So, someone asked that I continued this story. I wanted to go back through it and actually redo some parts before I continued. So, I won't be actually posting a new chapter till I go through the older ones. I hope that you guys enjoy this story. It might be a little slow starting out, but I promise that it will pick up! This is an older story of mine.
Chapter 1 – Beginnings
Soft, lavender colored hair falls into the tired looking face of a young girl. Her shaking hands clasp tightly onto equally shaking legs. She's been working on this jutsu for what felt like forever. She has practiced it so many times that she's lost count. Her breaths are coming out in short, ragged pants. Teal colored eyes close tightly in humiliation, and the young girl mentally berates herself for not picking up what she considered to be an easy jutsu.
Obnoxious laughter makes her eyes snap open and flash up to the source of the annoying noise. The young blonds boy has his arms tightly wrapped around his midsection, and he is bent forward just enough that he looks like he might be in pain. She lifts her nose a little. It'd serve him right to be in pain, since he was laughing at her. The blond shaggy hair on his head falls down to cover his face. It prevented her from seeing if he was actually in pain, much to her disappointment. She vaguely remembers him mentioning something about growing it out. He said that he had a good reason, but it was lost within her memory. It mustn't be that good if she couldn't even remember it. His skinny, but broad shoulders shake with his laughter. The loose, black training shirt that he was wearing showed no signs of the training the two young Rock Shinobi had been doing for the last hour or so. Even his calf-length, black pants had barely any dirt on them. He was devoid of his headband. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time he had worn it.
Her clothes, on the other hand, are a completely different story. Like him, she wears a loose training shirt, but it's more blue than black. The only difference in the design of their shirts is that hers has a slight v-neckline that shows just a little more skin than his. She sports black shorts that stop just above her knee. Both pieces of clothing are covered in mud and sweat from their little sparring session. She had left her headband at home. She had learned that the boy in front of her fought dirty. He wasn't above grabbing her headband, since she typically wore it around her neck. He'd only had to strangle her with it twice before she decided that it was best to just leave it at home. She had been trying to prefect a jutsu that had been taught to her by her older brother, and the blonde boy had offered to help her. It was simple. All she had to do was create a mirage of herself without actually casting a gentjutsu. It was nothing more than to draw the opponent's attention.
The laughter begins to echo around her. Her irritations continue to grow. Her fists slowly curl into fists around her pants. She straightens her spine and grits her teeth. Her teal eyes narrow angrily at him, though he doesn't seemed to have noticed, or maybe he just doesn't really care.
"Oh, shut up, Deidara! I don't have to beat you to know you'll always be a spoiled brat," she snaps. Without meaning to, her face melts into a playful grin.
"At least I'm not the one who ends up on my butt every time we practice a jutsu, hmm," Deidara replies now that his laughter had almost completely stopped. It served him right to be panting now.
She scoffs and turns her gaze to a kunai that she had dropped at some point during the training session. The playful smile becomes downright mischievous. Her eyes raise to meet his. He straightens up. All traces of amusement gone from his face. He eyes her with suspicion. After all, she wasn't above fighting dirty either, and the last thing he wanted was to get hit by a cheap shot. Her voice comes out slightly arrogant as she says. "It would only hurt your pride if a woman beat you, so I have to take it easy. You know, let you win."
He rolls both of his bright blue eyes and walks to her side. He proceeds to flop down onto to the ground beside her. She raises an eyebrow at him, but she doesn't a thing to him. Slowly, she eases herself down beside him. She loosely wraps her arms around her knees and lets out a soft breath. For a brief moment, she wonders if she smells bad, but she quickly pushes the thought out of her head. Of course she smelled bad. She had just spent the last hour rigorously training and sweating. Disgust fills her and the need for a bath begins to swell in her body. She tries to push the feeling away. She didn't have long to be with her friend after all.
Deidara lifts his hands in front of his face. His eyes begin to search the palms of his hands, as if the mouths they contain will answer some unasked question he has on his mind at that moment. He sighs after an uneventful minute and balls them into fists. His gaze is cast skyward, and he feels his heart grow heavy at the sight that meets his eyes. A soft pink color was creeping along the edge of darkened sky. It was almost time for the two to go their separate ways for the day.
His blue gaze turns to observe one of the few people he would actually consider a friend in the village. Upon feeling his gaze, the lavender-haired girl shifts her weight to get a better look at him. Curious teal eyes turn to meet his. She tilts her head to one side. Her arms are tucked beneath her thighs now; it's almost as if she wants to pull her legs to her chest. To him, it makes her looks slightly vulnerable.
"Hey, Ishiko," Deidara says, sounding almost lost in thought.
"Hmm?" was the unenthusiastic answer he receives. It doesn't seem to faze him though.
"What's your team like, hm?" he asks. He truly wasn't curious about her team. He just felt he needed to say something. Anything to get his mind off the fading time he had with her. For as long as he could remember, Ishiko had been his friend. The girl really wasn't ninja material. She was much too soft, and she shied away from the sight of blood, or gore of any kind. In the fact, she tried to avoid any and all violence, even arguments. That didn't mean she would back down though. She was fierce in her own way, and she was quite the handful to deal with when her stubborn streak hit. She cared more about her friends and family than what she called 'a silly little mission'. In every other aspect, she was fantastic. Her chakra control seemed like it would become unrivaled in the village when she was fully grown, and she usually pick up jutsus fast. Still, he felt an unexplainable need to protect her. He just assumed that it was because the bullies felt naturally drawn to her. The reason for this was most likely her usually quiet nature. She was also small for her size. It made her look like an easy target. Actually, it looked like if he squeezed her too hard every bone in her body would shatter to a million, microscopic pieces.
"Hmm, they're…..nice," Ishiko finishes lamely. Her teal gaze locks with the rising sun. The fact of the matter was both the boys on her team were not only obnoxious, but they fought terribly with one another. They were rough with missions. In fact, Deidara was sure they had failed more missions than they succeeded. They fought not only with each other, but the loudest, rudest one also fought with their sensei. Her sensei was nice, but he followed the rules down to the letter. He was known for leaving members of his team behind if they were late to the meeting place.
"Liar," Deidara scoffs. He stretches back into a laying position and rests his hands behind his head. He didn't like the two boys on her team. To him, they were useless, bickering idiots. If Ishiko ever needed them, Deidara was afraid she'd be out of luck. He could barely spend any time with Ishiko, because the rude boy on her team had some rivalry with one of the boys on his own team. The boy would always pick a fight with Deidara, and it would be Deidara who got in trouble and sent before their kage. It was only in the early morning hours that they got uninterrupted, quality time together. Ishiko and himself would sneak of their houses to meet at the training grounds where they would proceed to train with one another.
"They just argue a lot. They hardly ever involve me in the arguments." This seems to have some truth, because he really doesn't see her actually trying to calm the two morons. "Well, I have to go. See ya later Dei-kun!"
He raises his head just enough to watch her jog away. His head lowers when she is out of sight, and he watches a pink sky start to change to a calming blue. He knows his own team will be meeting soon, but his thoughts begin to wonder back his friend. From there, his thoughts turn to a more depressing matter. Would she be alright?
The silver haired boy glares at Ishiko. He's at least two years older than her own 9 years of age, and he carries enough attitude to show it. His black eyes radiate the mistrust and hate he holds for the younger girl. It's obvious to anyone who cared enough to look at him that raw power is his strength. He was large, even for an eleven year old boy. Ishiko could see muscles beginning to form along his arms.
The silver hair on his head is grown out to the bottom of his ears, with a greasy-looking texture to it. Ishiko didn't know if it was actually greasy to the touch. She tried to avoid touching him in any form. His eyes are strangely close together, and he squints in an attempt to look threatening. His nose is far too large for his face. It looked like it might have been broken a couple of times, and on the contrary his mouth is too small; his voice can be booming, though. He has very broad shoulders, but his body continues to narrow the closer to the ground it gets. Since he is older than Ishiko, he's at least five inches taller and uses this fact to try to intimidate her.
The other boy is like a polar opposite of his teammate. He has short, spiky, dark brown hair. It almost looked like melted dark chocolate. His eyes hold a deceivingly, warm mud-colored gaze. He, too, is a two years older than Ishiko. Because of this, he is a couple inches taller. Unlike her other obnoxious teammate, his facial features are set almost to perfection. A lot of the girls his age were known to have crushes on him. He was actually popular. Everything from his normal sized nose to his perfect mouth was almost like a dream come true. Ishiko's cheeks dust with pink with the thought of how cute he was running through her mind. Hey, even though she is young, she is still a girl and had every right to day-dream, right?
"You and Sensei are late today! What did you two do? Oh, wait, you scr-" the gruff, coarse voice of the silver-haired boy starts to practically yell. He was already starting to grate on Ishiko's nerves. Thankfully, another smoother voice interrupts his loud insult.
"Don't even think of saying anything else, baka," her dark-haired teammate practically snaps. His quick temper was the source of his obnoxiousness. It was actually the only thing unattractive about him. Unfortunately for Ishiko, she's seen it multiple times, up close and personal.
"Don't call me a moron or tell me what to do, Kaemon, you asshole!" growls the silver-haired boy. It sounded lame, even to Ishiko, who barely bit back the giggles. Kaemon gives the other boy an unamused look from his position, which is currently reclining against one of the various rock formations at the gates of the Rock Village.
"Watch your mouth. There is a girl present, Taro," Kaemon states finishing it off with a cold glare.
Taro looks from side to side in a mock attempt to find Ishiko. "Oh really? I don't see one." His eyes finally land on Ishiko. "All I see is worthless scum. Hell, her family is so good at spying. I'm willing to bet my next paycheck on saying they are backstabbers. How do we even know that they aren't selling our information to our enemies?"
Ishiko feels rage begin claw at her stomach and heart. Kaemon's mud-colored gaze falls onto Ishiko's white knuckled hands with a look of disinterest. He's seen her upset many times before. In fact, it happened almost every day. Still, she looked ready to actually fight Taro, and that fact alone peeked his interest. It causes him sit up straighter, too. The slimy feel of Taro's gloating grin pores off of him in what feels like colossal waves. Kaemon silently urges Ishiko to land a punch right on Taro's malformed nose. He was sick of sticking up for her.
"I see the three of you are getting along just fine….once again," a deep voice drones. "I thought you'd all be happy to be getting an actual mission outside the village today. It looks like you aren't though. Perhaps I will tell the Tsuchikage to give the mission to a more worthy team."
The voice immediately commands their undivided attention. The three turn their heads toward the source. A man with black hair, riddled with grey, is walking toward them with a deep set frown on his face. His grey eyes are barely visible past his half closed eyelids. Though he is at least in his thirties, he has no facial hair to speak of. In Ishiko's private opinion, he's a short for a guy, though she couldn't accurately pinpoint his height. His headband is wrapped around the thigh of his right leg. Other than that, his appearance is that of an average shinobi, only he doesn't wear a flak jacket like the rest of his rank.
His large hand comes up to run his fingers through his hair. He could tell this would be a long day. Not only was Kaemon and Taro fighting, even Ishiko was rallied up to fight. His eyelids slide closed. What had he ever done to deserve this? The other genin squads didn't seem to have so many heated arguments in public. It just had to his team. He had just made jounin rank, and he was immediately forced to take on a squad. It was just his luck that he was forced to be with the most embarrassing squad in Rock history. In fact, they couldn't even get over their differences to baby sit some rich brat. They had some managed to lose a five year old.
The sound of flesh hitting flesh and a deep, yet loud, curse of pain makes their sensei's body tense in aggravation. He closes his eyes and lets out a loud sigh. This next week was going to be nothing but hell.
"Whore! Why the hell did you hit me?!" Anyone could guess who that was.
"You no good, beaten, piece of trash! Take back what you said about my family!" That had to have been Ishiko. This shocked the older man. He hadn't ever heard her yell in the two months they had been on a squad. The piece about her family makes him understand what is going on. She had her family's pride to back up.
"Sora-sensei," a smooth young voice breaks the man's thoughts. His grey eyes lazily open and focus on the genin talking to him. Kaemon shakes his head and vaguely gestures toward his physically fighting teammates. Ishiko was keeping just out of Taro's reach. The questioning words he says next is the thought that is on everyone's mind.
"This is going to be a long week, isn't it?"