DISCLAIMER: Once again, I do not own Naruto, even though I dearly wish I did.
Akai walked through the corridors, flanked by two other ANBU members. She reached the doors leading into the Hokage office, she remembered this place so well. She used to play here, when she was younger, together with him. She remembered it all too well.
"I WIN!" a young girl with short red hair shouted as she ran pass the double doors and into the Hokage's office. The boy that was chasing after he tried to skid into a stop but to no avail, slammed into her and they both tumbled into the office, giggling like nothing else but two children having fun.
"No fair! You had a head start." Cried out the young boy as he stood up and dusted himself off, before extending a hand out to the girl and pulled her up.
"Nah. You're just a sore loser." She said poking her tongue out at him. "Neh old man Hokage. Ain't I right?" she said turning towards the chuckling Hokage sitting at his desk. Watching the whole thing with amusement.
"I'm afraid Akai-chan is right my boy. She did win" he answered with his eyes sparkling.
The young boy grumbled, "You only say that cuz you love and spoil her." He said under his breath.
Akai stuck her tongue out at him again. "Okay, okay you sore loser, let's have a rerun. Last one home is a rotten egg!" she shouted at him before blowing a kiss at the old man and ran off.
"WAIT! You're cheating again!" he shouted at her back before turning around and bowing at the Hokage. "Sorry for the commotion Hokage-sama." Before he took off and ran after the hyper-active young girl.
"Akai-san?" asked one of the ANBU, a softer voice, it must be a girl, but it was enough to break her reverie. Akai shook her head to get the thoughts out of her head. These daydreams have to stop. It might get her killed one day. But man does she miss that old man… Sometimes, it pained her to know that she wasn't here to save him when she could.
She shook her head, and smiled at the ANBU, "Sorry. Daydreaming again. Can't help it." She said sheepishly. She turned and winked suggestively at the two guards standing by the Hokage's doors. The two guards at least had the decency to blush. Akai was of course, by far the most gorgeous thing they had laid their eyes on. "Well… It's now or never." And she took a deep breathe and walked through the double doors.
Akai bowed low to the blonde woman sitting behind the desk. "Hokage-sama." She said formally.
Tsunade stood up and walked around her desk to get to the woman. She nodded to the two ANBU and they shuffled outside, where they would wait, just incase that this woman posed a threat. They closed the door, leaving the two women the freedom to talk in private. Akai straightened her back and looked at Tsunade straight in the eye. "Akai Naze, to your disposal, Tsunade-sama."
Tsunade surveyed the woman standing in front of her desk. She was about 5"7 in height and was slim. Not skinny, anorexic-model type of skinny. But slim, curvy and probably had the body that the whole of Konoha's woman population would be envious of. She had curly long red hair that reached to her mid thigh. She was toned and had well-developed muscles, not scary large wrestler sort of muscles, but it was enough to tell that this girl had trained hard for her body. She wore a tube top that showed off her toned, flat stomach. Skinny jeans and knee-length boots graces her leg and hips. Tsunade had a report from the other ANBU that the woman was wearing some type of intricate armour before entering Konoha, but had removed it before entering the Hokage tower. But there was something else about her that was different, and it only took seconds for Tsunade to figure out what it was, her eyes. Her eyes were different from most, purple with a tint of red and orange by the sides. She could hardly place what colour it was as it seemed to change every second. It was hypnotic, like a storm churning underneath the surface. She couldn't help but feel as though she was drawn in by it. The woman closed her eyes and Tsunade broke out of the small trance.
"Sorry about that." Akai said before opening her eyes again, it turned to clear purple, traces of the storm was gone. "It's a defense mechanism, it appears every time I become unsure of what kind of situation I am in."
Tsunade nodded, then shaking her head to clear it. "What is it?"
"I call it Storm Glaze, for obvious reasons. It's like a kekkai genkai but… I had to work, hard, for it. And it does not past through bloodline, but you are required to finish a… quest before you can achieve this. It has a variety of different names, Purple Storm, Sleeping Whisper, etc." Akai closed her eyes. "It… is a very valuable asset to anyone, but very, very difficult to gain."
Tsunade nodded, understanding that many kekkai genkai required certain trials to be done before you are able to access them. "What does it do?"
"Well… A variety of different things. For one, as you have experience, I can make people fall asleep or dazed, or believe their in a different world. It is shares some similar properties to the Mangekyou Sharingan, I can manipulate people into doing things that I want them to do." Akai smiled helplessly then shook her head. "Although there is a drawback. The Storm Glaze if powerful, although it is a very strong asset to have, it drains a lot out of the user, depending on what we are using it for."
"We?" Tsunade asked, raising an eyebrow. This Kekkai Genkai… a mixture of both Sharingan and Bakyugan can be both dangerous and useful. She had never heard of something like that before. This could mean something new for Konoha. Good or bad she isn't too sure. "There are more of you?"
Akai shook her head. "No…" she muttered softly. "Not anymore." She stared darkly at the floor. "May I sit?" Akai asked, gesturing to the chair in front of the desk. "This would take a while."
Tsunade nodded and moved to sit in her own chair. As Akai settled down into the soft cushion as Tsunade gestured to her to continue her story. Akai held a hand up and muttered a few soft words underneath her breathe.
"Now we can talk unhindered by other ears." She said to her. Then she took a deep breath.
"Where to begin… I am what you would call a Morpher. We are… few, very few in numbers. In fact, there are only on Morpher allowed to live each lifetime. When I die, a new one would resurface, when he or she dies, another would be reborn. It goes on and on this way." Akai closed her eyes, memories resurfacing. "To do this… You have to be the chosen one and go through a few painful trials."
A thirteen-year-old Akai heaved herself onto the rock above, her muscles straining and screaming in protest. Below her, was a 10,000 feet drop. Oxygen was so thin her body felt like it was about to give out and die. She shook her head. No. She can do this. She hauled herself to the last landing she was to reach and laid on the cliff side, glad to have finally reached her destination. Her body felt like jelly and her hands, arms, body, shook. She was covered in scratches, bruises, burns from the friction, her hands were bloody and so were her feet due to her climbing.
"So you have arrived." A voice scoffed. Akai looked up, it took a while for her oxygen deprived brain to realize that the one doing the talking was… a turtle. "Every year they send someone younger, and look at you, still a child, barely even a teenager." The turtle shook its head as Akai looked at it in wonder. "Still… climbing that height for someone so young is quite a feat… Maybe you won't disappoint." Akai was too exhausted, too tired, to make sense of what was going on. Darkness clouded her vision but the turtle stood up and kicked her. Hard. Hard enough to ensure that she was jerked out of it.
"Don't go fainting on me now, you still have a long way to go. Prove it. Reach that top," the turtle said, using a stick to point at the tip of the mountain. "by sundown, and then maybe, maybe you could be what you were chosen to be." Before vanishing into a cloud of smoke.
Akai groaned. Why on earth is the God's torturing her this way? She lay back down, staring at the sky. Her young mind processing all that was said. Yet in her heart, even though she had no idea why she climbed the 10,000 feet mountain, told her to get up, told her to continue all the way to the top. In her heart, she knew that she had to do this, though her mind was going through turmoil and she constantly second-guessed herself. She had to do it, plus, she never backed down on a challenge. She sighed as she forced her body to its feet, stumbling as her body wanted to give in, but she refused and forced her feet to move, one by one, up the mountain.
Tsunade looked up, amused but impressed. So… this was one of the prices the girl had to pay, even at the age of 13, she had proven determined enough to beat the trials that this 'turtle' set for her.
"And trust me, that was probably the most gentle of quests and trials Kendo-sensei had put me through. But in the end, at the end of six years… He was proud of me, after six years of hard training, I was to go and learn about the world for myself. To complete the final trial by myself, a trial that took me two years to complete."
The young woman jumped from tree to tree, this was it, the finale, the end of her long 8 years of training. She reached the clearing and dropped to the ground. In front of her, was a large structure made purely of stone. Weaved deep inside the forest of death at the corner of the world, a place where nightmares came true and no one has dared to enter for a lifetime. Not a soul could be found, not a thing could be heard throughout the whole forest. The eerie quietness often drove many people insane, the never ending route led many to starve to death, until a few hundred years ago, this part of the world was cut of, considered forbidden. But she knew where to go. Don't ask her how, but Akai knew, she followed her heart, as always, and she knew.
She walked slowly to the stone structure, made in a form of a being, it had the head of a tiger, body of a human, wings of an eagle, legs of a horse and tail of a fish. She placed her palm onto the statue and transferred energy into the statue. Not chakra, mind you, but energy coming purely from her heart. She gasped, the energy that came from the earth flooded into her.
Then she opened her mouth, and screamed.
"It was like you were being ripped into pieces, and then thrown into a fire to be burned to death, all while being rolled over and stomped on by elephants, bones, crushing, blood itself felt like fire. It was the single most painful thing anyone could have gone through. But it was a test. A test of will, if you fail, you would fall to your death. If you won… You'd become… a morpher."
Tsunade looked at the young woman. Her mind slowly processing what this girl had to go through. She nodded at her.
"I see… But all this… All this for what? What was the point?"
"I'm called a Morpher because I have the power to morph into anything I want to. Not just a henge jutsu mind you. But actually, morph into an animal, or person, or anything. I take on their form, their mind set, and all I have to do is touch them and I can transform. No one, not even his or her most loved ones, would be able to tell the difference between me and the original being. I am the most deadliest of spies as I can get into anywhere and do anything." Akai said, "But there is… a price. If my heart were to sway, if ever, I am to use my powers for evil… I would die. And I would die the most painful death a person can endure, to pay for the betrayal I have dealt to the Gods. For it is, after all, a gift, chosen and given by the Gods above."
Tsunade nodded, if all the girl said was true, then Konoha indeed has gained its most powerful asset. They continued to talk about the more trivial things such as her living space, her daily expectations, etc. Finally, the Hokage stood up and Akai stood up with her. Tsunade nodded at the other woman.
"I trust you and I agree to accept you into Konoha, as one of our shinobis." Tsunade reached into the drawer and pulled out a leaf headband. "This is for you," she said, handing her the hitai-ate.
"Welcome home."
Akai nodded and took the headband from her and tied it across her arm. She looked up at the Hokage a grinned, before bowing to her. "Thank you Hokage-sama… It feels good to be home."
Akai stood up and walked towards the double doors, but before she could leave a thought came to the Hokage's mind.
"You never did tell me what happened to the other Morphers… About you being the last one."
Akai stopped short, hand placed on the doorknob. "That's a story for another day Hokage-sama. It's best… to let that one rest for a while." She said, and while her voice remained calm and upbeat, the Hokage could see her back tense and her hands shook. Tsunade nodded, understanding that some memories were too painful to reminisce upon at the moment.
"Thank you Akai-san. You can now go. I will call you in a few days time, after the council and I have decided what missions and what rank to place you in. We might also have to test your abilities, so be prepared."
Akai nodded. "Thank you." Before leaving, closing the door behind her.
Tsunade sighed and sat back down behind her desk. So this was the valuable asset Sandaime had planned for their village. The pain in the girl was evident, and Tsunade hoped that being home, would heal the girl slightly.
Tsunade reached into the secret compartment underneath her desk for a Sake bottle and took a long drink.
There was still the matter of the council… What would they do when they find out? Not to mention, is she really still trustworthy? Or should she just go along blindly as her previous mentor had asked.
It was going to be a long week.
Longest chapter I've written so far. Is it still too short? Please Review! I don't know if the flow of the story is right. Or if it is too rushed. Do review please!
