To start off I have a few points. I know, I know I need to update my other story but this has been rolling around head for so long (right next to an Uchiha-based story I might publish), and it drove me to madness! I had to publish it! I was dying slowly!
So, first off her name is Kaki which isn't quite aame you hear often. It means Persimmon, which is a Japanese Fruit, and if you've noticed all of the Seven Swordsmen have names after Produce. I'm trying to keep this as close to the anime as possible (I may have killed off too many of the Swordsmen, but I have no idea how they died or who survived Might Duy), and I could see Yagura training these kids into his soldiers. I also thought it would be funny to give Kaki a fear of sharks considering what her teeth look like ;) and I hope you enjoy some of her relationships. Mangetsu's character could have been bigger than it was, so I'm adding a little.
Second, if you did not know, I speak little English (that's a lie, I speak a good bit), but somwtimes I mess up or don't know certain words, so excuse my spelling. I am trying. I hope you enjoy!
...
The ocean ran through her veins. Kaki Kawaguchi was born in the ocean water, appearing out of it as if she was made by it, being one with the waves that surronded her small body. A lone shinobi found the tiny baby in a tightly woven basket, smiling with each breath of wet, briny air; a simple reminder that she was alive to once again see the ocean. Kaki was born into the world by the ocean, because that's the only real story that makes any sense.
The lone shinobi to find the child asked about it, his mission long completed. Each of the men and women involved told the same story. It was a scandalous tale, one of which had never happened in the small, ocean side village. The woman arrived into the care of the clinic, heavy with child, and well into labor, birth slamming into her like the waves against the shoreline. It was a fast one, the child slid out of her and she didn't even give it a second glance. She didn't even ask to hold it. Her husband appeared like out of the wind, with a basket, and he placed the wailing infant that yearned for its mother inside before he and his wife disappeared into the night. The distraught midwife followed the seemingly dispassionate parents outside, and the nameless couple dropped the basket into the waves, letting her float out to sea.
The midwife was shocked by how aloof the new parents were at easily tossing away their little daughter, but was even more so when the child quieted down her wails, as if the salty waters around her comforted her. The midwife, who could not swim herself, called for help, while the man and his wife truly disappeared, however the basket vanished by the time she had awaken two men to fetch it back. The villagers were more than shocked to find that she had been brought back to the same seashore that she had been cast away from, returning with the changing tides. The same midwife who delivered the infant that night offered to take the little child in, but was refused by the shinobi who demanded to take it with him to his village.
When asked what he would name the child, he stared down the at newborn who was only a day old, then towards the sea, breathing in the air, before the words left his lips. "Kaki Kawaguchi."
He gave her his last name, not to symbolize that he wanted her as his own daughter; it expressed how she was no longer a girl lost in the waves.
She had been found.
The unknown shinobi traveled two days to get back to his village. What possessed him to take along the infant that could have just as easily stayed was a secret that would be taken to the grave. His nights were filled with screams and wails of a child missing its mother, which he assumed to be the waters of the sea, and he would hold it and after a bit of consideration, poured drops of water mixed with salt onto her tongue to calm her down, and would feed her while she was calm enough to be fed. He reported back to his Mizukage as soon as he could, ignoring the surprise on each of the faces of his comrades as he calmly strolled in holding KiKi-chan as he had affectionately dubbed her in his arms, a canteen of salt water in the other.
He had absolutely no intensions of keeping her, and handed it over to the system that Kirigakure had in place to decide what to do with her. The Mizukage didn't say much, only asked what her name was and nodded when he told him what she was caused from. He told him her tale, the one of the ocean and of mysterious mothers. The faceless, nameless couple were no one special and the child had no resemblence to anyone in Kirigakure so it was assumed that the couple were young parents that panicked, and found a quick solution to a problem.
The orphanage was too full, and while the babies always went first to be adopted, there was simply no room for her. Instead, Kaki was readily found a foster home, the Mizukage had a place in mind when he hand picked the location.
When the caregiver arrived with the tightly wrapped bundle in her arms, she was sure she had the wrong location, looking around for another house (a nicer one) and found none. The grim building was the worst excuse for a house she'd ever seen in all her ten years at her job, it was more like a a long-abandoned prison. The wood of the house has grown moldy and soft with water and neglect, and it looked as if you pushed hard enough on the walls, you'd go right through, not that the caregiver would ever test that theory.
It looked for all the world like a giant summoning animal had sat on the roof, for it sagged terribly, though it was obviously two floors. The windows were gaping holes with what looked like plastic covering them instead of glass. The door hung on it's hinges at a jaunty angle, and it truly was an eyesore of a house.
She quickly descended on the stairs. The caregiver moves, wincing as the boards protested by letting a wail of a creak. She knocked once, then twice, to no answer and the caregiver nervously pounded on the door, fearful of whoever or whatever lived inside.
"I heard ya the first damn time-" The door was wrenched open with a loud shriek of resistance from the door. The careworker was stricken silent as she stared at the intimidating older lady in front of her. That old wench locked her eyes with the caregiver's for seconds worth of lifetimes each. Her skin was wrinkled with lines of all sizes, creased and crevassed by a lifetime of worries. The lips of Mami Ueda were pursed, like she was sucking on a lemon, amd it seemed that it was her natural look. The caregiver stood there with knees atremble and a look of pity towards poor, poor Kaki, who was innocent in all of this. Why would anyone trust this woman to care for children?
Mami stood there looking unimpressed, "This is tha part where ya tell me what the hell ya want." She sneered down at the woman, spinning a pipe in her withered hand. "I ain't owe ya no money. Or this a monthly visit for tha damn-" Her voice lowered into a deep grumble.
The caregiver jumped."No. No. I'm not here for that...I'm here with the baby that you agreed to take in." She held out the bundle while Mami stared down at it with perplexed eyes.
"Why the hell is it ser small, huh?" She rubbed her chin once, "They always sending me the unnatural ones, can see it's red 'air already." Mami motioned with a neated groomed finger nail around Kaki's head at the soft tufts of light red hair growing there. "Give it 'ere." She demanded. The caregiver nearly chucked the baby at the woman.
The caregiver smiled nervously, relaying a quick version of how the girl was found. "Kaki Kawaguchi is her name. A shinobi found her abandoned in the ocean, took her with him...Mizukage-sama was very adamant that she be taken into your care and...uh...Her last name is from the ninja that found her." She quickly thrust the canteen that the shinobi had left, "She'll only calm down with this. Water and salt."
"'Eah. 'Eah." The woman motioned her away and slammed the old door shut, dispite the fact it barely closed at all.
The caregiver turned, and she darted out of there as if a shimigami slashed at her heels.
Poor, poor Kaki was let alone with that old hag, and the no one seemed to give a damn.
...
She had been born five years ago, and her life was scheduled for her with non-stop training that paused only in visits from the Mizukage himself. Her name was Kaki Kawaguchi, and she was the replacement of the former wielder of the Nuibari, Kushimaru Kuriarare.
There are others; several children have competed against her, yet few have beaten her. The training itself was not too strenuous, they didn't want to damage the bodies of the children before they had a chance to fully develop, and Kaki was a valued tool to the village. Most of the children were valuable weapons to Kirigakure, and the were each perfectly matched to fit a blade.
The Third Great Ninja War had left Kirigakure damaged, but it was what happened after the war that had caused the most destruction. Out of seven swordsmen, only three remained. If the reports were to be followed correctly, it had been caused by Might Duy of Konoha; a former insignifcant figure of the Village Hidden in Leaves. How he managed to kill four of Kirigakure's best ninja was beyond Kaki, but she also understood that Konoha was fierce competiton.
However, not a single shinobi seemed to fit the profile of the proper Ninja Swordsmen, and with only three of seven; Kirigakure was at risk. No longer could the Fourth Mizukage dare to rely solely on the shinobi to produce their strongest when he would nuture those who could possibly be considered worthy of those titles from childhood.
Kaki (even at only five) would proudly admit she wasn't necessarily a prodigy or a genius nor did she even considerably have the memory skills to memorize complicated jutsu, but she was she had large chakra reserves and all characteristics of the former Kushimaru Kuriarare.
She was a natural with weapons, even if her ninjutsu needed work, and unlike most of the children chosen for this training, Kaki did not hesitate in anyway during training or sword spars. Her red hair was as wild as Kushimaru's and she was tall for age, with more sylphlike than gangling like the former Swordsman.
Only two children (Kaki included) were in the program still and to anyone else they were simply prodigies in the big kid classes, not being specially groomed to become Kirigakure's finest. Their training was kept a secret and the children that failed the testing had their minds wiped by Genjutsu and was sent to regular classes for their age group.
Most of Kaki's lessons were based solely upon chakra control and building her reserves (that was mostly because of her partner; her chakra coils were too large), and then onto Water Style Jutsu that were advanced for the kids that would soon graduate. Since, officially she was in the Academy, she had lessons in the history of Kirigakure and Jutsu theory, but those were absolutely useless to her. What did she care how Kirigakure came to be or who these dead guys were anyway? Seemed to be a waste of time!
Currently, however, Kaki was running from a bigger threat than simple history or mathmatical equations. She was running from a damn shark! You could say the little girl was a wee bit uncomfortable around sharks or...that she had Selachophobia. The fear of sharks.
The only sound echoing down the halls consisted of her dark purple, genin sandals as they slapped against the tiles of the Academy, and she slid down a hallway using all the grace her too long-limbs could produce.
Everyday after school she and Chojuro (he was the second child chosen, and she wasn't quite sure if she liked him or not) had training with one of the remaining swordsmen to get themselves more adapt to the group itself and to learn how to wield a sword. Kaki didn't mind so much when it was Raiga-sama or Zabuza-sama, but it did upset her whenever it was Fuguki-sama. She was uncomfortable around his large, fish-like apperance and it was too similiar to a shark, but she could deal with that.
However, whenever he was busy he sent his subordinate Kisame, she ran when the Academy day ended. She was terrified of the blue-skinned boy for his shark apperance. It terrified her to the point where she fainted when she saw him, and her mind could not fathom seeing that scary shark-man!
She HATED Kisame, so she slid down the last hallway, and rolled down into a desperate tumble towards a small hole in a wall near the big, rock bookshelf that had no business being made of stone.
The hole was big enough to fit two kids, and was hidden by the bookshelf itself. It was easy to get into if you were small, and no one else but someone really, really strong could get you out or fit in the little hole in the corner.
She didn't like running from family, but sometimes you just have to, just like sometimes you have to hate family. She liked to consider all of the Seven Ninja Swordmen as her family, because she didn't have any. When she turned four, she found out she was in a foster home, which is a politically correct term for being parentless and being someone else's problem.
Weeks turned into months and a year passed, but Kaki didn't miss her parents (or at least the idea of what her parents would be like), so she kind of just let it go. Mami Ueda had told her the story of her birth a thousand of times, always squaking about how she was suppose to miss those bastards, and maybe if she wished for them enough then they would appear and relieve Mami of her problem. Kaki didn't understand that she was required to have an attachment to those people she barely knew; the ones that had tossed her into the ocean. A lot of people were in foster homes and it was the little girl's understanding that she was supposed to switch her attachment from her parents to her foster parent.
But if she didn't have an attachment to her parents, what did she have to give to her foster mother? Absolutely nothing!
Not that Mami Ueda ever loved her or cared for her the way a mother should. Most of the time, the old woman left the girl alone. She supposed whoever Mr. Kawaguchi was had some connection to her as 'family' seeing as he gave her his name and all.
But he left her too, so the Swordmen were her real family. They weren't affectionate at all, and were too rough. Chojuro was too hesitant, and Kaki slightly stood out amonst them, but they were THERE. No matter what happend, they were a group. They were a unit even if they didn't like her or each other. That was acceptable for her. Families were groups that stuck together.
So Kaki had a family. Okay, that works. Except for Shark-Man. Not Sharky.
...
Fugaki dies first and no one hides that. She is slightly disappointed, but keeps it well hidden under layers and layers of giant, pointy-teeth grins. She is upset when Sharky takes over for him, and she tends to hide more often then she did with the fish-like swordman.
She turns seven when a small hurricane hits, and she almost faints when Chojuro tells her that sharks can possibly be swept in during a flood.
...
Zabuza Momochi leaves them too, and Chojuro seems torn up about it. Master Zabuza was harsh and demon-like, but even nine year old Kaki will miss him. Her family is falling to pieces around her and she can do little to stop it from happening. She resolves to get stronger and get over her phobia of sharks while doing so. Kaki highly doubts the latter will come true, though.
She just really, really wants to drag her comrade back to the village by his sword and keep him there.
...
There is a boy with them, he's older and his name is Mangetsu Hozuki and he is the most handsome boy that Kaki has ever seen in her entire life. Mami Ueda brings men around, but they all smell of liquor and sweat mingled with smoke, and it makes Kaki sick to her stomach. Chojuro smells way better, as opposed to those men, but she could live without it. He smells like fear and fruit, with a hint of wind on his jacket.
Mangetsu smells like strength and ocean water; both make Kaki blush and stutter, but she pretends she doesn't because she does not do that girly-blushing thing. He's way too tall for her anyway.
She met him when she was nearly six, and he was using HER sword. It was her Nuibari, the one she had been promised since she was three years old. Her small, childish mind immediately said to get back what was HERS, and sharing waa out of the question.
Of course, shrieking at him that he was stealing was not the best course, but what could she do? He was touching her stuff!
Kaki did not expect for him to laugh quietly at her, shaking his head as he continued training with the blade. The boy explained he could use four out of seven, and this was be the fifth (he said with her permission, but Kaki thinks he would have used it anyway), so Kaki pursed her lips and agreed for the sake of it.
He smelled of the sea and of strength, like she said before, and it was a very, very nice combo.
Mangetsu was the best of the best. He was a god and idol in the eyes of a little red-headed girl. He even mastered all seven swords before he-
Kaki winced, and shook her head slowly. She had just graduated the Academy at the ripe age of 9 and a half when he was killed. She didn't even pretend it didn't hurt. She sobbed openly in front of all of her peers and Chojuro couldn't even comfort her.
She made a mental list of what she wanted back:
Fuguki's rough teaching and loyalty to Kirigakure.
Zabuza's vicious behavior and his annoyance of the her and Cho-kun.
Mangetsu's smile.
Of course, Fugaki was dead and all, but Kaki still missed one of her brothers-in-swords. Kaki promised she would do all she could to drag Zabuza back to the village and she would avenge the white-haired boy so one day she could feel his smile in the waves of the ocean again.
...
Yagura-sama comes to vist her every now and then during practice, but never speaks to her or allows his presence to be known. The one day he does come to speak, Kaki freezes. She was practicing her sensory (all Hunter Ninja need it for Tracking), and she feels something yucky next to him.
He opens his mouth to her, then closes and simply nods before slipping back into the shadows, while Kaki blanched at that horrible, horrible aura near the Mizukage.
...
"Haha! Loser! Loser, Ne!" Kaki laughed as her old classmate Gill tried and failed to pick up Chojuro's weights, and she beamed when he became mad enough to try and kick thrm.
His name was Giru which meant Gill, and of course Kaki would NEVER let that go, so he became Gill in her book.
Chojuro looked embarrased by his teammate's out burst, and Kaki was beaming, grinning with her sharp teeth.
"You can't use these heavy things either," Gill pointed out. Kaki smirked, her hands on her hips and she glowered down at the boy.
"Ne-ne, yeah, but I ain't need to be strong, my sword don't need no strength, ya idiot." She sounded like an illiterate fool, but she grew up with Mami Ueda who didn't have the best grammar, so excuse her for her poor language skills. Her verbal tick (her "ne-ne") was a nuisance itself and she often blurted out random words at the worst moments possible.
But she crossed her arms, and acted like some scholar or somethin' close to that, and clicked her tongue at Gill.
Gill was in all definition, ugly! His hair was rugged and too big and looked too scrachy, and he had three long lines down his neck like gills. He was really going for the homeless look. At his best, he looked like a street rat with ambitions bigger than himself.
"At least, I don't look like a Sākasu!" Giru spat at the Swordsman in training, and she stared at him wide-eyed, emotion bubbling in her chest and she sneered at him.
The red-haired kunoichi shrieked in anger, "I do not look like a circus!" She did. She really did.
Her wild red locks did look sort of like Kushimaru Kuriarare, but while his seemed like shaggy wheat, her was more like tangled red thread that kept in a loose bun on the top of her head. Her eyes were violet and wide with overly-long eyelashes. Her outfit was the brightest blue even considerably possible and it clashed horriby against her bright hair.
Her soft pants reached her mid-thighs as shorts, met by bright blue genin sandals extending upwards to meet her knees. Her kimono-like blouse was the same blue with trimming at the ends of the long sleeves that went past her hands (she liked hiding things in her sleeves), and a obi that was black. Around her waist (in the middle of her obi) rested her Kirigakure no Sato hitai-ate on it's usual indigo cloth (Yagura-sama was very strict about keeping the cloth the same color).
Kaki looked like a overly-colored Sākasu, and she didn't mind. She felt amazing.
At fourteen years old, she was a member of the Seven Swordsmen and so was Chojuro. They were strong and efficent with their swords.
Gill cackled with laughed at how red her cheeks were getting, and she flushed under his stare.
"Now you look like a tomato!"
"D-Do not! More like a s-strawberry!" She stuttered, and Chojuro sighed almost scolding at the two of them. Gill grinned at him (he had normal teeth), and proceeded to tell the boy that he looked like a clown fish.
Kaki exploded, "YOU DO NOT GET TO INULT JURO-KUN!" Her needles flew out of her sleeves (neither Chojuro nor her actual brought their swords outside unless on a mission), and she hunted him down.
"I'm the only one who gets to insult him! Ne!"
"G-Guys! Don't fight!" Chojuro's pleas fell on deaf ears. He was sure he could fight them and make stop.
Maybe.
No, he could!
Hopefully...
He really had to work on his self-confidence.
...
Her confidence isn't as real as she lets everyone see. But her dreams are. Four years ago, Kisame (when did she begin calling him that...he was always Sharky) left Kiri, and Kaki was heartbroken. Two years ago, Raiga left too with a strange boy (the others didn't know about him but Kaki felt his ominous chakra), and she was even worse off.
Only two of seven are left in the village, and her family is broken. Kaki is determined she will drag Zabuza, Kisame, and Raiga back to the village.
She wants to protect the group that Mangetsu loved so much (even if he wasn't so fond of the members), and she wants to remember his smile.
Kaki will break every bone in their bodies, and drag them back by their swords if she had to, but she will bring all three home. She has to.
For Mangetsu-sempai.