Yo. Sora Maro is back with the next installment of - and I hope you enjoy it. Be warned that Mori is a stinky butthead and Kaoru is the true bucket-head, but then again, Hana really is easily played into Kaoru's hands.
Oh yeah, the mystery POV person would be Fujiwara Kagetora! And yes he is from Shinobi Life! I kinda borrowed him because of the fact that Kagetora is awesome. But mainly it's just the name I'm borrowing because Kage-kun is definitely his own person.
Warning: Hana's potty mouth, Kiri bashing, blatant usage of bad characterization.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the OCs. Hana, her team, and the Kirisho are mine, everyone else I am simply borrowing from Kishimoto-san. Oh, and I own a green hat, but not Naruto
Song for most of this chapter is: Here It Goes Again by OK Go
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
- Winston Churchill
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. The alarm clock dinged at the ordered time of five-thirty. Grumbling and complaining, I threw the clock against the wall before slowly closing my brown eyes. Suddenly I jolted awake. Shit! I'm supposed to be at the training grounds in fifteen! Jumping out of bed, I rushed to change, attach my weapons pouch, and snagged a fruit on the way out the door.
Shit, shit, shit! I'm so gonna be late if I don't kick it into gear! What in the world would that Aniki and Mori-sensei say if I was to be late? Wait a minute…I slowed down on Sunagakure's streets. What did I say yesterday to the team? Oh yeah, the element of surprise! Hitting my forehead with my palm, my mouth emitted a groan at my own stupidity. Of course, Sensei would start teaching us the moment he got us, and making us get up early at almost six to train only for us to think back to what I said yesterday to see if anyone was listening! Smart. I have to admit Mori-sensei is one smart dude.
With that I settled down on a bench and watched the sky slowly grow brighter over time. Swallowing hard, I quickly wiped away some tears. Not a good idea to start remembering my past. My hellish past shouldn't have much effect on my present so there's no need to think about the past. Better yet, forget about the past, the less I know the more I can deal.
"Hana-chan?" An elderly woman called out to me, that's right! Chouko-obaa-chan! I normally help her out when I can.
"Hai, Baa-chan?" I waved back, a grin on my face, "You need something?"
She nodded, "Would you deliver these to your Sakura-nee-chan? She had asked for the remedial herbs two days ago and I just got a shipment in last night."
"Sure!" I took the pouch from her and waved goodbye before I darted off into the streets towards the Kirisho compound.
Oh yeah, speaking of the Kirisho clan, I should let you in, on who we are, shouldn't I? Well the Kirisho clan originated from Kiri, thus the name the first of Kiri. Our clan removed itself to Suna due to the fact that Kiri started using our kind as weapons instead of shinobi. Kiri 'bred' us by choosing fierce animals for our kekkei genkai instead of letting us find the animal we're supposed to copy. The clan head, Kirisho Shin, revolted and brought us to Suna where we've been since.
Now Sakura-nee is a Kirisho clan member, one of the sweeter kunoichi, my older cousin or aunt or someone related. She's a mother and her son Natsu has been sick for a week now. I arrived at her door and dropped the pouch off on the windowsill so she'll see it, and then I decided to head off to training. No need to be the Obito of Suna or the later Kakashi of Suna either. Seriously, now their habits are bad! Me, nah, I'm not that bad.
Arriving at exactly six-eleven, I caught the glared of Kaoru and Sensei. Seriously? Sheesh, can't a kunoichi get a break?
"Ohayo minna *." I called out, dropping right into a stretch.
"You're late!" Kaoru shouted at me. "We've been here since five-forty-five and you come in thirty minutes later, loser! What did you do, sleep like a lazy teme?"
I snapped back, "Hey, incase you were wondering, I had hoped that people actually listened to me yesterday, but apparently not, and I was helping an old woman out, so butt out ass!"
"Kagetora, Kirisho, sparring positions now." Sensei barked.
Sheesh, I gotta start swearing by the Sage of Six Paths or the Juubi or hell maybe even Jashin. That's it, I swear by Juubi now. By the Juubi, is Sensei an idiot or something? Until I gain my kekkei genkai and copy an animal and start my own taijutsu training, I'm gonna fail miserably. Or he's counting on that to teach me a lesson. If that's the case, I snorted, I'm so gonna be five hours late doing my own training regime!
We backed off from the rest of the team and dropped into the Academy taijutsu. As uncomfortable as I was in this form, it was the only taijutsu I knew that Kaoru would have an advantage. Waiting for a sign, anything really, I stayed true to form, waiting for him to begin. Then his eyebrow twitched. I launched into the air and swung my fist towards his face. He ducked and twisted around to give me a roundhouse kick to the gut. Pissed as anything, I landed roughly, skidding to a halt in the sand. I spat on the ground and raised my arms. My body flew through the motions and each time I raced up to combat him, I ended up with my tushie in the dirt. Damn, I suck!
"Enough!" Mouri-sensei called out to us. Once I got up off my ass and Kaoru and I walked closer to them, he commented, "I didn't expect just taijutsu."
Dear Juubi, is he serious! Ugh! Why didn't he just say that?
I huffed, "Sensei, it'd be easier if you said something!"
"I expected you to be like yesterday." I blinked. Yesterday…oh yeah. Duh, how come I'm such an idiot?
Kaoru chuckled, "Only half the time does baka have a head."
"Oi, oi!" I grumbled, crossing my arms and marching over to the side where Kagetora was. "Advice?"
"Relax." He offered to which I again complained about, this time internally.
Though as I tossed his advice around in my head it began to make sense. If I relax in the sparring, I'll be able to think clearly and if I can think clearly, I would have been able to perhaps beat Kaoru.
"Fujiwara, Kirisho, begin." Sensei once again ordered us to which we separated and fell into position.
Relax this time…relax and think clearly. I felt myself warm up and take this seriously. Not like I didn't with the baka, but still. Kagetora swiped his foot along the desert floor and quickly formed seals. Crap, I recognize that one! His palm, full of chakra, slapped against the sand and up spiked some earth stalagmites. Stupid Doton, stupid Fujiwara! I jumped and flipped off to the side to avoid the attack. My hands flew into a series of seals, a personal favorite of mine. Yami ga Hikari no Jutsu.
Yami ga Hikari no Jutsu is a visual genjutsu that allowed the world to become negative. All light things would become dark and all dark things would become light. Simple as that and twice as effective seeing as it messed with people minds.
Since Kagetora had fallen under my genjutsu, I set about on assault, lying a few tags on the ground and performing a kawamiri. He and I swapped positions a little too late as he had just called out Kai and barreled over and rammed his shoulder into my own.
Sensei called the match and I found myself growling because the next thing that he had us do was an exercise in self-control, balancing a leaf on top of our nose, while doing push-ups. I wanted to die.
It wasn't for many hours later that he dismissed us from continuous push-ups and leaf balancing that we realized none of us had lunch. I offered to buy them lunch at the local shop. Kaoru looked as if we wanted to refuse but the complaining of his stomach made his decision. I laughed at him and entered the shop to order some miso soup. The others ordered a little something each and we sat on a booth just chilling for a bit before we ate.
"What was that genjutsu, Kirisho-san?" Kagetora wondered, "It's most definitely something we didn't learn."
"Oh that?" I realized what he was talking about as I slurped. "I actually was taught that by a cousin of mine. He's pretty awesome at genjutsu and I just added my own flair to it."
Kaoru stared incredulously at myself. "You can actually do something?"
"I passed, baka!" I grunted.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you're anything good, moron!" He fired back.
I snorted, "Well at least a teme like you can actually understand that I can do something, I was beginning to wonder about whether or not something was in that bucket-head of yours."
"Don't talk smack to me, baka-Hana!"
"Teme!"
"Kurogane, stop with the fighting. Kirisho, ignore him." Kagetora deadpanned as he munched on his sashimi.
"Oi, it's not my fault!" We both growled at the same time.
At that Kagetora looked as if he couldn't contain himself and started to laugh at us. Well more like chuckle quietly. Seriously, that guy is always so quiet, even when he eats loudly! At his laugh we both were fed up with his behavior.
Kaoru hit the table first, "What is up with you?"
"You both…haha…act like a couple!" He chuckled to himself.
Brown met black and we came to a decision. Kagetora had to die. With that we chased our fellow teammate out of the restaurant and through Suna.
I had to admit though, Kaoru's…not that bad looking. Tall, but still got a lot of that baby look with his round face. But surprisingly not bad looking…though a couple? Me and him, the guy who wears mesh like nobody's business and just barely covers that with a tan vest and brown shorts? Kagetora has issues. There's no way I could ever be with a guy that dresses like that!
"So what's this I hear about you chasing around the Fujiwara boy?" Kaa-chan asked at dinner.
I choked on my rice, and felt Aniki's big hand hit my back to stop me from swallowing the wrong way. Once I regained composure, I scratched my head sheepishly at my interested family members. Even Tou-san looked at me with slight amusement twinkling in his eyes.
He muttered, "The makings of…" then his voice trailed off.
I blushed fully aware of what he was implying.
"Otou-san!" I gasped, "It's not like that! I don't like anyone especially Kagetora! We're just teammates! He's the one that accused me and the baka of acting like a couple!"
"Who, Kaoru-kun?" Aniki teased making kissy faces at me.
Shuddering at the bare thought of kissing bucket head, I growled, "Ew no! We're only eleven dammit! We don't need to worry about romance right now!"
"Language!" Kaa-chan snapped and instantly I fell into line.
"Well in whatever the case, you need to understand that the Kirisho do not marry outside of our boundaries." Tou-san lectured. "You and Aoi will have an arranged marriage with a spouse that the clan head and I have chosen for you. Though Aoi," He stared directly into my brother's darker eyes, "your wife has been chosen. Tetsuo-sama will make an official announcement at the next clan meeting where you and your wife are to be wed."
Aniki's face blanched and I thought for a moment that he was going to faint. But no, he didn't, instead he bowed lowly and replied, "As you wish, Chichi-ue."
Dinner fell pretty silent after that and once we all finished, I excused myself to the compound training ground. Some poor sandstone spire completely useless by the time I had spent around two hours there. My brother suddenly appeared behind me and rested his hand on my shoulder. I snapped and cried into his chest.
"It's not fair!" I raged, "Why does Tou-san continuously run our lives like we're nothing? What if I don't even want to get married?"
"Hana-chan." He murmured softly.
Ignoring him in favor of ranting, I continued to sob, "This is my life! I don't want it to be run by someone else! I want to be me!"
"Hana!" Aniki raised his voice and I tearfully looked up at him. "Listen. Otou-san means well and who he chooses is in favor of our well being. In three days time I'm to be married and that person is to be my wife. Otou-san is not running my life, nor is he running yours, he wants what's best for us and the clan."
"But he's not even clan head!"
Aniki sighed, "He is an elder. Which means you and I will be getting prominent marriages in our clan."
"Wait, Tetsuo-sama's daughter is slightly younger than you! And the way Otou-san sounded tonight, you'll be married to Yuriko-nee-sama!" I understood.
"That is a possibility."
I whined pitifully like the child I am, "But then I won't have my brother anymore! I'll have the future clan head!"
"Hana." His voice void of all but seriousness, "Forget everything we spoke of and go to bed. Now."
"Aniki…" I found myself slowly drifting off against my will, safe in the arms of my brother. "Aniki…"
- POV SWITCH -
She amazed me greatly. Her astuteness and understanding of politics and infrastructure left me astounded. How could a child just barely a Genin know and get so much of the adult world where a Chuunin would have better knowledge of. As her brother took her in his arms and sped her off, I could hardly understand the fact that she knew, a mere Genin of the age of eleven knew, what was happening.
Pitiful, I thought, that such intellect was wasted on a child. Especially since she was Tadashi's child, his spawn were rather pitiful, even his son barely made it to his current rank. To think that his child would have such…intrigue infuriates me. Of course that won't be for long now, will it Tadashi-san?
Translations:
* Ohayo – good morning
Minna – everyone
Well, I've placed in a few more hints, and the mystery man at the end of the chapter? Well…we'll see about him. He's definitely got issues though if you couldn't tell.
Anywho mostly been showing how the team is working out, well what do y'all think? Do you like the team? What about their strange teacher, Mori Kei-sensei? He's got a personality let me tell you that!
Hope you guys have been enjoying this as much as I've been enjoying writing this for everyone.
Keep up with voting on Hana's original name folks, and despite what she thinks, her past life will come back to haunt her, weirdly enough. I mean after all she's in Naruto world but her first life was in the real world so…weirdness galore lol.
Please Review and see ya next chapter!
