Poetry in Motion
Chapter One
All poems are copyright me. I wrote them all by myself, so any relation to any poem living or dead is completely coincidental. I wrote these without meaning to get involved in any copyright infringements, so if there is an actual poem you have read before similar to one of the ones in the book, I assure you that (unless I specifically give a poet credit for something) I came up with it all on my own just like the original poet did.
Bright were they, the city lights; that colored the sky like flowers
Dark were they, the city streets; slick with April showers
Dancing were they, the city lights; cool with the frosts of winter
Black were they, the city streets; proud with the mark of the founder
Wishing were they, the city children; lost in fantasy
Forced were they, the city dreamers; to learn reality
Fighting were they, the city children; to see the first light of day
Why were they, the city dreamers; closing their eyes to play?
Stars were they in the city sky; that dappled the night like lanterns
Lovely were they, the city lights; that shared in the love that a heart yearns
Laughing were they, the city lights; having the time of their lives
Smiling was she, a city girl; with all of the light in the world.
Kaminari tapped the brush handle against her chin. This poem was causing her endless trouble. There was one line – one line! – she needed to change before it could be called a poem. At best, it was merely a story at the moment. A poem was a story that told itself, in the way that the words touched the reader's heart. When a poem didn't tell itself, it was just a story. Anyone could write a story, but it was the poems that made a poet unique. With the rest of the rhythm, all she needed was an L-word to go with the city sky, and it needed to be plural (which was tough because 'sky' is singular). 'Laughing were they, the city sky; having the time of its life' didn't sound right, but it needed to be 'were they' to go with the rest of it.
She still wasn't sure about the last line of the first stanza, either. She liked the second stanza, but she felt she needed to lengthen her poem somewhat. This was going to be her masterpiece, and it was still blatantly unfinished! With unfinished work like this, she may not even try for a spot in the Guild of Poets. A talented young poet was hard to come by these days, but any kid off the street could rhyme 'day' with 'play.'
Kaminari slammed her head into the desk in front of her. How could this happen? She had been so proud only moments before, before she realized she needed 'city sky' in the third line of the last stanza before she finished with the last line which, due to the rules of poetry, was allowed to deviate somewhat from the original pattern. All she needed was inspiration, which was much easier said than done. Kaminari suddenly sat bolt upright, her face the picture of triumph.
She would simply have to go on a quest to find some inspiration. She could be that mysterious traveler on the street that every cute guy fell in love with, the one that spoke in riddles (or rhyme, as the case may be) and never told anyone anything straight. When anyone asked her what her quest was, she would smile impishly and say 'I am searching for my inspiration.' It was perfect. It was infallible. It was inspiring just to think about it. All she needed was a long, dark mysterious cloak and a large bag to carry her things in. Soon, Kaminari Sawachika would be the name of the most famous child poet that ever walked the earth! Her poem would be framed and hung on the walls of nobles!
At the very thought of this, Kaminari bubbled with excitement. This would be the best idea of hers yet, and for a person who once wrote a poem about moldy cheese, that was saying something. She was the unpredictable Hurricane Kaminari who swept in and left villagers dazed by her awesomeness (now, let's see… what could rhyme with 'awesomeness'…?). Kaminari swept out of the room majestically. There was a moment of silence. Kaminari reentered the room sheepishly, snatched her brush, ink bottle, and notebook from the table, and then proceeded to majestically re-sweep out of the room.
"Fore!"
The golf ball hit Kakashi Hatake squarely between the eyes, which may have been very painful if it had not been stopped on its way to his forehead by his Leaf Village hitai-ate. Kakashi blinked as the ball hit the ground and rolled away to sulk.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Kakashi-sensei!" Tenten exclaimed as she put her hand to her mouth in shock and also furtively hid the golf club behind her back with her other hand. "I swear it was all Guy-sensei's idea!"
"Yes, it was!" Kakashi's rival loudly announced from the sidelines. Kakashi blinked, not having enough time to explain that he wasn't hurt, that he didn't care, and that he had the last chapter of Make-Out Tactics to read. Guy didn't even wait for an explanation. He headed right over.
"Here for another challenge, are you?" he said, flashing Kakashi a grin. Kakashi thought for a moment.
"No," he said.
"I was just teaching my subordinates to embrace their true youthful streak," he said, proudly looking back at a somewhat disturbed Neji (who looked ridiculous in golfing shorts, a sweater vest, and a hat that Kakashi guessed must have been all Guy's idea as well), a proud Tenten with her golf club (which she wielded much like a sword – Kakashi decided he wouldn't want to win a golfing tournament against her for fear of the sword-like qualities a golf club did, in fact, have), and a very excited Lee (who was somehow able to pull off the golf shorts).
"That's nice," Kakashi agreed. His visible eye darted back to the book in his hands, and he turned to go.
"Won't you play a friendly game of golf with me?" Guy asked, his hand shooting out to grab Kakashi's arm. Kakashi thought for a moment.
"No," he said.
"And give up the small chance to beat me? If you win this match, we'll be tied," Guy said graciously. Kakashi sighed, shutting his book with his one hand and stowing it away in his pouch of ninja tools that hung from his waist.
"You do know that the current tally is 50-48 in my favor, right?" Kakashi asked. The look on Guy's face was somewhat pained, as though he was remembering something he really didn't want to. Kakashi nodded with the air of one who felt he had done a job well done, and then turned to go. Guy's arm somewhat impeded his movement. In fact, it reversed whatever movement he had entirely. Kakashi found himself facing Guy once more.
"So let's make it 51-48," Guy said, giving Kakashi a thumbs-up and his trademark grin. Kakashi sighed.
"If this isn't mini golf, it won't end like the tennis match, will it?" he asked. The tennis match he was talking about was known as more of 'that sports incident involving the Hokage,' when Guy had accidentally sent the ball into the Hokage's bathroom window. She was taking a bath at the time and was still angry enough to storm all the way down to the tennis court in nothing but a towel and give Guy a piece of her mind, and a particularly violent one at that. Neither one of them wanted to remember that image.
"Of course not," Guy assured him. "I have the targets set up in a direction away from the village, so there's no worrying about that."
"Er… targets?"
"We're hitting targets with golf balls," Tenten spoke up excitedly. "They actually make decent projectiles, although not as streamlined as a kunai knife. Right now, I'm winning, but if Guy-sensei wants to take a break, I think we could all use a short one."
"But Guy-sensei," Lee exclaimed. "You were going to teach me the backhand, remember?"
"Just a short break," Guy promised. Kakashi (who was worried slightly about a golfing backhand, if it was anything like Guy's tennis backhand) wordlessly took the golf club that Tenten handed him.
"We'll do best two out of three. Hit that target over there," Guy said, pointing. Kakashi squinted.
"Which one?" he asked.
"That one over there," Guy replied.
"Should I aim for that one over there or that one over there?"
"The one you're facing now is the one you have to hit."
"Oh. All right, then."
Kakashi lined up his shot. This was not like golf he had played in the past, but if it was just hitting a ball at a target, he thought he had a pretty good chance, not that he cared much about Guy's challenges anyway. He had played mini golf with Sakura once and lost, but that may have just been because Sakura's ball had gone straight through the hole, shot through the arcade building, and made its way steadily back around to Kakashi's ankle, where it did its damage and left Kakashi with his ankle in a cast for two weeks.
"On second thought," Kakashi began. Guy shook his head.
"Take the shot," he said. "Your form looks good, so just line up the shot and swing. Look at it this way; at least it's not possible to hit anyone inside the village, right?"
"Perhaps you should've set yourself up farther back so that you had more room, rather than hitting it straight through the village gates," Kakashi suggested. "I could move it a little more so that if anyone enters the village at the precise moment I hit the ball, they won't be knocked unconscious."
"Just hit the ball," Guy exclaimed, and pushed Kakashi forward. Kakashi stumbled and he threw out his hands for balance. The golf club came around with lightning speed and slammed into the ball, which responded in kind. The ball, propelled by the force of the club, shot into the air in the opposite direction of the target, into the village rather than out of it. There was a crashing sound.
Kakashi and Guy exchanged glances. Kakashi thought for a moment.
"You win," he said cheerfully, and pushed the golf club into Guy's hands. He saluted, smiling, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Guy began to object, but it was too late.
"You again, huh, Guy?"
Guy gulped, turning around very slowly to face the Fifth Hokage in nothing but a towel standing in the street before him, her hands balled into fists, her head bowed. A vein pulsed in her forehead, a sure sign that no mercy would be given.
"Lady Tsunade!" Tenten exclaimed in surprise. Neji and Lee cringed simultaneously. The look on the Hokage's face was one that would pound fear into any man, single or not, whether they had actually done something to deserve a punch or were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, like Guy.
"You… are… dead," Tsunade growled. The birds cried loudly as they launched themselves into the air and the ripple of an earthquake shook the very trees themselves.
Kaminari bounced to the rhythm of her horse's trot, her teeth chattering. It was somewhat uncomfortable. She kept her eyes on the road in front of her and kept her hands on the horse's reins, but her legs were hurting more and more with each passing moment. She had needed to lease a horse to carry all of her stuff, because she couldn't carry it all herself. However, maybe she should've rented a cart as well.
Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump.
Kaminari gave a broken sigh that went something like 'Sigh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh.' She started thinking about new poems, maybe having to do with horses. She wasn't getting anything. Perhaps an easier method would be to dismount and tie up the horse, then sit down and write while one with nature. Surely nature was more comfortable. Kaminari yanked on the reins.
"Woah," she said. The horse stopped before she even finished the word, and she slipped over the side, landing in the dust with a cry of surprise. She got up with a groan, putting a hand to her back.
"I hate horses," she grumbled. She grabbed the horse's reins and threw a knot together, tying the horse to the nearest tree branch. Then she slouched on a rock and pulled out her paper and brush.
"Swish, swish, little wish;
How delightfully you swish!
Swish, swish, little fish;
How delightfully you swish!
Swish, swish, little dish;
How delightfully you swish!
Swish, swish, little miss;
How delightful is your kiss!" She recited; an old nursery rhyme that her mother had taught her. She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment to get into the rhythm mode. She put a hand to her temple and her forehead creased in effort as she thought of rhyming words, starting with one of her favorite words – saturnine. Bean, lean, wean, keen, seen, teen, and baleen all rhymed nicely, but maybe she couldn't use all of them.
"Saturnine was a little miss teen,
A' searching for her boy;
Lost in thought with what her journey wrought
That it wasn't him they'd seen.
Saturnine was a little miss teen,
A' searching for her boy;
Couldn't find him, had to leave him,
And make dinner from a bean," Kaminari recited. She smiled slightly. Making dinner out of a single bean was something she had done in the past, but it didn't make sense in the poem. Rhyming and making sense together was more difficult. With random lines, you could put together something that sounded good to the ear if no one heard the words and tried to make any sense out of it.
Kaminari frowned. Where was her muse when she needed it? She stood up and packed away her notebook, then began to mount her horse once more. Suddenly, there was a rustling sound from above her. Kaminari shrieked as a large figure dropped, and the next thing she knew, she was torn off of her horse. She hit the ground hard and her head spun while she heard the pounding hooves heading farther. Kaminari slowly got to her knees in time to see the bandit on her horse gallop to freedom. There were two of them, her horse and the bandit. Kaminari swayed for a moment, squinting at the figure until it became one.
"Oh, that was a bad hit," she heard a soft murmur and then a hand gently fall onto her forehead. "Can you breathe okay? Are you seeing doubles? Is anything broken? How many fingers am I holding up?"
Kaminari frowned once more, squinting at the slim fingers held in front of her face.
"Four?" she suggested.
"What is four plus six?" the voice prompted loudly.
"Er…" Kaminari had heard this question before, somehow. She thought for a moment. "A math problem," she replied. The hand disappeared. The next thing she knew, Kaminari was gathered into a bone-crushing hug; or rather, Kaminari had disappeared into an extraordinarily large chest.
"You are my girl!" whoever it was exclaimed cheerfully.
"Who are you?" Kaminari gasped as the arms at last released her. Kaminari looked up at the girl. She seemed about Kaminari's age, with bright purple hair and a more-than-generous bosom that was, thankfully, well-covered. In fact, the girl wore a thick winter coat and hat with a dangling pom-pom on it, even though the temperature had to be at least sixty. The girl gasped, reeling back in shock.
"You don't know me?" she said. "Try again. I'm not the Tooth Fairy or anything!"
"You're…" Kaminari tried, but nothing came to mind. There was a moment of silence.
"I'm your muse!" the girl exclaimed, holding her arms out for another hug. Kaminari kept her arms firmly by her sides as she squinted at the girl.
"You look like…" Kaminari hated to admit it, but somehow the girl did look familiar. "You look a lot like my favorite actress," she said finally.
"You modeled me after her, remember? The other stuff was added later, in accordance to the crazy little thoughts you have in that cute wittle brain of yours!" Muse exclaimed, grinning. "At last, I've been able to show myself! This calls for a big, big hug!"
Kaminari ducked under the girl's arms and made a face.
"You're crazy," she exclaimed.
"Actually you are," Muse replied, crossing her arms over her chest, which was more difficult than it looked. Kaminari's eyebrows came together. "You see," Muse continued. "I am a figment of your imagination. I can't rhyme a thing, unlike you. I mean, for someone who once tried to rhyme 'mom' with 'bomb,' it turned out surprisingly well, though a bit morbid…"
"Wait, wait, wait," Kaminari said, holding up her hands. "So… inside, I'm really a busty purple-haired Eskimo who can't stop herself from hugging people and writes morbid poems for the sake of rhyme?"
Muse paused in thought.
"Yeah," she said finally, grinning happily and cocking her head. Kaminari smiled slowly.
"Wow," she said. "I actually sound really cool."
"Except for your horse," Muse pointed out, pointing down the road. "All you have now is your notebook and ink! It's a fitting end for a poet, I guess, but you haven't even had your romance yet! You need someone who provides you with a wellspring of inspiration, someone who stupefies you with awe and intimidates you at the same time, someone who isn't twenty years older than you and doesn't smell like tobacco…"
"I can't think of anyone like that," Kaminari said, frowning.
"Neither can I!" Muse exclaimed excitedly.
"And anyway, I haven't ended yet," Kaminari said, yanking her cloak from the ground. "I haven't given up on being the mysterious girl. I'll meet a guy at some point, and he'll fall for me."
"Hopefully with more grace than you just did," Muse said, still grinning and nodding as she implied Kaminari's tumble from the evil equine. Kaminari glanced at her.
"You can't read moods, can you?" she asked.
"Can you?" Muse replied.
"No."
"Well, then, that's your answer."
"Fair enough," Kaminari admitted. "Shall we go?"
"Hold on," Muse said quickly as Kaminari began to march down the street. "Do you even know where you're going? I mean, there are bandits and robbers and, you know… insects," Muse added in a quieter voice.
Kaminari began to laugh very loudly and very obviously uncomfortably.
"I'm not scared of insects," she said, scoffing as she attempted to keep her cool. Muse was not amused.
"I am you," she reminded Kaminari. Kaminari froze. Muse went back to smiling brightly. "Anyway, I guess it all bubbles down to one question… where are you going?"
"I'm going to the Village Hidden in Leaves," Kaminari replied promptly. "Everyone knows the cutest boys come from there. What better place to get inspiration than a near-fairytale place surrounded by boys? I mean… you know where I'm going with this, right?"
"Yes," Muse said immediately. Kaminari smiled and began to walk once more. Muse hurried after her.
"But I just don't see how challenging the Hokage to a dango-eating contest would help!" Muse called after her. Kaminari stopped, put a hand to the bridge of her nose, and sighed.
"That wasn't what I was thinking at all," she said reproachfully. Muse shrugged.
"Some muses have a mind of their own," she said apologetically. "Er… where were you getting at again?"
Kaminari looked up, her eyes burning with enthusiasm. Her hands balled into fists.
"I'm going to…" she paused for suspense. "Challenge a cute boy to marry me!"
Kaminari's muse didn't have a reply for this, except to bring her hand to her face and display a neat face-palm. Kaminari didn't know if that was a good sign or a bad one, but she took it to mean good news.