"Phew what a day …" a worn out young adult man sighed as he walked down the lonely, nightlight streets of Konoha. Through his brown eyes he saw ahead the building he shared with his old team when he was just a Genin. Even though the city lights were dim, his bright red hair almost shone through the dark streets as it spiked upwards. He stood around 5 feet 8 inches from the ground, and wore a pair of black pants and a black shirt. On the back, a spiral red symbol stitched into the fabric of his camo green vest as it was fully zippered up. He wore a pair of small rectangular glasses with black rims, just recently had he come down with the loss of his ability to see things from a distance and wearing glasses was a pain for him. One pouch on his right hip for kunais, the pouch on the adjacent hip for his shruikens. Knock knock … the sound of tapping against hard oak wood was heard from inside the house. "Who is it …" a girl asked from within, kind of lazily. She opened the door – "the one and only Takuto" he said unenthusiastically. Takuto proceeded to the couch lying on the opposite side of the room with plain white walls; it rested in front of 2 full sized windows.
"You're a fatty, that's what's so unique about you" she smiled jokingly, in a bit of an obnoxious tone. She had long blonde hair, inch long black tips at the bottom of each strand of hair. It reached her waist; she had not bothered to cut it for some time. Wearing a simple but elegant off white dress that came down to her knees. The silky fabric donned beautiful rose like patterns on the abdomen area of it, and a small purple belt tied the thing together. Even though her height was 7 inches above 5 feet, she hunched over a wooden chair with a cup of ramen in her hands, looking over at the tired Takuto. "Genin and Kozu wear you out today?" she asked. He thought for a moment, thinking perversely and then remembering he was not immature like he was when he was 12. "Zorah, your sis can be such a drill sergeant sometimes, and the kids are just like Naruto and his gang!" he sighed. "What am I gonna do with them?" he thought to himself.
"Hideyo is the wild ambitious guy who's always proclaiming that he knows everything" Takuto went on. "cough Naruto cough" Zorah said immaturely, for old times sake. "Rokuro is like Cali's old crush Sasuke, he's a little depressed kid who's actually a good ninja for someone his age" Takuto chuckled a bit, Zorah laughed cause she remembered all those times when their other roommate Cali used to follow Sasuke around trying to go out with him.
"What did you say about me?!?!" Cali stepped through the doorway; apparently back from her "secret" training. She wore a black outfit, sleeves that covered her shoulders; the outfit was cut slightly at the hips to reveal a pair of tight shorts she wore under them. Cali's black hair barely touched her shoulders as she stood at 5 feet 3 inches; blue bangs emphasized the dark brown eyes she had. She carried kunais and shurikens, the standard ninja weapons of Konoha. "Oh nothing, just reminiscing all those fun times Taco-toes and I had watching you follow hopelessly after Sasuke Uchihia" Zorah said evilly, she was always the "mean joker" of the squad. "Shut up! I wanted to punch in your faces for that –"just then, Cali interrupted herself by starting to laugh at Takuto's childhood nickname "Haha Taco-toes …" she laughed with Zorah. Takuto sighed after this "you know, looking back and seeing that I was the most immature back then, I now realize that you 2 will never change" he retorted.
Zorah walked back over to the kitchen and put some more ramen in her bowl, eating it with her chopsticks. "Hey … what ever happened to Zameskara?" Zorah asked, wondering what happened to their old squad mate who left abruptly, Cali being his replacement. "Brain transplant? Cancer? Switched genders?" he started throwing out random guesses. " … ANYWAY … remember when Zorah died her hair tips in blood?" Cali brought up. "Uhh … we can skip this part –"Zorah began, when Takuto shot up from his lying down position on the couch to a sitting position and talked loudly to Cali from across the room where she had been standing. "Yeah! And then she kept saying pensively" he started mocking Zorah in a sweet innocent girly voice "who's Itachi? Isn't he that hot guy from Akatsuki?" he and Cali then laughed boisterously and Zorah put her hands on her hips "HEY! I wasn't that … ditsy" she exclaimed, which made Takuto and Cali laugh even more. "Well hey, I got farther then Cali did on her "Uchihia" expedition, I married the guy!" Zorah was right, she and Itachi married 2 years ago, but they do not live together. It is almost like a loose marriage, they see each other occasionally. That set Takuto back into another one of his infamous flashbacks. Zorah used to go crazy over Itachi whenever he was around; it was not quite like the kind of obsession that Cali had over Sasuke.
I mean, in Takuto's opinion Sasuke was just a crush for Cali, some pretty faced guy who had a terrible upbringing. Eventually Cali got over Sasuke, after they graduated and the whole squad went their separate ways for a few years. Takuto went away to the sound village because after the incident where his older, psychotic brother Kiyoshi nearly killed him, he saw the need to train intensely to improve his ninja skills. Cali had not changed much, she always lived in Konoha, and Takuto believed she always will live in Konoha. But Zorah is a different story, hers and Kozu's childhood is extremely perplexing.
She had always loved Itachi for his face and looks, but it went deeper then that. Takuto always thought that Zorah had truly believed Itachi was the one for her. But for reasons still unknown to him, Zorah went into a depression/isolationist/denial period between graduation and when she went away to marry Itachi. She died her hair tips with blood and dressed differently. Other then that, she had become more cynical and cold towards everyone in general, and Takuto knows seldom about it because she doesn't ever want to talk about it. But finally when she left 2 years ago, she left and married Itachi without telling him or Cali until after she came back a year later. Now the squad is back together, all Jounin's with new experiences and friends. Well at least Zorah became a little friendlier with Itachi.
"So where did you go for only about the hundredth time?" Zorah asked, but for what purpose? Cali being the private person she is never told Zorah or Takuto where she went. "Self training mom…" she sighed. "Hey if I were your mom I'd have to have conceived you at 3" Zorah joked, Takuto snapping out of his almost timeless moment resulting in him and Cali having disgusted looks on their faces from Zorah's joke. "Always coming up with another way to disgust us eh Zorah?" Cali remarked, heading upstairs to take off her headband and weapons and just go to bed. "You heading up Tuck-your-toga?" Zorah smiled again, walking over to him with a small tea cup of water in her hands. "More less MRS. UCHIHIA" he snapped back, sitting up again slowly and sighing. "Well good night" she bid him, and was about to walk upstairs when someone knocked on the oak wood door again. "Who's there?" Takuto got up and walked over, he opened a small hole at the top and saw that a little 12 year old stood there "It's Hideyo, Takuto Sensei" he responded sadly.
Takuto opened the door, a 12 year old ninja stood there with his head down. He had short blonde hair, wearing a red shirt with beige shorts. His eyes were icy blue and he stood just less than 5 feet. "Sorry to come so late Sensei, but …" Takuto noticed immediately he had a rucksack on him, Takuto eyed him weirdly and interrupted him "come in, sit down" he turned around and pit his arm around Hideyo. He then looked up and smiled at Zorah as she waved goodnight and walked up the stairs. Hideyo sat on the cough while Takuto sat on the wooden chair in the living room. "Sensei I didn't want to ask you –" just then he was interrupted again. "You're the ninja whose parents died?" Takuto asked unsure. Hideyo turned away, ashamed and his eyes almost becoming red with loneliness. "Yeah maybe, who's to care?" he exclaimed, trying to act tough like always.
Takuto bent closer to him with a hard look on his face. "Look Hideyo, I know you've had to rent a hotel and that since you've become a ninja you had to give up your job. Now you have nowhere to go right?" Takuto said calm but firmly as Hideyo almost began to cry, and instead of talking nodded his head. "It's ok" Takuto reassured him as he put his hand onto his student's shoulder. "You can stay here for as long as need be. Our place has a few extra rooms, you can use Zameskara's old room" he smiled. Hideyo's face lit up, he was happy "really?! Thanks Sensei!" he got up and exclaimed rather loudly. "So … where's the ramen?" he asked immediately, he was starving. Takuto chuckled softly and pointed to a pot in the kitchen "right over there, help yourself" he said, then stood up. Hideyo got a bowl, having already helped himself because he dropped a ball of tangled ramen into his bowl and started eating away at it. Takuto tapped Hideyo on the shoulder, "your rooms the first one on the right, you can't miss it. I'm going off to bed; you have training tomorrow so you better be up soon. Otherwise I'll wake you up my way" he smiled evilly. "Uhh … ok Sensei, good night!" he said, sitting down and eating a second helping of ramen, already going for his 3rd by the time Takuto had reached the top of the stairs. Takuto laughed to himself and walked away to his room, immediately taking rest on his futon. He was restless, and hadn't gone to bed for some time, finding himself lying awake for an hour now. As he laid thinking, a small tapping could be heard outside.
There house was right next to some woods, and it was past midnight. Takuto got up, put his headband back on over his forehead, and went out. While walking out, he saw the door to Zameskara's room was open a little, seeing Hideyo peacefully sleeping on a cot in the middle of the long gone squad mate's room. Hideyo snored a little loudly, wearing only a pair of blue boxer shorts with him as his unconscious self laid spread out in a weird, uncomfortable position. Takuto turned away, and walked down the stairs, out the door. Nothing out of the ordinary, he paced around and kicked a few stones here and there. And then, a sharp thin metallic noise screamed quietly across the air as a blade of folded steel came down on Takuto's neck; at a 45 degree angle, leaving a deep gash in it. Clutching the steel blade was a hooded man wearing simple black robes. He was mid height and appeared to be around 17 years old. "Surprised to catch me?" The robed man gasped, Takuto whispered from behind him on the roof of the building, and where he was standing with the blade stuck on his neck, it disappeared.
"Illusion technique …" the man said quietly as he shivered at the sight of failing to kill Takuto. "Actually shadow cloning, but close enough" the triumphant sensei told him from the rooftop, he then jumped down in a quick flip. "Now I can tell by your swiftness, technique, amount of fear, ninja stance, and an uncanny ability to have missed something like this, you must be no better then a Chuunin. One that only became a Chuunin because the rest of your squad did all the work, and you just hung around not contributing much. And then one day you decided to leave the ninja life, and since you didn't want a job, you chose a life of crime." Takuto walked a bit closer to the man, smiling slightly. "Enough!" the ninja swung his sword sharply backwards, in a downwards slash towards Takuto, he pulled a Kunai from his pouch in a flash and brought it between him and the sword.
Takuto being the older and more experienced ninja, easily overpowered the young man and pushed his sword aside, then drawing shurikens ready to throw them at the man; he brought his left foot back as if to retreat, so the man put his sword up in a defensive position in case Takuto would surprise him with a shower of shurikens. But to the Chuunin's surprise, the shurikens came not from the front, but from behind, and they came speeding towards him from the right and left, flanking him practically.
He became distracted, and in effect gave birth to allow Takuto to charge right at him without getting into an unnecessary conflict. Instead, Takuto raced at the man with constant speed, leaped and struck him across the cheek with his kunai, leaving a nice big cut there. Takuto stopped as he heard the young man yell in pain, and the Jounin put his kunai back away, slowly walking over to the Chuunin. "Sorry to say, and excuse my ego. But you have 0 chance against me" Takuto seized his sword and tossed it aside, then tying up the man. "I should, but I won't press charges, or arrest you" Takuto then unbound the man and threw those aside. "I'm giving you a 2nd chance. Go out and make a new life for yourself" he said immediately, taking the sword from him and watching the boy walk away slowly with a happy expression on his face. "And if you screw it up again, know that I'll be the one who'll come after you" he warned the man, as he lost sight of him when he walked down the dark street.
Takuto walked back inside, only to be welcome back to a kunai being thrown sharply at the door, just inches from his face. "Can't go to bed without beating up someone Takuto-Kun?" he turned, Zorah had gotten up and was getting herself more water. "I thought you went to bed" Takuto said confused. "Your yelling woke me up, and I heard an obnoxious guy go on and on about how he could tell the attacker was a Chuunin and a bad ninja" she snickered, sitting at the counter. Takuto laughed quietly "well at least half of what I said was true. I got the Chuunin part right didn't I?" he smiled sarcastically. "Well you are pretty much full of yourself you loitering, Shikamaru lazy, good for nothing ninja" she joked. "That reminds me, I haven't seen Shikamaru since I got back from Konoha!" Takuto exclaimed. Shikamaru and him were friends back when they were younger. "Yeah well … anyway, I see you let Hideyo sleepover?" she asked. "He's the Genin with the dead parents, he's lived in a hotel by having a job after school, but ever since he started training to be a ninja, he hasn't had anytime so he lost his place" Takuto sighed, sitting down at the counter. "Well you know I don't mind if crashes here. Just as long as he doesn't clog the toilet, or turns out to be a complete slob" she said, in a sarcastic tone but at the same time actually wanting Takuto's guarantee that he wouldn't be a freeloader. "I'll set down some basic rules for him tomorrow after training" he explained. "I'm heading up, I need to get sleep or otherwise Kozu will go all crazy on them" he smiled. "Goodnight" Zorah said once more, as Takuto retired to his bedroom. "Till tomorrow, and the beginning of a new saga in the story of Takuto's life." He thought, and then fell into a deep sleep.