playing Ghost Trick.
Hikari was just your normal average girl, with dark brown hair she tied up in a ponytail, a denim skirt and a black jumper that had a cat's face on it (seriously, WTH?) and russet brown eyes. She lived with her cousin, Max and her uncle Paul.
Sure, she was a bit random, had a liking for Seth from Dinosaur King (but who wouldn't? That guy's smoking hot!) and she might have a tendency to threaten people with her frying pan while cooking (a guy in her science class learned the hard way to not mess with her when she had blunt instruments that were deadly)
The point is, she was not the type to get involved in other people's business, bring someone back from the dead and team up with a velociraptor tamer, a random familiar hedgehog and a stray cat that likes pancakes.
It all started two moons-I mean, months- ago, at her uncle's house.
-Two months earlier-
It was a sunny afternoon, up on Snowpoint mountain. Inside a house, half way up the mountain, a young boy about 10 years old, with short light brown hair, hazel brown eyes and blue shorts with an orange t-shirt. He was sitting at a desk, playing Pokemon Ranger: Tracks of Light (oh, the irony!) when there was loud barking and yelling from downstairs.
"Max! Get Kuro away from me!"
He sighed and went down the stairs. A man with black hair and grey eyes, wearing a normal suit was trying to shoo a shiba-inu with brown fur away. The man saw the kid standing at the door.
"Call him off!" the stranger called.
The boy nodded.
"Come here, Kuro!" he yelled. The dog bounded over to him, and sat by his side, growling softly.
Soon after, two other people came though the door, carrying a stretcher. Kuro started barking and jumping up and down.
"What is that?" Max asked, inquisitively stepping closer.
Paul (for that was the other person's name) walked in front of him.
"It's none of your business stuff." he replied, curtly.
"Oh? Is it a birthday present?"
Paul turned to the other people waiting for him.
"Carry it into my study, and wait for me outside," he ordered.
The two men nodded, and walked off down a nearby passageway. Then he looked at Max.
"If I catch you in my study, you'll be grounded for a month." he said.
Max flinched, while Kuro whimpered.
"Sheesh. I wasn't interested in it anyway."
Hikari came down the stairs into the room.
"What's with the long faces?" the girl asked.
"Nothing. Now, I'm going away for a few days, so I need you to take care of Max."
Paul stood aside while the other men passed, but failed to see a glowing red gem fall out of one of their pockets. It rolled away under the sofa with a quiet clink. Kuro stood up, and headed over to it, curiously.
"There's pizza in the fridge, but don't touch my coffee, and try not to blow the house up."
Paul continued, waving to them as he walked down the garden path. Hikari closed the door.
"What a positive guy he is!" she said sarcastically.
"I think he's in one of his moods today…" Max trailed off as he heard the unmistakable sound of a shiba-inu trying to swallow something.
"Kuro, no! Drop it!" he shouted, hustling over.
The shiba-inu spat out the red gem and whined. Max picked up the red gem, wiped the drool that was on it, and showed it to Hikari.
"Look at it! It's so shiny!" he said, eyes going round. Hikari facepalmed as he started dancing around, singing, "I'm so rich!"
"You don't even know where it came from." she interrupted.
Max stopped jumping. "Oh…what if this belongs to a violent gang? What if it belongs to a secret ninja clan who don't take prisoners?"
Max dropped the jewel and started hyperventilating.
"Cover me, Kuro!" he cried, hiding under a table.
Kuro growled and ran down the corridor to the study.
"What's wrong with Kuro?" Hikari pondered.
"He's been acting like that all morning."
Max said. There was some more thunderous barking, and a clanging sound from the study.
"I'll just see what's going on." Hikari said, following Kuro.
"Be careful of the ninja clan!" Max yelled. Hikari just picked up the gem, and walked off.
Inside the study was big (so big it was practically a library). The lighting was dull and miserable, There were papers strewn about on a desk by the wall, and the room was silent. Hikari crept around, searching for Kuro.
"Kuro! Here, boy!" she called, peering around a bookshelf. Then she heard some snarling. Hikari turned to see the small canine defensively standing near a table covered by some cloth. She petted Kuro quickly.
"Come on, let's get out of here." she muttered.
Kuro bristled his fur, and growled warily, with his ears flattened down. At that point, Hikari's catlike curiosity got the better of her. She slowly reached for the cloth and pulled it off the table. Much to her shock and amazement, there was a black hedgehog with red stripes lying there.
"Well, this is weird…" she said to Kuro, who barked.
"Hey, furry, are you awake?" she asked, poking the hedgehog. There was no reply, not even a little snore.
"Hmm." as she turned, Max bolted in,
"Hikari! The ninjas are attacking!" he shouted, panicking.
"Look at what I found!" she announced. Max peered at the hedgehog, then freaked out more.
"He's dead! The ninjas got him!" he ran around in circles. Hikari sighed, and turned back to the hedgehog. Despite all the noise, he was not moving at all. Hikari's eyes turned round like saucers.
"Max…I think we should leave…that guy's dead…." as she backed away, she dropped the jewel right on top of the hedgehog. Max grabbed her arm.
"Of course he's dead, Captain Obvious!" he yelled. They raced out.
"I wonder what Paul wants with that dead hedgehog…" Hikari mumbled, pacing up and down in the room.
"I still think the ninjas teamed up with Orochimaru and killed him." Max said, still not calm about the whole jewel incident. Hikari shot him a funny look.
"This isn't about Naruto and…I think I left the jewel with the dead guy…." Max gasped at her.
"Great, now one of us will have to go in there and get it back." he fumed.
"I'll go, since I'm the responsible adult here." Hikari said, courageously. Kuro whined and started barking again.
"Kuro, shush!" Max exclaimed, getting up and grabbing his lead. He turned to Hikari.
"I'm going to go and walk him, ok?"
He ran outside. Hikari sighed and sat on the sofa. She was now officially stuck with a dead guy.