Meikou Jigane lay on his back, his hands folded behind his head. Around him, the soft grass rippled in the wind, like some sort of deep-green ocean. He sighed as he watched the blades dance lightly, uncertain why he was even out here. It wasn't as if he enjoyed the peace and tranquility that the hilltop provided. In fact, he hated this place.
Jigane stood, his steel-grey eyes scanning the small valley below. Konoha. He'd detested this place since his family moved here from the Hidden Village of the Rock some time ago. He'd been six then, and could still remember the smell, and taste, of his home. The deep, earthy scent invigorated him, led him to believe he could do anything. Then it had been ripped away.
His parents still stayed silent on the matter, about why they had moved in the first place. Jigane suspected it had something to do with the fact that his parents had done something to anger the Kage. He frowned, as it mattered not. He was still an academy student; what could he possibly do? His gaze lifted from the grassy fields below, to the clear, open sky above.
Footsteps made their presence known behind him, but Jigane didn't even bother to turn around. He'd have recognized the footfalls anywhere, as they were the same as his own. Just as they had been for all eleven years of his life. Turning, he saw his twin, Dakuro, looking at him with the same grey eyes that his family held. "Hey. Mom's worried about you. Come back inside, will ya?"
Jigane said nothing at first, his gaze unflinching from his brother's. "And father?" he finally asked, the words coming out like acid.
Dakuro grimaced, his eyes looking away. "Y-you know how dad is. He's keeping mainly to himself and-" he began, his words coming slowly, as if chosen with great care.
"And what? Keeping quiet since you're not involved? We both know you're the favorite, so don't try and pull that with me. Just keep it straight." Jigane moved briskly past his brother, who turned, words on the edge of his tongue. Yet Dakuro kept quiet, knowing there was nothing that could be said to pacify Jigane. With a groan, he knew that his twin wasn't going to go home, and knew the anger he'd incur from both his parents.
Jigane snarled under his breath as he walked, his anger rising. While the two of them had been born twins, only Dakuro had been graced with their bloodline. Jigane, having no such talent, was immediately decided to be the weaker of the twins, and was often in poor favor with his father because of this. He paused, reaching up behind his back, where his hand found the hilt of a sword. This was the true reason his mother wanted him home.
He was certain she was worried about him on some level, but the blade was a family heirloom. It was to be his upon his reaching of the Chuunin rank, but as he was still young, she feared its loss. Possibly more than the loss of Jigane. He pulled upward lightly, the blade easily emerging forth from its sheath. Flipping it over his hands, as he'd done time and time again, he sought to become one with it, wanting it to become nothing more than an extension of his own body. Such was his desire, and it did not fade as the sun slowly began to set. Only when there was no light left to see, did the young boy return home, weary and exhausted.
"...I made the selections so that each cell's abilities would be approximately equal," Iruka-sensei said, earning a great deal of flabbergasted looks from the students, and many confused cries. Jigane wasn't certain why, as it wouldn't make any sense for there to be a cell that was far stronger than any of the others. With a groan, he lay his head down on the table, waiting for his name to be called.
"And cell number four. Meikou Jigane, Meikou Dakuro, and Shinkirou Touketsu. Next, cell five..." Jigane looked up, glancing across the way at his twin, sharing a grin. They had their differences, but the two of them worked well as a pair. Now, they just added a third. The young boy glanced around, looking for Touketsu. He remembered hearing her name before, but couldn't quite put his finger on where.
"Um, I'm right here," came a voice from his right. Jigane turned, trying not to look embarrassed at his lack of knowledge. The girl sitting next to him was apparently Touketsu. She was dressed in an array of blues and whites, contrasting much with Jigane's own blacks and greys. Even her hair, which was the color of raven's feathers, had strips of icy blue within it. "Are you Jigane, or Dakuro? I'm kinda new, so I can't tell the two of you apart."
The Meikou boy let a light smile cross his face, as even though he and Dakuro were twins, their style of dress was quite different. "I'm Jigane," he offered, nodding to her. It was the best he could do, under the circumstances. "He's Dakuro," he said, pointing just off to his left, where his twin had come over to meet the third member of their cell. "We're pretty easy to tell apart, once you focus on outfits, rather than faces."
Dakuro nodded, chuckling. "Yeah, that's pretty true. So Tou-chan, you just moved here recently, didn't you? Earlier this year, I think." She nodded, and the three of them broke down into small talk for a few minutes, getting to know each other a little better. Then Iruka cut through the chatter, informing them all that tomorrow they would get to meet their Sensei, a Jounin-level ninja.
Class ended soon after, and the three split up, each going their own way. Jigane left his brother behind, going toward his house. He knew that Dakuro would be going to where their father was in order to work on his bloodline. Which left Jigane alone to do as he pleased, as their mother wasn't due back for some time. And since the sword that the young boy often trained with was his for the day, he planned on using every minute he could muster in trying to learn how to use it just a little better.
However, upon entering the house, he found his father at the table, sipping tea. "Father..." Jigane aid, too stunned to do much else. He hastily took off his shoes, bowing to his elder before moving to where the sword was kept. Jigane knew that his father didn't really mind his use of it, as so far the weapon had come back undamaged each time. As long as that trend continued, he doubted he'd hear a word of resistance from his father.
"Jigane, stop." The boy froze in place, slowly turning to face his father.
"Y, yes?" he asked, confused. Though Jigane wasn't really frightened of him, the man held the command of the household, and demanded respect. That much power made Jigane act this way, much as he disliked it.
"I hear that you and your brother were promoted to Genin today. It seems that you can keep up with Dakuro after all." Jigane just nodded, knowing that his father was commending him, no matter how much it sounded like double-edged praise. "So as a gift to you, as well as to keep your mother sane, I give you these." He laid out a pair of swords upon the table, much to Jigane's surprise.
The boy moved to the table with hesitant steps, as if expecting this all to be a cruel joke that would be so callously ripped away from him. He knelt at the opposite side of the small table, and grasped the nearest sword, which was slightly shorter than the average Katana. Its weight was perfect, balancing easily upon his finger. The other sword was as a Wakizashi, but slightly shorter as well, as if both were compensating for Jigane's young age. "Thank you very much!" he said, bowing all the way to the floor. "These...are of the same-"
"Yes. The same quality as the heirloom. I've seen you practice, Jigane." The young boy paled at this, and his eyes became downcast. "You fight with that sword in your left, and a kunai in your right. Now you can do so properly." Jigane did not know what to say, and stayed quiet, staring at the swords rather than look his father in the face. "Inform me when you believe you've mastered them. For now, I'll work with Dakuro."
Jigane bowed again, once more uttering the words "Yes father," as the adult left the room. The young boy wasn't quite sure what to expect, now. His father, whom he believed to be saddened by Jigane's very existence, suddenly gave him a set of swords? And he'd been watching the young boy practice? Jigane frowned, uncertain about what it all meant. But he'd make his father proud, and perhaps continue to earn respect as he had. He nodded, strapping the swords to his back, and turned leaving for his training area. He had practicing to do.
The Meikou twins and Touketsu arrived in class the next day looking rather eager to meet their Jounin instructor. A few groups left rather early, their instructors there before the class had even began. The three of them hadn't waited too long, however, before a woman in a pure-black body suit entered the room, her azure hair left in a simple pony-tail down her back. "I'm in command of Cell four. Which ones are you?" she asked simply, getting straight to the point.
Jigane stood first, followed by the other two. "That'd be us, um..." he began, not certain what to call his teacher. She nodded, and after a quick signal, headed out of the room. "Crap," the Meikou boy muttered, hurtling over his desk in an attempt to catch up with his instructor, when he crashed into another boy. The guy he'd run into flipped back up to his feet the second his upper back had hit the ground. "Uh, sorry..." Jigane muttered, but the boy grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back to face him.
"Hiraku-kun..." a young girl said from nearby, probably in Hiraku's cell. Jigane knew the boy well, as they hadn't exactly gotten along over the years. A quick glance at the girl told him it was Ayame, who had been a friend of Dakuro's before his bloodline had happened. Since then, the boy had little time for any sort of friendship, and it was amazing he was still as optimistic as he ever had been.
The two stared at each other coldly, both of them daring the other to do something. But soon they were pulled apart by another Jounin, and the Fourth Cell made its way out the door. Outside, Jigane slammed his fist against a tree, obviously angry. "That idiot. Who does he think he is?" He punched the tree again, with the same hand, and blood trickled down his knuckle. Cursing, he pulled his hand way, pressing the wound into his leg to staunch the bleeding.
"So, where's our Jounin?" Touketsu asked, looking around for the woman who had just announced her leadership of their team.
"Don't know. She didn't say where she was going..." Dakuro said softly, tapping his upper lip in thought. "I suppose we should look for her, though. We need to begin training." The other two nodded, but no one moved, all of them uncertain where to begin. "Any ideas?" he asked a second later, unable to repress a smile.
"I'm fairly certain that this is our first training session," Jigane said, frowning. "It doesn't make sense for her to do what she did for any reason other than that. So the training session is to find her, then?" His frown didn't fade, as he didn't think he had it quite right. There was another piece to this puzzle, one that he couldn't quite lay a finger on. There would be a difficulty in finding her, but he wasn't certain what it would be.
"Well, first we need her name," Touketsu added, nearly causing Jigane to smack himself in the face. Why hadn't he thought of that? "I'll bet that Iruka-sensei has all of their names written down. We should go ask him." Jigane nodded, as it was a good idea, and they needed her name in order to find her. "Then let's go!" The fourth team nodded to one another, then darted back inside the building, looking for Iruka.
On top of the building, a shadow watched the proceedings below. "Not bad children. But you'll have to do better than that," a voice whispered, before the figure vanished from sight.
"Iruka-sensei!" the three of them called, but the room was empty, except for three students, who were looking rather irritated. "Where did everyone go?" Dakuro asked, looking about the empty room in confusion.
"They all left!" shouted a boy with blond, spiked hair. He crossed his arms on his desk and put his head down, grumbling to himself. "And our sensei still hasn't shown up!"
"Well, at least yours might be normal, if only a bit late, Naruto," Touketsu offered. "Ours vanished as soon as she went outside, so now we have to find her. You three probably don't know any Jounins, do you?"
They shook their heads, and the black-haired one, Sasuke, spoke up. "Why don't you try looking for her yourself instead of relying on others? Or are you incapable?" His position or tone never changed, but it still irritated Jigane all the more.
"We would, but she didn't tell us her name before she vanished. We were hoping Iruka-sensei would have the names written down, so we could find out. But as you know, he isn't here." His eyes narrowed, but Sasuke just ignored him, intent on whatever he had been doing previously.
Sakura shrugged, helpless at what to do. "I don't what to tell you guys, sorry." The three muttered their thanks and left the room, and Naruto shouted again, his voice carrying down the hallways. They walked in thought, not really paying attention to where they were going, and ran into someone, quite literally. Each of them, by instinct, had reached for their weapons, but upon seeing that it was a Konoha ninja, refrained.
"Nice reflexes," the ninja said, smiling at them. "You wouldn't happen to be Cell Seven, would you?" The three shook their heads, and the elder shinobi frowned. "Oh well, they're probably still waiting then. Excuse me," he said, walking with his hands in his pockets down the hallway.
"Pardon," Jigane said suddenly, a thought striking him. "You're a Jounin, right? Perhaps you could help us real quick?" The ninja paused, turning around, and motioned for Jigane to continue. "Well, you see, our Jounin sorta...vanished on us, only she didn't tell us her name before she did. So, we have no way of tracking her down." Jigane roughly described her to Kakashi, assisted by Touketsu when he left out certain details or got some of them wrong.
Kakashi thought for a second, then pointed out the door. "Karei-san will be waiting for you at the seventh training ground. She does this to all new students, but you all look like you've got your act together. You're lucky you ran into me, though. She and I traded training grounds for this set of students, just to confuse hers. Good luck, and don't get discouraged," he said as he turned, waving to them while facing away. "She's harsh, but quite capable."
All three thanked him heartily, before dashing out of the room and making their way toward the training grounds. "Number seven, right?" Touketsu asked, earning her a nod from the twins. They sprinted as fast as their legs could carry them, making it there slightly before noon. As they approached, their teacher stood abruptly, confused at seeing them there as early as it was.
"I'm impressed," she said simply. "How'd you find me so quickly?" Once they had caught their breath, they explained how they'd run into Kakashi, and that he'd simply told them where she was. She looked a little angry at first, but then nodded to herself. "Well, if Kakashi-san thought he could tell you, then I suppose you must be at least decent." She dropped into a defensive stance, and taunted the children with two fingers. "Combat training first, then we'll learn a bit about each other. Come!" she called, and it began.