Tee hee, my first ever Naruto fic! Oh joy!
Disclaimer: *sigh* Believe me, I tried. But Kishimoto is a stubborn old butt head. He refuses to let me own them. BUT I ASSURE YOU IF I DID, WE WOULD GET TO SEE MOST OF THE MALE CHARACTERS SHIRTLESS! *drools at the thought* But I do own Ariana.
So yeah. A ShikamaruxOC because there just aren't enough.
Ariana Raiku sighed and leaned her head on her hand, barely registering what the teacher was saying. She hated History class, it was just too boring. All the dates and crap. She suddenly started as she realized the teacher had called her name.
"Well, Miss Raiku?"
Shit. Ariana had absolutely no idea what she'd said. She looked at the board, hoping it might help, but there were so many notes, only God knew which one should have helped. She gulped.
"Well,Miss Raiku?" the teacher said again.
Ariana sighed. "Sorry, Mrs. Rice, I didn't hear you. What was the question?"
The class laughed, and their History teacher sighed.
"Ariana, could you at least pretend that my class doesn't bore you tears?"
"Sorry..." she mumbled.
"Now, the question was which Romanian ruler was famous for impaling his defeated enemies alive? Any clue at all?"
Ariana sighed. At least it was an easy question. "Vlad Dracul III."
"Good."
Ariana thankfully managed to go the rest of the class without getting into more trouble. But as she was on her way to her Science class...
"Raiku."
Ariana froze. She knew that voice all too well. She turned and sighed. Of course, she couldn't go one fucking day without being bullied by Trina Valenti. The stuck-up whore had picked on her almost every day of her life since second grade, and to be honest, Ariana wished she'd just drop dead. She turned.
Ugh, how annoying.
"What now, Valenti?"
Everyone in the hallway stopped, looking to see Ariana get a good verbal beating.
"Good job in class, loser. Even I can't believed you missed one of the easiest questions in the book."
Ariana tried hard not to roll her eyes.
"I got the question right...I just didn't hear it the first time. But I guess a brainless slut like you wouldn't be able to tell the difference, huh?"
"What did you just call me?" Valenti was pissed, and Ariana could tell, but she was gonna get one last thing in.
"Are you deaf, too, bitch? I said you were a brainless slut. Got a problem with it?"
Valenti lunged for her, but if Ariana was anything, it was fast. She ducked out of the way at the last second and stuck her foot out, causing Trina to trip and fly face first into the ground.
Everyone in the hall burst out laughing, and with a smirk, Ariana turned and started heading once again to her next class. But not before seeing Trina's livid face and seen the plain hatred in her eyes. Ariana sighed. Valenti would get her back, she always did.
Or at least that's what Ariana thought. What she didn't know was that Trina would never get the chance.
Ariana slammed her house door shut, dropping her bag by the door. She stalked into the kitchen, intent on getting a snack. She grabbed an apple and plopped down on the couch, flipping on the TV. Her eyes wandered up to the mantle, where a picture of a five-year-old Ariana and her parents smiled down at her. She sighed, and flicked her eyes away from the picture. Looking at it always made her feel like crying. Why hadn't she thrown it out? She hated feeling that way.
Because it's all you have left of them, a little voice in her head said.
Ariana's grip tightened around the apple so much she feared she might break it. Ever since her parents' deaths seven years ago, it seemed she didn't belong anywhere. She found it impossible to make friends, no matter how hard she tried. Her grades sucked, even though she knew she was smart. Most of all, there was this feeling that she just didn't belong. Not just a feeling of being rejected, but a tugging in her heart, as if it were trying to lead her somewhere else. She felt like she shouldn't be here, like she was needed somewhere else.
She sighed. It was probably just her. After all, she was a total freak. In personality, abilities, and looks. In personality, she was totally paranoid. She always felt like her life was in danger, even though nothing had ever happened in her life to give her reason to believe it.
In abilities, it was just plain scary. Sometimes she ran so fast she was just a blur. She could jump higher than anyone without even trying, and her reflexes were so quick they had had caused people to ask her if she could see the future.
Her looks weren't quite as weird, though. What it really was were here eyes; the one sapphire blue eye and the one emerald green eye. She had never understood what the big deal about her eyes was, but people always said the same thing:
Normal people should only have one eye color, you freak!
She sighed. What had she done to deserve such harsh treatment from every person she met? What had happened to make everybody hate her? Even the teachers and the principal disliked her. The only person who was ever nice to her, Mr. Kabuki Yukashi, her next door neighbor. He'd moved in next door about a week after her parents' deaths, and when he'd realized there was a five-year-old orphan living right next to him, he'd taken her under his wing. She still lived in her house, but he checked up on her at least once a week.
She adored him.
She shook her head out of her reminiscent thoughts and paid attention to the TV. Angsting over her past like an emo kid would get her nowhere. Criminal Minds was on. It was time for one of her favorite pastimes: watching a fictional FBI take down a serial killer.
She was making soup for dinner when she heard a knock on the door.
"It's open."
In walked Mr. Yukashi.
"Mr. Yukashi!"
The young man laughed. "How many times do I have to tell you, Ariana, call me Kabuki."
"But-"
"No buts," he said, lightly knocking her head. "You've known me for seven years; you're like a little sister to me. Besides, I'm not that much older than you."
It was true. The man was only in his mid-twenties, though his pony-tailed silver hair made some think otherwise. He pushed his round glasses further up on his nose.
"Anyway, I brought you some cookies. Old Ms. Lafay brought gave them to me, but I didn't want them. I thought you might like them, you're the one with the sweet-tooth...but don't eat them until after dinner though," he added, nodding at her soup bowl.
"COOKIES! Thanks, Mr. Yuk – Kabuki." She smiled.
"No problem. Well, I need to back. I have important business to tend to tonight." For a split second, the look on his face seemed to change, and Ariana caught her breath. He looked terrifying and...almost evil...but less then a split second later it was gone, and she was positive she'd imagined it.
I must have...
He stepped back onto the porch and turned back to face her. With a smile, he said, "Good night, Ariana."
"Good night."
She closed and locked the door behind him, and turned back to her soup. If it weren't already almost done, she'd probably eat a cookie. As it was, she decided to listen to Kabuki and wait. As she was eating, she thought about that almost instant moment where Kabuki's face had changed. She shook her head quickly. He was the only person who was ever nice to her, she couldn't start distrusting him.
It must have been a trick of the light.
With this in mind she finished dinner, and the entire plate of ten cookies.
"Yum, yum, yum~!" she sing-songed. "I loves cookies~!"
Yeah, yeah. She was immature. Get over it.
She grabbed her iPod off her bedside table and sat down to watch the news and listen to her favorite song, It Ends Tonight by The All-American Rejects.
As she was watching about some random department store robbery, Ariana started feeling really sleepy.
That's weird...I'm insomniac...I'm never sleepy...
She was trying very hard to keep her eyes open. She rubbed her eyes, but still couldn't wake up. She got up to walk around, but still felt way to tired. Before she quite realized what had happened, Ariana fell to the ground, unconscious.
She was awakened by someone slapping a hand over her mouth.
Her eyes flew open, and she started trying to scream against the gloved hand. She struggled, but another hand flew to her legs holding her down. Her attacker was wearing a hood, so she couldn't see his face, but he was one strong bastard. He forced her up, and dragged her into the hallway. Ariana's eyes widened.
In the middle of the hallway was a glowing doorway-type thing. She started struggling harder, but her kidnapper shoved her forward as if he didn't even notice her attempts to fight back. He spun her around to shove her back first, and the last thing she saw was the gleam of moonlight of eerily familiar glasses.
It can't be...
And that was her last thought before she was shoved through the portal-thing, and everything went dark.
When she finally woke up, Ariana was staring at the ceiling of a log cabin. Suddenly she heard a door open. She groaned.
"So you're finally awake, un."
Ariana jolted up, and spun her head to stare at the speaker. He was a young man, somewhere in his late teens or early twenties, with really long blonde hair tied in a ponytail. His bangs fell in front of his left eye, and he was wearing a long black cloak with a red cloud pattern. The eye she could see was bright blue.
She jumped backwards, leading her to falling off the bed she hadn't realized she was lying on. She scrambled up and backed into the wall, staring wide-eyed at the man.
"Wh-who are you?" she stammered.
He raised an eyebrow. "My name's Deidara, un. What's yours?"
"Wh-why should I tell you?"
"I think you owe me at least that much, seeing as I just saved your life."
"Saved my life? What are you talking about?"
"You don't know? I found you unconscious in the middle of the woods, un. If I hadn't brought you back here, you'd probably be dead right now."
The woods? But Ariana didn't live anywhere near the woods...just what had that portal-thing been?
"Well?" Deidara's voice cut through her thoughts. "Feel like telling me your name yet?"
She jumped. She'd almost forgotten he was there.
"A-Ariana. Ariana Raiku."
"Nice name, un. So are you gonna tell me how you ended up in the middle of the woods?"
She sighed. "I really don't know. I don't live anywhere near the woods. I-I was kidnapped in the middle of the night, and I...I don't know what I'm gonna do...I don't..." she felt tears gather in her eyes. What on earth was she going to do? She had no idea where she was. Hell, that portal had probably taken her to a whole different world. She wouldn't be surprised. She started sniffing.
Deidara started panicking. He hadn't meant to make her cry! He ran to her side, waving his hands.
"Ah! I'm sorry! Don't cry, un!"
"B-but I don't know what I'm going to do! I don't know what's going on! One second I'm watching TV, the next I'm being thrown through some weird portal and waking up in a stranger's house! What am I gonna do, I – "
"I...I'll take care of you!" Deidara cried without thinking.
"H-huh...?"
"Yeah! I'll take care of you! You can live here with me, and I'll train you. You can become a ninja."
Her brow furrowed. "A...ninja?"
"Yeah! Wait, you do have chakra, don't you?"
"I...I don't know," she said. "What's that?"
He stared at her. "You honestly don't know?"
She shook her head.
He sighed. How could she not know. Ah, to hell with it. If she didn't have it, oh well. She couldn't be a ninja. "Chakra is the energy in a ninja's body made up of physical and mental energy, un. When ninjas focus their chakra through hand signs, they can perform jutsus. Without chakra, there's no jutsu, get it?"
She nodded.
"Everyone has chakra to an extent, but only ninjas use it to make jutsu and fight, un. Okay, now I'm going to see if you have enough to fight, alright? Stand up."
She nodded and got to her feet. He placed a hand on her stomach.
"Hey! What are you – "
"I'm just checking, un. Calm down." Suddenly his brow furrowed. "Strange..."
"What?"
"You do have chakra, and quite a lot of it, even for a ninja. But it's all sealed away, as if someone doesn't want you to unlock it. Hold still, un."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to hit a pressure point in your stomach that should unlock your chakra, un." He pulled back his hand and then, very suddenly and quickly, punched Ariana in the stomach.
"ARGH! What the hell? That hurt, dammit!"
"I told you, un. I was hitting a pressure point; it was bound to hurt a bit. But you feel stronger now, don't you?"
Ariana stopped rubbing her stomach and paused for a moment. She did feel different, like there was a new power running through her. She nodded.
"I guess I do feel a little stronger..."
He laughed. "Good, un. And when I'm done, it won't just be a little. Now to see what kind of chakra you can use."
"Huh?"
"There are five chakra types, un. Earth, water, fire, wind, and lightning. Most ninja know already what kinds of chakra they're capable of using, but because you're completely new to this, I'm going to have to test you." He left the room and came back a minute later with a piece of paper. "I promise this time it won't hurt, un. Lay your hand on the paper. You'll leave fingerprints, and then I'll be able to tell what type of chakra you can use."
Ariana slowly placed her palm on the paper. After a few seconds, she lifted her hand, revealing five fingerprints, all different colors: one red, one blue, one brown, one yellow, and one light gray. Deidara's eyes widened.
"What now?"
"You can use all five chakra types! I've never seen anyone who could do that except..." his eyes widened again, and he looked up to stare at her eyes. "What did you say your surname was, un?"
"Raiku."
"Of course..." Deidara's mind was reeling. Could this little girl really be...?
"What is it?"
He shook his head. "Nothing, un." He decided to wait. If this girl was really who he thought she was, she'd find out soon enough.
"Well, I was gonna train you by myself, but I only use earth-style jutsu, un. I'm going to have to call in some friends of mine to help with the other types. I'll be right back."
A few minutes later, Deidara walked back into the room. "Alright, my friends are going to be her tomorrow morning."
"What are we going to do tonight?"
"Tonight we're going to bed. It's eleven-thirty at night. You've been unconscious for four days. So now we're going back to bed so you can get up early in the morning for training. I'll wake you, don't worry, un. Oh yeah, this is your room. See you in the morning."
He flicked out the light and closed the door. Ariana crawled into bed, thinking about all the weird stuff that had happened to her. This was all happening so fast, she barely had time to understand it. She was going to be a ninja. She closed her eyes. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day, that was for sure.
And so Ariana drifted to sleep, unaware that she was about to start living a life more exciting and dangerous than she could ever imagine.
Wow. That was probably the longest chapter I've ever written. And look! I've figured out the ruler option! Wait, the rulers did appear, right? Well, that was chapter one. And yes, I realize Deidara was a little OC. I tried not to make it too bad though...
Oh yeah, fifty points to whoever can guess who Kabuki Yukashi really is. It shouldn't be too hard, I didn't put very much effort into disguising him. ;D
So yeah. Please review...if you don't I'll probably get depressed and never write ever again...stupid low self-esteem...
Seriously, REVIEW! I will give you cookies and marshmallows if you do! :D