Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other characters from the anime/manga. I only own this plot and the characters Pandora and Suzuki.
A/N: I only saw up until the fifth episode (downloads are taking too long -) so sorry for any plot holes. This takes place when Team Seven are all 17 yrs. Old.
Arrival
Team seven waited for their sensei again at the training grounds. He was late, yet again.
"We should really start arriving later than he tells us too. I'm so sleepy!" cried Naruto, who was jumping up and down out of apparent irritation.
"Will you shut up already!" said Sakura, rubbing that last traces of sleep out of her eyes. Sasuke, whose eyes were narrowed in frustration and irritation, opened them a little when he heard a soft rustle among the trees. He looked in the direction of the sound and noticed Kakashi-sensei jumping through the trees and landing softly beside Sakura, who jumped up in surprise and hit him on the head.
"What's your excuse this time?" came the uninterested drawl of the Uchiha.
"Well, a new student has been assigned to Team Seven." He replied, scratching the back of his head.
"A new student? Who?" came the excited reply of Naruto.
"You won't know her. She's not from this village."
'Her?' Great, another annoying, weak idiot that would do nothing but chase after me and hinder our progress. Thought Sasuke, furrowing his eyebrows. One again, soft rustles can be heard from the trees, the three genins and jounin looked up and saw a blur of black and red. Within a second, the girl landed beside Kakashi. Sasuke raised and eyebrow at her attire.
It wasn't the most appropriate clothes for ninja training. Her hair was extremely long, reaching down to mid-calf. It was black with blood-red streaks. She wore a black silk Chinese-styled shirt, which was sleeveless and reveals most of her back. Rather than the normal shinobi blue sandals, she wore knee length black leather boots. She had a black skirt that reached a few inches above her knees. Her upper-right arm had a piece ofleather wrapped around it, kept together by a silver coloured leather belt. ((Yes, I love my black leather)) Her lower arms were covered by a sleeve that wasn't joined to anything; it ressembled the sleeve of a kimono. On her upper-left arm was the Konoha forehead protector, although they could tell that it was probably specially made, since the silver plate was smaller in length so that it could be tied to her arm.
"This is Pandora Tsubasa, your new teammate." The jounin said flatly. Pandora's crimson eyes scanned Team Seven.
Naruto 'bounced' up to her. "Hi! I'm Naruto! The fu-"
"Yeah, yeah, the future hokage of Konoha." Sakura cut him off, rolling her eyes. "I'm Haruno Sakura! Nice to meet you!" she introduced herself, reaching out her hand, expecting a handshake. The newcomer's eyes traveled to Sakura's hair.
"I despise pink." She said in a monotonous voice. To everyone's surprise, Sasuke gave a quiet chuckle.
"And that's Uchiha Sasuke." Finished Kakashi. Pandora nodded.
"Our mission?" she said, her voice void of any emotion.
"Oh, yes. Our mission is to retrieve a scroll in a forest near-by. It's supposed to contain some long-forgotten ninjutsu's." he explained. His students nodded. "Let's go then." The five of them walked north-wards, entering deeper into the forest that surrounded the training area. After half an hour of a slightly uncomfortable silence, they reached a waterfall that no one knew existed. "I guess you guys should split up, Uchiha and Tsubasa, Uzumaki and Haruno. I'll go by myself." He announced. Sakura gave him a sly look.
"To catch up on some reading, I suppose?" she said, hands on her hip and narrowing her jade eyes at her teacher. Kakashi gave a nervous chuckle and walked off, giving the signal to start the search for the scroll. Naruto and Sakura walked off in one direction (Naruto was jumping with joy and a vein popped on Sakura's head.)
Pandora and Sasuke just stood there, Pandora's eyes closed, as if concentrating on an aura that the scroll might be giving off. Sasuke glanced over at her and scowled at her attire again. "You know, you should grow your hair this long, it'll only ge tin the way." He said, breaking the silence. He was returned with a glare. The girl pulled out a satin ribbon and used it to tie her long tresses in a high ponytail.
"I believe that the scroll may contain fire-type justsu's ((Ninjutsu's can contain elemental attacks...right? I don't remember.)) So it's most likely to be north." She said. The raven-haired boy raised an eyebrow at her strange logic. She just rolled her eyes. "The four directions each represent an element; south represents earth, west: wind, north is fire, and east is water." She explained and began walking north. He followed her.
So far, Sasuke didn't know what to think of this girl. She was definitely different from the others, who, as Hatake Kakashi had thought, were more interested in love than training. She didn't flirt with him, well actually, she hardly even acknowledged his presence. She seemed to take her work seriously, obviously much more seriously than Sakura. Her calm voice broke his train of thoughts.
"Did you remember to bring your kunai's?" she asked. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, then noticed the look she was giving him Did you sense another presence? She meant. He nodded and watched as her hand slowly traveled to the hilt of her katana, though she made it seem as though she was just placing her hand to her hip. Sasuke followed suit.
The presence of other nins became more obvious as rustles were heard from the bushes. Pandora unsheathed her weapon and did a backwards somersault, slashing at the once-unseen nin. Sasuke jumped up and threw several shurikans at the opponents that were hidden among the trees. Two nins were hit, although not critically damaged. Sasuke mentally hit himself for not taking a better aim. He took out two kunai's and used them as makeshift twin-daggers. He began attacking the other shinobi's. He jumped up in a roundhouse kick to one opponent's face while slashing another with his kunai.
Pandora continued slashing at others, so fast that none was able to prepare for her attack. Blood rained everywhere, but she didn't give a damn. There were several ninjas that were too fast; they dodged to easily. She sheathed her black-bladed katana and pulled out ten shurikens. She ran back, towards a tree stump, then jumped onto it, using it to lift herself into the air, somersaulting. She twisted so that she was facing her enemies and threw the shurikens and flipped backwards, landing in a crouched, cat-like position. Her weapons hit three out of the five ninjas; hitting straight between the eyes of one nin, one dangerously close to the heart and one on the shoulder of another, and one on the leg, on in his eye, and another shuriken in his head. All three fell. The two remaining nins took a step back. She heard footsteps behind her and turned, and was met with a kick to the chest, sending her into a tree. Sasuke turned at the sudden noise. He noticed the three presumably dead nins on the ground, with the well-aimed-thrown shurikens sticking out of them. ((X.x)) His gaze wandered to Pandora, who was struggling to stand up to defend herself from the huge shinobi. He threw a few kunai's at his current opponent to distract him and ran over to his teammate. He held his two kunai's in front of him, his arms crossed in front of his face.
"Aww….is the little Uchiha protecting his girlfriend?" mocked the troll-like ninja. Sasuke expected for Pandora to blush madly, as Sakura would, but instead she blinked blankly and growled, pulling out twin daggers with a circle-shaped blade surrounding the handle to protect her hands. ((Kinda like Rikku's daggers (in thief dressphere) in Final Fantasy X-2)) She ran in front of Sasuke and began slashing at the troll, although her movements were slowed down because of her injury. She earned another kick sending her back to the tree.
"If you're too weak to handle this, stay out of the fight." Said Sasuke in his usual cold voice. He heard her growl again.
"I wouldn't be talking if I were you. You just fought three ninjas and already have a wound dangerously close to a vital organ, one that's way too deep and probably punctured more than one vein, and already has poison in your blood system." She hissed, her red eyes clouding angrily.
Sasuke growled at her. She's too weak to even fight and yet she's telling him what to do….Wait…POISON! he thought frantically. He ignored it and thought of it as Pandora trying to brag. He ran towards the shinobi and slashed at him, only to hit a log. The Replacement Technique. He turned swiftly, searching for his opponent. He suddenly began to feel drowsy and his vision blurred. The poison… He dropped, but he tried to support himself with a nearby tree.
At this rate, we'll both be dead! Pandora scowled. "Time to pull out the big guns." She muttered. She slowly walked towards Sasuke. "Stay close to me if you don't want to die." She said. He raised an eyebrow but she pulled him to an area that's pretty cleared of trees. She placed her blade bladed katana in front of her, its tip dug into the soil. Pandora rested her hands on the hilt of it and closed her eyes. Her aura became stronger and Sasuke could feel her chakra forming a barrier around her. The sword glowed and grew longer; turning into a staff. Atop the black staff was a circle-like figure, twisting and turning into an intricate web. The girl picked it up and gently put the top of the staff to the ground and spun, drawing a circle around her. From the lines on the earth that the staff made, black flames bursted up. A strange red-tinted wind surrounded her like a mini-tornado. The tornado rose higher, creating a tower-like barrier around her. "Let darkness fall." She muttered, closing her eyes. The sky blackened and thousands of black-fireballs rained down on them, but both Sasuke and Pandora were protected by a chakra barrier. Many hidden ninas fell from their hiding spots in the trees, and the ogre-like enemy fell, making a loud thud as his flaming body struck the gound.
Pandora fell too, but not from being burned, just for using too much chakra. Sasuke caught her, but was barely able to stand by himself.
...-...
Kakashi looked up at the sky when he saw the rain of black flames. Shit. Pandora's powers are not developed enough for her to use 'Black Sky'. She would not be able to control it! He thought before running towards the fire, where Padnora would be.
...-...
Naruto and Sakura looked up, frightened at the darkened sky and raining fire. "We should find the others." Sakura nodded in agreement, still shaking.
...-...
Sasuke placed Pandora on the ground, letting her lean on a tree, while he himself sat beside her, trying to fight the venom. Foot steps were heard, but he sensed that it was only his other teammates.
"Sasuke-kun!" came Sakura's somewhat annoyingly shrill cry.
"Sasuke! What happened?" said Naruto, looking over at the unconscious girl.
"We…we were attacked and…" he struggled to speak.
"Did Pandora do that? The raining flames?" said their sensei, who appeared beside Naruto. Sasuke nodded weakly. "She wasn't supposed to. That's the 'Black Sky' attack, the Tsuabsa clan's most known and dangerous attack. Only a select few have the ability to perform it. Although Pandora learned and trained her attack at a very young age, it is still not fully developed; she can't control the power and how much chakra it takes up. It would kill her if her chakra levels were low." He explained, expression grim. Sakura gasped, then noticed Sasuke, who was breathing heavily and fighting to stay awake.
"Sasuke-kun? What's wrong?" she asked.
"Pandora said that…one of the ninja's that attacked us had venom…and he…used..it on me.." he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"There should be herbs here that could help, right? Right?" replied Naruto.
"There should be..but I not sure what poison is in Sasuke's blood…so I don't know which herb-"
"I do." Everyone's eyes came to Pandora, who was now conscious. "I believe that there may be some of it that's near the water fall we were at. It looks like a rose, but it doesn't have any thorns and it's blue." ((I have no idea what I'm talking about -.-)) Kakashi nodded.
"Naruto, come and help me look for it. Sakura, stay here and make sure that Pandora and Sasuke stays awake." Both students nodded and Kakashi and Naruto jumped from tree to tree towards the waterfall. An awkward silence followed.
"Can someone please talk? I'm allergic to silence." Sakura grumbled.
"What exactly is there to talk about?" came Pandora's monotonous reply.
"I don't want to be nosy, but I was just wondering why you decided to join the ninjas in Konoha." She said. Pandora remained silent. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She added. After a few seconds of silence, Pandora spoke.
"I came from a clan of assassins. Half of our clan was massacred two years ago. My brother and mother were killed. The next year, the clan who attacked the village returned, and finished off their job. My father forced me to hide in a forest close to the village. That's the reason that I survived. I have no doubt that the Ookami clan, my village's killers, are still looking for me." She said, her voice a whisper. Sakura looked at her then at the ground.
"I'm sorry." She said. She really didn't want to bring up Pandora's past. She could guess how painful it must be.
Sasuke looked over at Pandora, who seemed to be trying to force back tears. She too had her family ripped from her. "Are you going to avenge your village?" he spoke up suddenly, then regretted it. He shouldn't have asked. It would bring up more memories to her.
But her red eyes clouded and her pupils became slits. "Yes. I will see to it that the bastard who betrayed me and sent his clan to attack mine will die an excruciating death. I want his blood to spill onto the grounds of my village. I want him to meet unrelenting torture. He will die by my hands." She hissed. Sakura looked at her in surprise. Even Sasuke wasn't so…sinister-like when he mentioned his plans to kill his brother. There were a few more moments of uncomfortable silence before their sensei and Naruto returned.
"Are these the right herbs?" Naruto asked, placing the flower-like herbs in front of Pandora. She nodded and tried to stand up. Sakura ran to her to lend support. She picked up three of the blue-roses and began tearing the petals into tiny shred.
"Does anyone have a bandage?" she asked. No one responded. Sighing, she untied the ribbon keeping her long hair up, letting her hair frame her face. All three of the males blushed at her strange beauty. Even Sasuke blushed. "The wound is on your chest…" she said. He nodded and pulled off his shirt. Sakura blushed madly at the shirtless boy in front of her. Pandora raised an eyebrow. So…this is one of those Sasuke-crazy girls I've been hearing about. She smirked inwardly. She placed the shreds of the petals onto the wound. Sasuke winced slightly as she tied the ribbon tightly around his chest. Luckily, the wound wasn't too big, so the long ribbon covered enough of it to avoid risks of infections. "Did any of you find that scroll yet?" she asked. They all shook their heads. "I was right then. It is northwards from us." Sakura and Naruto blinked, confused. "We should get going if we're going to complete this mission." The nodded and began walking, Sakura helping Pandora walk (although she would rather help Sasuke) and Naruto helping Sasuke (although he would rather help Sakura who wasn't hurt at all -). They walked in silence until they heard the sounds of another waterfall.
"I think its in there." Said Kakashi, pointing towards the cascade of water. Naruto, without hesitation, leaned Sasuke against a tree and ran to the waterfall.
"Wait, Baka!" said Pandora. "The pressure of the falls is too great, you'll get your head pounded right off if you go in." she said, rolling her eyes. Naruto grinned sheepishly.
"Then how are we supposed to get the scroll?" said Sasuke. Pandora smirked.
"Easy." She walked up to the waterfall as her companions watched curiously. When she was on the lake, everyone's eyes widened. She was walking on the water. She was now in front of the falls. She held her staff (it didn't transform back into a katana yet) in front of her vertically and chanted something unheard by the others. She held it so that the top was touching the water and spun, creating a circle like last time, except water erupted instead of fire. Once again, a red-tinted wind surrounded her and the falls began to separate, like a curtain being pulled back.
"How…?" Naruto said, dumbfounded.
"This…was my family's secret shine…" Pandora explained, her eyes averted from her companions' gazes.
Trying to break the tension, Sakura urged that they go on. The all nodded and proceeded into the cave hidden by the water falls. Deep within the cave was an alter with a stone with the names of Pandora's ancestors carved into it. "I can't see anything." Naruto called out, his voice echoing off the walls.
Sasuke noticed Pandora's red eyes glow. The Sharigan? Impossible… He thought. Then the cave was lit up, rather eerily. The light was somewhat bright, but the flames were black. Naruto foolishly ran up to the alter, where, beside the carved obsidian, was the scroll. "Wait! Unless if you want to be vaporized by the barrier, keep still." Pandora called out. The Uzumaki stopped in mid-track. Pandora walked up to the alter and stopped a metre in front of it. She held her staff infront of her and chanted, in a whisper, a spell. Runes on the cave walls glowed red, and the red-tinted wind that was now visibly surrounding the alter dispersed. She walked up and picked up the scroll, handing it to Kakashi.
"Mission complete!" called Naruto triumphantly. They turned and left the cave, but Pandora remained behind. She placed a hand on the carved stone and tears rolled down her pale cheeks. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw the face of Sasuke, there was an understanding look in his eyes.
"You okay?" he asked. Pandora nodded and followed him out the cave, the falls closing up, sealing up the cave. Sasuke didn't notice Sakura's jade eyes watching in slight jealousy.
They reached the gates of Konoha and were greeted by a few anbu's and the Fifth. "What happened?" she said, glancing at the still-weak Sasuke and Pandora.
"They were attacked by Missing Nins." Replied Kakashi. "I believe that they Missing Nins were all killed though. Here's the scroll." He said, trying to skip the part about the Black Sky. It would only add to the Hokage's worries, including the barrier around the comatose body of Uchiha Itachi weakening. "We should bring them to the hospital for a check up." Tsunade nodded and lead them to the hospital.
...-...
After avoiding as many questions as possible from the nurses, both Sasuke and Pandora were 'released' from the hospital.
"A little problem…where am I supposed to stay?" asked Pandora suddenly. Sasuke shrugged.
"Ask Kakashi." He replied. He hoped that Kakashi wouldn't make Pandora stay in his place, Sasuke didn't want to have someone else being a burden to him. Pandora nodded and walked to Kakashi's home. She knocked on the door but received no answer. She knocked again but still no answer. She sighed.
"Kakashi, if you're reading those pathetic books again, I'll burn them all, and if you're sleeping, get your lazy ass out here before I kick it to China." She called. Obviously, the first 'suggestion' got his attention. He opened the door.
"What?"
"I'm not too accustomed to sleeping out in the woods you know." She replied flatly. He blinked a few seconds and realized her meaning. ((Slow, eh?))
"Well…I guess you can live with Sasuke for now, until we can get you your own home. You do have an extra room, right Sasuke?" Sasuke nodded reluctlantly. "Good. Go ask Sakura for some extra clothes, and she could probably take you shopping tomorrow." Pandora nodded. "Good night." He said before returning inside.
"And Kakashi, I'm serious about burning those perverted books of yours!" she called through the door. Then followed Sasuke to Sakura's home. They knocked on the door and was answered by Haruno-san, Sakura's mother.
"Oh hello Sasuke. How can I help you?" she asked politly.
He was straight to the point. "Pandora needs some extra clothes. We were wondering if Sakura could lend her some until she buys her own."
"Oh, okay. Sakura! Your friend Pandora says she needs some extra clothes. Can you lend some to her?"
They could hear a slightly muffled 'sure' from the pink haired girl and in moments she arrived a the door with some clothes. She blushed at the presence of Sasuke. "Hi Sasuke-kun" she said. He nodded. Sighing inwardly, she handed the clothes to the black-haired girl standing beside Sasuke. My Sasuke. Thought inner Sakura angrily. Pandora thanked them and followed Sasuke to the Uchiha Manor. ((I'm not really sure how his house looks like…so I'm just guessing.)) He lead her to her new room. It wasn't decorated too much, but Pandora was fine with it. The walls were painted crimson, and the bed had slightly see through red fabric dropped down from the ceiling, surrounding it. There was a mahogany dresser and an oak wardrobe. There was another door, which she assumed lead to a bathroom. She heard Sasuke's footsteps walk away from her and into the room next to her's. His room. She walked into the bathroom and closed the door.
She took off her clothes and walked to the shower, where she took a nice, long, hot shower. She changed into something comfortable for sleep; a satin black tank top and matching shorts. She walked out of the bathroom and over to the glass doors that lead to the balcony. The pushed apart the red see-through curtains and opened the door, the cool summer breeze greeted her. She stepped out side and leaned against the iron railing. She closed her eyes and memories flooded her mind. The training with her brother and father, the secrets she shared with her mother, and the laughs she shared with her sister. Tears rolled freely again. She didn't care, there was no one there to see her. She began singing softly.
((Thisisn't the whole song, just part of it))
Oh a thousand words, call out through the ages
They'll fly to you
Even though I can't see
I know they're reaching you
Suspended on silver wings
Oh a thousand words, one thousand embraces
Will cradle you
Making all of your weary days seem far away
They'll hold you forever…
(-Issen no Kotoba ((Thousand Words)) by Jade/Koda Kumi)
She felt the presence of the Uchiha.
...-...
Sasuke heard her voice. Curious, he walked out to the balcony. He almost gasped at the sight of Pandora. The moonlight shone on part of her face, adding a mysterious look. Her eyes were closed, hiding their beautiful crimson hue. The wind played with her hair, the long tresses flowing gently. He shook himself. He shouldn't be thinking like that. He was becoming just as bad as Sakura. "You know, you really shouldn't eavesdrop on people." Her calm voice brought him back to reality. He scowled.
"What? You afraid of people telling you the truth that you sound bad?" he snapped back. It wasn't true. She sounded amazing. She rolled her eyes and continued staring out into the village. Since the two of them shared a balcony, Sasuke stood beside her and leaned onto the railing.
Pandora closed her eyes, memories of her deceased family. Unbeknownst to her, tears escaped from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. Unconsciously, Sasuke reached out his hand and softly wiped away a tear. Pandora opened her eyes and stared at him. He turned away, trying to hide his blush. …Blush? He's blushing! Then she wiped away the remainder of her tears and smirked. "Aww…is little Sasuke developing a crush?" she mocked.
He glared at her. "Maybe I was wrong, maybe you are one of those slutty girls that are so full of themselves and think that they're actually worth my attention." He hissed.
Pandora growled, turned to him and smiled sweetly, way too sweetly. She raised her hand and…slapped him
Slapped . He stared at her and placed a hand to his throbbing cheek. She turned. "maybe I was wrong about you too." She muttered before returning to her room. He blinked. How…did she think of him? He wondered. Ugh. Why should I even care! He mentally slapped himself and walked back into his room.
...-...
Pandora woke up and stretched. She was supposed to go shopping with Sakura today, but it was way too early for shopping. She decided to train. After taking a quick shower and brushing her teeth, she slipped into her outfit yesterday. She picked up her katana along with a couple of kunai's and shurikens and walked out of the house, proceeding towards the training grounds. She heard Sasuke's almost silent footsteps following her.
She reached the training grounds and closed her eyes. "What do you want now Uchiha?" she said. Sasuke flinched at her tone. Uchiha. She called me Uchiha. For some unknown reason, it hurt. But he hid it.
"So we're on last-name terms now?" he said. She opened her eyes but didn't look at him
"Don't get in my way." She said and took off creating clones of herself, then transforming those clones into ninja-like figures. I thought she said she didn't know jutsus…? She slashed at the illusional ninjas, causing them to fade. More appeared. Sasuke watched, slightly amused.
"Fight me" His voice came suddenly, and all of the clones disappeared, and Pandora landed,
"What?"
"You need to tone your hearing, Tsubasa. I said fight me."
She scowled. "And why would I want to fight a weakling like you?"
"You can prove how 'weak' I am."
She seemed reluctant. Was she afraid? "If you're killed, it's not my fault." She flatly. He noticed her pupils turn to slits, and her red eyes darkening. He nodded and got into a battle stance. She made the first move. Biggest mistake she would ever make. He smirked as slashed at her with his kunai. He didn't feel it making contact. He felt a rush of air behind him, and before he could turn, Pandora kicked him in the back, sending him into a tree. He stood up, though a little weakly. He looked at her. There was something wrong with her eyes. They seemed so…empty. Of course, she made sure that they were always void of emotion, but at the moment, they scared him a little.
She held her blade in front of her. "Blades of Wind." She said, her voice distant and other-worldly. Silver curved blades made out of air launched at Sasuke. He was unable to dodge them. One hit him on the stomach, another on his shoulder. He growled and tried to hoist himself up, but failed. He tried again, and this time, succeeded in only standing up and taking a few steps forth. He noticed Pandora struggling. With what? She closed her eyes and opened them again, then sheathed all her weapons and walked calmly to him. "You…okay?" she said. He glared at her. She sighed.
"I'm sorry. That's why I didn't want to fight you. They let me train at this village, because they wanted to help me control my…demonic side. And to control the strength of my attacks." She explained, averting her eyes from his glare. "You alright?" she asked again, but he still remained silence. She rolled her eyes and got up, walking towards the Haruno residence.
-
I know it's not much of a cliffie, but I'm lazy. 8 pages and a half! Sheesh. Review! I accept flames, just not stupid ones. And a note for 'Pandora'. Please, do not think of her as the ugly step sister in Cinderella. :shivers: When I came up with the name, I was thinkng of Pandora's Box. Geh. Ja ne!