Alright, guys. This is my new story and the extent of my creativeness at the moment. Four stories is the max I can post and still have regular or semi-regular updates.
I tried to keep this character as un mary-sue as possible, but, then again, a lot of people think my characters are mary-sue-ish in the beginning and then they either grow out of it or don't...eh, I don't know. Whenever I think I know what a mary-sue is...it ends up wrong and people claim my characters are. Oh well.
Anyway... Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I only own Iduna and Saiki. You may use them if you wish, just ask first. (I'm only putting this here because I have a pet peeve now because people used to steal my characters in the past.)
Alright...Read, comment, vote on my poll, and be happy!
Unseeing Eyes
Part One
Prologue and Enter Iduna
In a world where shinobi reign supreme there are five main countries. The Land of Earth, hosting the village Iwagakure – Village Hidden Among the Rocks, the Land of Lightning, hosting the village Kumogakure – Village Hidden in the Clouds, the Land of Water, hosting the village Kirigakure – Village Hidden in Mist, The Land of Wind, hosting the village Sunagakure – Village Hidden in the Sand, and last, but not least, the Land of Fire, hosting the village Konohagakure – Village Hidden in the Leaves.
It is within the village Konohagakure, Konoha for short, our story begins. This story is about a particular shinobi – one who is shunned by humanity in his home village simply because he harbors something dreadful – on a quest to complete his nindo. His shinobi way.
But that is not all that there is to this story. There are many other people who will be influenced by this boy, but none more than a girl who had lost everything except for the one who took her in.
She is the last of her family and the fates had a plan for her. This is also the story of the host of the Kyuubi's best friend, Seiryuu. Well, I can't get too much into detail right now, but you'll understand soon enough.
This is a story of intertwining fates. Of destiny and of challenges. This is a story of defeat and of humility. Of acceptance and friendships forged.
This is the story of one Uzumaki Naruto and the one who saw through his disguise, Ryuujin Iduna. This is a story of love, hardships, death, pain, sadness, joy…and a bundle of other emotions that one cannot understand by themselves.
This is the story of how the host of Kyuubi found his mate.
The sun was shining brightly on one particular morning. The sun was shining down on a village – the shinobi village of Konoha. Within the village of Konoha lived a girl and said sunlight is currently filtering into that girl's window.
The window led to a small, but well lived in, room that was fairly neat. Clothing was piled in neat stacks and various weapon pouches were hanging off the chair. If you listened hard enough you could hear the shower running in the bathroom she shared with her caretaker.
The bed had a comforter on it made of a dark blue, but there was a little critter sleeping in the middle of the neatly made mess. And it was that little critter who was her animal partner. Her family didn't pride themselves by partnering with dogs, like the Inuzuka family, or did not summon slugs, toads, or snakes…no, the animal that partnered with the Ryuujin family was the almighty dragon.
The dragon that was sleeping on the bed was fairly young, being about as big as his kunoichi's forearm, and he was an ice dragon. His name was Saiki and his scales were white. The strip of scales along his stomach was a very light blue color, similar to the color you would think of when thinking of ice. Saiki's eyes were coal black and so were the four horns protruding from his head. He had two little patches of grey scales right below his eyes.
Unlike other dragons of his kind – the ice dragons – Saiki had fur. He had a strip of grey fur under his bottom lip, a long strip of fur from between his eyes to his horns, and a strip of fur all along his back to the tip of his tail. Unlike other dragons, Saiki had four legs. He had four fingers on his hands and three toes, each finger and toe ended with a deadly claw.
Last, but not least, were Saiki's wings. They really were unusual for the fact that they were lined with fur as well. The feathers were replaced with shards of ice, but due to the dragon's element being ice they never melted.
All in all Saiki was an unusual dragon, but he had never met any other dragons to compare himself with. Of course, he was really a summon, but he preferred to be partnered with 'his kunoichi' as he put it.
Oh, and one more little tidbit. He could talk. The downfall of this ability was that his kunoichi was the only one able to understand him.
Saiki perked his head up as he heard the shower stop. A few moments later his kunoichi, Ryuujin Iduna, made her way to the room.
Forget to bring your clothes to the bathroom again, Iduna? He laughed, breath coming out in a hiss.
The girl he was talking to was only twelve years old, almost thirteen, but she was mature for her age. She had to be since she was orphaned at a young age. Growing up she only had Saiki and her caretaker, who happened to also be one of the Shinobi Instructurs at the Academy. His name was Umino Iruka.
Iruka took her in when her parents died even though he had been living on his own. He had a small source of income and decided that he couldn't let her float through the system or end up like another shinobi orphan he knew very well.
Iduna was fairly average. She wasn't very tall and she wasn't very short. She was average. She wasn't fat and she wasn't thin. She was once again – average. She had stormy grey eyes, which were nice, but the one feature she was the most proud of was her hair. Her hair was long, almost to her bum, and fell in neat waves. She usually kept her hair styled in a coiled braid at the top of her hair, using two chopsticks with hidden knives in the end to keep the braid in place. Her bangs framed her face, coming a little past her chin, and she had also learned how to lace just the tiniest bit of chakra to keep the coiled braid in place – now it was like second nature.
The reason why she loved her hair so much was because of the color. Corresponding to her dragon's element, she had white hair and ice-blue bangs. She loved the color of her hair and Iruka had often commented on it.
"Yes, I forgot again. I can't help it! It's so early!" the white haired kunoichi protested as she dressed. She was so used to the little dragon being in her room with her that she just dropped the towel. She knew that Iruka wouldn't barge into her room.
It was a weekend so that meant that there were no lessons at the Academy that day, but since Iruka was on a small mission for the Hokage Iduna was left to do all of the chores…which included grocery shopping.
But, there was a little time for training before she went grocery shopping so she got up extra early. There was no way that anybody else would be up this early, right?
As she got dressed she thought about the type of training she could do today. She was wearing a typical outfit for her clan. She was wearing a sleeveless black kimono that reached her knees, with an ice blue obi to hold it closed, and a silver dragon embroidered in the back. There were two slits on either side reaching her waist, but she was wearing long tan pants that ended in soft fishnet when it reached her knees.
Open black shinobi shoes were on her feet, and she couldn't go anywhere without her weapons pouch. Iruka didn't know that she carried it with her – she wasn't supposed to be wearing weapons since she hadn't graduated the Academy yet.
Currently it was seven in the morning. She rubbed her stormy grey eye, still tired, but she was intending to spend at least two hours training.
Iduna picked up Saiki and let him climb around her arm so that she was situated on her shoulder, locked up, and was on her way to the training grounds.
The white haired kunoichi trained for hours, resisting the urge to use any of her special techniques. She didn't want any of the other shinobi to have the advantage. Throughout the whole training session she couldn't help but feel two distinct pairs of eyes on her. Although she could sense the chakra easily, she didn't have time to go chasing after two different people.
She ignored the feeling of the eyes – really, if they wanted to hurt her they would have already – and collected her shuriken and kunai. Replacing the miniature kunai in her hair sticks, she turned to look at the trees. That was where the chakra signatures were coming from. One was fairly familiar, but the other one she couldn't place.
Calling Saiki she turned to go to the marketplace in order to do her grocery shopping, then she would go home and take a much needed shower.
She didn't notice that one of the people who were watching her train start to follow her to the market, but the other stayed hidden within the leaves. Said shinobi was wearing a tight green spandex suit and orange arm warmers. He possessed dark coal eyes and black hair shaped in a bowl-cut. He had already graduated from the shinobi Academy one year prior for he was wearing a red clothed Konoha head plate – a hitai-ate – around the waist of his jumpsuit. He was watching the white haired kunoichi with a curious expression on his face.
Suddenly, a much larger and identical shaped figure landed on the tree branch next to him.
"Lee! I am pleased to see that you are expressing your youthfulness by observing your fellow shinobi in training!" he exclaimed, striking a unique pose and grinning. He gave his student a thumbs up, truly pleased that said student, Rock Lee, had taken an interest in someone.
"Sensei! Who was that youthful girl? The one with the dragon? Is she still in the academy -for I do not see a head plate anywhere on her person!" the young shinobi asked, perking up and resting his attention solely on his instructor.
"Ah! Lee! How youthful for you to ask!" he exclaimed with tears sparkling in his eyes. He opened his arms wide, grinning widely as his pupil launched himself within his arms.
"Yes! Sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Sensei!" they continued with this for the better part of ten minutes. Finally, when they broke apart, did his mentor, Maito Gai, answer his pupil's question.
"Lee! You must become more youthful by following this girl and scoping out the answers for yourself! Only then can you become a fine shinobi!" his mentor exclaimed, hitting another odd pose as a sunset suddenly appeared behind him.
"Yosh! Sensei I will do my best!" Lee exclaimed as well, tears sparkling in his eyes.
Meanwhile, the other shinobi that had been watching Iduna practice had followed her to the market. This shinobi, however, had not graduated the Academy yet and was in Iduna's class. They were, in fact, friends – not the best of friends – but friends nonetheless.
Most people would recognize him as the number one troublemaker in Konoha. He wore an orange jumpsuit with a black tee shirt underneath his jacket, shinobi sandals on his feet, and a pair of dark goggles sitting on his forehead.
He was following the female shinobi simply out of curiosity. He wanted to get to know her, but he was intimidated by the fact that she lived with their teacher. If he was intimidated by anyone it was Umino Iruka. It wasn't because of the fact that he was an authority figure – he actually loved breaking the rules – it was because of the fact that this particular shinobi looked up to Iruka like an older brother.
If you haven't figured it out, this knuckleheaded shinobi's name is Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto flipped through the trees as he followed his target. He had met Iduna a few times and, of course, they were in the same class together, but he admired her. No, not for her good looks – well, he did think she was pretty, but he did have that crush on Sakura – but due to the fact that she was an orphan…like him. She was often ridiculed in class for her unique hair color, but never around Iruka, and the villagers liked to mock her, too.
Not much was known about her family. Her clan disowned her father when he married her mother and they, in turn, were killed a long time ago…when Iduna was just a child. She was chosen by an ice dragon, which was uncommon, and because of that her hair changed from brown to white and blue.
No, Naruto admired her because she found a way to be acknowledged for her skill without breaking down or resorting to violence. She was one of the most skilled kunoichi in his class. What she lacked with tactics, she made up with speed and techniques. Iduna didn't try to earn acknowledgment by playing pranks, instead she was kind to the ones who insulted her…it was like she didn't understand that they were ridiculing her.
Naruto followed Iduna and her little dragon as she completed her grocery shopping. Unfortunately, the list was way too long for her to gather by herself. The white haired kunoichi had four bags in her hand and her little dragon was flying beside her, carrying two tinier bags; he had one gripped in his hands and the other he had his tail coiled around.
He had no doubt that she was a skilled kunoichi, but even she couldn't avoid the inevitable. Her little dragon let out a hiss of warning, but she couldn't dodge the little kids that bumped into her from behind.
Iduna, watch out for the children! Saiki hissed, fluttering his wings as he tried to balance the small bag of groceries he was carrying.
The white haired kunoichi dodged to the side, but because of her overstuffed arms she lost grip on one of the bags. Naruto couldn't let her have her groceries soiled so he lunged forward, catching the bag of groceries in his arms. Iduna was startled, but she was even more startled when she realized that it was Naruto who had caught her groceries.
"Oh, Naruto-san." She gasped in surprise before smiling as she tried to balance the third bag of groceries she still had in her arms. The blond shinobi grinned as he took the third bag that was in Iduna's arms. Her cheeks were dusted in a faint blush, not that Naruto noticed, and she bit her lip in nervousness.
"Thank you." She quietly said as he adjusted the two bags in his arms. It took two children to carry all of the groceries this time whereas Iruka could have handled all four – and maybe the two that Saiki were carrying – with ease.
"No problem…um…what was your name again?" he asked. He thought long and hard, but he just couldn't remember. Iduna's cheeks burned red once again as she realized that Naruto didn't know who she was.
"I-I'm Iduna…remember?" she asked, hoping that he would remember when she gave him her name. After he thought for a moment his expression seemed to be one of recognition. He was sure that her name was something along those lines. He grinned and they were on their way before suddenly stopped short.
"Hey! Why'd you call me 'san'? We're not exactly strangers y'know." he said. She thought about it, and considered his words to be true, but she didn't exactly feel comfortable enough using another term of endearment so soon.
"You're right…we're not, are we…" she mused. Without replying to his previous question she wandered back to the apartment she shared with Iruka, Naruto on her trail. For some reason he was extremely docile and not at all the rambunctious prankster he was notorious for.
"So…why are you here helping me and not pulling some sort of prank?" the white haired kunoichi asked, looking sideways at the blond shinobi. Naruto was startled out of his thoughts, but he managed to maintain his grin.
"I dunno. I just seem calmer with you around. I kinda like it." He said, shifting the bags he was holding so he could scratch his cheek. He was looking the other way so he couldn't see the blush dusting its way across her face once again.
He must be attracted to your chakra. Your clan's chakra can sometimes draw in shinobi, but sometimes it can be a pain. Saiki explained to her. All Naruto heard were strange hissing noises, but Iduna could understand him perfectly.
Soon enough they were at Iduna and Iruka's apartment. She let Naruto in, but as soon as he set down the bags of groceries he was gone. The white haired kunoichi darted to the front door, calling his name.
"Naruto, wait!" she called, catching him right when he was about to leap off the railing. She caught him off guard and kissed him on the cheek, right where his whiskers were.
"Thanks for helping me today. See you at the Academy tomorrow." She said, smiling at the grinning face. He nodded before yelling and jumping off the railing, leaving her to unpack the groceries. Unpacking the groceries took most of her time so she finished the day with dinner, leaving some for Iruka to eat when he got home, and went to sleep…but her dreams were disturbed with a larger than life dragon.
And that dragon happened to be called Seiryuu.
