A Ninja's Tale – A Naruto Fan Fiction
By princessmelody
A field. Two fighters. One a beautiful girl with long, dark-brown hair, skin like tanned porcelain, long, thin limbs – making her tall for thirteen – and the most mysterious, dark, sapphire-blue eyes. She had a flat expression on her child-like face, and spoke nothing to her enemy. The girl's badly beaten competitor, a boy of twelve, continued to taunt and jest at her, but in vain. The boy wore a black body suit, complete with black gloves, a black hat with cat-like ears, navy-blue shoes and a red-and-yellow emblem on his chest. The girl idly thought that the boy looked a bit silly with that purple make-up or paint on his face.
"C'mon, girly!" the boy taunted courageously, "Think you're so tough? Come at me. I dare you!"
Retaining her flat face, the girl cocked her head to the side. She was trying to recall his name.
'Wasn't it Kankuro or something?' she thought absentmindedly, 'Yeah, that's it. Kankuro.'
From high above the tournament field, Shikamaru was watching the battle. It had been explained that if the random person selected to fight the mysterious girl had not won their first match and beat her, then they would be able to continue to the next round. If the competitor didn't win, the match had no effect upon their standing. However, since Kankuro had won his match, his fighting the mute girl was of no consequence. But this girl made the scrimmage come alive again; she didn't look like much, but she was stronger than any of the other ninja present, and faster than even the beaten Rock Lee. Not to mention this girl was at least as smart as Shikamaru. Even the Sensei didn't seem to know who she was, and everyone was impressed. Everyone except Naruto, Sakura, and their Sensei, Kakashi, that is.
Shikamaru had "wandered" over to them to investigate and ended up wrapped up in the intensity of the match next to Sakura.
"Who is she?" he found himself muttering in begrudging awe, "Never seen her before…"
"Huh?" Sakura replied, tearing her eyes from the fight. Kankuro had just charged at the gorgeous brunette, but was easily knocked aside by four swift moves of her Bo staff. Her expression didn't change, save for her eyes gently closing when he drew near.
"Oh, that's Daisy." Sakura continued, looking between the fight and Shikamaru. "She's on our squad." Shikamaru wrenched his eyes off the girl – Daisy – to give Sakura an incredulous look…but her eyes were back on Daisy.
"Daisy's kinda like a stronger, faster, braver, and cleverer version of Hinata. In fact, they're best friends." Sakura added.
He nodded, "Makes sense." After a minute of silence to watch, he added, "She seems like a damn good warrior ninja, but she doesn't say much."
"Actually," Sakura threw in, "she never says anything. To anyone-" she suddenly seemed to remember something, "except Naruto and Hinata, maybe." Before she could go on, Naruto distracted her, pointing to the field. Shikamaru could see why: her metal Bo staff broken some distance away from her, Daisy was locked in heated hand-to-hand combat with Kankuro, who was getting tired, but still grinning like the Devil. Both Daisy and Shikamaru were wondering why on earth he was smiling so smugly. Daisy's eyes were lit with sapphire firelight.
Kankuro had two of his puppets out within moments of having to back away. The three of them circled Daisy in this odd, ritualistic-thing, attacking when the opportunity presented itself. But, cool as ever it seemed, Daisy was not phased, deflecting the blows with remarkable precision and speed.
Suddenly, the two puppets leapt with the intent of pouncing and capturing her. Daisy, however, was having no willing part of it. Using a jumping-splits-kick, she knocked both back with ease, landing in a striking predator's crouch. Then, for a second – one sparking, shimmering, fiery instant – Daisy's eyes connected to Shikamaru's. Even in the single moment, Shikamaru could just feel himself getting lost in those deep, guarded blue eyes; and Daisy just felt on the edge of her mind, the sensation of drowning in his intriguing gray-brown ones. That moment of time-freezing magic was broken first by Daisy returning her attention to her opponent. Caught off balance and off guard, a look of surprise flitted fleetingly across her delicate features before Kankuro's foot connected with her chin, sending the tiny girl flying.
Hitting the ground three times like a skipping stone, she finally slid to a stop face down next to her broken Bo staff. It was then that Shikamaru noticed two things: one, an eerie and sudden hush had descended upon the observers. Two, Daisy's staff appeared to have shrunken to the size of shiny nunchuks.
"HA!" Kankuro practically roared with triumph, "Not so strong NOW, are ya?"
The official guy to say if the match was over or not looked as surprised as everyone else as he hesitantly stepped forward to deliver the verdict.
"Daisy is unable to battle. The match goes to-!"
A general gasp arose from the crowd. Daisy was getting up! Still sitting on the ground, she retrieved the halves of her staff and stood. Putting the pieces together, she gave them a quick twist, and with a sharp click, the nunchuk-things now resembled a silvery lightning rod one could hold. Daisy gave the rod another quick twist, but this time there was a soft, dull clunk. Even with her hair acting as a curtain for her face, Shikamaru knew the expression there now was the passing shadow of confusion. She carefully turned the rod back and tried again slower. Same result.
Kankuro had been standing there, bewildered that Daisy still was getting right back up if he knocked her down. Now, though, he was just pissed off. It was perfectly clear the one thought on his mind: Why the HELL won't she just stay down?
Slowly now, as if disbelieving or angry, Daisy took the rod apart again and stowed it in her pocket. Shikamaru heard Sakura murmur softly, "Uh-oh…"
"Now he's done it." Naruto finished for her.
"What? What's going on?" Shikamaru asked, intrigued. Something big was going to happen, and he wasn't going to miss it.
"Kankuro actually broke Daisy's Bo staff. See, usually, if someone tries to break it," she explained, "she will just psych them out by faking that it's broken and fixing it later in the fight. But this time it's actually broke."
"Her staff is her starting weapon of choice. And since she uses it so much, she's used to having it alone." Naruto continued Sakura's thoughts, "But since it's broken, either she's pissed, or she's going to be."
Kankuro, finally pissed off enough to do something stupid, charged at the unmoving Daisy, screaming, "Why can't you take a hint and stay beaten?"
Daisy's head snapped up. Her hair flew back, eyes two electrical-firestorms of fury.
"Oh yeah. She's pissed." Shikamaru could just tell from the look on her face that justice would be taken for her lost weapon.
In a blur of color and motion, Daisy whipped something out of her blue denim backpack. Kankuro suddenly stopped short and looked scared for his life. And with good reason. Suspense hung high and thick in the air around the spectators as they all saw that Daisy had a silver shining blade practically on Kankuro's neck where he stood, inches from her. There was a murderous look in her shimmering blue eyes that had them all on edge.
"H-h-hey…," Kankuro stammered, hands raised, backing up slowly. Daisy's single hand – her right one – holding the two handed sword up with ease continued to shift the blade where it still presented a threat to him, should he try anything funny.
"D-don't do anything crazy here. Let's just talk it out first, at least."
Daisy's eyes narrowed further as he stepped carefully out of immediate slashing range. Everyone held their breath, for she kept her large blade trained on him the whole time.
Soon enough, he stopped backing up and, with head tilted down and eyes closed, smiled – grinned even – mischievously. Suddenly, he swooped his hands low, then brought them back up, just above his head instead of level with it like earlier. Then his puppets sprang back to life, leaping up from their crumpled positions on the floor. Cackling wildly, the pair jumped and zigzagged in between Daisy and their master, circling her in a diamond-formation. Their insane laughter turned into vicious shrieks when they finally turned on her to attack. She, however, effortlessly transformed her passive rage into active fiery passion, running her two would-be attackers through with her two swords: one a black, giant kunai-shaped weapon she'd pulled from her pocket at the last moment and changed it from its original form of a normal kunai. The other the white-ish silver two-handed sword that she'd whipped from her backpack earlier.
With a quick flick of the blades, she discarded the broken puppets and pounced upon Kankuro at a blinding speed. Knocking him down with a perfectly placed knee to his chest, she placed the two-hander delicately but directly on his throat. But no pressure, though; she wanted to scare the crap out of him, not kill him.
Daisy leaned down over him gently, and so close that for the faintest of moments, he thought she would kiss him. But she stopped just short and whispered softly, so that only he heard her voice.
"Kankuro of the Village Hidden in the Sand," she began to the terrified boy, "I will only say this once and this is the only time you will hear my voice, so listen carefully. I'm not going to kill you. But I will warn you." Her diamond-hard sapphire blue eyes softened to a liquid sapphire consistency, her expression stern and serious.
"You shouldn't take me on. I'm stronger, faster, and far more intelligent than I'm letting show. I've actually been holding back. Even a moment ago with your puppets I was holding back. Watch yourself, Kankuro. I'm way out of your league." She paused, leaned back a bit, and added, "Next time, try to be more tactful with your attacks. Your technique was for too obvious and sloppy. And I know you can do better."
With that, she removed her silver sword from his throat, got up, and began to walk away, leaving him stunned. Tapping the end of her black blade like she would a pen, it produced a metallic klanking and returned it to her skirt pocket when it was regular sized again. Her silver two-hander went back into her backpack.
Just as she was about to give the official guy the "it's over" signal, Kankuro jumped to his feet, ran over to her, and turned her to face him. Daisy had felt that he might want to take one last whack at her, so she steeled herself to retaliate. But what he did next, not even Tamari, Gaara, or their Sensei could have predicted: Kankuro grabbed Daisy and kissed her – right on the lips. A shock infused silence fit for the dead filled the room as the kiss stretched to a full second. Shikamaru realized he had the burning desire to jump down there, yank him off of her, and kick him square in the balls. He didn't understand why he felt that way, considering he didn't know her personally. 'Why does it even matter?' he wondered idly.
Kankuro finally pulled away after a couple seconds and grinned. There was nothing in Daisy's eyes, body language, or expression to suggest that she was anything but dumbfounded. He leaned forward again and whispered as softly as she had, "Out of my league, huh? Were you thinking about all kinds of leagues, or just the ones that involved fighting?"
Daisy had already been blushing profusely before, but when he said that, her cheeks flushed to a bright, rose-petal red, spreading a bit to the immediate area around her cheeks. One lone thought survived the shocked blankness of her mind; and it was rapidly rekindling her fury.
After a short pause, Daisy finally turned her attention back to Kankuro and, while kicking him in the balls, used her telepathy to banshee-scream into his mind, 'YOU BASTARD!'
'SON OF A BITCH!' she continued, kneeing him in the stomach.
'FUCKING ASSHOLE!' was added to a well-placed kick below the chin to send him high into the air. Finally jumping into the air with him, kicking him in the head, and sending Kankuro flying into the wall with blinding speed and force, she ended her mental tirade with, 'GO TO HELL, YOU FUCKING PERV!'
The intensity of her anger had made her so unbelievably strong that when Kankuro smashed into the solid brick wall, the force of it knocked some bricks loose from the wall, while completely dislodging others, and creating a sizable crater where he impacted.
Daisy landed light on her feet, her expression "mildly ticked" instead of her earlier "wild rage." Without waiting for the official, she made a beeline to the stairs leading up to the viewing area.
"Kankuro is unable to battle. The match goes to Daisy." The official called out calmly. But Shikamaru wasn't interested in him. What he was interested in, however, was Daisy coolly pulling her slim, lean figure up the stairs to her teammates above. Even as the official guy was telling the winners (the passed out Kankuro aside) where they were to go for briefing about the next phase of this portion of the Chunin Exams, Shikamaru wasn't really paying attention. He did what he was told on automatic anyway, turning away from the foursome of Daisy, Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi to get to the room.
'Looks like I have some research to do once this all over…' he thought, looking back over his shoulder at Daisy while Sakura peppered her with questions. As if she had felt his eyes on her, she glanced his way, deep dark eyes locking onto his gray-browns. This time, Shikamaru was the first to look away.
Though Shikamaru walked away and to the next task with a secret smile playing on his lips, Daisy was the one left wondering. Who was he? And why did her heart skip a beat both times their eyes had met?
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End Part 1 of: A Ninja's Tale