YOU CLICKED ON IT!!!!
Oh well, accidents happen. It's not too late to turn back.
Still here? Oh, all right... My warning is simple. This story will have nothing to do with the characters from Naruto. I classify this as a fan-fiction because I have it set within the universe that was established by that story. You might call it a lesser tale from the Naruto universe. I did my best to keep anyone from being related to the characters of Naruto. The only exception is Sakuya, who will be related to the dazzling Haku because I want him to be able to use the marvelous Demon Mirrors of Ice technique and also because Haku was just that wonderful. WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE?!?!?
...I promise not to do that anymore...Yeah, that was a lie.
What? You still haven't gone away? Okay, your choice. Let us begin.
Chapter One
Sparkling Angel, I believe, you were my savior in my time of need
On the edge of the land of water and the land of snow was Shimogakure, the village hidden in frost. It wasn't a very important village. It had its share of nin of course but they weren't all that impressive. Over time, it seemed, the village was gradually forgotten. It was still there though. It was always there.
Fifteen years after the famous Kyuubi attack on Konohagakure, a girl named Chidarake Rei graduated from Shimo's Ninja Academy. She was unfortunately an odd person out when it came time to assign teams. It was decided that she would join a two man team that had already graduated.
At least no one could that the team she was part of was not much of a team, Rei mused to herself idly. She observed her two teammates from behind long burgundy bangs. They were two of the best in their generation, boasted the village elders. They were the ones who were going to put Shimo back on the map.
Mikazuki Sakuya had inherited his family's dangerous and powerful blood line limit, the Demon Mirrors of Ice. Namida Fuyu had no blood line but he more than made up the lack with speed, power, and intelligence, three of the most important aspects of being shinobi.
They were both very attractive boys as well. Rei smiled slightly as she watched them. They were so pretty that she couldn't help it. Weaker boys probably wouldn't have made it through the Academy with their pretty faces intact.
Megami Eien, the boys' teacher, was glaring at the man who had brought Rei to the training ground.
"You're kidding me, right?" The petite blond woman was practically shooting sparks. "You want
me to introduce a newly graduated genin into a team that's been together for six months?"
The man gave an aggravated sigh. "Mikazuki and Namida are still genin and Not.., I mean Chidarake needs a team. Your team is the only one available. Direct orders from the village leader." With that, he disappeared in the poof of smoke that most jounin used.
Eien gave an annoyed yell. Sakuya and Fuyu paused in their sparring and stared at their teacher.
"Is something wrong, Megami-sensei?" asked Sakuya.
"Yes, something's wrong!" snapped the woman. The three younger people stared at her. She took a deep breath. "Never mind. Mikazuki Sakuya and Namida Fuyu this is your new teammate Chidarake Rei."
Rei bowed politely to the two. Sakuya returned the gesture. Fuyu just kind of eyed her.
"This is too much stress for me," sighed Eien. "Let's end early today. I want the three of you to meet me at the Dragon Gate at four tomorrow morning."
All three students bowed as the woman disappeared into her poof.
Sakuya smiled at the girl. "Nice to meet you, Chidarake-san. Welcome to the team."
Something flickered in Fuyu's eyes. Recognition. "I know you. You're Notmuchova."
Rei flushed dark enough to match her deep burgundy hair.
"Notmuchova?" Sakuya blinked. "What does that mean?"
"It was my nickname at the Academy," mumbled Rei.
"I'm sure it'll go away," said Sakuya with a smile.
Fuyu rolled his eyes. "Don't count on it." Rei's face burned even brighter.
"Don't mind him." Sakuya grabbed Rei's arm an began pulling her down the street. "He always gets cranky right before an early morning mission. Why don't we all go get some food? It'll give us a chance to get to know each other."
"I don..."
"It's pretty pointless to argue once he sets his mind on something." Fuyu grabbed Rei's other arm and began helping to tow her along. "You're buying since this is your idea."
"No problem," Sakuya replied cheerfully. He turned back to the girl they were dragging along. "Why don't you pick out where we go?"
Rei just stared wide-eyed at the two boys. "Um...Anywhere is...fine?"
"Great!" exclaimed Sakuya, cheerful smile never slipping. "I know just the place." He suddenly dived through a doorway, pulling Rei and Fuyu behind him.
"Hello there, Mikazuki-san," said the woman behind the counter. "You and Namida-san are back again, eh?" She smiled at Rei who was unconsciously trying to hide behind the two boys. "And who's your new friend?"
"This is Chidarake Rei-san," said Fuyu. "She's our new teammate."
"Nice to meet you, Chidarake-san," greeted the woman. "The three of you just sit anywhere and someone will be right with you."
"Thanks, Sumire-san." Sakuya pulled his teammates to the back of the building.
It felt like they had been sitting for hours even though Rei knew it had only been about fifteen minutes. The boys discussed training but Rei didn't really have anything to add. She simply sat quietly and awkwardly.
"What are you doing, Notmuchova?" a mocking voice demanded. Rei had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she hadn't even paid attention to the fact someone was approaching or noticed that the boys had fallen silent. "Did they finally manage to assign you a team?"
Rei looked up at the tall brunette girl who was standing next to the table. Her teammates stood slightly in her shadow, no easy feat since she was at least six inches shorter than them. Their forehead protectors sparkled in the sunlight streaming in through the windows.
Rei looked away. "Ayame-san."
Ayame smiled as she looked at Rei's teammates. "Mikazuki Sakuya and Namida Fuyu. The best in Shimo. Maybe she'll manage to survive a little longer than we thought."
Rei seemed to find something incredibly interesting in the bowl of soup in front of her.
Ayame's smile turned cruel. "Surely you two have heard of Notmuchova. Not much of a beauty. Not much of a brain. Not much of a ninja. And don't even get anyone started on her pathetic bloodline. It's downright laughable."
Rei was looking away so she missed the evil glares that her new teammates sent her old classmates. Ayame sent the other girl's downcast head a dirty look as she spun and walked away.
As soon as Ayame was gone Rei sprang to her feet. "It was nice meeting you both but I'm afraid I have to go. I'll see you both tomorrow. The Dragon Gate at four, right?"
The girl dashed from the restaurant before either boy could say anything.
The next morning found Megami-sensei impatiently awaiting her students at the Dragon Gate.
Sakuya came first. A natural morning person, his smile was as bright and cheerful at four in the morning as four in the afternoon.
Fuyu followed soon after, griping and grumbling the whole way.
Rei arrived last, barely on time. She stumbled her way up to the gate.
"Now that we're finally all here," Megami eyed the straggler with disdain, "let's get a move on. I want to be as close as possible before nightfall." With that, she strode through the gates, her students trailing behind her.
"Get close to where?" Rei asked Sakuya.
Sakuya shrugged. "Hard telling with her."
Fuyu seemed to be sleep walking.
"Hush back there!" Megami called back.
This is going to be a long walk, thought Rei.
For two days they walked. Rei was a naturally quiet girl. She never thought that she could be so sick and tired of silence. Perhaps it wouldn't have mattered if it didn't seem so awkward. The others seemed fine, after all they had had six months to get used to long, strained silences. As a matter of fact, they didn't seem to find the silence strained at all.
Rei's lips twitched as she remembered the conversation she had had with Shimo's lord.
"We think that we will need another teammate for Mikazuki and Namida," Lord Asahi sighed as he relaxed on Rei's couch.
"That is more traditional," agreed Rei. "Do you want me to suggest someone, Uncle?"
"I've already volunteered someone," replied her uncle. He placed his teacup on the table.
"Who?" Rei eyed Asahi suspiciously. " It wasn't Ayame, was it?"
Asahi laughed. "No, it wasn't Ayame." Before Rei could even sigh with relief, Asahi continued. "It's you."
Rei's eyes went huge. "WHAT?"
Asahi sighed. "They need to bond, Rei. Right now they're teammates but not truly a team."
Rei was shaking her head.
"We're hoping that a third will bring them closer. If not..." Asahi grabbed his niece's shoulders to stop her movement. "You know what you'll have to do."
"Rei?" Sakuya sounded concerned. "Are you all right?"
Rei realized that she was shaking her head again. She stopped and cleared her throat. "I'm fine."
"Finally!" exclaimed Megami-sensei. "We're here. I was getting so bored. You three are terrible company."
The three looked around.
"Where is here, exactly?" asked Fuyu.
Megami ignored him. "Here." She tossed Rei a scroll. "Your mission objectives. Be careful." After issuing the sing-song command, the woman poofed away.
"That woman was surely sent to this world to drive people into insanity," muttered Fuyu. He turned to Rei, who was opening the scroll. "What does it say?"
All the blood drained from Rei's face as she read the scroll out loud. "'Survival training. Find your way back to Shimo using a different route than the one by which your arrived. Good luck and I'll be waiting for you back at the village. Megami Eien.' She signed it with a smiley face." The scroll crumpled in Rei's grip.
There was a long silence.
"The woman is a lunatic," Fuyu finally said.
"Maybe we can just go back the way we came anyway," offered Sakuya. "How would she know?"
Another scroll poofed into existence, falling from the air and bouncing off of Rei's head. "Ow."
Fuyu caught the scroll easily. He read it to the others. "'My spies are everywhere. Frowny face.'"
Sakuya arched an eyebrow. "'Frowny face'?"
"It's what it says!!"
Rei was rubbing the bump on her head. "It will be night soon. Maybe we should rest and plan tonight then head out tomorrow morning."
Sakuya looked around the clearing that Megami-sensei had abandoned them in. "Might as well. Any objections to camping here tonight, Namida?"
Fuyu shrugged. "Whatever."
The three quickly pulled out supplies and began setting up traps.
"I'm going to go get some wood before we finish activating these," Rei said softly and roamed away.
A little while later, Sakuya looked up from his pack. "Where did Chidarake go?"
Fuyu blinked and looked around. "I don't know." The tone of his voice clearly said that he didn't care.
"I am here."
Both boys jumped at the sound of the girl's voice. They spun to face her as she carefully set the wood she had gathered down.
"How did you do that?" demanded Fuyu.
The girl sat down near the fire Sakuya had somehow started. "I'm good at hiding."
Sakuya looked across the blaze to Rei. She was curled up slightly, clutching her knees to her chest. Her black clothes were just slightly too big for her and her long burgundy hair swept the ground around her. Her face was almost completely in shadow. He smiled at her. "I believe it."
"I do, too." Fuyu joined the others on the ground. "If I weren't looking at you I don't think I'd know you were there."
"Is that your bloodline?" Sakuya wanted to know.
The girl shook her head. "No, I just have very little chakra. It's pretty easy for me to disappear."
There was another long silence. Fuyu finally pulled a map from his pack. "All right. So how are we getting home?"
Sakuya and Rei came around the fire to see the map.
"Here's the last village we were in," said Sakuya, pointing at one spot. Pointing at another, he added, "And there's Shimo. So how do we connect the two?"
"A straight line," replied Rei. The boys gave her blank looks. "Megami-sensei lead us here along a curved path. We can simply go back in a straight line. Shimo looks to be directly south of our current location."
The boys turned back to the map and saw that the girl was right.
"It can't be that easy," muttered Fuyu. "She probably has the whole route booby-trapped."
"Probably," agreed Sakuya. "But we'll never know until we at least attempt it. Besides, if it gets too difficult, we can return here and replan."
Fuyu scoffed. "I doubt it'll be all that difficult." He shrugged. "Okay, we'll start heading straight back as soon as the sun rises tomorrow. Agreed?"
"Agreed," said Sakuya. Rei nodded.
Silence fell over the clearing as the three studied the fire.
"Is anyone actually hungry?" asked Sakuya, thinking of the supplies in his pack.
"Not me," replied Fuyu. "What about you, Chidarake?"
Rei didn't reply.
"Chidarake?"
The boys turned to where the girl was sitting. Sometime during the silence, she had fallen asleep. She lay curled into a ball with her back to the fire.
"Aww." Sakuya chuckled. "How cute."
Fuyu rolled his eyes. "Cute enough to freeze to death. She has a blanket, doesn't she?"
"I think so." Sakuya stood up and walked over to Rei's things. He pulled her blanket free of the pack. As he was wrapping it around her, Rei sleepily pushed closer to him. "She's so cute when she's sleeping!" Sakuya smiled as he cuddled her.
Fuyu shook his head. "Anytime you're done molesting our teammate, I'll help you finish laying traps."
"No problem," replied Sakuya. Walls of ice grew up around the camp. "Those will stay up while we sleep."
Fuyu eyed the seemingly fragile walls. "What if someone breaks through them?"
"No one can break through them."
"But what if they do?"
"They won't!"
As the boys continued bickering, Sakuya's arms tightened around Rei just enough to wake her up. She panicked for a moment, wondering how she'd gotten there and, more importantly, how to get away. It took the argument a second to get through her head.
"Garrote wire," she said pulling carefully away from Sakuya.
The boys looked at her blankly.
"If we run garrote wire through the ice," Rei explained as she rummaged through her pack, "even if someone did manage to break through, which is unlikely," she added at Sakuya's sigh, "they'd just wind wind up slicing themselves up."
Fuyu shrugged. "Worth a shot."
Rei looked over at Sakuya. He sighed again. "All right. Now where are we supposed to find garrote wire? I don't carry any."
Fuyu deflated. "Neither do I."
"I do." Rei finally pulled a roll of the sharp wire out of her pack. "Has someone been playing in my things?"
"No." Both boys looked at her steadily.
"Uh-huh." Rei eyed the two from behind her bangs.
It took a little while to get what Fuyu termed the ''ice fence'' put up.
"Here, just hold this up."
"OW!"
"Look out!"
"And now I'm bleeding."
"Are you okay?"
"Oh, just suck it up."
Finally, finally... they were finished.
"Let's think of something different next time," Rei said.
"Why?" asked Sakuya. "This worked."
Fuyu looked up from bandaging his fingers to give the dark haired boy a death glare.
Rei just gave him a doubtful look.
"Well, we've got it figured out now," Sakuya said with a shrug. "It'll be easier next time."
"Easier?" Fuyu jumped to his feet. "WHAT IF I LOSE A FINGER NEXT TIME? I'M A NINJA!! I NEED MY FINGERS!!!!"
Rei laughed.
Sakuya smiled.
Fuyu gave them looks of Doom. "What's so funny?"
A moment later, Rei and Sakuya found themselves tied up in their blankets.
"It was so worth it," said Sakuya.
Rei giggled.
"SHUT UP!"
The next morning the three started out on their chosen path. Once again silence reigned as they walked.
Sakuya, who was on point, stopped so suddenly that his teammates almost walked into him. "Chidarake, I just realized that we never asked..."
Rei gave him a questioning look.
"What is your nindo, your ninja way?"
"Wait and observe," Rei replied promptly.
"Then use it." Almost before Fuyu could finish speaking, ninja were falling from the sky. Perhaps if they had been paying attention, they would have seen the crimson haired shadow dash into the nearby trees.
Within a few seconds, Sakuya summoned the Demon Mirrors of Ice, trapping several opponents inside. Fuyu was taking down people at a rapid rate. It's possible that only Rei hidden nearby observing who saw the problem. Her uncle was right. Teammates but not a team. They fought together but didn't support each other.
Even as Rei watched, Fuyu fell before the enemy. As they all turned their attention to Sakuya, Rei nervously gripped her roll of garrote wire and prepared to join the fray. Just as she reached Sakuya's side, he fell.
One of the enemies turned to Rei. She managed to catch the blade he lashed out with. The blade was covered with the blood of her teammates. Jerking it away, she gave the few remaining opponents an evil glare.
When Sakuya opened his eyes, he found himself meeting the concerned stares of his sensei and his female teammate.
"Megami-sensei?" Sakuya managed to croak out. "Perhaps next time your traps could be a little less dangerous?"
"What would be the point of that?" Fuyu's voice floated over from the other bed. "No fun if they're too easy."
"Sitting in a hospital bed is fun?" Rei asked.
Eien sighed. "Something you'll understand as you grow is that men are incomprehensible, Rei-chan. They find the oddest things amusing. Burps, fart jokes, breasts, and apparently laying in hospital beds. Now come, let's leave them to their fun." The teacher grabbed Rei's arm and began towing her from the room.
"Chidarake?" Rei looked back at the sound of Sakuya's voice. He smiled. "Are you alright?"
Before Rei could say anything, Eien slung a companionable arm over her shoulder. "Are you kidding? Rei here emerged from the battle completely unscathed. Looks like her wait and observe path has more worth than most people give it credit for."
Sakuya smiled again. "Good, I'm glad." Rei blushed bright red.
As soon as they were out of the room, Eien removed her arm from Rei. She turned a death glare on the younger girl. "Whatever it was you did, NEVER do it again. Do you realize how DANGEROUS chakra depletion is?"
Rei sighed. "I wish I hadn't done it. It should wear off soon though."
"SHOULD?" Eien's glare intensified.
"Will," Rei corrected herself.
"For your sake," hissed Eien, "I hope it does." The blond woman stomped down the hallway.
Rei gave the closed door that lead to her teammates' room one last concerned look before following her teacher.
Wasn't that just wonderfully obscure? Tee Hee Hee.
What did Rei do? Who knows but the muses...