Chapter Four: Answer my questions
Naruto backed up a step only to trip backwards and fall on his butt as she raised her hands to try and calm him. "Please, stop shouting! I'm not here to hurt anybody!" she begged.
"Why should I believe you?" he said with a growl to his voice.
"Because I'm here to help you, not hurt anyone!" She whispered out, her fox ears hugging her head, like a frightened animal.
His scowl faded and he tilted his head a little. "Help me…? Why do I need your help?"
She approached slowly and knelt down before him, bowing respectfully. "My name is Lilli, I'm not from around here, and I'm here to help you with your Sensei and to protect you."
He paused for a moment, taking her in. She wasn't very big but clearly stronger than she looked, she had fox ears on her head and her wide eyes were brown and frankly, rather lovely. Her face held nothing but honesty, she wanted him to believe her really badly…she wasn't being aggressive; she wasn't doing anything to betray her as a liar, he decided to give her a chance. "Where are you from?"
She smiled softly. "Another…dimension if you will. I'm what people call a Fairy; I assume you've heard the stereotypes but I can easily divulge any that you…have?" she was cut off by Naruto bursting out laughing and was now lying on his back. She frowned and furrowed her brow.
She pressed her ears against her head and growled in her throat. "It's not funny, what are you laughing at?"
"You expect me to believe that you're a Fairy from another dimension? I'd sooner believe Sakura asking me on a date!"
"I'd sooner expect Sasuke to come waltzing back into the village with an apology." She snapped standing up angrily and Naruto fell silent; those painful memories still fresh in his mind. Her flushed red face quickly faded and she sighed sadly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap like that but I need you to believe me. I can prove that I'm telling you the truth."
"I guess-what's that?" he started but veered off pointing at a bushy fox tail that popped up behind her.
She jumped a little and giggled awkwardly. "Oh, when I get flustered it puffs up," she pushed it out of sight where it remained hidden behind her back. "Sorry about that."
He stayed silent for a moment then looked up at her. "So how are you going to prove it?" he said awkwardly.
"Since the ears and tail aren't enough to convince you I'll just show you another extra appendage on my body and-"she held up a finger for silence. "Before you say anything, no it is not a third boob." She turned from him and pulled her hair over her shoulder, revealing her back. Pale like the rest of her and toned, the half-tank top had a small corset ribbon design down the middle.
Naruto sighed with disappointment. One day, one day…he thought.
Lilli reached behind her and pulled the bow free and her top loosened, Naruto watched in captivation as the back separated and the straps fell from her shoulders, exposing her naked back. He couldn't see anything in front but he wasn't looking anyway; from her back sprouted two large butterfly wings, purple, see through and shimmering in the pale moonlight.
They had a ghostly purple to them with a black outlining, like a monarch butterfly but purple with a sort of sparkle to them.
"What-"he exclaimed quietly as they shuddered with life and fluttered softly. "Are those," he began.
"Yes, they're real and yes you can touch them but very gently, they're powerful but fragile." She said and took one step backwards, closer to Naruto. He reached up and gently touched the edge of the wings and felt a little jolt through his finger when he spotted a strange seam through one of her wings.
He reached out and touched it with the tip of his finger, making her jolt a little and look over her shoulder at him. "What happened there?"
"Oh, when I tussled with the guard the other night, he tackled me to the ground and broke my wing; it's still healing a little but for the time being I can't fly." She said pulling her shirt back up and tightening the corset style ties on the back of her tank top. "That's why I was in a bush and not in the air instead."
"I'm sure Grandma Tsunade could fix this, she's fixed some pretty crazy stuff before," he said but Lilli shook her head sadly, finishing the knot and turning to face him again.
"No, she can't know I'm here. The thing is, your people aren't supposed to know my people exist, we're sort of a secret to your kind which is why I could get in a lot of trouble if I were to be-"she was cut off by a pounding at the door. "-caught!"
"Naruto, open the door." A booming female voice said from the other side of the door.
"Naruto, you've got to hide me! They can't find out I'm here or they'll send me back and I won't be able to protect you." The pounding continued and Naruto tried to think when he had an idea.
"I've got it, follow me!" he grabbed her arm and led her down the hall from the main area of his house and into his bathroom where he shut the door and began stripping.
Lilli winced a little and crossed her arms. "I'm not sure I like this plan anymore."
"Stop complaining now get in the tub!" he ordered.
The Shinobi at the front door picked the lock and walked into his house. They didn't hear anything until a strangely loud thud made them turn their attention to the bathroom.
Lilli was refusing to get in the tub which was now full of steaming hot water. She held onto the edges to stay out with her face precariously close to the water while Naruto tried to push her in. "How you humans bathe in such hot water is beyond me!"
"Just get in the tub, they're coming!" he hissed.
Just then they knocked on the door and they heard a loud splash within, making water pour out from under the door. "Naruto we're coming in." said the leader.
She opened the door and Naruto was sitting inside the tub with a wash cloth in his hands. "Hello…" he said awkwardly.
The leader of the group of Shinobi was Kiku Hadaka, a real hard-ass and sometimes she focused so hard on the hidden meanings in things she missed what was right in front of her. Her flowing green hair was tied into a tight bun and her fellow cohorts looked like clones of each other, all wearing the standard Shinobi uniform with masks on.
"Naruto people were complaining of what sounded like fighting and screaming coming from your house, we came in to check and make sure you were alright." She said flatly. "The woman that attacked you before got away and we know she attacked you, we figured that if there was a commotion coming from inside your home, maybe she'd come after you."
"Yeah, I'm fine and sorry about the noise I was…killing a spider." He said in a low voice. So she got away, even with 6 ninja's chasing her down, she escaped.
She quirked an eyebrow at him and surveyed the bathroom when she noticed something about his clothes, though strewn about everything was visible, accept... "Where's your underwear?"
Naruto scowled. "What, you've never gone commando before?"
She sighed with frustration as a light pink hue came to her cheeks and she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, just keep the noise down; you're scaring people," she said and as she turned muttered under her breath. "More than usual…" she headed out while her fellow ninja followed her but one stalled at the bathroom door more, looking at Naruto then giving him a thumbs up to which Naruto chuckled a little when a hand came out of nowhere and pulled the ninja along behind Kiku. He laughed a little as they made their way out.
They all left and once the front door closed Naruto sighed when bubbles began forming under him. He jolted and backed up and Lilli burst through the surface, sopping wet and gasping for air. She turned and glared at Naruto. "I am a Fairy, not a fish." She said angrily but evenly.
A little while later after everything was cleaned up and Lilli had dried off, she settled onto the cot Naruto had made up for her on the floor. "Thank you, for allowing me stay here tonight,"
She was no longer wearing her knee high pink boots with purple laces or her elbow length gloves, those were set down by the door and she dragged a hair brush she'd pulled out of a bag she'd hidden under Naruto's been earlier through her long dark hair.
"I'm still curious about a few things, but I believe you when you say you're here to help me out." He said as he buttoned his pajama shirt and walked over to bed, now wearing his hat.
"What are you curious about?" she said as she put the brush back into the bag and pushed it under the bed.
"Well, where are you from?" he crossed his arms and looked at her.
"A place called The Sunni Orchid Village, we're called that because in my home Orchids are a party flower and well we are world renowned for our parties and festivals. It's also a tropical island so it's very sunny, not very deep of a meaning but it fits and it's always been that way." She smiled.
"Do you have ninja's there?" he said uncrossing his arms and sitting down on his bed.
"No, but I've been closely surveying the way your people seem to work and my people are fairly similar. I'm like you in rank and my teacher Kassandra is like Kakashi in rank." She waved her hand back and forth.
"What about your leader, are they like Grandma Tsunade?" he said scratching his cheek.
"Not as loud or angry or trying to hide from her work but yeah, our leaders name is Ferngazer Tidal. She was appointed last year, the previous leader Stargazer died. In my home our names are a little different than yours, very nature based and 'gazer' replaces the end of their name. The reason for that is actually a part of our history, our leader gazes out over our home, watching us thrive and keeping our home alive. Being our leader is a position very noble and dignified…I frankly couldn't imagine having a leader like…her."
"I couldn't at first but she hasn't killed us all yet so that means she's doing something right." Naruto chuckled and Lilli nodded when her eyes seemed to drop. "What is it?"
"I've been gone for quite a while…I haven't been home in a long time and I guess I miss it. Besides, your home is…a little like mine…mine is just smaller." She looked around the room and back to the floor while Naruto lay down on his bed and looked at her.
"What's your house like?" He tried; maybe talking about it more will make her feel better.
"Well, I live on a big weeping willow tree, it was cut down about half way a long time ago but the treehouse was built on top of it and the tree itself is still alive so it's beautiful, some branches grew into my house and I love seeing the evergreen leaves at night, they shimmer and it's just spectacular."
"Do you live with anyone?" he continued.
"Yeah, I have a big group of friends; Blaze, Tucker, Yura, Wanderer, Tanzi, Kiko, Ziggy and Moni oh, and my housekeeper, Jay Bird and my cat Twinkle. All of them live in my treehouse with me, it's a little crowded but we're happy."
"You have a housekeeper?" he asked intrigued.
"Yeah, I kind of just found her wandering around and she moved in with me. She's not built for fighting like the rest of us and she feels safe in my house so she stays there a lot and her way of earning her keep is to clean for me when I'm away."
"Are you gone a lot?" his voice lowered a little as he slowly became drowsy.
"Yeah," she said.
"So…what are you exactly?"
"I'm a Fairy that specializes in water, a Water Fairy and I can do things like-"she looked over at the table in the next room with a glass of water on it and her eyes grew from brown to a glowing purple. The water in the glass suddenly formed a ball and levitated out of the cup and floated over to her where it hovered beside her and she grinned. "-this for starters,"
She smiled and snapped her fingers making the ball vanish and Naruto's eyes were wide, all signs of sleepiness gone. "That's awesome!"
"It's actually second nature to me, what's fascinating is that there are no others like me, I'm the last of my kind; Water Fairies I mean."
"You're the only one?" His expression fell a little.
"Yeah, my whole species seemed to have just vanished. Everyone woke up one day a long time ago and they were all just…gone. Then when I showed up…they said it was a miracle."
"You just showed up?"
"I was only a baby when my teacher Kassandra found me by the river; she was just a teenager then. I'd just been born but there was no trace of my parents. I was just left there, wrapped in a big leaf." She said evenly, not seeming to care at all.
"How'd they find you? Did you get left on someone's doorstep?"
"No, I was in the woods. They heard me start screaming because a monster was trying to eat me."
"What tried to eat you?" he exclaimed.
"A creature in my home that actually has a lot to do with the woman who attacked you before."
"What?" Naruto said.
"A creature known as a Shadowlark, they are born out of shadows and a dead fairies blood spilled in battle. You'd think that with specific circumstances like that there would be very few but, they've inhabited our forests making travel very treacherous, forbidden at night!" she said then looked him directly in the eyes. "That woman's name is Beautr'e; she's here to steal the power that resides deep within you. She needs it to control them and turn them all into their cousin beasts; the Bloodlark. The Bloodlark are born from blood spilled out of hate."
"Why does my power matter?" he said lowly.
"She needs it, your peoples power is magnified by ours making whatever you have stronger if she gets it. With so much power she'll turn all the Shadowlark into Bloodlark and make an army to destroy my home. She believes that we've wronged her in some way, she used to teach there too but she defected all of a sudden and no one knows why and now she's after us." She said hollowly.
"So you're here to…?"
"To stop her, I have to take her back to my home because you see she ripped a hole through the wall that separates our two worlds. She came here, somehow already knowing about you and I followed her because…" she paused. "She planted a bomb in our school, there were kids there, little kids and the only way they were saved was because one of the really little kids found it by accident. They were evacuated and the bomb was detonated because it couldn't be defused. The school was destroyed."
"She tried to kill kids?"
"Yes, I chased her but before I could catch her she escaped here and she would have killed that guard if I hadn't distracted him…unfortunately that gave me up to her and she knows I'm here too. I had to knock him out so I could go after her."
"If all of this is true then why not tell Grandma Tsunade?"
"Because, our people are supposed to remain separate, that's what that wall was for. I cannot be found out, they'll send me back and you'll be left without protection." She stopped and smiled. "Now…about your other problem…Kakashi, he's twice your age at best and while very handsome, completely out of your league anyway. You're in love with him but you can't do anything about it."
"I-"he stopped and sighed as a blush rushed into his cheeks, "Yeah, I am…I just don't know what I can do about it."
"Well that's where I come in sweetie, if you keep my secret I'll help you with him." She said as she seated herself on his bed beside him.
"How are you going to help me?" He scoffed.
"One of the perks of being a Fairy is that we have all kinds of abilities, one of mine is being able to read people like an open book. He's got it bad for you too, I saw that little threat he made earlier. Don't make me have to put you in bed myself… what a line." She giggled while his face flushed red.
"Ok…so what can you do?"
"Start by telling you to be patient, you're just a kid right now. You can't have anything with him right now, you've got to grow up honey and you know very well that will take time but I can easily handle that." She stood up and pointed at him. "You have quite a lot of things coming for you in the near future! It's going to be intense man and you already know one of those things!" She said valiantly.
"What, the trip with Pervy Sage?"
"Yes indeed! You've only got a little time left here until you have to leave yeah?"
"Yeah,"
"Alright, well with that time that you've got left I'm going to help you drive him mad with flirtatious desire! We are going to butter him up good!" She slammed her fist into her open palm and Naruto jumped a little.
"What…?!"
"Then once you're gone, his thoughts will be plagued with nothing but you, wanting to see your smiling face every moment! He will yearn for your affection and once you've returned…you will be old enough to make things happen and finally live happily ever after with him, you can bask in each other's love and you'll be happy!"
"Are you sure it'll be like that?"
"100% positive my friend; tomorrow we start!"
Naruto fell off his bed in astonishment. "Start what?"
"Operation: Flirt begins tomorrow!"