The Gentle Lionness and the Cursed Panther
Chapter 1: Welcome to Konohagakure!
"S-So who are you?.."
"Me? Names Ken"
"K-Ken?"
"Yeah, Ken _. Who are you?"
"I-I'm H_ta.."
"H_ta? That's a pretty name! Haha!"
"P-P-Pretty?.. Y-You think so?.."
"Yeah, I do. Something wrong with that?"
"N-No, just no one's ever said that b-before."
"Huh? Really, well honored to be the first."
"Ken?"
"Yes?"
"Keeeeen"
"H-H_ta?"
"KEEEEN!"
"HUH?!"
CRASH!
The world spun as a blinding light stuck a young genin eyes, causing him to hiss lightly as he covered his eyes with his forearm. The warmth from the morning sun bathed his young body in it's light and warmth. It caused his body to stretch lightly to start freeing his jointed from his long rest, though as he began to take in his surrounding he noticed something was off. His bed was strangely hard, not it's normal soft fuzziness he was used to and loved to cuddle into. Using his free arm so's not to uncover his sensitive eyes to the evils of the sunlight, he softly pressed his hand to the area below himself.
"Hard?..."
KNOCK KNOCK
"Loud..."
He said to himself as he knocked on the deduced floor twice, how'd he end up on the floor. While normally he'd nap in the sun light on the floor on a quiet day, it was morning. He never slept on the floor during the whole night unless his training really drained him... or shamefully enough he took a nap on the floor and never woke up. But no that wasn't the case, he knew for a fact he slept in his soft bed last night after all today was...
"The mission..."
"Y-Yeah that's today!"
A loud voice cried out, loud yet strangely it sounded nervous... Removing his fore arm from his eyes he peeked out to see a girl with pink eyes standing above him with his fuzzy purple blanket, her blazing red hair stuck out from behind the blanket though it didn't cover up her whole body to be fair. Only her chest and down, her face was a small hue of pink as she was staring at him.
"Oh Yumi it's you... Good morning"
He mumbled rubbing one of his eyes with his palm to try and wake himself up, as he did he slowly sat up scratching his bare chest with his other hand...
"G-Goodmorning Ken... can you please get dressed?.."
"Dressed?"
He looked up at her once more, she threw his blanket aside so it landed on the bed. Her eyes slightly locked on his bare chest, the other looking away to his bed where his shirt was resting. Oh right, it was hot last night. But he didn't want to lose his blanket, so he sacrificed his shirt instead to sleep happily.
"Sorry Yumi, can you leave please? I'll get ready"
"R-Right, hurry up Sensei and Isao are waiting for us at the village heads home."
"Right, right."
Complaining, he rolled backwords to his feet. Taking a glance at Yumi as she left the room he noted she was dressed differently from her normal attire which normally consisted of a thigh high pair of cut pants. And tank top, though she had her normal dark purple beads woven into the left of her bangs of her blazing hair. A gift, Ken had gotten her two years ago on her 10th birthday. Since then she always wore then, though ignores the question when asked why.
"Oh hey, your dressed for the mission"
She paused as she reached his house door, she was dressed differently then normal. She wore a green vest with various pockets covering it, no doubt containing her tools for the mission ahead. A black tee shirt underneath the vest, and upon closer inspection chainmail under that to protect her chest area from small weapons such as kunai. Well atleast weaken incoming attacks, that side she also wore greyish pants that stopped mid calf. And bandages wrapped around her calves, though she wasn't hurt. She'd sometimes rip them off mid battle to quickly patch herself up, when she didn't have enough time to grab her medic backpack which did cover her backside. And ofcourse the normal toeless boots that all shinobi wore.
"Well dah, the mission starts in a few hours. We won't have much time to go home and get changed, and packed."
"Packed?.." He mumbled looking a little panicked, her pink eyes narrowed on him.
"You did pack didn't you?.." Laughing nervously once, she sighed lightly.
"I'll pack your gear while you get ready, but you owe me dinner." She said in a kind yet demanding tone, sighing lightly the young man clapped his hands together and bowed.
"Yes Mistress Yumi"
She giggled lightly to his words before grabbing his duffle bag from the corner of his room, beginning to pack for Ken who grabbed a pair of tan animal skin pants. And a strange sleeveless dark purple turtle neck, that had half a zipper attached to the left sleeve area. Going into the shower quickly, normally he'd stand in the shower letting the water hit him as he'd think about everything around him. But sadly since time was precious, and he had little of it he took a quick one or invoke the tiny wrath of Yumi. As he stepped up going to the foggy mirrior he could barely make out his image of carefully wiping the steamy fog away he was greet by a pair of dark purple eyes, that seemed very cat like. Calm, relaxed, and sleepy at times, the eyes turned their attend up to the wet dark purple hair that was stuck to his head.
"I hate water.."
He mumbled before grabbing a towel to quickly dry his hair, as he finished up he took one last look at his face in the mirror. Mainly at his cheeks, their was a whisker like look to his face. Three lines alone his right cheek, and three more on his left cheek. It gave him a very feline look, though he never understood why he had them. No one else in his small village had these markings, though he did hear some of villagers whisper something about the...
"Yajuu Clan..."
The Yajuu Clan, a name he'd only heard once or twice but always came to the same answer. Cursed Beast, no other answer, even though he had snuch into the village archieves there was nothing on "Cursed Beast" or "Yajuu Clan".
"It's almost like..."
"KEN!"
"Ah crap, coming!"
No time to worry about it, that's what he told himself as he pulled his clothing on. Exiting the bathroom he spotted Yumi holding a tan animal skin cloth much like his pants with a zipper attached to it. Smiling he took it from her and slid his left arm through the sleeve, it matched up perfectly with the other zipper attached to his sleeveless turtle neck. As he zipped it up he could feel the various ninja tools in his newly attached sleeve. With a small flick of his left arm a kunai flew out sliding perfectly into his left hand. He whipped around throwing the kunai into a poster, it stabbed prefectly into the one of the buildings on the poster. Smirking at his display he grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulder, he walked past the poster pulling the lone kunai free. Yumi skipped ahead of him with a smile that her team mate was finally ready, Ken took one last glance at the poster before following Yumi out the front door.
"Welcome to Konohagakure!"