The land of grass was as green as ever. There wasn't many huge trees, but plenty of empty fields that satisfied my amused my mind with the crackle and crisp of my feet on every dry patch of grass. I was tired, very thirsty, when I found a small spring. I ran over happily, relieving my itching throat with the water that was slightly colder than the air around me.
This was the first adventure of my life. It took me forever to get Tsunade to let me go on my own, but it finally happened. These next two years of my life were to be spent training, making myself into a woman capable of defeating any ninja that would cross my path. First I needed to find a place to settle, and it sure as hell wouldn't be in the leaf village, or in the fire country at all to be exact. I was heading to the earth country, but the grass country seemed like a good place to stop for a bit. I would stay here in this clearing for a while before finding a close village. But now it was time to celebrate my freedom.
I stood on top of a fallen log, kicking my shoes off in excitement, my brown leggings hugged my thighs tightly underneath my eggplant tinted kimono top with a pale yellow colored tie around the waist. It flowed freely, revealing a fishnet top underneath when I untied it and I pranced around happily on the log, spinning sharply when I got to the edge and running and leaping to the other end again. I pulled off my arm warmers and hopped off so my feet were in the grass, the blades weaving between my toes. I laid down across the log on my back and tilted my head so that it looked to my right, where the stream was located. There was many small plants, some were flowered, with petals a dewy blue color. I grabbed a handful of these white ones with extremely small petals and pressed them up against my nose so I could take a sniff.
I placed a hand on the ground for balance before tossing the flowers in the river, smiling happily to myself. Of course I would miss everyone at home, even including my new and rocky relationship with the rest of the Hyuga clan. Mom gave me a big kiss before I left, dad simply hugged me, but my brother, what he did caught me by surprise. Instead he gave me a handshake, and told me he'd give me a hug when I came back alive. I'll come back. I'll make sure of it. If I die at any point, it's definitely not while I'm alone, that's for sure.
I held on to the bark tightly, pulling my knees up so that my feet were flat against the log as well.
"Are you preparing for your funeral, hm?" My eyes got wide and I let out a small shriek of horror, not noticing that someone had been watching me. I quickly sat up and turned to look at the owner of the voice, flushing deeply with my embarrassment.
He was a man, not extremely tall, maybe a little less than five foot six. His hair was long and blonde, covering his left eye, but the right one was a pale icy blue. He wore a dark shirt with black pants and regular ninja sandals, but I saw no headband. I wasn't wearing one at the moment either, though, so I wasn't one to judge. I could tell he was a ninja by the bandages around his right thigh, where the weapon holster usually wraps around. Still, it was shocking to see someone here.
"I-I can go if you were-" I was cut off by him walking closer to me. He crouched down so we were at eye level, and looked at me from different angles. "You're not from here, are you?"
"How did you know that?" I scowled, hoping I didn't sound too stupid. He chuckled slightly, pushing up from his thighs so that he stood straight again. "No one from this village would be out here in the open just having fun, hm" he explained. I blinked, realizing that I really was an idiot. I was totally going to get myself killed.
"I'll be off now. Don't get yourself slaughtered, hm?" he winked at me and waved, starting to walk past, but something had caught my eye.
"Wait!" I shouted, twisting my body to face him. He paused, but didn't turn to look at me. "...come back here for a second," I continued softer, knowing I had his attention. I made no move to get up and going over to him, because I didn't have my shoes on, so I resorted to calling him back to me.
I could see his shoulders move up and down, as if he was laughing to some joke that I knew nothing about, but he turned around and walked right back over to me, crouching down again. He stared me straight in the eye, a lot of his large personality showing through. He wasn't one of the calm guys as far as I could tell. Instead, I could see that he had this spark inside of him that ignited his eyes.
I avoided eye contact and blushed at first, knowing he probably thought I was a psycho, but curiosity got the better of me, and I grabbed his hand, flipping it over so that the palm was facing upwards.
He smirked knowingly, but my eyes widened at the sight. I didn't flinch when he reached his other hand out and wrapped it around my wrist.
"You're pretty stupid for a girl," he murmured, watching me look at his hand. How could I not be intrigued, though? This person had a working mouth on the inside of his hand. It was certainly worthy of inspection. The only time I moved was when I felt something move underneath the hand that was latched to my wrist. So the same thing was on the other one, wasn't it?
"I guess so," I replied to him closing his hand and pushing it away. "But I guess I've let my guard down. I haven't found an enemy in miles." It was true. These roads were as devoid of life as I had ever seen. This blonde man was the first human I've encountered in hours, maybe almost a day.
"Why are you here, anyways?" he asked in a curious, yet annoyed tone. His face was smug, studying mine with his cold eyes.
"Training," I replied simply, reaching back to put on my arm warmers and then my shoes. He stood silently, as if contemplating something.
"Really?" He asked as I finished putting on the rest of my gear. "Then do you want to have a battle with me?"
I looked up at him, surprised by what he had offered. There was no way I would let myself lose, but what if he was WAY stronger than me, and made me look like a total idiot? I guess it would be worth the risk, though, as I didn't think he'd let me go away without a fight, anyways. He looked strong though. It made me nervous.
"Sure," I sighed, pushing from my knees to stand up, feeling slightly weak from his request, "Where?"
He turned around and started walking out into the middle of the field, unzipping a bag he had attached to his belt, "Here,"
I shuffled over quickly, taking my time to push some of the tall grass out of the way. He had pulled some white substance out of the bag and held it in his bony hand. Standing about twenty feet away, I tried to pump myself up for battle.
"Why are we doing this again?" I asked, placing one of my hands on my hip. He chuckled softly, glaring at me happily. "You asked for it, sitting out there without a care in the world. You should've been on guard, hm,"
I rolled my eyes, not even bothering to study what he was going to be doing with the white stuff. "Then come on," I smirked tightly, trying to make it seem like I wasn't worried. "Don't just stand there, I have things to do,"
"Sure thing, hm!" The man disappeared behind a gigantic puff of smoke. I coughed but quickly started to use my families jutsu. It was the ability to take chakra and mold it's physical form and make it work in any form I wished. Quickly pulling up a thin wall of the light blue tinted chakra, I watched in horror as many small butterflies moved at me sharply and exploded upon impact as they came across the shield. I gasped slightly as the smoke cleared, watching the blonde stand there with more of the figures in his hand.
Letting the chakra dissipate, I listened to him shout across the field.
"Don't you like my art, hm?" He asked, seeming to fix one of the figures. Art? So the small things happened to be made of clay? That's all I could gather from the context.
"It's wonderful. Why did you stop attacking? Was that all you had?" I asked mockingly, much to his disdain. He held up a hand sign and the butterfly dramatically increased in size. "Would you like to repeat that? Hm?! Don't be such a bitch!" And then the large thing came at me.
"Excuse me!" My eyebrows tightened together as I pulled up the wall of chakra again. Right before the thing smashed into it, though, the blonde guy yelled "KATSU!" And the explosion was much, much more intense than the last. It had started to burn away at the wall of chakra, and I suddenly started to panic, wondering if he was fire natured. My worries slowed when I noticed the shield start to regenerate. If he used fire based jutsu, then the fire would continue to eat away. But if it wasn't fire, then what was it?
"What's your trick?" I asked, sending out the chakra towards him. I guess the most appropriate description of how it looked was similar to Gaara controlling his sand.
"Trick, hm?" The man dodged the attacks, sending out more small explosives. "There's no trick."
"Then how are you making these explode if it's not fire based?" I asked, making my chakra send out towards him again. I knew it wouldn't affect him in the slightest, but I wanted to hear his answer without him attempting to attack me.
He grinned at me and held up a very common hand sign used in earth attacks. My eyebrows were raised and I panted slightly. "I'm not going to tell how how to defeat me! What kind of idiot do you think I am?! I'll tell you this much... Art is an explosion!"
My eyes widened, the earth below started to shake and crumble all around me, "Hell!" I jumped up, trying to avoid being enveloped in the huge dusty cloud. The heat was unbearable, simmering and making me squint.
"Hah! Wanna try some more shit on me? HM?" He grinned maliciously.
I skidded to a halt roughly ten feet away. "What was that?" I questioned, sweating slightly from the heat.
"Do you like them?" He asked back, showing me another small creature modeled out of the white clay. "Before we even started this... I implanted these in the area at the first glimpse of another human... hm... They burrow into the ground, and all I have to do is give the word, then they become art,"
I then realized why he told me to battle him in that exact spot. I thought it was just because there's more room, but it was actually because he wanted me to be in limit of his attack. My face contorted into an expression of mixed confusion and fear.
"Art...? Hu-Who are you?"