AN: PLEASE READ. Okay, so usually when I write fanfictions I create a whole new character and work them into the plotline of the story/manga/movie/et cetera, creating a slightly new storyline. Usually, said characters are fairly simple and can be explained (for looks and otherwise) in the actual story. For the Naruto fanfictions I write, though, my character is extremely complex—she could seriously be a character all on her own. She has a whole family tree and everything. This being said, this "introduction" is all of the info that you will need to know about my Naruto character in the format of a letter so that you are not horribly confused in the story as to what the heck certain things are.
You, of course, are allowed to review this, but it is an introduction to all of them…kind of like a little pre-story to get you up to date. Oh, and usually my stories are in first-person, but this one is in third-person the whole time, so…yeah. Thank you for reading!
Oh, and I do not own Naruto, but I do "own" everything that has to do with my character 'cause I made it up. Enjoy!
Karinami Iruzika meandered lazily around the streets of her hometown, Umi no Kyuuden (or "Palace of the Sea"), not really caring where she ended up. The day was bright and warm—it was the middle of summer in the Land of Waves. Looking at the crystal blue waves lapping at the beach nearby, Kari sighed. Today was to be her last day in her home; tomorrow she would be heading off to Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, to further her training as a Genin ninja.
Konoha. The very thought made a thousand questions race through her head. She had spent all of her 16 years in the Palace of the Sea, though she had visited her relatives in other lands, and was loathe to move into such a big, unfamiliar city.
Umi no Kyuuden, unlike any other place in the Land of Waves—no, the world, trained the few ninja it had on a very personal level. There was one sensei for every student. They also started training very young. The only drawback of this system was that the Genin then lacked in experience with cooperation and fighting in a group. For this reason, every Shinobi trained in Umi no Kyuuden was assigned a second sensei, one that lived in one of the Hidden Villages. When the student was old enough, they would be sent to the Hidden Village with their second sensei and would be braided into the cell that the sensei was already in charge of. This way, the Shinobi would possess the proper skills to function well in a group.
The only requirement for the students to be accepted into an already-functioning team was unquestioned disciplinary excellence. Since the balancing system of the teams was specifically set up so that it was large enough to function as a group but small enough to stay unnoticed, the fifth member of the group had to surpass all others in stealth as well as be prepared to take whatever order was set in front of them, despite the situation. This way, the flow of the team would remain intact while the "extra" member received the needed training.
Looking up at the sky, Karinami reviewed the name of her second sensei in her head. Kakashi Hatake.
"I wonder what he's like," she muttered softly. Her first sensei, Roka Iruzika, was also her adopted guardian and Kari couldn't imagine ever having anyone else as a teacher. Roka was her family, her best friend, her mentor…he was the only one that cared to take her in after what happened, even though he was not related to her at all. Even her adopted cousins were the closest friends she had, despite the fact that they lived very far away. Technically, they weren't her cousins at all; they were more like Roka's distant cousin's kids or something like that. Since the Iruzika bloodline was originally created when a Sunagakure Shinobi married the current "leader" of the Inuzuka clan, the relatives that Karinami gained by adoption lived everywhere from the Land of Wind to the Land of Fire and beyond.
With any luck, Kiba Inuzuka—one of Roka's cousins that was her age—would still be training in Konoha so she would at least know one person there. If Kari were extremely fortunate, then the rumors of her other three cousins—Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara—would be true and they would be training in the Village Hidden in the Leaves as well.
"Good morning, Kari-chan," a voice interrupted her meditations. Karinami looked up to see old Suzu hobbling up, cane in hand.
"Good morning, Suzu-san," she replied halfheartedly. Suzu was infamous for her terrible memory—she was under the impression that nothing had changed in 50 years and therefore always tended to bring up things that had nothing to do with the present.
"My, you've grown!" The old woman clucked approvingly. "Your parents must be so proud! How are they, by the way?"
Karinami cringed. Her parents had been dead for eight years, but Suzu still thought they were alive! "They're doing…uh…very well, Suzu-san," she lied. There was no use explaining their death; Suzu would never believe her with that bad memory.
"Well, tell them hello for me, will you? You're budding beautifully—the spitting image of your grandmother when she was young, and no doubt about it."
"Uh, thank you, I'll tell my parents that you said hi."
"Oh, and Kari dear, do look out—there's some nasty rumors going around town. Just yesterday I mentioned how hard your father must be working and an impudent young man told me that he had died! Hah, that rascal, I gave him a good talking-to, so don't you worry your little head about it. The little liar just kept saying 'It's the truth! It's the truth, I tell you! They were killed in the siege!' Humph! If they had died then, I would have known. And killed? No chance!" Suzu paused. "Anyway, dear, I really must be getting along. You don't hurt yourself now, you hear me?"
"Hai, Suzu-san," Kari choked out. Her parents had been killed in the siege, and talking about it was just making her depressed. Waiting until the old lady had tottered off, she blinked away tears that were threatening to roll down her cheeks. How could Suzu be so blind to the truth? She wondered, slowly walking away. It's bad enough to think that my mom and dad are still alive, but to not know why? It's all my fault!
Somewhere in the back of Karinami's head, Roka's voice hissed, It is NOT all your fault! Don't say that! His common reply fell on deaf ears.
If I hadn't begged mom to go on a walk with me, then that diabolical jerk who was trying to provoke the citizens wouldn't have targeted me with a shuriken which means my mother wouldn't have pushed me out of the way which means that she wouldn't have been hit by it and killed which means my father wouldn't have found out in the middle of fighting that freak which means he wouldn't have been so surprised and shocked as to let his guard down because his wife was dead which means he wouldn't have been killed… Her thoughts ran together in one huge run-on, circling violently around in her head. And if mother hadn't gotten hit by that shuriken than my unborn baby brother wouldn't have died… Kari sighed.
And then…if dad would have killed the mastermind of the siege—which he didn't because he was so traumatized about the news mom dying in the MIDDLE OF THE BATTLE—then my only cousin who gives the crap about me would've adopted me by now instead of being press-ganged into some bloodthirsty organization… In frustration, she punched a nearby wall, startling a young woman that was passing by. Deidara…why couldn't you have just gotten out of there…? You were my only blood-cousin who even acknowledged my existence…now I can never see you again all because of that same man who killed my parents and laid siege to our town—what was his name?—Itachi Uchiha? The man who supposedly killed his whole clan…what kind of a sadistic freak would kill his own family? Reluctantly, she continued wandering around the city.
"He-e-e-ey, Kari-chan," a voice greeted her as she neared the outskirts at dusk. "Whatcha doin'? Last day, right? Off to the Village Hidden in the Clouds, right?"
Karinami turned, annoyed. Her old classmate, Sachio Hayagawa, was standing off to the side of the road grinning. Great, she thought, just one more thing to make today practically the worst day of my life.
"Uh, hey, Sachio," she greeted lamely. "And, uh, no…uh, it's the Village Hidden in the Leaves, actually." Yeah, thank GOD I won't be in the same country as you, Kari added to herself.
His face fell. "Oh, really? Darn. I mean, we totally could've, like, gotten together if we had been close to one another. Still," he grinned again. "I can always visit so you don't miss me."
"I don't think that will be necessary," she smirked, turning my back and beginning to walk away.
"Don't be that way, Kari," Sachio whined annoyingly, trailing behind her like a dog. "I mean, seriously, it's okay to admit that you're going to be sad when we're apart."
Karinami walked faster, away into the woods that surrounded the small village. "Just leave me alone, Sachio," she insisted. "Besides, you probably won't recognize me in a few years, so there's no way we can get together."
"I can figure out who you are by your Shiraseru-Omamori, your telling-charm. I mean, it has your name on it as well as your guardian and both of your senseis, not to mention your rank by wearing it around your neck instead of around your ankle or your wrist. Everyone from Umi no Kyuuden gets one, so—"
"I KNOW about my Shiraseru-Omamori, Sachio, but FORGET IT." Feeling sparks run throughout her body, Kari tried to keep her anger in check. She had inherited from her mother's family the Kekkei Genkai known as Funayureiinabikari—or Yuribikari for short—which tends to activate when emotions of anger well up in the body. Only passed through female members of the family, Yuribikari turns one's eyes dead black—even the irises and whites—and causes waves of pulsating blue electricity to circulate the body. If someone were to touch a person using Yuribikari with their bare skin, they would be almost instantly electrified and killed (this would not occur if there were one or more layers of cloth or such between the two people). The only people excluded from this truth were those possessing the Sharingan—the two forces would cancel each other out, and the Sharingan-possessing individual would not be affected.
Apart from being incredibly dangerous, the Yuribikari was known to heighten the user's already keen sense of vision and hearing, making them even more threatening. Though it was not known to many, said affects had serious downsides that were not revealed to anyone save the person possessing the Kekkei Genkai of lightning so that any rivals could take easy advantage of those weaknesses.
"Hey, who's your new sensei?" Sachio changed the subject, still trailing Kari like a determined puppy.
"Kakashi Hatake," she replied testily, still trying to calm herself.
"I know who that is; my dad said something about him once. Supposedly he's some super famous ex-ANBU that was trained by—hmmmm…I don't remember who trained him, to tell the truth, but it was somebody important in Hi no Kuni."
"Great to know," Kari said sarcastically, walking faster.
Sachio didn't take the hint to bug off. "Do you know anything about your new team? My sensei and his students sound amazing."
"Nope. I know nothing. Zippo. Zilch. Now will you leave me alone?"
"No way, I haven't even seen the symbol on your headband yet!"
Karinami groaned. "It's just the Umi no Kyuuden symbol and the Konohagakure symbol combined," she protested. "It's not that different."
Stealing her headband from its position around her waist, Sachio stubbornly looked over the symbol. "Yeah it is! See, the 'stem' of the leaf symbol is wavy like water and the triangular tip doesn't touch the spiral on one side. Besides that, there's a short wavy line in the top left and bottom right corners almost like flowing water as well, and a wavy line flows downward from the center of the spiral like a waterfall. It's way different."
"Okay, great, now give it back." Karinami snapped, getting extremely irritated at the unwanted attention.
"Hey, is that going to be your tadashiirui?" Her one-man entourage asked again, motioning to her outfit.
As tradition in Umi no Kyuuden, there was no set clothing for being a Shinobi. Rather, a system was set up to find each student's tadashiirui; a uniform that best suited them. The rules for a tadashiirui were very strict, in that the student themselves had to come up with the idea for the outfit and couldn't have any design help from superiors. It then was customary for the completed set of clothes to be thrown into the weekly bonfire and, if they didn't burn, it was said that the clothes were the student's tadashiirui. Ancient beliefs were that if the student was really suited to wear that particular outfit, their chakra would—of it's own accord—protect the potential tadashiirui from the fire. This tradition being prominent even after hundreds of years, no Shinobi from Umi no Kyuuden were known to wear the same uniform.
"Yes, Sachio, of course it's going to be my tadashiirui; if I didn't have one by now it would be too late," Kari replied. To be honest, her outfit didn't look much like something to exchange blows in, but miraculously she could move well in it and didn't feel comfortable fighting in any other clothes.
The tadashiirui in question consisted of a plain, black, tube-top dress that stopped in the middle of her thighs, but to be modest white leggings were worn under said dress that reached just past her knees. Makeshift arm-gauntlet sleeves were constructed out of a smooth but thick white cloth and started up near her shoulder, being tight on her arm near the top but flowing out like the sleeves of a buccaneer shirt and then stopping with elastic and a small seam at her knuckles with a hole in the side of the fabric for her thumb to fit through. Her headband consisted of the metal plate and a wide purple ribbon that she tied a little below her waist. Around Kari's neck was, of course, her Shiraseru-Omamori, and for shoes she wore black Mary Jane-like heeled shoes that had black ballet ribbons crisscrossing up her calves.
"Oh, well, right, I knew that," Sachio insisted. "Now what do you—"
"GOOD-BYE, SACHIO," Karinami growled, running full speed away. There was no way her former classmate could follow her, seeing as she was the fastest Shinobi in practically the whole country, Chunin and Jonin included. Behind her, she could hear Sachio yelling.
"Hey! What about my kiss good-bye!"
Kari scowled. "I did almost everything I could to avoid attention, and look where it got me," she muttered under her breath.
It was true. For years, the young Shinobi had avoided her peers as much as possible, trying to dodge their constant affections. The only reason she wore her messy, long, curly, black hair in low pigtails was specifically to make her look like a more rough-and-tumble, mention-marriage-and-you-die kind of person. It was supposed to deter guys from their ceaseless attention, but they were unrelenting.
Satisfied that Sachio was well behind her by now, Karinami stopped running, looking around at where she ended up. She was in the western outskirts of town, rather near her home and her old school. A solitary breeze whipped leaves around the streets, making them feel even more desolate, the sky darkening to a stormy grey. Glancing up, Kari felt a few fat raindrops land on her face, warm and clear, like the very heavens were weeping for her exodus in the morning. The sea, not far off stirred temperamentally, throwing its waves against the shore, dragging shells back into its deep recesses.
"Kari!" Roka's voice sounded from the corner of the road as the rain steadily increased. "Come on, get inside or you'll be soaked!"
"Coming," she replied, holding out her hand to cup a few drops of water in her palm before casting them away and peregrinating towards her house.
"You can be so weird, just standing out there staring at the sky," Roka teased as soon as they both were inside and moderately waterless.
"Hey, cut me a break, it's my last day here," she returned.
"It's mine, too, I have to stay in Konoha with you for awhile."
She laughed. "That doesn't count! You've lived away from home before!"
Her sensei shrugged, glimpsing into his student's ice-blue eyes. "Ah, whatever. You win."
Lightning lit the dim room in a flash of white, while seconds later thunder growled its dominance. Roka grinned. "Gorgeous day, right?"
"I love the rain, as long as it's not cold," Kari jabbered idly.
"Yeah, well you're weird, remember?"
"Oh, uh-huh, sure."
~the next morning~
The sun peeked over the horizon as Karinami made her way into the forest surrounding Umi no Kyuuden, her belongings all packed in a satchel on her back and a jar in hand. The woods were still damp from the rain the night before, but Kari barely noticed as she methodically picked her way through the trees. In a couple of minutes, she had skillfully navigated to a small clearing with a crystal-clear stream running through it and a waterfall on a tree-heighted cliff, as well as lavender-and-black flowers growing everywhere. Jumping swiftly up the cliff to the top of the waterfall, the view of the city and the ocean that was temporarily unhindered by trees was picture-worthy, to say the least. Opening the jar, the young girl picked several of the iridescent flowers and placed them in the tiny glass vial, sealing the lid tightly.
"Moon lilies," Roka's soft voice sounded behind her. "The legends say that once picked, they never wilt."
Kari turned, not surprised at all. Roka—or anyone else in Umi no Kyuuden—couldn't find their way around the forest, but he had most likely followed her. "A little piece of home," she smiled faintly.
"Are you ready to go?" Her sensei asked.
Taking one last look at the distant sea, calmer today and sapphire-blue, Karinami nodded. "I'm ready."
Silently, as the sun rose, the two slipped away towards the Land of Fire.
AN: Did you like it? Though this is just a little intro, not really a full story, critiques are welcome any day. Plus, now that you've read this, you can move on to my real fanfictions! Yay! Thanks so muchness for your time and reviews! The end.