Full story name: Demon from the Rain
AN:
EDIT: I heavily re-did some parts of this chapter; it needed a little touching up. Mostly the beginning, it had to be rewritten. I hope you like :D.
This will be my first story on this site. I haven't written in a few years, so please feel free to correct any rusty mistakes! Little things with grammar might come up, since grammar hasn't ever really been my strength. By I usually type differently that I talk, especially when representing characters, so you never know.
Story summary: I'd say I do a fairly good job of keeping Naruto characters from going OOC. I usually dislike how people portray Gaara in writing; I hope I can do better myself. If you like yaoi, complicated plot (well, depends on what you call complicated…at least not mega boring), demons/supernatural stuff, and humor (along with the possible raunchy joke thrown in there) then this will be the story for you! Try to keep an open mind on the OC pairing, I usually don't like any OCXNarutocharacter pairings, but I think my character fits into the anime a little bit more being a demon. (And its yaoi! 8D usually OC pairings are all het.). Some other pairings in the future might be ones like ShikaTema, and many minor Kohona character pairings. Since this is set up mostly in Suna, though, it's yet to be seen if they will come up much. I think my OC is going to end up being seme ;D. This should be a hopefully humorous non-depressing story! 333
Once again, feedback is appreciated! I hope you enjoy the story! 8D I've got to about chapter 5/6 planned. I should have more planned soon, but I'll send out the call when plot ideas are open for consideration!
Behold, all, Chappy 1!
Chapter 1
The wind and sand whipped around a figure trudging through the desert, the hooded cloak on the body bellowing out straight behind the figure, shrinking away from the furious howling wind. One arm was holding the front of the cloak together with another keeping the hood pulled down to conceal the being's face from the stinging sand.
'Great idea, walk out into the vicious sandstorm from your nice, safe cave—nothing bad will happen, it's not like the sand will feel like little knives on your face or anything!' the figure scolded itself, leaning deeply into the wind to keep him from flying back from its intense power. The boy in this predicament had the intention of traveling to the Sand village in an attempt to start a new life. Obviously, the travel from the Rain village to Suna has not gone as well as planned. Giving up the hopeless fight against the wind, the boy sunk down to his knees and flattened his body against the sand dune he previously was trying to scale. He carefully tucked his bare arms under his cloak—his only shield from the stinging sand—to wait out the storm…
A pair of muffled voices arose in the darkness.
'..-at is that?'
'I think it's a person!'
There was a soft sort of shuffling sound–determinedly footsteps in the sand. The sound grew louder.
'Is it alive?'
'I don't know…poke 'em with something."
Jab. Jab.
"This guy isn't moving, I think he's dead."
"Well, you don't exactly survive a sandstorm like the one from last night, idiot! If the sand doesn't kill you, dehydration from baking in the sun all day will."
The shadows of two young boys, both adorned in Suna attire and ninja headbands, were being cast over a figure laying down front-first in the sand. A larger, older man was advancing towards the two chattering boys, but stopped a few feet off, peering at the lump on the ground with curious eyes. The man also had on the usual Suna-ninja garb but with an added jonin-flak-jacket.
The voices speaking had slowly become clear. A pair of icy-blue eyes cracked open, and were greeted with the fuzzy image of dark shadow-casted desert sand. The image grew crisp as consciousness returned. A gruff voice, much deeper than the previous two now spoke clearly, "What are you kids doing? And what is that?"
The figure, which appeared to be a human, was covered in a thin layer of sand–almost like snow on a statue. Most of the sand piled up at one side of the body and spilled over onto the person's back. One arm was jutting out from underneath a sort of hooded cloak that had no sleeves. Its face was entirely obscured by the hood, but it could be assumed that the body was that of a male.
One of the younger voices responded, "It's a dead person. I don't think he could be from our village, 'cause no Suna ninja would be stupid enough to die in the desert."
Apparently, the now conscious boy in the sand had heard enough from the young ninja. Instantly after the latest comment, he jerked up his head and snarled at the other boys, his eyes glinting in the shadow created by his hood as he snapped, "I'm not dead you brats!"
The two boys jumped back with screams at the sudden movement–between them, they got at least three feet of air off the ground. One screeched in surprise, "It's alive! Oh Kami, run for your life!"
Before they could dart off, the large man's arms shot out and grabbed them both. He spoke in his (apparently natural) loud and assertive voice, "Hold it you two, no one is going anywhere!" The man firmly planted the pair of eccentric kids on the ground, giving them a stern 'don't move' look. He then held out a hand to the other boy who was still lying in the sand. "I apologize for my student's behavior; they just recently became genin. Where are you headed to?"
The boy on the sand looked for a moment at the man's hand, carefully hiding the disgust in his foggy eyes, 'Ugh, humans. I could refuse, but I guess I'm not here to make enemies…' He grudgingly took the man's hand to be helped up, grunting a little as he stood. The pile of sand on his back rustled as it slid off his cloaked back. He wobbled slightly as he stood, most likely from dehydration and from just recently awaking, but he still went on regardless to dust off the front of his body from sand.
The mysterious boy's steely-blue eyes pierced from the shadow casted by his hood so brightly in contrast that they almost appeared to be glowing. This made his appearance fairly menacing, so the two genin's previous reaction wasn't too unreasonable. His said unnerving eyes soon became squinted as the glaring desert light shone directly into them. The sun beat down on all the beings in this unforgiving wasteland, and then reflected right into his eyes off the bright sand. He slowly looked up to see the sky. It was now bright blue and cloudless, quite the opposite from the whipping brown desert sand that blotted out the sun as he last remembered it.
He gradually became aware of a pain in his left arm –the one that had been sticking out from his cloak. He lifted his arm in front of him and glanced down. It was completely covered in bright-red-already-peeling sunburn. Great. Just great. His eyes squinted in annoyance now as he tenderly touched the burnt skin on his arm. The genin snickered at this unfortunate display; their fear of him obviously had left them.
After sending the coldest glare he could muster at the moment to the two genin, his attention turned back to their jonin-leader. The man had been politely waiting while the boy was collecting himself…or, really, just wasting the poor man's time. Obviously he did not care whose time was wasted—unless it was his own.
He finally replied to the man after the drawn on delay, "I was actually headed to your village. I assume from your headbands you're residents of Suna. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, would you mind if I travel back with you?"
The jonin nodded, "Of course, we are just headed back from a mission," noticing the sunburn he added, "We can get that taken care of when we get back to the village. Now, come on, everyone."
He was surprised they had not asked how he survived.
The group started walking back to the village, which wasn't more than a 20 minute walk away. Soon after they started walking the man began to talk, "For future reference, what is your name?"
"Karasu. Pleased to meet you. And you are?" His response was quick and formal, almost so much so that it nearly sounded rehearsed.
The jonin looked back at the boy, Karasu, apparently pondering something before looking forward again, responding, "Isago. Pleased to meet you, as well."
The two genin babbled and giggled behind Karasu and the jonin as they walked. The man looked to be about in his thirties, with a very sharp angular face, and the usual Suna jonin attire—fully covering clothing, turban, armor, vest and a headband. Karasu was studying him carefully, walking about a foot behind the man and slightly to his right, keeping his hood up and his arms inside his cloak to avoid to beating sun.
Isago suddenly spoke again, facing ahead still without looking back to speak, "So, how old are you? I apologize for any offense, but you don't look to be much older than my genin; that's not to say anything about how you handle yourself compared to them." A duet of whines was heard behind them from the genin.
'Yeah, you damn brats. At least this human isn't half bad.' Karasu smirked as the genin complained. The jonin waited a moment for a response before he turned his head to look at the tow-along behind him. Instantaneously, Karasu's face completely changed to a humorous, kind smile—before Isago could notice that he had done anything but—and he laughed and lifted a hand to scratch the back of his head through his cloak. "I'm only 13. I know I don't act like it."
Isago obviously didn't suspect a thing as he continued, "By looking at you that is what I would have guessed. What's someone your age doing out here alone?" He was careful not to ask about parents; not knowing anything about this boy, that could be a sensitive subject.
'Well, I guess I won't entirely lie to the guy.'
"I'm here to start off fresh, and I always kind of liked the desert. Though, I don't like it as much anymore after the number it did on me last night!" He let out a laugh, lacing his fingers together with his hands on the back of his head, wincing slightly as his seared skin stung sharply. His laugh sounded amazingly genuine and soft despite the fact he was faking through his teeth. Cracking jokes and convincingly acting nice is a great way to get people to trust you. He wasn't exactly planning to deceive this man, but acting gloomy and non-sociable was not the way to go in his situation.
He continued after a short pause, "…I came here originally from the rain village."
Isago didn't press how—when living so far from the sand or any desert—Karasu might have known that he was particular to deserts, or why he would act as if he had been in one before. At the same time though, he seemed as if he had never had a lick of experience in desert travel, as his current condition had shown. Isago brushed off his thoughts, chuckling slightly at the boy's earlier joke. "Well, I hope you enjoy your time here in the Sand village. If you are planning to become a citizen or stay here for any great amount of time, you will have to see the Kazekage. I'm not sure how he will take someone from another village wanting to stay here, though."
Karasu scratched the side of his face, thinking carefully, his other arm dropping down from the back of his head. Isago noticed this, commenting, "Perhaps if he does not go for the idea of letting you live in the village, you can offer to work missions with no pay. Just as a last resort, it could save you from being kicked out of the village for, perhaps, suspicion of assassination."
'Oh great, would that suck.' Karasu made himself appear to consider this for a moment before flashing a big smile, "Thanks for the tip, Isago. I understand I might need to get on his good side. I didn't really consider if the Kazekage would be welcoming or not when I planned to come here. Bad move on my part, I guess."
Isago chuckled, finding the unusually friendly and polite atmosphere around Karasu hard to not enjoy. Most people in Suna are crabby, have no sense of humor, and have a huge log up their ass. He couldn't remember the last time he heard a joke in this village. Isago realized that usually he is one of those people, but the break from that attitude by talking with Karasu was proving rather nice. Conveniently for him, he could enjoy this niceness honestly, since he had no clue it was all a façade.
Even though Karasu in reality was faking his niceness, he did it so well he still seemed pleasant. He could tell as the ninja's demeanor relaxed. 'I guess I forgot how well I can fake my attitude. I guess I have to learn to be nice to humans though, especially if I'm going to try and live around them.' He internally sighed.
Isago gave Karasu a friendly pat on the shoulder—who used all his might to suppress a squirm—before pointing ahead of them, speaking with a kind lightness in his gruff voice, "The gates to the Sand are right up there on the horizon. How about I escort you to the Kazekage office? I might be able to help you sway the 'Kage's decision on letting you stay. And, you know, would you possibly like to work some missions with my team and I? We have been short a member ever since a student in these kids' class was unexpectedly held back just before teams were made. I wouldn't mind someone intelligent to talk to on missions instead of being stuck with these two dorks."
'How lucky! Being nice to this guy got me an easy pass into the village. I was worried I'd have to go someplace else to start off. Doing missions with his group won't be half bad if I can avoid talking to those stupid kids.' Karasu looked up at the man, laughing and smiling widely, "Of course, that would be great! I'm sure glad I met you all, I could have gotten kicked out of here otherwise."
'Heh, something mostly honest for once.'
Behind him, he could hear the boy with the short brown hair mumbling something to his teammate. This kid was obviously the more rowdy of the two. Karasu eves dropped on the end of the boy's conversation, catching, "-expects us to work with this guy? We don't need some goodie-two-shoes telling us what to do. We will play nice for now, but let's keep our eyes on this kid!" Apparently Isago has learned to tune the boys out entirely, because he showed nothing to indicate he even heard them making noise. Karasu felt his eye twitch with the effort of not turning his head to glare at the kids. As a little genin, he shouldn't have been able to hear the dork's harsh, quiet whispers.
'These shits better not ruin their Sensei's nice invitation to let me into their team. I'm more than set if I already have a team to work with.' Pushing the brats to the back of his mind, he focused on the large sandstone entrance looming in front of him.
The four entered the village gates. Karasu noticed that unlike Kohona, there is still no one stationed at the entrance of village to perhaps question who comes in, so he easily passed in as a tagalong. But even without someone to officially accuse as to whom he was, Karasu instantly noticed the looks and suspicious aura of all of the villagers, many of them openly sending him glares, and some women pulling their children closer to themselves and hurrying along.
'Well, looks like this place doesn't get many visitors often who look like me…or, hardly any visitors at all.' Karasu quietly thought to himself, careful not to return to any of the villager's glares, and looked ahead to search the skyline for the building they were headed to. Karasu noticed that some of the looks were being sent at Isago too, and the two genin behind them had stopped bickering and yapping and were looking uncomfortable. 'What a village to be made so unhappy by a simple stranger. Stupid people.'
A stare feeling ten—a hundred even—times more intense and murderous than any of the others crackled in the Rain ninja's senses. His attention was whipped to the owner of this look. The feeling was so amazingly menacing that the sender-o-la-glare could actually be a real threat. He locked eyes with the source of this feeling of murder. In the opposite lane of the street they were traveling on, a shock of bright red hair framed a pale face and two light green eyes, which were enhanced by raccoon-like markings. Those eyes were glaring almost right through him. A…boy? He was expecting a big burly scary looking guy, maybe some super suspicious secret ninja man, or at least a normal jonin, but a kid?
Karasu's mouth hung open just slightly, his eyes not moving but his head turning to follow those aqua pits until they passed his group. He almost stumbled and fell on his face while walking with his attention so fixed on nothing but those eyes. Karasu felt the murderous aura drift further away from him as they walked in opposite directions. He blinked a few times, sliding his hand into his hood to rub the side of his head and try and get a hold of himself. 'What is wrong with me? Kami, I'm finally going crazy…'
Karasu noticed now that during the time the red-head was there, the attention of the populous was entirely shifted to the boy and the two others with him, instead of on himself. He could feel the fear coming off of all of the people, and the two genin—who now trailed even closer to their jonin leader—both looked particularly horrified, even more so than the other villagers. All of the people who the red-head must have previously passed on the street had an air of fear about them, and no longer seemed to notice or be interested in the group. Strangely, he was actually interested in this human. He spoke softly to Isago, "Who was that red-head with the blonde and the guy in the freaky one-sie suit?...Everyone who he's passed by on the street seems petrified. His stare to me was absolutely murderous."
Isago was quiet for a moment before answering, also speaking softly, and his voice sounding even more gruff husky in the low tone, "That was Gaara of the Sand and his two siblings, Temari and Kankuro. They must be going on a mission since they are heading back towards the gates where we came from. It's not a good thing that he gave you that look. You must—and I mean must—stay away from him. You could be on his kill list now." The jonin didn't sound like he was joking.
"Kill list? What did I do to him?" There was a slight pause; Karasu cocked his head slightly to the side in thought as he waited for Isago's reply. 'Gaara…? Something seems strange about that boy. I don't understand why I suddenly got so stunned by him. Something seemed oddly familiar about him too…I must still be dehydrated from being out in the desert for so many days...'
"You didn't have to do anything to him; he might just not like you. Keep away, really. We don't need any more deaths by his hands in our village. Regardless, we are here. We can go in and speak to the Kazekage after I give my report. Boys, go home for today." Isago spoke up when he addressed the genin. Karasu looked up from his thoughts when Isago said that they were at their destination. His eyes scanned a large round building in front of them. He assumed that this must be the Kazekage business place with maybe living quarters somewhere in there. The two genin responded with a quick, "Hai!" and leaped off together—presumably towards the residential area of the village.
The workers in the building gave quite a few looks but said nothing seeing as Karasu was with Isago, who they apparently knew. After scaling a few flights of stairs and floors, they made it to the Kazekage's office room. Karasu looked slightly unsure, stepping back a little as Isago spoke to the two guards who sent cold glances over to him. One of the men stepped into the room, and there was a silent wait.
'Going to talk to this Kazekage with a hood on might be rather suspicious…plus, I'm inside anyways…' Karasu lifted his hands up and slipped his hood off his head. His hair was slightly ruffled from having the hood on for almost a day in the hot weather, so he shook his head side to side to hopefully even it out some. The movement caused Isago to look back, whose face turned to that of surprise to actually see the boy's hair. It was a very unusual dusty grey-blue color that had an almost feathery texture. The edges of the hair flared out slightly at the sides of his head, and rather long bangs invaded his eyes. Before this, Isago never noticed the strange color or texture of his hair since it was casted in shadow and covered.
Trying not to stare, the jonin looked away quickly. Karasu had continued to fuss about with his hair when the man from before stepped back out and nodded to Isago, who then in turn motioned for Karasu to follow as he entered the dim room. The guards cold eyes burned into the back of Karasu's head as they followed in last, shutting the door behind them. Karasu kept a straight face and looked forward despite their stares. He observed the room, uncomfortable with being locked in a room with so many unfamiliar ninja.
The room was dimly lit by oil lamps. On top of the two guards behind him, there were two political-looking ninja sitting on either side of a short pedestal where a man—no doubt the Kazekage—was kneeled on the seat between them. Two elite ninja stood in front of the former couple of ninja. A vertical hanging blind arrangement shielded the two political ninja and the Kazekage from view. 'That makes for 7 ninja, not including Isago. Kami, what a performance this is! How incredibly secretive and formal—like that little paper curtain-shit is going to help anything.'
Not wanting to offend this Kazekage and his insane formalities, Karasu followed Isago's lead as he kneeled respectfully on the tami mat and bowed his head as he addressed the Kazekage. "Kazekage-sama. I found this boy in the desert when returning from my mission assigned earlier today. His name is Karasu; he is from the Rain village, 13 years old, and has left his home village with no intention of returning. He wishes to live here in Suna for a fresh start on life. If I may suggest, my team has been short a member since it was formed. I think his being the same age and ability-level of my students would make him a good addition to complete my group."
There was no movement or reaction from the Kazekage for a few moments before he replied, "And how are we to be sure he is not on a mission to infiltrate our village for information, or to assassinate me?"
'Oh please, like a 13 year old boy is going to do anything to you, crazy bat.' Karasu suppressed his urge to shake his head in shame at this incompetent human.
Isago paused for a moment; apparently, he was mulling over this response. He opened his mouth, but Karasu saw this pause as an opportunity, and so he quickly interjected, "Ah—If I may…" Isago looked over but made no move to stop him from talking, so he continued, "You have no quarrel with the Rain village by my knowledge. What would be the point of ordering an unprovoked assassination on a nearby village Kazekage—likely only resulting in war? My discontent with the Rain village is personal; I merely came here to be relieved of it. If at any time during my stay here in this village you have reason to doubt my intentions of peace, by all means, remove me at once." 'That should make you happy, Ka-ze-ka-ge-sa-ma.' Karasu mocked the man's title in his head, adding extra sarcasticy to 'sama', the usual respectful term for a person in a position of power. 'Like I could ever put a human above me like that and not feel dirty afterwards. Ew. I need a bath.'
Isago looked somewhat surprised by Karasu's articulated speech. Once again he wondered about the rift in the boy's age and his mannerisms and disposition. After his moments pondering, Isago turned back to look at the Kazekage, awaiting an answer. One of the men standing aside the curtain stepped behind it and leaned to whisper in the Kazekage's ear. Karasu, politely, didn't eves drop on what the man said. Really, he just didn't care enough to bother. He had the ability to hear it if he wished, but instead he waited quietly for a response as the man stepped back into his original position.
The wait lasted for only a little longer before the Kazekage spoke up, "Very well. You will be given a residence that will be paid for the first month, but you will have no further aid with finances after that. Leave the room while Isago gives his report. He will guide you to your home after he has finished."
Karasu nodded and stood, a guard practically breathing down his neck as he 'escorted' him out of the room with his huge, nubby hand on his shoulder. Karasu forced a blank look on his face, but his eye twitched once as he thought, 'It's touching me, it's touching me! Ew! Gross, so damn gross! His breath smells like year old eggs and dead bodies, and the rest of him smells like sweat, dirt, alcohol, and puke! I think I'm going to be sick…' Really, he just had a good sense of smell—all of those scents were probably weeks old and minute.
Karasu didn't shrug off the scratchy, nubby, huge, calloused hand until they left the room, happy to return the guards earlier cold glare now that he no longer had to be pleasant to the grimy humans. While he waited for Isago, Karasu messed around with his hair some more. The edges of his hair on the back and side of his head permanently curled out, and it was something that always bothered him. After fiddling with it for a few minutes he dropped his hands down and sighed. He was tired of those guards openly staring at him all the time when he touched his hair. Karasu gave them both a 'what are you looking at' glare, and leaned back into the wall behind him and crossed his arms. As soon as he relaxed against the wall, he sensed movement from inside the room. 'Thank Kami, I can finally go to this apartment and catch up on all the sleep I missed.' Isago stepped out of the dim room, nodding to Karasu who stood up from the wall.
They started off down the hallway again, Isago speaking when they were away from the Kazekage's room, "I will take you to your apartment. You have tomorrow to look around the village and get your bearings, but make sure you don't get lost. The day after that we are going to meet up for a mission, just meet us at the village gates at noon. We can stop by the hospital on the way and grab you some cream for your sunburn."
Karasu smiled at the man, "Sounds great to me. I won't get lost, don't worry."
Karasu sighed as he closed his door. He unpinned his cloak and dropped it on the ground. It was already 10 PM. He set the small jar of sunburn cream on the side table next to the bed. 'Today has been a bit too eventful. This room isn't great, but what the heck, it has a bed. Oh sweet cushion, come to me!' He smiled and laughed to himself a little, and then flopped down onto the bed. His arms and legs went stiff as he stretched in all different directions, and went limp afterwards. While looking up at the ceiling, he pondered the Kazekage's response.
'Well, something is up for sure if he so quickly changed his mind after that guy whispered to him. There is no way that nasty excuse of a Kazekage would drop suspicion that quickly without a reason. They must be planning to watch me until they 'know I am not a threat'.' Sighing aloud, Karasu pushed his consciousness out into the space around the apartment. Yep, sure enough, one, two, three, four. FOUR people to watch a 13 year old? He was right to think that bag of old smelly sand was crazy…
AN:
Well, here it is! This REALLY came out to be a lot more than I expected. My original plan for just the first chapter might have to be broken up into two or three.
Make sure you tell me what you think, though. I really need to work on making my writing less awkward, that's my biggest problem right now. And tell me if you think it's too boring; if it is, what could I do to help that?
I hope everyone liked it! Mr. Cowlick is going to meet with Gaara next chapter and sexually harass the poor raccoon-demon-container. (Just raunchy humor, not rape! I don't mean rape!) We will see how well Karasu takes his growing feelings for a human, though. Dun dun duuuuunn.
In one of my upcoming chapters I might link to fanart of Karasu, because I know he is kind of hard to imagine. If you didn't get it in the story, he has kind of ashen blue hair, and very icy blue eyes. As for his hair shape…I guess if you took Sasuke's duckbutt on the back and made it less dramatic, stuck it on either side of a person's head, gave them those long in-your-eyes bangs, and a shorter length back, that's what his hair looks like. Then making it that funny blue-grey color 8D! I think the visual would help.
Once more, pretty please with sugar on top, tell me what you think :) And thank you for reading!
